Major, Minor, & Concentrations
The English Department offers a large undergraduate major and minor and six optional interdisciplinary concentrations, including an intensive, workshop-based Creative Writing program. Non-majors can also complete these concentrations as minors.
The major ordinarily consists of 30 credits (10 courses) beyond the First-Year Writing Seminar (FWS) and Literature Core. Following a sophomore sequence that helps you develop fundamental skills essential to literary study and a pair of courses introducing literature’s historical traditions, English majors have the opportunity to work with a faculty advisor to choose among a rich variety of electives.
In your junior and seniors years, you will develop depth in one or more of these areas by taking a seminar on a topic that interests you. All majors in the class of 2024 and beyond will complete a new set of courses on Race, Blackness, and Language, which reflect our continued commitment to re-making the curriculum to fit the needs of the current century.
After you declare the major by contacting Marla DeRosa, you’ll be assigned a departmental faculty advisor if English is your only major or your first declared major. The advisor will help you map out an academic program in line with your interests. If English is a second major, you will be assigned an informal departmental faculty advisor.
For the Class of 2024 and beyond:
- 1 semester of Studies in Poetry (ENGL 2131)
- 1 semester of Studies in Narrative (ENGL 2133)
- 8 additional courses comprised of the following:
- 1 semester of medieval or early modern literature (pre-1700), which can be fulfilled by courses in either British or American literature
- 1 semester of eighteenth- or nineteenth-century literature (pre-1900), which can be fulfilled by courses in either British or American literature
- 1 course designated as fulfilling the Race, Blackness, and Language requirement
- 5 electives
At least one of these courses must be a seminar. Seminars should be taken after Studies in Poetry and Studies in Narrative, ordinarily during the junior or senior year, and include all grad/undergrad courses offered in English, as well as any course with a seminar designation. Creative writing courses do not count as seminars.
Majors may also want to pursue a concentration within the major (see below), apply to the intensive Creative Writing Concentration, or pursue Honors during their senior year. English majors can receive credit for up to two courses (electives or distribution requirements) for each semester of study abroad in an approved program. Summer/evening courses taken through the Woods College of Advancing Studies (designated as ADEN) do not count for Core credit or credit towards the major.
For information on the study abroad course approval process, the English Honors Program, and more, please visit the Current Students page.
This requirement for all English majors is designed to encourage students to think about how the meaningfulness of literature emerges from the many forces shaping the world as we understand it, focusing on anti-black racism and racial difference more generally. Students will examine issues of race thinking and global relations of power through lenses of ethics, social justice, respect for human dignity, sustainability, and the politics of language use. The department requires a course in Race, Blackness, and Language in the belief that analyzing literature with these themes in mind stimulates critical thinking and broadens our imaginations.
Courses that meet this requirement will
- Contain readings that reflect on the ways in which ideas of race, blackness, and language have found expression in multiple literary traditions.
- Teach students to recognize how whiteness is a product of race thinking that is often concealed under universal categories and thus accepted as the human norm.
- Engage with these literatures as complex social, philosophical, and artistic texts in their own rights, not only as reactive responses to white, colonial, or Eurocentric thinking and aesthetics.
- Teach students to recognize institutional and disciplinary norms and practices that have historically excluded or marginalized the study of these literatures.
- Offer strategies for thinking through the current political moment as well as conceptualizing and historicizing relations of power.
Seminar
Once you’ve taken Studies in Poetry and Studies in Narrative as a major, you are eligible to enroll in a seminar. Seminars are smaller, discussion-based classes that foster a close-knit sense of community and intellectual risk-taking. The department’s seminars include a wide range of courses that allow for student-led discussions, projects, and conversations.
In some seminars, students develop podcasts; in others, students look closely at the work of a single author over a career or they might work collaboratively to annotate unpublished texts.
The department’s seminars fall into two categories, both of which allow you to fulfill the seminar requirement:
- Exploratory Seminars, which often emphasize project- and process-based learning
- Graduate/Undergraduate Seminars, which delve deeply into a topic or question and often—though not always—culminate in a research paper that contributes to a critical conversation. We encourage students interested in writing an Honors Thesis or applying to graduate school to consider enrolling in a mixed Graduate/Undergraduate seminar.
All English majors are eligible for all listed seminars, you should follow your interests in choosing the seminar that is the best fit. This is not a requirement for minors, but minors are encouraged to consider taking a seminar as one of their electives.
