Bachelor of Arts in English

Yeshiva University

Students who study in the Yeshiva College English Department gain direct, intimate access to other cultures and time periods, through encounters with works from classical Greece, medieval Europe, and Victorian Britain to U.S. and world literature of the present. At the same time, students develop both analytically and creatively as writers and thinkers, learning to express themselves with clarity and power. In engaging us with a range of forms - poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama, film, as well as the genres of the Internet age - English courses enlarge our vision of the complexity and richness of human achievements and how we might contribute to them ourselves. These are strengths prized in a wide variety of professions. As a number of articles in the mainstream press and more specialized publications have recently argued, skills developed in literature and writing courses yield advantages not only in the fields of teaching, publishing, and journalism but also in any profession in which critical thinking, analysis, and the ability to communicate effectively are vital. YC English majors have gone on to such careers as business, medicine, and law as well as television production, filmmaking, and urban planning. While at YC, English majors join a community. From their initial work together in Interpreting Texts, our gateway course, each cohort of majors embarks on a shared intellectual journey that culminates in the Senior Colloquium, a yearlong discussion in which students join with English Department faculty members to learn from each other. Whether you pursue an English major or minor or our Writing minor, you will come together with faculty and other students over text as a source of lifelong intellectual engagement, and of surprise and wonder.