etsu literature and language

etsu literature and language

Exploring the Rich Tapestry of Literature and Language at East Tennessee State University

1. Introduction to ETSU’s Literature and Language Programs

The PhD program introduces BA/MA students to the theoretical and scholarly disciplines of literary theory and criticism. Creative writing students in the MFA program study with established poets, playwrights, and novelists in workshops with limits on enrollment. All our students can participate in ETSU’s diverse reading series. Meanwhile, students majoring in English with a language and linguistics concentration, which includes minors in Spanish, German, French, and secondary English with teacher certification, begin cooperative, student-inspired teaching and language internships. The Division’s literary tour of Great Britain and Ireland and associated interdisciplinary course, taught periodically by a historian and a literary scholar, attract students from across campus.

At East Tennessee State University, students of all levels from all over the world are immersed in the rich tapestry of literature and language. The intellectual focus is on creative writing, literary studies, and writing, producing writers and teachers who understand the value of words. Here, faculty and staff work with students in a collaborative and supportive environment. There are options for everyone, from the pre-college ETSU Young Writers’ Workshop to the time-honored and popular MA in Literature and the MFA in Creative Writing, started in 2007. At ETSU, each person matters, from the small groups in upper-division seminars through the one-on-one mentoring that MA and MFA candidates enjoy.

2. Historical Background and Evolution of Literature and Language Studies at ETSU

When the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee accepted the application of the corporation known as the East Tennessee State Normal School to become part of the state system of teacher training schools, it was followed by an appropriation of fifty thousand dollars and provisions for the establishment of a college-level department. With the opening of the 1911-12 winter quarter, it was announced that first- and second-year college work would begin in the spring published General Catalogue of the East Tennessee State Normal School on June 1, 1915.

Departmental, divisional, and university histories hold that ETSU has been in the business of ‘higher education and learning’ since 1911, first as a Normal School, then an extension of ‘The University in Knoxville’, and as ‘ETSU’ since 1963. As one would expect, the type of education changes based on societal expectations, and to reflect that in the changing student body you would expect to see changes in the curriculum that will serve the needs at hand. English has been the core of the humanities since the Middle Ages and since George L. Carter, the department responsible for the teaching of English has evolved in complexity and focus.

3. Notable Faculty and Research Initiatives

The department is also the home department for the international GRAD 5217 Research course. This team-taught course offers practical tools and strategies for conducting research in TESOL, Applied Linguistics, Professional Communication, and English Language and Literatures and is offered both on-campus and online. The faculty at ETSU are dedicated to serving and enriching the community and to fostering scholars within the student body. Small class sizes in a growing campus with a rich and distinguished history provide students with a public university education at a private university level of involvement and a private university commitment to students, at a public university price. Bookish events held on campus with notable writers include the Mary B. Martin program and the George L. Carter library event centers.

ETSU faculty and staff are not only dedicated to educating students, but they are also active researchers and professionals within their field, authors and artists, presenting work at professional conferences, and working with organizations and communities locally and around the world. These scholarship opportunities often involve undergraduate and/or graduate students. The Department of Literature and Language has vibrant research initiatives, including a varied, vital, and international faculty expertise. Departmental faculty research interests and publications cover the fields of linguistics, literature, language, and TESOL, and include national and international awards and grants.

4. Student Opportunities and Experiential Learning

Over four decades, we’ve launched hundreds of successful student careers inside and outside academia, including writers, editors, and other content creators at magazines and book publishers, advertising and public relations firms, and thousands of other businesses. Our community outreach includes professional development opportunities for regional and national partners. We’re dedicated to giving students the best possible education through classroom learning, internship experience, and our continuing partnership with the Association of Writers and Writing Programs and other professional and graduate-school development.

Students will find opportunities to advance their skills and knowledge via the new MA in English and the existing MFA and MA in Professional Communication, as well as our undergraduate major and minor programs. Several of our courses and programs, including on-campus and online options, aim to offer both theoretical knowledge and practical application in the arts and business of literature and language, as well as in editing, publishing, film studies, and creative media. Special topics courses, event planning and promotion programs, and internships provide even more ways to curate your college experience, deepening your knowledge, advancing your creativity, and networking with professionals.

5. Future Directions and Innovations in Literature and Language Education

Another innovative context for language and literature study scaffold writing towards the publishing of a crowd-sourced Mystery Writers of America (MWA) anthology of Appalachian Noir short stories and related social media activities. This teacher-research displaces the traditional writing assignment for a crowd-sourced writing project executed under the MWA umbrella and featuring MWA authors and editors, and thus combines video game scholarship and pedagogy scaffold social crowd-writing, agenting, editing, publishing, and then advertising with MWA authors, agents, and publishing professionals. MAK West proposed crowd-writing story genres, color edits, line edits, and pre- and post- MWA page process consists of the week-by-week crafting of Appalachian Noir story creation, a phenomena reading the effects of Appalachian Narcissus, novel, literary structure and visualization of one short story using multimodal presentation creation of an online gallery of all visualizations, publication, and then celebrating the publishing and provide ongoing feedback. At the same time, students write weekly reflections regarding process and progress and adapt those for weekly posts to their personal and promotional social media pages, noting discussions of noir and Appalachian Noir and voice analysis in the discussions.

Just as the technologies for accessing human culture continue to proliferate, so too might the offerings of educational and enrichment opportunities proliferate so as to serve the varied potential interests of students. For example, writing and interpreting video games can provide both a context and incentives for students to work with and analyze language and literature as part of project-based learning and collaborative or multi-modal compositions. These sorts of literacy and language education experiences might clarify and encourage students to use critical, judgment-based literacy in the real world. Immersion in study, practice, creation, and reflection around writing, staging, watching, reading, interpreting, collaborative game and film analysis, and/or game-informed performances would sharpen literacy abilities students could apply to others conversations within the games and outside the game. It might encourage literacies as listening to voices in game development and its critiques might make students’ own voices peak more nuanced and critical and refined.