English Degree

Bachelor of Arts in English

Offered on campus

Become a Dynamic Writer and Communicator

Point Park University's English program teaches you to closely analyze text, improve your writing through peer review and workshop exercises and develop strong communication skills.

Through our English major, you will be encouraged to look past your own experiences in order to understand others, and to study both past and present authors ranging from William Shakespeare, Herman Melville, Bram Stoker, and Emily Dickinson to Chinua Achebe, Sylvia Plath, Junot Díaz and Zadie Smith.

You will also learn to analyze texts in historical and social contexts. With class sizes averaging around 15 students, our English program allows for a more dynamic and participatory classroom experience. You will receive individualized help, guidance and feedback from your professors and peers.

Courses & Topics

You will receive a well-rounded education through our core curriculum and classes in the English major. You may take courses that study individual genres, such as Art of the Short Story, Art of Poetry, and Introduction to Literary Studies.

Upper-division English courses fall under six different themes: Surveys, Topics, Authors, Language and Theory, Historical Periods and Traditions and Creative Writing.

Examples of these courses are:

Surveys: American Literature 1 and 2, British Literature 1 and 2, World Literature: Novels and World Literature: Poetry, Drama, Epic
- Students may also take Theoretical Approaches, a rotating topics course. Recent topics include Black Lives and Social Justice in 20-21^st Century Literature, Rough Harmonies: Poetry & Self, Faith and Fiction, Mad Science and Lit, LGBTQ Lit, Latino Lit, Witch Lit and Graphic Novels.
Topics: Scribbling Women in the 19^th Century, Feminist Fairy Tales, Detective Fiction, Postcolonial Literature, Reading Race in Shakespeare and Haunted America
Language and Theory: Linguistics, History of the English Language and English Language Learners
Authors: Plath and Sexton, Faulkner and Morrison, Zadie Smith, Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare and The Brontës
Periods & Traditions: American Romanticism, Victorian Poetry and Prose: Women and Empire, Harlem Renaissance and Contemporary Literature
Creative Writing: Workshops in Fiction, Creative Nonfiction and Poetry

All English majors also take a course in Literary Criticism. Seniors also take a Senior Capstone course where they undertake a self-designed final project according to their individual interests and career aspirations.

Meet Our Faculty

Karen Dwyer, Ph.D., professor and coordinator of the creative writing program

Dr. Dwyer teaches courses in fiction writing, creative nonfiction, contemporary literature, world literature, American literature and the short story.

Faculty Bio

Kirstin Hanley, Ph.D., associate professor of composition and rhetoric, director of the composition program and chair of the Department of Literature, Culture & Society

Dr. Hanley's published pieces include Mary Wollstonecraft, Pedagogy and the Practice of Feminism, "Didacticism" and "'A New Servitude': Pedagogy and Feminist Practice in Brontë's Jane Eyre."

Faculty Bio

Chris Girman, Ph.D., associate professor of English

Dr. Girman's recent course offerings include James Baldwin, Sport Literature & Culture and Latinx Literature.

Faculty Bio

Jessica McCort, Ph.D., associate professor of composition and rhetoric

Dr. McCort's scholarship focuses largely on the appropriation of children’s literature, particularly Grimm’s and Andersen’s fairy tales and Lewis Carroll’s Alice books, by American women writers.

Faculty Bio