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Course Information, Course Schedules

Spring 2026 Registration and Course Information

General registration for spring opens on November 6, typically at 9am eastern (when the Registrar’s office manually activates the system on that morning, it’s not automated, so it might not open at 9:00 sharp). If you need assistance with registration note that the current PACT advisor for the MA program is Chris Hernandez at chernandez85@mercy.edu. We’re planning to run three graduate courses in the spring and will expand the schedule beyond this if needs demand. For the spring you will find these course options available for registration starting on 11/6:

  • ENGL 505 Transformations of the Epic (Dr. Sax)

This course is based on the conception of the epic as an encyclopedic narrative of substantial length featuring a central figure who reflects the values of a particular culture. It will proceed chronologically, studying the taxonomy and transformations of the epic, from its earliest Classical manifestations, through its emergence in Medieval and Renaissance texts, to its incorporation after the Renaissance into modern writing. Fulfills the Writing & Literary Forms requirement or an elective by default, but can fulfill a Literature Group 1 or Literature Group 2 requirement upon request.

  • ENGL 515: Reel Stories: Literature & Film (Dr. Loots)

This course explores story as presented through writings and film from around the world and back across time, with an eye to considering questions such as: What is the point, value, or power of story overall, culturally speaking or otherwise, whether written or filmed? Why do some of us create stories, whether written or filmed? And why do so many of us like to experience stories, whether written or filmed? What advantages are there to storytelling through each of these different mediums? What technical aspects and considerations go into the creation of stories in these two different mediums? Why do people create or experience tragic works if they depict such heavy material that it might make us sad? And what value is there to studying story, whether written or filmed, at all, in the university? We will talk about all of this and more throughout the semester. Basically, if you like thinking, and conversing, and stories, and movies, and exploring your ideas about such in a supportive environment, this is the class for you. Fulfills an elective by default but can fulfill a Literature Group 1 or Literature Group 2 requirement upon request.

  • ENGL 525 Victorian Age in Literature (Dr. Dugan)

If one were asked to define the timeline of Victorian literature, one might be hard-pressed to do so. As literary genres are fluid, it is hard to determine when the Romantic Period ends and the Victorian Period begins; and when the Victorian Period ends and Modernism begins. Whatever the dates, a defining characteristic of Victorian England would be change, change matched with a belief in progress: societal, religious, economic, and artistic. While some benefited from these changes, others did not. The semester we will look closely, through Victorian literature, at issues that challenge the notions of change and progress, notably the role of women, industrialism, gender roles, and poverty as shown in fiction, poetry, and drama of the Victorian age. Fulfills a Literature Group 1 requirement or an elective by default, but can fulfill a Literature Group 2 requirement or the Writing & Literary Forms requirement upon request.

Faculty News, Student News

Faculty Speaking Event: Dr. Sax Discusses his forthcoming book

Good news for grad students able to reach the Dobbs Ferry campus: Our own Dr. Boria Sax will be discussing his forthcoming book The Butterfly Who Dreamt He Was a Man this Thursday, October 30, at 10:30am in the Maher Hall Conference Room. This is part of the School of Liberal Arts’ 2025-26 thematic series of events on Bodies. The MA English Lit program strongly encourages anyone in the area to come over to campus on Thursday morning. For directions to Maher Hall or more info, write to cloots@mercy.edu.

Red Hyacinth Journal

Calling All Creative Writers!

Mercy University’s nationally-recognized literary+arts journal Red Hyacinth is now accepting submissions of creative writing, photography, and images of other original studio arts for it’s 2026 edition. For full submission guidelines and instructions, please click here. The deadline to submit is November 30. This is a great opportunity for students in our grad program to get your creative work considered for publication, and potentially to see it in print, in a perfect-bound hard-copy award-winning journal.

Useful Program Info & Tips

Preparing for the Fall 2025 Semester

Greetings, graduate students in the Mercy University MA in English Lit program. After a hot and humid summer here at the Dobbs Ferry campus, the weather today has turned gray, rainy, and blustery. On some of the leaves you can just make out the slightest bit of color turning. Nature hints that autumn is just around the corner, and so too is the fall semester in our graduate program.

