Our Honours and BA programs are designed to allow you to explore English literature and Cultural Studies in greater depth and detail as you progress from level to level, and, in most cases, in progressively smaller classes.

We offer a range of courses at Level I, all of which will help you to become a better writer and will teach you the conventions of writing literary and cultural criticism. ENGLISH 1F03 (The Written World), ENGLISH 1G03 (Making and Unmaking Literary Traditions) and ENGLISH 1H03 (Words in Place) focus on diverse literary forms with an attention to the way in which they reflect, challenge and transform the world around them, while ENGLISH 1CS3 (Studying Culture: A Critical Introduction) develops students’ ability to think critically about their engagements with a broad range of manifestations of culture (e.g. popular culture, social institutions, everyday practices, digital culture, consumer culture).

Our Level II and III courses foster a broad understanding of major movements and ideas in Cultural Studies and English literary history. Some of these courses offer focused investigations of particular authors, genres, periods or national literatures — of Shakespeare, for example, or Canadian literature — while others focus on topics ranging from the Age of Elizabeth I to popular culture to Indigenous futurisms to an experiential practicum focused on reading and writing in the community.

At Level IV, our Honours students take seminars — small weekly discussion-based classes that facilitate in-depth study and open dialogue. These seminars allow a small group of students to work closely with a faculty member on a particular topic. A wide selection of seminars is offered every year. Recent courses have included “Even Stranger Things: The Early Gothic”; “Playing, Winning, Losing: Strategies of Power in Renaissance Literature”; “Bollywood and Beyond”; “Digital Lives”; and “Graphic Narrative in Canada”.

Courses listed in the calendar are not always offered every year.

Students wishing to enter into a English and Cultural Studies major will apply at the end of their first year. Application for Admission to Level II will occur in mid-March on the Mosaic student information system. Visit the ‘Choosing Your Program’ guide for more information.