For English Majors, as you well know, words matter.
Several years ago members of our program brainstormed an identity that we could present to our students as a cohesive image or concept that captured the sense of what we hoped to offer our students. Beautiful natural scenery?
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Open “frontier and remote” area with lots of space between town and peoples.
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Small, isolated town with not a whole lot going on beyond those hallowed halls of the college, where multiple experiences and knowledges existed
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“Get Outside Yourself” became our rallying cry. We developed new courses based upon this theme (Literature of the West, Literature Across Borders, Literature of the Environment, Philosophy and Literature, Gender and Literature). We made field trips with students to various “outside” type places. We crafted a vision statement that governed our approach.
Now, it is time come INSIDE for a bit, and approach our program with fresh eyes. Our department has grown and consolidated since then. Half our department retired, and several new professors joined us. The interests and approaches of our students (and English programs) has also shifted over the years, especially in this digital media landscape.
It is time for a new name-recognition for English and Humanities at Chadron State College. Don’t worry, we still want you to “Get Outside Yourself.” The courses created for that scheme remain, and others have been added: FYI “Home on the Range,” and “Learning to Serve,” for example—and the CAP course “Outside: Yourself in the World.” The former “outside yourself” brand and social media will persist, now under the direction of Dr. Evertson and any others who are interested in developing the Environmental Humanities at Chadron State College. (Here is a link to our former blog site and home for these new efforts: https://outsideyourself.wordpress.com)
But the identity of our program and our marketing strategies and all of that will be changing this academic year.
What is the story of our new theme?
Because we believe our majors and minors will be following all sorts of interesting creative and personalized paths, our new department theme is FIND YOUR STORY.
Here is a brief handout promoting this idea: FIND YOUR STORY FLYER
Over the next several weeks, Faculty and Students in the English and Humanities Program will be sharing blog entries that help to illustrate all the different paths you might choose to FIND YOUR STORY at CSC, including:
- Reading
- Writing
- Teaching
- Thinking
- Environmental Humanities
- Undeclared (open) pathway!
- The Social Media Landscape
- AND OTHERS…
Chadron State College English 