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Important Dates
Advising Office Open House: Tuesday, May 5
Last day of instruction: Wednesday, May 6
Final exams: May 8-14
English & Creative Writing Convocation: Saturday, May 16
Resource of the Week: Convocation & Ticketing Info
Are you graduating this May or August and planning to participate in a ceremony? Check out the English Department Convocation site and the Commencement website for information, useful links, and contact information.
Those of you who are registered for the English & Creative Writing Convocation ceremony should have received our recent email about ticket collection, reproduced here:
Ticketing Information
Please complete a short exit survey about your experiences in the department BEFORE you pick up your tickets. Only the aggregate results will be distributed to the department for assessment purposes; individual participants will not be identified. Each undergraduate who completes the survey before May 14 (and chooses to share their netID) will be entered into a random prize drawing, and five lucky winners will be chosen to receive a $10 gift card. If you are a double major, you may complete both surveys but will only be entered into the drawing once.
Senior Exit Survey for Creative Writing Majors
Senior Exit Survey for English Majors
Pick up your tickets in Room 200 of the English Building between May 4 and May 14 (hours for pick-up are 9 to noon and 1 to 4). Please budget at least 10 minutes for the pick-up because you will need to fill out your reader card at the same time (this card ensures that your name is read correctly as you cross the stage).
If you are out of town or cannot come to the office in person for any reason, then your guests may pick up their tickets at the Will Call booth in Smith Hall when they arrive for the ceremony (doors open at 4pm). In that case you will fill out your reader card when you check in for the ceremony at 4pm but we will be reaching out ahead of time to get clarification about pronunciation of your name (we give our readers an annotated guide ahead of time to minimize the chance of mistakes).
Last Open House of the Year!
New English Department Internships
Go to english.illinois.edu/jobs to learn more, or read on!
Social Media Internships, Ninth Letter (AY 2026-2027)
For the 26-27 academic year, Ninth Letter, the literary magazine produced by the Creative Writing Program, is looking to hire two Social Media Interns (one Social Media Management and one Social Media Content Creator) from any major in the English Department. This is a great opportunity for students to apply their love of writing and literature while gaining valuable media-writing experience.
Eligibility: Undergraduate in the Department of English with at least Sophomore standing for AY26-27
Position Responsibilities (both positions will have some overlap):
- Develop creative thematic post series for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Bluesky
- Design and produce engaging multimedia content (graphics, stories, short videos), memes, and captions for the literary community
- Attend weekly meetings for brainstorming, task assignments, and collaboration
- Collaborate with editors to adapt published content for different social media platforms
- Conduct and publish interviews with former Ninth Letter contributors and current staff
- Assist in creating content calendars that highlight print issues, online publications, submission calls, and events
- Help design and maintain brand voice, tone, and visual identity, remaining cohesive across platforms
- Interact with followers, contributors, and the literary community through comments, messages, and shares
Average hours worked per week: 5 (about 75 hours each semester)
Position Wage: $15/hour
Position Starts: August 22
Recommended Skills and Experience:
- Concise and catchy writing
- Writing for social media
- Develop and follow-through on creative ideas
- Tailor message and style to genre and audience
- Visual design
- Work independently
- Interpersonal communication
- Collaboration
- Reliability
- Word, Adobe Express or Creative Suite, photo & video editing
- Photography, video, and editing skills a plus
To Apply: Submit a resume and cover letter, which should also indicate your preferred position, or if you would like to be considered for both. Application materials can be addressed to Liz Harms, Sr. Managing Editor of Ninth Letter, and sent as email attachments to ejharms2@illinois.edu by no later than 5 p.m. on Wednesday, May 6.
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Social Media Management Internship, Department of English (2026-2027)
For the 26-27 academic year, the Department of English is looking to hire a Social Media Management Intern from any major in the English Department. This is a great opportunity for students to apply their love of writing and literature while gaining valuable media-writing experience.
