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Why I Chose to Study English and What I Have Learned
To me, it seemed that writing was magical, borderless; writers had the power to transcend history and reach across different nations, affecting a multitude of people.
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ESA ELECTIONS 2017-2018: Call for Executives
If you’re looking for a fun opportunity to get involved that looks great on a resume, then have we ever got an offer for you! We are officially seeking executives for next year’s ESA. This is a great way to develop new skills, meet new people, and have an influence on campus. The executive team collaborates to plan everything from ice cream cake socials to The Colloquium, supports initiatives like The Garden Statuary, and connects with students, other clubs, and the department. New ideas are more than welcome, and this is a platform that can help you realize them. What positions are available? We currently elect the following: President, Vice-President, Secretary,…
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Should I Major in English? The Pros and the Cons
This post is for all you baby undeclared Thunderbirds and baby English majors. 2017 marks my final year at UBC and boy, it’s been a ride. A whirlwind of cramming readings, looking up MLA formats, and hitting word counts, to be exact. The first few English courses you’ll take in undergrad are amazing and so very different from high school, with brilliant academics as professors and a high degree of challenge. Upper-year courses are also great—you’re treated with more respect, and the wall between instructor and student crumbles away. At the end of second year, I applied for the Creative Writing program, the English Honours program, and the English Major—Emphasis Literature program.…
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The Bend in the Road: Jobs and Adulting after your BA in English
In case you didn’t know, the Department of English hosted the Brownbag Lunchtime Career Series. You might have been at the popularly-attended first session, where the speaker was Amanda Lewis, who edited for Knopf/Random House. I’m sure most everyone reading this knows that being an editor at a major publishing house sounds like The Dream to an English student, so I’m sure you aren’t surprised that the room was full for Amanda Lewis’ talk. This November, the English department brought in Professor Lindsey Richardson, who works in the Department of Sociology at UBC. If you knew about the event but chose not to attend, it’s probably because you shared my thoughts…
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Not Just Baristas: The Case for an Arts Degree
We all hear the typical comment at some point throughout our degrees, whether it be from a family member or a friend: “Why are you taking Arts? The only job you’ll ever get is that of a Barista.” And while the first 10 or 15 times someone dissed my major I was mildly to extremely offended, eventually I embraced what I’d decided to do with my life. I’ll be honest, throughout my first year, I found it extremely difficult to bond with people in my residence because of my degree. While most people on my floor were in Sciences or Engineering, I was one of the few people in the…
