Course Descriptions

We offer approximately 150 to 200 sections of English courses each long semester and a handful of courses over the summer. All of our courses emphasize analytical reading, critical thinking, effective communication, and the development of various writing styles and skills. Our writing-oriented courses cover a variety of skills and degree requirements for students across the university including Core Curriculum courses, Writing Intensive courses, creative writing, and technical business writing. Our literature courses span across genres, time periods, and areas of study including such topics as: health humanities, digital humanities, linguistics, cultural studies, LGBTQ+ literatures, Latinx literatures, rhetoric, literature and film, African-American literatures, surveys of literary periods, and young adult/children's literature.

For a full listing of English courses and brief descriptions, visit the university’s undergraduate catalog.

Below you will find detailed course descriptions for some of our classes being offered during the Spring 2026 semester. While this list is not exhaustive, it is meant to aid students in selecting courses that meet their interests, particularly for our special topics courses which change from semester to semester. Please use the Class Search function in Howdy to see a full list of English and Linguistics classes being offered in Spring 2026.

ENGL 210: Technical and Professional Writing

Taught by: Dr. Jason Crider

Course Description: Focus on writing for professional rhetorical situations; correspondence and researched reports fundamental to the workplace—memoranda, letters, electronic correspondence, research proposals and presentations; use of visual rhetoric and document design in print and electronic mediums; emphasis on audience awareness, clarity of communication and collaborative team-work.

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ENGL 220: Graphic Novels

Taught by: Dr. Matt McKinney

Course Description: This course will focus on graphic novels and manga as a medium, and their literary and historical evolution across the 20th and 21st centuries. During the semester we will examine the history of this increasingly influential form of storytelling in the literary tradition, its various transformations, the relationship between its visual and written elements, and the material culture that has contributed to its formation. We will analyze a number of graphic narratives (primarily from the United States and Japan) in terms of their structure, and their focus on themes of alienation, heroism, violence, culture, and sexuality.

Proposed Readings:

Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud
Saga, Brian Vaughan
Watchmen, Alan Moore
Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
Full Metal Alchemist, Hiromu Arakawa
Vagabond, Takahiko Inoue

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ENGL 221: Early World Literature

Taught by: Dr. Michaela Baca

Course Description: Step into a time machine built from words. This course takes you on a journey across centruies and continents, exploring the voices that shaped the world's great stories from the ancient world through the sixteenth century.

You'll encounter epic heroes, mystics, philosophers, and poets--voices that rose from temples, marketplaces, courts, and battlefields. Together, we'll read texts drawn from diverse traditions and genres, uncovering not just their artistry, but also the historical and cultural worlds that gave them life.

From myths that explained the stars to plays that questioned power, from sacred texts to love poems, this survey of world literature invites you to see how humanity has wrestled with meaning, beauty, and truth across time.

Proposed Readings:

The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Georgics

Folktales from Japan, Greece, and the Jewish tradition

Selections from 1001 Arabian Nights

Beowulf

The Inferno

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ENGL 308: History of Literary Criticism

Taught by: Dr. Tyler Shoemaker

Course Description:

This course surveys the history of literary theory and criticism from antiquity to the present. Our overarching concern will be the problem of representation: What is the nature of representation? How does it differ from the real? What is it for? How do we assess what a representation represents? After posing these questions in the context of classical and renaissance texts, we will make multiple passes through the last 150 years of critical thought, tracing the dynamics of representation across art, language, culture, politics, psychic life, and subjectivity.

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ENGL 310: History of the English Language

Taught by: Dr. Katayoun Torabi

Course Description: This course provides a historical study of the English language, beginning with a discussion of its Indo-European origins and continuing on to the present day. Students will learn about phonological, grammatical, and lexical changes within the language over time, and will examine the social and political conditions related to such changes. The course will focus on the English language in its social context and will ask students to think about language as a dynamic system that changes when it comes into contact with other cultures through migration, war, colonialization, and technological advancements. Students will explore such changes through various literary works in Old, Middle, and Modern English, including passages from Beowulf, Malory, Chaucer, and Shakespeare. This course is addressed to all students interested in the English language, literature, linguistics, history, and cultural studies. The course does not assume any background in language or linguistics; all necessary terms and concepts are taught in the course. Class activities will include lecture, discussion, and group work. This class is cross-listed with Linguistics 310.