Our fall semester begins on Wednesday, September 3. Your Blackboard sections are already visible, though. Keep in mind, if and as you look at Blackboard prior to 9/3, that you’re seeing various stages of a work in progress. Consider whatever you’re seeing there, including syllabus drafts, as tentative and subject to change, unless the professor has indicated otherwise. On 9/3 everything will begin, officially.

Mercy’s bookstore is Barnes & Noble and you can access the site here. In the section for course materials set the term to Fall 2025, then the Department to ENGL. On the next menu select the course number for your course (number will be 500 or higher) and then the section which will almost always be DLA. Click the “retrieve materials” button. You’ll see there everything your professor listed, with designations for required or recommended. Note that Barnes and Nobel shows the ISBN for each book which allows you to shop around and look for cheaper copies elsewhere, if you like.

Look for a welcome note here on the blog after the semester has begun. For now, I encourage everyone to start gearing up for the fall semester, securing materials, and getting prepared for another semester of exploration, literary adventuring, and honing one’s craft. Our journeys together begin again on 9/3.

Student News

2025 YEAR-END HONORS

The 2024-25 academic year is now complete. Here as May comes to a close and spring starts to hint of summer, we in the program applaud every one of our graduate students for your efforts and achievements over the past academic year. In addition, the program bestows three particular distinctions at this time, each year. The first such honor is the Graduate English Christie Bowl, named for the late Joannes Christie, who established and for many years chaired the Mercy English Program. The award is determined by the collective graduate faculty and recognizes one graduating student for consistent academic excellence, classroom performance, and collegiality throughout their entire time in the grad program, as well as for other contributions to Mercy and the university community, such as submissions to or editorial work on Red Hyacinth, work as a teaching assistant/learning assistant, and/or other related work and scholarship performed beyond Mercy’s perimeter.

  • The winner of the 2025 Graduate English Christie Bowl is Nelson Orellana

Next up is the Howard Canaan Thesis Award for Innovation. This award honors the late Dr. Canaan, an esteemed Shakespeare scholar at Mercy who was also a lifelong advocate of the value and power of speculative fiction, science fiction, and other genre fiction often looked down-upon by the academic establishment. This award recognizes a thesis that does one or some of the following: approaches literary analysis in a unique, unexpected, or unusual way; reconsiders and otherwise treats with dignity genre fiction; or involves interdisciplinary studies.

  • The winner of the 2025 Howard Canaan Thesis Award for Innovation is J’nai Spires for her thesis “Creative Writing’s Rise and Its Positive Impact on Mental Health.”

Next is the overall Thesis of the Year award. Selecting one study to honor for this award is always extraordinarily difficult, as thesis students across the program, over the past twelve months, have produced numerous high-level and even publishable works, each of which is worthy and respectable in its own right. The one paper receiving this distinction excelled in all areas and was a standout study.

  • The winner of the 2025 Thesis of the Year Award is Micah Hankins for his thesis “Harnessing Fiction Genre to De-Stereotype Marginalized Characters.“

It is always difficult to locate any single person or work to honor for any of these awards out of the many exceptional students graduating each school year from our program, and the many exceptional theses submitted for the degree. So although the program recognizes these honorees and works, know that we also recognize all members of the graduating MA class of 2024-25 for your efforts and work across your time in the program. Congratulations, everyone. Here’s to the summer ahead!

Student News

Dobbs Ferry Campus Event, Wednesday April 16: Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” presented by Red Bull Theater, Apocalyptic Artists, and the English Program

Anyone in the area of the Dobbs Ferry campus this coming Wednesday, 4/16, should come over and enjoy a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Red Bull Theater and Apocalyptic Artists. The show starts at 4pm in the Main Hall Lecture Hall, and should run until 5:30pm. The cast will hold Q&A afterward until 6pm. Admissions is free and it’s open to both students and the community, so anyone is welcome to attend. This is for the English program’s annual “Christie Day” Shakespeare event held in honor of the late Joannes Christie, founding faculty of the Mercy English program.

