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Department ofEnglish
National Ranking

The SCU English Department is ranked #4 in the nation by the "25 Best Colleges for English Majors 2020" list compiled by gradreports.com

The Department of English is the home for reading and writing at Santa Clara University. You'll take classes from best selling authors, ground-breaking scholars, and award winning teachers. You'll go beyond the page–learning from experience through community-based coursework, internships, and independent research– all while being immersed in the innovation, energy, and opportunity of Silicon Valley. You’ll engage critically in this cutting-edge environment through lenses of race, gender, spirituality, sexuality, language, and more. We offer an English Major and Minor, a Creative Writing Minor, and a Professional Writing Minor.

About Our Program

The Department of English affords students a rich undergraduate education in the liberal arts centered on literature, cultural studies, and writing. Critical, professional, or creative writing projects are integral to every course in the English major. Students and faculty in the English Department discuss and write about British, American, and global literatures, rhetoric, technical and professional communication, new media, and film. A range of theoretical approaches are used, sometimes with a focus on visual rhetoric and cultural studies. The department also offers the Creative Writing Program, which provides students with a coherent course of study in the writing of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction and the Professional Writing Program, which focuses on the theories, ethics, and practice of writing in industry and public contexts. The English major prepares students to read and write critically, to bring intellectual flexibility to academic and professional problems, and to enter the workforce as individuals with trained skills in analysis and self-expression.

Student Spotlights
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What Careers Can You Pursue as a Humanities Major?

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Faculty & Staff

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Beyond the Classroom

News & Events

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Life After SCU

Alumni Stories
Teresa with students in Jaroměř getting matcha

An interview with English Department alum Teresa Contino ’23 on her experiences this past year as a Fulbright Scholar in Náchod, Czech Republic

Fulbright Scholar Octavio De Leon ‘23 on Connecting with the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico

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