English Department Welcome message from the Chair

One of the founding departments of Stanford University in 1891, the English Department is the cornerstone of the humanities at Stanford. The pioneer faculty of English was an eclectic group of writers, comparativists, and literary scholars.

Front entrance of the quad from Jordan Hall to Hoover Tower, on Serra Street. From a series of images intended to "recreate" historical images from the Stanford Archives. bicycle

 

Linda A. Cicero / Stanford News Service

Undergraduate Program

To study English is to master the power of language.

On the first day of summer, junior Chaz Curet takes a break to read in the sun. The English major found a comfortable spot in the SEQ to read from 'Our Story Begins,' a collection of short stories by Stanford professor Tobias Wolff.

Linda A. Cicero / Stanford News Service

Coterminal Master of Arts

If you are an advanced undergraduate who wants to take the study of literature to a higher level, then the coterminal M.A. program is for you.

Ato Quayson speaking with Ramon Saldivar and Paula Moya

Paul Keitz

Check out our courses

Stanford English offers a wide variety of interdisciplinary courses taught by world-class faculty

A photo of Ato Quayson and Adam Johnson attending the Creative Writing Welcome Back Dinner.

Views from the Department

Professor Ato Quayson with Professor Adam Johnson at Creative Writing Welcome Dinner

Recent News

From Library of America | February 10, 2023 Book Madness author Denise Gigante on the obsessive 19th-century bibliomaniacs who “lived in and through books” Long before there was BookTok, there was bibliomania, a consuming hunger among nineteenth-century American readers to amass, pore over, and cherish textual objects and commune with beloved...
Winter-Spring 2023 Undergraduate Research Internships at SCALAA (Stanford Computational Approaches Literary and Archival Analysis) Are you interested in gaining academic research experience this year? Then why not apply for an undergraduate Research Internship in the Department of English, collaborating with faculty to pursue original...
The fascinating history of American bookishness as told through the sale of Charles Lamb’s library in 1848 Charles Lamb’s library—a heap of sixty scruffy old books singed with smoke, soaked with gin, sprinkled with crumbs, stripped of illustrations, and bescribbled by the essayist and his literary friends—caused a sensation when it was sold in New...

Upcoming Events

May
11
Date
Thu May 11th 2023, 5:00pm - 7:00pm
Location
Terrace Room (rm. 426), Margaret Jacks Hall, Bldg 460
450 Jane Stanford Way, Bldg 460, Stanford, CA 94305
426

Methods Café is a dialogue series in the English Department that pairs faculty members in a conversation about literary theory. Primary texts are…

May
19
Date
Fri May 19th 2023, 12:00am - Sat May 20th 2023, 12:00am
Location
Terrace Room, Margaret Jacks Hall (460-426)

Department Bookshelf

English remains a top-ranked department nationally because of the strength and variety of our faculty publications, both in scholarly research and creative writing. Browse the Bookshelf to explore our many interests.

 Browse the entire Bookshelf