Courses
Spring 2010 undergraduate course descriptions
Please note: The courses described below reflect the most recent schedule changes as of 10/12/09. “Staff” means that no specific faculty member has yet been assigned to teach the course. We have used the descriptions from the General Bulletin, 2008-2010 for most courses, except when a special topic is being used. Branch campus schedules and descriptions are included in this listing only if requested by instructor. Each course entry lists the following information before the description:
- Course number, section, and title
- Instructor and course meeting times
- Campus (if other than Oxford or plus Oxford)
- A brief description of the course
Please consult the course listing on Banner for College Composition (ENG 111 & 112) class schedules.
Graduate course descriptions can be found here.
ENG F103 A | First Year Seminar: Staging America: National Identity on Stage/Screen
Katie Johnson | WF | 2:15-3:30
ENG 109 A | English for International Students
Staff | MWF | 8-9:05
Adaptation of ENG 111 for nonnative speakers; satisfies in part the Miami Plan requirement of six hours of composition and literature. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 109 B | English for International Students
Staff | MWF | 9:30-10:35
Description below.
ENG 109 C | English for International Students
Staff | MWF | 11:15-12:20
Adaptation of ENG 111 for nonnative speakers; satisfies in part the Miami Plan requirement of six hours of composition and literature. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 109 D | English for International Students
Staff | MWF | 12:45-1:50
Adaptation of ENG 111 for nonnative speakers; satisfies in part the Miami Plan requirement of six hours of composition and literature. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 109 E | English for International Students
Staff | MWF | 2:15-3:20
Adaptation of ENG 111 for nonnative speakers; satisfies in part the Miami Plan requirement of six hours of composition and literature. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 109 F | English for International Students
Staff | MWF | 4:10-5:15
Adaptation of ENG 111 for nonnative speakers; satisfies in part the Miami Plan requirement of six hours of composition and literature. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 111 A | College Composition
Staff | MWF | 9:05-9:55
Study and practice of effective explanatory, expressive, and persuasive writing. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 111 B | College Composition
Staff | MWF | 10:10-11
Study and practice of effective explanatory, expressive, and persuasive writing. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 111 C | College Composition
Staff | MWF | 12:45-1:35
Study and practice of effective explanatory, expressive, and persuasive writing. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 112 | Composition & Literature
Please consult the course listing on Banner for the complete list of Composition & Literature class schedules.
ENG 119 A | English for International Grad Students
Staff | TR | 8-9:15
ENG 122 A | Popular Literature: Science Fiction
William Howe | MW | 12:45-2
Exploration in detail of one genre of popular literature. Possible subjects include detective fiction, science fiction, western, and romance novel. Special attention given to why a culture invests in popular genres. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 123 A | Introduction to Poetry
William Howe | MW | 5-6:15
Exploration of the wide range of literature and oral performance called poetry. Study of critical terms used to discuss and write about poetic conventions, forms, and sub-genres. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 124 A | Introduction to Fiction
William Fisher | TR | 2:15-3:30
Study of basic characteristics (narrative design, character, point of view, style, and tone) and essential forms (short-short story, story, novella, and novel) of the genre of literary fiction. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 131 A | Life & Thought in English Lit
Kaara Peterson | TR | 11:15-12:30
Selected major texts and issues in English literature and culture from the beginning to 1660, including The Civil War and Paradise Lost, with attention to historical context reflected in religious, philosophical, political, and social perspectives and issues such as gender, class, ethnicity, and canon formation. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 132 A | Life & Thought in English Lit
William Orth | TR | 12:45-2
Description below.
ENG 132 B | Life & Thought in English Lit
David Washington | TR | 2:15-3:30
British literature from 1660 to 1901, with attention to issues of class, race, and gender in the context of accelerating economic, social, environmental, political, and religious change; to developments in education, psychology, philosophy, science, and technology; and to relations with other literatures and arts. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 133H A | Eng. Literature 1890-present
William Hardesty | TR | 2:15-3:30
Selected British fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama from 1901 to present with special attention to the impact on literary imagination of two global conflicts and loss of Empire. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 134 A | Introduction to Shakespeare
Cynthia Klestinec | MW | 11:15am-12:30
Introduction to Shakespeare's works. Gives students who are new to collegiate-level literary studies an overview of the range of Shakespeare's works and the variety of approaches to those works. Prerequisite or Corequisite: college composition. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 141 A | Life & Thought in American Lit
Sonya Parrish | MW | 4:10-5:25
Introduction to multiplicity of voices in American culture as expressed in literary texts written in and about America from colonial period through 1865. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 142 A | Life & Thought in Amer Lit: 1865-1945
Brandon Clay | TR | 2:15-3:30
Description below.
ENG 142 B | Life & Thought in Amer Lit: 1865-1945
Jerome Rosenberg | TR | 12:45-2
Introduction to multiplicity of voices in American culture as expressed in literary texts written in and about America from 1865 to 1945 (MPT 143). Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 143 A | American Lit 1945-Present
Jonnetta Woodard | TR | 2:15-3:30
Introduction to multiplicity of voices in American culture as expressed in literary texts written in and about America from 1945 to present. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 180H A | Beauty and Monstrosity
Cindy Lewiecki-Wilson | MW | 2:15-3:30
No description available.
ENG 180I A | Culture & Literature of the South
Kay Sloan | MW | 11:15-12:30
No description available.
ENG 201C A | Language in African-American Comm.
