Requirements

English Major

The English department offers a rich array of courses, spanning multiple literary traditions and cultural media.  Classes on literature before 1800  foreground vital connections between past and present traditions of Anglophone writing.  Classes engaging with African American, Asian American, Indigenous, Latinx, and multiethnic American  or global literature emphasize the multiplicity of literatures and cultures that constitute our contemporary world.

Prospective majors may enter the department through first-year writing seminars in their first semester or 1100-level and intermediate level courses. Both 2000-level seminars and 3000-level seminars are writing-intensive and provide access to central critical perspectives and research methodologies in the field. Majors are encouraged to take ENGL 2841 Introduction to Theory in their sophomore or junior year in order to expand their critical literacy. Students planning to undertake an honors project should take a 3000-level seminar before the first semester of their senior year.  

The major requires a minimum of ten courses. These must include the following:

a

These requirements can be fulfilled at any level of our curriculum from introductory to advanced. Independent studies may count by approval of the chair.

b

These requirements can be fulfilled at any level of our curriculum from introductory to advanced. Majors may take both courses in the same area, e.g., African American literature. One independent study may count by approval of the chair.

Additional notes: No more than two courses may come from the department’s roster of first-year writing seminars and introductory courses (ENGL 1000-1999). No more than three creative writing courses count toward the major. ENGL 1060 English Composition does not count toward the major.

English Major with Concentration in Creative Writing

English majors with a concentration in creative writing must satisfy the requirements for the major, and in addition they must also take one introductory and and one advanced creative-writing workshop in a single genre (such as fiction, non-fiction, or poetry), as well as a third workshop in a different genre. One independent study or honors project may count toward the concentration with approval from the department chair.

English Minor

The minor requires five courses in the department. At least three of these must be numbered 2000 or higher. No more than two creative writing courses may count toward the minor. ENGL 1060 English Composition does not count toward the minor. Transfer credits and independent studies may not be applied to the minor. Minors may double-count one cross-listed course with another department or program at Bowdoin with the approval of both departments/programs. (This is in addition to the college-wide policy about double counting courses to two majors or a major and a minor.)

Interdisciplinary Major

The department participates in an interdisciplinary major in English and theater. The interdisciplinary major in English and theater focuses on the dramatic arts, broadly construed. See the Interdisciplinary Majors.

Additional Information and Department Policies

Major/Minor Grade Policy

• Courses that count toward the major and minor must be taken for a letter grade (not Credit/D/Fail), and students must earn grades of C- or better in these courses.
• Beyond the one course allowed by college policy, majors may double-count three cross-listed courses with another department or program. 

Transfer Credit Policies

With the approval of the chair, the English department accepts up to two transfer credits for appropriate classes taken outside of the department, either at Bowdoin or at another institution. Students may also count one upper-level (2000- or 3000-level) course in cinema studies taken at Bowdoin toward the major. Students may count up to two upper-level (2000- or 3000-level) foreign-language literature courses taken at Bowdoin or at another institution. Only one pre-1800 course may be transferred for credit. Majors must take their required intermediate seminar and advanced seminar within the Bowdoin English department; transfer credit from outside the department cannot fulfill these two requirements. Students may not apply transfer credits to the minor. Students planning to study away should meet with their advisor at least one semester prior to departure to get pre-approval.

Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate (AP/IB)

Students who received a minimum score of four on the English Literature and Composition AP exam, or a minimum score of six on the English IB exam, are eligible to receive a general credit toward their degree (though not toward a major or minor) following the completion of an English course, not including ENGL 1060 English Composition, ENGL 1070 The Art of Rhetoric and Persuasion, or creative writing courses (numbered 1200–1299 and 2850–2899), with a minimum grade of B-. In order to receive credit for advanced placement work, students must have their scores officially reported to the Office of the Registrar by the end of their sophomore year at Bowdoin.

Honors Projects

A student who maintains an A/B average in the courses required for the English major may decide to become an honors candidate at the end of their junior year. Honors candidates engage in an honors project and prepare a thesis under the supervision of an advisor during their senior year. Students are required to register for their honors project for two semesters, ENGL 4050 and ENGL 4051, and may apply both semesters of work to the major.

Information for Incoming Students

All Bowdoin students must take a first-year writing seminar in their first year of enrollment and the department is offering the following first-year writing seminars in fall 2025:  ENGL 1005 Victorian Ghosts and Monsters, ENGL 1017 Global Asian Fantasy Fiction, ENGL 1021 Writing with and about Generative Artificial Intelligence, ENGL 1024 A Pirate’s Life for Me: Legends of Buccaneers at Sea, ENGL 1026 Freedom Stories, ENGL 1031 Making a Literary Magazine, ENGL 1035 Of Comics and Culture, ENGL 1044 Imaginary Communities, ENGL 1047 Animal Life.

Incoming students with concerns about their level of preparation for writing at the college level should consult with their liberal-arts advisor, take advantage of the writing support programs in the Baldwin Center for Learning and Teaching. Options for students seeking additional writing support and instruction include enrollment in a first-year writing seminar in the fall followed by ENGL 1070 The Art of Rhetoric and Persuasion in the spring.

First-year students are also eligible to take ENGL 2549, Introduction to Environmental Literature, in Fall 2026. Most of the 2000-level English course offerings are open to first-years beginning in the spring semester after they have completed their first year writing seminar.