English
Department of English
The English Department offers a major in English and minors in Writing, Literature, Journalism, English (general), and Narratives of Health and Body. All of our programs are designed to be flexible so each student has the opportunity to shape their own course of study, which may include a variety of literature, film, and writing courses. The department offers courses in American, English, and World literatures with a special emphasis on literatures of historically marginalized communities. In addition, the department is particularly strong in creative writing and journalism.
Studying English enables students to examine the world and human experience through its cultural texts. The study of literature and film and other textual forms develops within students a powerful understanding of how narrative and language shape us and the world around us. The English Department strives to develop readers and writers who are empathetic and capable of deep critical analysis with the ability to write creatively and persuasively.
The English major goes well beyond the examination of literary texts and writing practices and encourages students to become more thoughtful and fluent when engaging different ideas and cultures, ultimately leading to greater insight into themselves, those around them, and the communities in which they participate. English majors are able to transfer their skills in creative and critical reading and writing to a variety of professional contexts, while also drawing on their facility with words and story to better understand, engage with, and critique ideas and institutions in their personal, professional, and civic lives.
The English major offers students the opportunity to move outside of the classroom and to apply their developing knowledge of writing, literature, and textual understanding in real-world civic and professional settings through fieldwork, internships, research, or other kinds of applied and sustained engagement with real audiences and communities.
The Writing Center
The Writing Center, an extension of the English Department, offers students the opportunity to discuss their writing with trained, peer writing consultants. Writing consultants are recruited from across the university community and represent a variety of majors. Writing consultants can support and help guide student-writers at any stage of a project, from its inception to its final draft. The Writing Center is a safe, non-judgmental space with its sole purpose being to help students successfully navigate any writing project, curricular or extracurricular. The Writing Center is located on the third floor of Sullivan and is open Monday thru Friday. Please stop by or call 508-929-8112.
English Honor Society
The English Department has an active chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, an international honor society in English. Juniors and Seniors who demonstrate strong academic achievement may apply for membership.
Faculty
Elizabeth Bidinger, Professor (2007), A.B., University of Michigan; M.A., Boston University; Ph.D., University of Connecticut
Jake Garner, Visiting Instructor (2022), B.A., Sterling College; M.A., California Polytechnic State University
Riley B. McGuire, Assistant Professor (2020), B.A., M.A., University of Manitoba; M.A., Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
Jacqueline A. Morrill, Visiting Instructor (2021), B.A., Worcester State College; M.F.A., Sarah Lawrence College
Matthew Ortoleva, Department Chair, Professor (2011), B.A., Rhode Island College; M.A., Ph.D., University of Rhode Island
Dennis Quinn, Professor (1996), B.A., Worcester State College; M.A., Assumption College; Ph.D., University of Massachusetts
Jamie Remillard, Associate Professor (2017), B.A., Ph.D., University of Rhode Island; M.F.A., Emerson College
Christina Santana, Associate Professor (2016), B.A., M.A., University of Nevada, Reno; Ph.D., Arizona State University
MaryLynn Saul, Professor (1995), B.S., M.A., Ph.D., Ohio State
Hardeep Singh Sidhu, Associate Professor (2016), B.A., Boston University; M.A., Ph.D., University of Rochester
Heather Treseler, Professor (2011), B.A., Brown University; Ph.D., University of Notre Dame
Donald W. Vescio, Jr, Professor (1998), A.B., State University of New York, Oswego; M.A., University of New Hampshire; Ph.D., University of Rochester
Karen Weierman, Professor (2000), B.A., Georgetown University; Ph.D., University of Minnesota
Cleve Wiese, Associate Professor (2014), B.A., Rhodes College; M.A., New York University; Ph.D., State University of Texas, Austin
Courses
EN-099 Developmental English
Concentration on language basics - spelling, vocabulary, grammar, usage - with practice in writing sentences and paragraphs. Carries developmental credit (not counted toward degree requirements.)
