Pitt's PhD program in English (formerly Critical and Cultural Studies) cultivates interdisciplinary and innovative approaches to English as a discipline and offers a concentration in Composition. Doctoral students who affiliate with the Composition program also move fluidly across English courses in Literature, Film, and Writing. They take electives from a wide variety of courses in History, Linguistics, Anthropology, and Communication, among others. The interdisciplinary emphasis of the PhD encourages students to think across and beyond disciplinary and programmatic boundaries, and to engage with issues in cultural history, knowledge formation, creative intellectual practice, media studies, and critical pedagogy.
The Composition program's graduate faculty work within Composition, Rhetoric, and Literacy Studies, and collaborate with researchers in Linguistics, Computer Science, Film, Biology, and Engineering; engage in digital and transnational research and pedagogy; and work with community organizations through research and pedagogical initiatives. Our faculty’s strengths include: the teaching and study of student writing; digital production and analysis; transnational literacies; technology and materialities of composition; large-scale textual analysis; archival and historical methods; cultural rhetorics and linguistics; and approaches to research that combine the critical with the production of artistic and creative work. We have taken the lead in founding journals in cultural rhetorics and interactive pedagogy. Faculty have also initiated projects such as Pitt Prison Education Project, the Writing Studies Tree, an interdisciplinary art and biotechnology exhibit, as well as service learning student exchanges and a major in Digital Narrative and Interactive Design. We have strong publication records and are committed to mentoring PhD students through coursework, independent research, and a variety of career trajectories.
Our robust teacher training program provides PhD students with opportunities to teach first-year writing and upper level courses in the Composition Program's Public and Professional Writing major as well as the department's Digital Narrative and Interactive Design major. Students enjoy a fellowship in their first year, which releases them from teaching so they can focus on their own coursework. Additionally, our students teach one course per term in subsequent years during their trajectory through the program.
Composition PhD students frequently win internal fellowships, hold Graduate Student Assistantships in research, or work for the Writing Center to round out their experiences. They have opportunities to develop leadership and administrative skills through the leading the Comp/Rhet reading group, Rhetoric Society of America Chapter, or Writing Program Administration positions. The Humanities Engage Program at Pitt supports innovative dissertations, community collaborations, and professionalization activities for our graduate students across a range of career plans. Students tend to enjoy living in Pittsburgh and their careers after graduation, as these recent alums note.
Questions?
Admissions for the doctoral program in Composition is through the English Department. For more information about admissions, please visit the English department graduate admissions page. For questions about doctoral study in Composition at Pitt, please contact the Director of Composition (Annette Vee). For general questions about doctoral study at Pitt English, contact the graduate assistant at engrad@pitt.edu.