Photo by Ali Meizels '23. Mount Holyoke's English department must offer a more diverse approach to teaching in the field.
By Jahnavi Pradeep ’23
Opinion Editor
On Nov. 15, 2022, Shana Hansell, the English department coordinator at Mount Holyoke College, sent out an email to students during the then-ongoing Spring 2023 course registration period. Hansell’s email alerted students of five English courses that were still open for the upcoming spring semester. Upon reading the email, I was immediately struck by how all of the listed courses were diverse, multicultural course offerings outside the white-centric Western tradition, out of which three are even cross-listed under the Department of Africana Studies. Subsequent to Hansell’s email, on Nov. 17, 2022, one of the listed courses, ENGL-382-RB “Ruptured Belonging: Postcolonial Literatures of Anglophone Africa and South Asia,” was canceled due to under enrollment.
Hansell’s email on low enrollment in certain courses, accompanied by the ensuing course cancellation, reflects a concerning case of diverse course offerings within the Mount Holyoke College Department of English being sidelined. This Spring 2023 semester registration trend reflects a need for the English department to do better by its diverse course offerings and better institute structures to incorporate the multicultural perspective within the department.
The “multicultural perspectives” requirement at Mount Holyoke is considered a core principle of the College’s undergraduate program. Students are required to take one class that falls under this categorization at some point in their education at the College in order to graduate. The perspective, as outlined by the College, encompasses “the study of some aspects of: the peoples of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East; or peoples of color in Australia, Europe or North America; or peoples in North America whose primary language is other than English.”
However, English as a discipline has often had a problem of being associated with Western, white-centric literature that fails to consider the place of the multicultural as defined by Mount Holyoke. Rebecca Kilroy ’23, one of the liaisons of the English department, spoke more to this point. “When I tell people outside of Mount Holyoke that I’m an English major, they think I must be reading only [William] Shakespeare and Charles Dickens. But there’s a massive scope of study outside the traditional white male canon,” Kilroy said. Herein, multicultural courses prove to fall under the scope that Kilroy discusses. For example, she noted how “postcolonial studies is one of the most quickly expanding subfields” in literature, having herself met numerous Mount Holyoke students interested in pursuing it for postgraduate school. Kilroy discussed how this only increases the importance of diverse classes at our college, as a “more diverse English department will prepare students to enter an increasingly diverse field.”
However, Mount Holyoke’s English department still has progress to make to reach this goal. Kilroy is not alone in encountering sentiment that views English as a white-centric discipline. Lydia Lanning ’23 discussed how they have experienced this feeling at Mount Holyoke, wherein the College’s English department has a greater access to what they termed as “Anglophone literature by white authors.” For example, in her ENGL-199 “Introduction to the Study of Literature” course, Lanning said she recalls only studying white writers. In my own experience, I have found myself studying a disproportionately larger amount of white-centric literature across time and place as compared to those that might be multicultural. My classes have spanned from multiple American literature courses to Victorian literature to Shakespeare to one global Anglophone literature class.
However, this is not to say that the English department fails to consider multicultural perspectives in course materials. Professors still make efforts to be thoughtful of content covered in classes. For example, my own ENGL-199 “Introduction to the Study of Literature” course, contrary to Lanning’s and taught by a different professor, covered South Asian literature as a part of the curriculum. I also took a class titled ENGL-325 “Victorian Literature and Visual Culture” during Fall 2022 with a similar experience. While the course still focused on traditionally studied writers such as Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll and Arthur Conan Doyle, our professor made sure to incorporate texts pertaining to colonization and other more diverse experiences. While it is clear that professors are making efforts to address the issues within their individual classrooms, it might still be important to consider the multicultural perspective as an integral part of the course structure within the discipline. Leaving the incorporation of diverse material to the discretion of professors may not always do justice to this content and needs better guidance and structuring from the department.
Kylie Gellatly FP ’23, another English liaison, spoke to how the liaisons have all been committed to working together with the department to focus on more diverse course offerings. “Liaisons have met with the department a number of times over the past couple years to address a reconfiguration of requirements, asking specifically for more multicultural perspective credit requirements and geographically non-Western requirements,” said Gellatly.
