ENCW 2100 - 001: Intro to Creative Writing

Charles Clateman

ENCW 2100 is a workshop-based class that explores the craft of writing creative nonfiction, poetry, and fiction at the introductory level. The class will also cover the basics of academic essays as they apply to literature and literary analysis. Students will participate in workshops to elicit early feedback on their work, examine various revision techniques, and submit a final portfolio of extensively revised material.

ENCW 2300: Poetry Writing

An introductory course in poetry writing, with a primary focus on creating new poems in a workshop setting. Students will study basic poetic terms and techniques and revise and arrange a series of poems for a final portfolio. The course will also have extensive outside reading and non-creative writing requirements.

ENCW 2559: Making it Up: Experiments in Knowing

Charles Clateman

This is a hybrid fiction/nonfiction prose studio class studying the works of writers and thinkers, ancient and contemporary, who have relied solely on their own senses, intuitions, and imaginations to explain the world. We will attempt to do the same and share our findings along the way. Each student will compile a personal encyclopedia by the semester’s end. Readings from Democritus, Lucretius, da Vinci, Lorrie Moore, Ben Marcus, Flann O’Brien, Stein, Kafka, Benjamin, Borges, and more.

ENCW 2600: Fiction Writing

An introductory course in fiction writing, with a primary focus on creating short stories in a workshop setting. Students will study basic narrative terms and techniques and revise several short stories for a final portfolio. The course will also have extensive outside reading and non-creative writing requirements.

ENCW 3310 - 001: Intermediate Poetry Writing I - Energy & Play

Kiki Petrosino

In this intermediate poetry workshop, we’ll connect with playfulness as way of tapping into our creative energy as poets. We’ll read published works of poetry by writers for whom formal experimentation is key. We’ll also think about & explore the physical space of Grounds as a site for reading, writing, and sharing poems. Students in this course will engage in a regular writing practice and will take seriously the processes of composition, critique, and revision. We’ll spend a significant portion of the semester “workshopping” student poems, but we also will discuss assigned reading and perform independent & in-class writing challenges. These activities, plus attendance, participation, and a final portfolio, will inform the grading policy.

Instructor Permission is required for enrollment in this class: please request enrollment through SIS and email a writing sample of 4-5 poems with a cover sheet including your name, year, email address, major, prior workshop experience, and other workshops to which you are submitting. Submit your application IN A SINGLE DOCUMENT to Prof. Petrosino (cmp2k@virginia.edu). Applications will be considered on a rolling basis once registration opens. For full consideration, email your application as soon as possible. Address any questions to Professor Petrosino, cmp2k@virginia.edu.

ENCW 3500 - 001: Topics in Creative Writing: Performance Prose

Anna Beecher

This course is for students with experience of writing creatively, interested in writing fiction and other texts to be spoken aloud, embodied and shared with others in real time. Over the semester you will develop original stories, work on putting them ‘up on their feet’ in performance and explore how liveness and orality can challenge, shape and invigorate writing. We will also touch upon the oral roots of literature, reading works such as the 1001 Nights and the stories collected by the Brothers Grimm and the texts they have inspired. We will read, watch and discuss works of fiction, live-art, narrative comedy, spoken word and drama. You may be a fiction writer, interested in how spoken stories could attune your ear for language and narrative pattern, or writer and performer interested in marrying those two passions. Performance experience is not a requirement for this class, but a willingness to explore performance in a supportive atmosphere is essential. 

Admission by Instructor Permission. Please send a sample of your prose writing (5-10 pages) and a brief statement (1 page max) about why this course interests you to am2aw@virginia.edu.

ENCW 3610 - 001: Intermediate Fiction Writing

Corinna Vallianatos

ENCW 3610 - 002: Intermediate Fiction Writing

Corinna Vallianatos

ENCW 3610 - 003: Intermediate Fiction Writing

Kevin Moffett

ENCW 4350 - 001: Advanced Nonfiction Writing - Inventive Memoir

Jane Alison

How do memoirists look back upon vaporous life and find shapes in it that matter? How do they choose moments and images that reveal those patterns? How do they create the “I” that will see and translate what’s seen? How do they decide what’s “true”? How, above all, do they transform the private to public, transmute life to art? In this class we’ll explore some of the arts of memoir, especially inventive memoir, where voice and formal experimentation might create both truthfulness and wildly original art. A writer might distill personal experience through a color, for instance, or a long-dead poet, or a fish . . . We’ll read long and short texts, among them some classic explorations of a (strand of) life, but also works that call themselves “dreamoir,” “autoportrait,” “memory criticism,” “a life among ghosts,” or “possible lives.” Alongside reading, you’ll prepare first a series of studies and then a longer project, which might be several essays, a series of linked fragments, a single extended work, or an entirely new literary invention.

INSTRUCTOR PERMISSION REQUIRED: Unless you’re in the APLP, please send me (jas2ad) a five-page sample of your creative writing and a note saying what draws you to this class.

ENCW 4550 - 002: Novels of the Hour

Jesse Ball

We will read the verymost contemporary books--many that are even being published during the semester. We will tear some apart. Others we'll adore. 

ENCW 4720 - 001: Literary Prose Thesis

Anna Beecher

ENCW 4820 - 001: Poetry Program Poetics Seminar - Inspiration & The Lyric

Kiki Petrosino

Where does your poetry come from? How do we, as poets, create new works of art from the many sources of inspiration all around us?

This seminar examines the special nature of inspiration--that electric, generative "spark" that draws us to the page. Readings and discussion will invite students to explore the varied ways that poets transform personal emotions, lived experiences, observations of the natural world, and artistic traditions into powerful and resonant poems. The semester will begin with an overview of lyric poetry--its textures, concerns, and qualities--before delving into a range of books by contemporary poets whose writing demonstrates the tension between the speaker's inner emotional landscape and the external world that shapes it. This seminar is for students seeking to deepen their understanding of lyric poetry and find new possibilities for their own creative work.

This course fulfills a requirement for the Poetry Writing Concentration (formerly known as the Area Program in Poetry Writing). Other students may enroll, regardless of major or minor, if they have taken at least one 2000-level Creative Writing Workshop. At semester’s end, you’ll compose a Final Chapbook (8-10 poems + a 2-3 pp introduction) on a theme of your choice. The final grade will calculate Attendance, Participation, Written Assignments, and the Final Chapbook. Address any questions to Professor Petrosino, cmp2k@virginia.edu.

ENCW 4830 - 001: Advanced Poetry Writing I - “Flood Subjects”:  Poetry’s Infinite Possibilities

Lisa Spaar

(Instructor Permission Required: Request permission to enroll in SIS and contact Professor Lisa Russ Spaar at LRS9E@virginia.edu)

Emily Dickinson called immortality her “Flood subject”—an obsession with death and its resonances in life and beyond that she would explore in countless poems throughout her writing life.  What feeds you, literally and metaphorically, as a person, a reader, a maker of poems?  Is it slow cinema? Record shopping?  Forest raves?  Biodynamic farming or butter sculptures?  Cold plunges in the ocean, runs on mountain trails, personalized Crocs? Long novels, writing by hand, a strawberry matcha by an open window?  This question will be at the heart of our workshop as we explore in poems our personal and shared sources of literal and metaphorical sustenance.

ENCW 4920 - 001: Poetry Program Capstone

Brian Teare

The Capstone offers graduating Poetry Writing Concentration students time and pedagogical space to think beyond the realization of single poems toward the realization of a book-length poetry manuscript. With support from the Concentration Director, a graduate student mentor, and most importantly from our Poetry Concentration colleagues, each of us will gather together a draft collection of our poems for a semester of intensive collaborative editorial work that will encourage us to become more deeply aware of our poetic ambitions and evolving aesthetics. In conversation with editorial feedback, each of us will organize and revise our existing poems and write new work in order to fully realize what poet and critic Natasha Sajé calls the “dynamic design” of our first manuscripts. The course schedule will begin with weekly discussion of assigned readings, followed by collaborative editorial sessions of our Capstone Project drafts. This means that, for the first three quarters of the semester, we will meet as a group, but the latter quarter of the semester will largely consist of independent work and one-on-one meetings. After mid-term, each of us will be assigned a graduate student mentor who will offer the Capstone Project draft a close reading. After this, each of us will meet with the Director to discuss the feedback and devise a final revision strategy. The course will culminate in our Capstone Projects – revised, polished manuscripts of the poetry only we could write – which we will celebrate together at the Poetry Writing Concentration graduation reading.

ENCW 5310 - 001: Advanced Poetry Writing II - Research for Poets

Sumita Chakraborty

The muses aren’t coming to save us, so we have to inspire ourselves. This course is a cross between a workshop and a craft or methodology class, and it is designed to help each participant cultivate a research practice to aid their creative work. Research can be an indispensable poetic skill for any subject matter from the deeply personal to the most conceptual; it’s often one of the surest-fire ways to encounter something that is unexpected or unlock a new avenue of imagination. It can help with something as small as enriching a metaphor or something as big as sparking an entire project. In addition to offering an opportunity to develop practical skills in ways that are organic to your writing practice, to learn how to use library and archival resources to your advantage, and to acquire habits around inquiry that stimulate your work, this course will serve as an opportunity to develop a substantial sequence of work, with the help of guided prompts, that enriches and complicates your existing poetry and your ongoing artistic or intellectual obsessions. Undergraduates and graduate students alike can expect to generate work that would well serve a capstone, thesis, or book manuscript, or to encounter a new area of interest heretofore unknown to you. Undergraduates, please do not be wary of “advanced”: the prerequisite is any 2000-level course. Graduate students, please do not fear redundancy: this course is designed to meet each participant where they are at in terms of what they yet need or wish to learn or discover. 

ENCW 5610 - 001: Advanced Fiction Writing II - Grimm Variations

Jesse Ball

The class is divided into two groups. Each week one group of students will compose variations on a particular folk tale chosen from BROTHERS GRIMM. The variations may be in any genre. 

ENGL 1590 - 001: Literature and Medicine

Taylor Schey

This course introduces students to the intersection of literature and medicine, with a focus on how the skills and competencies developed in literary studies are essential to the medical professions as well. Topics include illness and illness narratives; the doctor-patient relation; the language of pain; the histories of medical misogyny and medical racism; epidemics and pandemics; and popular representations of medical practice. Through engaging with a variety of textual forms—including poetry, fiction, drama, essay, film, and television—students will come to understand why, as the physician-scholar Rita Charon puts it, “good readers make good doctors.”

The course satisfies both the AIP and SES Disciplines requirements.

ENGL 2500 - 001: Intro to Literary Studies

Walter Jost

One reads “literature” differently than one reads other written materials in part by raising questions about language and interpretation, questions that might be raised elsewhere but usually aren’t.  To become a better reader of fiction, and through fiction a better reader of ourselves and other situations and people, and through them a better reader of the life that you and others lead, one can attend closely to literary texts and ask: Why?  How?

This course satisfies the English Major Prerequisite, the Second Writing Requirement, and the AIP Disciplines Requirement.

ENGL 2502 - 001: Four Centuries, Four Texts, Four Genres

John O'Brien

We will read devote our time together to studying four great masterpieces, four works produced over the last four centuries, each in a different genre: a play (William Shakespeare’s King Lear, first staged in 1606); a novel (Jane Austen’s Emma, published in 1816); a poem (T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, published in 1922); and a film (Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, issued in 1954). We will consider each of these works slowly and carefully. We will also use them as case studies for exploring the strategies that scholars in the disciplines of literature and film criticism have developed to achieve rich understandings of their objects of study. These will include (among other strategies) close reading, source study, comparison of variant editions, and historical contextualization. Our objective is to emerge at the end of the semester with expertise in these four works, and with experience in using different critical strategies to analyze other works in these genres. This course serves as a prerequisite for students who wish to major in English. This course also fulfills the College’s second writing requirement and the AIP Discipline. And of course anyone with an interest in these works or in literature in general is welcome to join us. 

