Welcome to the Department of English at UCLA.  I am happy to say ours is one of the largest and most vibrant departments in the country dedicated to the study of literature written in English.  The members of our faculty are nationally and internationally recognized scholars whose work has brought distinction and honor to the university.  Of equal importance, their passionate interest in literature has made us the largest English department in the nation, proud of both the number and the quality of majors we teach.

Our faculty has won more Distinguished Teaching Awards than any other department at UCLA.  It is no surprise, then, that we currently have more than 1400 majors.  The passion, drive and dedication my colleagues bring to the classroom and their own scholarly work is reflected in the quality of our majors. We seek to provide our students with the foundational knowledge they need to understand the development of literature in English.  At the same time, we want to develop the keen critical and analytical skills that allow our majors to consider the many connections between literature and the complex world in which they live.  In short, we invite our students to see that ideas matter, and matter deeply, in their lives.

All the members of the department are particularly proud of our select PhD program, which accepts between 14 and 18 new members each year.  We offer a diverse and academically rigorous course of graduate study that has helped 16 of our graduates garner tenure-track positions in 2007.  Our graduates have gone on to join faculty at such institutions as Cornell University, Rutgers University, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Arizona, Ohio State University and many others.

What distinguishes our department is our excellent faculty.  Whether it be in terms of academic prestige, publication record or teaching expertise, the faculty in our department shine brightly.  Two of our faculty – Michael Colacurcio and Debra Shuger – have recently been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in recognition of their preeminent contributions to literary study and society.  And Eric Sundquist has been granted the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Distinguished Achievement Award for his significant contribution to humanistic inquiry.  In addition, members of the department have been awarded the UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award over twenty times.  Our faculty members are actively involved in a variety of interdisciplinary and innovative academic enterprises, and their involvement in the study of such fields as postcoloniality, environmentalism, gender and sexuality, race, modernity, theory, and ethnic identification make for a diverse and productive intellectual environment. 

I am honored to be the chair of a department that expects – and delivers – such excellence from both its faculty and its students.  The future bodes well for the Department of English at UCLA, and I am thrilled to serve as chair for part of that future.

Rafael Pérez-Torres

 149 Humanities Building • Box 951530 • Los Angeles • CA 90095-1530
 Tel: 310.825.4173  Fax: 310.267.4339
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