By Defne Gunay Cavalier Daily Associate Editor There are some names out there that every University student is familiar with, even if only by name -- Shakespeare, Hemingway and Salinger, to name a few, but it is the English department with whom these giants resonate the most.
Department Chair Jahan Ramazani said, although having a long history at the University, the English department took on its current shape beginning in the 1960s, under the leadership of Fredson Bowers, who assumed the position in 1963.
"The department went from being not a major player in the 1960s to being in one of the top departments in the country," Ramazani said.
According to Ramazani, in the most recent National Resource Council rankings, from 1995, the University's English department was ranked fourth.
Ramazani said he believes the faculty is the most important reason for the department's popularity and success.
"I think the number one reason we have such success and, consequently, many students interested in majoring in English, is the quality of our faculty," Ramazani said. "Their publications, international reputation, prizes, awards and national fellowships are outstanding."
Third-year College student and English major Natasha Joukovsky said the faculty was one of the reasons she picked English as her major.
"I think the English faculty is arguably the best faculty at this school," Joukovsky said. "Not just one, but so many. There is not a single bad professor in the English department."
Fourth-year College student Sara Muir said she found majoring in English to be more interesting than some other majors.
"Compared to some other classes I have taken, I find that English classes typically exude a certain energy," Muir said. "I think that discussions for English classes tend to be more animated and lively than in some other departments, because a lot of students truly enjoy what they are doing. They aren't English majors because daddy told them to or because it is the way to millions of dollars and a corner office."
The department offers area programs in medieval and renaissance studies, modern studies, American studies and poetry writing as well as the regular English major.
Ramazani said the area programs are essential to department's success.
"I think one of the greatest strengths of the English department has been its pluralism, eclecticism and encouragement of work in multiplicity of fields," Ramazani said. "We support great heterogeneity and the area programs are a way in which we do that."
Ramazani said one of the lesser known features of the department is its commitment to authors from different nations as a part of its dedication to diversity.
"The study of English is usually thought of the study of literature of Britain and America," Ramazani said. "But something very exciting now is that English literature has gone global, and we offer our students exposure to the excitingly cross-cultural and transnational world we live in."
Joukovsky said this commitment of the department is more than apparent.
"There is a really good balance in the emphasis on cultures that we study," Joukovsky said. "For example, I wouldn't have read Chinua Achebe, [author of "Things Fall Apart"], along with linguistic titans like Joyce and Eliot, if it wasn't for the fact that they have this balance."
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