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English Courses: Required and Elective

Fall 2025: English Literature & Cultural Studies Courses

ENG 100 - Mindful Reading

Meeting Time: Mon/Thurs 2-3:2pm
Professor: Dr. Jason Jacobs

This is a course for students who like to read and discuss literature. It will cover a variety of literary forms including poetry, short fiction, novel, drama and/or non-fiction prose.  Students will learn to identify the building blocks of literary genres, while also practicing interpretation, close-reading and historical contextualization.  Readings and discussions will highlight how diverse identities and perspectives impact the creation and interpretation of literature, as well as discuss different attitudes to literature from different historical and national contexts.  Along with an emphasis on techniques of mindful and critical reading, students will also be introduced to various modes of critical writing about literature, including personal reflection, close-reading and persuasive use of evidence.  

Counts for the English Literary Studies major as well as the Social Inquiry and Humanities GE requirement. No pre-requisites or prior experience with literature required.

ENG 106 – Fairy Tale Retellings in YA Literature

Meeting Time: Tues/Fri 2:00 - 3:20pm
Professor: Dr. Laura D’Amore

Some of the most popular YA series in the past two decades are fantasy approaches to fairy tale retellings. This course will look at Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses as a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Hannah Whitten’s For the Wolf as a Little Red Riding Hood, Malinda Lo’s Ash as a retelling of Cinderella, and Jackson Pearce’s Sweetly as a retelling of Hansel and Gretel. We will consider how the modern adaptations of these timeless and universal myths say something about our contemporary cultural context, while also linking indelibly to our literary past.

Counts for the English Literary Studies major as well as the Social Inquiry and Humanities GE requirement, and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion GE requirement. No pre-requisites or prior experience with literature or fairy tales required.

ENG 201 - Myth, Fantasy, Imagination

Meeting Time: Tues/Thurs 11:00am - 12:20pm
Professor: Dr. Susan Pasquarelli

Undertake an odyssey to meet Scylla, the sea monster with six heads and twelve legs who devoured passing sailors; Circe, the exiled goddess who turned men into pigs; Polyphemus, the cyclop, who was heartbroken when Galatea spurned his love. Examine other worlds, civilizations, cultures, and human voices through ancient Greek and Roman myths.

Students read ancient and modern texts; interpret associated artwork; retell myths in well-crafted prose; investigate how and why many of the same universal concerns are expressed in the wisdom literature of the ancients; and collaboratively and actively engage in Socratic seminars, Readers’ theatre, writing workshops and focused study groups. Past classes have also created their own gods and monsters out of clay!

This is a general education course in the Humanities category. All majors welcome. No pre-requisites.  This course is required for all ENG/SEC ED majors; ENG majors prior to catalog year 2022; and, satisfies a literature requirement for CW majors.  It can be taken as an elective for all majors, catalog year 2022 and later.

ENG 250.01 – Comics & Modern North American Literature

Meeting Time: Tues/Fri 3:30 - 4:50pm
Professor: Dr. Laura D’Amore

Comics emerged during the early 20^th century as a visual and literary genre that was accessible to the masses. Written with immigrants and elementary-educated folks in mind, early comic strips and comic books were both political and funny (which would earn them the nickname “the funnies”), and helped demonstrate and call out social and cultural issues of the time. The texts of modern and contemporary North American literature, concurrently, was being defined by canonical literary expectations and publisher regulations about what could be counted as “Literature.” One example of how this played out was when comics summarized and distilled “great books” into graphic novel format, to bridge the gap between what people could accessibly read. This course will focus on literary and comic texts of the late 19^th and 20^th centuries, to explore the relationship between readers, authors, and publics, and to consider what it means for a book to be “great.”

Counts for the English Literary Studies major as well as the Social Inquiry and Humanities GE requirement, and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion GE requirement. 

