English Department Honors
English Honors is a flexible program designed to offer interested and motivated English majors the chance to earn the English honors designation on their transcripts by participating in innovative seminars and working with a faculty mentor in the writing of an original thesis. English and English education majors with a 3.5 gpa or higher in their English courses are invited by the English Department Honors Director to participate in the program. Most students need to have completed 45 credit hours in order to be invited.
The program requires three 3-credit courses: two seminars (ENG 396) and a thesis (ENG 497). The seminars are unique courses, limited in enrollment, designed by faculty around especially engaging questions, topics, and texts. Some are interdisciplinary; some involve both critical and creative writing; others are organized around a particular period, theme, critical approach, or major writer. Typically one English honors seminar is offered each semester. The honors thesis is a long paper, written on a topic of the student’s own choosing under the direction of a faculty mentor, the culmination of a semester’s reading, researching, and writing.
Please contact Jennifer Desiderio, PhD, the current director of the English Department Honors Program (Churchill Tower 907, x2681, desider1@canisius.edu) for more information.
Recent Honors Seminars:
Spring 2008
Woolf and Her Readers
Jane Fisher, PhD
Fall 2008
Rise of the American Novel
Jen Desiderio, PhD
Spring 2009
Verbal and Visual Blake
Rita Capezzi, PhD
Fall 2009
American Autobiography
Bob Butler, PhD
Spring 2010
Yeats
Rev. Jim Pribek and Mel Schroeder
Fall 2010
Dostoevsky
Sandra Cookson, PhD
Spring 2011
Narratives of Illness and Disease
Jane Fisher, PhD
Fall 2011
Early Modern Women Writers
Rachel Greenberg, PhD
Spring 2012
Innocents Abroad: Americans in London
Roger Stephenson, PhD
Fall 2012
Crime Fiction
Jean Gregorek, PhD
Spring 2013
Monsters in Medieval and Early Modern England
Lindsey Row-Heyveld, PhD
Fall 2013
Dostoevsky
Sandra Cookson, PhD
Spring 2014
Ulysses
Rev. Jim Pribek
Recent Honors Theses:
Bieron, Joseph. "From Tom Sawyer to Satan: Mark Twain's Development as a Writer." (Spring 2011) Dir. by Bob Butler, PhD
Golebiewski, Teresa. "The Truth Behind Inclusion: Examining the Ongoing Struggle of Students with Learning Disabilities." (Fall 2009) Dir. by Betsy Dellebovi, PhD
Lyszewski, Aletha. "The Textual Captivity of the Female Author Figure." (Spring 2007) Dir. by Jen Desiderio, PhD
Marrese, Alicia. "A Feminist Approach to Marriage: An Evaluation of Jane Austen's Feminist Characters." (Spring 2011) Dir. by Rev. James Pribek
Pontillo, Jason. "The Evolution from Nihilism to Existentialism in the Novels of Kurt Vonnegut." (Spring 2009) Dir. by Robert Butler, PhD