1

Academic Program ReviewSelf-Study Report

Department of EnglishGeorgia State University

Randy Malamud, Department ChairAudrey Goodman, Associate Chair

Review Period: Fall 2010 to Summer 2013Approved by Department of English Faculty,

Nov. 20, 2013

Researched, written, and compiled by the Academic Program Review Committee:

Chris Kocela, ChairBeth BurmesterJohn HolmanMelissa McLeodLeeAnne RichardsonPaul Schmidt

2

CONTENTS

SECTION ONE: WHERE IS YOUR DEPARTMENT NOW? 3

1.a. Undergraduate Education 31.b. Graduate Education 101.c. Research 171.d. Contribution to Cities 231.e. Globalizing the University 241.f. Overall Assessment of the Department 25

SECTION TWO: HOW ADEQUATE ARE YOUR DEPARTMENT’S RESOURCES? 26

SECTION THREE:WHERE DOES YOUR DEPARTMENT WANT TO GO? 28

SECTION FOUR:WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO OR CHANGE TO GET THERE? 30

Note: Throughout this report, peer departments for undergraduate programs are: Department of English, Arizona State University; Department of English, University of Central Florida; Department of English, University of Cincinnati; Department of English, University of Houston; and Department of English, University of Illinois at Chicago. For detailed undergraduate program comparisons, see Appendix 3.

Peer departments for comparison of graduate programs are: Department of English, Arizona State University; Department of English, Temple University; Department of English, University of Cincinnati; Department of English, University of Houston; and Department of English, Wayne State University. For detailed graduate program comparisons, see Appendix 4.

3

============SECTION 1: WHERE IS YOUR DEPARTMENT NOW?============

1.a: UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION

Quality of Student Attracted to the Department’s Programs; Input Quality MetricsThe Department of English offers a B.A. in four concentrations: Literary Studies, Rhetoric and Composition, Creative Writing, and Secondary English; we also offer an interdisciplinary minor in Folklore. In Creative Writing, students study the craft and art of poetry and fiction in preparation for careers in writing, publishing, and education. In the Rhetoric and Composition program--the largest in the Southeast and the only one of its kind in Georgia—majors study rhetorical history and theory as well as contemporary publication and information technologies, preparing them for careers in academic and non-academic settings. The Secondary English concentrations prepares students for a professional certification program in English Education for grades 7-12 by providing them with a strong foundation in the content knowledge of English studies and by introducing them to the pedagogy of English instruction. Majors who concentrate in Literary Studies analyze poetry, prose, and drama from a variety of historical periods and cultural groups, honing their writing and interpretive skills for careers in the arts, business, education, law, and the media. Our Folklore curriculum offers the largest course selection (currently six undergraduate and four graduate courses) in folklore of any institution in Georgia.

Although there are no specific admission requirements for the undergraduate English major, the quality of students attracted to our programs has improved since our last academic program review, reflecting the University’s strategic emphasis on raising admissions standards at the undergraduate level. As reported in our last self-study, the Freshman Index for English majors in 2003 was 2740; in 2012 it was 2815. The high school GPA of English majors is close to that of the average GSU student: in Fall 2011, the high school GPA of entering English majors was 3.35 compared to a University average of 3.38; in 2012 the high school GPA of English majors was 3.36 compared to a University average of 3.34.

English majors consistently have a higher Freshman Index and a higher composite SAT score than the average student in both the College of Arts and Sciences and the University. In Fall 2012, for example, the Freshman Index of 2815 for English majors was 50 and 60 points higher than the College and University averages, respectively. In Fall 2012 the average SAT composite score for all entering GSU College of Arts and Sciences students was 1101, and for all GSU students it was 1093. For English majors in Fall 2012 the average SAT composite score was 1128, 27 and 35 points higher, respectively, than College and University averages.

1.a.1: Scholarship Support for UndergraduatesIn support of our students, the department offers five annual awards: the Bert H. Flanders Award; the Dabney A. Hart Sophomore Award; the Upper-Division English Award; the James E. Routh Outstanding English Major Award; and the Pratt Scholarship. Of these, only the Pratt Scholarship (worth $1000) is endowed: all the other awards depend on faculty donations and have averaged, in recent years, $100 each. Faculty members’ continued funding of these awards indicates our ongoing commitment to the University Strategic Plan, which emphasizes the importance of financial support to student success. Nevertheless, our ability to support our students lags behind that of English departments at peer departments, most of which offer

4

multiple endowed awards of greater value than ours. (For details regarding our undergraduate awards and those of peer departments, see Appendix 3).

1.a.2: Student Success and Satisfaction

1.a.2.1: Learning OutcomesSee Appendix 1 for a 5-year summary report of undergraduate learning outcomes.

1.a.2.3: Number of Majors, Retention Rates, and Graduation RatesAs shown in Table 2, 577 English majors on average have been enrolled across the four undergraduate concentrations between 2010 and 2012. Although this table shows a decline in majors from 621 in Fall 2010 to 561 in Fall 2011 and 550 in Fall 2012, it is important to recognize that Fall 2010 represents an anomalous spike in enrollment and marks the only time over the past 8 years that the number of English majors has exceeded 600. As IPORT data demonstrates, the largest number of English students enrolled in any single year between 2005 (the earliest date available) and 2009 was 597. The average number of majors per year over this 5-year period was 553, which is consistent with English enrollment numbers for 2011 and 2012.

The 6-year graduation rate for English majors over the review period has fluctuated from 54% in 2010 to 67% in 2011 to 44% in 2012. Similarly, the retention rate over this period has gone from 58% in 2010 to 77% in 2011 to 53% in 2012. Departmental numbers for 2010 and 2011 are higher than the average graduation and retention rates for the College of Arts and Sciences as a whole; but the drop in graduation and retention rates in 2012 suggests that the department can still do more in the way of advising and retention initiatives.

1.a.2.5: Ethnic and Gender Diversity65.4% of undergraduate English majors are women, while 34.6% are men. The ethnic diversity across all B.A. concentrations is: White 56.4%; Black 31.2%; two or more races 4.7%; Asian 4.0%; American Indian or Alaska Native 0.2%; Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander 0.1%; and “not reported” 3.3%. English majors form a slightly less ethnically diverse group than the undergraduate student body of GSU as a whole. Asian students are particularly under-represented, making up only 4% of English majors compared to 12% of all GSU undergraduates. At present, GSU does not separate out enrollment numbers for Latino/Latina students, but the department could also do more to attract these undergraduates through the creation of more courses with a transnational, multiethnic, and comparative focus (as discussed in 1.a.2.8).

1.a.2.7: Student Surveys Survey results indicate that English majors and alumni are, on the whole, quite satisfied with the undergraduate programs offered by the department. When identifying the strengths of our programs, respondents point first to the scholarly expertise, dedication, and quality teaching of English faculty. One student observes that, “The English department has some of the best professors on campus, hands down,” while a second praises the dynamic classroom atmosphere created by her professors: “The professors in the department are absolutely fantastic, and their classes are engaging and invigorating.” A transfer student remarks: “The strength of GSU’s English department lies with its professors. Somehow this school has a group of faculty that

5

outshines anything I experienced at UGA.” Undergraduate students and alumni awarded the highest numerical ratings in the quantitative surveys under the category of “Faculty Interaction.” (See Appendix 7 for a summary of quantitative survey results.)

Beyond their praise for faculty, students single out the critical thinking and writing skills they have learned in their English courses as valuable preparation for a range of professions. One respondent writes that the workshop-based Senior Seminar courses (see 1.a.2.8) encourage students “to become good at taking criticism, applying criticism, and giving constructive criticism—which all translates to working with your colleagues in a professional environment.” Numerous alumni also portray our Internship and Study Abroad programs (see 1.a.3) as crucial to their success in gaining employment after graduation. “The internship I did was rewarding and helpful,” writes one former student, while another describes his Secondary English internship as something that “helped tremendously as a way to prepare me for teaching.”

When asked to identify departmental weaknesses, numerous respondents point, as we anticipated, to the foreign language requirement, which exceeds that of other humanities programs at GSU (see 1.a.2.8). Many students feel that requiring 6 hours of Intermediate-level foreign language courses is excessive and hinders timely completion of their degrees. One student notes: “The biggest issue with the GSU English department is the foreign language requirement [. . .]. It is a harsher requirement than most majors at the school with few benefits.” A second observes that, “if it weren’t for the foreign language requirement I would have graduated by now,” while a third student writes: “I could have graduated already if I was only required 2 foreign language classes like the film majors. I know many of my English friends have changed their major simply because of this requirement.” When asked to recommend improvements to our programs, several students suggest replacing foreign language credits with English courses—a suggestion we address in Section 4, Goal 2.

A second area of weakness identified in the surveys concerns communication between the department and English majors regarding internship and career possibilities. As one student puts it, the department needs to “spread more awareness of internships and other opportunities via the English department website.” An alumnus writes: “Since graduating, I’ve found that English majors can get a very good foothold in communications departments of companies because of the communication skills we learn. However, training for these types of jobs [. . .] is largely unmentioned.” We agree that the department needs to do a better job apprising students of career opportunities and Signature Experiences; we address this objective in Section 3, Goal 2. 

1.a.2.8: Curriculum Quality and AdvisementSee Table 1 for a full list of course offerings by fiscal year and course level. See Appendix 3 for a detailed account of our degree requirements compared to those of our peer departments.

The Department of English at GSU exhibits more curricular variety at the undergraduate level than any of our peer departments except Arizona State. All four of our undergraduate concentrations require common prerequisites in the history of British and American Literature. In addition, all English majors at GSU take two “writing intensive” courses developed by the Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) program, in keeping with the University’s Critical Thinking Through Writing (CTW) initiative, both of which have been completely developed and

6

overseen by English faculty. The CTW initiative mandates that all university departments must identify and develop two required courses in which a significant portion of the grade is determined by writing assignments. The English department selected for CTW the introductory courses that students must pass in order to continue in the major/concentration and the capstone courses that they must pass in order to graduate. During the review period the English department set up a training program for faculty who teach CTW courses, offering assessment models and ideas for innovative writing assignments. The CTW initiative establishes the vital role played by the English department in furthering GSU’s Quality Enhancement Plan, a critical part of the University’s strategic emphasis on student success.

