Students who major in English at Clark don’t just possess a love of language and literature; they have an abiding sense of the power of the word that compels meaningful contributions to the larger world. Seasoned faculty will guide you as you engage in close reading, analytical reasoning, critical thinking, and cogent writing.
Why study English at Clark?
- Explore both foundational and emergent areas of literature and culture with experienced professors.
- Work with primary archival material at Worcester’s prestigious American Antiquarian Society or at Clark’s own Goddard Library Archives and Special Collections.
- Join our close-knit community of faculty and students who participate in lively intellectual and social engagements, such as ClarkWrites (the student-run creative writing blog), our annual alumni event ChowderFest, and the yearly Undergraduate Shakespeare Conference.
- Apply
- Request Info
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Featured Courses
Black Political Literary Movements of the 20th Century
Explore the origins, politics, and legacies of 20th-century black literary and cultural movements like New York’s Harlem Renaissance, the Afrocriollo movement in Latin America, and the Negritude Movement in Paris.
Making Gender Through the Eighteenth-Century Novel
Did you know that gender roles became more clearly defined in 18th-century Britain? Uncover how the texts of this period helped shape perceptions of masculinity and femininity, both socially and culturally.
Traumatic Tales: National Trauma in Romantic Literature
Explore through a variety of genres how British Romantic writers attempted to articulate a homogeneous national identity by shaping discourses around class, home, and the nation-state.
English majors and minors at Clark epitomize the voracious Clarkie. They possess an intellectual hunger that drives them to make their Clark educational experience their own. Students progress from the simpler pleasures of reading and writing to the empowerment afforded by critical engagement with a variety of texts.
You also can broaden your critical perspectives through interdisciplinary seminars. Examples of such courses have included Science Fiction and the Mind of the Other (English and philosophy), In Sickness and In Health: Narrative and the Art of Healing (English and psychology), and Freedom Dreams: Global Freedom Struggles from Decolonization to the Present (English and history). You can also apply to join, for credit, an American Studies Seminar offered by Worcester’s prestigious American Antiquarian Society, a national research library of American history.
The Clark Experience
The Clark Experience brings together the exceptional education you’ll receive in the classroom and so much more. Through focus and flexibility, it ensures you’ll leave Clark with the creativity, confidence, and resilience to succeed and lead a life of meaning and consequence.
Career Communities are industry-focused groups designed to support your professional exploration and narrow down your career interests within specific fields. You’ll connect to opportunities, professionals, and information that will support your career development. The following communities may be of interest:
Non-Profit, Human Services, and Education
Arts, Media, Design, and Communications
News Anchor
NBC/CBS
Correspondent
The Associated Press
ESL Teacher and Writer
The Richie Language Institute
Book Buyer
Massachusetts Horticultural Society
Attorney
Cunningham Law Offices
V.P., International Sales
New Balance
Frequently Asked Questions
What can I do with a major in English?
English majors are excellent communicators and highly adaptable, creative problem-solvers who apply their critical thinking skills to productive effect in a variety of professions.
What skills will I learn as an English major?
- Principles of effective written and oral communication
- Critical theory and analysis — apply critical, theoretical, and interdisciplinary approaches (such as feminist, gender studies, critical race theory, the medical humanities, and postcolonialism) to a variety of texts
- Collaboration — work successfully on team projects
- Integration of knowledge and skills — develop well-supported original ideas about a variety of texts, write cogent critiques, and deliver effective presentations
- Cultural knowledge and how it applies to civic engagement
Are there achievement awards in English?
William H. Carter, Jr. Prize in English
The William H. Carter Jr. Prize in English was established by Harriet R. Carter in memory of her husband, William H. Carter, Jr., an English department professor for over three decades. In addition to his teaching and scholarship, Dr. Carter chaired the department for three consecutive terms. The fund supports a prize to be awarded to an outstanding rising senior majoring in English.
Virginia Mason Vaughan Prize in English for the Most Outstanding Honors Thesis
This award was established by Clark alumni Michael and Lisa Klein Leffell to honor both Professor Vaughan and the most outstanding graduating English majors. Awards are given based on quality of research, overall conceptualization, mastery of a complex literary topic, and elegance in writing.
Is there an honors program for English majors?
During your junior year, you might be accepted into the English honors program. Joining the program means you’ll work closely with a professor to create a thesis on a topic of your choice. Examples of recent honors thesis topics are:
- “Palpable Verb Tenses:” Non-Patriarchal Models of Readerly and Authorial Position
- Gender in Conflict: A History of Iraqi Women from Ba’athism to Occupation
- There Were Never Heroes: Autonomy, Identity, and the Modern Age in the Super Hero Genre
- A Return to Linguistics: Morrison’s Interpretation of the Song of Songs in Conversation with Song of Solomon
- To Ourselves and Our Posterity: Fathers, Sons, and the American Dream in William Faulkner’s Absalom! Absalom! and Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian
Be a force for change.
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