Jacquelyn Rahman | MW | 12:45-2
Introduces various ways of looking at language: sociological, psychological, and formal. Students study how language plays a role in every human activity, from gender and racial stereotyping to the development of automata. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 202 A | Var English: Dialect Divrs/Lng
Jacquelyn Rahman | TR | 2:15-3:30
This interactive course focuses on varieties of English within the context of diverse cultures in the United States. Primary topics include: linguistic diversity, language change, gender differences in language use, language (use) and social class, attitudes toward language as well as examination of specific varieties of English such as African American English, Appalachian English, Native American English, Vietnamese American English, English spoken by persons of Latin American descent, Hawaiian Pidgin English, Gullah, Louisiana Creole, and others. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 223 A | Rhetorical Strategies for Writers
Katharine Ronald | TR | 11:15-12:30
ENG 224 A | Digital Writing and Rhetoric
Jason Palmeri | TR | 11:15-12:30
In this course, students will explore ways in which writing practices are changing in light of emerging digital technologies. Recognizing that the act of writing can no longer be confined to the production of printed words alone, this course will engage students in both analyzing and producing digital multimodal texts that use and blend alphabetic, visual, and aural components (e.g., audio essays, video documentaries, web sites). This course will introduce students to key rhetorical concepts that can guide both their reading and writing of digital multimodal texts. No prior web authoring or multimedia composing skills required. This course fulfills a writing requirement for integrated English/language arts and middle childhood language arts education students. Cross-listed with IMS224.
ENG 225 A | Advanced Composition
Gina Patterson | MW | 9:30-10:45
Practice in various types of expository and narrative writing. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 226 A | Intro/Creative Writing: Short Fiction & Poetry
Brett Strickland | MWF | 8-8:50
Techniques and principles of creative writing with special application to the short story and to poetry. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 226 B | Intro/Creative Writing: Short Fiction & Poetry
Catherine Wagner | TR | 11:15-12:30
Techniques and principles of creative writing with special application to the short story and to poetry. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 226 C | Intro/Creative Writing: Short Fiction & Poetry
Nora Bonner | MW | 12:45-2
Techniques and principles of creative writing with special application to the short story and to poetry. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 226 D | Intro/Creative Writing: Short Fiction & Poetry
Jacqueline Kari | TR | 2:15-3:30
Techniques and principles of creative writing with special application to the short story and to poetry. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 226 E | Intro/Creative Writing: Short Fiction & Poetry
Steven Lansky | MW | 4:10-5:25
Techniques and principles of creative writing with special application to the short story and to poetry. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 231 A | The Short Story
William Fisher | TR | 12:45-2
Study of the short story as a literary genre with its own unique conventions. Examples from both early and present-day masters. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 231 B | The Short Story
David Schloss | TR | 2:15-3:30
Study of the short story as a literary genre with its own unique conventions. Examples from both early and present-day masters. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 233 A | British Women Writers
Erin Douglas | TR | 2:15-3:30
Works by British women, from the 19th century to the present. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 252 A | Life & Thought in European Lit
Mark Bernheim | WF | 4:10-5:25
Selected masterpieces of European literature from 1800 to the present. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 255 A | Russian Lit in Eng Translation
Staff | MWF | 10:10-11
Examines works by Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Turgenev, and Dostoevsky and a number of critical essays representative of a variety of viewpoints. Uses an interdisciplinary approach that takes into account social, historical, political, religious, as well as literary factors. Cross-listed with RUS 255. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 258 A | Copywriting: Electronic Media
Robert Long | MWF | 9:05-9:55
Writing for radio, television, and new media with emphasis on commercial, non-commercial and promotional copywriting, announcements. Cross-listed with COM 258. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 262 A | Children’s Literature
Mark Bernheim | WF | 12:45-2
Broad study of children's books, with emphasis on acquiring skill to evaluate children's literature. Practice in the literary analysis of prose and poetry with emphasis on the impact of good literature for children. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 262 B | Children’s Literature
Mark Bernheim | WF | 2:15-3:30
Broad study of children's books, with emphasis on acquiring skill to evaluate children's literature. Practice in the literary analysis of prose and poetry with emphasis on the impact of good literature for children. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 271 A | Southern Literature
Kay Sloan | MW | 12:45-2
Focuses on the culture and literature of the South as a region unique within the United States. Studies the complex ways Southern authors present their world views through fiction - and the ways political passions are manifested in a tumultuous society such as the American South in the era prior to, during, and after the Civil Rights Movement. Musical forms of expression such as the blues will also be studied. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 298 A | Intro: Literary & Cultural Study
Anita Mannur | TR | 11:15-12:30
Introductory skill-based course to be taken within one semester after declaring literature major. Covers critical and interpretive terms and basic concepts of literary genre; develops skills of close reading, interpretation, and critical analysis; provides instructions in techniques of research and citation; and introduces various critical methods and approaches. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 298 B | Intro: Literary & Cultural Study
Stefanie Dunning | MW | 9:30-10:45
Introductory skill-based course to be taken within one semester after declaring literature major. Covers critical and interpretive terms and basic concepts of literary genre; develops skills of close reading, interpretation, and critical analysis; provides instructions in techniques of research and citation; and introduces various critical methods and approaches. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 301 A | History of English Language
Gwendolyn Etter-Lewis | TR | 10:10-11:50
Linguistic and cultural history of British and American English, and other varieties of English around the world. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 301 B | History of English Language
Vincent Palozzi | MW | 12:20-2
Linguistic and cultural history of British and American English, and other varieties of English around the world. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 302 A | Structure of Modern English
LuMing Mao | MW | 2:15-3:55
Linguistic structure of American English with specific reference to application in teaching. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 303 A | Introduction to Linguistics
Vincent Palozzi | TR | 2:15-3:55
Scope of linguistics: fundamental concepts and methods of linguistic science in its descriptive and historical aspects. Cross-listed with ATH and GER 309, SPN 303. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
Notes: Open only to linguistics majors & minors; others should register under ATH 309, GER 309, or SPN 303.
