Bachelor of Arts in English
The English major helps students develop advanced knowledge in literary history and literary theory. The curriculum emphasizes the complexity of several interconnected phenomena: genre systems, interpretive strategies and methods, aesthetic evaluation, textual circulation and reception, and the role of literature in social conflict and political struggle.
To earn the degree, students study literature of different periods and from several geographical regions; our courses cover the Medieval period to the present, and address English-language cultural production in South Asia, Africa, North America, the Caribbean, Ireland, the Pacific Islands, and the UK.
In this global and historically expansive approach to the discipline, you will learn to analyze complex texts, across genres and media, in their cultural and social contexts. And you will learn to read texts for what is not obvious or explicit in them, through sustained attention to the rhetorical intricacies, stylistic techniques, and formal designs that impact audiences and generate multiple meanings. These research and interpretive skills prepare you for a wide range of careers and projects involving critical thinking and complex problem-solving, and particularly pursuits that involve artful communication and narrative performance.
Why Brandeis?
Brandeis’s Department of English is a unique intellectual and creative community. The faculty is committed to collaborative learning and sustained mentoring in a rigorous literary education. They hold research expertise in established and emerging fields, cutting across regions, languages, media, genres, periods, and theoretical concerns, and continually develop the curriculum to reflect new kinds of cultural inquiry. Long distinguished in English and literary studies in the U.S., Brandeis’ Department of English nurtures student work through innovative courses, independent research projects, and special events throughout the year.
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Alumni Spotlight
Dan Truong parlayed a summer internship in the communications office of Massachusetts Treasurer Deborah Goldberg into a job as the assistant director of communications.