English, B.A.

HEGIS Number: 1599

Curriculum Code: U0323

The English Department houses Old Westbury’s Writing Program and offers the Bachelor of Arts Degree in English. The B.A. in English provides majors with a cutting-edge curriculum in the study of multicultural and world literature, advanced writing and research, and critical thinking and analysis. The English program rigorously cultivates skills in literary analysis, careful reading, and advanced writing through a multicultural and global literary framework. Building on common foundations, this degree offers two upper-level specializations: Multicultural U.S.-British Literature and World Literature.

The English major is designed to give students:

• Knowledge of the main themes, historical/social backgrounds, periods of development, and genres of British/U.S. and European/World Literature, with specific knowledge of the multicultural and intercultural content of those literatures
• Ability to interpret literary texts with regard to themes, form, genre affiliations, and social/cultural reference
• Mastery of English writing skills, including the ability to construct large-scale interpretive-analytical papers that are proficient in grammar, expression, discussion of literary scholarship, and discipline-specific (MLA) documentation
• Ability to synthesize and integrate knowledge from different courses into an overall conception of the development and importance of Multicultural or World Literature

At the Foundations level, requirements recognize the importance of firm grounding in Language Arts and Literary Interpretation. These emphases correlate with stress on skills foundations in current pedagogy. The Linguistic Foundations requirement recognizes the centrality of strong training in the history and structure of language as well as the formal grammar of English.

The Literary Analysis requirement offers training in literary interpretation, close reading, knowledge of literary genres, social and historical contextualization of literature, and literary theory, today a sine qua non of competitive literature degrees.

A three-course sequence in Literary Traditions includes historical surveys of British, U.S., European, and World literature and selected courses in classical foundations, genres, and such recent topics as postcolonialism.

The Multicultural U.S./British Literature Specialization is rooted in recent trends in literary theory and interpretation, which view U.S./British literature as expressing diverse national, cultural, and gender perspectives within a common tradition. Multicultural U.S./British Literature includes texts from both the U.S. and U.K. by writers of different ethnicities, genders, sexualities, classes, and ability/disability status. Multicultural literature focuses on the complexity of two countries in which people of many different cultures cohabit. Such fields as African American Literature, Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United States, Women’s Literature, and LGBTQ Literature, increasingly prominent in English studies since 1990, form the core of this specialization. This specialization enhances the competitiveness of students applying to graduate English programs or continuing to a variety of careers.

The World Literature Specialization studies literature in English from outside the U.S./U.K. as well as other literatures in translation. This specialization speaks to the increasing integration of international literary culture and to an increasing emphasis on global culture. It is directly relevant to the sizeable number of Old Westbury students from postcolonial English speaking cultures and to others with an interest in world culture. It helps prepare students for graduate study in such fields as Postcolonial Studies, the Literature of the African Diaspora, and others, and for varied careers.

The Senior Seminar requirement offers an integrated capstone experience for students in this degree program. The Senior Seminar requirement begins with Senior Seminar I-Research and Writing, an intensive preparation for the Senior Thesis including study of advanced research methods, seminar presentations, and a semester-length writing project. Senior Seminar II-Thesis provides a semester-long thesis writing project with a common curriculum of reading and research.

The English Department offers co-curricular, community-building activities and systems of support for our majors through individual academic advising sessions; student publications, round tables and conferences; and workshops, poetry readings, and career networking sessions. The Department publishes Harmonia, a creative writing journal, and Discordia, a literary scholarship journal open to all Old Westbury students. Majors have opportunities to earn course credit as peer mentors and as peer tutors. Internships place students in legal, cultural and publishing venues under the supervision of professionals.

The B.A. Degree in English program prepares majors for entrance into graduate school as well as for employment in fields that require strong proficiency in communication, writing, critical analysis, and intercultural understanding. Our graduates work in fields such as publishing, banking, education, business, library sciences, teaching, and law. Our graduates have continued their education, pursing graduate degrees in English, Education (including Old Wesbury’s Master of Arts in Teaching English Language Arts 7-12), Library Science, Business Law, and other fields of study.

The English Department is equally dedicated to developing the language arts skills of Old Westbury students (including writing, revising, reading, researching, information management, public speaking, and critical thinking) through our offerings of English Composition I and II.

Faculty value involvement in campus life and reflect the College’s mission to promote “intercultural understanding” and to “build a more just world” in our approaches to teaching, service work, and professional development projects.

Evening Students

At this time, completing the major requires predominantly daytime attendance.

Transfer Students

Students can complete the major in a two-year period. Up to twelve transfer credits may apply toward the forty-four credits required for the major.