"Blink": Over the years

 

A Meeting At Crossroads: When English Meets The Interdisciplinary.

There is a strange and narrow-minded misconception that the bearer of an English degree steps out of University with the knowledge and abilities privy to exceptional writers and English speakers. The bearer of an English degree supposedly walks down a path that sharply forks into either ‘teacher’ or ‘writer’, and some others question English students as to what they can do at all with their degree. As an English undergraduate, the number of times I have been asked these questions are too many, and I grit my teeth and bite my tongue instead of replying with the saying, ‘ignorance is bliss’! I believe that this misconception stems from the widely accepted belief that an English degree comprises of courses that delve only into language, grammar, writing, literature and poetry, which cannot hold a candle (or even the very idea of one), to the STEM subjects. Of course this is part and parcel of the package that is an English degree but does our journey end there? The Department of English at the University of Kelaniya offers a journey that not only comprises of the primary expectations or courses of an English degree but goes beyond these ordinary frameworks, into the territory of the interdisciplinary.

At the core of the English degree programme offered at the University of Kelaniya is the need to equip students with additional abilities and knowledge that would act as a foundation, need the student desire to navigate into varying professions. As an example, the course Fundamentals in Professional Writing Genres teaches students to design campaigns, blog articles, newspaper articles, creative non-fiction articles, press releases etc; hence venturing into the marketing and media professions. This course is also geared towards teaching students the ways in which to write appropriately for different platforms and mediums as opposed to adhering only to the familiar waters of academic writing encouraged throughout the degree programme. This novel experience breaks the mould whose gatekeepers are Chaucer or Shakespeare (two very popular and involuntary masters of English that many think all English students must revere and hail dutifully). Equipping students with such knowledge and skills offers them a wider pool of job opportunities that go beyond teaching and writing. 

Apart from the aforementioned course, the Literary Pedagogy course is another apt example that
denotes the interdisciplinary approach taken by the department. This course aims to critically engage students to consider topics such as the English literary canon in all its monotony and how it can be challenged, theories that discuss the mechanical nature of the educational system (cue Pink Floyd’s Another Brick In The Wall), but also about syllabus designing and theories such as Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence which vouches for the existence of more than one kind of intelligence. This provides an understanding of approaching teaching and students in a manner that enhances the teaching/learning experience. Thus, undergraduates who venture into the teaching profession would not only have an understanding of how a syllabus can be designed creatively, but also learn about creating an inclusive classroom in which learning becomes a process that a student and teacher partake in equally. Additionally, the department’s student oriented classrooms encourage all to debate, question and argue independent opinions hence cultivating self-confidence and tolerance of different perspectives. This enables undergraduates to hone their self-motivation with the encouragement to take charge of the material that is being taught within the classroom. 

The dissertations that students produce at the end of this four year journey are encouraged to encompass the ethos of the interdisciplinary approach that is fast becoming a part of the department’s identity. Therefore, dissertations are not the typical research paper expected of an English degree student which is confined to analyzing literary texts alone, but those that weave into and in between different disciplines. The English Department emphasizes that a text, is not only a novel because anything can be a text! Hence, some may be baffled and scratch their heads in an attempt to understand why an English undergraduate is delving into texts such as film and television series, K-Pop, Psychology, Feminist Studies, Women’s Studies, Advertising, Language Teaching, Sri Lankan Literature, Diaspora Studies, Critical Theories, Theatre and Performance Studies, Disability Studies, Postcolonial Literature and Orientalism amongst other topics instead of standing by our good old ally, Shakespeare. This is how this interdisciplinary degree shatters all preconceived notions of English students’ choiceless choices of choosing between teaching and writing by equipping undergraduates with knowledge and skills that are transferable to other disciplines and vocations. Stepping out of the department and the university are our graduates which include and are not limited to writers and teachers alone, but also to social activists, journalists, members of the Foreign Service and even the world of advertising. In short, the interdisciplinary nature of the English degree is one that moulds students’ learning process into creating personalities that are encouraged to become active and radical agents in the larger concerns of society.

- Nipuni Halkavidane