he English Ph.D. program puts a great deal of emphasis on graduate student teaching as an integral part of a Ph.D. candidate's training and professional identity. Unlike many other programs, we do not ask graduate students to teach in their first year, preferring instead to allow entering students to immerse themselves in their courses and to adjust to the demands of full-time graduate study. Beginning in their second year, Ph.D. students in English are supported through teaching assistantships. The training our students receive in teaching and the variety of teaching experiences we offer have served our students very well when they have come to look for their first faculty positions.
Ph.D. students in English generally do the bulk of their teaching in the College Writing Program. Students must apply to teach in the Writing Program in the Spring of their first year; the program emphasizes discipline-based writing across a wide variety of disciplines. Once accepted into the program, students participate in an intensive summer training program, for which they receive a stipend, and beginning in their second year, they teach one course a semester for the Writing Program. Graduate students who teach in the College Writing Program, receive an additional stipend of $3,000 per year, bringing their total stipend to $13,000. Enrollment in writing courses is limited to 15 students. Each graduate instructor designs his or her own syllabus, and these reflect the student's own passions, interests, and emerging expertise. English Ph.D. students have designed and offered writing courses based on a wide variety of topics including The Individual and Social Responsibility, Representations of School, Utopias, Visions of America, and the Evolution of the Written Word. Graduate instructors benefit from a strong mentoring program involving faculty in the English Department and the College Writing Program. In addition, graduate instructors have often formed formal and informal mentoring groups, and they have organized department-wide discussions and symposia on pedagogy. Graduate instructors in English are regularly recognized by the University in its awards for excellence in teaching by graduate students.
In addition to their work in the College Writing Program, advanced graduate students have opportunities to assist in large survey courses for the English major and to teach introductory expository and creative writing courses in the English Department. Some students have offered upper-level courses in their fields of specialization, usually through summer teaching. English graduate instructors have regularly taught in the Humanities Program at the Eastman School of Music, and the Department has recently set up a cooperative agreement with the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration that enables three or fours student each year to participate in a multifaceted Business Writing Program. Ph.D. students in English have served as T.A.s for Film Studies courses, and they have consistently won teaching fellowships to offer introductory courses for the Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender and Women's Studies. Other colleges and universities in Rochester that have employed advanced graduate students as teachers of composition, literature, or film include the Rochester Institute of Technology, Nazareth College, St. John Fisher College, SUNY Brockport, Empire State College, and Hobart and William Smith College. In addition, the Department has established a postdoctoral exchange program with Cornell University.
