Upcoming Courses

150B2 Social Justice Rhetorics: Literacy and Decolonization

101/201 Fully Online

**7-Week First Session**

Instructor: Damián Baca

This course will examine the ways that literacy theorists and practitioners are decolonizing Eurocentric systems of meaning and recovering patterns of thinking, sensing, and being that have been buried by the spread of colonization. We will focus particularly on theories of literacy that have emerged within three parallel movements: Chicana feminist studies, Latin American subaltern studies, and Settler Colonial studies. Our aim will be to explore methods of representation articulated within non-Western/Other cultures and to consider how the understanding of those methods might productively disrupt the norms that currently define literacy and related educational practice.

160A2 Food Writing: Exploring Food Cultures through Literature

101/201 Fully Online

**7-Week First Session**

Instructor: Melani Martinez

ENGL 160A2 explores food writing and its relationship to culture. Analyzing food as both personal and cultural symbol, students will develop an appreciation for how food traditions reflect and shape cultural societies and diverse worldview. Course materials will focus on diverse perspectives with emphasis on marginalized groups such as migrant, incarcerated, and Indigenous food communities. Students will explore their own food memories in reflective writing and storytelling to find connections between personal food histories and social or environmental justice. Using various rhetorical strategies and drawing from research, field study, oral history, and lived experiences/traditional knowledge, students will practice food writing for a variety of audiences in four key genres: recipe card, multimodal food profile, food memoir, and manifesto. Workshop and revision will be important aspects of the course.

ENGL 160D2: Nonhuman Subjects: Monsters, Ghosts, Aliens, Others

110/210 Fully Online

**7-Week Second Session**

Instructor: Dennis Wise 

Monsters are cool—but they’re also interesting, and also sometimes deeply problematic. The category of the “non-human” (or, more broadly, “the Other”) raises key questions about human identity, human values, and the cultural boundaries we construct to cordon off the horrific, the weird, the frightening, the monstrous, or the non-human. As a result, we won’t focus simply particular monster-types like the zombie, the vampire, or the cyborg. Instead, we’ll look at monster-figures in literature and film as key indicators of cultural history: the symbolic carriers of cultural values, problems, and ideological tensions. These cultural issues can include things like political dissension, systems of religious belief, social order and disorder, human nature, or distinctions of race/class/gender. As we’ll see, monsters often become symbols in the cultural, political, and intellectual clashes that mark Western history. In order to better understand our cultural roots, then, we have to come to terms with the historical and ideological tensions behind those clashes. In this course, we’ll discuss these tensions through well-organized analytical arguments that present strong textual evidence and display critical thinking.

ENGL 178 Fantasy Fiction

001 In Person

M/W 12:30-1:45 PM

Instructor: Dennis Wise

Sure, a lot of people think building things is fun… but have you ever tried building an entire world?  If you’ve ever dived into Elden Ring, Game of Thrones, or The Lord of the Rings, you probably already know that many world-builders borrow heavily from the Middle Ages. For dragons, elves, and other fantastic beings, though, they have a long, long literary prehistory in medieval texts like Völsunga saga, Arthurian romance, and more. In this course, we’ll study various world-building practices that transform medieval source material into believable, exciting invented worlds. In the end, students will produce a graded-on-completion portfolio for their own invented world (whether fantasy, science fiction, or more realistic). This can include a mixture of written texts, legendariums, maps, music, artwork, or any other creative methods that fit your own artistic vision.

ENGL 201 Introduction to Nonfiction Writing

001 In Person

M/W 11:00-12:15 PM

Instructor: John Zawawi

Students will gain a working knowledge of these concepts and terms: memoir, personal essay, portrait, travel essay, literary journalism, narrative voice, dialogue, metaphor, image, scene, narrative summary, reflection, and research. Students will read selected texts and discuss craft elements in works of literary nonfiction. Students will develop writing skills by doing exercises and writing assignments in several modes of nonfiction writing (i.e., portrait, travel essay, memoir).

ENGL 201 Introduction to Nonfiction Writing

002 In Person

T/Th 11:00-12:15 PM

Instructor: Maya Bernstein-Schalet

Students will gain a working knowledge of these concepts and terms: personal essay, braided essay, archives, research, structure, voice, imagery, and characterization. Students will read selected texts and discuss craft elements in works of creative nonfiction. Students will develop writing skills by doing exercises and writing assignments in creative nonfiction writing. The course emphasizes the breadth and depth of creative nonfiction as a genre, with room for the incorporation of art, music, sports, photography, science, medicine, and other topics of interest.

ENGL 201 Introduction to Nonfiction Writing

110/210 Fully Online

**7-Week Second Session**

Instructor: Paco Cantú

This online asynchronous course will be centered on reading, writing, and demystifying the wide world of creative nonfiction. Our central aim will be to grasp what it means to produce literary and personal writing that remains rooted in documented truth and lived experience. To develop a deeper understanding of the genre, we will become familiar with the creative “essay”–nonfiction in its shortest, purest form. In reading a wide variety of essays you will develop an understanding of the genre’s key components, and learn to build your own essays from the ground up, using the key building blocks of scene construction, character development, and research. A key component of our time together will involve the sharing of in-progress writing and the creation of a generative online space for conversation and feedback. You should expect to actively participate in online discussion boards and small group activities, posting lots of written comments and occasional videos along the way. By the end of the course, you should feel confident sharing your work and incorporating feedback as you learn to edit, revise, and refine your writing.

