For UNC students looking for ways to link their love of English with various career fields, the English and Comparative Literature department has created seven new concentrations which launched this fall.
Students can choose between British and American Literature; Science, Medicine, and Literature; Social Justice and Literature; Writing, Editing, and Digital Publishing; Creative Writing; Comparative and World Literatures; and Film Studies. Some of these concentrations were already available as minors within the English and Comparative Literature Department, but others are newly minted.
Members of the department formed the new concentrations based on faculty surveys, conversations with UNC students and the varied talents of the English and Comparative Literature faculty, said Mary Floyd-Wilson, professor and English and Comparative Literature Department chairperson.
“We wanted to be able to make plain to the students that these were areas of interest both for the students and areas of expertise for the faculty,” said Floyd-Wilson. “It was to provide a map of what was already here in the department.”
The new interdisciplinary concentrations offer options for students who are hesitant to major in English because they think it might not line up with their career path. Floyd-Wilson emphasized how the new concentrations will help students build connections between English and other fields of study, such as medicine, law or business.
Floyd-Wilson said medical schools have been looking to recruit more liberal arts majors, especially English majors. She told a story about a recent graduate who majored in English and now works as an anesthesiologist. The graduate believes his English major prepared him for medical school more than a science major would have.
“I do think that it’s a major that prepares you for any field, but it’s also a major that prepares you for life,” she said. "This particular opportunity to major in English and Comparative Literature means that they have opened up their world a little bit."
Michele Rivkin-Fish, an anthropology professor, expressed a similar sentiment. Her course, "Comparative Healing Systems," is part of the Science, Medicine and Literature concentration.
“I think that there’s a lot of interest in 'society at large' in science, in understanding science, and the ways in which health and health care involve stories and narratives, so this is really bringing together social change and the direction which society is going in," Rivkin-Fish said.
