Fall 2018

ENGL 504-01: ADVANCED CREATIVE WRITING II POETRY: C. PETROSINO

This advanced course is for serious poets who are interested in sharpening their skills as writers, readers, and critics. Students must demonstrate familiarity with the workshop model of peer review and be knowledgeable about poetic form and meter. Successful students in this course will actively engage in a regular writing practice, and will take seriously the processes of composition, critique, and revision. We will "workshop" student poems, but we will also devote time to discussing assigned reading and to performing in-class writing exercises. Assignment will include: responses to peer manuscripts, responses to assigned poetry collections, and a final portfolio [15 -20 finished poems]. Student will also be required to compose a letter [1250-1750 words] introducing their work in their portfolios.  

ENGL 505-01: ADVANCED TECHNICAL WRITING: T. JOHNSON

ENGL 506-01: TEACHING OF WRITING: A. OLINGER

English 506 is an introduction to theories, research and practices of teaching writing. We'll examine perspective on what writing is; how people develop as writers through their lives; and how writing can be taught. We'll also explore various approaches to teacher and peer response, assessment, and other aspects of writing pedagogy. Utimately, students will leave the course with the ability to connect theory and practice, a deeper understanding of their own philosophy of writing and writing pedagogy and their own literacy experiences, and materials to use in future classroom settings.

ENGL 508-01: LITERACY TUTORING ACROSS CONTEXTS AND CULTURES: A. OLINGER

This course will focus on the theory and practice of teaching writing one-on-one and in small groups in academic, professional, and community settings. Reading scholarship from writing studies and writing center studies, we will explore the theoretical foundations of tutoring writing and pedagogical strategies for working with writers from a variety of backgrounds. Students will then put this knowledge into practice by tutoring for sex hours at either Family Scholar House or Western Branch Public Library. Students completing this course will also be eligible for internships at these sites in future semesters. 

ENGL 510-01: MA LEVEL INTERNSHIP: S. Schneider *Instructor permission required*

Visit the Graduate Internship Page for more information.

ENGL 522-01: STRUCTURE OF MODERN ENGLISH: T. STEWART *cross-listed course*

ENGL 543-75: STUART & COMMONWEALTH LITERATURE: D. BILLINGSLEY

ENGL 545-01: WILLIAM BLAKE: K. HADLEY

ENGL 549-01: POST COLONIAL/ETHNIC LITERATURE: A. WILLEY

ENGL 550-01: CHARLES W. CHESNUTT: S. GRIFFIN

ENGL 551-01: ANIMAL STUDIES: G. RIDLEY

What is Animal Studies? In 1975, Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation provided a sustained – and highly controversial – engagement with questions about man’s treatment of non-human animals. The book is widely held to be a foundational text for the modern animal rights movement, and it is this movement that many – wrongly – assume to be the sole focus of Animal Studies. Certainly the questions that Singer poses in his book are inescapable in the field, but discussion of bio-ethics and modern agri-business is by no means the entirety of the discipline, which touches upon subjects as diverse as Art History, Cultural Studies, History, History of Science, Law, Literature and Philosophy. In the last decade, scholars working in every period of literature have begun to ask questions about the representation of animals. Their role in the medieval bestiary or the fable seems obvious, but even here, the gulf between a particular species and its artistic or literary representation can be a wide one. Indeed, many of the most famous species of the bestiary (such as the dragon or unicorn) have generated their own field of crypto-zoology (the description of - and lore surrounding - animals that do not exist). Given such a vast field, any course must therefore necessarily be selective, not simply in terms of texts, but with regard to the branch of Animal Studies explored.

The course will take as its focus the representation of animals in literature of the 18^th and early 19^th centuries. The class will read seminal modern works in the field of Animal Studies, such as Singer’s Animal Liberation, but we will apply these modern concerns to consideration of the representation of animals in an earlier age. The 18^th and 19^th centuries are chosen as a pivotal in man’s engagement with the natural world due to several factors including: the doubling of the number of known animal species in the first half of the 18^th century (largely as a result of imperial exploration); Bakewell’s manipulation of the bodies of livestock animals at New Dishley; and the rise of the indoor dog and cat, sharing its owner’s food and domestic accommodation. It is the latter development that, perhaps more than any other, drives the 18^th century development of experiments with point of view, so that by the time of Kendall’s Keeper’s Travels (1798),  an author attempts to take his readers inside the mind of a dog, showing its experience of a wide range of recognizably human emotions.

