Welcome to the Department of English!
The Department of English seeks to provide for the diverse needs of its students by offering them the opportunity to read widely, to understand and enjoy what they read, and to express themselves both orally and in writing with ease, force and clarity. Through the practice of writing and the study of language and literature, the department strives to stimulate humanistic learning and the capacity to respond rationally and imaginatively to literature and the life it reflects.
Recent Books Published by Department Faculty
Undergraduate Program
The undergraduate major in English is designed for three groups:
- those who seek a general education
- those who plan to teach in the elementary and secondary schools
- those who plan to pursue graduate study in the field
The major is also frequently chosen as preparation for professional study in law, medicine, and business, and for careers in other fields. Students who major in English also often major in a career-oriented subject.
Graduate Program
The Department of English offers MA and PhD work in ten major fields of study: Medieval, Renaissance, Restoration and Eighteenth- Century, Nineteenth-Century British, American Literature to 1900, Modern British and American, Composition and Rhetoric, Creative Writing, Women’s Literature, Plains Literature, Ethnic Literature, and Criticism.
Department Chair
Department Vice Chair
Graduate Chair
Undergraduate Program and Curriculum Committee Chair
Coordinators
Chris Gallagher (Composition)
Gwendolyn A. Foster (Film Studies)
Gerald Shapiro (Creative Writing)
Frances Condon (Writing Center)
Michael Harpending (ESL)
Director of Summer Writers Conference
Chief Advisor
The Wor(l)ds of Richard Wright: Native Son and Expatriate
On September 4, 1908, Richard Wright was born, thus beginning-literally and metaphorically-the “odyssey” of one of America’s great novelists, a native son and expatriate world citizen, and artist savant and public intellectual. On Thursday and Friday, September 18-19, 2008, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will celebrate the centennial of Wright’s birth, reflect upon his artistry, and remember the third anniversary of the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Delta and the nation. More...
Teachers Set Shakespeare Free at Folger-UNL Institute
It started with attending a performance of “The Taming of the Shrew” at the Swan Theatre at Wyuka in Lincoln, Nebraska. It concluded with performing one extravagant death scene after another, until the floor of the Dudley Bailey Library, in Andrews Hall on the campus of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, was covered with bodies. In between, a group of dedicated instructors discovered how to bring the excitement and discovery of performance to their Shakespeare classes. More...
