Administration
Chair: Donald E. Hall
Associate Chair: Timothy Sweet
Ph.D. Supervisor: Dennis Allen
M.F.A. Supervisor: James Harms
M.A. Supervisor: John Lamb
Director, Center for Writing Excellence: Laura Brady
Director, Center for Literary Computing: Sandy Baldwin
The Department
The West Virginia University Department of English is staffed by 42 full-time faculty in literary and cultural studies, creative writing, professional writing, linguistics, and composition studies. Recipients of NEH, ACLS, and NSF grants as well as numerous Fulbrights, our faculty have also been recognized with regional and national awards for outstanding teaching. We teach, advise, and direct the research of over 200 undergraduate majors and 60 M.A. and Ph.D. students. In Fall 2001, we began offering an M.F.A. in Creative Writing.
Program opportunities abound. The Virginia Butts Sturm Writer-in-Residence Workshop enables competitively selected graduate and undergraduate students to work intensively with an outstanding writer. The Undergraduate Literature Symposium gives our English majors an opportunity to share their research with students from other colleges in West Virginia. The Graduate Student Colloquium provides a regional forum for graduate students’ research. Every June the Summer Seminar in Literary and Cultural Studies draws faculty and students from across the nation to study with a distinguished scholar. In July the West Virginia Writers’ Workshop offers four days of workshops, panel discussions, and readings.
The Department fosters community and collegiality within a large research (Carnegie Doctoral-Extensive) university. Professors often host end-of-term get-togethers for undergraduate students. Graduate students and faculty consider each other as colleagues (as well as fellow team-members on the department intramural softball and soccer teams).