English 2009-2010
Overview
THE PROGRAM
The Union College program in English offers its students a broad range of courses with a variety of approaches. The seventeen members of the English department teach courses in English literature, American literature, comparative literature, African American literature, Asian American literature, Native American literature, African literature, post-colonial literature, women and literature, environmental literature, creative writing, world literature and film.
Our students begin with introductory courses focused on close reading of poetry and fiction. Having acquired essential analytical skills, and the ability to write and speak clearly about literature, they continue on with intermediate courses organized in four categories that suggest the variety of ways one may come to the study of literature. We offer Historical Studies courses that focus on literature of a particular historical moment (Medieval literature, the literature of the 1590’s, American literature 1900-1960); Culture Studies courses that focus on the literature of a particular culture, or literature in relation to several cultures together, or in relation to particular cultural issues or problems (Asian-American literature, Black Music in American literary culture, Yiddish literature in translation); Genre Studies courses that focus on literature viewed in relation to a particular form of writing (Epic, Satire, Autobiography, Philosophical Fiction); Author Studies courses that focus on the writing of a particular author or group of authors (Milton, Kafka). The department’s advanced courses are Junior and Senior Seminars, classes that look closely at a single subject or author, and stress student participation. Junior Seminars include The Brontes, Bob Dylan, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, The Grotesque in Modern Literature and Art; Senior Seminars include T. S. Eliot and Pablo Picasso, James Joyce’s Ulysses, Emily Dickinson, Toni Morrison. Class size is kept small in all courses because of the department’s commitment to a learning environment in which all students may participate comfortably. There is a maximum enrollment limit of 20 for Introductory Classes, 25 for Intermediate Classes, 15 for Advanced Seminars. And nearly every class is a writing class: English majors at Union are people who, when they graduate, can state their views with force and clarity.
The experience of studying English at Union is enriched by department-sponsored visits to campus by notable American and international writers who present lectures and readings, and visit classes. Recent visitors have included novelists Julia Alvarez, Anita Diamant, Helon Habila, and Michael Ondaatje; poets Rachel Tzvia Back, Judy Jordan, Yusef Komunyakaa, Oliver de la Paz, Adrienne Rich, and Jay Wright; critic Helen Vendler; biographer Robert Richardson; filmmaker Leighton Pierce; storyteller Joe Bruchac; playwright Mike Kenny and actress Barbara Marten. The department sponsors Writers Return: The Alumni Writers Series. Students studying English, and the campus community as a whole, are invited to attend readings and chat informally with Union graduates Andrea Barrett, Nicole Beland, Kerrie Ticknor Droban, Diane Mehta, Kate White, and others who have made writing an essential part of their lives after college.
THE FACULTY
The professors in the English department are committed to teaching; that is why they have come to Union in the first place. They do not all teach in the same way. Some are strong lecturers. Others have a gift for putting students at ease, and getting them to share their insights in discussions. Still others inspire students to complete ambitious research and writing projects.
The English department’s faculty excels at scholarship as well as teaching. Many have published scholarly books: Professor Wineapple on Janet Flanner, on Gertrude Stein and her brother, Leo, on Nathaniel Hawthorne, and on Emily Dickinson; Professor Marten on poets Conrad Aiken and Denise Levertov; Professor Stevenson on Shakespeare; Professor Jenkins on the country house poem; Professor Heinegg on popular philosophy. Professor Murphy co-edited a volume of first-person recollections of Hawthorne. Professors Bracken, Doyle, Jain, Kuhn, Lewin, Lynes, and Tuon have published many scholarly articles on subjects such as Irish women’s writing, medieval narrative, 18th-century science writing, 19th-century British fiction, Asian-American literature, African-American poetry, and Jewish women’s writing. Creative writing is one of the department’s strengths as well. Professor Smith has published five books of poetry; Professor McCord and Professor Selley have recently published collections of poems; Professor Heinegg has translated many books of essays and fiction from Russian, German and Italian; Professor Marten recently published a memoir, But That Didn’t Happen to You.
The department’s excellence is further reflected in the many important fellowships the faculty has won, including awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Woodrow Wilson and Andrew W. Mellon Foundations, the Huntington Library, the Ingram Merrill Foundation.
RESEARCH AND INDEPENDENT STUDY
Undergraduate research and independent study are important features of education at Union in all departments. Each year senior majors are selected for the English Honors Program, which culminates in the completion of an Honors Thesis. They and others present their work at the Steinmetz Symposium, the spring academic festival at Union. In addition, our English majors have the opportunity to publish in the Minerva Review, an undergraduate scholarly journal for students from Union, Hamilton, Skidmore, Wellesley, and Siena. Those interested in creative writing edit and contribute to The Idol, our literary journal, while the college paper, Concordiensis, could not get along without the contributions of English majors.
AFTER UNION
The degree in English has proved valuable to our alumni in all those forms of work in which analytical skills, judgment, and the capacity to write with accuracy and speak with clarity and confidence are valued. Recent students have held internships in radio promotion and broadcasting, advertising, journalism, equine medicine, hospitality sales and promotion, account management, law firms and a center working for social justice. Some students enter Union’s Masters in Teaching program; others go on to law school, medical school, and graduate schools in literature, creative writing, media studies, and business. Still others work in publishing, journalism, television and radio, personnel services, teaching, college administration. An English major is not a pre-professional program in the narrow sense – that is, a vocational course of study leading to a single profession. It prepares one for a life that is challenging and profitable in a wide variety of professions.
English is one of the largest majors at Union, and the Union faculty in English is committed to helping its students achieve their full potential as knowledgeable and thoughtful individuals.
We welcome hearing from you.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Jordan Smith, Chair
Department of English
Humanities Building
Union College
Schenectady, N. Y. 12308