English Courses

Still have questions about a course? Click on any of the instructor’s name to be directed to their email.

ENGL 150 Intro to Academic Writing for Nonative Speakers

CRN:  49439

Days/Time:  MWF 2:00-2:50

Instructor: Heather Doble

In this course we will use the language of food, cooking, recipes, and menus to think about and understand the transmission of culture around the globe informing how we understand ourselves and others. What is gained and lost when recipes and the language surrounding them changes or is lost? How can we better understand our history and global history through the language of food? . We will ask questions like: Can understanding the movement of food, language, and culture across the globe help us see ourselves as connected to one another?

ENGL 150: Introduction to Academic Writing for the Nonnative Speakers of English

CRN:  49438

Days/Time:  TR 9:30- 10:45

Instructor:  Katharine Romero

The theme of our course is “Multimodal Composition for Multilingual Writers,” and we will explore more than one mode of communication to persuade, inform, or express meaning within our writing. Our classroom will operate as a multilingual writing community where we will engage in drafting and revision through frequent peer review sessions, one required session with a Writing Center tutor, and individualized instructor feedback. By the end of this course, we will strengthen crucial academic writing skills such as critical reading, reflection, and argumentation for your future university coursework and beyond. You will not be required to purchase any textbook or reading material for this class. Our course reading material will be available through BlackBoard (BB). I will upload PDF documents of readings from selected writing handbooks and upload links to articles. Our readings will come from selected authors from the Norton Field Guide to Writing, Pressbooks, and the New York Times. We will connect with our creative side to compose three multimodal projects in different genres: the narrative essay, the rhetorical analysis, and the persuasive essay. These essays will require some photo-taking, with options to create an infographic, podcast, video, and more!

Still have questions about a course? Click on any of the instructor’s name to be directed to their email.

ENGL 151: Introduction to Academic Writing:  First-Generation & Underrepresented Minority Students Writing Legacy

CRN:  49446

Days/Time TR 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Robin Gayle

This course is designed specifically for first-generation college students, meaning you are the first in your family to attend a university. This course will enable you to increase your confidence as an academic, establish a strong community of like-minded students, and ultimately, craft a legacy to be passed down to incoming undergraduates. ” Maya Angelou, Assata Shakur, Eddie Chuculate Testimonio, Manifesto, Legacy Artivism Project

ENGL 151: Introduction to Academic Writing:  First-Generation & Underrepresented Minority Students Writing Legacy

CRN:  49447

Days/Time TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  Robin Gayle 

This course is designed specifically for first-generation college students, meaning you are the first in your family to attend a university. This course will enable you to increase your confidence as an academic, establish a strong community of like-minded students, and ultimately, craft a legacy to be passed down to incoming undergraduates. ” Maya Angelou, Assata Shakur, Eddie Chuculate Testimonio, Manifesto, Legacy Artivism Project

ENGL 151 Introduction to Academic Writing

CRN: 49448

Days/Time:  MWF 2:00-2:50

Instructor:  Amanda Bohne

This preparatory course emphasizes academic reading and writing with a focus on argument, sentence-level grammar and rhetorical effectiveness. Potential authors include: Anne Lamott, Amy Tan, Nicole Miles Essays: Literacy Narrative, Response Essay, Argumentative Essay

ENGL 151 Introduction to Academic Writing

CRN:  49443

Days/Time:  MWF 1:00-1:50

Instructor:  Amanda Bohne

This preparatory course emphasizes academic reading and writing with a focus on argument, sentence-level grammar and rhetorical effectiveness. In this course, we will read texts that focus on real-world issues in local, global, and online communities. We will strengthen the critical reading, analysis, and interpretation skills that many university writing assignments require. Potential authors include Amy Tan, Anne Lamott, and Nicole Miles. Essays include a literacy narrative, a response essay, and an argumentative essay

ENGL 151 Introduction to Academic Writing

CRN: 49445

Days/Time:  TR 3:30-4:45

Instructor:  Vainis Aleksa

You will take what you have already learned about writing and adapt it for the research-oriented community that you are a part of in college. You will use writing to go deeper into a topic that you will choose and to share what you are learning with your classmates. Class meetings will be a valuable way to get feedback on your ideas and drafts, and to make progress in your writing; attendance will be important. Together, we will work to make writing useful and meaningful beyond the requirements of this course. A book of your choice from the Oxford Very Short Introductions series and The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing by Michael Harvey (third edition). We will be writing reflections and analyses, as well as a longer paper that uses evidence to take a position on your topic.

ENGL 151  Introduction to Academic Writing 

CRN:  50528

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:   Angela Dancey

Preparatory writing course in different genres with a focus on argument, sentence-level grammar, and rhetorical effectiveness. Based on final course assessment, the English Department may recommend a waiver of ENGL 160, allowing students to move directly into ENGL 161. N/A Three major writing projects and graded in-class writing

Still have questions about a course? Click on any of the instructor’s name to be directed to their email.

ENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop

CRN:  43009

Day/Time:  ARR

Instructor: Deanna Thompson

This section of English 159 provides an individualized space distinct from (but also connected to) the space of English 150. Students will discuss and reflect on the expectations for college writing, workshop drafts of English 150 writing projects, review their English 150 instructor feedback, and discuss strategies for revision. No separate texts are assigned. All reading and writing materials come from students’ ENGL 150 coursework, which they bring to this support class. Assessment is based on attendance, workshop participation, engagement with ENGL 150 writing brought to class, and weekly journals supporting writing practice and reflection.

ENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop

CRN:  45822

Days/Time:  ARR

Instructor:  Deanna Thompson

This section of English 159 provides an individualized space distinct from (but also connected to) the space of English 150. Students will discuss and reflect on the expectations for college writing, workshop drafts of English 150 writing projects, review their English 150 instructor feedback, and discuss strategies for revision. No separate texts are assigned. All reading and writing materials come from students’ ENGL 150 coursework, which they bring to this support class. Assessment is based on attendance, workshop participation, engagement with ENGL 150 writing brought to class, and weekly journals supporting writing practice and reflection.

ENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop 

CRN:  49961

Days/Time:  ARR

Instructor:  Deanna Thompson

This section of English 159 provides an individualized space distinct from (but also connected to) the space of English 150. Students will discuss and reflect on the expectations for college writing, workshop drafts of English 150 writing projects, review their English 150 instructor feedback, and discuss strategies for revision. No separate texts are assigned. All reading and writing materials come from students’ ENGL 150 coursework, which they bring to this support class. Assessment is based on attendance, workshop participation, engagement with ENGL 150 writing brought to class, and weekly journals supporting writing practice and reflection.

ENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop English

CRN:  40310

Days/Time:  M 12:00-12:50

Instructor:  Aaron Krall

We will workshop your writing to help you complete the First-Year Writing sequence more quickly and build on your experiences as a reader and writer. This seminar-style course focuses on analyzing student writing, responding to written feedback, and developing strategies for meeting the demands of academic writing, including sentence-level correctness. Your writing will be the major text for this course. Assessments include active participation in the workshop and a series of reflective journal assignments.

ENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop English

CRN:  41708

Days/Time:  W 12:00-12:50

Instructor: Aaron Krall

We will workshop your writing to help you complete the First-Year Writing sequence more quickly and build on your experiences as a reader and writer. This seminar-style course focuses on analyzing student writing, responding to written feedback, and developing strategies for meeting the demands of academic writing, including sentence-level correctness. Your writing will be the major text for this course. Assessments include active participation in the workshop and a series of reflective journal assignments.

ENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop English

CRN:  40314

Days/Time:  F 12:00-12:50

Instructor: Aaron Krall

We will workshop your writing to help you complete the First-Year Writing sequence more quickly and build on your experiences as a reader and writer. This seminar-style course focuses on analyzing student writing, responding to written feedback, and developing strategies for meeting the demands of academic writing, including sentence-level correctness. Your writing will be the major text for this course. Assessments include active participation in the workshop and a series of reflective journal assignments.

ENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop English

CRN:  41710

Days/Time:  M 1:00-1:50

Instructor: Aaron Krall

We will workshop your writing to help you complete the First-Year Writing sequence more quickly and build on your experiences as a reader and writer. This seminar-style course focuses on analyzing student writing, responding to written feedback, and developing strategies for meeting the demands of academic writing, including sentence-level correctness. Your writing will be the major text for this course. Assessments include active participation in the workshop and a series of reflective journal assignments.

ENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop English

CRN:  41708

Days/Time:  W 1:00-1:50

Instructor: Aaron Krall

We will workshop your writing to help you complete the First-Year Writing sequence more quickly and build on your experiences as a reader and writer. This seminar-style course focuses on analyzing student writing, responding to written feedback, and developing strategies for meeting the demands of academic writing, including sentence-level correctness. Your writing will be the major text for this course. Assessments include active participation in the workshop and a series of reflective journal assignments.