Eligibility: Undergraduate in the Department of English with at least Sophomore standing for AY26-27
Position Responsibilities:
● Develop creative thematic post series for Facebook and Instagram
● Promote, attend, and create social media posts about department events when safety allows
● Design flyers, memes, and other posts for informing and entertaining students
● Develop creative semester-long multimodal projects
● Attend weekly meetings for brainstorming, task assignments, and collaboration
● Edit videos and design flyers or posts
● Collaborate with Advising Office in creating content
● Conduct and publish interviews with faculty, alumni, students, and visiting speakers
Average hours worked per week: 5 (about 75 hours over a semester)
Position Wage: $15/hour.
Position Starts: Aug. 16
Recommended Skills and Experience:
● Concise and catchy writing
● Writing for social media
● Develop and follow-through on creative ideas
● Tailor message and style to genre and audience
● Visual design
● Work independently
● Interpersonal communication
● Collaboration
● Reliability
● Word, Publisher, Adobe, photo & video editing
● Photography, video, and editing skills a plus
To Apply: Please use the online application form to submit a resume, cover letter, and 2-3 samples of work, which can be writing, social media graphics, or other creative works or class materials. Application materials can be addressed to Felipe De La Guerra, Communications Coordinator, Department of English. Applications should be submitted no later than 5:00 pm on Wednesday, May 6. Please email fdlg@illinois.edu with any questions.
ATLAS Internships for Summer and Fall!
W H A T I S A C A M P U S ?: A Historical Walking Tour
1:00pm Thursday, May 7, 2026
Meet at Mumford House (or, in case of rain, Temple Hoyne Buell Hall atrium)
Led by Dr. Kathryn Holliday (School of Architecture)
Public space and free speech are bound together as foundations for the modern university campus. Contests of ideas, cultures, and values can be seen in our buildings and landscapes but too often we walk past them without paying much attention. How can we read our own campus as a reflection of competing narratives and hierarchies of power? Can we aspire to a campus that more fully embodies a culture of care, maintenance, and repair both for the environment and for each other?
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Dr. Holliday is an architecture and landscape historian with a strong commitment to community-engaged, place-based historic preservation. Creating connections between the university, faculty, and students in the pursuit of projects that promote a fuller, more equitable narrative of American history is central to her work. As a scholar and teacher, she draws on her interdisciplinary training in architecture, art history, environmental studies, and museum work to bridge the specialized internal questions of the design disciplines with public narratives. She is driven by a core interest in authorship and storytelling, and the ways that buildings and landscapes intertwine stories of labor, technology, capital, gender, and race to shape the world around us. She joined the faculty at Illinois in Fall 2023 and is completing the book Telephone City: Architecture and the Rise and Fall of the Bell Monopoly, supported by a Mellon Fellowship in Urban Landscape Studies from Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC (2022-23).
Scholarship Info Sessions
If you are interested in applying, please attend one of our upcoming workshops:
IN-PERSON Rhodes/Marshall/Gates Scholarship Workshop
Thursday, May 7, 2026, 1:30-2:30 pm
514 Illini Union Bookstore Building, Floor 5
ONLINE Rhodes/Marshall/Gates Scholarship Workshop
Friday, May 15, 2026, 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
Register in advance for this Zoom session.
For more information, contact the scholarships office at topscholars@illinois.edu or visit our website at www.topscholars.illinois.edu.
Drop-In Tutoring at the Jeffries Center!
Business Minor Mixer
Back by popular demand, the Gies Business Minor (GBM) is hosting another GBM Mixer this spring on Monday, May 4th, 2026 from 6-8 pm in the Business Instructional Facility (BIF). There will have GBM faculty with in attendance, refreshments, giveaways, information about the GBM and the Business Fundamental Microcredential and the opportunity to meet the new GBM Ambassadors! No RSVP or registration is needed.
Let’s Talk
Let’s Talk is a program offered by embedded clinical counselors. It is not a counseling appointment, but a conversation about Counseling Center services available to students. Conversations with Let’s Talk counselors are private, informal consultations. Let’s Talk appointments are 15 minutes long, and there is no fee.
To schedule a Let’s Talk appointment, please schedule an appointment online.
Don’t Forget These!
