Indiana University. Dept. of English

While English classes at IU date back to 1829, it was not until the 1840s that the department began to specialize in classical languages and literatures. In 1861, department chair Henry Bascom Hibbens left to join the Union Army, and the department lacked a central figure until 1868 when George Washington Hoss became the new chairman. Hoss made some significant changes, most notably adding English to the catalogue as an elective (it would not be until 1880 that Chairman Orrin Benner Clark listed courses in the catalogue under the heading “Department of English.”) In addition to expanding the curriculum, Clark introduced a written exercise for all IU students and placed an emphasis on literature. Seven years later, in 1887, the department awarded its first M.A. degree.

In the late 1890s and early 1900s, Clark’s successor Martin Wright Sampson expanded the emphasis on literature to include literary history and critical study. Sampson also turned his attention to high schools and raised awareness that incoming freshman needed established writing and literary skills to succeed at IU.

By 1899, the English Department contained eight of the university’s seventy-one faculty members. In 1908, the department offered its first graduate courses, and six years later it granted its first Ph.D. to Lillian B. Brownsfield (ten years later, Sister Gertrude Smith would receive the second Ph.D. awarded by the department). In 1920, following the resignation of numerous faculty and staff members, the English Department took on a new face as a younger generation of teachers entered the department and by 1921 it had expanded to 24 faculty members. For the next twenty-five years, while the department continued to grow, it experienced a period of relative stability while focusing on the teaching of composition and literary history.

Though the English Department experienced a slight reduction of students during World War II, the department reasserted itself after the war, under the chairmanship of James A. Work (1951-1961), by establishing a variety of outreach programs, such as the Writing Laboratory and a Poetry Series sponsored by Indiana University Press. By revising the undergraduate and honors programs in 1953, Work helped gain national recognition for the department. The graduate program was revised in 1961. In the 1960s the department implemented other programs, such as an English language program for undergraduates in 1966 and a guest speaker seminar series in 1968. In the 1970s, the English Department added a Comparative Literature Program.

Currently, the English Department has approximately 60 faculty members, 200 graduate students, and 500 undergraduate majors.

From the guide to the Indiana University Dept. of English records, 1886-1990, bulk 1940-1960, (Indiana University Office of University Archives and Records Management http://www.libraries.iub.edu/archives)