Department of English : University of Rochester

English department faculty have garnered numerous awards and honors, including from the National Endowment for the Arts, Guggenheim Foundation, Newberry Library, and Modern Language Association, among others.

For 20+ years, Professor Emeritus Russell Peck led the “Theater in England” course, shepherding participants to multiple plays each day over two weeks. Katherine Mannheimer now leads the course.

Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly, a journal devoted to the artist and poet William Blake, is celebrating its 50th year in 2016-17.

Feature Story

Saving the lost text of a Torah scroll from the Holocaust

After Nazi forces invaded Bohemia and Moravia in 1939, German authorities ordered the region’s Jewish congregations to surrender their religious books, liturgical objects, and records. More than 200,000 items were held in Prague's Jewish Museum. Many have been put on permanent loan to synagogues around the world. But time and handling had blurred and obscured some of the text. Now, Professor Gregory Heyworth and his digital media students are using different wavelengths of light to reveal illegible text on two Torah scrolls that could create a sacred, tangible link with congregations lost to the Holocaust.Read More

126internships and research projects

In the last two years, undergraduates have completed 126 English Department honors theses, local and national internships, and independent research projects.

Alumni in the News

Kali Quinn '03
BA in English

Via Rochester Review: "What’s Your Script?"
Through ‘compassionate creativity,’ theater artist Kali Quinn ’03 finds her own script, and helps others find theirs. Artwork: David Cowles for Rochester Review

Undergraduate alumni >

Graduate alumni >

Literature andLanguage

Film andMedia

Creative writing andtheater

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