About ENLI

Combs Hall
Find us on the third floor of Combs Hall!

The Department of English and Linguistics is comprised of several different disciplines. What these disciplines share is an absorption with language, whether written or spoken, on X or in No. 2 pencil, in practice or in theory: its underlying structures, its genres, its beauty, its cognitive production, its history, its effectiveness, its role in our democracy, public discourse, and subcultures, its relationship to new technologies, and more. While the department has no specific ideology, it is devoted to rigorous thought, mastery of detail, and intellectual honesty.

Our Academic Programs

A young woman seated at a desk holds a hand-sized clay tablet with inscriptions on it.
Students explore the history of writing systems

ENLI offers multiple majors and minors to those who share our love of language. The majors and minors in English allow students to build more specific expertise in a diverse knowledge of literary studies, the genres of creative writing, and professional writing, though each of these develops skills in writing, speaking, analysis, and critical thinking. The major and minor in Linguistics each provide students with a complex understanding of the structures, development, and uses of language by varied speakers.

Major in English: Literary Studies
Major in English: Creative Writing
Special Major in Linguistics
Minor in Professional Writing
Minor in English
Minor in Linguistics
Claire Watkins presents at the Kemp Symposium
Senior Claire Watkins presents her research at the Kemp Symposium

High-Impact Learning Activities and Research

The programs in English and Linguistics strongly encourage students, especially juniors and seniors, to enroll in internships to test classroom knowledge in the outside world and to explore career interests in the diverse fields to which these majors lead. Juniors and seniors with appropriate academic standing may also elect to pursue individual studies, in-depth research opportunities in which an advanced student works one-on-one with a faculty on a student-designed course of study. A number of ENLI students also choose to study abroad, whether in the summer or for an entire semester.

To celebrate the amazing work down by our students, and afford them the opportunity to practice professional presentations, the ENLI department sponsors the Kemp Symposium each spring, an academic showcase at which our students’ scholarly and creative research, projects, and writing are presented to the community in a series of panels.

ENLI Student Honors and Recognition

Students stand before images and paper posted on a wall under the text Honors.
Students look at Departmental Honors student photos and work.

The department hosts a chapter of  Sigma Tau Delta, a national literature honor society, to which qualified students are invited to apply.

Students may also apply for departmental honors. Their work is recognized at a year-end ceremony for graduates and throughout the year in the ENLI common area on the third floor of Combs Hall.

ENLI Department Culture

A number of activities, such as readings and lectures by visiting writers and scholars, and social events bring professors and students together informally. You can check some of them out on our News and Events page! The department also participates in a variety of topical campus events, including the National Day on Writing.

The Department of English and Linguistics is committed to:

  • supporting the UMW ASPIRE values;
  • establishing a culture and membership in the department that reflect more closely the diversity of the world;
  • fostering an inclusive, nondiscriminatory and accepting climate that is conducive to the well-being and retention of a population of students and faculty regardless of age, national origin, disability, religious or secular background, economic background, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, or political viewpoint.