ENG 304 A | Backgrounds of Comp Theory & Research
Wioleta Fedeczko | TR | 12:45-2
See description below.
ENG 304 B | Backgrounds of Comp Theory & Research
Mary Fuller | TR | 2-3:15
Theoretical foundation of composition theory and research, emphasizing structure of writing, composing process, contemporary rhetoric, and linguistic based theories of composition. Description taken from the the General Bulletin.
ENG 311 A | Contemporary Fiction
Joseph Bates | MW | 9:30-10:45
In–depth study of contemporary fiction for creative writing majors. Works studied come from both the United States and abroad, with emphasis on works published within the last 25 years, usually within the last decade. Description taken from the the General Bulletin.
ENG 312 A | Contemporary Poetry
William Howe | MW | 11:15-12:30
In-depth study of contemporary poetry, written both in the United States and other countries, with emphasis on works published during the last 25 years, usually within the past decade. Description taken from the the General Bulletin.
ENG 313 A | Intro to Technical Writing
Staff | MW | 8-9:15
Description below.
ENG 313 B | Intro to Technical Writing
Katherine Durack | TR | 9:30-10:45
Description below.
ENG 313 C | Intro to Technical Writing
Staff | MWF | 10:10-11
Description below.
ENG 313 D | Intro to Technical Writing
Staff | MWF | 11:15-12:05
Introduction to the principles of technical writing. Attention to defining purpose, analyzing audience, developing document structure, creating visual design, drafting and revising communications. Practice in varieties of technical communication. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 315 A | Business Writing
Staff | MW | 12:45-2
Study of writing techniques used in business environments and practice in applying them. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 315 B | Business Writing
Staff | MWF | 12:45-1:35
Study of writing techniques used in business environments and practice in applying them. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 320 A | Intermed Creatve Writing: Fiction
Joseph Squance | MW | 12:45-2
ENG 320 B | Intermed Creatve Writing: Fiction
Joseph Squance | TR | 2:15-3:30
ENG 321 A | The Literary Marketplace
Joseph Bates | Tr | 2:15-3:30
Provides creative writing students with an introduction to the literary marketplace. Designed for students interested in careers as editors or reviewers, or for anyone interested in how books are produced, marketed, reviewed, and remaindered. Description taken from General Bulletin.
ENG 328 A | Renaissance: Nondrama Lit 16thC
Cynthia Klestinec | MW | 2:15-3:30
British 16th century non-dramatic literature: More, Spenser, Sidney, Shakespeare, and others. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 330 A | Intermediate Creative Writing: Poetry
David Schloss | TR | 12:45-2
Intermediate course in theory and practice of poetry writing with seminar study of relevant contemporary materials and criticism of student work in class and conference. Assigned exercises in techniques and forms. An average of 10 to 15 poems due each semester. May be taken twice, but not with same instructor. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 337 A | African Ameicanr Writing 1878-1945
Cheryl Johnson | TR | 12:45-2
Survey of African American writing from after the Reconstruction era to World War II, with special attention to the emergence and history of the New Negro Renaissance. Among the writers studied are Paul Laurence Dunbar, Charles W. Chesnutt, W.E.B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Sterling A. Brown, Alain Locke, Margaret Walker, and Richard Wright. Cross-listed with BWS 337. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 338 A | African Amer Writing 1946-Present
Stefanie Dunning | MW | 11:15-12:30
Survey of African American writing since World War II, with special attention to literary and cultural contributions of such writers as James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Gwendolyn Brooks, Amiri Baraka, Paule Marshall, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker. Cross-listed with BWS 338. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 343 A | Eng Lit Victorian 1830-1860
Anita Wilson | TR | 12:45-2
British prose and poetry from 1830 to 1860. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 344 A | Eng Lit Victorian 1860-1901
Anita Wilson | TR | 9:30-10:45
English prose and poetry of the later Victorian period, from 1860 to Victoria’s death in 1901. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 345 A | British Modernism 1890-1945
William Hardesty | TR | 11:15-12:30
Study of British culture and literature at the end of the Empire; readings include Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and their contemporaries. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 347 A | Postwar/Postclny Brit: 1945-Present
William Hardesty | TR | 9:30-10:45
Study of British culture and literature in the years when the United Kingdom was relinquishing its colonial possessions and relocating itself in changed global politics; readings by such writers as Julian Barnes, Samuel Beckett, Graham Greene, Jean Rhys, Fay Weldon, and their contemporaries. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 353 A | American Literature: 1865-1914
Andrew Hebard | TR | 9:30-10:45
Intensive study of issues animating American culture from the Civil War to World War I, as articulated in selected texts from a variety of literary forms. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 355 A | American Literature: 1945-Present
Timothy Melley | WF | 11:15-12:30
Intensive study of issues animating American culture from 1945 to the present as articulated in selected texts from a variety of literary forms and traditions. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 360E A | Feminism & Diaspora: Women of Color
Cheryl Johnson | TR | 9:30-10:45
Study of a selected topic examined from the perspective of two or more disciplines. Does not count toward the English major. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 368 A | Feminist Literary Theory & Practice
Yu-Fang Cho | TR | 12:45-2
This course will examine how recent feminist literary theories and practices address gender constructions in relation to the workings of race, class, sexual norms, nationality, and other institutions. Our discussion of the readings will be guided by several central questions: 1) How do feminist literary scholars locate and analyze gender constructions? 2) How does feminist literary scholarship challenge us to understand gender constructions in intersecting contexts? 3) How do we effect social transformation in our own literary practices based on feminist epistemology? We will read a selection of literary, cultural, and scholarly texts, through which you will gain insights into various approaches and develop your own critical perspectives. Cross-listed with WMS 368.
