Bachelor of Arts in
ENGLISH

If you can say it, why write it?When you can’t find the words to communicate an idea, feeling, or experience, but you are compelled to express it , the “unsayable” is urging you forward. As poet Donald Hall suggests in his essay “The Unsayable Said,” you are attempting to add “the secret (unsayable) room of feeling and tone to the sayable story.”
An English major at LMU helps students discover how to “say the unsayable” and better appreciate how great writing achieves that end. The LMU community of writers and readers welcomes literature and writing students who want to find the light in which they can find themselves. We invite you to join us in the search.
As part of a pilot program in creative writing and reading, the English Department will take students on the road in writing and reading workshops that require the investigation of local landscapes and geographies, along with study of the work of various California authors.

If you major in English, you’ll be a part of the LMU's Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts. The College is more fully described in other publications but here are a few essentials:

The Liberal Arts –Education that liberates your mind, nourishes your spirit, and cultivates your creativity for the challenges of today and tomorrow.

•Develop your ability to communicate
–Write dynamically
–Speak effectively
–Think clearly
–Build career skills
•Cultivate your critical and analytical thinking
–Dissect ideas
–Bring literature to life
–Critique social and economic problems
–Comprehend political systems and ideas
–Live the importance of social justice
–See the “bigger picture”
•Become aware of what influences you
–Explore the role of religion and values in society
–Seek a deeper understanding of faith
–Understand human behavior
–Discover multiple cultures and languages
–Examine the mosaic of American life
–Experience international education
•Energize your creativity
–Find innovative solutions
–Think “out of the box”
•Kindle your desire to serve
–Inspire others
–Know leadership as service

The College

FACULTY
Liberal Arts faculty – including those with worldwide reputations – are directly involved with students and their potential development. A majority of the faculty have terminal degrees from prestigious universities and are active in on-going scholarly investigations in their discipline. All are involved in undergraduate teaching and all academic counselors are drawn from their ranks.

MULTICULTURAL FOCUS
The College curriculum challenges students to explore ways to live more fully and to act more responsibly within our culturally diverse nation. While each department offers courses with a multicultural focus, African American Studies, Chicana/o Studies, and the Asian Pacific American concentration offer a greater depth of study in this area. Additionally the American Cultures core requirement enriches the curriculum with a strong comparative approach.

INTERNATIONAL FOCUS
The College of Liberal Arts promotes an educational environment rich in contact with the issues facing our world today. It especially encourages language study as a basis for its international courses and for the various study abroad opportunities. The College recruits international students and a globally sophisticated faculty.

THE “What can I do with…?” QUESTION
Graduates of the College of Liberal Arts have made their marks in a wide variety of careers – education, government, public health, social service, business, communications, science and the arts. Some pursue doctoral studies in their major or attend law schools, business schools or medical schools. Among our alumni are corporate managers, entrepreneurs, university professors, high school and elementary teachers and administrators, editors, elected and appointed federal, state and local officials, lawyers, clergy, and community leaders.
The answer to “What can I do with a liberal arts degree?” is one full of variety and opportunity. Its answer may be sought after the more important question: “What kind of person can I become?”

The English Major

As an English major at LMU, you can opt for a concentration in Literature or in Writing. If you choose the Literature emphasis, you will focus on English literature, American literature, and Multiethnic literature. With an emphasis in Writing, you will study different historical and contemporary writing styles, and, of course, develop your own style.
If you major in English at LMU, you will have the opportunity and resources to develop reading and writing skills which will serve you well in graduate studies in the Liberal Arts disciplines, including law school. You will have a solid background for careers in business, communications and writing. You will develop a sensitivity to expression which opens you to a host of different career paths.
The Department of English at LMU is active in its endeavors to provide its students with forums for their own writing, and exposure to the ideas of others. This takes the form of events, student publications, and internship opportunities both on and off campus.

Meet the Faculty

Linda Bannister
Professor and Chair
B.A., Michigan, 1974; M.A., University of Southern California, 1976; Ph.D., University of Southern California, 1982.
Rhetoric and Composition Theory, Stylistics, Contemporary Fiction.