Proposed Readings:

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ENGL 317: Early British Drama

Taught by: Dr. Kevin O'Sullivan

Course Description:

This course will provide an overview of British drama from the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Discussions will begin with a contextual overview of dramatic forms and theatrical history relevant to the late medieval period through the ‘golden age’ of early modern drama during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. Throughout the semester, students will critically respond to canonical as well as lesser-known texts representing a wide array of dramatic genres—the morality play, chivalric fantasy, city comedy, revenge tragedy, closet drama, and villain play among them—and investigate how these respond artistically to the social and political issues of the day.

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ENGL 320: Technical and Professional Editing

Taught by: Dr. Altay "Al" Ozkul

Course Description: What is technical editing? Is it just fixing grammar or rearranging paragraphs? Does it overlap with writing? The truth is, it’s much more than these. Technical editing is about making complex information clear, accurate, and usable. These are the skills that employers value across every industry. Whether you’re dealing with medical guidelines, legal documents, software manuals, workplace policies, or research papers, the ability to edit effectively ensures that information is not only accurate but also easy for the intended audience to understand. And while AI can handle more routine, surface-level editing tasks, it can’t replace the higher-level thinking and judgment that technical editors bring to the table.

This course will give you hands-on practice with real-world editing challenges. You’ll learn how to improve clarity, consistency, and accuracy in technical documents, use traditional and contemporary copyediting tools, manage collaborative editing projects, and translate specialized knowledge for diverse audiences. You will also have the opportunity to learn a bit of English grammar and develop the metalanguage required to talk about your editorial work. By the end of the semester, you’ll have developed editorial skills that transfer to many careers—editing, writing, law, HR, PR, management, design, and more. Beyond editing, if you want to sharpen your writing, expand your professional toolkit, and stand out in a job market where strong communication skills are always in demand, this course is for you.

Proposed Readings:

Malone, E. A., Rothschild, J., & Cunningham, D. H. (2020). Technical Editing: An Introduction to Editing in the Workplace. Oxford University Press. (Required textbook)

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Taught by: Dr. Altay "Al" Ozkul

Course Description: What is technical editing? Is it just fixing grammar or rearranging paragraphs? Does it overlap with writing? The truth is, it’s much more than these. Technical editing is about making complex information clear, accurate, and usable. These are the skills that employers value across every industry. Whether you’re dealing with medical guidelines, legal documents, software manuals, workplace policies, or research papers, the ability to edit effectively ensures that information is not only accurate but also easy for the intended audience to understand. And while AI can handle more routine, surface-level editing tasks, it can’t replace the higher-level thinking and judgment that technical editors bring to the table.

This course will give you hands-on practice with real-world editing challenges. You’ll learn how to improve clarity, consistency, and accuracy in technical documents, use traditional and contemporary copyediting tools, manage collaborative editing projects, and translate specialized knowledge for diverse audiences. You will also have the opportunity to learn a bit of English grammar and develop the metalanguage required to talk about your editorial work. By the end of the semester, you’ll have developed editorial skills that transfer to many careers—editing, writing, law, HR, PR, management, design, and more. Beyond editing, if you want to sharpen your writing, expand your professional toolkit, and stand out in a job market where strong communication skills are always in demand, this course is for you.

Proposed Readings:

Malone, E. A., Rothschild, J., & Cunningham, D. H. (2020). Technical Editing: An Introduction to Editing in the Workplace. Oxford University Press. (Required textbook)

ENGL 323: American Renaissance

Taught by: Dr. Ira Dworkin

Course Description: When F.O. Matthiessen defined the “American Renaissance,” he sought to characterize American literature of the period from 1830 to 1860, specifically writings by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, and Herman Melville. This era of cultural production was, in fact, even more vibrant than Matthiessen’s characterization indicates. Beyond these five men, a much wider multiracial array of literary figures was both explicitly and implicitly part of the same conversations that dominated that era, and sought to engage questions of reform, resistance, colonialism, slavery, gender, and revolution. This course will consider the full breadth of U.S. literary production in the decades leading up to the U.S. Civil War.

