{"id":6,"date":"2010-07-07T14:18:32","date_gmt":"2010-07-07T14:18:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/english\/about\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T15:54:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T19:54:59","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/english\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Through a wide range of courses offered in English, students develop the ability to read closely and to engage in skilled textual analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of English seeks to develop each student’s capacity for reading \u2014 the intense, concerned involvement with textual expression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All courses are intended to foster critical reading, writing, and thinking, in which “criticism” is at once passionate appreciation, historical understanding, and the perpetual rethinking of values. More specifically, the English major prepares students for careers such as teaching, publishing, and writing, for graduate study in literature, and for graduate programs leading to the study or practice of medicine or law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the department embodies a variety of teaching styles and interests, the faculty all believe in the art of patient, engaged reading as both knowledge and pleasure. Departmental offerings are intended to be taken in sequence. Courses at the 100 level are open to all students. Courses at the 200 level are more difficult in both the amount of material covered and the level of inquiry; they also address questions of theory and methodology in more self-conscious ways. Most 200-level courses have prerequisites. Seminars at the 300 level are generally for juniors and seniors who have completed several English courses (the latter requirement may be waived at the discretion of the instructor for certain interdisciplinary majors).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Day

Day in the Life of Ladd Library on March 12, 2025. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>

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\"Aleisha

Aleisha Martinez Sandoval \u201926 of of Edinburg, Texas, (left) and Caroline Cassell \u201924 of Woodstock, Vt., listen in rapt attention to Otis speaker Nancy Campbell in a Dana Hall classroom as Campbell explains a writing exercise.\n\nCampbell met with Director of Student Writing and Lecturer in Humanities Bridget Fullerton and the peer-writing tutors at 4:15 in Dana 204.<\/p><\/div>

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\"Fall

Fall afternoon on the historic quad features students and foliage.<\/p><\/div>

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\"Spotted

Spotted at Bates: Annie Conway ’23 of South Salem, N.Y., enjoying a novel on Alumni Walk, and Ben Fasciano ’23 of Lincoln, Mass., and Andrew Hoffman \u201823 of Oak Park, Ill., playing disc golf on Lake Andrews.\n\nThey’re each living in Lewiston during the summer for jobs and internships. And making the most of a beautiful, quiet campus.<\/p><\/div>

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\"A

A day in the life of Pettengill Hall, featuring staff, faculty and students engaged in learning, studying, and working, with both internal and external images.\n\nThis student, Pieter Cory ’22, dosing and studying in the Perry Atrium, said he was preparing for a class on PLTC 125\/ “States and Markets” taught by Jason Scheideman, Assistant Dean of the Faculty for Budget and Administration and Lecturer in Politics.<\/p><\/div>

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Through a wide range of courses offered in English, students develop the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":253,"parent":0,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_batesModPostContentOverride_prepend":false,"_batesModPostContentOverride_append":false,"_batesModPostContentOverride_append_before_footer":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"The Department of English at Bates College, including major requirements, courses and faculty.","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/academics\/majors-and-minors\/english\/","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"class_list":["post-6","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2563,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6\/revisions\/2563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}