Dear XXX,

Thanks very much for your email. My number for your reference is xxxxxxxxxxxxxx. I've spent my day at work ignoring my deadline for this report on Danish vs. Canadian sub-regional financial autonomy, which is, somehow, even drier than it sounds, and reading up instead on the Ph.D. course at Stanford. I have a couple of questions which aren't urgent, and if you'd rather answer on the phone at yr convenience than having to type everything out that's fine.

The Ph.D. handbook on the English faculty website assumes that a five year course is normal; however there are six years of funding and looking online, estimated mean times to degree at Stanford seem to vary between seven and eight years. How does this time to degree change the structure of the program? Is the leeway for a longer dissertation-writing period? Or is the extra time factored in elsewhere?

Thank you very much also for your kind words about my sample - as you can see, whilst writing it I developed a strong interest in theories of urban space that I tried to suppress with limited success. Something I would be very interested in doing would be to pursue these interests and think about poetic formations//formulations of urban space more generally (or even for example look at Hart Crane vs GG Lorca in New York - there's probably some fantastic SF examples I'm overlooking). I know that this would take me wildly out of my specialised area in both literary and more generally disciplinary terms, and my heart isn't set on it, but I was wondering - could I get credit for taking a class in Stanford's Urban Studies department? And if not could I do it anyway? Also were I to commute my time in the first year by transferring credit from my Master's at Oxford, would my funding be docked? (The handbook implies this - I don't think I actually want to do it, but I wanted to ask in case.)

Similarly at Berkeley I know that they stipulate that you have a member of another department on your dissertation committee. Looking through the handbook, that doesn't seem to be a requirement; but is it a possibility? I was also hoping to live in Berkeley with my partner and commute - candidly, is this possible (with a car, presumably)?

I've been talking to XXX XXX, who asked me to pass on her best wishes to you, and she's just hugely positive about the program - would it be ok for me to contact current grad students with questions? Otherwise I have spent my day looking at the course lists and getting extremely excited about them, and hoping that United's strength and depth will show against the Gunners in the last ten games of the season.

with all best wishes,