The English department at Mount Holyoke is aware of this need for more diversity in the department, and has been making more effort to integrate courses outside the white-centric authorship into the discipline. Professor Iyko Day, co-chair of the English department, emphasized how “We currently have faculty of color working across the curriculum, from Medieval and Early Modern literatures to contemporary African American, Latinx, Asian American and global Anglophone literatures.” In line, the department has a more diverse variety of course offerings in the Spring 2023 semester, as reflected in Hansell’s email alone. Associate Professor of English Wesley Yu, while not speaking on behalf of the English department, provided some anecdotal views on this maneuver. He noted how in 2021-2022, there were only three English courses devoted specifically to studying race and ethnicity in the spring, and now in the fall, there are five. However, for the coming Spring 2023 semester, Yu pointed out,“our course offerings on multilingual communities, global Anglophone literature and literatures concentrating on race/ethnicity add up to eight. … These eight are out of 20 courses — excluding multiple sections of 199 and 201 — which means that almost half of our course offerings are devoted specifically to multilingual and critical race/ethnic studies.” Kilroy further elaborated on how the department is looking to include more of these courses through conversing with other departments and having more cross listed courses. “We’ve also been talking about expanding cross-listing with other departments like Africana studies, critical social thought and Latin American studies,” Kilroy explained. Both Yu and Kilroy also noted how while the department wants more cross-listed courses, it is also important to be aware that the Mount Holyoke registrar has final say in this matter. Gellatly nodded toward the efforts of the department, noting how, “I think something that we’re seeing is a transition. I think the department has demonstrated really positive efforts by hiring a lot of new faculty to teach these exact courses.”
A problem still persists, as seen in Hansell’s email chronicling under enrollment for Spring 2023 in more diverse course offerings. Kilroy’s discussion on the importance of postcolonial classes in the English discipline is met with ENGL-382-RB “Ruptured Belonging: Postcolonial Literatures of Anglophone Africa and South Asia,” a course specializing in this very area, getting canceled for the coming semester due to low enrollment. Herein, Spring 2023 echoes a problem of how students are not enrolling in more diverse or cross-listed courses, despite increased offerings. Herein, it becomes essential to restructure the English program to better institute the multicultural perspective as a requirement within the discipline.
Gauri Kaushik ’23 spoke about the restrictive nature of the English major’s structure, “I wish I could take more diverse classes. I really want to take Asian American literature, but it does not fulfill any requirement. So, I can’t do random classes because I still have my requirements to take care of. Maybe that’s my fault, but I need to finish my degree.” Herein, Kaushik suggested that perhaps the structure of the department might benefit from a change. “The English department is more structured based on the time period and I feel like it should be more based in multicultural perspectives, in my opinion,” Kaushik stated.
Lanning and Kilroy both agree that past and current structures of the English department might lend to students’ lack of enrollment in more diverse courses despite demonstrating an interest in having them as part of the English program. Lanning elaborated on the lack of accessibility to many multiculturally diverse courses as a barrier to being able to take them. For one, they noted how many of the courses focused specifically on multiculturalism, as seen in Hansell’s email for example, are higher level, often 300-level, courses that have a prerequisite for taking the course. This immediately eliminates students who may not be English majors or who may be first or second year students from being able to take the course. “I think a lot of it also has to do with the fact that … in first year or sophomore year classes for us are very, very limited,” said Lanning. As per Lanning, these students are instead left with the choice of lower-level courses which are left to the discretion of the professors in deciding what they teach, and course readings are often not available during the time of preliminary registration. This immediately reflects the need for more structural guidance in lower-level classes such as perhaps having a mandatory inclusion of multicultural material within individual courses.
Lanning also elaborated on how 300-level courses focused on multicultural content are often taught by visiting faculty. For Lanning, this echoes how the College has not made it a habit to think about the importance of this perspective in the discipline as “considering the English department is one of the biggest majors on campus, you would think that they would be working to provide more diverse classes.”
Lanning’s observation also directs me to think about how much students are able to engage with diverse materials and professors who specialize in these areas as compared to Western, white-centric materials and specializations. For example, students do not typically work on their honor theses with visiting faculty or have them as their advisors. This automatically puts their specializations at a disadvantaged and decreased access to students.
Yu nodded toward the importance of hiring more inclusively. “Last year, almost all department faculty were on one or another committee to bring two visiting Americanists who teach on topics pertaining to race/critical race; one CFD fellow who teaches African American literature and two multi-year visiting creative writers, both of whom are POC. … All of this adds up to an increase in courses that might be of interest to students, majors and non-majors alike,” he said. In line, Day emphasized how they are“ currently searching for a tenure-track position specializing in African American literature, which will enrich our curriculum even further.”
Working toward making visiting faculty permanent and better integrating diverse courses into the English department can come as a joint result of efforts by the students and department. Kilroy discussed how students might be discouraged from taking diverse courses they have been asking for as the pre-1700s and 1700-1900 requirements preoccupy students’ minds. She called attention to how a change in structure might accommodate students’ desires to engage with these courses. This is something the department and liaisons have been in discussion regarding. As per Kilroy, they are trying to “scale back the time-period requirements and possibly add a multicultural perspective requirements.” This change will be instrumental in creating a space for students to better engage with diverse materials within the department at a more meaningful level and closer to how they might be able to access white centric literature.
At the same time, students must actively push for these changes as well and keep the department in constant check. Kilroy discussed more on how the liaisons are committed to the goal of a more diverse department. For example, they are currently working on creating an anonymous suggestion form for students to be able to provide feedback to the department. It is essential that students make use of these resources and converse with the department. Through dialogue and joint effort, the English department can work toward its goal of a more diverse English program that reflects the well rounded liberal arts education that Mount Holyoke champions.