Southwestern

Engaging Minds, Transforming Lives

English Department

Southwestern’s English Department prepares students for a life of engaged, critical thinking by studying the literature and cultures of the English-speaking world. Reading, discussing and writing about texts past and present, students gain a deepened understanding of literature’s role in shaping and reflecting society.  They learn skills of interpretation, analysis, research and writing, whose applications and value span a broad spectrum of personal and professional pursuits.

Our faculty members guide students through a broad range of issues and texts in courses that go beyond established, national canons of literature.

Students can engage Shakespeare’s tragedies, Hollywood screwball comedies, Chaucer’s verse, Charlotte Brontë’s or Toni Morrison’s fiction—exploring, testing and challenging the complex and divergent perspectives they find.

  • The major in English is part of the Bachelor of Arts program, which includes the option of a paired major in English and Feminist Studies. 
  • A minor in English can be combined with any major program at Southwestern. 
  • In addition, students seeking certification to teach in secondary schools may choose English as a second teaching field, and those seeking elementary certification may choose an academic specialization in English.

Department News

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    New Arrival: Identity Papers by Helene Meyers
    Professor of English Helene Meyers’s new book, Identity Papers: Contemporary Narratives of American Jewishness, has just been published by SUNY Press.
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    English Capstone Presentations
    Students in this semester’s capstone seminar, “Theorizing Identity and Difference,” taught by Assistant Professor Carina Evans, presented versions of their seminar papers on November 17 at the Dorothy Lord Community Room.
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    Get the Latest Department News on Facebook
    “Like” us on Facebook to get all the latest news about department events, catch up with alumni, and connect with other SU lit types.

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Notables

  • Writer-in-Residence and part-time Assistant Professor of English John Pipkin delivered a plenary lecture entitled “Romanticisms: Understanding an Ambiguous Literary Movement” at Spalding University in Louisville, KY on Nov. 12.  Pipkin is also a faculty member of Spalding’s Low-Residency MFA program.  His 2009 novel Woodsburner was the featured fiction Book-in-Common for Spalding’s fall semester. Pipkin also has been named the fiction editor for the spring 2012 issue of The Louisville Review published by Fleur de Lis Press

  • David Gaines, associate professor of English, presented “Who Responds to Dylan and How: Fandom, Gender, and Bob Dylan” at the American Studies Association of Texas meeting on Friday 11 November at Schreiner University in Kerrville.

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