ENGL 2506 - 001: Poems, Poets, Poetry

Emily Ogden

What is poetry for and how do we approach it? What counts as a poem, and what is poetry’s place in the human experience? We’ll read poems in English written in a wide range of times and places by a variety of people: William Shakespeare, John Keats, Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, Elizabeth Bishop, Marianne Moore, Gwendolyn Brooks, and many others.  We’ll read intensively and write carefully about these poems. In this course, we’ll work on paper, not on screens, in order to improve our attention to the poems. This course is appropriate for students with no prior knowledge of poetry, and also for those with significant prior interest in the form. 

This course satisfies the English Major Prerequisite, the Second Writing Requirement, and the AIP Disciplines Requirement. 

ENGL 2506 - 002: Queer American Poets

Peyton Davis

What does it mean to be queer? What does it mean to be American? What does it mean to be a poet? All of these questions have a major characteristic in common: they are each associated with entire fields of study. In this class, we will look at queer American poets through each of these lenses (sexuality/queer studies, American studies, and poetic studies) to understand how poets seek to answer these questions for themselves.

How have poets over the last century balanced multiple facets of identity (e.g., race, gender, class) in relation to their queerness and Americanness? How have major historical events influenced or inspired queer American poetry? What characteristics does queer American poetry have outside of being queer and American? In order to answer some of these questions, we will read poets such as Amy Lowell, Claude McKay, Pauli Murray, Allen Ginsberg, Audre Lorde, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Ocean Vuong.

Course requirements include regular attendance and active participation in discussion, a presentation, and shorter and longer writing assignments together totaling 20 pages.

This course satisfies the English Major Prerequisite, the Second Writing Requirement, and the Artistic, Interpretive and Philosophical Disciplines Requirement. 

ENGL 2506 - 003: Poetic Forms

Jeddie Sophronius

From the haiku to the sonnet crown, contemporary poets—writing in the age of free verse—have often returned to, entered into dialogue with, or reinvented established poetic forms. How are poetic forms carried through time and into the contemporary sphere? How can restrictions be generative? In this course, we will center these questions as we explore the purpose of tradition, writing, and invention.

This course satisfies the English Major Prerequisite, the Second Writing Requirement, and the AIP Disciplines Requirement.

ENGL 2507 - 001: Modern and Contemporary Drama

Victoria Olwell

This course introduces students to Modern and Contemporary drama from the United Kingdom and the United States. 

This course satisfies the English Major Prerequisite, the Second Writing Requirement, and the AIP Disciplines Requirement.

ENGL 2508 - 001: Contemporary American Novel

Christopher Krentz

This course will provide an introduction to the contemporary American novel. We will read some celebrated fiction published since 1970, probably including Morrison’s Sula; Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao; Bechdel's graphic novel Fun Home; Roth's Nemesis; Kingsolver's Demon Copperhead, and Amna's American Fever. Focusing on whatever themes the novels raise, we’ll talk about narrative style, ethnicity and identity in America, and much more. Moreover, we’ll concentrate on developing analytical and writing skills, which should help students to succeed in other English and humanities classes.

This course satisfies the English Major Prerequisite, the Second Writing Requirement, and the AIP Disciplines Requirement.

ENGL 2508 - 002: Gender and the Gothic

Cristina Griffin

In this class, we will read (and watch) stories that engage with the long tradition of the gothic: stories that are pleasurably thrilling, that structure themselves around suspense, secrecy, romance, intrigue, and even sometimes fear. We will begin the term by focusing on some of the eighteenth-century texts that established and popularized the gothic conventions that novelists, filmmakers, and television writers still use today. We will then turn to more contemporary reactions to the gothic, investigating how twentieth- and twenty-first-century forms respond to the gothic genre. Our focus as we make our way across the centuries will be on how these stories open up questions about gender. How do gothic texts represent women’s bodies? What is the relationship between gender and violence? How do gendered portrayals of the gothic change over time or embody different political and cultural crises? How do popular contemporary forms—the television show, dystopian fiction—reimagine the gothic?

UVA is the ideal place to study gothic literature, since it houses the world’s largest collection of gothic fiction. We will immerse ourselves in this vast treasure trove with an archival project in which you will become an expert on a gothic novel, and contribute your findings to a digital companion to the archive. No library or research experience necessary: we will be working from the ground up as you learn to give these important gothic texts new lives in the twenty-first century.

This course satisfies the English Major Prerequisite, the Second Writing Requirement, and the AIP Disciplines Requirement.

ENGL 2508 - 003: The Historical Novel

Debjani Ganguly

This course will explore the relationship between literature and history. Specifically, we will focus on the emergence of the historical novel in early nineteenth century Britain and trace its global evolution into the twenty-first century. Historical fiction and films have proliferated in recent years. Can any novel set against a recognizable historical backdrop be considered a historical novel? How factual and realistic do historical novels need to be, and how do they navigate the relationship between individual and collective destinies? What specific modes of characterization do such novels call for? How are ‘fact’ and ‘truth’ recalibrated in counter-factual historical novels?

The seminar will explore these questions by focusing on five novels that bring alive key revolutionary moments in modern history. They are Walter Scott’s Waverley (the Jacobite Revolution in Scotland in 1745), Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities (the French Revolution in 1789), Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies (the British Opium Trade with China between 1791 to 1858), Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America (the rise of fascism in the 1930s), and Chimamanda Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun (the Nigerian Civil War from 1967-70). We will also read excerpts from the works of literary theorists who have helped us understand the historical novel and its subgenres. Requirements: two take home essays and an oral presentation. 

This course satisfies the English Major Prerequisite, the Second Writing Requirement, and the AIP Disciplines Requirement.

ENGL 2508 - 004: Narrative Experiment in Contemporary American Fiction

Caroline Rody

Narrative Experiment in Contemporary American Fiction: Graphic Novels, Eccentric Narrators, Alternative Histories, Magical Realities

Contemporary American fiction brims with surprises. It’s not just that an unprecedent diversity of voices is generating a global literature centered upon U.S. territory, but also that this influx of the world’s energies has accelerated the modern and postmodern experimentation with new ways to tell a story.

In this course we will explore the possibilities generated by narrative innovation of several kinds. We’ll take up from the booming genre of the graphic novel, in which the visual dimension bursts open the conventional boundaries of narrative fiction (in texts like Art Spiegelman’s MAUS, Thuy Bui’s The Best We Can Do, and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home). We’ll read novels narrated by outrageous, elusive, sometimes magical voices (in texts like Junot Diaz’s The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Karen Tei Yamashita’s Through the Arc of the Rain Forest). And we’ll consider novels that re-imagine ethnic American histories by means of inventive strategies: magical, multi-vocal, counterfactual, or speculative (in texts like Maxine Hong Kingston’s China Men, Louise Erdrich’s The Night Watchman, Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America, and Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s “My Monticello”).

Requirements: devoted reading and active participation, multiple online postings, leading of class discussion (in pairs), a short and a long paper.

This course satisfies the English major prerequisite, the second writing requirement, and the AIP disciplines requirement.

ENGL 2508 - 005: Science Fiction

Patricia Sullivan

Like to sink into a book that challenges the ways we think about ourselves by imagining other worlds, speculative futures, aliens, artificial intelligences, cyborgs, technology and society at its best and possible worst, and more? We will read several books or pieces of short fiction that are classified loosely as science fiction, though there may be some overlap with other genres such as speculative fiction or climate fiction.

We will also practice close reading strategies, reflect on acts of literary interpretation through brief references to critical essays, inquire into some of the functions and effects of fictional narratives, and practice constructing reflective, analytical, and argumentative essays. Generally, students can expect to write regular reading responses and exploratory pieces, participate in and lead seminar discussions, write three short essays, and take a brief final exam. The majority of our readings will be novels (entire books), with the occasional story, novella, or film. Texts might include (but are not limited to) the following: Parable of the Sower, Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, Bête, Arrival, The Left-Hand of Darkness, Frankenstein, or All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries.

This course satisfies the English major prerequisite, the second writing requirement, and the AIP disciplines requirement.

ENGL 2508 - 006: The Novel of Upbringing

Dan Kinney

How does the fictional representation of upbringing reflect on the cultural uses of fiction in general as well as the actual work of becoming adult? Works to be studied: Jane Austen, Emma; Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre; Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; Charles Dickens, Great Expectations; Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn; Tom Perrotta, Joe College; Gail Honeyman, Eleanor Oliphant Is Perfectly Fine. Class requirements: Lively participation including including 8 brief email responses, one short and one longer essay, and a final exam.

This course satisfies the English major prerequisite, the second writing requirement, and the AIP disciplines requirement.

ENGL 2508 - 007: Science Fiction

Charity Fowler

This survey of the science fiction genre is a seminar that will start with examining the genre's roots in 18th and 19th century “proto-science fiction.” We’ll then trace its development through the genre’s distinct temporal and cultural eras from the late-19th century to the present day. We’ll be reading a mix of novels and short stories and watching a few adaptations of these texts into movies and TV shows. Though we’ll touch on many themes and tropes, from space travel to AI, we’ll primarily focus on examining and writing about the social and cultural possibilities of the genre, along with the technological and scientific advancements it has inspired. 

This course satisfies the English Major Prerequisite, the Second Writing Requirement, and the AIP Disciplines Requirement.

ENGL 2527 - 001: Shakespeare on Film

Clare Kinney

This course will explore in detail four major works by Shakespeare across several genres and look at some of their cinematic adaptations. How does one translate a Shakespearean work from a highly verbal medium into a highly visual medium? How can the resources of film offer us new insights into the plays—and how do different film adaptations of the same play allow us to rethink the interpretive challenges and pleasures provoked by their original texts?

Tentative list of plays: A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Henry V; Macbeth; The Tempest.

Requirements: Regular attendance and active participation in discussion; shorter and longer writing assignments together totaling 20 pages; a final exam.

This course satisfies the English major prerequisite, the second writing requirement, and the AIP disciplines requirement.

ENGL 2527 - 002: Shakespeare and Poetic Justice

Rachel Retica

The drama of judicial ritual was popular in the plays written by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. These plays are full of trial scenes, lawyers, and law enforcement characters, and they often uphold a strict moral economy: in what we would now call “poetic justice,” the just are rewarded and the unjust suffer. For as much as his plots adhere to this narrative, Shakespeare was also interested in dramatic resolutions that feel contrived or inadequate; portrayals of justice that make one wish for some other means of resolving things. To explore the uneasy balance between justice, representation, and reality, we will read early modern prose, poetry, and four Shakespeare plays, each of which ends in a trial scene or something very like one: The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, Measure for Measure, and The Winter’s Tale. How do literary depictions of justice influence our sense of the concept? What do Shakespeare’s trials suggest about the relationship between the theater and the courts?

Requirements: Regular attendance and active participation in discussion; writing assignments together totaling 20 pages.

This course satisfies the English Major Prerequisite, the Second Writing Requirement, and the Artistic, Interpretive and Philosophical Disciplines Requirement.

ENGL 2572 - 001: Black Women Writers

Lisa Woolfork

This seminar uses Black women’s writings from mid-century to the present to introduce new English majors to important concepts in literary analysis. To better understand genre, themes, and assorted literary conventions, we will focus closely on a range of literary styles.  We will also consider patterns of representation established in the 1950s and watch how they develop, disintegrate, or evolve into the present day.  Do certain issues or themes remain important in Black women’s writing of the last fifty years?  How has the literature adapted in response to specific cultural or historical moments?

This course satisfies the English Major Prerequisite, the Second Writing Requirement, and the Artistic, Interpretive and Philosophical Disciplines Requirement.

ENGL 2599 - 002: Comedy and Character

Rebecca Rush

In this course, we will meditate on the art of character-reading by spending time with four great observers of human nature. We will read Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (the General Prologue, the Miller’s Tale, and the Merchant’s Tale), Shakespeare’s As You Like It and Twelfth Night, Austen’s Emma, and Dickens’s David Copperfield. All four of these authors agree that it is worthwhile to look closely at the subtle details that make up a character, but they disagree about what kinds of details are worth observing and representing, about what is needed to build a character piece by verbal piece. Do we come to know a character by taking note of her red face and fine scarlet hose, by observing how he responds familial betrayal, by attending to her treatment of garrulous neighbors, or by hearing what happened on the day he was born? How do character writers use exaggeration and caricature not only to entertain us but to reveal something about human foibles and habits we might otherwise be unable to see? How do they use ensemble casts of major and minor characters to depict a full array of humors and habits? How do these authors stage scenes that show the difficult art of sizing up and judging character? No prior knowledge of literature is required; the only prerequisite is a willingness to read slowly, attentively, and with a dictionary at hand. Note that Emma is 453 pages and David Copperfield is 882. The syllabus is designed to spread out your reading of David Copperfield over the course of the semester, but please only take this course if you are prepared to dedicate considerable time to reading on the weekends. I am quite confident the books will reward your efforts.

