Cal State LA’s English Department is a national leader in Engaged English—a community-oriented and professionalizing approach to English studies that enhances and complements traditional approaches to literature, writing and rhetoric, creative writing, theory, and more.
National Recognition for our Engaged English Program
Excelencia in Education designated our English Department as a 2023 “Program to Watch” for its work supporting Latino/a students in community-engaged and professionalizing endeavors.
https://www.edexcelencia.org/what-works-examples-excelencia/programs-watch
The American Council of Learned Societies featured our department’s Engaged English program in their online Resource Library as a model for other departments and institutions hoping to integrate community engagement and professionalization into their curriculum.
https://www.acls.org/resources/california-state-university-los-angeles-engaged-english-requirement/
The National Humanities Alliance supported data-driven assessment of our department’s Engaged English requirement, finding that our English majors felt their Engaged English courses helped them voice their opinions, work with others to make a difference, and effectively engage with those challenging their views. The National Humanities Alliance shared these findings in their Approaches to Training in the Public Humanities: Replicable Models for Building Public Humanities Training Programs handbook (see p. 19).
The Engaged English B.A. Requirement
At Cal State LA, English majors are not just humanities students, they are humanities practitioners. Our English majors learn why English studies matter today and how majoring in English can help their growth as professionals and as change-makers. At Cal State LA, we don’t simply tell our students they can do anything with an English major, we show them how. Our Engaged English B.A. requirement is designed to support our English majors’ professionalization, so they graduate ready to contribute to their communities and launch their careers.
The Engaged English B.A. requirement has two primary components: ENGL 3950 English Major Mentorship and Professionalization as well as at least one additional “Engaged English” class. Classes that meet the Engaged English requirement include Narrative Practices of Healing, Grant Writing as Community Engagement, Archival Research, or one of our three journal production classes such as Statement Magazine, Words Uncaged, and Text & Type, among other opportunities and options.