Research

More than 40 faculty members in English pursue research projects and creative work that spans the full range of contemporary “English studies.”  These areas of expertise include Literature (American, British, Postcolonial, and World Literatures written in English), Rhetoric and Composition, Creative Writing, English Education, English Language and Linguistics, as well as Theory and Cultural Studies. 

The high quality of faculty in the department is noteworthy.  Three faculty members hold Distinguished Professorships: Victor Raskin, Retired Distinguished Professor of English and Linguistics, Arkady Plotnitsky, Distinguished Professor of English and Interdisciplinary Studies, and John Duvall, the Margaret Church Distinguished Professor of English.  In recent years, several faculty members have been the recipients of national, external grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fulbright scholars program, the National Science Foundation, and the Gates Foundation. 

Faculty members in English contribute significantly to the intellectual life and research mission of Purdue.  Two major scholarly journals are edited by faculty members in English: Modern Fiction Studies (Ed. Robert Marzec) and Arthuriana (Ed. Dorsey Armstrong).  Professor Dino Felluga, is an executive committee member of NAVSA, which oversees the publication of digital archives and manuscripts related to the study of 19th century British literature and culture. Department of English faculty publish books, edited collections, textbooks, as well as a substantial number of refereed journal articles, book chapters, and other publications. 

Faculty members in English are strongly committed to interdisciplinary research.  In fact, English faculty serve on most of the interdisciplinary programs in the College of Liberal Arts, including African American Studies, American Studies, Asian American Studies, Comparative Literature, Film and Video Studies, Jewish Studies, Latino and Latin American Studies, Linguistics, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, and Women's Studies.