English Courses
Summer 2023 Heading link
-
Summer 2023
ENGL 118/BLST 110 Introduction to African American Literature
CRN: 23195 S1 (4weeks)
Days/Time: MTRF 9:00-11:55 ONLINE
Instructor: Ainsworth ClarkeENGL 132/MOVI 132 Introduction to Moving Image Arts
CRN: 24271 S2 (8 week)
Days/Time: TR 10:45-1:15 In-Person
Instructor: John Goldbach
This course will explore the history and influence of the French New Wave (La Nouvelle Vague), a tremendously popular art film movement that emerges from France in the late 1950s. It will carefully examine a selection of films from its auteur directors and their contemporaries, including François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, and Věra Chytilová. It will consider the influence of some its precursors, from the films of Jean Renoir, Alfred Hitchcock, and Orson Welles to those of Maya Deren and Jean-Pierre Melville, and it will also consider the influence of La Nouvelle Vague upon its successors around the world, from the films of Chantal Akerman and Claire Denis to those of Yorgos Lanthimos and Bong Joon-ho. There will be no final exam in this course, but students are expected to complete a series of short response papers and regular quizzes.ENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop
CRN: 24466 (12 weeks)
Days/Time: M 2:00-3:50 GLOBAL Course
Instructor: Amanda BohneENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop
CRN: 24467 (12 weeks)
Days/Time: W 2:00-3:50 GLOBAL Course
Instructor: Amanda BohneENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 24462 (12 weeks)
Days/Time: Mw 8:00-9:50 GLOBAL Course
Instructor: Katharine RomeroENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 24463 (12 weeks)
Days/Time: Mw 10:00-11:50 GLOBAL Course
Instructor: Amanda BohneENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 16259 S2 (8 week)
Days/Time: MWF 10:00-11:40 ONLINE
Instructor: Em WilliamsonENGL 161 Academic Writing II
CRN: 24464 (12 weeks)
Days/Time: MW 8:00-9:50 GLOBAL Course
Instructor: Doug SheldonENGL 161 Academic Writing II
CRN: 24465 (12 weeks)
Days/Time: MW 10:00-11:50 Global Course
Instructor: Mark MagoonENGL 161 Art and Social Progress
CRN: 17707 S2 (8 weeks)
DAYS/Time: MWF 10:00-11:40 ONLINE
Instructor: Mohammed AlQaisi
In this course you will learn how to effectively express yourself through writing using works of art that address important social issues; you will do this primarily by utilizing and honing your writing skills in four writing projects: an annotated bibliography, a research proposal, a research report, and a research paper. Through individual and partner work, you will sharpen your ability to edit and revise your writing. You will learn how to navigate and use various academic resources available to you on campus and online. Your assignments will focus on art; specifically, movies, paintings and works of literature. By the end of the semester, you should come away with knowledge of writing strategies that will be useful to you throughout your college career.ENGL 161 Irrepressible Art
CRN: 18181 S2 (8 week)
Days/Time: MWF 4:00-5:40 ONLINE
Instructor: Eni Vaghy
In this course, we will discuss and research significant art made by female and gender nonconforming individuals. Through film, photography, literature, and other creative efforts, the manner in which these artists recalibrate our understanding of the world and its limits will be analyzed and celebrated. This course will touch upon the work of Nan Goldin, Chris Kraus, Claudia Rankine, Lorna Simpson, Sophie Calle, Claude Cahun, and many, many others.ENGL 161 Gentrification
CRN: 23385 S2 (8 week)
Days/Time: TR 1:30-4:00 ONLINE
Instructor: Sian Roberts
Gentrification is sweeping through America. Perhaps you have observed it yourself in Chicago and its surrounding suburbs. Critics of gentrification see it as the destroyer of neighborhoods, believing that it represents a form of social cleansing and institutionalized racism. Supporters of gentrification think it is the savior of cities and claim that change is inevitable. They believe that the renovation of certain neighborhoods brings prosperity and increased public safety.
In these 161 classes, we will enter the debate about gentrification. This course aims to give you opportunities to practice the kind of writing and speaking skills that will serve you for a lifetime.
Our online classes will be designed to avoid ‘Zoom fatigue.’ I will do my best to keep them engaging and varied.ENGL 207 Interpretation and Critical Analysis
CRN: 24272, 24273 S2 (8 week)
Days/Time: MWF 10:00-11:40
Instructor: Thomas Moore
The primary aim of this course, which prepares English majors for upper-level study, is for students to arrive at a better understanding of how it is that we interpret novels and short stories. We will begin by surveying a range of approaches taken by scholars and authors in both theoretical and critical essays. Across the eight weeks of this course, students will apply ideas drawn from these essays to their own analysis and interpretation of novels and short stories by influential modern authors, such as Henry James, Virginia Woolf, Gertrude Stein, and Samuel Beckett.ENGL 209 “British” Literature, Global Origins
CRN: 24274, 24275 S1 (4 week)
Days/Time: MTRF 1:00-4:00 In-Person
Instructor: Nasser Mufti
This course is about how British imperialism was essential to the invention of “British literature.” Over the semester, we will read the canonical figures of modern British literature from the 17th to the mid-20th century and learn how Britain’s colonial adventures oversaw slavery, settler colonialism, the rise of capitalism, mass exploitation, and how these were integral to the formation and development of the British literary imagination and English national identity. We will read writers from Britain, South Asia, the United States, East Africa and the West Indies.ENGL 230 Introduction to Film and Culture
CRN: 24460 (12 weeks)
Days/Time: T 1:00-2:45/ R 1:00-3:45 GLOBAL Course
Instructor: Katherine BoulayENGL 230 Introduction to Film and Culture
CRN: 24461 (12 weeks)
Days/Time: M 12:00-1:45/ W 12:00-2:45 GLOBAL Course
Instructor: James DrownENGL 282 Peer Tutoring in Writing Center
CRN: 24279, 24280 S2 (8 weeks)
Days/Time: MWF 2:00-3:40 In Person
Instructor: Vainis Aleska
Prerequisite for this course is ENGL 161.ENGL 291 Introduction to the Writing of Fiction: The “Many Hats” model: the critic and the creative
CRN: 24281 S2 (8 weeks)
Days/Time: TR 1:30-4:00
Instructor: Andrew Middleton
This class is all about wardrobe changes. As writers, we wear many hats. We write. Then we edit. We read, then we rewrite. We develop our critical voice. Then we learn to quiet the critic so we can write in peace.
Just as an actor watches a movie with an eye to how a given performer delivers a line, for a writer, reading is every bit as technical as the reading you might do in a literature class. But a writer isn’t just the actor; a writer is also the director, cinematographer, camera operator, set designer, dialogue coach, and, well, the writer.
Each of these hats helps to dramatize your story. To turn them into skills that you can use in your fiction, the first half of this course will help develop your critical reading skills. We go from reading for pleasure or reading for literary analysis to being readers who read for technique, who read to measure the effect of the writing on a reader, who read with the goal of beginning or improving our own creative fiction writing. As such, even if you don’t see yourself as a fiction writer, in 291 you’ll take your critical reading further than in most literature classes. In the first half of the course, we read a few short stories and novel excerpts a week and then write a page or two of your own fiction in imitation of them.
In the second half of the course, we’ll use our newfound skills to write and workshop two new and fully shaped stories by you and your classmates.ENGL 379 Independent Study
CRN: 24534
Days/Time: ONLINE
Instructor: Jay Shearer
Department approval needed.ENGL 497 Senior Thesis
CRN: 24469
Days/Time: ONLINE
Instructor: Christopher Grimes
Department approval needed.
Fall 2023 Heading link
-
060 COURSE
ENGL 060 ESL Composition II
CRN: 37556
Days/Time: MWF 12:00-12:50
Instructor: Doug Sheldon
ENGL 060 is a course that introduces students to the structure of English compositions and provides practice in critical reading, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics of basic writing. This will be a workshop-based course that functions to create clear and direct sentences that build to effective paragraphs. This will be achieved through close reading exercises that act as models for effective writing and consistent practice in and out of class collaborating with the instructor and classmates.070 COURSES
ENGL 070 Introduction to Academic Writing for the Nonnative Speakers of English
CRN: 47235
Days/Time: MWF 2:00-2:50
Instructor: Justyna BiczENGL 070 Introduction to Academic Writing for the Nonnative Speakers of English
CRN: 35041
Days/Time: MWF 10:00-10:50
Instructor: Justyna BiczENGL 070 Introduction to Academic Writing for Non-Native Speakers of English
CRN: 35040
Days/Time: TR 11:00-12:15
Instructor: Deanna Thompson
This course will help you to develop the necessary skills that will allow you to express yourselves through writing. The writing that you do in this course, including a summary-response, an argumentative essay, and a reflection, will help to develop your reading, critical thinking, and writing skills, helping to prepare you for success in a range of writing situations, both academic and beyond.ENGL 070 Introduction to Academic Writing for Non-Native Speakers of English
CRN: 30497
Days/Time: TR 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Deanna Thompson
This course will help you to develop the necessary skills that will allow you to express yourselves through writing. The writing that you do in this course, including a summary-response, an argumentative essay, and a reflection, will help to develop your reading, critical thinking, and writing skills, helping to prepare you for success in a range of writing situations, both academic and beyond.071 COURSES
ENGL 071 Introduction to Academic Writing: Writing Legacy for First Generation Students (Legacy)”
CRN: 30521
Days/Time: TR 11:00 -12:15
Instructor: Robin Gayle
This section is designed specifically for first generation college students, meaning you are the first in your family to attend a university. This course will enable first-generation students to increase their confidence as academics, establish a strong community of like-minded students, and ultimately, craft a legacy to be passed down to incoming students. The classroom will be structured as a “homeplace” that builds on each student’s cultural richness. Students will learn how to access and use available resources. Student writing projects will include evaluations of UIC resources and reflections on their first-year experiences, wherein they offer advice to incoming first-generation students. In short, this course will help to prepare you for the rigors of academic writing and collegiate life.ENGL 071 Introduction to Academic Writing: Writing Legacy for First Generation Students (Legacy)”
CRN: 30519
Days/Time: TR 12:30-1:45
Instructor: Robin Gayle
This section is designed specifically for first generation college students, meaning you are the first in your family to attend a university. This course will enable first-generation students to increase their confidence as academics, establish a strong community of like-minded students, and ultimately, craft a legacy to be passed down to incoming students. The classroom will be structured as a “homeplace” that builds on each student’s cultural richness. Students will learn how to access and use available resources. Student writing projects will include evaluations of UIC resources and reflections on their first-year experiences, wherein they offer advice to incoming first-generation students. In short, this course will help to prepare you for the rigors of academic writing and collegiate life.ENGL 071 Introduction to Academic Writing: Writing Legacy for First Generation Students
CRN: 30507
Days/Time: TR 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Robin Gayle
This section is designed specifically for first generation college students, meaning you are the first in your family to attend a university. This course will enable first-generation students to increase their confidence as academics, establish a strong community of like-minded students, and ultimately, craft a legacy to be passed down to incoming students. The classroom will be structured as a “homeplace” that builds on each student’s cultural richness. Students will learn how to access and use available resources. Student writing projects will include evaluations of UIC resources and reflections on their first-year experiences, wherein they offer advice to incoming first-generation students. In short, this course will help to prepare you for the rigors of academic writing and collegiate life.ENGL 071 Story as Rhetorical Practice
CRN: 30512
Days/Time: MWF 11:00-11:50
Instructor: Sarah Primeau
The themes of this class are rhetoric, story, and argument. We all tell stories in our everyday life, right? We talk about how our day is going, retell an event from the weekend, or reminisce about the past with old friends or family. Telling stories and listening to them is a way that we know ourselves and each other. Examining story as a rhetorical practice can also show us how researchers and journalists use story in writing to motivate social change in public spaces.
When we walk through a museum to learn about an ancient culture, whose story are we hearing – the story of a culture being told on its own terms or an interpretation of that culture from by outsiders or colonizers? When it comes to public health, whose stories are heard and whose are silenced? How do public policies protect some people and make others more vulnerable? How does codeswitching and code meshing tell the story of a writer or a community? How does biography and autobiography demonstrate a need for change in education? Together, we will examine how rhetorician Lisa King, journalist Steven W. Thrasher, linguist Suresh Canagarajah, and researcher Steven Alvarez amplify voices that have been ignored or silenced in public spaces and, ultimately, use story in their writing to argue powerfully for social change. By the end of the course, you will have read and analyzed articles by scholars from multiple disciplines, and you will have written three major projects: a non-traditional story about yourself, a response to an argument, and your own argument related to the course theme.ENGL 071 Introduction to Academic Writing
CRN: 30514
Days/Time: MWF 12:00-12:50
Instructor: Amanda BohneENGL 071 Introduction to Academic Writing: Your Futures
CRN: 30505
Days/Time: TR 8:00-9:15
Instructor: Robin Gayle
This section is designed specifically for first generation college students, meaning you are the first in your family to attend a university. This course will enable first-generation students to increase their confidence as academics, establish a strong community of like-minded students, and ultimately, craft a legacy to be passed down to incoming students. The classroom will be structured as a “homeplace” that builds on each student’s cultural richness. Students will learn how to access and use available resources. Student writing projects will include evaluations of UIC resources and reflections on their first-year experiences, wherein they offer advice to incoming first-generation students. In short, this course will help to prepare you for the rigors of academic writing and collegiate life.159 COURSES
ENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop
CRN: 40310
Days/Time: M 9:00-9:50
Instructor: Heather McShane
English 159 is designed to help you as you complete the required writing for English 160. In this course, you should expect to be supported and challenged as you work to make critical reading and writing connections, to shape and communicate meaning, and to meet the demands of academic writing conventions, including demonstration of intent and awareness of rhetorical and grammatical choices. English 159 provides an individualized space distinct from (but also connected to) the space of English 160. You will discuss and reflect on the expectations for college writing, workshop drafts of English 160 writing projects, review your English 160 instructors’ feedback, and discuss strategies for revision and editing.ENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop
CRN: 40312
Days/Time: W 9:00-9:50
Instructor: Heather McShane
English 159 is designed to help you as you complete the required writing for English 160. In this course, you should expect to be supported and challenged as you work to make critical reading and writing connections, to shape and communicate meaning, and to meet the demands of academic writing conventions, including demonstration of intent and awareness of rhetorical and grammatical choices. English 159 provides an individualized space distinct from (but also connected to) the space of English 160. You will discuss and reflect on the expectations for college writing, workshop drafts of English 160 writing projects, review your English 160 instructors’ feedback, and discuss strategies for revision and editing.ENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop
CRN: 40314
Days/Time: F 9:00-9:50
Instructor: Heather Mc Shane
English 159 is designed to help you as you complete the required writing for English 160. In this course, you should expect to be supported and challenged as you work to make critical reading and writing connections, to shape and communicate meaning, and to meet the demands of academic writing conventions, including demonstration of intent and awareness of rhetorical and grammatical choices. English 159 provides an individualized space distinct from (but also connected to) the space of English 160. You will discuss and reflect on the expectations for college writing, workshop drafts of English 160 writing projects, review your English 160 instructors’ feedback, and discuss strategies for revision and editing.ENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop
CRN: 46708
Days/Time: M 11:00-11:50
Instructor: Katie BrandtENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop
CRN: 46709
Days/Time: W 11:00-11:50
Instructor: Katie BrandtENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop
CRN: 46711
Days/Time: F 11:00-11:50
Instructor: Katie BrandtENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop
CRN: 42951 GLOBAL
Days/Time: M 11:00-11:50
Instructor: Amanda Bohne
English 159 is designed to support students as they complete English 160.
This is a challenging course that requires students to make critical reading and writing connections, to shape and communicate meaning, and to meet the demands of academic writing conventions, including demonstration of intent and awareness of rhetorical and grammatical choices. English 159 provides an individualized space distinct from (but also connected to) the space of English 160. Students will discuss and reflect on the expectations for college writing, workshop drafts of English 160 writing projects, review their English 160 instructors’ feedback, and discuss strategies for revision and editing.ENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop
CRN: 41705
Days/Time: M 2:00-2:50
Instructor: Aaron Krall
English 159 is designed to help students move through the First-Year Writing sequence more quickly by supporting the required writing for English 160. This is a challenging course that requires students to make critical reading and writing connections, to shape and communicate meaning, and to meet the demands of academic writing conventions, including sentence-level correctness. English 159 provides an individualized space distinct from (but also connected to) the space of English 160. Students will discuss and reflect on the expectations for college writing, workshop drafts of English 160 writing projects, review their English 160 Instructors’ feedback, and discuss strategies for revision and editing.ENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop
CRN: 41706
Days/Time: W 2:00-2:50
Instructor: Aaron Krall
English 159 is designed to help students move through the First-Year Writing sequence more quickly by supporting the required writing for English 160. This is a challenging course that requires students to make critical reading and writing connections, to shape and communicate meaning, and to meet the demands of academic writing conventions, including sentence-level correctness. English 159 provides an individualized space distinct from (but also connected to) the space of English 160. Students will discuss and reflect on the expectations for college writing, workshop drafts of English 160 writing projects, review their English 160 Instructors’ feedback, and discuss strategies for revision and editing.ENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop
CRN: 41707
Days/Time: F 2:00-2:50
Instructor: Aaron Krall
English 159 is designed to help students move through the First-Year Writing sequence more quickly by supporting the required writing for English 160. This is a challenging course that requires students to make critical reading and writing connections, to shape and communicate meaning, and to meet the demands of academic writing conventions, including sentence-level correctness. English 159 provides an individualized space distinct from (but also connected to) the space of English 160. Students will discuss and reflect on the expectations for college writing, workshop drafts of English 160 writing projects, review their English 160 Instructors’ feedback, and discuss strategies for revision and editing.ENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop
CRN: 42953 GLOBAL
Days/Time: M 2:00-2:50
Instructor: Amanda Bohne
English 159 is designed to support students as they complete English 160.
This is a challenging course that requires students to make critical reading and writing connections, to shape and communicate meaning, and to meet the demands of academic writing conventions, including demonstration of intent and awareness of rhetorical and grammatical choices. English 159 provides an individualized space distinct from (but also connected to) the space of English 160. Students will discuss and reflect on the expectations for college writing, workshop drafts of English 160 writing projects, review their English 160 instructors’ feedback, and discuss strategies for revision and editing.ENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop
CRN: 40315
Days/Time: M 1:00-1:50
Instructor: Amanda Bohne
English 159 is designed to support students as they complete English 160.
This is a challenging course that requires students to make critical reading and writing connections, to shape and communicate meaning, and to meet the demands of academic writing conventions, including demonstration of intent and awareness of rhetorical and grammatical choices. English 159 provides an individualized space distinct from (but also connected to) the space of English 160. Students will discuss and reflect on the expectations for college writing, workshop drafts of English 160 writing projects, review their English 160 instructors’ feedback, and discuss strategies for revision and editing.ENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop
CRN: 40316
Days/Time: W 1:00-1:50
Instructor: Amanda Bohne
English 159 is designed to support students as they complete English 160.
This is a challenging course that requires students to make critical reading and writing connections, to shape and communicate meaning, and to meet the demands of academic writing conventions, including demonstration of intent and awareness of rhetorical and grammatical choices. English 159 provides an individualized space distinct from (but also connected to) the space of English 160. Students will discuss and reflect on the expectations for college writing, workshop drafts of English 160 writing projects, review their English 160 instructors’ feedback, and discuss strategies for revision and editing.ENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop
CRN: 40317
Days/Time: F 1:00–1:50
Instructor: Amanda Bohne
English 159 is designed to support students as they complete English 160.
This is a challenging course that requires students to make critical reading and writing connections, to shape and communicate meaning, and to meet the demands of academic writing conventions, including demonstration of intent and awareness of rhetorical and grammatical choices. English 159 provides an individualized space distinct from (but also connected to) the space of English 160. Students will discuss and reflect on the expectations for college writing, workshop drafts of English 160 writing projects, review their English 160 instructors’ feedback, and discuss strategies for revision and editing.ENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop
CRN: 40753 GLOBAL
Days/Time: F 3:00-3:50
Instructor: Amanda Bohne
English 159 is designed to support students as they complete English 160.
This is a challenging course that requires students to make critical reading and writing connections, to shape and communicate meaning, and to meet the demands of academic writing conventions, including demonstration of intent and awareness of rhetorical and grammatical choices. English 159 provides an individualized space distinct from (but also connected to) the space of English 160. Students will discuss and reflect on the expectations for college writing, workshop drafts of English 160 writing projects, review their English 160 instructors’ feedback, and discuss strategies for revision and editing.ENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop
CRN: 42954 GLOBAL
Days/Time: T 5:00-5:50
Instructor: Amanda Bohne
English 159 is designed to support students as they complete English 160.
This is a challenging course that requires students to make critical reading and writing connections, to shape and communicate meaning, and to meet the demands of academic writing conventions, including demonstration of intent and awareness of rhetorical and grammatical choices. English 159 provides an individualized space distinct from (but also connected to) the space of English 160. Students will discuss and reflect on the expectations for college writing, workshop drafts of English 160 writing projects, review their English 160 instructors’ feedback, and discuss strategies for revision and editing.160 COURSES
ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 45819
Days/Time: ARRANGED ONLINE
Instructor: Cheryl McKearin
When confronted with new and unfamiliar writing assignments, many of us suddenly freeze up, or worse, experience the dreaded writer’s block that only seems to surface during finals week. This semester, we’ll learn how to write anything! Just kidding – that would be impossible…or is it? What do college students need to know to write successfully? What are the key elements of writing in your major? How do we get started in writing anything? This writing-centered course focuses on writing in familiar genres that you’ll encounter throughout your academic and professional life: the narrative, the analysis, and the argumentative essay. After completing this course, students will be able to identify genres, understand the purpose and function of different texts, and communicate effectively both in academia and in their future careers.
Some ideas for your writing will come from the readings, discussions with your peers, and classroom activities. Your prior experience and knowledge of culture will be highly valued in this course; therefore, participation will be very important to your success in this class.
Towards the goal of making learning as impactful as possible this semester, and at the same time acknowledging the stress and anxiety you may be feeling about taking an online asynchronous course, we will strive to abide by two overarching principles in this class:
1. engage in clear and frequent two-way communication regarding my expectations of you, the class workflow, and unexpected challenges arising that may impede your participation;
2. build an inclusive learning community in which we all abide by the same ground rules and ethical code of conduct.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 11462
Days/Time: ARRANGED ONLINE
Instructor: Nicholas Dertinger
Department Approval needed.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 11601
Days/Time: ARRANGED ONLINE
Instructor: Nicholas Dertinger
Department Approval Needed.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 11832
Days/Time: ARRANGED ONLINE
Instructor: Nicholas Dertinger
Department Approval NeededENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 45821
Days/Time: ARRANGED ONLINE
Instructor: Katharine Romero
This online asynchronous course takes place fully online through Blackboard (uic.blackboard.com). You will log into our course site using your NetID and password. On our course site, you will find the syllabus with all activities and course material. Over the semester, our course is organized into weekly modules containing lecture videos, reading and writing assignments and activities as we write our four major projects: the literacy narrative, rhetorical analysis, argumentative essay, and reflective essay.
Please note that this is not a self-paced course. While none of this course work will require you to be online at a particular time, we will have firm, weekly deadlines for completing activities and assignments along with two required writing center visits. In this course, you will learn genre conventions of academic writing, citing in MLA Style, and rhetorical concepts to prepare you for your university coursework and beyond. I look forward to working with you!ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 45820
Days/Time: ARRANGED ONLINE
Instructor: Katharine Romero
This online asynchronous course takes place fully online through Blackboard (uic.blackboard.com). You will log into our course site using your NetID and password. On our course site, you will find the syllabus with all activities and course material. Over the semester, our course is organized into weekly modules containing lecture videos, reading and writing assignments and activities as we write our four major projects: the literacy narrative, rhetorical analysis, argumentative essay, and reflective essay.
Please note that this is not a self-paced course. While none of this course work will require you to be online at a particular time, we will have firm, weekly deadlines for completing activities and assignments along with two required writing center visits. In this course, you will learn genre conventions of academic writing, citing in MLA Style, and rhetorical concepts to prepare you for your university coursework and beyond. I look forward to working with you!ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 46714
Days/Time: ARRANGED ONLINE
Instructor: Katharine Romero
This online asynchronous course takes place fully online through Blackboard (uic.blackboard.com). You will log into our course site using your NetID and password. On our course site, you will find the syllabus with all activities and course material. Over the semester, our course is organized into weekly modules containing lecture videos, reading and writing assignments and activities as we write our four major projects: the literacy narrative, rhetorical analysis, argumentative essay, and reflective essay.
Please note that this is not a self-paced course. While none of this course work will require you to be online at a particular time, we will have firm, weekly deadlines for completing activities and assignments along with two required writing center visits. In this course, you will learn genre conventions of academic writing, citing in MLA Style, and rhetorical concepts to prepare you for your university coursework and beyond. I look forward to working with you!ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts Environments
CRN: 11841
Days/Time: MW 8:00-9:15
Instructor: John Goldbach
Critical thinking begins with an environment. To understand something, we first must understand something about its surroundings and conditions of possibility. A phenomenon takes place within a given context, an environment, and thinking critically requires that we first understand something about this context and the conditions under which the taking place of the phenomenon is possible. A human being, for example, lives within a certain natural environment, and to think critically about being human requires that we first understand something about the environmental conditions in which a human being lives and under which a human being flourish.
This course is devoted to the study of environments. From the air and water of the natural environment to the social media platforms and cellphone apps of the digital environment, it will focus on environmental contexts and conditions to foster independent critical thinking and writing skills. It is divided into four sections: natural environments, built environments, cultural environments, and digital environments. The first section will address various questions concerning ecology, climate change and the Anthropocene; the second will touch on issues of urban living and combined and uneven geographical development; the third will discuss language use, the culture industry, and politics and ideology; and the fourth will touch on the Internet, social media, and technological advances.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:Unfinished Business: How the Past Shapes the Present
CRN: 46713
Days/Time: MW 8:00-9:15
Instructor: Kris Chen
This synchronous online course will explore key events in the United States that occurred in the second half of the twentieth century that have ties to present-day social issues. This is a heavily history-oriented writing class. Topics discussed in class with include (but are not limited to): vaccines, civil rights, key Supreme Court cases, education, environmental protections, LGBTQ+, political corruption, reproductive rights, unions, and voting. In this class, you will write an op-ed piece, a film review, and an argumentative essay. The final paper for this class will be a reflective essay. Short writing assignments and peer reviews are also incorporated into the class.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 23296
Days/Time: MW 8:00-9:15
Instructor: Zara Imran
This course will explore the central questions regarding Otherness as a concept and phenomenon. What do we mean by the ‘other’? How and why do people, cultures, and societies create others amongst themselves? How are these others understood and represented in different mediums and across time?
