Joint PhD in Literary Studies / Theatre Studies in English

Introduction

The Joint PhD Program | Fields of Specialization

The Joint PhD Program

The curriculum of courses, area seminars, and qualifying candidacy examination offers knowledge and background preparation necessary for doctoral-level expertise in literary and/or theatre studies; the PhD dissertation requires original research that contributes significantly to knowledge in the humanities. The program's professional and intellectual training fosters flexibility and creativity in defining their areas and methods of research and thus prepares students for a job market that now rarely looks for narrow specialization or coverage of a single field, but rewards interdisciplinarity, breadth, flexibility, and the capacity for wide-ranging and sophisticated cultural analysis. Students can pursue careers in post-secondary teaching, research, administration, and other fields in which excellent analytical, organizational, and communication skills are required.

Although candidates might choose to focus on either literary studies or theatre studies, the program offers the special opportunity to contribute to the evolution of interdisciplinary work in the humanities. This collaboration allows for opportunities not available in more traditional doctoral programs, especially in inter- discursive and theoretical work across the boundaries of literary and theatre studies.

Students in the Program register at one of the two universities, but may complete course work and use faculty and library resources at both universities. Students are governed by the regulations of the university in which they are registered and their degrees are granted by the home university.

Fields of Specialization*

1. Canadian Studies
Canadian studies in this program focuses especially on twentieth-century and contemporary Canadian writing and performance, in conjunction with critical and theoretical issues of nation and colonization in relation to cultural, historical, and political contexts. As it has been developed at Guelph and Wilfrid Laurier, the field stresses important connections: with other postcolonial literatures; with the practice of creative writing; with the theorizing of power relations around race, gender, colonization, disability, sexual orientation, and cultural diversity; with the performance of gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity; with the material conditions of literary and theatrical production and performance; and with archival resources and historical retrieval.

Guelph graduate faculty working in Canadian Studies include: Jade Ferguson, Alan Filewod, Ajay Heble, Stephen Henighan, Helen Hoy, Smaro Kamboureli, Thomas King, Janice Kulyk Keefer, Ric Knowles, Donna Palmateer Pennee, and Ann Wilson.

2. Early Modern Studies
Early modern studies in this program focuses primarily on theorizing sixteenth and seventeenth-century textuality and performance from positions that attend to issues of gender, colonialism, and the materiality and historicization of literary and theatrical cultures. Core faculty have employed both the terms "early modern" and "Renaissance" in relation to their work, but the choice of the former for the name of the field recognizes the debate over the use of "Renaissance" in a postcolonial context. The field engages the materiality of early modern studies, including archival research, editorial theory and practice, and theatre history, as well as the ways in which contemporary culture has absorbed and refashioned early modern textualities and theatrical practices.

Guelph graduate faculty working in Early Modern Studies include: Daniel Fischlin, Mark Fortier, Michael Keefer, Ric Knowles, Paul Mulholland, and Stephen Powell.

3. Postcolonial Studies
The field of postcolonial studies examines the documents (literary, performative, informational, and popular) produced by colonized and colonizer during the colonial period and after political decolonization, for the purpose of analyzing the social and political contexts of the contact zones created among different cultures by the colonial experience and reactions to it. This field embraces issues pertaining to empire, race, gender, ethnicity, class, and the performative construction of postcolonial subjectivity. It also includes the examination of diasporas, the interaction of the global and the local, and issues of hybridity and transnationalism.

Guelph graduate faculty working in postcolonial studies include: Elaine Chang, Michelle Elleray, Alan Filewod, Ajay Heble, Stephen Henighan, Helen Hoy, Smaro Kamboureli, and Martha Nandorfy.

4. Studies in Gender and Genre
The specialization in gender and genre emerges from the intersection of two broad conceptual areas within literary and theatre studies. In the wake of feminist theory and criticism, performance theory, cultural studies, and queer theory, gender has become recognized as a crucial factor in the production, circulation, and consumption of literary, theatrical, and other cultural discourses. The field incorporates a range of inquiries and methodologies that explore the cultural construction of gender and sexuality in relation to the literary, historical, performative, psychosexual, and political contexts of genres.

Guelph graduate faculty working in studies in gender and genre include: Christine Bold, Susan Brown, Sky Gilbert, Mark Lipton, Stephen Powell, J.R. (Tim) Struthers, and Ann Wilson.

5. Nineteenth-Century Studies

Nineteenth-century studies focuses on theorizing and contextualizing the literature of the so-called "Long Nineteenth Century" (1789-1914), with particular attention to such issues as gender, colonialism and imperialism, nationalism, scientific developments, radical politics, subcultures, and transatlantic exchanges. Unsettling the canonical separations of Romantic, Victorian, and Gothic, the field will engage the materiality of nineteenth-century studies, particularly through a cultural-studies-oriented engagement with archival research, editorial theory and practice, historicization and popular culture, women's writing, regional and national traditions as distinct from the metropole's, working-class literature, dramatic writing.

Guelph graduate faculty working in nineteenth-century studies include: Christine Bold, Susan Brown, Michelle Elleray, Jade Ferguson, Daniel O'Quinn, Pablo Ramirez, Jennifer Schacker, and Ann Wilson.

* Besides the above fields of specialization, Guelph graduate faculty have research expertise in a broad range of historical periods (e.g. medieval studies, eighteenth-century studies) and areas of critical and theoretical study (e.g. media studies, film studies, theatre studies, cultural studies). Please see individual graduate faculty listings for comprehensive details about research interests.