ENGL 159 Academic Writing Workshop English

CRN:  40317

Days/Time:  F 1:00-1:50

Instructor: Aaron Krall

We will workshop your writing to help you complete the First-Year Writing sequence more quickly and build on your experiences as a reader and writer. This seminar-style course focuses on analyzing student writing, responding to written feedback, and developing strategies for meeting the demands of academic writing, including sentence-level correctness. Your writing will be the major text for this course. Assessments include active participation in the workshop and a series of reflective journal assignments.

159 Academic Writing Workshop

CRN:  40312

Days/Time:  W 10:00-10:50

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. ” Drafts of ENGL 160 papers are the major texts for thi course. 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 10:00-10:50

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. ” Drafts of ENGL 160 papers are the major texts for this course. 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 10:00-10:50

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. ” Drafts of ENGL 160 papers are the major texts for this course. 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:  46708

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. ” Drafts of ENGL 160 papers are the major texts for this course. 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:  46709

Days/Time:  W 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. ” Drafts of ENGL 160 papers are the major texts for this course. 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:  46711

Days/Time:  F 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. ” Drafts of ENGL 160 papers are the major texts for this course. 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.

Still have questions about a course? Click on any of the instructor’s name to be directed to their email.

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I  Writing in Academic and Public Contexts Monsters Across Media

CRN:  38996

Days/Time:  MW 8:00-9:15

Instructor:  Hyacinthe Damitz

In this course, you will look at monsters and their functions across various types of media. You will examine a range of monsters, from werewolves and vampires to ghosts and mysterious cosmic beings, and explore how they are used within the confines of their medium, and why it is significant that monsters are used. Through class discussion, analysis, and assignments, you will learn what the function of monsters are in media, taking into consideration the cultural and political context of using non-humans to discuss a plethora of human issues. By reading, watching, listening to, and analyzing a variety of genres and styles of media involving monsters, you will learn the ways in which monster media is a lens through which audiences can view human experiences, despite being existing in media that seems like a fun escape into fantasy. n/a The goal of this class is to engage with monsters in order to learn how to become articulate writers within academia, and adjust your writing to appeal to a variety of audiences. This in depth look at monsters, culminating 4 written essays: a film review, a comparative analysis, an argumentative essay, and a reflection. These will work to expand your reading, critical thinking, and writing skills, and help prepare you for your future in academia.

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I  Writing in Academic and Public Contexts Monsters Across Media

CRN:  30663

Days/Time:  MW 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Hyacinthe Damitz

In this course, you will look at monsters and their functions across various types of media. You will examine a range of monsters, from werewolves and vampires to ghosts and mysterious cosmic beings, and explore how they are used within the confines of their medium, and why it is significant that monsters are used. Through class discussion, analysis, and assignments, you will learn what the function of monsters are in media, taking into consideration the cultural and political context of using non-humans to discuss a plethora of human issues. By reading, watching, listening to, and analyzing a variety of genres and styles of media involving monsters, you will learn the ways in which monster media is a lens through which audiences can view human experiences, despite being existing in media that seems like a fun escape into fantasy. n/a The goal of this class is to engage with monsters in order to learn how to become articulate writers within academia, and adjust your writing to appeal to a variety of audiences. This in depth look at monsters, culminating 4 written essays: a film review, a comparative analysis, an argumentative essay, and a reflection. These will work to expand your reading, critical thinking, and writing skills, and help prepare you for your future in academia.

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:  Eating the World

CRN:  46867

Days/Time:  MW 3:00-4:15ONLINE

Instructor:  Rebecca Fishow

Can food connect us to family and memory? Are food influencers helpful? Is lab-grown meat a sustainable alternative to factory farming? Is cooking an act of resistance? These are a few of the many inquiries that may arise as you develop skills in personal, public, and academic writing through the framework of food. We will examine diverse creative or academic texts by Anne Lamott, Amy Tan, Michael Pollan, and Wendell Berry, and others. The course’s major writing assignments include a personal narrative, an open letter, a research essay, and a reflective essay or project.

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:  Eating the World

CRN:  38959

Days/Time:  MW 4:30-5:45ONLINE

Instructor:  Rebecca Fishow

Can food connect us to family and memory? Are food influencers helpful? Is lab-grown meat a sustainable alternative to factory farming? Is cooking an act of resistance? These are a few of the many inquiries that may arise as you develop skills in personal, public, and academic writing through the framework of food. We will examine diverse creative or academic texts by Anne Lamott, Amy Tan, Michael Pollan, and Wendell Berry, and others. The course’s major writing assignments include a personal narrative, an open letter, a research essay, and a reflective essay or project.

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts Reading the ‘Other’

CRN:  11787

Days/Time:  MW 4:30-5:45

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. Stuart Hall, Reap Sami Shah, Aladdin by Walt Disney, Husband’s Stitch Carmen Maria Machado Personal Narrative Essay, Photo Essay, Argumentative Essay, Reflective Essay

ENGL 160  Academic Writing I Writing in Academic and Public Contexts

CRN:  46724

Days/Time:  MW 4:30-5:45

Instructor:  Gordon Middleton

Learning to write academically is learning to write more systematically and objectively. What might happen were we to write about our own lives as though we were Martian Scientists — aliens looking on? If you’ve ever asked yourself why people do what they do, you could be a Martian Scientist! Students pick from a list in the syllabus for their independent study projects. No prime text for everyone. WP1-4, daily journal, presentations of independent study projects throughout the term

ENGL 160 Academic Writing:  Representation in the Music Business

CRN: 41620

Days/Time:  MWF 8:00-8:50

Instructor:  Ji Woo Choi

In this course, students will examine and write about how the music industry mediates and complicated issues of identity, power, and representation. Through reading various pieces of writing about music, students will explore how the industry constructs narratives around artists, how these representations shape audience perceptions, and how marginalized communities weaponize music to navigate or resist exclusionary practices. Pantuso, T, Francis Jr., J, LeMire, S, Anders, K. (2022). Informed Arguments: A Guide to Writing and Research. Texas A&M University. Personal memoir, Album review, Argumentative essay, Reflective essay

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I

CRN:  38957

Days/Time:  MWF 8:00-8:50

Instructor:  Madison Cramer

Pending

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:  Writing From the Margins

CRN:  11796

Days/Time:  MWF 8:00-8:50

Instructor:  Moni Garcia

Using bell hooks’ “Choosing the Margin as a Space of Radical Openness” as a jumping off point, students will be “Writing from the Margins”. By looking towards Black, queer, feminist writings (as well as other work by queer feminist writers of color), we’ll be looking at how they used language to think about their position in the world, and how writing can be a critical tool to examine one’s lived realities. Moreover, you will also join the conversation as you engage with writing from the margins within each of the writing projects assigned throughout this course. All texts will be provided online or on Canvas; Purdue OWL (Purdue Online Writing Lab) “1 – Literacy Narrative
2 – Album Review
3 – Argumentative Essay
4 – Reflective Essay (or Creative Component (Zine) + Shorter Essay)

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I

CRN:  11332

Days/Time:  MWF 8:00-8:50

Instructor:  Scott Grunow

A Journey from Observation to Academic Argument/Synthesis
Two major topics: neighbor/roommate conflicts; classism “Shadowy Lines That Still Divide,” Janny Scott and David Leonhardt, from Class Matters Selections from “Snob Appeal – Today’s Home Sweet Home,” from Vance Packard, The Status Seekers Selections from “Scrubbing in Maine,” from Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed Chapter 4, “The Worthy and the Unworthy,” from Sarah Jones, Disposable: America’s Contempt for the Underclass Four major writing projects: Letter of Complaint; Analytical Essay; Argumentative Essay; Reflective Essay

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:  Writing From the Margins 

CRN:   11727

Days/Time:  MWF 9:00-9:50

Instructor:  Moni Garcia

Using bell hooks’ “Choosing the Margin as a Space of Radical Openness” as a jumping off point, students will be “Writing from the Margins”. By looking towards Black, queer, feminist writings (as well as other work by queer feminist writers of color), we’ll be looking at how they used language to think about their position in the world, and how writing can be a critical tool to examine one’s lived realities. Moreover, you will also join the conversation as you engage with writing from the margins within each of the writing projects assigned throughout this course. All texts will be provided online or on Canvas; Purdue OWL (Purdue Online Writing Lab) “1 – Literacy Narrative
2 – Album Review
3 – Argumentative Essay
4 – Reflective Essay (or Creative Component (Zine) + Shorter Essay)

