We will be brief this time

Every year the English Department reports on its progress and achievements to the university. I thought readers of this blog might enjoy the glimpse it yields of the year that was. ————— CCAS Department Annual Report 2008-09ENGLISH IA Undergraduate studies * Majors, minors, double majorsMajors: 191 in English, 10 in English and Creative Writing; minors…

One day Thomas Mallon looked out his office window in Rome Hall and had a strange sense of déja vu. “I look out into the apartment of one of my characters,” he said. Mallon’s novel Fellow Travelers was set in 1950s DC, at which point the dorm West End was an apartment where he placed…

We are fortunate to have a renowned scholar of theory, performance studies and Latino literature join us in the fall semester. José Muñoz is our second Wang Visiting Professor in Contemporary English Literature in GW’s Department of English. He will be teaching two courses, both open to all qualified undergraduates. Professor Muñoz is a charismatic…

The new semester is almost upon us: alarmingly (at least to me) GW classes begin BEFORE Labor Day this year. I am certain that some cosmic injunction has been broken, and am hard at work trying to stop it … but without much success so far. This summer we have been renovating Rome Hall 771,…

See this stack of books? English Honors students read them all … two at a time. Well, not really. But it’s a nice thought. I had a professor in college who had a photographic memory (really). In one class, he began reading Moby Dick and then closed the book and continued to “read.” For about…

We wish all of our readers a happy Valentine’s Day — the only holiday invented by Chaucer. More proof that he was better than Shakespeare. Share on FacebookTweet