Course Descriptions

Taught by: Dr. Melissa McCoul

Course Description: Do you think of yourself as a writer? What have your experiences with writing been like? When you hear the terms “writer” or “writing,” “argument” or “research,” what kinds of images come to mind? By the end of this course, I hope you will think of yourself as a writer if you don’t today, and specifically as an academic writer. But more than that, I hope you will expand your definition of what writing is, and how the media in which we write shape the messages we produce. In this class, we’ll be analyzing—and writing in—a variety of genres including video essays, podcasts, narratives, and researched position papers. And we’ll consider how writing in and about digital media shapes our sense of ourselves and our world.

Prospective Readings: 

• Everyone’s an Author with Readings, 4th edition, by Andrea Lunsford, Michael Brody, Lisa Ede, Jessica Enoch, Beverly J. Moss, Carole Clark Papper and Keith Walters. ISNB: 9781324045274. **You MUST get an edition WITH READINGS!**
• They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing, 6th edition by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein.

Taught by: Dr. Laura Mandell

Course Description: In this class, we learn about the methods for thinking developed by human beings from the time of Socrates to our own. We examine technologies (writing, printing, imaging, computing), considering their relationships to human thought. Following Marshall McLuhan, we analyze how various technologies extend the power of human thinking beyond the brain. Among the questions we will ask over the course of the semester are: how do different technologies extend the human capacity to think? How do they constrain it? What distinguishes Artificial from Human Intelligence? How can AI be harnessed? Does technology affect human evolution – or, stated from another point of view, how do various technologies affect our definitions of what it means to be human? Readings for this class come from the fields of philosophy, literature, history, art history, psychology, and computer science. Short writings exploring these ideas and our readings are due every other week; there is a midterm and a final multimedia presentation. CORE Lang, Phil, Culture, KLPC.

Proposed Readings: 

Essays by Nicholas Carr, Rachel Carlson, and Vannevar Bush.
Short excerpts from the following: Plato's Phaedrus; Thoreau's Walden; Tocqueville's Democracy in America; Boorstin's Image; Berger's Ways of Seeing; McCandless's Information is Beautiful; Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow; Marvin Minksy's The Emotion Machine; Jaron Lanier's You are not a Gadget; Ethan Mollick's Co-Intelligence.
All readings will be available on Canvas.

Taught by: Dr. Buran Utku

Course Description: How do professionals communicate effectively in the workplace? What makes technical writing different from other forms of writing? In this course, we will explore the principles of technical and professional writing while integrating emerging technologies such as generative AI. We will explore how to craft clear, persuasive, and well-structured documents tailored for professional and technical settings. From writing memos and proposals to designing research-based reports and presentations, this class will help you develop the communication skills essential for success in a range of industries.

Throughout the semester, we will engage with real-world writing scenarios, emphasizing audience awareness, document design, and collaboration. ou will explore how AI tools can assist (and sometimes challenge) professional writing, particularly in ethical and responsible ways. You will work on individual and group projects, integrating visual rhetoric and digital tools to create professional and workplace-appropriate documents. By the end of the course, you will be equipped with the skills to navigate the demands of technical and professional communication with confidence and clarity.

Proposed Readings: All course readings and materials will be provided through Canvas.

Taught by: Dr. Robert Stagg

Course Description: This course offers an introduction to the work of William Shakespeare. We'll begin by getting a handle on Shakespearean language, partly by studying his sonnets, before proceeding scene by scene through two major tragedies he wrote around the middle of his career: 'Othello' and 'King Lear'. Interspersed between this close study will be consideration of the many different ways we might think about Shakespeare: in terms, for example, of theatre history, adaptation, historical biography, world cinema, textual bibliography, etc... (Honors students will be required to undertake additional readings and assignments.)

Taught by: Dr. Apostolos Vasilakis

Course Description: This course will examine some of the major texts of world literature from the 17th through the 21st centuries. We will direct our attention around a core group of central ideas as they are developed in the texts, and we will investigate the evolution and transitions in the literary tradition. Some of the issues and questions we will examine in particular detail include: the relationship between reality and fiction; the question of the human condition and its relationship to history or a catastrophic event; the question of good and evil; and what constitutes human experience in an advanced technological world.
Furthermore, we will take up these topics and themes in their own right, and as a basis for living in the contemporary world.

Proposed Readings: 

Voltaire: Candide
Shelley: Frankenstein
Zamyatin: We
Camus: The Plague
Ondaatje: Coming Through Slaughter
Marquez: Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Achebe: Things Fall Apart
Okorafor: Binti

Taught by: Dr. Christopher Manes

Course Description: American Literature: Civil War to Present focuses on expressions of the American literary tradition from late romanticism to realism, modernism to post modernism, and experimental styles leading to influences and discussions of contemporary authors and where their work fits into these literary movements. Writers include traditional and non-traditional poets, playwrights, and fiction authors examined for their contributions to, and reexaminations of, the American literary experience: for example, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Kate Chopin, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Hart Crane, Susan Glaspell, T.S. Eliot, Langston Hughes, Alan Ginsberg, Toni Morrison, Sandra Cisneros, and Mark Doty. 