ENGL 160 Academic Writing:  Representation in the Music Business

CRN: 11558

Days/Time:  MWF 9:00-9:50

Instructor:  Ji Woo Choi

In this course, students will examine and write about how the music industry mediates and complicated issues of identity, power, and representation. Through reading various pieces of writing about music, students will explore how the industry constructs narratives around artists, how these representations shape audience perceptions, and how marginalized communities weaponize music to navigate or resist exclusionary practices. Pantuso, T, Francis Jr., J, LeMire, S, Anders, K. (2022). Informed Arguments: A Guide to Writing and Research. Texas A&M University. Personal memoir, Album review, Argumentative essay, Reflective essay

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I

CRN:  11526

Days/Time:  MWF 9:00-9:50

Instructor:  Madison Cramer

Pending

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I

CRN:  41625

Days/Time:  MWF 9:00-9:50

Instructor:  Scott Grunow

A Journey from Observation to Academic Argument/Synthesis
Two major topics: neighbor/roommate conflicts; classism “Shadowy Lines That Still Divide,” Janny Scott and David Leonhardt, from Class Matters Selections from “Snob Appeal – Today’s Home Sweet Home,” from Vance Packard, The Status Seekers Selections from “Scrubbing in Maine,” from Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed Chapter 4, “The Worthy and the Unworthy,” from Sarah Jones, Disposable: America’s Contempt for the Underclass Four major writing projects: Letter of Complaint; Analytical Essay; Argumentative Essay; Reflective Essay

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: We are What We Eat

CRN: 46722

Days/ Time:  MWF 10:00-10:50

Instructor:   Grace Adee

CRN:  46868

Days/Time:  MWF 11:00-11:50

Instructor:  Eman Elturki

This course examines how literacy extends beyond reading and writing in today’s globalized, digital world. Students explore digital, information, media, cultural, visual, and AI literacies and analyze how social, technological, and cultural forces shape communication, education, workplaces, and public discourse in the 21st century. No required course text. Select materials will be posted on Canvas. Personal narrative essay
Digital listicle and cover letter
Argumentative research essay
Reflective essay

ENGL 160  Academic Writing I: Talkin’ Bout Your Generation

CRN: 30664

Days/Time:  MWF 11:00-11:50

Instructor:  Gregor Baszak

This class is called Academic Writing I. And what will you be writing about? Yourself! In this class, we’ll discuss—and you’ll write about—the unique challenges of being a young adult today, from mental health struggles, growing up with smartphones, the widespread availability of porn, and so on. Jonathan Haidt, “End the Phone-Based Childhood Now,” Hilarius Bookbinder, “The Average College Student Today,” and more Personal Narrative, Email to the Author, Critical Synthesis, Reflective Essay

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:  Speaking Titles: AI Voice in Cinema

CRN:  46715

Days/Time:  MWF 11:00-11:50

Instructor:  Harry Burson

Since the birth of the talkies, cinema has been fascinated by the voice. The sound of the human voice in film is routinely associated with fundamental questions of interiority, power, identity, and intersubjectivity. Voice is often a metaphor for abstract notions of political agency and self-expression, but it is also a material phenomenon that bears the audible traces of the speaker’s lived history. So what happens when the voice we hear belongs not to a human being, but instead to an android, robot, or other artificially intelligent being? How does the representation of speaking machines in cinema reflect shifting cultural attitudes about technology, identity, and labor? This course will examine a variety of film, television, and audio works centered on the artificially synthesized voice to defamiliarize some basic assumptions about how we listen: Who is allowed to use their voice, and in what context? What does the sound of a voice tell us about the speaker? How are our preconceptions about voice shaped and challenged by the audiovisual media we encounter every day? Considering such questions will prompt students to reconsider our everyday aural encounters with people and technology. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Ex Machina, Tron essay

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I

CRN:  11550

Days/Time:  MWF 11:00-11:50

Instructor:  Seannalisa Baca

A spectre is haunting this class– the spectre of philosopher Jacques Derrida, who coined the term “hauntology” to think through the “disjointedness” of time and space and the ways in which we live with and against the losses of past optimisms, dreams, and imagined utopias. Hauntology is marked with loss, but a looking forward too, as we look back… but who looks at the present? Don’t we miss something from one view to the next? These are some of the questions that will haunt this course, as we consider hauntological music, film, politics and writing. As we build our futures in the present with the materials of our past, we’ll want to pay attention to what haunts those building blocks. All of time and space are political– who has the time, and who has the resources to build? What can we build with? Can the materials of the pasts that haunt us help us make a better future? All ghost stories– from Hamlet to The Shining to Hill House– ask us to dream. In this course, you will develop your writing skills across four genres: The music review, comparative essay, argumentative essay, and reflective essay. Each of these assignments is aimed at preparing you to be attentive toward these undercurrents in our world, and prepare you with a critical sense and clarity of voice by which to shape that world in your academic careers and onwards. Ingmar Bergman, Parliament Funkadelic, Shirley Jackson Media Review, Comparative Essay, Argumentative Essay, Reflective Essay

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts  Life on Earth: Sustaining Ourselves, Sustaining the Planet in a Time of Crisis

CRN:  11583

Days/Time:  MWF 11:00-11:50

Instructor:  Willow Schenwar

Thematically, this class centers on ecological issues and speculative imaginings of planetary futures. Particular emphasis is on environmental justice, climate change, youth activism, and media and AI literacy. Students are also encouraged to research and write on topics that are of genuine personal concern to them. Genres include op-eds, argumentative essays, and letters to future students, which are archived in the UIC Library. Lyla June Johnson, Mary Annaïse Heglar, Rebecca Solnit, Greta Thunberg, Audre Lorde, James Bridle, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Joanna Macy, Naomi Klein Students are assessed based on completion of various major writing projects; engaged and supportive participation in classroom discussions and activities; and group projects

ENGL  160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts The Writing of Musical Criticism

CRN:  46716

Days/Time:  MWF 11:00-11:50

Instructor: Christian Mack

This class will engage with a variety of sources in order to develop your writing and rhetorical abilities. This class will use a variety of texts, from music reviews and literary criticism to the history of the production of musical objects in the context of prose composition. Drake, Gerald Early, Michael Borshuk, David Toop, Geoffrey Hill, Peter Kivy, Darren Mueller, Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck, Anita O’Day Music Memoir, Short Album (EP) Analysis, Longform Music Review, Final Reflection Essay

ENGL 160  Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts Life on Earth: Sustaining Ourselves, Sustaining the Planet in a Time of Crisis

CRN:  25927

Days/Time:  MWF 12:00-12:50

Instructor:   Willow Schenwar

Thematically, this class centers on ecological issues and speculative imaginings of planetary futures. Particular emphasis is on environmental justice, climate change, youth activism, and media and AI literacy. Students are also encouraged to research and write on topics that are of genuine personal concern to them. Genres include op-eds, argumentative essays, and letters to future students, which are archived in the UIC Library. Lyla June Johnson, Mary Annaïse Heglar, Rebecca Solnit, Greta Thunberg, Audre Lorde, James Bridle, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Joanna Macy, Naomi Klein Students are assessed based on completion of various major writing projects; engaged and supportive participation in classroom discussions and activities; and group projects

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:  Writing Home

CRN:  28746

Days/Time:  MWF 12:00-12:50

Instructor:  Lyla Lee

In this class, you will explore the complex connections between identity (culture and orientation), space (environment and location), and community (social and economic factors). Together, we’ll examine how different aspects of “home” shape and reflect our experiences. Through reading memoirs, narratives, short stories, and biographies, you’ll engage in critical discussions about belonging, displacement, and the emotional landscapes of home. This is a writing intensive course, and you will complete four writing genres: a personal narrative, a nature memoir, an argumentative essay, and a reflection essay. These assignments are designed for you to broaden your ideas of home and develop your voice as a writer. By the end, you’ll develop a deeper understanding of how intimate spaces influence our lives, identities, and personal narratives. “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, “The Gift of Strawberries” by Robin Wall Kimmerer, “My Appalachia” by Sidney Farr, “Belonging in the City” by Michael McColly Four Essays: Personal Narrative, Nature Memoir, Argumentative Essay, Reflection Essay

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:  Writing About Popular Music and Culture

CRN:  46732

Days/Time:  MWF 12:00-12:50

Instructor:  Krista Muratore

In this class, you will learn how to write about music and its relationship with the complex everyday issues we face in our society., you will learn how to develop socially conscious claims about the music you are passionate about. As you learn how to write in these different forms, you will also hopefully develop clear, effective writing that will help you not only express your point of view in academic writing but also cultivate critical thinking and a greater appreciation for a wide range of music and art. We will be reading various pieces of music journalism alongside selections from “They Say, I Say” by Graff and Birkenstein. The class is structured around four main writing projects– a memoir essay, an album review, an argumentative essay and a personal reflection.

