Spring 2021 Graduate Courses

See Fall 2021.

ENGL 7351 Topics in Literary Study: Disability and Citizenship

Instructor: Professor Sari Altschuler
Sequence: *adjusted time* Monday, 6:20-9:40 PM

A popular disability activist slogan announces “Disability rights are constitutional rights!” tracing the linkages between disability and citizenship back to the nation’s founding. In this course we will take this assertion seriously, unpacking the entwined development of ideas about ability/disability and US citizenship through eighteenth- and nineteenth-century texts. In the first half of the course we will read theoretical material that will prepare us to use current theoretical approaches to analyze both eighteenth- and nineteenth-century texts. Furthermore, this course will take an explicitly intersectional approach, asking how the critical study of disability and citizenship intersects especially with issues of race and gender.

ENGL 7380 Topics in Digital Humanities: Queer Digital Curation

Instructor: Professor K.J. Rawson
Sequence: *adjusted time* Wednesday, 6:20-9:40 PM

Developed at the intersection of theory and practice, this course will introduce students to queer theory in the context of digital curation. Digital curation refers to the selection, organization, preservation, and representation of digital resources; it is largely focused on efficiency, structure, and use. Queer theory, on the other hand, critically investigates cultural normativities related to sex, sexuality, and gender; it often values disruption, deconstruction, and play. A queer approach to digital curation, then, will allow us to unpack the invisible norms of digital environments as we
think through the effects of digital tools, particularly those used for social justice purposes. There will be a hands-on unit of this course; however, prior knowledge of LGBTQ+ issues or the digital humanities is not expected––all students are welcome in this course.

[CANCELLED] WMNS 6100 Theorizing Gender & Sexuality 

Instructor: Suzanna Walters
Sequence: Thursday, 3:00-6:20PM

*Note: this class has been cancelled due to low enrollment.

See Fall 2021.

ENGL 7284 Topics in 18th-Century Literature: Race, Slavery, and the ‘Other’ in the 18th Century British Novel

Instructor: Professor Nicole Aljoe
Sequence: *adjusted start time* Monday, 2:50-6:10 PM

Please note: This class is full as of 11/13. Please add your name to the waitlist if interested in potential openings.

The development of the novel in 18th Britain occurred at the same time it was expanding its overseas empire and starting to reconsider its participation in the African Atlantic Slave Trade. Writers used the novel not only to record these aspects of 18th society but also to weigh in on debates and questions about them. Building on the philosophical work of the Enlightenment period, they asked questions about the nature of humanity, the purpose of travel and encounter, the role of race and culture, and the significance of relationships amongst human beings. Initially dismissed as a genre of escapist entertainment, by the end of the century the novel would be transformed into a powerful vehicle for facilitating social protest. This course will explore a range of novels written between 1688 and 1832—considered the Long Eighteenth-century—in order to analyze the impact of debates about race and slavery on the development of the novel as a genre in Great Britain.

ENGL 7351 Topics in Literary Study: Aesthetics & Finance

Instructor: Professor Eunsong Kim
Sequence: Thursday, 6:00-9:20 PM

Please note: This class is full as of 12/1. Please add your name to the waitlist if you’re interested in potential openings.

In this course we will examine the language of finance, and the financialization of aesthetics. Historians have examined the economic and cultural shifts from liberalism to neoliberalism. We will take up this study to close read the language of neoliberalism and ask: what kinds of imagery and what kinds of metaphors become deployed in the advocation of financialization? What kinds of imagery and metaphors are taken up in its critique? We will begin by looking at Marx’s Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, and inspect speeches made to shareholders and economic leaders throughout the course. Other texts include, Bankers and Empire by Peter James Hudson, Accounting for Slavery by Caitlin Rosenthal, The Art of Cruelty by Maggie Nelson, The Radical Imagination by Max Haiven among others.