Every year. 3 Credits
EN-101 College Writing I
LASC Categories: WR1
Prerequisites: PLCMT-EN1
College Writing I focuses on writing as critical inquiry, reflection, and communication. Students practice the fundamentals of effective writing, emphasizing planning, drafting, revising, and editing. (Required of all students unless exempted by the English Department)
Fall and Spring and every year. 3 Credits
EN-102 College Writing II
LASC Categories: WR2
Prerequisites: EN-101
EN-102 builds upon EN-101 and focuses on research writing, synthesizing sources, critical analysis, argumentation, and information literacies. Students practice the fundamentals of effective writing in collaborative and academic communities, while evaluating and using sources in different rhetorical situations. This course is designed to help students develop transferable skills and strategies that may be applied to a variety of audiences and in a range of situations.
Fall and Spring and every year. 3 Credits
EN-103 First-Year Writing Lab
This one credit course offers supplemental support for students concurrently enrolled in a section of EN101: College Writing I. First-Year Writing Lab reinforces the fundamentals of effective writing practices and processes, specifically the practices of drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading. In First-Year Writing Lab, students will work Lab-specific assignments and activities, as well as on assignments from their specific first-year writing sections, with the goal of learning to transfer and apply a developing set of rhetorical abilities across a variety of writing situations. First-Year Writing Lab is offered pass/fail only.
Fall and Spring and every year. 1 Credit
EN-107 Journalism and Democracy
LASC Categories: WAC
This course introduces students to the history of American journalism and the role of journalism in democratic and non-democratic societies. [Cross-listed with CM-107]
Every year. 3 Credits
EN-115 LGBTQ+ Narratives
LASC Categories: DIV, ICW, TLC
This course approaches narrative as a key tool for LGBTQ+ individuals to create life-sustaining community, establish identity as artists and activists, and combat social discrimination and stigma. Students will analyze a diverse array of material, including memoir, fiction, poetry, painting, film, and music. Collectively, we will ask what qualifies as a LGBTQ+ narrative: is it determined by the content of a piece, its formal manifestation, the identity of its creator, or something else entirely? The intersections of gender identity and sexual orientation with other components of selfhood-including race, disability, and class-will be essential to our conversations.
Alternating and every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-120 Race in Comics
LASC Categories: TLC, USW, DAC, DIV
Comics offers a unique combination of tools for representing race. Artists have long used either language or visual art to think about identity, but comics merges the two in new ways. In this course, students analyze innovative comics and graphic novels/nonfiction to better understand why this medium is such a productive way to reflect on racial identity. How do comics authors engage with the difficult history of racial caricature and the longstanding lack of diversity in the field? And what can the combination of image and text say about the tension between appearance and identity?
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-132 World Literature
LASC Categories: GP, DAC, TLC, DIV
The course examines the major authors in world literature from ancient to modern times; however, in a given semester the course may focus on one particular time period. All areas of the world are covered, including such areas as Africa, Europe, the Americas. An emphasis will be put on cultural, sociological, historical, and philosophical influences on the literature. Such authors may be included as Chinua Achebe, Pablo Neruda, Bei Dao, Salman Rushdie, Nadine Gordimer, Edwidge Danticat, and Bessie Head.
Fall and Spring and every year. 3 Credits
EN-140 Introduction to Poetry
LASC Categories: TLC
Examination and appreciation of the techniques and types of poetry including the sonnet, the pastoral, the mock heroic, and the ode.
Fall and Spring and every year. 3 Credits
EN-150 The Short Story
LASC Categories: TLC
Introduction to the art of the short story through analysis of representative works.
Every year. 3 Credits
EN-156 Mythology
LASC Categories: TLC, DAC
Myths and legends of ancient Greece and Rome which form a part of the classical tradition in English literature.
