Undergraduate Course Descriptions - Spring 2026 - Department of English Language and Literature

Undergraduate Course Descriptions - Spring 2026

ENGL 341.001 Literature & Medicine MW 2:20 PM - 3:35 PM Davis

According to Dr. Rita Charon, a pioneer in the field of narrative medicine, the “effective practice of medicine requires narrative competence, that is, the ability to acknowledge, absorb, interpret, and act on the stories and plights of others.” This course is designed to help students develop that narrative competence regardless of their career plans. The assigned readings will offer a range of literary and medical interpretations of sickness and health, suffering and recovery, and death and loss. Some works will address the treatment and portrayal of patients by medical practitioners while others will give voice to often-neglected patients’ and caregivers’ perspectives on illness and medical care. Together the readings will demonstrate the ways in which disease is lived in narrative terms while also demystifying the practice of medicine, revealing every physician to be, as the poet Anne Sexton observed, “a human / trying to fix up a human.” The course will focus primarily on American literary and medical works, including a selection of essays, poems, short stories, novellas, autobiographical works, a graphic novel, and a one-act play. Although this course should appeal to students interested in pursuing careers in medicine and health-related fields, any student interested in how literature can help us make sense of human suffering in all its variety is encouraged to register; no medical or scientific knowledge is required.

ENGL 355.001 Topics: Bodies Out of Place TTh 11:40 AM - 12:55 PM Ozelcuk

In this course we will explore narratives about bodies that breach established divides between territories/nations, races, genders, classes and between the human and the non-human. We will investigate how these narratives deal with bodies that uproot from their assigned place on the outside and stake a claim on the inside, transgressing those boundaries essential to maintaining the social order. We will meditate on the liberating, confining, destabilizing and/or vitalizing effects of such breaches on the individual and the collective. Our primary texts will include genre-bending works of global cinema and literature such as Parasite, The Babadook, Get Out, The God of Small Things, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Her, Exit West and Arrival.

ENGL 384.001 Realism TTh 10:05 AM - 11:20 AM Millen

First, we will be doing our best to define the term. Then we will ask: how do writers attempt to represent reality in all its strangeness and unpredictability? What is the relationship between realism and the pleasing predictability we tend to associate with genre? In what ways do artworks fix and intensify the humdrum rhythms of the world, and in what ways do they impose forms on its formlessness? “Art always says ‘and yet!’ to life,” claims one of realism’s champions. But what does that “and yet” look like? In this class, we will pose these and other fundamental questions about the social horizons of realism. We will test our claims and definitions against a range of modern works from the classic to the contemporary. Possible authors include: Honoré de Balzac, George Eliot, Henry James, Herman Melville, Anton Chekhov, Henrik Ibsen, Katherine Mansfield, Ousmane Sembène, and Arundhati Roy.

ENGL431B.001 Picture Books TTh 10:05 AM-11:20 AM Johnson-Feelings

This course introduces students to the broad field of contemporary children’s literature, focusing on the picture book. (We will give some attention to picture books designed for readers of all ages.) Topics of exploration will include (but are not limited to) the history of children’s literature, the world of children’s book prizing, the legacy of Dr. Seuss, the “disturbing image” in picture books, and literary/artistic excellence in picture books. Students will leave the course with an enhanced understanding of central issues and controversies in the industry of children’s book publishing and the literary criticism of children’s books. Most important, students will give attention to the relationship between children’s literature and the idea of social justice.

ENGL439.002 Topics: Rhetoric and Religion TTh 11:40 AM-12:55 PM Edwards

(Crosslisted with SPCH499 001)

How does religion inform our politics? How does religion intersect with other forms of identity, authority, and community? What, if any, role should religious beliefs and values play in public debates and public policy? What, if any, role should religious language and symbols play in our laws and political institutions? How should religious minorities be treated, and should their beliefs and practices be protected? Questions like these will guide us in this course as we take a journey across centuries and around the world to consider the ways in which rhetoric about religion and religious communities shape policies, stories, values, and our capacity to live with and learn from one another.

This class is open to students of all backgrounds and all majors. It counts as a core course for the new English major concentration in Communication and Culture, as an upper-level elective for the general English major, and towards the minors in English, Creative Writing, and Speech Communication.