ENGL 7360 Topics in Rhetoric: Rhetoric of Law

Instructor: Professor Beth Britt
Sequence: *adjusted start time* Wednesday, 2:50-6:10 PM

Like other human sciences (sociology, economics, history, anthropology), law has not been immune from the interpretive turn. Increasing numbers of scholars from both law and other disciplines work on the assumption that the activities of legal actors and the very institutions of the law itself are rooted in the indeterminacies of language. For many, this recognition means that the law is always “interested,” reinforcing particular social relations and ways of thinking at the expense of others. Because law “plays on a field of pain and death” (as legal scholar Robert Cover puts it), the relationship among interpretation, rhetoric, and law thus has profound implications for justice. This course explores that relationship, with a focus on the contemporary U.S. legal system. We will consider legal education, legal procedures, and a number of legal genres, including judicial opinions. Our readings will be drawn primarily from rhetorical studies and legal studies, with special attention paid to critical race theory and feminist legal theory. Assignments will include an analysis of a legal genre, contributions to a class bibliography, a formal and informal presentation, and a final project on a topic of your choosing. No prior coursework in rhetoric or law is required.

INSH 7910 NULab Seminar

Instructor: Professor Julia Flanders
Sequence: Tuesday, 2:30-4:10 PM
Attributes:

• Counts as a Core Requirement for the Graduate Certificate in Digital Humanities
• Can also count as an elective towards the English MA/PhD degree

Offers students an opportunity to learn and use digital humanities methods with others in groups and across disciplines in the collaborative space of the NULab seminar. May be repeated up to three times.

ENGL 7380 Topics in Digital Humanities: Queer Digital Curation

Instructor: Professor K.J. Rawson
Sequence: *adjusted start time* Wednesday, 6:20-9:40 PM

Attributes:

• Counts as an elective towards the Graduate Certificate in Digital Humanities
• Counts as an elective towards the Graduate Certificate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Developed at the intersection of theory and practice, this course will introduce students to queer theory in the context of digital curation. Digital curation refers to the selection, organization, preservation, and representation of digital resources; it is largely focused on efficiency, structure, and use. Queer theory, on the other hand, critically investigates cultural normativities related to sex, sexuality, and gender; it often values disruption, deconstruction, and play. A queer approach to digital curation, then, will allow us to unpack the invisible norms of digital environments as we
think through the effects of digital tools, particularly those used for social justice purposes. There will be a hands-on unit of this course; however, prior knowledge of LGBTQ+ issues or the digital humanities is not expected––all students are welcome in this course.

ENGL 7284 Topics in 18th-Century Literature: Race, Slavery, and the ‘Other’ in the 18th Century British Novel

Instructor: Professor Nicole Aljoe
Sequence: *adjusted start time* Monday, 2:50-6:10 PM

Attributes:

• Counts as an elective towards the Graduate Certificate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

The development of the novel in 18th Britain occurred at the same time it was expanding its overseas empire and starting to reconsider its participation in the African Atlantic Slave Trade. Writers used the novel not only to record these aspects of 18th society but also to weigh in on debates and questions about them. Building on the philosophical work of the Enlightenment period, they asked questions about the nature of humanity, the purpose of travel and encounter, the role of race and culture, and the significance of relationships amongst human beings. Initially dismissed as a genre of escapist entertainment, by the end of the century the novel would be transformed into a powerful vehicle for facilitating social protest. This course will explore a range of novels written between 1688 and 1832—considered the Long Eighteenth-century—in order to analyze the impact of debates about race and slavery on the development of the novel as a genre in Great Britain.

[CANCELLED] WMNS 6100 Theorizing Gender & Sexuality 

Instructor: Suzanna Walters
Sequence: Thursday, 3:00-6:20 PM

Note: this class has been cancelled due to low enrollment.

Please note:
*Electives must be ENGL courses unless otherwise approved by the Graduate Studies Committee, including electives taken for graduate certificates. Students seeking to take non-ENGL electives in CSSH or through the GCWS Consortium should submit a General Petition Form to the GSC, located on the Current Student Resources webpage. Core courses taken toward a graduate certificate do not require a petition if the certificate has been formally declared.

Proseminar

• ENGL 5103 Proseminar, Professor Hillary Chute

Theories & Methods:

• ENGL 7351 Topics in Literary Study: Embodiment, Professor Theo Davis

Writing & Rhetoric:

• ENGL 7392 Writing and the Teaching of Writing, Professor Neal Lerner
• ENGL 7360 Topics in Rhetoric: Rhetorics of Resistance, Professor K.J. Rawson

Literature Pre-1700:

• ENGL 7282 Topics in Renaissance Literature: Shakespeare, Professor Erika Boeckeler

Electives

• INSH 7910 NULab Seminar, Professor Julia Flanders