In seeing how the other as a category is self-created and one that fluctuates, we will try to critically reflect upon our own selves. The other is never created in a vacuum and is always described against and through ‘the self’. Reflection upon the self is crucial to understand what historic and present functions categories of ‘others’ play in our lives. To begin to think about these questions this course will largely be divided into four thematic modules. Each module will try to grapple with these questions whilst we focus on different forms of otherness.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing Home
CRN: 11828
Days/Time: MW 8:00-9:15
Instructor: Ryan Nordle
How do we define ‘home’? Where are the limits of a home? How do we transition from one home to the next? Is home a feeling? Is it a place? Is it people? This course will take these as its guiding questions. We will explore the concept of home through the process of writing and develop our writing process through the concept of home. While this course will broadly instruct on principles of academic writing, you will specifically learn about and demonstrate competence in writing within four genres: personal narrative, photo essay, argumentative essay, and reflective essay. These four writing projects will be the focus of the units in this course, all designed to prepare your writing for entering public and academic spheres.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 11766
Days/Time: MW 8:00-9:15
Instructor: Hanna KhanENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 30667
Days/Time: MW 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Krista MuratoreENGL 160 Academic Writing I
CRN: 41816
Days/Time: MW 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Seunghyun Shin
In this section of English 160, we will examine non-fiction literary genres. As a tutorial composition course designed for freshmen who came to the university to try to carve a new life, through the next fifteen weeks, you will be guided to the world of fundamental writing by working on four projects: Memoir, Editorial, Indie Game Review, and Reflection. All semester long you will work step-by-step writing about yourself, your community, what you love, and ultimately, what you want to do as a young scholar. Our class will function as a collective writing community where reading, research, philosophy, theory, controversial issues, and your own writing will be shared and discussed daily. Academic writing is a process that develops because of critical thinking and critical reading, and it takes shape via the ever-continuing process of both creative and critical thinking.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing Home
CRN: 38996
Days/Time: MW 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Ryan Nordle
How do we define ‘home’? Where are the limits of a home? How do we transition from one home to the next? Is home a feeling? Is it a place? Is it people? This course will take these as its guiding questions. We will explore the concept of home through the process of writing and develop our writing process through the concept of home. While this course will broadly instruct on principles of academic writing, you will specifically learn about and demonstrate competence in writing within four genres: personal narrative, photo essay, argumentative essay, and reflective essay. These four writing projects will be the focus of the units in this course, all designed to prepare your writing for entering public and academic spheres.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Unfinished Business: How the Past Shapes the Present
CRN: 46733 ONLINE
Days/Time: MW 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Kris Chen
This synchronous online course will explore key events in the United States that occurred in the second half of the twentieth century that have ties to present-day social issues. This is a heavily history-oriented writing class. Topics discussed in class with include (but are not limited to): vaccines, civil rights, key Supreme Court cases, education, environmental protections, LGBTQ+, political corruption, reproductive rights, unions, and voting. In this class, you will write an op-ed piece, a film review, and an argumentative essay. The final paper for this class will be a reflective essay. Short writing assignments and peer reviews are also incorporated into the class.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Talking Back: Reading, Writing, and Daring to Disagree
CRN: 46866
Days/Time: MW 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Daniel Barton
Writing is about choosing the proper words and arranging them carefully. Community and sustainability are words used so often in public contexts that we often forget what they mean. In this class, we’ll begin by examining the concept of community. You’ll consider in a Personal Essay what makes a community, and which is one most important to you. You will also examine the issues related to sustainability that exist in your particular community through conducting an Interview and writing an Argumentative Essay. For the purpose of this class, sustainability will be understood using the Oxfam Doughnut model, which proposes that economic growth should be balanced with environmental protection and social justice. Your interview of someone from your community should help you uncover issues connected to economic growth in relation to environmental protection and social justice. This will then serve as a starting point for an Argumentative Essay where you explain specific issues connected to sustainability in your community and how those issues might best be addressed. The final project of the course, a Multimedia Project, will be a reflection on the process of learning more about sustainability and the barriers that exist to making more sustainable communities a reality.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 30663
Days/Time: MW 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Zara Imran
“This course will explore the central questions regarding Otherness as a concept and phenomenon. What do we mean by the ‘other’? How and why do people, cultures, and societies create others amongst themselves? How are these others understood and represented in different mediums and across time?
In seeing how the other as a category is self-created and one that fluctuates, we will try to critically reflect upon our own selves. The other is never created in a vacuum and is always described against and through ‘the self’. Reflection upon the self is crucial to understand what historic and present functions categories of ‘others’ play in our lives. To begin to think about these questions this course will largely be divided into four thematic modules. Each module will try to grapple with these questions whilst we focus on different forms of otherness.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 48885
Days/Time: MW 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Mark MagoonENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 28744
Days/Time: MW 3:00-4:15
Instructor: Daniel Barton
Writing is about choosing the proper words and arranging them carefully. Community and sustainability are words used so often in public contexts that we often forget what they mean. In this class, we’ll begin by examining the concept of community. You’ll consider in a Personal Essay what makes a community, and which is one most important to you. You will also examine the issues related to sustainability that exist in your particular community through conducting an Interview and writing an Argumentative Essay. For the purpose of this class, sustainability will be understood using the Oxfam Doughnut model, which proposes that economic growth should be balanced with environmental protection and social justice. Your interview of someone from your community should help you uncover issues connected to economic growth in relation to environmental protection and social justice. This will then serve as a starting point for an Argumentative Essay where you explain specific issues connected to sustainability in your community and how those issues might best be addressed. The final project of the course, a Multimedia Project, will be a reflection on the process of learning more about sustainability and the barriers that exist to making more sustainable communities a reality.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 39017
Days/Time: MW 3:00-4:15
Instructor: Chris Glomski
In “Popular Music and Politics,” we will investigate subjects that may find us debating such questions as: “How does popular music reflect and comment on contemporaneous social and political issues?” “What might something so basic, so essential, as the music we listen to reveal about our social class or political beliefs?” “Can mere ideas or artistic creations ever be dangerous enough to warrant regulation?” While these questions provide the context for our writing, our goal is to learn about the conventions of academic discourse and writing, not just about pop music or politics. Therefore, in addition to our inquiries into these subjects, we will also spend time learning to engage actively with course texts, to work on sharpening mechanics, and to write effectively in a variety of genres. All of this will culminate in a final reflective project pertaining to your experiences in English 160.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 27285
Days/Time: MW 3:00-4:15
Instructor: Mark Bennett
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been in our lives for several years now in ways we don’t even think twice about, from autocorrect typing to targeted marketing ads to Siri and Alexa on our everyday devices. Yet large language models like Chat GPT, that generate infinite possibilities of text instantly based on the instructions we give, already seem to have changed the nature of writing, research, and education as we’ve always known it. Some serious people predict that all-powerful, uncontrollable AI will enslave or destroy humanity, a scenario right out of *The Matrix* or *The Avengers: Age of Ultron.* Or will it? Maybe AI is just another very neat tool we can use to help us in our daily lives, and develop our writing, like anything else that’s come along.
Whatever our future with AI, it is up to us to set the terms for how we deal with it. And that’s the work we’ll be doing in this English 160 course. We’ll write about AI and write *with* AI. Yes, we’ll dare to use Chat GPT and other free AI programs to draft writing that we’ll use for class, and compare it to the writing we ourselves produce without AI assistance. You’ll write an analytical essay about the possible benefits and drawbacks of AI in all forms. You’ll write a code of conduct for the ethical uses of AI at UIC. You’ll write a research-driven argumentative essay about the uses of AI in your own chosen profession or field of study. And you’ll reflect upon it all in your *own* writing, coming to a greater understanding of how AI might affect your life now and in the future.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Gentrification
CRN: 46867
Days/Time: MW 3:00-4:15
Instructor: Sian Roberts
Gentrification is sweeping through America. Perhaps you have observed it yourself in Chicago and its surrounding suburbs. Critics of gentrification see it as the destroyer of neighborhoods, believing that it represents a form of social cleansing and institutionalized racism. Supporters of gentrification think it is the savior of cities and claim that change is inevitable. They believe that the renovation of certain neighborhoods brings prosperity and increased public safety.
In this ENGL 160 class, we will enter the debate about gentrification through class discussions and four writing projects. This course aims to give you opportunities to practice the kind of writing and speaking skills that will serve you for a lifetime.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 11337
Days/Time: MW 4:30-5:45
Instructor: PendingENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 32836
Days/Time: MW 4:30-5:45
Instructor: Gina GemmelENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 41624
Days/Time: MW 4:30-5:45
Instructor: PendingENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 46868
Days/Time: MW 4:30-5:45
Instructor: Doug Sheldon
Crime, Detection, and Scandal:
In this course we will examine the representations of illegality within texts presented in popular form. We will interrogate the complex definitions of each genre and how we use it to understand illegality in and written, visual, and verbal context. Working with texts that range from mystery, scandal history, graphic novels, and film adaptations, this course will attempt to produce plausible answers to the following questions: What defines a crime or scandal? What value is placed on the detective or investigator as a hero? Who benefits from creating objects of illegality? How do the separate modes of presentation (text v. film v. comic) engage us with these cultural concepts? Students in this class will be able to use these concepts to examine our cultural and legal systems, which produce, value, and challenge these genres and use those skills to produce texts that interrogate and investigate those systemsENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Gentrification
CRN: 21630
Days/Time: MW 4:30-5:45
Instructor: Sian Roberts
Gentrification is sweeping through America. Perhaps you have observed it yourself in Chicago and its surrounding suburbs. Critics of gentrification see it as the destroyer of neighborhoods, believing that it represents a form of social cleansing and institutionalized racism. Supporters of gentrification think it is the savior of cities and claim that change is inevitable. They believe that the renovation of certain neighborhoods brings prosperity and increased public safety.
In these 160 classes, we will enter the debate about gentrification through class discussions and four writing projects. This course aims to give you opportunities to practice the kind of writing and speaking skills that will serve you for a lifetime.ENGL 160 Academic Writing 1: Writing in Public and Academic Contexts
CRN: 11496
Days/Time: MWF 8:00-8:50
Instructor: Scott Grunow
Information is not knowledge. – Albert Einstein
The readings in this course will explore a range of issues, such as relationships with neighbors during the pandemic and the role of Amazon in the global economy, that are and will be relevant to your experience as citizens of the UIC campus community of thinkers, readers, and writers. You will be embarking a journey that will begin with closely observing and describing information. Then, we will focus on analyzing this information in relation to multiple experiences and viewpoints, and finally, you will develop the confidence to make the move from information to knowledge, though developing skills in applying, analyzing, and evaluating, and ultimately, writing argument-based assignments. We will emphasize, overall, in this class, making the transition to college-level thinking, reading, and writing through a range of interactive activities in and outside of class.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 11796
Days/Time: MWF 8:00-8:50
Instructor: Devyn AndrewsENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 11835
Days/Time: MWF 8:00-8:50
Instructor: Jack Hopper
What makes a story good? Some might argue that it requires a tight plot, tense conflict, and deep characters, but not all stories do all three of these things well. Others might argue that, since all art is subjective, it is up to personal taste, but there are stories that we can generally agree are good and bad. In fact, some stories are so bad that we consider them to be good. Humans spend at least as much time writing about stories as making them and there still is no good answer to this question. Good and bad is a single axis, and it is clearly an inadequate way of explaining why we like stories. Stories are objects that can be concretely talked about, and enjoyment of those stories is subjective. In other words, there is more context than good or bad can communicate.
This class will approach stories as things that exist in context, that is, they speak to each other, they speak to us, and they speak our contemporary world. We start with the Narrative Dialogue, which will help you to start seeing media from other perspectives, as well as the rhetorical techniques others use to talk about it. Then, the Comparative Analysis will teach you the various ways in which stories interact with each other. The Argumentative Essay uses skills learned from the previous writing projects to examine how a particular piece of media exists today. The last project is your Final Reflection, your opportunity to look inward and reflect upon the ways in which you have grown as a writer and reader of stories throughout the semester.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 38957
Days/Time: MWF 8:00-8:50
Instructor: Josie Visser
Throughout this course, we will analyze work surrounding the overarching theme, “Women in the Workforce.” You will be expected to read and discuss materials in terms of their overall reliability, effectiveness, and quality within their genre. Some overarching questions we will discuss throughout the course include: What are common struggles women and minorities face in the workforce? What structures are in place that allow workplace discrimination to be a problem in the US? What is the importance of representation in the workplace and beyond?
Throughout the semester, you will both evaluate and work within a variety of genres in hopes of
becoming better readers and writers. You will write roughly 20 pages of work in the following genres throughout the course: speech, film analysis, argumentative essay, and reflective essay. You need not master each of these genres nor the course topic by the end of the course; rather, the goal is to learn about and experiment with these genres to develop your writing skills and explore the course theme of “Women in the Workforce” in a meaningful way.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: How Stories Still Shape Us: Reading Folklore in A Contemporary World
CRN: 41782
Days/Time: MWF 8:00-8:50
Instructor: PendingENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 46731
Days/Time: MWF 8:00-8:50
Instructor: PendingENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 46736
Days/Time: MWF 8:00-8:50
Instructor: Eliza Marley
Folklore is described as stories belonging to a specific culture or group of people detailing beliefs, customs, and tales of a community passed down through the generations. There are many stories which have been condensed and transformed over the years; repurposed to serve changing societies. Reading Folklore can be a glimpse into the past, seeing how people practiced agriculture, crafted musical instruments, or understood their changing environments. Folklore is an asset for preserving the cultural legacies of groups all across the globe and reading these stories is a valuable tool for seeking to understand our current reality and the trajectory of social issues. In this class we will be focused on writing development. We will use Folklore as a framing tool for looking at the structural and stylistic components of different genres of writing and then translate those skills into our own projects. My hope is that as we go through this semester the stories we look at will be an enjoyable read and a helpful foil for our writing assignments.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 11558
Days/Time: MWF 9:00-9:50
Instructor: Wes McGehee
When it comes to stand-up comedy, and language in general, rhetoric is the most important tool you can use to get your point across with absolute success. Comedians use rhetoric and its tools to their advantage to help enhance an already funny thought, situation, or observation, and make it even funnier, like how politicians use rhetoric to their advantage to convince people to vote for them; in its basic form, analyzing rhetoric is like saying: “Yeah, we see what you’re trying to convince us of–but how are you saying it, and is the way you’re saying it convincing enough to support?” Once you understand rhetoric and how it is used to persuade people to a certain way of thinking, you can use that tool to your advantage in many different career fields. This is why rhetoric is not only important in stand-up comedy and English, but in life in general. In this course, you will learn how to use and analyze rhetoric through watching stand-up comedy. You will leave this course with the ability to use rhetoric to your advantage when it comes to persuading people to see your point of view, as well as to understand how others try to persuade you to see theirs. During this course, you will be writing a Personal Narrative, a Rhetorical Analysis, an Argumentative Essay, and a Reflective Essay: all of which are common genres used by stand-up comedians to get their point across.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 11801
Days/Time: MWF 9:00-9:50
Instructor: PendingENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 24124
Days/Time: MWF 9:00-9:50
Instructor: Devyn AndrewsENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 27282
Days/Time: MWF 9:00-9:50
Instructor: Jack Hopper
What makes a story good? Some might argue that it requires a tight plot, tense conflict, and deep characters, but not all stories do all three of these things well. Others might argue that, since all art is subjective, it is up to personal taste, but there are stories that we can generally agree are good and bad. In fact, some stories are so bad that we consider them to be good. Humans spend at least as much time writing about stories as making them and there still is no good answer to this question. Good and bad is a single axis, and it is clearly an inadequate way of explaining why we like stories. Stories are objects that can be concretely talked about, and enjoyment of those stories is subjective. In other words, there is more context than good or bad can communicate.
This class will approach stories as things that exist in context, that is, they speak to each other, they speak to us, and they speak our contemporary world. We start with the Narrative Dialogue, which will help you to start seeing media from other perspectives, as well as the rhetorical techniques others use to talk about it. Then, the Comparative Analysis will teach you the various ways in which stories interact with each other. The Argumentative Essay uses skills learned from the previous writing projects to examine how a particular piece of media exists today. The last project is your Final Reflection, your opportunity to look inward and reflect upon the ways in which you have grown as a writer and reader of stories throughout the semester.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 28743
Days/Time: MWF 9:00-9:50
Instructor: Josie Visser
Throughout this course, we will analyze work surrounding the overarching theme, “Women in the Workforce.” You will be expected to read and discuss materials in terms of their overall reliability, effectiveness, and quality within their genre. Some overarching questions we will discuss throughout the course include: What are common struggles women and minorities face in the workforce? What structures are in place that allow workplace discrimination to be a problem in the US? What is the importance of representation in the workplace and beyond?
Throughout the semester, you will both evaluate and work within a variety of genres in hopes of
becoming better readers and writers. You will write roughly 20 pages of work in the following genres throughout the course: speech, film analysis, argumentative essay, and reflective essay. You need not master each of these genres nor the course topic by the end of the course; rather, the goal is to learn about and experiment with these genres to develop your writing skills and explore the course theme of “Women in the Workforce” in a meaningful way.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 11526
Days/Time: MWF 9:00-9:50
Instructor: Denise Waite
Every landscape, whether it is a stretch of city or countryside, has its own character. Our experience in a landscape helps inform who we are. In this course you will learn to evoke the spirit of a place to make your writing more effective and compelling. You will keep a journal of your experience in a place of your choosing in the Chicagoland area, collecting sensory details and reflections. You will learn to make an argument about this space, why for instance it should be conserved or protected from gentrification. Ultimately, you will reflect on the landscape and your experience in it as part of your literacy journey. In the course you will write an informal letter, a familiar essay, an argumentative essay and a reflective essay on your literacy journey.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 11727
Days/Time: MWF 9:00-9:50
Instructor: Melissa MaceroENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 46792
Days/Time: MWF 9:00-9:50
Instructor: Adam Jones
This class will introduce you to academic writing by providing you with strategies and knowledge that you can use during your academic career at UIC and beyond. In this class, you will employ a variety of reading and writing strategies to draft and revise four major writing projects: an analytic presentation on a comic, two movie reviews, an argumentative essay, and a self-reflective essay. Each of these projects will revolve around the recent rise of geek culture. In order to better understand the aesthetic and political issues raised by geek culture’s having gone mainstream, we will examine comics, movies, movie reviews, formal analyses, and argumentative essays. Along the way, we will focus on areas key to reading and writing at the college level, including genre, form, rhetoric, and argumentation.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: This, Not That: The Art of Making Distinctions
CRN: 11339
Days/Time: MWF 9:00-9:50
Instructor: Joseph Staten
This class is based on two core ideas: 1. Good, clear writing is nothing other than good, clear thinking. 2. The basis of good, clear thinking is the ability to distinguish—to make “”distinctions””—between two things that are different from one another. Distinctions can be as trivial and ordinary as “”basketball vs. baseball,”” or as complex as “”good vs. evil,”” and it doesn’t take long to discover how foundational distinctions are not only to thinking and writing but to society itself. In this class, we will develop and sharpen our capacity for distinction making—and therefore our capacity for understanding our world as well.
Readings will be drawn from a diverse range of clear thinkers (and wonderfully clear writers), from ancient philosophers such as Aristotle to contemporary essayists such as Joan Didion and James Baldwin. We will apply the lessons learned from these writers to four genre-based writing assignments, which may include memoir, arts criticism, argumentative essay, reflective essay, and/or others.ENGL 160 Academic Writing 1: Writing in Public and Academic Contexts
CRN: 11792
Days/Time: MWF 9:00-9:50
Instructor: Scott Grunow
Information is not knowledge. – Albert Einstein
The readings in this course will explore a range of issues, such as relationships with neighbors during the pandemic and the role of Amazon in the global economy, that are and will be relevant to your experience as citizens of the UIC campus community of thinkers, readers, and writers. You will be embarking a journey that will begin with closely observing and describing information. Then, we will focus on analyzing this information in relation to multiple experiences and viewpoints, and finally, you will develop the confidence to make the move from information to knowledge, though developing skills in applying, analyzing, and evaluating, and ultimately, writing argument-based assignments. We will emphasize, overall, in this class, making the transition to college-level thinking, reading, and writing through a range of interactive activities in and outside of class.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: How Stories Still Shape Us: Reading Folklore in A Contemporary World
CRN: 11399
Days/Time: MWF 9:00-9:50
Instructor: Eliza Marley
Folklore is described as stories belonging to a specific culture or group of people detailing beliefs, customs, and tales of a community passed down through the generations. There are many stories which have been condensed and transformed over the years; repurposed to serve changing societies. Reading Folklore can be a glimpse into the past, seeing how people practiced agriculture, crafted musical instruments, or understood their changing environments. Folklore is an asset for preserving the cultural legacies of groups all across the globe and reading these stories is a valuable tool for seeking to understand our current reality and the trajectory of social issues. In this class we will be focused on writing development. We will use Folklore as a framing tool for looking at the structural and stylistic components of different genres of writing and then translate those skills into our own projects. My hope is that as we go through this semester the stories we look at will be an enjoyable read and a helpful foil for our writing assignments.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 46734
Days/Time: MWF 10:00-10:50
Instructor: Marc BaezENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 46722
Days/Time: MWF 10:00-10:50
Instructor: Adam Jones
This class will introduce you to academic writing by providing you with strategies and knowledge that you can use during your academic career at UIC and beyond. In this class, you will employ a variety of reading and writing strategies to draft and revise four major writing projects: an analytic presentation on a comic, two movie reviews, an argumentative essay, and a self-reflective essay. Each of these projects will revolve around the recent rise of geek culture. In order to better understand the aesthetic and political issues raised by geek culture’s having gone mainstream, we will examine comics, movies, movie reviews, formal analyses, and argumentative essays. Along the way, we will focus on areas key to reading and writing at the college level, including genre, form, rhetoric, and argumentation.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 46735
Days/Time: MWF 10:00-10:50
Instructor: Wes McGehee
When it comes to stand-up comedy, and language in general, rhetoric is the most important tool you can use to get your point across with absolute success. Comedians use rhetoric and its tools to their advantage to help enhance an already funny thought, situation, or observation, and make it even funnier, like how politicians use rhetoric to their advantage to convince people to vote for them; in its basic form, analyzing rhetoric is like saying: “Yeah, we see what you’re trying to convince us of–but how are you saying it, and is the way you’re saying it convincing enough to support?” Once you understand rhetoric and how it is used to persuade people to a certain way of thinking, you can use that tool to your advantage in many different career fields. This is why rhetoric is not only important in stand-up comedy and English, but in life in general. In this course, you will learn how to use and analyze rhetoric through watching stand-up comedy. You will leave this course with the ability to use rhetoric to your advantage when it comes to persuading people to see your point of view, as well as to understand how others try to persuade you to see theirs. During this course, you will be writing a Personal Narrative, a Rhetorical Analysis, an Argumentative Essay, and a Reflective Essay: all of which are common genres used by stand-up comedians to get their point across.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Haunted People, Places, and Spaces
CRN: 46717
Days/Time: MWF 10:00-10:50
Instructor: Carla Barger
In this class you’ll think and write about hauntings in film and literature. You’ll look at adaptations of authors like the Brontes, Dickens, and Poe and films like The Others. You’ll also read and discuss ideas by thinkers like Sigmund Freud and Avery Gordon as well as folklore from cultures around the world that attempt to explain how and why people and places are haunted.
Our theme is hauntings, but your main concern will be learning to identify and analyze different genres so that you can communicate effectively to various audiences. By the end of the semester, you’ll be able to discern genre conventions and deploy them successfully in both academic and professional settings, and you will have gained valuable project and time management skills that will prove useful to you throughout your college career and beyond.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts: Pop Music and Politics
CRN: 41625
Days/Time: MWF 10:00-10:50
Instructor: Chris Glomski
In “Popular Music and Politics,” we will investigate subjects that may find us debating such questions as: “How does popular music reflect and comment on contemporaneous social and political issues?” “What might something so basic, so essential, as the music we listen to reveal about our social class or political beliefs?” “Can mere ideas or artistic creations ever be dangerous enough to warrant regulation?” While these questions provide the context for our writing, our goal is to learn about the conventions of academic discourse and writing, not just about pop music or politics. Therefore, in addition to our inquiries into these subjects, we will also spend time learning to engage actively with course texts, to work on sharpening mechanics, and to write effectively in a variety of genres. All of this will culminate in a final reflective project pertaining to your experiences in English 160.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Race, Gender, and Digital Culture
CRN: 11551
Days/Time: MWF 10:00-10:50
Instructor: Denise Waite
Every landscape, whether it is a stretch of city or countryside, has its own character. Our experience in a landscape helps inform who we are. In this course you will learn to evoke the spirit of a place to make your writing more effective and compelling. You will keep a journal of your experience in a place of your choosing in the Chicagoland area, collecting sensory details and reflections. You will learn to make an argument about this space, why for instance it should be conserved or protected from gentrification. Ultimately, you will reflect on the landscape and your experience in it as part of your literacy journey. In the course you will write an informal letter, a familiar essay, an argumentative essay and a reflective essay on your literacy journey.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing the Image
CRN: 46725
Days/Time: MWF 10:00-10:50
Instructor: Kabel Mishka Ligot
In this class, you will explore the many and varied ways humans see, read, and engage with the still image, particularly paintings, illustrations, and photographs. In our meetings, will discuss and question how still images create meanings and arguments out of the world we live in. Through ekphrastic essays, reviews, and comparative genre studies, you will learn to articulate your thoughts and feelings about visuals that we encounter online, in museums, in books, in popular media, and in everyday life. We will also discover ways to integrate meaningful visual aspects in our own rhetorical and argumentative moves. This is not an art history course: you are not required to have any background in art theory or visual art to sufficiently participate in the class.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 11550
Days/Time: MWF 10:00-10:50
Instructor: Kian BergstromENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 11393
Days/Time: MWF 10:00-10:50
Instructor: Heather McShane
We are experiencing great social changes the world over, and zines (pronounced like in “magazines”) give us a way to connect with ourselves and other people. Zines are short, often self-published booklets, historically in print and photocopied, but which have become increasingly available as downloadable pdfs. In this introductory college writing course, the first major writing project will call for you to compare and contrast zines. Then you will turn to contemporary sociopolitical issues, reading deeply, and connecting the readings to yourself through writing. You will grow aware of your own development as a writer by creating multiple drafts of each of the four major writing projects, the other three being a rhetorical analysis of a recent online newspaper article, an argumentative essay on an issue of your own choosing, and an author’s/artist’s statement (about the final zine you create). Throughout the course, you will be taught zine-making methods and learn more about zines. Special Collections librarians, zinesters, and former students will visit with our class. You will work towards making a final zine, which you will have the option of donating to UIC’s Daley Library.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 11332
Days/Time: MWF 10:00-10:50
Instructor: Anton Svynarenko
As scholar Edward Said famously put it, “Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience.” In this class, you will be urged to think, talk, and, most importantly, write about the experiences of forced, or at least reluctant, migration in all their strangeness. What strategies, whether political or rhetorical or artistic, can be deployed by the uprooted to help them make sense of themselves in unfamiliar, frequently hostile surroundings, and how can what Said calls the “essential sadness” of exile–including its damage to one’s identity–be mitigated by the possibilities of self-reinvention? What are some alternatives to the conventional choice between cultural assimilation and diasporic conservation? What kinds of literary expression have been, historically, given to the privations, invigorations, and various maneuvers of displacement by authors writing in a strange land, sometimes in a foreign language? Wending from the ancient practices of banishment to the recent global refugee crises, from legal underpinnings to aesthetic ramifications, from poetry to film to philosophy, you will explore the many feelings associated with involuntary expulsion–homesickness, nostalgia, a sense of belonging lost, regained, and redefined–as you also get acquainted with the requirements and empowerments of different genres, both academic and otherwise.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 46737
Days/Time: MWF 11:00-11:50
Instructor: Anton Svynarenko
As scholar Edward Said famously put it, “Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience.” In this class, you will be urged to think, talk, and, most importantly, write about the experiences of forced, or at least reluctant, migration in all their strangeness. What strategies, whether political or rhetorical or artistic, can be deployed by the uprooted to help them make sense of themselves in unfamiliar, frequently hostile surroundings, and how can what Said calls the “essential sadness” of exile–including its damage to one’s identity–be mitigated by the possibilities of self-reinvention? What are some alternatives to the conventional choice between cultural assimilation and diasporic conservation? What kinds of literary expression have been, historically, given to the privations, invigorations, and various maneuvers of displacement by authors writing in a strange land, sometimes in a foreign language? Wending from the ancient practices of banishment to the recent global refugee crises, from legal underpinnings to aesthetic ramifications, from poetry to film to philosophy, you will explore the many feelings associated with involuntary expulsion–homesickness, nostalgia, a sense of belonging lost, regained, and redefined–as you also get acquainted with the requirements and empowerments of different genres, both academic and otherwise.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Haunted People, Places, and Spaces
CRN: 46715
Days/Time: MWF 11:00-11:50
Instructor: Carla Barger
In this class you’ll think and write about hauntings in film and literature. You’ll look at adaptations of authors like the Brontes, Dickens, and Poe and films like The Others. You’ll also read and discuss ideas by thinkers like Sigmund Freud and Avery Gordon as well as folklore from cultures around the world that attempt to explain how and why people and places are haunted.