ENG 350 – Shakespeare: Men Behaving Badly

Meeting Time: Tu 2-4:50pm
Professor: Dr. Jason Jacobs

The Fall 2025 topic for this variable course will be Men Behaving Badly: we will explore how Shakespeare (and his near-contemporary Christopher Marlowe) thematized the misbehavior of men as an opportunity to reflect on larger questions of social, political, ethical, and philosophical importance. That means the plays we will read feature a range of appalling behaviors: drunkenness and irreligion, shirking of responsibility, racism, sodomy, lying, betrayal, exploitation, anti-Semitism, tyranny, laziness, and murder (not necessarily in that order). The course will also engage with contemporary criticism showing how meaningfully Shakespeare speaks to issues that concern us today, from recent work in gender and sexuality studies to premodern critical race studies. No prerequisites (contact instructor if unable to register). Meets a major and minor requirement in English Literary Studies, required for Secondary Education/English Literary Studies double majors.

ENG 481 - Senior Thesis II

Meeting Time: Wed 11:00am - 1:50pm
Professor: Dr. Laura D’Amore

In the second semester of the Senior Seminar, each student writes a substantial thesis of publishable quality based upon readings explored in ENG 480. Primarily a writing seminar, students meet individually with the professor each week to advance the draft through the writing process. Students present abstracts of their final papers at a public colloquium.

CULST 100 - Approaches to the Study of Society and Culture

Meeting Time: Mon, Wed, Fri 8-8:50am 
Professor: Prof. Leslie Grinner

Meeting Time: Mon, Wed, Fri 9-9:50am 
Professor: Prof. Leslie Grinner

This course teaches students to analyze a variety of sources related to popular culture, material culture, and the built environment to examine diverse issues concerning race, class, gender, and sexuality.

Using a variety of sources, such as popular culture, material culture, and the built environment, and viewing them through diverse lenses, such as race, class, gender, sexuality, and religion, students will practice applying the skills of retrieval, evaluation, analysis and interpretation of written, visual, and aural evidence in the construction of well-argued narratives.  All students are welcome.  

No prerequisites. This course is an interdisciplinary elective option for ENG majors. 

CULST 370: Comparative Masculinities

Meeting Time: Tu 5-7:50pm
Professor: Dean Lampros

What does it mean to be a man? What is masculinity? Is it a universal and unchanging quality or essence? Or is it a socially constructed set of conventions specific to particular eras, geographies, and cultures? This course is based on the premise that notions of masculinity and manhood have changed over time and vary by geography and culture. Together, we will explore the social construction of masculinity and how the discourse on masculinity in American politics, religion, biology, the arts, and pop culture has changed over time and continues to evolve in the present.

CULST 372: American Eats: Then and Now

Meeting Time: M/W/F 9:00 - 9:50am
Professor: Dr. Jennifer Stevens

Description coming soon!

CULST 373: Comics & Modern North American Literature

Meeting Time: Tues/Fri 3:30 - 4:50pm
Professor: Dr. Laura D’Amore

Comics emerged during the early 20^th century as a visual and literary genre that was accessible to the masses. Written with immigrants and elementary-educated folks in mind, early comic strips and comic books were both political and funny (which would earn them the nickname “the funnies”), and helped demonstrate and call out social and cultural issues of the time. The texts of modern and contemporary North American literature, concurrently, was being defined by canonical literary expectations and publisher regulations about what could be counted as “Literature.” One example of how this played out was when comics summarized and distilled “great books” into graphic novel format, to bridge the gap between what people could accessibly read. This course will focus on literary and comic texts of the late 19^th and 20^th centuries, to explore the relationship between readers, authors, and publics, and to consider what it means for a book to be “great.” Counts for the English Literary Studies major, the Cultural Studies minor, as well as the Social Inquiry and Humanities GE requirement, and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion GE requirement. No pre-requisites or prior experience required.

