The English Department at UMass has long been at the forefront of the fields of colonial, postcolonial, decolonial, and transnational studies, with specialists in several different geographical and political areas. The department also boasts faculty strengths in numerous theoretical approaches to the study of literature, culture, politics, race, gender, sexuality, and the environment.
Students interested in understanding the long history empire and its afterlives will find robust resources in the department and the university, with specialists in Arab and Arab American literature and culture, Asian American Studies, Black Studies, British and US Empire Studies, Caribbean literature and culture, Critical Diaspora Studies, Critical Ethnic Studies, the Environmental Humanities, Indigenous Studies, Irish literature and culture, South Asian and South Asian American Literature and Culture, and Transatlantic Studies.
While completing coursework for their PhD, Graduate students can also pursue an interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate in Decolonial Global Studies, alongside engaging with a vibrant campus culture of sustainability and social justice.
Rowshan Chowdhury, PhD Candidate
"Can you digitize the 19th-century advertisement of a drama on the Sepoy Rebellion on a five-foot-long fabric? Even if you do, can you feel its actual gravity? Seeing those long-preserved materials ... makes a huge difference to me."
