About the Department:
Courses
As part of your course work, you may find yourself memorizing lines for a performance project, researching eighteenth-century women writers, or crafting a persuasive essay. You may become involved in translating lines of medieval poetry, analyzing how a book is made into a film, or debating concepts of gender and sexuality in various kinds of texts.
Whatever topics engage your interest, you will be improving your oral and written communication skills and your research abilities while developing the theoretical tools that will lead you to a greater literary and cultural understanding.
The Courses and Program Description links on the left will take you to relevant sections in the university's Academic Calendar, but you should also take a look at our Course Guide 2010-2011, which contains more detailed descriptions of the courses that we are offering this year as well as other useful information about our programs. You can also find out more about our department's interdisciplinary links on our pages about English and Women's Studies and English and Cultural Studies.
 | Poetry chapbooks published by Advanced Creative Writing students |
Faculty and research
In your English studies, you will have professors guiding you who are committed to achieving excellence in teaching and research. If you look at our department’s Faculty Profiles and Research pages, you will see that various professors are winners of university, regional, and national teaching awards; our faculty are also active researchers who occasionally employ senior students in their projects. Our News/Events page announces recent activities and publications by our faculty.
If you become an honours student, you will benefit from our department’s small faculty-student ratio, which allows you to spend a year working closely with a faculty supervisor while writing a thesis on a topic that interests you – an opportunity that is unique among Halifax university English departments.
Ashley Milbury's Honours presentation, 2010
Student society
 | Martini Monday, a favourite English Society event |
Whether you take one English course as an elective or a full English program, you can enjoy membership in an active student society. Among its many events, the English Society sponsors theatre trips, readings, and theme parties. You can also participate in the Annual Atlantic Undergraduate English Conference, at which students from Atlantic Canada gather at a different university each year to read their critical papers and creative writing.
You can check out our News/Events page for announcements of student activities and other information, or you can go to the English Society Facebook page for information about student-run events.
 | English student Jimmy Bishop reading a toast in Old English at a Society event. |
After graduation
 | Mount English students find careers in various fields, including teaching, law, journalism, library work, editing, and public adminstration. Read some of their stories on our Career Paths page. |
Contact us
Department of English
Mount Saint Vincent University
166 Bedford Highway
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Canada B3M 2J6
Chair: Dr. Karen Macfarlane
Phone: 902-457-6727
E-mail: msvu.ca
Secretary: Ms. Tracy McDonald
Phone: 902-457-6346
E-mail: msvu.ca
Fax: 902-457-6455
Contact information for all department members can be found in Contact Us (Staff Directory) and on individual Faculty Profile pages.
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