English

Contact Information

138 Duns Scotus Hall

phone: (716) 839-8541
daemen.edu/english

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DaemenCollegeEnglish/ Blog: http://daemencollegeenglish.blogspot.com/

Chair

Nancy Marck Cantwell
138-3 Duns Scotus Hall (716) 839-8541 nmarck@daemen.edu

Degree Offered

Minors

Career Field Experience

An English major can best begin to see the broad range of applications for the skills developed in coursework by engaging in a Career Field Experience, which places students as interns in local businesses and organizations.  One recent intern reports that her placement confirmed her choice of major: “my studies are heading me in the right direction because my job did not seem like work to me, but rather a welcoming community where I could put my skills to use every day.”

Mission Statement

The Daemen College English Department builds upon our students’ interest in literature in order to prepare them to assume their place in a rapidly changing and increasingly complex as well as global world. With its three streams (straight English, Adolescence English Education, and Professional Writing and Rhetoric), the English program integrates the intellectual qualities acquired through the study of literature, the other liberal arts, and professional programs that prepare students whose knowledge, imagination, critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills will enable them to take their places in the local and global communities.

In order to better prepare students for a rapidly changing world, the English curriculum reflects changes in the field of English studies over the past several decades. The curriculum offers broad historical surveys but also incorporates new methodologies and fields of study. While making optimum use of the range of Daemen faculty expertise, it permits students considerable freedom in selecting areas of study but also requires students to work closely with their individual faculty advisors and other departmental faculty in making those choices. The core English curriculum prepares students both for graduate study and for positions that require advanced reading, writing, critical and creative thinking abilities. The core English curriculum also serves as the basis for specializations in Adolescence English Education and Professional Writing and Rhetoric, which direct these same abilities to more specific professional ends.

Departmental Learning Objectives

Through this program of study, English majors will

  1. read attentively, closely, and critically, effectively using primary texts through quotation and internal reference, drawing conclusions and generalities beyond a given text, and offering a clear critical approach in interpreting texts.
  2. be able to state clearly the central themes, concepts, and ideas governing a work of literature and then, as a separate but related act, to evaluate their literary importance or cultural significance.
  3. develop familiarity with major periods and movements and with the influence of previous trends and styles on later authors and texts.
  4. understand the major characteristics of the dominant genres (poetry, fiction, and drama) and use those characteristics to analyze individual examples.
  5. respond to a literary text in a way that reflects an awareness of aesthetic values, historical context, ideological orientation, and critical approach.
  6. demonstrate the role of context(s) in production, reception, and transmission of literary and cultural texts (across periods, histories, geographic or national spaces, and cultural differences).
  7. write thoughtfully, coherently, and persuasively.