English/Humanities
AMSL 101 INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE
Fall, 4 credit hours GER 9
American Sign Language (ASL) is the third most frequently used language in the United States after English and Spanish. This course introduces students to ASL: the visual- gestural language of the deaf. It incorporates non-verbal communication techniques: fingerspelling, basic vocabulary, grammar and syntax, and conversational skills. In addition, students gain an understanding of the deaf community, its history, culture, and the issues that impact the deaf community in the 21st century.
ENGL 097 INTRODUCTION TO ACADEMIC READING AND WRITING
Fall/Spring, 4 equivalent credits
This course is intended to provide the literacy skills required in an academic setting. Students read and respond to a variety of academic texts. The course includes fundamental rhetorical strategies for academic writing and an overview of basic writing mechanics and grammar. Additional tutorials with the class instructor, the Writing Center, EOP and/or Accommodative Service tutors may be required. A minimum grade of C is required for progression to ENGL 101.
ENGL 101 COMPOSITION AND THE SPOKEN WORD
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours GER 10
This course is designed to help students communicate effectively orally and in writing. Students develop critical thinking skills, rhetorical knowledge, basic research skills, knowledge of conventions, and communication ethics.
ENGL 109 APPROACHES TO LITERATURE
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours GER 7
This course is designed to acquaint students with different kinds of literature - plays, short stories, novel excerpts, and poems. Students are also acquainted with various methods of understanding literature. Students read a wide variety of literary works and are encouraged to employ proper literary terminology in writing about them. Emphasis rests on intelligent interpretation and argumentation, and on the relationships between literary themes and everyday life.
ENGL/TCOM 200 NARRATIVE FORM IN VIDEO GAMES
Spring, 3 credit hours
Students explore the evolution of narrative, from basic concepts to interactive fiction and interactive storytelling to early text-based adventures and recent open-world storytelling. Students review several philosophies on interactive narrative. Students also experience and discuss interactive fiction and storytelling through game case studies, including required playthroughs and subsequent discussion. As a course capstone, students will develop interactive fiction or storytelling through ADRIFT or other available programs. Three hours of lecture per week.
Prerequisites: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101) or permission of the instructor
ENGL 201 WRITING IN THE ARTS AND SCIENCES
Spring, 3 credit hours
This course is for students who wish to continue improving their writing skills. They are given the opportunity to read and write about various topics in Humanities, Social Science, Business, Economics, and Science. Using a variety of materials including advertisements, films, television, imaginative and scientific literature, art, newspapers, and journal articles students analyze, investigate, interpret, and formulate ideas through their own writing. Additionally, students further familiarize themselves with the library and research techniques.
Prerequisites: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101) or permission of the instructor
ENGL 202 CREATIVE NON-FICTION
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours
This course provides opportunities for students to continue developing and refining skills in writing from the basics of Expository Writing or Oral and Written Expression. Through their study of Creative Non-fiction forms and conventions—memoirs, nature writing, lyrical essays, magazine features, webpage content, digital or textual literacy narratives, etc.–students learn to write essays that are not only persuasive but enjoyable for both reader and writer. Each student designs writing situations according to interests and develops imaginative essays of creative non-fiction.
Prerequisites: Expository Writing (ENGL 101) OR an equivalent course Or permission of instructor.
ENGL 203 WORLD LITERATURE: B.C. TO 16TH CENTURY
Fall, 3 credit hours GER 7
This course examines global literature by tracing patterns of difference and points of contact between literatures developed in various regions throughout the world. Works read will be discussed in the context of their originating culture as well as in relation to Western modes of understanding literature. Three hours lecture per week.
ENGL 204 WORLD LITERATURE: 17TH TO 20TH CENTURIES
Spring, 3 credit hours GER 7
This course examines global literature by tracing patterns of difference and points of contact between literature developed in an era defined by colonial expansion and postcolonial nation building. Works read will be discussed in the context of their originating culture as well as in relation to Western modes of understanding literature.
ENGL 205 SURVEY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE I
Fall, 3 credit hours GER 7
This survey course begins with Old English literature from 450 AD and extends through 1800 AD. Students study the primary writers and their representative works. Relevant historical, social, and political background, cultural changes, and developments of each period are also examined.
