The Wheeler Column

For our 2015 Newsletter, Professor Jos Lavery taught English 165: Oscar Wilde and the Nineteenth Century. In this piece, Jos talks about teaching the Wildean epigram.  The background of my Twitter account is a screen-cap of a slogan posted by the moderator (and who is that, exactly?) of the Oscar Wilde Facebook page. It reads, “You can never be overdressed or overeducated –...

The week of October 7th, 2015, Berkeley Connect in English students had the opportunity to get up close and personal with some of the Bancroft Library’s most prized literary works. Here’s Samantha Zevanove’s first hand account of her experience. Let’s face it: as English majors in 2015, it’s easy to take books for granted. Whenever we want to get our...

Although this is my first year serving as Chair of the Department, I have been teaching American literature in the Department for over 25 years. Over these years, the nature and extent of the accolades my colleagues earn continue at a remarkable pace. I’ll point to only the most recent: Professor Namwali Serpell recently won the the Caine Prize for African...

The members of the English Department are delighted to welcome their newest colleague, Professor Joshua Gang. Here’s a short bio from Prof. Gang, in his own words. I’m an east coast kid originally: I grew up in Manhattan and Connecticut and did my undergrad at Brown. Originally I thought I would be a musician but literature and philosophy won me over. I...