Department of English
The Department of English -- which offers programmes in both English Language and Literature in English -- provides students with the skills and insights needed to engage with and interpret a wide variety of texts. Other general aims of the department include introduction of students to the rich diversity of literatures written in English, both locally and globally; stimulation of intellectual curiosity and opening up areas for further enquiry and research in the subject-area of English Language; equipping students to participate as critical and articulate citizens and agents `1in contemporary society; and fostering an understanding of our history and culture, and of our contemporary reality as an African society in transformation. The department also focuses on the study of local and international literature written in English, and also offers optional courses in cultural studies and creative writing.
Through its emphasis on small-group teaching and choice of seminar electives, the curriculum enables students to shape studies according to their own interests and needs. The undergraduate courses range widely over different periods, genres and localities, providing instruction in traditional areas of English Language and literary studies as well as in colonial and postcolonial literary studies. With its disciplined full-time members of staff and highly motivated students from diverse backgrounds and scattered geographies, and given its ethics of difference and its insistence on the value of the critical imagination, the Department of English is a vibrant place of study and of personal growth.
Department of History and International Relations
In History and International Relations, we emphasize the traditional humanistic skills of critical reading, good writing, and analysis of historical texts, and allow majors to take a broad range of courses across regional and temporal boundaries. History is a subject of many dimensions, but its central thrust is to explain change over time. How we deal with change, in our personal life or in wider society, depends on how well we are informed. This department aims to provide students with the necessary intellectual skills to understand processes of change and to expose them to historical debates of whether change always equals progression. We invite you to join us on this exciting intellectual journey.
Department of Theatres Arts
The faculty and staff of Theatres Arts comprise working professionals in both scholarly and creative areas, balanced across the three areas of Acting/Directing, Design/Technology, and Theatre Research, all of whom are committed to education at all levels and dedicated to excellence in their individual programmes and research. In our teaching, we aim to prepare our undergraduates for a lifetime of successful engagement with the theatre. We provide an intellectual, practical and experimental knowledge of the performing arts, a working knowledge of the craft, discipline, and the critical thinking it requires, and a deep appreciation for the collaborative art of theatre.
We aim to prepare our graduate students for successful 21st Century careers in the theatre both as practitioners and scholars and so provide focused, professionally-oriented study of theatre practice and scholarship. Through production and scholarship, we aim to excite, entertain, pose questions, challenge assumptions, and critically examine values and beliefs. University Theatre Productions serve as the instructional laboratories for our classroom and studio work and allow us to interface with the most important members of the theatre community – the audience.