Beginning with the Fall 2011 semester, the Graduate Center will offer affordable housing to doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, and members of the faculty. The eight-story complex, located at 165 East 118th Street, will provide easy access to bus and subway lines and a quick commute to The Graduate Center. For more information, visit the housing website
Off-campus housing assistance is run by the Student Affairs office. Information on housing (rooms or apartments/ shares/ sublets/ rentals) in the metropolitan area is posted regularly at The Graduate Center. A bulletin board at The Graduate Center lists both available apartments and students' requests for shares or other particular housing arrangements. Entering students interested in obtaining housing assistance should contact the Student Affairs Office at 212-817-7400.
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.
Together with the Program's Placement Committee, which includes several faculty members and students, one of the English Program's Deputy Executive Officers oversees a program to assist students who have nearly (or have recently) completed the Ph.D. degree in finding permanent jobs in universities and colleges.
The results of our placement efforts are heartening and gratifying. Many of our students have a strong desire (or need) to remain in the New York area, and we in fact succeed in placing many students in institutions in and around New York City. But our students have also had increasing success finding academic positions in a wide range of kinds of academic institution across the country (and world).
Recent (2005-2011) graduates of the Ph.D. Program in English have found tenure-track jobs at the following institutions:
Adelphi University
Arkansas Tech University
Ave Maria University
Baruch College (CUNY)
Borough of Manhattan Community College (CUNY)*
Bronx Community College (CUNY)
California Institute of the Arts
The Citadel
Columbia College, Chicago
Denison University
Dominican College
Eastern Kentucky University
Elms College (Chicopee, Mass.)
Empire State College (SUNY)
Georgia Tech
Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley
Hofstra University*
Hudson County Community College
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
James Madison University
John Jay College (CUNY)*
Kingsborough Community College (CUNY)*
Koc University (Instanbul)
Kyung Hee University at Seoul (Korea)
LaGuardia Community College (CUNY)*
Lehman College (CUNY)
Millersville College (Pennsylvania)
Nassau Community College
New Economic School (Moscow)
New Jersey City University*
New York City College of Technology (CUNY)*
Oakland University
Queens College (CUNY)*
Queensborough Community College (CUNY)*
Salisbury University (Maryland)
San Jose State University
Sarah Lawrence College
Southern New Hampshire University
Southern University of New Orleans
St. John Fisher University (Rochester, NY)
SUNY Old Westbury*
Syracuse University
Union College, KY
Univeristy of Alabama
University of Arkansas
University of California, Berkeley
University of Evansville (Indiana)
University of Houston, Downtown*
University of Maine, Farmington
University of Pittsburgh*
University of Southern Mississippi
Univeristy of Tulsa
University of Wisconsin at Stout
University of Wyoming
Wake Forest University
Wayne State University
Wichita State University
Wilkes University
*multiple positions
Click here to see a sample student schedule.
Adjunct Teaching and Graduate Assistant A Positions
Most students in the English Program get training as adjunct instructors in CUNY college classrooms. Graduate students in English usually teach composition, though they are often invited to teach literature as well. At many CUNY colleges composition courses bear more credits than do literature classes, so adjuncts, who are paid by the credit hour, can earn more by teaching them. Please note that these adjunct teaching positions are not Financial Aid awards; they are positions created and paid for by the colleges where the student will teach.
Obtaining an Adjunct Teaching Job Through the Internship Program
Departments of English on individual CUNY campuses make all decisions in matters of faculty hiring. Students are chosen by - not "placed" in - a department; they may apply directly and independently for teaching positions anywhere in the system. For well over a decade, however, the Ph.D. Program in English has tried to assist its students by locating such jobs largely through the Internship Program, directed by Professor Ammiel Alcalay (DEO). Students who have not taught at CUNY before are not required to join the Internship Program in their first year of study; they may do so anytime before they advance to candidacy. The Internship Program seeks to provide four specific services:
1. To give inexperienced students an opportunity to teach one or two courses per semester as an Adjunct Lecturer at a CUNY college, with the understanding that this position will remain available for at least three years, so long as the student/department relationship is mutually agreeable and the CUNY budget allows;
2. To train new CUNY teachers through a practicum (ENGL 79000 ["Teaching College English"]);
3. To advise students with teaching-related questions;
4. To assist experienced adjunct teachers in finding information about positions as Graduate Assistants (A and C) and Writing and Technology Fellows.