TRIO Upward Bound Is Hiring
Anticipated Dates:
Staff training dates: May 18-22, 2026
Staff program dates: June 27- July 31, 2026
Program dates: June 28-July 31, 2026
For more information, please e-mail trioupwardbound@illinois.edu or call TRIO Upward Bound at (217) 333-1889.
Part-Time Job on Campus: Social Media Student Worker
The Communications Office at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology is seeking a social media student worker to assist in writing, editing and posting social media posts to promote Beckman research and events. The intern will work with communications team members to create and implement social media strategies, brainstorm engaging campaigns for our various audiences develop and post content and collect analytics. A major part of this position will be to build up the Beckman Institute’s presence on BlueSky and Threads.
If you’re a detail-oriented and thoughtful communicator who wants to use your talents in various mediums, this will be a great employment opportunity for you.
Primary duties:
- Draft content for social media, including reels, stories and posts for Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, BlueSky and Threads.
- Maintain social media engagement on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, and build up the Beckman Institute’s social media presence on BlueSky and Threads.
- Collect and compile social media analytics that generate insights to improve our social media strategy.
- Other duties as assigned.
Preferred skills:
- Excellent writing, editing and proofreading skills.
- Knowledge of the different social media platforms and the audiences they cater to.
- Experience with/interest in graphic design platforms such as Adobe Creative Suite and Canva.
- Experience managing professional social media accounts (preferably for an organization or institution).
- Capable of generating creative, innovative and engaging ideas to enhance social media content.
- Well-organized and detail oriented.
- Self-motivated and capable of working independently toward set goals and deadlines.
- Ability to communicate effectively, thoughtfully and efficiently with team members.
Hours
This is a paid position requiring 10 hours of work per week at $15/hour, with a set schedule that can be flexible to accommodate coursework. The work will often require in-person presence to document events and engage with researchers, as well as attend in-person meetings, but hours are flexible. The position begins no later than summer 2026 (preferably June, though the start date is flexible) with the possible opportunity for renewal into the fall 2026 semester. While this is a student worker position, it can be converted into an internship.
To apply
Interested candidates should submit a resume, cover letter and two to three samples of professional social media posts (preferably illustrating how to engage with audiences on different platforms) to Alejandra Pires at pires2@illinois.edu. The deadline is 11:59 PM on May 15.
Part-Time Job on Campus: Student Science Writer
The Communications Office at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology is seeking a student writer to cover news, research and announcements for the Beckman website and other media as necessary.
Job description
The primary duties for the student science writer position include:
- Writing news stories, press releases and features about peer-reviewed research, grant awards, Beckman faculty members and additional topics as assigned, with the goal of making complex scientific concepts understandable to lay audiences. (65%)
- Collaborating with editorial team to proofread, edit and rewrite content. (10%)
- Conducting interviews with faculty members and asking questions to understand the main ideas and significance of their work. (5%)
- Assisting with story promotion, including uploading stories to Sitefinity, Beckman’s web content management platform, as well as drafting social media copy. (5%)
- Acquiring a working knowledge of Associated Press style, Beckman’s style guide and editorial best practices. (5%)
- Identifying and pitching relevant, recent and compelling content using databases like PubMed. (5%)
- Other duties as assigned. (5%)
Skills
The ideal candidate is a reliable, proficient writer who adheres closely to deadlines, values accuracy and detail and maintains professionalism when acting on behalf of the Beckman Institute Communications Office. Candidates should be motivated, organized, able to work independently and comfortable managing multiple assignments simultaneously. Candidates must be able to arrange, conduct and record interviews with Beckman Institute students, faculty members and staff so as write articles about their research. Clear and effective communication with colleagues and supervisors is a must.
Hours
This position begins in summer 2026, preferably in June, with a possible option to continue through fall 2026. This is a paid, mostly remote, position requiring 10 hours of work per week and in-person check-ins every other week. Work schedules are flexible and may vary depending on story assignments. Deadlines are flexible to fit the worker’s schedule.