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I :  Speaking Titles: AI Voice in Cinema

CRN: 11551

Days/Time:  MWF 12:00-12:50

Instructor:  Harry Burson

Since the birth of the talkies, cinema has been fascinated by the voice. The sound of the human voice in film is routinely associated with fundamental questions of interiority, power, identity, and intersubjectivity. Voice is often a metaphor for abstract notions of political agency and self-expression, but it is also a material phenomenon that bears the audible traces of the speaker’s lived history. So what happens when the voice we hear belongs not to a human being, but instead to an android, robot, or other artificially intelligent being? How does the representation of speaking machines in cinema reflect shifting cultural attitudes about technology, identity, and labor? This course will examine a variety of film, television, and audio works centered on the artificially synthesized voice to defamiliarize some basic assumptions about how we listen: Who is allowed to use their voice, and in what context? What does the sound of a voice tell us about the speaker? How are our preconceptions about voice shaped and challenged by the audiovisual media we encounter every day? Considering such questions will prompt students to reconsider our everyday aural encounters with people and technology. 2001: A Space Odyssey, Ex Machina, Tron essays

ENGL 160  Academic Writing I: Talkin’ Bout Your Generation

CRN: 46733

Days/ Time:  MWF 12:00-12:50

Instructor:  Gregor Baszak

This class is called Academic Writing I. And what will you be writing about? Yourself! In this class, we’ll discuss—and you’ll write about—the unique challenges of being a young adult today, from mental health struggles, growing up with smartphones, the widespread availability of porn, and so on. Jonathan Haidt, “End the Phone-Based Childhood Now,” Hilarius Bookbinder, “The Average College Student Today,” and more Personal Narrative, Email to the Author, Critical Synthesis, Reflective Essay

ENGL 160  Academic Writing I

CRN: 27283

Days/ Time:  MWF 12:00-12:50

Instructor:  Scott Grunow

A Journey from Observation to Academic Argument/Synthesis
Two major topics: neighbor/roommate conflicts; classism

“Shadowy Lines That Still Divide,” Janny Scott and David Leonhardt, from Class Matters Selections from “Snob Appeal – Today’s Home Sweet Home,” from Vance Packard, The Status Seekers Selections from “Scrubbing in Maine,” from Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed Chapter 4, “The Worthy and the Unworthy,” from Sarah Jones, Disposable: America’s Contempt for the Underclass Four major writing projects: Letter of Complaint; Analytical Essay; Argumentative Essay; Reflective Essay

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:  Writing About Popular Music and Culture

CRN:  11575

Days/Time:  MWF  1:00-1:50

Instructor:  Krista Muratore

In this class, you will learn how to write about music and its relationship with the complex everyday issues we face in our society., you will learn how to develop socially conscious claims about the music you are passionate about. As you learn how to write in these different forms, you will also hopefully develop clear, effective writing that will help you not only express your point of view in academic writing but also cultivate critical thinking and a greater appreciation for a wide range of music and art. We will be reading various pieces of music journalism alongside selections from “They Say, I Say” by Graff and Birkenstein. The class is structured around four main writing projects– a memoir essay, an album review, an argumentative essay and a personal reflection.

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:  An Exploration of Chicago Through Food

CRN:  30965

Days/Time:  MWF 1:00-1:50

Instructor:  Brianne Neptin

In this class, you will explore Chicago’s food cultures. Through class discussion, analysis, and assignments you will learn to think critically about the world around you, using food as our entry point. Food is a part of our everyday lives, beyond simply what we have for dinner. None Essays in the following Genres: Public Writing, Professional/Academic Writing, Argumentative Writing, and Reflective Writing

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:  Imagine That: Writing About Sci-fi and Speculative Fiction

CRN:  11811

Days/Time:  MWF 1:00-1:50

Instructor: Rana Awwad

In this course, we will explore the genres of science fiction and speculative fiction. What role do themes like (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 how do they complicate or reproduce the genres? Isaac Asimov, Larissa Sansour, Jonny Sun, “Black Mirror,” “District 9” and more (this list is subject to change). Four Major Essays: TV/Film Review, Listicle, Argumentative Essay, Reflective Essay

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts Writing with Folklore

CRN:  46718

Days/Time:  MWF 1:00-1:50

Instructor:  Eliza Marley

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 with folklore used as a framing tool. Assorted folk stories, Japanese Fairy Tales, Mabinogion, A.K. Ramanujan’s Folktales from India, and more! Project 1: Audio Walk, Project 2: Interview and Transcript, Project 3: Argumentative Essay, Project 4: Reflection , weekly brief reading responses

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:  Imagine That: Writing About Sci-fi and Speculative Fiction

CRN:  11788

Days/Time:  MWF 2:00-2:50

Instructor: Rana Awwad

In this course, we will explore the genres of science fiction and speculative fiction. What role do themes like (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 how do they complicate or reproduce the genres? Isaac Asimov, Larissa Sansour, Jonny Sun, “Black Mirror,” “District 9” and more (this list is subject to change). Four Major Essays: TV/Film Review, Listicle, Argumentative Essay, Reflective Essay

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I

CRN:  11548

Days/Time:  MWF 2:00-2:50

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.” Films: Knives Out, Get Out, Sorry to Bother You, Parasite, Roma, District 9, Children of Men. Associated NYT/BBC/New Yorker reviews. Excerpts: Bedford Book of Genres. WP1: Film Review, WP2: Comparative Essay, WP3: Argumentative Essay, WP4: Reflection Essay. Quizzes and in-class writing for each film.

ENGL 160  Academic Writing I

CRN:  11343

Days/Time:  TR 8:00-9:15

Instructor:  Janson Jones

ENGL 160 explores authenticity in personal, cultural, and public communication. Students examine how identity is represented and interpreted across digital and physical spaces while developing writing that reflects voice, rhetorical awareness, and ethical representation of themselves, their communities, and contemporary issues. N. Scott Momaday, Zora Neale Hurston, and selected contemporary essays, journalism, and multimedia texts exploring identity, representation, voice, and authenticity. Cultural identity memoir, Chicago community profile, proposal argument on authenticity, revision workshops, and metacognitive reflections on writing, representation, and rhetorical decision-making.

ENGL 160  Academic Writing I: Writing About Storytelling In Movies 

CRN:  41811

Days/Time:  TR  8:00-9:15

Instructor:  Marc Baez

In this writing workshop, we’ll write about the storytelling power of movies. Grounded in a basic understanding of filmmaking techniques, you will write and revise four genre-based papers with the goal of deepening your critical thinking and writing skills for the writing you will do in college and beyond. Graff and Birkenstein’s They Say, I Say. Backstage website authors: Michael Lee Simpson, Chris Frawley, Elaine Roberts. In this course, you will write a descriptive summary, an analysis, an argumentative essay, and a reflection. You will also participate in a storytelling presentation.

ENGL 160  Academic Writing I: Martyrs!

CRN 11791

Days/Time:  TR 8:00-9:15

Instructor:  Jared Hackworth

Martyrs as people “who undergo death or great suffering for a faith, belief, or cause” (OED). Why are some people willing to undergo pain for what they believe in? And why are we, the non-martyred masses, interested in them? Martyr! by Akbar You will complete four writing projects: (1) a personal narrative, (2) a rhetorical analysis, (3) an argumentative essay (4) a reflection essay.

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:  Rhetorics of Endangered Species in Media

CRN:  11512

Days/Time:  TR 8:00-9:15

Instructor:  Danny McGee

This course will give a wide-but-shallow look at the history of human- and climate-driven wildlife endangerment and extinction. You will read/watch a number of sources including films, commercials, research articles, books, government websites, and others to get a holistic understanding of the effects of human activity on endangered animal populations. Endangered Species Act, “Jaws” (1975) dir. by Stephen Spielberg, “Reification & Utopia in Mass Culture” by Fredric Jameson, “Why Look at Animals?” by John Berger Animal memoir, film review, in-class debate, argumentative essay, class reflection

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I

CRN:  38998

Days/Time:  TR 8:00-9:15

Instructor:  Miles Parkinson

Pending

ENGL 160  Academic Writing I: Writing About Storytelling In Movies

CRN:  46738

Days/Time:  TR  9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Marc Baez

In this writing workshop, we’ll write about the storytelling power of movies. Grounded in a basic understanding of filmmaking techniques, you will write and revise four genre-based papers with the goal of deepening your critical thinking and writing skills for the writing you will do in college and beyond. Graff and Birkenstein’s They Say, I Say. Backstage website authors: Michael Lee Simpson, Chris Frawley, Elaine Roberts. In this course, you will write a descriptive summary, an analysis, an argumentative essay, and a reflection. You will also participate in a storytelling presentation.

