The Department of English offers Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral degrees in English. Current areas of focus are literary and cultural studies, composition studies, creative writing, film studies, and linguistics. Each of these five areas is a distinct sub-field with accomplished faculty, national and international reputation, and a strong student base. Indeed this diversity of fields and interests is among the Department's greatest strengths: it brings visibility, resources, and students to the College from a very wide range of sources. These multiple strengths in composition, creative writing, film studies, linguistics, and literary and cultural studies have given the English Department an exceptionally robust research record and a strikingly successful placement rate for its graduate students, many of whom have in recent years been placed in full-time academic jobs calling for specializations in literary and cultural studies, composition studies, and/or film studies. In reconfiguring its undergraduate and graduate programs to address the University's strategic focus on urban, global, and technological objectives, the Department seeks to build on and supplement its current strengths in these five areas of focus.

In 2002-2003 the Department plans to develop proposals for a substantial revision of its undergraduate major and graduate programs. These curricular revisions will set out to address the University's strategic focus on issues of globalization and technology at an urban research university. In reconfiguring the English major, the faculty will look closely at developing concentrations or tracks in such areas as literary and cultural studies, visual culture, creative writing, and professional communication. The aim of these concentrations will be to allow students to adapt the English major to their particular career goals and ambitions. In rethinking the graduate program, the faculty will similarly begin with the needs of students. At the Masters level this means considering the possibility of revitalizing the program in technical and professional communication. At the Doctoral level this means reconsidering the distribution requirements and exam structure, as well as looking into the implementation of innovative programs to address the growing number of Ph.D. students who are seeking professional careers outside of the academy. The plan is to have formal proposals for curricular revision ready by the Fall semester of 2003 to begin the process of obtaining College and University approval.

The characteristics of the five major areas of focus that constitute the Department of English are described in each section, accessed using the left menu bar. Although each of these areas has already attained a significant degree of local, regional, and national visibility, the Department seeks to enhance this visibility by addressing in more explicit fashion the University's and its own strategic goals. In the descriptions listed, the current configuration of each area will be described along with a brief indication of the directions in which departmental reconfiguration will be heading.