Tools and Resources Preparing Future Faculty FYC Program TA Mentor Program Technology Projects The <emma> Project The NORA Project Humanities Computing at UGA Committee Work FYC Committee Graduate Committee Lecture Series CHA Lanier Series EGO Series Visiting Writers Program Journals Borrowers and Lenders Verse Matheliende Stillpoint Womanist Dawgspeak Student Organizations EGO Sigma Tau Delta Local Events Athens Poetry Blog (maintained by UGA Creative Writing Grad Students)

Summary Description The English Department at the University of Georgia uses a series of formal and informal methods to develop intellectual community. Informally, the department has developed several organizations that bring students together to discuss books and ideas. The English Graduate Organization (EGO) holds various events each yearlectures, discussion groups, practicumsthat deal with academic and intellectual issues. Sigma Tau Delta, the English Honors Society, holds various similar functions, including poetry readings, essay contests, and lectures, that enhance the department's intellectual life. Our Nineteenth-Century Reading Group brings students and faculty together to discuss key texts of the period. More formally, the department has developed various mentoring strategies to helps students develop intellectually. All are assigned an advisor/mentor in their first year to help them navigate the first year. At the end of that time, students are required to select a major professor, who will serve as the student's mentor through the third-year comprehensive exams and often beyond, through the dissertation. Our two innovations, the electronic portfolio and the public lecture connected with the dissertation, will further enhance our mentoring efforts.

Goals for the Community The UGA Department of English seeks to develop a vibrant, forward looking scholarly community. While the study of English language and letters is as old as the American univeristy itself, the modes in which this study is conducted shift and change with the introduction of new technologies. We seek, foremost, to develop a high level of competence, creativity, and community awareness among our graduate students, while preparing them for their role in shaping English education in years to come. To this end, our department offers the traditional elements of community building--lecture series, committee appointments, training for future faculty roles, research assistantship opportunities--while also giving students the opportunity to participate in projects that fuse the traditional work of the literary scholar with technological innovations.

How Do We Know? We know that our program supports intellectual community because students tell us in various contexts using both intangible and tangible markers. Intangible: The student representatives to the Graduate Committee report on student concerns in this area and often make suggestions for improvement. We have a yearly open meeting at which all students meet to make suggestions. Our two innovations, for instance, in part grew out of such a meeting. Tangible: Our primary means of assessment of the program comes in the exit questionnaire that all students are required to fill out when they finish their degree. This tool gives offers insight into how well students respond to the program and allows students to make suggestions for improvement.

Unanswered Questions Our department will continue discussing and implementing our two innovations. We are anxious to see how these two new elements will work and what needs to be done to strengthen them. The electronic portfolio will require faculty members to read large numbers of such portfolios. Will they do that and will they give students useful feedback to help them develop as professionals? The public lecture has the potential to develop intellectual community if a large portion of the department attends. Will that happen? What strategies can be used to ensure that attendance among both faculty and students?

Contact Information Nelson Hilton, Department Head [email protected] Mike Moran, Graduate Coordinator [email protected] Anita DeRouen, Graduate Student Representative [email protected]