What We Do

Research in the English Department involves the study of literary subjects, of language and the various expressions of a culture. Our methodology includes critical reading, inquiry, thought, and debate. English “labs” are libraries, museums, classrooms, conference rooms, even hallways, cafés, and campus quads—any place where thinking or conversation occurs. Through conferences, working groups, seminars, speaker series, literary readings and other modes, we challenge ourselves to study and learn, to extend the boundaries of our knowledge, to hone our comprehension and expressive skills, and to strengthen our imaginations. The results of our research are books, journals, films, essays, poems, stories, and lectures.

English Department Administered Centers

NOVEL logo

Novel is a peer-reviewed journal devoted to the best new criticism and theory in novel studies. The journal was founded in 1967 at Brown University for the purpose of promoting new approaches to the study of the novel.

 

Visit The Novel Project

PAL logo

Center for Philosophy, Arts and Literature (PAL) exists to encourage and promote work that places literature, theater, painting, film, and other arts in conversation with philosophy without reducing them to mere illustrations of philosophical paradigms. It seeks to foster conversation between writers and artists and scholars and critics.

Visit PAL

CISSCT logo

Many of the most significant developments in contemporary research in virtually all disciplines involve issues that cross not only disciplinary lines but also the chasm that has traditionally separated studies in the humanities from research in the social, and even more, the natural sciences.

VIsit CISSCT

Representing Migration Humanities Lab

Dedicated to investigating stories of migration from the origins of modernity to contemporary concerns, this lab engages participants in the following collaborative research projects on the representation and cultural expression of migration in literature, music, and performance cultures. Students in any major are welcome.

Visit the Lab Site