English

Welcome to the Vassar English Department, a diverse group of intellectually wide-ranging and constantly evolving teachers, scholars, and writers as well as one of the largest and most engaged groups of majors at Vassar.

Whether you are interested in the course streams and correlate sequences that let students craft diverse, multidisciplinary courses of study, or want to learn about the prizes for writers and scholars sponsored by the department or what courses we accept toward our major from other departments and languages, or simply want to explore our creative writing program or any other part of our rich, changing curriculum, this is where to start.

Stories

A portrait photo of Professor Emeritus of English Paul Kane.

English Professor Active in Music and Abroad

Paul Kane, Professor Emeritus of English, recently released “Intimations” (Modern Sounds, 2025), a music and poetry recording with the avant-garde jazz ensemble The String Trio of New York, led by guitarist James Emery.

New Writings from Amitava Kumar

Amitava Kumar, Professor of English, is author of the recently published The Social Life of Indian Trains (Aleph Book Company, 2025), part of Aleph’s “Essential India” series.

Group of people sitting at a library study table smiling for the camera.

New Library Study Commons Brings Expanded Hours and Space—Plus an Upgraded Accessible Entrance

Vassar faculty and administrators gathered in Thompson Library on February 9 to celebrate the opening of a freshly renovated space designed to enhance students’ academic experience

Gothic-style stone building on the Vassar campus framed by autumn trees with sunlight streaming through the leaves.

New Faculty Members Bring Expertise Spanning Virology to Volcanoes

Vassar’s new tenure track faculty members bring a wealth of talent and expertise to the campus.

Visiting Associate Professor of English David Means was awarded the 2025 PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story.

Molly S. McGlennen, Professor of English, Co-Edits New Book Indigenous Poetics

Molly published the book with her 25-year mentor, scholar and poet Inés Hernández-Ávila (Nez Perce/Tejana) from UC Davis. The book is a collection of essays by contemporary Native American poets that highlight the role of poetry in Native American and Indigenous Studies.

English Professor Amitava Kumar is Author of The Green Book, a Follow-up to The Yellow Book of 2023

Amitava Kumar, Helen D. Lockwood Professor of English, is the author of The Green Book, newly recently published by HarperCollins India (December 2024), and the final volume in a trilogy that launched in 2022 with The Blue Book, a comprehensive perspective on the Covid-19 pandemic, and continued in 2023 with The Yellow Book, on overcoming adversity.

Amitava Kumar, Professor of English on the Helen D. Lockwood Chair, wrote a piece in The New Yorker about his experience traveling through India on the Himsagar Express.

Professor Emeritus of English Frank Bergon was mentioned in Variety after the film adaptation of his novel, Wild Game, was announced, starring Miles Teller and Casey Affleck.

Events

The cover of a book with the text "Moving Stones: About the Art of Edmonia Lewis, by Jennifer DeVere Brody". The cover design is brown, and shows a photo collage of a person, flowers, and a dress.

Moving Stones: About the Art of Edmonia Lewis, a lecture by Jennifer DeVere Brody

Apr. 2, 2026, 5:30–7:00 p.m.

In this C. Mildred Thompson lecture, Professor Jennifer Brody ’87 discusses her forthcoming book, Moving Stones: About the Art of Edmonia Lewis. It explores the extraordinary life and work of Edmonia Lewis, the Black and Ojibwe sculptor who rose to international fame in the nineteenth century.

This event is free and open to the public.

A photo of Rosa Andújar. They are smiling and wearing a dark blazer with subtle pinstripes and a black top.

Lecture on Ancient Greek Drama and the Caribbean Experience in 1970s New York City by Rosa Andújar

Apr. 14, 2026, 5:30–8:00 p.m.

This talk explores how the ancient Greeks served as a rallying point for Caribbean diasporic communities in New York City in the 1970s. Professor Andújar will discuss how Greek tragedies featuring obstinate figures resisting powerful authorities (such as Prometheus and Antigone) and oppressed groups (like the enslaved women of Troy) provided important models for minoritized communities in the United States.

Campus community only, please.

“On Criticism”

Apr. 15, 2026, 6:00–7:30 p.m.

Professor Merve Emre, Director of the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism at Wesleyan University, will be giving a talk on “the role and relevance of critics in contemporary culture.”

Campus community only, please.

The Vassar Critical Journal. The Vassar College English Department Student Journal of Critical Essays

The Vassar Critical Journal provides students with publishing experience at every stage of the process. Students may begin as writers, submitting their own work to the journal. They then act as literary agents, reading all submissions and deciding which essays they enjoy and which will proceed to the editing level. Read more

The Vassar Review is an international, multidisciplinary literary arts journal that fosters working relationships between faculty, students, and published writers and artists in order to engage its annual theme with care and reflective insight. Read more