Our theme is hauntings, but your main concern will be learning to identify and analyze different genres so that you can communicate effectively to various audiences. By the end of the semester, you’ll be able to discern genre conventions and deploy them successfully in both academic and professional settings, and you will have gained valuable project and time management skills that will prove useful to you throughout your college career and beyond.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts: Pop Music and Politics
CRN: 11570
Days/Time: MWF 11:00-11:50
Instructor: Chris Glomski
In “Popular Music and Politics,” we will investigate subjects that may find us debating such questions as: “How does popular music reflect and comment on contemporaneous social and political issues?” “What might something so basic, so essential, as the music we listen to reveal about our social class or political beliefs?” “Can mere ideas or artistic creations ever be dangerous enough to warrant regulation?” While these questions provide the context for our writing, our goal is to learn about the conventions of academic discourse and writing, not just about pop music or politics. Therefore, in addition to our inquiries into these subjects, we will also spend time learning to engage actively with course texts, to work on sharpening mechanics, and to write effectively in a variety of genres. All of this will culminate in a final reflective project pertaining to your experiences in English 160.ENGL 160 Academic Writing 1: Writing in Public and Academic Contexts
CRN: 42863
Days/Time: MWF 11:00-11:50
Instructor: Scott Grunow
Information is not knowledge. – Albert Einstein
The readings in this course will explore a range of issues, such as relationships with neighbors during the pandemic and the role of Amazon in the global economy, that are and will be relevant to your experience as citizens of the UIC campus community of thinkers, readers, and writers. You will be embarking a journey that will begin with closely observing and describing information. Then, we will focus on analyzing this information in relation to multiple experiences and viewpoints, and finally, you will develop the confidence to make the move from information to knowledge, though developing skills in applying, analyzing, and evaluating, and ultimately, writing argument-based assignments. We will emphasize, overall, in this class, making the transition to college-level thinking, reading, and writing through a range of interactive activities in and outside of class.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in academic and Public Context
CRN: 46868
Days/Time: MWF 11:00-11:50
Instructor: Doug Sheldon
Crime, Detection, and Scandal:
In this course we will examine the representations of illegality within texts presented in popular form. We will interrogate the complex definitions of each genre and how we use it to understand illegality in and written, visual, and verbal context. Working with texts that range from mystery, scandal history, graphic novels, and film adaptations, this course will attempt to produce plausible answers to the following questions: What defines a crime or scandal? What value is placed on the detective or investigator as a hero? Who benefits from creating objects of illegality? How do the separate modes of presentation (text v. film v. comic) engage us with these cultural concepts? Students in this class will be able to use these concepts to examine our cultural and legal systems, which produce, value, and challenge these genres and use those skills to produce texts that interrogate and investigate those systems.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing the Image
CRN: 46716
Days/Time: MWF 11:00-11:50
Instructor: Kabel Mishka Ligot
In this class, you will explore the many and varied ways humans see, read, and engage with the still image, particularly paintings, illustrations, and photographs. In our meetings, will discuss and question how still images create meanings and arguments out of the world we live in. Through ekphrastic essays, reviews, and comparative genre studies, you will learn to articulate your thoughts and feelings about visuals that we encounter online, in museums, in books, in popular media, and in everyday life. We will also discover ways to integrate meaningful visual aspects in our own rhetorical and argumentative moves. This is not an art history course: you are not required to have any background in art theory or visual art to sufficiently participate in the class.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 46720
Days/Time: MWF 12:00-12:50 ONLINE
Instructor: Adam Jones
This class will introduce you to academic writing by providing you with strategies and knowledge that you can use during your academic career at UIC and beyond. In this class, you will employ a variety of reading and writing strategies to draft and revise four major writing projects: an analytic presentation on a comic, two movie reviews, an argumentative essay, and a self-reflective essay. Each of these projects will revolve around the recent rise of geek culture. In order to better understand the aesthetic and political issues raised by geek culture’s having gone mainstream, we will examine comics, movies, movie reviews, formal analyses, and argumentative essays. Along the way, we will focus on areas key to reading and writing at the college level, including genre, form, rhetoric, and argumentation.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 11572
Days/Time: MWF 12:00-12:50
Instructor: Justyna BiczENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 30668
Days/Time: MWF 12:00-12:50
Instructor: Melissa MaceroENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts: Music and Popular Culture
CRN: 11803
Days/Time: MWF 12:00-12:50
Instructor: Andrew Middleton
In Woodshedding: What Music Can Teach Us About Writing, we use music as inspiration, jumping off point, and sounding board. The two styles of writing we’ll work with are the personal essay (aka. memoir) and the argumentative or critical essay. In the personal essay, you are free to use the song’s lyrics to reflect on yourself, including such things as events from your life and mental health; they can also help you talk about the broader world (e.g., violence, racism, sexism). In the critical essays, we’ll learn how to make strong, evidence-based arguments and counterarguments about the music itself. This course often helps students realize what a large role music has in their lives.
I believe that everyone can be a good or even great writer with a little help. If high school left you feeling that you had to write with fancy words that you would never otherwise use, I will help show that this isn’t so. Even — especially — when the subject at hand is complex, it is often best to write short clear sentences using familiar words to get your thoughts across. Writing often does not start with writing. Writing often does not start with words at all. Often writing starts with a feeling and the writing of words is an attempt to capture that feeling. Everyone has feelings; not everyone takes the time in the short or long term to make those feelings into words that evoke feelings in other people. This is one thing writing shares with music. Keep in mind that, like getting good at music, any piece of writing will take a few drafts; those afraid to put in the work tell us they’re just bad writers; the truth is that bad writing comes from people giving up too soon. That’s what woodshedding is about.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Art and Social Change
CRN: 46732
Days/Time: MWF 12:00-12:50
Instructor: Mohammed AlQaisi
Words are the only tools you will be given. Learn to use them with originality and care. Value them for their strength and diversity. And remember that somebody out there is listening.” – William Zinsser
In this course you will learn how to effectively express yourself through writing using works of art that address important social issues; you will do this primarily by utilizing and honing your writing skills in four writing projects: a review, an analysis, an argument, and a reflective essay. Through individual and partner work, you will sharpen your ability to edit and revise your writing. You will learn how to navigate and use various academic resources available to you on campus and online. Your assignments will focus on art, specifically movies, paintings and works of literature. By the end of the semester, you should come away with knowledge of writing strategies that will be useful to you throughout your college career.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:Second City: Space & Place in and Around Chicago
RN: 25927
Days/Time: MWF 12:00-12:50
Instructor: Margaux Brown
We are all members of the UIC community, and we come to UIC with our own unique social and cultural backgrounds that shape our experiences, beliefs, and values down to how we express ourselves through written and spoken language. In this course we will explore and consider the spaces and places that are around us from the broad range of the city of Chicago to smaller neighborhoods and communities like UIC. You will write a profile and review that will draw attention to local communities and though an argumentative essay you will draw important attention to an issue that affects a specific local community. Through these different genres and engaging in rhetorical situations around them you will explore and learn the necessary critical reading and writing skills to be successful in your academic career.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Treat Yo Self: Self-Care and Self-Help in 2023
CRN: 27283
Days/Time: MWF 12:00-1250
Instructor: OVI BriciENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 11575 Global
Days/Time: MWF 1:00-1:50
Instructor: Mark BrandENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in and Public Contexts
CRN: 30965
Days/Time: MWF 1:00-1:50
Instructor: Thomas Moore
Movies, music, and stories are something we all love to watch, listen to, and read. They soothe us, make us laugh, and make us cry. What we don’t often think about, though, beyond the way they make us feel, is the fact that these feelings are always accompanied by an interpretation. In this class, we will slow down our process of consuming media and think carefully about the ways in which we interpret it, as well as train ourselves to pay extremely close attention to the ways these works are constructed and the choices the artists and authors make as they create them.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Deep Fried & Delicious: A Taste of the Fast-Food Industry
CRN: 38997
Days/Time: MWF 1:00-1:50
Instructor: Travis Mandell
In this course, we will engage in a semester-long investigation of the Fast-Food Industry and its impacts on society at large (both in the U.S and Globally). We will read texts that interrogate the industry’s influence on culture, economy, environment, and physical health. We will discuss countering points of view on the different issues, ranging from worker minimum wage to the impact of “”food swamps”” in varying communities, and analyze the various debates taking place across different fields of inquiry. Argument is the lifeblood of knowledge and being able to present your own voice is essential to furthering the conversation.
Through lectures, in-class discussions, group writing sessions, debates, and writing projects, this class will prepare you to participate in the academic discourse surrounding any subject you may choose in the future. By understanding rhetoric and the conceptualization of argument, conducting comparative analytic techniques, accessing scientific scholarly content, writing an argumentative essay, and reflecting on your own writing process, you will become well versed in the art of academic writing. We will be reading scholarly essays (peer-reviewed) as well as popular articles to help broaden our understanding of genre/audience regarding the Fast-Food Industry. Ultimately, the purpose of this course is to prepare you for the rest of your academic career at UIC (and beyond), fostering a strong foundation for your academic writing skills and argumentation that can be used in whatever specific discipline/major you pursue.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 42864
Days/Time: MWF 1:00-1:50
Instructor: Keegan Lannon
In the mid-1960s, Marshall McLuhan made the then controversial claim that “the medium is the message.” For McLuhan, he was concerned about the use of the TV as a means for disseminating information, and he argued that the device used to communicate will necessarily change the content and the character of the message. In this course, we will continue McLuhan’s line of inquiry, examining the past, current and (potential) future communication technologies to see how these might influence what we say and how we say it, both in academic and public contexts.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:Second City: Space & Place in and Around Chicago
CRN: 29462
Days/Time: MWF 1:00-1:50
Instructor: Margaux Brown
We are all members of the UIC community, and we come to UIC with our own unique social and cultural backgrounds that shape our experiences, beliefs, and values down to how we express ourselves through written and spoken language. In this course we will explore and consider the spaces and places that are around us from the broad range of the city of Chicago to smaller neighborhoods and communities like UIC. You will write a profile and review that will draw attention to local communities and though an argumentative essay you will draw important attention to an issue that affects a specific local community. Through these different genres and engaging in rhetorical situations around them you will explore and learn the necessary critical reading and writing skills to be successful in your academic career.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts; Writing Towards the Arts
CRN: 11759
Days/Time: MWF 1:00-1:50
Instructor: Jay Yencich
While much of the buzz of the last twenty years has been about the STEM fields—Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics—many universities and secondary schools have recently recognized that a creative component is necessary to spur innovation in those same disciplines. Hence, many have argued for a “Arts” to fill out the acronym—STEAM—thus re-integrating humanities elements traditional to higher education. In this section of English 160, we will be using the foundations of the UIC composition program, focusing on genre and situation, to explore the world of the arts. We will begin with photography and build up writing involvement and critical scrutiny through the worlds of music and film before finally concluding with a work of literature spanning a few hundred pages, be it a novel, a play, a collection of short stories, a book of poems, or a set of essays. Through these lenses, we will examine the status of these art forms, what goes into evaluating them, and their relationship with society at large.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 21750
Days/Time: MWF 1:00-1:50
Instructor: Heather McShane
We are experiencing great social changes the world over, and zines (pronounced like in “magazines”) give us a way to connect with ourselves and other people. Zines are short, often self-published booklets, historically in print and photocopied, but which have become increasingly available as downloadable pdfs. In this introductory college writing course, the first major writing project will call for you to compare and contrast zines. Then you will turn to contemporary sociopolitical issues, reading deeply, and connecting the readings to yourself through writing. You will grow aware of your own development as a writer by creating multiple drafts of each of the four major writing projects, the other three being a rhetorical analysis of a recent online newspaper article, an argumentative essay on an issue of your own choosing, and an author’s/artist’s statement (about the final zine you create). Throughout the course, you will be taught zine-making methods and learn more about zines. Special Collections librarians, zinesters, and former students will visit with our class. You will work towards making a final zine, which you will have the option of donating to UIC’s Daley Library.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 11811
Days/Time: MWF 1:00-1:50
Instructor: Ovi BriciENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 11560
Days/Time: MWF 2:00-2:50
Instructor: Kian BergstromENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 11548 Global
Days/Time: MWF 2:00-2:50
Instructor: Charitianne WilliamsENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 46728
Days/Time: MWF 2:00-2:50
Instructor: Melissa MaceroENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 11788
Days/Time: MWF 2:00-2:50
Instructor: Thomas Moore
Movies, music, and stories are something we all love to watch, listen to, and read. They soothe us, make us laugh, and make us cry. What we don’t often think about, though, beyond the way they make us feel, is the fact that these feelings are always accompanied by an interpretation. In this class, we will slow down our process of consuming media and think carefully about the ways in which we interpret it, as well as train ourselves to pay extremely close attention to the ways these works are constructed and the choices the artists and authors make as they create them.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:Deep Fried & Delicious: A Taste of the Fast-Food Industry
CRN: 11809
Days/Time: MWF 2:00-2:50
Instructor: Travis Mandell
In this course, we will engage in a semester-long investigation of the Fast-Food Industry and its impacts on society at large (both in the U.S and Globally). We will read texts that interrogate the industry’s influence on culture, economy, environment, and physical health. We will discuss countering points of view on the different issues, ranging from worker minimum wage to the impact of “”food swamps”” in varying communities, and analyze the various debates taking place across different fields of inquiry. Argument is the lifeblood of knowledge and being able to present your own voice is essential to furthering the conversation.
Through lectures, in-class discussions, group writing sessions, debates, and writing projects, this class will prepare you to participate in the academic discourse surrounding any subject you may choose in the future. By understanding rhetoric and the conceptualization of argument, conducting comparative analytic techniques, accessing scientific scholarly content, writing an argumentative essay, and reflecting on your own writing process, you will become well versed in the art of academic writing. We will be reading scholarly essays (peer-reviewed) as well as popular articles to help broaden our understanding of genre/audience regarding the Fast-Food Industry. Ultimately, the purpose of this course is to prepare you for the rest of your academic career at UIC (and beyond), fostering a strong foundation for your academic writing skills and argumentation that can be used in whatever specific discipline/major you pursue.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 11330
Days/Time: MWF 2:00-2:50
Instructor: Doug Sheldon
Crime, Detection, and Scandal:
In this course we will examine the representations of illegality within texts presented in popular form. We will interrogate the complex definitions of each genre and how we use it to understand illegality in and written, visual, and verbal context. Working with texts that range from mystery, scandal history, graphic novels, and film adaptations, this course will attempt to produce plausible answers to the following questions: What defines a crime or scandal? What value is placed on the detective or investigator as a hero? Who benefits from creating objects of illegality? How do the separate modes of presentation (text v. film v. comic) engage us with these cultural concepts? Students in this class will be able to use these concepts to examine our cultural and legal systems, which produce, value, and challenge these genres and use those skills to produce texts that interrogate and investigate those systems.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 11327
Days/Time: MWF 2:00-2:50
Instructor: Keegan Lannon
In the mid-1960s, Marshall McLuhan made the then controversial claim that “the medium is the message.” For McLuhan, he was concerned about the use of the TV as a means for disseminating information, and he argued that the device used to communicate will necessarily change the content and the character of the message. In this course, we will continue McLuhan’s line of inquiry, examining the past, current and (potential) future communication technologies to see how these might influence what we say and how we say it, both in academic and public contexts.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 46723
Days/Time: MWF 3:00-3:50
Instructor: Kian BergstromENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts: Writing in and of the Market
CRN: 46730
Days/Time: MWF 3:00-3:50
Instructor: Evan Steuber
In this introductory composition course, we will explore how we are all driven by, contribute to, and operate within the market. Through a rhetorical analysis of a video advertisement (with a research component that considers the larger context of media manipulation), the creation of two product ads with specified target audiences, and a personal essay that digs into your relationship with consumerism/capitalism/class, you will come to understand how texts of all forms work to persuade us to believe, do, and buy as others wish (and how you can apply this knowledge to your own writing). We will finish the course with a reflective essay that looks back over the semester’s writing projects and reflects on your history as a reader and writer. This final project will put emphasis on the overriding goal of the entire semester—to fully comprehend the choices you make in your writing (through understanding your target audience and the genre you are working within) so you can be as purposeful and deliberate as possible, whether you’re writing a text or a ten-page research paper.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts: Writing in and of the Market
CRN: 11821
Days/Time: MWF 4:00-4:50
Instructor: Evan Steuber
In this introductory composition course, we will explore how we are all driven by, contribute to, and operate within the market. Through a rhetorical analysis of a video advertisement (with a research component that considers the larger context of media manipulation), the creation of two product ads with specified target audiences, and a personal essay that digs into your relationship with consumerism/capitalism/class, you will come to understand how texts of all forms work to persuade us to believe, do, and buy as others wish (and how you can apply this knowledge to your own writing). We will finish the course with a reflective essay that looks back over the semester’s writing projects and reflects on your history as a reader and writer. This final project will put emphasis on the overriding goal of the entire semester—to fully comprehend the choices you make in your writing (through understanding your target audience and the genre you are working within) so you can be as purposeful and deliberate as possible, whether you’re writing a text or a ten-page research paper.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts: Writing in and of the Market
CRN: 23463
Days/Time: MWF 4:00-4:50
Instructor: Ovi BriciENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts: Writing in and of the Market
CRN: 46727
Days/Time: MWF 5:00-5:50
Instructor: Evan Steuber
In this introductory composition course, we will explore how we are all driven by, contribute to, and operate within the market. Through a rhetorical analysis of a video advertisement (with a research component that considers the larger context of media manipulation), the creation of two product ads with specified target audiences, and a personal essay that digs into your relationship with consumerism/capitalism/class, you will come to understand how texts of all forms work to persuade us to believe, do, and buy as others wish (and how you can apply this knowledge to your own writing). We will finish the course with a reflective essay that looks back over the semester’s writing projects and reflects on your history as a reader and writer. This final project will put emphasis on the overriding goal of the entire semester—to fully comprehend the choices you make in your writing (through understanding your target audience and the genre you are working within) so you can be as purposeful and deliberate as possible, whether you’re writing a text or a ten-page research paper.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 11514
Days/Time: MWF 5:00-5:50
Instructor: PendingENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 41780
Days/Time: TR 8:00-9:15
Instructor: Jennifer Rupert
What does it mean to be “woke.” Do you believe that popular culture can be a force for social change or does mainstream popular culture mostly encourage “slacktivism”? In this course, we will explore the ways in which (mostly) American popular media— video games, film, television, books, social media, advertising, news reporting, and other forms of infotainment—heighten or diminish our social awareness and corresponding desire to take action on social problems. As a starting point for this investigation, we will be reading a recent collection, Popular Culture and the Civic Imagination: Case Studies of Creative Social Change (New York University Press, 2020). Students will utilize the theories generated by academics and activists to build original thinking on the popular media texts that matter most to them. A combination of in-class discussion, short writing assignments, and discussion board posts will not only prepare students to build arguments in three distinct genres—film analysis, opinion piece, and manifesto—but also to contribute to public conversations about pop culture and politics by transforming their academic prose into social media posts designed to heighten awareness of social issues for carefully chosen audiences. Through this course work, students will sharpen some of the most valuable skill sets for their future academic, personal, and professional lives: the ability to understand complex arguments, the ability to write clear, correct, and compelling prose, and the ability to assess various sorts of rhetorical situations in order to make successful presentations. In other words, students will begin to see the value of smart rhetorical choices in achieving their short and long term goals.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 11791
Days/Time: TR 8:00-9:15
Instructor: Jennifer Hernandez TorresENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 46724
Days/Time: TR 8:00-9:15
Instructor: Corbin Hiday
In this course, we will approach various forms of writing and humanistic knowledge as it emerges in relation to questions of “climate genres”—a series of scholarly, creative, journalistic approaches to narrating and grappling with climate change in the contexts of academia, mainstream media, activist circles, the nonprofit world, and other settings. The critical thinking and writing skills practiced in the humanities offer creative and intersectional argumentative approaches to working through difficult challenges. Students will engage with these topics through reading and research, and in the creation of four writing projects: 1.) an op-ed, 2.) a climate manifesto, 3.) an argumentative essay / long-form journalistic essay built on research, and 4.) a creative project of your choosing (artwork, podcast, speculative fiction, poetry, etc.) and accompanying reflection. Throughout the semester, we will focus on a particularly daunting contemporary challenge: anthropogenic climate change. Together as a class, we will explore a series of approaches to communicating climate change, including resistance efforts, apocalyptic imaginings, and utopian horizons. In other words, the course asks: What are the adequate methods, forms, and genres, for addressing the representational challenges that climate change poses? In addressing questions of communication and representation, we will grapple with the role of science, politics, and technology, within the context of ecological and environmental instability. We will take up these interrelated concerns in a global and domestic context—with particular interest in the rise of industrialization, its connections to imperialism, and extraction as the orienting principle of accumulation. We will also explore the connection between climate change, energy, and space/place, and what this reflects about our perceptions of class, gender, and race.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I
CRN: 11343
Days/Time: TR 8:00-9:15
Instructor: Ryan Croken
From the perils of climate change to the devastation of mass extinction, the beauty and bounty of this planet are increasingly threatened by the ecological crisis brought about by human industrial society. How do we conceive of ourselves, and communicate with one another, at this critical point in our planetary history? In this course students will develop a conceptual framework through which to approach such a question. Concurrently, you will cultivate the requisite skills to express yourselves in various genre forms, including a letter to future generations, an op-ed, an argument-based academic essay, and a self-reflective essay with the option for a creative component.
These efforts will help prepare you to effectively participate in public conversations pertaining to environmental issues—as well as related issues of social consequence—that will serve you throughout your careers at UIC and beyond. Particular attention will be paid to climate change, environmental justice, activism, ecopsychology, and the COVID-19 pandemic.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 11331
Days/Time: TR 8:00-9:15 ONLINE
Instructor: Ling He
This course will be taught fully online for the entire Fall 2023 semester. The sessions will be conducted synchronously on Tuesday and Thursday on Blackboard Collaborate. You will need to have access to your own computer and a high-speed Internet Service Provider. Specific guides for the course site login will be sent to you by email before the first day of the semester.
ENGL160 is designed and taught using genre-based pedagogy, viewing the genre as the common form of responding to similar situations that shape writing. From this lens, the course is structured around four writing projects to help you develop genre-specific knowledge through attention to the writing purposes, audience, and context. You will learn how to write five academic genres: Reading Summary, Reading Response, Argumentation, Rhetorical Analysis, and Reflection, in addition to public writing using social media. These genre-based writing strategies help ensure your success in writing for your university coursework and specific rhetorical situations and appeals. Reading is integrated into writing for topical knowledge, modeling, and genre analyses. ENGL160 features student-centered learning, offering frequent opportunities to write with ongoing instructor feedback on multiple drafts and teacher-student interactions in and after class.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 38998
Days/Time: TR 8:00-9:15 ONLINE
Instructor: Catherine Vlahos
In this online synchronous class, we will be reading, discussing, and writing about heroes and modern culture. What is a hero, and how does this idea change across time and culture? Who can be heroic, and how? Was there ever a time you acted heroically? Why is the world so obsessed with superhero movies? Why do we like anti-heroes as much as traditional heroes, and do both types exist in real life?
You will write about these questions and more in the form of online journal entries, short in-class writings, and 4 major writing projects: a memoir, a news article, a persuasive essay, and a digital story.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing on Social Issues in Film
CRN: 46739
Days/Time: TR 8:00-9:15
Instructor: Eric Pahre
In this course, you will examine how popular films explore and portray different facets of common social issues, and how the discourse of film critics and academics further examine these topics and create important conversations between creators, critics, and the viewer or reader. You will watch several 21st-century films, some offering direct social satire or commentary and others working on a more subdued level. These topics include racism, gender inequality, classism, income inequality, and capitalism. Over the course of the semester, you will work to thoughtfully interpret and discuss the challenging content of these films and learn to write about deeper meaning while bringing films and reviews into conversations with one another. You will write multiple reviews of films with the goal of engaging with the ideas behind the films, and you will write an argumentative essay advocating for the presence, importance, details, or meaning of these ideas. The final goal of this class is to use these topics to become a more thoughtful and articulate academic writer. By the end of course, you should feel more confident in writing not only about challenging topics in film but also about the real-world issues that we find present in all types of media we encounter throughout our lives.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Mapping the Multiverse
CRN: 41620
Days/Time: TR 8:00-9:15
Instructor: Harry Burson
In this course, we will consider the “multiverse” as it has appeared in recent films and television shows. In disparate media including the Oscar-winning film Everything Everywhere All at Once, the sci-fi sitcom Rick and Morty, and the ever-expanding the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the multiverse has become an increasingly ubiquitous strategy for building fictional worlds on screen. From its emergence as a scientific hypothesis in the twentieth century, the multiverse has been reimagined as a narrative trope to contend with a perceived surfeit of possibility, contingency, and multiplicity in contemporary life. Through the close analysis of twenty-first century multiversal media we will delve into how the multiverse reflects broader cultural concerns in an era of overlapping global crises. Examining how these audiovisual texts relate to questions of identity, history, and technology, we will explore the aesthetics and politics of the multiverse as a means of making sense of the world.
This class is designed to introduce students to college-level writing with an emphasis on genre and context as constitutive components of composition. The primary goal is to develop the core skills and techniques necessary to write for a variety of audiences. Over the course of the semester, students will work on four major writing assignments. By the end of the course, students should understand the key concepts from the course materials; draw connections among readings and case studies; create original arguments that address the larger themes of the course; and strengthen their writing by incorporating feedback from classmates and the instructor. This will help prepare students not only for professional and academic writing, but also for critically engaging with the media they encounter every day.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Mapping the Multiverse
CRN: 27284
Days/Time: TR 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Harry Burson
In this course, we will consider the “multiverse” as it has appeared in recent films and television shows. In disparate media including the Oscar-winning film Everything Everywhere All at Once, the sci-fi sitcom Rick and Morty, and the ever-expanding the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the multiverse has become an increasingly ubiquitous strategy for building fictional worlds on screen. From its emergence as a scientific hypothesis in the twentieth century, the multiverse has been reimagined as a narrative trope to contend with a perceived surfeit of possibility, contingency, and multiplicity in contemporary life. Through the close analysis of twenty-first century multiversal media we will delve into how the multiverse reflects broader cultural concerns in an era of overlapping global crises. Examining how these audiovisual texts relate to questions of identity, history, and technology, we will explore the aesthetics and politics of the multiverse as a means of making sense of the world.