Mel Bertolozzi
Professor
A.B., St. Mary’s, 1963; M.A., University of California, Davis, 1968; Ph.D., University of California, Davis, 1972.
Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Literature

Robert Caro, S.J.
Professor
B.S., Santa Clara, 1958; M.A., Gonzaga, 1964; S.T.M., Santa Clara, 1971; Ph.D., University of Washington, Seattle, 1977.
Renaissance Literature and Shakespeare

Stuart H.D. Ching
Assistant Professor and Assistant Director of Liberal Studies
B.Ed., University of Hawaii, 1987; M.F.A., Colorado State, 1990; Ph.D., University of Nebraska, 2000.
Composition and Rhetoric

Theresia de Vroom
Professor
B.M., University of Southern California, 1980; B.A., University of Southern California, 1980; M.A., Emory University, 1982; Ph.D., University of Southern California, 1988.
Medieval and Renaissance Literature, Shakespeare, Drama, Asian Literature

Frances Gussenhoven, R.S.H.M.
Professor
B.A., Marymount, 1952; M.A., Loyola, Los Angeles, 1961; M.A., Stanford University, 1967; Ph.D., Stanford University, 1977.
Chaucer, Shakespeare, Arthurian Romance, Drama

Paul Harris
Associate Professor & Graduate Director
B.A., McGill University, 1984; M.A., University of California, Irvine, 1986; Ph.D., University of California, Irvine, 1990.
Literary Theory, Literature and Science, Contemporary Literature

David Killoran
Professor
B.A., Michigan State, 1965; Ph.D., Tulane University, 1975.
American Fiction, Colonial American Culture, Southern Literature

Richard Kocher
Professor
B.S., Loyola, Los Angeles, 1956; M.A., University of Southern California, 1963; Ph.D., University of Southern California, 1978.
Nineteenth Century American Literature, English and American Romanticism

Holli Levitsky
Associate Professor
B.A., Michigan, 1979; M.A., Michigan, 1982; Ph.D., University of California, Irvine, 1990.
Critical Theory, American Literature, Ethnic Literature, Composition Theory

Sharon Locy
Professor
B.A., St. Teresa, 1963; M.A., University of California, Davis, 1966; Ph.D., University of California, Davis, 1975.
Victorian Literature, Narrative Strategy, Creative Writing: Fiction

John Menaghan
Professor
A.B., Boston College, 1976; M.A., Syracuse, 1979; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1988.
Irish Studies, Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Poetry, Creative Writing: Poetry and Fiction

John T. Reilly
Associate Professor of English and African American Studies
B.A., Harpur, 1968; M.F.A., Cornell University, 1972; Ph.D., Cornell University, 1977.
African American Literature and Culture, American Literature, Creative Writing: Drama

Barbara Roche Rico
Professor
B.A., Yale University, 1977; M.Phil., Yale University, 1981; Ph.D., Yale University, 1987.
Renaissance Literature, Multi-ethnic Literature, Composition Theory

Chuck Rosenthal
Professor
B.A., Allegheny, 1973; M.A., Bowling Green, 1975; M.A., University of California, Davis, 1981; Ph.D., University of Utah, 1986.
Contemporary Fiction, Critical Theory, American Intellectual History, Creative Writing: Fiction

Greg Sarris
Fletcher Jones Chair of Literature and Writing
Ph.D., Stanford University, 1989.
American and Native American Literature, Creative Writing

Lucy Ann Wilson
Professor
B.A., Kutztown University, 1974; M.A., Kutztown University, 1975; Ph.D., Temple University, 1982.
Modern British Literature, Contemporary Fiction, West Indian Literature

Gail Wronsky
Professor
B.A., Virginia, 1978; M.F.A., Virginia, 1981; Ph.D., University of Utah, 1986.
Contemporary Drama and Poetry, Women’s Writing, Creative Writing: Poetry and Drama

Kelly Younger
Assistant Professor and Assistant Director of Honors
B.A., Loyola Marymount University, 1994; M.A., Loyola Chicago, 1996; Ph.D., University College Dublin, 1999.
Anglo-Irish Literature, Drama Studies

Careers in English

The English degree enhances our ability to express ourselves clearly and forcefully, and it teaches us to read with exactness and creativity. A degree in English prepares students for careers in teaching, publishing, and literary, journalistic and technical writing. The degree also prepares students for graduate studies in English Literature, Criticism, and Rhetoric. Because of its emphasis on precision in thought and expression, students are increasingly using their English majors as preparation for graduate professional schools, especially in the fields of law, business, and medicine. Our graduates include a corporate communications director at a major computer company, a copyright lawyer, an advertising creative director, a magazine editor, a drama critic, a public relations executive and many high school, college and university instructors.

Visit our website at http://bellarmine.lmu.edu
For more information or to arrange a campus tour, call (310) 338-2750.