Spring 2025
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
1616W: Major British and American Writers
Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011
1616W | TUTH | Choffel, Julie
2000-Level Courses
2203W: American Literature Since 1880
Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.
2203W | TUTH 9:30 - 10:45 |Shea, Tom
Open to Everyone: Just Ask for a Permission #
(thomas.shea@uconn.edu or blasket69@aol.com)
Fulfills Requirements for
General Education “W” Writing Courses
General Education Content Area 1
English Major “Literary Histories and Legacies Track” or Elective
English Minor
The purpose of this course is to enhance our appreciation of American Literature After 1880. We will explore short stories, poems, novels, plays, screenplays, and films from authors such as Robert Frost, Ernest Hemingway, Flannery O’Connor, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, August Wilson, Zora Neale Hurston, Ken Kesey, and Colum McCann.
Course grades will be based on class participation (40% of semester grade), two brief essays, a Midterm Essay, & a Final Essay.
USUALLY NO FINAL EXAM.
2274W: Disability in American Literature and Culture
Also offered as AMST 2274W
Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.
2274W | TUTH 11:00 - 12:15|Horn, Jacob
2401: Poetry
Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011.
2401 | MWF 12:20 - 1:10 | Kneidel, Greg
A study of the techniques and conventions of the chief forms and traditions of poetry in English. Assessment will include a mix of critical and creative assignments. CA 1.
2603: Literary Approaches to the Bible
Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011
2603| MWF 1:25 - 2:15| Kneidel, Greg
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 visit the Wadsworth Atheneum across the street to study biblically-themed art.
3000-Level Courses
3122W: Irish Literature in English since 1939- “Contemporary Irish Literature and Film”
Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011; open to juniors or higher, others with instructor consent.
3122W | TUTH 12:30 -1:45 | Shea, Tom
“Contemporary Irish Literature and Film”
Open to Everyone: Just Ask for a Permission #
(thomas.shea@uconn.edu or blasket69@aol.com)
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
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), two brief essays, a Midterm Essay, & a Final Essay.
USUALLY NO FINAL EXAM.
3715E: Nature Writing Workshop
Prerequisites: ENGL 1007 or 1010 or 1011 or 2011; open to sophomores or higher; instructor consent required. Recommended preparation: ENGL 2701
3715E | TUTH 2:00 - 3:15 | Choffel, Julie
The World and the Imagination
What is a world made of? What mysteries and revelations does it hold? And the worlds we write into existence—what are they made of? In this creative writing workshop, we will answer these questions and more through students’ own writing and our study of worlds both real and imagined. We will look at how “nature writing” in this moment has come to mean so much more than ever before. Students will have the chance to work in poetry, prose, and hybrid forms, with deep attention to the craft of place, time, worldbuilding, and relationality. As a workshop community, the class will center the students’ own writing while drawing inspiration from an array of contemporary authors. Additional requirements include a daily writing practice and full participation in each class. No previous creative writing experience is necessary.