To apply
Interested candidates should submit a resume, a cover letter, and two to three personally generated (non-AI) writing samples to Alejandra Pires at pires2@illinois.edu. (Scientific manuscripts and long seminar papers are not acceptable writing samples.) Apply by 11:59 p.m. on Monday, May 15.
Sustainability Exhibition
English Department Summer Courses
ENGL 206: Enlightenment Literature & Culture
While many of you are probably familiar with key texts and figures of the American Enlightenment, this course focuses on the European, and especially, the British Enlightenment, which preceded the founding of the United States. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Europe witnessed unprecedented social, economic, political, and cultural changes that collectively produced a giant leap toward the world we inhabit today. It was an age of revolution and newfound faith in the rights of the individual, though these rights were by no means extended to all. It was an age of reason, of tremendous advances in science and technology, though reason was by no means the only altar at which so-called enlightened individuals worshipped: God and sentiment remained powerful forces throughout the long eighteenth century. We will consider how the individualistic mindset that is associated with the Enlightenment was developed by some of the most significant texts of the period, and how it challenged traditional understandings of duty and humanity’s place in the world.
ENGL 360: Environmental Writing
Equips students to write about the environment for various audiences, with a focus on specific current efforts to promote sustainability on the Urbana-Champaign campus. We will practice effective techniques for each stage of the writing process-from defining topics, to gathering information, to crafting active, engaging prose. Readings will include models of effective environmental writing and “how to” pieces by experts. Research will include visits to campus sites and student-conducted interviews with subjects.
ENGL 378: Fairy Tales & Gender Formation
Discusses how femininity and gender formation are related through fairy tales. As children grow they are taught the difference between male and female roles. One of the main ways this instruction takes place is through the pleasurable media of fairy tales in books, poems, and more recently, films. Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Beauty and the Best, and the Little Mermaid, among others, will be examined to understand how sexual identity is constructed differently in different cultures, and how issues such as rape and incest are addressed within the narratives. The readings explore the ways that fairy tales work to express psychological reactions to maturation while conditioning both characters and readers to adopt specific social roles in adulthood.
Two Great Fall Workshops
CW 202: Topics in Creative Writing, Section R – Screenwriting Workshop
Back by popular demand this fall is this great screenwriting workshop! Explore the art of visual storytelling for the silver screen. This course guides you through traditional screenwriting techniques while applying the fundamentals of narrative to the craft of the short film script. You will develop an original concept, participate in collaborative workshops, and learn how to pitch your project to meet industry standards. By the end of the semester, you will have a completed script and a plan for festival submission.
CW 208: Creative Nonfiction Workshop
Introduction to a variety of types of nonfiction prose, including the personal essay, memoir, literary journalism, and historical writing. Relocated! This may now be more convenient so take another look and see if it works in your schedule.
Fulbright Workshop
How to Connect with LAS Career Services
- Mondays- 1-3 pm 105 Greg Hall (short chats)
- Tuesdays- 10-3 pm LAS Hub (Lincoln Hall) with peer mentors
- Wednesdays- 10-3 pm LAS Hub (Lincoln Hall) with peer mentors
- Thursdays- 10-3 pm LAS Hub (Lincoln Hall) with peer mentors
- Thursdays- 1-3 pm 105 Greg Hall (short chats)
- Handshake Appointments (in-person or virtual) are 30 minutes during available staff times. We have an energetic team to help you. Reach out to connect. Having trouble? Reach out to us at las-careerservices@illinois.edu.
Free Little Library
Check out the ESA Free Little Library outside EB 200. We have a rotating stock of donated books (thanks to all our anonymous donors) and you’re always welcome to stop by and pick something up. If you want to leave a book as well of course you can, but it’s not expected. If you feel like it, you can sign the sheet on the top shelf and tell us what you picked and why!
Sharing News
As a reminder, if you have an award, a publication, or some other triumph to report please send news to engl-news@illinois.edu so the social media interns can celebrate you and your accomplishment. Also, if you are a member of a student group affiliated with the English department and you would like an upcoming event posted on our undergraduate calendar (now available at the bottom of the advising page) please send that info to the same address. Thanks!
