This Fall the English Department is excited to welcome Duke alum, Lucy Corin, as Visiting Blackburn Professor and UC Irvine scholar, Ryan Ku, as Asian American Postdoctoral Associate. Professor Corin will teach creative writing and Professor Ku will teach a course in Asian American Studies. Lucy Corin Lucy has a BA from Duke University and an MFA from Brown. She’s a Professor at the University of California, Davis where she teaches in the English Department and Creative Writing Program. She is the… read more about English Welcomes Visiting Fiction Writer and Asian American Scholar »
As part of its emergency preparedness plans, Duke will test the DukeALERT mass notification system on Wednesday, July 18. Beginning at 10 a.m., all faculty, students and staff will receive a test email, and a text message will be sent to the mobile devices of all students, faculty, and staff who have registered to receive the service. Registering for text messaging is simple for those who have not yet signed up. Duke's information line (919) 684-INFO will also provide a recorded message during the test. read more about Duke To Test DukeAlert System On Wednesday - July 18, 2018 »
Cave Canem and Northwestern University Press congratulate Tsitsi Jaji on receiving the 2018 prize for her second book of poems, Mother Tongues, selected by Matthew Shenoda. The Cave Canem Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize is a second-book award for Black poets of African descent, offered every other year. The award celebrates and publishes works of lasting cultural value and literary excellence. read more about Announcing the Winner of the 2018 Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize »
As the English Department celebrated its graduate ceremony on May 16, 2018, twenty-eight students crossed the stage as they stepped closer to their professional goals and dreams. On April 25, 2018, the English Department emailed a brief survey to the department's graduating class to ask “What’s Next?” Nearly 50% of the graduates took a break from their studies to complete the 10 question survey. Graduates shared what their plans are after graduation and their… read more about And Now What? 2018 Duke English Graduates »
Before the end of the Spring Semester and the Summer Fun began a survey was sent to the class 2019 and beyond English majors, minors, and PhD candidates to get an idea of how they would be spending their summer. read more about Summer 2018 Plans for Duke English Majors, Minors, & PhD Candidates »
Matthew Omelsky, 2018 Duke English Ph.D. graduate, recently sat down and reflected on his time at Duke and the Duke experience. Matthew completed his undergraduate studies in Africana Studies and Politics at New York University. His interest in African diasporic cultures took root during his jazz guitar studies in high school in Cleveland, Ohio and then at the California Institute of the Arts, where he began a longstanding interest in the autobiographies and biographies of legendary jazz musicians. He… read more about Matthew Omelsky 2018 Duke English Ph.D. Graduate Shares His Experience »
Professor Anna Gibson, 2014 graduate of the Duke English Ph.D. program, is currently a tenure-track assistant professor at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA, where her work focuses on 19th-century literature and the Victorian novel. During the Spring and Summer of 2018, while on pre-tenure sabbatical, she returned to Duke to work on her current book, as well as the Digital Dickens Notes Project, for which she is the director. Professor Gibson is from the village of Abbotts Ann in Hampshire, England. She… read more about A Moment with Anna Gibson, 2014 Graduate of the English Ph.D. Program »
The English Department at Duke University is honored to announce that Karen Little has been selected as the 2018 Stephen Horne Award for Excellence in Teaching winner. This award is presented annually to a graduate student instructor in the English Department who best demonstrates outstanding commitment and excellence in the classroom. Instructors are nominated by their students, and the winner is selected based on the number of students who nominate a graduate instructor; the nature of the descriptions… read more about Karen Little, 2018 Stephen Horne Award for Excellence in Teaching Winner »
Jake Fox, one of the English majors that will be graduating this weekend, , took a few moments to reflect on what his experience as an English major at Duke University has been like, what is next for Jake after graduation, and he also shared some advice for future Duke English Majors or those considering English as their major or minor. Share with us a little about your experience at Duke and being an English Major? In your opinion, how has your major and minor worked together? What is next for Jake and what are your… read more about Jake Fox Talks About Being An English Major at Duke »
