Contacts in English Department:
Stephen Arata (sda2e); 4-6670
Jennifer Greeson (jrg6k); 3-1585
Faculty Senate new track proposal
1. Introduction
Announce the new minor, concentration, or track and provide a brief justification
affirming its academic quality and identifying the gap it will fill, the population it will
serve, and the advantages it will provide.
Global English Literature and Culture (GELC)
The UVa English Department’s strengths and interests have long extended beyond
British and American literatures to world Anglophone literature; indeed, the department
includes a number of the most celebrated scholars of world Anglophone literature and
broke important ground many years ago when it built world Anglophone literature
requirements into its required undergraduate survey. But just as the discipline’s
professional organizations and journals continue to foreground the study of English and
American literature and a series of subfields dedicated to historical periods within those
national literatures, the department has until now required undergraduates to explore
literary history, conceived of in terms of those historical periods, rather than geographic
breadth. That organization does not sufficiently acknowledge students who would prefer
to give greater play to interests sparked by the survey, by their studies of the Anglophone
literature of the Caribbean, Africa, India, Australia, and elsewhere in other courses, and
by general interests in global issues. Those enticements frequently include consideration
of media and arts beyond the literary, and of approaches beyond those of the particular
discipline. We thus propose here a track that, while as challenging and productive and
focused as all existing forms of the major, will allow students to structure their
undergraduate studies of literature in relation to a wide range of national and regional
literatures, of artistic forms, and of disciplines.
2. Program Mission
Identify key directives, frame them within the University's educational mission, and
outline the main aspects of curricular design. In addition, discuss whether and how other
populations (e.g., existing academic departments and programs, community members,
undergraduate extracurricular groups, graduate student instructors) will be affected by
the new minor, if any.
The new track is consistent with the University’s increasing focus on the category of the
“global” and ensures a cohort of English majors whose knowledge may complement that
of undergraduates in other programs similarly invested in that category. Literature has
for centuries been a principal medium for development of ideas about the global and
surely merits a distinct place as a focus of study among such others. The track’s
interdisciplinary priorities, also consonant with University initiatives, bear some
similarity to that of the English Department’s own Modern Literature and Culture (MLC)
track, a central difference being the new track’s emphasis on geographic breadth and
MLC’s invitation to students to focus on work since 1789, as opposed to the new track’s
invitation, as exemplified below, to focus as much as the medieval, Renaissance, and
Restoration periods.
3. Program Description
Provide an account of the curriculum, describing the required and elective courses.
Assess the level of flexibility in the curriculum (that is, the ratio of requirements to
electives, as well as any stipulation as to the sequence for courses or projects) and weigh
its advantages against its disadvantages. Explain the differences between the new minor
and the previous path through the degree. Are new courses going to need to be
developed, or will a reorganization of existing courses be sufficient? Include course
descriptions, especially for required courses.
The track in Global English Literature and Culture (GELC) will allow students to extend
their study into the widest contexts of international literary achievement. As with other
paths through the major, it will offer engagement with major works in the AngloAmerican literary tradition and will provide strong preparation in writing. Additionally,
students will examine the spread of Anglophone literary culture around the world, a
phenomenon that has existed from the earliest stages of English literature and that has
recently become one of the most striking features of our global cultural condition.
Writing in South Asia, Anglophone Africa, the South Pacific, and the Caribbean, among
other sites and regions, has acquired decisive importance for the future of English.
Students will also have the opportunity to take designated CPLT courses designed to
situate Anglophone writing in conversation with and in the context of other literatures.
Students in GELC will encounter the provocation and accomplishment of such work,
while also preparing to become globally literate citizens of this new millennium.
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To complete this track, students must complete 33 hours of course work, including:
Two of the following: ENGL 3810, 3820, 3830, CPLT 2010, 2020.
GDS 2559: Global Humanities and Arts
Five courses from within the department, chosen in consultation with the student’s
advisor, that have been designated as meeting the requirements for GELC. At least two of
the courses must be in literature prior to 1900, and at least one must be at the 4000 level.
