Department of English

Choose English and Write Your Own Future!

The English Department allows you to write a degree program that will help you reach your career goals as you choose one of our six undergraduate concentrations: African American Literature, Creative Writing, ESL, Language and Linguistics, Literature, and Professional Writing.

In addition to our 300 undergraduate students, we have over 100 graduate students, pursuing Masters' Degrees, MFAs in Creative Writing, Graduate Certificates in ESL, African-American Literature Writing Studies, and PhDs.

English graduates succeed as lawyers, teachers, web designers, writers, administrators, journalists, and business professionals. With online degree programs and a variety of classes, the English major is flexible. English also works great as a second major or minor.

Department of English News

• Dr. Rebecca Adams was named a Freeburg Faculty Fellow for Spring 2020 by the Marcus Orr Center for the Humanities, congratulations Dr. Adams!
• Dr. Donal Harris was named Marcus Orr Center for the Humanities director for the 2019-2020 academic year. 
• Dr. Kathy Lou Schultz was recently awarded the Catherine and Charles Freeburg Professorship award by the College of Arts and Sciences, and Dr. Stephen Tabachnick was also awarded the College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Research Award for the Humanities. Congratulations to our amazing faculty members!
• Bridget Wells, our academic advisor, was awarded the Dean's Award for Excellence in Advising by the College of Arts and Sciences- this is an award based on student input. Congratulations to Ms. Wells!
• The Department of English has welcomed six new faculty members for the 2019-20 Academic Year. Join us in welcoming Dr. Bess R.H. Myers, Dr. Dean Clement, Dr. Don Rodrigues, Dr. Eric Schlich, Ms. Irene Amster, and Dr. Sharese Willis!
• Congratulations to Prof. Eric Schlich for winning the Great Lakes College Association New Writers Award with his book, Quantum Convention. Click here to read more about Prof. Schlich's accomplishment! 
• Dr. Dean Clement's essay, "Milton, Thomas Hobbes and the Political Problem of Chaos" will be featured in the upcoming Winter 2020 edition of Studies in English Literature: 1500-1900. Congratulations Dr. Clement! 
• We are proud to announce that one of our recent Applied Linguistics PhD graduates is named Editor for the new publication, Enhancements and Limitations to ICT-Based Informal Language Learning: Emerging Research and Opportunities. Click here to read more about this new publication, and congratulations to Dr. Rashad Ahmed! 
• Dr. Bess R.H. Myers has been awarded a research fellowship from the International Society for the History of Rhetoric. Congratulations Dr. Myers! 

Department of English Faculty Retirement

Congratulations to Dr. Gene Plunka on his retirement! After 36 years, 9 published books, and dozens of articles, Dr. Plunka will be retiring at the end of this semester. Click here to read some comments about his career by an English Department colleague. If you see Dr. Plunka around Patterson Hall, make sure to congratulate him and wish him well! Thank you Dr. Plunka for your years of service and invaluable impact on our students throughout the years. 

Department of English Upcoming Events

River City Writers' Series Reading, Interview and Workshop

The River City Writers' Series is hosting their first of many events this semester! Author Andrew Martin will be joining us on January 28th and 29th, discussing his upcoming short stories collection Cool for America. You can read the story that gave the collection its title here. 

Tuesday, January 28th at 6pm- reading in the University Center Bluff Room

Wednesday, January 29th at 10:30am- interview in Patterson Hall 456

Wednesday, January 29th at 4pm- workshop in Patterson Hall 317. NOTE: there are limited seats for this workshop. Please email Courtney Santo at cmsanto@memphis.edu to reserve a seat.