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Practical Information
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The Ph.D. Program in English enrolls approximately 30-35 new students each year. Several faculty members are appointed just at the Graduate Center, but most faculty are based at one of the other CUNY campuses; appointed additionally to the doctoral faculty, they teach regularly at the Graduate Center. Because of this CUNY-wide doctoral consortium, the faculty in English is particularly diverse and the English Program is able to offer a large number of seminars each semester in both established and emerging fields of study.
The English Program is headed by an Executive Officer, two Deputy EOs, and a Student Progress Officer. The Assistant Program Officer (APO) runs the Program office and is the Program expert on registration and other administrative matters. Contact Information for Program Administrators.
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The GC building has many amenable features, and a few disadvantages. The building was formerly the B. Altman department store, and remnants of its Beaux Arts style are still visible in the ornate staircase and elevator of the Mina Rees Library. Building security is excellent - if you ever experience any difficulties, call x7777 or press one of the blue assistance panels located in the hallways. There is a coffee shop located on the first floor and a full cafeteria with a ceiling skylight (through which you can see the tip of the Empire State Building) on the 8th Floor.
The English Program's offices are mostly clustered around the lounge, room 4406. There is a Thesis Room (4406.11) which houses a few classes and is used for other departmental business. The lounge features a bank of computers connected to one printer. Paper for the printer is now provided by the GC as part of the student technology fee. Unfortunately, there is no copier on this floor for student use - please use the copiers in the library. There are also a few printers in the library. You need a GC computer account to use any computer here - to get one, please go with your ID card to the Information Resources desk located at the foot of the stairs on the Concourse level of the library.
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English Program students may enroll in seminars in other disciplines, and they may earn certificates in five areas (see third bullet below).
- Other Ph.D.-granting programs of the GC, such as Anthropology, Art History, Comparative Literature, History, Linguistics, Philosophy, Political Science, Sociology, Theatre, and the various foreign languages;
- The Master's Degree program in Liberal Studies (MALS);
- Certificate programs in American Studies, Film Studies, Medieval Studies, Renaissance Studies, Women's Studies, and Interactive Technology and Pedagogy (ITP);
- Interdisciplinary study areas, including Cultural Studies, Language and Literacy, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Africana Studies, Twentieth-Century Studies, and Lesbian and Gay/Queer Studies
The CUNY GC is a member of the New York City Interuniversity Doctoral Consortium (including Columbia, Fordham, NYU, New School University, Rutgers, SUNY Stony Brook, and Princeton) and has a consortial arrangement with General Theological Seminary.
The GC is a member of the university consortium that in part comprises the Folger Shakespeare Institute in Washington, D.C. As a result of this affiliation, Ph.D. students in English are eligible for - and frequent recipients of - funding to participate in Folger Institute Seminars. The English Program is a member of the Association of Departments of English of the Modern Language Association and of the Dickens Project at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Two students are sponsored every summer to attend the ten day Dickens World event at the end of August. Interested students should contact Nancy Silverman.
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1) Friday Forums and Sponsored Conferences
To ensure that some portion of every week is dedicated to fostering communal intellectual vitality and conviviality, the English Program sponsors Friday Forums, which bring to the GC internationally recognized scholars, writers, and publishers to discuss a wide variety of literary and cultural topics. This series of lectures and readings is followed by a reception with food and wine. Forums generally take place at 4 p.m. on Fridays, but many occur in conjunction with all-day conferences and interdisciplinary events. The Program sends out a full schedule at the beginning of every semester. Some Forums are devoted to special issues of student/faculty concern, such as financial aid, adjunct teaching, curricular changes, and the education job market. The first Forum of the Fall Semester is generally an orientation session for new students in the Program, and the last one in each semester, the Winter/Spring Revels, is a party not to be missed.
2) Program Communications (Including E-mail) and Changes of Address
A letter sent by the Program's EO to the faculty and students at the beginning of each semester functions as a general newsletter, summarizing information about faculty and student publications, special seminars, grants/fellowships, lectures, and upcoming academic events, including conferences. Letters sent since Spring 1999 can be found here.
