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Campus Feature

English Major with a difference…

Mahdin Mahboob

The BRAC University Department of English and Humanities, or ENH in short, stands apart from the general trend of Major programme in English in our country in many different ways.

First and foremost, comes its adaptation of the Liberal Arts style which allows students to have a varied range of knowledge which eventually helps the students better adapt them in the job market in the long run. Other than the regular literature and linguistics subjects, students might opt for many different courses ranging from Business, Law, Economics and even Computer Science courses. As a result, students can get a wide exposure to different fields and thus not limit themselves to Literature and Language only.

The Chairperson, Dr. Firdous Azim, a prominent figure in English teaching in Bangladesh has talked about the various aspects of the department and its prospects.

A student of this department has to do his/her major in English by undertaking either of any of the three following streams of courses or a combination of two of these:
1. Literature
2. ELT (English Language and Training)
3. Media and Cultural Studies.

General literature courses include diverse topics such as Feminism, Post-Colonial Literature, Post-Modernism and many others.

Other than that, students can also do minors in Business, Economics, Law or Computer Science. There are students in this department who are doing double majors as well!

This department has always acknowledged the importance of extra-curricular activities for the proper, complete education of students and has acted accordingly. Other than playing an active role in the Drama, Cultural and Debate Club of the university, it has organized regular sessions of poetry recitals, cultural programs of its own and seminars about different topics. The drama 'When Shakespeare's Ladies Meet' held in April this year to mark the 442nd Birth Anniversary of William Shakespeare was a huge success. 'Is English a neutral beneficial and pragmatic language?', held on 26th july,2006 was the latest of the many seminars organized by this Department. A recent field trip to 'Biswa Bharati, Shantiniketan ' by the students and the faculty members helped the students further enrich their knowledge about Bengali Culture.

As seen elsewhere as well, the English department has always been accused of being very female-dominant amongst both the students and faculty members. When asked as to what might be the possible reason behind this unresolved mystery, one of the faculty members jokingly replied “This is our way of promoting Women's Rights in Society”.

Contrary to popular belief that people who study English end up being teachers only, students who have completed their undergrad courses here have joined diverse field of careers including marketing and journalism in different esteemed organizations.

The ENH takes pride in the range of innovative courses it offers for its students including subjects like Translation Studies, Media and Cultural Studies, Undergraduate thesis writing and Edition and Copywriting. Any student with a fair amount of interest in English has the potential to do well in this major irrespective of their backgrounds, that is, whether they had English Literature in their pre-university level studies or not.

In accordance with its growing number of different success stories, the ENH is starting up its 'Masters in English' program from the Fall Semester this year.

This is what Naufela and Tamara, two proud first year students of this discipline have to say about their department: “We are very glad we joined BRAC Uni for our undergraduate in English. The department has an outstanding faculty which works around the clock in making the university life a pleasant experience. Their constant source of support and motivation has guided us at every step. We are very grateful to our chairperson Ms. Firdous Azim for offering not only a very structured program, but also a life in the department itself, ranging from a platform for expressing ourselves through magazines and wall articles to dramas and lively recitations.”

The writer is a student of ECE Major of BRAC University.
Email : mahdin.mahboob@gmail.com