English

Welcome to the Vassar English Department, a diverse group of intellectually wide-ranging and constantly evolving teachers, scholars, and writers as well as one of the largest and most engaged groups of majors at Vassar.

Whether you are interested in the course streams and correlate sequences that let students craft diverse, multidisciplinary courses of study, or want to learn about the prizes for writers and scholars sponsored by the department or what courses we accept toward our major from other departments and languages, or simply want to explore our creative writing program or any other part of our rich, changing curriculum, this is where to start.

Stories

Image of a book cover for 'Monstrous Work & Radical Satisfaction' by Eve Dunbar, depicting four black and white portrait photos of African American women.

Professor Eve Dunbar is the author of Monstrous Work and Radical Satisfaction: Black Women Writing under Segregation

On radical black feminist refusal through the works of mid-twentieth-century African American women writers.

A portrait of Stephen Andrade, a person with short black hair and beard, glasses, and a dark suit coat.

Vassar’s Newest Professors Hail from Burbank to Bulgaria

Vassar welcomes 15 new tenure-track faculty members—the largest cohort in more than 20 years—to the campus this fall.

Lev Winickoff ’25 Receives 2024 Barnabas McHenry Award

Lev Winickoff ’25 received a 2024 Barnabas McHenry Award to create a video project in collaboration with members of the Stockbridge-Munsee band of Mohicans. The video will document a Munsee story told by an elder (in English) with contributions by children in the tribe (in Mohican) and incorporate paintings reflecting the natural beauty of the Hudson River Valley along with Munsee symbolism.

Photo portrait collage of Robert DeMaria and Rob Brown.

Robert DeMaria Jr. and Robert D. Brown co-edit The Complete Poems of Samuel Johnson

Robert DeMaria Jr., Professor of English on the Henry Noble MacCracken Chair, and Robert D. Brown, Professor Emeritus of Greek and Roman Studies, are co-editors of The Complete Poems of Samuel Johnson, published in June 2024 by Routledge for the Longman Annotated English Poets series.

English Professor David Means has published his latest short story, “Chance the Cat,” in The New Yorker.

Photo collage with 14 circular headshots people in a grid on top of a textured maroon background.

New Faculty Members Hit the Ground Running

Vassar welcomed 14 new scholar-teachers to the College’s tenure-track faculty for the 2023-24 academic year.

A magazine cover with a painting of a person sitting. The cover has the text “Fourteen Hills: The San Francisco State University Review. No. 29 / 2023”

Hiram Perez is the author of “John Travolta vs. Farrah Fawcett”

Hiram Perez, Associate Professor of English and Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies Faculty member, is the author of “John Travolta vs. Farrah Fawcett,” a work of memoir published by the literary magazine Fourteen Hills in their Summer 2023 issue. Fourteen Hills recently nominated the piece for a Pushcart Prize in Nonfiction.

Amitava Kumar publishes, The Yellow Book: A Traveller’s Diary, a follow-up to The Blue Book.

Amitava Kumar, Professor of English on the Helen D. Lockwood Chair, is author of The Yellow Book: A Traveller’s Diary, “an arresting document of our times, an irresistible peek into a writer and artist’s heart, and a clarion call for hope.”—Udayan Mitra, Executive Publisher, HarperCollins India.

Person sitting at a table on a porch in the shade with a laptop, writing pad and a book smiling

Ford Scholars Program 2023

More than 30 Vassar students conducted humanities research projects under the auspices of the College’s Ford Scholars program.

Events

There are currently no upcoming events.

The Vassar Critical Journal. The Vassar College English Department Student Journal of Critical Essays

The Vassar Critical Journal provides students with publishing experience at every stage of the process. Students may begin as writers, submitting their own work to the journal. They then act as literary agents, reading all submissions and deciding which essays they enjoy and which will proceed to the editing level. Read more

The Vassar Review is an international, multidisciplinary literary arts journal that fosters working relationships between faculty, students, and published writers and artists in order to engage its annual theme with care and reflective insight. Read more

English

Stories

Professor Eve Dunbar is the author of Monstrous Work and Radical Satisfaction: Black Women Writing under Segregation

Vassar’s Newest Professors Hail from Burbank to Bulgaria

Lev Winickoff ’25 Receives 2024 Barnabas McHenry Award

Robert DeMaria Jr. and Robert D. Brown co-edit The Complete Poems of Samuel Johnson

English Professor David Means has published his latest short story, “Chance the Cat,” in The New Yorker.

New Faculty Members Hit the Ground Running

Hiram Perez is the author of “John Travolta vs. Farrah Fawcett”

Amitava Kumar publishes, The Yellow Book: A Traveller’s Diary, a follow-up to The Blue Book.

Ford Scholars Program 2023

Events

Resources

The English Major Handbook (PDF)

English Major Planning Form (PDF)

Thesis Proposal Form (PDF)

SP Creative Writing Courses Application (PDF)

Prizes Sponsored by the English Department