Life at Tennessee
The Area
Knoxville lies between the Cumberland Plateau and the Great Smoky Mountains; the University overlooks the Tennessee River. Hiking trails, white-water rivers, and TVA lakes are all within an hour's drive, as are Appalachian music and crafts. Knoxville itself, a city of 180,000 with a larger metropolitan area of 500,000, has a professional symphony and a nationally recognized opera company, a vibrant art museum, spring and summer outdoor concert series, and several theater and dance companies, in addition to the University's Clarence Brown Theater and student-run companies. TVA headquarters downtown and the nearby science and engineering laboratories at Oak Ridge make Knoxville one of the highest per capita Ph.D. areas in the nation. Housing is relatively inexpensive in the community and even more so in university complexes. The climate is usually temperate, and we regularly enjoy spectacular fall and spring foliage. The Metropulse, our local weekly paper, and the Knoxville News-Sentinel both publish on-line and can offer you a glimpse of current local events.
The University
The University of Tennessee, established in 1794, is the state's leading public research university. Total student enrollment is about 26,000, of whom about 7,500 are graduate students. A blend of private and state funds supports special research and teaching opportunities in the physical sciences as well as a Chair of Excellence, scholarships, and fellowships within the English Department. The University has its own page for new and prospective graduate students. More general information about the university is available at http://www.tennessee.edu/aboutut/.
The Libraries
University library collections contain about two million volumes. The magnificent Hodges Library, dedicated in the fall of 1987, stands directly across the street from the English Department offices and provides study and research space for graduate students and faculty. New technologies and lending agreements make an even greater number of volumes available to library patrons. On-line databases such as Early English Books Online, Eighteenth Century Collections on Line, Electronic Text Center, and others open new opportunities for research and scholarship. The library maintains a page for English Language and Literature that organizes some of the most useful resources for faculty and students. The Department also dedicates considerable funds to purchase requested materials that support ongoing research faculty and graduate student research.
The Special Collections Room, housed in the Hoskins Library, contains rare books and manuscripts. Adjoining it is the Estes Kefauver Collection of the late senator's papers. Among the collections of special interest to students of English literature are the Bruce collection of Arthurian materials, an extensive run of English periodicals, the John C. Hodges Congreve collection, and a fine library of 18th-century criticism, fiction, and travel literature. There is also a large and varied collection of Americana (notably of early American novels and the papers of Presidents Jackson, Polk, and Andrew Johnson) and microfilm and microcard series of early English and American publications. Additional Departmental funds are available to purchase library materials for research by faculty and graduate students. 19th and 20th-century manuscripts include those of Joseph Wood Krutch, a Tennessee alumnus, James Agee, a Knoxville native, and Alex Haley.