Department of English

What is English?

English at UofL is a community of writers, readers and thinkers who study how language shapes and is shaped by the world. Our majors and minors are known as superior critical thinkers, excellent communicators and flexible problem solvers — which may explain why Forbes recently named English "The Most Versatile College Major." Our flexible, student-centered programs let you major or minor in literature, creative writing, or professional and public writing; earn a master's in English; or pursue a PhD in our nationally recognized rhetoric and composition program — all while building the communication and analytical-writing skills that employers want and communities depend on.

What sets the department apart is the range of opportunities beyond the classroom: editorial experience at the award-winning Miracle Monocle journal, open mics and the African American Read-In, and internships in publishing, law, marketing and nonprofits. Our faculty and students publish regularly, teach thousands of students in one of UofL's largest Cardinal Core programs, run the University Writing Center, and host two national conferences. Wherever you want words to take you, there's a path here.

Career Prospects

Where Words Become Your Advantage

An English degree gives you more than literary knowledge and writing ability — it gives you the analytical, rhetorical and critical thinking skills that employers across every sector consistently identify as their most essential needs. Whether your path leads to publishing, law, marketing, education, nonprofit work, technology or creative practice, your training in how language works and what it can do travels with you everywhere.

English graduates are among the most versatile in the workforce. Our graduates work across journalism, communications, business, public service, education, law and emerging digital fields — and many forge careers that combine more than one of these areas. The skills you build here — reading carefully, writing persuasively, arguing clearly and thinking independently — are the skills that make organizations function and cultures move forward.

You'll graduate with a portfolio of written work, real critical thinking practice and the flexible expertise that makes an English degree one of the most widely distributed credentials in the American workforce. Our graduates turn their command of language into careers that lead, inform and shape the world.

Explore Career Pathways in English