The English Department welcomes students majoring in other programs who feel they would like to complement their studies, and enrich their cultural lives, by taking courses in, or minoring in, English. Such crossing of disciplines makes even more sense today because the field of literary studies – like many other humanities fields – has in recent decades actively fostered relations with the arts, social sciences, and science and technology.

Interested students should meet with the English advisor to declare the minor as soon as possible. You can either stop by the English Department advising office, South Hall 3432 to declare the minor, or you can email the Undergrad Advisor to be added as well.

To access the latest official minor requirement sheet for the current catalog year, students should visit the College of Letters & Science website.  The minor requirements below are provided with additional supplementary information pertinent to students pursuing the minor.

The English minor requires 24 units in English, at least 20 of which must be upper-division, distributed in the manner outlined below.

The English Department now offers two possible plans for the upper division portion of the minor. After preparing by taking one lower-division course in English (4 units), students interested in the minor can fulfill their upper division (UD) requirements through either of the following plans:

1. Core Plan: 20 UD units, distributed as follows:
   1. 4.0 units of literature, pre-1700, chosen from: English 101, 105A-B, 110A-B-C, 115, 119, 119X, 144, 152A-B, 156, 157, or 162
   2. 4.0 units of literature from 1700-1900, chosen from: English 102, 103A-B, 126A-B-C, 137A, 169, 172, 179, 180, or 181.
   3. 12.0 units of English electives
2. Thematic Plan: 20 UD units of English electives chosen around a central theme. Students are required to meet with a faculty member to choose a topic and course of study. Final approval required by faculty undergraduate committee.

Depending on course content, the following courses may apply to area A or area B of the upper-division minor: English 114AA-ZZ, 128AA-ZZ, 131, 132AA-ZZ, 133AA-ZZ, 134AA-ZZ, 151AA-ZZ, 16SAA-ZZ. Any of these courses apply automatically to area C. Contact the department to see which courses will apply to areas A and B in a given quarter. Substitutions and waivers are subject to approval by the chair of the department.

All courses to be applied to the minor must be completed on a letter-grade basis. This includes both courses offered by the English Department and those offered by other departments and applied to the minor.

For students considering the thematic minor, it is also possible to utilize the department’s pre-established Specializations to structure the thematic minor course selection.  See the Staff Undergraduate Advisor for more information.

The following conditions must also be met for official recognition of the minor, per the official College requirements:

• The sponsoring department reports completion of the minor prior to the posting of the degree.
• At least 12 of the upper division units for the minor are completed while in residence at UCSB.
• The UC grade point average in ALL applicable upper division courses, including those in excess of minimum requirements, is 2.0 or higher.
• No more than 5 upper division units overlap between this minor and the upper division portion of the major(s) or other minor(s). If overlap is greater with the major(s), completion of the minor will not be formally recognized; if overlap with other minor(s) is greater, only the first minor reported will be recognized.

The English Department also requires that:

• All courses applied to the minor must be taken for a letter-grade.
• Only one non-English Department course may be applied to the minor by petition, subject to faculty approval.