English Department Spring Course Descriptions

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Friday 4:00 pm–6:20 pm (Hybrid) Potter

This class examines narratives of cultural contact both "factual" and "fictional” between European explorers of the Arctic and its indigenous peoples in the comparative context of European and American colonialism, visual representation, and emergent literatures. Material will include historical accounts, fiction, and film, as well as music and other performative arts. Requirements include attendance, active participation in discussion, a weekly response paragraph, and two 4-6 page critical essays, each of which will go through a draft reading process.

Tuesday, Thursday 4:00 pm–5:50 pm (in person) Holl

As an introduction to the English major, this course offers students practice and instruction in the strategies and critical vocabularies of literary and cultural studies. As we read works of poetry, drama, fiction, nonfiction, and cultural texts from various time periods and cultural contexts, we will hone our skills in close reading, analysis, research, and careful writing. Course requirements include active class participation, regular short writing assignments, three papers, and a presentation.

Monday, Wednesday 10:00 am–11:50 am (In-person) Hawk 

This course serves as an introduction to British literature from the early medieval period up to the eighteenth century (c.500-1700). Along the way, we will encounter such sights as a talking tree, a headhunter heroine, Arthurian romances, raucous religious plays, a mad king, the world of faerie, a sympathetic devil, and at least one sexy flea. With works sometimes familiar and sometimes foreign, we will explore what literature reveals about storytelling, adaptation, cultural values, history, as well as past and present assumptions about the world. Readings will be in modern translation, although we will look at examples of texts in their original languages—including Old, Middle, and early modern English.

Monday and Thursday 12:00 pm–1:50 pm (In-person) Quintana-Vallejo 

Why do books for young people get banned? What do these bans show about social and cultural taboos? In this course, we will answer those questions by studying adolescent literature by authors Maia Kobabe (Gender Queer: A Memoir), Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid's Tale), George M. Johnson (All Boys Aren't Blue), and Toni Morrison (Sula). This course does not have exams and, instead, requires active class participation, a research paper (3-5 pages long), and a creative adaptation project.

Monday and Thursday 12:00 pm–1:50 pm (in person) Boren

This course is an introduction to the crafts of poetry, fiction, nonfiction prose, and drama. Students learn the fundamentals of imaginative writing by writing in each genre themselves, by sharing and critique of student writing in workshop, and by reading and discussion of published writing. Regular attendance, active verbal and written participation, revision of written work, and peer critique through workshop are required elements of this class. At the end of the semester, students will turn in a portfolio of their revised writing.

Tuesday, Thursday 4:00 pm–5:50 pm (In-person) Staff

Monday 4:00 pm–5:50 pm (Hybrid) Caouette

ENGL 222 introduces students to Writing Studies as a rich, active, and engaging field—one where researchers and writers alike explore how, why, and where writing functions in the community, the public, and the workplace. Class meetings will include a great deal of time engaged in process-based writing (including workshops and conferences) as well as an exploration of disciplinary readings, scholarship, and best practices. The semester’s work will culminate in a portfolio, designed to be instrumental in career exploration and on the job market. This course is open to all: students new to the Professional Writing (PW) concentration, students who are advanced in their PW plan of study, and students not enrolled in the PW concentration but who are interested in exploring the world of Writing Studies.

Monday and Wednesday 2:00 pm–3:50 pm (in person) Staff

Monday and Wednesday 10:00 am–11:50 am (in person) Staff

Thursday 4 pm–7:50 pm (in person) Staff

(Online) Staff

Tuesday, Thursday 10:00 am–11:50 am (In-person) Michaud

Do health professionals write on the job? If so, what? And why? And how? And what can you learn about writing in the health professions now, while you’re in college, that will help you succeed later, in what will be a critical aspect of your daily work (writing!)?

This course attempts to answer these questions and more. It will provide you with the tools to understand the role of writing in numerous health fields. You’ll conduct writing research in a health workplace of your choosing and explore genres of writing unique to that context. Course assignments include informal writing and a semester-long workplace writing research project.

Tuesday 12 pm–1:50 pm (hybrid) Potter 

This class examines narratives of cultural contact both "factual" and "fictional,” between European explorers of the Arctic and its indigenous peoples in the comparative context of European and American colonialism, visual representation, and emergent literatures. Material will include historical accounts, fiction, and film, as well as music and other performative arts. Requirements include attendance, active participation in discussion, a weekly response paragraph, and two 4-6 page critical essays, each of which will go through a draft reading process.

Tuesday, Thursday 2 pm–3:50 pm (in person) Michaud 

This course examines how American music, film, and literature shape beliefs in the dominant national ideology of individualism. Students will explore how artists and thinkers in these mediums craft messages that promote themes of self-reliance, personal struggle, and the pursuit of the American Dream. By analyzing lyrics, films, literary works, and cultural contexts spanning different periods of U.S. history and crossing various cultures within the U.S., participants will critically assess how they have been influenced by the rhetoric of American individualism and how this rhetoric impacts well-being and happiness. Coursework will include informal writing, one rhetorical analysis essay, and one creative project.

