The department offers students a range of choices as they pursue those ends. The flexible curriculum allows students to read American, British, Irish, and postcolonial literatures from a variety of critical and theoretical perspectives. We represent the relationships among our courses, requirements, and departmental goals on our English curricular map.  Within this curriculum, English majors develop their own questions and interests.

The major begins with a 100-level course in which students develop their analytical skills by paying close attention to texts and developing an awareness of contemporary approaches to literary study. The 200 level includes courses that introduce students to the practices of creative and argumentative writing; the traditions of American, African-American, ethnic American, British, Irish, and postcolonial literatures; and the theoretical tools of historical linguistics and gender studies.