ENGL 160  Academic Writing I

CRN:  27280

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Janson Jones

ENGL 160 explores authenticity in personal, cultural, and public communication. Students examine how identity is represented and interpreted across digital and physical spaces while developing writing that reflects voice, rhetorical awareness, and ethical representation of themselves, their communities, and contemporary issues. N. Scott Momaday, Zora Neale Hurston, and selected contemporary essays, journalism, and multimedia texts exploring identity, representation, voice, and authenticity. Cultural identity memoir, Chicago community profile, proposal argument on authenticity, revision workshops, and metacognitive reflections on writing, representation, and rhetorical decision-making.

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I

CRN:  27284

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

Instructor: Miles Parkinson

Pending

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:  Modernizing Myths

CRN:  41810

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Ethan Lafond

In this course, we will be examining how stories can be made new, in our pursuit of writing more effectively. Looking at remakes of famous myths and family folktales alike, we’ll try to understand why old stories persist, and learn to write effectively and inquisitively in doing so. Beowulf: A New Translation (Maria Dahvana Headley) 4 papers – rhetorical analysis, interview response, argumentative essay, and reflection

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing About Storytelling In Movies

CRN:  27372

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  Marc Baez

In this writing workshop, we’ll write about the storytelling power of movies. Grounded in a basic understanding of filmmaking techniques, you will write and revise four genre-based papers with the goal of deepening your critical thinking and writing skills for the writing you will do in college and beyond. Graff and Birkenstein’s They Say, I Say. Backstage website authors: Michael Lee Simpson, Chris Frawley, Elaine Roberts. In this course, you will write a descriptive summary, an analysis, an argumentative essay, and a reflection. You will also participate in a storytelling presentation

ENGL 160  Academic Writing I

CRN:  11720

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  Janson Jones

ENGL 160 explores authenticity in personal, cultural, and public communication. Students examine how identity is represented and interpreted across digital and physical spaces while developing writing that reflects voice, rhetorical awareness, and ethical representation of themselves, their communities, and contemporary issues. N. Scott Momaday, Zora Neale Hurston, and selected contemporary essays, journalism, and multimedia texts exploring identity, representation, voice, and authenticity. Cultural identity memoir, Chicago community profile, proposal argument on authenticity, revision workshops, and metacognitive reflections on writing, representation, and rhetorical decision-making.

ENGL 160:  Writing in Academic and Public Contexts Writing About Popular Media, Resistance, and Social Change

CRN:  11560

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 content (or some other form of public writing) 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 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. Popular Culture and the Civic Imagination: Case Studies of Creative Social Change (New York University Press, 2020). Writing Project #1: Film Analysis, Writing Project #2: Opinion Piece, Writing Project #3: Manifesto, Writing Project #4: Final Reflection

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing Across Audiences and Genres

CRN:  19880

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Ling HE

ENGL160 is designed to reinforce writing in academic and public contexts by developing rhetorical awareness of audiences, purposes, and language use. The course is structured around four writing projects for different purposes to develop effective strategies for implementing your writing purposes and identifying the audiences your writing is directed towards The Academic Writing eCourse Reader compiled by Ling He is a required text, available for free on the course Canvas site. The course requires four major assessments: four writing projects, in-class reflective writing, and the Project Beyond evaluation for attendance, participation, and homework.

ENGL 160:  Writing in Academic and Public Contexts Writing About Popular Media, Resistance, and Social Change

CRN:  11385

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

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 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 content (or some other form of public writing) 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 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. Popular Culture and the Civic Imagination: Case Studies of Creative Social Change (New York University Press, 2020). Writing Project #1: Film Analysis, Writing Project #2: Opinion Piece, Writing Project #3: Manifesto, Writing Project #4: Final Reflection

ENGL 160  Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts 

CRN:  41807

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Kabel Mishka Ligot

We’ll explore the ways humans engage with the still image, and discuss and question how still images create meanings and arguments out of the world we live in. We’ll learn to articulate our thoughts and feelings about visuals that we encounter online, in museums, books, popular media, and everyday life. Bedford Book of Genres; They Say, I Say; essays from Chicago Reader and New York Times; The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Graphic Literature Drafts and revisions of: ekphrastic essay, Chicago exhibit review, comparative genre study, and graphic narrative. Class and small group discussions of readings, and peer review.

ENGL 160: Academic Writing I

CRN:  11731

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Pending

ENGL 160: Academic Writing I: Dystopian Chicago

CRN:  41781

Days/Time:  TR  3:30-4:45

Instructor:  Kris Chen

In this course, we will explore dystopian stories set in and around Chicago. Through class discussions and assignments, you will examine what makes stories dystopian and how these imagined dystopian futures can impact our present. Our investigation will include works by Asimov, Atwood, Charbonneau, St. John Mandel, Roth, and others. Our four writing projects will be: a photo journal, a film review, an argumentative essay, and a reflection paper.

ENGL 160  Academic Writing I: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts

CRN:  39062

Days/Time:  TR 3:00-4:45

Instructor:  Keegan Lannon

This course will teach you how to write. Writing takes a lifetime of practice to get good at it, and you will spend most of your time in college trying to get better. What we will do here is start this process by learning how to think like a writer.
N/A The major assessments include four rough drafts and a portfolio of revised essays.

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing Across Audiences and Genres

CRN:  41809

Days/Time:  TR 3:30-4:45

Instructor:  Ling HE

ENGL160 is designed to reinforce writing in academic and public contexts by developing rhetorical awareness of audiences, purposes, and language use. The course is structured around four writing projects for different purposes to develop effective strategies for implementing your writing purposes and identifying the audiences your writing is directed towards The Academic Writing eCourse Reader compiled by Ling He is a required text, available for free on the course Canvas site. The course requires four major assessments: four writing projects, in-class reflective writing, and the Project Beyond evaluation for attendance, participation, and homework.

Still have questions about a course? Click on any of the instructor’s name to be directed to their email.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Curated Reality: Algorithms, Attention, and Belief in the Digital Age

CRN:  27287

Days/Time:  ARR

Instructor:  Antonio Guerrero

In an age of feeds and “For You” pages, attention is curated. This course explores how algorithms shape identity, belief, and polarization. Students research digital information systems, analyze popular and scholarly sources, and write sustained arguments about how media environments influence what individuals and communities understand as reality. Popular and scholarly readings from authors like Safiya Noble and Zeynep Tufekci Annotated bibliography, research proposal, literature review, and a research essay. Weekly discussion posts, as well as one group project.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Inquiry and Research

CRN:  27289

Days/Time:  Asynchronous

Instructor:  Jenna Hart

This is an online, completely asynchronous course: students who are self-motivated and organized are the most likely to thrive in this format!
We live in a time when we’re inundated with media reports on any number of catastrophic things, almost daily. How can we determine what is worth our attention? How can we know which reports are the most valuable? What issues should we be invested in? We’ll be using these questions to look at texts and other media in a critical way, and as a tool to begin learning about academic dialogue. ” A variety of shorter academic articles and long-form journalism. This course will consist of layered assignments—an annotated bibliography, literature review, proposal, outline— that lead up to a longer academic research paper on a topic of your choosing.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Inquiry and Research

CRN:  29300
Days/Time:  Asynchronous

Instructor:  Jenna Hart

This is an online, completely asynchronous course: students who are self-motivated and organized are the most likely to thrive in this format!
We live in a time when we’re inundated with media reports on any number of catastrophic things, almost daily. How can we determine what is worth our attention? How can we know which reports are the most valuable? What issues should we be invested in? We’ll be using these questions to look at texts and other media in a critical way, as a tool to begin learning about academic dialogue.
A variety of shorter academic articles and long-form journalism. The course will consist of layered assignments—an annotated bibliography, literature review, proposal, outline— that lead up to a longer academic research paper on a topic of your choosing.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Inquiry and Research

CRN:  30669

Days/Time:  Asynchronous

Instructor:  Jenna Hart

This is an online, completely asynchronous course: students who are self-motivated and organized are the most likely to thrive in this format!
We live in a time when we’re inundated with media reports on any number of catastrophic things, almost daily. How can we determine what is worth our attention? How can we know which reports are the most valuable? What issues should we be invested in? We’ll be using these questions to look at texts and other media in a critical way, as a tool to begin learning about academic dialogue. ” A variety of shorter academic articles and long-form journalism. The course will consist of layered assignments—an annotated bibliography, literature review, proposal, outline— that lead up to a longer academic research paper on a topic of your choosing.

ENGL 161 Academic  Writing II: Problems of the Neoliberal Present and How We Solve Them

CRN:  24008

Days/Time:  MW 3:00-4:15

Instructor:  Thomas Moore

Students in this course will research and critically analyze how the actions (and inactions) of the recent past have led to the sociopolitical, ecological, and economic crises of our neoliberal present—namely those of perpetual war, climate change, artificial intelligence, mass deportation, and the exploitation of working people. We will analyze contemporary U.S. politics using diverse scholarly and popular sources. After reading three foundational articles together as a class, students will independently research the issues that matter to them most. A semester-long, cumulative research project with two objectives: (1) understanding how a sociopolitical, cultural, and/or economic problem originated; and (2) proposing how we might solve it.

