Welcome to the Department of English
at Fort Lewis College

The work offered in English deals with several aspects of liberal education: the linguistic and literary history of Western culture; selected studies in non-Western literature in translation; human values; the relationships between cultures in the Southwest; and written and oral communication, both utilitarian and creative. With this in mind, students who become English majors can select one of four options within the major: Communications, General English, Writing, or English Education.

As a department that combines the four options cited above, we pride ourselves on the fact that all of our students receive a thorough education in the rhetorical and aesthetic analysis of many sorts of texts. Students study both “literature” and contemporary media and learn to become sophisticated consumers and producers of both.

We are unique from similar programs at other colleges in three ways:

1. Combination of all four options (General, Communications, Writing and English Education) in one department, firmly grounded in the Liberal Arts tradition.

2. Empahsis on convergent media, interconnected storytelling in a variety of media and formats.

3. Individualized attention and small classes combined with mentoring and advising of all our majors by tenured and tenure-tracked faculty who hold terminal degrees in their fields.

Essential Gateway classes for freshmen students interested in an English major:

1. Choose one of our lower-division literature courses, required for all majors; many of these courses also satisfy General Education requirements: African -American Literature (Engl 174), Women's Literature (Engl 175), Native American Literature (Engl 176), Latina/o Literature (Engl 177), Classical Literature (Engl 221), or Southwest Literature (Engl 280)

2. Introduction to Mass Communication (Engl 116) is required for Communications majors and also meets General Education requirements.