Professor Brenda Flanagan sits with students in class and gives lecture while students take notes

English Major and Minor

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Academic Departments

The English Department provides you with a depth and breadth of literary knowledge while teaching you to explore problems creatively, to be sensitive to life's diversity, and to read the world critically and thoughtfully.

Davidson English majors and minors build skills in:

  • Communicating effectively in discussion and writing
  • Analyzing and creating across genres and media
  • Collaborating and working in diverse groups
  • Planning and conducting independent research
  • Creative problem solving
  • Critical thinking
  • Understanding and applying theoretical concepts
  • Embracing ambiguity and entertaining multiple, conflicting perspectives
  • Empathy and diplomacy

Because of its flexibility, the English major and minor pair well with other majors and minors. Whether alone or combined, an English degree signals to potential employers that you know how to write, communicate, and collaborate — in other words, you’ve developed the skills that employers want most.

What Do English Majors and Minors Study?

The study of English today has expanded beyond the traditional literary canon. Texts aren’t just books anymore, but can be TV shows, performances, Tweets, or memes. Authors aren’t just individual geniuses but may be collaborators, collectives, or computers. Reading and writing are no longer linear activities, but 3-dimensional, multimedia, transdisciplinary adventures.

Studying English involves reading and analyzing texts, as well as creating them. Studying English is about:

  • exploring the lives of others, past and present, near and far;
  • getting in proximity, fostering empathy, and traveling widely through the written and spoken word;
  • recognizing the importance of stories and storytelling for making meaning, organizing society, and communicating knowledge.
  • heightening awareness of the power of language to shape identities, values, world views, and ideologies.
Alumni Profile Cameron Hardesty ’07

"The English Department taught me how to think." said Hardesty, CEO and Founder of Poppy Flowers, in a recent interview with The Hurt Hub@Davidson Director, Liz S. Brigham ‘04. The two discuss mentorship, analyzing content, and how her major in English is a perfect foundation for success both in communications and in business.

Emi Moore '18

Being an English major prepared me for working at Pixelberry Studios by teaching me how to research, how to work in a team, and how to speak up for my ideas. One thing I really valued about the English major at Davidson was the space it fostered to share different perspectives. Every person is going to read a text differently, and having the space to talk about your own readings has really helped me feel comfortable voicing my opinions in a work environment.

Emi Moore ’18

Courses You Might Take

ENG 271
Disability in Literature and Art

This course explores disability as it is depicted in literary and cultural texts. These representations are sometimes used metaphorically, as representations of extreme innocence or evil. Likewise, they might reduce the experience of the disability to a conquerable challenge, or to a fate worse than death. We will reconsider disability history, question socially defined categories of normalcy and ability, and learn about the presence of disability culture. 

ENG 110
Video Game Talk

This course explores narrative techniques and design principles in video games as a form of storytelling. Students will analyze themes, motifs, and the interplay between game mechanics and content, examining how video games have evolved into a major form of human expression. Through the study of titles like Dark Souls, Disco Elysium, Undertale, and Kentucky Route Zero, the class will explore connections between video games and older literary forms.

ENG 488
Contemporary American Fiction

This is a class dedicated to the study of American fiction over the last decade, with particular emphasis on the connections between literature, Late Capitalism, digital culture, and current events. Reading authors such as Carmen Maria Machado, Jason Mott, Karen Russell, George Saunders, and Charles Yu, “Contemporary American Fiction” looks to examine what fiction does today that it didn’t do in 2014, and why. The class also includes Zoom sessions with many of the writers, and often, in-person events as well.

Related Academic Programs

Interested in Studying English at Davidson?