The newly updated classrooms on the second floor aren’t the only things worth getting excited about for autumn 2017, although you should definitely get excited about those! There are also many new faces in Denney Hall and two brand new graduate programs: the graduate minor in English and the MA in medical humanities and social sciences." 

The Department of English would like to extend a warm welcome to our incoming undergraduate students. This year, we have twenty new PhD students, fifteen new MFA students, forty-two first-year undergraduate majors and thirty undergraduate transfers. These new students come to Columbus from Alaska to Nigeria to Nepal.

Additionally, we’d like to welcome new faculty and staff members Susan Lang, Elissa Washuta and Lindsay Martin; front desk staff members Harsimran Kaur, Mary Maxwell, Kim Norton, Lauren Todd and Brenden Walsh; and student communications team members Madalynn Conkle, Michaela Corning-Myers, Maxwell Steele and Avery Samuels.

2017 marks the twenty-fifth anniversaries for the MFA program in creative writing and the Center for Folklore Studies. Make sure to check the event calendar for announcements related to these milestone celebrations.

The department’s event calendar is already filling up with readings, guest lectures, film screenings, expos and more! In September, Frederick Luis Aldama’s SOL-CON: Brown and Black Comics Expo returns to Columbus and Alyson Patsavas will visit Ohio State for a screening of Code of the Freaks: A Documentary About Disability in Film, and a corresponding graduate workshop. In October, the undergraduate studies program will host its annual Alumni Panel and Dinner event at the Blackwell. Elissa Washuta, the newest addition to the creative writing program, will launch her reading series Native Craft in November.

Welcome back, everyone. Here’s to a great semester!