Carnegie Mellon English Department

08/24/2026

Mark your calendars! Our department’s Center for Print, Networks, and Performance is pleased to host the 49th annual Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference, from Oct 15-17, 2026.

The call for papers is now open. We especially welcome papers and roundtables that address this year’s theme of “Shakespeare and Technology.” We will be interpreting the theme broadly, inviting papers on Shakespeare studies and performances in today’s technological landscape, as well as work that concentrates on technologies of the early modern period. We are happy to consider presentations addressing non-Shakespearean early modern literature, pedagogical methods, and more.

The conference is also open to scholars at all levels, including graduate students for regular sessions and undergraduate students for roundtable seminars. Graduate students and undergraduate students are encouraged to submit papers for the M. Rick Smith Memorial Prize and the Julia R. Lupton Graduate Prize.

We are pleased to be welcoming as speakers Alan B. Farmer (The Ohio State University), co-creator of DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks, and Samuel Lemley (Carnegie Mellon University), Curator of Special Collections, CMU Libraries.

Please submit 200-300-word abstracts by September 10 to [email protected] and [email protected].

08/24/2026

We're thrilled to welcome new and returning students to campus for the start of another academic year! Read about some of the students studying in our department as part of this year's cohort of Dietrich Scholars:

Meet the new cohort of Dietrich College Scholars at CMU.

08/06/2026

From the campus community to the wider world, read the latest edition of our Alumni Newsletter for all the news from our department! https://mailchi.mp/a992a6083b1e/winter2026newsletter-6444997

07/22/2026

"The philosopher’s stone, desired by alchemists for its mythic ability to transmute lead into gold, was once in Philadelphia. Johannes Kelpius—mystic, monastic, and magician—supposedly came into possession of said stone shortly before his death in 1708. But rather than letting it be acquired by less reputable occultists, he dispatched a confidant to throw it from Germantown’s banks deep into the water of the Wissahickon Creek or the Schuylkill, depending on which account you believe."

Lecturer Ed Simon published "Charles Brockden Brown Declares Independence" this week at the The Paris Review. Read it here:

July 20, 2026 – Frequently claimed to be the first novel published in the United States, the book begins with a religious iconoclast who spontaneously combusts while worshiping in a temple.

07/15/2026

Bring your stories to the screen: our Los Angeles summer internship program is expanding to a full Semester in Hollywood! Beginning in 2027, students will have the chance to spend the spring term taking classes on creating content, pitching, and career paths, all while interning and networking in the film industry. Get the details here: https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/english/academic-programs/film-and-visual-media/semester-in-hollywood.html

07/06/2026

The Gretchen Goldsmith Lankford Award is granted annually to a graduating student in the Carnegie Mellon Dietrich College of Humanities & Social Sciences for outstanding academic achievement and a commitment to graduate study and a career in education.

This year’s recipient was LiLi DiMuzio. “Dietrich is the hub of interdisciplinary learning,” DiMuzio said. “It’s encouraged to go out to other colleges and explore your interests.”

Read more about LiLi here:

Recent graduate LiLi DiMuzio was selected as the recipient for an award that's given to an outstanding graduating senior.

06/29/2026

Forbes calls English one of the “most versatile college majors” and we agree! Learn more about our programs — including our new Semester in Hollywood — here: https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/english/academic-programs/index.html

Hiring of college grads is down across the board. But certain majors are able to access opportunities in a wider array of industries, new data shows. Learn more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/courtney-connley-hampton/2026/06/25/the-college-majors-most-likely-to-get-you-hired/?utm_source=ForbesMainFacebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ForbesMainFB

06/17/2026

Lecturer Ed Simon celebrated the release of his latest book AMERICAN ELEGY: REFLECTIONS ON 250 YEARS OF THE DIS-UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (Ig Publishing) in conversation with journalist Tony Norman at City of Asylum.

View their conversation here:

06/12/2026

This week in the Pittsburgh Review of Books: reflections on the death of Marjane Satrapi, from Associate Professor Kathy M. Newman, along with two of the students who read Satrapi’s work in her class this spring.

When Marjane Satrapi, the author of the best-selling graphic memoir, Persepolis, was six years old, she believed she had been chosen by God to be the next

06/08/2026

On Tuesday, June 9, Assistant Professor Camille Rankine will read her work at the Hemingway's Poetry Series. Read a preview of Camille's work at the Pittsburgh Review of Books:

Over this summer PRoB will be featuring the work of upcoming readers that will be appearing at Pittsburgh’s venerable Hemingway’s Poetry Series, now