Graduate Job Outcomes
This page contains information about the careers UIC English graduate program alumni have pursued, helpful tips and information for graduate student job seekers, and information for faculty recommenders.
For more information regarding this topic, download Going on the Market: A Preview.
Information for Job Seekers Heading link
-
Student Job Seekers
Building a dossier
In most job advertisements, the term “dossier” refers simply to confidential letters of recommendation written by your professors (when you are just graduating) and eventually by other colleagues in your field (people who know your work and/or have observed your teaching). Graduate students applying for their first academic jobs should have letters from their dissertation/thesis director or primary advisor, members of their committee who have worked closely with them, and at least one letter focused on teaching by someone other than the dissertation/thesis director or primary advisor.
Alumni returning to the job market after having held at least one academic position will want to have as few letters as possible from their original graduate school professors and advisors. Letters should come from colleagues in the field (including those at their current institution), if possible from those who are widely recognized. Anyone returning to the market should try to request updated letters wherever possible, even if it’s just to get the recommender to change the year’s date. In general, letters in the dossier should certainly never be more than a year old.
It’s a good idea to give your recommenders plenty of notice when asking for a new letter or an update of an existing letter.
Managing Your Dossier
The UIC Department of English uses an online service called Interfolio, allowing you to store materials including but not limited to transcripts, writing samples, resumes/CVs, and teaching evaluations.
The only job material an account holder cannot upload or view on his or her own is a confidential letter of recommendation. Signed official hard copies of letters of recommendation should be submitted to the Office of Graduate studies, c/o the Graduate Studies Program Coordinator. Once approved by the Director of Graduate Studies, a letter is uploaded within two business days.
To set up an account to manage your dossier, you should contact the Graduate Studies Program Coordinator to receive instructions and a special code. The promotional discount is valid for five years from the time of sign-up.
Attached is a useful guide to Using Interfolio.
Sample Job Materials
If you are a current UIC student and would like access to our Box file of sample job materials, email the Graduate Studies Program Coordinator.
Where to apply for jobs
There are a number of places to look for academic jobs. Visiting or tenure-track teaching/research positions at 4-year colleges and universities will usually emphasize research and publication in addition to teaching (teaching loads will often be 2-2, 3-2, or 3-3).
Teaching and administrative positions (tenure and non-tenure-track) at junior, community and some 4-year colleges will often emphasize teaching or administrative duties over research (administrative jobs may be 9-5, teaching jobs may involve higher course loads — 4-3, 4-4 or more).
Postdoctoral fellowships are usually 1- or 2-year positions that involve a comparatively low teaching load and encourage the pursuit of research and publication. Applicants for these positions tend to be in the first year or two out of graduate school.
Use the links below according to the type of position you are seeking:
Key Job Lists
- The MLA Job Information List (JIL). Listings for literature, creative writing, and rhet/comp jobs starting in the 3rd week of September.You may access the list through a nonmember account or become a graduate student member of the MLA at a discounted rate.
- AWP (Associated Writing Programs) Career Center. Subscription required; inquire with the Program for Writers for a print list.
- NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English). Classifieds for English ed and rhet/comp jobs
- Vitae (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
MLA
January 3-6, 2019, Chicago, ILAWP
March 27-30, 2019, Portland, ORCCCC (Conference on College Composition and Communication, aka Four C’s)
March 13-16, 2019, Pittsburgh, PA -
Faculty Recommenders
Our graduate students on the job market for academic teaching/research position use an online credentials management service called Interfolio to handle their dossiers.
For UIC Faculty on Campus
If you are on the faculty at UIC and on campus, and you have been asked by one of our graduate students to write a letter of recommendation for a job search, you can in most cases simply print and sign your letter and drop it off with the Graduate Program Coordinator in Room 2002 UH. The department will take care of getting the letter to Interfolio. Students applying for a very small number of jobs or for special fellowships or awards may ask that you send the letter directly to the institution requesting it. In this case you can enclose the letter in department envelope with address provided by the student and drop it off in the outgoing mail basket in the main office (2027 UH). If you have questions, please email the Director of Graduate Studies.
For UIC Faculty Away From Campus and Faculty at Other Institutions
If you are away from campus or teach at another institution, and you have been asked for a job letter by one of our graduate students, you should simply follow the instructions on the Interfolio waiver form that you should have received from the student. Be sure to include the form with your letter when you mail or fax it. Students applying for a very small number of jobs or for special fellowships or awards may ask that you send the letter directly to the institution requesting it. In such cases simply mail using the address(es) provided by the student.
