English

The large number of Lewis & Clark students who choose to major in English reflects our inviting and rigorous curriculum, our encouragement of each student to work at the top of his or her ability, and our support of both convention and experimentation within the discipline. Course sizes range from 10 students (at the upper level) to 30 students (at the introductory level).

Students majoring in English are required to take a sophomore course called Major Periods and Issues, which moves from the Middle Ages to the present. This course focuses attention on major writers and traditions in English and American literature by drawing students' attention to recent developments in theory and criticism that have revolutionized our ways of thinking about written discourse. Students who complete the course are well prepared to move on to an array of more specialized courses offered by the department. Upperclass courses range from Chaucer to the contemporary period; from poetry, fiction, and nonfiction writing to literary theory; from African-American literature and women writers to postcolonial literature.

The capstone of the major for each student is the Senior Seminar, taught to a small group of students by a faculty member working in his or her current research area. Senior Seminar topics have recently included Ralph Ellison, William Blake, the Brontes, literature of World War I, writings of the 1930s, ideas of the Renaissance, and three contemporary fiction writers: Banks, Danticat, and Ozick.

Senior English majors who want to stretch their reading, writing, and research talents may choose or be nominated to write an honors thesis. This year-long project is developed and carried out under the direction of a faculty member. Recent theses awarded honors have included collections of short stories and poems, sustained studies of love and violence in Shakespeare's Roman plays, female personae in Charlotte Bronte's Villette, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein from a postcolonial perspective.

The College also encourages collaborative research through faculty-student research grants. In a recent project, for instance, a student assisted a faculty member in research for a book chapter examining the transformation of the city as a national and literary symbol in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This chapter concerned the author Jean Rhys in the context of 1920s and 1930s London and Paris. The project gave the student the opportunity to research in London archives.

In answer to the question, "What do you do with an English major?" we are proud to say that our graduates can provide a wide range of answers. Of course many of our majors do enter the teaching profession, often completing the master of arts in teaching at Lewis & Clark's graduate school. However, many of our most recent majors are pursuing graduate school to work in social service agencies and the arts management field. Others are finding satisfying careers in law and publishing. Often these career paths are opened through internship experience either in Portland or elsewhere, or through off-campus and overseas programs.

Examples of student publications

• Entropy, Lewis & Clark's literary magazine for the 2000-01 academic year, competed against more than 100 colleges and universities nationwide to win the 2002 National Directors' Prize for Undergraduate Literary Magazines for content.
• Awards from the Associated Writing Programs and publication in the Mid-America Review and Hayden's Ferry Review.
• Publication in Sulisa Press's anthology of undergraduate short fiction, as well as recognition in Link, a national undergraduate magazine.
• Award in the national Prentice-Hall Contest for Undergraduate Writers.
• Prizes from and anthology publication by the American Academy of Poets.

Examples of student research

• "Crafting the 'Beautiful Absurdity' of our 'Americanness': Ralph Ellison and the Search for American Identity," supported in part by a National Endowment for the Humanities Young Scholars Award.
• "Plato's Evolving Views of Rhetoric in the Gorgias, the Phaedrus, and the Apology."
• "The Color of West Writing East: Uncovering Frankenstein's Colonial Speculations."

Examples of student internships

• Oregon Arts Commission.
• Oregon Public Broadcasting.
• Oregon Institute of Literary Arts.
• Elaine Markson Literary Agency, New York City.
• Poet's House, New York City.

Examples of graduate studies

• Harvard University, Ph.D. program, African-American Studies, with a Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship.
• Princeton University, Ph.D. program in literature, funded by an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship.
• Rutgers University, Ph.D. program in literature and critical theory, supported by a teaching fellowship.
• University of Iowa, Writers' Workshop, M.F.A. program in creative writing.
• University of Chicago, Ph.D. program in humanities.
• Mills College, Ph.D. program in literature and M.F.A. program in creative writing.
• Brooklyn Law School and Willamette University College of Law.

Examples of careers and service work chosen by recent graduates

• Peace Corps assignments in Bolivia and Ghana.
• Teacher, Teach America.
• Journalist, China News.
• Development director, Campfire Boys and Girls.
• HIV/AIDS education coordinator, King County (Washington) Health Department.
• Public relations assistant, Gallery 37: a program that apprentices inner-city youth to local artists in Chicago.
• Distribution client liaison, Chronicle Books, San Francisco.
• English teacher, Italy.