Exhibit: What Is a Quasquicentennial?

While English and humanities studies have been part of the Arizona State University story from the beginning (1885), the Department of English was first mentioned in the 1900 Normal School of Arizona catalog. In 2025, the Department of English at ASU celebrated its 125th year as an official department — a quasquicentennial.

The "What Is a Quasquicentennial" exhibit, curated by ASU archivists, designers, professors, alumni and administrative staff, explores the first 125 years of the Department of English at ASU in books, photos and stories. Did you know that in 1958, renowned poet Robert Frost visited ASU? That what's now the University Club was formerly known as the English Building? That in 1968, 40 English faculty held a silent protest against the Vietnam War on campus? That in the 1980s and '90s, the department ran a "grammar hotline" staffed by a retired professor? That in the 2011, film and media studies became a degree program within English?

Learn more about the people behind your first-year composition courses, your favorite novels and even some classic films in the first floor exhibit space of Hayden Library through April 2026. This exhibit is viewable during normal Hayden Library hours.

See photos from the Opening Reception held in October 2025.

You can find out more about the department history and how it celebrated its 125th anniversary on its quasquicentennial page.

With degrees on the Tempe campus and online, ASU's Department of English offers six distinct areas of study: creative writing; English education; film and media studies; linguistics, applied linguistics and TESOL; literature; and writing, rhetorics and literacies. It also administers the university's first-year writing programs and houses cross-disciplinary degrees in narrative studies and in culture, technology and environment.

This event runs from Dec. 22, 2025 to April 3, 2026.