ENGL 206 SURVEY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE II
Spring, 3 credit hours GER 7
This survey course begins with a study of English literature from the Romantic through the Post-Victorian period. Students study the important writers and their representative works. The historical, social, and political background for each period and the cultural changes and developments of the eras is also examined.
ENGL 207 LITERATURE OF THE EARLY AMERICAN REPUBLIC: COLONIZATION AND REVOLUTION, 1640 - 1830
Fall, 3 credit hours GER 7
Course is designed to acquaint students with the early emergence of a distinctively American literature. Students explore the roots of American literature and how that literature makes us the Americans we are today. Works by major American writers such as Bradford, Bradstreet, Franklin, Jefferson, Paine, Murray, Wheatley, Sedgwick, Irving, and others comprise the foundation of the course. The historical, social, and political background for each period is examined with a particular eye for the intersections between Native, European, and African voices.
ENGL 208 AMERICAN LITERATURE COMES OF AGE: 1830 - 1920
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours GER 7
This course is deigned to acquaint students with significant American authors from the pre-Civil War era and continues to 1920. Students study important American writers such as Whitman, Dickinson, Poe, Melville, Hawthorne, Twain, Jacobs, Freeman, Chopin, Cather, Fitzgerald, and others. The historical, social, and political background for each period and the cultural changes and developments of the eras are also examined. Three hours lecture per week.
ENGL 211 THE AMERICAN NOVEL OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours GER 7
This course explores the interaction between historical events, social change, and economic factors that affected the American way(s) of life as they are reflected in the novels of writers such as Edith Wharton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, Richard Wright, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Leslie Marmon Silko, Sandra Cisneros, and others. The novels may be augmented by a variety of print and digital media.
ENGL 213 WAR AND LITERATURE
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours GER 7
Focusing on American wars from World War II to the present, this course examines war and a range of human responses to the war experience as reflected through literature. Theories originating in the social sciences and historical information are included to enhance understanding of the literature.
Prerequisites: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101).
ENGL 214 CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN FICTION
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours GER 7
Through the writings of current authors, students examine literary trends and their relationship to social, political, cultural phenomena in America. Students are given an opportunity-through their own writing and class discussion to explore contemporary ideas, values, and attitudes expressed in the literature.
ENGL 215 MULTICULTURALISM IN AMERICAN LITERATURE
Spring, 3 credit hours GER 7
This course examines multiculturalism in the United States as reflected in its literature of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Works will be selected to highlight the diversity of American life including, but not limited to, race/ethnicity, gender, social class, sexual orientation, nationality/immigrant status, religion, and family structure. Students should increase their understanding of the multicultural nature of American society and the existence of cultural traditions and practices that exist independently of those of the dominant American “mainstream” or overculture.
Prerequisite: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101) or permission of the instructor.
ENGL 216 CHILDREN'S LITERATURE
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours GER 7
This is a survey course of traditional and modern literature written for young children. Emphasis is on critical appreciation and understanding of literary qualities appealing and valuable to children. Three lecture hours per week.
Prerequisites: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101)
ENGL 217 COMIC BOOKS AS LITERATURE
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours GER 7
Comic books as literature? Certainly, skeptics will scoff at the idea. However, in recent years, comic books have become accepted as a respected form of literature by scholars, critics, and faculty alike. Students in this course examine the academic value of comic books and graphic novels through study of their history, similarity to other forms of literature, their own specialized literary and artistic techniques, and development as compelling narratives.
Prerequisites Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101) AND one literature course or permission of instructor.
ENGL 218 SCIENCE FICTION WORKSHOP
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours GER 7 & GER 8
Students explore the form by reading a wide range of science fiction stories that represent the standard indications of literary quality (i.e. characterization, plot, setting, point of view, style, theme, etc.). After a survey of the form, students write science fiction stories of their own that incorporate the various literary qualities inherent in the genre and constructively respond to peers' writing in a workshop format.