ENGL 161: Academic Writing II: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts 

CRN:  27565

Days/Time:  MW 3:00-4:15

Instructor:  Lisa Stolley

The topic of this class is U.S. immigration, with a focus on undocumented immigrants, and the ongoing and increasingly heated political conflicts around the place and often plight of immigrants, both legal and undocumented, in America. The Undocumented Americans – Karla Cornejo Villavicencio; They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing – Gerald Graff & Cathy Birkenstein; Numerous instructional readings from various sources 1) Four Writing Projects: Narrative essay; Letter to a politician; Argumentative research essay; Literacy narrative; 2) Two class presentations; 3) Responses to readings; 4) Participation/engagement/effort

ENGL 161: Academic Writing II: Writing in Academic and Public Contexts 

CRN:  11861

Days/Time:  MW 4:30-5:45

Instructor:  Lisa Stolley

The topic of this class is U.S. immigration, with a focus on undocumented immigrants, and the ongoing and increasingly heated political conflicts around the place and often plight of immigrants, both legal and undocumented, in America. The Undocumented Americans – Karla Cornejo Villavicencio; They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing – Gerald Graff & Cathy Birkenstein; Numerous instructional readings from various sources 1) Four Writing Projects: Narrative essay; Letter to a politician; Argumentative research essay; Literacy narrative; 2) Two class presentations; 3) Responses to readings; 4) Participation/engagement/effort

ENGL 161 Academic  Writing II: Problems of the Neoliberal Present and How We Solve Them

CRN:  11866

Days/Time:  MW 4:30-5:45

Instructor:  Thomas Moore

Students in this course will research and critically analyze how the actions (and inactions) of the recent past have led to the sociopolitical, ecological, and economic crises of our neoliberal present—namely those of perpetual war, climate change, artificial intelligence, mass deportation, and the exploitation of working people. We will analyze contemporary U.S. politics using diverse scholarly and popular sources. After reading three foundational articles together as a class, students will independently research the issues that matter to them most. A semester-long, cumulative research project with two objectives: (1) understanding how a sociopolitical, cultural, and/or economic problem originated; and (2) proposing how we might solve it.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing about AI

CRN:  24055

Days/Time:  MWF 8:00-8:50

Instructor: Virginia Costello

This course examines how AI is changing how we write, teach, and learn. Students can expect to be a part of uncomfortable conversations about unethical use of AI (“cheating”), astounded by advances of AI (particularly in the medical field), and witness spectacular failures (hallucinations) that are often humorous. Writing for Inquiry and Research by Jeffrey Kessler et al. Essays, presentations

ENGL 161  Academic Writing II: Writing for Inquiry and Research Writing Through the Issues of the Working Poor

CRN:  11924

Days/Time:  MWF  8:00-8:50

Instructor:  Jennifer Lewis

The Working Poor: In this course, we will explore contemporary ideas, debates and questions about work, wages, social mobility and what it might mean to work full time yet still feel “poor.” Contemporary newspapers and magazines chosen by students. “Three Contemporary Article Summaries: 20 total points with increasing values (#1: 5 pts, #2: 7pts, #3 8 pts)
Summary (Writing Project One): 11 points
Synthesized Analysis (Writing Project Two): 20 points
MLA exam: 5 points (in class, open book)
Research Proposal and annotated bibliography (Writing Project Three): 11 points
Research Paper (Writing Project Four)—33 points

ENGL 161. Academic Writing II: Writing about AI

CRN:  11854

Days/Time:  MWF 9:00-9:50

Instructor:  Virginia Costello

This course examines how AI is changing how we write, teach, and learn. Students can expect to be a part of uncomfortable conversations about unethical use of AI (“cheating”), astounded by advances of AI (particularly in the medical field), and witness spectacular failures (hallucinations) that are often humorous. Writing for Inquiry and Research by Jeffrey Kessler et al. Essays, presentations

ENGL 161  Academic Writing II: Writing for Inquiry and Research Writing Through the Issues of the Working Poor

CRN: 11950

Days/Time:  MWF 10-10:50

Instructor:  Jennifer Lewis

The Working Poor: In this course, we will explore contemporary ideas, debates and questions about work, wages, social mobility and what it might mean to work full time yet still feel “poor.” Contemporary newspapers and magazines chosen by students. “Three Contemporary Article Summaries: 20 total points with increasing values (#1: 5 pts, #2: 7pts, #3 8 pts)
Summary (Writing Project One): 11 points
Synthesized Analysis (Writing Project Two): 20 points
MLA exam: 5 points (in class, open book)
Research Proposal and annotated bibliography (Writing Project Three): 11 points
Research Paper (Writing Project Four)—33 points

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing about AI 

CRN:  29334

Days/Time:  MWF 10:00-10:50

Instructor:  Virginia Costello

This course examines how AI is changing how we write, teach, and learn. Students can expect to be a part of uncomfortable conversations about unethical use of AI (“cheating”), astounded by advances of AI (particularly in the medical field), and witness spectacular failures (hallucinations) that are often humorous. Writing for Inquiry and Research by Jeffrey Kessler et al. Essays, presentations

ENGL 161  Academic Writing II: Writing for Inquiry and Research Writing Through the Issues of the Working Poor

CRN: 11932

Days/Time:  MWF 11-11:50

Instructor:  Jennifer Lewis

The Working Poor: In this course, we will explore contemporary ideas, debates and questions about work, wages, social mobility and what it might mean to work full time yet still feel “poor.” Contemporary newspapers and magazines chosen by students. “Three Contemporary Article Summaries: 20 total points with increasing values (#1: 5 pts, #2: 7pts, #3 8 pts)
Summary (Writing Project One): 11 points
Synthesized Analysis (Writing Project Two): 20 points
MLA exam: 5 points (in class, open book)
Research Proposal and annotated bibliography (Writing Project Three): 11 points
Research Paper (Writing Project Four)—33 points

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  The Politics of Beauty: Image and Appearances 

CRN 11961

Days/Time:  MWF 10:00-10:50

Instructor:  Tricia Park

In this course, we will examine a range of texts about idealized standards of beauty and the ways they intersect with race, age, and other factors that contribute to external and internal social biases. Hu, Elise. Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital. Annotated Bibliography; Research Proposal; Literature Review; Final Research Paper

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry

CRN: 42941 for 12 pm) (CRN: 21840 for 1 pm) (CRN: 11868 for 2 pm)

Days/Time MWF 12:00-12:50 (CRN 42941), 1-1:50 (CRN 21840), 2-2:50 (CRN 11868)

Instructor:  John Casey

The word sustainability is used today with such frequency that its meaning is rapidly being
lost. 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 begin to read and analyze current research on the application of sustainability principles to the production, distribution, and consumption of food. These studies will 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 Chicago land area.” Articles on current sustainability research are available on the coruse Blackboard site in PDF format and vary by semester. Course Grammar Text is the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL). Rhetoric text is the free online textbook Writing for Inquiry and Research. Students are assessed in this course based on small in-class writing assignments and four major papers (Annotated Bibliography, Research Proposal, Literature Review, and Final Report).

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  27376

Days/Time:  MWF 12-12:50

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 by researching and analyzing the intersection of science and technology and society. Nichols, Tom, The Death of Expertise: The Campaign against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters, 2nd edn (New York, 2024) Summary; Evaluation; Research Proposal; Argumentative Research Essay

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry

CRN: 21840

Days/Time MWF 1:00 1-1:50

Instructor:  John Casey

The word sustainability is used today with such frequency that its meaning is rapidly being
lost. 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 begin to read and analyze current research on the application of sustainability principles to the production, distribution, and consumption of food. These studies will 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 Chicago land area.” Articles on current sustainability research are available on the coruse Blackboard site in PDF format and vary by semester. Course Grammar Text is the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL). Rhetoric text is the free online textbook Writing for Inquiry and Research. Students are assessed in this course based on small in-class writing assignments and four major papers (Annotated Bibliography, Research Proposal, Literature Review, and Final Report).

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Research and Inquiry

CRN: 11868

Days/Time MWF 2:00-2:50

Instructor:  John Casey

The word sustainability is used today with such frequency that its meaning is rapidly being
lost. 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 begin to read and analyze current research on the application of sustainability principles to the production, distribution, and consumption of food. These studies will 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 Chicago land area.” Articles on current sustainability research are available on the coruse Blackboard site in PDF format and vary by semester. Course Grammar Text is the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL). Rhetoric text is the free online textbook Writing for Inquiry and Research. Students are assessed in this course based on small in-class writing assignments and four major papers (Annotated Bibliography, Research Proposal, Literature Review, and Final Report).

