Mission Statement

Embodying the core values of a Christian liberal arts education in the Wesleyan theological tradition, and focusing on the power of language and story to shape us and our world, the LJWL department and programs will provide students with knowledge, skills, and experiences to equip them to understand, interpret, analyze, evaluate, and create texts as artistic and/or linguistic expressions of the human experience.  We value reading, writing, researching, speaking, and discussing as profound means of participating in the redemptive story God is telling through all of creation.

Purposes

To enable students to

• Create various forms and genres of writing, evidencing artistic, literary, and stylistic merit.
• Demonstrate advanced knowledge of the conventions and terminology of creative writing within literary texts.
• Collaborate in editorial and publishing processes through campus publications for external audiences.
• Perform advanced creative work to formal audiences, demonstrating strategies for audience engagement and oral communication of written work.
• [For Pedagogy Concentration Only] Teach using composition theory and pedagogy in the composition classroom.

Tradition of Excellence

The Department of Literature, Journalism, Writing, and Languages (and Environmental Studies) invites students to enter into the “republic of letters” to become students of the basic component of human interaction:

language and story. The department is committed to helping students learn how to communicate their ideas effectively through the analysis and study of the written word as used in a breadth of literature – classical and modern, British and American, European, and a wide variety of other western and non-western literatures. The faculty offer different approaches to the subject matter due to their different educational backgrounds. Professors of the department have produced and published award-winning work in peer-reviewed journals, magazines, websites, and newspapers.   Professors of the department have distinguished themselves by having work published in Great Lives, Great Events – The Seventeenth Century, Great Lives – The Eighteenth  Century, Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism, Brontë Studies, The Ben Jonson Journal, The Literary Encyclopedia, English Today: The International Review of the English Language, Religion and Literature, Literature and Belief, Christianity and Literature, Profession, Journal on African Literature: Tydskrif vir leterkunde, Contemporary French and Francophone Studies, Nineteenth Century French Studies, La Corónica, The Princeton University Library Chronicle, The New York Times, Christianity Today, Relevant Magazine, Sojourners, The Journal of Mass Media Ethics, and Christian Feminism Today. Faculty members have also published books and poetry collections. They also routinely give lectures and present research in venues and conferences across the world. have given lectures and submitted papers at such places as the University of London, the University of Hull, the University of Leeds, Charles University, Prague, UCLA, Princeton University, The International Shakespeare Conference, Stratford, the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese in Madrid, Spain, and the Modern Languages Association. Department faculty have also received major national grants including several from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright Fellowship Grant, the Templeton Foundation, and the Del Amo Foundation.

Career Opportunities

Graduate students in the Department of Literature, Journalism, Writing, and Languages receive training in the teaching and tutoring of writing and gain experience with editing and publishing alongside their coursework. In addition to careers in education, publishing, journalism, law, and public relations, graduates from our department are active in a variety of business fields, in theological study and church ministry, in work with NGOs and the National Park Service, and in overseas teaching. 

Faculty

Scott Bennett, Ph.D.
University of California, Santa Barbara

Paula Cronovich, Ph.D.
University of California, Los Angeles

Breeann Kyte Kirby, Ph.D.
Associate Dean, School of Humanities, Arts, and Public Engagement
Bath Spa University

Robbie Maakestad, M.F.A.
Program Director, Master's in Writing
George Mason University, Fairfax

Katie Manning, Ph.D.
University of Louisiana, Lafayette

Jacqueline Mitchell, M.A.
University of California, Los Angeles

Dean Nelson, Ph.D.
Ohio University, Athens

Bettina Tate Pedersen, Ph.D.
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Margarita Pintado, Ph.D.
Emory University, Atlanta

Holland Prior, Ph.D.
University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Guimel Sibingo, M.A.
University of Missouri, Columbia

To view requirements for majors, minors, and certificates, see the Degree Program Information page.