Quick Links
McGill.CA / Department of English

Department of English

  • English Lit. student finds the perfect reading nook

    An English Literature student finds the perfect reading nook on McGill's Downtown Campus (Claudio Calligaris)

  • English class at McGill in 1860 (McGill University Archives)

    English class at McGill in 1860 (McGill University Archives)

  • A neon sign points the way to the Arts Lounge

    A neon sign points the way to the Arts Lounge, located in the basement of the Leacock building. (Claudio Calligaris)

  • Rebecca Babcock, Anna Gordon–Gratiana, and Cece Culver-Grey rehearse for The Revenger's Tragedy, the current production of the Drama and Theatre program (Photo: Owen Egan)

  • Benjamin Hanff (Hermius), Elizabeth Brennan (Lysandra), Harrison Collett (Theseus), Vanessa Combe (Hippolyta), Hannah Kirby (Demetria), and Elinore Bucher-Deak (Helena) in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. [Owen Egan]

  • Cece Culver-Grey (Vindici) and Rebecca Babcock (Hippolito) in The Revenger's Tragedy, the first production of the 2012-13 season (Photo: Owen Egan)

  • Professor Robert Lecker was recently inducted into the Royal Society of Canada. With Principal Heather Munroe-Blum at a reception for FRSC Fellows. (Owen Egan)

  • Julien Dinerstein as Peter Quince in the current production of the Drama and Theatre program (Photo: Owen Egan)

  • The Arts Building viewed from the southeast ca. 1885 (McGill University Archives

    The Arts Building viewed from the southeast ca. 1885 (McGill University Archives)

  • 2012 Richler Writer-in-Residence Steven Heighton reads from a number of his shor

    2012 Richler Writer-in-Residence Steven Heighton reads from a selection of his short stories and poems

  • Have any questions about the program? Come visit us in room 155 of the Arts Building

  • Yale University professor Joe Roach leads a colloquium for faculty and graduate students. Prof. Roach delivered the ninth annual John Jacob Spector Lecture

  • Costumed cast during a rehearsal for "Pirates of Penzance" in Moyse Hall in 1931

    Costumed cast during a rehearsal for "Pirates of Penzance" in Moyse Hall in 1931 (McGill University Archives)

  • As part of our Cultural Studies stream, courses in Film Studies hold regular showings in our newly renovated 57-seat screening room

  • The Arts Building

    The Arts Building, as viewed from the University's Roddick Gates on Sherbrooke Street (Claudio Calligaris)

  • A student reads a book

    A novel must be exceptionally good to live as long as the average cat - Hugh MacLennan (Claudio Calligaris)

  • Adriane Epprecht plays the Duke in The Revenger's Tragedy (Photo: Owen Egan)

  • Harrison Collett as Oberon and Vanessa Combe as Titania in the Department of English Drama and Theatre Program production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. [Owen Egan]

  • Have you seen the newest addition to the Arts Building? A vitrine featuring some

    Have you seen the newest addition to the Arts Building? A vitrine featuring some of our faculty's latest publications and awards

  • Backstage to Moyse Hall Theatre, there are numerous collections that form part of our Costume Design Shop

  • A snapshot from A Midsummer Night's Dream, the current production of the Drama and Theatre program (Photo: Owen Egan)

In the Department of English, students can study the contemporary graphic novel and the films of Alfred Hitchcock; they can immerse themselves in Arthurian legend and learn about Inuit literature. Known for its comprehensive coverage, the department offers courses on William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, David Lynch, David Garrick, and John Milton, as well as American and Canadian literature, modernism, the Victorian novel, lyric poetry, and other subjects. Courses span the Romantic culture of celebrity and the modern celebrity of JFK.

Ranked nineteenth in the world in the 2012 QS rankings, the Department of English at McGill is unique in that its undergraduate program brings together three different but related areas of study: Literature, Drama and Theatre, and Cultural Studies. Undergraduate students follow one of the three options in their program of study and also take courses in the other streams. This three-part organization of the undergraduate curriculum characterizes teaching and research in the Department as a whole. This tripartite organization also reflects the diversity of expertise of faculty members and allows research and teaching across specialist boundaries. For example, after learning about how people dressed in Jacobean England, students can create historically informed costumes for a play in Moyse Hall.

Graduate students, key participants in all areas of Department life, also have the opportunity to explore aspects of Literature, Cultural Studies, Performance, and Theatre History in their seminar work and research. At any given time, there are approximately 80 graduate students enrolled in the MA and PhD programs.

The Department is home to—or is a principal participant in—a number of major, collaborative research projects and research groups, including the McGill Medievalists, the Shakespeare Team, Novelists on the Novel, Cuizine, Interacting with Print, the Digital Costume Project, and the Burney Centre.

Updated on Fri, 2013-09-13 11:23
top of page