This class is designed to introduce students to college-level writing with an emphasis on genre and context as constitutive components of composition. The primary goal is to develop the core skills and techniques necessary to write for a variety of audiences. Over the course of the semester, students will work on four major writing assignments. By the end of the course, students should understand the key concepts from the course materials; draw connections among readings and case studies; create original arguments that address the larger themes of the course; and strengthen their writing by incorporating feedback from classmates and the instructor. This will help prepare students not only for professional and academic writing, but also for critically engaging with the media they encounter every day.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 46719
Days/Time: TR 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Heather DobleENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 46726
Days/Time: TR 9:30-10:45 ONLINE
Instructor: Sybil Gallus-Price
As Scarface sits in his whirlpool tub smoking a Cuban cigar, he shouts at a financial planning ad on tv: “You know what capitalism is? Getting f****ed!” Montana’s statement not only raises questions about America’s attachment to ideas of sound investment, prosperity, and financial responsibility, but capitalism’s complex and often concealed relationship with the economic underworld of organized crime. In looking at films like Scarface (1983), Goodfellas (1990), City of God (Cidade de Deus) (2002), and American Gangster (2007) we’ll discuss how this major genre serves as a lens to magnify the contradictions of our social conditions. In doing so we’ll address the kind of characters that have become central to the genre: How is the gangster represented, who’s being represented, who isn’t, and why? Does gangster film call us to admire these cowboys of capitalism or offer us a view of the hollowness of the American Dream? Our major writing projects will include the film review, the photo essay, the analytical essay, and a multimodal final reflective project.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing on Social in Film
CRN: 41621
Days/Time: TR 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Eric Pahre
In this course, you will examine how popular films explore and portray different facets of common social issues, and how the discourse of film critics and academics further examine these topics and create important conversations between creators, critics, and the viewer or reader. You will watch several 21st-century films, some offering direct social satire or commentary and others working on a more subdued level. These topics include racism, gender inequality, classism, income inequality, and capitalism. Over the course of the semester, you will work to thoughtfully interpret and discuss the challenging content of these films and learn to write about deeper meaning while bringing films and reviews into conversations with one another. You will write multiple reviews of films with the goal of engaging with the ideas behind the films, and you will write an argumentative essay advocating for the presence, importance, details, or meaning of these ideas. The final goal of this class is to use these topics to become a more thoughtful and articulate academic writer. By the end of course, you should feel more confident in writing not only about challenging topics in film but also about the real-world issues that we find present in all types of media we encounter throughout our lives.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I
CRN: 11512
Days/Time: TR 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Ryan Croken
From the perils of climate change to the devastation of mass extinction, the beauty and bounty of this planet are increasingly threatened by the ecological crisis brought about by human industrial society. How do we conceive of ourselves, and communicate with one another, at this critical point in our planetary history? In this course students will develop a conceptual framework through which to approach such a question. Concurrently, you will cultivate the requisite skills to express yourselves in various genre forms, including a letter to future generations, an op-ed, an argument-based academic essay, and a self-reflective essay with the option for a creative component.
These efforts will help prepare you to effectively participate in public conversations pertaining to environmental issues—as well as related issues of social consequence—that will serve you throughout your careers at UIC and beyond. Particular attention will be paid to climate change, environmental justice, activism, ecopsychology, and the COVID-19 pandemic.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts: Examinations of Self and Society
CRN: 46738
Days/Time: TR 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Sammie Marie Burton
English 160 is designed to expand on the critical-thinking and writing skills necessary for college success. This semester, you will embark on a journey through different genres of writing focusing on the rhetorical strategies used by scholars to convey their message to the reader. Whole group discussions, small group discussions and writing activities will further cement concepts and ideas presented within each text. Four writing genres will be explored: the Literary Analysis Essay, the Definition Essay, the Argumentative Essay, and the Reflective Essay. In addition to peer-review sessions, you will also receive feedback from your instructor to help produce clear and thought-provoking writing projects. The theme for this course centers on the dynamic relationship between self and society.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts: Writing about Sound
CRN: 27280
Days/Time: TR 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Eniko Vaghy
In this course, you will investigate the significance of sound at the personal, social/cultural, and political level. Through discussions, analyses, and assignments focused on environmental sound, personal sound/speech, music, as well as other topics concerning sonic production, we will approach questions such as: “Is it possible for sounds to represent the cultural or political landscape of a certain place?” “Can you discern unrest and strife—or, conversely, joy—just by listening to the world around you?” “What are the politics contained in code-switching and personal dialect alterations?” “What biases do we inflict on others based on the way they speak?” To answer these questions, you will participate in sound walks, listen to podcasts, read articles and stories about sound, contribute to in-class discussions, and write informal reflections as well as longer papers on sound. By this, you will strengthen and diversify your writing, reading, and listening skills.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 11543
Days/Time: TR 9:30-10:45 ONLINE
Instructor: Ling He
This course will be taught fully online for the entire Fall 2023 semester. The sessions will be conducted synchronously on Tuesday and Thursday on Blackboard Collaborate. You will need to have access to your own computer and a high-speed Internet Service Provider. Specific guides for the course site login will be sent to you by email before the first day of the semester.
ENGL160 is designed and taught using genre-based pedagogy, viewing the genre as the common form of responding to similar situations that shape writing. From this lens, the course is structured around four writing projects to help you develop genre-specific knowledge through attention to the writing purposes, audience, and context. You will learn how to write five academic genres: Reading Summary, Reading Response, Argumentation, Rhetorical Analysis, and Reflection, in addition to public writing using social media. These genre-based writing strategies help ensure your success in writing for your university coursework and specific rhetorical situations and appeals. Reading is integrated into writing for topical knowledge, modeling, and genre analyses. ENGL160 features student-centered learning, offering frequent opportunities to write with ongoing instructor feedback on multiple drafts and teacher-student interactions in and after class.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 38999
Days/Time: TR 9:30-10:45 ONLINE
Instructor: Catherine Vlahos
In this online synchronous class, we will be reading, discussing, and writing about heroes and modern culture. What is a hero, and how does this idea change across time and culture? Who can be heroic, and how? Was there ever a time you acted heroically? Why is the world so obsessed with superhero movies? Why do we like anti-heroes as much as traditional heroes, and do both types exist in real life?
You will write about these questions and more in the form of online journal entries, short in-class writings, and 4 major writing projects: a memoir, a news article, a persuasive essay, and a digital story.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 42847
Days/Time: TR 11:00-12:15
Instructor: Phillip HayekENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 11720
Days/Time: TR 11:00-12:15
Instructor: Heather DobleENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Dystopia & the Modern World
CRN: 11505
Days/Time: TR 11:00-12:15
Instructor: Margo Arruda
Covid 19. Climate change. Police brutality. Government surveillance. Artificial Intelligence. The line between reality and dystopia is becoming increasingly blurred. From images of nuclear holocaust to Philip K Dick’s pre-crime division, we will examine popular depictions of dystopia in the modern world to help us better understand what it is, why we engage with dystopic tropes, and what we stand to learn from engaging with them. To better understand the power of tales of dystopia to spur social change, we will examine movies, movie reviews, short stories, emergent narrative video games, formal analyses, and argumentative essays. Along the way, we will focus on areas key to reading and writing at the college level, including genre, form, rhetoric, and argumentation. In this English 160 course, you will learn how to effectively express yourself through writing and gain the tools necessary for success in a range of writing situations both in your academic career here at UIC and beyond.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I
CRN: 11583
Days/Time: TR 11:00-12:15
Instructor: Ryan Croken
From the perils of climate change to the devastation of mass extinction, the beauty and bounty of this planet are increasingly threatened by the ecological crisis brought about by human industrial society. How do we conceive of ourselves, and communicate with one another, at this critical point in our planetary history? In this course students will develop a conceptual framework through which to approach such a question. Concurrently, you will cultivate the requisite skills to express yourselves in various genre forms, including a letter to future generations, an op-ed, an argument-based academic essay, and a self-reflective essay with the option for a creative component.
These efforts will help prepare you to effectively participate in public conversations pertaining to environmental issues—as well as related issues of social consequence—that will serve you throughout your careers at UIC and beyond. Particular attention will be paid to climate change, environmental justice, activism, ecopsychology, and the COVID-19 pandemic.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Examinations of Self and Society
CRN: 46721
Days/time: TR 11:00-12:15
Instructor: Sammie Marie Burton
English 160 is designed to expand on the critical-thinking and writing skills necessary for college success. This semester, you will embark on a journey through different genres of writing focusing on the rhetorical strategies used by scholars to convey their message to the reader. Whole group discussions, small group discussions and writing activities will further cement concepts and ideas presented within each text. Four writing genres will be explored: the Literary Analysis Essay, the Definition Essay, the Argumentative Essay, and the Reflective Essay. In addition to peer-review sessions, you will also receive feedback from your instructor to help produce clear and thought-provoking writing projects. The theme for this course centers on the dynamic relationship between self and society.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 11458
Days/Time: TR 11:00-12:15 ONLINE
Instructor: Ling He
This course will be taught fully online for the entire Fall 2023 semester. The sessions will be conducted synchronously on Tuesday and Thursday on Blackboard Collaborate. You will need to have access to your own computer and a high-speed Internet Service Provider. Specific guides for the course site login will be sent to you by email before the first day of the semester.
ENGL160 is designed and taught using genre-based pedagogy, viewing the genre as the common form of responding to similar situations that shape writing. From this lens, the course is structured around four writing projects to help you develop genre-specific knowledge through attention to the writing purposes, audience, and context. You will learn how to write five academic genres: Reading Summary, Reading Response, Argumentation, Rhetorical Analysis, and Reflection, in addition to public writing using social media. These genre-based writing strategies help ensure your success in writing for your university coursework and specific rhetorical situations and appeals. Reading is integrated into writing for topical knowledge, modeling, and genre analyses. ENGL160 features student-centered learning, offering frequent opportunities to write with ongoing instructor feedback on multiple drafts and teacher-student interactions in and after class.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 30664
Days/Time: TR 11:00-12:15 ONLINE
Instructor: Catherine Vlahos
In this online synchronous class, we will be reading, discussing, and writing about heroes and modern culture. What is a hero, and how does this idea change across time and culture? Who can be heroic, and how? Was there ever a time you acted heroically? Why is the world so obsessed with superhero movies? Why do we like anti-heroes as much as traditional heroes, and do both types exist in real life?
You will write about these questions and more in the form of online journal entries, short in-class writings, and 4 major writing projects: a memoir, a news article, a persuasive essay, and a digital story.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing the Body and Understanding Empathy
CRN: 27372
Days/Time: TR 11:00-12:15
Instructor: Lauren Keeley
The term “empathy” has become a buzzword of the COVID-19 pandemic, but what exactly does it mean to share and understand the feelings of another? How do we communicate pain, and why is doing so important? In this course, we will discuss the relationship between writing, illness, and the body. We will explore how language functions to communicate what is seemingly inexpressible (physical and mental pain) but fundamentally human and shared. You will get to write in a variety of genres, such as memoir, op-ed, and argumentative essay as we chart the boundaries between sickness and health. Finally, the class will provide a review of the grammar, editing and revision techniques that will prove useful to you throughout your time at UIC and beyond.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 42846
Days/Time: TR 12:30-1:45 ONLINE
Instructor: Corbin Hiday
In this course, we will approach various forms of writing and humanistic knowledge as it emerges in relation to questions of “climate genres”—a series of scholarly, creative, journalistic approaches to narrating and grappling with climate change in the contexts of academia, mainstream media, activist circles, the nonprofit world, and other settings. The critical thinking and writing skills practiced in the humanities offer creative and intersectional argumentative approaches to working through difficult challenges. Students will engage with these topics through reading and research, and in the creation of four writing projects: 1.) an op-ed, 2.) a climate manifesto, 3.) an argumentative essay / long-form journalistic essay built on research, and 4.) a creative project of your choosing (artwork, podcast, speculative fiction, poetry, etc.) and accompanying reflection. Throughout the semester, we will focus on a particularly daunting contemporary challenge: anthropogenic climate change. Together as a class, we will explore a series of approaches to communicating climate change, including resistance efforts, apocalyptic imaginings, and utopian horizons. In other words, the course asks: What are the adequate methods, forms, and genres, for addressing the representational challenges that climate change poses? In addressing questions of communication and representation, we will grapple with the role of science, politics, and technology, within the context of ecological and environmental instability. We will take up these interrelated concerns in a global and domestic context—with particular interest in the rise of industrialization, its connections to imperialism, and extraction as the orienting principle of accumulation. We will also explore the connection between climate change, energy, and space/place, and what this reflects about our perceptions of class, gender, and race.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Bad Ideas About Good Writing
CRN: 39029
Days/Time: TR 12:30-1:45
Instructor: Eman Elturki
In an increasingly globalized world and with the abundance of diverse modes of communication, what does be “literate” mean? Is it the ability to read and write? Are these abilities sufficient in the 21st century? In this course, we are going to explore what the term “literacy” entails in a rapidly developing world. This exploration will include examining the conventional view of literacy and how this view has evolved to include new literacies and multiliteracies such as information literacy, digital literacy, cultural literacy, media literacy, visual literacy, and more. We will look at how literacy is conceptualized from opposing theoretical perspectives; is the construction of literacy a cognitive activity or a social practice? We will also tackle literacy-related issues such as identity, power, gender as well as the impact of literacy/multiliteracies on health, socioeconomic status, and the economy at large. The course will involve in-class activities, student-facilitated discussions, and mini reading quizzes. These learning tasks and shorter assignments will enhance your critical reading skills, build knowledge of genre and writing, offer opportunities to expand areas of literacy such as information and digital literacies, and help you prepare for the major writing assignments. These assignments involve composing multiple drafts of a literacy autobiography, a definition essay, an evidence-based problem-solution paper, and a final reflection. By engaging in this course work, you will advance your critical reading and academic writing skills.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Bad Ideas About Good Writing
CRN: 23461
Days/Time: TR 12:30-1:45
Instructor: Angela Dancey
Did your high school teachers tell you that you should never use the first-person (“I”) in an academic essay? Or that you should avoid contractions (like “don’t” and “can’t”) because they sound too informal?
What about the five-paragraph essay (referred to as a “theme” back in the day)? Even if your teachers didn’t call it that, you will recognize its structure right away: an introduction and thesis that sets up three main points, three corresponding body paragraphs, and a conclusion that restates the introduction and begins with something like, “In conclusion…”
While the five-paragraph essay can be useful in some specific writing situations (such as standardized tests), those who study and teach academic writing generally agree that it doesn’t prepare students for college writing. In addition, it rarely produces papers that are enjoyable to write or read.
Don’t despair—the good news is that this course aims to challenge some outdated beliefs and unhelpful ideas about academic writing and replace them with habits and strategies that will serve you better as a college writer. We’ll accomplish this by focusing on situation, purpose, and audience, as well as prioritizing revision—significant changes to language and structure—over editing (corrections at the level of words and sentences). We’ll also practice critical thinking and reading skills, constructing cohesive paragraphs, writing for simplicity and concision, and finding, identifying, and working with sources. Finally, an important goal for this course is to make writing enjoyable in ways it might not have been for you in high school, and possibly shift your perception of yourself as a writer.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:Imagine That: Writing About Sci-fi and Speculative Fiction
CRN: 32837
Days/Time: TR 12:30-1:45
Instructor: Rana Awwad
In this class, you will engage with a variety of different mediums (short stories, graphic novels, TV shows, films, critical engagements, etc.,) that explore the various themes and tropes that make up science fiction and speculative fiction. What role do the themes of (dis)connection, loneliness, found family, estrangement, etc. do for these genres? What kind of tropes are at play in sci-fi and speculative fiction and what do they do to complicate or reproduce the genres? Is there even a clear difference between these two genres? Centered around four major writing projects, this course will strengthen the reading, writing, and critical thinking skills you will need to write in academic and public contexts.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Bad Ideas About Good Writing
CRN: 23461
Days/Time: TR 12:30-1:45
Instructor: Angela Dancey
Did your high school teachers tell you that you should never use the first-person (“I”) in an academic essay? Or that you should avoid contractions (like “don’t” and “can’t”) because they sound too informal?
What about the five-paragraph essay (referred to as a “theme” back in the day)? Even if your teachers didn’t call it that, you will recognize its structure right away: an introduction and thesis that sets up three main points, three corresponding body paragraphs, and a conclusion that restates the introduction and begins with something like, “In conclusion…”
While the five-paragraph essay can be useful in some specific writing situations (such as standardized tests), those who study and teach academic writing generally agree that it doesn’t prepare students for college writing. In addition, it rarely produces papers that are enjoyable to write or read.
Don’t despair—the good news is that this course aims to challenge some outdated beliefs and unhelpful ideas about academic writing and replace them with habits and strategies that will serve you better as a college writer. We’ll accomplish this by focusing on situation, purpose, and audience, as well as prioritizing revision—significant changes to language and structure—over editing (corrections at the level of words and sentences). We’ll also practice critical thinking and reading skills, constructing cohesive paragraphs, writing for simplicity and concision, and finding, identifying, and working with sources. Finally, an important goal for this course is to make writing enjoyable in ways it might not have been for you in high school, and possibly shift your perception of yourself as a writer.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing About Popular Media, Resistance, and Social Change
CRN: 11534
Days/Time: TR 12:30-1:45
Instructor: Jennifer Rupert
What does it mean to be “woke.” Do you believe that popular culture can be a force for social change or does mainstream popular culture mostly encourage “slacktivism”? In this course, we will explore the ways in which (mostly) American popular media— video games, film, television, books, social media, advertising, news reporting, and other forms of infotainment—heighten or diminish our social awareness and corresponding desire to act on social problems. As a starting point for this investigation, we will be reading a recent collection, Popular Culture, and the Civic Imagination: Case Studies of Creative Social Change (New York University Press, 2020). Students will utilize the theories generated by academics and activists to build original thinking on the popular media texts that matter most to them. A combination of in-class discussion, short writing assignments, and discussion board posts will not only prepare students to build arguments in three distinct genres—film analysis, opinion piece, and manifesto—but also to contribute to public conversations about pop culture and politics by transforming their academic prose into social media posts designed to heighten awareness of social issues for carefully chosen audiences. Through this course work, students will sharpen some of the most valuable skill sets for their future academic, personal, and professional lives: the ability to understand complex arguments, the ability to write clear, correct, and compelling prose, and the ability to assess various sorts of rhetorical situations to make successful presentations. In other words, students will begin to see the value of smart rhetorical choices in achieving their short- and long-term goals.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Gangsters on Film
CRN: 11784
Days/Time: TR 12:30-1:45
Instructor: Sibyl Gallus-Price
As Scarface sits in his whirlpool tub smoking a Cuban cigar, he shouts at a financial planning ad on tv: “You know what capitalism is? Getting f****ed!” Montana’s statement not only raises questions about America’s attachment to ideas of sound investment, prosperity, and financial responsibility, but capitalism’s complex and often concealed relationship with the economic underworld of organized crime. In looking at films like Scarface (1983), Goodfellas (1990), City of God (Cidade de Deus) (2002), and American Gangster (2007) we’ll discuss how this major genre serves as a lens to magnify the contradictions of our social conditions. In doing so we’ll address the kind of characters that have become central to the genre: How is the gangster represented, who’s being represented, who isn’t, and why? Does gangster film call us to admire these cowboys of capitalism or offer us a view of the hollowness of the American Dream? Our major writing projects will include the film review, the photo essay, the analytical essay, and a multimodal final reflective project.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Examinations of Self and Society
CRN: 46718
Days/Time: TR 12:30-1:45
Instructor: Sammie Marie Burton
English 160 is designed to expand on the critical-thinking and writing skills necessary for college success. This semester, you will embark on a journey through different genres of writing focusing on the rhetorical strategies used by scholars to convey their message to the reader. Whole group discussions, small group discussions and writing activities will further cement concepts and ideas presented within each text. Four writing genres will be explored: the Literary Analysis Essay, the Definition Essay, the Argumentative Essay, and the Reflective Essay. In addition to peer-review sessions, you will also receive feedback from your instructor to help produce clear and thought-provoking writing projects. The theme for this course centers on the dynamic relationship between self and society.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 11390 Global
Days/Time: TR 2:00-3:15
Instructor: Eman Elturki
In an increasingly globalized world and with the abundance of diverse modes of communication, what does be “literate” mean? Is it the ability to read and write? Are these abilities sufficient in the 21st century? In this course, we are going to explore what the term “literacy” entails in a rapidly developing world. This exploration will include examining the conventional view of literacy and how this view has evolved to include new literacies and multiliteracies such as information literacy, digital literacy, cultural literacy, media literacy, visual literacy, and more. We will look at how literacy is conceptualized from opposing theoretical perspectives; is the construction of literacy a cognitive activity or a social practice? We will also tackle literacy-related issues such as identity, power, gender as well as the impact of literacy/multiliteracies on health, socioeconomic status, and the economy at large. The course will involve in-class activities, student-facilitated discussions, and mini reading quizzes. These learning tasks and shorter assignments will enhance your critical reading skills, build knowledge of genre and writing, offer opportunities to expand areas of literacy such as information and digital literacies, and help you prepare for the major writing assignments. These assignments involve composing multiple drafts of a literacy autobiography, a definition essay, an evidence-based problem-solution paper, and a final reflection. By engaging in this course work, you will advance your critical reading and academic writing skills.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I
CRN: 11385
Days/Time: TR 2:00-3:15
Instructor: Heather DobleENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Context
CRN: 41811
Days/Time: TR 2:00-3:15 ONLINE
Instructor: Ling He
This course will be taught fully online for the entire Fall 2023 semester. The sessions will be conducted synchronously on Tuesday and Thursday on Blackboard Collaborate. You will need to have access to your own computer and a high-speed Internet Service Provider. Specific guides for the course site login will be sent to you by email before the first day of the semester.
ENGL160 is designed and taught using genre-based pedagogy, viewing the genre as the common form of responding to similar situations that shape writing. From this lens, the course is structured around four writing projects to help you develop genre-specific knowledge through attention to the writing purposes, audience, and context. You will learn how to write five academic genres: Reading Summary, Reading Response, Argumentation, Rhetorical Analysis, and Reflection, in addition to public writing using social media. These genre-based writing strategies help ensure your success in writing for your university coursework and specific rhetorical situations and appeals. Reading is integrated into writing for topical knowledge, modeling, and genre analyses. ENGL160 features student-centered learning, offering frequent opportunities to write with ongoing instructor feedback on multiple drafts and teacher-student interactions in and after class.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Bad Ideas About Good Writing
CRN: 27373
Days/Time: TR 2:00-3:15
Instructor: Angela Dancey
Did your high school teachers tell you that you should never use the first-person (“I”) in an academic essay? Or that you should avoid contractions (like “don’t” and “can’t”) because they sound too informal?
What about the five-paragraph essay (referred to as a “theme” back in the day)? Even if your teachers didn’t call it that, you will recognize its structure right away: an introduction and thesis that sets up three main points, three corresponding body paragraphs, and a conclusion that restates the introduction and begins with something like, “In conclusion…”
While the five-paragraph essay can be useful in some specific writing situations (such as standardized tests), those who study and teach academic writing generally agree that it doesn’t prepare students for college writing. In addition, it rarely produces papers that are enjoyable to write or read.
Don’t despair—the good news is that this course aims to challenge some outdated beliefs and unhelpful ideas about academic writing and replace them with habits and strategies that will serve you better as a college writer. We’ll accomplish this by focusing on situation, purpose, and audience, as well as prioritizing revision—significant changes to language and structure—over editing (corrections at the level of words and sentences). We’ll also practice critical thinking and reading skills, constructing cohesive paragraphs, writing for simplicity and concision, and finding, identifying, and working with sources. Finally, an important goal for this course is to make writing enjoyable in ways it might not have been for you in high school, and possibly shift your perception of yourself as a writer.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 19880
Days/Time: TR 2:00-3:15
Instructor: Lisa Stolley
This class will provide you the opportunity to engage in the process of writing in different situations and genres as well as help you become self-aware learners. The topic of this class involves U.S. immigration, with a focus on migrants and undocumented immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, as well other Latin American countries. We will explore the reasons migrants attempt to enter the U.S. from Mexico, either through seeking asylum or unlawful entry; the experiences of and challenges for undocumented immigrants from Latin America who have settled down and built lives in a country in which they’re not recognized or welcomed as citizens (including DACA recipients); the related politics, policies, and contention; and the potential (or not) for actual “immigration reform.” Through readings and writing assignments on this topic, you will gain skills in the strategies of writing in a variety of genres, including an academic argumentative essay. You will be responsible for four writing projects, the last of which will be a reflective essay that thoughtfully and thoroughly analyzes your own learning process as a writer.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Mapping the Multiverse
CRN: 46865
Days/Time: TR 2:00-3:15
Instructor: Harry Burson
In this course, we will consider the “multiverse” as it has appeared in recent films and television shows. In disparate media including the Oscar-winning film Everything Everywhere All at Once, the sci-fi sitcom Rick and Morty, and the ever-expanding the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the multiverse has become an increasingly ubiquitous strategy for building fictional worlds on screen. From its emergence as a scientific hypothesis in the twentieth century, the multiverse has been reimagined as a narrative trope to contend with a perceived surfeit of possibility, contingency, and multiplicity in contemporary life. Through the close analysis of twenty-first century multiversal media we will delve into how the multiverse reflects broader cultural concerns in an era of overlapping global crises. Examining how these audiovisual texts relate to questions of identity, history, and technology, we will explore the aesthetics and politics of the multiverse as a means of making sense of the world.
This class is designed to introduce students to college-level writing with an emphasis on genre and context as constitutive components of composition. The primary goal is to develop the core skills and techniques necessary to write for a variety of audiences. Over the course of the semester, students will work on four major writing assignments. By the end of the course, students should understand the key concepts from the course materials; draw connections among readings and case studies; create original arguments that address the larger themes of the course; and strengthen their writing by incorporating feedback from classmates and the instructor. This will help prepare students not only for professional and academic writing, but also for critically engaging with the media they encounter every day.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 45818
Days/Time: TR 3:30-4:45
Instructor: Brennan Lawler
Public museums serve a number of important functions in contemporary society; they are sites of education, fellowship, preservation, inspiration, and beauty. They are also contested sites, plagued by questions about who does and should have access; how they should be funded; whose communities, values, and beliefs are reflected; and whether they serve any public good in a world saturated with more readily available access to information.
In this course, we will aim to deepen our understanding of the roles that museums play in our own lives and communities by visiting, discussing, researching, and critiquing a variety of museums. Over the course of the semester, you will also be sharpening your abilities as readers, writers, and thinkers within the academic community of UIC, making increasingly more sophisticated arguments about how museums function, the potential good they can serve, and the difficult questions they raise for those willing to ask tough questions.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 41809 Global
Days/Time: TR 3:30-4:45
Instructor: Eman Elturki
In an increasingly globalized world and with the abundance of diverse modes of communication, what does be “literate” mean? Is it the ability to read and write? Are these abilities sufficient in the 21st century? In this course, we are going to explore what the term “literacy” entails in a rapidly developing world. This exploration will include examining the conventional view of literacy and how this view has evolved to include new literacies and multiliteracies such as information literacy, digital literacy, cultural literacy, media literacy, visual literacy, and more. We will look at how literacy is conceptualized from opposing theoretical perspectives; is the construction of literacy a cognitive activity or a social practice? We will also tackle literacy-related issues such as identity, power, gender as well as the impact of literacy/multiliteracies on health, socioeconomic status, and the economy at large. The course will involve in-class activities, student-facilitated discussions, and mini reading quizzes. These learning tasks and shorter assignments will enhance your critical reading skills, build knowledge of genre and writing, offer opportunities to expand areas of literacy such as information and digital literacies, and help you prepare for the major writing assignments. These assignments involve composing multiple drafts of a literacy autobiography, a definition essay, an evidence-based problem-solution paper, and a final reflection. By engaging in this course work, you will advance your critical reading and academic writing skills.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 41808
Days/Time: TR 3:30-4:45
Instructor: Lisa Stolley
This class will provide you the opportunity to engage in the process of writing in different situations and genres as well as help you become self-aware learners. The topic of this class involves U.S. immigration, with a focus on migrants and undocumented immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, as well other Latin American countries. We will explore the reasons migrants attempt to enter the U.S. from Mexico, either through seeking asylum or unlawful entry; the experiences of and challenges for undocumented immigrants from Latin America who have settled down and built lives in a country in which they’re not recognized or welcomed as citizens (including DACA recipients); the related politics, policies, and contention; and the potential (or not) for actual “immigration reform.” Through readings and writing assignments on this topic, you will gain skills in the strategies of writing in a variety of genres, including an academic argumentative essay. You will be responsible for four writing projects, the last of which will be a reflective essay that thoughtfully and thoroughly analyzes your own learning process as a writer.ENGL 160 Writing About Popular Media, Resistance, and Social Change
CRN: 39062
Days/Time: TR 3:30-4:45
Instructor: Jennifer Rupert
What does it mean to be “woke.” Do you believe that popular culture can be a force for social change or does mainstream popular culture mostly encourage “slacktivism”? In this course, we will explore the ways in which (mostly) American popular media— video games, film, television, books, social media, advertising, news reporting, and other forms of infotainment—heighten or diminish our social awareness and corresponding desire to act on social problems. As a starting point for this investigation, we will be reading a recent collection, Popular Culture, and the Civic Imagination: Case Studies of Creative Social Change (New York University Press, 2020). Students will utilize the theories generated by academics and activists to build original thinking on the popular media texts that matter most to them. A combination of in-class discussion, short writing assignments, and discussion board posts will not only prepare students to build arguments in three distinct genres—film analysis, opinion piece, and manifesto—but also to contribute to public conversations about pop culture and politics by transforming their academic prose into social media posts designed to heighten awareness of social issues for carefully chosen audiences. Through this course work, students will sharpen some of the most valuable skill sets for their future academic, personal, and professional lives: the ability to understand complex arguments, the ability to write clear, correct, and compelling prose, and the ability to assess various sorts of rhetorical situations to make successful presentations. In other words, students will begin to see the value of smart rhetorical choices in achieving their short- and long-term goals.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 45817
Days/Time: TR 5:00-6:15
Instructor: Heather O’Leary
We’re seeing the recent devastation of the fires in Maui, which is just the latest example of increasing wildfires around the world. Alternating floods and droughts are happening across the globe, while July 2023 was the hottest month ever recorded on earth. The climate crisis is here, but we are not without hope!
