The Department of English is devoted to the critical study of literature and language, indeed to the study of creative expression of many kinds, including film and other media. We offer courses in all periods and genres of English, American, and Anglophone literature—poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and drama—as well as a wide array of classes in creative writing, film, media studies, journalism, rhetoric, and theater. The department joins critics, scholars, and artists in an environment that fosters interactive learning and teaching, with extensive opportunities to pursue internships and independent research.
Undergraduate majors may choose from four distinct tracks in the major—English Literature; Creative Writing; Theater; and Language, Media, and Communication—and we offer minors in English Literature, Creative Writing, Journalism, and Theater. Double majoring in English and another discipline—Physics or Music, History or Psychology—is readily managed. (For more information, see Undergraduate.) Our internationally recognized graduate program offers both M.A. and Ph.D. degrees, and our alumni have gone on to academic careers at some of the nation’s most respected colleges and universities. (See Graduate.) The English Department maintains wide-ranging connections with other university programs in Film Studies, Comparative Literature, African-American Studies, Women’s Studies, Theater, and Literary Translation, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The department sponsors an annual literary reading series that has brought distinguished poets and fiction writers to campus. (See Plutzik Series.) We also regularly host lectures, conferences, workshops, and symposia on a wide variety of subjects of scholarly and general interest. >>>
The National Research Council ranks the University of Rochester English Department among the best PhD programs in the country.
Chronicle of Higher Education, “2010 Rankings: Doctoral Programs in America”
Click on the image above for a PDF version of the graph.
Here is a list of the winners of this year’s creative writing prizes in fiction, poetry, and drama awarded by the Department of English:
Dean’s Prizes in Poetry
Dean’s Prizes in Fiction
Dean’s Prizes in Drama
Academy of American Poets Prize
The Meredith Goodman Bernstein Prize for writing
The William Blake Archive
has published an electronic edition of Blake’s Europe a Prophecy copy D, from the British Museum.
For details on this publication and other recent additions to the Archive, please visit Blake Archive Updates.
PhD Candidate Nikolaus Wasmoen has been awarded a fellowship to attend the Association for Documentary Editing (ADE) summer editorial institute in Charlottesville, VA. At the ADE annual meeting after the institute, he will be presenting on the William Blake Archive’s forthcoming electronic edition of Blake’s letters.
The spring issue of the magazine Metropolitan, published by the Arts and Cultural Council for Greater Rochester, features an article about Nigel Maister entitled “On the International Stage.”
Click here to download a PDF version of the issue.
The spring 2012 issue of Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly is now available.
Visit the journal at: www.blakequarterly.org.
Jennifer Grotz’s The Needle has been awarded the Helen C. Smith Memorial Award by the Texas Institute of Letters. The award is given by the institute for the best book of poetry published in the previous calendar year.
The University of Rochester now offers an interdisciplinary Master of Arts in Literary Translation Studies. For details on this new program, visit http://www.rochester.edu/college/translation/.
The Executive Council of the Modern Language Association has appointed Morris Eaves to chair its Publications Committee. The committee reviews and authorizes the MLA’s book publications; develops policies affecting the publications program and its acquisition plans and priorities; and evaluates the fiscal implications of publication decisions.
The March/April issue of Rochester Review looks at the scholarship of Russell Peck in an article entitled “The Professor’s Tale.”
The William Blake Archive has published electronic editions of Blake’s Small Book of Designs copy A and Large Book of Designs copy A.
For details on these publications and other recent additions to the Archive, please visit Blake Archive Updates.
The winter 2011-12 issue of Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly is now available.
Visit the journal at: www.blakequarterly.org.
Read a feature article about Stephanie Li’s new book, Signifying without Specifying: Racial Discourse in the Age of Obama, in Rochester Review.
NPR recently cited Jennifer Grotz’s The Needle as one of the five best books of poetry in 2011.
Click here to read the NPR story.
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