Examples from recent semesters include:
Rise of the Global Novel
Literature of the Americas
Fiction of Empire
Post-colonial Literature
The African Novel
Contemporary Ethnic Women’s Fiction
European Medieval Literature in Translation
World Poetry in English
African-American Literature
The Transatlantic Eighteenth Century
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Two courses from outside the department, chosen in consultation with the student’s
advisor, that have been designated as meeting the requirements for GELC. Examples
from recent semesters include:
Global Music
Global Media
World Art
World Religions
Courses in Literature in Translation (e.g., CPLT, FRTR, RUTR, JPTR)
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A capstone seminar (ENGL 4530), with enrollment restricted to students in the GELC
track. Topics would vary depending on the faculty involved, but the seminar would
include a research component issuing in a substantial essay. Students will be encouraged
to approach the project as a way to tie together the curriculum they have pursued in the
GELC track.
While retaining central priorities of the existing versions of the major, the new track
offers students greater flexibility (in general, but especially in terms of geographic range).
The only new initiative required for the track is the capstone seminar
4. Market Profile
Identify the types of students that will be attracted to this program, the educational or
professional prospects that they will enjoy through it, and the data (both local and
national, if possible) that suggest its potential appeal and success. Explain how the
program title may enhance prospects of student enrollment, hiring, and graduate
admission. Provide testimony from potential students about their interest in completing
the minor, and from potential employers and graduate programs about their interest in
students who hold the proposed minor.
The track reflects increasing emphasis on the global within disciplines in the humanities
(and elsewhere), and especially in literary study, and thus is likely to improve
participating students’ chances for admission in a number of graduate programs. As
English majors are prized by potential employers for their communication skills and
broad cultural awareness, tethering those qualities to the global may be a significant
asset. The department’s own graduate students increasingly pressure the faculty for more
courses in global studies, and many faculty members have found similar interest among
their undergraduates, as reflected in students’ chosen topics for seminar papers,
undergraduate theses, and independent study projects.
5. Review of Competing Programs
Compare and contrast your proposed minor with similar programs at other universities.
Be as detailed as possible in your comparisons (curricular content and design, applicant
type, application prerequisites, etc.). Specify the elements you wish to emulate and adopt
from these competitors, the elements you wish to exclude, and the rationale behind these
choices.
The new English major tracks were designed after review of comparable programs at
other institutions, with particular attention to the tracks at Penn State, which seemed
especially well suited as a model for our own. Many departments at peer institutions
have developed majors and/or minors comparable to the one proposed here. Ours is more
interdisciplinary and more focused on Anglophone literature than Northwestern’s Minor
in World Literature; its priorities are close to that of, for instance, the undergraduate
program in Global Cultural Studies at Duke or the concentration in global literature
within the English Department at Tulane. Many departments make vague gestures
towards “global literature” as one of the options available for emphasis in independent
work within honors programs (see Harvard’s passing reference to the category), but the
complexities of the subject warrant, we feel, the close guidance of an organized track.
6. Program Evaluation
Identify those factors that are salient for the success of the minor, such as: student
achievement, faculty involvement, collaboration, and growth. Evaluation benchmarks
and metrics might include data about the pool of applicants (size, credentials,
provenance, acceptance rate), evaluation of the program by registered students, student
performance during the program, student placement upon graduation. Articulate
strategies for dealing with four possible enrollment scenarios: over-demand, underdemand, demand with significant fluctuation, and initial bulge then decline.
Everything about contemporary reading and study of literature is tending in the direction
of the proposed track; the tendency might, indeed, be said to have increased steadily since
the origins of organized university literary study with a recent rapid acceleration that
shows no sign of slowing. It can be expected that increases in the numbers of
international students would increase the pool of likely applicants to this track; the
University’s own articulation of global priorities is likely to nudge those interested in the
literature in this direction too. The department’s existing assessments consider student
performance in the required survey courses and in capstone experiences; it will
necessarily be interested in following the performance of students in this track in those
contexts. But we will be especially interested in seeing whether we have, as we think,
identified a subject for which there is substantial and growing demand.
7. Miscellaneous
Address planned or potential collaboration within and perhaps beyond the University.
Highlight the use of digital content and delivery systems within the curriculum. Include
here, at your discretion, other matters of importance not covered under the preceding
rubrics.
The track was first proposed by the director the Global Humanities Institute, and it has
been championed by other members of the department that have earnest and influential
interests in this subject area. There is every reason to think that this track will serve not
only the students within it but larger motives of the University.