Duke University will expand on its commitment to a strong humanities curriculum and forge new collaborations beyond campus with a $3 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, President Vincent E. Price said Friday. read more about Mellon Grant to Boost Humanities at Duke »
On April 19, 2018, the Creative Writing faculty in the English Department at Duke University sponsored the Inaugural Voices Up: A Creative Writing Student Reading event at the Duke Coffeehouse. Voices Up was designed for students in creative writing courses to share their works. The inaugural event featured eight students that shared their creative writing works with the Duke community. Several of our participants share with us how excited they were to be able to participate in an event like Voices Up,… read more about Inaugural Voices Up: A Creative Writing Student Reading »
The English Department at Duke University is honored to announce the winners of the 2018 Creative Writing Contests and Creative Writing Scholarships. English majors and non-major undergraduates are eligible to participate in creative writing contests in the areas of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry works. Each spring semester the Creative Writing Committee awards the William M. Blackburn, Francis Pemberton and Margaret Rose Knight Sanford scholarship to undergraduate students for work done in one or… read more about 2018 Winners of the English Department’s Creative Writing Contests and Scholarships »
Rachel Gevlin, English Ph.D. candidate recently had the following article published on the Duke Graduate School website. Rachel's article talks about the "Fresh Off the Market" event that was held by graduate students in the English Department on April 6, 2018. read more about Assessing Our Market Value »
Four Duke Ph.D.s, who each received certificates in African and African American Studies, have had books with the central theme of blackness published in the past year. They return to Duke on Tuesday, April 24, for an intellectual reunion highlighting black studies and the importance of women in the production of knowledge. Two of the four speakers at this event are Duke English Ph.D, alumni Alisha Gaines and Britt Rusert. Alisha Gaines, Black for a Day: Fantasies… read more about black women, black studies, knowledge production »
Degree and Year: BA 2007Professional Title: WriterEmployer: Self-Employed As a Duke student, I decided early on that I'd major in English, after flirting briefly with the pre-med track. I graduated in 2007 with a Major in English (High Distinction for my Senior Thesis), Minor in Political Science, Certificate in Journalism. I took my first poetry seminar during my Freshman Spring semester with Professor Gopen, and what we learned around that small seminar table stays with… read more about English Alum – Cathy Fisher, Writer, Shares Her Experiences »
“The Art of Distances is an excellent book that uniquely demonstrates Stan’s amazing talent both as a reader of fictional texts and as a philosophical synthesizer. She delivers compelling arguments and elegant readings of the texts, making her thesis bold and original in its scope.” —Jean-Michel Rabaté, fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and author of The Pathos of Distance “This book is a veritable tour de force of writers and critics spanning across the… read more about Corina Stan's The Art of Distance: Ethical Thinking in Twentieth-Century Literature Is Now Available »
Are you an undergraduate who enjoys creative writing? You could win an award for your talents! The Rosati Creative Writing Prize is awarded each spring in recognition of an outstanding work of creative writing. All Duke undergraduate students are eligible to submit work for consideration. Projects may be any genre and take any form (audio/video, digital media, etc.), but must include a substantial creative writing component. Deadline: May 15th, 2018Prize: $1500 Eligibility… read more about The Rudolph William Rosati Creative Writing Award »
University Assistant Professor of English, Aarthi Vadde is this year’s winner of the American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA) Harry Levin Prize for Best First Book in Comparative Literature for her work Chimeras of Form: Modernist Internationalism Beyond Europe, 1914-2016, Columbia University Press, 2016. Professor Vadde was recently awarded tenure by University. The Harry Levin Prize is awarded annually for a comparative literature work that is the author’s first book-length publication. Prof. Vadde was… read more about Congratulations to the 2018 Harry Levin Prize Winner, Prof. Aarthi Vadde »
