Giving to English

Gifts to the Discretionary Fund of the English Department help support the activities that make a scholarly community thrive: guest lectures, receptions, student travel to professional meetings, student and faculty mini-grants, conferences, student awards, and class excursions to cultural venues.

In the Department of English, the educational experience begins with internationally-known faculty who teach our students through a vibrant curriculum based both in traditional fields and in newly evolving interdisciplinary ones. Almost all of our classes are small enough to be discussion-based, with faculty often involving students in their research and supervising students' individual study projects. We educate future specialists and non-specialists alike in cultural literacy, critical and analytical thinking, clear expression, and research skills, while preparing current and future graduate students with solid grounding in advanced disciplinary methods and knowledge.

Our learning extends beyond the classroom. Undergraduate Creative Writing Concentrators gather monthly with faculty writers to share a meal, hear student readings, and discuss writing and pre-professional matters. We mount regular panels with guest professionals (from teaching, editing, academia, law, business, and non-profits) speaking about how they used their English degrees to achieve in their chosen fields. We invite students to roundtable conversations with Pulitzer Prize-winning authors. We take groups of students on summer courses to write in India, read British novelists in London and Irish writers in Dublin, and learn about the literature and history of South Africa in Johannesburg. Together, students and faculty contribute scholarly and professional achievements to the greater reputation of the University.

None of these achievements would be possible without your contributions to the legacy of your alma mater. Your gifts are crucial to the forward momentum of the English Department's core missions, and they create an immediate, visible impact in our drive for excellence.

Should you want to discuss making a special gift to the department, please be in touch with the Director of Development, Schools and Programs, Sally Murray, by email at sally.murray@bc.edu or by phone at 617-552-8517.