Bachelor in English

Students in Dickinson's Department of English study a range of English-language texts, including novels, poems, plays, graphic narratives, films, television, and other work.

Our curriculum is flexible and focused, allowing majors to follow their own interests through diverse course offerings that address core questions (of author and audience; culture, nation, and identity; form, medium, and materiality; and history, period, and influence). Classes deepen the skills that help students to engage in critical conversations with authority and purpose. This culminates in an independently chosen senior thesis project—and then, it is life beyond Dickinson. English majors continue to show how reading, writing, and thinking are vital to understanding and shaping our world.

In 1783, Benjamin Rush, a revolutionary in both spirit and life, established Dickinson College to provide a different kind of liberal-arts education. Here, students are encouraged to be actively engaged with the wider world and challenged to think differently and act boldly. Dickinsonians are guided by a core set of tenets—to be decisive, useful, curious, and unafraid to take risks.

We produce critical thinkers who see how everything is connected. Graduates forever ready to make a difference. This is how we’ve taught successful graduates of all kinds, from lawyers to researchers to writers to CEOs. Dickinson’s brand of liberal arts has been around for more than 200 years for one reason—it works.