Graduate English Mission Statement

The English Department of Duquesne University is a community of scholars and teachers committed to free and open inquiry into all aspects of the study of literature and criticism. In accordance with the ecumenical spirit mandated by the character of the University, the Department embraces the diversity of critical methods and assumptions that characterize current literary scholarship.

The Department's commitment to literary study is necessarily predicated upon a notion of intellectual and critical responsibility that acknowledges the social and cultural contexts within which all literary study occurs, as well as the value laden nature of literary study within those contexts.

Thus, while the Department embraces a range of interests and perspectives--including cultural and political analysis, theory and aesthetics, feminist and women's studies, race studies, textual editing and bibliography, humanism, and Roman Catholic and theological studies--it acknowledges that these interests and perspectives are fundamentally linked to and grounded in the social, cultural, and historical world within which they are exercised; and it acknowledges that these interests and perspectives always involve (sometimes directly, sometimes implicitly) questions of values and justice.

For more information on programs in English, contact the Department of English at: