Class meeting locations are subject to change. Consult the following page for an explanation of the class period abbreviations.
Fall 2020
Lower-Division (1000-2000) Courses
Note: Course numbers listed in the table are linked to course descriptions below.
| Course # | Section | Class # | Time(s) | Course title | Instructor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AML 2070 | 0211 | 10349 | M W F 2 | Survey of American Literature | Luke Rodewald |
| AML 2070 | 03A5 | 10350 | M W F 9 | Survey of American Literature | Rachel Hartnett |
| AML 2070 | 1625 | 10423 | T 7/ R 7-8 | Survey of American Literature | John Mark Robison |
| AML 2070 | 5613 | 10425 | T 2-3/ R 3 | Survey of American Literature | Fi Stewart-Taylor |
| AML 2070 | 8023 | 25777 | M W F 10 | Survey of American Literature | Karina Vado |
| AML 2410 | 1629 | 10426 | M W F 2 | The 1920s and the Reinvention of Modern American Culture | Burcu Kuheylan |
| AML 2410 | 3698 | 10427 | T 2-3/ R 3 | Literary Road Trips: Memories and Migratory Moments in the United States | Ashley Clemons |
| AML 2410 | 8060 | 26741 | M W F 8 | Rewritten Histories: Creating the American Past Through Children’s Literature | Maxine Donnelly |
| AML 2410 | 8974 | 10428 | T 8-9/ R 9 | From Novels to Television to Tik Tok: The Making of American Schools | Nicole Green |
| CRW 1101 | 0218 | 12435 | T 9-11 | Beginning Fiction Writing | Victor Imko |
| CRW 1101 | 1648 | 12436 | W 10-E1 | Beginning Fiction Writing | Ryan Bedsaul |
| CRW 1101 | 1649 | 12437 | W 9-11 | Beginning Fiction Writing | Mitchell Galloway |
| CRW 1101 | 1650 | 12438 | R 9-11 | Beginning Fiction Writing | Angie Bell |
| CRW 1101 | 1879 | 12439 | F 3-5 | Beginning Fiction Writing | Cassie Fancher |
| CRW 1301 | 1651 | 12466 | W 9-11 | Beginning Poetry Writing | Michelle Lesifko-Bremer |
| CRW 1301 | 1652 | 12467 | M 9-11 | Beginning Poetry Writing | Elizabeth Agans |
| CRW 1301 | 1653 | 12468 | F 6-8 | Beginning Poetry Writing | Ashley Kim |
| CRW 1301 | 398E | 12469 | R 9-11 | Beginning Poetry Writing | Anna Egeland |
| CRW 1301 | 7622 | 12470 | F 6-8 | Beginning Poetry Writing | Olivia Ivings |
| CRW 2100 | 1656 | 12472 | W 10-E1 | Fiction Writing | Drew Dickerson |
| CRW 2100 | 2333 | 12473 | R 9-11 | Fiction Writing | Jackson Armstrong |
| CRW 2100 | 2500 | 12474 | F 6-8 | Fiction Writing | Daniel Grossman |
| CRW 2100 | 37B0 | 12499 | F 6-8 | Fiction Writing | Django Ellenhorn |
| CRW 2100 | 8058 | 12500 | W 9-11 | Fiction Writing | Savannah Horton |
| CRW 2300 | 1658 | 12501 | W 9-11 | Poetry Writing | Mallory Smith |
| CRW 2300 | 37B8 | 12502 | R 9-11 | Poetry Writing | Cheyenne Taylor |
| CRW 2300 | 5546 | 12503 | M 3-5 | Poetry Writing | Erick Verran |
| ENC 1136 | 045A | 20919 | M W F 7 | Multimodal Writing/ Digital Literacy | Brianna Anderson |
| ENC 1136 | 8007 | 23343 | M W F 6 | Multimodal Writing/ Digital Literacy | Ashley Tisdale |
| ENC 1145 | 3309 | 13320 | M W 6/ F 6 | Writing About Food | Yvonne Medina |
| ENC 1145 | 3312 | 13321 | M W F 3 | Writing about Immigrant Experiences | Cristovao Nwachukwu |
| ENC 1145 | 3318 | 13322 | M W F 2 | The Racialized Other | La-Toya Scott |
| ENC 1145 | 3337 | 13323 | T 7/ R 7-8 | Writing About Worlds to Come | Danielle Jordan |
| ENC 2210 | 12A0 | 13324 | UFO | Technical Writing | Andrea Medina |
| ENC 2210 | 4B48 | 13326 | T 8-9/ R 9 | Technical Writing | Alexander Slotkin |
| ENC 2210 | 4B50 | 13348 | M W F 2 | Technical Writing | Jacqueline Schnieber |
| ENC 2210 | 5072 | 22382 | M W F 8 | Technical Writing | Elizabeth Lambert |
