In a challenging academic job market, Brown's  Department of English affirms its commitment to preparing our students for success in their academic search. The English department offers regular stand-alone seminars that address a variety of topics meant to enhance students' professional academic development, as well as introduce them to important aspects of an academic career. These seminars are led by department faculty members with topics determined each year by the Graduate Committee. Students in all years of the doctoral program are strongly encouraged to attend.

While we are dedicated to providing an environment that prepares graduate students for work as professors, we know that not everyone who begins a PhD finishes it being able to, or wishing to have an academic career. Given this, we hope also to encourage and support an interest in the broad range of non-academic careers made possible by the skills our graduate students will develop and hone throughout their time in the program. While many of our PhDs go on to successful academic careers, we also recognise that our graduate students need resources to explore the wider world of options made available to them by their education, research and teaching at Brown. These pages represent one of the steps the Department is taking toward providing such resources.

Our students have gone on to pursue many varied vocations in and beyond the academy: from tenure-track professorships and post-doctoral fellowships, to work in publishing, administration, marketing, instruction, and law. Although the Department has a long and successful history of tenure-track placement, Brown English is also committed to helping students find and successfully begin careers which center the practices of writing, teaching, critical thinking, theorizing, and close reading that are at the core of an English PhD.