HELP 2011-2012 University Catalog ■ English Print-Friendly Page

Phone: 703-993-1160
Web: english.gmu.edu

Faculty

Professors: Cheuse, D’Andrea (Robinson Professor), Foster, Goodwin, Hodges, Jann, Lathbury, Lowry, Nadeau, Pankey, Tichy

Associate professors: Albanese, Amireh, Anderson, Atkinson, Burr, Clark, Fuchs, Gallehr, Harvey, Hawk, Holisky, Jones, Kaplan, Kaufmann, Keaney, Kuebrich, Lattanzi Shutika, Matz (chair), Mori, Reid, Rutledge, Weinberger, Yadav, Yocom, Zawacki

Assistant professors: Brkic, Chang, Eisner, Eyman, Habila, Hoffmann, Keith, Lawrence, Lin, Lockwood, Malouf, Marcantonio, McCarthy, Michals, Rogers, Sample, Scarlata, Stanica, Wheelock, Wiederhold, Wulf

Term associate professors: Koch, Miller, Samuelian, Scott, Taciuch, Thompson

Term assistant professors: Beach, Berg, Burnham, DeNys, DeFazio, Johnson, King, Lister, Matthews, McGeehan, Mitcho, Nanian, Nichols, Photos, Rudnicki, Saunders, Taylor, Williams

Term instructors: Hoy, Raffel, Scolaro

Adjunct assistant professors: Broyles, Cabral, Casal, Fletcher, Fowler, Humbertson, Johnston, Kuhta, Moody, Pabich, Redondo, Waldron

Adjunct instructors: Baker, Cooper, Dutta, Grogan-Barone, Johnston, Lawrence, McKinney, Morris, Rhein, Surrette

Course Work

The English Department offers all course work designated CL, ENGH, LING, and NAIS in the Courses  chapter of this catalog.  The subject code ENGH replaces ENGL in the 2011-2012 Catalog.

Related Courses

Courses offered by other departments are occasionally crosslisted with English and given the ENGH subject code. Such courses may be applied to the English major.

Undergraduate Programs

The department offers a bachelor’s degree in English. This is a versatile major with thirteen concentrations designed to meet students’ individual interests and career objectives. English majors can also pursue a special option in comparative literature and do an internship in technical writing or linguistics. Students interested in becoming teachers can participate in a program offered in conjunction with the College of Education and Human Development that allows undergraduates to simultaneously complete their BA in English and their licensure requirements to teach English at the secondary school level in Virginia.

English majors learn to read critically and write carefully in classes that are uniquely small for a university the size of Mason. Students develop these abilities not only thorough reading traditional texts but also through the use of technologies such as blogs, wikis, and multimedia production. Because English majors have excellent skills in written and oral communication, research, critical thinking, and focused creativity they are well prepared for any career - teaching, journalism, creative writing, management, law, and more.

300-level courses teach the foundational principles for a field of study, include courses of broad scope, and provide an introduction to a genre, literary period, or methodology.

400-level courses provide an in-depth approach to a field of study, a single genre, literary period, or methodology.  They include special topics classes and English honors classes.  Some 400-level courses require ENGH 325 as a prerequisite.

Honors in the Major

Highly qualified students may pursue advanced work leading to graduation with honors in the major. To graduate with honors in the major, students must complete a two-course honors sequence and receive a minimum GPA of 3.5 in all courses counted toward the major and, separately, a minimum GPA of 3.50 in their honors courses. Honors courses may simultaneously satisfy concentration and distribution requirements in the major.

Students satisfy the honors course sequence by taking one of the following:

• Two sections of ENGH 414 - Honors Seminar
• ENGH 414 - Honors Seminar and ENGH 415 - Honors Thesis Writing Seminar
• ENGH 414 - Honors Seminar and writiting a creative honors thesis in ENGH 416 - Honors Independent Study (for students in the creative writing concentration
• ENGH 416 - Honors Independent Study in conjunction with an advanced course in nonfiction writing and completing a nonfiction thesis as part of ENGH 415 - Honors Thesis Writing Seminar (for students in the nonfiction concentration)

Students interested in pursing honors in the major should consult the English Department for more information and to learn about the application process.

