The English Department at Oakland University is modernizing its curriculum for its Bachelor of Arts in English program. The department has introduced four new courses, as well as two new requirements for the degree. 

The program changes have launched this school year with its new courses having begun at the start of the fall 2021 semester. The four new courses include Indigenous Literature; Literature and the Environment; Gender, Sexuality and Literature; and Disability Studies and Literature. 

One of the new requirements is that students must take a course in the category of Global and Ethnic Literatures — which can be fulfilled by classes such as Indigenous Literature or African American Literature. A second new category of courses is Critical and Cultural Approaches to Literature — which can be fulfilled by Literature and the Environment; Disability Studies and Literature; or Gender, Sexuality and Literature. 

The program will retain some of its former requirements — such as classes in British Literature, for example — but they have been reduced in order to provide students a more well-rounded program of study. The department’s mission with the changes they are implementing is to diversify the education, as well as respond to the interests and needs of both faculty and students. 

Dr. Kevin Laam, associate professor of English, explains how historically speaking, English departments in universities have served to entrench English dominance in language, literature and culture. However, this historical fact does not reflect the advancement of literary studies over the last decades, according to Dr. Laam. 

“It [this historical fact] doesn’t reflect the diverse fields of study our faculty are engaged in and it doesn’t address the wide and growing range of theoretical global perspectives that comprise literary studies in the 21st century,” Dr. Laam said. “This historical fact also doesn’t address the needs of our students who love reading and writing, but also want to be introduced to a variety of perspectives in the books they read and write about.” 

The department is rich in faculty with diverse areas of expertise and research. The new courses intend to highlight the professors’ specializations. 

Since the change in requirements was recently put into effect at the start of fall 2021, students who entered the program semesters or years prior can still follow the former curriculum as to not interfere with their current degree progress. 

“The way it works is when a student comes into the university, they are under the requirements that are in existence at the time,” said Chair of the English Department Dr. Robert Anderson. “Every student who comes to Oakland University in fall of 2021 will use these requirements.”

Discussions about program updates have been ongoing among the department faculty since 2019. Faculty have been working on restructuring the program and developing the new categories for nearly a year. 

“As our discipline evolves, our curriculum ought to evolve accordingly,” Dr. Laam said. “Because we still have students who are on the old program, we have to make that transition gradual, but we do hope to be more aggressive in both offering and developing new courses as we move further along.”