CUNY Colleges Participating in the Internship Program
All the CUNY colleges have participated in the Internship Program in one way or another during the past decade. In Spring 2002, some 165 English Ph.D. students (and over ten students in other programs) were teaching via this internship network at a CUNY college.
The Practicum (ENGL 79000 ["Teaching College English"])
Most CUNY colleges have a practicum (ENGL 79000) that is tailored to that campus's student body and composition philosophy. It is taught by a composition specialist at that college. Participants discuss theories of teaching composition and their actual experiences. Readings and course requirements vary, but all students are trained in writing pedagogy. The practicum carries four credits which count toward the Ph.D. degree (letter grades are assigned). It is a requirement for all students in the English Program who are first-time instructors at a CUNY college. Students who accept a teaching position at a second CUNY college are not expected to enroll in a second practicum.
For budgetary reasons, practicum courses are offered only during the Fall Semester. Students should take this into consideration because, without formal pedagogical training, they will find it difficult to get a job. Thus, teaching for the first time within CUNY during a spring semester or a summer session is generally not an option.
Adjunct Pay Rates, Limitations on Teaching, and Benefits
CUNY adjuncts are paid according to a scale based on an hourly rate. The hourly pay rate is multiplied by the number of credit hours a course carries (which varies from three to six), then multiplied again by the number of weeks in the college's semester (14 or 15 weeks at all but Kingsborough and LaGuardia Community colleges).
In any given semester, adjuncts may teach as many as three courses totaling no more than nine credit hours at one CUNY college; they may also teach one course, for no more than six credit hours, at a second CUNY college. Most students in the English program find that teaching two courses per semester, in addition to their responsibilities taking classes, preparing for exams, or writing a dissertation, keeps them very busy.
Adjuncts who teach at least six credit hours within CUNY for each of two consecutive semesters are eligible, after the second semester, for health insurance benefits. This provision does not apply to students employed as a Graduate Assistant A.
The Procedure for Obtaining a non-Internship Adjunct Teaching Job in CUNY
Once a student has gained teaching experience (even before your matriculation into the Ph.D program), students may apply for jobs directly; the APO can provide you with a list of CUNY English department chairs. Students may also ask Prof. Alcalay for assistance. Please note that summer jobs are much more difficult to secure.
Graduate Assistant A Positions (Grad A)
Grad A positions are available in limited number only at Hunter and Queens colleges, ordinarily for a nonrenewable period of three years. Students apply for them by sending a letter, with a curriculum vitae, to the appropriate chair of the Department of English, stating specifically that they wish to be considered for this position. Applications should be submitted in the Fall Semester, usually for review during the spring and possible appointment the next academic year. The pay scale begins at $16,616 for teaching two courses per semester, which may not total more than 240 hours per academic year. Graduate Assistant A positions are almost always filled by continuing students.
Students enrolled in the Ph.D. Program in English may apply for an en-route Master's degree. Click here for information on the En Route Masters Degree.
The English Program will accept a maximum of 24 credits earned in another graduate program toward the 60 credits required for the Ph.D. The following restrictions apply to these transfer credits:
- The course(s) must have been completed with a grade of B or higher;
- The course(s) must have been taken in English literature (courses in creative or professional writing are not acceptable for transfer credit) or in areas of study that the Program deems directly relevant to a Ph.D. in English;
- The course(s) must be comparable to courses offered by the GC Eng. Dept.
A faculty member designated by the Program evaluates each entering student's work in another graduate program and sends written word, usually before the end of the student's first year of study, regarding the amount of credit that will be accepted in the English Program. Only course work recorded on official transcripts will be considered for transfer credit. Students enrolled in a master's degree program at the time of their application must, upon matriculation, submit an updated official transcript that shows all grades and/or the conferral of a degree in order for their work to be evaluated. Students transferring credit from outside the CUNY system may need to furnish the Program an appropriate university catalog and/or class syllabi.