By the successful completion of the English major at Boston College, students will be able to demonstrate:
- an ability to write clear, coherent, organized, and stylistically correct papers
- an ability to close-read, interpret, and analyze texts, including poetic texts,a knowledge of literary genres and appropriate use of critical terminology
- a recognition of the historical specificity of literary works and/or other cultural products,an awareness that there are a variety of critical approaches to literary and cultural texts
If your major GPA is over 3.6, we encourage you to consider applying to write a senior thesis (scholarly or creative) in the department’s Honors Program under the guidance of a full-time professor.
For Minors
The Minor is designed to give you maximum flexibility to pursue your interests in the study of literature. You will take one of the sophomore sequence classes and one course focused on the historical traditions informing English-language literatures, both of which provide an important foundation in the development of your writing skills, in deliberate thinking about the quality of your attention to literary texts, and the relationship between history and the development of literary forms.
After these two courses, you get to develop a sequence of four electives from the department’s rich offerings. These electives can include any topics that interest you, from a sampling of different kinds of courses to clusters of courses on topics or approaches that most interest you. For instance, you could take as many creative writing courses as you wanted or you could focus on courses organized around themes, such as those that meet our Race, Blackness, and Language designation.
The English minor is comprised of six courses (18 credits) beyond beyond First-Year Writing Seminar (FWS) and Literature Core.
These must include:
- Either Studies in Poetry (ENGL 2131) or Studies in Narrative (ENGL 2133)
- A historical foundations course (pre-1700 or pre-1900)
- Four electives from the department's offerings
We encourage minors to consider taking a seminar and a Race, Blackness, and Language course for one of their four electives.
Core and Woods College classes may not be counted toward the minor, though additional courses that fulfill the first two requirements may be counted as electives. Students may count up to two courses from study abroad toward the minor, though they must be approved by the department.
For questions about the English minor, or to declare, please contact Marla DeRosa at marla.derosa@bc.edu.
The Sophomore Sequence: Studies in Poetry and Studies in Narrative
Two courses serve as gateways to the English major: Studies in Poetry and Studies in Narrative. Majors are encouraged to take these courses at the beginning of their course of study to prepare them for upper-level English classes, and English minors must complete at least one of the two.
These courses focus on preparing students to read and write critically about two major literary forms: poetry and narrative. The emphases in both courses is on improving the quality of your attention to literary texts and on accelerating your development as a writer.
In this class, you will learn to analyze poetry across a wide range of genres, styles, and historical periods. Studies in Poetry will also develop your critical writing skills, preparing you for upper-division English courses.
Course Objectives
- To be introduced to and learn to interpret a variety of poetic forms and techniques
- To learn to analyze poems with reference to the social contexts—historical, geographic, and otherwise—in which they have been composed and transmitted
- To continue to hone students’ abilities in close reading, writing about literature, and oral discussion in the classroom
In this class, you will learn to analyze narrative prose across a wide range of genres, styles, and historical periods. Studies in Narrative will also develop your critical writing skills, preparing you for upper-division English courses.
Course Objectives
- To be introduced to and learn to interpret a variety of narrative forms and techniques
- To learn to analyze narratives with reference to the social contexts—historical, geographic, and otherwise—in which they have been composed and transmitted
- To continue to hone students’ abilities in close reading, writing about literature, and oral discussion in the classroom
B.A./M.A. in English
The English Department offers a B.A./M.A. Program that allows select students to earn both a B.A. and an M.A. in English in five years. Enrolled students will start earning graduate credit as a senior, then complete the M.A. in a fifth year of full-time study.
The purpose of the program is to allow students a greater opportunity for concentrated study and research training. Students in the B.A./M.A. program must meet all the specific course requirements for the undergraduate major as well as the formal requirements for the M.A., including the completion of Introduction to Advanced Research or its equivalent, demonstrated proficiency in a foreign language, a theory course, and a comprehensive exam.
Admission to the program requires a GPA of 3.3 overall and 3.6 in the English major. Students may count four courses taken in the senior year toward their M.A. degree. These courses may be graduate courses, or undergraduate courses designated as 'seminars.' At least two of the four must be at the graduate level, including hybrid graduate/undergraduate seminars; up to two of the four may be undergraduate courses designated as 'seminars.' The two graduate courses must be taken as overloads, and these count toward the M.A. degree only. The other two courses will count toward both degrees. One of the graduate courses taken in the senior year must be 'Introduction to Advanced Research' or 'Issues and Methods in American Studies.'
