English Department

The English Department is Pleased to Announce a new 4+1 Program in English

The 4+1 Program in English allows SUNY Cortland students in English or Professional Writing to complete both their BA and MA in just five years. With just one additional year of coursework, students in the program graduate with a Master’s in English.

The English Department

As one of the largest departments on campus, English provides students many options for literary and cultural study while preserving small class sizes. Our award-winning faculty offer a variety of courses in literature, professional writing, and adolescence education, covering topics such as Shakespeare, world literature, rhetoric, new media, and 21st century literacies.

Students actively participate in the process of reading and writing and study how words work: how they can be shaped into literary art, organized into a lesson plan, or developed into distinct genres, from poetry to a resume; how we use them to fashion our understanding of ourselves and our place in local, national, and global communities.

Upon graduation, a SUNY Cortland English major is not only in demand by creative and professional institutions, but also well prepared for graduate school, law school, and careers in teaching, journalism, new media, communications and business.

Check out these additional resources on why majoring in English brings a lifetime of opportunity, career choice, and excitement:

• Why Study English? This guide will give you the answer, plus list skills you will hone in your English major.
• What can I do with my English Major? A guide to career paths available to English majors, with job search resources.
• Graduate Studies 101. All your questions about graduate studies in English answered here, with tips and strategies for applying.
• Our Alumni. Check out the accomplishments of our recent graduates, including their employment, graduate degrees, and publications.
• Why Minor in English? This flyer will give you the answer, with information on our four minors.

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SUNY Cortland English Department Statement of Solidarity with Black Lives Matter

As scholars and teachers of English, we believe that language matters. Therefore, we write to denounce—in the strongest possible terms—the police brutality and murder that have stolen so many Black lives. We believe that Black Lives Matter. We acknowledge, too, that systemic racism not only grounds institutions of policing, mass incarceration, capitalism, and the state, but also education. All too often, English classrooms are spaces where white supremacy is enforced, not contested and rejected, where literature only reflects a blindingly white minority, where only one mode of speaking or writing is valued. As English faculty, we commit to interrogating and resisting the histories of structural racism that make whiteness seem natural or default; we commit to intersectional pedagogy, which understands racism as shaped by other forces of oppression, including sexism, classism, homophobia, transphobia, and ableism; and we commit to listening, so that our classrooms may be spaces for the continual unlearning of prejudice and oppression. We invite our students to join us in speaking loudly against racism in all forms.