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Department of English News

The English department offers a variety of courses in literature, language and writing. Our majors explore literature as an artistic medium from both theoretical and historical perspectives, in the process honing students' analytical and writing skills.

Current English News

woman poses with arms crossed in front of flashlight sculpture
People | September 25, 2023

Safiyya Bintali will attend Educause’s annual conference and network with technology professionals to further her IT career goals.

silhouette of a person sitting on ground and reading
Arts and Culture | September 1, 2023

Jarret Keene takes his students along on the writing process for a new young adult novel.

Ph.D. engineering graduate George William Kajjumba is hooded during the Spring 2022 commencement ceremony
Campus News | December 28, 2022

Student achievements including competition wins, a science fellowship first, and new innovations splashed local and national news headlines in 2022.

A laser beam emitting a blue light is projected into a diamond anvil cell
Research | December 27, 2022

Groundbreaking discovery was the norm for Rebel researchers in 2022. Here's a selection of our favorite news-making UNLV research highlights from the year. 

Graduation cap with "22" tassle
People | December 14, 2022

Five UNLV graduates will be recognized by President Keith E. Whitfield during winter commencement for their combination of academic excellence and service to the community.
 

Scarlet and Gray, “REB's Glitter Squad”, Lester Cruz and Isabel Ferguson, take pictures and hype up students and families during the October 2022 homecoming football game.
Campus News | November 8, 2022

A collection of news stories highlighting UNLV students and faculty who made headlines locally, regionally, and internationally.

English In The News

City Cast Las Vegas
September 5, 2023

Author Jarret Keene, a UNLV English professor and book editor, has written poetry collections, a bio of The Killers — and now a futuristic adventure yarn titled “Hammer of the Dogs” (University of Nevada Press). He launches the novel next Tuesday, Sept. 12, with an event at The Writer’s Block.

Tallahassee Magazine
September 1, 2023

In Jarret Keene’s thriller, humanity outlasts power-trippers

The Bitchuation Room
August 29, 2023

From El Salvador to the United States, in order to fight fascism we need to remember our radical history and use it to seed real revolution. We also need to "touching the tiger in the balls" Roberto Lovato, Salvadoran journalist and author of Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the Americas, joins to talk about the importance of remembering and healing from historic trauma, current Central American politics, and U.S. foreign policy. 

KOA News Talk
August 22, 2023

Jarret Keene is an Assistant Professor in the English Department at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he teaches American literature and the graphic novel. His new dystopian graphic novel is called “Hammer of the Dogs”. We'll discuss why college students seem so much less interested in "liberal arts" majors and how we can encourage young people to read more.

Author Magazine
August 14, 2023

Bill welcomes debut novelist and memoirist Jarret Keene to the show. Jarret earned his Ph.D. in creative writing at Florida State University. A beloved and highly sought after professor, Dr. Keene is an assistant professor in the Department of English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where he teaches American literature and the graphic novel. He has written a travel guide, a rock-band biography, poetry collections and edited short-fiction anthologies including Las Vegas Noir and Dead Neon: Tales of Near-Future Las Vegas. Hammer of the Dogs published by University of Nevada Press (September 12, 2023) is his first novel.

Las Vegas Review Journal
March 31, 2023

Holocaust survivors and their descendants shared their personal experiences at a special Passover Seder at UNLV Wednesday to honor and remember the lives of the roughly six million Jews that were lost.

English Experts

An expert on the storytelling in video games.
An expert on the apocalypse, and American literature and culture.
An expert in the literature of the United States.

Recent English Accomplishments

September 28, 2023
Published by Nevada Public Radio, Desert Companion magazine praised Jarret Keene's (English) dystopian novel Hammer of the Dogs (University of Nevada Press, 2023) in the October 2023 issue. The review describes Dogs as "masterfully capturing the anxiety of younger generations faced with inheriting (and fixing) a world they might not even want."…
September 27, 2023
UNLV professor Roberto Lovato (English) spoke at Yale University's Jackson School of Global Affairs. His talk, titled, "Violence, Terror and Human RIghts Abuse in El Salvador from La Matanza to the Present," also discussed the role of U.S. policy in shaping that violence.
September 1, 2023
Jarret Keene (English) had his dystopian-adventure novel Hammer of the Dogs (University of Nevada Press, 2023) reviewed in the September 2023 issue of Vegas Cannabis Magazine. The book is hailed as "a hero's journey that pulls you in like a tractor beam and moves like laser show. Each chapter describes a place both familiar and futuristic. Hammer…
August 31, 2023
Carlos Tkacz (English, PhD student) published an article in ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment. '“Not the End of the Trail:” Violence, MMIW, and Environment in Stephen Graham Jones’s The Only Good Indians" examines how Jones engages with the conventions of the horror genre and mobilizes Native slipstream narrative…
August 29, 2023
William Donati (English) recently published a new edition of his book Ida Lupino: A Biography (University Press of Kentucky 2023). The new edition celebrates the 27th anniversary of the book's publication. There is a new cover, new photographs, and a preface. Donati knew Lupino and had the opportunity to interview the famous actress and director…
August 29, 2023
Roberto Lovato (English) appeared on the popular Bitchuation Room podcast, where he talked about, among other things, the role of trauma and forgetting in enabling fascism, writing a memoir about "unforgetting," and U.S. foreign and immigration policy