Cultural Engagement Courses Fall 2025
ENGL 338: Introduction to African American Literature
Instructor: Zay Dale
26524 | MW 3:30-4:45 PM | Wescoe 4037
An introduction to prominent works of African American literature from the 18th century to the present as well as to the basic approaches to study and principles of this body of work, including its connection with African sources. Literature will include a wide variety of genres, and course materials may be supplemented by folklore, music, film, and visual arts. Prerequisite: Prior completion of the Core 34: English (SGE) requirement. Recommended: Prior completion of one 200-level English course.
ENGL 390: Romance Fiction as the Practice of Freedom
Instructor: Hannah Scupham
27441 | TuTh 2:00-3:15 PM | Wescoe 4023
Often maligned and misunderstood, popular romance fiction is both a best-selling and under-studied genre. In this course, we will explore the wide, wild, and wonderful world of the romance novels and its critical reception by scholars and readers alike with an emphasis on gender, race, sexuality, and disability. Our course begins with the bodice rippers of 1980s and 1990s and the early scholarship/critiques of the genre. We will then shift to discussing how romance media from the past 20 years depicts dating/relationships, pleasure, agency, joy, and readership. In our final unit, we will examine current trends in romance, readership, and publishing, including BookTok, Bookstagram, dark romances, the emergent New Adult genre, and fanfiction, just to name a few. Whether you’re a romance lover or a romance hater, this course is for you. Looking forward to exploring the delightful world of popular romance with you!
ENGL 507: Examining the Future through a Science-Fiction Lens
Instructor: Phillip Drake
26553 | TuTh 9:30-10:45 AM | Wescoe 4020
This course examines technoscientific presents and futures through close readings of science fiction and nonfiction texts. Our inquiries explore a range of social issues, including questions about scientific beliefs and practices, economic enterprise, colonialism/globalization, bodies/identities, ecological futures, utopia/dystopia, what it means to be a person, and more. Assignments will include papers, presentations, exams, and several informal reaction papers. The broader goal of the course is to foster the critical tools and perspectives that enable us to better conduct ourselves as actors in our respective social, ecological, and technological communities. Likely texts include: H.G. Wells, The Time Machine; George Schuyler, Black No More; Karl Capek, RUR; Ursula Le Guin, The Word for World is Forest; William Gibson, Neuromancer; Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake; and a number of short stories and critical works that will be available on canvas.
ENGL 590: Black Bodies in British Literature
Instructor: Zay Dale
27666 | MW 2:00-3:15 PM | Wescoe 1003
This course examines how Black bodies are represented and understood in British literature from their early presence in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to their presence in the twentieth century. We will explore how the physicality of Blackness shapes and challenges the British literary tradition by raising important questions about race, culture, identity, and social-political exclusions tied to Black bodies. Half of our class takes place pre-1850s to analyze how Black bodies disrupt the existing social and cultural order of British identity. We will study Blackness as both a racial category and as a cultural rupture of the traditional boundaries of subjectivity. This class will then move to Modernism to focus on how Black bodies and Blackness continue to challenge and reshape British literature. By analyzing these two moments, this course examines how Black bodies and Blackness inform and transform British literary aesthetics. The final research paper for this course will involve analyzing literary, archival, and historical texts to explore new perspectives on the role of Black bodies in British literature from the sixteenth century to the Modernist era.