Faculty Career Outcomes for Graduate Students Heading link
All positions listed below are tenure-track appointments unless otherwise noted. Lists may be incomplete.
-
2016-present
Name Title/Specialization Thesis Title/Year Institution Year of Placement Corbin Hiday Visiting Assistant Professor of English "'Probable Exhaustion': Empire's Environments and the Poetics of Extraction" (2021) University of Texas - El Paso 2021 Mika Turim-Nygren Faculty in American Literature "Dialects of the Tribe: The Unexpected Origins of American Literary Modernism" (2020) Bard Early College DC 2020 Cecilia Villarruel Assistant Professor of English "Chingonas" (2020) Oakton Community College 2020 Annah Browning Assistant Professor of English "Witch Doctrine" (2017) Blackburn College 2020 Davis Brecheisen Assistant Professor of English "Audience-Oriented Art: The Novel in the Age of Theory" (2019) University of Texas - Dallas 2020 Russ Mayo Assistant Professor of English and Director of the Writing Center "Finding Ivan Illich in the Writing Center: A Case Study of Literacy Learning and Deschooling" (2019) Purdue University Northwest 2020 Jen Moore Director of the School for the Humanities and Global Cultures & Associate Professor of Creative Writing "The Amnesiac and the Anemone" (2012) Ohio Northern University 2020 Sein Oh Faculty (tenure-track) "The Betrayal of Romantic Utopia" (2019) University of Ulsan 2020 Jacob Boyd Artist in Residence "One Looks At Two" (2018) Northwestern University 2019 Brooks Sterritt Assistant Professor of English "The History of America in My Lifetime: A Novel" (2019) University of Houston, Victoria 2019 Euihuack Kang Assistant Professor "The Aesthetics and Politics in the Age of Pervasive Apocalypse" (2016) Chonnam National University, South Korea 2019 Dongho Cha Brittain Fellow (3-year) "The Useful Koreans: Labor, Ethnicity and Form in Contemporary South Korean and Korean-American Literature" (2018) Georgia Institute of Technology 2018 Christopher Findeisen Postdoctoral Fellow - Society of Fellows in the Humanities "Absent-Minded Forms: Academic Novels, American Meritocracy, and Other Educational Fictions" (2017) University of Southern California 2018 Jose Castellanos Assistant Professor "Rhetorics of Loss" (2017) Arrupe College 2018 Kevin Carey Definite Term Lecturer "The Interpellative Crises of Critical Thinking" (2015) University of Waterloo 2018 Brian Charest Assistant Professor "Disorganizing Schools: A Radical Pragmatist's Approach to Schooling, or Why Fixing People is Not Enough" (2013) University of Redlands 2017 Ryan Brooks Assistant Professor "Feel Your Pain: Neoliberalism and Social Form in Contemporary American Fiction" (2014) West Texas A & M University 2017 Danielle Christmas Assistant Professor of English "Auschwitz and the Plantation: Labor and Social Death in American Holocaust and Slavery Fiction" (2014) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 2016 Amy Gates Assistant Professor of English "Translating the Dead: Bodies, Burials, and British Romanticism" (2013) Missouri Southern State University 2016 Nadya Pittendrigh Director of First-Year Writing "Biopolitics and the Supermax: Controlled and Uncontrolled Rhetoric Surrounding Tamms Prison" (2015) University of Houston, Victoria 2016 Matthew Oakes Associate Professor of Composition and Literature "Ethical Rhetorical Practice: Theorizing Lévinasian Ethics in ‘Students’ Right to Their Own Language" (2015) Rock Valley College 2016 Eui Huack Kang Assistant Professor of English "Thinking Aesthetics and Politics in the Age of Pervasive Apocalypse" (2016) Seoul National 2016 James Tadd Adcox Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing "R & V" (2014) Purdue University 2016 Beth McDermott Assistant Professor "The Surveyor's Perspective" (2014) University of St. Francis (Joliet, IL) 2016 Chris Girman Assistant Professor "A Ruptured Body" (2016) Point Park University (Pittsburgh) 2016 Kristy Ulibarri Assistant Professor "Violent Fronteras: The Neoliberal State of Latina/o Bodies in Contemporary Narratives" (2012) University of Denver 2016 -
2010-2015