Fall and Spring and every year. 3 Credits
EN-158 Science Fiction
LASC Categories: TLC
The nature and function of nineteenth and twentieth century science fiction literature: Wells, Verne, Asimov, Bradbury, and others.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-160 Literature of the Bible
LASC Categories: TLC
Biblical writings. Emphasis will be placed on the Old Testament.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-164 Fantasy, Faerie and Folk Fairy and Folk Tales From Around the World
LASC Categories: TLC, DIV
The course will examine fairy tales and folk tales from across the globe and from different cultural traditions, which may include Indian, Japanese, African, German, Irish, Jewish, African-American, or Hawaiian. The course will compare similar themes, such as identity or distrust of step-parents, in these traditional tales and contrast the differing forms the tales may take in different cultures. Along with traditional folk tales, modern stories reinterpreting a traditional tale from a diverse point of a view (e.g. a lesbian Cinderella) will be analyzed.
Fall and Spring and every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-165 Oral Literature: the Art of Storytelling
LASC Categories: TLC, CA
An examination of representative types and stories from diverse cultures and of techniques and practices used by their storytellers.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-167 Literature and Human Rights
LASC Categories: GP, DAC, DIV
The course examines writing about human rights, including memoirs and novels, and examines issues of social justice. Violations of human rights that may be addressed include genocide, political repression, and torture; while social justice issues that may be examined include women's rights, justice and punishment, disability rights and methods of protesting for human rights. The course will examine definitions of human rights as well as reparations and living with the aftermath of human rights violations.
Fall and Spring and every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-168 Film and Literature
LASC Categories: CA, TLC, WAC
An examination of the fundamental, rhetorical techniques of film and literature to determine the similarities of and differences between the two forms of expression.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-169 Ethnic Literature in the U.S.
LASC Categories: USW, TLC, DAC
Study of ethnic literature in the U.S., focusing on African- American, Asian-American, Latino, and Native-American writers.
Fall and Spring. 3 Credits
EN-170 Search for Identity
LASC Categories: DAC, TLC, DIV
This course is designed to explore the topic of identity in literature, which may include gender, race, ethnicity, philosophy, body image, physical ability/disability, etc. The course will examine each literary text for the relative importance of the various aspects of identity for each author/character and the intersectionality of identity. Questions to consider will include: which identity is prioritized (by the individual and by society) in any given situation? What or who determines which aspect of identity is prioritized at different moments? How do conflicts in identity for an individual get resolved?
Other or on demand. 3 Credits
EN-172 Women and Literature
LASC Categories: WAC, TLC, GP
Explores basic issues and problems in literature by and about women.
Every year. 3 Credits
EN-173 Baseball: America's Literary Pastime
LASC Categories: TLC, DAC, WAC
Prerequisites: EN-102 or EN-202
This course will survey the literature of baseball, including writers from the golden era of baseball, such as Ernest Lawrence Thayer, Charles E. Van Loan, Albert G. Spalding, Damon Runyon, and Ring Lardner, to more contemporary authors, such as May Swenson, Roger Angell, Robert Creamer, and Annie Dillard. We will consider baseball writing within the context of American social, political, and historical perspectives, examining such themes as the idealism of sport, public mythologies, race relations, and national identity.
Other or on demand and other or on demand. 3 Credits
EN-174 Women Poets
LASC Categories: TLC, WAC, GP
Prerequisites: Fulfillment of Writing II
A close reading and analysis of poetry written by women from a historical as well as a contemporary feminist perspective.
Other or on demand. 3 Credits
EN-180 Kerouac, Ginsberg, and the Beats
LASC Categories: WAC
Prerequisites: EN-102 or EN-202
This course will examine representative works from Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and other writers associated with the Beat Generation, such as William Burroughs, Peter Orlovsky, Gary Snyder, Carolyn Cassady, Joyce Johnson, and Elise Cowen. In addition, this course will explore the literary, political, and social precursors that gave rise to the Beats, as well as the influence that the Beats had on 1960s politics and popular culture. Finally, the writing of the Beats will be considered through the broader contexts of gender, religion, social status, and economics.
Other or on demand. 3 Credits
EN-190 Special Readings in Literature
An introductory literature course responsive to current interests or controversies.