ENG 369 A | Colonial & Postcolonial Literature 3
Nalin Asoka Jayasena | TR | 11:15-12:30
Intensive introduction to theories of colonial and postcolonial identity through the study of South Asian Literature and Culture from India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Readings include R. K. Narayan, Salman Rushdie, Shyam Selvadurai, Sara Suleri, Anita Desai, Arundhati Roy and their contemporaries. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 373 A | Shakespeare’s Principal Plays
Britton Harwood | MW | 12:45-2
Critical study of plays from the early period. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 381 A | African Lusophone Literature
Paula Gandara | MWF | 12:45-1:45
A focus on questions of gender, race, class and stereotypes in the African Lusophone countries. Taught in English. Prerequisite: Any literature course. Cross-listed with POR/BWS/FST. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 401 A | Dante’s Divine Comedy
Heather Harrison | TR | 9:30-10:45
Intensive examination of Dante’s major work, The Divine Comedy, read in a bilingual edition. Lectures and discussion in English. Cross–listed with ITL 401. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 406 A | Discourse Analysis: Speech Acts
LuMing Mao | MW | 11:15-12:20
Students work on projects to discover how linguists observe, collect, and analyze language data. Students learn to apply linguistics methodologies to problems about how language shapes our perceptions, how language mediates between people and institutions, or how to develop formal systems that enable computers to parse human sentences. Projects often touch upon concerns of other disciplines. Offered alternate years. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 412 A | Editing/Technical & Scientific Communicators
Jean Lutz | TR | 12:45-2
Examines principles and practices of editors of technical and scientific publications. Preparing communications for publication emphasized. Students edit their own and other students’ work, and that of outside clients. Prerequisite: ENG 215 or 313. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 414 A | Design & Test User Documents/Tech
Michele Simmons | TR | 11:15-12:30
Advanced study of theories and practices involved with the production of user documents in both print and other media. Prerequisite: ENG 215 or 313. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 415 A | Technical & Scientific Communication: Practicum
Jean Lutz | TR | 5:10-6:25
Practicum in project management specifically designed to provide professional writing majors with practical experience related to technical or scientific communication practices. This final course for the undergraduate major in technical and scientific communication is designed to teach communicator/client relationships, problem-solving skills and professionalism in conduct and product. Students are expected, with close supervision and feedback, to take a significant amount of responsibility for planning and designing their senior projects. Prerequisite: senior standing and ENG 215, 313, 411/511, 412/512, 413/513, and 414/514 or permission of BATSC Executive Committee. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 420 A | Adv Creative Writing: Fiction Workshop
Joseph Bates | MW | 2:15-3:30
Study and practice in various forms of creative and imaginative writing with emphasis upon the problems and the craft of fiction. Analysis of examples from contemporary literature accompanies class criticism and discussion. Prerequisite: ENG 320 and permission of instructor. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 420 B | Adv Creative Writing: Fiction Workshop
Keith Banner | M | 4-6:40
Study and practice in various forms of creative and imaginative writing with emphasis upon the problems and the craft of fiction. Analysis of examples from contemporary literature accompanies class criticism and discussion. Prerequisite: ENG 320 and permission of instructor. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 422 A | Screenwriting Workshop
Brian Roley | MW | 12:45-2
Advanced workshop in feature film screenwriting. Analysis of examples of contemporary screenplays, with emphasis on the craft of writing screenplays. Class discussion and sharing of student-written screenplays. Cross-listed with COM 421. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 430 A | Adv Creative Wrtng: Poetry Workshop
Catherine Wagner | TR | 2:15-3:30
Practice in writing poetry with emphasis on development of style. Advanced course in the theory and practice of poetry writing with seminar study of relevant contemporary materials and criticism of student work in class and conference. Prerequisite: ENG 330 and permission of instructor. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 435 A | Queer Theory
Julie Minich | M | 4:10-6:50
Analysis of how gender and sexuality have informed our understandings of cultural texts and contexts. Emphasizes how discourses of gender and sexuality function within a variety of historical, cultural, and/or aesthetic traditions. Cross-listed with WMS 435/535. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 450A A | Studies in Genre: African Novel
Gwendolyn Etter-Lewis | TR | 2:15-3:30
We will read contemporary African novels from different geographical regions. The readings will include selected texts by both well known and lessor known authors. Goals of the course are to: develop an understanding and appreciation of African Literature; become familiar with basic concepts of African literary criticism; cultivate critical thinking skills through detailed analyses of course readings; understand the dilemmas of African writers; and to examine historical and social forces that shape African literature.
ENG 450D A | Renaissance Revenge Tragedy
Kaara Peterson | TR | 12:45-2
What social situations cry out for revenge and what determines the type and magnitude of the revenger’s response? How do playwrights’ responses to this theme of particular interest build on each other serially? This genre-focused seminar-style course focuses on a 50-year period of the revenge-tragedy tradition, from the blockbuster hits of the Elizabethan era, Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy (c. 1585) and Shakespeare’s Hamlet (perhaps the most famous play in the Western tradition to be read out of context) to a sampling of some of the following: Titus Andronicus, Middleton’s Revenger’s Tragedy and/or Women Beware Women, Middleton and Rowley’s The Changeling, Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi, and ending with Ford’s 1633 ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore. To gain a familiarity with the basic components of the genre, we read selections by critics such as Greenblatt, Foakes, Foucault on state-sponsored “revenge,” and others. Crucial questions about the ethics of revenge are posed by many of these works, pointedly so by period essayist Francis Bacon (“On Revenge”). Along with a series of 1-page analytical response papers, students have a variety of options for writing longer midterm and final papers and are asked to lead group discussions on specific topics each week.