This course satisfies the English major prerequisite, the second writing requirement, and the AIP disciplines requirement.

ENGL 2599 - 003: Monstrous Forms

Kelly Fleming

This course will introduce students to the practices of academic writing and critical reading by inviting you to explore texts about monsters. From the twelfth century to today, we will examine how literature, television, and film frequently uses monsters—witches, fairies, changelings, ghosts, vampires, zombies, and creatures—to speak to and provide rational explanations for things that are very human but that humans have trouble confronting outright: loss; death; political events; sexual, racial, and physical difference. As we engage with different media from different periods, we will pay particular attention to what forms (literary, visual, and physical) monsters take and consider how these forms shape our understanding of the societies that produced these narratives.

This course satisfies the English major prerequisite, the second writing requirement, and the AIP disciplines requirement.

ENGL 2599 - 004: Landscapes of Black Education

Ian Grandison

This course examines how seemingly ordinary spaces and places around us, “landscapes,” are involved in the struggle to democratize education in the United States. It uses the African American experience in this arena to anchor the exploration. We explore how landscape is implicated in the secret prehistory of Black education under enslavement; the promise of public education during Reconstruction; Booker T. Washington’s accommodation during early Jim Crow; black college campus rebellions of the 1920s; the impact of Brown v. Board of Education; the rise of black studies programs at majority campuses in the 1960s and ‘70s; and the resonance of Jim Crow assumptions affecting education access in our current moment. We also touch on the experience of other marginalized groups. For example, women’s college campuses, such as those of Mount Holyoke and Smith College, were designed to discipline women to accept prescribed gender roles at the height of the women’s suffrage movement. 

Some of the materials we study include excerpts from the following: Frederick Douglass’ 1845 Narrative, Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, Booker T. Washington’s Up from Slavery, W. E. B. Du Bois’s Black Reconstruction in America, Raymond Wolters’ The New Negro on Campus, and James D. Anderson’s The Education of Blacks in the South. Films include Peter Gilbert's With All Deliberate Speed. We’ll explore interpreting historical and contemporary maps, plans, and other design- and planning-related materials to help develop the ability to interrogate landscapes critically. Graded assignments include two midterms, a team research project, a final team project symposium, and an individual critical reflection on the team project. There will be a number of informal in-class and take home exercises connected especially with developing skills in preparation for the midterms, and final project.

This course satisfies the English Major Prerequisite, the Second Writing Requirement, and the AIP Disciplines Requirement.

ENGL 2599 - 005: Two Truths and a Lie: Aesthetics of Doubt in American Literature 

Lauren Parker

Doubt and uncertainty provoke a variety of emotions—fear, anxiety, anger, frustration—but are also the productive forces that sustain the mood and feel of some of the most prototypically ‘American’ genres, including noir, Southern Gothic, and American modernism. Drawing on a range of forms including novels, plays, films, poetry, and short stories, in this course we will explore texts that suggest how nineteenth and twentieth century texts have taken up and/or destabilized the very ideas of truth, knowledge, and certainty and consider how those same questions have been continually taken up in other disciplines (science, journalism, urban planning, etc.)

Potential Texts: poems and short stories by Edgar Allen Poe, Emily Dickinson, Flannery O'Connor; Herman Melville (Benito Cereno), Nella Larsen (Passing), Ann Petry (Country Place) William Faulkner (As I Lay Dying), Toni Morrison, (Beloved), Gillian Flynn (Sharp Objects)

Potential Films: [Orson Welles] The Tragedy of Othello: The Moor of Venice] Jacques Tourneur [I Walked with a Zombie], Carl Franklin [Devil in a Blue Dress], and Dan Gilroy [Nightcrawler]

Requirements: Regular attendance and active participation in discussion, weekly 4-500 word response posts, one 2-3 page paper, and two 5-7 page papers, plus a short final.

This course satisfies the English Major Prerequisite, the Second Writing Requirement, and the AIP Disciplines Requirement. 

ENGL 2599 - 006: Writing Across Time: Memory, History, and Belonging

Aindrila Choudhury

Imagine tracing a line through history, expecting it to unfold as a single temporal axis, only to find that it twists unexpectedly. Like a rope thick with knots, or a Mobius strip that turns and coils, where times fold over each other, snagging, sedimenting, looping over. How might that unsettle your sense of time and narrative? This course invites you into that twist. Here, we’ll dive into key literary and theoretical texts of the 20th and 21st-century that offer, in place of narratives suggesting that history is a steady march of time, temporal ruptures and intricate entanglements with other kinds of time: localized, recursive, spectral. These are stories where memory fragments, timelines collapse, and the past returns unexpectedly, sometimes like a haunting specter. Our focus on the last two centuries reflects an age of unprecedented upheaval: world wars, decolonization and independence movements, mass migrations, digital revolutions, times when histories refused to march in lockstep. From archival silences to ghostly presences, we’ll ask: Can we think of time as something we inhabit rather than something that passes? How does fragmented, palimpsestic, and cyclical time disrupt our idea of how we inhabit the world? What forms of belonging and selfhood emerge when time splinters into multiple, uneven, localized temporalities? What kinds of futures become imaginable when we stop thinking of time as a straight line? If you’re interested in how literature remembers, forgets, or reimagines time, this course offers a path, knotted though it may be, into those questions.

Readings will be selected from the following: Toni Morrison, Beloved; Amitav Ghosh, The Hungry Tide; Mohsin Hamid, Exit West; Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things; Marisa Parham, Break.dance (webpage); Kevin Quashie, Black Aliveness, Or a Poetics of Being (excerpts); Terence Hayes, American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin (select poems); Christina Sharpe, In the Wake: On Blackness and Being (excerpts); Ian Baucom, Specters of the Atlantic (excerpts); Dipesh Chakrabarty, Provincializing Europe (excerpts)

Course Requirements: Regular attendance and active participation in class discussion . Shorter and longer writing assignments that will total approximately 20 pages of writing over the course of the semester.

This course satisfies the English Major Prerequisite, the Second Writing Requirement, and the Artistic, Interpretive and Philosophical Disciplines Requirement. 

ENGL 2599 - 007: Dreaming in Literature

Molly Nichols

Have you ever wondered about the connection between dreams and reality? Is it possible to interpret dreams using real-world understanding? And what do our dreams have to say about our hopes and fears about reality? This class explores how English writers have presented both the creative potential and futility of dreams in literature, from medieval poems to modern novels. We will begin with medieval dream visions (in modern translations), including the Old English poem “The Dream of the Rood,” Chaucer’s The Book of the Duchess, the Gawain-poet’s Pearl, and excerpts from William Langland’s Piers Plowman. We will then turn to novels like C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce and Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven and wonder: How do these stories look back on the rich literary history of dream visions while also looking forward to the future humanity has been dreaming about for millennia? Throughout the semester, we will investigate these questions in light of the history – and present, and future – of dream interpretation, paying special attention to the connection between such interpretation and the analysis of literature as a whole. Regular attendance and active participation in discussion are required for this course, and shorter and longer writing assignments together will total 20+ pages.

This course satisfies the English Major Prerequisite, the Second Writing Requirement, and the Artistic, Interpretive and Philosophical Disciplines Requirement. 

ENGL 2599 - 008: The Witch in Literature

Jared Willden

People have been writing about witches for thousands of years. Some of these writers have believed in the existence of witches; others haven’t. Although belief in witches is now nearly extinct in Western culture, the witch has remained a prominent cultural touchstone. Why has the witch proved so resilient to millennia of attempts to burn, ban, defame, or disbelieve her? We will read (and watch) works from the ancient Mediterranean, the Renaissance London stage, and twentieth-century American film and television to consider the witch’s place in Western literature, her cultural significance, and what she reveals about our modern society that rejects the belief in witchcraft without being able to reject the witch.

This is a skills-focused class that prioritizes high-quality critical reading and writing. Tentative course requirements include consistent attendance, regular reading quizzes, active participation in class discussions, four essays totaling 21 pages, and a final exam.

This course satisfies the English Major Prerequisite, the Second Writing Requirement, and the AIP Disciplines Requirement (Artistic, Interpretive and Philosophical). 

ENGL 3002 - 100: History of Literatures in English II

Joshua Miller

John Keats, Mary Shelley, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, T. S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath, Toni Morrison, and Ocean Vuong: these are some of the authors that we will be reading and studying together in this survey of literature in English from around 1750 to the present moment. Along the way, we will trace the emergence of English as a global language and literature in our post-colonial world. Literary movements to be covered include Romanticism, Victorianism, Modernism, and Post-Modernism. This course is part of the two-semester sequence of the history of literature in English (along with ENGL 3001) that is required of English majors, but is open to anyone interested in exploring some of the most significant works of literature of the last two-plus centuries. You do not need to have taken ENGL 3001 first; the courses can be completed in any order that works best for you.

ENGL 3010 - 001: History of English Language

Stephen Hopkins

This course studies the history and development of the English language, from the Old English period (550CE-1100CE) to Middle and Early Modern English, and concluding at present-day English. We will sample literature from these time periods, as well as come to understand the linguistic processes behind each historical stage of the language and its vocabulary.

This course satisfies the pre-1700 requirement for the English major.

ENGL 3162 - 001: Chaucer II

Courtney Watts

This course satisfies the pre-1700 literature requirement for the English major.

ENGL 3260 - 001: Milton

Rebecca Rush

Our ultimate aim in this course is to linger over Paradise Lost and its distinctive intellectual and poetic beauties. In order to understand the questions that animate Milton’s epic poem, we will first survey Milton’s youthful poems and controversial prose. Milton dedicated his life as a writer to debating about the nature of liberty. Convinced that it is impossible to be good without choosing goodness rationally and deliberately, Milton argued repeatedly for new and radical ideas that he thought freed the mind from the irrational tyranny of custom and passion; he defended beheading the king, loosening divorce laws, and abandoning pre-publication censorship. But Milton saw himself as a radical in the root sense of the word (radix=root in Latin): he wanted to return to the classical past and what he called the “known rules of ancient liberty.” He wrote in forms like the sonnet and the epic that were downright outmoded by the seventeenth century. And he often based his arguments for radical liberties on appeals to reason, truth, and temperance. Milton’s peculiar brand of radicalism leaves readers wondering whether he is more modern or ancient, more dedicated in classical reason or Christian piety, more sympathetic with Adam and God or with Eve and Satan. As we unravel the intellectual positions of a poet who stood at the crossroads of antiquity and modernity, we will also attend to what makes him distinctive as a poet, including his ear for the rhythms of verse and his dedication to producing lines that are thick with learned allusions, etymological puns, and interpretive ambiguities. No prior knowledge of Milton or the seventeenth century is required; the only prerequisite is a willingness to read slowly, attentively, and with a dictionary at hand.

This course satisfies the pre-1700 requirement for the English major.

ENGL 3273 - 100: Shakespeare Tragedies Romances

Katharine Maus

This course deals with the second half of Shakespeare's career as a playwright, in which he was mainly writing tragedies and romances.  ENGL 3271, the fall semester course, deals with the first half of Shakespeare's career, in which he was mainly writing histories and comedies.  You may take either or both courses; neither is a prerequisite for the other.
2 50-minute lectures and 1 50-minute discussion section per week.

Requirements: 3 five-page papers, a final exam emphasizing material covered in lectures and section meetings, and regular short assignments made by section leaders.

Satisfies the pre-1700 requirement for the major.  This course does not automatically fulfill the Second Writing Requirement, but it may be tweaked to do so.  See me in the first few weeks of the semester if you are interested in this option.

