The English Department at Lawrence

The English Department at Lawrence offers students the opportunity to develop their skill at critical reading, writing, and analysis—skills that can be applied not only to “literary” texts but also to the texts and images produced by the cultures that surround us. Balancing a solid grounding in the study of literary history with training in contemporary critical methodologies, the English major prepares students for a wide range of career possibilities.

Majors, minors, and non-majors can choose from course offerings in literature, literary theory, and creative writing, including classes focusing on Renaissance drama, satire, the English novel, the Harlem Renaissance, the American Civil War, and post-colonial fiction, among others; courses in creative writing include workshops in writing poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. Many of our courses draw on interdisciplinary approaches, reading literary texts in relation to historical documents, music, or visual images.

English is one of the largest and liveliest majors on campus and English majors typically have wide-ranging intellectual interests. Some students combine their study of literature with work in the natural or social sciences, while others pursue work in other languages or in the fine or performing arts. The English major provides students with the analytic abilities they need to make connections between and among different fields. Each year the department sponsors a range of programs with visiting writers and scholars in addition to regularly scheduled student poetry readings.

English majors from Lawrence have gone on to do graduate work in literature and creative writing, as well as to careers in film, television, music, medicine, law, journalism, publishing, software design, and teaching. If your intellectual curiosities and enthusiasms focus on reading and writing, then English might be the right major for you.