Students interested in the program should consult the director of the M.A. program to discuss whether this version of the M.A. is right for their individual goals. The director will review the student's academic record and, if appropriate, facilitate the application process. The application fee and GRE requirement will be waived.
Once accepted into the B.A./M.A. program students will have the director of the M.A. program as their advisor. Students in the program will not be eligible for TF/TA positions or graduate financial aid. Students in the program will not be charged graduate tuition for the two overload graduate courses taken in the senior year.
Students must submit applications by March 31 of the junior year. The required application materials are a personal statement, a writing sample, three letters of recommendation, and an official transcript. Please consult the application instructions below and e-mail gsasinfo@bc.edu with any questions on how to upload materials. Do not send any materials to the English department.
Secondary Education Major and Minor
If you’re an English major also completing a Lynch School of Education major or minor, you'll need to fulfill more specific requirements to demonstrate a broad range of knowledge within the discipline. In addition to the First-Year Writing Seminar, the Literature Core, Studies in Poetry, and Studies in Narrative, you will need the following courses:
- one Pre-1700 Class
- one Pre-1900 Class
- one course on Anglophone or Ethnic American Authors
- one course on Women Authors
- one course on the History of the Language/Grammar/Linguistics
- one course on Adolescent and Young Adult Literature
- two English electives
To help you gain sufficient knowledge across this spectrum, you may consider taking one or more general survey courses (e.g. Introduction to British Literature and Culture I and II, American Literary History I, II and III) to fulfill some of these requirements. Students with questions about the EN/LSOE requirements should meet with Marla DeRosa in Stokes S493.
If you’re an English major also completing an education major or minor in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, you’ll need to fulfill more specific requirements to demonstrate a broad range of knowledge within the discipline. In addition to the First Year Writing Seminar, the Literature Core, Studies in Poetry, and Studies in Narrative, you will need the following courses:
- one Pre-1700 Class
- one Pre-1900 Class
- one course on Anglophone or Ethnic American Authors
- one course on Women Authors
- one course on the History of the Language/Grammar/Linguistics
- one course on Adolescent and Young Adult Literature
- two English electives
To help you gain sufficient knowledge across this spectrum, you may consider taking one or more general survey courses (e.g. Introduction to British Literature and Culture I and II, American Literary History I, II and III) to fulfill some of these requirements. Students with questions about the EN/LSOEHD requirements should e-mail Marla DeRosa in Stokes S493.
As an MCAS English major, you may apply to minor in Education in order to gain certification for teaching. The program begins in the junior year. Contact the Coordinator of Secondary Education or the Associate Dean in the Lynch School of Education during the first semester of your sophomore year for more information.
The English department offers a Creative Writing Concentration that allows you to intensify and focus your English major by taking a series of practice-based writing courses along with literature courses. These small, intensive, processed-based workshops are taught by published authors and offered in three genres—poetry, fiction and non-fiction—at three levels. As a Concentrator, you will also attend gatherings to read new work, share news about literary activities on campus, socialize with other writers, do writing prompts together, and discuss career paths. You will be invited to a rich array of talks, readings, and smaller gatherings with visiting writers.
Graduates of the program have gone on not only to publish their own creative work, but also to find careers in publishing, journalism, teaching, communications, and many other fields that require excellent writing skills. Past students have been admitted to graduate programs in creative writing at, among other places, Washington University in St. Louis; Bowling Green; NYU; Eastern Washington State; University of Iowa; Indiana U.; Sarah Lawrence College; U. of Wyoming; Emerson College, U. of Florida; U. of Texas Austin; U. of Pittsburgh; Hunter College; UMass Amherst; Brooklyn College; U. of Arizona, Columbia.
- A Creative Writing Concentrator undertakes a 36-credit English major instead of the usual 30 credits.
- At least nine of these credits must be writing workshops in any genre, selected with the help of your Concentration advisor.
If you are an English major who has received a grade of A- or better in one of the department's creative writing workshops, you may declare the Creative Writing Concentration up through the end of drop/add week of first semester of junior year. The period for declaring the Concentration each semester runs through the end of drop/add week. Eligible English Majors wishing to declare should see Marla Derosa in Stokes S493.
Each year, the English Department gives out Undergraduate Writing Awards in recognintion of outstanding student writing. The submission deadline for these prizes is 4:00 p.m. on March 31. Please contact Prof. Andrew Sofer for more information.
Creative Writing students can also take advantage of several external resources that list job and fellowship opportunities, as well as literary journal submission deadlines and information on MFA programs. Each year, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) convenes the nation's largest creative writing conference.