Poet Solmaz Sharif, reading Sept. 29, considers ‘literary citizenship’
Her books of poetry are “Looks” and “Customs”; part of the Fall 2022 Barbara & David Zalaznick Reading Series for the Creative Writing Program.
Read More
Training in the rigors and pleasures of critical thinking, close reading and lucid writing
Academics
The Cornell Literatures in English Department retains the pluralistic ideals of the university’s founders and continues to respond to and embody a constantly evolving discipline. Within the department, ongoing debates about the role of critical theory or cultural studies, the status of popular culture, the relevance of film studies and hip hop, or the definition of the words “English” and “literature” themselves have led to new understandings of the discipline, as well as a range of textual productivity, from producing critical editions to writing poetry.
Popular Destinations
Interdisciplinary Reach
Outside the department, the growth of interdisciplinary work has led to a range of connections across the humanities at Cornell, from comparative literature to medieval studies, from Asian-American Studies to feminist, gender and sexuality studies, with English faculty maintaining affiliations in all of these disciplines.
Along with teaching more than a third of the Freshman Writing Seminars offered by Cornell’s Knight Institute of Writing in the Disciplines, the Literatures in English Department’s nourishing of this wide range of scholarly and creative writing has maintained the department’s central importance in the humanities at Cornell and world-wide.
Literatures in English Events
Sep
29
Klarman Hall, Rhodes-Rawlings Auditorium (G70 Klarman Hall)
Oct
04
Department of Literatures in English Lounge, 258 Goldwin Smith Hall
Oct
06
Sage Chapel
Oct
12
Physical Sciences Building
Oct
18
Department of Literatures in English Lounge, 258 GSH
Oct
20
Klarman Hall, Rhodes-Rawlings Auditorium (G70 Klarman Hall)
Literatures in English News
Two Doctoral Students Receive Ford Fellowships
Joseph Miranda, a doctoral candidate in English language and literature, received a dissertation competition fellowship.
Read More
The College Welcomes New Faculty for 2022-23
This year, 15 new faculty are bringing innovative ideas in a wide range of topics to the College of Arts & Sciences’ nexus of discovery and impact, including climate change, astronomy, identity studies and the economy.
Read More
Student Spotlight: Sophia Veltfort
Sophia Veltfort, MFA ’20, a doctoral candidate in English language and literature, studies the representations of speech and thought in 20th-century fiction.
Read More
Reporters discuss history of “land grab” universities in press freedom lecture
Journalist Tristan Ahtone and historian Robert Lee will talk about how Indigenous land expropriated by the 1862 Morrill Act is the foundation of the land-grant university system in the 2022 Kops Lecture.
Read More
Between Two Slices of Bread, an Enduring Big Red Bond
Two ’06 classmates enjoyed a simple-but-tasty sandwich for decades—then the Washington Post shared it with the world
Read More
Fall 2022 Zalaznick Reading Series Features Global Voices
Beginning Sept. 8, the series brings innovative, award-winning authors to read from their work on Cornell’s Ithaca campus.
Read More"If you read quickly to get through a poem to what it means, you have missed the body of the poem."
— M.H. Abrams, Class of 1916 Professor Emeritus