 
Welcome to the Web site of the Department of English at Indiana University. The main office of the Department of English is located in Room 442 of Ballantine Hall, a ten-story office and classroom building in the center of campus. We are open from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Friday. We hope you will feel free to contact us with any questions you may have about our department and its programs.
Open Letter from the Chair
Dear Students, Staff, Colleagues, and Friends:
It has now been a little more than a week since our friend and colleague Don Belton was murdered. Some members of the English Department community have been here throughout these difficult days, and others are just learning of the terrible events, and are reeling.
We remain committed to honoring Don’s life, celebrating all he has given us, and grieving for him as the unique and beloved person he was. To that end, we are planning a memorial service for him on January 15, at 5 p.m., at the Unitarian Universalist Church.
But we also know that this awful event has sent shockwaves through our departmental community—undergraduates, graduate students, staff, and faculty members—as well through the University and Bloomington. The sense of vulnerability felt by many in the wake of Don’s death cannot be wished away. It’s there. That vulnerability has unfortunately been made more dreadful by some of the hateful things that have been said online, by messages that have been sent to the department, and even by ill-informed and contemptuous comments posted on the personal blog of a faculty member here at IU-Bloomington.
As painful as all this is, we can also remind ourselves of how close-knit we are. This department believes in civility and care, and we walk the talk. I could detail the many things that have been done, and are being done in the spirit of love, and as expressions of the values held dear by this department and by this university—values of compassion and honesty, of vigilance against intolerance and of the celebration of creativity. We actively embrace and strive to sustain diverse ways of being, of loving, and of grieving. I hope all who come to this department to learn and teach, to write and read, to be a member of an intellectual community, will continue to feel especially welcome to pursue their own visions of justice, beauty, love, and joy.
Don believed in a community dedicated to these ideas. And so do we.
Jonathan Elmer
Chair, English Department |
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DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
Ballantine Hall 442
1020 E. Kirkwood Ave.
Bloomington, IN 47405-7103
Phone: 812-855-8224
Email the Department |
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