The MA in English at JMU offers a vibrant and flexible curriculum designed to help you grow as a scholar, teacher, and emerging professional. The program combines core coursework, small graduate seminars, and a capstone experience that allows you to showcase your strongest scholarly and professional work. 

Our curriculum is intentionally structured to build momentum across your two years of study. You’ll take one core course each semester with your incoming cohort—courses that help you develop your research and writing practices, gain experience in pedagogy and professionalization, and prepare for the capstone MA Portfolio. Alongside these core courses, you’ll choose from a wide range of elective graduate seminars that allow you to explore new fields, deepen areas of interest, and tailor the program to your goals. 

For complete and up-to-date information about degree requirements and individual course descriptions, please consult the JMU Graduate Catalog. 

If you are enrolled full‑time, you will take one required core course each semester during your first year and a half, alongside your incoming cohort. These courses are designed to help you: 

• develop graduate-level research, critical engagement, and writing skills 
• explore and develop your skills in pedagogy and professionalization 
• undertake sustained research and writing that will lead toward your capstone portfolio project 

This sequence ensures that you are building skills intentionally from semester to semester. In your final semester, you may choose to underload by one course to focus on completing and preparing to present your MA Portfolio project.  

Part‑time students complete the same core sequence at a pace suited to their schedules. 

Beyond the core, you’ll enroll in graduate-only seminars led by faculty whose teaching and research span a wide range of literary fields. Seminars are typically capped at 10–12 students, allowing for close mentoring and lively discussion. We offer three elective seminars each semester, so full-time students can choose the two that best serve and expand their research and professional interests. 

Across your time in the program, you will have opportunities to study: 

• British, American, and Global Anglophone literatures 
• Pre-1800, pre-1900, and post-1900 periods 
• Digital humanities, film/media studies, and public humanities 
• Book, print, and material cultures 
• Literary and critical theory 

With approval from the Director of Graduate Studies, you may count one graduate course outside English toward the degree when it supports your academic or professional goals. External graduate courses of interest may include Grant Writing, Professional Editing, Teaching Writing, Digital Storytelling, Nonprofit Management, or elective history seminars, in Writing, Rhetoric, and Technical Communication, the College of Education, Communication and Advocacy, Public Administration, or History. 

Students can also earn up to three credits toward the degree working in a professional internship on a relevant topic. Consult with the Director of Graduate Studies for more information about either of these possibilities.  

Your graduate study culminates in the MA Portfolio, which gathers your strongest scholarly and professional work. You’ll present and defend your capstone work at the Graduate Symposium, a public event that celebrates the accomplishments of graduating MA students.