Dear Friends,
Summer quiet has descended on campus after the wonderful uproar of graduation. It’s a perfect time to reflect on the last year, and you’ll find plenty in this issue of Annotations to help you do just that!
As you likely know, it was a tumultuous year for higher education, with policy and funding changes at the federal level reverberating across every aspect of our teaching and research here at UW-Madison. In such challenging times, we in the English department look to the fundamentals that have always guided us: teaching, learning, and a deep appreciation for the power and possibility of words and stories. Extraordinary things happen—and continue to happen—when we gather in classrooms to read, write, discuss, and learn together. Even in these complicated times, those fundamentals still inform and inspire our work, and the English department and its people continue to thrive.
Last month, 112 seniors graduated with an English major. At their graduation ceremony and in their exit surveys and end-of-year reflections, those seniors highlighted the deep relationships they’ve built with professors and other students, the skill with words and stories they’ve cultivated, and the intellectual flexibility they’ve developed during their years in the English department. They head out to the next stage of their lives well-equipped to navigate change and build community—capacities very much in need today.
Meanwhile, we continue to see strong interest in the English major from incoming students. Those students and their parents tell us that the rise of AI and increasing polarization both point them toward the English major. These much-discussed realities of our world make them all the more aware of how essential the humanities are and how much they need the facility with words and attention to stories that are core to training in English.
These students, with their curiosity and passion, creativity and analytical prowess, hard work and inspiration, give me so much hope for the future.
This is my last note to you in my capacity as department chair. I’m delighted to pass the role to Professor Anja Wanner on August 1. Wanner is an experienced leader with a deep commitment to students and their learning. This department that we all love will be in very good hands.
With good wishes for the remainder of the summer,
