[Cwgrad-announcements] RE:VERY IMPORTANT - VITAL - Please Read

[cwgrad-announcements at lists.ucr.edu]

Idrissa and everyone,

I think everyone can sympathize with the desire to have our accomplishments in a specific genre (or genres) acknowledged and emphasized.  However, I'm pretty sure that emphases are usually only posted for undergraduate degree concentrations.  The assumption with a graduate degree is always that we will have a very specific concentration, whereas undergraduate degrees are normally very broad (and a concentration is usually extra units on top of the normal major).  The thesis project that we all do, which is only an honors option for undergraduates, is the culmination of that expertise--and its description on our C.V. is where we get to flaunt it.

For example, an English graduate degree would probably not specifically state "Dickens novels" or "Contemporary African-American literature."  A physics graduate degree would probably not state "Fluorescence dynamics," or a mathematics degree, "Topology."  The reason for this is that in research fields, the number of choices of specialization is nearly unlimited--but the expertise of a graduate student is never assumed to be limited to a mere tiny niche.  Our MFA degree from a research university is supposed to be equivalent in its flexibility to any other graduate degree--even though we may concentrate mostly on poetry, playwriting, screenwriting, nonfiction or fiction, we would never want to be assumed to be limited in our ability to understand (and teach or create within) all genres of creative writing.  (I certainly would never want to be told I couldn't teach poetry or nonfiction, both of which I love, just because I specialized and wrote a thesis in fiction.)

Now to the question of a single-year option.  Technically, a student who completed the required courses and units and turned in an approved thesis project in less than two years could be granted graduation early.  Two years is simply the recommended length of time for a student to complete these requirements.  Then there's the flip side:  some of us, including myself, choose to devote an extra quarter or more in a third year to work on the thesis project--at our own expense (ouch!).

Yes, funding is very limited in our program.  We will all just have to get used to it as long as the humanities and arts are not treated with the respect (and generous budget) of more "practical" fields such as the sciences, where larger government grants and private donations from big businesses generally provide greater opportunity for funding.  It's just my opinion, but I think every dime I have spent on this degree has been a pleasure and a wonderful learning experience, and I'm sure this program provides the foundation for our graduates' current and future great accomplishments.  I fully expect that WHAT WE WRITE WILL CHANGE OUR WORLD (!) as much or more as any scientific breakthrough or other more "practical" professional accomplishment would.

Hey, welcome back, everybody!  Happy Fall Quarter!  And a big hello to our new colleagues starting their first year.

==========================================
Courtney Santos
courtney.santos at email.ucr.edu
Graduate Student, Creative Writing and
Writing for the Performing Arts, 
University of California, Riverside