Much literature of this period engages with questions of Native and territorial sovereignty, and this class will include a sustained consideration of the literature of Cherokee removal. As part of our reading and discussion, it is useful to keep in mind that Texas A&M University is situated on the land of multiple Native nations, past and present, including the Tonkawa, Tawakoni, Hueco, Sana, Wichita, and Coahuiltecan peoples. These original homelands are the territory of Indigenous peoples who were largely dispossessed and removed.

Proposed Readings:

In addition to writings by Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Whitman, and Melville, we will also read works by Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Margaret Fuller, David Walker, Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés, Victor Séjour, Theodore Winthrop, Harriet Jacobs, and others.

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Taught by: Dr. Ira Dworkin

Course Description: When F.O. Matthiessen defined the “American Renaissance,” he sought to characterize American literature of the period from 1830 to 1860, specifically writings by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, and Herman Melville. This era of cultural production was, in fact, even more vibrant than Matthiessen’s characterization indicates. Beyond these five men, a much wider multiracial array of literary figures was both explicitly and implicitly part of the same conversations that dominated that era, and sought to engage questions of reform, resistance, colonialism, slavery, gender, and revolution. This course will consider the full breadth of U.S. literary production in the decades leading up to the U.S. Civil War.

Much literature of this period engages with questions of Native and territorial sovereignty, and this class will include a sustained consideration of the literature of Cherokee removal. As part of our reading and discussion, it is useful to keep in mind that Texas A&M University is situated on the land of multiple Native nations, past and present, including the Tonkawa, Tawakoni, Hueco, Sana, Wichita, and Coahuiltecan peoples. These original homelands are the territory of Indigenous peoples who were largely dispossessed and removed.

Proposed Readings:

In addition to writings by Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Whitman, and Melville, we will also read works by Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Margaret Fuller, David Walker, Gabriel de la Concepción Valdés, Victor Séjour, Theodore Winthrop, Harriet Jacobs, and others.

ENGL 324: Science Fiction and Film

Taught by: Dr. James Francis

Course Description:

The course seeks to explore a brief history of science-fiction cinema in an examination of foundational genre aesthetics, philosophies and concepts, movements and subgenres, and narrative content along with representative authorship. We seek to answer questions concerning what and/or how this particular genre teaches us about humanity via genre staples such as science and technology, time, concepts of life (human, alien, transhuman), and exploration. Film theory, criticism, and scholarship will aid discussions and further knowledge of analysis and research. The end-goal is to work toward informed responses to the questions: What are the hallmarks of science fiction cinema? How does the genre develop over time in style and narrative content? What do we learn from its concepts in their applications and presentations within science fiction cinema and historically outside the fiction?

Students contemplating and enrolling in ENGL/FILM 324 will help shape course materials and assessment practices via the following anonymous survey: https://qfreeaccountssjc1.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8wZHmBtKtvuIhXo (accessible now—
enrolled students will be reminded of survey access during open registration in late November 2025)

By providing pre-semester comments and feedback, enrollees will help foster a student-centered approach to course design, establish an accountable community of peers, and strengthen a level of commitment to academic success to class objectives and learning outcomes.

Proposed Readings:

The Forbidden Planet
The Time Machine
Ghost in the Shell
Strange Days
Starship Troopers
The Island
A.I., Artificial Intelligence
Predestination
Under the Skin
Black Mirror
Explorers
Barbarella
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Plan 9 from Outer Space
Alien
Dark City
Her
The Incredible Shrinking Man
The Thing
Solaris
Brazil
Children of Men
Sunshine
The War of the Worlds
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
The Fly
Minority Report
Deep Impact

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Taught by: Dr. James Francis

Course Description:

The course seeks to explore a brief history of science-fiction cinema in an examination of foundational genre aesthetics, philosophies and concepts, movements and subgenres, and narrative content along with representative authorship. We seek to answer questions concerning what and/or how this particular genre teaches us about humanity via genre staples such as science and technology, time, concepts of life (human, alien, transhuman), and exploration. Film theory, criticism, and scholarship will aid discussions and further knowledge of analysis and research. The end-goal is to work toward informed responses to the questions: What are the hallmarks of science fiction cinema? How does the genre develop over time in style and narrative content? What do we learn from its concepts in their applications and presentations within science fiction cinema and historically outside the fiction?

