Welcome
LSU English is home to world-renowned faculty, innovative course offerings, and talented students. At the heart of our work is an attention to verbal communication in spoken and written form – what humans do with language, how we do it, why we do it, and to what effects. Through the study of literature, linguistics, rhetoric, film, theory, and the craft of writing in a variety of genres and forms, we challenge students to ask questions of texts, to read beyond literal meanings, to understand how context and text interact, and to create compelling texts of their own. The value of an English degree is that the person who can write with elegance and precision, and who has the skills to interpret and analyze texts, is needed – and valued - in every area of work and life.
Go to Undergraduate and Graduate Course Descriptions to see examples of what our Department has to offer and browse “About Us” to learn about our faculty, graduate students, publications, events, and more.
Professor Sue Weinstein
Chair, Department of English
Upcoming events:
The English Department Talk Series on Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access in Pedagogy presents:
Monica Huerta
Thursday, March 2, 2023
3:00-4:00 p.m. on Zoom
Cameron Awkward-Rich
Monday, April 17, 2023
3:00-4:00 p.m. on Zoom
The first event featured a zoom conversation between Ashley Jones, the current poet laureate of Alabama, and Sue Weinstein, Chair of the English Department at LSU. The discussion and the Q & A afterward covered poetry, social justice, and pedagogy, among many other topics.
Watch Zoom Event
For more information contact: bkahan@lsu.edu
Congratulations to LSU English MFA Ana Reyes for her New York Times best-selling novel: The House in the Pines!
Ana Reyes has an MFA from Louisiana State University (2015) and a BA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her work has appeared in Bodega, Pear Noir!, The New Delta Review, and elsewhere. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and teaches creative writing to older adults at Santa Monica College. The House in the Pines is her first novel.
She wrote her first book, “The House in the Pines,” while a student at LSU. Now it is No. 2 on The New York Times best-seller list and is being praised by Reese Witherspoon, among others, who chose it for her book club.
More information about Ana Reyes and her new book can be found on her website: www.anareyeswriter.com
New Play by Femi Euba at The Shaver Theater!
CRATERS is a metaphor for the impact of racial discrimination in America, the proverbial dent on our national psyche that erodes any meaningful pursuit of humanistic ideals and a just society. Initiated by an incident in the American civil war, this evocative play advocates for social justice using African and African American history and myth to confront national and global discriminatory concerns. Adventurous, theatrical, poignant, and sometimes humorous, it is one man’s clarion search for answers to the survival of his family and the black race. A Swine Palace production, written by the celebrated Nigerian playwright Femi Euba (Louise and Kenneth Kinney Professor of Black Drama and Playwriting), and directed by the internationally acclaimed theatre director Chuck Mike, CRATERS premiers at LSU’s Shaver Theatre on Feb. 24 and runs till March 05.
Regina Kunzel, Department of History at Yale University, explores the encounter of
sexual- and gender-variant people with psychiatry and psychoanalysis in the mid-20th-century
U.S. and examines the role of psychiatric scrutiny and stigma in the making of modern
sexuality. Focusing on the archive of St.Elizabeths Hospital, the federal hospital
for the mentally ill in Washington, DC, Kunzel reflects on its meaning and challenges
to queer history.
When: Monday, February 6, 2023
Time: 4:00-5:00 p.m.
Where: Honors College (French House)
Sponsors: Department of English & Women's and Gender Studies (WGS)