About the Department
Welcome
Northwestern's English Department is an energetic, collegial community of distinguished scholars teaching and publishing in a wide range of literary, cultural, and creative fields, with a variety of disciplinary and methodological approaches.
With outstanding teaching at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, a popular, well-organized undergraduate major, and a small, well-funded Ph.D. program--all supporting close working relations between faculty and students--the department combines the virtues of large scope and intimate scale. Recent graduates of our Ph.D. program have moved to tenure-track jobs and postdoctoral fellowships at institutions including Columbia University, Cornell University, University of Delaware, Ohio State University, University of Pennsylvania, Queen's University, University of Texas at Austin, and the University of British Columbia.
Located in historic University Hall, our highly ranked department has more than thirty renowned faculty members, publishing frequently and intensely involved in teaching. Many of our faculty hold joint appointments and teach courses in related programs and departments, such as American Studies, African American Studies, Classics, Comparative Literary Studies, WCAS undergraduate Drama, Gender Studies, History, the Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Theater and Drama, and Religion. The department also houses Renaissance Drama and--as part of its own lively culture--sponsors a large number of talks, readings, workshops, and colloquia.