In this class, you will learn how writing can create change in the world. We will read and study various examples of writing about sustainability and climate change and look at how some of this writing has led to, or been part of, real-life policies and actions. We will also learn about environmental justice and investigate how these issues intersect with race, gender, class, etc. We will talk about the mounting anxiety related to climate change and learn how to discuss these issues as a class.
You will learn how to write for action yourselves in four genres: a personal narrative, a sustainability action project proposal, an argumentative essay, and a multimodal reflection project. The goal of this course is to prepare you for future writing in UIC courses and in the world, while engaging in issues that are important to you.ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts
CRN: 11341
Days/Time: TR 5:00-6:15
Instructor: Corbin Hiday
In this course, we will approach various forms of writing and humanistic knowledge as it emerges in relation to questions of “climate genres”—a series of scholarly, creative, journalistic approaches to narrating and grappling with climate change in the contexts of academia, mainstream media, activist circles, the nonprofit world, and other settings. The critical thinking and writing skills practiced in the humanities offer creative and intersectional argumentative approaches to working through difficult challenges. Students will engage with these topics through reading and research, and in the creation of four writing projects: 1.) an op-ed, 2.) a climate manifesto, 3.) an argumentative essay / long-form journalistic essay built on research, and 4.) a creative project of your choosing (artwork, podcast, speculative fiction, poetry, etc.) and accompanying reflection. Throughout the semester, we will focus on a particularly daunting contemporary challenge: anthropogenic climate change. Together as a class, we will explore a series of approaches to communicating climate change, including resistance efforts, apocalyptic imaginings, and utopian horizons. In other words, the course asks: What are the adequate methods, forms, and genres, for addressing the representational challenges that climate change poses? In addressing questions of communication and representation, we will grapple with the role of science, politics, and technology, within the context of ecological and environmental instability. We will take up these interrelated concerns in a global and domestic context—with particular interest in the rise of industrialization, its connections to imperialism, and extraction as the orienting principle of accumulation. We will also explore the connection between climate change, energy, and space/place, and what this reflects about our perceptions of class, gender, and race.161 courses
ENGL 161 Academic Writing II Society, Multimedia, and Groupthink
CRN: 27289
Days/Time: ARR ONLINE
Instructor: Antonio Guerrero
At its core, this course will explore the ways in which we craft and consume ideas. We exist in a complex ideological ecosystem that allows us to have a great amount of mental dexterity and individualization — but how we wield this dexterity has a lot to do with our environment. This course will have you read, write, and research with the goal of understanding how everyday consumption of information influences our collective trajectories.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II
CRN: 30669
Days/Time: ARR ONLINE
Instructor: Gregor BaszakENGL 161 Academic Writing II
CRN: 42941
Days/Time: ARR ONLINE
Instructor: Gregor BaszakENGL 161 Academic Writing II
CRN: 29300
Days/Time: ARR ONLINE
Instructor: Gregor BaszakENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Society, Multimedia, and Groupthink
CRN: 21838
Days/Time: MW 8:00-9:15 ONLINE
Instructor: Antonio Guerrero
At its core, this course will explore the ways in which we craft and consume ideas. We exist in a complex ideological ecosystem that allows us to have a great amount of mental dexterity and individualization — but how we wield this dexterity has a lot to do with our environment. This course will have you read, write, and research with the goal of understanding how everyday consumption of information influences our collective trajectories.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Inquiry and Research Between Body and Mind: Narrative, Illness, and Medicine
CRN: 25972
Days/Time: MW 3:00-4:15
Instructor: Bridget English
As humans, we inhabit bodies that are fragile and susceptible to illness and breakdown. Narratives—novels, films, television shows, and memoirs—provide us with a way of expressing and comprehending these experiences through plotting and sequence. But what is the relationship between these more subjective aspects of human existence, which most often find expression in literature and the arts, and medicine, a field that deals in facts and in objective data? At the heart of this opposition between medicine and the humanities is the view that the body and the mind exist as separate entities and must be treated accordingly.
In this class we will explore the relationship between medicine and the humanities by focusing on debates surrounding the incorporation of the humanities into a medical context. Through the examination of various kinds of narratives—medical, scholarly, public, literary, and visual—we will develop skills of academic research and writing. As part of the course, you will identify a topic of your own interest and will produce four writing projects related to this topic, culminating in a documented research paper that demonstrates your skills as an independent researcher on a topic related to illness, medicine, and the body.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Inquiry and Research: Between Body and Mind: Narrative, Illness, and Medicine
CRN: 21837
Days/’Time: MW 4:30-5:45
Instructor: Bridget English
As humans, we inhabit bodies that are fragile and susceptible to illness and breakdown. Narratives—novels, films, television shows, and memoirs—provide us with a way of expressing and comprehending these experiences through plotting and sequence. But what is the relationship between these more subjective aspects of human existence, which most often find expression in literature and the arts, and medicine, a field that deals in facts and in objective data? At the heart of this opposition between medicine and the humanities is the view that the body and the mind exist as separate entities and must be treated accordingly.
In this class we will explore the relationship between medicine and the humanities by focusing on debates surrounding the incorporation of the humanities into a medical context. Through the examination of various kinds of narratives—medical, scholarly, public, literary, and visual—we will develop skills of academic research and writing. As part of the course, you will identify a topic of your own interest and will produce four writing projects related to this topic, culminating in a documented research paper that demonstrates your skills as an independent researcher on a topic related to illness, medicine, and the body.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Inquiry and Research “Chicago Works?” Writing Through the Issues of the Working Poor
CRN: 11924
Days/Time: MWF 8:00-8:50
Instructor: jennifer lewis
Course description and goals: In this course, we will explore contemporary ideas, debates and questions about work, poverty and social mobility and participate in current public conversations about these (initially broad) topics. We will first discern what these public conversations about the “working poor” in fact, are, assess their validity, and articulate our own, well-supported arguments. As summary, analysis and synthesis are central components of the academic research paper, we will practice these, and we will learn to find and evaluate a variety of primary and secondary sources for our own research. You will develop your reading, writing, research and communications skills through assignments and activities such as class discussion, group work and peer review.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 24055
Days/Time: MWF 8:00-8:50
Instructor: Todd Sherfinski
Baby. Wisdom. Eye. False. No matter their condition, we’ve all got teeth. And that’s the topic of conversation for this course on Academic Writing. We’ll be using Mary Otto’s Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America as the starting point for research. In addition to four Writing Projects, expect short daily reading and writing assignments and plenty of group work.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 11922
Days/Time: MWF 9:00-9:50
Instructor: Ryan Asmussen
This course is designed to prepare you for the research and writing you will do throughout your academic career. Class discussion will involve class lecture and activities to assist you in engaging in the practice of academic discourse, which involves developing rhetorical, grammatical, and research skills. You will be required to read challenging academic texts, learn to navigate library databases, evaluate sources, write formal research assignments, write reflectively, and work in discussion/peer-editing groups.
More specifically, we will be focusing on disciplines associated with the ‘traditional’ humanities. What are the humanities? As opposed to the social sciences and the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), the humanities “includes, but is not limited to, the study and interpretation of the following: language, both modern and classical; linguistics; literature; history[;] philosophy[;] comparative religion; ethics; the history, criticism and theory of the arts[;] and the study and application of the humanities to the human environment with particular attention to reflecting our diverse heritage, traditions, and history and to the relevance of the humanities to the current conditions of national life” (National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act, 1965, as amended).ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 11854
Days/Time: MWF 9:00-9:50
Instructor: T. Sherfinski
Baby. Wisdom. Eye. False. No matter their condition, we’ve all got teeth. And that’s the topic of conversation for this course on Academic Writing. We’ll be using Mary Otto’s Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America as the starting point for research. In addition to four Writing Projects, expect short daily reading and writing assignments and plenty of group work.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 29334
Days/Time: MWF 10:00-10:50
Instructor: PendingENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 11950
Days/Time: MWF 10:00-10:50
Instructor: T. Sherfinski
Baby. Wisdom. Eye. False. No matter their condition, we’ve all got teeth. And that’s the topic of conversation for this course on Academic Writing. We’ll be using Mary Otto’s Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America as the starting point for research. In addition to four Writing Projects, expect short daily reading and writing assignments and plenty of group work.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Inquiry and Research “Chicago Works?” Writing Through the Issues of the Working Poor
CRN: 11961
Days/Time: MWF 10:00-10:50
Instructor: jennifer lewis
Course description and goals: In this course, we will explore contemporary ideas, debates and questions about work, poverty and social mobility and participate in current public conversations about these (initially broad) topics. We will first discern what these public conversations about the “working poor” in fact, are, assess their validity, and articulate our own, well-supported arguments. As summary, analysis and synthesis are central components of the academic research paper, we will practice these, and we will learn to find and evaluate a variety of primary and secondary sources for our own research. You will develop your reading, writing, research and communications skills through assignments and activities such as class discussion, group work and peer review.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Contemporary Issues in Higher Education
CRN: 11932
Days/Time: MWF 11:00-11:50
Instructor: Jeffrey Kessler
What are we doing here in an institution of higher education? What issues about higher education affect our class and how do our experiences of higher education vary? In our section of English 161, a writing course situated in academic inquiry, we will take up these questions through an exploration of academic research and public debate. The course is organized around a semester-long research project. We will begin with a common set of texts and questions, and then you will develop focused questions and participate in the practices of academic research and writing. We will use this work to explore disciplinary conventions and methodologies and to attend to the ways students enter communities structured by forms of academic writing.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Inquiry and Research “Chicago Works?” Writing Through the Issues of the Working Poor
CRN: 11956
Days/Time: MWF 11:00-11:50
Instructor: jennifer lewis
Course description and goals: In this course, we will explore contemporary ideas, debates and questions about work, poverty and social mobility and participate in current public conversations about these (initially broad) topics. We will first discern what these public conversations about the “working poor” in fact, are, assess their validity, and articulate our own, well-supported arguments. As summary, analysis and synthesis are central components of the academic research paper, we will practice these, and we will learn to find and evaluate a variety of primary and secondary sources for our own research. You will develop your reading, writing, research and communications skills through assignments and activities such as class discussion, group work and peer review.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 27565
Days/Time: MWF 12:00-12:50
Instructor: Nestor GomezENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 27376
Days/Time: MWF 12:00-12:50
Instructor: Marc Baez
In this course we will inquire into stand-up comedy as an art that is
particularly bound to audience. Beginning our inquiry with an analysis of
stand-up’s fundamental modes (jokes, stories, and arguments), class
readings and discussions will soon branch out to touch on some possible
research topics that emphasize the dynamic between performer and
audience: the sword and shield of stereotype humor; types of awkwardness.
argument by analogy in satire; conglomerate niche marketing and the rise of the Netflix stand-up special; and the relationship between social norms and comedy taboos.
In addition to an Annotated Bibliography, a Synthesis, a Proposal, and a
Research Project, you will complete daily homework and engage in individual in-class writing and group work. Ultimately, the purpose of this course is to engage you in reading, writing, and research in preparation for the rest of your academic career. So be prepared to read and write every day.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 22420
Days/Time: MWF 1:00-1:50
Instructor: Marc Baez
In this course we will inquire into stand-up comedy as an art that is
particularly bound to audience. Beginning our inquiry with an analysis of
stand-up’s fundamental modes (jokes, stories, and arguments), class
readings and discussions will soon branch out to touch on some possible
research topics that emphasize the dynamic between performer and
audience: the sword and shield of stereotype humor; types of awkwardness.
argument by analogy in satire; conglomerate niche marketing and the rise of the Netflix stand-up special; and the relationship between social norms
and comedy taboos.
In addition to an Annotated Bibliography, a Synthesis, a Proposal, and a
Research Project, you will complete daily homework and engage in individual in-class writing and group work. Ultimately, the purpose of this course is to engage you in reading, writing, and research in preparation for the rest of your academic career. So be prepared to read and write every day.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 11979
Days/Time: MWF 1:00-1:50
Instructor: Philip Hayek
ENGL 161 is a continuation and extension of the work you completed and the strategies you learned in ENGL 160. We’ll learn about academic writing through arguments about the United States national security strategy. How does America define its place in the world, and how do the executive branch and the Department of Defense respond rhetorically? In this course we will analyze current United States National Security Strategy (NSS), using the framework of Michael Walzer’s Just War Theory. You will choose an issue in the NSS to explore further with library research, culminating in a 10-page research paper on an issue of your choosing.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 24008
Days/Time: MWF 1:00-1:50
Instructor: Nestor GomezENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 11861
Days/Time: MWF 1:00-1:50
Instructor: Carrie McGath
In the age of social media, image has taken center stage in our society. In English 161, we will engage in a discourse throughout the semester about what performance — from music, to art, to fashion — tells us about our society. Why has image become so much a part of our society and what does that say about us and the state of the world? How do these genres of performance comment on the issues at the heart of society including issues of race, gender, sustainability, injustice, consumerism, and more? Throughout the course, texts and visual media will facilitate a thoughtful discourse on how visual performance within the world of art, music, and fashion comments on today’s society and the issues within the fabric of it. We will examine work by artists who work with issues of race, gender, sustainability, social justice, and more including Kara Walker, Kehinde Wiley, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Cindy Sherman, Frida Kahlo, and more. We will also look at musicians whose work comments on these issues as well including Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Orville Peck, LP, Lizzo, and more. In the arena of fashion, we will examine runway shows and the phenomena of the MET Gala and how these events comment on the issues we will continue to focus on in the course. Our readings, discussions, and in-class activities will set you up for the four writing projects required in English 161. The first three independent research writing projects will culminate in a final research paper. The skills you will learn and hone in this course will nurture critical thinking, research, and inquiry while fostering strong academic writing.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 30673
Days/Time: MWF 1:00-1:50
Instructor: Ryan Asmussen
This course is designed to prepare you for the research and writing you will do throughout your academic career. Class discussion will involve class lecture and activities to assist you in engaging in the practice of academic discourse, which involves developing rhetorical, grammatical, and research skills. You will be required to read challenging academic texts, learn to navigate library databases, evaluate sources, write formal research assignments, write reflectively, and work in discussion/peer-editing groups.
More specifically, we will be focusing on disciplines associated with the ‘traditional’ humanities. What are the humanities? As opposed to the social sciences and the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), the humanities “includes, but is not limited to, the study and interpretation of the following: language, both modern and classical; linguistics; literature; history[;] philosophy[;] comparative religion; ethics; the history, criticism and theory of the arts[;] and the study and application of the humanities to the human environment with particular attention to reflecting our diverse heritage, traditions, and history and to the relevance of the humanities to the current conditions of national life” (National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act, 1965, as amended).ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Reading and Writing About the Arts
CRN: 25953
Days/Time: MWF 1:00-1:50
Instructor: Jared O’Connor
How do we understand art? How do we even approach it? When we see, read, or hear a piece of art, how do we know what it means? How do we explain it? And, most importantly, why can it be so meaningful to us and others? In this class you will learn how to read and write about many different types of art objects, including literary, visual, and moving arts. This course will provide the tools for interpreting, evaluating, and writing about art in academic and non-academic settings. Ultimately, our goal is to recognize how pervasive and significant art is not only for this course but also in our everyday lives.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing About Happiness
CRN: 41712
Days/Time: MWF 2:00-2:50
Instructor: Christopher Bryson
In this course, we will examine questions about happiness. In her book, The Happiness Myth: Why What We Think is Right is Wrong, Jennifer Michael Hecht explains that our common notions of happiness, what makes us happy in today’s society, is a kind of mythology we all accept as fact. She explores the conception of happiness across history, illuminating traditions and practices that made our ancestors happy, as a means of demonstrating how those notions often contradict our current beliefs and actions. As you read Hecht’s text and the supplemental readings, you will be able to question happiness in your own lives and communities. So what are the consequences of such an inquiry? Hecht, I think, says it best in her introduction, entitled “Get Happy.” She explains:
We need to pay careful attention to our modern, unhelpful myths [about happiness] so that we can make better choices…Sometimes the lesson is to go out and change our behavior, and sometimes a remarkably different experience of the same behavior becomes possible with the simple addition of some big-picture knowledge. (13-14)
The consequence of this inquiry is, in other words, to better understand our actions and the motives behind them when happiness is at stake. We can better understand ourselves and our society as a result. Much of what Hecht says on this subject is controversial (money can make us happy), and it is my belief that these kinds of propositions will inspire lively debate and engaging research papers that address happiness in modern society.
In this course, you will produce four (4) writing projects, culminating in a documented research paper focusing on some aspect of happiness. The writing projects are 1) a summary; 2) a synthesis; 3) a research proposal; and 4) research paper. For the research paper, you will write a unique, convincing argument, supported by appropriate evidence and claims. Your paper should not only demonstrate an understanding of the context and sources, but also contribute meaningfully to the inquiry you will be exploring throughout the semester.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 35789
Days/Time: MWF 2:00-2:50
Instructor: Ryan Asmussen
This course is designed to prepare you for the research and writing you will do throughout your academic career. Class discussion will involve class lecture and activities to assist you in engaging in the practice of academic discourse, which involves developing rhetorical, grammatical, and research skills. You will be required to read challenging academic texts, learn to navigate library databases, evaluate sources, write formal research assignments, write reflectively, and work in discussion/peer-editing groups.
More specifically, we will be focusing on disciplines associated with the ‘traditional’ humanities. What are the humanities? As opposed to the social sciences and the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), the humanities “includes, but is not limited to, the study and interpretation of the following: language, both modern and classical; linguistics; literature; history[;] philosophy[;] comparative religion; ethics; the history, criticism and theory of the arts[;] and the study and application of the humanities to the human environment with particular attention to reflecting our diverse heritage, traditions, and history and to the relevance of the humanities to the current conditions of national life” (National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act, 1965, as amended).ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 11868
Days/Time: MWF 2:00-2:50
Instructor: Carrie McGath
In the age of social media, image has taken center stage in our society. In English 161, we will engage in a discourse throughout the semester about what performance — from music, to art, to fashion — tells us about our society. Why has image become so much a part of our society and what does that say about us and the state of the world? How do these genres of performance comment on the issues at the heart of society including issues of race, gender, sustainability, injustice, consumerism, and more? Throughout the course, texts and visual media will facilitate a thoughtful discourse on how visual performance within the world of art, music, and fashion comments on today’s society and the issues within the fabric of it. We will examine work by artists who work with issues of race, gender, sustainability, social justice, and more including Kara Walker, Kehinde Wiley, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Cindy Sherman, Frida Kahlo, and more. We will also look at musicians whose work comments on these issues as well including Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Orville Peck, LP, Lizzo, and more. In the arena of fashion, we will examine runway shows and the phenomena of the MET Gala and how these events comment on the issues we will continue to focus on in the course. Our readings, discussions, and in-class activities will set you up for the four writing projects required in English 161. The first three independent research writing projects will culminate in a final research paper. The skills you will learn and hone in this course will nurture critical thinking, research, and inquiry while fostering strong academic writing.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry Writing About Happiness
CRN: 42937
Days/Time: MWF 3:00-3:50
Instructor: Christopher Bryson
In this course, we will examine questions about happiness. In her book, The Happiness Myth: Why What We Think is Right is Wrong, Jennifer Michael Hecht explains that our common notions of happiness, what makes us happy in today’s society, is a kind of mythology we all accept as fact. She explores the conception of happiness across history, illuminating traditions and practices that made our ancestors happy, as a means of demonstrating how those notions often contradict our current beliefs and actions. As you read Hecht’s text and the supplemental readings, you will be able to question happiness in your own lives and communities. So what are the consequences of such an inquiry? Hecht, I think, says it best in her introduction, entitled “Get Happy.” She explains:
We need to pay careful attention to our modern, unhelpful myths [about happiness] so that we can make better choices…Sometimes the lesson is to go out and change our behavior, and sometimes a remarkably different experience of the same behavior becomes possible with the simple addition of some big-picture knowledge. (13-14)
The consequence of this inquiry is, in other words, to better understand our actions and the motives behind them when happiness is at stake. We can better understand ourselves and our society as a result. Much of what Hecht says on this subject is controversial (money can make us happy), and it is my belief that these kinds of propositions will inspire lively debate and engaging research papers that address happiness in modern society.
In this course, you will produce four (4) writing projects, culminating in a documented research paper focusing on some aspect of happiness. The writing projects are 1) a summary; 2) a synthesis; 3) a research proposal; and 4) research paper. For the research paper, you will write a unique, convincing argument, supported by appropriate evidence and claims. Your paper should not only demonstrate an understanding of the context and sources, but also contribute meaningfully to the inquiry you will be exploring throughout the semester.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 11864
Days/Time: MWF 5:00-5:50
Instructor: Carrie McGath
In the age of social media, image has taken center stage in our society. In English 161, we will engage in a discourse throughout the semester about what performance — from music, to art, to fashion — tells us about our society. Why has image become so much a part of our society and what does that say about us and the state of the world? How do these genres of performance comment on the issues at the heart of society including issues of race, gender, sustainability, injustice, consumerism, and more? Throughout the course, texts and visual media will facilitate a thoughtful discourse on how visual performance within the world of art, music, and fashion comments on today’s society and the issues within the fabric of it. We will examine work by artists who work with issues of race, gender, sustainability, social justice, and more including Kara Walker, Kehinde Wiley, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Cindy Sherman, Frida Kahlo, and more. We will also look at musicians whose work comments on these issues as well including Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Orville Peck, LP, Lizzo, and more. In the arena of fashion, we will examine runway shows and the phenomena of the MET Gala and how these events comment on the issues we will continue to focus on in the course. Our readings, discussions, and in-class activities will set you up for the four writing projects required in English 161. The first three independent research writing projects will culminate in a final research paper. The skills you will learn and hone in this course will nurture critical thinking, research, and inquiry while fostering strong academic writing.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry Writing About Happiness
CRN: 29333
Days/Time: MWF 5:00-5:50
Instructor: Christopher Bryson
In this course, we will examine questions about happiness. In her book, The Happiness Myth: Why What We Think is Right is Wrong, Jennifer Michael Hecht explains that our common notions of happiness, what makes us happy in today’s society, is a kind of mythology we all accept as fact. She explores the conception of happiness across history, illuminating traditions and practices that made our ancestors happy, as a means of demonstrating how those notions often contradict our current beliefs and actions. As you read Hecht’s text and the supplemental readings, you will be able to question happiness in your own lives and communities. So what are the consequences of such an inquiry? Hecht, I think, says it best in her introduction, entitled “Get Happy.” She explains:
We need to pay careful attention to our modern, unhelpful myths [about happiness] so that we can make better choices…Sometimes the lesson is to go out and change our behavior, and sometimes a remarkably different experience of the same behavior becomes possible with the simple addition of some big-picture knowledge. (13-14)
The consequence of this inquiry is, in other words, to better understand our actions and the motives behind them when happiness is at stake. We can better understand ourselves and our society as a result. Much of what Hecht says on this subject is controversial (money can make us happy), and it is my belief that these kinds of propositions will inspire lively debate and engaging research papers that address happiness in modern society.
In this course, you will produce four (4) writing projects, culminating in a documented research paper focusing on some aspect of happiness. The writing projects are 1) a summary; 2) a synthesis; 3) a research proposal; and 4) research paper. For the research paper, you will write a unique, convincing argument, supported by appropriate evidence and claims. Your paper should not only demonstrate an understanding of the context and sources, but also contribute meaningfully to the inquiry you will be exploring throughout the semester.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing about Popular Film and Social Movements/Social Change/Social Stagnation
CRN: 32676
Days/Time: TR 8-9:15
Instructor: James Drown
Media theorist Stuart Hall said that when producers create media (such as popular film) they “encode” messages as part of that creation process. These messages may reinforce expected social norms, as well as challenge them. For example, think about how films depict gender and gender expectations, and how these depictions might vary from traditional to progressive. These can be considered encoded messages. From an audience perspective, the messages might be obvious, loud, and direct, or they might be so quiet, subtle, and well-integrated into a film that you don’t even notice them. However, all of these messages have an impact and influence both us and society in general. If you consider how many films you have seen and how many messages they contain, you begin to understand why this is important and how it impacts social movements and change. We will begin by reading some theoretical work, including an essay by Hall, as well as applications of these theories. In our exploration of the relationship between popular film and social change/stagnation, we will be reading widely, considering how the different readings intersect, and using this information to develop a research question. Once we have a research question, we will follow through by conducting research, considering what that research means, and writing a fully developed academic research paper.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 11875
Days/Time: TR 8:00-9:15
Instructor: Virginia Costello
Although we begin with an analysis of Emma Goldman’s highly romantic and wildly impractical theory of anarchism, this class centers on a student-driven, semester-long research project about prison reform. You will be asked to make connections to contemporary movements and politics and examine The Marshall Project (news outlet), About – The Sentencing Project (no political affiliation), Right On Crime (conservative) and other webpages. You will be entering into an intellectual conversation about prison systems and positioning yourselves within those conversations.
Contrary to common understanding, neither writing nor research is a linear process. Thus, in this class you will write drafts and revise several times before you submit work for a grade. Our text Writing for Inquiry and Research (About This Book – Writing for Inquiry and Research) is divided in chapters on genres and explains how to develop ideas, read, and think critically, analyze sources, construct a thesis, organize an essay, conduct basic research, and use appropriate styles and forms of citation. Writing assignments include but are not limited to the following: Annotated Bibliography, Proposal, Literature Review, and Research Paper.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing about Popular Film and Social Movements/Social Change/Social Stagnation
CRN: 25973
Days/Time: TR 9:30-10:45
Instructor: James Drown
Media theorist Stuart Hall said that when producers create media (such as popular film) they “encode” messages as part of that creation process. These messages may reinforce expected social norms, as well as challenge them. For example, think about how films depict gender and gender expectations, and how these depictions might vary from traditional to progressive. These can be considered encoded messages. From an audience perspective, the messages might be obvious, loud, and direct, or they might be so quiet, subtle, and well-integrated into a film that you don’t even notice them. However, all these messages have an impact and influence both us and society in general. If you consider how many films you have seen and how many messages they contain, you begin to understand why this is important and how it impacts social movements and change. We will begin by reading some theoretical work, including an essay by Hall, as well as applications of these theories. In our exploration of the relationship between popular film and social change/stagnation, we will be reading widely, considering how the different readings intersect, and using this information to develop a research question. Once we have a research question, we will follow through by conducting research, considering what that research means, and writing a fully developed academic research paper.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry Prison Reform
CRN: 23990
Days/Time: TR 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Virginia Costello
Although we begin with an analysis of Emma Goldman’s highly romantic and wildly impractical theory of anarchism, this class centers on a student-driven, semester-long research project about prison reform. You will be asked to make connections to contemporary movements and politics and examine The Marshall Project (news outlet), About – The Sentencing Project (no political affiliation), Right On Crime (conservative) and other webpages. You will be entering into an intellectual conversation about prison systems and positioning yourselves within those conversations.
