ENROLL

Kofi Owusu

The texts we will read and the themes to be discussed include: the quest for home and belonging in Angelou's All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes; transitions in Obama's Dreams from My Father; difficult and essential conversations in Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between the World and Me; trauma and healing in Gyasi's Transcendent Kingdom. Our related focus on expository writing will be complemented by a final writing assignment that offers you the option to craft either a Letter to Your Younger Self on transitions, or an Autobiographical Fragment in which you trace your search for belonging.

Held for new first year students

Jessica L Leiman

Held for new first year students

Timothy Raylor

Rhetoric's all around us: in political manifestos and legal pleadings; in professions of love and advertisements for dog food. We use it whenever we urge someone to believe what we say or do what we want. But how well do we understand the foundations and protocols of this art that teaches us "to see the available means of persuasion?" In this class we'll study the origins and theory of rhetoric (via Aristotle), examine exemplary instances (from Pericles to Trump), and consider the charges (via Plato) that it's all lies and trickery, while learning how to compose persuasive academic papers and presentations.

Held for new first year students

Pierre Hecker

With an emphasis on critical reading, writing, and the fundamentals of college-level research, this course will develop students' knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the relationship between drama and film and the social and cultural contexts of which they are (or were) a part and product. The course explores the various ways in which these plays and movies (which might include anything and everything from Spike Lee to Tony Kushner to Christopher Marlowe) generate meaning, with particular attention to the social, historical, and political realities that contribute to that meaning. An important component of this course will be attending live performances in the Twin Cities. These required events may be during the week and/or the weekend.

Held for new first year students. Extra Time required.

Arnab Chakladar

With an emphasis on critical reading and writing in an academic context, this course will examine how contemporary writers from a range of global locations approach the question of the writing of the self and of the nation. Reading novels from both familiar and unfamiliar cultural contexts we will examine closely our practices of reading, and the cultural expectations and assumptions that underlie them.

Held for new first year students

Constance Walker

“Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought”—Audre Lorde.  In this course we will explore how poets use form, tone, sound, imagery, rhythm, and subject matter to create works of astonishing imagination, beauty, and power. In discussions, Moodle posts, and essay assignments we’ll analyze individual works by poets from Sappho to Amanda Gorman (and beyond); there will also be daily recitations of poems, since the musicality is so intrinsic to the meaning.

George G Shuffelton

Novels share some key attributes with acts of terrorism. Both focus our attention on questions of plot, responsibility, and effect. Both often ask us to question how a person's character or background influences unanticipated subsequent events. Like terrorists, many novelists hope their work will draw attention to forgotten causes and influence public opinion through a combination of shock and sympathy. This course will explore a few of the many novels dedicated to terrorism, whether from the perspective of perpetrators, victims, or authorities. The reading list will include examples from Britain, America, and South Asia.  

Pierre Hecker

Cross-listed with English 244

Cross-listed with ENGL 244.00