Department of English

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Reading closely, thinking deeply, and writing well: a degree in English literature offers unmatched intellectual rewards while also providing an excellent base for future studies and professional development.

Welcome

Simard Hall

At uOttawa you will learn from nationally and internationally recognized experts in a wide variety of fields. Core courses cover Canadian, American, British, Indigenous, and African and Asian diasporic literatures. The curriculum also covers the full range of historical periods and a wide variety of thematic approaches, such as environmental literatures, new media studies, decolonization and globalization studies. Programs in Creative and Professional Writing enable you to hone your writer’s craft and imaginative faculties, as well as your critical thinking and research methods. 

Learn more about the department
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Undergraduate studies

Besides providing an excellent base for professional development, a degree in English literature can offer you unmatched intellectual challenges.

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Graduate studies

What sets our graduate program apart is its combination of top-notch academic training and unrivalled collegiality. Our faculty are internationally renowned, producing leading research in their fields.

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Video
Reading, Writing, Thinking - Department of English
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Student life

Why study English?

Literary study equips students with excellent communication skills, high-level experience in academic research and debate, and the capacity for creati…
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Student life

Success during and after graduation

People trained in the humanities who study Shakespeare’s poetry, or Cezanne’s paintings, say, have learned to play with big concepts, and to apply new…
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Student life

Pathways to careers

The time that you will spend studying literature– investigating and analyzing and debating its values and forms– is in many ways its own reward.  And …
Ben Ladouceur

Writer in Residence

Ben Ladouceur is an author living on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe Nation (Ottawa).

Arts Writing Centre

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The goal of the Arts Writing Centre is to help students develop their writing talents in a friendly and collaborative environment.

Learn more about the centre

News

Professor Suyi Okungbowa

Exploring Afrocentric futurisms: Professor Suyi Okungbowa’s speculative fiction

For Suyi Okungbowa, an assistant professor in the Department of English, writing speculative fiction is a way to imagine Afrocentric futurisms — alternative realities that prioritize people of African descent.
For Suyi Okungbowa, an assistant professor in the Department of English, writing speculative fiction is a way to imagine Afrocentric futurisms — alternative realities that prioritize people of African descent.

March 24, 2025

Contact us

Department of English

Hamelin Hall, room 338
70 Laurier Avenue E.
Ottawa ON Canada K1N 6N5
Map

Tel.: 613-562-5764
Fax: 613-562-5990
[email protected]

Office hours

Monday to Friday
From 8:45 a.m. to 12 p.m.
From 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
(June to August: closed at 4 p.m.)