At present our curriculum demands that all English majors complete two Intermediate level courses in a foreign language (6 hours total). As shown in Appendix 3, this requirement exceeds that of three of our peer departments; furthermore, while the University of Houston and UIC similarly require two Intermediate level courses, those requirements are not specific to their English curricula but are common to all B.A. degrees in their respective colleges. In context, those requirements are very different from our own, since our curriculum demands foreign language competency in excess of all other Humanities programs at GSU (3 hours of Elementary foreign language credit is the College norm). Requiring foreign language competency beyond general College requirements places an extra burden on students in terms of scheduling, as indicated in numerous undergraduate survey responses (see 1.a.2.7), and makes our program less attractive to prospective majors. Aligning our foreign language requirements more closely with those of other programs in the College might not only increase the appeal of our program to other students, but would also enable additional credit hours to be spent taking English classes.

Our last departmental self-study identified an insufficient number of courses in multiethnic and transnational literatures. Since then, we have made notable efforts to institute more undergraduate literature courses with a multicultural focus. To the seven courses being taught at the time of the last self-study (World Literature, Post-Colonial Literature, African American Literature, Irish Literature, Medieval Literature and Culture, African American Literature by Women, and Caribbean Literature), we have added Contemporary Ethnic American Literatures, African Literature, and Jewish Literature. We also offer Topics courses and Senior Seminars that focus on Native American Literature, and we have added as a permanent course Language in the African American Community. The Rhetoric and Composition concentration has updated and expanded its courses (such as History, Theory and Practice of Argumentative Writing) so that the majority provide cross-historical, cross-disciplinary, and international authors and texts. Nevertheless, as demonstrated in Appendix 5, in this area we continue to lag behind our peer departments, some of which offer more than twice as many courses in multiethnic and transnational literatures. Given the renowned diversity of GSU’s undergraduate student body, it is imperative that we continue to develop more courses with a multicultural focus and to better advertise—and permanently institutionalize--those that are presently offered under the rubrics of Topics and Senior Seminar classes. We will eventually need to increase the number of faculty who can teach Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the U.S. (MELUS) through rehiring and retraining.

Another goal has been to increase the role technology plays in our pedagogy. To that end, we hired two new faculty members with extensive training in digital humanities. In addition, a dozen of our faculty have developed and taught the University’s new “hybrid” courses which

7

meet once a week and employ instructional technology to facilitate on-line learning. We would like more faculty involvement in this initiative, and we would also like to increase the number of faculty (currently identified at 12, or 24%) who use technology regularly in the classroom. Along with expanding our existing Rhetoric and Composition technology courses, we would like to institute permanent digital humanities courses. As shown in Appendix 5, some of our peer departments offer significantly more technology-based courses than we do.

Undergraduate advising has improved since the last self-study. The University’s new Undergraduate Advising Center houses three advisors for English majors; a fourth is available in the Office of Academic Assistance. Within the department, the chief advisor is the Director of Undergraduate Studies, who advises all English majors as well as any students seeking credit for upper-division English courses. Additionally, one faculty member each from Creative Writing, Rhetoric and Composition, and Secondary English assists with advisement in their respective concentrations. Majors who require advising for lower-division courses consult with the Director of Lower-Division Studies or the Associate Lower-Division Director (see 1.a.2.9). In addition, the department employs one or two graduate students each year to assist with advising duties. Finally, although not formally an advisor, the Assistant to the Directors of Undergraduate Studies and Creative Writing fields numerous questions from students.

1.a.2.9: Contribution to the Core CurriculumThe Department of English makes a crucial contribution to the University’s core curriculum through its Lower-Division Studies program, which oversees both the First-Year Composition Program and the Sophomore Literature Survey courses. In Area A (Essential Skills) of GSU’s General Education requirements, 6 of the required 9 course hours consist of English Composition courses, while in Area C (Humanities and Fine Arts), half of the Humanities options consist of English courses: American Literature, British Literature, and World Literature. Each semester, over 4,000 students take these courses as part of their General Education requirements, making the Department of English one of the greatest generators of core credit hours in the University.

The Lower-Division Studies program has achieved national recognition through its institution of a collaborative model of Writing Program Administration. This restructured Lower-Division Studies program is fundamental to the delivery and quality of our core course offerings. English Composition is based on curricular guidelines established by the national Council of Writing Program Administrators, which articulate clearly-defined outcomes in the areas of rhetorical knowledge, critical thinking, reading and writing, writing processes, and knowledge of written conventions. In addition, the Teacher Preparation Program in Lower-Division Studies is responsible for training and mentoring about 90 English graduate students each year to teach the majority of composition courses as well as some survey courses. In training these new teachers, the Director of Lower-Division Studies is assisted by the Associate Director as well as a graduate student assistant and the members of the Lower-Division Studies Committee, who together facilitate ongoing mentoring of GTAs. As part of this mentoring process, GTAs are observed in the classroom once a year by a faculty member and meet with either the Director or Associate Director every spring for review, at which point they submit a teaching portfolio and discuss their progress as instructors. One recent outcome of this program is the Guide to First-Year Writing, produced by a committee of GTAs guided by Lower Division Studies staff. This text is representative of the GSU community and contains the art and writing of both students and staff

8

collected through a University-wide contest. Now in its second year of production, the Guide is accompanied by a website designed to support student work in first-year writing courses and contains writing tutorial videos, links to educational resources, and grammar tutorials. These extensive efforts to maintain curricular quality and ensure excellence in teaching make our Lower-Division Studies program a model of commitment to student success as articulated in Goal 1, Initiative 2 of the University Strategic Plan.

The department’s contribution to the core curriculum also extends to its direction and administration of vital programs that the serve the entire university community. The Director of the Center for Instructional Innovation is an English faculty member. In addition, our Lower-Division program works closely with first-year retention initiatives such as freshman learning communities, freshman attendance and early intervention programs, and the University’s First-Year Book Program, which is integrated solely through first-year writing classes.

In addition to these initiatives, the department fosters a collaborative relationship between Lower-Division Studies, the CTW program (see 1.a.2.8) and the Writing Across the Curriculum program (WAC), which is a faculty development program geared toward helping faculty use learner-centered, active pedagogical strategies for developing students’ writing and communication abilities across the undergraduate curriculum. WAC faculty participants have made significant contributions to the scholarship of teaching and learning. Developed and run by English faculty, WAC also provides training for graduate students from throughout the university. This WAC program has affected hundreds of teachers and thousands of students across the university community.

Finally, the department’s Writing Studio serves as an on-campus tutoring and teaching site that provides more than 1,200 tutorials per semester in a collaborative learning environment for undergraduate and graduate student writers from all majors and colleges. Graduate student staff members have presented conference papers, published articles, book chapters, and book reviews, and have received International Writing Center Association Research Grants. The Writing Studio also supports active community enrichment with tutoring programs at Grady High School and Phillips State Prison, while offering workshops for area businesses and organizations. English graduate students who serve as Writing Studio staff are extensively trained, while the Associate co-directors also gain professional administrative experience.

1.a.3: Signature ExperiencesIn keeping with Goal 1, Initiative 3 of the University Strategic Plan, the Department of English has developed a number of opportunities for students to apply their learning through Signature Experiences that provide exposure to events and perspectives beyond those of a conventional curriculum. At present, approximately 100 majors participate in these Signature Experiences; the department aims to increase that number significantly in the coming years.

1.a.3.1: Research PracticumsAs part of the learning experience of the African American language and literature courses, we offer the Student-Inspired Lexical/Literature Conference on Sapelo Island. The conference provides a forum for GSU educators and students to present their research on Sea Island culture, language, and folklore, and to conduct new research by engaging the community and

9

participating in traditional Sea Island activities. Each year 20 to 30 English students have travelled to the Geechee Kunda Cultural Center in Riceboro, GA, and to Sapelo Island, where they present research papers, interview community elders, tour the island, and participate in an authentic “Shout Experience.”

1.a.3.2: Urban Service Learning ProgramsAnother Signature Experience is the Prison Initiative, through which inmates from Phillips State Prison work with students and faculty through collaborative journals, tutoring, and art projects. Service learning also takes place through the extensive linkages set up between first-year composition classes and freshman learning communities (see 1.a.2.9).

1.a.3.3: InternshipsThe department’s expanded internship program provides additional opportunities for Signature Experiences. In addition to the professional internships the English department supports in publishing and editing, our Secondary English concentration has added an internship program. Over the last three years, a total of 86 students have participated in these Signature Experiences. Of these, 63 students have held internships at sites such as CNN, JNA Publishing, The Bert Show radio program, Creative Loafing, the Carrolton Times-Georgian, About Words Agency, SAMLA (see 1.c.2.4), and our departmental journals, while 22 students have interned at public, private, and charter schools such as Peachtree Ridge High School in Gwinnett County, KIPP South Fulton Academy, and International Community School in Decatur. Additionally, one student tutored chronically ill children at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and others have interned at Open Hand and other not-for-profits.

I.a.3.4: Study Abroad We offer ongoing and innovative Study Abroad opportunities: 3-week Maymester courses, Summer Institutes, and semester-long or year-abroad programs. We currently have 6 faculty directing 7 exchange programs and 2 global institutes. Study Abroad programs have brought English majors to Germany, England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain, Italy, and China.

The Northumbria Exchange, created by English faculty and run jointly with the Department of History, is a two-year joint study with the Department of Historical and Critical Studies at the University of Northumbria in Newcastle, England, involving a cohort of 15-20 students per school per year from both schools. These students earn a concentration in British and American Cultural Studies while retaining their major status in their respective departments. The department also maintains exchanges with other international universities. The University of Versailles, St. Quentin exchange saw 10 GSU students studying in France in 2010 and 5 in 2012, while 8 French students studied at GSU in 2010 and 7 arrived in 2012. Other programs under development include exchanges with the University of Ca’ Foscari, Venice, and with Beijing Language and Culture University, China.

Study Abroad courses in English have included “Shakespeare in Italy” in 2009, 2011, and 2013; “USG Summer Study in China” in 2010; “Business, Culture, and Language: The Global Context” in 2011 and 2012; “Victorian London’s Underworld: Nineteenth Century British Literature” in 2013; and “British Literature: London, Edinburgh, Dublin” in 2013.

10

1.a.4: Honors College

1.a.4.1: Honors Courses and Honors Add-onsDepartment of English faculty actively support Goal 1, Initiative 4 of the University Strategic Plan (“Institute an Honors College”) by offering numerous Honors courses and add-ons, and by regularly supervising Honors Theses. Over the review period we offered 17 Honors-only seminars and colloquia that enrolled a total of 246 students; we also offered 36 Honors add-ons to our upper-division courses. English faculty supervise an average of 3 Honors Theses per academic year.

