You're a Freshman, transfer, or readmission interested in daytime programs.
Deep readers, deep thinkers
English is one of the most versatile degrees you can pursue because the skills you’ll learn are transferable. Critical thinking, reading comprehension, writing, and communication are essential in pretty much any career field—not to mention in your personal life.
Credits
126
Careers
- English Language Teacher
- Secondary School Teacher
- Teaching Assistant
Financial Aid
The average undergraduate student award is $16,603.
Learn about financial aidProgram Overview
You have two paths to choose from when pursuing a degree in English at CUW. This program can be a standalone liberal arts degree, or a complementary major for those of you seeking a degree in secondary education. Both routes will allow you to explore the language, literature, and expression of the Western canon. In order to demonstrate your understanding of texts and ideas, you’ll be regularly asked to write analytically and creatively. Professors will motivate you to think critically about texts and consider them within a Christian context, applying their lessons to your day to day life.
What to Expect
Courses center around comprehending, expressing, and analyzing ideas (both others’ and your own), so the content is going to get deep. Get ready to read a wide range of authors, and be prepared to speak up and engage in high-level academic discourse with faculty and fellow students. You will continually be learning to better express yourself by studying how others have communicated their thoughts.
How to Apply
Undergraduate Application Steps
It’s time to help you become a Falcon! Just follow these simple steps to complete your application.
For first-time freshman:
- Submit your online application
- Submit the Common Application
- Have your school send your official high school transcripts. Transcripts may be mailed or sent via a transcript processing service to:
Concordia University Wisconsin
Admissions Office
12800 N. Lake Shore Dr.
Mequon, WI 53097 - Send your official ACT or SAT scores.
Scores on your high school transcript will be considered official. If your school does not put scores on transcripts, please contact ACT at www.act.org or College Board at www.collegeboard.org.
For transfer students:
- Submit your online application
- Submit the Common Application
- Submit official transcripts from all colleges/universities attended
*Transfer students with less than 60 college credits completed will also submit official high school transcripts. Students who have less than 30 college credits also need to submit official ACT or SAT scores. Scores on your high school transcript will be considered official.
Minimum Requirements
- A minimum GPA of a 2.5/4.0 (C average) or higher
- ACT composite of 18 or above
- SAT equivalent of 940 or higher for combined math and evidence-based reading and writing (for tests taken after March 2016).
*If your GPA or ACT score falls below the minimum for acceptance, your admissions counselor may ask you to retake the test or supply additional documents, such as an essay or letters of recommendation, to complete the application.
Required Academic Coursework in High School
A minimum of 16 units of high school (secondary school) work is required, of which at least 11 should be in basic liberal arts areas. Units should be distributed as follows:
- English: At least three units, but four are strongly recommended.
- Mathematics: Two units of college-prep math, preferably one each in Algebra and Geometry.
- Natural Science: Two units, preferably one each in Biology, Physics or Chemistry.
- Social Studies: Two units, preferably one each in world history and American history.
- Liberal Arts: Two units of the same foreign language or additional units in one or more of the other listed subjects or in fine arts.
- Other Electives: Five units from any area of academic study, but ideally from the areas listed above.
- German or Latin is recommended for pre-seminary students.
Sally Canapa
Phone: (262) 243-4231
Email: sally.canapa@cuw.edu
Education
- Ph D - Rhetoric and Composition, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (1990)
Research Interests
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Composition theory
Teaching Interests
- Developmental writing and reading
- Women's literature
Colleen Fenno Ladwig Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Phone: (262) 243-4531
Email: colleen.fenno@cuw.edu
Bio
Colleen Fenno teaches a wide variety of courses for the English Department, but she especially enjoys nineteenth and early twentieth-century British literature. Her research interests include Romantic and Victorian literature, women writers, and the scholarship of teaching and learning.
Education
- Ph D - Ninetheenth-Century British Literature, Marquette University (2010)
- MA - British Literature after 1660, Marquette University (2007)
- BA - English, Spanish, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2001)
Contributions
- Fenno Ladwig, C. (2016). "Monstrous Crimes and Offender Accountability: Shelley’s Representation of Criminal Justice from Frankenstein to Faulkner". Critical Insights: Mary Shelley. Salem Press.
- Fenno Ladwig, C. (2015). "Remembering Beatrice Remembering: Sexual Crime and Silence in Shelley's The Cenci". Essays in Romanticism . romanticism.liver...
- Fenno Ladwig, C. (2014). "Zadie Smith: On Beauty, Youth, and Aging". Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature. Tulsa, OK. utulsa.edu/tswl/2...
- Fenno Ladwig, C. (2012). Testimony, Trauma, and a Space for Victims: Mary Wollstonecraft’s Maria: Or the Wrongs of Woman. Nineteenth-Century Gender Studies.