ENGL 209 Introduction to Poetry Writing

001 In Person

M/W 9:30-10:45 AM

Instructor: Minahil Zaki

The beginning course in the undergraduate poetry-writing sequence. Method of instruction: class discussion of student poems, with some readings of modern and contemporary poetry. Workshop sections are limited to 20 students. Priority enrollment given to Creative Writing majors and minors.

ENGL 209 Introduction to Poetry Writing

002 In Person

T/Th 12:30-1:45 PM

Instructor: Yvette Saenz

The beginning course in the undergraduate poetry-writing sequence. Method of instruction: class discussion of student poems, with some readings of modern and contemporary poetry. Workshop sections are limited to 20 students. Priority enrollment given to Creative Writing majors and minors.

209 Introduction to Poetry Writing

110/210 Fully Online

**7-Week Second Session**

Instructor: Dillon Clark

The beginning course in the undergraduate poetry-writing sequence. Method of instruction: class discussion of student poems, with some readings of modern and contemporary poetry. Workshop sections are limited to 20 students. Priority enrollment given to Creative Writing majors and minors.

ENGL 210 Introduction to Fiction Writing

001 In Person

M/W 9:30-10:45 AM

Instructor: Sojin Shin 

The 200-level course introduces the student to craft terms and concepts through lecture, exercises, and reading selections. The workshop method introduces the sharing and critique of original student work in breakout discussion groups. Students gain a working knowledge of basic craft terms and concepts such as character, plot, setting, narrative time, dialogue, point-of-view, voice, conflict resolution, and metaphorical language. The group will analyze readings from published authors are analyzed from a writer’s perspective. Students will identify and hone the writing skills necessary for success in fiction writing. Students complete exercises based on these elements and write at least one complete short story.

ENGL 210 Introduction to Fiction Writing

002 In Person

M/W 11:00 AM-12:15 PM

Instructor: Micah Stack 

The 200-level course introduces the student to craft terms and concepts through lecture, exercises, and reading selections. The workshop method introduces the sharing and critique of original student work in breakout discussion groups. Students gain a working knowledge of basic craft terms and concepts such as character, plot, setting, narrative time, dialogue, point-of-view, voice, conflict resolution, and metaphorical language. The group will analyze readings from published authors are analyzed from a writer’s perspective. Students will identify and hone the writing skills necessary for success in fiction writing. Students complete exercises based on these elements and write at least one complete short story.

ENGL 210 Introduction to Fiction Writing

003 In Person

M/W 3:30-4:45 PM

Instructor: Rose Paulson 

The 200-level course introduces the student to craft terms and concepts through lecture, exercises, and reading selections. The workshop method introduces the sharing and critique of original student work in breakout discussion groups. Students gain a working knowledge of basic craft terms and concepts such as character, plot, setting, narrative time, dialogue, point-of-view, voice, conflict resolution, and metaphorical language. The group will analyze readings from published authors are analyzed from a writer’s perspective. Students will identify and hone the writing skills necessary for success in fiction writing. Students complete exercises based on these elements and write at least one complete short story.

ENGL 210 Introduction to Fiction Writing

004 In Person

T/Th 9:30-10:45 AM

Instructor: Aaron Cerda 

The 200-level course introduces the student to craft terms and concepts through lecture, exercises, and reading selections. The workshop method introduces the sharing and critique of original student work in breakout discussion groups. Students gain a working knowledge of basic craft terms and concepts such as character, plot, setting, narrative time, dialogue, point-of-view, voice, conflict resolution, and metaphorical language. The group will analyze readings from published authors are analyzed from a writer’s perspective. Students will identify and hone the writing skills necessary for success in fiction writing. Students complete exercises based on these elements and write at least one complete short story.

ENGL 210 Introduction to Fiction Writing

005 In Person

T/Th 11:00 AM-12:15 PM

Instructor: Teddy Carolan 

The 200-level course introduces the student to craft terms and concepts through lecture, exercises, and reading selections. The workshop method introduces the sharing and critique of original student work in breakout discussion groups. Students gain a working knowledge of basic craft terms and concepts such as character, plot, setting, narrative time, dialogue, point-of-view, voice, conflict resolution, and metaphorical language. The group will analyze readings from published authors are analyzed from a writer’s perspective. Students will identify and hone the writing skills necessary for success in fiction writing. Students complete exercises based on these elements and write at least one complete short story.

ENGL 210 Introduction to Fiction Writing

110/210 Fully Online

**7-Week Second Session**

Instructor: Ana Knudsen

The 200-level course introduces the student to craft terms and concepts through lecture, exercises, and reading selections. The workshop method introduces the sharing and critique of original student work in breakout discussion groups. Students gain a working knowledge of basic craft terms and concepts such as character, plot, setting, narrative time, dialogue, point-of-view, voice, conflict resolution, and metaphorical language. The group will analyze readings from published authors are analyzed from a writer’s perspective. Students will identify and hone the writing skills necessary for success in fiction writing. Students complete exercises based on these elements and write at least one complete short story.

