Students majoring in English are encouraged to explore the Department’s
wide range of offerings in literature, film, and culture. Rather than prescribe any particular route through its curriculum, the Department helps its students develop their own interests and questions.
To this end, all students work closely with their advisor in defining an area of concentration within the plethora of offerings in English studies. Upon declaring the major, all students must submit to the Department a statement of concentration which defines a field of inquiry structured around no fewer than three interrelated English courses. This statement articulates the student’s understanding of how the named courses cohere in a field of concentration, along with courses in other disciplines or languages that may be related to the primary focus of the English major. In consultation with the advisor, the statement of concentration is regularly reviewed and it may be revised to accommodate shifts of emphasis in the student’s curricular choices. An updated concentration statement must be signed by the advisor and submitted to the Department in order to complete
a major in English.
Majoring in English also requires the completion of ten courses offered or approved by the Department. The Department’s courses will be organized
into four levels. Level I courses are writing-intensive courses on a variety of topics. Level II courses are creative writing courses and introductions to literary, film, and cultural studies on topics that include genres, media, discourses, terms, methods, or periods. They are primarily for first- and second- year students, but open to all. Level III comprises the bulk of the Department’s offerings in film and cultural studies, individual authors, and literary history, criticism, and theory. Level IV courses are seminars for junior and senior majors emphasizing independent inquiry, critical and theoretical issues, and extensive writing. Majors are required to take at least one course each from Level I and Level II, and a Level IV seminar.
Majors may count towards the ten required courses up to three courses in creative writing. No more than two courses not offered by members of the Department may be counted towards the major, except with the recorded permission of the student’s advisor. Because English 95, Seminar in English Studies, can lead in the senior year to a tutorial project, the Department strongly urges majors to fulfill the seminar requirement during the junior year. The Department will not guarantee admission to a particular section of English 95 in the second semester of the senior year.
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