ENG 450F A | Studies in Genre: Don Quixote
Dorothy Donahue | MW | 2:15-3:30
Focused study of issues related to one or more literary genres. Consult the English department course supplement for additional information. May be repeated once for credit when content changes. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 460 A | Capstone: Writing Journeys
Margaret Luongo | TR | 12:45-2
This course will provide a framework for the research and planning of your future writing projects. You will design and begin to implement a book-length project that will help you to bridge the gap between your life as a student writer and your life as a writer out in the world.
Around the fifth week of the semester, you will submit a book proposal; for your final project, you will submit a substantial portion of the project—about 40 pages of prose or about 15 to 20 poems. Along the way, we will read deeply into the work of a few writers—Italo Calvino, Marilynne Robinson and others—to examine the turns and developments of these writers’ aesthetics and their commercial and literary success. We’ll read the work of visiting writers, and during class visits, you will have a chance to ask the writers about their development and struggles.
We’ll also examine ways to sustain long-term projects—applying for grants, finding jobs suitable for writers, developing communities and reading lists to keep the creative and intellectual life alive.
ENG 460 B | Cap: Issues in Creative Writing
cris cheek | MW | 11:15-12:30
Integrates reading and writing of poetry and fiction at the highest levels. The issue or problem organizing the course is applicable to both fiction writers and poets; readings in both poetry and fiction illustrate, problematize and/or offer solutions to the issue under discussion. Students read and think as writers and respond to the issue or problem in both an analytic and creative manner. Specific requirements vary according to instructor and topic. Prerequisite: ENG 226 and at least two of the required upper-level writing courses; four of the five literature courses; one of the other two theory and practice courses; at least one foreign language or literature in translation course; senior standing. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 468 A | Gender And Genre
Katharine Gillespie | MW | 11:15-12:30
Includes a variety of areas within the disciplines of English and American literary and linguistic studies. Subject material varies with instructor's area of expertise, but focus is on the relation between gender and genre in the reading and/or writing process. Cross-listed with WMS 468. Offered infrequently. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 470E | Studies in Literary Theory: Food and Power: Theorizing the Culinary in Asian/Asian American Literature and Culture
Anita Mannur | TR | 9:30-10:45
Using literary and cultural theory from Asian/ Asian American Studies, this course will be an in-depth study of how food plays an important role in theorizations of Asian/Asian American subjectivity. Of particular interest to us will be how to use food as a way to center our analyses of literature and culture so that we are asking how food becomes an index of difference in literature and culture. In addition we will consider the kinds of questions can we ask about culture, power, race and ethnicity if we place food at the center of critical inquiry. For instance, how have the fields of Asian and Asian American Studies theorized the place of the food in relation to work in postcolonial, feminist, ethnic and queer studies? How does the culinary allow for a mapping of Asian/ Asian American subject formation in an interdisciplinary context? In other words we will consider the links between work in fields like anthropology and history to better understand the place of food in literary and cultural works. In addition to reading interdisciplinary theoretical work by scholars such as Arjun Appadurai, Wenying Xu, Barabara Haber, Martin Manalansan, we will work to understand how food can help theorize issues about race, gender, and sexuality by reading this emergent body of theoretical work alongside Asian/ Asian American literary works. Authors we may explore include Ruth Ozeki, Frank Chin, Romesh Gunesekera, Mary Anne Mohanraj, Chitra Divakaruni. We will also consider Asian and Asian American film including Tampopo, Eat Drink Man Woman, The Mistress of Spices and Harold and Kumar go to White Castle.
In addition to writing short papers, you will have the opportunity to write a longer research paper and to lead us in discussion for specific topics.
ENG 490T A | Shapes of Arthur
Britton Harwood | MW | 9:30-10:45
Intensive study of some aspect of contemporary literary study, including such topics as American regional writing, literature of war, or writing by women of color. May be repeated once for credit when content changes. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 495D A | Capstone: Lit/Cultural Studies: Seminar in Performance Studies
Katie Johnson | WF | 11:15-12:30
In recent years, growing attention has been given to the performative quality of language, culture, and human activity in fields as diverse as literary studies, anthropology, theatre studies, sociology and philosophy. Much of this work has culminated in the field of “performance studies,” where scholars examine the performative nature of texts in culture, texts as culture, and culture as texts. From the performative utterance of language to the performance of sex and gender, we will scrutinize how performance is articulated across the disciplines. We will be exploring the social dramas that our culture enacts, asking what cultural work these “stagings” perform.
We will look at the use of theatre metaphors in anthropology, (expressed most succinctly by Victor Turner’s notion of the theatricality of everyday life or Richard Schechner’s study of ethnographic performances); at theories of gender, sex, and drag performance (Judith Butler, and Jose Esteban Muños); at disability performance (Petra Kuppers and members of the Anarcha Project); and at the performance of “race”, ethnicity, and nation (Guillermo Gómez-Peña, David Román, and Joseph Roach). In addition, we will look at writers and performers whose works feature the performative, many of whom blur the line between “performance” and “real life”: performance artists Guillermo Gómez-Peña and playwrights Anna Deavere Smith and Danny Hoch.
ENG 495E A | Capstone: Lit/Cultural Studies: From Cold War to War on Terror
Timothy Melley | WF | 2:15-3:30
This course focuses on the way U.S. foreign policy has shaped U.S. literature and culture from 1950 to present. The initial focus of the course will be the Cold War, the long political struggle between the U.S. and the Soviet Union beginning in the late 1940s. Toward the end of the course, we will examine the relations between the Cold War and the recent “War on Terror.”
