Bailey Thompson | News Editor
In fall of 2019, Western will welcome the English Studies major. This program, while distinct and innovative in its own right, is nestled within the umbrella of the English major. At a time where many curricular reforms are coming to Western, the Humanities Department took this opportunity to restructure the programs that they offer.
As one of the professionals who was instrumental in bringing this program about, Dr. Cornelia Paraskevas, linguistics professor, shared what the faculty’s intent was in implementing this change.
“Our students were graduating with about 210 credits on average, and that was a problem,” said Paraskevas. While 180 credits are needed to graduate from Western, the multitude of requirements for English majors has been tacking on additional time and financial burden to students.
In addition to re-designing the English major with fewer credits required, having an English studies major is giving students the chance to get a balance of literature, writing and linguistics classes — something that has been rare until recently.
“Historically, English programs were literature programs,” said Paraskevas. “The English Studies goes back to the idea of the tripod; that an English degree consists of three parts of equal value — writing, linguistics and literature. So, I think it will be a popular major.”
While students interested in pursuing an English degree will still have the option of concentrating in one of these three areas, they will also be able to do an English Studies major, which offers a balanced selection of all three.
All in all, while the altering of these concentration requirements and the addition of the English Studies major may not seem very different from the status quo, it shows a regard for student time and money as well as the things that they are wanting to learn.
“A bunch of students I’ve talked to are very excited about it. Very excited. And a lot of English programs are going this direction because the concentrations are not working for students,” said Paraskevas. “To compare right now, the (English Studies) major is 61 credits. (An English major) used to be … 77 credits. That’s a term less. It makes a huge difference financially.”
Paraskevas also shared that the title of this major is something that many employers and graduate programs will be familiar with, so it will be treated just the same as other types of English degrees would in those arenas.
For any students who are interested or would like to learn more, Paraskevas suggested talking to her — she can be reached at paraskc@wou.edu — or any of the other English faculty, as they all have the information for this new major.
Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu
Photo courtesy of Ashlynn Norton