Presentations
- Fenno Ladwig, C. (2017). "Activating Sympathy: Reimagining Mary Shelley’s Creature in John Logan’s Penny Dreadful". Oral Presentation. Midwest Modern Language Association (MMLA) Conference. Cincinnati, OH.
- Fenno Ladwig, C. (2016). "Integrating Vocation in ‘Intro to Writing'". Oral Presentation. Association of Lutheran College Faculties (ALCF) Conference. Mequon, WI.
- Fenno Ladwig, C. (2016). "Teaching Jane Austen's Persuasion: Creating Meaning through Popular Music". Oral Presentation. College English Association (CEA) Annual Conference. Denver, CO.
- Fenno Ladwig, C. (2014). "Required Reading: The Struggles of Introduction to Literature". Oral Presentation. Wisconsin Council of Teachers of English (WCTE) 2014 Convention. Oshkosh, WI.
- Fenno Ladwig, C. (2013). "Cover Art and Frankenstein". Paper. Midwestern Modern Language Association (MMLA) Conference. Milwaukee, WI.
Research Interests
- Romantic and Victorian Literature
- Literary Adaptations and Retellings
Teaching Interests
- 19th and 20th century British and American Literature
- Rhetoric and Composition
Brian J. Harries PhD
Associate Professor
Office: Luther Hall 208L
Phone: (262) 243-4362
Email: brian.harries@cuw.edu
Bio
Brian Harries teaches early British literature in the Concordia English department, with an emphasis primarily on the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. He collaborates regularly with the History and Theater departments, and his research focuses on the Elizabethan theater as a site of cultural identity formation during the turbulent 16th century.
Education
- Ph D - English--Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama, University of Kansas (2010)
- MA - English--British/American Literature and Literary Theory, University of Kansas (2005)
- BA - English, University of Kansas (2002)
Contributions
- Harries, B. (2019). The Fall of Mediterranean Rome in Titus Andronicus State College, PA: Mediterranean Studies.
- Harries, B. (2017). Luther and Wittenberg in Elizabethan Drama. Encyclopedia of Martin Luther and the Reformation. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
- Harries, B. (2017). Lutheran Influence in Europe and Britain. The Encyclopedia of Martin Luther and the Reformation. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
- Harries, B. Christian Free Will and Reader Free Will in Ryan North's To Be or Not to Be. Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching. Wichita, Kansas: Wichita State University.
- Harries, B. (2014). Sacral Objects and the Measure of Kingship in Shakespeare's First Tetralogy. Stages of Engagement: Drama and Religion in Post-Reformation England. Pittsburgh, PA: Duquesne University Press.
Presentations
- Harries, B., Moore, G., Kleinschmidt, M. & Warner, M., (2018). Unsettled Strangers: Early Modern Construction of Self and Gender in Foreign Spaces. Paper. Attending to Early Modern Women. Milwaukee, WI.
- Harries, B. (2018). Incorporating Early Textual Editing into an Undergraduate Research Project . Paper. Shakespeare Association of America. Los Angeles, CA.
- Harries, B. (2018). "I Know Her for a Spleeny Lutheran": An Elizabethan View of Wittenberg and Its Reformers. Keynote/Plenary Address. Bards in the Arb Lecture Series. St. Peter, MN.
- Harries, B. (2017). ‘Magic’s Mystery’; Hidden Knowledge in Greene’s Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay. Paper. Meeting of the Shakespeare Association of America. Atlanta, GA.
- Harries, B. & Mobley, S. (2017). Seeding Grass Roots Discussions: Equipping Administrators to Foster Faculty Engagement with Mission, Identity, and External Constituencies. Oral Presentation. ACAD/AAC&U Annual Conference "Telling Our Story, Making Our Case: from Classrooms to Constituencies". San Francisco.
Research Interests
- Elizabethan Drama, English 16th-century culture
- The Reformation
Teaching Interests
- Shakespeare, Medieval and Renaissance Literature
- Grammar and Language History
Steven Nelson
Department Chair - English, Associate Professor
Email: steven.nelson@cuw.edu
Bio
Dr. Nelson specializes in teaching Composition and Creative Writing. He is faculty adviser for the Foundry, the CUW creative writing group, and currently serves as Department Chair.
Education
- Ph D - English: Creative Writing, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (2003)
- MA - English: Creative Writing, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (1993)
- BBA - Marketing, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (1989)
Research Interests
- Fiction Writing
- Creative Nonfiction Writing
Teaching Interests
- Creative Writing
- Composition
Thomas L. Wilmeth Ph.D.
Professor
Office: Luther Hall LU 208-B
Phone: (262) 243-4218
Email: thomas.wilmeth@cuw.edu
Bio
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Research Interests
- Popular Music
- Unpopular Music
Teaching Interests
- Literature: Shakespeare, Mark Twain, other
- Languages: Latin and English grammars
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