Major Requirements | UCSB English Department (2024)

Welcome to the New English Major! From subject areas that explore literatures and cultures around the globe, to historical arcs that ground your readings and analysis, as well as advanced projects that enable you to work closely with faculty in small workshop settings, our new major prepares you to graduate as a skilled writer and creative thinker.

Below you’ll find inviting paths through the major, more ways to fulfill requirements, as well as exciting courses that reflect the diverse voices and intellectual richness of the English department. The new English Major requirements go into effect in Fall 2023. Students who declared the major before Fall 2023 should consult the pre-Fall 2023 requirements.

New Major Sheet
Preparation for the Major
At the Upper Division
Subject Area Requirements
Historical Field Requirements
Senior Seminar

The English Department prides itself on providing a welcoming environment for all students, especially first-year and transfer students. To consult about requirements, courses, or your path through the major, please contact the Undergraduate Advisor, Jessica Good, (english-undergrad-advisor@ucsb.edu), or the Vice Chair of the department, Jim Kearney (kearney@english.ucsb.edu).

The English major requires 56 units in English, at least 44 of which must be upper-division units, distributed in the manner outlined below. Students interested in petitioning a course outside the English Department to count for credit towards the major should contact Undergraduate Advisor for assistance with the petition process.

We want students to be able to enter the major from a variety of directions, and so we offer a range of options at the lower division. Students should take two courses from the following:

• English 10 Introduction to Literary Study
• English 11 Literature and its Uses
• English 15 Introduction to Shakespeare or English 15SH Shakespeare as Popular Culture
• English 22 Introduction to Literature and the Environment I: The Western Tradition
• English 25 Literature and the Information, Media, and Communication Revolutions
• English 34NA Animacy and the Speaking Earth: The Power of Native Story
• English 39 Pan-Latinx Literatures of Transformation
• English 40BA Black Literature in the Early Periodsor English 40BB African American Literature 1930s-Present
• English 50 Introduction to Comparative Ethnic Literatures

To provide students greater flexibility, we also allow majors to take one of their elective courses (four units) at either the lower or upper division.

The English Department offers innovative courses that address the challenges of the twenty-first century even as they attend to the traditions and histories that shape us. The following requirements are designed to reflect the department’s unique profile and to capture the diversity of approaches and materials that we want our students to encounter in their time at the university and in the major.

At least 44 upper division units in English are required, as follows:

Subject Area Requirements

• Majors should take one course from each of the following areas:
  • Literature and the Social
  • Form, Media, Expression
  • Regions, Borders, Worlds
  • Literature across Disciplines

See the major sheet for the extensive list of courses that fulfill each of these requirements.

Historical Field Requirements

• Majors should take one course from each of the following historical fields:
  • Literatures & Cultures, pre-1500
  • Literatures & Cultures, 1500-1700
  • Literatures & Cultures, 1700-1900
  • Literatures & Cultures, post-1500

See the major sheet for the extensive list of courses that fulfill each of these requirements.

Senior Seminar

• English 197 – the capstone course of the English Major

(four courses, 16 units)

Explore courses that expand your knowledge of literatures and cultures around the globe and that expose you to a range of ideas and approaches. Virtually all upper-division English courses fulfill at least one of these subject areas, and most fulfill more than one. See the major sheet for the extensive list of courses that fulfill each of these requirements

Majors should take one course from each of the following subject areas:

• Literature and the Social
  The English Department offers a variety of courses that address topics concerning literature and the social realm.
  In Spring 2024, the following courses can fulfill this requirement:
  • English 128GN (Professor Russell Samolsky) –
  • English 134RJ (Professor Swati Rana) – Creative Imagination of Racial Justice
  • English 150 (Professor Enda Duffy) – Anglo-Irish Literature
  • English 165NJ (Professor Amrah Salomón) – Native Justice
  • English 192DF (Professor Brian Donnelly) – Science Fiction: Dystopian Fiction
• Form, Media, Expression
  Students will encounter a range of courses that address literature in relation to form, media, and expression.
  In Spring 2024, the following courses can fulfill this requirement:
  • English 128GN (Professor Russell Samolsky) –
  • English 134RJ (Professor Swati Rana) – Creative Imagination of Racial Justice
  • English 152B (Professor Daniel Reeve) – Chaucer: Troilus and Criseyde
  • English 192DF (Professor Brian Donnelly) – Science Fiction: Dystopian Fiction
  • English 192SS (Professor Melody Jue) – Science Fiction: Short Stories
• Regions, Borders, Worlds
  The English Department offers a variety of courses that address literature in relation to regions, borders. and worlds.In Spring 2024, the following courses can fulfill this requirement:
  • English 150 (Professor Enda Duffy) – Anglo-Irish Literature
  • English 165NJ (Professor Amrah Salomón) – Native Justice
  • English 192SS (Professor Melody Jue) – Science Fiction: Short Stories
• Literature across Disciplines
  Students will encounter a range of courses that address literature across disciplines.
  While there are no courses that fulfill this requirement in Spring 2024, the department has offered seven courses that fulfill this requirement in 2023-2024 and will offer more in 2024-25.

(four courses, 16 units)

Explore courses that expand your knowledge of literary history and expose you to a range of cultures and histories. See the major sheet for the extensive list of courses that fulfill each of these requirements

Majors should take one course from each of the following historical fields:

• Literature & Cultures pre-1500
  In Spring 2024, the following course can fulfill this requirement:
  • English 101ML (Professor Daniel Reeve) – British Literature before 1500
• Literatures & Cultures 1500-1700
  In Spring 2024, the following course can fulfill this requirement:
  • English 105A (Shaun Nowicki) – Shakespeare, Poems and Earlier Plays
• Literatures & Cultures 1700-1900
  In Spring 2024, the following course can fulfill this requirement:
  • English 103A (Professor Mark Maslan) – American Literature from 1789 to 1900
• Literatures & Cultures post-1900
  For courses that fulfill this requirement, check back in the Fall.

(one course, 4 units)

The capstone of the English major is the senior seminar (English 197), which gives students the opportunity to work closely in small classes with our faculty. The topics covered in these courses range widely. Recent titles include: Ghosts and War in Asian America; Poetry Lab; Feminist Interventions: Women/Writing/Film; Humor and Ecology; James Joyce’s Ulysses; Trauma and Somatic Reading; Pre-Raphaelites and Victorian Culture; Digital Humanities; Steal From the Rich: Robin Hood in Literature and Media; J.M. Coetzee: Ethics and the Other; The Culture and Politics of the Long 1960s. Search the English Department’s Courses page for more information.

The department offers multiple iterations of the senior seminar in every quarter (Fall, Winter, Spring).