We are a dynamic and growing department of nearly fifty tenured and tenure-track faculty. With more than one hundred M.A. and Ph.D students and about five-hundred undergraduate majors, we are one of the larger and more diverse departments on the Columbia campus. We offer
a wide range of courses in British and American Literature and Creative Writing, as well as special emphases in African Diaspora Studies, Critical Theory, English Language and Linguistics, Folklore and Oral Tradition, and Rhetoric and Composition. We also maintain close working relationships with other units on campus such as Black Studies, Film Studies, Women's & Gender Studies, and the Honors College. As our recent awards and publications can attest, our faculty and graduate students are productive scholars, writers, and teachers, many of them winners of nation-wide awards. Explore some of our recent achievements in the newest Communiqué (pdf).
Whatever your reason for seeking us out, we hope you enjoy your visit to our website. For more information about upcoming lectures, readings, and other events, please visit our Department Calendar.
Announcements
Frances Dickey, Rebecca Dingo, Joanna Hearne, and Steve Karian have all been promoted to Associate Professor and awarded tenure.
Take our Alumni Survey.
Check out our department's new Faculty Bookshelf.
Announcing the The Cliff Becker Endowment for the Literary Arts.
Awards
Joanna Hearne was awarded a 2012 Kemper Award for Teaching Excellence.
Elizabeth Chang was awarded a 2012 Gold Chalk Award for excellence in graduate teaching.
Claire Schmidt was awarded the 2012 Donald K. Anderson Graduate Teaching Award.