1.a.4.4: Student Participation in GSU Undergraduate Research ConferenceEnglish majors have consistently demonstrated their research skills by participating in the GSU Undergraduate Research Conference. For the Seventh Annual conference in Spring 2013, one English major delivered a paper entitled “Stressed? Play a Tune: The Controversial Benefits of Music,” while 11 students gave a group poster presentation on “Approaches to Justice.” In Spring 2011, 7 English students (as part of a Freshman Learning Community) presented their research on the history and rhetoric of the Dream Act. During the review period, an average of 14 English majors presented at GSURC each year.

1.a.5: Undergraduate Programs Within the GSU Context

1.a.5.1: Programs Undertaken Jointly with Other Units at GSUIn addition to the Northumbria Exchange program (see 1.a.3.4), the Department of English provides students with other cross-disciplinary opportunities for learning through our Second Century Initiative cluster in New and Emerging Media (with Communication, Art, and Music) and cross-listed courses with African American Studies, Communication, History, the Institute for Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, the Middle East Institute, and Modern and Classical Languages. These collaborations testify to the centrality of the Department of English in GSU’s undergraduate Humanities experience.

1.b GRADUATE EDUCATION

Quality of Student Attracted to the Department’s Programs; Input Quality MetricsThe Department of English offers three master’s degree programs: an M.A. with concentration in Literary Studies; an M.A. with concentration in Rhetoric and Composition; and an M.A. with concentration in Creative Writing. We offer an M.F.A. in Creative Writing. We also offer a Ph.D. in three concentrations: Literary Studies; Rhetoric and Composition; and Creative Writing.

Our M.A., M.F.A., and Ph.D. programs are all strongly aligned with Goal 2 of the University Strategic Plan: “Significantly strengthen and grow the base of distinctive graduate and professional programs that assure development of the next generation of researchers and societal leaders.” The M. A. prepares students not only for further graduate study in the field but also for careers in writing, editing, technical communications, research, and business. To this end, all M.A. students have opportunities for career experience in positions at our journals. Additional professionalization activities are built into the terminal M.F.A. and Ph.D. programs. Beyond

11

funding for GTA appointments, students complete “Professionalization Hours” as research assistants, editorial assistants, or in other professional capacities. The Ph.D. program also includes organized professionalization peer groups, with faculty advisors, to enable students to graduate with experiences that will enable them to succeed in both academic and non-academic job markets. All of our graduate programs play an important role in providing continuing education for public school teachers in the state of Georgia. In addition, study abroad opportunities are provided through exchanges with the Universities of Heidelberg and Mainz in Germany. The Mainz exchange, established in 1989, is the longest-running exchange at GSU and has involved over 50 graduate students and 4 faculty members (from both schools) over the years. A 3-year summer seminar at Mainz in 2009, GSU in 2010, and Beijing in 2011 involved 15 faculty and 25 Ph.D. students from three universities. The Heidelberg exchange, begun in 2012, has involved two graduate students so far.

Requirements for admission to our graduate programs state that GRE scores should be “competitive”; admitted students during the review period have had Verbal scores in keeping with the quality of students at our peer departments. Based on the data in Table 3, average Verbal GRE scores for newly admitted students to our graduate programs from Fall 2010 to Fall 2012 are: M.A., Literary Studies: 595 (84th percentile); M.A., Rhetoric and Composition: 591 (81st percentile); M.F.A. in Creative Writing: 588 (81st percentile); Ph.D., Literary Studies: 605 (84th percentile); Ph.D., Rhetoric and Composition: 580 (78th percentile); and Ph.D., Creative Writing: 633 (89th percentile).

1.b.1: Expanding Support for Graduate Programs

1.b.1.1: Total Number of Graduate Students As shown in Table 2, an average of 77 M.A. students, 14 M.F.A. students, and 139 Ph.D. students enrolled each year during the review period. Our total graduate student enrollment, averaging 230 students per year, is second only to Arizona State among our peer departments.

While enrollment in the M.F.A. program has been constant at 14 per year, enrollment by concentration at the M.A. level reveals significant trends. Enrollment in the Creative Writing M.A. has remained steady at 1 per year, while enrollment in Rhetoric and Composition has declined slightly from 16 in Fall 2010 to 14 in Fall 201l and 13 in Fall 2012. The M.A. in Literary Studies has seen a more significant decline of 31%, from 67 students in 2010 to 51 in 2011 and 46 in 2012. Declining numbers of M.A. students in Literary Studies can be attributed, in part, to decreases in time-to-degree brought about by our streamlining of the M.A. program (as discussed in Appendix 2). Since the institution of the M.A. Proseminar in 2008, the 2-year graduation rate for M.A. students has more than doubled from 9.5% in 2008 to 20.8% in 2010. As yet, these numbers have not been compensated for by increased numbers of applications or new admissions to the program.

At the Ph.D. level, enrollment numbers reveal increases in each concentration. The Ph.D. in Literary Studies has seen enrollment growth from 58 in Fall 2010 to 62 in Fall 2011 to 63 in Fall 2012. Similarly, enrollment in the Ph.D. in Creative Writing has increased from 20 in Fall 2010 to 22 in Fall 2011 to 25 in Fall 2012, while enrollment in Rhetoric and Composition has gone from 25 in Fall 2010 to 24 in Fall 2011 to 31 in Fall 2012. Overall, average enrollment in our

12

Ph.D. program has increased by 24% since our last self-study, from 112 per year to 139. On one level, this increase suggests that the reputation of our Ph.D. program is steadily growing despite shortcomings in graduate funding relative to our peer departments (as described in 1.b.1.3). This increase also reflects the fact that our Ph.D. students generally take longer to complete their degrees than do those of our peer departments (as seen in Appendix 4).

1.b.1.2: Ratio of Graduate Students to Total Students in DepartmentThe ratio of graduate students to total students in the English department is 29%, very close to the ideal ratio of 30% for a Research I University. 1.b.1.3: Graduate Student Financial SupportOur last self-study identified an urgent need to increase graduate student funding and decrease the amount of teaching we require of our graduate students. Both these issues remain of central concern to the department. In two departmental surveys conducted as part of this APR process, faculty members overwhelmingly identified inadequate graduate student support as the most important problem to be addressed in the present review cycle.

Our M.A. program is largely unfunded, especially in the first year, like those of most of our peer departments. About 20% of M.A. students (or 14 a year) receive some funding for professionalization positions in the department, earning $6,000 for the year, which allows them to receive a tuition waiver. In the M.F.A. program half of our 14 students are funded at 15 hours a week for $6,000 plus tuition waiver. Depending on availability of funds, one or two M.F.A. students per year (between 4 and 6 over the review period) receive the equivalent of our Early Ph.D. funding package for GTAs (see below), for which they teach 4 classes per year and receive $13,000. We are currently in our second year of a plan that funds two incoming M.F.A. students through appointments at Five Points, then moves them to GTA positions in their second year.

At the Ph.D. level approximately 80 of our 139 students receive funding in one of two packages. The Early Ph. D. package funds about 65 students, who for $13,000 teach four classes. For an additional $2,000 they can do 100 hours of professionalization duties working in the Writing Studio, at one of our departmental publications, or as a research assistant. The Advanced Teaching Fellowship, held by 10 to 15 students per year, pays $15,000 to teach three classes. Roughly 40% of our Ph.D. students go unfunded. Some of these students do not request funding because, as public school teachers or employees of the University System of Georgia, they receive tuition assistance for continuing education. Nevertheless a significant number of our students are forced to look for primary or supplementary employment elsewhere.

In addition to our funding packages, we offer four awards for graduate students: the Graduate Writing Award and the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award are unendowed and offered annually, averaging $100. The Paul Bowles Graduate Fellowship and the Virginia Spencer Carr Graduate Fellowship are given to fiction writers admitted to either the M.F.A. program or the Ph.D. program in Creative Writing. The Bowles fellowship is a one-time annual award of $5000; the Carr Fellowship, worth $8000, is awarded over four years in four $2000 installments.

When compared with graduate programs at our peer departments (see Appendix 4), the insufficiency of our graduate student support becomes striking. Where we are able to offer funding to 50% (at most) of entering M.F.A. and Ph.D. students, competing programs at the

13

University of Houston and Arizona State fund their students at a reported rate of 95% and 100%, respectively, while Wayne State funds 75%, and the University of Cincinnati 90%, of incoming Ph.D. students. Moreover, by teaching a 2/2 load for $13,000 a year, our students earn from $2000 to $5000 less than graduate students in our peer departments, while teaching one to two classes more per year. Indeed, our students continue to teach even more than other Humanities graduate students at GSU. (In the Department of Communication, for example, the standard teaching load is 2/1 plus 5 hours of research service per week, for which GTAs are paid $15,000.) Such a heavy teaching load negatively affects graduation rates, such that our students are unable to keep up with the 5 to 6 year average time-to-degree reported by several of our peers (see 1.b.3.3); heavy teaching also adversely affects student performance in graduate seminars, on comprehensive examinations, and in conducting dissertation research and writing. As revealed in surveys (see 1.b.3.7), too much teaching also detracts from the time graduate students can devote to professionalization activities such as presenting conference papers and publishing, both of which are increasingly important in a highly competitive academic job market.

Finally, beyond its obvious impact on our students’ graduation rates and professionalization, our funding situation negatively affects recruitment. If guaranteed budget funding were available in a timely fashion in the admissions cycle, the Director of Graduate Studies would offer funding packages no later than April. As it stands, we cannot offer the best applicants funding until summer, when those applicants have already accepted offers elsewhere. In light of this funding situation, it is a testament to the growing reputation of the department that enrollment in our Ph.D. programs has increased since our last self-study. Nevertheless, the decreasing yield of admitted applicants in recent years suggests that the department cannot continue to grow either the quality or the quantity of its graduate students without significant improvements in funding.

1.b.1.4: Ratio of Graduate Students to FacultyBased on the data available in Table 5, the average ratio of English graduate students to faculty during the review period was 5.3 to 1, nearly the same as that of Arizona State, the peer department that most closely matches us in number of graduate students.

1.b.3: Student Success and Satisfaction

1.b.3.1: Learning OutcomesSee Appendix 2 for a 5-year summary report of graduate learning outcomes.

