We offer approximately 150 to 200 sections of English courses each long semester and a handful of courses over the summer. All of our courses emphasize analytical reading, critical thinking, effective communication, and the development of various writing styles and skills. Our writing-oriented courses cover a variety of skills and degree requirements for students across the university including Core Curriculum courses, Writing Intensive courses, creative writing, and technical business writing. Our literature courses span across genres, time periods, and areas of study including such topics as: health humanities, digital humanities, linguistics, cultural studies, LGBTQ+ literatures, Latinx literatures, rhetoric, literature and film, African-American literatures, surveys of literary periods, and young adult/children's literature.
For a full listing of English courses and brief descriptions, visit the university’s undergraduate catalog.
Below you will find detailed course descriptions for some of our classes being offered during the Fall 2026 semester. While this list is not exhaustive, it is meant to aid students in selecting courses that meet their interests, particularly for our special topics courses which change from semester to semester. Please use the Class Search function in Howdy to see a full list of English and Linguistics classes being offered in Fall 2026.
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Taught by: Dr. Robert Stagg
Section Description: This course offers an introduction to the work of William Shakespeare. We'll begin by getting a handle on Shakespearean language before proceeding act by act through two major tragedies he wrote around the middle of his career ('Macbeth' and 'Othello') as well as discussing in broader terms three plays that could be said to characterize other genres in Shakespeare’s career ('Antony and Cleopatra', 'The Winter’s Tale', 'Twelfth Night'). Interspersed will be consideration of the many different ways we might think about Shakespeare: in terms, for example, of theatre history, adaptation, historical biography, the early modern world, textual bibliography.
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Taught by: Dr. Apostolos Vasilakis
Section Description:
This course will examine some of the major texts of world literature, directing our analyses around a core group of central ideas. Reading and analyzing the texts in this focused manner, we will investigate the evolutions and transitions in the literary tradition, spanning from the ancient world through the 14th century. During this course we will see how a number of writers from different cultures (Homer, Sophocles, Virgil, Dante) situate their stories within their own historical reality, and how they address and explore questions about what it means to be human, to make choices, to love, to act, to be.
Proposed Readings:
Homer: The Odyssey
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Sophocles: Oedipus the King
Vyasa: The Bhagavad-Gītā
Virgil: The Aeneid
Dante: The Inferno
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Taught by: Dr. Marian Eide
Section Description:
This course familiarizes students with approximately two and a half centuries of British literary history through a sampling of periods and genres (poetry, novel, drama, short story, letter, and journal). We will be particularly interested in the rise, spread, and decline of the British Empire and the effects of empire on culture and thought. Additionally, we will consider revolutions in governance, philosophy, and technology. The literature of this period is deeply engaged with history and society, planting roots that anchor contemporary thought.
Proposed Readings:
Novels:
Jane Austen: Mansfield Park
Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre
Caryl Phillips: A Distant Shore~
Journal:
Dorothy Wordsworth:
“Grasmere Journals”
Drama:
Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest
Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot
Short Stories:
James Joyce: Dubliners
Virginia Woolf: A Haunted House & Other Stories
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Taught by: Dr. Jason Crider
Section Description: This course explores the history of writing interfaces and word processing software from the perspective of media studies and digital rhetoric. Students will be introduced to concepts and theories from media archaeology, environmental and digital humanities, data infrastructure studies, human-computer interfacing (HCI), and more as they explore and experiment with hardware and software such as mechanical keyboards, open-source writing software, haptic media interfaces, augmented reality platforms, and experimental computer interfaces. Students will practice writing project proposals, learn how to do research in the history of writing and computing, get hands on experience with block printing and a printing press, as well as create their own personalized writing interface.
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Taught by: Dr. Noah Peterson
Section Description:
This course centers on the development of the Arthur story in poetry, fiction, and film, 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," and contemporary approaches to the Arthurian material. 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.
