Welcome back,
Polar Bears of the English Department,
from fellow major Jane Godiner!
Happy Monday, everyone! Film and I hope your break was restful and restorative (and we also hope that you do not hear the phrase “restful and restorative” too many times during your first week back)! We are all in this together, and we hope that these last six weeks of the semester are manageable, fun, and full of English, of course.
While most people associate springtime at Bowdoin with lawn games, stargazing , and shorts (finally), we English majors know that the warmer weather also means more opportunities for reading outside on the Main Quad. If you see me underneath the tree outside of Massachusetts Hall approaching the long-awaited conclusion of How to Win the Bachelor, please do not hesitate to stop, say hi, and show me what you’re reading today!
Finally, Film and I would like to formally welcome the newest cohort of English majors — the sophomores — to “The News From English.” Keep a watchful eye on your inboxes, as I am sure many of you will receive hopeful emails from me and Film as we look for new members of the Bowdoin English community to interview for our newsletter.
Keep well, stay warm, and good luck during this first week back!
Fall 2022 Registration
Begins Next Week
The Fall 2022 course schedule will be available in ClassFinder on Monday, April 4 and registration begins on Thursday, April 7. New majors: be sure to check your record in Polaris to see who your assigned advisor is. If you have any questions about advisor assignments, email the department coordinator at lholland@bowdoin.edu.
Note that the English Department has changed the major requirements BUT the new requirements take effect beginning with the Class of 2025. Classes of 2023 and 2024 must still follow the old requirements below.
The major requires a minimum of ten courses. These must include:
- Three pre-1800 courses
- One intermediate seminar (numbered 2000-2050)
- One advanced seminar (numbered 3000-3099)
- The remaining courses may be selected from first-year writing seminars, introductory courses at the 1100 level, intermediate or advanced literature courses at the 2000 and 3000 levels, intermediate independent study, advanced independent study or honors (numbered 4000–4051), and introductory or advanced creative writing courses in the English Department.
2021-22 English Department
Writing Prizes
Deadline Thursday, March 31 at 4:00 PM
Click Here For
Submission Form and Guidelines
Brown Prize Competition
Friday, April 1 at 4:30 PM
Massachusetts Hall McKeen Study
CXD Internship Grants
Did you know the CXD Funded Internship Program awards students $5,000 grants to pursue internship experiences that would otherwise not be paid?
Are you eligible?
- 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year students who have not previously received a CXD Funded Internship Grant are eligible to apply
- Internships must be 350-400 hours and occur over summer break (remote or in person)
- You must have a confirmed offer for a summer opportunity* before you can apply for funding.
- (Students on F-1 visas MUST meet with Dean Khuong prior to applying)
*Opportunities could be: an established internship, a summer position with an employer that you created, or the launch of a new venture. Meet with a CXD advisor for ideas.
APPLICATION DEADLINE:
Wednesday, March 30th @ 12 noon
(This is a hard deadline, and no secondary deadlines or extensions will be made. All application materials including a letter of commitment from an employer must be submitted by noon on the 30th.)
FAQ and Application Instructions
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Faculty, Major,
and Alumni Profiles
Associate Professor of English
Hilary Thompson
Photo courtesy Bowdoin News
As she approaches the latter half of the Spring 2022 semester, Hilary Thompson finds herself excited by the opportunity to continue teaching The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy, in her Fictions of Global English seminar.
“I've read it and taught it many times before, but it's always striking to me how rich and layered the text is,” Thompson says. “I've very much been enjoying reteaching it — some students have read it in high school, and some are approaching it for the first time, so I enjoy seeing how they respond to it.”
Now that her students have returned from spring break, Thompson also looks forward to introducing the course’s next novel, Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh. She believes that the book, written in vernacular English, will serve as a meaningful challenge to the class.
“I think that it’s just going to blow people's minds,” she says. “I think it's really that you might think of yourself as an English language speaker, but there are all different kinds of English language to be spoken and different versions of the English language.”
Outside of the classroom, Thompson is working on her upcoming book, about animism and spirit belief in contemporary global Anglophone novels, as well as indulging her interests in ornithology and creaturely life.
“Recently in Maine, we've been visited by a vagrant species of Eagle—the Steller’s Sea Eagle, which frequents Asia and Siberia,” Thompson says. “People have been going crazy on social media looking for this gigantic bird and I'm hoping, over the spring, that I can finally cross paths with it.”
English Major
Dom Acquista ‘23
Photo courtesy Dom Acquista
“I chose [an English major] because it's interesting and always evolving,” Dom Acquista ‘23 says. “It’s like studying science almost ... there’s all these different theories and ideas and it’s also different words, and words that make a comeback, and you can change words to mean different things,” Acquista says.
One of Acquista's most memorable English classes so far has been Professor Belinda Kong’s Asian Dystopian class in which, he says, he read the largest number of novels he's ever read in the space of a half-year.
"Five or six [novels], like, every two weeks. It was very cool,” Acquista says, “And it was during the pandemic, so it was kind of nice. It was like having comfort.”
Acquista’s main interest in the major lies in creative writing. Although on the more practical side he wants to get a job at a literary agency or a publishing company, he has an even bigger dream in mind. “I would love to get a novel off the ground and send it somewhere to get published,” Acquista says.
In the meantime, while we’re cheering on Dom Acquista’s writerly aspirations, check out his Orient column, Budget Bowdoin Dining, to learn how to whip up Italian cuisine from “a current Italian”, as Acquista calls himself. Warning: It will make you incredibly hungry.