1.b.3.2: Admission Requirements and Procedures, Advisement, and Recruitment RatesAdmission to our M.A. and M.F.A. programs requires a B.A. in English or its equivalent with at least a B average in the major. Admission to our Ph.D. programs requires an M.A. in English or strongly related field. All applicants must submit transcripts of all previous college-level work; GRE general test scores, a statement of purpose; two letters of recommendation; an 8-12 page critical writing sample for Literary Studies and Rhetoric and Composition concentrations, and a 30-50 page portfolio of poems or stories for the Creative Writing concentrations (for comparisons of admissions with peer departments, see Appendix 4). Admission decisions are made in the Spring. Students enter our graduate programs once a year in Fall.

14

The Director of Graduate Studies is responsible for all graduate student advising on an informal basis; thesis and dissertation directors also provide much detailed advisement of students. Although not formally an advisor, the Assistant to the Director of Graduate Studies frequently fields questions from students.

The number of applicants to our programs has grown slightly since the last self-study. From 2003 to 2005, an average of 193 people applied per year; beginning in 2006, the department began receiving an average of 229 applications per year, excluding the anomalous 304 applications received in 2010. In 2012, 225 students applied to the program, suggesting that the visibility and reputation of the department is growing steadily. As noted in 1.b.1.1, however, slightly increased numbers of applications overall have not sufficed to make up for declining enrollments at the M.A. level.

Based on the data in Table 4, average acceptance rates for applicants to each of our graduate programs are as follows: M.A. in Literary Studies: 54.7%; M.A. in Creative Writing: 9.7%; M.A. in Rhetoric and Composition: 38.3%; M.F.A. in Creative Writing: 31.6%; Ph.D. in Literary Studies: 59.2%; Ph.D. in Creative Writing: 27.9%; Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition: 60.6%.

During the review period, the average percentage of students admitted to these programs who actually enrolled were as follows: M.A. in Literary Studies: 53.1%; M.A. in Creative Writing: 0%; M.A. in Rhetoric and Composition: 65.3%; M.F.A. in Creative Writing: 31.6%; Ph.D. in Literary Studies: 36.1%; Ph.D. in Creative Writing: 33.3%; Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition: 41.5%. As described in 1.b.1.3, recruitment of the best applicants to our graduate programs is hindered by uncompetitive funding packages and delays in the availability of funding. On average, 45 students per year enter our graduate programs.

1.b.3.3: Retention Rates, Graduation Rates, and Graduate Degrees ConferredFor M.A. cohorts graduating during the review period, the 7-year retention rates and graduation rates across all concentrations were as follows: Fall 2010: 71.4% retained, 67.9% graduated; Fall 2011: 55.0% retained, 50.0% graduated; and Fall 2012: 73.7% retained, 73.7% graduated. For each of these cohorts, more than half of students had completed their degrees within 4 years. As discussed in 1.b.1.1, the 2-year graduation rate for M.A. students more than doubled between Fall 2008 and Fall 2010.

For M.F.A. cohorts graduating during the review period, the 7-year retention rates and graduation rates were as follows: Fall 2010: 50.0% retained, 33.3% graduated; Fall 2011: 85.7% retained, 71.4% graduated; Fall 2012: 100.0% retained; 100.0% graduated. For the latter two cohorts, more than half of students had completed their degrees within 5 years.

Most significantly, analysis of graduation rates at the Ph.D. level reveals that our students lag behind the average time-to-degree reported by our peers. As discussed in 1.b.3.2, we attribute this difference to the inordinately large number of courses our graduate students teach. For Ph.D. cohorts graduating during the review period, the 7-year retention rates and graduation rates were as follows: Fall 2010: 68.5% retained, 53.7% graduated; Fall 2011: 53.7% retained, 41.5% graduated; Fall 2012: 67.4% retained, 53.5% graduated. More than half of students in the first

15

and third of these cohorts had completed their degrees within 7 years; but this rate falls behind that of our peers, most of whom report a time-to-degree in the range of 5 to 6 years.

On average, we graduated 22 M.A. students, 1 M.F.A. student, and 19 Ph.D. students per year during the review period. As shown in the departmental APR dashboard, the number of M.A. degrees conferred has declined from 28 in 2010-11 to 20 in 2012-13, while the number of Ph.D.s conferred has increased from 16 to 22. Over the review period the Department of English has conferred more Ph.D.s than any other department in the College of Arts and Sciences, accounting for 18% of all Ph.D.s granted between Fall 2010 and Summer 2013.

1.b.3.5: Ethnic and Gender DiversityWomen comprise 69.9% of graduate students in English, while 30.1% are men. The ethnic diversity of graduate English students is: White 80.7%; Black 8.8%; Asian 2.8%; American Indian or Alaska Native 0.3%; Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander 0.3%; two or more races 3.5%; and “not reported” 3.5%. Although the ethnic diversity of our graduate students is similar to that of our peer departments (see Appendix 4), it is considerably less than that of the graduate student body of GSU as a whole, suggesting that we can do more to appeal to a wider diversity of graduate students. The department might attract a more diverse graduate student body by offering better funding and by creating additional courses with a transnational, multiethnic, and comparative focus.

1.b.3.7: Student SurveysAs shown in Appendix 7, graduate students and alumni, like their undergraduate counterparts, consistently rank “Faculty Interaction” very highly in their quantitative survey responses. They give particularly strong scores in the areas of faculty preparation, availability, and motivation; survey results also indicate their esteem for our excellent administrative staff. In comparison with the undergraduate surveys, however, qualitative comments from our graduate students are more measured in their praise of the department's programmatic strengths as a result of the inadequate funding we are able to provide.

Our funded students are keenly aware that they are required to teach more, and are paid less, than those in peer departments (see 1.b.1.3). Their comments describe in moving detail the impact of heavy teaching loads on time to degree and professionalization. One GTA writes: “I am, of course, thankful to even have funding at all (as many of my colleagues are completely unfunded); however, the goal of funding is to help the grad student complete his or her degree, not draw out the process.” Another student remarks that inadequate funding “makes it impossible not to pursue considerable other work in order to survive financially, which leaves no time for research, especially while GTAing, which in turn drags out one’s program into more years of needing funding.” Other students implore the department to “offer a lighter GTA courseload,” “lower the teaching load for all graduate students from 2-2 to 2-1,” or “ask GTAs to teach one course per term so that we can focus more on our studies and professional development.” Graduate students also object to the high fees they must pay: “The assistantship package most GTAs receive at GSU may be $15,000, but we GTAs pay one third of that money back to the university in student fees (for programs we don’t use).” One comment effectively sums up the stakes, for graduate students, of high teaching loads and fees: “The academic job market has severely contracted, and the only way to secure post-grad work is with a simply

16

stellar record of publication. Our professors recognize this, and live it. Yet they seem content to increase our workloads in an effort to increase our pay. This is a wrong-headed approach.” We take seriously the issues raised by these graduate students, and we are committed to reducing GTA teaching loads as discussed in Goal 1 of Sections 3 and 4.

Though nothing else in the qualitative survey responses ranks in importance with the problem of inadequate funding, several commentators point out the need for more effective faculty mentoring about job market realities and for clearer advising about program requirements and deadlines. As one student puts it, there is a “lack of a consistent, reliable (preferably online) centralized resource for answering questions about the graduate program, especially with regards to anything financial.” We address the need for an improved web presence in Section 4, Goal 2.

1.b.3.8: Student Publications and PresentationsOur graduate students have enjoyed great success publishing their work in a variety of highly respected venues. During the review period recent graduates of our Ph.D. and M.F.A. programs have published books with Scribner’s, Routledge, St. Martin’s Press, McFarland Press, Scarecrow Press, Plain View Press, Kensington Books, and Bloomsbury. In addition, our students have published essays, short stories, and poems in peer-reviewed journals such as The Explicator, Critique, College Teaching, Composition Studies, The Journal of Popular Culture, Green Mountain Review, Glimmer Train, American Short Fiction, Research in the Teaching of English, James Joyce Quarterly, and New Delta Review, among many others.

Our students have also presented their research at a wide variety of national and regional conferences held by, among others, the Modern Language Association, the Conference on College Composition and Communication, the American Comparative Literature Association, the College English Association, and the Renaissance Society of America. As discussed in 1.e.3.1, our graduate students have also given presentations at international conferences in locations such as Oxford, Istanbul, Tokyo, and Rome.

1.b.3.9: Student AwardsWe are very proud of the fact that graduate students in the Department of English have been awarded a number of internal and external awards during the review period.  Matt Sailor, a graduate of our M.F.A. program, was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship in 2013 for his novel in progress, 1985; Jennifer Forsthoeffel, a Ph.D. candidate, received the Graduate Tutor of the Year Award in 2012 from the Southeastern Writing Center Association; Amanda Gable, a graduate of our M.F.A. program, was awarded the Georgia Author of the Year Award for First Novel in 2010 for The Confederate General Rides North; Sarah Hughes won a Hambidge Creative Residency Fellowship in Summer 2012; Juliette Kitchens, a Ph.D. candidate, won a Graduate Student Research Grant from the International Writing Centers Association; and 4 of the 15 GSU Dissertation Grants awarded in 2012 went to English students: Shannon Finck, Dan Mills, Anne Melfi, and Diana Eidson.

1.b.3.10: Student Outcomes After GraduationGiven the large number of Ph.D.s which we grant and the increasingly competitive academic job market for recent graduates, we are pleased to report on the success of our students in obtaining employment. Of the 60 students who have graduated with either an M.F.A. or Ph.D. degree

17

during the review period, 21 have thus far obtained tenure-track teaching positions, 14 are currently employed in non-tenure-track college teaching positions, 4 have obtained postdoctoral fellowships, and numerous others are teaching either at the high school level or working in administrative positions in academia and industry (for a list of job placements of our recent graduates, see Appendix 6). Some of our M.A. students have gone on to enroll in Ph.D. programs at prestigious institutions such as McGill University, Purdue University, and Marquette University, while others have taken up college and high school teaching, Web content development, or found positions with employers such as Simon & Schuster Publishing, Atlanta’s Rialto Center for the Arts and Theatre, and the Atlanta Ballet Center for Dance Education.

1.b.4: Graduate Programs within the GSU Context

1.b.4.1: Programs undertaken jointly with other GSU UnitsThe Department of English provides graduate students with cross-disciplinary opportunities for funding and education through Second Century Initiative clusters in Chinese Studies and Transcultural Conflict and Violence. Since 2011, 7 of our graduate students have received fellowship support through these 2CIs. Several of our graduate courses are cross-listed with courses in the Institute for Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, African American Studies, Modern and Classical Languages, Communication, Religious Studies, and the Middle East Institute.