Contrary to common understanding, neither writing nor research is a linear process. Thus, in this class you will write drafts and revise several times before you submit work for a grade. Our text Writing for Inquiry and Research (About This Book – Writing for Inquiry and Research) is divided in chapters on genres and explains how to develop ideas, read, and think critically, analyze sources, construct a thesis, organize an essay, conduct basic research, and use appropriate styles and forms of citation. Writing assignments include but are not limited to the following: Annotated Bibliography, Proposal, Literature Review, and Research Paper.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 40444
Days/Time: TR 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Sneza Zabic
Whether they focus on one character’s inner life or depict scenes of mass revolt (or anything in-between those two extremes), films tell stories deeply intertwined with both negative and positive developments in society. Within our general inquiry about film and society, students will research a scripted feature film, read articles indepth, discuss sources and respond to them in writing, composing essays that go through drafting, peer-review, and revision phases.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 33322
Days/Time: TR 11:00-12:15
Instructor: PendingENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 33987
Days/Time: TR 11:00-12:15
Instructor: Sneza Zabic
Whether they focus on one character’s inner life or depict scenes of mass revolt (or anything in-between those two extremes), films tell stories deeply intertwined with both negative and positive developments in society. Within our general inquiry about film and society, students will research a scripted feature film, read articles indepth, discuss sources and respond to them in writing, composing essays that go through drafting, peer-review, and revision phases.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry Prison Reform
CRN: 21700
Days/Time: TR 11:00-12:15
Instructor: Virginia Costello
Although we begin with an analysis of Emma Goldman’s highly romantic and wildly impractical theory of anarchism, this class centers on a student-driven, semester-long research project about prison reform. You will be asked to make connections to contemporary movements and politics and examine The Marshall Project (news outlet), About – The Sentencing Project (no political affiliation), Right On Crime (conservative) and other webpages. You will be entering into an intellectual conversation about prison systems and positioning yourselves within those conversations.
Contrary to common understanding, neither writing nor research is a linear process. Thus, in this class you will write drafts and revise several times before you submit work for a grade. Our text Writing for Inquiry and Research (About This Book – Writing for Inquiry and Research) is divided in chapters on genres and explains how to develop ideas, read, and think critically, analyze sources, construct a thesis, organize an essay, conduct basic research, and use appropriate styles and forms of citation. Writing assignments include but are not limited to the following: Annotated Bibliography, Proposal, Literature Review, and Research Paper.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Inquiry and Research – Empathy and Mass Communication
CRN: 29283
Days/Time: TR 11:00-12:15 ONLINE
Instructor: Mark R. Brand
In this class, we will explore theories of empathy in digital spaces and how these do (or do not) reconcile with our lived experiences. At issue in our texts are questions of identity and creativity, as well as rhetoric’s of authorship and cultural appropriation, ubiquitous telepresence, machinic modes of perception, and the disconnection between people trying to care—and feel cared about—in a world of algorithmically-driven communication technologies. We will examine mass media like video games, social media, and AI, and the implications of their reach and their increasing tendency to mobilize empathy in search of new audiences. You should expect to read and write extensively as you develop a thesis-driven research project on a subtopic of your choosing. This project will unfold over several steps (annotated bibliography, review of literature, paper proposal, final paper) that span the entire semester and will serve as your entrée to the fundamentals of University-level research.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Inquiry and Research: Writing about Environmental Issues
CRN: 30670
Days/Time: TR 12:30-1:45
Instructor: Kate Boulay
This course approaches academic inquiry through examination of environmental issues. Reading a range of work by and about environmental activists, students write a research paper in which, after reviewing the relevant literature, they take a stance and support it with evidence from recent academic research.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 42942
Days/Time: TR 12:30-1:45
Instructor: David Jakalski
The Purposes of Postsecondary Education?
Why do students go to a college or university? What experiences or services should colleges or universities provide? Should postsecondary education in the United States be devoted entirely to academics, or should co-curricular activities (clubs, sports, etc.) constitute part of the college or university experience? What methods and technologies should be employed to best provide this education? Do postsecondary institutions sufficiently contribute to economic mobility, or might they inadvertently contribute to the very inequities they are expected to address? This course will examine issues related to postsecondary education in the United States. We will read from several scholarly articles, and we will also read from a variety of popular sources (journal and newspaper articles, film, interviews, etc.). Assignments will mainly consist of four writing projects: annotated bibliography, research proposal, literature review, research essay. Partial and complete drafts will be assigned for each writing project, and class participation and attendance is expected.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 40447
Days/Time: TR 12:30-1:45
Instructor: Sneza Zabic
Whether they focus on one character’s inner life or depict scenes of mass revolt (or anything in-between those two extremes), films tell stories deeply intertwined with both negative and positive developments in society. Within our general inquiry about film and society, students will research a scripted feature film, read articles indepth, discuss sources and respond to them in writing, composing essays that go through drafting, peer-review, and revision phases.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry Chicago Hauntings and Urban Legends
CRN: 42938
Days/Time: TR 12:30-1:45
Instructor: Jay ShearerENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Popular Film and Social Movements/Social Change/Social Stagnation
CRN: 40446
Days/Time: TR 12:30-1:45
Instructor: James Drown
Media theorist Stuart Hall said that when producers create media (such as popular film) they “encode” messages as part of that creation process. These messages may reinforce expected social norms, as well as challenge them. For example, think about how films depict gender and gender expectations, and how these depictions might vary from traditional to progressive. These can be considered encoded messages. From an audience perspective, the messages might be obvious, loud, and direct, or they might be so quiet, subtle, and well-integrated into a film that you don’t even notice them. However, all of these messages have an impact and influence both us and society in general. If you consider how many films you have seen and how many messages they contain, you begin to understand why this is important and how it impacts social movements and change. We will begin by reading some theoretical work, including an essay by Hall, as well as applications of these theories. In our exploration of the relationship between popular film and social change/stagnation, we will be reading widely, considering how the different readings intersect, and using this information to develop a research question. Once we have a research question, we will follow through by conducting research, considering what that research means, and writing a fully developed academic research paper.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Inquiry and Research – Empathy and Mass Communication
CRN: 28749
Days/Time: TR 12:30-1:45 ONLINE
Instructor: Mark R. Brand
In this class, we will explore theories of empathy in digital spaces and how these do (or do not) reconcile with our lived experiences. At issue in our texts are questions of identity and creativity, as well as rhetoric’s of authorship and cultural appropriation, ubiquitous telepresence, machinic modes of perception, and the disconnection between people trying to care—and feel cared about—in a world of algorithmically-driven communication technologies. We will examine mass media like video games, social media, and AI, and the implications of their reach and their increasing tendency to mobilize empathy in search of new audiences. You should expect to read and write extensively as you develop a thesis-driven research project on a subtopic of your choosing. This project will unfold over several steps (annotated bibliography, review of literature, paper proposal, final paper) that span the entire semester and will serve as your entrée to the fundamentals of University-level research.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry-Social Justice as the Mirror and the Lens
CRN: 42939 GLOBAL
Days/Time: TR 12:30-1:45
Instructor: Mark Magoon
In this section of English 161, which I have named “Social Justice as the Mirror and the Lens,” we will examine the topic of “”social justice””—the fair and just relation between individuals and society as it relates to opportunity and social privilege—and we will use that topic to become better academic writers and researchers, but also to better understand ourselves and our world. Debates revolving around education, race, gender, identity, sexuality, and the rhetoric that surrounds them are at the heart of many community and cultural discussions not only here in Chicago, but abroad too. In this course—one that will function as a writing community and safe space—we will take up questions surrounding the topic of social justice today. Through the examination of various forms of “texts”—scholarly, public, literary, visual, and cinematic—we will use our course topic to develop skills of critical reading, academic research, and writing.
Academic writing is a process that develops because of critical thinking and critical reading, and it takes shape via the ever-continuing process of both research and revision. All semester long you will work step-by-step towards the completion of an academic research paper, and you will do so not only with my help, but also with the help of your fellow classmates. Our class will function as a collective “writing community” where reading, research, philosophy, theory, controversial issues, and your own writing will be shared and discussed daily.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 21697
Days/Time: TR 2:00-3:15
Instructor: Michael NewirthENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 11958
Days/Time: TR 2:00-3:15
Instructor: John Casey
Sustainability has become so common of a word that we hardly notice it anymore. This class will begin with an examination of the concept of sustainability and its relationship to something known as the circular economy. From there, we’ll analyze examples of current research on sustainability as it relates to waste management, urban stormwater management, transportation, and labor. These studies will then serve as guides for each of you to begin your own research study on a topic related to sustainability. That topic should not only address a larger issue that researchers are examining around the world but show how that issue relates back to the Chicagoland area.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry-Social Justice as the Mirror and the Lens
CRN: 11853
Days/Time: TR 2:00-3:15
Instructor: Mark Magoon
In this section of English 161, which I have named “Social Justice as the Mirror and the Lens,” we will examine the topic of “”social justice””—the fair and just relation between individuals and society as it relates to opportunity and social privilege—and we will use that topic to become better academic writers and researchers, but also to better understand ourselves and our world. Debates revolving around education, race, gender, identity, sexuality, and the rhetoric that surrounds them are at the heart of many community and cultural discussions not only here in Chicago, but abroad too. In this course—one that will function as a writing community and safe space—we will take up questions surrounding the topic of social justice today. Through the examination of various forms of “texts”—scholarly, public literary, visual, and cinematic—we will use our course topic to develop skills of critical reading, academic research, and writing.
Academic writing is a process that develops because of critical thinking and critical reading, and it takes shape via the ever-continuing process of both research and revision. All semester long you will work step-by-step towards the completion of an academic research paper, and you will do so not only with my help, but also with the help of your fellow classmates. Our class will function as a collective “writing community” where reading, research, philosophy, theory, controversial issues, and your own writing will be shared and discussed daily.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 21668
Days/Time: TR 3:30-4:45
Instructor: John Casey
Sustainability has become so common of a word that we hardly notice it anymore. This class will begin with an examination of the concept of sustainability and its relationship to something known as the circular economy. From there, we’ll analyze examples of current research on sustainability as it relates to waste management, urban stormwater management, transportation, and labor. These studies will then serve as guides for each of you to begin your own research study on a topic related to sustainability. That topic should not only address a larger issue that researchers are examining around the world but show how that issue relates back to the Chicagoland area.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Inquiry and Research – Empathy and Mass Communication
CRN: 28747
Days/Time: TR 3:30-4:45 ONLINE
Instructor: Mark R. Brand
In this class, we will explore theories of empathy in digital spaces and how these do (or do not) reconcile with our lived experiences. At issue in our texts are questions of identity and creativity, as well as rhetoric’s of authorship and cultural appropriation, ubiquitous telepresence, machinic modes of perception, and the disconnection between people trying to care—and feel cared about—in a world of algorithmically-driven communication technologies. We will examine mass media like video games, social media, and AI, and the implications of their reach and their increasing tendency to mobilize empathy in search of new audiences. You should expect to read and write extensively as you develop a thesis-driven research project on a subtopic of your choosing. This project will unfold over several steps (annotated bibliography, review of literature, paper proposal, final paper) that span the entire semester and will serve as your entrée to the fundamentals of University-level research.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Inquiry and Research
CRN: 40445
Days/Time: TR 3:30-4:45
Instructor: Michael NewirthENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 30674
Days/Time: TR 3:30-4:45
Instructor: David Jakalski
The Purposes of Postsecondary Education?
Why do students go to a college or university? What experiences or services should colleges or universities provide? Should postsecondary education in the United States be devoted entirely to academics, or should co-curricular activities (clubs, sports, etc.) constitute part of the college or university experience? What methods and technologies should be employed to best provide this education? Do postsecondary institutions sufficiently contribute to economic mobility, or might they inadvertently contribute to the very inequities they are expected to address? This course will examine issues related to postsecondary education in the United States. We will read from several scholarly articles, and we will also read from a variety of popular sources (journal and newspaper articles, film, interviews, etc.). Assignments will mainly consist of four writing projects: annotated bibliography, research proposal, literature review, research essay. Partial and complete drafts will be assigned for each writing project, and class participation and attendance is expected.ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Inquiry and Research – Empathy and Mass Communication
CRN: 11892
Days/Time: TR 5:00-6:15
Instructor: Michael NewirthENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry
CRN: 25879
Days/Time: TR 5:00-6.15
Instructor: David Jakalski
The Purposes of Postsecondary Education?
Why do students go to a college or university? What experiences or services should colleges or universities provide? Should postsecondary education in the United States be devoted entirely to academics, or should co-curricular activities (clubs, sports, etc.) constitute part of the college or university experience? What methods and technologies should be employed to best provide this education? Do postsecondary institutions sufficiently contribute to economic mobility, or might they inadvertently contribute to the very inequities they are expected to address? This course will examine issues related to postsecondary education in the United States. We will read from several scholarly articles, and we will also read from a variety of popular sources (journal and newspaper articles, film, interviews, etc.). Assignments will mainly consist of four writing projects: annotated bibliography, research proposal, literature review, research essay. Partial and complete drafts will be assigned for each writing project, and class participation and attendance is expected.
100 Level Heading link
-
100 Level
ENGL 101 Understanding Literature and Culture
CRN: 11088, 20586
Days/Time: MWF 9:00-9:50
Instructor: Terrence WhalenENGL 101 Understanding Literature as a Game of Telephone
CRN: 25642, 25644
Days/Time: MWF 10:00-10:50
Instructor: Andrew Middleton
Some argue that fiction and, especially, poetry can’t be translated. I argue that they always are. Fiction, when going from preindustrial novelist to postmodern reader, might be written in what we’d call the same language. Still, it must be translated between the mind of one writer to that of many readers, readers sometimes from a different century, country, or at least with different cultural backgrounds and understanding of the language. Many writers admit that they don’t fully know their own work until it is reflected in what their readers understand.
Translation — from the Classical Latin meaning, “carried across” — gives our lives happiness and wisdom we would not have without it. This course looks at literature carried across time (from the ancients to now), carried across nations (from all continents but one), and carried across genres (from canonized forms like novels, short stories, essays, memoir, poetry, and drama to those less often taught in school, like song lyrics and stand-up comedy).
My goal in this class is not to tell you what I think so much as to get you to ask each other questions about all this. Two questions we may come back to are these: To what extent is all literature a game of telephone? In other words, does all writing that we’d call “literature” bear some sign of translation?ENGL 101 The book was better: Literature and Adaptations
CRN: 20578, 22330
Days/Time: TR 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Rana Awwad
What role do books and movie adaptations play in the consumption and sharing of stories? This course will explore various works and their adaptations across genres and mediums. Together, we will analyze the ways different modes have enhanced or complicated storytelling by adding (and sometimes removing) the various elements that make up the books, movies, shows, and video games we have come to adore.ENGL 103 Understanding Poetry
CRN: 20646, 20645
Days/Time: MWF 12:00-12:50
Instructor: Chris Glomski
In this course, students will read a wide array of English and American poetry (and some critical writings) comprising several genres and periods, though the bulk of our readings will derive from the modern to the present eras. In addition to becoming familiar with poetic genres, students can expect to acquire proficiency in recognizing and understanding various poetic tropes and conventions and in analyzing elements of prosody (meter and rhyme). Through informal and formal written responses, students will also learn to compose coherent arguments about a literary text or problem and how to select and appropriate effective textual evidence to support those arguments. Students enrolled in this course should expect to do a substantial amount of reading and to come to each class fully prepared to engage those readings through class discussion and/or short response papers which may be shared with the class. Other course requirements may include two formal analysis papers, a midterm exam, quizzes, discussion leaders, and a final exam.ENGL 103 Voices in History: Poetry and Poetics in British and American Poetry
CRN: 22348, 22349
Days/Time: TR 11:00 -12:15
Instructor: Mark Magoon
In this course we will read a wide array of British and American poetry (and some critical writings) comprising several genres and periods, with an emphasis on the concept of the speaker. Who or what is the voice of the poem, and how is that voice constructed? How has the conception of voice or speaker shifted through time? We will situate each poem in its literary and historical contexts, strongly focusing on the relationship between form and content. Through extensive close readings, we will investigate how this relationship informs and/or reveals important aspects of a poem’s cultural and aesthetic environments. In addition to becoming familiar with voice, students can expect to acquire proficiency in recognizing and understanding various poetic tropes and conventions and in analyzing elements of prosody (meter and rhyme). Through informal and formal written responses and discussions, students will also learn to compose coherent arguments about a literary text and how to select and appropriate effective textual evidence to support those arguments.
This course will help you to develop skills that are particularly relevant for both the study and the appreciation of poetry (both reading it and writing about it), but also of art and literature of other forms—and it will prove useful for any academic or professional activity in which understanding someone else and expressing yourself is important.ENGL 104 Understanding Drama
CRN: 26201
Days/Time: MWF 1:00-1:50
Instructor: Aaron Krall
How do plays represent the world? How do they produce new worlds? This course will examine the form and content of drama from the end of the nineteenth century, the beginning of “modern drama,” to the contemporary stage. We will focus on strategies for critically reading and writing about plays through an analysis of works by playwrights including Ibsen, O’Neill, Beckett, Soyinka, Churchill, and Parks, and we will see and review productions by the UIC Theatre. Our reading will be supported by an exploration of the relationships between written texts and live performances through projects involving acting, directing, and design, as well as literary criticism. We will also explore the social contexts for plays by reading theatre history and dramatic theory. In this way, the literary texts and techniques of playwrights will be complemented and complicated by the theatre artists, theatre companies, critics, and audiences that shaped their production.ENGL 105 Cybertexts and History of Fiction
CRN: 11129, 20595
Days/Time: MW 3:00-4:15
Instructor: Seunghyun Shin
This course is designed to introduce students to the major theoretical approaches and debates that comprise “cybertexts” as an academic discipline in relation to fiction and literary history. Throughout the semester, we will traverse history of fiction and examine how it has changed its appearance. By situating cybertext, such as electronic literature, interactive fiction, hypermedia, and video games, in history of fiction, we will examine how fiction has evolved into new forms of text, building upon its tradition in literary history. The goal of the course will be writing a cogent paper about cybertexts and fiction in multiple academic contexts.ENGL 105 Studies in Fiction: Growing up Chicago
CRN: 33745, 33744
Days/Time: TR 11:00-12:15
Instructor: Dave Schaafsma
English 105, Understanding Fiction, will focus on the reading of various fiction and non-fiction coming-of-age or growing up stories that take place in various Chicago (and the surrounding area) neighborhoods, from local authors. The central text for the course will be Growing Up Chicago, edited by David Schaafsma (me!), Roxanne Pilat and Lauren DeJulio Bell, all who have a long history with UIC. Megan Gallardo, a major in English Education, is our editorial assistant and will somehow be part of the class, assisting in some ways. We will be writing our own growing up fictions and memoirs in the class. We’ll be involved in an exchange with the Elmhurst English class of Erica McCombs, who will be teaching a similar course. We will be visited via zoom by several local authors whose texts we will be reading.ENGL 118 Introduction to African American Literature, 1760-1910
CRN: 11245
Days/Time: TR 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Helen Jun
Crosslist with BLST 44855ENGL 131 Introduction to Moving Image Arts
CRN: 47486
Days/Time: M 3:00-5:45, W 3:00-4:15
Instructor: John Goldbach
This course will explore the history and influence of the French New Wave (La Nouvelle Vague), a tremendously popular art film movement that emerges from France in the late 1950s. It will carefully examine a selection of films from its auteur directors and their contemporaries, including François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, and Věra Chytilová. It will consider the influence of some of its precursors, from the films of Jean Renoir, Alfred Hitchcock, and Orson Welles to those of Maya Deren and Jean-Pierre Melville, and it will also consider the influence of La Nouvelle Vague upon its successors around the world, from the films of Chantal Akerman and Claire Denis to those of Yorgos Lanthimos and Bong Joon-ho. There will be no final exam in this course, but students are expected to complete a series of short response papers and regular quizzes.ENGL 132 Understanding Film
CRN: 47454
Days/Time: T 3:30-4:45/R 3:30-6:15
Instructor: Kaitlin Forcier
This course will provide an introduction to watching, thinking about, and analyzing film, with an emphasis on how film as a medium produces meaning. We will consider the formal elements of film – cinematography, narrative, editing, sound, mise-en-scene, performance, rhythm – alongside major theoretical questions about spectatorship, representation, and ideology. Questions we will consider include: what are the unique characteristics of film as a medium, an industry, and an art form? how do films relate to the social, political, and ideological contexts in which they are made? how do we analyze, reflect upon, and write about film? In addition to these formal and theoretical considerations, this course will provide an introduction to key film genres and movements, such as classical and post-classical Hollywood cinema, documentary, Third Cinema, the musical, film noir, and animation. We will analyze a spectrum of film texts, including historically significant works such as Modern Times (Chaplin, 1936), Sullivan’s Travels (Preston Sturges, 1941), Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954), Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950), Blow Up (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966), and Jurassic Park (Spielberg, 1993) as well as lesser-known and more recent films, such as Illusions (Julie Dash, 1982), Cameraperson (Kristen Johnson, 2016), Searching (Aneesh Chaganty, 2018), and Time (Garrett Bradley, 2020).ENGL 135 Popular Genres and Culture
CRN: 47462
Days/Time: MWF 11:00-11:50
Instructor: Marc Baez
This course will focus on stand-up comedy as a genre with a particularly dynamic audience and a history of playing with social norms. With this focus in mind, the course will be divided into three sections. In the first section we’ll examine some things that are important to a basic appreciation of stand-up comedy: jokes, timing, stereotypes, persona, cursing, argumentation, and storytelling. In the second section we’ll look at stand-up comedy as historically and culturally situated, establishing the 1970’s and 80’s as a background context for a sustained focus on George Carlin’s longer form satirical bits in the 1990’s. And finally, in the third section, we’ll focus on the 2000’s, starting with Louis C.K. as a way into an exploration of contemporary stand-up comedy and its newer, possibly most interesting figures.ENGL 154 Understanding Rhetoric
CRN: 47488
Days/Time: TR 11:00-12:15
Instructor: Jay Shearer
In this course, we will define and examine rhetoric in its many forms, with an emphasis on contemporary cultural and political debates, as well as some focus on historical precedents of similar conflict and/or competing systems of persuasion. We will examine, among other things, how rhetoric influences our habits and behavior, our individual and collective selves, our policies as a polity, and the forces behind rhetoric’s creation and propagation. Through readings and other media, we will analyze everything from radically divergent ideas of our Constitutional rights to how and why we consume popular culture. It’s possible we might even have actual fun (no guarantees).ENGL 154 Understanding Rhetoric
CRN: 47489
Days/Time: MWF 10:00-10:50
Instructor: Doug Sheldon
The word “”rhetoric”” is often associated with things that anger or upset us. We tend to use it and see it used when one feels that they are being degraded or misrepresented. Well, the discipline of rhetoric has a lot more to do with HOW we say something than just WHAT is said. Now, this class cannot tell you in one sentence what rhetoric does, or even what it is, but through the examination of ancient texts to those of the twenty-first century we will wrestle with the term “”rhetoric”” to better understand our identities as thinkers and social beings. In addition, this course will examine narratives, films, comic books, and other delivery systems that communicate and shape what we call “identity”. Ideas examined in this class will include: How do we use rhetoric in our lives both purposefully and incidentally? How do communicators interact on an intellectual, academic, and public level to influence identity? How do cultures benefit/suffer from language, identity, and policy built on rhetorical frameworks? Rhetoric will be examined through lenses of race, gender/sexuality, disability/ablism, and other social factors we as communicators interact with daily This course will allow students to see rhetoric not as a negative label, but as a method to interrogate the texts, the visuals, and the conversations we encounter daily.
This course is ideal for English, Pre-Law, Education, Professional Writing, and Communications Students.ENGL 154 Understanding Rhetoric
CRN: 47490
Days/Time: TR 3:30-4:45
Instructor: James Sharpe
We’re all born into a social and historical context that deeply shapes our way of thinking and speaking. One of the goals of this course is to increase your ability to unearth the assumptions you make every day, the assumptions that have so far shaped your life in innumerable ways. Another goal is to increase your capacity for thinking about those assumptions both critically and creatively. If humans exist not just among rocks, trees, and cities, but among other persons, their ideas, emotions, memories, and socially constructed norms, all tangled up in the confinements and affordances of language, then rhetoric is, among other things, that mode of thought and speech which seeks to illuminate those invisible realities so that we can see them (figuratively speaking). We will immerse ourselves both in rhetorical theory and in case studies drawn from our contemporary moment, and chosen in part by you, the student.ENGL 158 Understanding English Grammar and Style
CRN: 47493
Days/Time: TR 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Jeffrey Gore
Although we regularly understand grammar as a set of prescriptive (or even annoying) rules, during the Renaissance, grammar was understood as the “art of speaking and writing well.” In this course, we’ll work to get the best of both perspectives so that rules will become tools to help you speak and write more effectively. Parts of the course will be comparable to the drills that athletes practice (such as free throws for a basketball player or kata for a practitioner of karate). You will learn to recognize parts of speech in terms of their functions in sentences and to describe them by name. You will practice using different sentence forms in order to appreciate how they allow you to convey different kinds of thoughts and feelings. You will exercise your mastery of these forms by producing short essays that emphasize different grammatical forms, and you will examine works by professional writers in terms of their grammatical and stylistic choices. By the end of the semester, you should be able to use grammatical and stylistic terms to discuss what makes writing more effective, and you should have enough practice with these grammatical forms that better writing comes more naturally to you.ENGL 158 Understanding English Grammar and Style
CRN: 47492
Days/Time: MWF 2:00-2:50
Instructor: Jeffrey Kessler
This course will not be your conventional “grammar drill” or “right and wrong” class. Instead, we will approach grammar and style as analytical and creative tools. Our goal will be to use grammatical forms to be more aware of the choices we make when we read and write. We will also discuss significant issues surrounding the English language, including its history, Black English, prescriptive v. descriptive linguistics, and the ethics of writing. Students will complete analyses to demonstrate the grammatical skills they have learned, as well as complete assessments of their own writing and a short-written project at the end of the semester. -
200 Level
ENGL 207 Interpretation and Literary Analysis
CRN: 47518, 47519
Days/Time: MWF 11:00- 11:50
Instructor: Terrence WhalenENGL 207 Interpretation and Literary Analysis
CRN: 47520, 45721
Days/Time: MWF 9:00- 9:50
Instructor: Bridget English
The process of reading literary texts gives us pleasure because it allows us to enter another world and to imagine what it is like to be someone else. In this sense literature encourages us to empathize with others. But how do we make sense of this experience which reading enables and how is it connected to the “real world”? What methods can we use to better understand or decipher the meaning of a novel, short story, poem, or play? In this course we will study different theoretical approaches to literature, including Marxist, psycho-analytical, historical, structuralist, and post-structuralist literary and social theory to gain skills of literary analysis, but also to learn about different ways of “seeing” or understanding the world around us. After completing this course students will have a better understanding of literary analysis and interpretation, what literary theory is and how to apply it, and will also know how to formulate their own thesis based on this understanding.ENGL 207 Interpretation and Critical Analysis
CRN: 47523, 47522
Days/Time: TR 12:30-1:45
Instructor: John Casey
In this course we will examine the foundations of literary study—how to read a text, interpret it, and then provide a clear evaluation. We will also explore a few of the methodologies or “theories” that allow us to engage in those activities. A wide variety of theories will be discussed that focus on the reader, the text, and the social conditions surrounding the reading and writing of literature. These will include Reader-Response, Digital Humanities, Queer Studies, Marxism, and Post-Colonialism. Assignments for the class consist of short weekly response papers and two essays in addition to the required readings. The first of these essays will be a “critical etymology,” an analysis of a term associated with a specific methodology for reading literature. The second paper will provide a reading of a literary text of your choice using one of the theoretical approaches discussed in class. This text must be pre-approved by the instructor.ENGL 207 Interpretation and Critical Analysis: Madmen and Ghosts and Liminal Spaces
CRN: 47516, 47517
Days/Time: TR 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Dave Schaafsma
English 207 is a required course for the English major, though it is open to anyone. It’s intended as an introduction on how to read, interpret, analyze, and write critically about texts. The focus in this course will be on stories and theories about liminal spaces, including ghost stories and stories of madness. We’ll read, among other things, Claire Keegan’s Foster, Tarjei Vesaas’s The Ice Palace, Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw. We’ll see the film The Others, we’ll read some graphic novels, informed by various relevant critical lens from Michel Foucault’s Madness and Civilization to Jacques Derrida’s Hauntology.ENGL 207 Literary Theory and Analysis
CRN: 47526, 47527
Days/Time: TR 2:00-3:15
Instructor: Natasha Barnes
“This course is designed to teach English majors how to read literature, specifically in relation to the construction and analysis of literary realism. We will explore the form and narrative language of realism as a springboard to understanding some of the main tenets of twentieth-century literary theory. As we examine how “English literature” became an academic pursuit, we will recognize schools of literary interpretation (liberal humanism, new criticism, narratology, etc.) and distinguish the critical methodology associated with each category. Literary texts studied will include Ian McEwan’s Saturday and Atonement, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and Michael Cunningham’s The Hours. Excerpts from Peter Barry’s Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory and Robert Dale Parker’s How to Analyze Literature: Critical Theory for Literary and Cultural Studies will guide our theoretical studies.