Monday, Wednesday 2:00 pm–3:50 pm (In-person) Okoomian

In this Connections course we will study contemporary stories by women from various world cultures and in various narrative modes, which will include novels, short stories, and films. Focusing on women's struggles for identity and agency in their cultural contexts, we will compare women's diverse strategies of finding and telling their stories. We will treat the category of “woman” as a flexible one that allows for queer and trans voices as well as cisgender ones. Assignments will include two critical papers and a group oral presentation; there will be an option for a creative project in lieu of one critical paper. Classes will be primarily discussion-based. Connections courses are General Education courses on topics that emphasize comparative perspectives, such as across disciplines, across time, and across cultures.

Tuesday, Friday 12:00 pm–1:50 pm (In-person) Jalalzai

This course introduces students to the field of literary and cultural criticism and theory and to various debates waged by literary and cultural critics about what constitutes effective and meaningful ways to read texts. By the end of the course, students shall be able to identify the primary terms and underlying principles of certain schools of theory (including some classical theories, Formalism, Structuralism, Post-Structuralism, Psychoanalysis, Feminism/Gender Studies, Marxism, Postcolonial, and Critical Race Studies). Students will come to see that critical perspectives construct particular understandings of reality. Students shall also begin to develop their own critical positions regarding the study and creation of literature as well as the issues raised by these approaches. This course requires a heavy reading load of often difficult material. You should be willing to wade through sometimes perplexing concepts that may at first confuse you. This course is an initial step in the process of understanding complicated ideas that you will encounter as you continue to analyze and engage the world. Requirements include active participation, two papers, presentation, and final exam.

Tuesday, Thursday 10:00 am–11:50 am (In-person)
Jalalzai

This American literature course examines the period from the post–Civil War era to World War I, a time marked by profound societal shifts. The end of the Civil War led to large numbers of African Americans settling in urban centers, while the displacement of Native American likewise relocated them outside their traditional homes. At the same time immigrants from around the world settled both coasts, all of which fueled pivotal debates about national identity and the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality.

As new communities emerged, traditional ideas of selfhood and nationhood were redefined. During this dynamic period, the nation wrestled with evolving social roles, including the emergence of the "New Woman." We will also explore how Black, Native American, and other marginalized authors, along with white writers, responded to the legacies of slavery and Reconstruction. Additionally, the course will delve into key literary movements—romance, regionalism, realism, and naturalism—and how these trends both reflected and shaped the dramatic changes of the time. Requirements include active participation, two papers (one engaging research), and presentation.

Monday and Wednesday 2 pm–3:50 pm (in person) Zornado

Students who take English 315 will read and write about ecocriticism. Along the way we will pay close attention to two subfields of ecocriticism: “social ecology” and “eco-Marxism.” Our overarching goal is to learn about and apply the analytical and interpretive tools of ecocriticism in order to write about cultural texts of all kinds. Along with regular reading of literature we will read foundational texts of ecocritical studies, including Thoreau’s Walden, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Ecocriticism by Greg Garrard. We will read and write about representative examples of “cli-fi” in fiction and film. Writing assignments include a research paper, a midterm essay, and low-stakes writing assignments posted to Blackboard. We will engage in small and large group work focusing on oral communication and group collaboration. We will explore the intersection of environmental studies and the humanities from a perspective informed by environmental science, cultural narrative, history, and ideology, including the very latest data regarding key environmental benchmarks.

Tuesday, Thursday 4:00 pm–5:50 pm (In-person) Quintana Vallejo 

What does it mean to come of age as a Latina/o in the United States? How do Latina/o communities navigate issues of identity, citizenship, and belonging? This course encourages students to explore these questions through the lens of Latina/o literature (including narrative, poetry, theory, and film) written in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. We will examine how Latina/o writers portray the transition to adulthood amidst the complexities of ethnicity, culture, language, immigration, and national identity.

The course highlights a variety of styles and perspectives, reflecting the diverse experiences of Latina/o in the U.S. We will consider how these works engage with themes of intersectionality, the challenges of biculturalism, and the negotiation of personal and collective identities. Students will gain an understanding of the coming-of-age genre and why it is a vital tool for exploring Latina/o identity formation, resistance to marginalization, and the ongoing struggle for representation and equity. Course requirements include active class participation, quizzes, a creative adaptation project, and two analytical papers (6-10 pages each).

