English Department

Great literature engages the mind and the heart in search of answers to some of life's toughest questions: Who am I, and what has shaped me? How should I live my life? What gives life meaning? What is love? Justice? Evil? Literature confronts and expresses the most fundamental quandary of all: what it means to be human.

About the program

Writers engage the mind and the heart in search of answers to some of life’s toughest questions. Who am I, and what shaped me? How should I live my life? What gives life meaning? What is love? What is justice? What is evil? What is wrong with society — and can it be changed? Like painting, photography, sculpture, music, dance, and philosophy, literature confronts and expresses the most fundamental quandary of all: what it means to be human.

Student activities

Learning and literature at Union are not restricted to the classroom. English majors often participate in Mountebanks, the College dramatic society, contribute to Idol, the College arts and literary magazine, and write for Concordiensis, the student newspaper. In addition, those students interested in literature sometimes edit, and frequently publish in, The Minerva Review, an undergraduate scholarly journal for students from Union, Hamilton, Skidmore, Wellesley, and Siena.

Why study English?

The English faculty is very proud of what its majors have achieved after graduation from Union. Some have received prestigious awards, including Watson and Fulbright scholarships, and graduate fellowships from Washington University and Rutgers. Some of our graduates went on to attend law school at Cornell, Harvard, and George Washington. Others still have studied creative writing and journalism at Columbia, NYU, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, and Washington University, or completed degrees in business at the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford.