From the Chair’s Desk

Welcome to The Annex! Our newsletter will help current students, alumni, faculty, and other friends keep up with one another and with department activities.

Our English department has gained national prominence for its embrace of literary history and aesthetics. The presence of the Association of Literary, Scholars, Critics, and Writers in our department gives us a tremendous amount of visibility in the form of conferences and regular programs on campus featuring prominent writers and scholars. Two excellent publications are associated with the department: Catholic U’s first Oxford UP journal, Literary Imagination, and Literary Matters, our online journal that now has over 17,000 readers.

Our alumni have gone on to become university presidents, deans, professors, novelists, screenwriters, medical doctors, journalists, editors, actors, lawyers, teachers, principals, leaders in the non-profit and business worlds, and may other professions. We want to hear from you! Please send us news of your whereabouts and achievements. You can submit news to share in the newsletter via our online news submission form. 

Studying great literature and honing your writing teaches you how to think about complex issues, how to communicate, and to negotiate human relationships. The Annex will help us stay in touch with you and help you stay in touch with us. Alumni and other friends of the department are always welcome at department events or to drop in and say hello. We urge you to come to a reading by a creative writer, a lecture by a prominent scholar, an English Society meeting, or another event!

Ernest Suarez
David M. O'Connell Professor of English
Executive Director, Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers
Chair, Department of English