English

The Humanities Department offers a B.A. degree in English. All English majors take ten core courses designed to give them a comprehensive overview of the history of literature written in English from the early-medieval Anglo-Saxon poets through Shakespeare, the Romantics, and the Modernists to contemporary writers like Toni Morrison, Seamus Heaney, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Li-Young Lee. Majors read in all genres—drama, fiction, non-fiction, and poetry—and also encounter great works of literature in translation. In addition to their 10 core courses, majors select a "track" of six additional English-related courses particularly suited to their individual academic and/or vocational goals.

The DeSales English Program offers tracks in

• Literature, where the student continues to enhance his/her understanding of literary history begun in the core courses;
• Education, where the student selects courses in accordance with Pennsylvania Department of Education requirements for Secondary School Teacher Certification;
• Public Relations, or
• Writing, where the student may shift his/her focus in the direction of creative, journalistic, or professional writing.

An English major, in close consultation with his/her advisor, may also develop a self-designed track to complement the ten core courses.

Beyond the classroom experience, English majors are strongly encouraged to travel and study abroad.

In English as in all Humanities offerings, the faculty's teaching, its curriculum, scholarly expertise, careful advising, willingness to take on extra tutorial work for the benefit of individual students, and its offering of special extracurricular events are all first and foremost informed and driven by the Catholic and Salesian traditions.

The DeSales English faculty brings a wide-range of experience to their classroom teaching. Some were educated at major universities, some at small liberal arts colleges, Catholic and non-Catholic. Many have worked extensively outside "the academy," in areas such as finance, fundraising, print journalism, professional acting, public relations, and not-for-profit business. Some have spent significant time living abroad, in Britain, France, Ukraine.

The English faculty firmly believes that study in the Humanities—and English in particular—stands at the heart of every liberal arts institution, and that central to their mission is the teaching of certain skills, among them critical thinking, problem-solving, team-working, and communication skills, which if acquired will produce graduates who are ethical, self-disciplined, and highly capable of negotiating the 21st Century workplace. The shrinking world and a high-powered global economy oblige all institutions of high learning to graduate young people who will be bright and sensitive citizens of the global community; DeSales University, having in the last several years made the major transition from a college to a university, is particular cognizant of this responsibility. As a result, recent DSU English majors have successfully pursued graduate school and vocational interests in areas such as corporate communication, legal studies, library science, pharmaceutical marketing, print journalism, public relations, publishing, teaching, veterinary medicine, and many more.

English majors take a major role in producing the campus publications, such as the student newspaper and the literary magazine, under the guidance of English faculty. The English Department also hosts an annual High School Poetry Festival, now in its 20^th year, which brings an internationally renowned poet to campus every spring; the Humanities Reading Series, which brings six publishing writers to DeSales each year to present public readings of their work, and an annual Writers' Conference.

• What Can I Do With This Major?

Recent and forthcoming English faculty publications include:

• Dr. Annette Benert's The Architectural Imagination of Edith Wharton (Farleigh-Dickinson University Press, forthcoming);
• Dr. Steve Myers's poetry collection Memory's Dog (FootHills Publishing, 2004) and poetry chapbook Work Site (FootHills, 2003)
• Ann Michael's poetry chapbook More than Shelter (Spire Press, 2004)
• Juilene Osborne-McKnight's novel Bright Sword of Ireland (Forge Books, 2004)

Dr. Galina Yermolenko's current book project, Roxolana: From Slave to Legend, recently received two prestigious grants: the 2004 Summer Stipend from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the 2004 Library of Congress Fellowship in International Studies.