Prerequisites: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101)
ENGL 219 THE ADIRONDACKS: LIFE AND LITERATURE
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours
This course provides the opportunity to explore various aspects of life and literature set in the Adirondack forest preserve. A wide variety of readings, films, slides and presentations present the opportunity to sharpen awareness of what the Adirondacks are and how they have shaped and influenced life and literature in America.
ENGL 220 AMERICAN LITERATURE IN THE MODERN ERA: 1920- PRESENT
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours
This course is designed to acquaint students with significant American authors starting from 1920 and continuing to the present. Students study important American writers such as Baldwin, Steinbeck, Updike, Ginsberg, Roth, Larsen, Hurston, Porter, Millay, Hughes, Plath, and others. The historical, social, and political background for each period and the cultural changes and developments of the eras are also examined.
Prerequisites: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101)
ENGL 221 CREATIVE WRITING
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours GER 8
This course is an introduction to creative writing and its publication. Students hone their written communication skills through the discipline of creative writing, as well as develop a deeper understanding of the literary arts. Emphasis is placed upon the writing of poems and short stories, but other forms of creative work may be utilized and discussed. We cover basic technical problems and formal concepts of creative writing. Students also study works by accomplished writers to see how those writers define and master their craft. At the end of the semester, students seek publication of their work in various formats.
Prerequisite: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101) and one literature course Or permission of instructor.
ENGL 224 SURVEY OF NATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURES
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours GER 6
Introductory survey of expressive and essayist literature by selected Native American authors from the United States and Canada. Works are chosen to reflect the diversity of Native American thought and experience as revealed through literature. Emphasis is on contemporary short fiction and poetry, but readings include essays, drama and the novel. Discussion of cultural context encompasses the oral tradition(s) and relevant political and social history. Audio-visual media and Internet resources will supplement lectures and discussions.
Prerequisite: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101) or permission of instructor.
ENGL 225 AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours GER 7
This course focuses on African American authors from the Colonial Era to the present. Topics include recurring themes and concerns, cultural pressures, historical contexts, intellectual currents and literary innovations. Students study major African American writers such as Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, Rita Dove, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, James Baldwin and others.
Prerequisite: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101)
ENGL 264 LIVING WRITERS SERIES
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours GER 7
Students read and discuss works by a selected group of contemporary authors. After reading a given work, students meet and engage authors in a question and answer session followed by a public reading. This course includes an introduction to close reading skills, analysis of the elements of literary style in fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction. Through intensive class discussion, writing workshops, and oral presentations, the students learn how to articulate ideas clearly and are introduced to the basic elements of creative writing in multiple genres.
Prerequisites: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101); or permission of instructor.
ENGL 265 WRITING IN THE HUMANITIES THEMATIC INQUIRY
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours GER 7
Students explore questions about the humanities and will introduce students to several disciplines within the humanities. Through writing about a common theme, students will analyze, evaluate, and interpret texts, films, art, and/or music that reflect this common theme. Citation and integration of external sources will be expected. This is a writing intensive course for students in General Studies or for students interested in transferring to a liberal arts program, especially in the humanities.
Prerequisites: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101); completion of 24 credits towards the major of General Studies; or permission of instructor.
ENGL 266 THE MODERN ISLAMIC WORLD THROUGH FILM AND LITERATURE
Fall or Spring, 3 credit hours GER 6
This course introduces the student to the history, cultures, and politics of the modern Islamic world with a special emphasis on film and literature. Readings will include poets such as Rumi and Hafiz as well as novelists such as Mahfouz and Farah. Films will include those of such Persian and Arab directors as Majidi, Kiarostami, and Chahine.
Prerequisites: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101)
ENGL 267 MASCULINITY STUDIES IN AMERICAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE
Spring, 3 credit hours GER 7
This course explores the ways in which gender, and in particular the broad concept of masculinity, arises from and impacts American literature and culture. Students examine novels, short stories, creative nonfiction, theatrical productions, and films, as well as excerpts from prominent gender studies scholars. Students also increase their understanding of how masculinity functions and shapes American culture, as well as develop a critical and theoretical lens for reading and interpreting literary works. Through the study of masculinity and masculinities, students leave the course with nuanced knowledge of the complex implications of gendered men and women.
