2024 Scholarship Applications Are Now Open!
(click on the links below for more information)
The Betty Webb and Richard Norlin Memorial Prize ($250)
The Palomar English Faculty Emeriti Scholarship ($1000)
Congratulations to last year’s winners:
Webb & Norlin: Sophia Segerstrom (1st prize), Allie Melendez (Honorable Mention)
Faculty Emeriti Scholarship: Carlota Villasenor
About Us
The Palomar College English, Humanities, and Reading Department is composed of full- and part-time faculty members with diverse academic interests. We offer a stimulating range of classes that stress reading, writing, creativity, and critical thinking–all skills necessary for personal and professional growth.
While every class reflects the unique, diverse perspective and approach of its teacher and students, there is one constant among them: all of these classes, the ideas that they raise, the questions that they address, and the thoughts that they inspire will stay with you, in a variety of ways, long after the final class has met.
We value critical thinking, and we believe that one of the most important ways to foster this is to read widely and deeply. In an effort to encourage everyone to expand their worlds, we have installed in our office suite on the 3rd floor of the Humanities Building a large and ever-growing English Department Little Free Library. If you’re not familiar with the Little Free Library movement, take a look here (www.littlefreelibrary.org), and stop by (follow the signs) and grab (or leave) a book or two!
And also please take some time to wander through our website and get to know us and what we have to offer.
Department Statements on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Adopted September 2020
In response to ongoing societal inequities based on race and the deaths of individuals like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Daniel Prude (to name just a few) at the hands of State Power, the English Department of Palomar College stands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and affirms its support for our BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) students, faculty, and staff. Further, we support the current movements to dismantle widespread systemic racism and discrimination. Finally, we commit to continued individual and collective antiracist work in ourselves, our classrooms, our campus, and our larger communities, through the following:
- Interrogating within ourselves our uses of language, discourse, and representation in order to create an environment that fosters equity and social justice.
- Offering ongoing professional development, collaboration, and curriculum review to develop antiracist teaching and assessment practices.
- Maintaining and growing the diversity of our department through recruitment, hiring, and retention.
- Encouraging antiracist practices and frameworks into our coursework through culturally responsive and relevant readings, assignments, and activities in order to validate our BIPOC students’ perspectives and experiences.
- Creating a learning environment that empowers our BIPOC students to understand connections between language, critical thinking, reading, and writing.
- Supporting the Call to Action on Palomar College’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion page and continuing to hold administration and campus leadership accountable for supporting and providing resources and programs to ensure success for our BIPOC students.
Through all of these efforts, we will prioritize combating systemic racism and preventing the marginalization and oppression in all of the spaces that we occupy.
Adopted December 2016
In light of various political developments and in response to the uncertainty and fear among students, faculty, and staff, the Palomar College English Department Faculty reaffirms our deep and abiding commitment to support, encourage, and assist you, our students, through every stage of your academic journey. We are dedicated to creating a safe and inclusive environment for ALL and to provide you with the help and the resources you need to address all of your concerns. Our message goes out to those who feel targeted by political rhetoric and policies—“Dream Act”/undocumented/mixed-status individuals, immigrants, refuges, people of color, LGBTQIA+ persons, Muslims, women, Jews—and to all those who feel threatened during these uncertain times. Please click on the links below for a campus-wide statement regarding these issues and helpful resources for students.
A Campus of Unity and Inclusion
Faculty Message & Student Resources (pdf)