ENGL 3370 - 001: Restoration & Eighteenth-Century Drama

Cynthia Wall

This course will range over the vast goodly fields of Restoration and eighteenth-century drama: tragedies, she-tragedies, heroic, gothic, and colonialist, along with samples of other popular stage entertainments such as operas, adaptations, pantomimes, farces.  We’ll poke into contemporary biographies of the principal actors and managers, acting manuals, descriptions of theatres, sets, and costumes, accounts of the audiences, and the rise of Shakespeare as a national icon. Core playwrights will include William Wycherley, Aphra Behn, William Congreve, Susanna Centlivre, George Lillo, John Gay, Richard Cumberland, Oliver Goldsmith, Frances Burney, and Matthew Lewis.  Added fun will be found in Nahum Tate’s happy version of King Lear (1688), Henry Fielding’s truly wonderful The Tragedy of Tragedies; or, The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great (1731), and Elizabeth Inchbald’s Lovers’ Vows (1798) (yes, the one in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park). Requirements: participation; weekly commentaries and in-class activities (“The Contemporary Stage”); one short paper; midterm; final exam.

This course can be used to fulfill the 1700-1900 period requirement for the English major.

ENGL 3500 - 001: Literary Games

Brad Pasanek

This is a course in “extra-literary” criticism in which English majors and other students are tasked with investigating the ways in which video games are available for literary interpretation. We will read games studies and literary theory, play games, and--take note!--learn to build them. Students will be introduced to the Godot game engine and framework. (No prior experience with programming required.) Our main effort is to check and test literary theory in "defamiliarized" ludic contexts, designing sprites and worlds and complicating traditional intuitions about narrative, characters, and fiction by means of game experiences.

Course enrollment currently set to "Instructor Permission" so that we can build a balanced group of English majors and CS students (double majors to be enthusiastically welcomed). Contact Brad Pasanek with any questions!

ENGL 3500 - 002: Conversations with Dead People

Sumita Chakraborty

Death is often imagined as one of the main topics of interest to poets across literary periods and traditions. But some poems, and some poets, take this interest one step further, positioning themselves as capable of speaking to the dead. In this course, we’ll read poems in which poets reimagine the relationship between the living and the dead—and study the wild history of poets (including W. B. Yeats, Sylvia Plath, James Merrill, and Lucille Clifton) who used material means, such as Ouija boards, mediums, and automatic writing, to communicate with spirits. Our main texts will be poems—largely poetry of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries—but we will also explore academic scholarship, popular writing, and other media about the history of and various ways of imagining “the occult.” Along the way, we’ll also learn strategies of reading and interpreting poems as well as some fundamental literary and poetic devices. Main assignments will include explications, an analytical essay, and a creative project, along with in-class discussions and activities.

ENGL 3540 - 001: Romantic Poetry

Mark Edmundson

We’ll read and interpret the six major English Romantic poets: Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Shelley and Byron. We’ll reflect on the pleasures of their work, and on what they might have to teach us about love, politics, nature, art, the self, society, and the imagination.  We may end with a Jane Austen novel for contrast, probably Pride and Prejudice. Two fact-based exams, one paper at the close. 

This course can be used to fulfill the 1700-1900 period requirement for the English major.

ENGL 3540 - 002: Global Nineteenth-Century Fiction

Stephen Arata

In this course we will read novels and short stories (all superb examples of narrative art) drawn from a range of cultures and countries. The overarching goal is to engage with these works not from the perspective of their separate national traditions but with an awareness of the novel as a transnational literary form, bound up in networks of authors and readers stretching around the globe. Likely candidates for the syllabus include Jane Austen, George Eliot, and Vernon Lee (England), George Sand and Honoré de Balzac (France), Mikhail Lermentov (Russia), Multatuli (Denmark), Benito Pérez Galdós (Spain), Machado de Assiz (Brazil), Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (India), and Mary Prince (Bermuda). Course requirements will include two 5-6 page essays, a final exam, and a handful of shorter writing assignments. All the readings will be in English.

This course can be used to fulfill the 1700-1900 period requirement for the English major.

ENGL 3560 - 001: Fiction in the Age of Modernism

Stephen Arata

The time period covered in this course is roughly 1890-1960: the age of Modernism in the literatures of Europe and the Americas. We will read novels and short stories from across a range of cultures and countries that explore the question of what makes a work of fiction not just “Modern” but “Modernist.” Likely authors include Virginia Woolf, Jean Rhys, James Joyce, Jean Toomer, Samuel Beckett, Haldor Laxness, Franz Kafka, Fernando Pessoa, G. V. Desani, Knut Hamsen, Vladimir Nabokov, Clarice Lispector, and Nella Larson. Course requirements will include two 5-6 page essays, a final exam, and a handful of shorter writing assignments. All the readings will be in English.

ENGL 3560 - 002: Woolf, Eliot and the Culture of Modernism

Michael Levenson

A seminar on the fiction of Virginia Woolf, the poetry of T.S. Eliot, and the wider cultural context of Modernism (in painting, film, and philosophy).  Alongside the close reading of signature literary works, we address the conditions of intellectual modernity and political-technological modernization. The responsibility of students includes weekly comments, an oral report and a final essay.

ENGL 3560 - 003: Global Speculative Fiction

Debjani Ganguly

The course will explore the emergence of speculative fiction as a global literary form in our contemporary age. Broadly encompassing the genres of fantasy, science fiction, horror and alternative history, speculative fiction is any kind of fiction that creates a narrative world which may or may not resemble the world we live in. This kind of fiction embodies alternative ideas of reality including magic, space or time travel, alternative realities, or alternative histories. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of speculative fiction from Africa, Latin America, and the Asia Pacific that figure alternative futures for peoples oppressed by centuries-long colonialism. The rapid proliferation of digital technology and the accelerating effects of anthropogenic climate change have given a new edge to this body of fiction. We will study the emergence of counter-factual utopian and dystopian narratives, Afrofuturism and animism, the specter of fossil futures, and apocalyptic fiction on environmental collapse through a range of exciting works. The goal of this course is to understand the rise of speculative fiction as a literary form and a mode of world-making that captures cataclysmic shifts in human and non-human worlds that can no longer be comprehended by social, political, and moral frameworks of our recent past and present.

Proposed Novels

Namwalli Serpell, The Old Drift

Nnedi Okorafor Lagoon

Ruth Ozeki, A Tale for the Time Being

Omar Elakkad, American War 

Kim Stanley Robinson, Ministry For The Future 

ENGL 3740 - 100: Intro to Asian American Studies

Sylvia Chong

An interdisciplinary introduction to the culture and history of Asians and Pacific Islanders in America. Examines ethnic communities such as Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Korean, Asian Indian, and Native Hawaiian, through themes such as immigration, labor, cultural production, war, assimilation, and politics. Texts are drawn from genres such as legal cases, short fiction, musicals, documentaries, visual art, and drama.

ENGL 3750 - 001: Placed & Displaced in America

Lisa Goff

The history of America is a history of place-making and displacement. Iconic American sites such as Monticello, Walden Pond, and our network of national parks have inspired generations of Americans. But displacement is just as much a part of our national identity—as the stories of Indigenous dispossession, housing discrimination, Japanese internment, redlining, gentrification, and homelessness attest. In this class we’ll critique the “iconic” American places, the ones we brag about, and study the displacement that has characterized our nation since the colonial era—the stories that were long buried, and are still coming to light. We’ll also pay special attention to the placemaking efforts of displaced or marginalized groups—such as Black Americans during the Great Migrations, lgbtq+ communities, immigrants, and survivors of natural disasters such as the Dust Bowl and Hurricane Katrina—who continue to redefine American identity through place-making. To do this we will analyze fiction, journalism, and film, as well as paintings, photographs and other elements of visual culture for insights into race, ethnicity, gender, class, and generation in America.

ENGL 3790 - 001: Moving On: Migration in/to US

Lisa Goff

“Moving On: Migration In/To the U.S.” examines the history of voluntary, coerced, and forced migration in the U.S. Students will trace changing attitudes about migration over time using a variety of cultural products, including videos, books, documentaries, poems, paintings, graphic novels, photographs, fashion, digital humanities, and academic scholarship. Class participation/contribution is the core of this class. Students will be required to volunteer 5-10 hours with a migration-related project during the course of the semester.

ENGL 3825 - 001: Desktop Publishing

Jeb Livingood

This course helps you learn how to edit and publish a contemporary book-length project—everything from proofreading manuscripts to graphic design and the publishing process—in both print and reflowable ePub formats. You will learn fundamentals of typesetting projects in Adobe InDesign, the main desktop publishing software used in the publishing industry. The class also gives you a firm grounding in the The Chicago Manual of Style, the dominant style manual used by literary publishers, by having you complete “gates” in an online system. This class will stress the typesetting and editing of textual projects. Photo collections and graphic-heavy projects are not usually acceptable.

ENGL 3910 - 001: Satire

John O'Brien

What is satire? Most of us think that we can more or less identify a satire when we see it, but beyond that, defining satire and talking it about meaningfully have often proven elusive. In this course, we will work to figure out not only what satire is, but what it does, socially and politically. We will read satires from the ancient world to the present, from authors like the Roman poet Juvenal, the Irish cleric Jonathan Swift, the Norwegian novelist Gerd Brandenberg, and the American writer Paul Beatty. We will read about theories of humor and satire: where it comes from, and what problems it raises and attempts to address. We will also consider film and video satires, as well as what crops up in the media in the course of the semester—because we know that something will. Midterm and final exams; two writing exercises; participation.

ENGL 3924 - 001: Vietnam War in Literature & Film

Sylvia Chong

It has been over 40  years since the Fall of Saigon in 1975, marking the end of a war that claimed the lives of an estimated 58,260 American troops and over 4 million Southeast Asians across Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. In the U.S. today, “Vietnam” signifies not a country but a lasting syndrome that haunts American politics and society, from debates about foreign policy to popular culture. But what of the millions of Southeast Asian refugees the War created? What, in this moment of commemoration and reflection, are the lasting legacies of the Vietnam War / American War for Southeast Asian diasporic communities? We will examine literature and film (fictional and documentary) made by and about Americans and Southeast Asians (Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, and Hmong) affected by the Vietnam War, spanning the entirety of this 40 year period. Texts may include Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now; Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried; Peter Davis, Hearts and Minds; Yusek Komunyakaa, Dien Cia Dau; Tiana Alexander, From Hollywood to Hanoi; Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer; Duong Thu Huong, Paradise of the Blind; Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino; Socheata Poeuv, New Years Baby.

ENGL 4500 - 001: The Frankenstein Circle

Cynthia Wall

“I passed the summer of 1816 in the environs of Geneva. The season was cold and rainy, and in the evenings we crowded around a blazing wood fire, and occasionally amused ourselves with some German stories of ghosts. The tales excited in us a playful desire of imitation. Two other friends and myself agreed to write each a story, founded on some supernatural occurrence. The following tale is the only one which has been completed.” So wrote young Mary Godwin; the two friends were the poets Lord Byron and her lover Percy Shelley. The tale was Frankenstein. (For the record, one Dr Polidori was there as well, and he did finish his tale, “The Vampyre”; it’s on the syllabus.) With Frankenstein as our ultimate text, we will also read works by Percy, Byron, Polidori, and William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft (Mary’s parents), excerpts from Mary’s journals, and selections from Mary & Percy’s mammoth reading lists for 1814-1818 (John Milton, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Edmund Burke, M. G. Lewis, Sir Humphry Davy, Captain James Cook). Requirements: active participation, weekly commentaries, presentation, 5-7pp. close reading paper, 10-12pp. research paper.

ENGL 4510 - 001: Medieval Women

Courtney Watts

This course will consider women in the literature of medieval Europe. We will read texts by and about women written in Middle English as well as translated texts written in other languages.

This course satisfies the pre-1700 literature requirement for the English major.

ENGL 4520 - 001: Afterlives of the Epic

Dan Kinney

What becomes of the epic, especially (but not only) in Renaissance England? Where has it been, and where does it still have to go? Why does the most elevated of literary modes in traditional reckonings end up seeming passe or impossible to so many moderns? Works to be read include Homer's epics, The Aeneid, The Inferno, Paradise Lost, Robinson Crusoe, The Dunciad, and The Waste Land. Class requirements: lively participation including brief email responses, two shorter or one more substantial term paper, and a final exam.

