School of Arts & Letters Home > English Department
What is the English Department?
The IU Southeast Department of English offers comprehensive but flexible undergraduate majors both in literature and in writing, with small classes so that students can interact with each other and their professors. In addition, the Department of English sponsors a literary magazine, faculty readings, and annual writing contests in creative and expository writing. English majors can also take part in IU Southeast theatre productions and many other extracurricular activities. IU Southeast offers English majors a number of outstanding facilities, including a state-of-the-art computer service, a library that houses some 600,000 volumes and microforms and that subscribes to more than 1,000 periodicals, and a writing center with a full-time professional staff that offers comprehensive tutoring.
During the past few decades, the English profession has changed dramatically in the way it thinks about literature and writing. The study of English now addresses such questions as:
- What are the relationships between literature and writing?
- What is the place of both disciplines in society?
- What is the impact of culture on given texts?
- What is the need for interdisciplinary instruction?
For students interested in an English curriculum aligned with the more traditional career paths, particularly those leading to teaching and to graduate school, IU Southeast offers a scholarly environment that allows majors to gain knowledge and appreciation of the literatures of diverse periods and cultures. English majors have ample opportunity to take courses that specialize in literary periods, genres, individual authors, culture, rhetoric, and written communication. Designed to broaden an understanding of and facility with language, such courses are offered regularly at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Why Study English?
In recent years the study of English at IU Southeast has become much more than a "preprofessional" major meant to provide an excellent foundation for graduate study. The English faculty at IU Southeast strongly believe that the skills of critical thinking and writing are transferable to a wide variety of entry-level careers. The English major therefore encourages inquisitiveness and imagination, qualities in demand in the working world.
A recent survey asked IU Southeast English alumni how their English degrees have helped them in their careers. One former English major now working in publishing wrote that he learned to "analyze thoroughly, rationally, and effectively." Another major, now working in finance, said, "IU Southeast prepared me for a great career in business administration."
The skills taught in the English curriculum at IU Southeast enable our graduates to respond more flexibly to changes in the job environment, to rise higher in their fields, and to experience greater job satisfaction than people with strict professional degrees. And because of the flexibility and diverse strengths of the English department faculty and the program itself, our students have been able to combine courses in economics, management, human relations, and organizational theory within their English majors, making them even more attractive to businesses and organizations. In recent years, we have seen our majors enter the fields of teaching, publishing, business and industry, advertising, government, law, communications, and public relations.
