Dec 30, 2024  
2024-2025 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
2024-2025 Undergraduate Catalog

English Department


Darlene Farabee, Chair
212 Dakota Hall
(605) 658-6850

english@usd.edu
www.usd.edu/english

FACULTY

Professors:

John Dudley, 19th- and 20th-Century American Literature, Race and Gender Studies
Paul Formisano, Composition Studies, 19th- and 20th-Century American Literature, Western American Literature, Eco-criticism
Lee Ann Roripaugh, Creative Writing (Poetry and Creative Non-Fiction), 20th-and 21st-Century American Poetry, Queer Theory

Associate Professors:

Prentiss Clark, 19th- and early 20th-century American Literature, Literature and Philosophy, Aesthetics
Darlene Farabee, 16th- and 17th-Century British Literature, Drama, Early Modern Travel Literature, Performance Theory
Benjamin Hagen, 20th- and 21st- Century British/Anglophone Literature, Philosophy, Pedagogy, Affect, Age Studies
Leah McCormack, Creative Writing (Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction), Magical Realism, Trauma Studies
Lisa Ann Robertson, 18th- and 19th-Century British Literature, Theories of Mind and Imagination, Cognitive Theory
Clyde (Skip) Willman, Critical Theory, 20th-Century American Literature, Marxist and Lacanian Theory

Writer in Residence:

Pete Dexter, Creative Writing (Fiction)

Senior Lecturer:

Duncan Barlow, Creative Writing (Fiction and Non-Fiction), Literature of the Absurd, Critical Theory
Cheyenne Marco, Composition Literature
Joseph Raiche, Composition, Literature

Instructors:

Michelle Rogge Gannon, Composition, Literature, Technology and Writing
Kenneth Green, Composition, Literature, Business Writing
Julie Kelderman, Composition, Literature
Kevin Magee, Composition, Literature, Creative Writing
Martin McGoey, Composition, Literature

MAJOR:

English, B.A./B.S.

SPECIALIZATIONS:

Creative Writing
Professional Writing
Secondary Teaching

MINORS:

English
Creative Writing
Professional Writing

The Department of English welcomes students with a broad range of interest and career interests and career goals. Our programs and courses focus on clarity in writing, advanced research skills, and critical thinking through sustained engagement with the written word. Within the degrees, the specializations in creative writing, professional writing, and secondary teaching allow English students opportunities to frame their education to best fit their goals and interests. Students with degrees in English have proficiency in researching, editing, interpreting, and communicating information; these skills prepare them for work in publishing, law, education, business, public relations, and journalism, as well as for any other endeavor in which the mastery of language fosters success.

SCHOLARSHIPS

Please contact the department for additional information about available scholarships and awards. Also see College of Arts & Sciences  for college/school level scholarships.

  • Alvina & Robert Hall English Scholarship
  • Archer Gilfillan Scholarship
  • Betty Beasom Crew Scholarship
  • Dorothy Baisch Selz Memorial Scholarship
  • Dorothy Mortimer Dunlap Scholarship
  • Elizabeth Adams Shreves Memorial Scholarship
  • English Department Memorial Scholarship
  • English Grad Scholars
  • Gertrude Gunderson Scholarship
  • Gladys Hasse Poetry Prize Scholarship
  • Joane Riley Scholarship
  • John G. Dow Scholarship
  • Judith K. Meierhenry English Scholarship Fund
  • Margaret B. Sanger Scholarship
  • Sigurd & Vivian D. Anderson ‘32 Scholarship
  • The Gasque Study in Britain Scholarship
  • Wayne S. & Esther M. Knutson-English Scholarship

Student Learning Outcomes for English (B.A., B.S.)

  1. Students will intentionally engage with diversity in ways that increase awareness, content knowledge, cognitive sophistication, and empathic understanding of the complex ways individuals interact within systems and institutions leading to opportunities for equal access to participation in educational and community programs for all members of society. 
  2. Students will be able to systematically explore issues, objects, or works through the collection and analysis of evidence that results in informed conclusions or judgments and break down complex topics or issues into parts to gain a better understanding of them. 
  3. Students will recognize when there is a need for information and identify, locate, evaluate and effectively and responsibly use and convey that information to address the need or problem at hand. 
  4. Students will comprehensively explore issues, ideas, artifacts, and events before accepting or formulating an opinion or conclusion, and combine or synthesize existing ideas, images, or expertise in original ways reflecting a high degree of innovation, divergent thinking, and risk taking. 
  5. Students will be able to demonstrate cognitive, effective, and behavioral skills that support effective and appropriate interaction in a variety of cultural contexts. 
  6. Students will produce grammatically, rhetorically, and stylistically sound writing. 
  7. Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze, discuss, and write about literary works, authors, genres, topics, and time periods. 
  8. Students will demonstrate a knowledge of critical research expectations in literary studies and an ability to implement this knowledge in their written work.

Programs