We currently have 95 graduate students, some 70 in the Master's program and 25 in the Ph.D. program. While most have roots in or connections to Hawai'i, others come from throughout the Pacific region and from many parts of the mainland United States. Students are drawn to the Department by the strength of our faculty, by the diversity of our graduate program, and by the opportunity, with all the challenges that it implies, to study literature and writing in a multicultural setting. Master's and Ph.D. students take many of their classes together, but the two programs have very different purposes. The M.A. program is designed to give students a broad overview of the changing field of contemporary English studies while also allowing them to work within an area of concentration of their own choice.
Students take courses both within and outside their concentration.
They are encouraged to explore the ways in which methodologies and assumptions are evolving in their own area of interest and how each part of English studies is being affected by developments taking place throughout the discipline. Students in Creative Writing complete their M.A. with a creative thesis, which they are then asked to place, in their oral thesis defense, within the context of other works in the same genre. The Ph.D. program is intended for highly motivated students who have a clear sense of their own direction and who are likely to make a significant contribution to the field. The program is based less on course work than on independent study and research. Students are required to take a small number of courses, both within the department and outside of it, but the focus of their study is determined by the students themselves in consultation with their advisors, and their preparation for their examinations takes place largely outside of class.