The Department of English was founded in 1939 when the college came into being. Eminent teacher scholars such as Prof. Shanta Mahalanobis, Prof. Karuna Chakraborty, Prof. Jasodhara Bagchi, Prof. Sajni Mukherjee, Prof. Dipti Majumder, Prof. Ramola Ghosh, Prof. Chitra Roy, Prof. Sona Majumder and Prof. Anjusree Sur have enriched the department by nurturing generations of students. Illustrious alumni include, besides several scholar teachers in many universities and colleges, figures such as Gayatri Chakravarty Spivak, internationally renowned academic, Prof. Malini Bhattacharya, Former Faculty, Jadavpur University and Former MLA, Prof Nabanita Deb Sen, internationally renowned writer and critic, Ketaki Kushari Dyson, scholar, writer, Basabi Fraser, poet, writer, choreographer, Sujata Sen, Director, British Council Library, Prof. Jharna Sanyal, Former Head of Department , Calcutta University, Rukmini Bhaya Nair, Professor, IIT Delhi and internationally renowned academic and poet, and Prof. Somdatta Mandal, Visva Bharati, Diaspora and Film Studies Scholar. The present managing director of the State Bank of India and the first woman to hold the post, Arundhati Bhattacharya, is an alumnus of this department.

The Department of English is the first among the Humanities and Social Sciences departments of the college to launch a Postgraduate Course in 2009. Students of the department continue to shine in diverse fields such as research, teaching, journalism and administration.

In 2014 the Department opened its Advanced Research Centre for Indian Writing in English which has conducted talks, seminars and workshops. A book of critical essays is in process.