Study Abroad for English Majors

The English department encourages its students to complete some portion of their undergraduate study through the University’s Education Abroad Program. English majors can deepen their understanding of British, American, and post-colonial English literature by study in a foreign university and at the same time add an international dimension to their undergraduate education. Because all courses taken through EAP are accepted as UC courses, with careful planning students may spend as much as a year of study in a foreign university with no loss of time in completing their degrees.

Why study abroad?

The opportunities for enhancing one’s understanding of literature written in English through foreign study are almost boundless:seeing Shakespeare performed in the rebuilt London Globe, visiting the Lake District where Wordsworth and Coleridge wrote their finest poetry, reading Joyce’s Ulysses
in Dublin, discussing American literary texts with British, Australian, or Indian students, or experiencing Coetzee’s South Africa.
English majors who study abroad come to understand that cultural context is crucial for interpreting literary texts, that knowledge is constructed differently in other political and social milieux. Or through immersion in a foreign-language university, they may gain fluency in another language and acquire a sense of its literature while at the same time studying English literature.
English majors find that a term, or better, a year in a foreign university not only enhances their critical and writing skills, but that the experience of adapting to another academic and cultural world expands their self-understanding and gives them a keen sense of the political and social differences in today’s world. The personal and intellectual growth of study abroad provides further advantages when it comes to the challenges of graduate and professional study.

When should I study abroad?
There are a variety of ways in which English majors can incorporate study abroad into their studies.
Freshmen
It’s best to begin planning as early as possible for study abroad. If you want to begin or continue the study of a foreign language through the short-term language and culture programs, you can apply in your freshman year to go abroad as a sophomore.
Sophomores & Juniors
You can also apply in sophomore year to do a language and culture program in your junior year. But if you want to complete a significant portion of your major studies abroad, you should apply in fall of sophomore year to do your junior year abroad. (See below, “Where should I study abroad?”) Also, students who have completed their lower-division language studies may elect to expand their knowledge of that language through literature classes in a foreign-language
university. Again, such study would typically take place during junior or senior
year. Students doing immersion (full-year) programs in their junior year are advised to complete some portion of their upper-division electives prior to going abroad.
Seniors
If you want to go abroad in your senior year, you should complete all your major
requirements or plan to take courses meeting your remaining requirements while abroad. It is possible to graduate while abroad, but close consultation with an advisor is essential.
Transfer & Graduate students
Both transfer and graduate students are eligible to participate on EAP. For more information, visit the web site.