Spring 2025: English Literature & Cultural Studies Courses

ENG 105 - The Bible as Literature

Meeting Time: TTH 12:30-1:50
Professor: Dr. Cynthia Scheinberg

Have you ever felt you wanted to know more about the Bible but felt intimidated by the very thought of opening a Bible? Or are you someone who has a comfort level with the Bible in your own religious context, but wants to know more about its literary qualities? The main goal of this course is to help students become familiar with one the most famous “anthologies” ever compiled– the Bible –and to learn how to read it as a literary text.  Organized by the major literary genres of the Bible, this course explores significant themes, characters, and teachings in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and the Christian Scriptures (New Testament). We will explore the diverse cultures, religious traditions, and historical contexts that influenced this famous text. As we learn how to read Biblical texts as literature, we will also ask questions about Biblical meaning that include: Do these scriptural/literary texts offer models for how to live a good or virtuous life? Does belief define identity? How is the relationship to God explored through particular identity, culture, or peoplehood?  Finally, we will include units on films and other literature that have used/adapted Biblical sources in more contemporary contexts. No prior knowledge of the Bible or religion is necessary. This course meets the Social Inquiry General Education requirements, as well as the Diversity Equity and Inclusion requirement for all students.  

ENG 220 – Reading Like a Pro: Theory and Interpretation

Meeting Time: MTH 2-3:20
Professor: Dr. Jason Jacobs

This course introduces students to the most important critical and theoretical methods of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and gives students a chance to practice interpreting works of culture (mainly literature, but also film and other forms of popular culture) using different critical approaches. Critical movements featured include New Criticism, Structuralism, Marxist Criticism, Feminist Criticism, LGBT Studies and Queer Theory, Race-conscious criticism (especially the African American critical tradition), and Postcolonial Studies; but students will gain an overall understanding of how any critical/theoretical movement develops its own terms and methods and how different terms and methods can be put to work to produce new ways of understanding culture. This course is required for English Literature Majors, English Literature Minors, and Cultural Studies Minors and meets the Social Inquiry General Education requirement for all students.

ENG 250 – Girls on Fire in North American Literature (cross listed as CULST 373)

Meeting Time: TTH 12:30-1:50
Professor: Dr. Laura D’Amore 

Girls on Fire reads early North American literatures that center girls and young women as protagonists who inspire progressive transformation for the future. This course includes a range of works from different historical time periods as well as a variety of genres and forms. We  will read key texts of the 17^th, 18^th, and 19^th centuries,  focusing on these areas: pre-Colonial Indigenous myths and legends that foreground the sacred feminine; texts written by women (Susana Rowson’s Charlotte Temple (1791), and Frances E. W. Harper’s Iola Leroy (1892)); and texts written about girls and young women (Captain Smith’s writing about Pocohontas, documents and records of the Salem Witch Hunt, Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl on the Streets (1893)). Using the Girls on Fire framework, students will have the opportunity to read these representations of historically marginalized identities (race, gender, sexual identity, class, religion) in ways that reclaim and reposition girls and young women of early North America as progressive social change agents. This course counts toward the American Literature requirement for English Literary Studies majors and meets the Social Inquiry General Education requirement for all students. 

ENG 280 – King Arthur: Forbidden Desires

Meeting Time: TTH 9:30-10:50
Professor: Dr. Jason Jacobs 

The legendary King Arthur is born, Geoffrey of Monmouth tells us, as the product of an adulterous seduction, facilitated by disguise, deception, and Merlin’s magic. This course brings together key texts from the medieval Arthurian tradition in order to explore a central theme: the desire for an object we can’t—or shouldn’t—have. Whether enflamed by love for another’s wife or driven to find a Grail they are too morally compromised to attain, the knights of King Arthur’s court are animated by impulses that deft rather than exemplify the stated values of their society, allowing us to pose critical questions about what’s really going on in a tradition featuring “perfect” knights and lofty ideals. Texts will include Chrétien de Troyes 12^th-century verse romances The Knight of the Cart (Lancelot) and The Story of the Grail (Perceval), the 13^th-century anonymous Quest of the Grail, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and selections from Malory’s Morte d’Arthur. This course counts toward the British Literature requirement for English Literary Studies majors and meets the Social Inquiry General Education requirement for all students.

