Spring 2023
Each semester the faculty for the Department of English provide course descriptions that build upon the University's catalog descriptions. These individually crafted descriptions provide information about variable topics, authors, novels, texts, writing assignments, and whether instructor consent is required to enroll. The details, along with reviewing the advising report, will help students select course options that best meet one's interests and academic requirements.
The following list includes Undergraduate courses that are sequenced after the First-Year Writing requirement and will change each semester.
1000-Level Courses
1503: Introduction to Shakespeare
Prerequisites: None.
1503| TuTh 9:30 - 10:45 | Shea, Thomas
The purpose of this course is to introduce us to William Shakespeare and to enhance our appreciation of him as playwright and poet. We will survey some of his classic comedies, histories, and tragedies.
Course grades will be based on class participation (40% of semester grade), a brief essay, a medium-length Midterm Essay, & a slightly longer Final Essay.
USUALLY NO FINAL EXAM.
Fulfills Requirements for General Education Content Area 1B
1616: Major Works of English and American Literature
Prerequisites: None.
1616| MW 4:40-5:55 | Duni, Micheal
1616W: Major Works of English and American Literature
Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011; open to English majors, others with instructor consent.
1616W | MWF 12:20-1:10 | Kneidel, Gregory
2000-Level Courses
2055WE: Writing, Rhetoric, and Environment
Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.
2055WE | MW 4:40 - 5:55 | Campbell, Scott
This course joins environmental literacy to writing and rhetoric both as a topic of study (how science and environmental issues get “written up” and communicated) and as a practice (how we might write about and grapple with environmental topics and movements, such as climate). We will explore numerous cross-disciplinary topics and inquiries including visual rhetoric, translation across disciplines and genres, dissemination of complex information to broad populations, scientific controversy, post-truth polemics, and the sustainability of consumerism, consumption, and capitalism in the era of human-influenced climate change. A central goal of our work will be to foreground the rhetorical dimension of environmental discourse and feature writing itself as a component of environmental literacy.
Expect frequent small writing assignments and at least two major projects which will allow you to explore a particular site or example of environmental rhetoric and propose innovations, changes, or additions to the ways this site or example is written about or expressed. Contact Professor Campbell (scott.campbell@uconn.edu) with any questions.
2274W: Disability in American Literature and Culture
Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.
2274W | TuTh 2:00-3:15 | Horn, Jacob
2600: Introduction to Literary Studies
Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011; open to English majors, others with instructor consent.
2600| TuTh 11:00-12:15 | Horn, Jacob
2603: Literary Approaches to the Bible
Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.
2603 | MWF 1:25-2:15 | Kneidel, Gregory
Critical approaches to, and literary and cultural influences of, the Bible in English translation. We will focus on the David story (1 and 2 Samuel) and the Jesus story (Mark and John), and we will read three modern texts about how these stories came into existence: Heym’s The King David Report (1972), Beard’s Lazarus is Dead (2011), and Griffith’s The Tomb Guardians (2021). We will also makes several visits to the Wadsworth Atheneum across the street to study biblically-themed art.
3000-Level Courses
3122W: Irish Literature in English since 1939
Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011; open to juniors or higher.
3122W | MW 12:30-1:45 | Shea, Thomas
Open to Everyone: Just Ask for a Permission #
(thomas.shea@uconn.edu or blasket69@aol.com)
The purpose of this course is to enhance our appreciation of Contemporary Irish Literature and Film as they develop during the 20th – 21st centuries. We will explore short stories, novels, screenplays, and films from authors such as James Joyce, Anne Enright, Tomás O’Crohan, Edna O’Brien, Kevin Barry, Colum McCann, and Martin McDonagh.
Course grades will be based on class participation (40% of semester grade), a brief essay, a medium-length Midterm Essay, & a slightly longer Final Essay.
USUALLY NO FINAL EXAM.
Fulfills Requirements for
General Education “W” Writing Courses
General Education Content Area 4, International
English Major “Difference and Diaspora” or Elective
English Minor
Concentration in Irish Literature