Course Schedules

Fall (and Summer) 2025 Course Offerings

Registration is now open for fall (and summer) 2025. I mention fall first only because the majority of our students don’t take summer courses. If anyone has questions about the courses below or your overall progress toward the degree, please contact cloots@mercy.edu

SUMMER 2025

  • ENGL 506 – History of Poetic Forms (Dr. Kilpatrick)

The course will study the major forms and conventions of poetry that have developed from classical models to the present. Wherever possible, particular poems from different historical contexts will be compared and analyzed to demonstrate how these forms and conventions have developed and been adapted to specific personal, ideological, or cultural pressures and contexts. Fulfills the Writing & Literary Forms requirement or an elective, but can work as a Lit Group 1 or 2 requirement upon request.

  • ENGL 517 Advanced Creative Writing (Dr. Sax)

Advanced Creative Writing, despite the name, is open to anyone in the MA English program no matter how much or little previous experience you’ve had with creative writing. If you are interested in expressing yourself creatively through words, you are welcome and encouraged to enroll. The form of writing emphasized in the course changes depending on the preferences of the instructor running it. Fulfills the Writing & Literary Forms requirement or an elective, but can work as a Lit Group 1 or 2 requirement upon request.

FALL 2025

  • ENGL 500 – Theory & Practice of Literary Criticism (Dr. Kilpatrick)

An introduction to some of the major movements and figures of the theory of criticism. The question “what is literature?” is a primary concern of this course. Such an inquiry necessarily engages other, closely affiliated signifiers such as work/text, writing, reading, interpretation, and signification itself. After brief encounters with ancient antecedents and seminal moderns, influential contemporary approaches to the question concerning literature and its cultural significance are engaged. An assessment of the relative strengths and weaknesses of current trends in the practice of literary criticism, and their theoretical groundwork, is the ultimate objective of this course.

NOTE: All students must complete ENGL 500. The course runs once each fall semester, so if you’re aiming to graduate at the end of fall 2025, spring 2026, or summer 2026 and have not yet completed 500, you must enroll in this course for fall 2025. The next instance of the course will be fall 2026. For this reason this course is registration-locked and requires a permit (contact Lydia Yearwood in our PACT advising office at lyearwood@mercy.edu for help with a permit). Anyone not on pace to graduate in the semesters noted above can request a permit but will only be given one if seats remain after everyone who must have the course during this fall 2025 instance gets a seat.

  • ENGL 515: Magic in Literature (Dr. Sax)

This course examines alchemy, together with related activities that now impress us as “magical,” as a virtually all-inclusive discipline which laid much of the foundation for later literature, art, and science. It looks at the beginnings of alchemy in the ancient world, and how these developed, along with the revival of Classical learning, in the Renaissance. Finally, it looks at the continuing influence of magic in Romantic, Modern, and Post-Modern literature and culture. Past readings have included works by Hesiod, Ben Johnson, Shakespeare, E. T. A. Hoffmann, J. K. Rowling; and the Frances Yates work The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age. Some or all of these writers/works might be included in this next instance of it, as might other authors and works. Fulfills an elective by default but can work for the Writing & Literary Forms requirement, upon request.

NOTE: The MA program cycles numerous different courses under the catalog codes of 514, 515, 540, and 560. Students can take multiple instances of 514, 515, 540, and 560 courses as long as the title of the course is not the same as before. So if you’ve taken other 515 courses, you can take this one too as long as you haven’t already taken a course specifically titled Magic in Literature.

  • ENGL 522 Humanism in Renaissance Texts (Dr. Fritz)

This course will focus on humanism and the concepts arising from it in relation to the production and appreciation of literature during the Renaissance. The revival of interest in the arts and ideas of Greco-Roman antiquity and the dependence of Renaissance thought on classical themes will be among the issues discussed. Readings could include (but aren’t limited to) works by Shakespeare, Marlowe, Machiavelli, More, Spenser, among others. 3 credits. Fulfills a Literature Group 1 requirement or an elective.