3 Credits
EN-193 First Year Seminar English
LASC Categories: FYS
Introductory level course covering topics of special interest to first year students. Offered only as a First Year Seminar.
Every year. 3 Credits
EN-202 Honors Composition
LASC Categories: WR2
Focuses on writing development for academic success and citizenship, emphasizing rhetorical analysis, information literacy, and academic and public discourse. Honors students only.
Every year. 3 Credits
EN-207 The Writer's Life
LASC Categories: WAC
Students examine the role of the writer in society and map their own possible career paths as writers.
Every year. 3 Credits
EN-210 U.S. Literature (Beginnings-1865)
LASC Categories: DIV, TLC, USW
In this course students will read a broad selection of the most exciting and important literature produced in the United States from its beginnings to 1865. In small, discussion-based class meetings and regular writing assignments, students will analyze the diverse ways that U.S. authors have innovated in response to the culture at large and to the traditions of literature that came before them. In close readings of fiction, life writing, poetry, essays, and more, students will pay particular attention to how differences in power among social groups (such as class, gender, or race) have shaped the nation's literary history.
Alternating and every year. 3 Credits
EN-211 U.S. Literature (1865-Present)
LASC Categories: DIV, TLC, USW
In this course students will read a broad selection of the most exciting and important literature produced in the United States from 1865 to the present. In small, discussion-based class meetings and regular writing assignments, students will analyze the diverse ways that U.S. authors have innovated in response to the culture at large and to the traditions of literature that came before them. In close readings of fiction, life writing, poetry, essays, and more, students will pay particular attention to how differences in power among social groups (such as class, gender, or race) have shaped the nation's literary history.
Alternating and every year. 3 Credits
EN-214 Introduction to Digital Humanities
LASC Categories: QAC, WAC
Prerequisites: EN102 or equivalent
This course is an introduction to the use of digital technologies in the analysis, production, and reception of texts. Most of us already are digital scholars, as we read information electronically, collaborate online, and write texts using computers. This course addresses instances in which we create or use information that is uniquely keyed to digital technologies, such as developing visual representations of narrative, using artificial intelligence to assess writing, statistically analyzing poetry, or crowd-sourcing creative and academic writing. This course will explore the theoretical and practical implications of reading and writing in a digital age.
Other or on demand and every year. 3 Credits
EN-217 Introduction to Narrative Studies of Health and Medicine
LASC Categories: HBS, ICW
This course offers students an introduction to narrative representations of illness, health, and healing. Students consider works of literature, literary theory, and film in their narrativization of the dynamic between patient and clinician, the role (and limitations) of empathic recognition, the ethical issues in healthcare settings, and rhetorical constructions of normalcy, disability, disease, agency, and well-being. The course introduces students to literary traditions as well as to journalistic and narrative methodologies that inform a humanistic approach to stories about the science of health and medicine.
Alternating and every year. 3 Credits
EN-220 English Literature (beginnings to 1798)
LASC Categories: ICW, GP, TLC
The diverse course covers major works and authors from the beginnings of literature in the British Isles up until the end of the 18th century. Authors included are major writers Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton, as well as other authors such as Amelia Lanyer, Margery Kempe and Olaudah Equiano. Emphasis will be put on the historical and sociological environment as well as the literary and thematical developments that each work demonstrates. The course may focus on such themes or events as women's roles, human rights, the Atlantic slave trade and colonization.
Fall and Spring and every year. 3 Credits
EN-221 English Literature (1798-Present)
LASC Categories: GP, ICW, TLC
An introduction to major developments in the literatures of England from 1798 to the present alongside the socio-political debates that influenced them. Though intended as an overview of more than two centuries of literature, the course focuses on how differences in power between various social groups within England and across the world intimately informed the period's cultural output. The readings consist of a diverse range of genres - lyrical poetry, realist novels, abolitionist lifewriting, travelogues, stage comedies - that engage with key issues that will shape class discussions and lectures, including colonization, urbanization, rising literacy rates, technological advancements, and more.