Students contemplating and enrolling in ENGL/FILM 324 will help shape course materials and assessment practices via the following anonymous survey: https://qfreeaccountssjc1.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8wZHmBtKtvuIhXo (accessible now—
enrolled students will be reminded of survey access during open registration in late November 2025)

By providing pre-semester comments and feedback, enrollees will help foster a student-centered approach to course design, establish an accountable community of peers, and strengthen a level of commitment to academic success to class objectives and learning outcomes.

Proposed Readings:

The Forbidden Planet
The Time Machine
Ghost in the Shell
Strange Days
Starship Troopers
The Island
A.I., Artificial Intelligence
Predestination
Under the Skin
Black Mirror
Explorers
Barbarella
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Plan 9 from Outer Space
Alien
Dark City
Her
The Incredible Shrinking Man
The Thing
Solaris
Brazil
Children of Men
Sunshine
The War of the Worlds
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
The Fly
Minority Report
Deep Impact

ENGL 345: Writer's Studies: Prose

Taught by: Dr. Jason Harris

Course Description:

Uncanny, Disquieting, Weird, and Dreadful Tales:

Students will read and write prose that engages with the development of the genre of weird and uncanny fiction. Our readings--from exemplar writers past and present--will include stories of the weird, horror, magical realism, uncanny folklore, and the literary fantastic, as well as theories on the craft and analysis of weird fiction. Your written work will be workshopped in peer reviews and then culminate in a portfolio of three revised stories.

Prerequisites: ENGL 235: Junior or Senior classification

Proposed Readings:

Joshi, S. T. Ed. American Supernatural Tales. Penguin, 2007.

Murakami, Haruki. The Strange Library. Knopf, 2014.

Vandermeer Jeff and Ann, The Weird. TOR, 2011.

*Additional stories will include “North American Lake Monsters” by Nathan Ballingrud, “Water Machine” by Michael Cisco, “The Puppet Hotel” by Gemma Files, “The Paperhanger” by William Gay, “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, the novella “Nadelman’s God” by T. E. D. Klein, “The Clown Puppet” by Thomas Ligotti, and “The White People” by Arthur Machen.

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ENGL 350: Twentieth-Century Literature to WWII

Taught by: Dr. Shawna Ross

Course Description: We will explore Anglophone literature of the twentieth century before World War II: that is,transatlantic modernism. The term modernism refers not only to a time period, but also to a literary style that both responded to and played an active part in the historical process of modernization. Under modernization, a variety of historical shifts—including improvements in communications and transportation technologies, demographic upheavals, political challenges like suffragism and the labor movement, the rise of mass consumer culture, the intensification of industrial capitalism, concepts developed by Darwin, Marx, and Freud, and the development of world war—resulted in profound changes in the texture of everyday life, in social standards governing morality and sociability, in the function of art within society, and in beliefs about what it means to be human. We will follow a rigorous and ambitious reading list, which includes experimental novels, a handful of exciting short stories, and a few unforgettable poems.

Proposed Readings:

Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises; Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse; Nella Larsen, Passing; E. M. Forster, A Passage to India; Mulk Raj Anand, Untouchable; short stories by Katherine Mansfield, James Joyce, and William Faulkner; poems by Marianne Moore, T. S. Eliot, W. B. Yeats, and Ezra Pound.

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ENGL 354: Modern Rhetorical Theory

Taught by: Dr. Jason Crider

Course Description: This course serves as an overview of some of the major theories and theorists of rhetoric in the 20th and 21st centuries. What is the relationship between rhetoric and culture? Rhetoric and (post)modernity? How does rhetoric function as a method of literary interpretation or cultural criticism? How does rhetoric function differently in oral, textual, and digital contexts? How has rhetoric been traditionally theorized and taught as an academic discipline? Students will explore a broad range of rhetorical theories over the course of the semester and practice applying them to their contemporary moment.