| ENC 2210 | 9150 | 22659 | T 2-3/ R 3 | Technical Writing | Samantha Baugus |
| ENG 1131 | 1363 | 13131 | M W F 4 / T 9-11 | Writing Through Media | Cara Wieland |
| ENG 1131 | 1802 | 13155 | M W F 6 / M 9-11 | Writing Through Media | Natalie Goodman |
| ENG 1131 | 18C3 | 13156 | T 4/ R 4-5 / W 9-11 | Writing Through Media | Thomas Johnson |
| ENG 1131 | 1983 | 13157 | M W F 5 / R 9-11 | Writing Through Media | Charles Acheson |
| ENG 2300 | 1807 | 13159 | M W F 4/ T 9-11 | Film Analysis | Mandy Moore |
| ENG 2300 | 1809 | 13160 | M W F 4/ T E1-E3 | Film Analysis | Vincent Wing |
| ENG 2300 | 4C45 | 13161 | T 4/ R 4-5/ R 9-11 | Film Analysis | Felipe Gonzalez-Silva |
| ENG 2300 | 7485 | 13162 | M W F 4/ T 9-11 | Film Analysis | Ryan Kerr |
| ENG 2300 | 8015 | 24370 | T 5-6/ R 6/ W E1-E3 | Film Analysis | Faith Boyte |
| ENG 2300 | 8641 | 12967 | M W F 3/ M 9-11 | Film Analysis | Remus Jackson |
| ENL 2012 | 1827 | 13067 | M W F 2 | Survey of British Literature, Medieval-1750 | Heather Hannaford |
| ENL 2022 | 1830 | 13068 | T 2-3/ R 3 | Survey of British Literature, 1750-Present | Kelsey Carper |
| ENL 2022 | 8049 | 13069 | T 8-9/ R 9 | Survey of British Literature, 1750-Present | Kaley, Owens-McGinnis |
| LIT 2000 | 19CC | 16566 | M W F 5 | Introduction to Literature | Suvendu Ghatak |
| LIT 2000 | 19CD | 16567 | T 8-9 / R 9 | Introduction to Literature | Brooke Fortune |
| LIT 2000 | 1A24 | 16568 | M W F 3 | Introduction to Literature | Claire Karnap |
| LIT 2000 | 1A28 | 16569 | M W F 7 | Introduction to Literature | Katheryn Hampshire |
| LIT 2000 | 1A31 | 16570 | M W F 4 | Introduction to Literature | Mosunmola Adeojo |
| LIT 2000 | 1A35 | 16588 | T 2-3/ R 3 | Introduction to Literature | Brandon Murakami |
| LIT 2000 | 1A42 | 16589 | M W F 6 | Introduction to Literature | Lillian Martinez |
| LIT 2110 | 4C93 | 16592 | M W F 8 | World Literature, Ancient to Renaissance | Alyssa Dewees |
| LIT 2120 | 03A6 | 16593 | M W F 9 | World Literature, 17th Century to Modern | Meghna Sapui |
| LIT 2120 | 2504 | 16594 | M W F 8 | World Literature, 17th Century to Modern | Deepthi Siriwardena |
Course Descriptions
AML 2410
The 1920s and the Reinvention of Modern American Culture
Burcu Kuheylan
No other decade in the history of the U.S. saw a more radical break with established traditions, social norms, and ways of living than the 1920s. As we enter the decade’s centennial and witness some of its key patterns resurface, we will inquire how the generational conflicts, economic troubles, and the more diverse yet hardly egalitarian culture of the 1920s can help us better navigate our unfolding decade with the hindsight of a century. Framed by the U.S.’s emergence from WWI as the global powerhouse on the one hand and the Wall Street Crash of 1929 on the other, this spacious decade rebranded American identity in its many shapes and marketed it to the rest of the world as the coveted new image of Western modernity. The nation’s rising index of affluence especially mobilized such metropolitan figures as the rebellious “flaming youth” and the sexually liberated “flapper,” who embraced fun, fashion, and a carefree lifestyle as first-generation mass consumers of culture. For others like the Harlem Renaissance poets, novelists, and jazz musicians, the stakes were significantly higher. Still, the decade’s relatively inclusive cultural trends afforded them a platform to convey the experiences and hardships of being black in a society of white privilege and to expose the latter’s hypocrisies.