ENGL 215 Elements of Craft: Creative Writing

In Person

T/Th 2:00-3:15 PM

Instructor: Sara Sams

Multi-genre craft course introducing creative writing craft terms and concepts via intensive reading in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.

ENGL 216 Introduction to Writing for Young Adults

001 HYBRID: In-Person weeks 1-8, online weeks 9-16

T/Th 9:30-10:45 AM

Instructor: Stephanie Pearmain

In this course student will become familiar with the beginning techniques of writing for young adults taught through exercises, the writing of original stories, workshop, and reading contemporary works in this genre.

Children’s literature scholar Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop says, “Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection, we can see our own lives and experiences as part of the larger human experience.” This is especially true of literature written for young audiences. In this class, students will learn to write for young adults. We will learn elements of craft, including character, plot, setting, narrative voice, and dialogue. Through writing prompts and exercises, we will tap into our imagination and find inspiration to write stories. We will read current young adult publications as models for our own work. Then we will develop a process for reading, critiquing, and revising our own work as well as the work of our peers. In this multi-genre class, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry will be welcome in workshop.

ENGL 220A Literature of the Bible I

In Person

T/Th 11:00 AM-12:15 PM

Instructor: Lee Medovoi

Who hasn’t heard of the story of Adam and Eve, the Ten Commandments, the tale of David and Goliath, the wisdom of King Solomon, or the “Lord’s Prayer” taken from the Book of Psalms? The “Old Testament” or Hebrew Bible is arguably the single most influential anthology of books in the history of the western world. In this course, we will consider who actually wrote these books, why and for whom.  We will adopt the disciplinary perspectives of a Religious Studies scholar, a Literary Critic, and a Historian in order to dive deeply into ancient Israelite culture and society, including its struggles over ancient forms of difference and inequality. We will look at the various literary genres that appear in the Bible, explore the religious views of its authors, and consider their origins and contexts in the history of ancient Israel.

ENGL 221 Field Studies in Writing

In Person

M 3:30-6:00 PM

Instructor: Susan Briante

In this general education course students will gain hands-on experience working with community partners to learn about social and environmental issues in Southern Arizona while using creative writing to reflect upon these issues and their experiences.

In Tucson, we live within the most biodiverse desert in the world, situated at the crux of pressing social, cultural, and environmental issues and opportunities. In this experiential learning course, we will meet with community experts in environmental and social justice issues and take field trips to enhance our understanding of Southern Arizona. Then students will collaborate with nonprofit partners on work has an impact in the community. They’ll learn how to use those experiences to craft their own research-based nonfiction, fiction, and poems about the region.

Over the course of the semester students will develop a community engagement project meant to enhance their research-based creative writing and bolster their awareness of, and investment in, Southern Arizona. As they craft their own research-based nonfiction, fiction, poems, and reporting pieces about this region, they will be trained in how to avoid engaging in an extractive relationship with the community instead of serving them, investigating their responsibility to people they write about, while also identifying and experimenting with a range of creative writing strategies employed by contemporary writers and peers.

ENGL 248B Introduction to Fairy Tales

Fully Online

101/201 or 102/202; Both 7-week first sessions

Instructor: Kate Bernheimer

In this class, students will read fairy tales from antiquity to today. No prior experience with fairy tales is required. You will consider fairy tales as a literary art form through their aesthetics and ethics. You will be introduced to touchstone fairy-tale scholarship and practitioners, including by visiting novelists, architects, musicians, and others. You will collect oral literary folklore from family and friends for a living archive of international, multi-lingual fairy tales, write fairy-tale criticism, create your own fairy-tale works (literary or other), and do fairy-tale aesthetic forensics. We will consider how fairy tales think about character, art, and experience in times of duress; and how the fragility of hope operates as their lodestar. We will follow the breadcrumbs of this centuries old, contemporary, and futuristic art form from communal storytelling into literary culture and new media. Our resilient guides include Little Red Riding Hood, Donkeyskin, The Little Mermaid, and others. Prepare to be enchanted and skillful, like a fairy-tale hero.

ENGL 263 Survey of Children’s Literature

101 Fully Online

**7-Week First Session**

Instructor: Stephanie Pearmain

From the “origins” of Children’s Literature to the current day call for diverse voices in the genre, this course examines the development of concepts of the child and children’s literature. We will read a broad spectrum of historical and contemporary U.S., British, and world literature, and works representing a variety of genres and cultures. Through a survey of picture books, middle grade novels, and young adult novels, we will consider the historical development of children’s literature as well as its dual agenda of instruction and amusement.

ENGL 264 US Popular Culture and the Politics of Representation

101 Fully Online

** 7-Week first session

Instructor: Maritza Cardenas

What can the study of popular cultural forms like Television, Films, Advertisements, Video Games, Facebook as well as cultural practices like shopping, viewing habits, and other modes of consumption reveal about US American Values? How do representations of race, class, gender, and sexuality disseminated within these popular texts shape the way we come to see others and ourselves? These are some of the guiding questions we will be exploring in our study of US popular culture. Through an examination of both critical essays and primary texts, students in this course will learn not only how to critically read and interpret various cultural forms, but also will come to understand the ways in which popular culture structures our day to day lives.