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II 

CRN:  11858

days/Time:  MWF 3:00-3:50

Instructor:  Heather Doble

In this course we will examine the history of popular culture, its relationship to art (high culture), and its potential to create historical social change. We will explore the definition of history through music, art and language. This exploration will provide the means to think about the connectedness of historical and cultural movements How can we understand and analyze artifacts of popular culture? What work do different artifacts do in the world in which they circulate? You will read and analyze scholarly literature and current cultural movements as a point of departure for your own inquiries into the links between culture, economics, politics, history and the potential to affect change.

ENGL 161  Academic Writing II

CRN:  1190

Days/Time:  MWF 4:00-4:50

Instructor:  Heather Doble

In this course we will examine the history of popular culture, its relationship to art (high culture), and its potential to create historical social change. We will explore the definition of history through music, art and language. This exploration will provide the means to think about the connectedness of historical and cultural movements How can we understand and analyze artifacts of popular culture? What work do different artifacts do in the world in which they circulate? You will read and analyze scholarly literature and current cultural movements as a point of departure for your own inquiries into the links between culture, economics, politics, history and the potential to affect change.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Infrastructures

CRN:  11886

Days/Time:  TR 8:00-9:15

Instructor:  Ann Marie Thornburg

Infrastructures, or systems like highways and healthcare, organize and circulate goods,
services, data, people, and more. Together we will examine how infrastructures impact us, the problems they solve and create, and the pasts, presents, and futures they imagine. Articles and other media Annotated bibliography, research proposal, literature review, research paper

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II;  From Mesopotamia to Mesoamerica: A Guided Tour of World Cultures to 1500 CE

CRN: 32676

Days/Time:  TR 8:00-9:15

Instructor: Paul Ross

This course teaches students the skills needed to read and write research essays at the university level. To do so, the course fosters curiosity and critical thinking through a historical survey of world cultures, including the ancient Near East, Mediterranean, South Asian, East Asian, North African, West Asian, and Mesoamerican societies. Students choose historical topics of their own and learn how to accumulate academic sources on their topics and formulate arguments that can be defended in their essays. This course covers a wide range of primary source readings from around the world Annotated Bibliography, Proposal, Lit Review, Final Research Essay

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Writing for Inquiry and Research 

CRN:   11875

Days/Time:  TR 8:00 – 9:15

Instructor:  James Sharpe

This course is about “academic writing,” which means how to formulate sharp questions, conceptualize and strategize effective and manageable research, recognize novel insights, and communicate your unique perspective to diverse audiences. The course will guide you into practicing and sharpening the intellectual skills that distinguish critical, informed researchers and writers. You will write an annotated bibliography, a research proposal, a literature review, and a research paper, but by the end of the course, you will be able to see why these forms of writing are important, and you might even (as I do) use them outside of classes as tools for generative, compelling thinking. Thomas S. Mullaney & Christopher Rea, Where Research Begins “Four major writing projects: annotated bibliography, research proposal, literature review, researched argumentative paper.
Short weekly writing assignments designed to feed into your major projects.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II;  From Mesopotamia to Mesoamerica: A Guided Tour of World Cultures to 1500 CE

CRN: 32676

Days/Time:  TR 8:00-9:15

Instructor: Paul Ross

This course teaches students the skills needed to read and write research essays at the university level. To do so, the course fosters curiosity and critical thinking through a historical survey of world cultures, including the ancient Near East, Mediterranean, South Asian, East Asian, North African, West Asian, and Mesoamerican societies. Students choose historical topics of their own and learn how to accumulate academic sources on their topics and formulate arguments that can be defended in their essays. This course covers a wide range of primary source readings from around the world Annotated Bibliography, Proposal, Lit Review, Final Research Essay

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Writing for Inquiry and Research 

CRN:   25973

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  James Sharpe

This course is about “academic writing,” which means how to formulate sharp questions, conceptualize and strategize effective and manageable research, recognize novel insights, and communicate your unique perspective to diverse audiences. The course will guide you into practicing and sharpening the intellectual skills that distinguish critical, informed researchers and writers. You will write an annotated bibliography, a research proposal, a literature review, and a research paper, but by the end of the course, you will be able to see why these forms of writing are important, and you might even (as I do) use them outside of classes as tools for generative, compelling thinking. Thomas S. Mullaney & Christopher Rea, Where Research Begins “Four major writing projects: annotated bibliography, research proposal, literature review, researched argumentative paper.
Short weekly writing assignments designed to feed into your major projects.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Infrastructures

CRN:  23990

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Ann Marie Thornburg

Infrastructures, or systems like highways and healthcare, organize and circulate goods,
services, data, people, and more. Together we will examine how infrastructures impact us, the problems they solve and create, and the pasts, presents, and futures they imagine. Articles and other media Annotated bibliography, research proposal, literature review, research paper

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Sense and Sensabilties

CRN:  40444

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

instructor:  Todd Sherfinski

The topic of this course is the senses: taste, touch, smell, hearing, sight, and humor. The primary text for our inquiry is Diane Ackerman’s A Natural History of the Senses. The course includes daily written assignments, three short papers (2-4 pgs each), a research paper (8-10 pgs), and a group project.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:   Sense and Sensabilities

CRN:  21700

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  Todd Sherfinski

The topic of this course is touch, taste, smell, hearing, sight, and humor. Diane Ackerman’s A Natural History of the Senses The course includes daily written assignments, three short papers (2-4 pgs each), a research paper (8-10 pgs), and a group project.

ENGL 161  Academic Writing II for Inquiry and Research: Illness and Medicine

CRN:  22418

Days/Time:  TR 11-12:15

Instructor:  Bridget English

Focusing on debates in medicine and public health such as the high cost of healthcare and use of AI, this class explores the relationship between human experiences of illness and medical interventions through writing. As part of the course, you will identify a topic of your own interest which will be developed into a research paper that demonstrates your skills as an independent researcher on a topic related to mental or physical illnesses and medicine.

A variety of essays including: Rita Charon “What is Narrative Medicine”; Susan Sontag “Illness as Metaphor” Sinéad Gleeson, “A Wound Gives Off Its Own Light”; Emilie Pine “Notes on Intemperance” , Leo Tolstoy “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” ; William Carlos Williams “The Use of Force” four writing projects and one presentation

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Inquiry and Research – Mass Culture from the Pandemic to the Present

CRN:  40446

Days/Time:  TR 12:30-1:45

Instructor:  Mark Brand

This class examines videogames, music, anime, and internet culture influential during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, and the simultaneous rise of binge-consumption, doomscrolling, crisis ordinariness, AI slop, and artificial companions. We seek insight from academic theory about our shared experience of isolation, its media landscape, and our changed world. Journal of the Plague Year, Inside, Crying in H-Mart, Headphones Everywhere, Preacher’s Daughter, Homestuck, The Backrooms, SCP, Her, Siegfried Kracauer, Sigmund Freud, Sherry Turkle, Lauren Berlant. Research proposal with personal reflection, annotated bibliographies with classmate interviews, research paper with panel presentations. Expect regular reading, written exercises, reflections, discussions, and verbal assessments.

ENGL 161  Academic Writing II for Inquiry and Research: Illness and Medicine

CRN:  33322

Days/Time:  TR 12:30-1:45

Instructor:  Bridget English

Focusing on debates in medicine and public health such as the high cost of healthcare and use of AI, this class explores the relationship between human experiences of illness and medical interventions through writing. As part of the course, you will identify a topic of your own interest which will be developed into a research paper that demonstrates your skills as an independent researcher on a topic related to mental or physical illnesses and medicine.

A variety of essays including: Rita Charon “What is Narrative Medicine”; Susan Sontag “Illness as Metaphor” Sinéad Gleeson, “A Wound Gives Off Its Own Light”; Emilie Pine “Notes on Intemperance” , Leo Tolstoy “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” ; William Carlos Williams “The Use of Force” four writing projects and one presentation

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Sense and Sensabilities

CRN:  42942

Days/Time:  TR 12:30-1:45

Instructor:  Todd Sherfinski

The topic of this course is the senses: taste, touch, smell, hearing, sight, and humor. Diane Ackerman’s A Natural History of the Senses The course includes daily written assignments, three short papers (2-4 pgs each), a research paper (8-10 pgs), and a group project.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Social Justice as the Mirror and the Lens

CRN 30670

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. Major Texts and Authors: Mike Bunn, Paulo Freire, bell hooks, Roxane Gay, Judith Butler, Pew Research, the American Political Science Association, Psychological Science, Harvard Business Review, They Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing and more. Throughout this section of English 161, you will identify your own unique and original argument broadly related to social justice and through our course readings, your own research and inquiry, you will ultimately produce four related writing projects that culminate in a unique, original final research paper on a topic of your own choosing.

