English Major & Minor

An English degree: The key to every job, everywhere.

Where degrees in English have taken Hartwick graduates.

Hartwick College English majors are trained to analyze, decode, and understand the thematic and cultural significance of literary texts. The ability to read analytically and write critically is immediately/importantly applicable to an array of fields.

Hartwick English major graduates are currently pursuing careers as:

  • Lawyers and legal mediators
  • Social media and communication workers specialists
  • Film-makers and film editors
  • Fashion and design brand managers
  • Print and digital editors
  • Webpage designers and developers
  • News correspondents
  • Science writers, sports writers, technical writers
  • Proofreaders and Copy Markers
  • High school teachers and university professors

 

According to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of web developers is projected to grow 15 percent from 2016 to 2026, which means there will be over 24,000 new jobs open in this field in the next decade. Employment of media and communications workers is expected to grow 6 percent from 2016-2026. Employment of writers and high school teachers is projected to grow 8 percent for the same period. (U.S. BLS).

Putting English to work.

Hartwick English majors acquire verbal and analytical skills that introduce them into a variety of occupations. Many have completed advanced study at prestigious institutions.

Hartwick alumni work for:

  • Cambridge Business Publishers
  • Harper’s Magazine
  • Northwestern Mutual
  • YMCA of Greater Boston
  • Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
  • Scientific American
  • University of Nice 

Recent Hartwick graduates have been accepted to:

  • Cornell University
  • Chapman University
  • University of California at Davis
  • Washington University, St. Louis
  • Mary Baldwin College
  • Southern Connecticut State University
  • The Actor’s Studio

Beyond the basic.

Through the Visiting Writers Series, students have been able to interact with writers such as Nobel Laureates Joseph Brodsky and Derek Walcott; Pulitzer Prize winners Donald Justice and N. Scott Momaday; former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky; and authors Jamaica Kincaid and Joyce Carol Oates. Each fall, exciting new poets and fiction writers lead special workshops for students in the New American Writing Festival.

A closer look.

Hartwick’s English Department offers two majors, each with its own requirements. In addition, students may choose to obtain New York state teacher certification in English.

  • Literature: A wide range of courses in American and British literature, women’s literature, literary theory, ethnic literatures, regional literatures, period surveys, and major authors.
  • Creative writing: Courses in writing fiction, poetry, play-writing, and creative non-fiction

Meet the English faculty.

Hartwick’s expert English faculty are future-focused. They work closely to inspire students who will change the world into which they graduate in countless ways. Hartwick students.

James Cochran
Interim Coordinator of the Writing Center
Ph.D., Baylor University
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Areas of expertise:
writing center studies; first-year writing, digital composition, twentieth-century and contemporary American literature, ecocriticism
David Cody
Professor of English
Ph.D., Brown University
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Areas of expertise:
19th century American literature and culture, the relationship between English and American literature; science and literature; the literature of imperialism; the literature of horror
Lisa Darien
Associate Professor of English
Ph.D., University of California - Berkeley
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Areas of expertise:
Old English and Anglo-Saxon literature and culture, Beowulf, Old Norse-Icelandic literature and culture, Middle English and Chaucer, women in the middle Ages, nineteenth-century medievalism
Bradley J. Fest
Assistant Professor of English
M.F.A., University of Pittsburgh - Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh
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Areas of expertise:
Creative writing; poetry; twentieth- and twenty-first-century United States literature and culture; history of literary criticism and theory; ecological humanities; digital studies
Susan J. Navarette
Professor of English, Department Chair, Interim Director of the Writing Program
Ph.D., University of Michigan
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Areas of expertise:
narrative, genre, and cultural studies; 18th through early 20th-century British culture and literature; scientific theory and narrative form; gender studies; film studies
Robert Seguin
Associate Professor of English, Coordinator of Race & Ethnic Studies
Ph.D., Duke University
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Areas of expertise:
modern and contemporary American literature, literary and cultural theory, the utopian tradition in literature, modernism in the arts
Tessa Yang
Assistant Professor of English
M.F.A, Indiana University - Bloomington
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Areas of expertise:
Creative writing, literary and genre fiction, the short story, flash fiction, literary editing and publishing

Three-Year Bachelor’s Degree Program.

Ready to move faster? Get the full Hartwick English experience in three-quarters the time at three-quarters the cost. Learn more about the three-year program.

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