Many important announcements are sent out via e-mail. (Some, but not all, announcements are also delivered through regular U.S. mail.) Students are given an e-mail account at the GC when they matriculate. Students must provide an e-mail address to Nancy. Please also update Nancy on all changes of street and e-mail address, as well as telephone number. In addition, the Office of the Registrar asks that students file a "Change of Address" card; they will not accept an email or phone call from the department.
3) The English Students' Association (ESA)
The ESA is a student-run organization that seeks to improve living and working conditions in the Program. The ESA provides a forum for student concerns via meetings and its listserv, sponsors a network of student mentors, and runs an annual public conference. Information about subscribing to the ESA email list is available on a bulletin board in the lounge area. The ESA also creates, distributes and collects anonymous class evaluations, which are made available to all students in a binder kept in the lounge.
4) The Doctoral Students' Council (DSC) and The Graduate Student Advocate
Students in all programs at the GC have formed the DSC, which brings their concerns to the administration; lobbies for their interests before the University Student Senate, the CUNY Board of Trustees, the Mayor's Office, and the State Legislature; supports intra- and interprogram student organizations; and provides legal services and funding for cultural activities. The DSC subsidizes the Advocate, a newspaper published six times annually (ext.: 7882). The English Program has three representatives on the council. The DSC is located in Room 5495, in the Robert E. Gilleece Student Center (ext.: 7845; fax: 212/817-1592; dsc@gc.cuny.edu; http://web.gc.cuny.edu/dsc).
5) The CUNY Library System and the New York Public Library
One of the consortial advantages of CUNY is its library system, which houses over six million volumes, 31,000 journal/periodical titles, and many resources available on microform and CD-ROM. Students enrolled at the GC have borrowing privileges at all twenty CUNY libraries, and they may return books, unless they are more than six weeks overdue, at any CUNY college. Renewals of books can be made only at the lending library; fines on overdue books can be paid at any system library (except Bronx Community and Hostos Community colleges and the Law School). The entrance to the GC's Mina Rees Library is on the first floor and is only open to CUNY students. An on-line public access catalog (CUNY+) permits users to determine the location and circulation status of nearly every book and periodical held by CUNY. Students and faculty can search CUNY+ from within any CUNY library, from many department and program offices, via the Mina Rees Library Web site (http://library.gc.cuny.edu), and from home. The site explains the library's hours and borrowing policy, hosts 60 full-text and citation databases and has may useful links and other services; it also provides interactive forms for making Interlibrary Loan (ILL) requests, renewing GC books, asking reference questions, and requesting library instruction. ILL arrangements make it possible to obtain material held in other collections throughout North America and the world. (When their research requires it, CUNY students and faculty may gain on-site access to collections at any of over 250 libraries in the New York City area using the "METRO card." For more information, inquire at the Library.)
One of the greatest storehouses of information and research material anywhere is the Humanities and Social Sciences Library of The New York Public Library (NYPL), located just ten minutes north of the GC, on Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd Streets. Faculty and students at the GC may secure a place to work in the Wertheim Study, located on the second floor of the NYPL where they are able to get material specially delivered to them, to keep most books on a designated reserve shelf for one month, and to enjoy a private place to study. If interested, students should take current GC ID to the Office of Special Collections in (NYPL) Room 316. Any member of the public has access to the noncirculating resources of NYPL; users can discover more about its abundant holdings by searching on-site catalogs (for material acquired before 1971) or CATNYP (an on-line public access catalog for material added to the collection after 1971). Older material is being gradually added to CATNYP: currently 2 million records for titles catalogued prior to 1972 have been added. Information about all branches of the NYPL is available at htttp://www.nypl.org.
Please note that Brooklyn (http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org) and Queens (http://www.queenslibrary.org) have independent public library systems.
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- A Practical Guide to the Ph.D. Program in English for Students: provides detailed information about all aspects of the program. Hard copies are also available in the English Program office.
- Comprehending the Comprehensives: a student-authored guide to the first (comprehensive) examination. Available in hard copy in the English Program office.
- A Guide to the Academic Job Search (for English Ph.D.s). Available in hard copy in the English Program office.
- Library Resources in the Greater New York Area for the Study of English and American Literature. Available in hard copy in the English Program office.
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