Department of English

HomeReturn to the Department of English Homepage. About the DepartmentLearn more about the programs, people, and opportunities available in one of the largest and most vibrant departments at GSU. CalendarView a listing of upcoming events in the Department. Graduate ProgramsThe Department offers the M.A.; the M.F.A. in poetry or fiction; the Ph.D. in literary studies, rhetoric and composition, and creative writing; and a joint Ph.D. program in Writing for Mass Audiences. Undergraduate ProgramsThe Department offers concentration for the B.A. in literary studies; rhetoric and composition; creative writing; secondary education; and British and American cultures. Organizations & PublicationsThe Department is home to several organizations as well as the journals Five Points; the South Atlantic Review; Studies in the Literary Imagination; the Journal of Advanced Composition; the GSU Review; and the Eudora Welty Newsletter. PeopleFind out more about the Department's faculty, staff, and alumni: who they are, what they've done, and what they can do for you. Official DocumentsView a list resources pertaining to the department's policies and professional development. Apply OnlineFind out information about how to apply to one of the department's programs of study.

The Eudora Welty Centennial Lecture will be given by Dr. Daniele Pitavy-Souques, internationally recognized Welty scholar from Dijon, France. Dr. Pitavy-Souques is Professor Emeritus from the University of Burgundy and recipient of the Lègion d’honneur Award in 2002 for her work with the French Association of University Women, the International Federation of University Woman as well as with the writings of Eudora Welty and other women. She is the author of four monographs and two dozen essays on Eduora Welty’s work. She directed and co-directed the first two international Eudoar Welty conferences. Her lecture, “’The Inspired Child of her Times’ – Aspects of Eudora Welty as a Twentieth-century Writer” will be held Monday, April 13, 2009, the writer’s actual 100th birthday, in the Speakers Auditorium, Georgia State University, from 4:30-5:30 p.m.

The Centennial Celebration Birthday Party will follow in the Rialto Center for the Arts lobby and mezzanine from 6-8 p.m. There will be Jazz music and refreshments including birthday cakes featured in Welty’s fiction: Aunt Mashula’s coconut cake from Delta Wedding, Mrs. Judge Moody’s chocolate cake from Losing Battles, caramel and Lane cakes; peanuts and Coca-cola (to honor the many, many references to cokes and co-cola in her writing: for example, “Edna Earle, that never did get to be what you’d call a heavy thinker. Edna Earle could sit and ponder all day on how the little tail of the ‘C’ got through the ‘L’ in a Coca-Cola sign” and of course, champagne. Readings from Welty’s works will be given by Atlanta actors extraordinaire Tom Key (Executive Artistic Director of Theatrical Outfit) and Brenda Bynum (theater performer, director, teacher, arts advocate, retired from Emory University Department of Theater Studies. On view from March 30-May 22, 2009, at the Rialto will be more than three dozen Welty photographs including the exhibition Welty that juxtaposes some of Welty’s 1930s era photographs with excerpts from her writing to show the relationship between her source material and her writing from the Museum of Mississippi History, sixteen photographs from the Five Points Welty Portfolio, and additional half dozen photographs by Welty loaned by various Atlanta collectors.