English Major/Minor

How to Declare a Major or Minor in English

Students wishing to declare a major or minor in English should obtain an Academic Program Changes form. When accessing the electronic copy, be sure to complete the form with your student information. Send the completed form to the Director of Undergraduate Studies during their posted office hours or to foxp@georgetown.edu with the subject line “English Major Declaration.”

At that point, the “Academic Program Changes” form will be reviewed, and students will be assigned an advisor. Advisors make sure students understand the Major requirements, help design a course of study, and ensure students are on track toward completing their Major requirements.

Majors who have specific questions about the completion of their major requirements (i.e. transfer credits from other institutions, registration, or major requirements, etc.) should contact the Director of Undergraduate Studies, Professor Pamela Fox at foxp@georgetown.edu to schedule an appointment.

Note: Effective Fall 2023, all main campus courses have been renumbered using a new 4-digit numbering system.

https://schedule.georgetown.edu/course-renumbering-crosswalk/e/#engl

English Majors must complete the following ten courses (30 credits):

Ways of Reading

  • ENGL 1095: Ways of Reading
    • Eligible to fulfill the HALC requirement!

Identities & Histories

  • Two Courses that represent “Identities” (i.e. Diversities)
  • Two Courses that represent “Histories” (one pre-1900 and one pre-1800)

In each semester, you will be able to see which courses count for these requirements by looking for the Attribute tag (HIST I; HIST 2; Identities) when perusing courses.

Electives

  • Four English electives total
    • Upper-level courses are no longer required
  • Optional: Distribution Areas to be used as concentrations
    • Global; Genre; Media; Creative and Public Writing
    • Distribution areas make visible the strengths of our professors’ research and teaching and indicate to students how they might arrange a coherent story for themselves –and professional narrative– around their work in English.  An optional concentration–four courses in one Area– can focus work in a given area and can replace the four remaining electives to complete the major.

Senior Seminar

  • One Senior Seminar or Honors Seminar (ENGL 4600–4999)

Switching Over to the New Curriculum

For those who have declared their English major within the current curriculum, we will make accommodations for you to complete that major:  ENGL 1091 History of Lit, Media, Culture I and ENGL 1092 History of Lit, Media, Culture II will be available for you to take this coming Fall and Spring.  Those who will still need Critical Methods will take the intro. course for the new curriculum, “Ways of Reading.”   (This will count in your transcript.).

Those of you who have just begun the current major may want to switch to the new one.  If you’ve already taken Critical Methods, we will use that as a proxy for the Ways of Reading course, and ENGL 1091 and 1092 can also count as a period requirement in the new major. (They can also count as electives.)  If you are studying abroad, you will also be able to take an SAB course that will count as one requirement of either “Histories” or “Identities.”

English Minors must complete the following six courses (please note that four out of the six courses must be ENGL courses taken in this department):

Two Foundational Courses

  • One Ways of Reading Course (ENGL 1095)
  • One “Histories” or “Identities” course as described under the Major

Ways of Reading is eligible to fulfill the HALC requirement.

Four Electives

  • Four electives at any level (ENGL 1000–4590)

Descriptions of Foundation Courses, Electives, and Senior Seminars can be found under The Curriculum.