VALUING DIVERSITY & EQUITY IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

The Department of English is a diverse and inclusive community of faculty, staff, and students, working together to promote the values of diversity, equity, inclusivity, and civility on campus. Like all departments in the College of Arts and Sciences, we aim to enhance diversity and inclusion through recruitment, promotion, and retention of faculty, administrators, staff, and students, and by implementing initiatives that provide rich, diversity‐related experiences for all to help ensure their success in an interconnected world.

By diversity we mean increasing the quantifiable number of members of underrepresented groups employed in the College including racial and ethnic minorities; women; members of LGBTQ communities; all social classes, religions, and nationalities; and differently abled individuals.

By inclusion, we mean promoting the security, well-being, and sense of ownership of all individuals. We will work together to create a community in which all students, faculty, and staff in the College participate in an environment of openness and acceptance, and in which people of all backgrounds, identities, and perspectives feel welcome, safe, and able to thrive.

We are committed to providing an enriching experience for all students, faculty, and staff by actively exploring and adopting initiatives that will expand diversity and inclusion in our department and in the College as a whole.

ENGLISH UNDERGRADUATE DIVERSITY REQUIREMENT

In the Department of English, we actively recruit diverse faculty and students and we encourage students to study literature from a broad range of traditions and heritages. We were one of the first departments at UK to institute a diversity requirement for all undergraduates in the major. This requires all students to take a course in African-American literature or an upper-level course in gender or comparative literature. We offer on a regular basis many courses that satisfy this requirement, including the following:

ENG 260 - Introduction to Black Writers

ENG 265 - Survey of African-American Literature I

ENG 266 - Survey of African-American Literature II

ENG 361 - Early African-American Literature

ENG 362 - Literature of the Great Black Migration

ENG 368 - Contemporary African-American Literature

ENG 369 - African American Women's Writing

ENG 370 - Literature Across Borders

ENG 460G - Studies in African-American Literature

ENG 470G - Comparative and Transnational Studies in Literature

ENG 490G - Studies in Lit and Gender