ENGL445.001 LGTBQ+ Literature TTh 4:25 PM-5:40 PM Madden

(Crosslisted with WGST445)

This course will examine the evolving understanding of LGBTQ+ identities and communities and evolving representations of LGBTQ+ lives through a study of selected literary and historical texts, films, and cultural representations. As we examine these texts, we will consider the cultural narratives and images they offer, engage, dispute, and exemplify. Our awareness in this course wil be to develop an understanding of major issues and questions that inform and animate these texts; to deepen our historical and cultural understanding of LGBTQ+ identities and communities; and to be able to connect contemporary questions about sexual identity to broader philosophical, cultural, and historical understandings.

ENGL 200.002 Creative Writing & Community TTh 8:30 AM - 9:45 AM Johnson-Feelings

(AIU & VSR)

This section of “Creative Writing, Voice, and Community” is an introduction to writing, giving special attention to the idea of the social responsibility of the artist. Readings and writing assignments will emphasize the exploration of identity and community, values, and ethics. Model texts will include short fiction, biography and memoir, poetry and novel-in-verse, written largely for audiences of children and young adults. Workshop participants will be encouraged to write for these audiences. We will offer thoughtful feedback to each other, together creating a workshop community in which everyone is able to take risks and to grow as writers.

ENGL 200.003 Creative Writing & Community TTh 11:40 AM - 12:55 PM Madden

(AIU & VSR)

Creative Writing, Voice, and Community is an introduction to writing as a form of social engagement with a focus on values, ethics, and social responsibility. Both reading and writing assignments will emphasize the exploration of identity and community. As a writing course, the class will include a number of creative writing assignments and short reading responses to creative works. We will also read selected literary works that engage with ideas of identity, belonging, community, and writing as social action.

This section will also include a service-learning component. Together we will explore creative writing and/as community engagement, including discussions of tactical urbanism and human-centered design; public arts projects that disrupt routine, invite reflection, or facilitate human connection; and creative writing as community engagement, social activism, and public art. We will also meet with writers and artists who are engaged in community projects or community service.

ENGL 200.004 Creative Writing & Community TTh 1:15 PM - 2:30 PM Dings

(AIU & VSR)

We will read and discuss stories, poems, and some essays to focus on the relationship of individuals and communities. Specifically, what roles do shared and conflicting values play in the relationship? What is the responsibility of an individual to the society of which he/she/they are a part? What is the community’s responsibility to its members, especially when those members dissent? What difference does it make when individual membership is involuntary instead of voluntary? What difference does it make when assent is acquired through coercion instead of persuasion? Students will engage these matters and others through reading, discussion, and creative writing of their own.

ENGL 200.005 Creative Writing & Community MW 2:20 PM - 3:35 PM STAFF

(AIU & VSR)

Workshop course on creative writing with a focus on values, ethics, and social responsibility.

ENGL 200.006 Creative Writing & Community MW 3:55 PM - 5:10 PM Waldron

(AIU & VSR)

Workshop course on creative writing with a focus on values, ethics, and social responsibility.

ENGL 240.001 Film and Media Analysis TTh 10:05 AM - 11:20 AM Ozselcuk

(AIU; cross-listed with FAMS 240)

Introduction to the critical study of film and media. Students will closely analyze moving images and develop written arguments about film and media.

ENGL 240.002 Film and Media Analysis TTh1:15 PM - 2:30 PM Minett

(AIU; cross-listed with FAMS 240)

Introduction to the critical study of film and media. Students will closely analyze moving images and develop written arguments about film and media.

ENGL 270.001 World Literature MW 2:20 PM - 3:35 PM Beecroft

(AIU)

Selected masterpieces of world literature from antiquity to present.

ENGL 280.001 Literature & Society TTh 2:50 PM - 4:05 PM Forter

(AIU & VSR)

Climate

This course asks what literature can teach us about the most pressing social issue of our time: the issue of global climate change. We’ll read a series of novels from around the world in which the effects of such change are explored with great complexity and power. These books link the climate crisis to a range of other urgent concerns: capitalism and globalization; the relations of human to non-human animals and nature; family life, especially the relations between parents and children; the peculiar temporality of global warming, in which our present is charged with the particulates of past emissions whose effects will not be fully felt till the future; the difficulty of depicting global processes in a genre (the novel) that has conventionally focused on individual (local) experience; and the uneven distribution of climate change’s effects, especially along lines of race, gender, and social class. Finally, we’ll ask what this type of literature “knows” that journalistic and scientific discourse does not. This question will be key to grappling with the dystopian setting of so much cli-fi, which often (paradoxically) throws into relief what a non-dystopian future might look like.

