Academic Program in English
Our department balances the study of traditional fields of English and American literature with a strong commitment to interdisciplinary work.
Program Requirements
This interdisciplinary focus involves the contemporary fields of African American studies, postcolonial studies, gender, sexuality, and feminist studies, cinema studies, comparative literature, and creative writing. This process lets students shape their own major within the department's flexible requirements. A major advisor helps each student make the best use of course offerings based on individual interests and objectives.
All of our majors become acquainted with representative works in important periods of English, American, and world literature in English; learn about the central literary genres; and develop methods for critical interpretation.
English majors may pursue one of two tracks: the standard major or the concentration major.
The standard major is primarily a course of study within the discipline of English, while concentration majors study literature from an interdisciplinary perspective. Both involve students with instruction in the form of seminars, lectures, small group discussions, tutorials, and private readings.
Our courses range from small seminars for first-year students, through broad surveys of historical periods and thematic concerns, to advanced courses which may focus on a single author or a particular set of social or cultural questions.
Every senior English major has the opportunity to work one-on-one with a faculty member in a capstone course: a senior seminar, a one-semester research tutorial, or a full-year independent project in the Honors Program.