Proposed Readings: Selected readings from, and criticisms of, an Open Educational Resources (OER) text titled Writing the Nation. University of North Georgia Press, 2015. No purchase necessary. 

Taught by: Dr. James Francis

Course Description: Science fiction, fantasy, and horror embody the “Speculative and Marvelous Literatures” classification for our course. Quite often, these related genres pose a “What if…?” question to audiences to consider how their narratives represent an extrapolation from and/or extension of reality, with a wide range of how close and how distant the stories are from our known world. Throughout the semester, we will explore classic-to-contemporary representations of speculative and marvelous literatures in written and visual (film) forms: the short story, the novel, the novella, and the feature film. While our major objectives focus on reading, discussion, research, and writing about the texts, our end-goals for the semester include acquiring foundational knowledge regarding the literatures connected to their histories and sociocultural impacts and influences, and developing individual perspectives on what gives the texts and their related genres such lasting literary and filmic presence throughout time.

Students registered for the course will take a brief survey to help select the primary texts (written and visual) we read for the semester along with how assessment is conducted to determine the types of activities (quizzes, essays, projects, etc.) we pair with the readings. In this manner, we will have the opportunity to work together to shape the course for the fall semester.

Note: This course fulfills 3 credit hours for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Studies Minor offered by the Department of English.

Proposed Readings: 

• Where the Wild Things Are (picturebook and film)
• Coraline (novella and film)
• Neverending Story (film)
• Labyrinth (film)
• “There Will Come Soft Rains” (short story)
• “The Colour Out of Space” (short story)
• “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream” (short story)
• The Female Man (novel)
• The Forbidden Planet (film)
• Sunshine (film)
• “The Masque of the Red Death” (short story)
• “The Vampyre” (short story)
• Carmilla (novella)
• Dawn of the Dead (film)
• Bram Stoker's Dracula (film)
• Poltergeist (film)
• Pet Semetary (film)

Taught by: Dr. Noah Peterson

Course Description: This course centers on the development of the Arthur story in poetry, fiction, and drama, from its inception in early medieval Britain through the twentieth and twenty-first century. Reading these texts in relation to specific historical, political, and cultural contexts, we will discuss topics such as the following: Arthur as a model for rulers, the role of Arthurian narrative in shaping the ideals of "chivalry," medieval and modern forms of telling stories, and professional rules of conduct in the modern world. This course reveals how wider social forces shape the philosophical outlooks and aesthetic sensibilities of writers who use the Arthur story, and helps students develop an appreciation for what the study of literature can teach us about ourselves and our shared humanity. Material from this course includes a variety of written texts and visual representations, including films.

Proposed Readings: History of the Kings of Britain; The Knight of the Cart; Layamon's Brut; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; Le Morte Darthur; The Buried Giant; Monty Python and the Holy Grail; Excalibur; The Green Knight

Taught by: Dr. Jason Crider

Course Description: This course explores the history of how people write and otherwise interact with computers in order to introduce key concepts from media studies and digital rhetoric. Why do we write with keyboards? What happens to our thinking when we use touch screens? How did typing and word processing evolve over time? What can emerging haptic technologies and mixed (virtual and augmented) reality media tell us about our relationship with computers? Students will practice writing project proposals and learn how to do research in the history of computing, as well as create their own personalized writing interface. No previous tech experience required. 

Proposed Readings: Reading Writing Interfaces by Lori Emerson, Against Platforms by Mike Pepi, The Philosopher of Palo Alto by John Tinnell

Taught by: Dr. Kevin O'Sullivan

Course Description: This course will provide a survey of the intellectual and artistic movement known as the English Renaissance, focusing in particular on literature written at the end of the sixteenth century. Discussions will begin with a broad investigation of the term ‘Renaissance,’ positioning the innovations that took place in England in proximity to analogous advances on the European continent. Throughout the semester, students will read broadly from authors working in three major literary forms—poetry, drama, and prose—and interrogate how these reflect the period of immense social, religious, and political upheaval during which they were composed. Together, we will seek to understand the relationship between these works and the wider culture of textual transmission in which they participated as well as the place of literature in an increasingly varied landscape of intellectual production.

Taught by: Dr. Curry Kennedy

Course Description: Throughout the world and across time, people have conjured visions of the sage speaker. They have argued about the ethics and eloquence the ideal communicator would bring to bear on pressing cultural crises, as well as the educational practices that would properly train such a speaker. In short, they have asked, how can we form a wise and well-spoken person to address the challenges of our time and place?

