As Nigerian-American writer Chimamanda Adichie affirms in “The Danger of a Single Story,” “Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity.” To major in English at Nazareth University is to better understand the power of storytelling and other kinds of literary expression across media. Students will encounter texts in many forms, from classical drama and Renaissance poetry to 19th century novels and 21st century podcasts, comics and music. They will analyze how storytellers use word, image, and sound to invent, adapt, and remix narratives. And they will learn how literary and rhetorical production is shaped by cultural power granted or withheld on the basis of gender, sexuality, class, race, ethnicity, religion, region, nation, and neurodiversity.
The English Program encourages students to see themselves as makers in their own right. English majors interact with narratives and engage with their chosen audiences by producing work in a wide range of formats, including– but not limited to– written, audio, and video essays in text, audio and video formats, infographics, social media posts, and conference presentations. Through this work, students become more adept at interpreting complex media and texts and more skillful at crafting their own communication to suit different communicative contexts and rhetorical situations.
Students interested in teaching can add a second major in either Early Childhood and Elementary Education or Adolescence Education to satisfy New York state requirements for teacher preparation. English majors seeking advanced practice in the craft of writing are encouraged to add a Creative Writing minor, while a minor in Communication and Media can deepen students’ understanding of how messages are conveyed across platforms.
Learning Outcomes for the English major
Upon completing the English major, students will be able to:
- exercise critical capacity in employing the terms, theories, and conventions of literary, cultural, rhetorical, and media study;
- analyze the interplay of form and content in a text;
- analyze a text’s potential both to reinforce and to resist the socio-cultural structures of power in which it is embedded;
- effectively communicate their ideas to their chosen audience in a variety of modes and rhetorical situations;
- engage in informed dialogue with the work of other scholars, critics, and writers; and
- skillfully find and responsibly use primary and secondary source evidence.
*Note: Only four courses (12 credit hours) will be accepted as transfer credit toward the English major.
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