��ϲ��’s Master’s in English Program Builds Connections for a Lifetime

A high point in the history of ��ϲ��’s Master’s in English Program took place in January 2024, when English Department Chair Dr. Lisa Eck opened her home to program alumni.

The evening was a celebration of the seventeen students who had graduated at that point after the English Department launched the program in the 2018-19 academic year.

The alumni spent the evening commemorating their achievements in the company of their peers and the faculty who taught their classes and advised their theses—the very theses that were printed as congratulatory gifts.

English Department Chair Dr. Lisa Eck said, “It was so exciting to host everyone in my house! We have formed such a tight community — graduate students and graduate faculty — that it wasn’t surprising that once the speeches began in my dining room, honoring each advisor/advisee pair, we all just felt like family!”

Dr. Desmond McCarthy, English graduate coordinator, said, “It was so moving to see those who could attend in one place—to hear from them how much they valued their experience with us, and to be able to celebrate their accomplishments.”

Twenty students have now graduated from the program, and three more are preparing to write their theses.

The English Department’s M.A. program fosters many transferable skills necessary in the modern workforce such as time management, critical thinking, and writing, which serve alumni across many fields.

Time in the program is spent taking mostly literature courses from a range of periods and genres.

“What’s great about the program is we have experts in every area of literature who can advise a Master’s thesis,” Dr. McCarthy said. “No one who has wanted to work in a subject area has been turned down. We’ve been able to accommodate everybody.”

He added the English Department does have a “particular strength” in the contemporary period—from Dr. Eck’s course, Salman Rushdie and the Postcolonial Novel, to Dr. Rachel Trousdale’s Transatlantic Modernism to name a few. “We’ve had some extraordinary stand-alone courses that are focused on the modern and contemporary period.”

For current undergraduate students in the English Department, ��ϲ�� offers a streamlined 4+1 Bachelor’s/Master’s program, in which students are able to complete both degrees in just five years.

This program allows students to take two classes during their undergraduate program for credit toward both degrees, a summer class after they finish their Bachelor’s, and then six courses—including their thesis—during their final year.

Dr. McCarthy said this can be beneficial even for students who don’t take all six of those final courses in a single year.

“Even if you’re attending part time, you’ve got two of your nine graduate courses already taken care of,” he said. “It saves you some money.”

This can be especially important for anyone moving into the field of secondary education—including nine of the twenty program graduates. Two program graduates also work in education-related fields.

Teachers who have already obtained their initial licenses need to earn their Master’s in a related content field within five years, and Dr. McCarthy said ��ϲ�� is a great choice to fulfill this requirement because of the English Department’s focus on literature.

“What we hear from our students is that they’ve taken their pedagogy courses, they regularly undertake professional training at their schools, and what they want is a deeper and more profound immersion in the subject matter that they teach, which is literature,” he said.

He added the Department’s focus on underrepresented voices in literature also makes it possible for high school and middle school teachers to bring more diverse texts to their classrooms.

“The program gives teachers new material and perspectives,” he said.

For prospective graduate students interested in fields other than education, the English Department can provide a wealth of knowledge and training.

Dr. McCarthy said students learn research, communication, and writing skills on top of literary expertise, and added these are necessary for both classes and the thesis requirement.

“The ability to write a Master’s thesis, to be able to conceive of an original project—to organize it, to research it, to present it in a cogent way—is certainly indicative of your advanced research, analysis, and writing skills. Those abilities never go out of style in any knowledge profession. We live in the information age, and so I think these skills are more valued than ever,” he said.

Dr. Eck reflected on the program, saying, “Our graduate students have managed to energize the intellectual life of the Department, more than I ever imagined was possible. The atmosphere in our dual-enrolled courses is inspiring and rivals discussions I experienced in my own graduate program, back in the day.

“The privilege of working one on one with a graduate student on their Master’s thesis is an experience that feeds us as faculty — it reignites our passion for our field of specialization, and takes us all in new directions!” she added.

Sabrina Grammatic (B.A. ’22, M.A. ’23), a graduate of the 4+1 program in English, said the Master’s program took the skills in organization, research, and writing they developed in their undergraduate degree and further refined them.

They said the thesis in particular really pushed them to learn how they work most efficiently.

Grammatic said she wrote her thesis on Vladimir Nabokov with Dr. Rachel Trousdale and added they first became interested in Nabokov in an undergraduate Seminar in Literature class they took with her.

“In basic terms, it was figuring out how Nabokov differentiates between fiction and reality and how those worlds merge together. I had a lot of fun with it and Rachel was a really great resource to have because she’s very knowledgeable in the subject,” they said.

Grammatic currently works as the Student Experience Manager in the The Center for Student Experience and Career Development at ��ϲ��, and they said their experience writing their Master’s thesis helped prepare them for this role.

“That independence of the Master’s thesis definitely comes through in my position right now,” they added.

Grammatic said completing their Master’s degree was “very challenging but also very fulfilling. It was one of the hardest things I’ve done academically but also very rewarding seeing it all come to fruition.

“I would recommend the English graduate program, especially for the price point of it and the timing,” they added. “It’s cool to be at my age and already have a Master’s degree in something I was really passionate about.”

Academic

Recent program graduates celebrating at Dr. Eck’s house in 2023.

Ashley Wall and Dr. Lisa Eck at the celebration in 2023.

Nicole Viera, Eli Paré, and Sabrina Grammatic at the celebration in 2023.

