Department of English
"The best in the past, when liberated by the present, throws its shadow into the future." Northrop Frye
Chair of English Department
Welcome to English at Ryerson
Welcome to the Department of English at Ryerson University in the heart of downtown Toronto, where historical tradition meets dynamic innovation in the built spaces and cultural experiences of our everyday lives. The diversity of cultural, ethnic, and class backgrounds that make up the GTA population and the Ryerson student body is reflected in the department's faculty composition, research projects, curricular offerings, and involvement in the community.
Currently engaged in a vigorous growth phase, with an impressive record of publication matched by forward-looking programmatic vision and development, the Department of English is home to award-winning teachers, scholars and creative writers. In keeping with Ryerson's mission of applied knowledge, we take our research interests into the local community and seek ways to involve our students in the practices of literary and cultural engagement. Committed to interdisciplinary scholarship and teaching, we offer an English Option in the Arts and Contemporary Studies B.A. in the Faculty of Arts and an English Minor to students in other programs. In addition, we contribute courses to the Joint Graduate Program in Communication and Culture and the M.A. in Immigration and Settlement Studies. In fall 2008 we welcomed our first students to the M.A. in Literatures of Modernity, a unique graduate program combining advanced literary studies, innovative research and theoretical perspectives with professional preparation and opportunities for community engagement through practica.
Our undergraduate and graduate courses offer students the opportunity to study literary and cultural texts from a transnational perspective informed by an awareness of the cross-migration of literatures, theories and histories. We are proud of our tradition of preparing students with the practices most needed in our rapidly changing global and technological environments: curiosity, creativity, critical thinking and effective communication, informed by a sensibility that supports and is supported by an openness to constant and serious reading.
Take a moment to investigate our site to find out more about the exciting possibilities of studying English at Ryerson, Canada's fastest-growing university situated in its largest and most diverse city.
