Skip to main content
  • About
  • Library
  • News
  • Events
  • Directory
Apply Give
WSU Logo against a transparent background
  • Academics
      Solving real-world challenges.
      Academics
    • Program Finder
    • Schools & Departments
    • Provost’s Office
    • Continuing Education
    • Graduate School
    • Additional Learning Opportunities
    • Academic Resources
    • Centers & Institutes
    • Research
    • Grants
    • Academic Convocation
  • Admissions & Aid
      Innovative real world solutions.
      Admissions & Aid
    • Apply to Worcester State
    • Undergraduate Admissions
    • International Applicants
    • Graduate Admissions
    • Tuition & Financial Aid
    • Visit
    • Request Information
  • Campus Life
      Discover #WooLife
      Campus Life
    • Athletics
    • Bookstore
    • Commuter Services
    • Diversity Inclusion & Equal Opportunity
    • Housing & Dining
    • Information Technology
    • Leadership Opportunities
    • Clubs & Organizations
    • Student Involvement
    • Student Services
    • Sustainability
    • Title IX
    • University Events
    • University Police
    • Discover Worcester
  • Community Impact
      Make an impact in the community.
      Community Impact
    • Global Outreach
    • Local Resources
    • For Business
    • Binienda Center for Civic Engagement
    • Urban Action Institute
    • Latino Education Institute
    • Speech-Language-Hearing Center
    • Worcester Art Museum Partnership
    • Worcester Center for Crafts
  • Alumni & Giving
      How will you take the lead?
      Alumni & Giving
    • Alumni News
    • Giving to Worcester State
    • Scholarships
    • Meet Our Donors
    • Alumni Events
    • Worcester State Magazine
    • Request a Transcript
    • Get Involved
  • Academic Calendar
  • OneCard
  • Registrar
  • Bookstore
  • Housing
  • Tuition
  • Financial Aid
  • Transcript
  • FAFSA
  • Counseling Services
  • Academics
      Solving real-world challenges.
      Academics
    • Program Finder
    • Schools & Departments
    • Provost’s Office
    • Continuing Education
    • Graduate School
    • Additional Learning Opportunities
    • Academic Resources
    • Centers & Institutes
    • Research
    • Grants
    • Academic Convocation
  • Admissions & Aid
      Innovative real world solutions.
      Admissions & Aid
    • Apply to Worcester State
    • Undergraduate Admissions
    • International Applicants
    • Graduate Admissions
    • Tuition & Financial Aid
    • Visit
    • Request Information
  • Campus Life
      Discover #WooLife
      Campus Life
    • Athletics
    • Bookstore
    • Commuter Services
    • Diversity Inclusion & Equal Opportunity
    • Housing & Dining
    • Information Technology
    • Leadership Opportunities
    • Clubs & Organizations
    • Student Involvement
    • Student Services
    • Sustainability
    • Title IX
    • University Events
    • University Police
    • Discover Worcester
  • Community Impact
      Make an impact in the community.
      Community Impact
    • Global Outreach
    • Local Resources
    • For Business
    • Binienda Center for Civic Engagement
    • Urban Action Institute
    • Latino Education Institute
    • Speech-Language-Hearing Center
    • Worcester Art Museum Partnership
    • Worcester Center for Crafts
  • Alumni & Giving
      How will you take the lead?
      Alumni & Giving
    • Alumni News
    • Giving to Worcester State
    • Scholarships
    • Meet Our Donors
    • Alumni Events
    • Worcester State Magazine
    • Request a Transcript
    • Get Involved
  • Current Students
  • Faculty & Staff
  • Parents & Families
  • Alumni & Friends
  • Academics
    • Program Finder
    • Schools & Departments
    • Provost’s Office
    • Continuing Education
    • Graduate School
    • Additional Learning Opportunities
    • Academic Resources
    • Centers & Institutes
    • Research
    • Grants
    • Academic Convocation
  • Admissions & Aid
    • Apply to Worcester State
    • Undergraduate Admissions
    • International Applicants
    • Graduate Admissions
    • Tuition & Financial Aid
    • Visit
    • Request Information
  • Campus Life
    • Athletics
    • Bookstore
    • Commuter Services
    • Diversity Inclusion & Equal Opportunity
    • Housing & Dining
    • Information Technology
    • Leadership Opportunities
    • Clubs & Organizations
    • Student Involvement
    • Student Services
    • Sustainability
    • Title IX
    • University Events
    • University Police
    • Discover Worcester
  • Community Impact
    • Global Outreach
    • Local Resources
    • For Business
    • Binienda Center for Civic Engagement
    • Urban Action Institute
    • Latino Education Institute
    • Speech-Language-Hearing Center
    • Worcester Art Museum Partnership
    • Worcester Center for Crafts
  • Alumni & Giving
    • Alumni News
    • Giving to Worcester State
    • Scholarships
    • Meet Our Donors
    • Alumni Events
    • Worcester State Magazine
    • Request a Transcript
    • Get Involved
  • About
  • Library
  • News
  • Events
  • Directory
  • MyWooState
    • Blackboard
    • Gmail
    • Web Advisor
    • Self-Service
Apply Give
WSU Logo against a transparent background WSU Logo in white text against a transparent background
English Major