Prerequisites: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101)
ENGL 270 MEDIA WRITING
Fall, 3 credit hours
This course introduces the creative practices and theories of writing/designing for various electronic and digital media platforms. Through critical practice, students learn to integrate concepts and techniques in order to produce portfolio websites, illustrated proposals, presentations, and digital games for various public audiences. Class workshops and collaborative projects focus on writing and software skills; research, design and technical resources; and issues such as copyright/fair use. Students learn digital communication skills by utilizing industry design frames like CAT (Conceptual, Aesthetic, Technical), experience design, user experience, information design, and information architecture, which then serve as building blocks for subsequent technological communications courses.
Prerequisites: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101)
ENGL 301 PROFESSIONAL WRITING AND COMMUNICATION
Fall, 3 credit hours
This course is designed to advance students’ communication skills for the global marketplace. Emphasis is on technical writing, business writing, and publishing. Students design and produce technical documents, including, but not limited to, job-search documents, memos, reports, and proposals, responding to specific audiences and purposes in the business world. Students should be familiar with desktop publishing and electronic presentations.
Prerequisites: ENGL 101
ENGL 302 GLOBAL ENGLISHES
Fall, 3 credit hours
This course provides opportunities for students to deepen their understanding of the English language: its history, its status and functions in different areas of the world, and its variations. Promoting an inclusive and pluralistic concept of Englishes rather than the inaccurate notion of a singular English, students develop explicit knowledge about how language works, and how people learn and use language not only as a tool for communication but as a component of social and cultural identity. Students emerge from this course better equipped to navigate situations requiring cross-cultural communication at the university and beyond.
Prerequisites: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101) and 45 credit hours.
ENGL 304 LGBTQ LIVES AND LITERATURE
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours GER 7
This course explores the social, cultural, and political themes in the histories of individual lives as well as communities that are categorized as "LGBTQ": lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (a term that is by nature flexible and which is used by many who feel that they in some way fall outside of "norms" of gender identification, gender expression, and/or sexual orientation). Focusing mainly on literature from the U.S. and the United Kingdom, works from the genres of short story, poetry, the novel, creative nonfiction, theatrical productions, and film are supplemented by information and insights offered by an anthology of critical essays as well as texts harvested from contemporary news sources.
Prerequisites: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101) and 30 credits earned.
ENGL 305 PERPETRATORS & VICTIMS: CRIME AND VIOLENCE IN LITERATURE
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours
Students examine the impact of crime and violence in American culture as reflected in literature. Analysis focuses on both perpetrators and victims of crime and violence. Literary genres may include, but are not restricted to, True Crime, fiction, memoir, the graphic novel, and poetry.
Prerequisites: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101), one literature course, and 30 credit hours earned with a cumulative GPA of 2.0, or permission of instructor.
ENGL 306 IRISH PRISON LITERATURE
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours GER 7
This course uses works of literature to assist students’ understanding of Ireland, the British Empire and the history of modern imprisonment. Along with the church, the university and the army, the prison is one of the central institutions in Irish history, and literature has traditionally been a means by which prisoners protest, resist, and critique their harrowing experiences. This course examines work written by men and women during and after their incarceration.
Prerequisites: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101); completion of 45 credit hours with a minimum 2.0 GPA
ENGL 307 DISABILITY AND LITERATURE
Spring, 3 credit hours GER 7
Historical and contemporary poetry, short stories, novels, memoirs, and other fiction and non-fiction life writings are analyzed for portrayals of people who have physical, developmental, or mental health impairments and/or disabilities. Topics include historical changes in what is considered “normal,” stereotypes as limiters of opportunity, comparison of literary portrayals of disability with reality as presented in autobiographical narratives, and others. An overview of the medical and social construction models of disability is included.
Prerequisites: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101) and one literature course AND 30 credit hours earned
ENGL 309 JOURNALISM
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours
This course provides a general introduction to journalistic principles and practice in gathering and writing news. Students write a variety of news story types with the goal of developing an array of publishable writing samples to present at a job interview. Fundamentals of English grammar and mechanics are reinforced through regular editing exercises. Ethical issues related to mass media are considered. Online journalism is explored, as well as alternative forms of media writing, including broadcast writing, advertising and public relations.
