PhD Conundrum

[Nina Shevchuk]

Dear SEELANGers:
I would like to
solicit your advice on a subject many of you probably hear too much about:
choosing a PhD program in the US or Canada that will enable me to enter faculty
ranks upon graduation. According to the survey published in the most recent
NewsNet, most graduates of doctoral programs in Slavics do obtain academic jobs
-- which is more than can be said for a few other humanities. 

I am a native
speaker of Russian and Ukrainian. My first degree is an MS (Specialist) in
philology and English language and literature from Lviv National University. I
don't know if anyone is familiar with that institution, but it packs an
enviable amount of linguistic theory into its 5-year program, so I had courses
in theoretical phonetics, theoretical grammar, history of language,
lexicography, etc., which, I believe, constitute an equivalent background to a
BS in Russian obtained in the US.

After I moved to the
US, I also gained an MA in Creative Writing, with a translation thesis. I have
made conference presentations, published book reviews, an article, and a number
of translations of poetry. 
I am an experienced
classroom teacher, albeit of English, but I have been tutoring individual
Russian students for a while, and find my skills adequate for teaching Russian
as well. 

I am looking for a
PhD program (preferably in Slavics) where I could focus on Soviet and
post-Soviet literature, especially the latter as a post-colonial phenomenon. I
would love to do work on Soviet - Latin American linkages, since my third
language is Spanish.

As I comb through
various programs' websites, I am discouraged by how many do not have a
direct-admit PhD and how tricky it can be to discern a potential synergy
between my interests and those of the individual faculty/overall ethos of the
department  from the website alone. Any
advice about strategies or individual programs would be greatly appreciated. 


Sincerely, 


Nina Shevchuk-Murray, M.A., M.S.




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