Undergraduate Studies in English
Timeless Skills and Lifelong Learning
When you choose to major in English, you're choosing to build a set of durable skills that you can continue to build and leverage for the rest of your professional life. English majors across our range of concentrations all share a deep understanding of how we write, read, and share information across cultural, technological, and temporal boundaries.
Our alumni work as marketing managers, executives, small business owners, writers, lawyers, and a host of other professional positions because of the durable skills their studies provided them while with us at the UofA.
Specialized technological systems change. Best practices in technical fields shift over time as new standards and trends come and go. Skills in literacy, reading, and writing, however, never fade in their importance and never reach a ceiling. Our students carry their skills in textual analysis, cultural literacy, and textual production with them and continue to refine these skills as they evolve as professionals and as people.
"I am so thankful for the English program and all the professors who helped guide
me towards the dreams I thought were unreachable."
—Amelia Hirsch, Creative Writing and Rhetoric and Writing Grad
Three Compelling Concentrations
In your time in the Department of English, you can choose to specialize in one of our three concentrations during your studies in the direction that you find most compelling academically and professionally.
Our Creative Writing concentration will introduce you to the broader Creative Writing community of students in our world-class M.F.A. program, our faculty who are award-winning authors and brilliant professors, and a slew of ongoing visiting writer events and other opportunities to engage with.
In the Literature and Cultural Studies concentration you will encounter the opportunity to explore a wide variety of literature, ranging from the earliest texts in the language through contemporary multimedia forms. You’ll be part of community of literary scholars that includes our active student honors group, Sigma Tau Delta, as well as around a stellar group of faculty who are deeply engaged with research in their areas of expertise.
Finally, students in our Rhetoric and Writing concentration can build skills in writing and communication, exploring topics such as digital rhetorics, editing and publication, popular and visual culture, and literacy studies. In the concentration, you’ll find a community passionate about all things writing and rhetoric, with programming offered regularly by our Brown Chair in English Literacy in addition to opportunities to work with community clients in editing and publication coursework.
I am deeply grateful for how both the English Department and the Honors College nurtured
my creativity beyond the classroom. The faculty are truly dedicated not only to their
work, but to their students.
—Isabella Sotlar, English Honors Grad and US Fulbright Fellow
A Community of Scholars, Readers, & Writers
In English, we believe the value of a degree is more than a set of discrete hard skills that are tied to a single point in time. Standards and technology change, but the ability to critically engage with culture, texts, and textual production are skills that never age out or fall out of use. We’re continuously excited by the possibilities that await us in our studies and hope you’ll join us.
Apply Today! Check out our fully-online English BA program.From writing press releases, editing upcoming novels, to doing PR work, I have valued
my time within the English program and am grateful for the experiences I have gained
over the course of my degree
—Eva Weege, Rhetoric and Writing minor