This course satisfies the pre-1700 literature requirement for the English major.

ENGL 4540 - 001: Literary Lives, Creative Collaborations

Taylor Schey

This course offers an in-depth study of the lives and works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William and Dorothy Wordsworth, with a focus on their joint creative projects. Although British Romanticism is often associated with the myth of the solitary genius, its watershed text of literary “experiments”—Lyrical Ballads (1798)—was produced through collaboration and a whole lot of walking and talking. Reading that text in both its first and second editions, we’ll reflect on the social uses of the ballad form at the turn of the nineteenth century as well as explore its affordances in our own historical moment. We’ll follow in Dorothy Wordsworth’s footsteps, too, not only considering the channels of influence between her Grasmere Journals and her brother’s poetry but also finding inspiration in our own observations of natural and quotidian phenomena. And we’ll take the time to immerse ourselves in William Wordsworth’s epic, autobiographical blank-verse poem The Prelude, to peruse selections from Coleridge’s Biographia Literaria, and to listen to the conversations between the rest of these authors’ greatest hits. Through activities that are both creative and analytical, collaborative as well as individual, students will cultivate their own literary lives and come to appreciate why, more than two hundred years later, Coleridge and the Wordsworths remain such great authors with whom to think. Assignments include a ballad project, a reading journal, a book review, and an in-class presentation.

This course satisfies the 1700-1900 literature requirement for the English major

ENGL 4559 - 001: Aesthetic Theory: AI, Literature, and Human Judgement

Chad Wellmon

As ChatGPT and other artificial intelligences have saturated our lives, their critics and defenders alike have insisted that human judgement, however fallible and flawed, is not only imperiled but necessary. But what is so human about judgment? How did the capacity to judge come to be heralded as marking a line between humans and machines? What is the relationship between judgement and other capacities (e.g. rationality, imagination, sociability)? This seminar will trace competing conceptions of a distinctly human judgment as they emerged between 1700 and 1900. We will consider, in particular, the relationship of aesthetic judgement and the emergence of Literature as a distinct form of writing. Our readings will include philosophical and literary texts ranging from Locke, Kant, Hegel, and Schiller to Addison, Coleridge, Goethe, Wordsworth, Schiller, and G. Eliot. The seminar will conclude with more recent discussions of literature, computation, and artificial intelligence in the work of Turing, Calvino, and others.   

ENGL 4560 - 001: Contemporary Women's Texts

Susan Fraiman

This course takes up recent Anglophone works by women across multiple genres and referencing a range of cultural contexts. Primary texts include visual as well as literary forms. A selection of secondary materials will help to gloss their formal, thematic, and ideological characteristics while giving students a taste of contemporary theory.  Possible works (final list still to be determined) include fiction by Jhumpa Lahiri, Carmen Machado, Alice Munro, Doris Lessing, Danzy Senna, Ryu Murakami, and Chimamanda Adichie; memoirs by Suad Amiry, Maggie Nelson, Michelle Zauner, and Sarah Smarsh; a graphic narrative by Roz Chast; a play by Annie Baker; a neo-Western film by Kelly Reichardt; images by South African photographer Zanele Muholi. Among our likely concerns will be the juxtaposition of verbal and visual elements in a single text; depictions of queer, raced, immigrant, and transnational subjectivities; narratives that make “truth claims” and how such claims affect the reader; representations of growing up, aging, migration, maternity, violence, marriage, creativity, sexuality, and work; ties and tensions among women across boundaries of place, generation, class, and race.  One project of the course will be to explore its own premise that “women’s texts” is a useful and meaningful category. Two papers and a final exam. This course is intended for 3rd- and 4th-year English majors or other advanced students with a background in literary/cultural/gender studies.

ENGL 4560 - 002: The Modern Memoir

Jim Seitz

In this course, we’ll read several memoirs published over the past thirty years, and we’ll consider some memoirish films as well. Coming-of-age stories and narratives of loss will figure prominently, as will experimental memoirs that challenge the genre’s formal conventions. Students should plan to engage with actual books (rather than access content on computers or phones) and to write in class each week about what they’ve read. They’ll also have the option of writing about their own lives for at least one assignment to learn about the creation as well as the interpretation of memoir.

ENGL 4560 - 003: Narrative Experiment in Contemporary American Fiction

Caroline Rody

Narrative Experiment in Contemporary American Fiction: Graphic Novels, Eccentric Narrators, Alternative Histories, Magical Realities

Contemporary American fiction brims with surprises. It’s not just that an unprecedent diversity of voices is generating a global literature centered upon U.S. territory, but also that this influx of the world’s energies has accelerated the modern and postmodern experimentation with new ways to tell a story.

In this course we will explore the possibilities generated by narrative innovation of several kinds. We’ll take up from the booming genre of the graphic novel, in which the visual dimension bursts open the conventional boundaries of narrative fiction (in texts like Art Spiegelman’s MAUS, Thuy Bui’s The Best We Can Do, and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home). We’ll read novels narrated by outrageous, elusive, sometimes magical voices (in texts like Junot Diaz’s The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and Karen Tei Yamashita’s Through the Arc of the Rain Forest). And we’ll consider novels that re-imagine ethnic American histories by means of inventive strategies: magical, multi-vocal, counterfactual, or speculative (in texts like Maxine Hong Kingston’s China Men, Louise Erdrich’s The Night Watchman, Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America, and Jocelyn Nicole Johnson’s “My Monticello”).

Requirements: devoted reading and active participation, multiple online postings, leading of class discussion (in pairs), a short and a long paper.

This course satisfies the AIP disciplines requirement.

ENGL 4560 - 004: American Novels, American Controversies

Victoria Olwell

When novels are published, they enter the public sphere, joining in the whole buzzing cacophony of contemporary culture. Often, novels step into ongoing public discussions about things that are not novels – political issues, contemporary developments in the social world, ideas about history, social inequality, scientific advances, and the like. Novels do this in a wide variety of ways, but, always, they operate through the specific formal characteristics of the novel (plot, character, narrative, the premise of fiction, etc.) and carry with them the distinctive history of the novel as a genre. In this course, we’ll consider contemporary U.S. novels that explicitly take up current issues in the public sphere. We’ll read these novels on their own terms, but also in the context of two other genres:  contemporary non-fiction on the same issues and literary criticism on the form and history of the novel. We’ll ask, what are the distinctive ways in which novels add to public discussion? By the way, I chose novels that meet two requirements. First, they have received a great deal of critical attention and acclaim, meaning that we can consider them to be novels with a hearty public presence. Second, I select only novels I find aesthetically compelling and intellectually enchanting, because one way that novels engage the public is by grabbing readers’ interest.

ENGL 4570 - 001: W.E.B. Du Bois

Marlon Ross

This course examines the work, career, and life of W.E.B. Du Bois, among the most influential thinkers of the 20th century, by placing him in relation to the movements he led, the figures he allied himself with and fought against (such as Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells-Barnett,  and Marcus Garvey), and the transformations in thought, social activism, and literature he helped to bring about. A founder of the NAACP and of the Pan-African Movement, as well as a leader of the Harlem Renassaince, Du Bois conceived of such important concepts as "The Talented Tenth," "double consciousness," and "the color-line as veil." We'll explore Du Bois's intellectual reach as sociologist, historian, activist, novelist, philosopher, poet, dramatist, and editor, focusing on works like "The Souls of Black Folk," "The Philadelphia Negro," "Black Reconstruction in America," and "The World and Africa." 
 

ENGL 4580 - 001: Race in American Places

Ian Grandison

Required Site Visit I--Monticello 

Sunday, February 22, 12:45pm to 5:00pm ET. (Class meets at Monticello Visitor Center at 12:45pm ET sharp. We end at the African Cemetery at 5:00pm ET. There will be no class on Tuesday, April 25 to compensate for the time commitment for the Monticello visit.)

Required Site Visit II—Downtown Charlottesville 

Tuesday, March 24, 4:45pm to 8:00pm ET.  Class meets at the former Greyhound Bus Station at 310 West Main Street at 4:45pm ET sharp. We end at Friendship Court by 8:00pm ET.) Overlaps with regular class meeting.

Required Final Symposium on Zoom (exam period)

Saturday, May 2, 6:00pm to 9:00pm ET. 

This interdisciplinary seminar uses the method of Critical Landscape Analysis to explore how everyday places and spaces, “landscapes,” are involved in the negotiation of power in American society.  Landscapes, as we engage the idea, may encompass seemingly private spaces (within the walls of a suburban bungalow or of a government subsidized apartment) to seemingly public spaces (the vest pocket park in lower Manhattan where the Occupy Movement was launched in September 2011; the Downtown Mall, with its many privately operated outdoor cafés, that occupy the path along which East Main Street once flowed freely in Charlottesville; or even the space of invisible AM and FM radio waves that the FCC supposedly regulates in the public’s interest).  

We launch our exploration by considering landscapes as arenas of the Culture Wars.  With this context, we unearth ways in which places are planned, designed, constructed, and mythologized in the struggle to assert and enforce social (especially racial) distinctions, difference, and hierarchy.  You will be moved to understand how publicly financed freeways were planned not only to facilitate some citizens’ modern progress, but also to block others from  accessing rights, protections, and opportunities to which casually we believe all "Americans" are entitled.  We study landscapes not only as represented in written and non-written forms, but also through direct sensory, emotional, and intellectual experience during two mandatory field trips to places in our region.  

In addition to informal group exercises and individual mid-term exam, a critical field trip reflection paper, and final exam, you are required to complete in small groups a final research project on a topic you choose that relates to the seminar.  Past topics have ranged from the racial politics of farmers’ markets in gentrifying inner cities to the gender--and the transgender exclusion—politics of  universal standards for public restroom pictograms.  Students showcase such results in an informal symposium that culminates the semester.  Not only will you expand the complexity and scope of your critical thinking abilities, but also you will never again experience as ordinary the spaces and places you encounter from day to day.

ENGL 4902 - 001: The Bible Part 2: The New Testament

John Parker

The stories, rhythms, and rhetoric of the Bible have been imprinting readers and writers of English since the seventh century. Moving through much of the New Testament, from the Gospels to Revelation, this course focuses on deepening biblical literacy and sharpening awareness of biblical connections to whatever members of the class are reading in other contexts. Along the way we will discuss English translations of the New Testament; the process of canonization; textual history; and the long trail of interpretive approaches, ancient to contemporary. Our text will be the New Oxford Annotated Bible, 5th ed. All are welcome. No previous knowledge of the Bible is needed or assumed. It can be taken before or after the Bible Part 2: The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament.

ENGL 4999 - 001: Distinguished Majors Program

Caroline Rody

ENGL 5101 - 001: "Beowulf and Its Monstrous Manuscript"

Stephen Hopkins

In this course, we will read about half of Beowulf in Old English, alongside samples from the other texts found in the same manuscript, Cotton Vitellius A XV. These other texts include Judith, the Letter of Alexander to Aristotle, Wonders of the East, and the Life of St. Christopher (a dog-headed saint!). Alongside extensive translation work, we will also study the manuscript itself and the various arguments about its date and the date(s) of the texts it contains.

ENGL 5500 - 001: Blake and Yeats

Mark Edmundson

A close and careful reading of 2 visionary poets, with particular attention to Blake's influence on Yeats.

ENGL 5500 - 002: Transforming Desire: Medieval and Renaissance Erotic Poetics

Clare Kinney

This seminar will focus upon lyric, narrative and dramatic works from the medieval and Renaissance periods which explore the striking metamorphoses and the various (and on occasion very queer) trajectories of earthly—and not so earthly--love. We'll be examining the ways in which desire is represented as transforming the identity and consciousness and language of the lover; we will also be examining (and attempting to historicize) strategies employed by our authors to variously transform, redefine, enlarge and contain the erotic impulse. We'll start with some selections from the Metamorphoses of Ovid; we will finish with two of Shakespeare’s most striking reinventions of love. Along the way we’ll be looking at the gendering of erotic representation and erotic speech, the intermittent entanglement of secular and sacred love, the role of genre in refiguring eros, and some intersections between the discourses of sexuality and the discourses of power.