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ENGL 365/ RELS 360: The Bible as Literature

Taught by: Dr. Katayoun Torabi

Course Description: In this class, students will examine the Bible as both a collection of disparate texts and as a unified whole, with a particular focus on how the rhetorical strategies of its many authors, narrative structures, and character development in the Bible have all influenced various readings of the text through time. Through guided in-class exercises and small and large group discussions students will examine ethical issues surrounding politics, religion, nationhood, and ethnicity in the Bible and understand them in their own historical and cultural moments. Students will also think about how their own responses to Biblical narratives are rooted in their personal understanding of religion and culture, and to reflect on the wider implications of how they and others approach this foundational text. Materials for this course include written texts and such visual and audio representations as paintings, video clips, films, poetry readings, and music.

Proposed Readings:

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ENGL/FILM 366: Horror Studies

Taught by: Dr. James Francis

Course Description: The full exploration of horror studies examines the development of the genre (Gothic literary tradition to modern film), notable authors (writers and filmmakers); theory, criticism, and scholarship; and intertextuality with other genres and representative texts. Outside of the written and visual narratives, we must also consider historical events, social movements, and cultural practices to locate how shared constructions of fear, anxiety, and dread inform and perpetuate horror storytelling. Our course represents an investigation into horror narratives—classic and contemporary, written and filmic—to engage with and form intellectual arguments within the field of horror studies. Questions we seek to respond to include: What attracts audiences (readers and viewers) to horror content and aesthetics? How does horror reflect sociocultural anxieties over time domestically and internationally? What impact do horror artifacts contribute to the arts and humanities?

Students contemplating and enrolling in ENGL/FILM 366 will help shape course materials and assessment practices via the following anonymous survey: https://qfreeaccountssjc1.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5uniDlhC3Xcrq3s (accessible now—
enrolled students will be reminded of survey access during open registration in late November 2025)

By providing pre-semester comments and feedback, enrollees will help foster a student-centered approach to course design, establish an accountable community of peers, and strengthen a level of commitment to academic success to class objectives and learning outcomes.

Proposed Readings:

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
“The Vampyre”
“Dagon”
“The Screwfly Solution”
“The Lottery”
“The Jaunt”
The Evil Dead
Candyman
The Blair Witch Project
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Ghostwatch
Nightbreed
Phantasm
An American Werewolf in London
Alien
The Thing
Jacob’s Ladder
The Loved Ones
Pet Semetary
Freaks
Dawn of the Dead
Poltergeist
Peeping Tom
Scream
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Rosemary's Baby
The Wolf House
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

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Taught by: Dr. James Francis

Course Description: The full exploration of horror studies examines the development of the genre (Gothic literary tradition to modern film), notable authors (writers and filmmakers); theory, criticism, and scholarship; and intertextuality with other genres and representative texts. Outside of the written and visual narratives, we must also consider historical events, social movements, and cultural practices to locate how shared constructions of fear, anxiety, and dread inform and perpetuate horror storytelling. Our course represents an investigation into horror narratives—classic and contemporary, written and filmic—to engage with and form intellectual arguments within the field of horror studies. Questions we seek to respond to include: What attracts audiences (readers and viewers) to horror content and aesthetics? How does horror reflect sociocultural anxieties over time domestically and internationally? What impact do horror artifacts contribute to the arts and humanities?

Students contemplating and enrolling in ENGL/FILM 366 will help shape course materials and assessment practices via the following anonymous survey: https://qfreeaccountssjc1.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5uniDlhC3Xcrq3s (accessible now—
enrolled students will be reminded of survey access during open registration in late November 2025)

By providing pre-semester comments and feedback, enrollees will help foster a student-centered approach to course design, establish an accountable community of peers, and strengthen a level of commitment to academic success to class objectives and learning outcomes.