In coordination with the Department of Middle and Secondary Education, we also offer courses toward two TEEMS (Teacher Education in English, ESOL, Mathematics, Middle Level Education, Social Studies, and Science) M.A.T. degrees. The TEEMS M.A.T. in English Education provides initial teacher certification for individuals interested in teaching secondary English language arts (grades 6-12) and requires completion of 4 graduate English courses. The TEEMS M.A.T. in Middle Level Education provides initial teacher certification for individuals interested in teaching middle level students (grades 4-8) and requires completion of one graduate-level course in English.

1.c: RESEARCH

During the review period, the full-time faculty in the Department of English has been extraordinarily productive in research, outreach, and professional service. Whether measured by our scholarly and creative productivity, the amount of sponsored research we have generated, the honors, awards, and fellowships we have received, or our service and outreach contributions, English faculty have contributed profusely to GSU’s goal to “become a leading public research university addressing the most challenging issues of the 21st century” and to “enhance a research culture” (Strategic Plan Goal 3, Initiative 1).

1.c.1: Success of the Department’s Research Culture

1.c.1.1: Endowed Professors, Regents Professors, 2CI HiresThe Department of English includes some of the most eminent professors and scholars in their respective fields. David Bottoms was Poet Laureate of Georgia from 2000-2011and is the John

18

B. and Elena Diaz-Verson Amos Distinguished Chair in English Letters. Regents’ Professorships are currently held by John Burrison, specialist in Folklore; Matthew Roudané, specialist in American Drama; and Randy Malamud, current department chair and specialist in British modernism and cultural studies. Assistant Professor Ben Miller was hired as part of the 2CI cluster in New and Emerging Media.

1.c.1.2: Levels of External and Internal FundingWhile the bulk of humanities faculty research is unsponsored, the record of steady funding secured by our faculty is impressive. For example, in 2006 Michael Galchinsky was awarded $40,000 to attend the Brandeis University Summer Institute for Israel Studies, and that same year he received a Rabbi Joachim Prinz Memorial Fellowship worth $3800 from the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives. In 2006 Josh Russell received a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Prose worth $20,000. In Summer 2007 Matthew Roudané was awarded a Fulbright Senior Specialist Award worth $5000 to teach a special seminar for the Complutense de Madrid, in El Escorial, Spain. In 2007 Renee Schatteman also received a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence Grant worth $20,350 to bring Dr. Desirée Lewis from the University of Western Cape to GSU for the Spring 2007 semester. In 2010 Sheri Joseph won a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist Grant worth $25,000. In 2012 Lynee Gaillet received an International Society for the History of Rhetoric Annual Research Grant worth $5000. In 2012-13, Ben Miller secured $235,699 in funding from the National Science Foundation and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for a project entitled “Digging into Human Rights Violations” (see 1.c.2.2). Contributing to the urban focus of Goal 4 of the University Strategic Plan, in 2012 Ben Miller, along with Tim Hawthorne of Geosciences, was awarded a $43,700 Cities grant (renewed in 2013) to work on the project titled ATLmaps (see 1.d). Several other of our students and faculty are involved in this study.

Numerous faculty have been awarded residency fellowships in support of their work. John Holman and Sheri Joseph have won highly competitive and prestigious Yaddo Residency Fellowships, which attract serious and innovative artists from across the country and allow recipients time and space for the creation and continuation of their creative projects. Professor Joseph has also been awarded a Fellowship to the Hawthornden International Retreat for Writers, Lasswade, Scotland, a Fellowship to the MacDowell Colony, and a Fellowship to the Blue Mountain Center. In 2008 LeeAnne Richardson won an Everett Helm Scholar-in-Residence Fellowship to the Lilly Library, Indiana University; Audrey Goodman received a Mayer Fellowship at the Huntington Library, and Reiner Smolinski received a Travel/Work Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to spend a week at the Massachusetts Historical Society. In summer 2009 Marilynn Richtarik was awarded a Hambidge residency. In 2010 Stephen Dobranski received a fellowship from the Texas Institute for Library and Textual Studies, and in 2011 Tanya Caldwell was awarded a Mayer Fellowship for study at the Huntington Library.

Direct cost expenditures in research during the review period were $30,070 in fiscal year 2011, $135,800 in fiscal year 2012, and $45,048 in fiscal year 2013. As shown in Appendix 8, awards due to the Department of English for fiscal year 2013 amount to $213,593, placing us 36th among all 73 departments in the University.

19

1.c.1.3: National/International Rankings of the DepartmentDuring the review cycle the department and its programs have achieved respectable placement in several national rankings. In 2012, our Ph.D. in Creative Writing was ranked 15th out of 32 such programs by Poets & Writers magazine in a survey of all Creative Writing programs in the United States. The same publication ranked our Creative Writing M.F.A. 96th out of 275 programs. In the 2013 U.S. News and World Report ranking of graduate programs, our department ranked 98th of the 134 departments whose numbers were published (over 100 more programs surveyed were ranked below the cut-off of 134). Among our peer departments, this ranking places us on par with Wayne State, Houston, and Cincinnati (ranked at 91, 91, and 106 respectively), and behind Temple and Arizona State.

Our department achieved its most impressive rankings in the 2010 National Research Council survey of graduate programs. In the “R-Rank” category, which reflects program strength in terms of features perceived as characteristic of top departments, our graduate program achieved a range of 38-84 out of 119 English departments, second only to Temple University among our peers. In the “S-Rank” category, which measures program strength in terms of criteria deemed most important by scholars, our department achieved a range of 67-97 out of 119. Compared to our peer departments, this range places us in the middle of the pack, ahead of the University of Houston, on par with Wayne State and Cincinnati, and behind Temple and Arizona State. The department is especially proud of these rankings since this is the first time our program has been included in the NRC survey. Only16 other graduate programs at GSU were ranked by NRC.

1.c.1.4: Research ProductivityThe following summary includes publications in refereed journals, creative writing (poetry, fiction, and nonfiction), and scholarly books and edited volumes, as well as conference presentations where proposals were accepted through a refereed system.

During academic year 2010-2011, faculty members published 7 books, 17 articles in refereed journals, 2 book reviews, 1 book chapter, 1 introduction to a scholarly book, 7 poems, and 4 short stories. These were produced by 23 of our faculty. 11 faculty members gave presentations at 13 international conferences, and 1 faculty member co-organized an international conference. Scholarly and creative contributions to community programs and outreach include the participation of 7 faculty organizing conferences and/or providing radio interviews.

During 2011-2012, faculty published 5 books, 37 articles in refereed journals, 1 chapbook of creative prose, 1 essay, 9 poems, one short story, and 1 creative nonfiction work. At international conferences, 6 faculty made 8 presentations. Also in the area of international scholarship, 2 faculty members organized a multi-national conference held at GSU, and 2 faculty members led a conference attended by scholars from the US and Europe. Eight faculty members gave 11 talks, readings, interviews, or workshops for community programs and outreach.

During academic year 2012-2013, faculty report the publication of 5 books, 1 co-edited book, 13 articles in refereed journals, 1 short story, and 3 poems. Eleven faculty members delivered 35 papers, readings, presentations, or lectures at conferences. Nine of those presentations were for international audiences.

20

These aggregate numbers paint only a partial picture of our achievements in scholarship and creative production. Equally impressive is the fact that this work has been published by some of the most prestigious presses and journals in our fields. English faculty members have published books with Oxford University Press, Harvard University Press, Palgrave/Macmillan, Routledge, St. Martin’s Press, Cengage, Bloomsbury, Lexington Books, the University of Arizona Press, the University of Georgia Press, and Louisiana State University Press, among others. Our essays, poems, stories, and reviews have appeared in such venues as PMLA, The New Yorker, Shakespeare, Kenyon Review, University of Toronto Quarterly, Journal of Popular Film and Television, College Composition and Communication, Kairos, Computers and Composition, Composition Studies, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The Department of English has maintained the publication of high quality scholarly and creative journals, which include Five Points, the internationally renowned journal of literature and art, as well as Eudora Welty Review, new south, South Atlantic Review, and Studies in the Literary Imagination. Eudora Welty Review published its third annual issue in April 2011. Five Points publishes 3 issues a year and awards the James Dickey Prize for Poetry. 2013 marks the fifteenth year of the journal’s production. Student-run new south runs an annual writing contest for poetry and prose. South Atlantic Review was established in 1935 as the official quarterly publication of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association and is now in its seventy-sixth volume. Studies in Literary Imagination is now in its forty-third volume.

1.c.1.5: Success in Recruitment and Retention of Top Faculty in the FieldThe department has been highly successful in recruiting top faculty during the current review cycle. Over the past three years we have made seven new tenure-track hires: four in the Literary Studies concentration; two in the Rhetoric and Composition concentration; and one 2CI hire in New and Emerging Media. These hires represent the faculty’s top choice to fill their positions following national and international searches that often yielded 100-200 applicants. Unfortunately, over the same period two distinguished faculty members have left, both for positions offering significantly higher salaries than GSU was able to offer. In Fall 2010, Professor Margaret Harper left to become the Glucksman Chair in Contemporary Writing at the University of Limerick, Ireland, and in Fall 2013, Professor Ian Almond departed for a position at Georgetown University’s campus in Doha, Qatar.

1.c.1.6: Faculty DevelopmentFrom Fall 2010 to Spring 2013, one faculty member was denied promotion from the rank of Assistant Professor to Associate Professor with Tenure, and four were promoted from Associate Professor to Full Professor. Six non-tenure-track faculty members were promoted from the rank of Lecturer to Senior Lecturer, and two were promoted from Academic Professional to Senior Academic Professional.

In Spring 2013 the number and ratio of faculty members across the various ranks was: Full Professor: 17 (30.4%); Associate Professor: 21 (37.5%); Assistant Professor: 8 (14.3%); Senior Lecturer: 6 (10.7%); Senior Academic Professional: 2 (3.6%); Visiting Lecturer 2 (3.6%). Our current number of 55 full-time faculty (9 of whom are non-tenure-track) represents an increase of

21

12 since our last self-study. We now have 5 more Full Professors, 1 more Associate Professor, and 1 fewer Assistant Professor, than at the end of the last self-study.

1.c.2: Faculty Partnerships and Professional Service

1.c.2.1: Faculty participation in Research Clusters at GSUSee. 1.d for a description of ATLmaps, which links the Department of English, the Center for Instructional Innovation, and the New & Emerging Media 2CI.