As we work our way through these texts, we will examine how the rhetoric of a global anti-communist containment policy fostered a “containment culture” here in the U.S. And we will ask whether such influences worked in the other direction. That is, if political rhetoric reshaped domestic culture, then to what extent did cultural representations—literature, film, and television—in turn affect foreign policy?
The course will be highly interdisciplinary in its approach. We will study films and other visual materials. Readings will include work by historians and cultural theorists, as well as literature by some of the following: Robert Coover, Sylvia Plath, Don DeLillo, Ralph Ellison, E.L. Doctorow, Allen Ginsburg, Tony Kushner, Joyce Carol Oates, Arthur Miller, John Williams, and Susan Choi.
Reading and writing assignments for this course are demanding; they include frequent short papers and discussion questions, a presentation, and a final project.
ENG 496 A | English Studies: Reflections
Mary Fuller | M | 6-8:40
The central goal of the course is to help you continue to construct, understand, and reflect upon the definitions, images, and lived realities of English teachers. In this class, you will:
- Participate in a series of in-class discussions with writers, scholars, and veteran classroom teachers
- Read teaching and literacy narratives and, if you wish, develop your own
- Develop a teaching portfolio or another capstone project of your choice
- Meet and talk with classroom teachers and administrators (grades 8-12) about their teaching lives and their experiences working with students in urban, suburban, or rural settings, large and small schools, public and private
About 2/3rds of the class meetings occur in class; the rest will consist of individual conferences with Dr. Fuller.
ENG 512 A | Editing/Technical & Scientific Communicators
Jean Lutz | TR | 12:45-2
Examines principles and practices of editors of technical and scientific publications. Preparing communications for publication emphasized. Students edit their own and other students’ work, and that of outside clients. Prerequisite: ENG 215 or 313. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 514 A | Design & Test User Documents/Tech
Michele Simmons | TR | 11:15-12:30
Advanced study of theories and practices involved with the production of user documents in both print and other media. Prerequisite: ENG 215 or 313. Description taken from the General Bulletin.
ENG 605 A | Issues in the Profession
Cindy Lewiecki-Wilson | W | 11-11:50
A weekly forum on issues of the profession, including the fields of literature, composition, and rhetoric, and creative writing. The focus will be on English as an academic profession, but non-academic applications of graduate study will be considered as well. This is a credit/no-credit course, with topics for discussion to be generated by both faculty and students.
ENG 610B A | Mapping New Critical Terrains: U.S. Empire, American Asia, and Asian America
Yu-Fang Cho | R | 4-6:40
Using literary and interdisciplinary scholarship on U.S.-Asia encounters as a point of departure, this course introduces students to some exciting new paradigms that have emerged in recent scholarship on the cultures of the U.S. empire, particularly analyses of cultural production in transnational, intersectional, and comparative contexts of racialization. In addition to reading theoretical scholarly texts, we will examine the possibilities and challenges of these new paradigms by reading them alongside cultural texts that address similar epistemological crises. (Reading list available in Graduate Office, 356G).
ENG 620 A | Authorship and Agency in Early Modern Women’s Writings, 1500-1680
Katharine Gillespie | M | 1-3:40
While college administrators everywhere bemoan the death of academic publishing, the market in scholarly editions of newly-discovered texts by early modern women writers booms in popular and university presses alike, not to mention in growing numbers of on-line collections. Likewise, the production of scholarly monographs dedicated to the study of these texts is barely underway. As Betty Travitsky and Patrick Cullen write in their introduction to Ashgate Press’s burgeoning reprint series, “the study of early modern women has become one of the most important — indeed perhaps the most important — means for the rewriting of early modern history.” In this course, we will take stock of the wide variety of genres produced by a diverse array of women writers in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England as well as the historical contexts from which they emerged and which they helped to construct in turn. We will familiarize ourselves with the various methodologies that modern scholars have developed to assess the contributions that these works make to literary history — as well as the transformations that these texts’ unique properties might provoke in our ongoing constitution of that history. Finally, we will address some of the conflicts which have arisen as a result of these inquiries, specifically the fairly heated argument that scholars are waging over how much—if any—agency can be attributed to ‘the individual female author’ as opposed to other forces that may be said to have contributed to or enabled the making of her text.
Students who enter the course will gain a working knowledge of early modern women writers and the periods in which they wrote but they will also be introduced to secondary materials that raise broader questions about authorship, agency, and the politics of textual production. In March, the class will be visited by Dr. Mihoko Suzuki, a leading scholar in the field from the University of Miami. During class time, Dr. Suzuki will talk to us about new directions in the study of early modern women as well as, more specifically, her recent work in editing a large collection of essays on the topic for Palgrave Press. Later that afternoon, Dr. Suzuki will deliver a talk to the class as well as members of Miami’s Early Modern Studies group and other interested parties on “Women’s Legal Discourse in the English Civil War.”