ENGL 280.J10 Literature & Society WEB ASYNC Stern

(AIU & VSR)

This term, we’ll read literature engaged with questions of values, ethics and social responsibility. Novels, short fiction, drama, and poetry span a range of authors (Mary Shelley, Margaret Atwood, Sandra Cisneros, Edwidge Danticat, Toni Morrison, Art Spiegelman, and others). Major assignments offer various possible formats, including artwork, reflection, outdoor adventure, and more.

This will be a fully asynchronous online course. In place of live meetings and discussion, you’ll be working entirely online, both independently and in groups. While lectures will be delivered via pre-recorded videos, allowing you flexibility in managing your time, there are weekly deadlines to keep you on track and to keep all groups up to speed. Lectures and coursework released weekly. Live office hours available weekly and by appointment.

Please note that this section requires that you do your reading and writing and thinking without artificial assistance. No use of Artificial Intelligence allowed without explicit permission from me.

ENGL 282.001 TOPICS: The Holocaust in Words and Images MW 5:30 PM - 6:45 PM Schoeman

(AIU)

This course uses a variety of media to look at what, in time of tyranny, war, and genocide, humanity is capable of. (Spoiler: it’s mostly not good.)

In Schoeman’s classroom, dialogues, not research papers, are the requirement. The professor and the students sit together to discuss the materials, exchange thoughts, challenge long-established taboos (cry and, why not, laugh): thus, students learn to become analytical interpreters, critical thinkers, intelligent interlocutors and commentators. Loads of mind-blowing lectures and visuals.

It will be unforgettable.

ENGL 285.001 Global Contemporary Literature TTh 10:05 AM - 11:20 AM Jelly-Schapiro

(AIU)

This course will examine how contemporary literature both registers and is itself implicated in global forces and histories. We will read works that strive to apprehend the world at large, as well as works that illuminate the ways in which global culture is produced and experienced in local places. Reading novels from across the world, our inquiry will focus on the literary representation of several interrelated phenomena: capitalism, imperialism, and climate change. We will devote especial attention to the question of how contemporary literature reckons with the longer history of the interlocking crises—economic, political, cultural, and environmental—that define our current planetary predicament. Thinking about the history of the present, we will simultaneously consider how literary texts bring into view alternative futures, other possible worlds within this one.

ENGL 287.001 American Literature TTh 8:30 AM - 9:45 AM Jackson

(Designed for English Majors)

This class will be a survey of American Literature from its colonial beginnings in the Fifteenth Century to present. We’ll focus on texts that cluster around recurrent thematic questions. These include: What is America? Who are Americans? Is there one fixed definition? Are humans fundamentally flawed, basically neutral, or inherently good? What defines us best: our souls, our heads, or our hearts? How do we come to terms with human suffering and the prospect of death? What is literature, and what is it good for? What is reality, and how can it best be depicted? Others themes will emerge through class discussion. Our class will have three goals: to introduce you to the sweep of American literary history and suggest something of its power and significance, especially by understanding what various works meant in their historical context; to encourage you to read closely and carefully, understanding how those works worked as art; and to help you develop as writers of critical academic prose, through a series of essays and short assignments.

ENGL 287.002 American Literature TTh 1:15 PM - 2:30 PM Keyser

(Designed for English Majors)

This class provides an introduction to nineteenth and twentieth-century U.S. literature. We will read poetry, short stories, essays, and autobiographies. Over the course of the semester, we will ask how stylistic choices (genre, form, setting, characterization, diction, and tone) shape theme and message. We will also consider how the literature speaks to its historical and cultural contexts.

