Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

University of Miami English & Creative Writing Department @umiamienglish.bsky.social · Mar 17

Fall registration is around the corner! We are here to celebrate your freedom to read, write, and think.

Discover...
Imagine...
You...

in English and Creative Writing!

A sign promoting the English & Creative Writing Department at the University of Miami planted in a patch of grass in front of a large banyan tree, a piece of public sculpture, and the main administration building of the university that also houses the humanities departments at UM. The sign reads "Discover...Imagine...You...in English & Creative Writing / Authors / Scholars / Readers / Dreamers / Makers"

A good-looking South Asian man wearing a blue t-shirt that reads "FREADOM" stands next to a sign promoting the English & Creative Writing Department at the University of Miami, with the university's signature "U" sculpture visible behind his right shoulder and a banner celebrating the university's centenary in the right background. The sign reads "Your New Favorite Class // English & Creative Writing / Enrolling Now" with a QR code that links to the course descriptions of next semester's ENG classes.

A sign promoting the English & Creative Writing Department at the University of Miami in the foreground, with grass, palm trees, and a series of banners behind. The sign reads "Diverse..Inclusive...You...Discover Minority Writers, LGBTQ+ Fiction & Film, Women's Literature, & So Much More // Investigate Issues of Race, Gender, Sexuality, Ability, & Class // Feel Free to Tell Your Story"

A sign promoting the English & Creative Writing Department at the University of Miami in the foreground, with grass, palm trees, and banner behind. The sign reads "Electives for Dreamers... Discover Yourself in Writing // Imagine Your Next Great Story // Your New Favorite Class Enrolling Now". The banner behind reads "The Future is U".

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University of Miami English & Creative Writing Department @umiamienglish.bsky.social · Mar 7

Updated starter pack of English & Creative Writing departments and programs, now that we are officially an English & Creative Writing Department.

Please share and let us know of others who should be added!

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University of Miami English & Creative Writing Department @umiamienglish.bsky.social · Feb 17

Last year, faculty members voted to change our name to the Department of English & Creative Writing: more inclusive, better reflects our teaching, creative work, & research.

This vote has now been ratified by the University. We are now officially the Department of English & Creative Writing!!

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University of Miami English & Creative Writing Department @umiamienglish.bsky.social · Feb 17

Congratulations to our distinguished department chair @jaswinderbolina.bsky.social, winner of the 2025 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, one of the most distinguished and valuable ($100,000!) prizes for poetry in the Anglophone world. Jaswinder won for his 4th book of poems, English as a Second Language.

Tufts Poetry Award Winners Reflect on Poetry, Identity, and the American Landscape |

Poetry has always played a vital role in defining and challenging the zeitgeist. In today’s cultural and political moment — where constructive dialogue can feel fractured and elusive — poetry […]

www.cgu.edu

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University of Miami English & Creative Writing Department @umiamienglish.bsky.social · Jan 17

Come and find out how English majors can thrive in medical school!

A workshop for undergraduate humanities majors considering applying to medical school, featuring UM English alumni who have pursued that track and our colleague Dr. Gauri Agarwal from the UM Miller School of Medicine. Wed. Jan. 22!

A flyer for a workshop offered at the University of Miami on January 22 "From English to Medical School: A workshop for English and Creative Writing undergraduate students considering applying to medical school".

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University of Miami English & Creative Writing Department @umiamienglish.bsky.social · Dec 4

Considering a master's degree in English? Here is a list of US/Canadian programs with full or partial funding for master's students!

This list was put together a few years ago by Jennifer Doyle (UC Riverside) & V21 Collective. Check the program websites directly for their current funding status.

MAs in English w Funding

docs.google.com

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University of Miami English & Creative Writing Department @umiamienglish.bsky.social · Nov 27

Victoria Chen understands the assignment. A Georgetown business major/English minor, Ms. Chen wrote to the New York Times: "To employers in business fields & beyond, if you want employees who excel at thinking, if you want employees who can pay attention for long periods, hire a humanities major."

