Students majoring in English join a community of readers and writers committed to textual analysis, creative expression, and the examination of cultural assumptions. Students begin their majors with English 100, "Working with Texts," where they master the fundamentals of textual analysis. Each semester students choose among a variety of courses ranging from Chaucer to South Asian Literature, on topics as diverse as Paranoia in Contemporary American Fiction and Film, Modernism and Mourning, and Vietnam War Writing. The program culminates in senior seminars, in which experienced majors and a professor focus intensely on significant problems and questions in the field. The English department's relatively small courses encourage students to think independently and to engage with one another's ideas. In addition, the flexibility of the major in English allows cross-disciplinary study; we encourage our students to pursue double majors or minors in fields that reflect their interests, abilities and career plans.

In a recent op-ed piece in the Lehigh student newspaper, The Brown and White, Matt Elias '02 described the value of an English major:

"Because of my English classes, I read differently. Everything I read for the rest of my life will be influenced by the professors I had at this school and the way they have taught me to analyze from different perspectives. Think of how often you read, and you will understand how profound a statement that is. Ditto for watching films: no longer a simple pleasure, but a medium which I can analyze, consider, discuss and write about from an informed position. I used to read a book and watch a movie; now, I understand novels and films, the ideas they impart both consciously and unconsciously . . . . An English Degree is a degree that can only grow more valuable with every text you read, and that is what I call getting your money's worth."

--Matt Elias '02
from "Always Questioned," The Brown and White (Tuesday, April 9, 2002)