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20
Average class size for English majors
25
Courses for majors per semester
20
Graduate seminars per semester

Our Mission

The Department of English creates and teaches knowledge about literature, poetics, writing, media, language and cultures in the English-speaking world. The Department serves constituents both inside and outside the university — including interdisciplinary programs, service-learning projects and the discipline at large — and prepares students for careers inside and outside of academia. We believe that the analytical study of our sub-disciplines helps develop logical thought, awareness of the complexity of texts and of value judgments, apprehension of others’ points of view, and imagination. English studies can expand creative, communicative and cognitive capacities; can sharpen the ability to make difficult judgments; and can help us understand societies, times and cultures different from our own.

 

What We Care About

  • Human connection: community and communication
  • Finding meaning(s) in life
  • Making a difference in the world
  • Active, participatory learning
  • Textual production, creation and expression
  • Artifacts of language: books, media, writing, comics, talk
  • The arts of persuasion
  • The pleasures of analysis
  • The ways language structures the world and the self
  • Structural change for social justice
  • The history and future of English(es)
  • The interdependency of form and content

 

 

Upcoming Events

November 6, 2024
311 Denney Hall
November 13, 2024
311 Denney Hall
November 15, 2024
165 Thompson Library
November 18, 2024
311 Denney Hall & via Zoom

Recent News

By Audrey Williams

Does magic only exist within the pages of fairy tales? Alumni Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman (both PhD ‘18) say no. To them, magic exists all around us, as folklore is the “stories we tell and the…

By Sydney Friedt

Natalie Kopp has always had a passion for storytelling and an interest in the various ways stories can be shared. After earning a bachelor's degree in English from St. Olaf College, she worked as…

By Reem Kadimi-Skalli

On July 1, 2024, the Department of English welcomed Professor Elizabeth Hewitt as the new chair, succeeding Susan Williams’ term. Hewitt holds a PhD and an MA from Johns Hopkins University and a…

As the autumn semester continues and everyone begins to settle in, we want to take a moment to introduce our new hires in the Department of English!

Faculty 

Charles Athanasopoulos …

People Directory

MFA in Creative Writing Student
Front Desk Student Staff/Department Ambassador
PhD in English Student