Summer 2021 Undergraduate Courses

[Dialogue] ENGL 2600 Irish Literary Culture Abroad

Instructor: Joseph Nugent and Patrick Mullen
How to register: Deadline extended: Apply by 3/15 on the GEO website

Attributes:

• Major Requirement 20th-21st Century Literature, Experiential in the Major
• NUPath IC = Interpreting Culture, EX = Integrating Knowledge and Skills Through Experience

The course explores Irish writers from the nineteenth century through the present, emphasizing their relevance to issues facing young people in Ireland today. Examining the formal structure of Irish writing as well as Ireland’s historical and political discourses, students will discover how Irish writing has both shaped and been shaped by the country’s vibrant traditions. While the course cannot travel to Ireland this term, it still offers an opportunity to engage with living Irish writers and publishers. Asking “what does it mean to be an Irish writer today?” award-winning authors will offer guidance on successful writing. The syllabus explores the most prominent Irish authors from Wilde, Joyce, and Yeats to Kate O’Brien, Colm Tóibín, Anne Enright, Paul Murray, Kevin Barry, Sarah Baume, and Sally Rooney. The course coordinates its readings with Film and Text Abroad and the two courses will cover complementary themes and histories. Both courses are designed to help students experience Ireland in ways beyond a typical online courses: in addition to speakers and video conferences, students will be guided on virtual tours of Irish artifacts, museums, and historical and scenic sites. Emphasizing shared experience, we will arrange for our students to interact online with Irish people of their own age to exchange the anxieties and hopes that arise from our shared global moment.

ENGL 4060 Topics in 20th- and 21st-Century Literatures: Humans and Posthumans (Online)

Instructor: Tom Akbari
Sequence: ONLINE

Attributes:

• Major Requirement 20th-21st Century Literature

This course draws on philosophical, scientific, technological, and, most energetically, literary discourses in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and asks, “How is our understanding of what it means to be human changing?” The course will encourage a critical and historical sensibility and track biological developments from Darwinism to gene editing and technological developments from cyborgs to digital platforms to artificial intelligence. Students will discern how, in select examples from literature and some film, the idea of the human, and its complexities of biology, consciousness, gender, and race, shifts dramatically to what some call the posthuman. Figures includes novelists such as Thomas Pynchon, Richard Powers, Octavia Butler, Margaret Atwood, Samuel Delaney, and Kazuo Ishiguro; scientists and philosophers such as Charles Darwin, Jennifer Doudna, Donna Haraway, and Katherine Hayles; and filmmakers such as David Cronenberg and Jordan Peele.

ENGL/AFAM 2690 Boston in Literature

Instructor: Elizabeth Maddock Dillon
Sequence: *updated on 2/19* A – MW 8:00-11:30 AM

Attributes:

• Major Requirement Comparative, Experiential in the Major
• NUPath IC = Interpreting Culture, EX = Integrating Knowledge and Skills Through Experience

This class will examine the deep history of Boston and literature beginning from the first printing press in Massachusetts in 1638 with a focus on colonialism and the (often violent) encounters of Europeans, Native Americans, and enslaved Africans. We will read works by the Puritan heretic, Anne Hutchinson; the revolutionary poet Phillis Wheatley; and Native American author Samson Occom. Building on this history, we will turn to the development of African American literature in Boston in the nineteenth century (Maria Stewart, David Walker, Ellen and William Craft) as well as the rise of Boston as a center for literary publication (Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne), and the legacies of these histories in the twentieth century (Malcolm X, Michael Patrick McDonald). Class will involve field trips in the Boston area, as well as involvement in collective digital projects. ENGL 2690 and AFAM 2690 are cross-listed.

[Dialogue] ENGL 3487 Film and Text Abroad

Instructor: Patrick Mullen
How to register: Deadline extended: Apply by 3/15 on the GEO website

Attributes:

• Major Requirement Comparative, Experiential in the Major
• NUPath IC = Interpreting Culture, EX = Integrating Knowledge and Skills Through Experience

This course offers students a rich exposure to Irish film and television, both classic works by filmmakers such as Jim Sheridan and Neil Jordan and contemporary works by directors such as Lenny Abrahamson and John Butler. Irish TV is having a moment of global fame with the series Derry Girls and The Young Offenders; students will study these in relation to Irish history and culture. Students will have the chance to interact with directors, actors, writers, and musicians to learn how Irish media culture is produced. The course coordinates its screenings with Irish Literary Culture Abroad and the two courses will cover similar themes and histories. Both courses work to help students experience Ireland in ways beyond a typical online course. They offer speakers and video conferences, virtual tours of key sites, and help students to interact with Irish people experiencing our shared global moment. Emphasizing shared experience, we will arrange for our students to interact online with Irish people of their own age to exchange the anxieties and hopes that arise from our shared global moment.

ENGL 2700 Creative Writing (Online)

Instructor: Christen Enos
Sequence: ONLINE

Attributes:

• Major Requirement Writing
• Writing Minor Elective
• NUpath EI = Exploring Creative Expression and Innovation

In this introductory course, we will explore three genres of creative writing: fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Students will work through the process of generating their own creative pieces, including brainstorming, drafting, workshopping, and revising. In addition, we will study various examples from each genre, examining form, theme, and language.

ENGL 3377 Poetry Workshop (Online)

Instructor: Isabel Sobral Campos
Sequence: ONLINE

Attributes: 

• Major Requirement Writing
• Writing Minor Elective
• NUPath EI = Exploring Creative Expression and Innovation

Offers an advanced workshop in writing and reading original poetry. Students experiment in established poetic forms. Features in-class discussion of student work.

[Dialogue] ENGL 3380 Food Writing

Instructor: Caitlin Thornbrugh and Kat Gonso
How to register: Deadline extended – Apply by 3/15 on the GEO website

Attributes:

• Major Requirement Writing
• Writing Minor Elective
• NUPath EI = Exploring Creative Expression and Innovation, WI = Writing Intensive in the Major

In this course, students will explore the intersection of food and Southeast Asian culture through fieldwork: cooking, interviewing, researching, and, of course, dining. We will read food writing by Anthony Bourdain, Andrea Nguyen, Michelle Zauner, and local writers. We will analyze documentaries and television series about food culture and create our own visual stories about our experiences abroad. Students will build a collection of food writing as well as give and receive feedback about their work.

[Dialogue] ENGL 2600 Irish Literary Culture Abroad

Instructor: Joseph Nugent and Patrick Mullen
How to register: Deadline extended: Apply by 3/15 on the GEO website

Attributes:

• Major Requirement 20th-21st Century Literature, Experiential in the Major
• NUPath IC = Interpreting Culture, EX = Integrating Knowledge and Skills Through Experience

The course explores Irish writers from the nineteenth century through the present, emphasizing their relevance to issues facing young people in Ireland today. Examining the formal structure of Irish writing as well as Ireland’s historical and political discourses, students will discover how Irish writing has both shaped and been shaped by the country’s vibrant traditions. While the course cannot travel to Ireland this term, it still offers an opportunity to engage with living Irish writers and publishers. Asking “what does it mean to be an Irish writer today?” award-winning authors will offer guidance on successful writing. The syllabus explores the most prominent Irish authors from Wilde, Joyce, and Yeats to Kate O’Brien, Colm Tóibín, Anne Enright, Paul Murray, Kevin Barry, Sarah Baume, and Sally Rooney. The course coordinates its readings with Film and Text Abroad and the two courses will cover complementary themes and histories. Both courses are designed to help students experience Ireland in ways beyond a typical online courses: in addition to speakers and video conferences, students will be guided on virtual tours of Irish artifacts, museums, and historical and scenic sites. Emphasizing shared experience, we will arrange for our students to interact online with Irish people of their own age to exchange the anxieties and hopes that arise from our shared global moment.

ENGL/AFAM 2690 Boston in Literature

Instructor: Elizabeth Maddock Dillon
Sequence: *updated on 2/19* A – MW 8:00-11:30 AM

Attributes:

• Major Requirement Comparative, Experiential in the Major
• NUPath IC = Interpreting Culture, EX = Integrating Knowledge and Skills Through Experience

This class will examine the deep history of Boston and literature beginning from the first printing press in Massachusetts in 1638 with a focus on colonialism and the (often violent) encounters of Europeans, Native Americans, and enslaved Africans. We will read works by the Puritan heretic, Anne Hutchinson; the revolutionary poet Phillis Wheatley; and Native American author Samson Occom. Building on this history, we will turn to the development of African American literature in Boston in the nineteenth century (Maria Stewart, David Walker, Ellen and William Craft) as well as the rise of Boston as a center for literary publication (Louisa May Alcott, Nathaniel Hawthorne), and the legacies of these histories in the twentieth century (Malcolm X, Michael Patrick McDonald). Class will involve field trips in the Boston area, as well as involvement in collective digital projects. ENGL 2690 and AFAM 2690 are cross-listed.

[Dialogue] ENGL 3487 Film and Text Abroad

Instructor: Patrick Mullen
How to register: Deadline extended: Apply by 3/15 on the GEO website

Attributes:

• Major Requirement Comparative, Experiential in the Major
• NUPath IC = Interpreting Culture, EX = Integrating Knowledge and Skills Through Experience

This course offers students a rich exposure to Irish film and television, both classic works by filmmakers such as Jim Sheridan and Neil Jordan and contemporary works by directors such as Lenny Abrahamson and John Butler. Irish TV is having a moment of global fame with the series Derry Girls and The Young Offenders; students will study these in relation to Irish history and culture. Students will have the chance to interact with directors, actors, writers, and musicians to learn how Irish media culture is produced. The course coordinates its screenings with Irish Literary Culture Abroad and the two courses will cover similar themes and histories. Both courses work to help students experience Ireland in ways beyond a typical online course. They offer speakers and video conferences, virtual tours of key sites, and help students to interact with Irish people experiencing our shared global moment. Emphasizing shared experience, we will arrange for our students to interact online with Irish people of their own age to exchange the anxieties and hopes that arise from our shared global moment.

