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School of Humanities

English Undergraduate Course Descriptions

January Intersession 


ENG 491 – Practicum
M-F 8:00-11:30
Arranged/Online
Mrs. Melanee Barton
 

As a required course for English Education students at the undergraduate level, this course seeks to help students understand the concepts and methods used in today’s diverse English classrooms by means of a placement in a local school. English 491 is designed to give students the most exposure to the expectations required of teacher candidates before the actual student teaching semester. 


Spring 2024

 
ENG 203 
World Literature 
M/W 8:00 - 9:15 AM 
Dr. Jameela Lares 
 
This course is intended to acquaint you with significant figures and works of world literature, beginning with early lyric poetry in China and The Epic of Gilgamesh in Mesopotamia and moving through time and space to the modern age. We will focus how literature is constructed, how it describes the human experience, and how we can talk about its interrelationships with time, place, culture, and other contexts. Texts: The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Shorter Fourth Edition, 2 vols., and the handy Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, 4th edition, ed. Chris Baldick. 
 
 
 
ENG 221 
Fiction Writing I 
T/TH 1:00 - 2:15 PM 
Instructor: TBA 
 
In this class, you will write your own original fiction. Class sessions will be organized around craft topics, which will include assigned outside readings and writing exercises. You will also write one short story or novel chapter. Craft topics will include: character, dialogue, setting, structure, style, revision, and more. 
 
 
 
ENG 222/322/422 
Poetry Writing 
M/W 2:30 – 3:45 PM  
Dr. Michael Aderibigbe 
 
English 222/322/422 will encourage you to write and workshop your own poems. You will explore many forms and themes. In addition, you will read and discuss poems by writers across different generations. You will also participate in several other writing activities. This class is open to poets of all levels. 
 
 
 
ENG 223 
Creative Writing I: Mixed Genre 
T/TH 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM 
Instructor: TBA 
 
In this course, you will write your own original fiction and poetry. Class sessions will be organized around craft topics, which will include assigned readings and writing exercises. We’ll begin with fiction. Craft topics will include: character, dialogue, setting, structure, revision, and more. For poetry, craft topics will include: the line, sound, imagery, and more. 
 
Short stories and poems to be distributed in class 
 
 
 
ENG 314: Genre and Popular Fictions 
Worlds Elsewhere: Science Fiction & Encountering the Other 
T/TH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM 
Dr. Luis Iglesias 
 
Whether imagining traveling through space or time (or both), science fiction writing frequently takes readers to worlds elsewhere, imagining possibilities remote but scientifically plausible in its quests to come face to face with the Other. Along the way, SyFy novels explore and interrogate our reality through the lens of imaginative and speculative fiction. Indeed, the novels we will read and the worlds they create not only reveal and inquire into issues of race, class, and gender, which are true to our current understanding of the world we live in; but also these works envision new possibilities as well as sound dire warnings. To paraphrase: throughout the semester we will “explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go” to worlds elsewhere to better understand our own. 
 
Among our readings: 
The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury 
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin 
Solaris, Stanislaw Lem 
Dawn (Xenogensis, I), Octavia Butler 
Lagoon, Nnedi Okorafor 
 
 
 
ENG 321/421 
Fiction Writing II/Fiction Writing III 
Dr. Olivia Clare Friedman 
T/TH 1:00 PM – 2:15 PM 
 
In this class, you will write your own original fiction and workshop one another’s fiction. In addition to honing your craft, you will be working on your workshop skills. Craft topics will include: character, dialogue, setting, structure, style, revision, and more. You may turn in either short stories or novel chapters. 
 