Proposed Readings:

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
“The Vampyre”
“Dagon”
“The Screwfly Solution”
“The Lottery”
“The Jaunt”
The Evil Dead
Candyman
The Blair Witch Project
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Ghostwatch
Nightbreed
Phantasm
An American Werewolf in London
Alien
The Thing
Jacob’s Ladder
The Loved Ones
Pet Semetary
Freaks
Dawn of the Dead
Poltergeist
Peeping Tom
Scream
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Rosemary's Baby
The Wolf House
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

ENGL 376: The American Novel Since 1900

Taught by: Dr. Grace Heneks

Course Description: This course explores the American novel through the lens of speculation—as imaginative projection, political warning, science fictional experiment, and cultural critique. Across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, writers have used speculative fiction not only to envision the future, but to reimagine gender, race, power, and authorship. We’ll examine how these narratives challenge literary conventions and engage with the social and political realities of their time through utopias and dystopias, authoritarian regimes, temporal displacements, and metafictional play.

Together, we’ll ask: What can speculation reveal about the U.S. as it is—and as it could be? Through our readings, we’ll consider how the speculative form invites us to rethink identity, memory, and belonging, and to imagine otherwise.

Proposed Readings:

Herland- Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1915)
It Can’t Happen Here- Sinclair Lewis (1935)
Fahrenheit 451- Ray Bradbury (1953)
Kindred- Octavia Butler (1979)
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe- Charles Yu (2010)
The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami (2025)

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ENGL 396: Studies in American Literature

Taught by: Dr. Sarah LeMire

Course Description:

Starting with Tim O’Brien’s “How to Tell a True War Story,” this class will read a variety of American literature texts focused on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Readings may include such texts as The Yellow Birds (Powers), Redeployment (Klay), Love My Rifle More than You (Williams), and Restrepo (Hetherington & Junger). Texts will be analyzed through the lens of the military-civilian divide as students explore the unique ways that war literature attempted (and failed) to bring the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan home to the US civilian population. In addition to analysis of literature, students will engage in primary source research related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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ENGL 434: Advanced Studies in Science Fiction and Fantasy: The Visionary Worlds of Philip K. Dick

Taught by: Dr. Apostolos Vasilakis

Course Description: In this course we will analyze and explore the work of one of the most important science fiction writers, Philip K. Dick. During the semester we will follow Dick’s progression and evolution as a writer, examine some of his most important novels, short stories, and essays, and see how his narratives constantly address questions of what constitutes reality, and authentic life in a world that is saturated by technology and artificiality. In addition, students will be immersed in Dick’s work and his engagement with dystopian thinking and will gain an understanding of the author’s narrative strategies and techniques. Students will come to understand how science fiction, as a genre, deploys alternative worlds in order to grapple with issues of their own historical time.

Proposed Readings:

The Man in the High Castle
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Flow My Tears the Policeman Said
A Scanner Darkly

Films:
Blade Runner
Total Recall
Minority Report

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ENGL 481: Archives: Print to Digital

Taught by: Dr. Amy Earhart

Course Description: Print to Digital traces the collection and use of archives, print and digital, in literary scholarship. Focusing on theory and practice the course will trace the ways that print collections have developed with particular attention to ways that categorization systems have impacted the archives we collect and use. We will be particularly attentive to ways that gender and race have impacted the development of archives. We then will turn to the ways the digital archives represent possibilities while also reinscribing some of the biases found in print archives.

Central to the class are activities that deepen student understanding of key ideas in the class readings. For example, we will be investigating the way that Cushing library has built print collections, using the critical lens of information studies theory. Further, the class will feature a hands-on project in digital archival development with work in the Rudder Archives at Cushing. This class will appeal to students interested in pursuing work in libraries, publishing and those who are interested in advanced literary study.

Proposed Readings:

Berry, Dorothy. 2021. “The House Archives Built.” Up/Root (blog). June 22, 2021. https://www.uproot.space/features/the-house-archives-built.

Christen, Kimberly. 2015. “Tribal Archives, Traditional Knowledge, and Local Contexts: Why the ‘s’ Matter.” Journal of Western Archives 6 (1): 1–19.

Drake, Jarrett M. 2016. “#ArchivesForBlackLives: Building a Community Archives of Police Violence in Cleveland.” On Archivy (blog). April 22, 2016. https://medium.com/on-archivy/archivesforblacklives-building-a-community-archives-of-police-violence-in-cleveland-93615d777289.

