The Department of English Language & Literature celebrated its graduates on May 21, 2025. Congratulations to the Class of 2025 on this exciting milestone! We extend our heartfelt thanks to the faculty and staff whose support made the day—and the journey to it—so meaningful. Wishing all our graduates continued success in the years ahead!

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You can see more photos here!

Twenty-one PWR majors and minors from Bridget Gelms’ ENG 618: Collaborative Writing class presented at the LCA Undergraduate Showcase on their Action Proposals, an assignment that required groups of writers to work together to create high-quality, well-researched proposals aimed at someone in a position of power to make a change on a local issue. Student work included proposals on funding MUNI, investing in green infrastructure in San Francisco, converting San Francisco County golf courses into usable space for the public, raising awareness about invasive plant species in California, curbing the use of AI in the English Department, and increasing affordable food access among on-campus SF State students.

This year we celebrated the 60th Anniversary of the TESOL Program! Over the Academic Year, we held six events to commemorate the 60 years of the program. As a part of the celebration, we came together with TESOL alumni, faculty, and former chairs to recognize the history and accomplishments of the program! Our final event saw over 100 attendees coming together to celebrate MA TESOL’s founding and legacy! We want to thank everyone who helped us make these events a wonderful success!

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For the full list of events, pictures, and more information, please see the TESOL 6 for 60 website.

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The full recording of the April 11 event is available here. 

The English Department Staff got into the spirit of April Fools Day with a small prank on their Department Chair, who found her messages on Teams all briefly replied to with the following:

“Dear Maricel, 

You've reached _______’s AI Assistant, powered by ChatGPT Edu for All Faculty & Staff! 🎉 

Starting today, all of _______’s tasks and emails will be handled by their cutting-edge AI bot, GatorHelper. No more missed deadlines or human errors—just pure, efficient, 24/7 productivity! 

To reach _______, please have your AI assistant contact _______’s AI assistant, and they will coordinate a seamless, algorithmically optimized response. Otherwise, please press "1" to escalate to a real human (limited availability, patience not guaranteed). 

Thank you for embracing the future. Resistance is futile. 🤖 

Best, 
GatorHelper 

AI Productivity Unit 4.01.25” 

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After 10 panicky minutes, the prank ended, and Maricel recovered by quoting her favorite Star Trek character, Commander Lt. Data describing a wild goose chase, “You had me chasing an untamed ornithoid without cause.” 

On November 7, the Experimental and Computational Linguistics Ensemble (ECOLE) lab hosted a group of faculty and students from the Skyline community college. The group learned about the ongoing research projects on AI and Large Language Models in the ECOLE lab, and discussed how computational skills can be acquired as part of the English Department curriculum. Thank you to Anastasia Smirnova for making this event a success! 

During Grad Preview Week, our department hosted an MA Literatures Faculty Research Panel, an MA Literatures Q&A session, and an MA English TESOL, Linguistics, and Composition Open House! Thank you to Cynthia, Maricel, faculty, and our MA Program Coordinators for all of your work this week. 

We held the 15th Bi-Annual English Department Graduate Student on May 9th, 2025! We’re proud to have showcased so many wonderful MA English students who have gone on to graduate this year! Congratulations to all of our conference speakers: Gurleen Babra, Cody Fisher, Annemarie Sheehan Fortier, Samuel Grant, Malleeswari Jagabattuni, Gabriela Pires, Alejandra Robles, Elan Rodriguez, Mele Thomas, Efi Turnip, Christine Xiong, Maria Yoneyama, Jas Zeng, and Jackie Zhen. A special thank you to all of the MA Faculty and Advisors who helped these students succeed and to Cynthia for her work managing this event behind the scenes!

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Conference photos are available here. 

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Learn more about the student presentations on the conference website!

Esther Chan's First-Year Writing/CMS students had a chance to meet Michelle Kuo, the author of "Reading with Patrick: A Teacher, a Student, and a Life-Changing Friendship!" Michelle discussed her memoir, the importance of reading, and her writing process. ​​

Many thanks to our English BA majors Jermelyn Genove-Mangibin (PWR), Tadeo Macon (Literature), and Babette Wagener (Linguistics). Along with Maricel and Chris, this BA crew crushed it at this well-attended admissions event! Check out this video to see them in action! 

We held the 14th Bi-annual English Department Graduate Student Conference on Friday, December 6th. Congratulations to all of our capstone presenters, pictured here along with their capstone advisors: Noha Almutairi, Ariana Genesis Chavez, Houxue An, Maxwell Goodwin, Hannah Gradowski, Jackson Cato Harris, Raz Parker, Filiberto Perez, and Cassia Suzanne Reddig. Thank you to the capstone advisors who helped these students make their project a success: Priya Abeywickrama, Teresa Pratt, Mark Roberge, Virginia Schwarz, Maricel Santos, and Anastasia Smirnova. Lastly, thank you to Cynthia Losinsky and the English Department staff for their help on the day of the conference. 

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Learn more about the conference and each presenter on the conference website.

We had Dickson Lam on-campus to discuss his book, Paper Sons: A Memoir! His work has appeared in a multitude of publications, including StoryQuarterly, The Kenyon Review Online, Hyphen Magazine, The Normal School, PANK, The Good Men Project, The Rumpus, and Kartika Review! Paper Sons: A Memoir received the 2017 Autumn House Press Nonfiction Prize! Thank you to Anita for help making this event possible! 

The LCA majors came together and held a gathering for new and returning students at the Marcus Hall Green! The departments provided pizza for the students who came by to introduce themselves to their fellow classmates and the faculty and staff of their respective majors.