1.c.2.2: National and International Research CollaborationsInternational research collaborations include a two-year collaboration with faculty at the University of Baghdad, Iraq, creating and presenting a series of research and pedagogical training programs involving 9 English faculty and 16 Iraqi faculty coming to Georgia State for two summers (in addition to dozens of Iraqi faculty with whom our colleagues interacted in web-based development programs). As part of this program, Randy Malamud travelled to Iraq to deliver lectures in 2012. The Iraqi/Georgia State partnership is supported by an IREX Grant managed by Gayle Nelson and Eric Friginal in the Applied Linguistics/ESL Department. Lynee Gaillet is currently part of an APLU/Gates sponsored program for developing hybrid/online first-year writing courses to be adopted nationally. Over the past two years, this research collaboration has involved faculty from the University of Mississippi, Auburn University, University of Georgia, Alabama Southern Community College, and Georgia Perimeter College. In addition, Digital Pedagogy Meetups, co-organized by Brennan Collins and sponsored by GSU, Emory University, and Georgia Tech, bring together a group from several Atlanta universities interested in discussing innovative approaches to encourage student learning.

Faculty engaged in digital humanities projects also report participation in international research collaborations. Emily Bloom is part of a digital humanities project called the Modernist Radio Archive, a collaboration between scholars in modernist literature from Canada and the United States that digitizes radio broadcasts from the modernist period and enables research of broadcasting archives using innovative digital methods. Lindsey Eckert is collaborating with faculty at the University of Toronto to build a digital archive of nineteenth-century British almanacs. Ben Miller has initiated an international collaboration called Digging Into Human Rights Violations, which engages scholars from the University of Western Ontario, Yale University, and Stanford University. Professor Miller is the Primary Investigator of this 12-member international project to explore transversal reading methods for text-mining large-scale collections of witness statements and official documents relating to mass violations of rights in Guatemala, Chechnya, Burma and Liberia.

1.c.2.4: Significant Professional ServiceOne of our most significant forms of professional service is superintendence of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA), an organization of scholars, teachers, and graduate students dedicated to the advancement of literary, linguistic, and rhetorical scholarship and teaching. Directed by Renée Schatteman, SAMLA currently maintains a membership that extends throughout the southeastern United States, across the country, and around the world. Each year SAMLA hosts an annual conference that draws over 1,000 scholars and graduate students and features our faculty and students’ extensive participation.

22

Other forms of our professional service include participation in, and direction of, national programs devoted to supporting study of the humanities, literature, and language. As part of his activities with the Fulbright Global and Specialist Programs, Matthew Roudané has served on the U.S. Council for the International Exchange of Scholars from 2008 to the present. From 2009 to 2011, and from 2011 to 2012, Stephen Dobranski served as Secretary and President, respectively, of the Modern Language Association Executive Committee of the Division on Seventeenth-Century English Literature. From 2011 to 2012 Chris Kocela served as Peer Review Panelist in American Literature for the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend Competition. In 2012 Renée Schatteman served as Review Panelist in World Literature and Culture for the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminars and Institutes. Jim Hirsh served as Consultant to the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2012. Lynée Gaillet has been a member of the Advisory Board for the Coalition of Women Scholars in the History of Rhetoric since 2012, and served as President of this body from 2008 to 2010. In 2011 Mary Hocks served as Local Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, the flagship international conference in the discipline.

In addition to these roles, faculty members serve on editorial advisory boards and regularly evaluate manuscripts for prestigious scholarly presses including Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Syracuse University Press, Palgrave/Macmillan, Routledge, Bedford/St. Martin’s, and for prominent scholarly journals such as PMLA, College Composition and Communication, The Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric, Milton Studies, Computers and Composition, Kairos, Twentieth-Century Literature, European Romantic Review, Texas Studies in Literature and Language, and New Hibernia Review.

1.c.3: Recognition of Scholarly Excellence

1.c.3.1: GSU Faculty Fellowships and other Internal AwardsOur faculty members have received a number of highly competitive internal fellowships and awards. As mentioned in 1.c.1.1, Randy Malamud received a Regents’ Professorship during the review period, while Josh Russell won an Outstanding Faculty Achievement Award in 2013. In 2012-13, both Michael Galchinsky and Stephen Dobranski received Provost’s Faculty Research Fellowships to support their applications for prestigious external fellowships. Ben Miller won a Research Initiation Grant in 2013; Tanya Caldwell won a Research Initiation Grant in 2011.

1.c.3.2: External Awards, Honors, Prizes, and FellowshipsEnglish faculty report from 5 to 13 external honors and awards per year. These range from elected memberships to professional societies such as Reiner Smolinski’s to the Colonial Society of Massachusetts; appointments to editorial boards such as Matthew Roudané’s to that of Miranda, Revue Pluridisplinaire du Monde Anglophone (Universite de Toulouse, France); literary honors such as David Bottoms’s induction into the “Georgia Writers Hall of Fame,” John Holman’s novel being chosen as one of “25 books all Georgians Should Read” by the Georgia Center for the Book, Sheri Joseph’s short story “Imprints” being chosen as one of “100 Distinguished Stories of 2009” in Best American Short Stories 2010 and her winning a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship for her novel-in-progress, Josh Russell’s novel My Bright Midnight being awarded an Independent Publisher Book Award’s medal in the Literary Fiction

23

category, and Leon Stokesbury’s poem “Watching My Mother Take Her Last Breath” winning a coveted Pushcart Prize; major scholarly book awards such as John Burrison’s (2012) Georgia Author of the Year Award for Creative Nonfiction Specialty Category for From Mud to Jug; The Folk Potters and Pottery of Northeast Georgia and Marilynn Richtarik’s 2013 Robert Rhodes Prize for Books on Literature from the American Conference for Irish Studies for Stewart Parker: A Life; and significant scholarly recognition such as Randy Malamud’s election as a Lifetime Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics.

1.c.4: Department Infrastructure for Supporting Research

1.c.4.1: Department Level Research and Travel GrantsThe department offers 3 to 5 Summer Research Awards per year ($7500 each) on a competitive basis. Faculty applying for this stipend must also seek external funding, and may apply only every three years.

1.c.4.2: Grant Support: Writing, AdministrationSupport for grant writing in the department consists primarily of informal discussion among faculty members. In surveys several faculty members note that the department does not, at present, offer sufficiently organized support for writing and administration of grant or fellowship applications. Some College and University grant writing support programs have recently expanded to include help for humanities scholars.

1.d: CONTRIBUTION TO CITIES

Our commitment to Goal 4 of the University Strategic Plan is evident in our founding role in the ATLmaps project, which is building a web-based geospatial platform to house layers of ongoing interdisciplinary projects about Atlanta.  This open, collaborative platform will encourage researchers, teachers, students, and community members to share data and analyses on the difficult challenges faced by cities, as well as explore the stories and opportunities they offer. The ATLmaps group is made up of faculty and staff representing the University Library, the Center for Instructional Innovation, the New & Emerging Media 2CI, and the departments of English, Geosciences, Communication, and History.  

1.d.2: Contributions of the Arts and Media

1.d.2.1: Speakers’ seriesBudget constraints since the last self-study required the discontinuation of the department’s visiting speakers series; however, in 2013 a portion of the Kenneth England Professorship endowment (see 2.f) paid for a speakers series entitled “The Performance and Poetics of Place” dedicated to highlighting the work of southern studies scholars from different fields and areas of specialization. The department hosted, with assistance from CENCIA, Adam Vines, who gave a reading from his book of poetry; Riché Richards, who read from her scholarly project, Black Femininity, Global South, and Coleman Hutchison, who lectured on his scholarly biography of the song “Dixie.”

24

1.d.2.2: Creative writers’ reading seriesThe creative writing program brought to campus the prominent novelists Jim Crace in 2011 and Colson Whitehead in 2013. Both Crace and Whitehead gave writing craft lectures and readings from their recent fiction. With funding from CENCIA, South African writer Sindiwe Magona visited in 2013 for the performance of her play about the personal toll of racial and political violence in the townships during the months leading up to independence. Irish writer Glenn Patterson came to campus in 2010 in association with the launch of the Five Points issue, Belfast Revisited. Patterson gave a reading of his work and performed some of his words set to music. That issue of Five Points was dedicated entirely to the work of Irish writers, with particular focus on the literary reaction to the social and political discord in the country. As the vital issues that these writers address carry over into the present from the past, the visits by these authors show our intent to address the critical concerns of the 21st century.

1.e: GLOBALIZING THE UNIVERSITY

1.e.3: Establishment of GSU as an International Center

1.e.3.1: Faculty International ExchangesThe department maintains, directs, or co-directs six international exchange programs. These include the exchange with the Department of American Studies and Department of Applied Linguistics, Johannes-Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany (see 1.b); the University of Northumbria, Newcastle, England (see 1.a.3.4); the University of Heidelberg, Germany; the University of Versailles, France; Eberhard Karls University, Tubingen, Germany; and the University of Toulouse, France (co-directed by the Department of History). As a result of these exchanges, the English department has maintained several partnerships with Visiting International Faculty, including Yohann Brultey from the University of Versailles, who worked with Pearl McHaney at GSU in 2010 to 2012, and Audrey Ramphort, who worked with Carol Marsh-Lockett in 2010. Professor Roudané was a Visiting Professor at the University of Toulouse in 2009 and 2011. Global Institutes linked to the department include the Confucius Institute, a collaboration that “aims to enhance understanding of the Chinese language and culture, strengthen educational and cultural exchange and cooperation between China and other countries, and promote the development of multiculturalism.” The CI’s Founding Director, Baotong Gu, is an English faculty member. The Confucius Institute won the “Confucius Institute of the Year Award” in 2012. In addition, the South Atlantic Center for the Institute of the Americas is co-directed by English faculty and faculty from the University of Versailles.

During the review period, five faculty gave invited lectures at international universities, while 14 faculty delivered 20 conference presentations in 13 different countries including Austria, China, Cuba, Egypt, Finland, Norway, and the West Indies. In addition, 10 graduate students delivered 13 conference presentations around the globe in locations including Istanbul, Limerick, Oxford, Prague, Rome, Sweden, and Tokyo..

1.e.3.2: International Forums

25

The department of English hosted a public lecture entitled “Faulkner and France” on November 14, 2012, co-sponsored by the South Atlantic Center of the Institute of the Americas, CENCIA, and the Department. In addition, our journal Five Points published, in 2010, the first exclusively international issue devoted to the writing, art, and music of Northern Ireland. This special issue came with a CD of original music and spoken word performances produced in collaboration with the School of Music. As part of this event, the department co-sponsored, with CENCIA, a live performance, “Belfast Imagined,” which took place in the GSU Recital Hall and is available as a podcast on iTunes University.