Bringing under the spotlight this dizzying panorama of affluence, freedom, and mobility, as well as of consumerism, hypocrisy, and disillusionment, this course will help students appreciate the decade’s significance as a key period of transition in American culture. Students will also learn how the operational logic of today’s mass or popular culture was first invented a century ago yet continue to determine our consumption habits and ways of life. The tentative reading list includes short selections from Jean Toomer’s Cane (1923) and Langston Hughes’s poetry (1926-27), F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925), Anita Loos’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1926), a short story by Ernest Hemingway (1927), Nella Larsen’s Passing (1929), and essays by H.L. Menchen and Sinclair Lewis. The course will also screen the first sound movie The Jazz Singer (1927) and the 1953 movie adaptation of Loos’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with Marilyn Monroe. Assignments for the course includes six 300-word responses to weekly CANVAS discussion questions (1,800 words), three reading reports of 500 word each (1,500); one textual analysis essay of 1,300 words, and one comparative analysis essay of 1,400 words. This course grants credit for the GenEd 6,000 writing requirement.
AML 2410
Literary Road Trips: Memories and Migratory Moments in the United States
Ashley Clemons
“Hittin’ the road,” creates memories—whether it’s a fun cross-country trip or even the jarring mass dislocation of people. Travel makes an impact on both the traveler and the readers of the traveler’s stories. Such accounts capture various migratory moments that occur within and across blocks, city limits, state lines, borders, and boundaries. Accordingly, this course reconceptualizes “The Great American Road Trip” by considering how 20th Century and 21st Century American literature depict people, locations, and migration within the United States. From Flannery O’Conner to Octavia Butler, these authors invite readers to actively engage with literary texts that illustrate the significance of places such as the southern countryside, the Deep South, cities “Up North,” and spaces “Out West.” Students will think about the historical, social, and cultural contexts of specific geographical locations to develop critical perspectives on portrayals of “home,” “land,” and belonging. This course will consist of novels, critical texts, and multimedia.
Simple warning: Literary road trips trek through rough terrain and bumpy roads. Students will be asked to “take the wheel” during readings, discussions, and collaborations. Although they are encouraged to proceed without caution, students will be expected to demonstrate patience, respect, thoughtfulness, and open-mindedness throughout the entire course. Some materials may contain images of violence and brutality. Ultimately, students have the opportunity to hop in their literary vehicles, read about American spaces, and enjoy the ride.
AML 2410
Rewritten Histories: Creating the American Past Through Children’s Literature
Maxine Donnelly
This course explores American school stories, with a focus on how school is constructed and what that means for those within it. This course is grounded in the basic history of American education, and introduces foundational literary and archival theory so that students may gain a background in analyzing primary sources. Students will explore how schools are constructed through fiction, and in turn, how schools shape the identities of those within them. Topics such as discipline, race, gender, sexuality, immingration, disabilities, gun violence, and politics are experienced through and within schools. Students will experience how school stories take on different genres–from adult thrillers, graphic novels, memoirs, YA literature, the works of American canon, to school reform satire. Possible texts for this course are Speak: The Graphic Novel by Laurie Halse Anderson, The School Days of an Indian Girl by Zitkala-Sa, The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily Danforth, and Common Core: A Story of School Terrorism by Joel Spring. We will explore different mediums, such as tv shows, memes, vines, and tik toks, and how they function as non-traditional school stories. One of the main objectives of this course is to investigate how schools as institutions both reinforce and subvert societal norms.
List of Possible Texts:
Speak: The Graphic Novel by Laurie Halse Anderson
The School Days of an Indian Girl by Zitkala-Sa
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily Danforth
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Common Core: A Story of School Terrorism by Joel Spring
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (Film)
Course Objectives
- Students should learn to organize complex arguments about schoolsin writing using thesis statements, claims and evidence, and to analyze writing for errors in logic.
- Students will read multiple forms of school stories demonstrating effective writing, different writing styles, approaches and formats, and methods to adapt writing to different audiences, purposes and contexts.
- Students will investigate how schools as institutions both reinforce and subvert societal norms.
- Students will learn how a genre is formed and reformed and what constitutes a “school story”.
