English
Concentrations in Creative Writing or Literature
Why Major in English at Allegheny College
As an English student, you’ll grow to recognize the ideas and perspectives that shape our lives. Cultivate an understanding of the power of language and engage in deep thinking, insightful analysis, and compelling expression.
Choose from either a creative writing or literature concentration. Through creative writing, explore how writers construct meaning and express the human experience. In literary studies, discover how literature and language shape the world in which we live.
Unusual Combinations
Students often combine English with:
English is also available as a minor. Take creative writing or literary studies courses to complement your major in another area of study.
Concentrations
- Creative writing
- Literature
Division
- Language, Literature, and Culture
Program Type
- Major
- Minor
Number of Credits
48 for major24 for minorCareers in English
A degree in English prepares you for jobs in industries such as:
- Writing/editing
- Education
- Publishing
- Advertising
- Public relations
- Business
English can also be a launching point to an advanced degree in fields such as:
- Education
- Writing
- Literature
- Business
- Law
Where English Alumni Work Today
Attorney & Partner
Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP
Fred Eames ‘86
Editorial Director
University of Pittsburgh
Abby Collier ‘03
VP of Marketing
Mamava, Inc
Nicole Micco ‘98
I love how small and intimate the English Department at Allegheny feels. I’ve really connected with many of the professors and have received some great life advice. Their passion for their subject is palpable.
Your Four-Year Journey
Year 1: Understanding
Start with the basics: study the craft of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, as well as British or Shakespearean literatures. You will also delve into literature from other cultures, including LatinX, Asian-American/Diasporic, and African-America/Diasporic.
Year 2: New Approaches
Take courses devoted to the close study of form throughout fiction, poetry, drama, or nonfiction. You can even explore children’s literature or study the works of a single major British, American, or other Anglophone author.
Year 3: Delving Deeper
Take the required Junior Seminar, which emphasizes frequent discussions and individual research projects in literary studies. You may take more than one seminar, and seminars are open to non-majors with permission of the instructor.
Featured courses:
Year 4: The Senior Comp
Typical fourth year courses consist of advanced workshops that will engage you as both a writer and critical reader. You will also complete your Senior Comp in creative writing (poetry, fiction, or creative non-fiction), written under the supervision of an English department faculty member.
Featured courses:
Year 1: Understanding
Our introductory courses, ENGL 110-118, emphasize close reading and the study of at least three literary genres. You’ll engage in meaningful discussion and analysis with your peers and professors.
Year 2: New Approaches
Continue to expand your analytical abilities as a reader and a writer in courses that cover at least two historical periods of literary history (e.g. realism and modernism) and the connections between them.
Year 3: Delving Deeper
Your courses will incorporate secondary research and a consideration of literary criticism. You will refine your ability to ask relevant, independent, interpretive questions of literary texts, encounter relevant examples of literary criticism, and be able to summarize and respond to arguments made by authors.
Featured courses:
Year 4: The Senior Comp
Typical fourth-year literature courses build on rigor and will include theoretical approaches to literature. You will continue to hone your skills as a close reader of literary texts, find and evaluate relevant published criticism, and apply critical methods to a focused literary topic. Your studies will culminate with completing a substantial research project that displays a sustained sense of historical and cultural context.
Featured courses:
Research and Internships
The real-world experience you’ll gain in an internship will help you successfully transition from college to the workforce.
- Allegheny students have interned in variety of organizations, including:
- Smith Brothers Advertising, Pittsburgh
- Modern Language Association
- Marketing, Ronald McDonald House Charities of Northeast Ohio
- Crawford County READ Program
- Service Learning
- Meadville Tribune
The Senior Comp is the culmination of four years of experience, imagination, and study where you’ll research, propose, create, and defend an original creative or critical project. You’ll be paired with a mentor to help oversee this project.
Recent Senior Comp topics from English students include:
- This Is a Cemetery: Poems
- The Faerie Plague: An Environmental Faerie Tale about Chytridiomycosis
- Salome as a Feminist Antihero in Elizabeth Cary’s The Tragedy of Mariam
- Bruised Fruit: Poems
- Zephyr: Fiction
- In Pursuit of Perfection: Essays
You’ll broaden and refine your abilities through multiple experiential learning opportunities, including:
- The Campus, Allegheny’s weekly student newspaper
- Allegheny Review, a nationally-known undergraduate literary magazine
- Overkill, an Allegheny-specific literary magazine
- Writing Fellows: trained peer consultants in the Maytum Center for Student Success
- The Single Voice Reading Series provides students with an opportunity to hear and meet nationally known writers, such as John Updike, Carolyn Forché, Tobias Wolff, and more
- Student readings and national conferences: share your work with our learning community and beyond
Many English majors carry out independent humanities research or collaborative research with faculty in addition to the Senior Comp.
Allegheny’s Office of Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities provides funding for student research during the summer and for travel to regional and national conferences throughout the year.
The Dusty Elias Kirk and William Caroselli Fund offers English majors support for academic conference attendance, professional presentations, summer writing workshops, senior project research, and materials.
Faculty and Staff
Professor
Ph.D., West Virginia University; MFA., University of Pittsburgh; B.A., Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Email: mferrence@allegheny.edu
Phone: 814-332-4339
Associate Professor
M.D., Harvard Medical School; Ph.D., Department of English, New York University; M.A., Department of English, New York University
Email: jvotava@allegheny.edu
Phone: 814-332-4334
Featured News
Allegheny Alumna Selected for National 2024-2025 Aspiring Academics Program Through The American Association Of Colleges Of Pharmacy
Lauren Isaacs ’22 never imagined pursuing pharmacy when she entered as a first-year at Allegheny College. Then, she was introduced to the field through an Introductory Chemistry course, and now she attends the Jefferson College of Pharmacy at Thomas Jefferson University.
Program Contact
Jennie Votava
Frederick F. Seely Chair of English Literature; Associate Professor of English
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Address:
520 North Main Street
Meadville, PA 16335
Contact:
814-332-4351
info@allegheny.edu
admissions@allegheny.edu