  • ENGL 545 – Literature of the Left Bank, Paris (Dr. Loots)

This course examines some of the people, culture, and writings of the expatriate community of the Parisian Left Bank during the modernist movements of the early- and mid-twentieth century. Authors/figures covered could include Edith Wharton, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, James Baldwin, Hilda Doolittle, Andre Breton, Richard Wright, Mina Loy, Nancy Cunard, Zelda Fitzgerald, among others. In the course of our studies we will consider the significance of Sylvia Beach’s Shakespeare & Company bookstore and lending library, of clubs such as Ada (Bricktop) Smith’s Chez Bricktop, and of intellectual and artistic salons such as those of Natalie Barney and Gertrude Stein. An emphasis will be placed on studying the historical context of modernism in Paris, as well as on the cultural geography of Paris which attracted so many of the world’s great writers and artists, and gave rise to some of the most profound writings ever created. Fulfills a Literature Group 2 requirement or an elective.

Annual Grad Student Symposium, Student News

Presenters Needed! 2025 Grad English Symposium, Live Online Saturday April 26, Noon Eastern.

We’re still hoping for more grad students to step forward to present at this year’s “Writing / Image / Text” Graduate English Symposium, so please consider sharing something of your work (e.g. scholarly or creative writing) at the event on Zoom, at noon eastern, April 26. Also consider that the thematic title of the symposium, Writing / Image / Text, invites work that goes beyond just literary scholarship or creative writing. We’ve had students present visual-storytelling, have had students present analysis of video games, have had students present studies of visual and studio arts, and more. Anything in the world that can be analyzed and that involves, invites, or even requires interpretation to understand is a text, and so practically any sort of study of any sort of text is welcome and encouraged.

Presenting at events like this is an important step for anyone hoping to step into the profession of higher education in any way, including those who aspire to a PhD program. Beyond that, it’s also a community event, a collegial event, an event where people who appreciate ideas, literature, creativity, media, and the arts in general, can get together for a few hours and enjoy a thoughtful exchange of ideas. So, please consider stepping forward and presenting something of your work alongside your fellow grad-students.

Please write to cloots@mercy.edu asap if you will step forward to present something of your work, or if you have any questions. Those who want to attend but not present are certainly welcome and encouraged to do so too; and again, just write to cloots@mercy.edu to let me know if so. Thank you.

Course Schedules

Question Concerning the Summer 2025 MA Course Schedule

Currently we have one summer offering on the schedule, ENGL 517 Advanced Creative Writing. Despite that word “Advanced” this course is open to anyone, no matter if you’re just beginning your journey this summer as a creative writer, or if you’re well experienced in creative writing. In recent years we haven’t had too much demand for summer offerings. Last year we ran two summer courses and while one filled up, the second one only had a couple of students in it. So, the MA program is looking to hear from our students about whether or not a second summer course is wanted. Those who want or perhaps need two summer courses, please send feedback to cloots@mercy.edu to say so.

Red Hyacinth Journal, Student News

Red Hyacinth, Mercy University’s Literary Magazine, Receives Highest National Recognition

The Mercy University literary and arts magazine, Red Hyacinth, has just been awarded “First Class” status by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). NCTE is the oldest professional organization for English educators across all levels of education in the USA, and is one of the most esteemed organizations in existence in the field of English studies and education. NCTE, through their “Recognizing Excellence in Art & Literary Magazine” (REALM) program, does an annual review of literary magazines produced throughout American education by students with the help of faculty, and recognizes a very small selection of those magazines with various levels of distinction. “First Class” is the highest level. This is a profound achievement and the MA English program would like to recognize the team of Editors who produced the award-winning edition (2024, vol. 7):

  • Editor-in-Chief, and Managing Editor: Nelson Orellana
  • Content Editors: Nyla Green, Bridget Gogliettino, Bilgilio Martinez, and Amy Romero
  • Layout and Design Editors: Sara Kastrati and Quinn Palafox
  • Faculty Advisor and Founder: Dr. Kristen Keckler
  • And every one of our graduate students who contributed creative work to Red Hyacinth over the years.

Click here to learn more about Red Hyacinth.