For fifteen weeks, we’re going to ask the same question. We’re going to contemplate portraits of the sage speaker from past ages, discuss and critique them, and begin, with our own context in mind, to envision the rhetoric that we need now.

Proposed Readings: Confucius: Analects, Plato: Gorgias, Aristotle: Rhetoric, Augustine: Confessions, Erasmus: Praise of Folly

Taught by: Dr. Matt McKinney

Course Description: 

Course & Thematic Description
The following is a synopsis of the learning approach we will take in this course and our subject theme, which is the rhetoric of American culture.

The Task
Everything you read, every show you watch, every conversation you have has a feeling, a tone, a shape about it that influences how you respond, how you feel about it, and what you do afterwards. This elusive character is what we’re trying to get at by bringing together these two words “Rhetoric”and “Style.” Can we systematically and rigorously examine this underlying sense of language, this shaping of responses, this variety of rhetorical power underlying our communication?

The Approach
This course will deploy three different tactics for helping us make Style more concrete and to help us learn to deploy stylistic choices for particular rhetorical effects:
Analysis: practice assessing a text's style, how it meets its rhetorical situation, and its effects and effectiveness.
Imitation: practice producing a style in order to get a feel for stylistic elements, exploring personally their effects, and experimenting with producing them.
Application (Performance): implementing stylistic elements within different rhetorical situations for particular rhetorical effects.

Our approach will combine an intuitive development of style (getting a feel for it) with a more analytic and conceptual comprehension of stylistic form (dissecting through terms, grammar, etc.),with the understanding that some will favor one over the other, but all will benefit from both approaches.

Taught by: Dr. Melissa McCoul

Course Description: Maybe you grew up reading Harry Potter or Holes, Nancy Drew or the Narnia stories. Maybe you were a comic-book kid. What happened to your reading tastes as you grew older? Did you read what we now call “young adult literature” as a young adult? What exactly is a young adult? Does the term refer to an age category or a marketing tool, a personality type or a genre? What differentiates adult from young adult from teenager from child? How do we understand the genre of literature for and about this blurry, shifting group? In this course, we will explore a range of young adult or YA literature in English, including poetry, contemporary fiction, graphic memoirs, historical fiction, and fantasy. Our task is to think critically about what these books can tell us about how we (and others) understand adolescence, how those definitions have changed over time, and how these books participate in larger movements of history, culture, and literature.

Proposed Readings: 

**subject to change**
• Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo, 2015. $7.41paperback, $9.99 kindle, ISBN: 978-1250777904
• Cemetery Boys, Aiden Thomas, 2020, $10.01hardcover, $9.99 kindle. ISBN: 978-1250250469
• Blackout, Dhonielle Clayton et al., 2021. $9.49 hardcover, $13.99 kindle. ISBN: 978-0063088092
• The Poet X, Elizabeth Acevedo, 2018. $9.99 paperback, $13.99 kindle. ISBN: 978-0062662811
• All Boys Aren’t Blue, George Johnson, 2020. $10.82 paperback, $9.99 kindle. ISBN: 978-0374312718
• Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi, 2004. $8.99 paperback. ISBN: 978-0375714573
• Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Malinda Lo, 2021. $8.52 paperback, $10.99 kindle. ISBN: 978-0525555278
• So Many Beginnings, Bethany C. Morrow, 2021. $8.89 paperback, $9.99 kindle. ISBN: 978-1250761217

Taught by: Dr. Shawna Ross

Course Description: This course surveys the second half of the history of the British novel. We will register major changes in the novel form during this period by considering the end of detail-heavy Victorian realism, the growth of experimental modernism, and the emergence of ironic postmodernism. As we do so, we will analyze how writers respond to historical changes related to urbanization, war, technology, media, gender/sexuality, race, economics, and the end of the British empire.

We will begin with a month-long unit on Bram Stoker’s monstrously lengthy Dracula (1897), focusing on the novel’s wide-ranging footprint across the globe from its London base. Other major topics of discussion include rising challenges to the British empire; the paradoxes of Victorian sexual norms; and the novel’s fascination with all forms of representation, from maps to diaries to new media like the gramophone and the Kodak camera. Our second unit will focus on the avant-garde stylings of high modernism. We’ll read Virginia Woolf’s stream-of- consciousness masterpiece, Mrs. Dalloway (1925), followed by Samuel Selvon’s classic novel of alienation and migration, The Lonely Londoners (1956), which documents the Windrush generation that changed the fabric of London cultural life. Our third and final unit is devoted to popular fiction, namely, Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity (1995) and Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary (1996), which meditate on love, money, media, work, and body image in contemporary London. Both novels dramatize the end of a certain kind of Englishness as the traumas of war come home to roost and larger global shifts decenter England as an economic and political power.

