News & Upcoming Events

Graduate and Undergraduate Student Conference on Literature, Composition, and Rhetoric

The Xi Alpha chapter of Sigma Tau Delta will host a graduate and undergraduate student conference on literature, composition, and rhetoric on March 23-24.  Students are invited to submit proposals to present critical work. The conference flier contains relevant information. 

Questions should be directed to Laurel Jones at laurel.l.jones@gmail.com.

Advisement Begins this Week!

Advisement runs from Friday of this week through April 5th. Students should contact aadvisors for advisement meetings. Program Checksheets here!

Softball Time! FAQs and Answers

When? Friday, March 23 (2:30 warm ups / 3:00 start time)
Where? Intramural field adjacent to Engel Stadium parking lot (minutes from campus)
What follows? Tailgating with BBQ and other food provided.
What's at stake? Bragging rights all summer long!

Meacham Writers' Workshop, Spring 2012 

The Meacham Writers' Workshop is the result of an endowment grant made by Jean Meacham to UTC to promote writing as an expressive art, and to draw together university and community writers and readers. Her ideal, which we maintain today, was to create an informal atmosphere where nationally known writers, local writers, students, and novice writers and their readers could freely, and on an equal basis, exchange ideas, works, and readings. In order to promote this she asked that the workshops be free and open to all.  The dates for the Spring 2012 Meacham Writers' Workshop are March 29-31.  Check out the schedule here.

Tom Balázs Publishes Omicron Ceti III!

A triptych of nine darkly comic stories, Omicron Ceti III treads on the margins of American middle class intelligentsia. A high school English teacher rumored to be an undercover agent for the FBI, an international investment banker driven to extremes in his quest for a culinary soul mate, and an orthodontist’s son obsessed by the number three are a few typical characters in this literate, playful, and sometimes disturbing collection. Balázs incorporates drawings, lists, and allusions ranging from Star Trek to Middlemarch, testing the boundaries between high and low, comedy and pathos, light and dark.  Visit Dr. Balázs' website.

Department's calendar goes online!

Department Scholarships and Writing Contests

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Opportunities for Our Students

The department makes available to students a variety of activities and opportunities that may lead to professional careers:  internships in professional and technical writing; participation in the publication of The Sequoya Review, UTC’s literary and arts review; participation in the Meacham Writers’ Workshop, held each semester; membership in The Sequoya Society, an English student club sponsoring guest speakers, a newsletter, and special outings; and possible membership in Sigma Tau Delta, the English Honor Society.  Likewise, the Department of English is home to several publications, including Poetry Miscellany, The Tennessee Philological Bulletin, MidAmerica, Midwestern Miscellany, and The Tennessee English Journal.  Our students often participate in the production of these publications. Likewise, our students mingle with 35 to 40 famous writers at the biennial Conference on Southern Literature.  These are tremendous opportunities for our undergraduate and graduate students alike.

Opportunities for English Majors after Graduation

Because a bachelor’s degree in English provides extensive communication and analytic skills, students are prepared to enter careers in marketing, technical communications, sales, public relations, publishing, advertising, teaching, and even business positions where such skills are increasingly given premium value. Some recent graduates of our undergraduate program have been involved in writing insurance manuals, working with a grant writing agency, directing a college registration office, teaching, directing a summer high school honors program, and doing free-lance writing.  Others have gone on to law school or graduate programs in literature, professional writing, or MFA work in some of the most outstanding programs around the country.

Our Programs

In all of its work, the English department's fundamental goal is to develop literacy and analytical skills, leading our students to become independent, reflective, critical readers and writers. Toward this end we offer small, discussion-oriented classes emphasizing close reading and careful writing, conducted by faculty members who are committed to excellence in teaching and mentoring students.  We offer undergraduate and graduate degree programs leading to:

• The Bachelor of Arts in English and American Language and Literature
• The Bachelor of Arts in English and American Language and Literature: Writing

• The Master of Arts in English: Literary Study, Criticism, and Research
• The Master of Arts in English: Composition and Rhetorical Studies
• The Master of Arts in English: Creative Writing

We also offer undergraduate minors in:

• Literature
• Rhetoric and Writing
• Creative Writing

In keeping with our commitment to liberal education, the Department of English provides numerous support courses, programs, and institutes for general education and writing. Our faculty is also strongly involved in several important programs, including the UTC Writing Center, the University Honors Program, the English as a Second Language Institute, and Writing Across the Curriculum.