ENGL 264 US Popular Culture and the Politics of Representation

110 Fully Online

** 7-Week second session

Instructor: Maritza Cardenas

What can the study of popular cultural forms like Television, Films, Advertisements, Video Games, Facebook as well as cultural practices like shopping, viewing habits, and other modes of consumption reveal about US American Values? How do representations of race, class, gender, and sexuality disseminated within these popular texts shape the way we come to see others and ourselves? These are some of the guiding questions we will be exploring in our study of US popular culture. Through an examination of both critical essays and primary texts, students in this course will learn not only how to critically read and interpret various cultural forms, but also will come to understand the ways in which popular culture structures our day to day lives.

ENGL 265 Major American Writers: Gothic Threads

150 Fully Online

Instructor: Lynda Zwinger

American literature began in the same historical era that saw the development of the classic Gothic novel, with its ghosts, castles, dungeons, depraved aristocracy, trembling helpless heroines, and the enormous and horrifying presence of the past in the present. We will be reading classic U.S. texts that rely on gothic modalities, transforming (and perhaps intensifying) the fundamental fears and anxieties they express and embody. This course focuses on the careful and reflective reading these wonderful, complex, and (still) entertaining texts invite us to enjoy. Students will respond weekly to prompts designed to elicit thoughtful, reflective reading and re-reading and will write two essays built on their responses  All work must be on time; the readings and responses will be announced each week.

ENGL 280 Introduction to Literature

001 In Person

T/Th 11:00 AM-12:15 PM

Instructor: Staff

Close reading of literary texts, critical analysis, and articulation of intellectually challenging ideas in clear prose. Different sections of the course may be based around themes, such as madness, utopia and dystopia, American identities, detectives and detection, or love and knowledge, that the class considers from a variety of perspectives.

ENGL 280 Introduction to Literature

002 In Person

T/Th 12:30-1:45 PM

Instructor: Staff

Close reading of literary texts, critical analysis, and articulation of intellectually challenging ideas in clear prose. Different sections of the course may be based around themes, such as madness, utopia and dystopia, American identities, detectives and detection, or love and knowledge, that the class considers from a variety of perspectives.

ENGL 280 Introduction to Literature

003 In Person

T/Th 2:00-3:15 PM

Instructor: Lee Medovoi

Close reading of literary texts, critical analysis, and articulation of intellectually challenging ideas in clear prose. Different sections of the course may be based around themes, such as madness, utopia and dystopia, American identities, detectives and detection, or love and knowledge, that the class considers from a variety of perspectives.

ENGL 280 Introduction to Literature

110/210 Fully Online

**7-Week Second Session**

Instructor: Staff

Close reading of literary texts, critical analysis, and articulation of intellectually challenging ideas in clear prose. Different sections of the course may be based around themes, such as madness, utopia and dystopia, American identities, detectives and detection, or love and knowledge, that the class considers from a variety of perspectives.

ENGL 300 Literature and Film

001 In Person

M/W 2:00-3:15 PM

Instructor: Peter Figler

English 300 is a comparative study of literature and cinema as aesthetic media. Given the breadth and complexities of film and literature, including historical, technical, and narrative elements, our class will be subdivided into overlapping sections: “Film, Literature, and Aesthetics,” “Adaptation and Intertextuality,” and “Cultural and Ideological Connections.” We will survey a curated list of films and texts that serve as examples, emphasizing specific dimensions that support course outcomes. Class activities include asynchronous discussions, individual reflections, short essays, and a final multimodal project that synthesizes the course modules and materials. Our texts and films are found on D2L, so that they may be easily accessed and revisited as often as needed.

ENGL 302 Magazine Article Writing 

110 Fully Online

** 7-Week second session 

Instructor: Paco Cantú

In this online asynchronous course we’ll become familiar with what it means to write for magazines in today’s shifting media landscape. We’ll de-mystify the process of pitching and publishing our work, learning to confidently navigate the many steps in between. You’ll also hear from a variety of guest speakers, giving you the chance to ask questions of magazine writers, editors, fact-checkers, and more. Based on your individual writing interests, you’ll become familiar with a wide variety of magazines and article types and receive strategies for conducting research, reporting trips, interviews, correspondence, and revision. Over the course of our time together, we’ll model each step in the process of preparing an article for publication, leaving you ready to hit that “send” button on your first pitch.

ENGL 304 Intermediate Fiction Writing Workshop

001 In Person

T/Th 2:00-3:15 PM

Instructor: Staff

Practice in writing short fiction.

ENGL 304 Intermediate Fiction Writing Workshop

002 In Person

T/Th 12:30-1:45 PM

Instructor: Staff

Practice in writing short fiction.

ENGL 310 Studies in Genres: Particle Poetics

001 In Person

T/Th 11:00 AM-12:15 PM

Instructor: Sara Sams

ENGL 310 Studies in Genres: Men, Women, and the Nonhuman

150 Fully Online

Instructor: Lynda Zwinger

 In this course we will ponder texts that place the human and the monstrous in juxtaposition, raising questions about the cultural construction of bodies, genders, sexualities, familial positions, reproductive anxieties, maternalities, transgression and whatever else occurs to us. Texts will include novels, tales, films and theory. Authors may include: Hawthorne, Twain, Faulkner, O’Connor, others; films may include Cat People, The Stepford Wives, The Bad Seed, The Omen Rosemary's Baby,Aliens, others--depending on what is free next semester.  Students will respond weekly to prompts designed to elicit thoughtful, reflective reading and re-reading and will write two essays built on their responses  All work must be on time; the readings and responses will be announced each week  

ENGL 313 Intro to Professional and Technical Writing

101/201 Fully Online

**7-Week First Session**

Instructor: Staff

An introduction to key concepts and practices of professional and technical writing. 

