We are a community of teachers and students, readers and writers, learners
and scholars. United by an interest in language and literature and convinced
that our discipline is the lynchpin of a quality university, we look forward
to seeing you in our classes and offices.
The English Department offers courses for every student at Coastal. Non-majors
can expect to take English 101 (Composition) as part of the University
Core Curriculum, and the Core allows for a number of other English options,
including literature surveys and creative writing seminars. Many students
also take advantage of our extensive offerings in English 390: Business
and Professional Communication.
If you choose a major or minor in English, you can expect to enjoy a
broad range of classes from linguistics to world literature, creative
writing to the American novel, all designed to make you more able to apprehend
and then wield the power of words. Our major is growing, and our program
can help open the worlds of possibility for which the English major is
justly renowned: Education, professional school, graduate study, and jobs
in the private sector…the English degree brings many futures within
reach.
Our department is also engaged in campus life. We sponsor the “Words
to Say It” reading series, maintain an active honorary society,
and organize special events that highlight literature and language.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Dan Ennis Chair, Department of English dennis@coastal.edu or 843-349-2746
Upcoming Events
Professor of English Honored in Coastal Carolina University Distinguised Teacher-Scholar Lecturer Series
On Thursday, November 20, 2008, Steve Hamelman, professor of English, will present Seeing the Forest for the Trees: Ten Iconic Scenes in the Wilderness of Classic American Fiction as part of the Coastal Carolina University Distinguished Teacher-Scholar Lecture Series. The lecture will begin at 7:30pm in Wall Auditorium and is free and open to the public.
Steve Hamelman teaches undergraduate courses in American literature, literary theory, and composition in the English Department at Coastal Carolina University. His scholarly work is reflected in many publications and conference papers on the early American novel, theory, and popular music. Dr. Hamelman earned degrees at Colgate University (BA), the University of Maine at Orono (MA), and Brandeis University (MA, PhD). He has been a full professor at Coastal since 2001.
The Distinguished Teacher-Scholar Lecturer award is given annually to a Coastal Carolina University faculty member who has outstanding abilities as a teacher, scholar and communicator. The recepient of the award delivers a public lecture in the fall semester on an original topic. For additional information, please call 843-349-2086.
The Distinguished Teacher-Scholar Lecturer Series is made possible through the generous support of Horry Telephone, Inc.
Spotlight
Sara Sanders named to South Carolina Humanities Council Board
Sara L. Sanders, Kearns Palmetto Professor of English at Coastal Carolina University, has been elected to a thee-year term to the board of directors of the Humanities Council of South Carolina, effective November 1, 2008.
Sanders joined the Coastal Carolina University faculty in 1987. She is a graduate of Baptist College of Charleston (now Charleston Southern University) and earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of South Carolina in 1978 and 1981, respectively.
She was director of Coastal’s Honors Program from 1992 to 1996 and received the Student Affairs Division Award for the 1995-1996 academic year. Sanders chaired the Department of English, Communication and Journalism from 2004 to 2007 and was named Kearns Palmetto Professor for 2007 to 2012.
She is a consultant to the Conway Medical Center Palliative Care Team. She and her husband Steve Nagle are co-editors of English in the Southern United States (Cambridge University Press 2003) and co-recipients of the 2003 South Carolina Governor’s Award in the Humanities.
Her areas of expertise include teaching composition, English as a second/foreign language, illness narratives, cognitive metaphors and development of learning communities.
The Humanities Council awards nearly $250,000 annually in grants for statewide public programs and sponsors two initiatives - the South Carolina Humanities Festival and the South Carolina Book Festival held in Columbia.
Dan Albergotti Receives South Carolina Arts Commission Fellowship
Coastal Carolina University professor/poet Dan Albergotti is the recipient of a 2008-2009 Individual Artist Fellowship Award from the South Carolina Arts Commission. He is one of six South Carolina artists - four writers and two musicians - to be selected for this annual fellowship recognizing superior artistic merit. The six artist fellows receive $5,000 each.
Albergotti, assistant professor of English and the Department of English's coordinator of creative writing, joined the Coastal Carolina University faculty in 2005. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in English from Clemson University in 1986 and 1988, respectively, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of South Carolina in 1995.
He is the 2007 A. Poulin Jr. Poetry Prize winner for his first collection of poems, The Boatloads. His poems have appeared in The Cincinnati Review, Mid-American Review, Shenandoah, The Southern Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review and other journals. His chapbook, "Charon's Manifest," won the 2005 Randall Jarrell/Harperprints Chapbook Competition.
Albergotti has been a scholar at the Sewanee and Bread Loaf writers' conferences and a fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. A graduate of the MFA program at UNC Greensboro and former poetry editor of The Greensboro Review, he currently serves as poetry editor of storySouth (www.storysouth.com).
The board grants fellowships based on recommendations made by out-of-state review panelists who select fellows based solely on their work.