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 Communications/Public Relations), 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 Communications/Public Relations, which direct these same abilities to more specific professional ends.

Departmental Learning Objectives

1. English majors will 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. English majors will 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. English majors will develop familiarity with major periods and movements and with the influence of previous trends and styles on later authors and texts.
4. English majors will understand the major characteristics of the dominant genres (poetry, fiction, and drama) and use those characteristics to analyze individual examples.
5. English majors will respond to a literary text in a way that reflects an awareness of aesthetic values, historical context, ideological orientation, and critical approach.
6. English majors will 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. English majors will write thoughtfully, coherently, and persuasively.