Name Title/Specialization Thesis Title University Year Tyrell Stewart-Harris Assistant Professor, Department of Writing "Oak Park: Discourses of Suburban Diversity" (2015) Ithaca College 2015 Jason Schneider Assistant Professor "Inventing Home: Movement, Place, and the Rhetorics of Polish Chicago" (2012) DePaul University 2015 Corina Villanueva Visiting Instructor "Honor Bound: Renegotiating Debt and Family Ties in Asian American Literature" (2015) Tennessee Technological University 2015 Tyler Mills Assistant Professor, Poetry "Aviator without a Mask: Poems" (2015) New Mexico Highlands University 2015 Ryan Brooks English Instructor (non-TT) "Feel Your Pain: Neoliberalism and Social Form in Contemporary American Fiction" (2014) West Texas A & M University 2015 Brianna Noll Honors Postdoctoral Fellowship in Teaching and Mentoring "What Breaks through the Dark" (2015) University of Illinois at Chicago 2015 Maggie Anderson Assistant Professor "No Stars in Jefferson Park" (2014) Dominican University 2015 Beth McDermott Visiting Professor of American Literature "The Surveyor's Perspective" (2014) University of St. Francis (Joliet, IL) 2015 Julie Fiorelli Full-time Instructor "Space for Speculation: American Fictions of Racial Futures" (2015) Loyola University Chicago 2015 Danielle Christmas Postdoctoral Fellow "Auschwitz and the Plantation: Labor and Social Death in American Holocaust and Slavery Fiction" (2014) University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill 2014 Laura Krughoff Assistant Professor, creative writing "Halley's Comet: A Novel in Stories" (2014) University of Puget Sound 2014 Surbhi Malik Assistant Professor "The Diasporic Itinerary: Literary and Cinematic Geographies of South Asian Diaspora" (2013) Creighton University 2014 Aneeka Henderson Assistant Professor, Gender & Women's Studies "Love and Marriage: The Politics of Family in Black Popular Fiction" (2012) Amherst College 2014 Brooke Wonders Assistant Professor, Creative Non-Fiction "The Art of Falling: A Collection of Speculative Fiction and Nonfiction" (2014) University of Northern Iowa-Cedar Falls 2014 Tim Henningsen Assistant Professor "Feeling American: Caribbean Petitions for a New World Literary Ethos" (2012) College of Du Page 2014 Megan Milks Visiting Assistant Professor, creative writing "Kill Marguerite: Stories" (2012) Beloit College 2014 Kevin Smith Assistant Professor of Film Arts "Digital Film Art and the Persistence of the Classical Hollywood Style" (2013) Chemeketa Community College, Salem, Oregon 2014 D. Starr Costello Professor "Non Finito, A Novel" (2012) Vilnius University, Lithuania 2014 Ryan Brooks Teaching Postdoctoral Fellowship in Contemporary American Fiction "Feel Your Pain: Neoliberalism and Social Form in Contemporary American Fiction" (2014) Washington University, St. Louis 2014 M. Shelly Conner Lecturer "Everyman" (2014) Loyola University Chicago 2014 Jennie Berner Visiting Assistant Professor, creative writing "Unsettled" (2013) North Central College 2014 Cynthia Barounis Postdoctoral Fellow "Revolting Men: Queerness, Disability, and the Remaking of American Manhood" (2012) Washington University, St. Louis 2014 Amy Gates Visiting Assistant Professor "Translating the Dead: Bodies, Burials, and British Romanticism" (2013) Oklahoma State University 2014 Todd Thompson Assistant Professor, 19th C. American Literature "Modest Proposals: American Satire and Political Change from Franklin to Lincoln" (2008) Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014 Alex Wulff Director of Writing Services "Inheriting Generations: From the Accident of Birth to the Insurable Life" (2013) Saint Louis University 2013 Meg King Assistant Professor "Unattainable Manhood: Masculinity and Folk Culture in Late 20th Century American Fiction" (2012) Harper College 2013 Megan Hughes Assistant Professor "Health Literacy and Type 2 Diabetes: A Case Study in Complexity" (2017; Education) Prairie State College 2013 Andrew Farkas Assistant Professor of Creative Writing "The Imaginary Girlfriends of Canada, A Collection of Short Fictions" Rocky Mountain College 2013 Cynthia Cravens Assistant Professor of Creative Writing "X-Rated: A Novel of Manners" University of Maryland Eastern Shore 2013 Caleb Spencer Assistant Professor "Protestant