Initiatives

From retellings of The Tempest to contemporary classics like Beloved and Ceremony, from issues of linguistic diversity to Students’ Rights to Their Own Language, the practice of English as a discipline is inherently intersectional and linked to complex literary and cultural histories and complicated presents. To reflect that complexity, our teaching, creative activity, and scholarship foster conversations about race and racism, ethnicity, immigration, ability, gender, sexuality, class, Indigeneity, and colonialisms. Our department has adopted core values that support such conversations, and we seek to uphold those values throughout our work.

Curriculum

We value curricula that foreground diverse intellectual traditions. Our course offerings include classes in literature, film, creative writing, cultural studies, professional writing, and composition and rhetorical studies that reflect this investment. For example:

Regular Course Offerings

Identities, Power, and Cultural Text (ENGL 185); Intro to American Ethnic Literatures (ENGL 285); Multicultural Children’s Literatures (ENGL 384); American Ethnic Literatures (ENGL 385); African American Literatures (ENGL 386); Native American Literatures (ENGL 387); Asian American Literatures (ENGL 388); Latino/a Literatures (ENGL 389); Linguistics for Teachers (ENGL 435); American English (ENGL 476); Holocaust Literature (ENGL 575); World Literatures (ENGL 580); Selected Topics in American Ethnic Literatures (ENGL 655).

Selected Recent Topics Courses

African American Cinema (ENGL 420); Indigenous Film (ENGL 420); Multicultural American Literature (ENGL 655); What is African American Literature? (ENGL 655); Louise Erdrich (ENGL 660); Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison (ENGL 660); Wilder, Erdrich, and Taylor: Family Sagas and U.S. History (ENGL 660); 1001 Arabian Nights: Empires, Orientalism and the Origins of Disney’s Aladdin (ENGL 670); Asian American Literature (ENGL 680); Afrofuturism and African Diasporic Speculative Fiction (ENGL 695); Hamilton in Context (ENGL 695); Multiethnic Young Adult Literature (ENGL 695); Hip Hop and/as Literature (ENGL 710); Queer Theory (ENGL 740); Language, Power, and the Politics of Exclusion in U.S. Higher Education (ENGL 753); Sovereign Erotics: Queer Indigenous Literature and Theory (ENGL 830); Post-9/11 Literature and Culture (ENGL 730); African American Children’s Literature (ENGL 725); Welcome to the Apocalypse (ENGL 745); Avant-Garde Asian American Fiction (ENGL 825); Global Comics (ENGL 730); Postcolonial and Mythological Children’s Literature (ENGL 825).

 

Student Learning Outcomes and Curriculum Requirements

• Undergraduate Student Learning Outcomes and curriculum requirements for the B.A. in English
• Graduate Student Learning Outcomes and curriculum requirements (including a diversity overlay) for the M.A. in English
• Arts and Sciences requirements in global perspectives and U.S. multicultural understanding

 

Engagement and Programming

K-State’s English Department initiates and supports many projects to diversify the intellectual and creative experiences of our students and to foreground the intellectual traditions of queer, Indigenous, BIPOC, and other underrepresented communities.

• The Gordon Parks Project
• The Treaties Project
• Summer Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program
• Young Writers’ Workshop
• Visiting Writers Series
  • Recent writers include Ira Sukrungruang, Lillian Li, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Molly McCully Brown, L.L. McKinney, Sean Hill, Joy Harjo, and Kimiko Hahn
• Cultural Studies Seminars
  • K-State hosts the longest running Cultural Studies symposium in the country and has featured notable speakers including Aimee Bahng and Thea Tagle, Scott Herring, Lisa Lowe, Fred Moten. The symposium sparked the creation of the Kansas State Drag show.
• Arts and Sciences Community Lecture Series
• McNair Scholars
• Check out the English Department blog for other programming

 

Research

Coming soon.

 

Campus Resources

General Resources

• Office of Civil Rights and Title IX: https:/https://www.k-state.edu/civil-rights/
• Student Belonging: https://www.k-state.edu/belonging/
• Graduate Student Council: https://www.k-state.edu/grad/student-success/student-council
• Student Government Association: https://www.k-state.edu/sga/
• Student Ombudsperson Office: https://www.k-state.edu/academic-success-student-affairs/about/student-ombudsperson.html
• Student Success and Accountability: https://www.k-state.edu/student-support/studentsupport/
• Student Complaints and Grievances: https://www.k-state.edu/studentlife/reportsandpolicies/studentcomplaintsandgrievances.html

Faculty/Staff Affinity Associations

• Black Faculty and Staff Association: https://www.k-state.edu/bfsa/
• Alianza: Faculty, Staff Alliance for Hispanic/Latinx Affairs: https://www.k-state.edu/alianza/
• Indigenous Faculty and Staff Alliance: https://www.k-state.edu/indigenous-alliance/about.html

Multicultural Student Organizations

• Links to individual organizations: https://www.k-state.edu/belonging/multicultural-center/student-orgs/
• Morris Family Multicultural Student Center: https:/https://www.k-state.edu/belonging/multicultural-center/

Awards and Scholarships

• Robinson Family Multicultural Leadership Award (students)
• Social Transformation Studies Awards and Scholarships (students)
• SGA Community Engagement Funding (students)
• Chapman Center for Rural Studies Interdisciplinary Research Award (faculty)
• Chapman Center for Rural Studies Student Internships (students)

Immigration Resources

• International Student and Scholar Services: https://www.k-state.edu/isss/
• The Office of International Programs: https://www.k-state.edu/oip

Legal and Economic Resources

• Cat’s Cupboard: https://www.k-state.edu/cats-cupboard/
• Student legal services: https://www.k-state.edu/legal/
• Powercat financial: https://www.k-state.edu/powercatfinancial/
• K-State DreamZone (support for DACA students): https://www.k-state.edu/diversity/dreamers/
• K-State PROUD awards: https://www.ksufoundation.org/k-stateproud/awards.html
• Office of Student Financial Assistance: https://www.k-state.edu/sfa/

Disability Resources

• Student Access Center, dedicated to the ideals of equal access and services for all students: https://www.k-state.edu/accesscenter/

Gender and Sexuality Resources

• Office of Civil Rights and Title IX: https:/https://www.k-state.edu/civil-rights/
• Center for Advocacy, Response and Education: https://www.k-state.edu/care/

Teaching and Mentoring Resources

• Teaching and Learning Center: https://www.k-state.edu/tlc/

Mental Health Resources

• YOU website, offering free and confidential tips and tools for topics from mental and physical health, to friendships and finding balance: https://you.k-state.edu/
• Kansas State University Counseling Services, offering free and confidential services to assist in meeting mental health challenges. https://www.k-state.edu/counseling
• Lafene Health Center, with specialized nurse practitioners to assist with mental health: https://www.k-state.edu/lafene
• The Office of Student Success and Accountability: https://www.k-state.edu/student-support/studentsupport/
• K-State Family Center, offering individual, couple, and family counseling services on a sliding fee scale: https://www.hhs.k-state.edu/familycenter/
• Center for Advocacy, Response, and Education (CARE), providing free and confidential assistance for those in our K-State community who have been victimized by violence: https://www.k-state.edu/care

 

Reporting Violence

K-State encourages community members to promptly report threats, violence, and crimes, including discrimination, harassment, retaliation, conduct code violations, access barriers, assault, and child abuse, through the Report It website: https://www.k-state.edu/report