There is about 75-100 pages of reading per week for this class. Students are expected to read ALL assigned texts carefully and to take difficult literary fiction seriously.
IMPORTANT: I would prefer that students intending to choose academic literature as their concentration in the English major take this course. This is a rigorous course and I expect every student who elects to take this class should apply themselves with due diligence.
If you’re *not* an English major and want to take an English class to practice academic writing, this course is probably too specialized for your needs.
Textbooks: All books will be available at the UIC Bookstore, articles and short stories will be uploaded on Blackboard
Students will be required to write 2 short papers and take midterm and final examsENGL 208 Monsters, Dragons, and Sinful Knights: A Survey of English Literature from the Beginnings to the 17th Century
CRN: 47258
Days/Time: MW 2:00-2:50
Instructor: Alfred Thomas
This course offers an overview of writing in English from the Old English heroic epic Beowulf to the poems and plays of the Elizabethans. Readings include the Arthurian romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; selected tales from Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales; the writings of the female mystics Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe; the prose stories of Sir Thomas Malory known as the Morte Darthur that trace the decline and fall of King Arthur’s Round Table, and the rise of secular drama by Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare as well as the development of the sonnet form.ENGL 208 English Literature from the Beginnings to the 17th Century
CRN: 48863
Days/Time: MW 2:00-2:50
Instructor: Robin Reames
In this course we will survey English literature from this other-worldly world, with particular attention to how the people of this era used language to shape and structure their experiences and lives—perhaps one of the most important things you can do in your college education. We will study texts from the medieval and early modern centuries with the following goals: to explore the development of literary and rhetorical forms, such as lyric and narrative poetry, drama, prose fiction and non-fiction; to become acquainted with various kinds of literary analysis and approaches, including close, in-depth reading of texts; to examine the ways that texts participate in history; and to consider the changing literary representations of issues that bear on our own time and experience, such as gender, social class, race, and heroism.ENGL 209 English Studies I: 17th Century to Today
CRN: 47533
Days/Time: MW 11:00-11:50
Instructor: Anna Kornbluh
This course tracks how literary forms emerged and changed in response to events like the expansion of global capitalism, the development of mass literacy, revolutions and the rise of democracy, and the growth of cities. We will study authors from England, the British Colonies, and the United States, and focus on the development of the novel as the literary form unique to modernity. We will also practice close reading to carefully appreciate the specific formal strategies involved in writing literature.ENGL 213 Introduction to Shakespeare
CRN: 47460, 47461
Days/time: MW 4:30-5:45
Instructor: Gary Buslik
This course will introduce you to the life, times, and work of the great poet, dramatist, and inventive genius of the English language, William Shakespeare. We will read a lively biography and selections from books about him, his work, and Elizabethan theater. We will read and discuss plays and sonnets. We will also watch filmed productions of the Bard’s most famous plays. We will write response papers and have quizzes on all readings, midterm, and summary exams.ENGL 213 Introduction to Shakespeare: The Raw and the Cooked
CRN: 47458, 47459
Days/Time: TR 2:00-3:15
Instructor: Jeff Gore
“The Raw and the Cooked,” this course will pair Shakespeare’s early experimental works with the more refined comedies, tragedies, and histories from the height of his career. We will juxtapose the early slapstick humor of The Taming of the Shrew with Twelfth Night’s gender-bending banter to understand better different kinds of comedy and different forms of social negotiation. Although T. S. Eliot referred to Shakespeare’s early tragedy Titus Andronicus as “one of the stupidest. . . plays ever written,” recent scholarship on gender, race, and trauma challenges us to examine more deeply the play’s cannibalism and escalating cycles of revenge. “To be or not to be” will certainly be one of the questions when we turn to the author’s tragic masterpiece Hamlet – written a decade after Titus – but so will be the lead character’s bawdy humor and hapless efforts to be the avenging warrior that his father was. With the histories, we will examine two kinds of leaders, the villain Machiavel Richard III, and the unifying warrior-king, Henry V: although the former cruelly murders his way to the top, the latter draws a subtler approach from the Machiavellian playbook. These pairs will help us to understand different approaches to storytelling during the years that Shakespeare was most devoted to experimentation and refining his craft.ENGL 223 Introduction to Colonial and Postcolonial Literature
CRN: 47474
Days/Time: MWF 12:00-12:50
Instructor: Hanna KhanENGL 229 Asian Film
CRN: 43803
Days/Time: MW 3:00-4:15
Instructor: Mark Chiang
Crosslisted with GLAS 229 CRN 42048; MOVI 229 CRN 43802ENGL 230 Film and Culture: Embodying Difference in the Horror Film
CRN: 47484
Days/Time: TR 3:30-4:45/6:15
Instructor: Angela Dancey
Horror is one of cinema’s most enduring and iconic genres, reflecting individual and collective fears about monstrosity, difference, and the body. In this course, we will study how the American horror film has evolved over time, viewing representative examples of its most important subgenres and they ways they are influenced by historical context, social movements, and human psychology. We will also devote class time to a basic understanding of film and cultural studies, including major concepts, techniques, and terminology. Weekly film screenings include Cat People (1942), Carrie (1976), Jennifer’s Body (2009), Get Out (2017), Candyman (1992), and The VVitch (2015). Assignments include discussion board posts, film response videos, online quizzes, and a final writing project.ENGL 232 History of Film I: 1890 to World War II
CRN: 12114, 12118
Days/Time: MW 1:00-2:50
Instructor: Martin Rubin
An exploration of film history from the late 19th century to the late 1940s. The journey begins with the eruption of a vigorous early cinema based on variety, spectacle, and sensation. This is followed by the rise of story-based movies and the emergence of the film director to better tell those stories. The less rigid structure of the early film industry opens a space for women filmgoers and filmmakers. Meanwhile, scattered queer filmmakers challenge sexual orthodoxies, and African American “race movies” offer an alternative to Hollywood racism. In the 1920s, filmmakers in Germany fashion dazzling images to express the psychological and political turmoil of their time, while Soviet directors use dynamic editing to make revolutionary films in tune with their revolution-forged society. The coming of sound provides filmmakers with new expressive tools and spurs a trend toward realism, culminating in the Italian neorealist movement, which creates a more open form of film storytelling whose influence is still felt today. There is no textbook; requirements include written assignments and online quizzes. This course is cross listed as AH 232 and MOVI 232.ENGL 236 Young Adult Fiction
CRN: 48468
Days/Time: TR 11:00-12:15
Instructor: Kate Boulay
Focusing on a specific theme, subgenre, period, etc., this course provides an overview of young adult fiction.ENGL 237 Graphic Novels
CRN: 47578
Days/Time: TR 2:00-3:15
Instructor: James Drown
This class in the Graphic Novel will begin by examining some basic questions such as, “What is a Graphic Novel,” and “How do we read and understand graphic novels.” We will begin by grounding our exploration with texts about comics, such as Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud and Comics and Sequential Art by William Eisner. We will then move on and examine questions like, “How have graphic novels reflected our society” and “Why have they become an important and recognized literary form?” Readings will focus on work produced since the 1960’s and include both full graphic novels and specific selections. Additionally, while we are mainly interested in American Graphic Novels, we will include some influential works from Japan and Europe. Examples of International graphic novels we may examine for the course include Tintin by Herge, works by Osamu Tezuka (Astroboy), Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo, and I Hear the Sunspot by Yukio Fumino. American Graphic Novels will include both literary and populist works, such as Maus by Art Spiegelman, The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, Black Panther by Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Fun House by Alison Bechdel. Assignments will include online discussion boards, weekly Journals, midterm and final, and an independent research paper examining a specific graphic novel.ENGL 237 Graphic Novels—Comics and Cognitive Literary Theory
CRN: 48469
Days/Time: MWF 10:00-10:50
Instructor: Keegan Lannon
In 2013, a pair of social researchers from the New School made the astonishing claim that reading improved a person’s ability to empathize. The researchers found that fiction that focuses on the characters interiority—emotions and states of mind—gave readers the space to practice Theory of Mind, or the capacity to recognize the mental states of people around us, a cognitive ability tied to our empathy. This course will test that hypothesis with comics. We will read and discuss a variety of what might be called “literary” comics in a different genres and formats. We will explore how reading impacts our brain, if our ability to understand the emotional and mental states of others in the real world improves, and the way language limits and complicates this very exploration.ENGL 238 Fiction, Sci-Fi and Fantasy Banned Book Club
CRN: 48450
Days/Time: TR 12:30-1:45
Instructor: Margo Arruda
Over the past several years, we have seen an unprecedented sweep of book bans across American public education institutions. This new hysteria surrounding the types of stories we allow our children to access is best encapsulated by new legislation in Florida allowing parents to sue public educators for third degree felonies for disseminating restricted books. The interwoven genres of dystopia and science fiction have historically been a bastion of analysis for the social and political risks of information control and the road from book bans to totalitarianism. Throughout this course, we will be asking ourselves: Why do we tell stories? What makes this act so dangerous? What kinds of stories and experiences are being censored? How can stories build a foundation of connection rather than division? We will begin with two of the most iconic novels on books bans: Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451” and George Orwell’s “1984”. We will then examine more subtle methods of information control through Ursula LeGuin’s “The Dispossessed” and culminate with Emily St. John’s “Station Eleven” as we explore the restorative and healing capacity of literature. Join us as we dedicate ourselves to the power that can be found in the telling and sharing of stories. How can this communal act bring us together across lines of difference? Can stories ever be the thing that saves us?ENGL 238 Fiction, Sci-Fi and Fantasy
CRN: 49019
Days/Time: MW 4:30-5:45
Instructor: Mary Anne Mohanraj
In this course we’ll survey global speculative literature, from a range of periods and traditions. Speculative literature is a catch-all term meant to inclusively span the breadth of fantastic literature: hard science fiction to epic fantasy to ghost stories to horror to folk and fairy tales to slipstream to magical realism to modern myth-making — any piece of literature containing a fabulist or speculative element. We’ll use the Vandermeer anthologies of science fiction and classic fantasy as a starting point, then branch out to a culturally diverse range of contemporary authors. Readings will include Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia Butler, N.K. Jemisin, Ted Chiang,and Carmen Maria Machado.ENGL 245 Queer Literature & Contemporary Culture
CRN: 47477
Days/Time: MWF 9:00-9:50
Instructor: Em Williamson
In this course, through the comparative study of important gay, lesbian, queer, bisexual, and transgender writers, we will interrogate how literary representations of queerness have contributed to our cultural understanding of gender, sex, and sexuality. Since the mid twentieth century, the material reality of queer identity in our everyday lives has shifted significantly. What role can literature be said to play in that evolution? How might contemporary queer literature(s) chart a progression of both the lived experience of LGBTQ life and the emergence of queerness as a theoretical apparatus in gender and sexuality studies? In our search to answer these questions, we will explore the work of a diverse selection of contemporary LGBTQ writers, spanning from the 1950s to the present day. Our goal when reading these various novels, poems, and short stories will be to examine the ways in which these writers represent queerness both formally and narratively in order to see how these representations illuminate and/or complicate our understanding of queerness in the world around us. We will also read some short texts by important literary and cultural queer theorists, but our reading of such texts will always be in the service of better elucidating the primary literary texts under review.ENGL 245 Love is Strange: The Politics of Desire in Modern Literature
CRN: 47475
Days/Time: TR 2:00-3:15
Instructor: Jennifer Rupert
We will begin the work of ENGL 245: Gender, Sexuality, and Literature by tracing the social forces that brought about the “invention” of heterosexuality. By immersing ourselves in this history, we will aim to become better readers of the ways in which late 19th and early 20th century writers of memoir and fiction either resisted or internalized the pathologizing voices of the sexual sciences as these texts framed masculinity and femininity as biologically determined and heterosexuality as the norm. As we close the course concentrating on 21st century queer and transgender speculative fiction about different ways of being in love, one of our overarching projects will be to locate in the literature we read patterns of resistance to both long-standing and relatively new discourses that attempt to put all of us into very confining gender and sexuality boxes. In doing so, we will investigate the ways in which notions of class, race, and ability differences inform various kinds of scientific and literary narratives about gender and sexual normalcy as well as what we have come to understand as “romantic love.” Thus, our inquiry this semester will not only inspire reflection on societal notions of who should love whom but also meditation on possibilities for creating a culture of “ethical eroticism” that encourages mutuality and love in its many possible forms.ENGL 247 Women and Literature: Women, Wives, and Shapeshifting Lives
CRN: 47465
Days/Time: TR 11:00-12:15
Instructor: Eniko Vaghy
In this course, we will examine the role transformation plays in the lives of women and consider whether it denotes a period of “becoming,” or a phase of personal estrangement between the mind, body, and will. Through literary depictions of explicit and implicit transformation, we will uncover the many ways transformation can manifest and discuss how women compelled to undergo a transformation navigate these sometimes revelatory, sometimes devastating instances of personal evolution. The authors that will assist us in our discussions of transformation will be Angela Carter, Carmen Maria Machado, Samantha Hunt, Emma Donoghue, and other creatives of word and image. This course will be discussion-based, and students will be encouraged to facilitate in-class conversations through their observations, questions, and visions regarding our texts. Written assignments will be administered in the form of analytical reflections, creative reflections, and two essays related to the themes of the course.ENGL 247 Survey of Women’s Literature in English
CRN: 47467
Days/Time: MWF 10:00-10:50
Instructor: Jared O’Connor
In this course, we will survey canonical women’s writings from the 19th to the present day. We will pay attention to issues in race, class, gender, and sexuality. We will read across a variety of genres including the short story, novel, poetry, and theatre.ENGL 267 Introduction to U.S. Latinx Literature
CRN: 47591, 47592
Days/Time: MW 3:00-4:15
Instructor: Esmeralda Arrizón-Palomera
This course is an introductory survey of U.S. Latinx literature. Students will read a variety of texts such as novels, memoirs, short stories, poetry, plays, and films by Chicanx, Central American, Dominican, Cuban, and Puerto Rican writers. At the end of this course, students will be able to identify and discuss key concepts and major themes in U.S. Latinx literature, analyze connections and discontinuities between different strands of U.S. Latinx literature, and examine U.S. Latinx literature with attention to aesthetic movements, cultural traditions, and historical context.ENGL 280 Media and Professional Writing
CRN: 47497
Days/Time: MWF 1:00-1:50
Instructor: Jeff Kessler
This course will introduce students to genres in professional media and communication with close attention to writing with directness and clarity. We will discuss many aspects of professional writing, developing a rhetorical mindset towards genres in journalism, electronic media, and public relations. Along with several shorter writing assignments, students will produce a portfolio of their work presented on a personal webpage. English 280 is the prerequisite for English 493, the English internship for Nonfiction Writing.ENGL 280 Media and Professional Writing
CRN: 47496
Days/Time: MWF 9:00-9:50 ONLINE
Instructor: Karen Leick
*This is an ONLINE COURSE that meets via Zoom. Attendance is required. *
In this course, students learn skills in media and communication that are used in the professional workplace. Students will research, discuss, and analyze aspects of professional written communication, including journalism, feature writing, and public relations. Over the course of the semester, each student will produce a portfolio of writing in various genres, presented on a personal webpage. The course is designed to prepare students for professional internships and employment. English 280 is the prerequisite for English 493, the English internship for Nonfiction Writing.ENGL 280 Media and Professional Writing
CRN: 47495
Days/Time: TR 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Jay Shearer
In this course, you will develop a fresh perspective on and skills regarding media and professional writing. Through reading and interviewing, writing and discussion, you will learn to analyze and produce work appropriate for these dynamically evolving industries. We acknowledge this as a moment of acute transformation in the way we ingest and disseminate the written word. Taking these shifts into account, students will develop confidence as media writers and future participants in the professional workplace. You will examine multiple aspects of media and communications—from journalism to PR—and eventually produce a writing portfolio (via your personal web page), preparing you for internship and employment opportunities.ENGL 280 Media and Professional Writing
CRN: 47498
Days/Time: TR 2:00-3:15
Instructor: Jay Shearer
In this course, you will develop a fresh perspective on and skills regarding media and professional writing. Through reading and interviewing, writing and discussion, you will learn to analyze and produce work appropriate for these dynamically evolving industries. We acknowledge this as a moment of acute transformation in the way we ingest and disseminate the written word. Taking these shifts into account, students will develop confidence as media writers and future participants in the professional workplace. You will examine multiple aspects of media and communications—from journalism to PR—and eventually produce a writing portfolio (via your personal web page), preparing you for internship and employment opportunities.ENGL 282 Peer Tutoring in the Writing Center: Introduction to Theory and Practice
CRN: 47512, 47513
Days/Time: T 2:00-3:15
Instructor: Kim O’Neil
Prerequisite for this course is ENGL 161.
English 282 prepares students to tutor writing from all academic disciplines and levels. The course is reading- and writing intensive, drawing on established theory and evidence-based practice from the field of writing center studies. As part of the course, students tutor two hours a week starting the fifth week of the semester. Students continue to meet in class in small sections capped at 12 throughout the semester, analyzing their sessions, critically engaging theories of tutoring, conducting research, and developing collaborative approaches to tutoring that foster an inclusive community among fellow UIC students. With its emphasis on integrating learning with practice, the course is ideal for students of all majors who would like to develop professional skills, especially critical thinking, communication in diverse environments, and leadership.ENGL 282 Peer Tutoring in the Writing Center: Introduction to Theory and Practice
CRN: 48470, 48471
Days/Time: T 3:30-4:45
Instructor: Deanna Thompson
Prerequisite for this course is ENGL 161.
English 282 prepares students to tutor writing from all academic disciplines and levels.
The course is reading- and writing-intensive, drawing on established theory and evidence-based practice from the field of writing center studies. As part of the course, students tutor two hours a week starting the fifth week of the semester. Students continue to meet in class in small sections capped at 12 throughout the semester, analyzing their sessions, critically engaging theories of tutoring, conducting research, and developing collaborative approaches to tutoring that foster an inclusive community among fellow UIC students. With its emphasis on integrating learning with practice, the course is ideal for students of all majors who would like to develop professional skills, especially critical thinking, communication in diverse environments, and leadership.
Prerequisite: A or a B in English 161 (or the equivalent transfer course) or in
other courses that have a substantial writing requirement.ENGL 282 Peer Tutoring in the Writing Center: Introduction to Theory and Practice
CRN: 47514, 47515
Days/Time: W 3:00 – 4:15
Instructor: Benjamin Seigle
Prerequisite for this course is ENGL 161.
English 282 prepares students to tutor writing from all academic disciplines and levels. The course is reading- and writing intensive, drawing on established theory and evidence-based practice from the field of writing center studies. As part of the course, students tutor two hours a week starting the fifth week of the semester. Students continue to meet in class in small sections capped at 12 throughout the semester, analyzing their sessions, critically engaging theories of tutoring, conducting research, and developing collaborative approaches to tutoring that foster an inclusive community among fellow UIC students. With its emphasis on integrating learning with practice, the course is ideal for students of all majors who would like to develop professional skills, especially critical thinking, communication in diverse environments, and leadership.ENGL 282 Peer Tutoring in the Writing Center: Introduction to Theory and Practice.
CRN: 47510, 47511
Days/Time: W 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Antonio Guerrero
Prerequisite for this course is ENGL 161.
English 282 prepares students to tutor writing from all academic disciplines and levels. The course is reading- and writing intensive, drawing on established theory and evidence-based practice from the field of writing center studies. As part of the course, students tutor two hours a week starting the fifth week of the semester. Students continue to meet in class in small sections capped at 12 throughout the semester, analyzing their sessions, critically engaging theories of tutoring, conducting research, and developing collaborative approaches to tutoring that foster an inclusive community among fellow UIC students. With its emphasis on integrating learning with practice, the course is ideal for students of all majors who would like to develop professional skills, especially critical thinking, communication in diverse environments, and leadership.ENGL 290 Introduction to the Writing of Poetry
CRN: 47507
Days/Time: TR 11:00- 12:15
Instructor: Jay Yencich
Beginning workshops, especially in poetry, often attract a range of voices in the classroom, from those who have spent sleepless nights giving form to their feelings to those merely interested in the elective after years of memorizing song lyrics. My aim as an instructor is to provide a supportive environment in either case, to help get your footing with poetic techniques and perhaps challenge yourselves to branch out as you begin to read more deeply and get a sense of your own writing habits. The first half of the semester will be devoted to exploring what traditional elements have comprised a poem using a blend of contemporary and pre-20th century readings from writers with a variety of backgrounds, where applicable. During the second half, critiques will get deeper, and we’ll start to explore conceptual and structural frameworks behind various subspecies of poems. Tuesdays will generally be devoted to workshopping on a rotation with every student turning in one poem a week and we will spend Thursdays discussing how certain techniques manifest in the poems within the course reader.ENGL 290 Introduction to the Writing of Poetry
CRN: 47506
Days/Time: MWF 10:00-10:50
Instructor: Jules Wood
The primary goal of this course is to think critically about the craft of writing poetry and ultimately create our own portfolio of poems. To this aim, we will read poems spanning from the 19th century to the present moment, learning as we go about prosody, rhyme, meter, and other formal elements of poetry. We will also trace the history of poetic forms like the sonnet and the pastoral to consider how contemporary poets use, critique, repurpose, and/or mutilate these canonical forms—and how we might do so ourselves. When looking at these contemporary poets, we will also keep an eye out for the development of new forms in their work. Through weekly writing exercises, including an ekphrastic poetry project, we will explore the craft of poetry with the aim of gaining competency when writing our own poems.ENGL 291 Introduction to the Writing of Fiction
CRN: 47508
Days/Time: TR 11:00-12:15
Instructor: Mary Kate Varnau-ColemanENGL 291 Introduction to Fiction Writing
CRN: 47509
Days/Time: MWF 12:00-12:50
Instructor: Angelica Davila
This course is designed as an introduction to the writing of fiction. However, before we can write, we must learn to read like writers. As such, we will focus on reading published works to study the craft of basic techniques found in literary fiction. These techniques will include point of view, character development, dialogue, theme, and conflict to name a few. This course will require short responses to readings. In addition to enhancing your skills as readers, we will also be developing your writing skills in the form of in-class writing assignments, short story writing, and via peer feedback during workshops. You will also be revising your work and turning in a revised portfolio at the end. Additionally, this course welcomes any student who is interested in working with multiple languages within their prose.ENGL 291 Introduction to Fiction Writing
CRN: 48862
Days/Time: TR 3:30-4:45
Instructor: Christopher GrimesENGL 292 Introduction to Creative Nonfiction
CRN: 47494
Days/Time: TR 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Lauren Keeley
What is creative nonfiction? It’s autobiography, memoir, lyric essay, flash essay, New Journalism, public writing—the list goes on. The capaciousness and permeability of the genre’s borders are, some would argue, its greatest strength. Others regard this malleability as an Achilles heel, forever foreclosing it from establishing itself as a serious genre of creative writing. In this course, we will consider these two stances as we interrogate the history of creative nonfiction—its ethics, exigence, and, most importantly, how to write it well. -
300 Level
ENGL 311 WARRIOR KINGS AND COURTLY KNIGHTS: The Two Traditions of Arthurian Romance in Medieval England
CRN: 27719
Days/Time: MW 3:00-4.15
Instructor: Alfred Thomas
This course explores the development of Arthurian romance in medieval Britain from the earliest Latin and Old Welsh sources to Sir Thomas Malory’s compendium of tales known as Le Morte Darthur. We will trace two distinct traditions, one based on Geoffrey of Monmouth’s pseudo-history The History of the Kings of Britain, the first full-fledged account of King Arthur as a warrior king, the other based on the French courtly romances of Chretien de Troyes. These insular and French strains are skillfully intertwined in the greatest of all English Arthurian Romances: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The course will end with close readings of the Alliterative Morte Arthur and Malory’s Le Morte Darthur, both of which chronicle Arthur’s decline and fall, reflecting England’s lurch into the political conflict known as the War of the Roses.ENGL 351 Literatures of Decolonization
CRN: 37202
Days/Time: TR 11:00-12:15
Instructor: Ainsworth Clarke
The mid-twentieth century marks not only the advent of the Cold War but also registers a political and cultural transformation that continues to circumscribe us today. Within a brief twenty-eight-month period in the mid-1950s we witnessed the end of legal segregation in the United States with the decision of Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the toppling of a colonial power with the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu (1954), and the arrival of alternative political and cultural voices with the 1955 Bandung Conference in Indonesia and the First International Congress of Black Writers and Artists held in Paris the following year. Although the decision in Brown and the French defeat in Vietnam are viewed as embodying different histories and sets of concerns, this course will seek to ask what it would mean to read these moments –– and the texts that engage them –– together. The course will take as its focus the work of representative African American and postcolonial writers of the period and situate them against the backdrop of concerns embodied by these signal moments. Our readings will include works by Richard Wright, George Lamming, Chinua Achebe, William Gardner Smith, and Tayeb Salih, amongst others.ENGL 380 Advanced Professional Writing
CRN: 47537
Days/Time: MW 4:30-5:45
Instructor: Philip Hayek
Course description and goals
This advanced professional writing course teaches ethics and argumentation relevant to writing in the workplace. Our assignments will bridge the public and private sectors and teach you how to define issues, propose changes, judge actions, and promote values within your chosen field. We will debate about controversies involving business, government, law, and medicine. Integral to these debates will be how clear thinking and good writing can create the common ground necessary for these professional communities to work and to work together.
Public Sector (public policy):
We will explore the area of public policy writing, and you will practice various genres in the policy communication process. You will locate, analyze, and advise on an issue in public policy.
Private Sector:
In this unit we will practice writing internal and external business messages. You will work on promotional materials for a business of your choosing and develop social media strategies and crisis management solutions.
