Message from Chairman
The Department of English is one of the seven departments with which the University of Rajshahi started its journey in 1954. The department was initially housed in Rajshahi College, but later in 1961, it was shifted to the university’s own campus at Motihar where it was located in the east corner of the first floor of Satyendra Nath Bose Academic Building (known as the First Science Building at that time). In 1965, it was moved to its faculty building Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah Academic Building (known as the First Arts Building at that time).
The founding Head of the department was Professor Dr. Syed Ali Ashraf, a renowned litterateur and educationist of the country. Since its inception, the department has progressed with dedicated and pioneering services from eminent educationists like Professor Zillur Rahman Siddiqui, Professor Mohammad Ali, Professor Amanullah Ahmed, Quazi Joan Hossain, Professor Dr. Sadruddin Ahmed, Professor Ali Anwar, Professor AKM Mohiuddin, Professor Dr. Aali Areefur Rehman and others. There were also a brilliant bunch of visiting scholars who taught in the department throughout the 1970s: Mr. Alan Evison (1972-73), Mr. James M. Mumme (1972-75), Mr. Andrew Fotheringham (1976-78) and Mr. Peter Whissen (1978-80). Some former professors of the department–Professor Zillur Rahman Siddiqui, Professor Mohammad Ali, and Professor Amanullah Ahmed–served as vice-chancellors of different universities in the country.
At present the department has twelve teachers and about five hundred regular students. To retain its excellence in academic enterprises and to cope with the demand of the present, the department, in addition to maintaining a rich collection of books on English language and literature, also arranges seminars and encourages the students to take part in co-curricular activities such as debates, recitations, and theatre performances.
Praxis, an annual peer-reviewed publication of the department, documents the department’s orientation to research and creativity. The department has an officially recognized students’ body, the English Association, which, under the direct patronization of the department, organizes and runs various co-curricular and extra-curricular activities aimed at helping students excel in diverse fields. The department also has an Alumni Association that aims at establishing links between different generations of students of the department.
Besides its regular Honours and Master’s programmes, the department also has MPhil and PhD programmes in literature as well as in English Language Teaching (ELT). It also runs an evening Master’s programme of one academic year for both the streams of English Literature and ELT. In addition to these programmes, the department offers scholarly support in translation and editing to the academic and administrative community through its Translation and Editing Cell.
