Our program excels at offering students individualized attention and development. Students come to know our faculty and work closely with them on individual projects. We emphasize research skills as part of writing projects assigned across an array of classes and work to nurture students in their development of these skills. In classes such as "Advanced Research" and capstone courses students have developed sophisticated, public-facing projects that transform complex research questions into reader-friendly online engagements. In "Secret Pittsburgh" students contribute to an ongoing guidebook about the city developed in that course.
What sets us apart?
- Our Literature major allows students to tailor their coursework to particular cross-curricular interests, including environmental issues, cultural diversity, or children's literature.
- Our students receive intensive individual mentoring as they pursue signature projects in seminars, independent study courses, and independent research courses.
- Students are invited to build their skills in a range of hybrid critical/creative practices in courses such as Literary Field Studies, Making the Book, and Critical Making. Students might do a 3D printing project in the Vibrant Media Lab, complete archival research and critical fabulation with Pitt’s department of Archives and Special Collections, use the department’s proof press to print a line of poetry, make posters and books in the Text and Context Lab, map social networks, or rewrite scenes from Shakespeare.
- Our annual Undergraduate Literature Conference offers students a valued forum for presenting individual projects and papers in a supportive developmental atmosphere.
- Literature students are invited to join our faculty members who regularly support and participate in Pitt Study Abroad courses. Among others, these programs include Pitt in London, Pitt in Edinburgh, Pitt in Prague, Pitt in Sydney, and Pitt in York.
- Literature students participate in the English Department's active and lively internship program.
We’re also co-creators of the Digital Narrative and Interactive Design major (DNID), which harnesses the narrative, world-building, and media studies strengths of the English department and the coding, software development, and human computer interface strengths of the School of Computing and Information. This new major draws upon existing initiatives in game design at SCI and critical game studies, making, and media production within the English department. Students will learn how to build interactive narrative systems such as games, interactive literature, virtual reality environments and other interactive media experiences in a variety of fields.
To learn more, visit My Dietrich School Story.