Tentative reading list: selections from Ovid's Metamorphoses; the Lais (short romances) of Marie de France; Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde; lyrics by Petrarch, Philip Sidney and Lady Mary Wroth; Philip Sidney’s Old Arcadia; Shakespeare's As You Like It and The Winter’s Tale. (All non-English works will be read in translation.) And occasional critical/theoretical readings. 

Requirements: regular attendance, lively participation in discussion, a series of reflective discussion board postings, a short paper (6-7 pages); a long term paper (14 pages).

ENGL 5530 - 001: Literature of British Abolition

Michael Suarez

How did Great Britain come to abolish the slave trade in 1807 and what roles did literature play in enlightening readers to the barbarities of this human traffic? Reading works such as Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko, Quobna Ottobah Cugoano’s Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery, Olaudah Equiano’s Interesting Narrative, and a variety of poems, both canonical and from relatively unknown voices, we will attempt to immerse ourselves in the literature of British abolition. Juxtaposing such writings with visual materials (viz., the slave ship Brooks), abolitionist political pamphlets, and letters in the C18 public press will give greater depth to our discussions. Finally, we will read Caryl Phillips’ novel Cambridge and reflect on how a literature of abolition might function in our own time.

This course satisfies the 1700-1900 requirement.

ENGL 5559 - 001: American Wild

Stephen Cushman

With biblical images of wilderness in mind, seventeenth-century English colonizers of Massachusetts described what they found as another wilderness, howling, savage, terrible. For them it was to be feared, avoided, and, where possible, tamed. Four centuries later, with eighty percent of U.S. citizens living in cities, many of them exposed to wilderness only through calendar pictures or screensaver photos, what meaning or value does American wildness have? Is it only a fantasy image, part of an American brand, as in the phrase “the wild West.” Are wildness and wilderness the same thing? Has the howling, terrible, untamed wildness of the seventeenth-century forest relocated to another sphere, in the wildness of wildfires in California and elsewhere? Is weather the new frontier, the new wilderness, where Americans encounter untamed wildness in droughts, floods, and violent storms? Have we come full circle to more biblical imagery, with apocalypse replacing wilderness as the rubric under which we encounter the wild?

This course will begin with a look at biblical antecedents and their influence on European colonists encountering landscapes inhabited by native people. From there we will move to the literature of westward exploration, and further encounters with indigenous populations and their lands, in selections from the journals of Jefferson-commissioned Lewis and Clark. Then it’s on to the mid-nineteenth pivot toward wildness in the eyes of Romantic beholders, foremost among them Henry David Thoreau, patron saint of the environmental movement. Next comes John Muir, whose vision of wilderness preservation begat the U.S. National Park System. Proceeding to the twentieth century, we’ll add important voices, such as Aldo Leopold’s and Rachel Carson’s, as the preservation impulse merges with concern about public health and social justice. We’ll complete our tour in the twenty-first century by joining a conversation with Robert Bullard, Alice Walker, Linda Hogan, Carol Finney, Lauret Savoy, J. Drew Lanham, and Garnette Cadogan.

ENGL 5560 - 001: Woolf, Eliot and the Culture of Modernism

Michael Levenson

A seminar on the fiction of Virginia Woolf, the poetry of T.S. Eliot, and the wider cultural context of Modernism (in painting, film, and philosophy).  Alongside the close reading of signature literary works, we address the conditions of intellectual modernity and political-technological modernization. The responsibility of students includes weekly comments, an oral report and a final essay.

ENGL 5580 - 001: Introduction to Textual Criticism & Scholarly Editing

David Vander Meulen

This course in textual criticism deals with some of the fundamental problems of literary study:

● If a work exists in multiple forms and with different wording, what constitutes "the text"?
● How are such judgments made and standards determined?
● How are verbal works as intellectual abstractions affected by the physical forms in which they are transmitted?
● If one is faced with the prospect of editing a work, how does one go about it?
● How does one choose an edition for use in the classroom?

● What difference does this all make?

The course will deal with such concerns and will include:

● A short survey of analytical bibliography and the solution of practical problems as they apply to literary texts.
● Study of the transmission of texts in different periods.
● Consideration of theories and techniques of editing literary and non-literary texts of different genres, and of both published and unpublished materials.

The course will build to the preparation of a scholarly edition by each student. The class on books as physical objects, ENGL 5810, provides helpful background but is not a prerequisite.

*This course satisfies the Graduate English requirement for the history of criticism or literary theory.*

ENGL 5800 - 001: History of Literary Criticism

Walter Jost

Much if not all of what currently goes under the name of “cultural studies” and “critical theory,” not to mention concepts like genre, period, author, literature, imagination, poetry and so on, cannot go far without feeling the tug of the extensive root system in which they are grounded in the “history of literary criticism” (terms whose meanings are themselves multivalent and historical). One cannot study everything at once, to be sure; but judicious selection among the major critical texts of our changing traditions can serve both to make one feel at home in his or her culture, and to help de-mystify (as well as organize) large swatches of contemporary literary thinking. Along with a range of poems, we read a variety of short primary works, from a Platonic dialogue and Aristotle’s Poetics to Sidney’s “Defense of Poetry” to Pater, Eliot, Greenblatt and Cavell; and selections from an extremely useful secondary volume, M. A. R. Habib’s A History of Literary Criticism and Theory (Blackwell, paperback). Our reading load is manageable, though it requires hard thinking; our reading list is exciting and varied; and our class discussions about our readings and how they might be applied take primary place in the design of the class. We will write papers, present research, gather examples, and learn to "go on" from others in new ways.

ENWR 1506 - Writing and Critical Inquiry: The Stretch Sequence

Offers a two-semester approach to the First Writing Requirement. This sequence allows students to take more time, in smaller sections and with support from the Writing Center, practicing and reinforcing the activities that are central to the first-year writing course. Like ENWR 1510, ENWR 1505-06 approaches writing as a way of generating, representing, and reflecting on critical inquiry. Students contribute to an academic conversation about a specific subject of inquiry and learn to position their ideas and research in relation to the ideas and research of others.  Instructors place student writing at the center of course, encourage students to think on the page, and prepare them to reflect on contemporary forms of expression.  Students read and respond to each other’s writing in class regularly, and they engage in thoughtful reflection on their own rhetorical choices as well as those of peers and published writers.  Additionally, the course requires students to give an oral presentation on their research and to assemble a digital portfolio of their writing.

001 - Writing about Culture/Society  - The Good Life
TR 12:30PM-01:45PM (BRN 332)
John Modica

002 - Writing about Culture/Society
MW 02:00PM-03:15PM (CAB 036)
Claire Chantell

003 - Writing about Culture/Society​
MW 03:30PM-04:45PM (KER 317)
Claire Chantell

004 - Writing about Culture/Society - Language and Culture: Brain Rot or Demure​
TR 02:00PM-03:15PM (CAB 056)
Patricia Sullivan

005 - Writing about Culture/Society - Writing About Mental Health and Well-Being in College Life
TR 11:00AM-12:15PM (BRN 330)
Ethan King

College life can often feel like a balancing act between ambition and exhaustion, connection and isolation, thriving and just getting by. This course invites you to explore how college culture—from the pressure to achieve and the pull of perfectionism to the need to belong—shapes emotional well-being. Through readings from psychologists, educators, journalists, and student writers, we’ll consider how ideas about success, motivation, and belonging influence what it means to “do well” and “be well” in academic life. You will develop your writing through analytical essays, reflective narratives, and public pieces that examine how institutions and individuals talk about, support, and sometimes challenge mental health in higher education.

006 - Writing about Culture/Society - The Good Life
TR 03:30PM-04:45PM (BRN 330)
John Modica

007 - Writing about Culture/Society - Writing About Mental Health and Well-Being in College Life
TR 12:30PM-01:45PM (BRN 330)
Ethan King

College life can often feel like a balancing act between ambition and exhaustion, connection and isolation, thriving and just getting by. This course invites you to explore how college culture—from the pressure to achieve and the pull of perfectionism to the need to belong—shapes emotional well-being. Through readings from psychologists, educators, journalists, and student writers, we’ll consider how ideas about success, motivation, and belonging influence what it means to “do well” and “be well” in academic life. You will develop your writing through analytical essays, reflective narratives, and public pieces that examine how institutions and individuals talk about, support, and sometimes challenge mental health in higher education.

008 - Writing about Culture/Society - Language and Culture: Brain Rot or Demure
TR 03:30PM-04:45PM (CAB 044)
Patricia Sullivan  

ENWR 1510 - Writing and Critical Inquiry (70+ sections)

Approaches writing as a way of generating, representing, and reflecting on critical inquiry. Students contribute to an academic conversation about a specific subject of inquiry and learn to position their ideas and research in relation to the ideas and research of others.  Instructors place student writing at the center of course, encourage students to think on the page, and prepare them to reflect on contemporary forms of expression.  Students read and respond to each other’s writing in class regularly, and they engage in thoughtful reflection on their own rhetorical choices as well as those of peers and published writers.  Additionally, the course requires students to give an oral presentation on their research and to assemble a digital portfolio of their writing.

001 - Writing about Digital Media - Writing about Attention
TR 09:30AM-10:45AM (CAB 064)
Tyler Carter

002 - Writing about Digital Media - Writing about Attention
TR 12:30PM-01:45PM (CAB 287)
Tyler Carter
 
003 - Writing about Culture/Society
TR 05:00PM-06:15PM (CAB 068)
Alison Cotti-Lowell

004 - TBA
MWF 12:00PM-12:50PM (CAB 415)
Caroline Erickson

005 - TBA
MW 02:00PM-03:15PM (CAB 064)
Jeddie Sophronius
 
006 - TBA
TR 08:00AM-09:15AM (BRN 330)
TBA
 
007 - TBA
MWF 09:00AM-09:50AM (CAB 044)
TBA
 
008 - Writing about Culture/Society
MWF 10:00AM-10:50AM (KER 317)
TBA
 
009 - TBA
MWF 12:00PM-12:50PM (KER 317)
TBA
 
010 - Writing about Culture/Society
TR 05:00PM-06:15PM (CAB 036)
Keith Driver

012 - Multilingual Writers
MWF 01:00PM-01:50PM (CAB 068)
Davy Tran
(Multilingual or international students ONLY)
 
013 - TBA
MWF 09:00AM-09:50AM (CAB 056)
TBA

014 - Writing about Culture/Society - Assessing Performance, Risk, and Reward
MWF 10:00AM-10:50AM (CAB 107)
Jon D'Errico
 
015 - TBA
MW 08:30AM-09:45AM (CAB 064)
TBA
 
016 - TBA
MW 03:30PM-04:45PM (CAB 064)
Jeddie Sophronius
 
017 - TBA
MWF 10:00AM-10:50AM (CAB 068)
TBA
 
018 - TBA
TR 05:00PM-06:15PM (CAB 044)
TBA
 
019 - TBA
MW 05:00PM-06:15PM (CAB 036)
TBA
 
020 - Writing about Identities
MW 02:00PM-03:15PM (CAB 056)
devin donovan
 
021 - Writing about Culture/Society
TR 11:00AM-12:15PM (CAB 287)
Kate Natishan

022 - TBA
MWF 12:00PM-12:50PM (CAB 036)
TBA
 
023 - Writing about Digital Media - The Art of the Post: Performance in Social Media Spaces
TR 12:30PM-01:45PM (CAB 211)
Dana Little

In the digital era, social media platforms have become integral spaces for self-expression, communication, and cultural production. This course investigates how individuals and communities perform identities, narratives, and micro-cultures through various forms of digital expression. Beyond merely observing, we will critically examine how social media platforms serve as stages for creative expression, social interaction, and civil discourse, using theoretical frameworks drawn from media studies, cultural theory, performance studies, and digital humanities.
  
