Explore your love of reading and writing.
The UMass Amherst English Department is a diverse and welcoming community. Students enjoy the strengths of a major research University, as well as the personal attention of of a liberal arts college. Our smaller classes facilitate discussion, frequent writing, active student engagement, and face-to-face contact with instructors.
Top-notch teaching
The English department excels in teaching: we have won more campus-wide Distinguished Teaching Awards than any other department at UMass.
Students benefit from our faculty's deep expertise. Committed to excellence and outreach in their fields, English Department faculty members have founded and developed the nationally recognized Undergraduate Writing Program, the Western Massachusetts Writing Project, the Juniper Institute, the Arthur F. Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies, and the Interdisciplinary Studies Institute. The MFA Creative Writing Program is nationally ranked, with many well-known writers among their alumni. These programs enhance the opportunities open to students.
Student satisfaction
For many reasons, students who have completed their English Department degree at UMass Amherst express deep satisfaction with the major. Our programs of study in language, literature, and writing promote a wide range of perspectives and encourage inquiry into diverse textual, cultural, and theoretical traditions.
Our popular summer abroad program in Oxford provides unique opportunities to learn in an international context. Our commitment to sustaining a diverse faculty means we understand the importance of different viewpoints and experiences, which prepare students to function effectively, and to intervene more progressively, in a highly globalized world.