English

Mission

The English Department at UMass Lowell provides a rigorous and diverse curriculum for its majors, combining solid disciplinary foundations with opportunities for research, writing, performance, community engagement, and practical experience, leading to a range of possible career pathways and graduate programs for students to pursue. The curriculum across our five concentrations encourages the development of critical thinking, reading, and writing skills that serve English majors well beyond the university. Small class sizes encourage active learning, interaction with student peers, and engagement with faculty who are renowned scholars, writers, and artists publishing and performing in a wide variety of literary and cultural traditions. The English Department serves the broader university community with its First Year Writing Program and its required College Writing sequence, and by offering a range of General Education/Core Curriculum courses that appeal to students from a variety of departments and colleges across campus. The English Department also believes in service to and partnership with the broader community and regularly integrates scholarship, creative work, teaching, and service with community engagement.

Requirements of the Major

Theatre Arts Learning Outcomes

Students who complete their degree in English with a concentration in Theatre Arts will be able to do the following:

  1. Demonstrate basic familiarity with all the arts of the theatre
  2. Analyze dramatic texts in order to perform, direct, design for, or produce a theatrical event based on a dramatic script
  3. Trace the major trends and developments in theatre history and recognize the basic elements and periods of dramatic literature
  4. Demonstrate knowledge of the works of William Shakespeare, their relationship to their historical context, and their aesthetic significance 
  5. Demonstrate awareness of the collaborative process of theatrical production, and function collaboratively within a production team
  6. Rehearse the basic elements of dramatic performance, including vocal production, movement for the stage, and character and scene analysis