ENGL 355 English Sociolinguistics 

001 In Person

T/Th 9:30-10:45 AM

Instructor: Staff

Study of English form and use in relation to social and cultural contexts. Topics include regional and social dialectology, attitudes toward variation and change, strategies of interaction, gender and language use, and politeness, power and politics.

ENGL 364 Rhetoric, Action and Social Justice: How we can create change in modern society through writing, collaboration and advocacy.  

001 In Person

M/W 9:30-10:45 AM

Instructor: Katherine Bertine

Ever wonder if you can change the world? You can. But good ideas aren’t enough. Creating change takes catalytic thinking, strategic knowledge, well-constructed rhetoric, writing, research and solid plans of action. We will study the work of benevolent activists like John Lewis, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Colin Kaepernick, Greta Thunberg–as well as local Tucson change-makers–to understand the challenges and triumphs of activism. This class will study the effective use of language and literature, while educating students on how to implement change through hands-on advocacy projects. In addition to reading captivating memoirs, biographies and news articles on leaders/agents of change, students will be tasked with developing plans of advocacy, strengthening writing skills, collaborating on group projects, and building the right skill set to make a true difference in our modern world.  As the great Margaret Mead once said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.” This class is for UA students who dare to be brave, committed, citizens of change. 

Writing, Action and Social Justice will be taught by author, activist, former pro athlete Kathryn Bertine MFA ‘00 who was named 2022 UA Alumna of the Year for her activism work of women’s re-inclusion at the Tour de France.

ENGL 373A British and American Literature: Beowulf to 1660

001 In Person

M/W 2:00-3:15 PM

Instructor: Dennis Wise

Literary history—in one sense, this single subject forms the core of studying English literature. Which old books have people throughout the centuries found fascinating, and why? How do people radically different from us in perspective and outlook comprehend their worlds? An old joke goes that a true survey course must range from Beowulf to Virginia Woolf, but of course that’s impossible. Already in this class we cover a 1,000-year stretch; even that barely scratches the surface. Yet we’ll take journeys through historical ages only dimly understood by most people—the “Dark Ages,” the Middle Ages, the English Renaissance and Reformation. But we’ll also see how those ages flourish in texts that range across a hundred thousand adaptations, from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (basically Arthurian fan-fic) to The Lord of the Rings. In ENGL 373A, we’ll ultimately study the earliest beginnings of English literature up through the early Modern period. We’ll breathe in the romance of the old, where far from the daringness of the avant-garde or the technological cutting edge, we’ll find world-views and wisdom buried deeply by time. We’ll uncover strange new literary modes and techniques, and we’ll delve into nuances of creative adaptation through the centuries. Not everyone takes 373A already knowing that they love literary history … but everyone will leave having learned what they have missed.

ENGL 373C British and American Literature:  From the Roots of Modernism to the Present

001 In Person

T/Th 9:30-10:45 AM

Instructor: John Melillo

A survey of British and American Literature from the roots of modernism to the postmodern and contemporary period, with an emphasis on major writers in their literary and historical contexts.

ENGL 380 Literary Analysis: The Pastoral and the Rural

001 In Person

T/Th 12:30-1:45 PM

Instructor: Paul Hurh

This course teaches the skill of literary analysis, with an emphasis on close reading, through the rigorous study of poetry, short fiction, and novels.  The themes for the texts are the pastoral and the rural, subjects that roughly concern the construction of “nature” as beauty on one hand, and explore the relation of individual identity to society on the other.  Some of the writers we will read are: Flannery O’Connor, William Faulkner, Sherwood Anderson, Gwendolyn Brooks, Willa Cather, Christopher Marlowe, Manuel Muñoz, and Emily Dickinson.  Students will learn both basic and advanced terms for the study of literature and will be introduced to key concepts in literary theory.

ENGL 380 Literary Analysis

002 In Person

T/Th 11:00 AM-12:15 PM

Instructor: Daniel Cooper Alarcon

English 380 provides an introduction to literary analysis. Over the course of the semester, we will discuss the varied elements that comprise literary works, the different aspects that one might consider when analyzing a literary text, and different interpretive approaches to literature. We will discuss literary form and literary tradition and why they matter when thinking about individual texts. Finally, we will discuss how to engage in a dialogue with literary criticism about a specific text. The goal of the course is to provide you with a set of critical and interpretive strategies that you can always draw upon to think, discuss, and write about literary works. To that end, we will read and discuss a wide range of literature and criticism, in response to which you will write several short, analytical essays. 

We will read memoirs, short stories, and essays by Bret Harte, Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, María Cristina Mena, Jamaica Kincaid, Rudolfo Anaya, and Leslie Marmon Silko. We will read poetry by Martín Espada and the play Zoot Suit by Luis Valdez and at least one novel, yet to be determined.