Alternating and every year. 3 Credits
EN-230 Environmental Literature
LASC Categories: CA, ICW
This course will focus on how environmental writers challenge and change how we perceive human ecological relationships to the natural world. We will address the following questions: How have writers challenged us to think about our place in a shared world and our responsibilities toward our ecological communities? How have writers attempted to awaken us to our connections to the natural world and the non-human other? How do these connections feed our mind, body, and spirit? We will also consider their warnings of what happens when we ignore our ecological selves, our ecological communities, and our ecological responsibilities.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-240 Survey of Postcolonial and Transcultural Literature
LASC Categories: GP
Prerequisites: EN-102
Introduction to literatures in English from formerly colonized countries in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, and from the postcolonial diaspora.
Every year. 3 Credits
EN-252 Technical Writing
LASC Categories: WAC
Prerequisites: EN-102
Focuses on how to write and produce basic documents, from research and progress reports to brochures and manuals.
Fall and Spring and every year. 3 Credits
EN-253 Business Communications
LASC Categories: WAC
Prerequisites: EN-102
A consideration of accepted business communication conventions: correspondence, memoranda, survey reports, proposals, interim reports and project reports.
Fall and Spring and every year. 3 Credits
EN-254 Critical Writing
Critical examination of English prose style; class reports; practice in the writing of analytical papers.
Spring only and every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-255 Methods of Literary Study
LASC Categories: TLC, WAC
Prerequisites: EN-102
Introduction to critical methods of interpreting literature through examination of works by major authors.
Fall and Spring and every year. 3 Credits
EN-256 Creative Writing: Fiction
LASC Categories: CA
Prerequisites: EN-102
An opportunity to develop the student's writing ability and critical sense; work of students and professional authors will be analyzed.
Every year. 3 Credits
EN-257 The Power of Memoir
LASC Categories: TLC, CA, WAC
Prerequisites: EN-102
Examines the craft and theory of memoir through wide-ranging readings and intensive practice in writing and workshopping personal narratives.
3 Credits
EN-258 Creative Writing: Nonfiction
LASC Categories: CA
Prerequisites: EN-102
A course focused on memoir and narrative journalism; students analyze and create short works of nonfiction.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-260 Creative Writing: Poetry I
LASC Categories: CA, TLC
Prerequisites: EN-102
Developing the student's skill in the creation of poetry; attention to contemporary trends in American poetry.
Every year. 3 Credits
EN-262 Creative Writing: Poetry II
LASC Categories: CA
Prerequisites: EN-102
Conversation with practicing poets; preparation of a small booklet of poems.
Every year. 3 Credits
EN-266 Journalism: Practice and Techniques
LASC Categories: WAC, TLC
Prerequisites: EN-102
Training in developing, reporting, writing and editing straight news, feature, profile, and interpretive stories.
Every year. 3 Credits
EN-267 Journalism: Advanced Newswriting
LASC Categories: WAC
Prerequisites: EN-102
Provides advanced training in the development and writing of straight news stories.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-268 Journalism: Feature Writing
LASC Categories: WAC, CA
Prerequisites: EN-102
Provides advanced training in finding, researching, developing, and writing feature stories for newspapers and magazines. [Cross-listed with CM-268]
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-270 Journalism: Editing
LASC Categories: WAC, TLC
Prerequisites: EN-102
Training in copy selection, copy editing, story placement, headline writing, layout, and use of style books. [Cross-listed with CM-270]
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-271 Journalism Workshop
LASC Categories: WAC
Prerequisites: EN 102.
Provides laboratory sessions in all aspects of journalism for advanced writers; emphasis on publication.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-272 News Reporting and Writing I
LASC Categories: ICW, USW, WAC
Prerequisites: EN-102 and EN-107
Includes fundamentals of news judgement, events coverage, sourcing, interviewing, writing on deadline, fact checking and basic editing.