Third Sector (proposal and grant writing): The third sector refers to America’s non-business, non-government institutions, commonly known as nonprofit organizations, or NPOs. NPOs include most of our hospitals, a large part of our schools, and a large percentage of our colleges and universities. Habitat for Humanity is one such philanthropy, with thousands of chapters and a million volunteers. Proposal and grant writing offers a competitive edge for young jobseekers across many disciplines: art, business, corporate communications, education, environmental studies, health, music, the STEM fields, politics, sociology, etc. This unit will teach research and assessment, project management, professional editing, and formal document design, as you develop a media packet for a nonprofit of your choosing.ENGL 380 Advanced Professional Writing
CRN: 47538
Days/Time: TR 2:00-3:15
Instructor: Margena A. Christian
In this course, you will learn genres and forms in the professional writing spectrum that demonstrate competence in creating clear, concise narratives for a wide variety of audiences with changing needs. You will examine characteristics of effective writing in a non-academic context, developing a facility in writing across a range of specialized areas. Expect to produce proposals, reports, newsletters, and document design. You will learn to make sense of numbers with data reporting and research methods that measure your proficiency to construct appropriate styles of advanced professional writing on an array of platforms, including online. In the process, you will learn to communicate well by recognizing the correct manner and form to use for different media formats.ENGL 382 Editing and Publishing
CRN: 44817
Days/Time: TR 9:30-10:45
Instructor: Margena A. Christian
“In this course, students will study editorial oversight, copy editing/line editing techniques, style requirements, grammar as a stylistic tool, and industry standards with variations in both traditional and self-publishing. Students will learn the business behind the books. Basic design skills will also be taught for producing a cover and a book interior while adhering to publishing best practices.ENGL 384 Technical Writing
CRN: 43391
Days/Time: MWF 10:00-10:50
Instructor: Philip Hayek
Course Overview and Objectives:
In this course, we will examine—first broadly and then with increased specificity—the types of writing required of most professionals in fields like business, medicine, science, technology, and law, from the extremely basic to the more complex. We will also explore and become familiar with many real-life aspects behind the creation of technical writing, such as collaboration and presentation. Frequent opportunities to practice these skills and to incorporate knowledge you have gained in your science and technology courses will be integrated with exercises in peer review and revision. We will learn to pay attention to analyzing audience and purpose, organizing information, designing graphic aids, and writing such specialized forms as instructions, proposals, and reports. Non-English majors in the STEM fields are encouraged to take this course to build writing skills that are directly applicable to your major coursework and projects.ENGL 389 Writing for Community Advocacy and Activism
CRN: 47580
Days/Time: MWF 12:00-12:50
Instructor: Karen Leick
In this course, students will learn about writing strategies and a variety of genres related to nonprofit organizations, advocacy, and activism. Assignments will include an advocacy letter, a newsletter or brochure for nonprofit organizations, and a grant proposal. Students will also develop, design, and produce content for a white paper. In addition, students will learn to create an effective oral presentation using a presentation program (such as PowerPoint, Google Slides, Prezi). -
400 Level
ENGL 406 Stochastic Birds and Sarcastic Bots: Poetry in the Age of the Algorithm
CRN: 48318, 48319
Days/Time: MW 3:00-4:15
Instructor: Jennifer Ashton
Can machines and non-human animals “mean” what they “say”? It’s a question that journalists, philosophers, scientists, scholars — even poets — have been grappling with since long before large language models (LLMs) like GPT were a glimmer in some computer programmer’s eye.
In this class, we’ll think about this question from a poetic standpoint through works that both 1) call into question what does and doesn’t qualify as meaningful language and language as such, and 2) do so by way of voices or mechanisms that might best be described, to borrow the words of Edgar Allan Poe in reference to “The Raven,” as “unreasoning creatures.” Poe’s famous 1845 poem, along with a variety of older as well as contemporary works, will help us examine why and how poets have sought to mediate their poems through such “creatures”, whether they be birds or bots or entities of some other “unreasoning” kind.
Our texts will include selections by Poe, Walt Whitman, Tristan Tzara, Laura Riding, Gertrude Stein, Steve McCaffery, John Cage, Russell Atkins, Raymond Queneau, Harry Mathews, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Harryette Mullen, Douglas Kearney, Christian Bök, in addition to texts generated by computer programs and their users. Our tools for thinking about these works will also include some widely debated philosophical, literary critical, scientific, mathematical, and economic perspectives on creative agency and processes, both human- and machine-governed.ENGL 422 The Literature of Decolonization: From Colony to Post Colony
CRN: 35516, 35517
Days/Time: TR 5:00-6:15
Instructor: Sunil Agnani
This course introduces students to what used to be called third-world literature, or postcolonial literature. We will investigate the legacies of European colonialism through a study of fiction, essays, and films produced during the colonial period and its aftermath. We begin with Conrad and Kipling, then shift to those in the colonies to examine the cultural impact of empire, anti-colonial nationalism, and the role played by exile and diaspora communities.
What challenges do works from writers on the receiving end of empire—such as Gandhi, Fanon, Césaire, J.M. Coetzee, Assia Djebar, Michael Ondaatje, Salman Rushdie and Amitav Ghosh—pose to the conventional idea of justice? How do they reveal contradictions within the languages of liberalism and progress that emerged in 19th-century Europe? How do such writers rework the classic forms of the novel? Finally, how has the failure of some of the primary aims of decolonization (economic sovereignty, full political autonomy) affected more recent writing of the last 40 years? Criticism from: Edward Said and Gayatri Spivak.ENGL 425 The End of the ‘American Century’
CRN: 47583, 47584
Days/Time: TR 12:30-1:45
Instructor: Helen Jun
This course focuses on discourses of American decline, in which the U.S. is no longer imagined as an exceptional domain that promises “the Good Life,” nor an indispensable or legitimate authority in a shifting world order. We will examine how U.S. cultural production represents the phenomena of national decline in the context of global capitalism. While we might expect to find apocalyptic scenarios or anxious narratives of mourning, loss, and nostalgia, we’ll see how even seemingly predictable stories disclose contradictory and unexpected expressions of possibility, pleasure, and even freedom. Readings will also include Black, Latinx, Asian/American, and Arab American cultural texts which provide distinct vantage points on the world order that was forged by the U.S. from the mid-20th to early 21st centuries, particularly in relation to U.S. militarization and warfare.
We will reference and cover a wide range of film, TV, and literary texts, including Homeland, Ted Lasso, Apocalypse Now, Black Panther, Nomadland, Crazy Rich Asians, Omar El Akkad’s American War, Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story, Raquel Salas Rivera’s Lo Terciario, Ken Kalfus’ 2 am in Little America, Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger.ENGL 430 Topics in Cultural and Media Studies: Film and Television after the Digital
CRN : 47546, 47547
Days/Time: TR 11:00-12:15
Instructor: Kaitlin Forcier
Susan Sontag once lamented the “decay of cinema,” arguing that new digital technologies would lead to the death of cinema as we know it. Yet, as this course will explore, over the course of its 125-year history, cinema has experienced numerous deaths and rebirths. This course will explore how digital technologies have transformed film and television – how they are made, what they look like, and where they are watched. We will use film and TV as case studies for thinking about the cultural impact of digital media more broadly. We will think about how a given technology may offer constraints or new possibilities for the sorts of stories we tell, the art we create, and the information we consume. While we will be focusing on feature films and television, these theories offer insights into the proliferation of many related screen media since the turn of the century: videogames, VR, mobile media, streaming platforms and more.
The course will ask questions such as: What new styles and forms have emerged in the digital age? How have digital technologies transformed how we consume and create media? Have digital tools destabilized the relationship between creators and consumers? What parallels can we draw between the “digital revolution” at the turn of the 21st century, and the emergence of cinema at the turn of the last century? How do changes in film and media intersect with broader economic, cultural, and political questions? Did digital media lead to “an ignominious, irreversible decline” as Sontag predicted? Case studies will include films such as: Singing’ in the Rain (Donen, 1952), 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968), The Last Angel of History (Akomfrah, 1995), Toy Story (Lasseter, 1995), Titanic (Cameron, 1997), The Matrix (The Wachowski’s, 1999), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Lee, 2000), Timecode (Figgis, 2000) The Bourne Supremacy (Greengrass, 2004), Be Kind, Rewind (Michel Gondry, 2008), Gravity (Cuarón, 2013), Tangerine (Sean Baker, 2015), Lemonade (Beyoncé/ Good Company, 2016), Emily in Paris (Netflix, 2020).ENGL 435 Topics in Culture and Literature
CRN: 47556, 47557
Days/Time: TR 3:30-4:45
Instructor: Natasha BarnesENGL 452 The Freshwater Lab
CRN: 48620, 48621
Days/Time: T 2:00-4:50
Instructor: Rachel Havrelock
Crosslisted with 2 other courses: PA 452 CRNs 48622 and 48623: UPP 452 CRNs 48628 and 48629
The Freshwater Lab is a grant supported program that invites students to learn about water and its social contexts. Students are empowered to take action to improve water quality, access, and knowledge throughout the Great Lakes region.
Rather than a traditional lecture course, it endeavors to put the pressing issues surrounding the Great Lakes before students to support their engagement with the issues and their innovative approaches to addressing them. In this Humanities “lab” setting, we study and discuss social and environmental dimensions of the Great Lakes, meet with leaders in the Great Lakes water sector, visit relevant Chicago area sites, and work individually and in groups on projects to advance existing initiatives and pioneer new approaches. Students are paired with professionals working on issues relevant to their project and Professor Havrelock helps to suggest avenues for advancing student projects during the semester and beyond.
Although we certainly respect and depend upon scientific approaches to the Great Lakes, this is a Humanities-driven course interested in the many ways in which water interacts with socio-political systems, legal structures, cultural perceptions, and artistic visions. Focus also falls on how race, class, and gender determine access to water, exposure to contamination, and participation in the institutions responsible for the region’s water.ENGL 480 Introduction to Teaching of English in Middle and Secondary
CRN: 47552, 47553
Days/Time: TR 11:00-12:15
Instructor: Lauren Elizabeth Reine Johnson
English 480 is the first required methods course for the English Education major and a course for anyone who wants to explore the possibility of being an English teacher. Together we will explore the seemingly simple question, Why teach English? This question will undoubtedly lead to a series of related questions, such as What is the purpose of English/Language Arts? What does English teaching look like in different settings? How do our experiences as students shape our perspectives and commitments? How do our students influence what teaching English means? We will consider multiple perspectives, including those attending to ideas of justice, equity, and belonging. Through our learning, we will develop emerging frameworks for how we might approach English teaching. Course requirements include 12 hours of fieldwork in an area high school.ENGL 482 Writing Center Leadership
CRN: 21190, 47267
Days/Time: TR 11:00-12:15
Instructor: Charitianne Williams
English 482 is an advanced Writing Center studies/tutor-training course exploring multiple perspectives–specifically that of tutor, administrator, and researcher. We will examine established best practices from the cross-disciplinary field of peer tutoring and tutor training, read about multiple theoretical perspectives (feminist theory, genre theory, and second language acquisition theories, to name a few), and practice research methods (such as survey, discourse analysis, and case study) common to writing center research. By the end of the class, participants will understand the potential of peer tutoring in the curriculum, major concerns in the administration and assessment of writing centers, as well as how to conduct qualitative research that moves the discipline forward.ENGL 486 Teaching Writing in Middle and Secondary Schools
CRN: 47023, 47024
Days/Time: TR 12:30–1:45
Instructor: Kate Sjostrom
Why teach writing? How can we teach writing more effectively and responsibly? These are the main questions we will try to answer in English 486. Drawing from a wide range of sources, we will think about writing not only as a transfer of information but as a way of thinking critically, reflectively, and precisely about issues that are important to us. In our readings, we will encounter practical activities suggested by experienced writing teachers; we will practice these activities as we write extensively together; we will read and assess each other’s work; we will talk about how to teach students a variety of genres. In essence, we will create an environment where you can develop your professional identity as a writer and teacher of writing. Also, we will discuss ideas that lend coherence to our classroom activities (what some people call “theory”). Whatever generalizing we do, however, will be grounded in the particular details of working toward the goal of this class: to prepare you to establish a productive community of writers.
Course requirements include 12-15 hours of field work in an area high school and three portfolios demonstrating what you have learned in various sections of the course.ENGL 487 Teaching of Reading and Literature in Middle and Secondary Schools
CRN: 47558, 47559
Days/Time: TR 11:00-12:15
Instructor: Abby Kindelsperger
Intended as part of the English Education methods sequence, this course focuses on how to plan effective and engaging lessons focused on reading comprehension and literary analysis, as well as how to scaffold instruction for a wide variety of readers. Major assignments include lesson plans, discussion leadership, and a teaching demonstration. Students also complete 12-15 hours of field work in local schools, with an opportunity to facilitate literary study for a small group of learners.ENGL 488 Methods of Teaching English
CRN: 48769, 48770
Days/Time: TR 3:30-4:45
Instructor: Todd DeStigter
To be taken in conjunction with ED 425 (“Curriculum and Instruction”), English 488 is the final course in the sequence of English Education methods courses. It is to be taken only by English education students the semester before student teaching. Although this course is for both undergraduate and graduate students, B.A. students should register for CRN 33811, and M.A. students should register for CRN 33812. The course’s central objectives focus on the challenges of making literature and writing connect with students’ lives and with broader social/political issues—to make clear, in other words, why English “matters” to high school kids. Special attention will be paid to the ways in which teachers’ methodological choices are influenced by the theoretical frameworks they adopt. Additional focus will be on long- and short-term lesson planning and assessment. In addition to weekly written work, English 488 students will lead discussions, organize small group activities, create an instructional unit based on a Shakespeare play, and practice teaching lesson plans they design.ENGL 490 Advanced Poetry Workshop
CRN: 12504, 20335
Days/Time: TR 12:30-1:45
Instructor: daniel borzutzky
A workshop, in one of its original definitions, is a “place in which things are produced or created.” A place where you use tools, techniques, and equipment to make things. Another definition is “a room or place where goods are manufactured or repaired.” We will be driven by this spirit of making things, as artists, in a classroom together. In other words, this writing workshop is much more about generating new work than it is about critique. It’s exciting to make new things! It’s exciting to experiment with language, images, forms, and voices, in a classroom where students make work that is vibrant, unexpected, and transformational. Students will be encouraged to create chapbooks and long poems; to use documentary or research-oriented approaches; to translate or write in multiple languages; to write across genres and art forms; and to incorporate film and sound and music into their poems. To this end, we will read broadly as we study innovative poetic and artistic models that will help us craft our own work. And we will get the chance to speak with some writers as well as we investigate new approaches to how art and poetry get made.ENGL 491 Advanced Writing of Fiction
CRN: 35763, 35764
Days/Time: MW 3:00-4:15
Instructor: Mary Anne MohanrajENGL 491 Advanced Writing of Fiction
CRN: 30588, 30589
Days/Time: TR 2:00-3:15
Instructor: Christopher GrimesENGL 492 Advanced Writing of Creative Nonfiction
CRN: 20346, 12510
Days/Time: TR 11:00-12:15
Instructor: Lisa Stolley
This is an advanced creative nonfiction course for students who have taken Engl. 201 or the equivalent. Students will continue to develop the techniques of writing creative nonfiction, including assimilating features of fiction and poetry, experimenting with voice, structure, style, creative integration of research, and revision. Student work will focus on three subgenres of creative nonfiction: personal essay, nature writing, and literary journalism. Published essays will provide models of technique and form for students’ own work. This class will be primarily run as a workshop: students will both receive and contribute constructive feedback on their own and their peers’ essay drafts. Students will be expected to write three essays, as well as brief but thorough critiques of their fellow writers’ essays. Tips on submitting creative nonfiction work for publication will be discussed toward end of semester.ENGL 493: Internship in Nonfiction Writing
CRN: 25243/25244
Days: R 3:30 – 4:45 PM
Instructor: Linda Landis Andrews
What can I do with an English major?” is a question that often concerns students, particularly when parents and others ask about the future. No need to hedge; every organization needs writers to provide information through websites, social media, and blogs, to add creativity to the focus of its work, and to move its ideas forward. Writers are gifted people, and their skills are needed.
Becoming a contributing writer takes planning, however, starting with an internship, which provides an opportunity to step off campus and use the writing and analytical skills gained through English courses.
In ENGL 493, guided by an instructor and a supervisor, English majors quickly adjust to a public audience and conduct research, gain interviewing skills, write content, edit, learn technology, assist with special events, to name a few of the tasks assigned in an internship. Students are enrolled in ENGL 493 while concurrently working at an internship for 12 hours a week.
Employers include nonprofits, radio, and television stations, online and print newspapers and magazines, public relations firms, museums, associations, law firms, and health organizations. There is an internship for every interest. Many internships are conducted remotely, which makes the world a stage. During the pandemic, one intern worked for an organization in Denver, and another worked from her home in Ho Chi Minh City.
First, register for ENGL 280, Media, and Professional Writing, to launch your writing career. Procrastination is not advised.
Credit is variable: three or six credits
Through the new Flames Internship Grant (FIG) students may apply for possible reimbursement while working at unpaid internships. Securing a grant is competitive.
Come, jump in-you have everything to gain and nothing to lose.ENGL 496 Portfolio Practicum
CRN: 46515
Days/Time: T 11:00-12:15
Instructor: Margena A. Christian
English 496 is a capstone course in UIC’s undergraduate program in Professional Writing designed to assist our students in landing their first post-degree position as a writing professional. The major focus of this seminar is creating and revising a writing portfolio that not only represents each student’s unique talents as a writer of specialized genres but also showcases their ability to expand upon their proven academic skill sets in new professional writing situations.
To prepare seminar participants for the job market of their choosing, students will compile a working portfolio of their best professional writing samples through an on-line platform of their choosing and in this way build upon and refine a portfolio they have already begun as members of our professional writing program. Over the course of the seminar, students will learn how to (re-)design and structure material they have already produced as students of writing for audiences beyond the university. In putting together their writing portfolio, students will be given ample opportunity to reflect on the skills they have acquired in their education to establish a recognizable and marketable professional identity.
This seminar is designed to increase students’ confidence as they enter the job market by preparing them to share verbally and in writing their achievements as a young professional well-prepared to utilize the writing skills they have carefully developed and honed during their university education.
Prerequisite(s): Grade of C or better in two of the following courses: ENGL 380, 382, 383, 384.
Course Information: Credit is not given for ENGL 496 if the student has credit for ENGL 493.ENGL 498 Educational Practice with Seminar
CRN: 12518
Days/Time: ARRANGED ONLINE
Instructor: Kate Sjostrom
A two-segment sequence of practice teaching, including seminar, to meet certification requirements for teaching in grades nine through twelve. Graduate credit only with approval of the department.
Prerequisite(s): Good academic standing in a teacher education program, completion of 120 clock hours of pre-student-teaching field experiences, and approval of the department. To be properly registered, students must enroll in one Lecture-Discussion and one Practice section for ENGL 498, as well as one Conference and one Practice section for ENGL 499.
The seminar is structured to encourage three different sorts of conversations and activities: 1) those that invite reflection upon your classroom teaching; 2) those that allow you to collaborate with your colleagues and field instructors to prepare for your upcoming teaching and licensure assessment; and 3) those that address issues pertinent to your job search and on-going professional development.ENGL 499 Educational Practice with Seminar
CRN: 12530
Days/Time: ARRANGED ONLINE
Instructor: Kate Sjostrom
A two-segment sequence of practice teaching, including seminar, to meet certification requirements for teaching in grades nine through twelve. Graduate credit only with approval of the department.
Prerequisite(s): Good academic standing in a teacher education program, completion of 120 clock hours of pre-student-teaching field experiences, and approval of the department. To be properly registered, students must enroll in one Lecture-Discussion and one Practice section for ENGL 498, as well as one Conference and one Practice section for ENGL 499.
The seminar is structured to encourage three different sorts of conversations and activities: 1) those that invite reflection upon your classroom teaching; 2) those that allow you to collaborate with your colleagues and field instructors to prepare for your upcoming teaching and licensure assessment; and 3) those that address issues pertinent to your job search and on-going professional development. -
500 Level
ENGL 500 Master’s Proseminar
CRN: 22397
Days/Time: W 5:00–7:50
Instructor: Madhu Dubey
An introduction to graduate study in English for first year master’s students, this proseminar will focus on the topic of literature and humanism. Our reading and discussion of literary and critical texts will be guided by questions relating to this topic, such as: What is the value of literature as an area of humanistic study? Do literary canons embody universal human values and ideals that transcend time and place? Does reading literature help make us better human beings and citizens? In what ways do literary texts mobilize affect and empathy to ethical ends and to extend human rights to ‘others? Although the course is not designed to present a chronological survey, we will consider a range of responses to these questions, beginning with Matthew Arnold’s humanist conception of literature, moving through various defenses and critiques of literary humanism, and ending with contemporary post humanist manifestoes.ENGL 503 Form
CRN: 21006
Days/Time: W 5:00 – 7:50
Instructor: Nicholas Brown
What is literary (or generally, aesthetic) form? What does form have to do with meaning? What is the relation of form to history? This course is not a survey, but rather the invitation to a debate. Nonetheless, it will cover positions from Aristotle to Lessing to Roberto Schwarz and Otilia Arantes to Fred Moten and Toril Moi.ENGL 541 Seminar in Black Literature
CRN: 48746
Days/Time: M 5:00-7:50
Instructor: Esmeralda Arrizón-Palomera
This course examines how Black feminist thinkers have engaged the subject of migration to understand its significance in the development of Black Feminist Thought. Our course readings will include 19th and 20th century primary texts that attend to the way race, class, gender, sexuality, migration, and legal status have inform the development of a Black feminist consciousness and political agenda. Secondary texts will include recent scholarship on Black Feminist Thought and migration. Together, these texts will aid us in locating and tracing a strand in Black Feminist Thought that is largely unexplored.\
ENGL: 555 Teaching College Writing
CRN: 12546
Days/Time: T 2:00-4:50
Instructor: Mark BennettENGL 557 Language and Literacy: Pragmatism, Schooling, and the Quest for Democracy
CRN: 23604
Days/Time: R 5:00-7:50
Instructor: Todd DeStigter
What does it mean to teach for justice and democracy, and what does American pragmatism have to contribute to conversations regarding whether it’s desirable or even possible to do so? These central questions will provide a framework for our exploration of the (ir?) relevance of our work as scholars and teachers of English to the world beyond our classrooms and campuses.
Although we will occasionally discuss specific curricular choices and teaching methods, most of our readings will encourage us to consider broader theoretical issues such as 1) how “democracy” and “social justice” can be defined and whether these remain viable sociopolitical aspirations, 2) the extent to which pragmatism as a philosophical/analytical method provides useful ways to think about ameliorating social and economic problems, and 3) what schools —specifically, English language arts classes—have to do with any of this.
Put another way, this course will be the site of an ongoing conversation about whether we as students and teachers of English can/should hope that our work “matters” beyond our own intellectual or financial interests. Though our reading list will evolve in response to our discussions and students’ recommendations, some likely texts (or at least selected chapters from them) are these:
LEARNING TO LABOR: HOW WORKING-CLASS KIDS GET WORKING CLASS JOBS by Paul Willis
GHOSTS IN THE SCHOOLYARD: RACISM AND SCHOOL CLOSINGS ON CHICAGO’S SOUTH SIDE by Eve Ewing
MARXISM AND INTERSECTIONALITY by Ashley J. Bohrer
UNIVERSALITY AND IDENTITY POLITICS by Todd Mc Gowan
DEMOCRACY AS FETISH by Ralph Cintron
LIBERALISM AND SOCIAL ACTION by John Dewey
TWENTY YEARS AT HULL HOUSE or DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL ETHICS by Jane Addams
PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED by Paulo Freire
PRAGMATISM by William James
TEACHER UNIONS AND SOCIAL JUSTICE: ORGANIZING FOR THE SCHOOLS AND COMMUNITIES’ STUDENTS DESERVE by Michael Charney, Jesse Hagopian, and Bob Peterson (eds.)
THE FIRE NEXT TIME by James Baldwin
CULTIVATING GENIUS: AN EQUITY FRAMEWORK FOR CULTURALLY AND HISTORICALLY RESPONSIVE LITERACY by Gholdy Muhammad
CLASS DISMISSED: WHY WE CAN’T TEACH OR LEARN OUR WAY OUT OF INEQUALITY by John Marsh
CREOLIZING THE NATION by Kris F. Sealey
THE IGNORANT SCHOOLMASTER by Jacques Ranciére
English 557 is intended for students in the graduate English, Education, and TESOL programs. Course requirements include bi-weekly “conversation papers” used to prompt class discussions, a mid-term paper, and an end-of-term paper/project of each student’s choosing. Interested students are encouraged to contact Todd DeStigter (tdestig@uic.edu).ENGL 570 Program for Writers: Poetry Workshop
CRN: 33612
Days/Time: M 2:00-4:50 ONLINE
Instructor: Christina Pugh
This course is a poetry workshop for graduate level poets. Graduate-level writers in other genres are welcomed in our course. Varied styles and aesthetics are also welcomed in the workshop. Discussion of student work will be the primary focus here, but we will also read some notable recent volumes of contemporary poetry. The course includes critical readings that directly treat issues of poetic making, including the study of syntax, line, and linguistic music. These critical works treat poems in the lyric tradition; it is my belief that study of this tradition can inform a variety of aesthetic commitments.
Students will write new poems that will be discussed in workshop and revised for a final portfolio; they will also produce an artist’s statement to accompany their final portfolios. My goal is for you to be writing with energy and focus, and for you to deepen your own poetic practice by thinking critically about the elements of craft that are available to you as a poet. I also strive to create a classroom environment that is encouraging and supportive – while staying seriously focused on the art and craft (and the perennial challenge and delight) of making poems.ENGL 571 Program for Writers Fiction Workshop
CRN: 33333
Days/Time: T 5:00-7:50
Instructor: Cris Mazza
The Program for Writers fall fiction workshop is for fiction of all lengths: novels, short fiction, novellas, flash fiction, etc. Writers of literary nonfiction who can’t fit the nonfiction workshop into their schedules are also welcome.
Workshop discussion includes critiques of works-in-progress, including approach to writing fiction, specific techniques, shape, form, plot, character, theory, etc. We can also entertain discussion about pitfalls, variables and whims of the marketplace, and how literary fiction is affected by social pressures and/or political unrest in the world. Discussion and reading assignments will be based on submissions of student work. This workshop will not discuss genre (commercial/popular) fiction.
Students who are not in the Program for Writers need the permission from the instructor to enroll.ENGL 574 Nonfiction Workshop
CRN: 33334
Days/Time: M 2:00-4:50
Instructor: Luis Urrea
Office Hours: M, before class
This is an intimate workshop. READING/PRESENTING: NON-FICTION PIECES AT LEAST TWICE THIS SEMESTER (revisions accepted); AFTER THAT, FREE RANGE AND FREE-FORM. Read what you want to share, in whatever genre. Bring copies for the group; or send the pieces electronically to us. You must, however, have fun.ENGL 585 Melville, or Varieties of Historicism
CRN: 29630
Days/Time: R 5:00-7:50
Instructor: Peter Coviello
In this seminar we will read deeply in the archive of Herman Melville – Moby-Dick will be our central text, among others – as a way of inquiring into the suite of methods that have clustered around various conjugations of “history.” Histories of capital and labor, histories of law and empire, histories of sexuality, histories of enslavement, histories of literary expression: Melville’s corpus has a way of running these matters into and across one another, which we will take as an occasion to appraise several strands of “historicism,” such as they have figured in literary criticism and theory. Importantly, this is not a class about what now tends to be called “New Historicism,” since one of our premises will be that that set of interpretive protocols neither inaugurates nor exhausts historicism as such.ENGL 590 Environmental Humanities: Climate Change and the Novel
CRN: 48690
Days/Time: W 2:00-4:50
Instructor: Rachel Havrelock
The literary genre of Cli-Fi intersects with speculative fiction and its utopian and dystopic poles. It often incorporates ecology and economics into a narrative form with global reach and troubled interiority. In this seminar, we will read leading contemporary climate change fiction while developing a timeline of its genesis. Simultaneously, we will interrogate the criteria for inclusion in the category of Cli-Fi and finetune our definition. Causes, events, and responses to climate change will factor into our analysis as we consider whether the novels impact outcomes and if they should be expected to do so.
Texts may include Aldous Huxley, Island; Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower; Amitav Ghosh, Gun Island & The Nutmeg’s Curse; Louise Erdrich, Future Home of the Living God; Kim Stanley Robinson the Ministry for the Future; Lydia Millet the Children’s Bible.
Spring 2023 Heading link
-
Spring 2023
These previous course descriptions can be found on our archived site. https://engl.uic.edu/courses/courses-archive/past-course-descriptions/