Education
Literature-Media-Arts-Explaining department and major change
Why did we change our name and revise our curriculum?
Changing our name from Department of English to Literature, Media and Writing reflects our department’s modern and culturally responsive courses, the expertise of our faculty, and the degree's relevance in the current professional and academic landscape.
We have always taught literatures written in English and literary and critical theory, but we also teach non-canonical forms of expression, from Indigenous and Afrodiasporic storytelling to work that centers a variety of oral and visual storytelling. We focus on media such as film and TV and digital humanities; creative writing such as poetry, screenwriting, and fiction; and professional writing such as writing for social change, writing and editing for digital media, business writing, and the like.
The department’s goal in changing our name is to accurately describe our identity both in terms of what we teach and what our values and priorities are. Keeping the word “literature” in our name emphasizes that we maintain a strong commitment to the department's historical focus on literature, but we also want to signal our department’s long-held commitment to move beyond colonial legacies associated with English literature. The name and major change reflect our focus on how English-language literature intersects with diasporic literature and other textual forms. Renaming the department and deemphasizing colonial canons reflects our emphasis on understanding and challenging the ways in which colonial histories have shaped cultural hierarchies and knowledge systems.
Using the name “media” highlights the department's engagement with theories and practices involving digital humanities, TV, and cinema studies. It also better showcases our minor in Film Studies and Visual Culture, which our department created more than two decades ago. And “writing” reflects the department’s service to the entire student body in teaching first-year writing, but also reflects our many courses offerings at all levels in creative, professional, and technical writing. In addition, it showcases our minors both in Creative Writing and in Writing Studies.
When we changed our department’s name, we also reorganized the curriculum. At the heart of our revised curriculum is our continued commitment to critical thinking, critical reading, and critical writing through a set of three foundational courses focusing on these key skills and our signature seminar-style course that focuses on canonical African-American writers. We even changed the name of these foundational courses to reflect how they connect to the writings of Black women scholars such as bell hooks and Toni Morrison, as for example, changing the name of Intro to Critical Studies to “Theory as Liberatory Practice” to reflect the content of the course by referencing the title of a famous essay by bell hooks. As students move into their upper-level courses, they continue to build on the common foundation as they select electives with content that aligns with professional fields where skills in analysis, storytelling, and communication are in high demand and reflect the department’s emphasis on preparing students for careers in publishing, journalism, literary and film criticism, digital marketing, gaming, and other media-rich industries as well as graduate and professional school, especially law and medicine.
In practice, our department has long exceeded traditional English curricula. The pedagogical, scholarly, and creative work of our faculty reflects the variety of these approaches. The new name better captures what we already do and clarifies our identity on campus and in the profession. The new curriculum supports Spelman’s commitment to innovation, challenging injustice, and honoring the lives and legacies of Black women of the past, present, and future. All together, these reflect our department’s commitment to preserving tradition while looking ahead.