ENGL 287.003 American Literature MW 2:20 PM - 3:35 PM Trafton

(Designed for English Majors)

Seeing in Black and White: Race and Vision in African American Literature

This course takes selections from contemporary African American writers that highlight issues of race. Specifically, these readings each ask questions regarding the structure of race and of race relations, especially as they appear in late twentieth-century American culture, and especially as they involve issues of vision and visibility. Our authors ask this: since race is at least in part a function of sight – of some people seeing other people who look different than themselves – then what can be learned about race and race relations by artistically challenging our preconceptions about both what and how we see? Using such texts as Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Toi Derricotte’s The Black Notebooks, and August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson, we, along with our authors, will investigate these issues.

ENGL 288.001 English Literature TTh 11:40 AM - 12:55 PM Millen

(Designed for English Majors)

An introduction to English literary history, emphasizing the analysis of literary texts, the development of literary traditions over time, the emergence of new genres and forms, and the writing of successful essays about literature. Designed for English majors.

ENGL 288.002 English Literature MW 3:55 PM - 5:10 PM Gavin

(Designed for English Majors)

An introduction to English literary history, emphasizing the analysis of literary texts, the development of literary traditions over time, and the emergence of new genres and forms. Authors covered will include Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, and Jane Austen, among others.

ENGL 287.001 American Literature TTh 8:30 AM - 9:45 AM Jackson

(Designed for English Majors)

ENGL 287.002 American Literature TTh 1:15 PM - 2:30 PM Keyser

(Designed for English Majors)

ENGL 287.003 American Literature MW 2:20 PM - 3:35 PM Trafton

(Designed for English Majors)

Seeing in Black and White: Race and Vision in African American Literature

ENGL 288.001 English Literature TTh 11:40 AM - 12:55 PM Millen

(Designed for English Majors)

ENGL 288.002 English Literature MW 3:55 PM - 5:10 PM Gavin

(Designed for English Majors)

ENGL 240.001 Film and Media Analysis TTh 10:05 AM - 11:20 AM Ozselcuk

(Crosslisted with FAMS240)

Introduction to the critical study of film and media. Students will closely analyze moving images and develop written arguments about film and media.

ENGL 240.002 Film and Media Analysis TTh 1:15 PM - 2:30 PM Minett

(Crosslisted with FAMS240)

Introduction to the critical study of film and media. Students will closely analyze moving images and develop written arguments about film and media.

ENGL 350.001 Intro to Comics Studies TTh 2:50 PM - 4:05 PM Minett

(Crosslisted with FAMS350)

Tackles questions of storytelling, industry, history, culture, legitimation, and audiences. Readings range from Donald Duck to Maus, from Batman: The Dark Knight Returns to Fun Home, from Archie to The Avengers, from Persepolis to Lumberjanes, and from Tales from the Crypt to Young Romance.

ENGL 355.001 Topics: Bodies Out of Place TTh 11:40 AM - 12:55 PM Ozselcuk

(Crosslisted with FAMS360)

ENGL 360.001 Creative Writing TTh 10:05 AM - 11:20 AM Dings

Workshop course on writing original fiction, poetry, drama, and creative nonfiction.

ENGL 360.002 Creative Writing TTh 2:50 PM - 4:05 PM STAFF

Workshop course on writing original fiction, poetry, drama, and creative nonfiction.

ENGL 360.003 Creative Writing MW 5:30 PM - 6:45 PM Waldron

Workshop course on writing original fiction, poetry, drama, and creative nonfiction.

ENGL 360.006 Creative Writing MW 3:55 PM - 5:10 PM STAFF

Workshop course on writing original fiction, poetry, drama, and creative nonfiction.

ENGL 431B.001 Picture Books TTh 10:05 AM - 11:20 AM Johnson-Feelings

ENGL 439.002 Topics: Rhetoric and Religion TTh 11:40 AM - 12:55 PM Edwards

(Crosslisted with SPCH499.001)

ENGL 460.001 Advanved Writing MW 3:55 PM - 5:10 PM Holcomb

This course approaches advanced writing through genre and style. Genre is traditionally defined in terms of the subject matter and, more usually, form or structure, but we’ll adopt a more recent (and useful) approach and think of genres as modes of social action that writers perform in response to typified or recurrent situations. Defined as such—that is, as social action—genre invites us to think of writing, not as simply the transcription of thought (for instance) or the representation of some “reality,” but as behavior. Within this new framework, generic labels (such as novel, research report, course syllabus, shopping list) serve as a shorthand for different ensembles or repertoires of behavior that writers orchestrate to answer (or alter) the situations in which they write.

