English Overview

Housed in South Hall, UC Santa Barbara’s English Department is a national leader in the study of Literature and the Environment (also known as ecocriticism and “green” criticism). What makes us unique is that, with a range of faculty members doing diverse though often interconnected research, we have seamless, strong coverage in ecocritical coursework from the early Renaissance through the 21st century.  Moreover, we explore environmental issues from British, American, and Global perspectives, using a host of methodological approaches, with such emphases as non-human/human relations, environmental and social justice within a global rather than national context, and the political impact of institutions, networks, and regimes on bodies and the biosphere. Such diversity has allowed students to take courses as varied as “American Romanticism and Environmental Imagination,” “Postcolonial and Global Ecological Imaginations,” “Milton and Ecology,” “Natural Representations: Wordsworth, Dickinson, Bishop,” and “Animal Theory.”