Students in the Literary & Cultural Studies track hone their skills as attentive readers of literature (poems, plays, literary fiction and nonfiction) and other media (films, comics, television shows, songs, and websites, for example), and as writers engaged in literary analysis and cultural criticism. Our students gain knowledge of literary language, form, genres, and histories through study of national, ethnic, and world literatures. They also sharpen their skills as critical thinkers by drawing on various literary, cultural, and interdisciplinary theories–from psychoanalytic theory and post-structuralism to queer theory and the digital humanities–to analyze texts. In doing so, they engage issues involving culture, identity, language, ethics, race, gender, class, and globalism, among many others.
Critical thinking, close reading, and reflective, analytic, and persuasive writing are among the vital skills you can acquire as an LCS student and readily apply to your other courses and your career. Our students also get practice in conducting effective research, which becomes central to projects undertaken in our senior capstone course. The typical LCS course strongly encourages a substantial amount of discussion among students as well as with the teacher. Graduates from our program pursue successful careers in areas such as law, education, writing and editing, publishing, library sciences, arts administration, social justice work, public relations, business, and any field where careful and critical reading and effective communication are valued.