AML 2410
From Novels to Television to Tik Tok: The Making of American Schools
Nicole Green
Most of us (or at least most who have gone through the American public school system) have encountered historical fiction as ‘educational’ material in one form or another. Whether slogging through historical novels for summer reading, performing plays about the Founding Fathers, or hastily assembling dioramas of Civil War battles, American students are hearing and creating stories about the American past almost constantly. But it’s hard not to wonder why history is so central to American education–and why fiction, which might seem the opposite of the ‘hard facts’ of history, is so often read as history in these contexts. What do these fictions tell us about history, about America, and about our ideas of what children should know? And what do we, as former children, make of what we’ve learned from the (fictional) American past?
In this course, we will try to answer some of these questions by reading and analyzing historical fiction intended for younger readers–especially texts used in American classrooms. Focusing on supposed ‘great events’ of American history like the Revolutionary War and westward expansion, we will read children’s and young adult texts both well-known (like Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie and Esther Forbes’ Johnny Tremain) and lesser-known (like M.T. Anderson’s The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing and Louise Erdich’s The Birchbark House). Additionally, we will use secondary sources to explore how each text’s time and purpose for publication shapes the history it creates. Throughout our romp through the past, however, we will foreground questions still relevant to current debates about American education. Should history be taught to every American child, and how do our changing understandings of children and history shape such teachings? How can authors explain shameful elements of American history, such as slavery and genocide, to young readers? And can (or should) history be fictionalized, especially when used in the classroom?
Major assignments will fulfil a UF Composition (C) or Humanities (H) credit; students will complete 6000 of UF’s 24000 word writing requirement. Assignments will include short response papers, a longer creative reflection paper on your own experiences with children’s/YA historical fiction, and a final research paper on one or more of our primary fictional texts (which will be presented to the class).
ENC 1145
Writing About Food
Yvonne Medina
Food is a universal, basic need, some would argue a right, but food also plays important roles in sacred rituals. Sharing a meal connects people to each other and their cultures in intimate, embodied ways; however, food also demarcates cultural boundaries. This course will explore how authors write about food when eating presents an experience at once intensely personal and ephemeral.
In this course, we will ask questions such as what does food writing reveal about cultural transmission, nation building, and subject formation? To this end, we will look at major chefs’ foodoirs, memoirs in which authors describe their relationships to food, and draw inspiration from them to produce our own written reflections on the role of food in our lives. We will also critically read cookbooks and study their transformations from the Victorian era to today. Tracing the rise of food television and celebrity chefs will help us understand the cultural trajectory to our contemporary foodie culture. In addition to food history, we will also examine immigrant culinary traditions and food pathways. While we will read many classic texts on food writing, we will also investigate the lack of diversity among famous food writers, critics, and celebrity chefs. This investigation will lead to discussions of issues of food access and sustainability as we look forward to the future of food writing.
Readings will include Julia Child’s My Life in France, writings from Nora Ephron, Ruth Reichl, Marcel Proust, Roland Barthes, M.F.K. Fisher, Marcus Samuelsson, and Korsha Wilson. We will also read selections from historic cookbooks like Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management and Marjorie Kinnan Rowling’s Cross Creek Cookery as well as more contemporary ones like Bryant Terry’s Afro-Vegan and Andrea Nguyen’s cookbooks on Vietnamese cuisine. Films and television shows will likely include Ratatouille, Eat Drink Man Woman, Simply Ming, The Great British Baking Show, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, Street Food, and The Heat.
Assignments will consist of a combination of analytical papers on the readings and films as well as creative nonfiction such as restaurant reviews, food histories, foodoirs, and recipes.
ENC 1145
Writing about Immigrant Experiences
Cristovao Nwachukwu
Moving to a different country can be both thrilling and challenging. Some people immigrate in the search for adventures, job opportunities, better education, and some immigrate to escape from precarious economic situations, political turmoil, or even because they do not perceive their place of birth as a home. Considering how immigration has continued to stimulate intricate debates, this course will seek to answer the following questions: What are the factors that lead people to migrate? What challenges do immigrants encounter when they arrive? How does one`s ethnicity, gender, and class impact their experiences abroad? This course will focus on depictions of Mexicans, Asians, and black Africans who migrate to the U.S and Europe. We will examine cultural representations in literature, film, and music from artists who address the culture shock migration causes, the level of attachment immigrants have to their homelands and how this attachment affects their sense of belonging, and the hardships of being an undocumented immigrant.