1.e.3.3: Programs for Foreign StudentsSee 1.a.3.4 and 1.b for details of our international study abroad programs and exchanges.

1.e.3.4: Programs Co-ordinated with the University’s International InitiativesDepartmental programs co-ordinated with the University’s international initiatives include collaborations with the Confucius Institute and Georgia China Alliance (“China’s Global Outlook Conference,” The Carter Center, Atlanta, June 2012); and the South Atlantic Center for the Institute of the Americas, University of Versailles and Florida State University (“Spaces of French Migration, Culture and Politics in the 20th Century Americas,” March 2012). English faculty assisted in developing the GSU/Ca’Foscari University, Venice Italy, Joint Degree Program in Economics and Modern Languages in 2011. One faculty member taught in GSU’s first Chinese-American joint Summer Institute in 2012.

1.e.4: Enhancement of Global Competency

1.e.4.2: Number of Students Enrolled in Study Abroad ProgramsAs shown on the departmental APR dashboard, the average number of English majors enrolled in Study Abroad programs during the review period is 24 per year.

1.e.4.6: Contribution of Global/Multicultural Perspectives to Core CoursesOne of our most frequently offered core courses, World Literature, exposes students to a wide range of global and multicultural perspectives through comparative study of various national literatures from antiquity to the present. Recent syllabi for World Literature feature authors from Turkey, India, Pakistan, China, Iran, Italy, ancient Egypt, Greece, and nineteenth-century Russia. As shown in Table 1, the Department of English offered 55 sections of World Literature during the review period, enrolling over 1,400 students.

1.f: OVERALL ASSESSMENT OF THE DEPARTMENT

This academic program review illuminates the central role played by the Department of English in the educational mission of the College of Arts and Sciences and the University as a whole.  We are actively committed, through our high quality research, dynamic teaching, and dedicated service, to the five goals of Georgia State University’s Strategic Plan and to initiatives that support the entire University community.  Our scholarly and creative accomplishments have achieved international recognition and impact, reflecting cutting edge developments in our disciplines while contributing to GSU’s strategic focus on globalization and excellence in

26

graduate and undergraduate pedagogy.  At a time when the media insists on a widespread “crisis in the humanities,” our undergraduate enrollment has remained steady over the past eight years and our Ph.D. program has grown to become the most popular in the College.  We have accomplished all of this while consistently maintaining a collegial environment of mutual encouragement and respect despite severe budget constraints.  Faculty members repeatedly point, in their survey comments, to “collegiality,” “collegial relations,” and a “collegial work environment” as one of the greatest advantages of working in the Department of English.  Awareness of this collegiality extends beyond the department to the many faculty and students, as well as local business owners and teachers, with whom we regularly engage through our study abroad, internship, and faculty exchange programs. Nevertheless there is a strong sentiment among our faculty that the department cannot continue to develop its key strengths without greater support from the College and the University.  In quantitative survey results (see Appendix 7), faculty gave their lowest numerical ratings to “Graduate student support” and “Support for the department at the University level,” and the qualitative comments reveal pervasive concerns about student and faculty attrition.  One respondent writes:  “We have the potential to be much more prominent nationally than we are.  The biggest factor limiting this development is a severe shortage of resources for graduate student support.”  In the same vein, another faculty member writes:  “We have inadequate support for graduate students, which causes us to lose our top candidates every year and makes life difficult for those who enroll.”  Another comment captures themes common to many:  “[T]he department’s resources are undervalued to a degree that makes it difficult to see how it can continue to prosper.  Faculty salaries will make it difficult to retain our best hires.  The poor funding and overworking of graduate students is, quite frankly, embarrassing.”   The goals outlined in Sections 3 and 4 of this report build on the department’s accomplishments while attempting to remedy, through intervention at the College and/or University level, the fundamental programmatic weaknesses associated with inadequate graduate student funding. 

===SECTION 2: HOW ADEQUATE ARE YOUR DEPARTMENT’S RESOURCES?===

2.a: Faculty Resources

2.a.1: Student/Faculty RatioAs shown in Table 5, the ratio of undergraduate students to tenure-track faculty between FY 2011 and FY 2013 ranged from 12.5:1 to 13.8:1. 2.a.2: Credit Hour GenerationAs shown in Table 8, credit hour generation by the department has remained largely consistent over the review period, from 41,832 in FY 2011, to 39,844 in FY 2012, to 40,740 in FY 2013. On average, the department has generated 40,808 credit hours per year during the review period.

2.b: Administrative ResourcesThe day-to-day functioning of the Department of English depends on the efforts of our 7 highly dedicated full-time staff members: Marta Hess (Business Manager), Lori Howard (Editor and

27

Production Manager for SLI and Eudora Welty Review), Liz Stoehr (Assistant to the Chair), Harper Strom (Senior Administrative Coordinator), Alex Fedorov (Department Technology Manager), Heather Russel (Assistant to the Directors of Undergraduate Studies and Creative Writing), and Diana Eidson (Editorial and Production Manager for SAMLA). Faced with a reduction in the number of staff positions since our last self-study (we had 10.5 positions until 2008), our existing staff must work even harder to support the 46 tenure-track faculty, 6 lecturers, 3 academic professionals, and 80 to 90 graduate teaching assistants (who require significant administrative support because they teach 3 to 4 classes per year). Our last APR report demonstrated that it needed 12 staff positions to handle the department’s needs. Certainly the present situation, of having lost 3.5 positions since that time (though one was a conversion to an Academic Professional position), indicates the need for more administrative support simply to return us to the level that we were at in the last review cycle. Furthermore, there is evidence that we are currently understaffed relative to peer departments both inside and outside GSU.

Because departments categorize and list their employees differently, clear comparisons are difficult to make. Nonetheless, based on staff and faculty directories (and cross-referencing names to look for individuals with dual roles), we observe that, within the College of Arts and Sciences at GSU, the Department of Psychology includes 41 tenured or tenure-track professors and an additional 9 joint appointments with other departments. It has 18 support staff members and does not (as we do) publish any academic journals or host professional organizations. The Department of Communication, with 40 tenured/tenure-track faculty and 10 full-time lecturers, has 11 staff members. Among our peer departments at other institutions, the Department of English at the University of Central Florida has 40 full-time professors and instructors and lists 9 full-time staff, five of whom are devoted primarily to the department’s journals. The Department of English at UIC lists 32 active faculty members, publishes no journals, and has a staff of 8. Arizona State’s Department of English consists of 80 tenured/tenure-track faculty and 16 lecturers supported by 17 staff members.

2.c: Technological ResourcesThe English Department now has adequate computer availability for all full-time faculty, GTAs, and staff (approximately 140 desktops and 60 laptops). We have 3 dedicated copy machines, up from 1 in the last self-study. While our resources are adequate for most faculty, those working in the areas of new media and digital humanities need additional technological support for their projects. Some of these needs are currently met by a new lab constructed to support the 2CI Initiative in New and Emerging Media.  This facility contains such technology as large format screens, a computer lab of 7 Macs and 2 high-end PCs, a drawing tablet, sound and video recording devices, group conferencing hardware, test bed devices such as android tablets and phones, and various electronics testing equipment. 

2.d: Space ResourcesAll full-time faculty members have their own offices. Graduate student office space, while better than that reported in the last self-study, is still less than ideal, with one office often serving eight graduate student teachers. We also have students in offices in buildings other than Langdale Hall, which is an inconvenience for them and for students. Our planned move in Summer 2014 to a

28

newly-acquired GSU building, 25 Park Place, will alleviate many of these problems; graduate student teachers will still share office space, but there will be far fewer students per office, and most importantly these GTAs will all be in the same space as the rest of the department rather than scattered across campus. The new office space will comprise three floors and will feature improved security, window offices for all faculty and staff, and significantly higher-quality infrastructure--in line with what is called for in the Strategic Plan. The timetable for this move aligns nicely with this academic program review, allowing a reconsideration and reconfiguration of our physical space to accompany this review’s professional and programmatic initiatives.

2.e: Laboratory ResourcesCurrently the department operates 2 computer classrooms (303 CS and 302 Urban Life). A third, 302 C Urban Life, funded by a student Tech Fee grant, will open this year. The 302 Urban Life classroom will be updated this year with 28 new Dell desktops. We are also adding 14 Mac Books and 3 IMacs for the Writing Studio. The previous APR report cited the need for more such spaces and the ultimate goal of a completely wireless environment. Currently most classrooms have WIFI, which again puts us in line with the Strategic Plan.

2.f: GSU Foundation Resources and Other Gifts the Department has ReceivedThrough the GSU Foundation, the department maintains the English Enrichment Fund, as well as endowed funds for 3 fellowships (see 1.a.1 and 1.b.1.3), 2 chairs, the Troy Moore Library fund, and a special purpose fund for Five Points. We have 6 unendowed awards for undergraduate and graduate students (see 1.a.1 and 1.b.1.3). Our faculty chairs are the John B and Elena Diaz-Verson Amos Distinguished Chair, which consists of a 50% bonus to a faculty member’s present salary, and the Kenneth England Professorship, worth approximately $12,000 annually. (For recent uses of the England Professorship, see section 1.a.3.1 and 1.d.2.1). The Orbun Troy Moore III Memorial Library Endowment enables the maintenance of a reserved library space in the English department (which will be replicated when we move to our new offices).

2.g: Library ResourcesBecause GSU’s Library resources have been declining for several years due to severe budget cuts, the English Department’s annual allotment for library acquisitions has also decreased. Still, the library has an excellent collection of humanities databases, which has helped to offset the decline in serial subscriptions (journals, both print and electronic). In 2008 the APR report contained a wish list of nine items needed for the Department of English. Since then, the library has acquired two of these. The continuing expansion of large databases to which the library subscribes, like Project Muse, EBSCO, Literature Online Reference Edition, and JSTOR, has also helped to offset the library’s inability to acquire more print serials. (See Appendix 3 for a comparison of GSU library resources compared to those of our peers).

=======SECTION 3: WHERE DOES YOUR DEPARTMENT WANT TO GO?=======

Our list of proposed goals for the coming review cycle has been formulated in light of APR survey results and analysis of data gathered during the self-study process. The overarching aim of this list is to identify initiatives for quality enhancement that will maximize the department’s contribution to the University Strategic Plan. Our first goal is a “disruptive innovation” in that it

29

depends on securing reallocated funds from the College; the remaining four goals are “sustaining innovations” in that they are revenue-neutral at the department level.