Dean’s Diversity Award Priscilla Wald R. Florence Brinkley Professor of English, Chair of Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies “Professor Priscilla Wald has been a strong leader in advocating for a more diverse faculty at Duke. She always steps up to lead when issues of diversity are at stake,” said nominator Kevin Moore, vice dean for Faculty, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences. “We have seen sustained evidence for this in her home department (English) as well as in Gender, Sexuality & Feminist (GSF) Studies… read more about Congratulations to Professor Priscilla Wald On Winning Dean's Diversity Award »
The English Department is proud to acknowledge that Patrick Morgan, English PhD candidate, was selected as one of the 2018 Teaching Award Recipients. Dean Paula D. McClain announced the 2018 recipients of the Dean’s Awards for Excellence in Mentoring, Excellence in Teaching and Inclusive Excellence in Graduate Education in January and the Dean's Awards Ceremony was held on March 28, 2018, in the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. … read more about Patrick Morgan, 2018 Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching Recipient »
Thank you for your interest in DearEnglishMajor.com! My name is Alyssa W. Christensen and I’m the creator and English major behind the blog. After graduating from college, I had no idea what kind of career I wanted to pursue. (Not only did I attend a liberal arts school, but my emphasis was in creative writing, specifically poetry, which didn't exactly set me up on a lucrative career track.) My idea of what I could do with an English major was limited, and even after an internship at a publishing company, I… read more about Dear English Major Blog »
When I saw the news last month that my alma mater (aka the Alma Mater of the Nation, aka William & Mary) had hired a new president, I was struck by something: Katherine Rowe was an English major in college. That makes one thing (and probably the only thing) we have in common, because, I, too, majored in English. Rowe went on to be an English scholar (she specializes in Shakespeare, Milton and others medieval and Renaissance writers) and, eventually, the provost of Smith College in Massachusetts. But as an… read more about The Syllabus: Good news for English majors! »
The Duke University linguistics professor talks about her new book, and the power of language in determining inclusion. read more about 'The Myth of English as America's National Language': A Conversation with Dominika Baran »
Professor Tsitsi Jaji has been invited by the World Union of Poets to participate in a poetry reading in Paris. This event is part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) World Poetry Day. In 1999, the (UNESCO) declared March 21st as World Poetry Day. “One of the main objectives of the Day is to support linguistic diversity through poetic expression and to offer endangered languages the opportunity to be heard within their communities. The observance of World Poetry Day… read more about In Honor of World Poetry Day, Prof. Tsitsi Is Participating in a Reading in Paris »
Gregory Brennen took his English 90S.05 “Mystery and Detective Fiction: Sex and Secrets in Mystery Fiction from Sherlock Holmes to Harry Potter” on a class field trip. The class attended a performance of The Moors at Manbites Dog Theater, in Durham, NC. Brennen described The Moors as a contemporary play based on 19th century literature. He felt that it had a lot of resonances with the themes from his “Detective Fiction “course, including a country house mystery, gender issues… read more about English 90S.05 “Mystery and Detective Fiction” Field Trip »
The Spotlight on Southernist Scholars Initiative is a newly created ongoing project that asks scholars to comment on the state of the field in southern studies. The project collects information about how scholars became involved in southern studies, insights they’ve come to through their work, benefits and challenges of these scholars’ work, advice for upcoming scholars, and reflections on the job market. read more about Prof. Jarvis McInnis' Spotlight on Southernist Scholars Initiative Interview »
The English Department would like to congratulate Jacqueline Kellish and Ben Richardson on being two of the eight Ph.D. students that have been named Versatile Humanists at Duke (VH@Duke) Interns for 2018. read more about 2018 VH@Duke Interns »
Sholarships, memoirs, novels and poems: Faculty and staff offer something for any reader read more about Living With Uncertainty and Other Winter Reads From Duke Authors »
Jackson Skeen, a Duke senior from Virginia Beach, Virginia, is one of 12 students nationwide selected as George J. Mitchell Scholars. read more about Jackson Skeen Named Mitchell Scholar »