We’ll approach style along similar lines—that is, as a vehicle for social interaction. Style is not some decorative overlay that we apply after generating the content of our writing, nor is it simply a matter of grammar and mechanics. Rather, it is a medium through which writers present themselves and orchestrate relationships with their readers, their subject matter, and the broader contexts in which their texts appear.

ENGL 462.001 Technical Writing TTh 1:15 PM - 2:30 PM Bland

Preparation for and practice in types of writing important to scientists, engineers, and computer scientists, from brief technical letters to formal articles and reports.

ENGL 463.001 Business Writing 6 available sections on various days and times + 2 asynchronous sections

Sections 004, 006, J10, and J11

Section 4: TTh 2:50 PM - 4:05 PM
Section 6: MW 5:30 PM - 6:45 PM

Extensive practice in different types of business writing, from brief letters to formal articles and reports.

Note: sections J10 and J11 are online asynchronous.

Sections 001, 002, 003, and 005

Section 1: TTh 10:05 AM - 11:20 AM
Section 2: TTh 11:40 AM - 12:55 PM
Section 3: TTh 1:15 PM - 2:30 PM
Section 5: TTh 4:25 PM - 5:40 PM

English 463 provides students with intensive practice in the application of written communication theory to practical, real-world professional situations. The focus is on the writing process as it is utilized in professional contexts. Students will be introduced to current theory in business communication regarding style and formats, audience analysis, composing and designing documents, creating persuasive messages, and integrating design and formatting elements into text documents. Also, students are introduced to GenAI as a tool in professional settings and the ethical use of this tool. Other topics to be covered may include but are not limited to using graphics and visuals in presentations, creating effective resumes and cover letters, developing a plan for job searching and the interview process, analyzing ethical issues of communication, composing bias-free documents, writing for international and culturally diverse audiences, and understanding the impact of technology on communication practices.

Assignments focus on purpose (inform, persuade, negative news); audience analysis and tone; organization and document formats; effective style and conventions; design elements; accessibility and bias-free language. Students practice adapting writing styles to the context of a wide range of organizational settings. Employers value a concise, effective writing style in any profession.

ENGL 465.001 Fiction Workshop MW 2:20 PM - 3:35 PM Blackwell

This course is a fiction workshop intended for students with some experience in creative writing. The majority of class time will comprise workshops in which students share and critique original short stories. We'll also take a look at the elements of fiction in some published work, complete a few in-class writing exercises, and consider writing as both profession and vocation.

ENGL 491.001 Advanced Poetry Workshop MW 1:15 PM - 2:30 PM Amadon

The focus of this course will be writing and revising new poems. Students will develop and refine their ability to articulate their own poetic aims and style, while also expanding their view of what a poem can be and do through readings of contemporary poetry and assignments tied to those readings. The final goal of this course is a portfolio of original creative work, but peer response is a fundamental part and both will factor heavily in the final grade. Students should have taken ENGL 360 previously, but those with experience writing poetry or taking creative writing workshops are welcome.

ENGL 492.001 Advanced Fiction Workshop TTh 2:50 PM - 4:05 PM Bajo

This will be a course in the writing of the contemporary literary short story (novel chapters possible). We will expand on those aspects of fiction examined and experimented with in English 465. We will begin by studying stories and innovations of fiction writing in order to explore the aim and possibilities of contemporary literature. However, the course will primarily be a workshop for students’ own stories.

Basically, the course will have a three-part structure comprised of writing fiction, workshop discussion, and fiction writing assignments. The assignments are designed to add dimension to the stories students will be composing, to make their work richer and more attuned to contemporary literature.

ENGL 515.001 Race, Gender, and Graphic Novels TTh 8:30 AM - 9:45 AM Whitted

(Crosslisted with AFAM515 & WGST515)

This course is a scholarly study of race and gender in comics with a special emphasis on the experiences of African Americans. Assignments include weekly in-class writing and drawing prompts, small group activities, quizzes, and a final project. Please also note that this course meets with AFAM 515 and WGST 515. It is open to both undergraduate and graduate students.