English
Division of Humanities and Fine Arts
In the Washington College English department, you can do everything and anything with words: critical and creative writing; journalism, editing & publishing; analysis of literature and media, both old and new; how to read a book and how to make one. You will learn from celebrated visiting writers and scholars who join your classes or read at the Rose O’Neill Literary House. You will engage in a variety of experiential learning opportunities, from class trips to study abroad to internships in communications, editing, journalism, publishing, and other fields. You will be guided by a faculty mentor and develop independent research for your Senior Capstone Experience. As a critic, editor, essayist, journalist, poet, and storyteller you will become knowledgeable and skilled in analysis, creativity, inquiry, and persuasion.
From classes in literature and creative writing to the welcoming environment of the Rose O’Neill Literary House, writers and students of literature alike will find Washington College home to a vibrant literary community. Each year, thanks to the Sophie Kerr Endowment and its programs, the College brings to campus a succession of distinguished writers, editors, and literary scholars. Billy Collins, Junot Díaz, Nick Flynn, Jonathan Franzen, Neil Gaiman, Lauren Groff, Ted Kooser, Li-Young Lee, Colum McCann, Azar Nafisi, Maggie Nelson, Joyce Carol Oates, Claudia Rankine, Jane Smiley, Natasha Trethewey, Colson Whitehead, and Jacqueline Woodson are just some of the writers and literary scholars who have come to campus in the last decade to teach, lecture, and conduct writing workshops.
To read, to think, to write, to communicate: these habits of interpretation and expression are fundamental to a liberal arts education, to the mission of Washington College, and to the study of English. The mission of the English Department is to develop students who can read the variety of literature in English broadly, think through ideas critically, analyze texts closely, gather and communicate information effectively, and write clearly, creatively, and articulately.
Distribution Credit in English
Students who wish to fulfill the Humanities Distribution Requirement with one Humanities course may do so by taking any 100 or 200 level courses in English except ENG 103 Introduction to Creative Writing, which does not fulfill the Humanities Distribution Requirement.
Students who choose to take two courses in English to fulfill the Humanities distribution requirement are not required to take a sequence. They may take any two ENG courses from the same grouping (ENG 101 Literature and Composition and all 200-level ENG courses).
Courtney Rydel, Chair
Elizabeth O’Connor, Associate Chair
Sufiya Abdur-Rahman
Katherine Charles
Richard DeProspo
James Allen Hall
Roy Kesey
Sean Meehan