David Mulrooney graduated from the doctoral program in English in May 2019. His doctoral dissertation examines the relationship between literature and imperial propaganda in fiction set in the Malay world by four English writers at the height of the British Empire (Frank Swettenham, Hugh Clifford, Joseph Conrad, and Somerset Maugham). His dissertation advisors were: Homi K. Bhabha, John Stauffer, and Kelly M. Rich.