Founded in the town of Oxford in 1848, the University of Mississippi is the state's flagship institution of higher learning. At the heart of the University, which is known for its strong commitment the Liberal Arts, resides the English department, which offers four distinctive degree programs leading to the B.A., M.A., M.F.A., and Ph.D. These programs allow individual students, in consultation with distinguished faculty advisors, to personalize their studies while acquiring the breadth of knowledge and skills of the traditional English major.

Our curriculum is extensive, ranging from courses in English and American Literature to courses in Anglophone literature of other parts of the globe, such as the Caribbean, Africa, and postcolonial and Third World, to courses in women writers, literary theory, Native American literature, as well as expository and creative writing. The Creative Writing program boasts a strong and well-published faculty that teaches poetry and fiction workshops. The John and Renee Grisham Writer-in-Residence program brings to campus each year an emerging writer for a yearlong residency. The M.F.A. program was recently named in the top five up-and-coming creative writings program by the Atlantic Monthly.

Every year, the English department, in conjunction with the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, hosts the Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference that brings to campus prominent national and international scholars. The department also supports an annual graduate students conference, Southern Writers, Southern Writing, and is the home of The Yalobusha Review and The Global South, an online journal of comparative postcolonial studies.