English Major

Description

The mission of the Humanities department is to provide students with scholarly and practical opportunities for learning about the discrete disciplines of Communications, Drama, English, the Fine Arts, History, and Philosophy. Students are also offered the opportunity to ground their undergraduate experience in an American Studies major, a History and Social Studies major, or a Liberal Studies major, as well as the Humanities Core curriculum courses. All Humanities courses seek to enact the general goal of the Humanities department to instill in the student the significance of and the means by which discrete disciplines within the Humanities interact not only with each other, but also with fields of study outside the traditional purview of the Humanities. Learning is done with a conscious awareness of how the study of the Humanities relates to a Christian worldview.

Major Competencies

• Graduates will be equipped to participate successfully in a variety of careers such as teaching, publishing, journalism, new media, library and research positions, and public advocacy in areas such as the arts, literacy, community service, church relations, and law.
• Graduates will be confident in both oral and written communication, having been groomed via class discussion, internship experiences and conversations with faculty in the art of close listening and close reading, in the practice of understanding another's point of view (because putting ourselves in the place of a fictional character asks us to empathize with that character) and in the nuances and usage of the English language.
• Graduates will be appreciative of the aesthetic qualities of well-crafted literature, film, poetry and drama and show that appreciation by demonstrating awareness of a literary work's genre, its role within a culture or historical period, its significance in an author's oeuvre or particular age or movement; by employing literary and cultural theories to expand an understanding of the work, and by illuminating the ways the work may reflect a society's values, justify a status quo or imagine a better world.
• Graduates will be transformed by the study of imaginative literature and the awareness such study fosters: literature demonstrates humankind's capacity for self- expression, it illustrates the historical contingency of art, and ultimately it reveals literature as a force of power—one that transforms the student of the art and therein engenders in the student the means to be a transforming agent in the world.

Courses

Part 1: General Education Core
(See Core Studies Requirements)

Part 2: English Major

Prerequisite: EN 200 36 credits (minimum): 18 credits in residence, 21 credits upper division. Required:

TEACHER LICENSURE, LANGUAGE ARTS (ML AND/OR HS):
Program checklists are available in the Teacher Education office. Students wishing to pursue teacher licensure in Language Arts declare a second major in Education.