The course will include time spent in Special Collections in the Ekstrom Library, working with Diderot and D’Alembert’s Encyclopédie and examining its representation of the natural world. Reading will include, but not be limited to: Excerpts from Francis Coventry, The Adventures of Pompey the Little (1751);  Dorothy Kilner, The Life and Perambulations of a Mouse (1783); Sarah Trimmer, Fabulous Histories (1786) and Edward Augustus Kendall, Keeper’s Travels (1798). Critical texts will include excerpts from Harriet Ritvo, The Platypus and the Mermaid (1997); Kathryn Shevelow, For the Love of Animals (2008); Peter Singer, Animal Liberation (1975). This course meets the 1700-1900 literature requirement at both the undergraduate and graduate level.

ENGL 570-01: LANGUAGE & SOCIAL IDENTITY: T. STEWART

ENGL 574-01: AMERICAN LITERATURE 1960 - PRESENT: A. GOLDING 

In this class, we’ll look at the evolution of the mixed-genre or hybrid text in late 20C and early 21C US American literature. This focus will enable us to acquaint ourselves with some of the major and most influential work of the period, and to consider in particular how a range of writers have used hybrid forms to address questions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class / economics. While I have not yet finalized the reading list, possible candidates include Robert Creeley, Pieces; Gloria Anzaldua, Borderlands / La Frontera; Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior; Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Dictee; Claudia Rankine, Citizen; Kristin Prevallet, I, Afterlife; Mark Nowak, Shut Up Shut Down or Coal Mountain Elementary; and recent work in documentary poetics.  Probable requirements for undergraduates: Some combination of regular discussion board posts, in-class essay midterm, annotated bibliography, and final research-based paper. Requirements for graduate students will include a midterm paper instead of an in-class essay and a more substantive final research project.

ENGL 577-01: HARLEM RENAISSANCE: K. LOGAN *cross-listed course*

ENGL 599-50: STARTING YOUR NOVEL: S. STRICKLEY (ONLINE ONLY) *Instructor permission required* 

Every novel begins with a great idea, but not every great idea make for a compelling novel. How do you know if your idea is strong enough to sustain a book-length work? What are the tried-and-true methods for transforming ideas into pages? In this online workshop, the focus will be carefully laying the groundwork for the composition of a novel. Student will pre-write their way through a cast of characters, major plot points, and thematic concerns; they'll learn the value of an outline; and they'll experiment with voice and point of view. They course will culminate in the drafting and workshopping of a substainial novel excerpt.

ENGL 601-01: INTRODUCTION TO ENGLISH STUDIES: F. MCDONALD *Instructor permission required*

This course introduces students to the field of English studies, broadly conceived, was a special focus on contemporary trends in the humanities. In 2013, the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences published The Heat of the Matter,  a report that argued for the continues relevance and value of the humanities in the face of declining enrollment and budgetary cuts. This class will begin with a brief history of the alleged "crisis" or "death" of the humanities before considering how new directions in reading, writing, researching, thinking, and knowing might work to revitalize and refocus the English major and humanities more generally. Over the course of the semester, we will discuss cutting edge ideas, tools, and modes of critical inquiry such as distant reading, generous reading, experimental criticism, the digital humanities, the posthumanities, and more. In so doing, student will 1) join a lively, ongoing debate about the current shapes and possible future of the English major and 2) develop specific research, writing, and oral communication skills that you need in order to join such conversations. 

ENGL 602-75: TEACHING COLLEGE COMPOSITION: K. KOPELSON *Instructor permission required*

The primary goal of English 602 is to help you theorize, historicize, and reflect upon the teaching of introductory college writing in the context of your first year of said teaching (at UofL). Thus, though the course functions largely as a seminar - providing a broad overview of composition pedagogies and related practices from the inception of the process movement until present - it will focus on the implications and sometimes direct application of the historical and theoretical scholarship we read more than many seminars do. The course will have other features that fit the genre of a practicum as well. such as discussion of and planning toward your own classroom experiences as they are unfolding.

ENGL 604-01: WRITING CENTER THEORY AND PRACTICE: B. WILLIAMS *Instructor permission required*

This course prepares incoming GTAs to teach in the University Writing Center. In this course we will discuss the theoretical foundation necessary for examining pedagogical issues important to an effective writing center. We will cover topics including way of approaching writing consultations with students, responding effectively to student writing, the role of style and grammar instruction in the writing center, consulting strategies for ESL students, digital media and writing center work, assessment and record-keeping, and resource development. We read a variety of scholarship on issues of literacy, composition and rhetoric, and writing center work as well as discuss issues raised in weekly work in the Writing Center. 