English with a Second Major

Students can combine a major in English with a second major. Students interested in this option are encouraged to discuss their plans with their English advisor and the director of undergraduate programs in English. See the section on Credit for More than One Undergraduate Major in the Academic Policies   chapter of the catalog.

Minors

The department offers a minor in English, which is available to students in any major at Mason.

Faculty from English coordinate or co-coordinate the Film and Media Studies Minor , the Folklore and Mythology Minor , the Native American and Indigenous Studies Minor , and the Linguistics Minor .  See the Minors and Interdisciplinary Minors  section of this chapter for more information.

Bachelor’s/Accelerated Master’s Program

The department offers highly qualified undergraduates in any major the opportunity to apply to an accelerated master’s degree program in English with a concentration in linguistics. If accepted, students will be able to earn an undergraduate degree in their chosen major and a graduate degree in English with a concentration in linguistics after satisfactory completion of 144 credits, sometimes within five years.

Undergraduates in Graduate Courses

The English Department permits qualified undergraduates to enroll in its graduate courses numbered 500 through 699. They may apply these credits to their undergraduate degree or mark them for reserve graduate credit. See the department for details on how to register.

Writing Center

The Writing Center offers one-on-one conferencing during all stages of the writing process. Writing Center tutors, who are graduate teaching assistants in the English Department, have been trained in current methods of composition instruction. They help clients overcome writing anxiety, develop organizational and revision skills, and learn useful strategies for editing their own work. To learn more about the Writing Center services or to schedule an appointment, students should consult the Writing Center website.

Northern Virginia Writing Project

The Northern Virginia Writing Project (NVWP) is an inservice organization dedicated to improving the writing of Northern Virginia students, kindergarten through university level. Each summer, selected teachers attend an intensive five-week institute where they demonstrate successful teaching techniques, study research on the teaching of writing, and write. After the summer institute, participants return to their schools, colleges, and universities to lead workshops and in-service seminars for other teachers. NVWP is an affiliate of the National Writing Project and one of the seven sites of the Virginia Writing Project.

Graduate Programs

The department offers graduate programs in the study and practice of literature and writing, as well as course work in related fields such as folklore, film, linguistics, and cultural studies. The master’s degree in English provides concentrations in literature, cultural studies, professional writing and rhetoric, the teaching of writing and literature, and linguistics. The department also has a terminal degree, the MFA in creative writing, with concentrations in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction.

The department offers graduate certificates in folklore, professional writing and rhetoric, and teaching English as a second language.  Students may take these as stand-alone certificates or pursue them concurrently with a graduate degree program. Part of the course work for a certificate may be able to be applied to a degree. Students must apply and be admitted to a graduate certificate program.

Faculty from the department coordinate the concentration in folklore in the master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies (MAIS). See the Interdisciplinary Studies  (MAIS) section of this chapter for details.

Funding

The department offers teaching assistantships and fellowships awarded on a competitive basis. Other sources of funding such as grants, loans, and employment on campus are also available. Students awarded assistantships must show satisfactory progress toward their degree.

Programs

• English, BA

• Film and Media Studies Minor
• Folklore and Mythology Minor
• Linguistics Minor
• Native American and Indigenous Studies Minor

• English Minor
• Teaching English as a Second Language Minor
• Writing and Rhetoric Minor

• Bachelor’s Degree (any) /English, Accelerated MA (Linguistics Concentration)

• Creative Writing, MFA
• English, MA

• Folklore Studies Graduate Certificate
• Professional Writing and Rhetoric Graduate Certificate
• Teaching English as a Second Language Graduate Certificate

• Linguistics, PhD

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