English Minor & Concentrations
Creative Writing Minor
The Creative Writing Minor invites students majoring outside of the English department to pursue a passion, to augment their current field of study, and to join a vibrant literary community both in the creative writing classroom and at a myriad of events. Students in the minor have opportunities to hone skills in writing pedagogy and editing & publishing, or they might find themselves reading their work at lively open mics or receiving mentorship from esteemed visiting authors as they dive into this highly personalized field of study at MCLA.
Concentrations
Literature
The Literature concentration explores the forces and phenomena of human creativity—and specifically the imaginative possibilities of language. Our courses explore the relations between culture and literary production, giving students tools to appreciate and to interrogate its complicated richness. Building off the foundation for all English majors, in courses like “Reading & Imagination,” Literature concentrators select from a broad variety of “deep dive” courses that pave the way for their own interpretive interventions, analytic or creative. Our reading is profoundly influenced and inspired by critical lenses such as gender studies, queer theory, performance studies, Black studies, ethnic studies, postcolonial theory, and more.
“Critical Reading”– a cornerstone of the concentration–provides a history of theoretical inquiry introducing several frameworks by which literature has been understood, such as historicism, psychoanalysis, and feminism. By studying these various approaches, students learn to sharpen their voices in dialogue with others. Your efforts in this course will also prepare you for advanced work in the Junior Colloquium and Senior Seminar, in addition to taking up co-curricular opportunities like the Undergraduate Research Conference. Our Literature concentrators have gone on to achieve success along numerous post-graduate pathways, including at highly regarded graduate programs, such as Cornell University, Northeastern University, Brandeis University and UMass Amherst.
Literature Info
Film & Visual Culture
The Film & Visual Culture concentration is an expansive and cross-disciplinary area of study that takes the visual as an entry point to exploring storytelling and meaning-making. From courses like “Film & the Creative Writer” to “MASS MoCA Immersion,” students learn to investigate the social and political role of visuality, evaluate power structures of looking, and examine the aesthetic value of images. Students analyze different media—such as film, painting, photography, digital media, architecture, advertising, and design—in a variety of contexts (screens, literature, museums, galleries, and more). Building upon the English major, students learn how our encounters with images profoundly impact our experiences of the world.
Through interactive programming and curriculum, this concentration draws on the internationally-recognized arts and cultural resources of the Berkshires region – like our neighboring museums, MASS MoCA and The Clark Art Institute. Special events, like the Global Film Series, give students the opportunity to build community around common interests.
Writing
The Writing Concentration invites students to risk new forms for telling stories, for witnessing and describing the contemporary, and stretching the limits of language. Workshops are intimate, egalitarian and open spaces where students may experiment with expression and technique, and use the study of literature to further their creative practice.
Beyond coursework, the Writing Concentration is flush with co-curricular opportunities to engage with the literary community both at MCLA and in wider spheres. Students submit creative writing to the literary and arts journal, Spires (and might join the student-run editorial team); they train to become a Writing Associate at the Writing Studio; read their work at open mics, or—as annual winners of the Senior Writing Contest do—present creative writing alongside esteemed authors at campus-wide events. Nationally acclaimed authors visit each semester to mentor students and give literary readings. Students also have opportunities to intern with Tupelo Press, a nationally recognized poetry press based in North Adams.