Department of English
Undergraduate Programs in English
It is my privilege to serve as Director of Undergraduate Studies at Temple University. English majors at Temple get to take a remarkably wide range of courses, from foundational classes in the history of American and British literature to more advanced courses in everything from contemporary world fiction to creative writing to business writing to literary theory to Shakespeare. We also offer a minor and a Writing certificate, and we provide a concentration for majors in Secondary Education. If you have questions about English 701 or English 802, see the First-Year Writing Program.
Our courses are taught by a faculty who not only have national and international reputations as scholars but also have been recognized for their excellence as teachers. Our faculty have won 6 Great Teacher Awards—Temple’s highest honor for teaching—the most for any department in the university.
Although we have over 500 English majors, which lends diversity and dynamism to our community, we are also committed to challenging and nurturing students in small classes. Our gateway class, which introduces students to thinking reading, and writing like English majors is capped at 20; all of our creative classes are capped at 17; and our senior seminars are capped at 12, which gives our major the opportunity to work very closely with the instructor and fellow students on their research projects. Our curriculum is designed to develop your passions and your skills as readers and writers and to hone your skills. In addition to broadening and sharpening your mind in general, an English major at Temple will prepare you well for a variety of careers.
We know, however, that to get wherever you want to go, you will need not to limit your work to the classroom. That’s why the Undergraduate Office co-ordinates internships; our long-time coordinator, Dr. Paula Robison has helped place students in internships ranging from DC Comics to the University of Pennsylvania Press to First Union Bank. We have an active English Majors Association, and we encourage you to become involved with their activities, sponsoring events for our vibrant creative writing community, including open mic readings. Our department also hosts Hyphen, a literary magazine. To help students make connections between Temple and the wider community, we offer courses tied to the Community Learning Network, recently founded by one of our faculty members, Dr. Eli Goldblatt. (For one its affiliated sites, check out Tree House Books). We are also eager to counsel students who are interested in graduate school; please make an appointment with me if you wish to discuss advanced studies in literature or English Studies.
As you pursue your interests, from the most idealistic to the most practical, we urge you to use the Undergraduate Office as a resource. We really do care what our majors have to say; this is why we have for the past two years been surveying them to gauge their experiences in the department and to guide us as we revise our curriculum. We are very lucky to have Dr. Gabe Wettach, who has many years of experience counseling students, as our Undergraduate Advisor. Either of us would be happy to sit down with you answer any questions you have about the English major.
Steven Newman
Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies
Department of English
Temple University