Writing Assignments will consist of:
- a five-page in-class presentation linking the primary text assigned for that day to the critical essay also assigned for that day as well as to two other critical treatments—to be retrieved by the presenter—on that same text/author;
- a five-page essay on and annotated bibliography of five texts that record early modern representations of women by men from the pamphlet literatures contained in the digital archive, Early English Books On-line;
- an introduction to a pamphlet written by a woman or about women for “The EEBO Introductions Series” which will be tailored for actual submission to Early English Books On-line;
- and a final 20-25-page research project. Likely readings will include: Mary Sidney Herbert’s translation of Robert Garnier’s play, The Tragedy of Antony;
- selected poems and speeches by Elizabeth I, Mary Wroth’s sonnet sequence, Pamphilia to Amphilanthus, Lady Anne Clifford’s “Knole Diary”; Aemilia Lanyer’s Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum (an ‘Eve’s Apology’ Poem); Elizabeth Egerton’s “Loose Papers” (prayers and devotions); Lady Eleanor Davies’s “Fifth Monarchist” prophecies; Lady Brilliana Harley’s Civil War letters to her husband and son; Anna Trapnel’s “The Cry of a Stone” (a prophesy/poem/political polemic); Margaret Fell Fox’s polemic on “Women’s Speaking Justified”; Margaret Cavendish’s utopia, The Description of a New World, called the Blazing-World (a utopia); Lucy Hutchinson’s republican elegies to her husband; Bathsua Makin’s An Essay to Revive the Ancient Education of Gentlewomen (an educational treatise); and Aphra Behn short romances, The Fair Jilt, The Lucky Mistake, and The History of the Nun.
ENG 640 A | Family, Sex, and Marriage in Victorian and Neo-Victorian Literature
Mary Jean Corbett | R | 1-3:40
For over three decades, feminist theorists have analyzed what Gayle Rubin memorably termed “the traffic in women” as, in Luce Irigaray’s words, “the law that orders our society.” Instituting exogamy, mandating heterosexuality, proscribing homosexuality, even founding the binary divisions of gender itself, this anthropological model of how nature becomes culture is currently undergoing sustained critique within feminist theory from a variety of perspectives. In this course we will explore the historical grounding of this model, its 19th-century contexts, and recent feminist and poststructuralist efforts to rethink its central components. As a way of focusing our inquiry, we will consider representations of “incest”—here defined as sex or marriage among members of “the family,” itself an historically variable construction—in fiction by Austen, Martineau, and the Brontës from the first half of the 19th century. We will also read 20th-century novels by Woolf, Byatt, and Waters that not only queer 19th-century sexual, marital, and familial practices, but also critique normative conceptions of the 19th century by discovering and/or inventing alternative readings of some entrenched paradigms. For example, recent scholarship as well as some contemporary fiction suggests that the standard plot of heterosexual romance—in which unrelated strangers overcome a series of obstacles on their way to making a marriage and, thus, a new family—is not the only or even the dominant plot of sexual love. In fiction by the great women novelists of the period, an alternative plot focused on maintaining and supporting already existing relationships within the family—and especially those between people of the same generation (e.g., cousins, same– or cross–sex siblings)—exists alongside and in tension with the “stranger” model. As characters move (or not) from families of origin to conjugal families, we will observe the ways in which this tension is negotiated, managed, displaced, or repressed, with particular attention to how gender, sexuality, race, and class shape narrative structures as bearers of social meanings. We will also consider the queer potentialities in some of the century’s most celebrated works, such as Tennyson’s In Memoriam and Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh, with a particular eye to how these texts provide the ground for contemporary rethinkings of Victorian sexualities in familial contexts.
In pairs, students will lead weekly discussions of primary and secondary texts on a rotating basis, and produce one short paper on the basis of their findings. In addition, everyone will write a seminar paper of 18-20 pages; first drafts of these seminar papers will be workshopped in class several weeks before the final version is due.
ENG 650 A | Graduate Fiction Workshop
Eric Goodman | T | 4-6:40
This graduate fiction workshop will focus on the writing and critiquing of student writing. In addition, there will be a focus on the reading and perhaps writing the first chapters of novels.
ENG 651 A | Graduate Poetry Writing Workshop
cris cheek | W | 1-3:40
The Graduate Poetry Workshop will examine issues relating to framing, compilation and composition of sequence, set and the live in poetry book and interdisciplinary contexts.
- In the overall context of contemporary poetry and its signifying on traditions we will playfully explore (philosophically, culturally and poetically) the implications of an “ordered list of objects or events,” a “collection of distinct objects” and temporal-spatial aspects of what can be understood to be live.
- We will read and discuss readings from the Poems for the Millennium Volume Three anthology throughout the semester and examine work(s) being made by members of the Graduate Poetry Workshop in the light of Romantic and Postromantic provocations. It is understood that workshop member work(s) will be at a different stages of completion and assume differential importance for members in their first and second years as Graduate Students.
It is strongly anticipated that production and circulation of texts will arise, become modified, redrafted and appraised as performances at the possible intersections of these two semester-long enquiries.
The Course Book and Other Teaching Materials:
Jerome Rothenberg (Editor), Jeffrey Robinson (Editor). Poems for the Millennium, Volume Three: The University of California Book of Romantic & Postromantic Poetry
ENG 652 A | Issues Creat Writ: Powers Surnd
Brian Roley | M | 4-6:40
Our goals in the graduate creative nonfiction workshop include pursuing your creative interests; refining your writing through the analysis of your work, the work of your peers, and the work of published authors; challenging and expanding your ideas concerning what makes a creative nonfiction piece; and developing and refining your aesthetic. Participation in the workshop requires a commitment to substantial reading and writing and a genuine desire to help others improve their writing.
ENG 660 A | Studies in 20th Century Literature
Madelyn Detloff | T | 4:30-7:10
This course examines the articulation of discourses, norms, and counterdiscourses about gender and sexuality in British and Irish literature from the 1890s through the 1940s. We will analyze the changing roles of women and men in the early years of the 20th century, as well as a growing public and professional fascination with sexuality as evidenced in the emergence of psychoanalysis, sexology, legal discourses, and ‘high’ as well as popular cultural productions. Among the authors we will discuss are Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Siegfried Sassoon, D.H. Lawrence, Jean Rhys, T.S. Eliot, E.M. Forster, Bryher, Stephen Spender, and W.B. Yeats.