Every year. 3 Credits
EN-275 Sportswriting
LASC Categories: WAC
Prerequisites: EN-102
Introduces students to the journalistic art of sportswriting, reporting, and interviewing for various media.
Every year. 3 Credits
EN-281 Writing for Digital Environments
LASC Categories: WAC, QAC
Prerequisites: EN-102 or EN-202
This course will provide theories and strategies for writing in digital environments, with special emphasis on the rhetorical conventions for online communication and the design of digital information. Increasingly, information is presented in digital format, which assumes different user experiences than those normally associated with print media. The goal of this course is to explore the expectations and requirements of digital writing, how writers and readers negotiate information in non-physical spaces, and how specific characteristics of different digital environments shape what we can say, and how we say it.
Other or on demand and other or on demand. 3 Credits
EN-300 History of the English Language
LASC Categories: TLC
Prerequisites: EN-102
A study of the origins of the English language from Old English through Middle English to the present.
Other or on demand. 3 Credits
EN-302 Medieval Literature
Ideas of medieval christianity, courtly love, and chivalric honor as they appear in lyric poetry, drama, and Arthurian romance.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-303 Arthurian Literature
LASC Categories: TLC
This course traces the development of the Arthurian legends from their Celtic origins up through the modern period.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-304 Witchcraft in Medieval and Renaissance Literature
LASC Categories: TLC
Prerequisites: EN-102
This course explores how Medieval and Renaissance literature on witchcraft addressed contemporary concerns.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-306 The Renaissance
LASC Categories: TLC
Prerequisites: EN-102
The non-dramatic literature of Tudor England; emphasis on More, Wyatt, Sidney, Spenser, the earlier works of Shakespeare, Donne and Bacon.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-311 Young Adult Literature
Prerequisites: EN-102
Theoretical and critical approaches to classic and contemporary texts written for young adults aged pre-teen to late teen.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-318 Romantic Literature
Prerequisites: EN-102
Poetry and prose with special emphasis on the poetry of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Byron, and Keats.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-320 Victorian Literature
LASC Categories: TLC, WAC
Prerequisites: EN-102
Study of selected prose and poetry of the major writers of the Victorian period.
Fall and Spring and every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-321 Romantic and Victorian Gothic
LASC Categories: TLC
Prerequisites: EN-102
This genre gives students insight into the important writers, texts, and issues of the Victorian and Romantic eras.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-322 Community Writing
LASC Categories: ICW, DIV, DAC
Prerequisites: EN-102 or EN-202
An introduction to writing about, for, and with communities. Students learn to successfully complete individual or group community writing projects, which begin when relationships are built with community organizations to identify a communication need. Then, in collaboration, possible solutions are identified to address the communication need with the goal of developing and delivering a document for use by the partnering community organization that helps to solve the problem. As a result, students develop practical writing experience and an ability to act as a writing consultant.
Spring only and every year. 3 Credits
EN-328 Narratives of U.S. Immigration
LASC Categories: TLC, USW, DAC, WAC
Prerequisites: EN-102 or EN-202
In this course students examine narratives of United States immigration in literature, film, and history. The immigrant narrative is both a foundational American story and also a story of the outsider to American culture. Students explore how authors navigate these conflicting poles, and how they complicate myths of the U.S. as a melting pot and land of opportunity. Topics for discussion include: assimilation and pluralism; citizenship, class, ethnicity, gender, language, nationality, race, and religion; diaspora; labor; nativism and xenophobia; and the social, legal, and political history of American immigration.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-334 Modern Poetry
Prerequisites: EN-102
Close analysis of the development of British and American poetry from the late nineteenth century to World War II.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-335 Writing About Food Systems
Prerequisites: EN-102 or EN-202.
Food systems are complex and vulnerable, but our lives depend upon their sustainability. In all efforts to support socially just, sustainable food systems, language matters. This course engages students in learning about and writing about sustainable and just food systems. Students will gain an understanding of the interconnected ecological, cultural, political, economic, social, ethical, material, affective, and aesthetic dimensions of food systems; create written deliverables that respond to an authentic community need concerning sustainable and just food systems, address an audience external to the class through their writing, and participate in collaborative, community-based action and service.