I have striven to make the course reading load manageable. In addition to being graded on attendance, participation, and reading quizzes, you’ll create three projects. For Dracula, you will create a digital map that follows the characters around. Next, for Mrs. Dalloway or The Lonely Londoners, you’ll research and dream up an ideal study resource (likely something more interesting than CliffsNotes or Schmoop, but perhaps not!) With High Fidelity or Bridget Jones, you’ll analyze the shortcomings of its 1979 filmization and propose a new adaptation, such as a film, play, musical/opera, escape room, amusement park ride, mixtape, long-read, interactive ebook, Twine game, video game, Twitter bot, prequel/sequel, diorama, fan fic, graphic novel, set of costumes or the like.

Proposed Readings:

Bram Stoker, Dracula (Second Norton Critical Edition): ISBN 0393679209
Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway (ed. Bonnie Kime Scott): ISBN 0156030357
Samuel Selvon, The Lonely Londoners (Penguin Modern Classics): ISBN 9780141188416
Nick Hornby, High Fidelity (Riverhead 1996): ISBN 1573225517
Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones’s Diary (Penguin 1999): ISBN 014028009X

These suggested editions will keep all of us literally on the same page. I prefer you bring paper editions. However, if you have good reason to use another version—perhaps you already own or may borrow a different version, or you have a great workflow for using e- books that works well—you may certainly do so. (If you can’t immediately purchase your course texts, search Project Gutenberg for Dracula for a free open-access copy.)

Taught by: Dr. Shawna Ross

Course Description: This course will introduce students to detective fiction as a genre with particular stylistic features and a distinctive history of development, focusing on bestselling Golden Age novels to shed particular light on the gender dynamics of crime, authorship, and literary canonicity. Although many students are familiar with Agatha Christie, the world of private sleuths, police detectives, and criminal forensics seems dominated by male officials, leaving women cast in the role of the victim or a bereaved relative. Yet women crime writers of the 1920s and 1930s left an indelible stamp on the genre, and by reading their works, we will treat detective fiction as a window into twentieth-century social problems that motivated criminals to engage in nefarious plots.

We will start with background readings to establish the genre conventions, such as Julian Symons's _Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel_, short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, excerpts from Andrew Forrester's_The Female Detective_ (1864), and artifacts that circulated among writers themselves, such as records from the Detection Club from the 1930s and conventional rules for detective fiction by Philip van Doren, S.S. Van Dine, and Ronald Knox. Core novels would include works by Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie, Georgette Heyer, Ngaio Marsh, Gladys Mitchell, Dorothy L. Sayers, Josephine Tey, and Patricia Wentworth. Each text is chosen to highlight particular historical events or trends that intersect in interesting ways with genre conventions of detective fiction. Finally, we will examine the lasting influence of these works by playing the game Clue (Cluedo) and viewing an episode of _Murder, She Wrote_.

Assignments will include a regular reading journal; an historical research presentation, where students will share with their fellow students insights about a cultural phenomenon related to a course text; a literary analysis of the author’s diagnosis of a particular social problem related to the crime they depicted; and a group project involving an in-depth proposal for adapting one of the course texts into a 21st century medium and the creation of a prototype (such as a trailer for a proposed film, a wireframe for a proposed website, or a storyboard for a proposed graphic novel).

Proposed Readings: 

Dorothy L. Sayers: Whose Body (1923)
Margery Allingham: The Crime at Black Dudley (1929)
Gladys Mitchell: Speedy Death (1929)
Agatha Christie: Death on the Nile (1937)
Ngaio Marsh: Death in a White Tie (1938)
Georgette Heyer: No Wind of Blame (1939)
Josephine Tey: Daughter of Time (1951)
Agatha Christie: At Bertram’s Hotel (1965)

Taught by: Dr. Kevin O'Sullivan

Course Description: This course will provide an expansive survey of work by Edmund Spenser, renowned in his day as the “Prince of Poets.” It will explore his lasting influence on the world of English letters by examining his contributions to the burgeoning English Renaissance, his participation in the religious and political struggles of the period, and his influence on the rise of the professional author. In addition to reading the entirety of his virtuosic epic The Faerie Queene (1590, 1596), we will also read shorter poems, including selections from The Shepheardes Calender (1579), Complaints (1591), and Colin Clouts Come Home Againe (1595). Throughout, students will be asked to think critically about the relevance of Spenser’s poetry to our present day. To that end, we will also survey the vibrant and ongoing critical response to his work. Together, we will seek to reconcile Spenser’s writings on beauty and virtue with his often difficult views on matters relating to gender, race, justice, and violence.