The curriculum will highlight spaces for conceptual intersections, pathways criss-crossing different literary genres and cultures, as well as movements and practices in the arts, sciences, and social sciences. The major will nurture intense engagement with reading and learning how to write in different academic and creative genres as students think about the ethical issues that confront those who write – in the classroom and beyond. Students will graduate with the tools to read different types of texts, the ability to research the historical, social, political, and theoretical contexts to help analyse texts, and the skills to communicate their analyses in well-written, articulate, and eloquent responses. Immersive experiences will include meeting writers, entrepreneurs, administrators; engaging with publishers, editors, journalists and bookmakers at work; and opportunities to train and work as peer tutors and research assistants.

Required literature courses will develop skills in reading comprehension and literary analysis in the broad genres of poetry, fiction and non-fiction prose, and drama. These courses will introduce students to the forms and methods of literary analysis as they learn the basic vocabulary of literary theory and criticism. For instance, a course on formal poetry may well include poetic forms that emerged in medieval Afghanistan, renaissance Europe, and seventeenth-century Japan in languages other than English but are now popular contemporary forms of English poetry.

Electives will offer students the opportunity to explore special topics, authors, and genres in greater depth and at more advanced levels of reading and writing. Cross-listed and cognate courses will give students the option to take some relevant courses of interest that are offered by other divisions of the university. The electives will reflect the specializations of the Krea faculty. The capstone thesis will be both a test and showcase of a student’s training. Students will choose a topic of their interest, learn to formulate the research problem, do the relevant research, and produce a thesis that is both a culmination of everything they have learned and a stepping stone to their next venture.