A whodunit novel set at UC Berkeley in the 1980s, Murder in the English Department by Valerie Miner addresses the historically unethical treatment of women in intellectual spaces and higher education. Combating sexual harassment and abuse on campus while working toward securing tenure, Professor Nan Weaver finds herself as the prime suspect of a murder involving a misogynistic professor in her department. Without anyone on her side, Nan does everything in her power to prove her innocence and prove her place as a female scholar in a male-dominated profession.