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

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.

Image of a book cover for 'Monstrous Work & Radical Satisfaction' by Eve Dunbar, depicting four black and white portrait photos of African American women.

Professor Eve Dunbar is the author of Monstrous Work and Radical Satisfaction: Black Women Writing under Segregation

On radical black feminist refusal through the works of mid-twentieth-century African American women writers.

A portrait of Stephen Andrade, a person with short black hair and beard, glasses, and a dark suit coat.

Vassar’s Newest Professors Hail from Burbank to Bulgaria

Vassar welcomes 15 new tenure-track faculty members—the largest cohort in more than 20 years—to the campus this fall.

Lev Winickoff ’25 Receives 2024 Barnabas McHenry Award

Lev Winickoff ’25 received a 2024 Barnabas McHenry Award to create a video project in collaboration with members of the Stockbridge-Munsee band of Mohicans. The video will document a Munsee story told by an elder (in English) with contributions by children in the tribe (in Mohican) and incorporate paintings reflecting the natural beauty of the Hudson River Valley along with Munsee symbolism.

Photo portrait collage of Robert DeMaria and Rob Brown.

Robert DeMaria Jr. and Robert D. Brown co-edit The Complete Poems of Samuel Johnson

Robert DeMaria Jr., Professor of English on the Henry Noble MacCracken Chair, and Robert D. Brown, Professor Emeritus of Greek and Roman Studies, are co-editors of The Complete Poems of Samuel Johnson, published in June 2024 by Routledge for the Longman Annotated English Poets series.

Events

An antique thermometer with a closeup detail.

The Great Frost of 1708/09: Enlightenment Thermometers and Representations of Climate Disruption

Oct. 8, 2025, 6:00 p.m.

Tita Chico ’91, University of Maryland Professor of English, will discuss the literary history of 18th-century technology.

A photo of Lydia Millet, a person with long blond hair and a blue shirt.

2025 William Gifford Lecture by Lydia Millet

Nov. 5, 2025, 6:00–7:30 p.m.

Acclaimed writer Lydia Millet will deliver the 2025 William Gifford Lecture on November 5, 2025. The event is free and open to the public.

Julius Strauss, a person with short, tousled dark hair and glasses, is seated in a mustard-yellow chair with one leg crossed over the other. They wear a dark blue blazer, a striped shirt, grey pants, and black boots. To their right is a wooden table with a name card that reads "Julius Strauss," a plastic water bottle, and a microphone. Behind them is a bookcase filled with colorful books, and a screen displaying their photo, name, and the title "Ex war correspondent."

Return to Kosovo: Film screening followed by discussion with producer Julius Strauss

Nov. 16, 2025, 4:00 p.m.

Renowned British war correspondent and journalism professor Julius Strauss presents his 47-minute documentary film Return to Kosovo and responds to questions about his work. This event is open to the public.

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