English Major


IN THIS SECTION
  • English
    • English Major
    • English Minor
    • Master of Arts in English
  • Narrative Studies of Health and Body
    • Narrative Studies of Health and Body Minor
  • Writing
    • Writing Minor

Communicate clearly, logically, and effectively

The principal objectives of the English program are to help students to communicate clearly, logically, and effectively; to use research methods intelligently; to analyze, interpret and enjoy literature; and to develop a perspective on the world that is informed by intensive study of literature and its critical methods. The program also seeks to familiarize students with the classics of world literature, emphasizing the major authors, works and literary movements which distinguish English and American literature. At the same time, the program seeks to introduce students to “alternative voices” in literature, voices that are new to the literary canon or that occupy a literary space outside of it. The intellectual growth of majors is carefully nurtured to ensure that they are prepared for diverse career paths, scholarly research, and success in graduate school. Moreover, reflecting the institution’s historical mission, the English program provides guidance and support for future teachers of English.

Concentrations in English

  • Prepare for a career in journalism. Learn about journalism and democracy, media law and ethics, and practice news reporting and feature writing.
  • Focus on fiction, nonfiction, or poetry with a wide choice of electives.
Check out the different English courses waiting for you at Worcester State!
EN-120 Race in Comics
Comics offers a unique combination of tools for representing race. Artists have long used either language or visual art to think about identity, but comics merges the two in new ways. In this course, students analyze innovative comics and graphic novels/nonfiction to better understand why this medium is such a productive way to reflect on racial identity. How do comics authors engage with the difficult history of racial caricature and the longstanding lack of diversity in the field? And what can the combination of image and text say about the tension between appearance and identity?
3 credits
EN-132 World Literature
Representative poems, stories, plays, both ancient and modern, from Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
3 credits
EN-140 Introduction to Poetry
Examination and appreciation of the techniques and types of poetry including the sonnet, the pastoral, the mock heroic, and the ode.
3 credits
EN-156 Mythology
Myths and legends of ancient Greece and Rome which form a part of the classical tradition in English literature.
3 credits
EN-158 Science Fiction
The nature and function of nineteenth and twentieth century science fiction literature: Wells, Verne, Asimov, Bradbury, and others.
3 credits
EN-168 Film and Literature
An examination of the fundamental, rhetorical techniques of film and literature to determine the similarities of and differences between the two forms of expression.
3 credits
EN-256 Creative Writing: Fiction
An opportunity to develop the student's writing ability and critical sense; work of students and professional authors will be analyzed.
3 credits
EN-266 Journalism: Practice and Techniques
Training in developing, reporting, writing and editing straight news, feature, profile, and interpretive stories.
3 credits
EN-275 Sportswriting
Introduces students to the journalistic art of sportswriting, reporting, and interviewing for various media.
3 credits
EN-348 Postcolonial Women's Writing
Writing by women from colonized and formerly colonized countries on local and global issues shaping women's lives and creative expression.
3 credits
EN-322 Community Writing
An introduction to writing about, for, and with communities. By working with WSU Binienda Center for Civic Engagement, for example, students learn to successfully complete individual or group community writing projects, which begin when relationships are built with community organizations to identify a communication need. Then, in collaboration, possible solutions are identified to address the communication need with the goal of developing and delivering a document for use by the partnering community organization that helps to solve the problem. As a result, students develop practical writing experience and an ability to act as as a writing consultant.
3 credits
EN-352 Practicum in Journalism
Workshop in which students report, write, and edit the online college news magazine. Participate in all aspects of publication.
3 credits

