Santa Clara University

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

 

Professors Emeriti: James P. Degnan, Francis X. Duggan, Christiaan T. Lievestro, Elizabeth J. Moran, Fred D. White
Professors: Terry L. Beers, Michelle Burnham, Diane E. Dreher, Eileen Razzari Elrod, Ronald T. Hansen (Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. Professor), John C. Hawley (Department Chair)
Associate Professors: Marc Bousquet, Phyllis R. Brown, Juliana Chang, Mary Judith Dunbar, Marilyn J. Edelstein, Charles T. Phipps, S.J., Juan Velasco
Assistant Professors: Andrew J. Garavel, S.J., Theodore J. Rynes, S.J.
Senior Lecturers: Simone J. Billings, Sherry Booth, Susan Frisbie, Jill Goodman-Gould, Claudia Mon Pere McIsaac, Cory Wade, Jeffrey L. Zorn

 

The Department of English affords students a rich undergraduate education in the liberal arts centered on the history, theory, and aesthetics of literature and the art of writing. The knowledge and skills developed in English courses provide excellent preparation for careers in law, government, business, communications, and education, as well as for graduate study in literature, rhetoric, or creative writing. Students explore a broad range of approaches to literature, culture, new media and film, including feminist criticism, critical race theory, postcolonialism, semiotics, and queer theory, and they discuss traditional British and American texts as well as contemporary media and multicultural literatures from around the world. The Creative Writing Program offers students a coherent course of study in the writing of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Electives focus on particular genres of creative writing, such as Lifewriting, Fantasy and Science Fiction, and Screenwriting.

The Department established the Canterbury Program in 1997 to support undergraduate research by English majors. Its competitively awarded grants enable students to undertake significant independent research and/or writing projects in collaboration with department faculty; travel related to a student's project can also be funded. English majors have access to internships in professional writing in local businesses.

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE MAJOR

In addition to fulfilling University Core Curriculum requirements for the Bachelor of Arts degree, students majoring in English must complete the following departmental requirements:

• ENGL 20 and ENGL 21
• One Medieval; one Renaissance or 17th-century; one Enlightenment, Restoration, or 18th-century; one 19th-century or Romantic course
• One additional historically grounded course (e.g., a survey course, a 20th-century course, etc.)

(Of the above historically grounded courses, at least one must be British and one must be American; at least two must be upper-division.)

• One upper-division writing/rhetoric/language course
• One upper-division theory/methodology course
• Three upper-division courses in the student's desired area of specialization, to be decided upon in consultation with the student's advisor. One of these courses may be taken outside the English Department with the chair's approval, and one may be lower-division
• Two English electives, one of which may be lower-division
• ENGL 190, the Senior Seminar

(Of the above 15 required English courses, one course must be in the area of gender/sexuality and one must be in the area of ethnic/global studies.)

 

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE MINOR

Minor in English
Students must fulfill the following requirements for a minor in English:

• ENGL 20 and 21
• Five English electives, four of which must be upper-division courses

Minor in Creative Writing
Students must fulfill the following requirements for a minor in creative writing:

• Two introductory courses: ENGL 71 and 72
• Two practicum courses: ENGL 91 and 191
• Three electives from ENGL 73, 126, 127, 170, 171, 172, 173, 175
• One additional advanced course from ENGL 171 and 172

PREPARATION IN ENGLISH FOR ADMISSION TO TEACHER TRAINING CREDENTIAL PROGRAMS

The State of California requires that students seeking a credential to teach English in California secondary schools must pass a subject-area examination in English. The teaching credential itself requires the completion of an approved credential program, which can be completed as a fifth year with student teaching, or through a summer program and internship in conjunction with the undergraduate preteaching program. Students who are contemplating secondary school teaching in English should consult with the coordinator in the Department of English as early as possible.

LOWER and UPPER DIVISION COURSE LISTINGS are AVAILABLE in the Undergraduate Bulletin (PDF)