What We Do
The CNU English Department instills in students the habits of mind required to pursue informed and purposeful lives in a diverse and interconnected world. Through intensive programs of reading, writing, and research, the department's faculty fosters in its students the capacity for independent thought and reflection, as well as an ever-opening awareness of the world and a keener capacity to observe that world. To that end, the department engenders respect for the English language throughout its history and in its various forms, expressions and functions, while situating English within a larger, global context. Throughout the English Department's curriculum-from the first and second-year composition sequence to the literature, professional writing, and language arts classes and concentrations-students work toward finding their own critical voices, as they encounter literatures of the world, writings of various fields and disciplines, and language varieties of the local community. Students receive individual attention from their professors, who are published experts in their fields, as well as from leaders in the local community who mentor students in professional settings. English majors have a myriad of ways to become involved in campus life at CNU. The department sponsors a national honor society (Sigma Tau Delta), a top-shelf literary magazine (Currents), and an undergraduate web journal of creative nonfiction (Lookout) a professionally edited, online magazine. The department is home to a local chapter of Virginia Teachers of English (VATE). We also host a variety of casual seminars and readings throughout the school year, in which students and faculty members come together to discuss their latest research. English Department professors supervise the University Writing Center, the Women's and Gender Studies program, the Childhood Studies and Film Studies minors, and the campus newspaper, the Captain's Log. Internships in public relations, journalism, and business, as well as career forums help prepare our majors for rewarding lives after college. Recent graduates have successfully pursued careers in journalism, law, photojournalism, public relations, publishing, and teaching; many have gone on to graduate school. We are a small, closely-knit group in the English Department, and we get to know our students well. Join us today!