Prerequisites: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101) and junior status or permission of the instructor.
ENGL 310 WRITING YOUR LIFE: FORM & FUNCTION IN MEMOIRS
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours GER 8
Memoirs are an author’s commentary on his or her life, experiences, and the times he or she lives in. Writers record important events based upon their own observations and knowledge of events and/or personalities that they feel have significantly influenced their lives. In this writing intensive course, students study a variety of literary forms within the memoir genre, and they create memoirs of different forms from their own life experiences. Students recognize that both concrete details and abstract ideas in memoirs represent universal truths and create poems and stories that reflect both. Three hours lecture per week.
Prerequisites: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101), one literature course, and 30 credit hours earned with a cumulative GPA of 2.0, or permission of instructor.
ENGL 311/TCOM 310 IDENTITY IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Fall, 3 credit hours GER 8
Students explore theories of identity and their evolution in the digital era, noting how self-presentation has changed through the use of multi-media communication, and how social interaction in digital spaces has changed. In the course, students read and interpret multi-media texts, noting how image, sound, and language affect self-presentation. The course closes with an applied learning unit in which students employ ethnographic methodologies to explore identity in digital spaces. Three hours of lecture per week.
Prerequisites: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101).
ENGL/TCOM 314 DIGITAL GRAPHIC STORYTELLING
Spring, 3 credit hours
This course explores the graphic narrative through the digital medium. Students explore the literary, architectural, interactive, and design elements of graphic narratives by reading and engaging novels, memoirs, and narrative games written from the 1970s to the present. In order to create effective graphic narrative texts, students critique several germinal graphic works and then apply their knowledge of this visual medium to their own narratives. The class will design original graphic works in various software platforms (Google Earth, Comic Life, InDesign, Pixton, Comic Maker) using both literary and design frameworks. Units include: memoir, graphic medicine, digital/online comics, and interactive narrative games. Through close textual analysis, peer critique, and iterative thinking/practice, students learn to create digital projects that use image/text to tell stories and analyze literature.
Prerequisites: ENGL 101
ENGL 315 SHORT FICTION: THE ART OF THE TALE
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours GER 8
The short story genre is explored by reading selections from various writers around the world. Students also write their own short stories in order to gain perspective on the literary form of the short story, the range of ideas expressed within that form, and the creative process used to produce that form.
Prerequisites: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101) AND one lower- level literature course AND 30 credit hours earned.
ENGL 317 WORLD POETRY
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours GER 6
Students in this course explore the vast wealth of non-Western poetry. We draw from the historical canon of writings, but we have distinctly modern concerns in this class; our wide reading helps us understand divergent (and poetic) cultural issues, such as Japanese anime cartoons, Islamic worldviews, global hip hop and graffiti, and post-colonial literature. While all our readings will be in English, our consideration of the linguistic and political concerns of translation allows us to analyze the dynamic interchange between local cultures and globalization.
Prerequisites: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101) and one lower-level literature course, or permission of instructor.
ENGL 320 NATIVE AMERICAN AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Fall/Spring 3 credit hours GER 6
This course is a survey of the means by which Native American people have recorded their lives. Texts are selected from pre-contact pictorial and oral auto/biographical narratives through contemporary written texts, film, and electronic media. Historical context is provided in lecture materials. Emphasis is on works published since 1980.
Prerequisites: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101) AND one literature course AND one lower level literature course AND 30 credit hours earned with a cumulative GPA of 2.0 or permission of the instructor.
