The Department of English believes in the intrinsic value and the versatility of advanced humanistic training and is committed to supporting its doctoral students in their pursuit of a variety of career trajectories through personal career mentoring, professional training workshops, and funded internships. See below for a detailed summary of our students' career outcomes and recent job placements.
PhD Career Outcomes Summary
The following statistics are intended to provide an overview of the range of opportunities available to our students. We strongly encourage prospective students to seek out comparable data from other schools they may be considering.
Number of currently active students: 86
Number of students admitted since 1994 who have successfully completed the program: 168
Of these graduates, 140 work in education:
- 82 in tenure-track positions
- 39 in non-tenure-track positions (including lectureships and postdocs)
- 9 in libraries
- 7 in higher education administration
- 3 in primary and secondary education
Among those in other sectors:
- 7 are full-time writers or editors
- 4 work in academic-adjacent fields, such as admissions counselling or study abroad program administration
- 4 work in business
- 3 are lawyers
- 2 are pursuing further educational opportunities
Percentage of graduates admitted since 1994 who hold or have held tenure-track positions: 52%
Tenure-track placement rates of 75% or above in the following fields: Medieval, African-American, Asian-American, Postcolonial, and Romanticism
Job Placement by Year
Click the years below for information (updated yearly) about job placement.
2017
Cassius Adair: Frederick Donald Sober Post Doc, University of Michigan
Daphna Atias: Instructional Consultant, University of the District of Columbia, Washington, DC
Christopher Barnes: Scholarly Communications Librarian, Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania
Kathryne Bevilacqua: Lecturer, University of Michigan
Nicolette Brunner: Post Doctoral Fellow, Western Kentucky University, Kentucky
Greg Dandeles: Senior Program Manager, Amazon, Seattle
Akiva Gottlieb: Communications Manager, International Documentary
Association, California
Kyle Grady: Frederick Donald Sober Post Doc, University of Michigan
Julia Hansen: Frederick Donald Sober Post Doc, University of Michigan
Elizabeth Mathie: Post Doctoral Fellow, Tsinghua University, China
Ruth McAdams: Visiting Assistant Professor, Skidmore College, New York
Rebecca Porte: Core Faculty, Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, New York
Stephen Spiess: Assistant Professor, Babson College, Massachusetts
2016
Patrick Barry: Assistant Professor, University of Michigan
Ali Chetwynd: Assistant Professor, American University of Iraq, Sulaimania, Iraq
Carolyn Dekker: Assistant Professor, Finlandia University, Michigan
Manan Desai: Assistant Professor, University of Michigan
Robert Friedlander: Assistant ProfessorInstitution: University of Mississippi, Mississippi
Roxana Galusca: Project Planner and Provisional Member, User Experience/Product Management, Sassafras Tech Collective, Michigan
Konstantina Karageorgos: Assistant Professor, State University of New York at Oneonta, New York
Aaron McCollough: Scholarly Communications & Publishing Librarian, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois
Elizabeth Rodrigues: Humanities & Digital Scholarship Librarian, Grinnell College, Iowa
Emily Waples: Assistant Professor, Hiram College, Ohio
Rebecca Wiseman: Visiting Assistant Researcher and Lecturer, University of California, Berkeley, California
Cordelia Zukerman: Visiting Assistant Professor, United States Military Academy
at West Point, New York
2015
Grace Glass: Associate Dean, Northcentral Technical College, Wisconsin
Joshua Lambert: Academic Director Of The Yiddish Book Center And Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Massachussetts
Scott St. Pierre: Visiting Assistant Professor, Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma
Benjamin Pollak: Lecturer, New York University, New York
2014
Andrew Bozio: Assistant Professor, Skidmore College, New York
Sarah Ehlers: Assistant Professor, University of Houston, Texas
Rachel Feder: Assistant Professor, University of Denver, Colorado
Angela Heetderks: Visiting Assistant Professor and Affiliate Scholar, Oberlin College & Conservatory, Ohio
Toshiaki Komura: Assistant Professor, Sapporo University, Japan
Chung-Hao Ku: Assistant Professor, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
Khaliah-Yasmeen Mangrum: Post-Doctoral Associate, Cornell University, New York
Brian Matzke: Lecturer, University of Michigan
Rebecca Porte: Core Faculty, The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, New York
Sheshalatha Reddy: Assistant Professor, Howard University, Washington DC
Amy Rodgers: Assistant Professor, Mount Holyoke College, Massachussetts
Leila Watkins: Assistant Professor, Western Kentucky University, Kentucky
2013
Geremy Carnes: Assistant Professor, Lindenwood University, Missouri
Nan Zhang Da: Assistant Professor, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
Michael Tondre: Assistant Professor, Stony Brook University, The State University of New York, New York
2012
Alexander Beringer: Assistant Professor, University of Montevallo, Alabama
Jennifer Emery-Peck: Visiting Assistant Professor, Oberlin College & Conservatory, Ohio
Joanne Freed: Assistant Professor, Oakland University, Michigan
Taryn Hakala: Lecturer, University of California, Merced, California
Casie LeGette: Assistant Professor, University of Georgia, Georgia
Caroline Miller: English Teacher, Harvard-Westlake School, California
2011
Katherine Brokaw: Assistant Professor, University of California, Merced, California
John Cords: Editor/Manager, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland
Elspeth Healey: Special Collections Librarian, The University of Kansas, Kansas
Nathaniel Mills: Assistant Professor, California State University, Northridge, California
Benjamin Stroud: Assistant Professor, University of Toledo, Ohio
2010
David Lavinsky: Assistant Professor, Yeshiva University, New York
Chad Thomas: Assistant Professor, The University of Alabama in Huntsville, Alabama
2009
Stephanie Batkie: Assistant Professor, University of Montevallo, Alabama
Chris Palmer: Assistant Professor, Kennesaw State University, Georgia
Ji-Hyae Park: Lecturer in English Composition, Roosevelt University, Illinois
David Ruderman: Assistant Professor, The Ohio State University, Ohio
2008
Laura Ambrose: Assistant Professor, Saint Mary's College, Indiana
Tamara Bhalla: Assistant Professor, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland
Catherine Harrison: Assistant Professor, University of Detroit Mercy, Michigan
Gavin Hollis: Assistant Professor, Hunter College, The City University of New York, New York
Olivera Jokic: Assistant Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, New York
Jamie Olson: Assistant Professor, Saint Martin's University, Washington