ENG 320 – Global Literatures: Fiction from Africa

Meeting Time: MTH 3:30-14:50
Professor: Dr. Cynthia Scheinberg

In this course, we will look at fiction (written in English) from writers representing a range of African countries, including Nigeria, Cameroon, Zimbabwe and South Africa, among others, with a focus on women writers. Topics will include colonial and post-colonial history, African responses to Western representations of Africa, environment and climate, gender and sexuality, exile and immigration; we will also watch a Nollywood (“Nigerian Hollywood”) film.  Students will do research projects on different aspects of these national cultures and writers to contextualize our readings within the diversity of African identities and nationalities; we will devote some time to the important critical theorists in this field as well.   Finally, we will consider our own positionality as U.S. based readers of African literatures, considering questions like: what responsibilities do readers have when they engage with literary traditions that are not our own, how can we consider and reconsider our different assumptions about African identity, and how reading these texts might broaden our assumptions about literature more generally. Along with weekly reading, assignments will include online discussion boards, informal responses, a final project and research presentations. This course counts toward the Global Literature requirement for English Literary Studies majors.

ENG 480 – Senior Thesis I

Meeting Time: F 11-1:50
Professor: Dr. Laura D’Amor

This course is essentially a reading seminar: the first semester of the English majors’ capstone course sequence emphasizes applications of literary theory through intensive analysis of primary works, research into pertinent criticism, and the delivery of a substantial oral presentation. Students’ course work culminates in a formal thesis proposal with an extended bibliography. Required for all English Literary Studies BA students and Secondary Education/English double majors.

CULST 100 - Approaches to the Study of Society and Culture

Meeting Time: TuTh 8-9:20
Professor: TBD

Meeting Time: TuTh 9:30-10:50
Professor: TBD

This course teaches students to analyze a variety of sources related to popular culture, material culture, and the built environment to examine diverse issues concerning race, class, gender, and sexuality. Using a variety of sources, such as popular culture, material culture, and the built environment, and viewing them through diverse lenses, such as race, class, gender, sexuality, and religion, students will practice applying the skills of retrieval, evaluation, analysis and interpretation of written, visual, and aural evidence in the construction of well-argued narratives.  All students are welcome. No prerequisites. This course is required for all Cultural Studies minors, counts as an elective for English Literary Studies majors and minors, and meets the Social Inquiry General Education requirement for all students.

CULST 372 – Gender in American Popular Culture

Meeting Time: MTh 3:30-4:50
Professor: TBD 

Popular culture serves as a starting point for analyzing representations of gender and the ways that various social forces (race, class, ethnicity, religion, disability, class) converge to produce gender, including ways that we reenact and resist gendered norms.

CULST 372 – Movies & Movie Going Across Time

Meeting Time: MWF 10-10:50
Professor: Dr. Jennifer Stevens

Do we see ourselves reflected back on the big screen?  If so, how? Using movies across time, from blockbusters to smaller independent films, we will explore how the act of viewing movies has changed over the past century.  We’ll explore the ways that “the movies” both reflect who we are and also influence who we are. Organized chronologically, this class is about the movies and about the audience(s) that consumes them.  

CULST 372 - Girls on Fire

Meeting Time: TuTh 12:30-1:50
Professor: Dr. Laura D’Amore

Girls on Fire reads early North American literatures that center girls and young women as protagonists who inspire progressive transformation for the future. This course includes a range of literatures from different historical time periods as well as a variety of genres and forms. We  will read key texts of the 17^th, 18^th, and 19^th centuries,  focusing on these areas: pre-Colonial Indigenous myths and legends that foreground the sacred feminine; texts written by women (Susana Rowson’s Charlotte Temple (1791), and Frances E. W. Harper’s Iola Leroy (1892)); and texts written about girls and young women (Captain Smith’s writing about Pocohontas, documents and records of the Salem Witch Hunt, Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl on the Streets (1893)). Using the Girls on Fire framework, students will have the opportunity to read these representations of historically marginalized identities (race, gender, sexual identity, class, religion) in ways that reclaim and reposition girls and young women of early North America as progressive social change agents. This course meets an upper-level requirement for Cultural Studies minors, an elective requirement for English Literary Studies majors and minors, and meets the Social Inquiry General Education requirement for all students.