Goal 1: Decrease teaching load to 2/1 and increase funding level to $15,000 for all Graduate Teaching Assistants in order to reduce time-to-degree and improve quality of doctoral research. Our primary goal in this APR process is to move all GTAs from a 2/2 to a 2/1 teaching load. At present, only those with the Advanced Teaching Fellowship teach a 2/1 load.  This improvement will bring us in line with the Department of Communication here at GSU, and it will move us closer to the packages offered at peer departments such as Wayne State, the U of Houston, and the U of Cincinnati. This initiative will also decrease our students’ time-to-degree and improve the quality of their doctoral work, making them more eligible to find appropriate academic employment, which will in turn raise the profile of our program. Given the continued expansion of our doctoral program even despite uncompetitive funding, we believe that this initiative will enable us to recruit stronger students for graduate study and enable us to best fulfill our commitment to Goal 2 of the Strategic Plan.

Goal 2: Increase the number of globalized, comparative, and urban-themed courses at the undergraduate and graduate level, and expand undergraduate student participation in Signature Experiences.Curricular reform of the kind we envision will support not only the undergraduate focus of Goal 1 of the Strategic Plan, but also Goal 4 (“understanding the complex challenges of cities”) and Goal 5 (“globalizing the University”). One aspect of this reform will consist of the development of more undergraduate and graduate courses in transnational, multiethnic, and comparative literatures. Offering more courses in these areas will bring our curriculum into closer alignment with those of our peer departments (see 1.a.2.8) and will help us attract a more ethnically diverse student body, as discussed in 1.a.2.5 and 1.b.3.5. We also plan to add a course in Urban Literature and to tease out ways in which many of our existing classes foster understanding of the unique challenges facing cities. All of these courses will provide a means of better advertising the relevance and appeal of the M.A. in Literary Studies in order to offset decreasing enrollments in this program (see 1.b.1.1). A second aspect of our proposed curricular reform will consist of increasing the number of students participating in Signature Experiences (described in 1.a.3) while developing new ones.

Goal 3: Build upon recent hires in the area of digital humanities and encourage development of technology-based courses by existing faculty.The department recognizes the value of digital humanities research and its potential to transform the disciplines in which we work and teach; at the same time, we are wary of embracing current trends at the expense of more traditional scholarship. Our goal is thus to support and develop digital humanities projects oriented toward translating our traditional sensitivity to language and literature at the level of particular literary works into technology-assisted sensitivity to the same phenomena on a broader cultural scale. The ATLmaps project (see 1.d) is a perfect example of this type of work since it combines archival maps, geospatial data visualization, and user contributed location “pinpoints” that promote storytelling in order to investigate any number of issues about Atlanta.  We will also encourage faculty development of the University’s new

30

“hybrid” courses that employ instructional technology in order to facilitate on-line learning and foster new forms of instructional practice.

Goal 4: Develop initiatives in public scholarship and public humanities.We plan to leverage our established scholarly and creative prominence by developing a focus in public scholarship. Rather than regard public scholarship as the antithesis of “private scholarship,” aimed at a small group of specialists, we regard public scholarship as something scholars do in public, with the public, and with the potential to impact the public by appealing to a general audience. We expect that this initiative will generate important publicity that will enhance our reputation and set up a strong foundation for resource and gift development; we also expect that it will lead to new Signature Experiences, service learning, and post-graduation career opportunities for students. Examples of public scholarship activities might include working with museums; writing in the popular media; advocating for human rights, civil rights, and animal rights; exploring and using “open source” aspects of digital and new media; and making documentary films. Several English faculty are already engaged in these kinds of activities, and we plan to increase participation in the coming years.

Goal 5: Support development of the department’s journals in ways that will broaden their circulation, public impact, and facilitate integration with other departmental initiatives.Our goal is to have SLI, Eudora Welty Review, and SAR indexed in two premier humanities databases: ProjectMuse and JSTOR. In 2012 both SLI and Eudora Welty Review were accepted to ProjectMuse, which has not only increased their national and international visibility, but also provided new revenue, since the database pays a royalty for every article accessed by its users. (In the past year, SLI received approximately $7000 in royalties.) One use for this newly-generated revenue might be to align the contents of the journals every fourth year, and to organize a public symposium featuring literature, art, music, and film from authors and scholars published in the journals. Such a symposium could readily serve as a means of foregrounding the department’s relationship with a “strategic country.”

===SECTION 4: WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO OR CHANGE TO GET THERE?====

Goal 1: Decrease teaching load to 2/1 and increase funding level to $15,000 for all Graduate Teaching Assistants in order to reduce time-to-degree and improve quality of doctoral research. Additional Resources Required: At present, about 60 to 65% of our Ph.D. candidates receive funding. Approximately 85% of GTAs receive $13,000 per year for teaching four classes (the Early Ph.D. package), while the remainder receive the Advanced Teaching Fellowship and receive $15,000 for teaching three classes. The result is that, on average, 80 GTAs teach 290 sections. In order to cover all of these sections with GTAs funded at the Advanced Teaching Fellowship level, we would need to fund approximately 100 GTAs. We estimate that it will cost an additional $420,000 to accomplish this.

Timeline for Implementation: Implementation will depend on availability of funds, but if we moved 9 GTAs from the Early Teaching Fellowship to the Advanced Teaching Fellowship per year, it would cost $60,000 each year and we could achieve our goal in 7 years.

31

Goal 2: Increase the number of globalized, comparative, and urban-themed courses at the undergraduate and graduate level, and expand undergraduate student participation in Signature Experiences.To accomplish this reform, the department will create an ad hoc committee charged with revising the catalogue descriptions of some existing courses, since many of our course descriptions do not adequately highlight the innovative thematic approaches that our instructors use. Because so many of our courses (such as those taught under English Fiction, American Fiction, the Senior Seminars, and the undergraduate and graduate Topics courses) focus on global, transnational, and urban subject matter, this committee will also identify those that might be turned into regularly listed courses. The committee might also be charged with revising B.A. requirements such that 3 hours currently devoted to Foreign Language proficiency could be devoted, instead, to World Literature (also in Area F of the College’s core requirements). The department looks forward to working with the Global Studies Institute in these curricular reform efforts.

In order to generate new Signature Experiences, we will consult with our majors about the types of literary, cultural, musical, creative, political, and community-based activities in which they are already engaged so as to increase GSU student involvement in, and garner institutional support for, these activities. To ensure the visibility of these programs, we plan to advertise the many courses and Signature Experiences we offer through a revamped and user-friendly website. GSU websites are migrating to a new platform (wordpress) in the near future, and we will take this opportunity to redesign our webpages to make sure they are easily navigable and up-to-date.

Timeline for Implementation: We estimate that we can approve 6 new courses or course descriptions per year, so that we could convert those already regularly taught under other course headings within 3 years. Within 7 years, we anticipate that most of our majors will have been involved in one of the various Signature Experiences open to them in the English department.

Goal 3: Build upon recent hires in the area of digital humanities and encourage development of technology-based courses by existing faculty.We anticipate that our future faculty hires, especially replacement hires, will have a specialty in digital humanities in addition to their primary specialties. Two of our latest hires already reflect this model. Most of our eight Rhetoric and Composition faculty already have this expertise and currently offer technology-enhanced courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels, while the university-wide programs under the Center for Instructional Innovation provide faculty development in teaching with technology. We are preparing for wider faculty training in digital humanities, digital rhetoric, and teaching with technology. A strong and compelling component of digital humanities will extend across all four of our concentrations, with faculty scholarship informing curriculum design in the undergraduate major and in our graduate degree programs. Underscoring our expansion of digital humanities and New and Emerging Media, we will study the urban dimensions of rhetoric, literature, and creativity and how these connect to our location in a thriving city. Digital humanities creates new channels to disseminate both faculty and student research, as well as providing new textual data to study, and opens up new opportunities for community partnerships and funding.

32

Timeline for Implementation: Our goal is to double our current level of faculty participation in digital humanities research and/or teaching in the next seven years.

Goal 4: Develop initiatives in public scholarship and public humanities.In the area of public scholarship, the department intends to promote the faculty’s engagement in that scholarship, to increase the faculty’s awareness of its efficacy, to increase the number of such activities, and to increase the number of faculty participating in them. To those ends, the department intends to make the faculty aware of what constitutes public scholarship, to encourage faculty to identify their public scholarship, and to make further public scholarship a strength. Promotion and awareness will be achieved by discussion as agenda items during faculty meetings and by email and other communications. Such awareness is to include how to demonstrate and cite public scholarship on vitae and annual reports. Few to no new resources should be required to achieve these goals. Incentives for increasing public scholarship among faculty could include having it as a point of merit for faculty evaluations, and making it a valued criterion for promotion and tenure.

Timeline for Implementation: In three years, all relevant faculty will identify their public scholarship activity on vitae and annual reports. By the seven-year point, significant numbers of faculty will engage in this initiative.

Goal 5: Support development of the department’s journals in ways that will broaden their circulation, public impact, and facilitate integration with other departmental initiatives.Additional Resources Required: Applications to JSTOR and Project Muse are complex and time-consuming, so additional graduate student support would allow both professionalization opportunities for students and aid for the journal editors. Increased revenue from the database royalties would offset the cost of additional support staff and/or graduate student GTA hours. The department will apply for a CENCIA grant to help fund a symposium, open to the public, which will showcase our efforts to align the contents of SLI and Five Points for greater international impact. If Turkey were the national focus, for example, Five Points would publish photographs, poems, and fiction by Turkish writers, while SLI and/or SAR would publish companion volumes of literary criticism on the featured authors and their national literature. It is also possible that monies gained from ProjectMuse and JSTOR databases could offset some of these expenses. We will also explore other cultural/arts grants, like the arts funding available to non-profits from the City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs, or arts organizations from the nation addressed (i.e., the Turkish Cultural Foundation). The “publications suite” in our new offices on 25 Park Place will facilitate organization of these efforts across our department journals.

Timeline for Implementation: Because both SLI and Eudora Welty Review have recently applied to ProjectMuse, the editorial staff have gained experience completing the application and have already implemented some of the necessary conditions for acceptance to JSTOR; these journals should be indexed in JSTOR within 3 years. Owing to change in editorship, SAR should be indexed within 5 years. Our goal is to hold the first symposium and publish the first companion volumes of SLI and Five Points within 7 years.