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About

The Department of English is large and programmatically diverse. We offer a BA and a Minor on the undergraduate level, and we have three graduate programs, MA/Ph.D., MFA, and MAT(ESOL). We include three writing programs: Writing and Rhetoric, Writing Across Campus, and Creative Writing. In addition to running several public scholarship initiatives, we oversee multiple community-oriented teaching and training programs. Our faculty work in such areas as British, American, colonial and postcolonial Anglophone literatures and cultures; literary and critical theory; creative writing in poetry and prose; antiracist, feminist, queer, and Indigenous studies; applied linguistics, history of English, and language acquisition; contemporary rhetoric; pedagogy; and composition studies.

Mission Statement

To study English is to experience the power of literature, language, and culture. We take pride in our foundational role in the university: more than 90% of undergraduates take an English class, presenting a unique responsibility for our department to provide students with writing and reading skills that undergird their studies and professional lives. Our students engage with and transform public culture through creative work and through literary, linguistic, and cultural analysis. Our research plays a vital role in the tradition of humanistic inquiry: making visible the workings of the English language in myriad genres, media, contexts, and global settings and exploring its usage and teaching ethically and creatively. As researchers, educators, and writers, we seek to foster intellectual vitality, inspire enthusiasm for literature, hone critical insight, prepare future teachers, and craft the stories that animate our world.

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