Meet your faculty

Name not found

Elizabeth Bidinger

Professor of English

Elizabeth Bidinger teaches a variety of creative writing and literature courses, and she specializes in the study and practice of memoir writing. She has published memoir essays as well as scholarly articles on memoir as a literary genre. Her book, [...]

Read Bio
Name not found

Heather Macpherson

Full-time Temporary Faculty

As a practitioner of the essay and poem, my scholarly interests continue to reside in the history of the essay through its contemporary poeticized and experimental forms. Currently, my research is focusing on the bifurcation of metaphor. In addition, [...]

Read Bio
Profile photo

Jacqueline Morrill

Instructor

Jacqueline Morrill is an English alum of WSU with a Masters of Fine Arts in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College. Her poetry has been published in a variety of print and online journals such as The Worcester Review, Best Indie Lit New England and [...]

Read Bio
Name not found

Riley McGuire

Assistant Professor

Riley McGuire is an Assistant Professor of English at Worcester State University where he specializes in nineteenth-century British literature, queer theory, and disability studies. Prior to joining the faculty at WSU, he completed his Ph.D. in [...]

Read Bio
Profile photo

Jamie Remillard

Assistant Professor of English

As an assistant professor of English, Jamie Remillard teaches courses in technical writing, science and environmental communication, creative nonfiction, and medical and health journalism. Her recent projects include field-based research to examine [...]

Read Bio
Name not found

Christina Santana

Assistant Professor of English, Writing Center Director

An Assistant Professor of English and the Director of the Writing Center at Worcester State University, Christina studied writing, rhetorics, and literacies and earned her PhD in English in 2016. Her work has appeared in the Community Literacy [...]

Read Bio
Profile photo

MaryLynn Saul

Professor

MaryLynn Saul is a professor of English and specializes in medieval literature, particularly Arthurian literature, as well as human rights, history of the English language, and feminist theory. She has published articles on courtly love and marriage [...]

Read Bio
Profile photo

Hardeep Sidhu

Hardeep Sidhu is an assistant professor of English at Worcester State University, where he teaches courses on U.S. literature, race, immigration, comics, the novel, and college writing. Recent courses include "Race in Comics," "Narratives of U.S. [...]

Read Bio
Profile photo

Karen Woods Weierman

Professor of English

Dr. Karen Woods Weierman is Professor of English at Worcester State University, where she teaches U.S. literatures and first-year writing. She holds a B.A. in American Studies from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. in English from the University of [...]

Read Bio
Name not found

Donald Vescio

Professor

Professional Summary [...]

Read Bio

Take the next step

Apply
Request Information
Visit
WSU Logo in white text against a transparent background
486 Chandler St,
Worcester, MA 01602
508-929-8000
Quicklinks
  • Academics
  • Admissions & Aid
  • Campus Life
  • Community Impact
  • Alumni & Giving
Helpful Links
  • Bookstore
  • Careers
  • Directions
  • Emergency Info
  • Administrative Offices
  • Campus Map
  • Transcript Requests
Connect with us on Social Media
CONTACT US
Copyright © 2023 Worcester State University
  • Student Consumer Information
  • Campus Accessibility
  • Privacy Policy
  • Public Records Requests