Hi! Please help me! I am submitting my application for admission to the University of Arkansas’ PhD program for Comparative Literature with a focus on cultural studies.
I need help with writing my statement of purpose. I’ve written tons of statements of purpose in the past but I’m just absolutely blocked with this one because I’m already at the school, I’m already working on my dissertation & taking classes. The application is supposed to be just an administrative formality but it’s STRESSING ME OUT!!!!!
As far as a prompt, they do not really give anything to go off of. They just say:
Statement of purpose describing academic interests and profes?sional goals.
Doctoral applicants must specify in their statement which concentration they wish to pursue: (mine is cultural studies).
It is recommended also that doctoral applicants identify in their statement which University of Arkansas faculty share their areas of interest (My professors include Susan Marren, Joe Hatfield, and Sean Dempsey.)
To help you help me, here is all the bits and pieces of information I need help putting together into a coherent statement:
Professional Goals:
–My professional goal is to become a tenure -track professor at a reputable university so that I can live fully immersed in an academic life spending my days researching, writing, and then sharing my knowledge and love for learning with students.
My academic interests:
My areas of research interest include gender studies, modern American fiction, modernism, postmodernism, contemporary fiction and poetry, media studies.
For the dissertation that I am working on for this program, I am hoping to research feminist dystopian fictions throughout history. However, I do not have a specific thesis in mind yet.
Here is information about the program:
School: University of Arkansas
Program Description: Established in 1958, the Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies Program is an innovative interdisciplinary graduate program for advanced studies in literature and culture across linguistic, national, disciplinary, and genre boundaries. Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies takes for granted that matters of everyday culture ? popular culture as well as literary culture ? are political matters in the way that power relations are established and sometimes challenged. The program offers advanced academic training in comparative literature, cultural studies, Hispanic studies, literary translation, and world language acquisition.
The program is supported primarily by the Departments of Communication, English, and World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. The program also has affiliated faculty members in several programs and departments in the humanities and social sciences, including Anthropology, Art, Classics, Theatre, History, Philosophy, Sociology, Education, as well as interdisciplinary programs such as African and African American, Latin American and Latino, Middle Eastern, Indigenous, Jewish, and Gender Studies.
Primary Areas of Faculty Research: Literary theory and criticism, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, gender studies, visual discourses, world languages, literary translation.