ENGL/TCOM 322 MOBILE MEDIA STORIES AND GAMES
Spring, 3 credit hours GER 7
Students explore the emerging practices and transformative potential of mobile media storytelling and games. The site-specificity of mobile media through GPS capabilities allows us to connect media to location; stories become part of the spaces in which they unfold and are created. In this course students examine the ways that written and visual narratives, maps, and interactive digital experiences structure knowledge in physical and virtual space. The first half of the course is spent reading, interacting with, and assessing existing location-based texts and games such as interactive web stories, electronic performance theater, and augmented reality games. Students examine these works through a literary framework as well as through two design frameworks: CAT (conceptual, aesthetic, technical) and UX (user experience, experience design, information architecture, and information design). In the second half of the course, students apply the conceptual and aesthetic principles learned in the first half of the course in order to build experimental GPS-based locative games and stories. The course consists of weekly discussion classes, workshops, and demo studios. Students design original mobile works in various software platforms such as Google Earth, ARIS, and Siftr. Through literary and locational analysis, peer critique, and iterative thinking/practice, students learn to create original mobile stories and games. Projects may include: critical hacktivist games, graphic narrative maps in Google Earth, and mobile stories in ARIS and Siftr.
Prerequisites: ENGL 101 Composition and the Spoken Word or permission of instructor.
ENGL 325 CONTEMPORARY YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours
This course is an exploration of contemporary young adult novels as a genre of literature. Of particular interest are the historical development, current trends, and enduring characteristics of young adult literature and its influence on readers. Various works are analyzed according to critical perspectives. Readings include a number of subgenres, i.e. adventures, mysteries, humor, fantasy, science fiction, the people and places of history, and modern social issues.
Prerequisites: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101), one literature course, and 30 credit hours earned with a cumulative GPA of 2.0, or permission of instructor.
ENGL 340 AMERICAN WOMEN WRITERS
Fall and Spring, 3 credit hours
Course is designed to acquaint students with significant American women writers, such as Wheatley, Bradstreet, Harper, Dickinson, Alcott, Gilman, Stowe, Yezierska, Wharton, Stein, Moore, Sexton, Plath, Cisneros, Morrison, Erdrich, and others. The historical, social, and political backgrounds for each author and their works are also examined, with an introduction to basic concepts of cultural criticism and gender studies. Works are selected to highlight the diversity of American women, including, but not limited to, race/ethnicity, gender, social class, sexual orientation, nationality/immigration status, religion, and family structure. Focus can be multi-genre or on one specific genre, at the discretion of the instructor. Three hours lecture per week.
Prerequisite: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101) and completion of at least 45 credit hours or permission of instructor.
ENGL/TCOM 345 Electronic Literature: From Cybertext to Video Games
Fall and Spring, 3 credit hours
In this course students explore the practices and theories of screen-based literature by tracing the transformation of electronic literature from hypertext fiction to augmented reality stories to massive online games (MMOGs). The first half of the course is spent reading, interacting with, and assessing existing hypertext fiction and early indie computer games such as Afternoon, A Story. The second half of the course allows students to experience more immersive stories such as augmented reality documentaries, interactive fiction, hacktivist narrative games, and cooperative MMOGs. Students apply conceptual and aesthetic principles to build experimental stories and games in various platforms such as Twine, ARIS, Unity, and Siftr.
Prerequisite: ENGL 101
ENGL 349 CLASSIC DETECTIVE FICTION
Spring, 3 credit hours
This course explores the genre of detective fiction from its origins in the nineteenth century to the present day. Course content and time periods may vary by semester. Students learn literary elements of detective fiction, examine the development of the detective as a literary figure and detective fiction as a genre, and analyze depictions of the law and legal system. Course may include, but is not limited to, British and American detective fiction by Poe, Collins, Conan Doyle, Chesterton, Sayers, Hammett, Christie, Chandler, MacDonald, James, Rendell, Cross, Elizabeth Peters, Ellis Peters, Perry, George, and King.
Prerequisite: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101) AND one lower-level literature course AND 45 credit hours earned.
ENGL 350 FLASH FICTION
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours
The Flash Fiction story (also called short-shorts; micro; sudden; or lightning fiction) lies somewhere between prose and poetry. Students taking this course explore the form by reading a wide range of Flash Fiction stories that represent the best in terms of literary quality (i.e. characterization, plot, setting, point of view, style, theme, etc.), and by creating stories of their own that incorporate the various literary qualities inherent in the genre.
Prerequisite: Composition and the Spoken Word (ENGL 101) AND one literature course AND 30 credit hours earned OR permission of the instructor.
