English Department
Welcome to the Department of English at UTEP! Our department is a vibrant and diverse community comprised of more than thirty full-time faculty, dozens of graduate students and lecturers, and four staff members. Our faculty are recognized nationally and internationally for their cutting-edge research in literature, rhetoric and writing studies, education, and cultural studies. Our department is one of the most productive at UTEP in terms of research, and our faculty have won many of the most prestigious awards in their fields, including fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Mellon Foundation, and many others. We offer a number of programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels: bachelor’s programs in Literature and English Education; master’s programs in Literature, Rhetoric and Writing Studies, and English Education; and a PhD program in Rhetoric and Composition. In addition to being active researchers, our faculty are talented instructors who have won multiple teaching awards and whose w have gone on to highly successful careers in a wide range of fields. I encourage you to browse our courses and programs and take advantage of what our department has to offer.
Joe Ortiz
Chair, Department of English
NEWS
Recent Publications
Dr. Brad Jacobson’s article “Social Positioning and Learning Opportunities in One Student’s Textual Transition to College Writing” was published in Written Communication, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 290-318.
Dr. Andrew Fleck published an article, “The City-Sin: Collective Responsibility for the Plague in Early Modern London,” in the Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association (JMMLA).
Dr. Oishani Sengupta published an article, “The Brown Adventure Romance: Chander Pahar and the Management of Racial Capital,” in Verge Studies in Global Asias 10.1 (Spring 2024 issue).
Recent Presentations
Dr. Brad Jacobson, Dr. Christina Saidy (Arizona State), and Dr. Jessica Rivera-Mueller (Utah State) co-led a 3-day workshop entitled “(Re)Building Connections and Collaborations Across High School and College Writing Contexts” as part of the virtual portion of the 2024 Thomas R. Watson Conference in Rhetoric and Composition from Feb 28-Mar 1.
Dr. Andy Fleck presented a paper, “‘A man of No Meane Mark, not to be slighted’: England’s First Grotius; The Prodigy in Massinger and Fletcher’s Barnavelt,” at the Renaissance Society of America’s annual conference in Chicago on March 23.
Dr. Joe Ortiz presented a paper, “Singing/Translating Pastoral in Early Modern England,” at the Renaissance Society of America’s annual conference in Chicago on March 23.
Awards & Appointments
Dr. Oishani Sengupta was awarded a fellowship to join the Andrew Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography (SoFCB). Conducted by Rare Book School at the University of Virginia, the fellowship supports tuition for Rare Book School courses and provides funds to promote engagement with primary materials at the home institution.
Dr. Andy Fleck was awarded a Faculty Development Award for the Spring 2025 semester.
Dr. Fleck’s petition to create an HSI Special Interest Group at the National Collegiate Honors Council was approved; he will be the founding chair of that group at the Fall 2024 meeting of NCHC.
Purna Bhusal was selected as one of eleven recipients of the 2024 Scholars for the Dream Travel Awards from the Conferendce on College Composition & Communication (CCCC).
Jacob Pineda (MAT student) has been invited to serve on the secondary educators’ committee for the West Texas Reading Symposium.
