About Us

The Department of English at St. Edmund's College is among the oldest Departments in the college. Eminent scholars and thinkers over the years have made seminal contributions to moulding and promoting the Department's objectives of language teaching and the teaching of literary appreciation and research. Besides being the largest department in the Stream of Arts, it is also responsible for imparting instruction to various Streams such as Commerce, Science, Social Work, and Environmental Science where English is a compulsory subject.

Apart from being among the first few Departments to have offered Honours courses, the Department also offers programmes such as Alternative English and Elective English at the different levels of the Under-Graduate Programme.

The Faculty of the Department is well qualified and successfully handles more than 2500 College students. The Department offers a lively and diverse range of lectures, seminars, presentations and discussion groups to enhance the skills of the learners.

It speaks volumes of the quality of the Department that many of its students have gone on to become successful teachers in the College itself. The alumni of this Department have been occupying responsible positions in both State and Central services. Many of the teachers who resigned from their teaching jobs have been in the Civil Services. It is apparent that the seeds of a successful career have been sown in the department itself. A number of Christian Brothers were responsible in giving shape to the Department initially and in building its strong foundations. At present there are eight teachers in the Department.

The Department and the staff are committed to set standards of excellence in the College and are striving hard towards achieving the goal and vision with which this College has been set up.

Apart from the conventional classroom teaching, the Department is also engaged in a number of innovative and challenging courses in English studies and its association with inter-disciplinary intellectual activities with various Faculties. There are lectures by visiting speakers, and regular internal seminars by students.

The Dramatic Society of the Department is instrumental in the production of plays and has been chiefly responsible for the growth of theatre activities in the College. A couple of plays have been staged in these few years and there are plans for regular production of plays in the future.

Beside these, the Department also conducts a Course in Conversational Skills on a regular basis. The aim of such a course is to help the students develop conversational skills that will come in handy in their later years.
The Department also publishes a yearly magazine, Musings regularly. This project is handled entirely by the Honours students under the guidance of the faculty members.