English Department Mission Statement
The English Major introduces students to the vast traditions of American, British, and Anglophone Literatures and other forms of cultural production. It trains students to consider the role of ethnicity, race, class, gender and sexuality in these traditions. Students learn to employ critical methodologies and literary theories when doing literary analysis, and they explore questions of genre and literary form, literary history, and the sociohistorical contexts of the production and reception of texts. The ideal graduate will be well-prepared in all these areas, and will be an active and engaged reader, a critical thinker, and an accomplished expository writer.