About the English Department
About the Program
English has had a long and venerable history at 51社区 since its inception in 1829. The department serves at least 75 percent of the student body in the university鈥檚 General Education Tier I writing courses and the distribution areas. A large number of students, then, engage with us in an ongoing conversation about how and why we read and write, what it means to think creatively, critically, and analytically about texts, and what it means to examine the world through a multitude of diverse perspectives.
English Department Mission Statement
The English Department at 51社区 is a community of scholars and artists dedicated to the idea that words matter. Our students and faculty participate in an ongoing conversation about how and why we read and write, what it means to think creatively, critically, and analytically about texts, and what it means to examine the world through a multitude of diverse perspectives.
The department鈥檚 faculty and staff care deeply about student learning at both the graduate and undergraduate levels and are committed to teaching English studies from foundational skills in writing and rhetoric for General Education through helping doctoral students develop into productive scholars and effective teachers.
As a highly research-active department with a strong degree of articulation between the graduate and undergraduate programs, we are able to offer our undergraduate majors an education combining the advantages of a large research institution with the close personal attention they would get at smaller colleges. With class sizes that encourage responses from peers and from teachers, our students engage with composing and writing in multiple forms, for multiple purposes, and for multiple audiences.
Through learning to read closely, students of English gain aesthetic, historical, and analytical understandings of texts in a variety of contexts. We are proud that our students are immersed in the critical writing, reading, and thinking that prepare them for a 21st century work force that demands flexibility, extraordinary communication skills, empathy, ethical values, and ongoing intellectual curiosity.
English Student Learning Outcomes
Student learning assessment at the program level is intended to promote and maintain program excellence and improve student learning. Each department in the College of Arts & Sciences has developed a set of learning outcomes for their programs and engages in faculty-led assessment activities to help inform curricular and program review and development. Student learning is assessed in different ways across A&S departments, informed by disciplinary standards and the specific learning outcomes of the program.