Tuesday, Thursday 2:00 pm–3:50 pm (In-person)
Holl 

This course will explore the various ways Shakespeare’s histories and comedies engage with pop culture—both early modern and contemporary. We’ll approach the plays as pop culture and the early modern theater as a form of mass entertainment, and we’ll discuss the ways that Shakespeare regularly probed the mechanisms of popularity, like fame, status, money, and the fickle whims of the public. We’ll also look at the ways Shakespeare has gone pop in the centuries after his death as we examine the multi-medial afterlives of plays like The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard II, Richard III, and Henry V. Course requirements will include active class participation, short response papers, a longer research project, and two exams.

Tuesday, Thursday 2 pm–3:50 pm (in person) Shipers

Truth? What is truth? This workshop may not entirely answer that question, but it will make you glad you asked. During the semester, we will read and discuss a wide range of literary nonfiction, including individual and collected essays, as well as a memoir and short craft pieces that model a variety of approaches that students might “steal” for their own workshopped pieces. Attendance, thoughtful reading of assigned texts, drafting and revising, commenting on classmates’ work, informal response writing, and thorough revision are all required elements of the course.

Wednesday 10 am–11:50 am (in person) Shipers 

Editing! Proofing! Layout! Planning a launch party! This course will focus on the tasks necessary to produce the annual issue of Shoreline, RIC’s literary and art magazine.

Requirements include regular attendance and active participation. It is important to note that much of the Shoreline production work will occur outside of our weekly class sessions, so students will need to allow time to complete the work required. (But it’s really fun work, I promise. We get to make a magazine!)

Friday 10:00 am–11:50 am (Hybrid) Potter 

Ever since its emergence into writing in the seventh century, English has been changing, losing some of its inflections and tenses, paring itself down into its contemporary forms. As the British linguist David Crystal put it, “if one regards simplification and loss of complexity as a form of decay, then the English language is in a very advanced state of decomposition.” In this class, we’ll sort through the ever-decaying corpus of English from the days of Beowulf to the Hip-hop era, looking both at how the written and spoken forms of the language have evolved over time and how, from the Anglo-Saxon epoch until this moment, it has varied in all kinds of ways among its users. There will be three 2-3 page written exercises based on aspects of the language, as well as brief final presentations on topics of the students’ own choosing. No previous experience with linguistics is needed.

Monday, Wednesday 4:00 pm–5:50 pm (in person) Hawk 

English 460 offers students opportunities to reflect upon their experiences as English majors and apply the skills and strategies they have acquired toward the next steps in their academic and professional careers. In this semester-long, culminating workshop, we will revisit and revise past work; craft an educational narrative; prepare a professional profile for life beyond RIC; and draft an individualized capstone project that explores students’ own interests and showcases their achievements in reading, writing, and research.

TBA Michaud

Tuesday 4 pm–6:50 pm (in person) Sibielski

This course will examine methods of storytelling across literature, film, television, and digital/streaming media. We will consider questions of narrative structure, form, audience address, and audience engagement. We will also examine the ways in which media convergence has created intersections between these once distinct narrative modes, including recent examples of multi-modal, mixed-media, and transmedia storytelling.

Wednesday 4:00 pm–6:50 pm (In-person)
Potter

The field of visual culture has been a rapidly expanding one, growing with our awareness of the complexities of human production and perception of images, and their relationship to cultural norms and notions of identity, nation, gender, and place.

Much of the history of our mass media began in the Victorian era; its emergence at once altered the relationship between literary production and its audiences. Written narratives were augmented by painted panoramas, magic lantern slides, and eventually film, all of which boasted that they could convey more useful information in an hour than stacks of books. At the same time, the increased literacy of the masses led to new hybrid forms, such as the illustrated press and serialized fiction, the distant forebears of today’s online newspapers and streaming videos.

In this class we’ll look at these emergent forms, alongside the literary texts that were their rivals and accomplices; writers will include Dickens, Thackeray, the Brontës, Stevenson, and Braddon. Early on, each student will adopt an area of focus, which they’ll represent and eventually present in a seminar setting; this will be the basis for a final research paper of 8-10 pages.

Monday 4 pm–6:50 pm (in person) Boren

This course focuses on fiction and literary nonfiction writing. The primary texts will be student-produced prose, which we will use to explore various techniques such as characterization, scene construction, plot, diction, point of attack, dialogue, symbol, imagery, and language precision. In addition to student work—work in progress—we will also examine craft by considering non-student, published work through the writer’s eye, discussing theories of narrative craft, and viewing/hearing readings from published writers. Classes will include group workshop, one-on-one tutorials, and individualized reading lists, so students may pursue their areas of particular interest.

Summer Session I

ENGL 12X
ENGL 230: Workplace Writing
ENGL 350 and 550: Shakespeare’s England/England’s Shakespeare*
ENGL 450 and 560: Mapping Queer London*

Summer Session II

ENGL 12X
ENGL 340 and 525: Studies in Poetry

*Study abroad offering. All students interested in participating must contact Professor Jenn Holl (jholl@ric.edu) for information in advance.