Welcome to the New English Major! From subject areas that explore literatures and cultures around the globe, to historical arcs that ground your readings and analysis, as well as advanced projects that enable you to work closely with faculty in small workshop settings, our new major prepares you to graduate as a skilled writer and creative thinker.

Below you’ll find inviting paths through the major, more ways to fulfill requirements, as well as exciting courses that reflect the diverse voices and intellectual richness of the English department. The new English Major requirements go into effect in Fall 2023. Students who declared the major before Fall 2023 should consult the pre-Fall 2023 requirements.

New Major Sheet
Preparation for the Major
At the Upper Division
Subject Area Requirements
Historical Field Requirements
Senior Seminar

The English Department prides itself on providing a welcoming environment for all students, especially first-year and transfer students.  To consult about requirements, courses, or your path through the major, please contact the Undergraduate Advisor, Jessica Good, (english-undergrad-advisor@ucsb.edu), or the Vice Chair of the department, Jim Kearney (kearney@english.ucsb.edu).

The English major requires 56 units in English, at least 44 of which must be upper-division units, distributed in the manner outlined below. Students interested in petitioning a course outside the English Department to count for credit towards the major should contact Undergraduate Advisor for assistance with the petition process.

We want students to be able to enter the major from a variety of directions, and so we offer a range of options at the lower division. Students should take two courses from the following:

• English 10 Introduction to Literary Study
• English 11 Literature and its Uses
• English 15 Introduction to Shakespeare or English 15SH Shakespeare as Popular Culture
• English 22 Introduction to Literature and the Environment I: The Western Tradition
• English 25 Literature and the Information, Media, and Communication Revolutions
• English 34NA Animacy and the Speaking Earth: The Power of Native Story
• English 39 Pan-Latinx Literatures of Transformation
• English 40BA Black Literature in the Early Periods
  or English 40BB African American Literature 1930s-Present
• English 50 Introduction to Comparative Ethnic Literatures

To provide students greater flexibility, we also allow majors to take one of their elective courses (four units) at either the lower or upper division.

The English Department offers innovative courses that address the challenges of the twenty-first century even as they attend to the traditions and histories that shape us. The following requirements are designed to reflect the department’s unique profile and to capture the diversity of approaches and materials that we want our students to encounter in their time at the university and in the major.

At least 44 upper division units in English are required, as follows:

Subject Area Requirements

• Majors should take one course from each of the following areas:
  • Literature and the Social
  • Form, Media, Expression
  • Regions, Borders, Worlds
  • Literature across Disciplines

See the major sheet for the extensive list of courses that fulfill each of these requirements.

Historical Field Requirements

• Majors should take one course from each of the following historical fields:
  • Literatures & Cultures, pre-1500
  • Literatures & Cultures, 1500-1700
  • Literatures & Cultures, 1700-1900
  • Literatures & Cultures, post-1500

See the major sheet for the extensive list of courses that fulfill each of these requirements.

Senior Seminar

• English 197 – the capstone course of the English Major

(four courses, 16 units)

Explore courses that expand your knowledge of literatures and cultures around the globe and that expose you to a range of ideas and approaches. Virtually all upper-division English courses fulfill at least one of these subject areas, and most fulfill more than one. See the major sheet for the extensive list of courses that fulfill each of these requirements

Majors should take one course from each of the following subject areas:

• Literature and the Social
  The English Department offers a variety of courses that address topics concerning literature and the social realm.
  In Fall 2023, the following courses can fulfill this requirement:
  • English 170TL (Professor Julie Carlson) – Trauma-Informed Literature and Classrooms
  • English 192SC (Professor Cathy Thomas) – Science Fiction: Speculations in Color
• Form, Media, Expression
  Students will encounter a range of courses that address literature in relation to form, media, and expression.
  In Fall 2023, the following courses can fulfill this requirement:
  • English 146AI (Professor Rita Raley) –Literature and/of Artificial Intelligence
  • English 183WP (Professor Stephanie Batiste) – Writing for Performance: Theatrical Jazz and Form
  • English 192SC (Professor Teresa Shewry) – Fantasy and Ecology
  • English 192SC (Professor Cathy Thomas) – Science Fiction: Speculations in Color
• Regions, Borders, Worlds
  The English Department offers a variety of courses that address literature in relation to regions, borders. and worlds.
  In Fall 2023, the following courses can fulfill this requirement:
  • English 192FE (Professor Teresa Shewry) –Fantasy and Ecology
• Literature across Disciplines
  Students will encounter a range of courses that address literature across  disciplines.
  In Fall 2023, the following courses can fulfill this requirement:</em
  
  • English 146AI (Professor Rita Raley) – Literature and/of Artificial Intelligence
  • English 170TL (Professor Julie Carlson) – Trauma-Informed Literature and Classrooms
  • English 175GW (Professor Ben Olguín) – Proseminar on Grants, Fellowships, and Scholarships
  • English 183WP (Professor Stephanie Batiste) –Writing for Performance: Theatrical Jazz and Form

(four courses, 16 units)

Explore courses that expand your knowledge of literary history and expose you to a range of cultures and histories. See the major sheet for the extensive list of courses that fulfill each of these requirements

Majors should take one course from each of the following historical fields:

• Literature & Cultures pre-1500
  In Fall 2023, the following course can fulfill this requirement:
  • English 110T (Professor Heather Blurton) – Poets, Dragons and Kings: Old English Literature in Translation
• Literatures & Cultures 1500-1700
  In Fall 2023, the following course can fulfill this requirement:
  • English 102BA (Professor James Donelan) –Royalists, Radicals, and the Transformation of the Transatlantic Anglophone World
• Literatures & Cultures 1700-1900
  In Fall 2023, the following course can fulfill this requirement:
  • English 103WT (Professor Brian Donnelly) –Wilde Times: Late Victorian Literature and Aesthetics
• Literatures & Cultures post-1900
  In Fall 2023, the following course can fulfill this requirement:
  • English 104LC (Professor Maurizia Boscagli) – Literature, Culture, and Society: The 20th and 21st Century

(one course, 4 units)

The capstone of the English major is the senior seminar (English 197), which gives students the opportunity to work closely in small classes with our faculty. The topics covered in these courses range widely. Recent titles include: Ghosts and War in Asian America; Poetry Lab; Feminist Interventions: Women/Writing/Film; Humor and Ecology; James Joyce’s Ulysses; Trauma and Somatic Reading; Pre-Raphaelites and Victorian Culture; Digital Humanities; Steal From the Rich: Robin Hood in Literature and Media. Search the English Department’s Courses page for more information.

The department offers multiple iterations of the senior seminar in every quarter (Fall, Winter, Spring).