- Major Requirements
- Honors Program
- Creative Writing
- The English Minor
- The Journalism Minor
- The Medieval Studies Minor
- Careers in English
Core Courses
(Writing Seminars & Division II)
Course Descriptions
and Information
Study Abroad / Summer School Transfer Credit Guidelines
When you study literatures in English, you engage with works of significant cultural and aesthetic value, wrestle with important philosophical questions, reconstruct histories of past times and places, and develop in writing your own critical and creative voice. We offer a diverse range of courses, a graduate program, an honors program, journalism and medieval studies minors, scholarly lectures, readings by visiting writers, an honor society, and other events, all of which give students a rich experience of the discipline of English.
Our English Department faculty members are exemplary teacher-scholars. Three current members have won the College award for Excellence in Teaching, while several others have been recognized by student organizations for superb teaching. Our faculty regularly publishes well-received books and articles. Outstanding colleagues include W. R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Humanities Allen Mandelbaum, internationally acclaimed for his translations of Homer, Dante, and Italian poetry. Other professors holding distinguished professorships are Charles E. Taylor Professor James S. Hans, Reynolds Professor of English Herman Rapaport, Thomas H. Pritchard Professor of English Eric G. Wilson, McCullough Family Fellow Jefferson Holdridge, and Ollen R. Nalley Associate Professor John McNally. In addition, our department enjoys an international dimension thanks to our dynamic, prize-winning Irish poets-in-residence, Conor O’Callaghan and Vona Groarke.
Our Masters degree graduates go on to fine Ph.D. programs or on to related professional careers. Our majors and minors excel in a variety of fields and careers, including publishing, journalism, business, finance, accounting, human resources, consulting, public relations, social work, civil service, advertising, film, the arts, education, and more. Many of our department’s recent graduates are pursuing advanced degrees in law, medicine, literature, business, and the creative and performing arts. Recent Wake Forest English majors have won Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships for advanced study in England.
Department Chair: Claudia T. Kairoff
News & Announcements
- Professor Eric Wilson featured in Window on Wake Forest magazine
- link to the article online
- Spring 2008 Newsletter
- The current newsletter is now available on the Newsletters page
- First Year Seminars Featured in Wake Forest Magazine
- The Spring 2008 issue highlights seven first-year seminars. Included are Professor Gale Sigal's "Otherworlds" and Professor Wilson's "Melancholy Androids"
- Two Graduate Students Win Richter Awards
- Congratulations to Shelby Sleight and Ben Wilkinson. Shelby will study the historical, political, and ethical dimensions of South African author J.M. Coetzee in Cape Town, South Africa. Ben will study real and imaginary landscapes of the Middle English poem, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" in England and Wales.
- Summer and Fall Courses
- Information on course for Summer 2008 and Fall 2008 are available here.
- Archie Awards
- Congratulations to the following faculty members who have been awarded Archie Grants for summer research: Miriam Jacobson, Erica Still, Phil Kuberski, Elizabeth Evans, Jon Daigle, and Rian Bowie.
- Recent Publication
- Jessica Richard, Editor. The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia by Samuel Johnson. Broadview Editions
Eric Wilson. .Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. - Dean Family English Lecture Series
- Jerry and Marianne Dean of Villanova, PA, parents of Brian ('10), have pledged to endow the English Department with funds for a Lecture Series. The endowed funds will become available in 2010-11. The department thanks all three Deans for their generous gift.