You may also want to consult the program website maintained by Wilfrid Laurier University

Library Resources

The University of Guelph and Wilfrid Laurier University are members of the TriUniversity Group of Libraries (TUG), a partnership that includes the library associated with the University of Waterloo. This partnership gives students access to an integrated on-line catalogue of more than three million records in all three libraries. Graduate students and faculty may borrow an unlimited number of books from all three libraries for a semester at a time. Also, graduate students may order books from either of the other two libraries and have them delivered to the library at their home institution, where they may also return and renew books from any of the three libraries. The TUG document delivery system enables students to order electronically a photocopy of an article from a journal located in the library of either of the other two institutions. The document is delivered to the student's mailbox about a week later. At present, this service is free of charge.

The Guelph library's division of Archives and Special Collections has notable strengths: Canada's largest collection of theatre archives (focusing mostly, but not exclusively, on theatre in Ontario); the L. M. Montgomery collection; the Scottish collection (described as the best in North America); the Dan H. Laurence Collection of Bernard Shaw material; and various collections of children's literature, African and Canadian fiction, early Canadian travel literature, local history, and women's literature.

The Universities' Campuses

The two campuses, about thirty kilometres apart, are close to the centre of the southwestern sector of Ontario, within easy reach of several large population centres: Toronto to the east, London to the southwest, Hamilton, Niagara Falls and Buffalo to the southeast. Highway 401, which connects Windsor and Detroit with Montreal via London, Toronto and Kingston, is within 15 km. and provides easy access to the campuses. Good public transportation is provided by local bus companies and VIA trains. Limousine and charter flight connections to Toronto's Pearson International Airport (located 15 km. west of Toronto) are also available.

The University of Guelph

The University of Guelph was established in 1964, but its beginnings extend back to 1874 when the Ontario School of Agriculture was founded. The University is on an 800-acre site at the south end of the City of Guelph, which has a population of about 100,000. Current enrolment at the University of Guelph is over 15,000, with about 1,800 graduate students.

University of Guelph Map

Wilfrid Laurier University

Wilfrid Laurier University was created in 1973, but its roots stretch back through Waterloo Lutheran University to 1911 when the Evangelical Lutheran Seminary of Canada first opened its doors. The University is located in the northwest section of the city of Waterloo on University Avenue. WLU currently has some 7,700 students, including 700 graduate students.

Wilfrid Laurier Map

Cities of Guelph and Waterloo

The cities of Guelph and Waterloo are situated near a major concentration of educational, cultural and industrial activities in Canada. As well as the many cultural activities of the two universities, there are numerous attractions in the cities, including art galleries, small theatre groups, symphony orchestras, and musical ensembles. Of special interest are performances in Kitchener's Centre in the Square and Guelph's River Run Centre, the annual Guelph Spring Festival, the Guelph Jazz Festival, the Eden Mills Writers' Festival, and Kitchener-Waterloo's Oktoberfest celebrations. The Stratford Shakespearean Festival, the Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake, and Toronto's many attractions are all nearby.

In addition to the various sporting activities at the two universities, there are many opportunities for year-round recreational enjoyment in the area. These include skiing at nearby sites or further afield in the Collingwood region, hiking on the Bruce Trail, and camping in numerous provincial parks and conservation areas close to Guelph and Waterloo.

Travel Directions

Highway 401 to Guelph Campus

• Take Hwy 6 North at exit 295.
• After about 10 km, turn right on College Ave., which eventually runs along the northern edge of the campus.
• Just after crossing Gordon St., turn left into parking lot P23 or right into parking lot P44, or turn right onto Trent Lane and park in lot P5, behind the MacKinnon Bldg.

Highway 401 to WLU Campus

• Take Hwy 8 West at exit 278.
• After about 8 km, exit right (at Hwy 7 East) onto Conestoga Parkway (Hwy 86).
• After about 8 km on Conestoga Partway (Hwy 86), turn onto University Ave. West.
• After about 3 km, turn right into parking lot of St. Michael's Church (across the road from the WLU campus) or left into the campus parking lot.

Waterloo to Guelph

• Take University Ave. East for about 4 km (crossing over Hwy 86) to traffic lights at Bridge St.
• Turn right onto Bridge St.
• Follow Bridge St., across the bridge over the river, for 6 km to T junction at County Road 13.
• At the T junction turn right and after 1.5 km turn left onto Hwy 7 at the Breslau traffic lights.
• At 12.6 km from the Breslau traffic lights turn right onto the Hanlon Expressway (Hwy 6 South).
  
• After crossing over the river, turn left at the next traffic lights onto College Ave., which eventually runs along the northern edge of the campus.
• Just after crossing Gordon St., turn left into parking lot P23 or right into parking lot P44, or turn right onto Trent Lane and park in lot P5 behind the MacKinnon Bldg.

Guelph to Waterloo

• Take College Ave. west to the Hanlon Expressway (Hwy 6 North)
• Turn right onto the Hanlon Expressway to the T junction, turning left onto Hwy 7 to Waterloo.
• After 12.7 km, turn right (at Breslau traffic lights) onto County Road 13, turning left after a further 1.5 km.
• Follow Bridge St. through Bridgeport for about 6 km to University Ave.
• Turn left onto University Ave. and go west about 4 km to WLU.