Farmer, Ashley. 2018. “Archiving While Black.” Chronicle of Higher Education, July. https://www.chronicle.com/article/Archiving-While-Black/243981/#.W1iclD9pD6Q.email.

Gallon, Kim. 2014. “The Price Is NOT Right: Selling Black Press Archives.” Bprc: Black Press Research Collective (blog). November 30, 2014. http://blackpressresearchcollective.org/2014/11/30/new-york-amsterdam-news-photo-archive-is-at-cornell-university-library/.

Klein, Lauren F. 2013. “The Image of Absence: Archival Silence, Data Visualization, and James Hemings.” American Literature 85 (4): 661–88.

Marcum, Deanna. 2001. “The Library and the Scholar: A New Imperative for Partnership.” American Council of Learned Societies Occasional Paper 48.

Schomburg, Arthur A. 1925. “The Negro Digs Up His Past.” Survey Graphic, 670–72.

Senier, Siobhan. 2018. “What Indigenous Literature Can Bring to Electronic Archives.” B20: The Online Community of the Boundary 2 Editorial Collective, August. http://www.boundary2.org/2018/08/senier/.

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Taught by: Dr. Amy Earhart

Course Description: Print to Digital traces the collection and use of archives, print and digital, in literary scholarship. Focusing on theory and practice the course will trace the ways that print collections have developed with particular attention to ways that categorization systems have impacted the archives we collect and use. We will be particularly attentive to ways that gender and race have impacted the development of archives. We then will turn to the ways the digital archives represent possibilities while also reinscribing some of the biases found in print archives.

Central to the class are activities that deepen student understanding of key ideas in the class readings. For example, we will be investigating the way that Cushing library has built print collections, using the critical lens of information studies theory. Further, the class will feature a hands-on project in digital archival development with work in the Rudder Archives at Cushing. This class will appeal to students interested in pursuing work in libraries, publishing and those who are interested in advanced literary study.

Proposed Readings:

Berry, Dorothy. 2021. “The House Archives Built.” Up/Root (blog). June 22, 2021. https://www.uproot.space/features/the-house-archives-built.

Christen, Kimberly. 2015. “Tribal Archives, Traditional Knowledge, and Local Contexts: Why the ‘s’ Matter.” Journal of Western Archives 6 (1): 1–19.

Drake, Jarrett M. 2016. “#ArchivesForBlackLives: Building a Community Archives of Police Violence in Cleveland.” On Archivy (blog). April 22, 2016. https://medium.com/on-archivy/archivesforblacklives-building-a-community-archives-of-police-violence-in-cleveland-93615d777289.

Farmer, Ashley. 2018. “Archiving While Black.” Chronicle of Higher Education, July. https://www.chronicle.com/article/Archiving-While-Black/243981/#.W1iclD9pD6Q.email.

Gallon, Kim. 2014. “The Price Is NOT Right: Selling Black Press Archives.” Bprc: Black Press Research Collective (blog). November 30, 2014. http://blackpressresearchcollective.org/2014/11/30/new-york-amsterdam-news-photo-archive-is-at-cornell-university-library/.

Klein, Lauren F. 2013. “The Image of Absence: Archival Silence, Data Visualization, and James Hemings.” American Literature 85 (4): 661–88.

Marcum, Deanna. 2001. “The Library and the Scholar: A New Imperative for Partnership.” American Council of Learned Societies Occasional Paper 48.

Schomburg, Arthur A. 1925. “The Negro Digs Up His Past.” Survey Graphic, 670–72.

Senier, Siobhan. 2018. “What Indigenous Literature Can Bring to Electronic Archives.” B20: The Online Community of the Boundary 2 Editorial Collective, August. http://www.boundary2.org/2018/08/senier/.

ENGL 481: The Rhetoric of Space Travel

Taught by: Dr. Joshua DiCaglio

Course Description:

At one point, getting to the moon was very figure of the impossible. And yet, within only a short time period, that fantasy became a dream then a goal then a technical feat then an accomplishment. While this was an incredible technical feat, it was also an incredible rhetorical feat and transformation that reconceptualized the Earth, resituated humanity in relation to the Cosmos, and refigured questions about what humans can do and what we prioritize.

