Learning Outcomes for English Ph.D.

PLO 1. Core Knowledge

  • Students will gain an understanding of various visual arts and media, theoretical debates and frameworks, and historical contexts.  
  • Students will understand the intersections of disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches. 
  • Students will demonstrate competence in a field or fields of their specialty. 
  • Students will demonstrate a capacity to carry out a sustained research project. 
  • They will demonstrate reading knowledge of a language other than English.

PLO 2. Research Methods and Analysis. Students will:

  • Students will gain an understanding of research at the graduate level. 
  • Students will engage in extensive research at the graduate level in order to write a dissertation.

PLO 3. Pedagogy

Students will be able to:

  • Lead group discussion. 
  • Model visual analysis.
  • Model critical reading strategies.
  • Give short lectures.
  • Comment on papers in a way that leads to student learning and revision.
  • Hold office hours.
  • Grade papers and exams fairly. 
  • Deal with plagiarism.
  • Direct underperforming and/or troubled students to UCI resources such as academic counseling and personal counseling.
  • Propose new courses.
  • Plan and teach original syllabi.

PLO 4. Scholarly Communication

Students should be able to:

  • Understand current debates in the field.
  • Present their research in public oral presentations.
  • Publish their research.
  • Engage in Q&As and other kinds of current research and state-of-the-field conversations.
  • Write effective abstracts and proposals for grants, fellowships, and jobs.

PLO 5. Professionalization

Students should be able to:

  • Understand the research, teaching, and service expectations of an academic faculty career.
  • Determine if an academic career is the best path for them—or if an alternative career is best.
  • Present and publish research. 
  • Teach effectively.
  • Manage their time for the various demands of any career.
  • Learn how to engage colleagues in the field.
  • Understand complex curricular and bureaucratic structures, how to think critically about them, and how to problem solve without alienating colleagues or administrators.
  • Write effective abstracts and proposals for grants, fellowships, and jobs.

PLO 6. Independent Research

  • Students must be able to conceive, research, write, and revise original work.
  • Apply for grants and fellowships

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