The English department encourages its students to complete some portion of their undergraduate study through the University’s Education Abroad Program. English majors can deepen their understanding of British, American, and post-colonial English literature by study in a foreign university and at the same time add an international dimension to their undergraduate education. Because all courses taken through EAP are accepted as UC courses, with careful planning students may spend as much as a year of study in a foreign university with no loss of time in completing their degrees.
The opportunities for enhancing one’s understanding of literature written in English through foreign study are almost boundless:seeing Shakespeare performed in the rebuilt London Globe, visiting the Lake District where Wordsworth and Coleridge wrote their finest poetry, reading Joyce’s Ulysses
in Dublin, discussing American literary texts with British, Australian, or Indian students, or experiencing Coetzee’s South Africa.
English majors who study abroad come to understand that cultural context is crucial for interpreting literary texts, that knowledge is constructed differently in other political and social milieux. Or through immersion in a foreign-language university, they may gain fluency in another language and acquire a sense of its literature while at the same time studying English literature.
English majors find that a term, or better, a year in a foreign university not only enhances their critical and writing skills, but that the experience of adapting to another academic and cultural world expands their self-understanding and gives them a keen sense of the political and social differences in today’s world. The personal and intellectual growth of study abroad provides further advantages when it comes to the challenges of graduate and professional study.
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There are a variety of ways in which English majors can incorporate study abroad into their studies.
Freshmen
It’s best to begin planning as early as possible for study abroad. If you want to begin or continue the study of a foreign language through the short-term language and culture programs, you can apply in your freshman year to go abroad as a sophomore.
Sophomores & Juniors
You can also apply in sophomore year to do a language and culture program in your junior year. But if you want to complete a significant portion of your major studies abroad, you should apply in fall of sophomore year to do your junior year abroad. (See below, “Where should I study abroad?”) Also, students who have completed their lower-division language studies may elect to expand their knowledge of that language through literature classes in a foreign-language
university. Again, such study would typically take place during junior or senior
year. Students doing immersion (full-year) programs in their junior year are advised to complete some portion of their upper-division electives prior to going abroad.
Seniors
If you want to go abroad in your senior year, you should complete all your major
requirements or plan to take courses meeting your remaining requirements while abroad. It is possible to graduate while abroad, but close consultation with an advisor is essential.
Transfer & Graduate students
Both transfer and graduate students are eligible to participate on EAP. For more information, visit the web site.
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If you want to complete a substantial part of your English major abroad, you have a wide variety of options.
Numerous universities within the United Kingdom offer the possibility of study
in English departments in England and Scotland. In the Republic of Ireland another four universities are available. Similar possibilities for study in your major can be found in eight Australian universities, where the academic system follows the British model. Another six universities in New Zealand offer similar possibilities.
If you have a strong interest in post-colonial literature, you should consider study in Barbados, Ghana, South Africa, or India, all of which have university systems modeled on Britain’s. At the University of British Columbia you can study English on the familiar North American model, but with the possibility of studying Canadian literature as well.
If you want to enhance your language skills, consider EAP programs in France, Germany, Italy, or Spain, where you can study their literatures and at the same time take courses in English and American literature. Japanese universities also offer the possibility of melding language study with courses in English literature.
The EAP London semester offers an opportunity for sophomores, juniors, or
seniors to do a limited number of literary courses focused on London while also
taking courses in other disciplines similarly focused on the city. Some general education requirements can be completed through this program.
Programs in Denmark, the Netherlands, and Sweden offer the opportunity for juniors and seniors to do courses in English in British and American literature.
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If you want to do a significant part of your major abroad, you should complete the lower-division preparation for the major and at least some of the upper-division requirements before you go. You should also complete all, or most, of your general education requirements. This way you’ll have maximum flexibility in the courses you do abroad. But it’s possible to substitute classes from many
EAP universities for English department requirements.
If you want to go to a foreign language university, you can count up to eight units of European literature outside of English toward the English major.
The College of Letters and Science requires that at least 20 units for the major must be taken in residence at UCSB. This means that up to 28 units of courses taken abroad through EAP may be applied to the major.
Keep in mind that at least 20 units of upper-division major coursework (or
12 upper-division minor units) must be completed in residence at UCSB along with other residence requirements. Consult an advisor in the College of Letters & Science for more information.
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Begin by identifying your goals for study abroad and then consult the EAP web pages (http://eap.ucop.edu/) to identify appropriate EAP programs. To find programs which offer particular disciplines or to search courses taken by EAP students over the last 5 years by subject, keyword and/or location, explore the resources found under Program and Course Search. Navigate to host universities’ web sites on the available links to learn more about the schools and their departments.
Come by the EAP office at 2431 South Hall. Peer advisors who have recently returned from studying abroad as well as staff advisors are eager to answer your questions.
Talk to Professor Michael O’Connell, departmental EAP advisor (oconnell@english.ucsb.edu), the English undergraduate
advisor, and make an appointment to speak
with an advisor in the College of Letters & Science to discuss general education, residence and other requirements.
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If you go abroad in your junior year, you should strongly consider doing a senior
honors thesis based on the course work and intellectual interests you developed
abroad. This provides an ideal way of integrating your time abroad with the completion of the English major. For requirements for the senior honors thesis, see the Undergraduate English Advisor.
N.B. If you studied a foreign language while abroad, have your proficiency tested immediately upon return.
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Department of English
2607 South Hall
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-3170
Phone: (805) 893-8711
www.english.ucsb.edu
