English and Modern Languages
Here’s how students get to know us and we get to know them:
Here’s how students get to know us and we get to know them:- First-Year Composition Classes
- Foreign Language Classes and Activities
- Creative Writing, Literature, and Other Upper-Division Classes
- Affiliated Programs (Gender and Women’s Studies)
Grounded in the Humanities: Our Mission and Vision
Are you a prospective student? Enlace para la Licenciatura en Español (Spanish B.A.)
Connect with us on social media: 
Alumni Spotlight: Kristen Bean (2015)
Department News
Shepherd senior English major Emily Keefer has published her first novel, The Stars on Vita Felice Court. The book’s main character, Val Beckley, is facing what many teenagers experience—a yearning to escape her small hometown, which just happens to be in West Virginia. Emily’s novel grew out of a project she started in one of Dr. Carrie Messenger’s creative writing courses, and it has been published by Köehler Books. In addition to her fiction writing, Emily is a local columnist and full-time reporter; she has published over 250 bylined articles and written several feature sections in The Journal of Martinsburg, Around the Panhandle Magazine, and Country Connections/Jefferson Magazine. Emily plans to graduate this May. The Department of English and Modern Languages congratulates her on this milestone. Way to go, Emily! As Emerson said to Whitman, we “greet you at the beginning of a great career.”
Faculty members and friends gathered on December 6th at The Bavarian Inn to wish our colleague, Dr. Eva-María Suárez Büdenbender, a fond adiós and an Alles Gute! After teaching Spanish and German at Shepherd for about a dozen years, Eva decided to redirect her life’s path. As she told the participants in Stammtisch (the German-speaking social group, which she has directed and energized for the past eleven years), she is heading “to newer frontiers” and looking forward to living under one roof with her husband, Dr. Carsten Krebs, who is a Professor of Chemistry and of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at The Pennsylvania State University. Folks taking part in Eva’s going-away dinner included Dr. Mark Cantrell, Dr. Betty Ellzey, Dr. Heidi Hanrahan, Dr. Rachel Krantz, and Dr. Tim Nixon. In addition, Mrs. Brenda Feltner, the now-retired departmental secretary, joined in to wish Eva the best. We’re going to miss you, Eva. You’re leaving a hole in our department that will be hard to fill, but we hope you and Carsten will be very happy in this next phase of your lives!