Alternating and every 2-3 years. 4 Credits
EN-336 Contemporary Poetry
Prerequisites: EN-102
Concentrates on poets whose major work was written after World War II: Special attention to authors presently writing and publishing.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-338 Contemporary Novel
Prerequisites: EN-102
American and English novels after World War II with emphasis on living novelists.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-341 Advanced Practices in Writing
LASC Categories: WAC
Students gain advanced practices and skill in professional writing genres. Rotating topics and genres. Consent of instructor.
Every year. 3 Credits
EN-342 The American Novel I
LASC Categories: WAC, TLC
Prerequisites: EN-102
The American novel from its origin to 1900.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-344 American Novel II
LASC Categories: TLC, WAC
Prerequisites: EN-102
The American novel from the late nineteenth century until the mid-twentieth century.
Fall and Spring and every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-345 American Women Writers
LASC Categories: USW, DAC
Prerequisites: EN-102
The course examines major works by American women writers in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and drama within applicable critical contexts.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-347 Studies in U.S. Ethnic Literature
LASC Categories: USW
Prerequisites: EN-102
Selected topics in U.S. ethnic literature, including thematic and comparative approaches,and in-depth studies of a single ethnic literature.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-348 Postcolonial Women's Writing
LASC Categories: GP
Prerequisites: EN-102
Writing by women from colonized and formerly colonized countries on local and global issues shaping women's lives and creative expression.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-350 Chaucer
Prerequisites: EN-102
A study of the development of Chaucer's versatile art and writings as expressive of the later Middle Ages.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-352 Practicum in Journalism
LASC Categories: WAC
Prerequisites: EN-270 and EN-272
Workshop in which students report, write, and edit the online college news magazine. Participate in all aspects of publication. [Cross-listed with CM-352]
Alternating and every year. 3 Credits
EN-353 Narrative Journalism
LASC Categories: CA, WAC
Prerequisites: EN-272
Students analyze and create in-depth journalistic features and nonfiction stories that blend reporting with techniques of fictional storytelling. [Cross-listed with CM-353]
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-354 Opinion Writing
LASC Categories: ICW, WAC
Prerequisites: EN-272
Students analyze and practice writing op-eds and other opinion pieces. Learn to write commentary that is publication ready. [Cross-listed with CM-354]
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-355 Practicum in English
Students engage in experiential learning, project management, and the application of skills, practices, and knowledges gained through course work in English while collaborating with WSU faculty, staff, community partners, or other students. Students further develop their critical, problem-solving, and communicative skillset while adapting what they have learned to new environments and challenges. May be repeated multiple times.
Fall and Spring and every year. 1 Credit
EN-358 Disability Stories, Disability Studies
LASC Categories: DIV, HBS, ICW, TLC
Prerequisites: EN-102 or EN-202.
This course introduces students to the field of disability studies by examining depictions of disability in literature. We will discuss foundational texts and consider key terms including ableism, access, medicalization, representation, and prosthesis. We will also discuss the ways that disability intersects with other aspects of identity such as race, class, gender, and sexuality. Our readings will span multiple centuries and will include poems, memoirs, films, and critical essays by leading disability studies scholars. Together, we will question the construction of bodily, mental, and social norms and analyze how narratives both resist and conform to cultural conceptions of disability.
Alternating and every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-360 Shakespeare I
Prerequisites: EN-102
Major plays. Required of all English majors.
Fall and Spring and every year. 3 Credits
EN-362 Shakespeare II
Prerequisites: EN-102
A continuation of EN360; includes the sonnets and less familiar plays.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-364 Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama
LASC Categories: WAC
Prerequisites: EN-102
A critical analysis of plays by the contemporaries of Shakespeare: Kyd, Marlowe, Greene, Jonson, Ford, Webster, and others.
