Carnegie Mellon University

Academic Programs

The Department of English promotes the profound value of writing, reading, and humanistic inquiry.  With over 100 years of history at Carnegie Mellon, English is inspired by tradition and dedicated to innovation.  Find more about each specific English program below.

Undergraduate Programs

FYW instructor pointing

Writing & Communication

All CMU students are required to take First-Year Writing. In addition to original courses helping students develop writing and communication knowledge, our W&C faculty also produce award-winning research and tools in this area, across diverse academic and professional contexts.


Learn more about Writing & Communication

Creative Writing

Creative Writing

CMU's English Department is one of a small number of Departments nationwide to offer a major in Creative Writing. The Creative Writing program spans fiction, poetry, screenwriting, and creative nonfiction.

Offering: Major (B.A.), Additional Major, Minor

Learn more about Creative Writing

Film and Visual Media

Film & Visual Media

CMU's Department of English is an ideal home for the university's Film and Visual Media program: The program offers a combination of creative writing, film and media studies, filmmaking expertise, digital humanities, and visual communication research.

Offering: Major (B.A.), Additional Major, Minor

Learn more about Film & Visual Media

Literature & Culture

Literature & Culture

The Literature and Culture major explores and produces research on the importance of understanding imaginative works within their cultural and historical contexts. 

Offering: Major (B.A.), Additional Major, Minor

Learn more about Literature & Culture

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Professional Writing

Professional Writing explores best practices in communication across sectors, document design, and conveying information between multiple stakeholders in a shifting, globalized economy.

Offering: Major (B.A.), Additional Major, Minor

Learn more about Professional Writing

Danielle Wetzel teaching

Technical Writing

Technical Writing offers English's only Bachelor of Science degree. This area blends writing, document design, and user experience methods with additional work in computer science, mathematics, and statistics.

Offering: Major (B.S.), Additional Major, Minor

Learn more about Technical Writing

Six degrees of Francis Bacon graphic

Humanities Analytics

Humanities Analytics (HumAn) is the discipline in CMU English dedicated to analyzing, digitizing, questioning, quantifying, and visualizing different types of humanities and cultural phenomena: including printed books, fan fiction, manuscripts, historical records, art, music, and film. 

Offering: Minor

Learn more about Humanities Analytics

Grand Challenge Seminar on Me Too Movement

Gender Studies

Gender Studies is an interdisciplinary field that investigates how gender is embedded in social, cultural, and political relationships. This work understands gender as a category of power that intersects with other power relations, including race, class, and sexuality.

Offering: Minor

Learn more about Gender Studies

Masters Programs

MA-GCAT

Master of Arts in Global Communication & Applied Translation

A partnership between the Departments of English and Modern Languages, the GCAT M.A. program's work focuses on principles and practices of professional translation, localization, and global communication. 

Learn more about M.A. Global Communication & Applied Translation

Invisible Man

Master of Arts in Literary & Cultural Studies

The M.A. in LCS concerns the fields of performance studies, the history of books and reading, Shakespeare and early modern media, contemporary literatures both American and global, modern media studies, black studies, and more. 

Learn more about M.A. Literary & Cultural Studies

Students collaborating

Master of Arts in Professional Writing

The M.A. in Professional Writing (MAPW) explores best practices in communication across sectors, document design, and conveying information between multiple stakeholders in a shifting, globalized economy.

Learn more about M.A. Professional Writing

John Oddo at CMUthink event

Master of Arts in Rhetoric

The M.A. in Rhetoric explores current theory, history, and field-leading pedagogical practices of rhetoric, as well as produces unique work from specialized analytic methods, both qualitative and quantitative.

Learn more about M.A. Rhetoric

Ph.D. Programs

Frankenstein text

Ph.D. in Literary & Cultural Studies

The Ph.D. in LCS explores and produces research on the importance of understanding imaginative works within their cultural and historical contexts. 

Learn more about Ph.D. Literary & Cultural Studies

Reverb podcast recording

Ph.D. in Rhetoric

The Rhetoric Ph.D. approaches the field through three areas: (1) Civic, Political, and Public Engagement; (2) Corpus-based Writing Pedagogy Across the Disciplines; and (3) Digital Tools & New Media. 

Learn more about Ph.D. Rhetoric