Graduate Studies in English

Research Facilities and Academic Life

The Earl K. Long Library houses a collection of books and periodicals which totals over 1.3 million volumes. The library maintains about 8,000 current serial titles, most of which are in electronic form. The library also maintains subscriptions to sevreal full-text databases that provide additional online content. Special collections include the Louisiana Literature Collection, the Von der Haar Faulkner Collection, and the Marcus Christian papers on African American culture in New Orleans, as well as numerous microforms of old and rare books. The library has access to many on-line databases, many of which link to full-text content, including the MLA International Bibliography.

Graduate students have borrowing privileges at seven other local university libraries, as well as access to the New Orleans Public Library and such local archives as the Amistad Research Center and the Historic New Orleans Collection. They also receive Inter-library Loan privileges that permit them to borrow research materials not owned locally.

Many other resources are available for the intellectual and professional development of graduate students in English. Those who present papers at professional conferences receive generous travel fund grants from the Student Government Association. Students who write fiction and poetry contribute to Ellipsis, the student literary journal published by the English Department. Others participate in the Greater New Orleans Writing Project, which trains participants each summer to become consultants in their chosen areas of writing or literary interest. For the benefit of all students in the program, the department encourages the informal exchange of ideas and the performance of creative work by regularly sponsoring lectures and readings by faculty, visiting scholars, and writers.