024 - TBA
MW 05:00PM-06:15PM (CAB 044)
TBA
 
025 - Writing about Culture/Society - Writing about Writing and Literacy
TR 11:00AM-12:15PM (CAB 036)
Kate Kostelnik

Writing is a tool that allows us to discover new ideas and communicate our ideas to others. In this class, we will inquire into writing itself and education—specifically what academic literacy means in the twenty-first century. We will investigate what writing means for us as individuals and what factors influence how we write. Throughout the course we will be considering different genres (personal essays, academic arguments, and fiction) and trying different writing strategies (invention, reflection, critical analysis, drafting, revision, and final editing). Particular attention will be paid to developing a working knowledge of rhetorical concepts such as audience, purpose, and context for writing. In the final month of the course, we’ll consider arguments about academic discourse and how college writers progress; our final projects will allow us to enter these ongoing academic conversations and articulate our own ideas and experiences in the context of scholarship.
 
026 - Writing about Culture/Society - Assessing Performance, Risk, and Reward
MWF 11:00AM-11:50AM (CAB 107)
Jon D'Errico
 
027 - Writing about Culture/Society
MW 03:30PM-04:45PM (CAB 036)
Kaitlyn Airy
 
028 - Writing about Science & Tech
TR 11:00AM-12:15PM (KER 317)
Cory Shaman
 
029 - TBA​
MW 03:30PM-04:45PM (WIL 244)
TBA
 
030 - Writing about Digital Media - Did the Camera Ever Tell the Truth?
TR 09:30AM-10:45AM (CAB 283)
Jodie Childers

In this class, we will build upon this provocative question posed by documentary filmmakers Maximilien Van Aertryck and Axel Danielson to explore what it means to be a discerning content consumer in the age of digital media. As we become active readers, viewers, and listeners, we will analyze the ways in which content creators attempt to shape our perception, from the Kuleshov effect in a video to the pathos of the sound design in a podcast. We will also apply the tricks of the trade as we make our own digital projects. With the rise of AI-generated media, it’s more important now than ever to grapple with the ethics of digital content creation and consumption.
 
031 - Writing about the Arts - Sci-fi and Its Present
TR 11:00AM-12:15PM (WIL 244)
Hodges Adams

In the introduction to The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin declares that “Science fiction is not predictive; it is descriptive.” What, then, can a work of science fiction tell us about the time in which it was written? Students in this course should expect to read and watch works of science fiction across a variety of genres and forms, including novels, short stories, essays, poetry, television episodes, and movies, and then generate critical written responses. This class focuses on reading, writing, researching, and revising carefully and with intention. Student papers will be peer reviewed and revised multiple times during class.
 
032 - Writing about Science & Tech
TR 09:30AM-10:45AM (KER 317)
Cory Shaman
 
033 - Multilingual Writers
MWF 12:00PM-12:50PM (Cab 068)
Davy Tran
(Multilingual or international students ONLY)
 
034 - Writing & Community Engagement - Walking Charlottesville
TR 12:30PM-01:45PM (CAB 115)
Kate Stephenson

035 - TBA
TR 05:00PM-06:15PM (CAB 411)
TBA
 
036 - TBA
TR 08:00AM-09:15AM (CAB 411)
TBA
 
037 - Writing about Culture/Society - Writing about Writing and Literacy
TR 12:30PM-01:45PM (CAB 036)
Kate Kostelnik

Writing is a tool that allows us to discover new ideas and communicate our ideas to others. In this class, we will inquire into writing itself and education—specifically what academic literacy means in the twenty-first century. We will investigate what writing means for us as individuals and what factors influence how we write. Throughout the course we will be considering different genres (personal essays, academic arguments, and fiction) and trying different writing strategies (invention, reflection, critical analysis, drafting, revision, and final editing). Particular attention will be paid to developing a working knowledge of rhetorical concepts such as audience, purpose, and context for writing. In the final month of the course, we’ll consider arguments about academic discourse and how college writers progress; our final projects will allow us to enter these ongoing academic conversations and articulate our own ideas and experiences in the context of scholarship.
 
038 - TBA
TR 08:00AM-09:15AM (CAB 415)
TBA
 
039 - TBA
MW 08:00AM-09:15AM (CAB 068)
TBA
 
040 - TBA
MWF 11:00AM-11:50AM (CAB 068)
TBA
 
041 - Writing about the Arts - Sci-fi and Its Present
TR 03:30PM-04:45PM (CAB 056)
Hodges Adams

In the introduction to The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin declares that “Science fiction is not predictive; it is descriptive.” What, then, can a work of science fiction tell us about the time in which it was written? Students in this course should expect to read and watch works of science fiction across a variety of genres and forms, including novels, short stories, essays, poetry, television episodes, and movies, and then generate critical written responses. This class focuses on reading, writing, researching, and revising carefully and with intention. Student papers will be peer reviewed and revised multiple times during class.
 
042 - Writing about Culture/Society
MW 02:00PM-03:15PM (BRN 332)
Kaitlyn Airy
 
043 - Writing about Digital Media - Did the Camera Ever Tell the Truth?
TR 11:00AM-12:15PM (CAB 283)
Jodie Childers 

In this class, we will build upon this provocative question posed by documentary filmmakers Maximilien Van Aertryck and Axel Danielson to explore what it means to be a discerning content consumer in the age of digital media. As we become active readers, viewers, and listeners, we will analyze the ways in which content creators attempt to shape our perception, from the Kuleshov effect in a video to the pathos of the sound design in a podcast. We will also apply the tricks of the trade as we make our own digital projects. With the rise of AI-generated media, it’s more important now than ever to grapple with the ethics of digital content creation and consumption.
 
044 - TBA
TR 05:00PM-06:15PM (CAB 064)
TBA
 
045 - Writing about the Arts - Writing about Television
TR 09:30AM-10:45AM (CAB 036)
Cristina Griffin

046 - Writing about Science & Tech - Writing about Medicine
MW 05:00PM-06:15PM (KER 317)
Rhiannon Goad
 
047 - TBA
MW 02:00PM-03:15PM (TBA)
TBA
 
048 - TBA
TR 09:30AM-10:45AM (CAB 287)
Kate Natishan
 
049 - TBA
MWF 10:00AM-10:50AM (CAB 064)
TBA
 
050 - TBA
MWF 12:00PM-12:50PM (BRN 330)
TBA
 
051 - Writing about Idenities
TR 11:00AM-12:15PM (BRN 334)
Charity Fowler
 
052 - Writing & Community Engagement
TR 02:00PM-03:15PM (CAB 283)
Kevin Smith
  
053 - Writing about Culture/Society
MWF 11:00AM-11:50AM (KER 317)
Kevin Smith
 
054 - TBA
TR 08:00AM-09:15AM (CAB 211)
TBA

055 - Writing about Culture/Society
TR 05:00PM-06:15PM (CAB 211)
TBA
 
056 - TBA
MW 05:00PM-06:15PM (CAB 068)
TBA
 
057 - TBA
TR 08:00AM-09:15AM (CAB 283)
TBA
 
058 - Writing about Digital Media - The Art of the Post: Performance in Social Media Spaces
TR 11:00AM-12:15PM (CAB 068)
Dana Little

In the digital era, social media platforms have become integral spaces for self-expression, communication, and cultural production. This course investigates how individuals and communities perform identities, narratives, and micro-cultures through various forms of digital expression. Beyond merely observing, we will critically examine how social media platforms serve as stages for creative expression, social interaction, and civil discourse, using theoretical frameworks drawn from media studies, cultural theory, performance studies, and digital humanities.
 
059 - TBA
TR 08:00AM-09:15AM (CAB 064)
TBA
 
060 - Writing about Culture/Society
MW 05:00PM-06:15PM (CAB 056)
TBA
 
061 - Writing about Culture/Society
TR 05:00PM-06:15PM (CAB 056)
TBA
 
062 - Writing about the Arts - Writing about Visual Narratives
MWF 10:00AM-10:50AM (CAB 056)
Rory Sullivan

In this course, we will examine what it means to read, experience, write about, and create visual narratives. By looking at a variety of media objects, including comics, graphic novels, archival materials, and video games, we will explore what makes these narratives unique as a genre.


063 - TBA
MWF 11:00AM-11:50AM (CAB 287)
TBA
 
064 - TBA
MW 05:00PM-06:15PM (CAB 064)
TBA
 
065 - TBA
MWF 01:00PM-01:50PM (BRN 330)
TBA
 
066 - TBA
TR 08:00AM-09:15AM (CAB 044)
TBA
 
067 - Writing about Culture/Society - Writing about Sports
MWF 11:00AM-11:50AM (CAB 283)
Rory Sullivan

In this course, we will discover the various ways that sports reflect and shape culture. Writing projects will include game summaries, audio and visual podcasts, and research projects.
 
068 - Writing about Culture/Society - Writing about Writing and Literacy
TR 03:30PM-04:45PM (CAB 036)
Kate Kostelnik

Writing is a tool that allows us to discover new ideas and communicate our ideas to others. In this class, we will inquire into writing itself and education—specifically what academic literacy means in the twenty-first century. We will investigate what writing means for us as individuals and what factors influence how we write. Throughout the course we will be considering different genres (personal essays, academic arguments, and fiction) and trying different writing strategies (invention, reflection, critical analysis, drafting, revision, and final editing). Particular attention will be paid to developing a working knowledge of rhetorical concepts such as audience, purpose, and context for writing. In the final month of the course, we’ll consider arguments about academic discourse and how college writers progress; our final projects will allow us to enter these ongoing academic conversations and articulate our own ideas and experiences in the context of scholarship.

069 - TBA
TR 08:00AM-09:15AM (KER 317)
TBA

070 - TBA
MWF 01:00PM-01:50PM (CAB 415)
TBA

071 - Writing about Culture/Society
MWF 01:00PM-01:50PM (KER 317)
TBA

072 - Writing about Identities
TR 09:30AM-10:45AM (BRN 334)
Charity Fowler

073 - TBA
TR 05:00PM-05:15PM (KER 317)
TBA

074 - TBA
TR 08:00AM-09:15AM (CAB 036)
TBA

075 - TBA
MWF 09:00AM-09:50AM (CAB 036)
TBA

ENWR 1520 - Writing and Community Engagement (5 sections)

ENWR 1520 shares the same writing goals and approaches as ENWR 1510, but focuses on community engagement in pursuit of those goals. In ENWR 1520, students contribute to a conversation and learn to position their ideas, research, and experiential learning in community engaged projects. Students should expect to spend time outside the classroom interacting with community partners, either in person or virtually.

002 - Writing and Community Engagement - You and A.I.
TR 09:30AM-10:45AM (BRN 332)
Piers Gelly

In this course, we will practice the skills associated with college-level writing by asking a provocative question of one another: in the age of ChatGPT, do we still need writing courses like this one? 

003 - Writing and Community Engagement - Writing about Native American Rhetoric
TR 09:30AM-10:45AM (RTN 150)
Sarah Richardson

This course will focus on how Native American histories are written and how to combat dominant narratives surrounding these histories and portrayals. Students will learn concepts such as: colonization, rhetoric, dominant and counter narratives, and current and past representations in memory. Students will also learn how to research, compose, and revise ethical and effective arguments to address specific audiences. 

004 - Writing and Community Engagement - Writing about Native American Rhetoric
TR 11:00AM-12:15PM (RTN 150)
Sarah Richardson

This course will focus on how Native American histories are written and how to combat dominant narratives surrounding these histories and portrayals. Students will learn concepts such as: colonization, rhetoric, dominant and counter narratives, and current and past representations in memory. Students will also learn how to research, compose, and revise ethical and effective arguments to address specific audiences. 

011 - Writing and Community Engagement - Writing Place
TR 12:30PM-01:45PM (KER 317)
John T. Casteen IV

This course offers students focused instruction on academic writing, research, and argument. It's organized around Place-- how we experience and understand our physical surroundings-- and the way we write it. The course includes a free, mandatory field experience on Virginia's Eastern Shore from February 27 through March 3 at UVa's Coastal Research Center, along with engagement in advance with its history, ecology, and culture.

