Finding Faculty Support

Choosing an Advisor

Accepted, degree-seeking students are assigned either the Graduate Director or the Director of Creative Writing as their first advisor in UAB English. As soon as students have identified a graduate faculty member within their concentration with whom they would like a mentoring relationship, they should secure that faculty member's agreement to serve as the chair of their individual Graduate Studies Committee (GSC). This selection will likely occur by the end of the first year of graduate study. Students themselves take responsibility for initiating these actions and reporting them to the Graduate Director. Students are encouraged to meet frequently with faculty to plan coursework and assess progress toward their degrees. Course planning worksheets are available for each concentration and plan leading to the M.A. in English.

Contact Information

Securing a Graduate Studies Committee (GSC)

Prior to beginning a thesis (Plan I) or taking area examinations (Plan II), students complete the selection of their graduate studies committee (GSC). Working with their GSC chairs, all students select at least two other graduate faculty members. Students taking area examinations select members of the departmental graduate faculty, who will be the graders of their examinations; students writing a thesis select at least one departmental graduate faculty member and one reader outside the department. The external reader must be either a member of the UAB graduate faculty or possess the credentials (terminal academic degree in a relevant field or, in the case of creative writing theses, publication credentials) that warrant an ad hoc appointment to the UAB graduate faculty. Students must provide the Associate Chair with the vitae of any person whose ad hoc appointment to the UAB graduate faculty will need to be secured. These arrangements are formalized in a process that begins when a student secures and submits relevant signatures on an internal document, the GSC Form. On the basis of this document, the departmental graduate secretary will prepare the Admission to Candidacy Form.