Some of the works we will discuss include songs from the album Clandestino (1998) by singer-songwriter Manu Chao, the graphic novel Undocumented: A Workers Fight (2018) by Duncan Tonatiuh, and films such as Brooklyn (2015), Crazy Rich Asians (2018), and The Farewell (2019). We will also read the novels The Other Americans (2019) by Laila Lalami, Travelers (2019) by Helon Habila, the autobiographical novel The Abandoned Baobab (1991) by Ken Bugul, short stories by Chimamanda Adichie and Fatou Diome, and the memoir Migritude (2010) by Shailja Patel.
Writing assignments will consist of analysis papers about the works discussed in class, weekly posts about the cultural context in which these works were produced, and a final research paper examining how cultural representations might challenge or validate current discourses on immigration.
ENC 1145
The Racialized Other
La-Toya Scott
Race in America has traditionally been contextualized within a White-Black binary. However, more recently within the age of Trump the conversation of race has been expanded to highlight the oppression of Latin and Asian people under a dominant hegemonic structure. As marginalized groups begin to speak against these structures common themes arise amongst them.
This comparative race course looks at the lives of Black, Latin, and Asian people in literary texts and media. We will turn to analyze contemporary theories of race beyond a Black and White binary in order to reconsider what race looks like on an inter-minority level. The course will map reoccurring themes that place these racialized groups in conversation with one another. We will consider how race is constructed institutionally and what impact the constructed identity has on the actual people. This course will promote analytic and interpretive dialogue on identity construction on a relational level. It shall be questioned: What does it mean to inhabit an identity that is problematic, dynamic, and political? Do these constructed identities across racial borders exhibit a pattern and/or feed off one another? What does it mean when these constructed identities are claimed or abandoned? And what does resistance look like cross racially?
Texts will include Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, and Native Son by Richard Wright.
This class will also examine and bring into conversation current popular shows such as “On My Block” by Lauren Lungerich, Eddie Gonzalez, Jeremy Haft, “Fresh Off the Boat” by Eddie Huang, and “Snowfall” by John Singleton and Eric Amadio.
This course satisfies the General Education requirement for (W) and either (C) or (H). Thus, students will be expected to meet the 6,000 word writing requirement.
ENC 1145
Writing About Worlds to Come
Danielle Jordan
Stranded polar bears, apocalyptic fire-storms, and tree-hugging hippies. These are just a few of the cliché images often used to tell stories of climate change. But why do we rely on these over-simplifications? Representing our environment is no simple task. Climate change is not only abstract, it is taking place over a large amount of space and time, making it impossible to convey its magnitude, causes, and effects in a single work of art. Still, a rich body of literature and film has arisen and continues to emerge around this pressing global issue.
During this course we will look at a number of novels and films that seek to represent the potential futures of a world impacted by climate change. Each unit will pose a specific focus, allowing us to think through the various strengths and limits of different representational strategies. To think through dystopia and climate catastrophe, we will read The Lathe of Heaven (1971) by Ursula K. Le Guin and The Parable of the Sower (1993) by Octavia Butler. We’ll follow with a unit on Utopia including Kim Stanley Robinson’s “ecotopia” novel, Pacific Edge (1990), and Duncan Jones’s post-oil film Moon (2009). Finally, we will turn to Annihilation (2014), the first book from Jeff VanderMeer’s widely read Southern Reach Trilogy, and Shane Carruth’s marvelous film Upstream Color (2013) to analyze texts that rely on extreme abstraction and strategies of the “weird” to convey changing ecologies.
Throughout this course we place a heavy emphasis on the importance of representing the future. Our aim will be to better understand how our notions of the future impact how we engage in the present. Assignments will include discussion posts/responses, analytical essays, one short creative writing project, and a final research paper.
ENG 1131
Writing About Pain, Illness, and Disability
Cara Wieland
In The Body in Pain, Elaine Scarry writes that “pain does not simply resist language but actively destroys it.” Yet, she continues to write. Despite (and maybe even because of) the seeming impossibly to communicate such experiences, writers and artists take a wide range of approaches in trying to express and articulate pain, illness, and disability. This course thus surveys how these articulations are presented in media including (but not necessarily limited to) nonfiction essays and life-writing, speculative fiction, comics and graphic novels, visual art and museum exhibitions, and film. In addition to considering the strengths of each medium as a tool for articulation, we will also consider who is represented, how, and perhaps even why. We will contextualize class discussions by learning about common tropes in disability representation—such as disabled villains—that connect to critical aspects of disability history—for example: the freak show, the asylum. Then, we will parse through more-nuanced self-articulations with attention to how such tropes are internalized and reflected, diverged from, or subverted.