This capstone course takes the Space Race as a central moment that we can use for advanced study of rhetoric and literature. The amount of attention, effort, and narratives generated for and by this transformation make the Space Race an excellent case study in how and why we need more careful and extensive understanding of language and culture. Just as Vietnam was the first televised war, the Space Race was the first coordinated and on-going experiment in the cooperation between science, public relations, and mass market media, which led to a widespread conversation on the value of modern technology, the goals of man, and the direction of society. All this rhetoric and effort occurred alongside the Cold War, fears of Nuclear annihilation, Vietnam, the first indications of ecological crisis, and increasing impatience with racial disparities highlighted by the Civil Rights movement. Now corporations speak of a future of on Mars and making humanity an “interplanetary species,” while we now have an actual Space Force and working shuttles run by independent parties. It is difficult to understand this current moment without first examining the original rhetoric and narratives that made space travel possible and a goal worth pursuing.

In this course we will look at the rhetoric around space in order to reopen these political, personal, and social questions as they manifested in the 1960s, as well as their legacy for today. We will consider some of the cultural and rhetorical artifacts that set the stage for thinking about space then spend some time looking at the media events and reactions of the actual Space Race, both in their original form and in more recent representations of them. We will then turn to reflections on the value of Space travel, which will lead us to the current rhetoric around NASA, the trip to Mars, and space photographs.

Proposed Readings:

Cicero, “Dream of Scipio
Lucian, “A true Story”
Verne, From the Earth to the Moon,
Washington Post's Moonrise podcast
Stapeldon, Starmaker
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
Apollo space program coverage
From the Earth to the Moon (HBO Docuseries)
Contact (film)
Interstellar (film)
The Martian (film)
Hidden Figures (film)
Other documents and speeches on the Space Race

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Taught by: Dr. Joshua DiCaglio

Course Description:

At one point, getting to the moon was very figure of the impossible. And yet, within only a short time period, that fantasy became a dream then a goal then a technical feat then an accomplishment. While this was an incredible technical feat, it was also an incredible rhetorical feat and transformation that reconceptualized the Earth, resituated humanity in relation to the Cosmos, and refigured questions about what humans can do and what we prioritize.

This capstone course takes the Space Race as a central moment that we can use for advanced study of rhetoric and literature. The amount of attention, effort, and narratives generated for and by this transformation make the Space Race an excellent case study in how and why we need more careful and extensive understanding of language and culture. Just as Vietnam was the first televised war, the Space Race was the first coordinated and on-going experiment in the cooperation between science, public relations, and mass market media, which led to a widespread conversation on the value of modern technology, the goals of man, and the direction of society. All this rhetoric and effort occurred alongside the Cold War, fears of Nuclear annihilation, Vietnam, the first indications of ecological crisis, and increasing impatience with racial disparities highlighted by the Civil Rights movement. Now corporations speak of a future of on Mars and making humanity an “interplanetary species,” while we now have an actual Space Force and working shuttles run by independent parties. It is difficult to understand this current moment without first examining the original rhetoric and narratives that made space travel possible and a goal worth pursuing.

In this course we will look at the rhetoric around space in order to reopen these political, personal, and social questions as they manifested in the 1960s, as well as their legacy for today. We will consider some of the cultural and rhetorical artifacts that set the stage for thinking about space then spend some time looking at the media events and reactions of the actual Space Race, both in their original form and in more recent representations of them. We will then turn to reflections on the value of Space travel, which will lead us to the current rhetoric around NASA, the trip to Mars, and space photographs.

Proposed Readings:

Cicero, “Dream of Scipio
Lucian, “A true Story”
Verne, From the Earth to the Moon,
Washington Post's Moonrise podcast
Stapeldon, Starmaker
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
Apollo space program coverage
From the Earth to the Moon (HBO Docuseries)
Contact (film)
Interstellar (film)
The Martian (film)
Hidden Figures (film)
Other documents and speeches on the Space Race