ENGL 351 ADVANCED FICTION WORKSHOP
Spring, 3 credit hours
This course is a writing intensive fiction workshop where students hone the knowledge and skills they have developed in previous creative writing and literature courses. As an advanced workshop this course is intended for students already producing creative work and is meant to provide a disciplined, creative environment where students focus on the craft of writing fiction. Students read and discuss published stories while also providing constructive oral and written feedback on the writing of their peers in a workshop setting. Students produce multiple works of fiction over the course of the semester which are revised and submitted in a final portfolio. At the end of the course, students seek publication of their work.
Prerequisite: ENGL 221 Creative Writing OR ENGL 315 Short Fiction: Art of the Tale OR ENGL 350 Flash Fiction, OR permission of the instructor.
ENGL/TCOM 370 Artificial Intelligence and Communication
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours
In this interdisciplinary course, students advance their Artificial Intelligence (AI) literacy and communication skills in the age of AI. Students explore the intricate interplay between AI, the humanities, ethics, and personal expression. Students acquire a deeper understanding of the history and applications of Artificial Intelligence through various readings from a non-technical point of view. Students analyze human-AI interactions through a humanistic lens and apply research skills to delve into the ethical dimensions of Generative AI, including Chatbots’ hallucinations, bias, data privacy, copyright, and more. Students apply various writing techniques to forge a distinctive writing voice with or without AI assistants.
NOTE: Chatbots are a type of AI using a large language model to generate human-like content (e.g., ChatGPT).
Prerequisite: ENGL 101
ENGL 380 INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours GER 6
In this course, students will advance their intercultural communication skills necessary in a multicultural global marketplace. The focus is on oral, nonverbal, and written communication patterns across cultures, diverse cultural values, global etiquette, business and social customs, and intercultural negotiation models.
Prerequisite: ENGL 101 and completion of 45 credit hours, or permission of instructor.
ENGL 291-295, 391-395 OR 491-495 SPECIAL TOPICS IN ENGLISH
Fall/Spring, 1 - 4 credit hours
Special Topics in English will fulfill the general English component of the distribution requirement of the College. It may be repeated for credit depending on the content of the course. It is not a course offered on a regular basis within the department. The intent of a special topics course is to offer an educational experience which is topical, not available within the regular curricular offerings, and may even be offered interdepartmentally depending on the nature of the course.
ESOL 096 ACADEMIC COMMUNICATION
Fall/Spring, 4 credit hours
This course is designed to help first-semester international or English language learners to enhance communication skills required in American academic contexts. Students will develop critical reading skills and academic writing skills with an overview of grammar and mechanics. Concurrent focus is on building oral fluency and expanding academic vocabulary. Four hours lecture per week. This course is an alternate to ENGL 097 or ENGL 098 for ESL students.
Prerequisites/Corequisites: Leveled by placement test score
HUMA 111 Introduction to Moral Philosophy
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours GER 7
In this course students learn terminology, history, and formal theories of philosophic ethics. The course analyzes multiple perspectives on a global scale. Students engage and critique the works of various practitioners in the discipline. Emphasis is on understanding of theory, appreciation of historical context, and methodology for modern application.
HUMA 189 ACTING & IMPROVISATION
Fall/Spring, 3 credit hours
This course will examine various strategies for creating and performing characters from written and unwritten texts. Students will practice improvisation and perform various roles for both self and peer evaluation. Various acting techniques and methods for creating characters will be utilized.
MUSC 101 INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC
Fall, 3 credit hours GER 7 & GER 8
Introduction to Music samples 500 years of music history and includes units on classical, blues, jazz, popular, Broadway, film, and world music. In the process, it gives the student the tools needed to analyze and evaluate music in a variety of styles for lifelong growth.
SPCH 104 INTRODUCTION TO SPEECH
Spring, 3 credit hours
This course is an introduction to the principles of effective speech communication. It includes techniques of audience analysis, establishing credibility as a speaker, planning, organizing and researching material, and delivery and use of audio visual aids. Both informative and persuasive speaking are covered. Three hours per week.