In doing so, this course will be of interest to those who wish to study a diversity of reading/writing styles, formats, and materials; those intrigued by how this marginal history pervades the majority of media we consume; and those interested in a humanities companion to research in the Disabilities in Society minor.
Assignments will include an analysis of 1-2 assigned works, a literature review on a relevant topic, an “unessay” assignment (a chosen project in the form of an image/text zine, blog, or a non-written project accompanied by an expository transcript) as well as shorter reflective responses and classwork.
Possible works we will examine are: excerpts from The Cancer Journals by Audre Lorde, “The Evening and the Morning and the Night” by Octavia Butler, selected self-portraits by Frida Kahlo, the Imperfecta virtual exhibit by the Mutter Museum, 7 Miles a Second by James Romberger and David Wojnarowicz, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, and Hereditary by Ari Aster.
ENG 1131
Writing Through Media: The Digital Body
Natalie Goodman
In this course, we will examine works from a range of styles, genres, and mediums, all centering around some aspect of the body and its relationship to digital technologies. This is also a “writing through” class, meaning you will be analyzing these works as well as creating analytical responses of your own over the course of the semester using a variety of composing tools. We will take into account the relationships that exist between different mediums and forms of media, with special attention paid to visual and aural media.
Questions that will be posed this semester include but are not limited to: what does the rise of artificial intelligence mean for the future of the human? How does our growing reliance on digital computing alter our relationship with our own flesh-and-blood bodies, and with our natural and built environments? Where does our own corporeal body end, and where does technology begin? What kinds of affordances and dangers does the digital hold for the body? What makes one “human”, anyway, and what is the purpose of drawing such distinctions? And what does it mean to write about, from, and through the bodies we inhabit in the digital age?
ENG 1131
Writing Through Media: American Fantasy TV and Cultural Prestige
Thomas Johnson
This class will examine the rise of American fantasy television from a niche, cult genre to unprecedented cultural prominence and influence over the last decade. The early 21st-century saw a new brand of premium cable TV that branded itself as “quality” and realist by default. This categorization went largely unchallenged until the premiere of Game of Thrones in 2011. Based on a book series that appealed to readers of mass-market fantasy, the show represents an attempt by premium cable to appeal to a previously untapped market of genre fiction fans without alienating a core audience that engaged with its programming on the premise that it was more aesthetically refined and psychologically complex than “ordinary” television. As Game of Thrones rose to unprecedented cultural prominence over the next decade, the show brought issues to the fore of the cultural conversation that the fantasy genre has long negotiated – the nuances of fan engagement, the ethics of postcolonialism, questions of feminist representation, and debates over politics and religion.
In this course, students will come to a better understanding of how fantasy television has increasingly influenced American culture as it has risen in cultural prominence. Students will explore how the reception of fantasy television influences its narrative trajectory and ideological messages in a manner unique to the medium. Students will learn how to rigorously engage with popular texts through four critical viewing responses, an annotated bibliography, and a critical research paper on show of their choice within the genres of fantasy and/or science fiction. Finally, students will become cognizant of the realities of television development and network branding by writing a pitch for a prospective fantasy show to a premium cable network or streaming platform.
ENG 1131
Writing Through Media: Images in Transit
Charles Acheson
When we look in a mirror, what do we see? Do we see our self? In a sense, we do, but it is more accurate to describe the reflection in the mirror as an image of our self. This reflected image (or, as we will explore in the course, every image) is in transit through the various processes of interpretation, remix, riffing, adaptation, remediation, or, even more broadly, modification. Not only are images in transit, they are moving at a greater speed than ever and reaching increasing numbers of audiences thanks to advances in communication technology and globalization. Yet, what happens when these images move from their original context into a new context? What are the social, cultural, and political implications of these movements? How have recent social and cultural shifts toward isolation in the wake of pandemic shape our understanding of images and the technologies used to present them?
This course will explore a plenitude of answers to these questions, as well as examine the various technologies that enable people to move images as freely as they do. To attend to these guiding goals, our semester will address several themes, including but not limited to images of the self, others, race, disability, history, and nature. By exploring mobile images within these themes, the course will spawn discussions that interrogate how individuals and societies construct, deconstruct, and reconstruct images of identity. These discussions will spring from our class conversations, activities, and texts that include literature, comics, choose-your-own-adventure narratives, film, television, video games, new media available through YouTube and Zoom, and even your own empirical viewing of the natural world. Finally, this course values critical making as much as critique, so, the course projects that will meet the Writing Requirement include an equal number of critical and creative projects.