Dr. Sandy Hartwiger and Taylor Langmeyer at the celebration in 2023.

Connor Carrns and Dr. Desmond McCarthy at the celebration in 2023.

Sarah Sagan (B.A. ’22, M.A. ’23) is currently working as a Technical Support Specialist at Odysseys Unlimited. She said the 4+1 program provided in-depth education in literature and writing and helped her develop skills that have carried on in her career.

She said in her job, she does a lot of writing, communication, and explanation work, all of which she developed during her time as a student at ��ϲ��.

“Communication, which is taught in the English program, is one of the key skills that I’ve carried over,” she said. “I’m doing a lot of communication—by email, by phone, in person—and being able to deliver a clear message is super important.”

Sagan said her Master’s thesis, directed by Dr. McCarthy, “argues the protagonists of Don DeLillo’s White Noise and Falling Man suffer from trauma and their masculinity prevents them from coping with that trauma in a healthy way.”

She added, “I originally discovered White Noise in Dr. McCarthy’s Contemporary American Fiction class. What drew me to the text is how the protagonist never addresses his trauma, and I wanted to explore how and why.”

Sagan said, “I learned a lot from my weekly thesis meetings with Dr. McCarthy. For example, I’ve developed a thick skin when it comes to receiving constructive criticism. I also honed my media literacy skills: it is crucial to find information that is reliable and factual, both when writing a Master’s thesis and an IT knowledge base article.”

According to Sagan, the process of writing a Master’s thesis also required her to develop skills in organization, communicating complex ideas in understandable language, and editing.

She said her favorite class she took in the graduate program was Dr. Patricia Lynne’s Writing About Science course, and added she was able to hone the writing skills she had learned during her time at ��ϲ�� while also exploring a new subject matter.

Sagan said her literature classes with Dr. McCarthy, Dr. Eck, and Dr. Sandy Hartwiger were fun and rewarding.

She added she especially loved Transnational Literature with Dr. Hartwiger.

“Some of these stories that he’s teaching in his courses—they’re just so emotionally moving,” she said, specifically citing Burnt Shadows by Kamila Shamsie and Exit West by Mohsin Hamid as stand-outs.

“I applaud ��ϲ�� for having so many wonderful global literature classes,” she said. “I appreciate the opportunity to expand my horizons.”

Sagan said, “I can’t really say I have a favorite professor. That’s not fair, because they’re all my favorite professors.”

Margarita Cepele (B.A. ’21, M.A. ’22) is currently at Louisiana State University completing a Ph.D. program in English with a focus on American literature.

She said she was always interested in American literature because of its diversity as a canon, and while at ��ϲ��, she took every single one of Dr. McCarthy’s courses on American literature.

Cepele added she also had an interest in postcolonial literature and took classes with Dr. Eck to learn more about that field before she settled on specializing in American literature.

Dr. McCarthy advised her Master’s thesis about William Faulkner and Michel Foucault, scholarship she’s continued into her doctoral program.

In fact, in July 2023, Cepele presented her research about queer etiology in Faulkner novels at the annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference. Her paper asks how environmental rather than innate factors can contribute to queerness in Faulkner’s novels.

Cepele said her experience at LSU has been overwhelmingly positive, and the LSU English Department “really reminds me of the ��ϲ�� English Department.”

She said she applied to doctoral programs because she couldn’t imagine herself doing anything except teaching literature at the college level.

She said the support from Dr. McCarthy and Dr. Eck really helped build her confidence.

“It doesn’t have to be anything too big or too crazy, but someone believing in you and telling you how brilliant you are,” she said, “actually does a lot for someone.”

Jackie Carlson (B.A. ’18, M.A. ’23) decided to come back for her graduate degree because of her memorable experience in her undergraduate program.

She is currently a sixth grade English Language Arts teacher in Randolph, and she said ��ϲ��’s graduate program was an amazing place to learn about education.

“I was able to make the program work for education and teaching and what I wanted to do,” she said. “The professors listened to what I was interested in and what others were interested in, and it was catered to the individual, which was nice.”

Carlson added her classes with Dr. Hartwiger helped her to be more conscious about bringing global diversity into her own classroom so all students can learn from diverse voices.

She wrote her Master’s thesis with Dr. Hartwiger, discussing different types of underrepresented literature, including banned books, Indigenous literature, graphic novels, and immigrant experiences.

Her thesis examined “how literature can serve as a powerful tool for fostering critical thinking, empathy, and dialogue,” she said.

Carlson added, “Overall, the project challenges the notion of restricting literary access and instead advocates for a dynamic literary canon that empowers young people to engage with diverse perspectives and navigate the complexities of the world around them.”

She said ��ϲ�� was an ideal place to study for a future teacher because, even during her undergraduate years when she didn’t intend to go into teaching, “A big part of my experience was indirectly learning about teaching.

“The experience in the classes themselves—seeing how professors run their classrooms and what kinds of tactics and activity ideas they used—I thought that was helpful,” she said.

Carlson said she also developed many invaluable research skills that helped her learn about the field of education.

“I always want to be learning and developing my skills,” she said.

Carlson said the best part of the program was how committed professors are to building relationships with students.

“That’s what made me want to come back to do the graduate program there. They are just really caring and incredible people who are always willing to help you,” she said.

Dr. Eck will be hosting another celebration to honor recent and upcoming gradates of the program this summer.

She said, “We can hardly wait to gather again—when the house will be animated with great conversations and good company! I can’t imagine our community without our passionate graduate students!”

���ϲ�����