Recommended Text: 
Writing Fiction, 10th Edition, Janet Burroway, Elizabeth Stuckey-French, Ned Stuckey-French 
 
Short stories and novel excerpts to be distributed in class 
 
 
 
ENG 335 
Tutoring Writing 
T/TH 4:00 – 5:15 PM 
Dr. Joseph Cheatle 
 
This course is intended to introduce you to key theories and approaches of peer tutoring, such as facilitating growth mindsets, responding to diverse audiences, scaffolding tasks, navigating ethical dilemmas, and tutoring in online environments. While peer tutoring exists in many collaborative learning contexts, we will focus in particular on the theory and praxis of tutoring in university writing centers. We will explore topics such as linguistic diversity, process-based pedagogies, writing across the curriculum, and new media tutoring as they relate to the work of peer writing tutors. Each topic will be contextualized with writing center scholarship so that you can develop a conceptual foundation for facilitating effective collaborative learning. We will engage in reflective practice to prepare you to apply your knowledge in future opportunities as a tutor, teacher, mentor, or learning advocate in writing center, speaking center, learning center, or other collaborative learning spaces. 
 
 
ENG 340 
Analysis of Literature 
M/W 9:30 – 10:45 AM 
Dr. Eric Tribunella 
 
ENG 340 is designed to introduce or review the methods of research in literary studies, the conventions of scholarly conversations about literary works, the critical approaches to literary analysis, and the components and mechanics of literary-critical essays. In this section, we will study several foundational critical approaches to literature and read a small selection of literary works on which to practice analysis, such as Meg Rosoff’s How I Live Now and Marcus Sedgwick’s Midwinterblood
 
 


ENG 340 
Analysis of Literature 
M/W 2:30 – 3:45 PM 
Dr. Nicolle Jordan 
 
 
 
ENG 345 
Introduction to Children’s Literature 
M/W 1:00 – 2:15 PM 
Dr. Eric Tribunella 
 
Approaching the assigned readings in terms of literary criticism and history, this course will provide a survey of children’s and young adult literature by examining key texts, authors, and genres—from seventeenth-century didactic works to classics of the nineteenth-century Golden Age through contemporary picture books, YA fantasy and dystopian novels, and children’s graphic fiction. We will study the history of literature for youth and consider what this history suggests about changing conceptualizations of childhood and adolescence, and we will practice engaging in the literary analysis of children’s and young adult literature. We also will identify some of the key conventions of these texts and discuss how children’s and young adult literature can be used to think about issues of audience, aesthetics, complexity, gender, race, imperialism, education, development, and sexuality. 
 
 
 
ENG 350 
British Literature I 
M/W 2:30 - 3:45 PM 
Dr. Jameela Lares 
 
A survey of major works of British literature from the beginnings in Old English poetry and prose through the Anglo-Norman, Middle English, and Renaissance periods and into the middle of the eighteenth century. We will focus not only on significant authors, texts, and genres but also on helpful strategies for reading and discussing them. Texts: Norton Anthology of English Literature, 10th edition, vol. 1 (A, B, C) and Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, 4th edition, ed. Chris Baldick. 
 
 
 
ENG 351 
British Literature II 
T/TH 2:30 – 3:45 PM 
Dr. Charles Sumner

This course will examine important figures and movements in modern British literature. Specifically, we will look at how modern popular and political culture alters traditional modes of self-perception, and, in turn, why our writers need new formal techniques to represent these alterations. 
 
 
 
ENG 371 
Survey of American Literature II 
T/TH 11:00AM - 12:15PM 
Dr. Kate Cochran 
 
The 300-level ENG survey courses offer students an understanding of literary works in their historical and cultural contexts. As such, each course introduces students to a broad spectrum of literature: students will read a diversity of genres, forms, and writers—both canonical and nontraditional—and they will be introduced to the key figures, concepts, and movements that define literary periods. In this course, we’ll be examining some major figures and texts of American literature since 1865. We begin with one of the most iconic American novels, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), and conclude with a newer novel by a celebrated contemporary writer, Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones (2007). In between, we’ll be looking at poetry, stories, and plays from some significant American authors representing a variety of experiences and viewpoints, including Walt Whitman, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Eugene O’Neill, Zora Neale Hurston, William Faulkner, Maxine Hong Kingston, Junot Diaz, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Natasha Trethewey. Students will complete daily work, three tests spaced throughout the semester, and two writing assignments. 
 