ENGL 2695 Travel Writing

Instructor: Kathleen Kelly
Sequence: ONLINE

Attributes:

• Major Requirement Comparative OR Writing
• NUPath EI = Exploring Creative Expression and Innovation, IC = Interpreting Culture

I’m betting that many of you have a phone full of pictures of places you’ve visited, even for a day. People love taking selfies in front of world-famous places—Stonehenge, Niagara Falls, the Taj Mahal, Mt. Fuji. We take pictures, collect postcards, and buy souvenirs to remind us of the experiences we’ve had across town, across the country, across the world. We are enlarged each time we reach beyond what is known and familiar.

This course is intended to enrich your experiences away from home. You will learn about travel writing and place-based writing by reading examples of the two genres (many about the place where you are), as well as reading what experienced travel writers, critics, and scholars have to say about travel writing and place-based writing. You will also contribute your own thoughtful, informed observations about traveling through essays, photo-collages, and videos. Your experiences are the foundation for everything that you create in this course.

ENGL 3664 Black Poetry & the Spoken Word: Black Feminist Cosmogony

Instructor: Alanna Prince
Sequence: D – TR 1:30-5:00 PM

Attributes:

• Major Requirement Comparative, Diversity

Using the cosmos as a metaphor, this course explores how Black feminist theory is built through, and subsequently helps build, both poetry and political writing. Students will become familiarized with academic, popular, and emerging works in Black feminist theory and learn their genealogies. Students will also learn to analyze, respond to, and implement these practices into their own work and endeavors. Subjects include sexuality and gender, critical race theory, ecology, and queer theory. Writers include Patricia J. Williams, Achille Mbembe, Angela Y. Davis, Safiya Sinclair, Essex Hemphill, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Focusing mainly on works from 1970-present, this course will touch on places throughout the Black diaspora, including the Americas, the Caribbean, Afro-Europe, Afro-Asia, and Africa. This is a writing-intensive course; students will create final portfolios of all course writings under a singular focused theme. Cross-listed with AFAM 3664.

ENGL 2695 Travel Writing

Instructor: Kathleen Kelly
Sequence: ONLINE

Attributes:

• Major Requirement Comparative OR Writing
• NUPath EI = Exploring Creative Expression and Innovation, IC = Interpreting Culture

I’m betting that many of you have a phone full of pictures of places you’ve visited, even for a day. People love taking selfies in front of world-famous places—Stonehenge, Niagara Falls, the Taj Mahal, Mt. Fuji. We take pictures, collect postcards, and buy souvenirs to remind us of the experiences we’ve had across town, across the country, across the world. We are enlarged each time we reach beyond what is known and familiar.

This course is intended to enrich your experiences away from home. You will learn about travel writing and place-based writing by reading examples of the two genres (many about the place where you are), as well as reading what experienced travel writers, critics, and scholars have to say about travel writing and place-based writing. You will also contribute your own thoughtful, informed observations about traveling through essays, photo-collages, and videos. Your experiences are the foundation for everything that you create in this course.

ENGL 2700 Creative Writing (Online)

Instructor: Caitlin Thornbrugh
Sequence: ONLINE

Attributes:

• Major Requirement Writing
• Writing Minor Elective
• NUpath EI = Exploring Creative Expression and Innovation

In this introductory course, we will explore three genres of creative writing: fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Students will work through the process of generating their own creative pieces, including brainstorming, drafting, workshopping, and revising. In addition, we will study various examples from each genre, examining form, theme, and language.

ENGL 3378 Fiction Workshop (Online)

Instructor: Aaron Block
Sequence: ONLINE

Attributes:

• Major Requirement Writing
• Writing Minor Elective
• NUpath EI = Exploring Creative Expression and Innovation

Offers an advanced workshop in writing and reading original fiction. Features in-class discussion of student work.

ENGL 3664 Black Poetry & the Spoken Word: Black Feminist Cosmogony

Instructor: Alanna Prince
Sequence: D – TR 1:30-5:00 PM

Attributes:

• Major Requirement Comparative, Diversity

Using the cosmos as a metaphor, this course explores how Black feminist theory is built through, and subsequently helps build, both poetry and political writing. Students will become familiarized with academic, popular, and emerging works in Black feminist theory and learn their genealogies. Students will also learn to analyze, respond to, and implement these practices into their own work and endeavors. Subjects include sexuality and gender, critical race theory, ecology, and queer theory. Writers include Patricia J. Williams, Achille Mbembe, Angela Y. Davis, Safiya Sinclair, Essex Hemphill, and Alexis Pauline Gumbs. Focusing mainly on works from 1970-present, this course will touch on places throughout the Black diaspora, including the Americas, the Caribbean, Afro-Europe, Afro-Asia, and Africa. This is a writing-intensive course; students will create final portfolios of all course writings under a singular focused theme. Cross-listed with AFAM 3664.