ENGL 380 Literary Analysis: Encounter 

003 In Person

M/W 12:30-1:45 PM

Instructor: Scott Selisker

This course will be an intensive introduction to the knowledge and skills required for reading closely and writing convincingly about literary texts. We will primarily be reading short but challenging works from a variety of time periods and contexts, linked by a shared interest in cross-cultural encounter. We'll read selectively in early modern, romantic, and modern poetry, and selections of fiction and drama will include work by William Shakespeare, Aphra Behn, Mary Shelley, E.M. Forster, Ernest Hemingway, Amiri Baraka, Jhumpa Lahiri, N.K. Jemisin, and others. Assignments to include frequent short responses and close readings, a midterm exam on basic terminology, and a series of focused essay assignments.

ENGL 389 Introduction to Publishing: Sonora Review

001 In Person

T/Th 3:30-4:45 PM

Instructor: Nellie Papsdorf

TBD

ENGL 401 Advanced Non-Fiction Writing

001 In Person

Th 12:30-3:00 PM

Instructor: Ander Monson

The Advanced Nonfiction Workshop is where we will start new nonfiction projects and continue old ones. We’ll further refine our craft through reading, writing, and revising creative nonfiction, with a particular eye on the ways in which the ways writers of nonfiction interact with the world. In nonfiction the self—the I—is transformed by its encounter with the world, and the world is brought to life as it is witnessed and explored by the self. With a focus on research and going out into the world to bring stuff back, we write by bringing the world to the self and the self to the world. We’ll read and write about food, games, films, books, music, science, landscape, ourselves, other people, and other weird phenomena. We’ll write and publish new work and become better readers, writers, and literary citizens.

ENGL 404 Advanced Fiction Writing

001 In Person

M 9:30 AM-12:00 PM

Instructor: Manuel Muñoz 

This is a Writing Emphasis Course for the Creative Writing Major. Discussion of student stories in a workshop setting.

ENGL 404 What do you think you know?: Writing and the Imagination, A Studio Course

002 In Person

T 12:30-3:00 PM

Instructor: Johanna Skibsrud 

Conceived as a project-based studio course, this senior-level creative writing workshop investigates diverse styles and approaches to writing fiction with the aim of expanding our collective sense of creative possibility. We’re often told, “write what you know!,” but less often pause to reflect on what this really means, and requires of us as writers. Everything we know of the world—whatever we encounter of it through direct or mediated experience, as well as everything we’ve ever dreamed about, feared, or imagined—can become the material for writing.  Whether we’re working on a science fiction novel or an autobiography, thinking of knowledge and experience in these broad terms, may enrich our writing and expand our ways of knowing both ourselves and the world around us. This workshop will propose numerous creative exercises with an emphasis on embodiment and play. The overall aim will be to build a concrete skill set for increased attention to what we may not yet even realize we know. This is a studio-based course, i.e., it is active and participatory, with an emphasis on creative process and production. Through diverse creative exercises and discussion, its goal is to emphasize the possibility of honing new forms of attention. Coursework and discussion will also encourage reflection on the ethical implications (the possibilities, but also the potential limitations) of fiction writing.  Students will be invited to think the continuities between contemporary fiction and the Ancient Greek concept of poiesis—meaning, literally, “the activity in which a person brings something into being that did not exist before.” Through thought, writing and performance-based exercises aimed at expanding a sense of both readily-available and possible material, this course challenges students to bring about something “that did not exist before.”

ENGL 406 Modern English Grammar

001 In Person

M/W 3:30-4:45 PM

Instructor: Jonathon Reinhardt

In this course, students will gain the analytic tools and knowledge to understand the structure and usage of English grammar--for example, sentences, nouns, verbs, adjectives, determiners, and pronouns--especially as used in language power techniques like metaphor, doublespeak, pronoun choice, name-calling, and others. By examining the relationship between the grammatical structure of a text and its context of use, students will develop critical language awareness and media literacy skills. The course is suitable for students of English, Writing, Education, and general arts and sciences.

ENGL 409 Advanced Poetry Writing

001 In Person

MW 11:00 AM-12:15 PM

Instructor: Susan Briante

In this advanced poetry workshop, we’ll situate ourselves within a creativity lab as we experiment with new perspectives, accept new challenges and hone new poetic tools. We will share and respond to drafts of our work-in-progress. We’ll collaborate and inspire one another. We’ll also take advantage of the amazing poetry readings on campus to learn from some of the most exciting poets writing today. Over the course of the semester, we will build a class anthology of our favorite poems. And, by the end our time together, each student will have authored and shared their own poetry chaplet or zine. 

ENGL 413 PTW for Diverse Audiences

150 Fully Online

Instructor: Staff

This asynchronous online course offers students an opportunity to learn and practice user experience (UX) research methods for engaging communities at every step of their writing and design processes and for reporting effectively on their research. The course is organized in weekly modules, each with a lecture and reading materials and discussion activities where we can share our ideas and learning. We will begin by considering the role of research in design theories and processes, then we will review a variety of commonly used UX research methods, with opportunities for low-stakes practice. At the end of the semester, we will work on small scale UX research projects for more hands-on practice, and you will have the option to work on a collaborative project or choose a project of your own. 

ENGL 424 Studies in Southwest Literature

001 In Person

T/Th 2:00-3:15 PM

Instructor: Jennifer Jenkins

The title of this course begs the question: Southwest of what?