Other or on demand and every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-370 Antislavery Literature
LASC Categories: TLC, USW, DAC, WAC, DIV
Prerequisites: EN-102 or EN-202 or EN-250
This course traces the literary history of the antislavery movement in the Atlantic World: writing in a range of genres, antislavery writers made a significant contribution to the campaigns to end the slave trade and slavery. These texts also shaped the history and memory of legal enslavement and its aftermath. While the Atlantic system of legal slavery ended in the nineteenth century, an even larger system of illegal slavery still exists, and so the course concludes by considering the work of contemporary antislavery writers and what they might learn from their predecessors.
Fall only and every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-380 Milton
Prerequisites: EN-102
A study of Milton's work from early poems to Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes; includes some prose pamphlets.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-390 Irish Literary Revival
Prerequisites: EN-102
The Irish literary renaissance; the origins of the movement; includes Joyce, Yeats, Synge, O'Casey, Lady Gregory, and others.
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-400 Seminar in English
Prerequisites: EN-102
Student presentations on individual figures and particular problems in literature.
Every year. 3 Credits
EN-408 Directed Study: English
Directed study offers students, who because of unusual circumstances may be unable to register for a course when offered, the opportunity to complete an existing course with an established syllabus under the direction and with agreement from a faculty member.
Fall and Spring. 1-3 Credits
EN-410 Theories and Practices of Writing Consul
Prerequisites: EN-102
Training and practice in one-to-one assistance for students' writing for any course, stage, or specific need.
Fall only and every year. 3-6 Credits
EN-416 Media Law and Ethics
Prerequisites: EN-272 or CM-272
An overview of the U.S. legal and justice systems and an examination of ethical issues in mass media. [Cross-listed with EN-416]
Every 2-3 years. 3 Credits
EN-425 Independent Study in English
Prerequisites: EN-102
An opportunity for further study in a special field of interest under faculty supervision. Consent of instructor.
Fall and Spring and every year. 1-6 Credits
EN-426 Senior Seminar
LASC Categories: CAP
Prerequisites: EN-255
Course provides an option for seniors to fulfill their university capstone requirement in the discipline. Consent of instructor.
3 Credits
EN-450 Special Topics in English
Prerequisites: EN-102
Specific content will vary in response to particular student and faculty interests.
Fall and Spring and every year. 3 Credits
EN-475 Internship in English
Prerequisites: EN-102.
Provides majors the opportunity to gain practical experience in areas where they may apply acquired critical and writing skills. Consent of instructor
Fall and Spring and every year. 3-6 Credits
JO-101 Introduction to Journalism
LASC Categories: ICW, USW, WAC
Prerequisites: EN-102 or EN-202
Includes fundamentals of news judgement, events coverage, sourcing, interviewing, writing on deadline, fact checking and basic editing.
Other or on demand. 3 Credits
JO-201 Multimedia Journalism
LASC Categories: WAC
Prerequisites: EN-101
Workshop in which students report, write, and edit the online college news magazine. Participate in all aspects of publication.
Alternating and every year. 3 Credits
Program Learning Outcomes
- Analyze and document the history, conventions, methodologies, and practices of literary, cultural, and rhetorical studies as a form of academic inquiry, a pathway for personal growth and expression, a framework for engaging with critical moral and ethical issues, and a site of analysis of identity construction and power inequities.
- Analyze texts across historical, geographical, and cultural boundaries and interrogate workings of difference, hierarchy, and power, both within and across texts, including the intersections of multiple identity categories including ability, class, ethnicity, gender, nationality, race, religion, and sexuality.
- Interpret a variety of forms, genres, styles, structures, and modes of writing, while articulating and demonstrating the value of close reading in the study of literature, creative writing, rhetoric, media, and other forms of discourse.
- Design, conduct, and deliver research projects effectively and ethically.
- Produce and analyze writing across a wide range of modes, including creative, professional, personal, print, and digital expression.
- Apply the content and methodologies of literature and writing studies outside of the classroom, in civic and professional environments.