Proposed Readings:
Broadview Anthology of Medieval Arthurian Literature; The Buried Giant; Excalibur; Monty Python and the Holy Grail; The Green Knight
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Taught by: Dr. Tyler Shoemaker
Section Description: This section of ENGL 334 steps through the major periods of English-language science fiction, beginning with the genre’s origins in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and ending with contemporary authors such as Ted Chiang and N.K. Jemesin. In between, we will read from Golden Age magazines in the 1930s-40s, New Wave writers in the 60s-70s, and cyberpunk in the 80s. Topics include the mind-body problem, mortality and immortality, artificial intelligence, language and cognition, theories of technology, dystopia, environmentalism, and others.
Proposed Readings:
Mary Shelley, E.M. Forster, Orson Welles, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia Butler, Ridley Scott, William Gibson, Alfonso Cuaron, Ted Chiang, N.K. Jemesin
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Taught by: Dr. Jason Crider
Section Description: This course serves as an overview of some of the major theories and theorists of rhetoric in the 20th and 21st centuries. What is the relationship between rhetoric and culture? Rhetoric and (post)modernity? How does rhetoric function as a method of literary interpretation or cultural criticism? How does rhetoric function differently in oral, textual, and digital contexts? How has rhetoric been traditionally theorized and taught as an academic discipline? Students will explore a broad range of rhetorical theories over the course of the semester and practice applying them to their contemporary moment.
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Taught by: Dr. Katayoun Torabi
Section Description: In this class, students will examine the Bible as both a collection of disparate texts and as a unified whole, with a particular focus on how the rhetorical strategies of its many authors, narrative structures, and character development in the Bible have all influenced various readings of the text through time. Through guided in-class exercises, small and large group discussions, and written assignments, students will examine ethical issues surrounding politics, religion, nationhood, and community in the Bible and understand them in their own historical and cultural moments. Students will also think about how their own responses to Biblical narratives are rooted in their personal understanding of society and culture, and to reflect on the wider implications of how they and others approach this foundational text. Materials for this course include written texts and such visual and audio representations as paintings, video clips, films, poetry readings, and music. This course is cross-listed with RELS 360.
Proposed Readings:
Bible: Authorized King James Version with Apocrypha, by Carroll, Robert.
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Taught by: Dr. Margaret Ezell
Section Description: In this large lecture survey of writings by women in English, we will concentrate on women living and working in the “early modern” period, roughly 1550 through the American and French Revolutions. The survey starts with one of the most important and iconic women in history, Queen Elizabeth 1 (1533-1603), her poetry, speeches, and letters. We will end the survey with two women from very different social backgrounds at the end of the eighteenth century, the poet Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784) who was brought to Boston as a slave when a child, and the novelist and essay writer Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), often referred to as the “first English feminist.” In between we will read women’s poetry, drama, diaries and household books, and fictions. These are by women who wrote for their friends and family, to earn a living, and to God alone, including aristocratic women such as Lady Mary Wroth and Margaret Cavendish, housewives, and authors of best sellers such as Dorothy Leigh (The Mother’s Legacy), and Aphra Behn, the first professional woman playwright. We will look at women’s participation in manuscript culture as well as their increasing presence in the world of professional and commercial authorship. Graded assignments will include two comprehensive exams, weekly reading comprehension quizzes, and short skills exercises.
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Taught by: Dr. Katayoun Torabi
Section Description: Are you interested in how computers affect our understanding and study of cultural heritage: literature, history, art, religion, philosophy, etc.? Do you want to learn how to use open-source software to analyze source material, make arguments, and present your ideas to the public? If so, this cross-listed course is for you. Whether you want to make more engaging class presentations, pursue a career that engages the public online, or develop technical skills that will set you apart, this course will help you do that. You will learn about how computers are used to conduct humanities research and the impact of technology on different fields of study. You will also use digital tools to visualize literary analysis, create digital maps, and analyze social networks. There is no disciplinary prerequisite, no extensive technical skills are required for the course, and no one disciplinary approach will be favored. This course is cross-listed with Digital Humanities 433 and History 433.
Proposed Readings: The Digital Humanities Coursebook: An Introduction to Digital Methods for Research and Scholarship by Johanna Drucker, 2021