English for Non-Majors

The English Option is available to students enrolled in Arts and Contemporary Studies as a disciplinary concentration of 13 English courses (8 required and 5 elective) within their interdisciplinary degree.

The English Option provides students with a course of study that focuses on how to read critically—that is, analyze, historicize, and politicize—a wide range of literary and cultural texts.

Students examine how such things as genre, form, method, historical period, geography and nation inform narrative media, including works of literature, film, television, digital culture, and the visual arts. Through an engagement with narratives of the past and the present, students develop a critical understanding of contemporary cultural production.

The Department of English is pleased to offer two minors: the Minor in English, and the Minor in Global Narratives, an interdisciplinary minor shared with the RTA School of Media.

The Minor in English is a concentration of 6 English courses.  Students require ENG 110 Literatures Across Borders and then select 5 English electives from a wide-ranging list of courses. Please refer to the Minors policy (opens in new window)  section of the calendar for further information on individual Minor requirements and restrictions.

The Minor in Global Narratives is designed to give students the opportunity to study transnational narratives, world literature, and international media studies from interdisciplinary and global perspectives. Students develop an enhanced understanding of regional and global issues, gain expertise in media studies, and investigate the convergence of communication and cultural productions at global crossroads.

^{Note: English major students may not take a Minor in English, as the Minor must be taken in another discipline or be interdisciplinary. To learn more about Minors available to BA English students, see the Programs page.}