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Why Study English?

Through engagement with literature, culture, and language, the study of English broadens students' perspectives, fosters understanding and empathy, and provides vital analytical and communication skills to success in myriad careers.

Undergraduate Programs
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In the Community

Our department fosters intellectual partnerships on campus and beyond. Through public scholarship, high school programming, and community literacy efforts, we are creating community through English.

Outreach
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Our Research

Our faculty are among the most accomplished in their respective disciplines and have received national and international awards for their teaching, research and writing.

Research
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Develop Your Writing

We offer a wide range of courses, programs, and resources to support you as a writer. From creative writing to academic and professional communication to technical and multimodal writing, find the writing resources to support you.

Writing Programs
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Our Graduate Programs

Graduate students are central to the intellectual life of our department. Alongside faculty, they drive vital scholarship, advance as educators and professionals, and deepen skills as researchers and writers.

Program Information

Welcome to the Department of English

Our department is a community built on curiosity. We welcome students from across the UW – majors and non-majors alike – to deepen their reading and writing skills through a wide array of course offerings that span literary studies, cultural studies, creative writing, and language, rhetoric, and literacy studies. Through our diverse undergraduate and graduate programs, we aim to help students become more incisive thinkers, effective communicators, and imaginative writers by acknowledging that language and its use are powerful and hold the potential to empower or harm individuals and communities; to provide the means to engage in meaningful conversation and collaboration across differences; and to offer methods for understanding, problem solving, and responding to the many pressing collective issues we face in our world.

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