Required texts: 
Robert Levine, ed, Norton Anthology of American Lit, Shorter 9th ed, Volume II: 1865-Present 
Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones
 

 

ENG 400 / ENG 469:  
Studies in British Literature: The Brontë Sisters & Adaptation 
T/TH 9:30 – 10:45AM 
Dr. Alexandra Valint 
 
The Brontë sisters—Charlotte, Emily, and Anne—grew up in the tiny village of Haworth in northern England and wrote masterpieces of Victorian literature, becoming one of the most famous literary families in English history. Artists have always been drawn to adapting their nineteenth-century novels—play versions were the earliest adaptations—and their novels have continued to inspire countless books, as well as films, miniseries, comics, plays, graphic novels, musicals, ballets, songs, and art in other media. 
 
In this course, we will focus on two classic gothic Brontë novels: Charlotte’s Jane Eyre and Emily’s Wuthering Heights. The former follows the orphan Jane as she moves from home to school to being a governess at Thornfield Hall; the latter follows the mysterious Heathcliff, whose arrival in a remote part of England alters the fates of two families. We will analyze how these novels engage with the gothic genre and how they engage with Victorian issues of gender, marriage, race, imperialism, and disability. 
 
We will also study multiple adaptations—from various media—of each novel and consider what the adaptation keeps, drops, changes, and updates. We will debate what makes a “good” or “bad” adaptation, and we will try to figure out why artists keep returning to Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights for creative inspiration. We will also create our own original adaptations! 
 
Throughout the class we will aim to better understand the world the Brontës grew up in, their lives, and their novels, along with the adaptations their novels have inspired. 


  
ENG 403  
Language Study for Teachers 
M/W 4:00 – 5:15 PM  
ONLINE CHAT 
Mrs. Melanee Barton 
 
As a required course for English Education students at the undergraduate level, this course seeks to build students’ content knowledge of language study, acquisition, and adolescent learners’ developmental needs and the unique needs of individuals’ diversity (social, emotional, cognitive, linguistic, cultural, etc.); additionally, the course introduces students to concepts for the teaching of language through reading and writing. Students will be immersed in reading and discussing critical theories, research, and pedagogies central to language study in order to apply their new knowledge to instructional planning. 
 
 
ENG 406 
History of the English Language 
Dr. Leah Parker 
ONLINE 
 
In ENG 406, we will trace the history of the English language from its prehistoric Indo-European roots, through sound changes of the Middle Ages, standardization in the era of print, and diversification as a global language in the modern world. You will learn the basics of linguistics; the pronunciation and basic grammar of Old English (spoken ca. 450–1150 CE) and Middle English (spoken ca. 1150–1500); how to fully utilize dictionaries and editions of English texts; and how dialects develop through isolation, imperialism, and human interactions. In addition to learning about the deep history and vast geographical range of English, students will complete a glossary entry in groups as a midterm project, then finish the semester analyzing contemporary language debates. 
 
ENG 406 will be fully online and asynchronous in Spring 2024—there will be no required full-class synchronous meetings, though office hours and individual or small-group meetings will be available to help students succeed in the course. Space in this course is limited and students who need ENG 406 this semester to complete requirements for the English Education BA will receive priority. If you wish to be notified if more space becomes available, email Dr. Parker at Leah.Parker@usm.edu. 
 
 
ENG 412 
Studies in African Literature 
M/W 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM 
Dr. Michael Aderibigbe 
 
ENG 412 is a study of major contemporary African writers and topics in African literature. Some of the topics we will cover include tradition and modernity, Afropolitanism, African childhood, cultural nationalism, and Africanfuturism, among others. 
 
 
 
ENG 441 
Topics in Literary Theory: Introduction to Health Humanities 
T/TH 11:00 AM – 12:15 PM 
Dr. Emily Stanback 
 
What insight does literature have to offer about what it is like to live with a chronic illness? How can philosophy help us to analyze the ethics of doctor-patient encounters? How can the arts help us to explore our embodied identities? What perspectives on neurodivergence can disability studies offer, and how do those perspectives differ from mainstream medical views? How can we use the history of medicine to better understand present-day health inequities? 
 