We will question the greater US Southwest/Borderlands/Norte de México as image, motif, and location in Indigenous, Hispanx, and Spanish, Anglo, and Black oral, textual, and visual cultures. Oral narrative, literary and nonfiction texts; still and moving images; and material culture from 1000 BCE to the present will inform our understandings of how place shapes identity. Topics include depictions of the land; social and cultural deserts and borders; economic and nuclear boom/bust cycles; the mirage of the “land of enchantment;” and representations of Indigenous and settler cultures. We will explore the rich array of primary sources available in local archaeological and historical sites, archives, and repositories, and explore literary geography as both concept and digital expression. Students will choose a research-based topic for a critical or creative project in consultation with me. Honors contracts available.

ENGL 431A Shakespeare

001 In Person

M/W 12:30-1:45 AM

Instructor: Fredrick Kiefer

During the first half of his career, Shakespeare wrote a rich variety of plays: his most enjoyable comedies, two of his most beloved tragedies (Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet), and his finest history plays. We’ll look at each kind of play, exploring why his drama has such a triumphant record onstage and what it says to us today. We shall keep in mind that Shakespeare was a professional actor, that he was a founding member of a theatrical company, and that he meant his plays to be presented in a theater.

ENGL 431B Shakespeare

001 In Person

M/W 9:30-10:45 AM

Instructor: Fredrick Kiefer

During the second half of his career, Shakespeare turned away from buoyant comedy and dramatizations of English history. His outlook became darker, and he wrote most of his great tragedies, including Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra. We’ll explore Shakespeare’s tragic vision and its implications for the human condition. Whatever the play, we shall be mindful that Shakespeare wrote for the stage not the study. Along the way we shall consider the rebuilt Globe theater in London and what that venue has to tell us about Shakespeare’s plays.

ENGL 455 Introduction To TESOL

150 Fully Online

Instructor: Hayriye Kayi-Aydar

This course will provide a general overview of the TESOL profession covering prominent theories, methodologies, and procedures influencing the field. Throughout the semester, students will engage in a range of theoretical, pedagogical, and reflective activities to inform their instructional practices. They will also become familiar with diverse educational contexts in which English is taught and learned as well as standards, materials, methods, and assessment tools used in such settings.

ENGL 460 Romantic Literature

001 In Person

T/Th 5:00-6:15

Instructor: Paul Hurh

This class will study texts from the British and American romantic traditions and some from the broader European romantic tradition, roughly late 18^th through the middle of the 19^th century.  Authors may include: Byron, Blake, Coleridge, Goethe, Wordsworth, Shelley, Shelley, Keats, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Dickinson, the Brontë sisters, Macpherson, Burns, Hugo. 

ENGL 477 Studies in Native American Lit

001 In Person

T/Th 9:30-10:45 AM

Instructor: Bojan Louis

TBD

ENGL 484B The 20th-Century American Novel

001 In Person

M/W 11:00 AM-12:15 PM

Instructor: Scott Selisker

In this course, we’ll consider the career of the novel in the U.S. over the course of the past twelve decades. This era saw a staggering number of changes in the U.S.: the country’s shifting geopolitical roles, new media and communications technologies, cultural revolutions and radical movements, and institutional transformations in the production and study of literature. In our reading, we'll consider the idea of the Great American Novel, the American Dream, and the ways that novelists wrangle with our shared historical narratives and values. We’ll consider how the novels themselves document the changing cultural roles novelists have taken on for themselves, as chroniclers of injustice, explorers of the psyche, playful contrarians, and more. Likely authors include Theodore Dreiser, F Scott Fitzgerald, Nella Larsen, Nathanael West, Vladimir Nabokov, Ursula K. Le Guin, Maxine Hong Kingston, Leslie Marmon Silko, Toni Morrison, Jennifer Egan. Students will write a handful of brief reading responses, two research papers, and a short-essay-based final exam. 

ENGL 490 Career and Professional Development for English, Creative Writing, and PTW Majors

001 In Person; 1 credit, pass/fail grading only

W 5:00-6:40 PM

Instructor: Stephanie Brown

1-credit workshop in translating, adapting and applying English, CW, and PTW skills to multiple career paths, with the help of experts. Students will look into graduate and pre-professional programs, fellowships, and/or entry-level positions in fields they choose. Students will finish with an informed and workshopped set of application materials for an entry-level career position or a graduate program

Our day-to-day will in part depend on what will most usefully support student's life plans for the next few years. (Having a plan for the next few years is not a pre-req.) Things we’ll likely do:

Develop individual career and professional goals using career training resources

Research a particular career sector choice and prepare job materials/explore expectations within that career field

Take advantage of opportunities to talk to experts who regularly assess job applications and graduate school admissions documents

Learn how to approach references for letters of recommendation

Prepare written materials such as cover letters, resumes, and curriculum vitae and discuss how to choose/revise a writing sample

Give and receive feedback on application materials

Finish the class with a portfolio that contains an example application for an entry-level position or graduate program.

Learn about how UA supports students who are seeking post-graduate fellowship opportunities

This course is likely not as useful for Freshman as it will be for Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors.

