|
 |
The
Department of English will use its Selective Investment Award to:
•
Achieve a top-five ranking among public universities and one of
the leading departments among Ohio State's top ten public benchmark
institutions; and
• Add to its existing strength and distinction and increase
national visibility by recruiting six senior faculty in the core areas of British Literature,
American Literature, and Writing;
• Strengthen its ties with other university units, including
History, Women’s Studies, and African and African American
Studies.
|
|
|
Department
of English
A creative
writer of distinction, perhaps even an author with a household name is
likely to join the Department of English faculty, thanks to Selective
Investment funding. That appointment, along with five others, is part
of the department's plan to move from its current ranking of 16th among
public universities into the top five.
 |
| James
Phelan, chair |
English will maintain its identity as a comprehensive department even
as Selective Investment allows it to strengten particular subfields and
to build on its strong commitment to diversity through the planned appointment
of a scholar in African-American literature, said department Chair James
Phelan.
The department has a strong history at Ohio State, and touches the lives
of virtually every undergraduate student at one time or another. "English
is one of the central disciplines in a liberal arts education. We train
people to be good readers, writers and critical thinkers, and we keep
alive a significant part of our cultural heritage by making literature
of the past relevant to the present" Phelan said. "The core of what we
do is central to the University, and educates the citizenry of the state
and country."
A winner of the 1998 Departmental Teaching Award and home to eight recipients
of the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching, the department seeks to
hire six total new faculty in the areas of British literature, American
literature and writing (both creative writing and rhetoric/composition).
British and American literature are central to any English department,
and the already high rank of the department is largely dependent on its
current strength in literature. The department's rhetoric/composition
program is among the university's and the nation's strongest such programs,
and boasts that 100 percent of its graduates over the past 12 years have
been offered academic jobs. The relatively young creative writing program
also will be enhanced, but already is attracting students who are choosing
Ohio State over other highly respected programs.
|