ENWR 2510 - Advanced Writing Seminar (4 sections)

The course in highest demand for students on the FWR+ track is ENWR 2510, an Advanced Writing Seminar. Like ENWR 1510, ENWR 2510 approaches writing as a way of generating, representing, and reflecting on critical inquiry. Students contribute to an academic conversation about a specific subject of inquiry and learn to position their ideas and research in relation to the ideas and research of others.  Instructors place student writing at the center of course, encourage students to think on the page, and prepare them to reflect on contemporary forms of expression.  Students read and respond to each other’s writing in class regularly, and they engage in thoughtful reflection on their own rhetorical choices as well as those of peers and published writers.  Additionally, the course requires students to give an oral presentation on their research and to assemble a digital portfolio of their writing. While ENWR 2510 and ENWR 1510 share the same goals and practices, ENWR 2510 offers added rigor, often in the form of denser course texts and longer, more self-directed writing assignments.

001 - Writing about Digital Media - Writing in the Age of Generative AI
TR 3:30PM-04:45PM (CAB 183)
Ethan King

In this humanities-based writing seminar, we will explore generative AI as a rhetorical and cultural force reshaping how we read, write, and think. Rather than treating AI simply as a professional tool or as a looming threat, we’ll approach it as a site of inquiry: asking who we become when we write with, through, or against machines that can simulate language. Our work will build layered AI awareness, including a functional understanding of how these systems operate, rhetorical insight into how they shape meaning, and ethical attention to their social and environmental impacts. Readings will span a range of perspectives, from those who see AI as a creative collaborator to its most critical opponents. Through a variety of writing projects, we will enter current debates about writing and technology and practice what it means to write deliberately in a world increasingly shaped by automated language.

002 - Writing about Identities - The Cultural Work of Life Writing
TR 11:00AM-12:15PM (COC 101)
Tamika Carey

From posting on social media to writing memoirs, people are constantly documenting their lives for the public. This class will explore these acts of disclosure to understand what they reveal about how members from different cultural groups use writing to form, reform, and share their identities. In addition to reading theoretical works, popular critiques, and primary texts by a variety of memoirists, scholars, and journalists, students will collect, analyze, and compose brief life writings, and complete a final critical or creative project.

003 - TBA
MWF 11:00AM-11:50AM (BRN 310)
Heidi Nobles

004 - Writing about Culture/Society - Exploratory Writing
TR 11:00AM-12:15PM (BRN 312)
James Seitz

ENWR 2520 - Special Topics in Writing (8 sections)

001 - Queer Writing: Theory and Practice
TR 05:00PM-06:15PM (BRN 330)
John Modica

This course is designed to transform your relationship to writing by introducing you to queer theories and practices of writing. We will consider what it means to enact a ‘queer’ approach to writing today, and put our theories to the test in our own writing and classroom activities.  

002 - Listening to Horror
TR 12:30PM-01:45PM (CAB 207)
Kate Natishan
ECHOLS STUDENTS ONLY

Are there aspects of fear and horror that are cross-cultural? How do creators use larger sociological anxieties to scare or unnerve their audiences? This class explores the genre of cosmic horror: we begin with an overview of the history of cosmic horror and its place in society, then take deep dives into two horror podcasts. Throughout the semester, we will examine how sound design enhances written scripts. 

004 - Audible Writing
MWF 01:00PM-01:50PM (BRN 310)
Jon D'Errico

Text meets audio. As a class, we'll explore, analyze, and produce audible writing about UVa and Charlottesville in a range of genres, from podcast-style scripts to hybrid multi-modal documents. Appropriate for students who combine strong writing with a lively and engaged intellectual curiosity.

005 - Writing Within the Archive
MW 02:00PM-03:15PM (BRN 334)
Rory Sullivan

This course explores how to research and write about archival material. Working closely with UVA Special Collections, we will identify materials to study, conduct research, develop arguments, and practice different modes of sharing our findings, including born-digital compositions. We will also consider theoretical understandings of archival practices.

006 - Writing about Virginia's Native Community
TR 02:00PM-03:15PM (CAB 036)
Sarah Richardson

In this course, students will employ research skills, focus on critical engagement, reflect on how information is presented and written to craft effective arguments to address a public facing audience.  In particular, students will work with Virginia’s Tribal Nations to create a document that discusses the similarities and differences between the Tribal Nations socially, historically, and culturally.

007 - Writing about Medicine
MW 03:30PM-04:45PM (CAB 044)
Rhiannon Goad
ECHOLS STUDENTS ONLY

This course dives into the art and ethics of communicating about health. You'll dissect everything from dense medical studies to viral news, learning to translate complex science into clear, compelling language. With short essays, you will develop skills to evaluate diverse sources, including medical literature, health journalism, and patient narratives, and apply responsible communication principles in contexts such as reporting research findings without hype and explaining public health issues effectively. You'll practice these communication skills throughout the semester, culminating in a final project: the creation of a zine about medicine.

008 - You and A.I.
TR 11:00AM-12:15PM (BRN 332)
Piers Gelly
ECHOLS STUDENTS ONLY

In this course, we will practice the skills associated with college-level writing by asking a provocative question of one another: in the age of ChatGPT, do we still need writing courses like this one? 

100 - Writing (and creating) Democratic Spaces
T 06:00PM-08:30PM (BRN 312)
Steve Parks
ECHOLS STUDENTS ONLY

Students will study theories of democracy and work with global democratic advocates, as well as students located in international contexts. This course will involve all-day workshops on February 15th, 16th, 22nd, and 23rd. This course will also end on March 9th.

ENWR 2700 - News Writing

TR 09:30AM-10:45AM (SHN 109)
Kate Sweeney

No fake news here, but rather progressive exercises in developing the news-writing style of writing from straight hard news to "soft" features. Satisfies Second Writing Requirement.

ENWR 2800 - Public Speaking

MW 03:30PM-04:45PM (CAB 056)
devin donovan

An inquiry-based approach to the development of a confident, engaging, and ethical public speaking style. Beyond practical skills, this course emphasizes rhetorical thinking: what are the conventions of public speaking? Where are there opportunities to deviate from convention in ways that might serve a speech’s purpose? How might we construct an audience through the ways we craft language and plan the delivery of our speech?

ENWR 3500 - Topics in Advanced Writing & Rhetoric

001 - Environmental Justice Writing
TR 02:00PM-03:15PM (PV8 102)
Cory Shaman

Designed to offer students practice in engaged environmental writing, this course will focus on environmental justice (EJ) discourse in US and international contexts. While the class will be grounded in a study of established forms of EJ theory, special attention will be given to advancing an understanding of the entangled claims and interests of humans and non-humans together as a method to enable students to develop more expansive conceptions of justice and produce just forms of writing.

Course materials will draw heavily on texts associated with historical and contemporary environmental justice efforts at the grassroots level, but also in academic, governmental, and commercial contexts. Case studies in local EJ campaigns in Virginia may form a significant portion of the class. Students will gain experience as readers of these texts and apply insights to a variety of writing tasks shaped by their specific interests within the framework of environmental justice.

002 - Rhetoric of Crime
MW 02:00PM-03:15PM (BRK 103)
Rhiannon Goad

Sensational news headlines, tough-on-crime political campaigns, and gripping true crime narratives: how we talk about crime profoundly shapes our understanding of criminals, victims, justice, and social order. This course explores the rhetorical dimension of crime, examining the persuasive strategies used to define crime, influence public perception, and shape policy in contemporary culture. Together, we will critically analyze how language constructs our reality of crime and punishment. Through a series of analytic papers and a podcast, students will use rhetorical analysis to identify significant trends in crime discourse, identify agents shaping these narratives, and develop a critical perspective on the power of language in matters of law, order, and justice.

ENWR 3550 - Advanced Topics in Digital Writing & Rhetoric

001 - Digital Public Writing
TR 12:30PM-01:45PM (CAB 283)
Kevin Smith

ENWR 3550: Digital Public Writing examines the rhetorical, technological, and cultural dimensions of writing for public audiences with an emphasis on digital communities. Students will analyze and produce multimodal compositions meant to circulate beyond the classroom, developing rhetorical frameworks for understanding how (digital) texts address audiences and perform work in the world.

002 - Digital Maker Studio
TR 02:00PM-03:15PM (CLM 320)
Jodie Childers

In this hands-on maker workshop, students will explore the craft of digital making. Students will engage in independent and collaborative projects, creating audio narratives, videos, and digital stories. Experimentation, invention, and design will be emphasized as students learn how to use digital tools; compose with still and moving images, sound, and text; and consider the ethics and aesthetics of citation. 

ENWR 3559 - New Course in Writing & Rhetoric

001 - Rebuilding (and Expanding) Democracy
M 06:00PM-08:30PM (CAB 211)
Steve Parks

This course will enable students to gain fluency in linking their academic writing to public debates. In particular, the course will investigate the status of democracy as both a concept and set of participatory practices, asking students to consider how their education might support a robust democratic sphere. Students will engage with global democratic advocates (via Zoom) as well as a democratic organizing skills workshop.

ENWR 3640 - Writing with Sound

TR 03:30PM-04:45PM (FHL 215)
Piers Gelly

Trains students to become attuned, thoughtful listeners and sonic composers. In addition to discussing key works on sound from fields such as rhetoric and composition, sound studies, and journalism, we will experiment with the possibilities of sound as a valuable form of writing and storytelling. Students will learn how to use digital audio editing tools, platforms, and techniques for designing and producing sonic projects. (Meets second writing requirement.)

ENWR 3660 - Travel Writing

TR 09:30AM-10:45AM (CAB 056)
Kate Stephenson

Why is everyone suddenly going to Portugal? Why do we travel? What is the difference between a traveler and a tourist?  Using different types of writing, including journal entries, forum posts, peer reviews, and formal papers, we will explore the world of travel writing.  Since we all write best about ideas we are passionate about, we will work together to generate interesting questions about the role of travel in our culture, as well as about specific books and essays. We will also investigate the world of tourism and consider the many ethical issues that arise in the exploration of our modern world. Throughout the course, we will ponder questions like:  

• What is the relationship between travel writer, reader, and inhabitant?  
• How can we use writing to navigate the relationship between writer, reader, inhabitant, and place?  
• What is the role of “outsider” in travel writing?
• How does travel writing encourage us to see ourselves differently?  
• How can we use the very best of travel writing—the sense of discovery, voice, narrative suspense—in other forms of writing, including academic essays?  
• Can travel writing evoke political and social change? 

As the semester unfolds, I hope we will revise and refine our views, paying close attention to how we put words together to write powerfully and engagingly about travel. 

ENWR 3720 - Argumentation Across Disciplines

TR 03:30PM-4:45PM (CAB 411)
Tyler Carter

Argumentation Across Disciplines examines how the linguistic and rhetorical features of argument vary from discipline to discipline. The course will make two primary movements: The first is an examination of what argument is through the lens of classical and new rhetorical theory. Second, students will do comparative research on the linguistic and rhetorical features of texts in two different disciplines.

ENWR 3760 - Studies in Cultural Rhetoric

TR 02:00PM-03:15PM (FHL 215)
Tamika Carey

This course will explore how cultural groups develop, use, and remix stories to build and reshape their worlds. With special attention to the social concepts and communication techniques involved in this work – concepts that include master narratives, rhetorical listening, identification, testimony, and counterstory – we will deepen our understanding of how rhetoric influences the worlds in which we live. Projects will include a story collection project, an analysis presentation, and a final creative or critical project.

ENWR 3900 - The Forbes Seminar in Career-based Writing and Rhetoric

001 - Strategic Communication in the Age of AI and Social Media
TR 03:00PM-04:45PM (CAB 111)
Dana Little

Career-Based Writing & Rhetoric is a hands-on, workshop-style course designed to equip you with the advanced communication skills essential for thriving in the modern workplace. In this course, you’ll combine persuasive writing with practical strategies in social media marketing and Generative AI tools. Through self-designed projects, you’ll practice proposing, drafting, and editing content while exploring recent research, learning GenAI best practices, and integrating these materials into your writing process. Along the way, you’ll learn the foundations of effective communication, analyze real-world case studies, and discover how social media platforms—from TikTok to LinkedIn—shape modern branding, promotion, and engagement. As you master adapting your writing to various audiences and formats, you'll stay ahead of emerging trends, such as influencer marketing and short-form video, setting yourself up for success in today’s dynamic communication landscape and preparing you to write effectively for any career-focused goal.