Postmodernism: Theory and Theology, Affect and Art" (2011) Azusa Pacific University 2013 Reiichi Miura Professor, Graduate School of Language and Society "Empire of Liberalism: Cultural War on the Social under Cold-War Liberalism and Neoliberalism" (2013) Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo 2013 Caroline Gottschalk Druschke Assistant Professor, Human Dimensions and Environmental Communication "Watershed: Conserving a Common-Place" (2011) University of Rhode Island 2013 D. Star Costello Instructor "Non Finito, A Novel" (2012) University for Information Science and Technology-St. Paul the Apostle (Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia) 2012 Candice Rai Assistant Professor, Expository Writing "Rhetorics of Democracy in Contested Urban Space" (2008) University of Washington 2012 Jonathan Poore Faculty "Looking Backward: Historicism and The United States Literary Left" (2014) Rock Valley College, Rockford, IL 2012 Aneeka Henderson Two-Year Post-Doc Fellowship "Love and Marriage: The Politics of Family in Black Popular Fiction" (2012) Amherst College 2012 Megan Milks Instructor "Kill Marguerite: Stories" (2012) Illinois College 2012 Jennifer Moore Instructor "The Amnesiac and the Anemone" (2012) Ohio Northern University 2012 Brian Sheerin Instructor "Gift/Economy: Drama and the Politics of Gift-Giving in Early Modern England" (2009) St. Edward's University 2012 Kristy Ulibarri Instructor "Violent Fronteras: The Neoliberal State of Latina/o Bodies in Contemporary Narratives" (2012) East Carolina University 2012 Kevin Spicer Instructor "Sum Moribundus: Prolegomenal Forays into the Realm of Despair" (2010) The University of St. Francis, IL 2012 Garrett Brown Assistant Professor "An Art to be Learned" (2011) Anne Arundel Community College, Maryland 2011 Matthew Pavesich Teaching Professor od English (2019-); Assistant Teaching Professor of English (2015-2019); Visiting Assistant Professor (2013-2015); Visiting Instructor of English (2011-2013) "Why Authenticity Matters" (2009) Georgetown University 2011 Emilo Sauri Assistant Professor "Crisis and Modernism: Culture, Economy, and Form in Twentieth-Century U.S. and Latin American Literature" (2010) University of Massachusetts-Boston 2010 Ivan Rodden Assistant Professor "Miracles of the Non-Real World" (2010) Christopher Newport University 2010 Carrie Messenger Assistant Professor "Unwelcome Guests: Stories" (2010) Shepherd University 2010 -
older
Name TItle Thesis Title Institution Year of Placement Pearl Ratunil Associate Professor "Medieval Blackness: Blackness and Medieval Hagiography" (2008) William Rainey Harper College 2008
Non-Faculty Career Outcomes for Graduate Students Heading link
Together with the Modern Language Association, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Historical Association, and many of our colleagues across disciplines, we recognize the value of humanities PhD training within and beyond the academy. In addition to working as faculty, our graduates have found fulfilling careers in roles in a variety of fields and industries, including research libraries, publishing, journalism, and K-12 education.
If you are wondering where to start looking for non-faculty jobs, we recommend Imagine PhD’s General Resources and Job Families pages.
The following list may be incomplete. If you would like to be included or you notice an error, please email the Graduate Studies Program Coordinator.
-
Recent Non-Faculty Outcomes
Name Title Institution Thesis Title & Year Year of Placement Mary Hale Assistant Director of Scholarly and Undergraduate Programs The Newberry Library "Democratic Conventions: The Politics of Form in the Gilded Age" (2019) 2019 Brianna Noll Instructional Designer University of Southern California Bovard College "What Breaks through the Dark" (2015) 2018 Jen Phillis Manuscript Editor JAMA Network "Lyric Histories: On the Appearance of Time in Twentieth-Century American Poetry" (2016) 2019 Jen Phillis Assistant Editor Jacobin "Lyric Histories: On the Appearance of Time in Twentieth-Century American Poetry" (2016) 2016-2018 Sylvia Wolak Pro Bono Project Coordinator National Immigrant Justice Center MA (2016) 2016-2019