Dear friends and donors,
You know that stories matter. They shape the ways we see our world. They open doors into the lives of strangers. And they help us develop that sense of purpose and possibility that help us fashion our own life course.
As faculty in the Department of English Language and Literature, we seek every day to inspire in our students a sense of awe at the power of narrative, a delight in the magic of metaphor, and a healthy respect for the role that language, in all its artfulness and imperfection, plays in the rendering of shared experience. We also strive to cultivate in our students a passion for communication, persuasive speaking and writing, and critical thinking, which we hope will serve them well in their years to come.
As we now enter a world with the effects of the pandemic behind us, we cannot leave behind the department’s commitment to actively engage in anti-racist and genuinely non-discriminatory practices (on all counts—gender, race, ability, ethnicity, age, national origin, and others) to build structures that are even more resilient to face the challenges that are yet to come. Some of the recent decisions rendered by the US Supreme Court are at odds with what we in the department and at the university believe are in the best interests of us as a department and our increasingly diverse and talented student body. As a result, we are increasingly turning to the humanities and its supporters to help us overcome these many new challenges.
Despite the increasing relevance of the humanities in our times, public support for the humanities continues to be lackluster. As such, we rely all the more on the largess of friends to help students make meaningful connections between their classroom training and life goals. I hope that you will consider supporting us in our venture by making a gift to the English Language and Literature Strategic Fund.
We encourage you to find your own part to play in our collective story. Join us in its telling on our website.
Sincerely,
Gaurav Desai (he/him/his)
Frederick G. L. Huetwell Professor and Department Chair
Department of English Language and Literature