ENGL 606-75: CREATIVE WRITING I: K. MAXWELL *Instructor permission required*

In addition to reading and workshopping class members' writing, we will consider, experiment with, and push against genre(s) and explore hybridity. Because this is a graduate-level workshop, it is expected that all class members have a working knowledge of basic literary terms appropriate to discussions of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and drama. Class members will generate, distribute, and revise original work in the genre(s) of their choosing; provide thoughtful feedback on one another's writing; write one to two craft analysis essays (two 4-page essays or one 8-page essay); and read and dicuss Amy Lawless' Broadax, Nicholas Baker's The Mezzanie, Aisha Sabatini Sloan's Dreaming of Ramadi in Detroit, Jess Barbagallo's  My Old Man (And Other Stories), and Sommer Browning's You're On My Period, along with Sarah Polley's film Stories We Tell. 

ENGL 610-01: PHD LEVEL INTERNSHIP: S. SCHNEIDER *Instructor permission required* 

Visit the Graduate Internship Page for more information.

ENGL 615-01: THESIS GUIDANCE: S. SCHNEIDER *Instructor permission required*

ENGL 671: HISTORY OF RHETORIC I: A. RABIN

This course combines a historical overview of the early history of rhetoric with a primer in rhetorical theory.  We’ll take as our starting point the development of rhetoric in Classical Greece, and move from there to explore how rhetorical theory was in turn transformed by Roman, medieval, and renaissance thinkers.  We’ll examine the five canons of rhetoric—invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery—as a means of further understanding how rhetorical theory was impacted by both social and intellectual history.  To that end, we’ll look at rhetoric as both a theory of communication, and as an index for understanding how persuasive discourse functioned in different historical periods and locations.

ENGL 681-01: TOWARD A CULTURAL HISTORY OF AUTHORSHIP: S. RYAN

ENGL 682-01: SEMINAR IN LINGUISTICS: K. SWINEHART *cross-listed course*

ENGL 686-01: NATIVE AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS STUDIES: CULTURE, HISTORY, AND RHETORIC: F. KELDERMAN

This course offers a graduate-level introduction to the diverse scholarship in Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS). Ever since Native American studies emerged as an academic field in the late 1960s, scholarship in this interdiscipline has been closely tied to the political status and cultural life of Indian Nations in the United States. More recently, scholars in the field have increasingly studied Native North America in relation to indigenous peoples in other settler colonial contexts.

In three distinct modules, we will draw on scholarship in rhetoric and composition, cultural rhetorics, literary studies, and cultural history to trace what different scholarly projects have emerged from the debates in NAIS over the last 50 years. In the first module, we will read a selection of shorter articles that introduce important keywords and critical debates in NAIS, from the late 1960s to the present. In the second module, we will focus on several recent monographs that will illustrate the stakes and methods of conducting a research project in NAIS. In the third module, we will synthesize our discussions to ask what it means to conduct our own projects as they intersect with the field: either a research paper or the syllabus of a NAIS-centered (writing) course. Besides readings and discussions, class activities will include several short response papers, co-facilitating class discussion, and a cumulative (research or syllabus) project.

ENGL 688-01: THEORIES ABOUT COMING TO MATTER: M.P. SHERIDAN 

This graduate seminar will examine the theories underpinning the keynote web texts for the 2018 Thomas R. Watson Conference, whose theme is Making Future Matters. In particular, this seminar will have 4 units with readings that focus on both primary theorists and disciplinary uptake of these theorists. The units (and possible readings) include:

1. CHAT/cultural historic activity theory (Bakhtin, Vygotsky, Wertsch, Engstrom, Nardi, Lemke, Prior);
2. ANT/actor network theory (Latour, Pickering, Lynch and Rivers, Spinuzzi);
3. New Materialism (Hekman, Barad, Dolphijn & van der Tuin, Behar, Gitelman, Gries, Rhodes);
4. Theories that productively intersect with New Materialism, such as those focusing on affect theory (Ahmed), transnational circulation (Hesford, Parks), disability studies (Yergeau), queer (Munoz) and/or cultural Rhetorics (Zoe, Pimentel).

Since the Watson Conference happens during the 9th week of our class, readings will be front loaded—heavy until the conference and lighter toward the end of the semester.  Major assignments include a long form argument (e.g., a seminar paper), a short form argument (e.g., infographic, video) and a class presentation. This course fulfills a theory requirement.

ENGL 689-01: DIRECTED READING - EXAMS: S. SCHNEIDER *Instructor permission required*

ENGL 690-01: DISSERTATION RESEARCH: S. SCHNEIDER *Instructor permission required*