Photograph of a portion of the letters to the editor page of the print edition of the New York Times, November 21, 2024, with a letter from a Georgetown undergraduate student highlighted. The letter reads:

To the Editor:

The humanities have a huge marketing problem. Studying English is just as much a practical degree as business. As a senior with a business major and an English minor, I’m tired of hearing that English is about “pleasure.”

Enjoyment is part of it, but in a world where college has become vocational training, of course the image of English students luxuriating in fiction makes it seem like a waste of time. But that’s simply inaccurate.

The humanities are about thinking. Both students and employers need to wake up. At a time when elite college students can’t read entire books, humanities students are becoming more valuable than ever.

Humanities students are experts in “dealing with ambiguity,” a common phrase in management consulting job descriptions, and in focusing on one task for an extended period.

In my English senior seminar class, we read a book a week. It took me and my classmates 10 hours to read “Sister Carrie,” by Theodore Dreiser — 10 hours of undivided attention. That’s not including supplementary readings.

To employers in business fields and beyond, if you want employees who excel at thinking, if you want employees who can pay attention for long periods, hire a humanities major.

Victoria Chen
Washington
The writer is a senior at Georgetown University.

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University of Miami English & Creative Writing Department @umiamienglish.bsky.social · Nov 22

Read trans literature and discuss how trans and gender-diverse people are represented in the US and globally. Take Professor Munro's Transgender Identity class in the spring, cross-listed between English and Gender and Sexuality Studies!

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University of Miami English & Creative Writing Department @umiamienglish.bsky.social · Nov 20

Undergraduate students: Do you want to stand out in your medical school applications? Are you interested in the relationship between the mind and the body? Do you wonder why medieval knights could die of lovesickness but now we can't?

Take Dr. Nikolsky's Medieval Mental Health class next semester!

A course flyer for Medieval Mental Health, an undergraduate class cross-listed between English and Global Health Studies at the University of Miami in Spring 2025, taught by Dr. Noa Nikolsky. An image on the flyer shows medieval health professionals examining the heads of people with medieval medical instruments.

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University of Miami English & Creative Writing Department @umiamienglish.bsky.social · Nov 18

A starter pack for English and Creative Writing departments and programs—let us know if you want to be added (or removed)!

We hope to add new accounts now that higher ed Bluesky is growing quickly!

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University of Miami English & Creative Writing Department @umiamienglish.bsky.social · Nov 18

Dr. Saporiti's talk and performance took place in UM Libraries Kislak Center special collections reading room, a wonderful and appropriate space for the event, given the archival research that went in to the songs, and given UM Libraries ongoing work to bring people in to special collections.

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University of Miami English & Creative Writing Department @umiamienglish.bsky.social · Nov 18

Dr. Saporiti was invited as part of our creative writing MFA program's "Beyond the Book" series. Public humanities work takes many forms! Check out "The Best God Damn Band in Wyoming," his song about a big band formed by Japanese Americans held in a WW2 incarceration camp in Heart Mountain, WY.

No-No Boy - "The Best God Damn Band in Wyoming" [Official Music Video]

YouTube video by Smithsonian Folkways

www.youtube.com

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University of Miami English & Creative Writing Department @umiamienglish.bsky.social · Nov 18

On Friday we were thrilled to host the amazing scholar and musician Julian Saporiti. He talked about his No-No Boy project recovering Asian American musical traditions and he performed some of the songs that he wrote to tell that history in a brilliantly engaging format.

Julian Saporiti performing his song "The Best Goddamned Band in Wyoming" in the Kislak Center of University of Miami Libraries on Friday November 15, 2024, sitting on a chair strumming an acoustic guitar, with an image of the George Igawa Orchestra, a swing band formed by incarcerated Japanese Americans in Heart Mountain, Wyoming in the early 1940s, projected on a large screen behind him.

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