English

The English program at Loras College empowers students to become thoughtful readers, confident writers, and compelling communicators so they are prepared to lead meaningful careers and lives. Through close reading, literary analysis, and original creative work, students develop the critical and rhetorical skills needed to craft persuasive, insightful arguments reasoned in evidence. Our curriculum emphasizes research, originality, and a deep understanding of literature’s element while exploring texts within their social, cultural, and historical contexts.

The Loras English courses promote active learning through activities as writing workshops, collaborative research projects, and the use of the library’s Special Collections. Field experiences in classes include trips to outdoor spaces or museums and our program encourages study-abroad.

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Explore Internships & Careers

Internship opportunities offer real-world experiences. You can complete internships for academic credit or non-credit. Many students choose to complete both and intern at places such as:

McGraw-Hill
Kendall Hunt
St. Mark’s Youth Enrichment
United Way
City of Dubuque Economic Development
Black Earth Institute
Telegraph-Herald
Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque
Presentation Lantern Center
Archdiocese of Dubuque
YMCA
State Farm Insurance
St. John’s Episcopal Church
Dubuque County Early Childcare

You will be prepared for a variety of rewarding careers. Our alumni work in many of the following fields:

Journalism
Library Science
Content Creation
Digital Communication
Business
Nonprofit Leadership and Development
Education
Editing
Publishing
Screenwriting
Creative Writing
Social Media Management
Public Relations
Advertising
Law
Counseling
Public Policy
Grant Writing
Technology Services
Marketing & Media

CENTER FOR EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

COURSE HIGHLIGHTS

Loras students gathering at table to study in the Loras Lynch Disability and Cultural Center

SINGLE TEXT/DEEP READ

Courses focused on a single major text and surrounding literature, including influences, author revisions, authorial biography, reviews, scholarly criticism. Examples include but are not limited to Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, Oscar Wilde’s Portrait of Dorian Gray, Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, George Eliot’s Middlemarch.

FICTION GENRE WORKSHOP

A creative writing class focused on the short story. The class is conducted as a workshop/seminar with heavy emphasis on student-composed fiction. To complete the course, students must write three short stories for a cumulative total of at least twenty-five final pages, participate actively in class, and critique other students’ work in writing.

INTERDISCIPLINARY CONNECTIONS

Courses with an interdisciplinary focus that aim to bring literary voices in conversation with other aesthetic categories and disciplines. Examples include but are not limited to Literature and Film, Non-Fiction and Fiction, Adaptations of Classic Texts, Shakespeare’s Influence in Contemporary Literature, Literary Modernism and Visual Art.

GRADUATE DEGREE OPPORTUNITIES

Loras offers a variety of graduate, dual degree & accelerated pathways to pursue both your undergraduate and graduate degrees efficiently and economically.

GRADUATE, DUAL DEGREE & PATHWAYS

group of graduate students with computers sitting around conference table having discussion

Clubs & Orgs

We have a variety of opportunities for you to get involved from the moment you set foot on campus.

Sigma Tau Delta Honor Society
Loras Literary Society
The Limestone Review literary journal
The Lorian student newspaper
The Loras Players

explore duconnect

Six smiling Loras students standing in front of Campus Fest

I majored in both English Literature and Secondary Education. I remember most about my professors. Their support, encouragement and overall care for their students still impacts me today in the work that I do with my own students. They had a passion for teaching and their subject area, but an overall desire to impact and care for their students.

— Kelsey (’16)