ENG 690 A | Modern American Literature: 1919-Present
Andrew Hebard | T | 1-3:40
Looking at a number of political reform novels from the both the 19th and 20th centuries, this course queries the relationship between literary conventions and attempts to reform the state in the U.S. The course will examine the role that literature can play in political movements that often have very specific goals and ideals. It will also examine a connection between the development of realist conventions and the way that the state was increasingly being experienced as an institution of technocratic expertise that no longer had an everyday intelligibility. Much of the course will be focused historically on the Progressive Era, but we will also extend our inquiry well into the 20th century. Alongside reform novels, we will look at the writings of a number of reformers like Jane Addams and Theodore Roosevelt. We will also read a number of theorists writing about democratic engagement and the state, including Jacques Ranciere, Claude Lefort, Jurgen Habermas, and Wendy Brown.
ENG 694 A | Tech and Scientific Writing
Michele Simmons | R | 2:10-5
English 694 introduces theories and practices of technical communication. The course provides you with experience in analyzing and producing in four critical knowledge areas of technical and scientific communication: genre, project management, digital technology, and professionalization. Rather than projects that focus on a single area at a time, these issues will overlap and intersect throughout the semester. The main objective of this course is to provide you with an opportunity to improve the kinds of writing you will likely encounter in the workplace and your community.
ENG 697 A | Information Design
Huatong Sun | T | 2:10-5
This course addresses the principles of effective information design, the role of the technical communicator in the design process, and the application of professional design principles and production techniques to create effective print and non-print communications. We will approach information design from a variety of perspectives (e.g., technical communication, usability and user experience, rhetoric, graphics design, industrial design, interaction design, cultural studies, etc.). Topics include design principles and design process, visual elements, desktop and online printing, and information usability. This course will serve as a foundation for future work in visual communication and design culture.
This course takes a theoretical and hands-on approach to information design. We will focus on understanding what constitutes good design and applying those principles to concrete documents and artifacts. Most of the class meetings will consist of two units, analysis and production. A service-learning online design project will be included. You will leave the class with a good understanding of two professional publishing software, InDesign and Dreamweaver.
ENG 698G A | OWP Reading Contemporary Authors
Mary Fuller | S, 01/09 | 8:30-12:30
W, 01/20 | 5-9
W, 02/03 | 5-9
R, 03/25 | 5-9
R, 04/15 | 5-9
S, 05/01 | 8:30-12:30
Notes: Books & Company 350 E Stroop Rd Dayton, OH 45429 (937) 298-6540 www.booksandco.com for evening classes
ENG 698J A | OWP Classroom Research II
Mary Fuller | 01/11-04/30
Notes: 2 hours on-line weekly for 15 weeks.
ENG 698K A | OWP Classroom Research IV
Mary Fuller
Notes: 1 hour on-line weekly for 15 weeks; 1 Saturday per month 9am-2pm.
ENG 699A A | Workshop in the Teaching of Writing
Jim Porter | W | 10:10-11
ENG 699B A | Workshop in the Teaching of Writing
Jean Lutz | W | 1-2:40
ENG 734 A | Issues in Composition Pedagogy
Jason Palmeri | T | 1-3:40
In its broadest sense, the field of composition entails the study of how people make meaning—or compose—with multiple symbol systems in diverse contexts. At the current moment when writing technologies are proliferating and changing, it is timely that we explore the ways in which “new media” are transforming practices of composing. As Lisa Gitelman has argued, the term “new media” marks a cultural moment in which the meanings/norms/practices surrounding a particular technology are radically contested and in flux. In this course, we will attempt to embrace the instability of “new media”—to see new media as an inventive heuristic that can help us reimagine what it means to study and teach composition.
Along the way, we’ll consider questions such as:
- How might we revise our understandings of writing processes, learning processes, and rhetorical practices in light of shifts in composing technologies?
- What is the relationship between new(er) media and old(er) media?
- How might we integrate such technologies as digital video, blogs, wikis, social networks, digital audio, and videogames into composition pedagogy and scholarship?
- How do composing technologies participate in the social construction of gender, race, sexuality, disability, and class?
- How does the concept of “new media” relate to other key terms such as digital writing/rhetoric, multimodal composing, and technological literacy?
- How can we develop digital pedagogies that enable students to critically analyze and participate in civic action?
Course requirements will include regular informal composing activities, a midterm digital project (brief video or audio essay), and a final project (print or digital) suitable for presentation at a conference. No prior technology experience is required, and I will make time to teach you any composing technologies you need to know. Although this course will place a special emphasis on composition and rhetoric scholarship (Wysocki; Selber; Selfe; Hawisher; Banks; Brooke; Yancey), we will also read a good deal of interdisciplinary work on new media (Lessig; Jenkins; Bogost; Hayles; Bolter) that should be of interest to students throughout the humanities. Please contact the instructor (jason.palmeri@gmail.com) if you have questions.
ENG 735 A | Research Methods Composition
Heidi McKee | R | 1-3:40
The goals for this course are to introduce a variety of methodological and ethical approaches for conducting empirical studies of writing, writers, and writing contexts. We will focus primarily on qualitative, person-based methods, including various approaches to composing protocols, teacher-research, ethnography, case study, discourse analysis, surveys, and interviews. We will also consider methods for researching with digital technologies and in digital contexts, including online. The course will be structured so that each week we will read meta-analytical essays about a particular approach along with several studies illustrating a particular method. Throughout the course, we will also discuss issues of validity, reliability, researcher bias, researcher-participant relations, informed consent, and federal regulations governing human-participant research. Assignments will include short analyses of research reports, a review of a particular research method (covering one book-length and several article-length studies), and the designing and completion of a person-based research project.