This course will provide a broad introduction to the interdisciplinary field of health humanities, which emphasizes the value of humanities, arts, and social sciences methodologies to interpreting ideas and experiences related to human health. Although we will place a special emphasis on literature, this course also will include non-literary readings from fields including the history of medicine and bioethics, and we will welcome guest speakers from disciplines outside of English. In addition to traditional written assignments, students will have the option of completing creative responses to the readings and class discussions. 
 
 
English 454 
Survey of Shakespeare 
M/W 9:30 – 10:45 AM 
Dr. Jameela Lares 
 
Shakespeare in All His Glory 
 
Lights! Camera! Action! This seminar will survey not only Shakespeare’s plays (history, tragedy, comedy, and romance) along with his sonnets but also as much background information as possible so that we can understand his period, his language, and his craft. Included in our extravaganza will be some film clips and other media resources to help us understand this author's genius. We will attempt to use the free University of Victoria online Shakespeare, which has good notes, though I hope to order some current copies of the Norton Essential Shakespeare, which I will list at the bookstore as recommended rather than required, or you can look for the Bevington Necessary Shakespeare, which has the best notes. We will be examining the following texts: 
Sonnets 
Romeo and Juliet 
A Midsummer Night’s Dream 
I Henry IV 
Henry V 
Twelfth Night 
Hamlet 
Measure for Measure 
Macbeth 
The Tempest 
Course requirements: On-time completion of reading and writing assignments, including regular short writing assignments on Canvas; participation in class discussion and activities; two longer papers (a close reading and a research paper), an oral presentation on some aspect of Shakespeare or his period, and an oral presentation of your research findings. This course is writing intensive, requiring a minimum 5,000 words of revised prose, which will be handled as follows: blogs and/or responses (2000 words), close reading (1000 words), and research paper (2000 words). 
 
 
ENG 494 
Practice Teaching in English I (First Experience) 
Mrs. Melanee Barton 
 
A special fee is charged for this course. (See Special Fees listing in Student Expenses section.) (All labs are subject to a usage fee.) 
 
As a required course for English Education students at the undergraduate level, this course seeks to help students understand the concepts and methods used in today’s diverse English classrooms by means of a placement in a local school. English 494 and 495 are designed to give students the most exposure to the expectations required of teacher candidates before beginning their careers in the field and aligns to most INTASC, CAEP, and NCTE standards. The goal of this experience is to replicate, as much as possible, the real world of teaching. Under supervision of a mentor teacher, teacher candidates will have opportunities to implement the things they have learned about teaching. They will demonstrate their acquisition of the power of knowledge to inform, the power to inspire, the power to transform lives, and the ability to empower a community of learners. 
 
Background Check Statement 
Admission to a teacher education program is contingent upon successful completion of the academic requirements prescribed by the Mississippi Department of Education and upon passing a criminal background check. In most cases, students do not order their criminal background check until after they have completed the academic requirements for admission to a teacher education program. However, because some teacher education programs require students to observe and/or interact with minors prior to formal admission to the program, you may be required to complete a background check at an earlier point in your program. Therefore, the appropriate course instructor, program faculty advisor, or program student support specialist will tell you when to complete this step. For more information about the background check policy and instructions for ordering a background check, visit https://www.usm.edu/education-human-sciences/background-check.php. 
 
 
ENG 495 
Practice Teaching in English II (Second Experience) 
Mrs. Melanee Barton

A special fee is charged for this course. (See Special Fees listing in Student Expenses section.) (All labs are subject to a usage fee.) 
 
As a required course for English Education students at the undergraduate level, this course seeks to help students understand the concepts and methods used in today’s diverse English classrooms by means of a placement in a local school. English 494 and 495 are designed to give students the most exposure to the expectations required of teacher candidates before beginning their careers in the field and aligns to most INTASC, CAEP, and NCTE standards. The goal of this experience is to replicate, as much as possible, the real world of teaching. Under supervision of a mentor teacher, teacher candidates will have opportunities to implement 

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