“English” is a flexible and capacious field, founded on careful engagement with artistic writing or “literature,” but reaching into all corners of communicating in English including film, digital media and performance.
About the English Area of Concentration
The AOC in English focuses on intersections between English language literature and its historical and cultural environments. English asks questions that intersect explicitly with philosophy, cultural anthropology, history, and the arts.
Students graduating in this field should be able to analyze texts from a variety of genres and historical periods; to recognize the role of literature in encounters between cultures across national, ethnic, and temporal lines; and to be able to deploy a variety of critical and theoretical approaches to the study of literature and communication in English. A degree in English can lead in many directions after college — from writing-intensive careers such as publishing and education, to less obvious tracks in library or curatorial work, healthcare, human resources, marketing and business, and public service with nonprofit organizations.
“I’ve wanted a career in English teaching for several years now, so starting my dream job in another country is super exciting.”
Asia Lord
2020 Graduate (English)
Chosen for Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme
Featured Course
LITR 2665
Literature of the 1980s
The 1980s was a radically transitional decade. Global politics saw the decline of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall; the AIDS epidemic erupted across the U.S.; Ronald Reagan popularized a brand of American conservatism that would rule the decade and shape the future of the political landscape; racial tensions and attacks on women’s right to choose filled the evening news. Meanwhile, the first inklings of the internet, cell phones, and the digital revolution appeared. The soundtrack to this period ranged from neon pop to the thrashing rage of hardcore, from the urban voice of rap to the DIY aesthetic of college radio, from the maximalist productions of hair metal to flannel-clad grunge. We will think about these events (and others) and this music (and more) as we explore how major literary works of this period respond and give shape to a whole range of new world orders.
Recent Courses
- Performing Gender, Class, and Identity in Early Modern Drama
- Black Mountain and New York School Poetry
- Poets of the 1950s: New York
- Law & Literature
- Literature of the 1980s
- Chaucer: Imaginary Persons and Narrative Form
- Ecopoetics: A Reading and Writing Seminar
- Postcolonial Literature and Theory
Career Pathways
- Trial Lawyer and Prosecutor
- Educator
- YA and Speculative Fiction Author
- Public Librarian
- Journalist
- Publishing
- Advertising
- Acquisitions Editor
- Development and Fundraising
- Marketing and Communications
- Digital Media Creator
Computer and Information Systems Manager
Contact Us
Humanities Division
Phone Number
Email Address
Location
Ace Academic Center 116
Dr. Nova Myhill
Professor of English and Theater, Dance & Performance Studies
Dr. Jessica Young
Assistant Professor of Global English
Faculty Steward of the Dr. Helen N. Fagin Collection in Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights
Dr. Robert L. Zamsky
Associate Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs
Professor of English
Dr. Robert Knox Jr.
Emeritus Professor of English