ENGL 495A Professional Development Colloquium for Creative Writing Majors

001 In Person 

W/F 10:00-10:50AM

Instructor: Farid Matuk

This seminar-style course is intended for Creative Writing majors in their junior or senior year. Students working in all genres will have the opportunity to glean professionalization skills and career path guidance from a range of visitors that can include UArizona CW major alumni, visiting authors, literary agents, book and literary journal editors, and UArizona MFA Program alumni. This class will sometimes co-convene with a graduate section of Colloquium, offering undergraduate Creative Writing majors an exceptional opportunity to be mentored by current graduate students in the highly competitive UArizona MFA Program in Creative Writing, and to interact in an intimate setting with authors who come to campus for the MFA Program’s Distinguished Visitor Series in Creative Writing and the University of Arizona’s Poetry Center reading series. 

ENGL 496A Travel Narratives, Travel Fictions 

001/002 Limited to English Honors / Honors Students - In Person

T/Th 2:00-3:15 PM

Instructor: Daniel Cooper Alarcón

This course will provide an opportunity to read, consider, and discuss a diverse array of texts we might broadly categorize as travel literature. Our goal will be to identify the conventions of the various manifestations of this genre, as well as the different kinds of cultural work that travel literature performs at different historical moments. As our starting point, we will take the European discovery of the New World in the late fifteenth century and pay attention to the ways in which travel narratives became a crucial means by which Europeans attempted to understand and control this exotic, new space and its inhabitants. As the course progresses, we’ll think about how travel narratives were altered to accommodate new philosophies, ideologies, and artistic movements, and, as I hope the term “travel fictions” suggests, we will think about how and why these narratives often misrepresent, distort, and fabricate notions about the people and places they purport to describe. We will also read a wide range of travel fictions that purposefully raise questions about different types of travel, including exploration, tramping, immigration, and tourism. And, we’ll consider how travel narratives and travel fictions often borrow from one another, mutually reinforcing ideas, tropes, and modes of representation. Finally, we’ll think about how reading and writing have become an integral part of traveling–shaping not just itineraries, but perceptions and beliefs about the places travelers visit. 

We will read memoirs, short stories, and essays by Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, María Cristina Mena, Jamaica Kincaid, Rudolfo Anaya, and Leslie Marmon Silko. We will also read three novels: The Sheltering Sky (Paul Bowles), Jasmine (Bharati Mukherjee), and Volkswagen Blues (Jacques Poulin). You will be asked to write two medium-length papers and to participate regularly in class discussion.

ENGL 496A The Hurricane Does Not Roar in Pentameter: Caribbean Writers, 1968-2025

003 In Person

M/W 12:30-1:45 PM

Instructor: Steph Brown

When poet and theorist Kamau Brathwaite declares that “The hurricane does not roar in pentameter,” he lays claim to a unique poetic inheritance for writers in the Caribbean: that the history, geography, and geology of the Caribbean tasks the artist with innovating to meet the demands of representing what he elsewhere calls the submarine unity of this region. This class will examine how Caribbean fiction and poetry from the mid-twentieth century through the present have risen to this challenge by innovating beyond the boundaries of English-language literary traditions, including in new multimedia digital forums. Specifically, we will focus on writers whose works play out the entanglement of memory, history, community, and visions for the future in the Caribbean context. Students will produce work individually and collectively across a number of written and oral genres, and there will be opportunities for students to produce creative as well as analytic work. Possible authors include Brathwaite, Monique Roffey, Derek Walcott, Lorna Goodison, Dionne Brand, Jamaica Kincaid, Paule Marshall, Marcia Douglass, Earl Lovelace, and others.

ENGL 496A Shakespeare and Film

004 In Person

T/Th 11:00 AM-12:15 PM

Instructor: Meg Lota Brown

Why do we read Shakespeare? And how does one “read” film? 

One goal of this course is to deepen our understanding of Shakespeare’s plays and their film adaptations. In the process, we’ll engage together with the richness and versatility of language, literature, film, and culture. Plays from three different genres—comedy, tragedy, and history— will each be paired with at least two film adaptations from different decades in the 20^th and 21^st centuries. We will focus on how written and cinematic texts are not only embedded in their particular culture but also expressive of cross-cultural concerns. 

In addition to thinking critically about Shakespeare’s gorgeous, funny, complicated, disturbing, and infinitely interesting drama, students will learn the language and methods of film analysis, refine their visual literacy, and develop more effective communication strategies. One of our objectives will be to examine how the author, directors, and actors engage their audiences and construct meaning. Another objective will be to consider how reading Shakespeare and his cinematic interpreters enables us to understand more fully our own culture and our own selves.

ENGL 494P Portfolios in Professional and Technical Writing

110/210 Fully Online

Instructor: Staff

Students will explore the theories and practices of professional and academic portfolios while simultaneously designing and developing an adaptive identity and a professional persona for post-graduate settings. Students will synthesize work from past and present courses and experiences. They will make complex composition decisions about content, design, structure, and media of their portfolios in connection with identifiable elements of a given rhetorical situation. Students will discuss and apply legal and ethical issues related to portfolio development and publication of 21st century digital identities.

ENGL 498P PTW Capstone in Professional and Technical Writing

150/250 fully online

Instructor: Staff 

In this course, students complete a capstone project and compile a portfolio of their work in professional and technical writing.