ENGL 161Academic Writing II: Writing for Inquiry and Research

CRN:  40447

Days/Time:  TR 12:30-1:45

Instructor:  Jay Shearer

The state of democracy and information in the 21st century, including misinformation, voter suppression, the influence of money on policy, and the very structure of American government. We will analyze links between public positions and private motives, historic compromises and their contemporary consequences, money and policy, information and belief. They Say, I Say by Gerald Graff and Cathie Birkenstein, varied articles and excerpts Four major writing projects: Comparative Analysis, Literature Review, Annotated Bibliography & Research Proposal, and a 10-page Research Paper (plus assignments and class participation)

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Inquiry and Research – Mass Culture from the Pandemic to the Present 

CRN 30673

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Mark Brand

This class examines videogames, music, anime, and internet culture influential during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, and the simultaneous rise of binge-consumption, doomscrolling, crisis ordinariness, AI slop, and artificial companions. We seek insight from academic theory about our shared experience of isolation, its media landscape, and our changed world. Journal of the Plague Year, Inside, Crying in H-Mart, Headphones Everywhere, Preacher’s Daughter, Homestuck, The Backrooms, SCP, Her, Siegfried Kracauer, Sigmund Freud, Sherry Turkle, Lauren Berlant. Research proposal with personal reflection, annotated bibliographies with classmate interviews, research paper with panel presentations. Expect regular reading, written exercises, reflections, discussions, and verbal assessments.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Inquiry and Research

CRN:  21697

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:   Jay Shearer

The state of democracy and information in the 21st century, including misinformation, voter suppression, the influence of money on policy, and the very structure of American government. We will analyze links between public positions and private motives, historic compromises and their contemporary consequences, money and policy, information and belief. They Say, I Say by Gerald Graff and Cathie Birkenstein, varied articles and excerpts Four major writing projects: Comparative Analysis, Literature Review, Annotated Bibliography & Research Proposal, and a 10-page Research Paper (plus assignments and class participation)

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing for Inquiry and Research – Mass Culture from the Pandemic to the Present 

CRN 30672

Days/Time:  TR 3:30-4:45

Instructor:  Mark Brand

This class examines videogames, music, anime, and internet culture influential during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, and the simultaneous rise of binge-consumption, doomscrolling, crisis ordinariness, AI slop, and artificial companions. We seek insight from academic theory about our shared experience of isolation, its media landscape, and our changed world. Journal of the Plague Year, Inside, Crying in H-Mart, Headphones Everywhere, Preacher’s Daughter, Homestuck, The Backrooms, SCP, Her, Siegfried Kracauer, Sigmund Freud, Sherry Turkle, Lauren Berlant. Research proposal with personal reflection, annotated bibliographies with classmate interviews, research paper with panel presentations. Expect regular reading, written exercises, reflections, discussions, and verbal assessments.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Social Justice as the Mirror and the Lens

CRN 30674

Days/Time:  TR 3:30-4:45

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. Major Texts and Authors: Mike Bunn, Paulo Freire, bell hooks, Roxane Gay, Judith Butler, Pew Research, the American Political Science Association, Psychological Science, Harvard Business Review, They Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing and more. Throughout this section of English 161, you will identify your own unique and original argument broadly related to social justice and through our course readings, your own research and inquiry, you will ultimately produce four related writing projects that culminate in a unique, original final research paper on a topic of your own choosing.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN: 42940

Days/Time:  TR 3:30-4:45

Instructor:  Gen Kwon

In a 2015 New York Times interview, bell hooks said, “I believe wholeheartedly that the only way out of domination is love,” a claim that unsettled some admirers who saw it as a departure from her long-standing critique of “imperialist white supremacy capitalist patriarchy.” In this section of English 161, we will examine the multiple, often competing meanings of what is commonly grouped under the term “love,” from its commodification and manipulation in mass culture to its dismissal as childish, sentimental, futile, and weak. bell hooks’s All About Love; Writing for Inquiry and Research (Edited By Jeffrey Kessler, Mark Bennett, and Sarah Primeau), “Unruly Edges: Mushrooms as Companion Species” by Anna Tsing; essays by Ross Gay, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Hanif Abdurraqib, Robin Wall Kimmerer The course is structured around 4 major writing projects that guide students through the research process and culminate in a 10-page research paper focused on an underexamined or reimagined dimension of love within a chosen social or cultural sphere.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  28747

Days/Time:  TR 5:00-6:15

Instructor:  Gen Kwon

In a 2015 New York Times interview, bell hooks said, “I believe wholeheartedly that the only way out of domination is love,” a claim that unsettled some admirers who saw it as a departure from her long-standing critique of “imperialist white supremacy capitalist patriarchy.” In this section of English 161, we will examine the multiple, often competing meanings of what is commonly grouped under the term “love,” from its commodification and manipulation in mass culture to its dismissal as childish, sentimental, futile, and weak. bell hooks’s All About Love; Writing for Inquiry and Research (Edited By Jeffrey Kessler, Mark Bennett, and Sarah Primeau), “Unruly Edges: Mushrooms as Companion Species” by Anna Tsing; essays by Ross Gay, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Hanif Abdurraqib, Robin Wall Kimmerer The course is structured around 4 major writing projects that guide students through the research process and culminate in a 10-page research paper focused on an underexamined or reimagined dimension of love within a chosen social or cultural sphere

ENGL 161  Academic Writing II for Inquiry and Research: Illness and Medicine

CRN:   25879

Days/Time:  TR  5:00-6:15

Instructor:  Bridget English

Focusing on debates in medicine and public health such as the high cost of healthcare and use of AI, this class explores the relationship between human experiences of illness and medical interventions through writing. As part of the course, you will identify a topic of your own interest which will be developed into a research paper that demonstrates your skills as an independent researcher on a topic related to mental or physical illnesses and medicine.

A variety of essays including: Rita Charon “What is Narrative Medicine”; Susan Sontag “Illness as Metaphor” Sinéad Gleeson, “A Wound Gives Off Its Own Light”; Emilie Pine “Notes on Intemperance” , Leo Tolstoy “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” ; William Carlos Williams “The Use of Force” four writing projects and one presentation

Have questions about a course? Click on the instructor’s name to be directed to their email.

ENGL 101 Introduction to Speculative Literature

CRN:  20578, 22330

Days/Time:  TR 9:30 – 10:45

Instructor:  Mary Anne Mohanraj

In this course we’ll introduce you to speculative literature, a catch-all term meant to 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 — any piece of literature containing a fabulist or speculative element. The Big Book of Classic Fantasy, The Big Book of Science Fiction, A Psalm for the Wild-Built, All Systems Red One mid-semester essay, two passage presentations, a weekly reading journal, and a final paper or project.

ENGL 103 POETRY AND THE WORLD – LECTURE

CRN:  20645

Days/Time:  MW 12-12:50

Instructor:  Peter Coviello

Survey of early to contemporary works of Asian American literature focusing on a range of genres and experiential perspectives such as ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class, geographic location, and more. Introduction to debates and developments within Asian American literary history. Aiiieeeee! Woman Warrior and China Men excerpts, Scent of Apples, Citizen 13660, On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous, Tina’s Mouth, The Language of Blood, Yellowface .
Engagement journal, small group discussion starter and poetry presentation, midterm and final in-class essay exams, creative and analytical writing final paper project

Rhetoric, or the “art of persuasion,” has been the foundation of Western politics and justice for over 2000 years. As our political systems change, however, does the art of persuasion change, too? Readings will range from classical to modern rhetoricians, along with writers and activists responding to social and technological changes in the world we live in today. Selections (provided electronically) from Plato, Aristotle, James Baldwin, Kenneth Burke, Judith Butler, and Karen Lewis Daily readings and short journals, short essays, and a longer final project

Still have questions about a course? Click on any of the instructor’s name to be directed to their emails

ENGL 207  Interpretation and Critical Analysis:  Words & Power: An Introduction to Literary Theory

CRN:  47520, 47521

Days/Time:  MW 3:00-4:15

Instructor:  Sunil Agnani

Literary theory serves as a bridge to philosophy, history, and the social sciences. Students explore how aesthetics, social forces, and the theory of signs (linguistics) inform our understanding of society, moving from 18th-century debates on taste to contemporary postcolonial critiques while analyzing literature through a global framework. Plato, Burke, Wollstonecraft, Marx, Freud, Nietzsche, Saussure, Barthes, Edward Said and Gayatri Spivak. Texts range from Enlightenment philosophy to 20th-century psychoanalytic and postcolonial theory. Evaluation includes active participation, attendance, written responses, two 5-page analytical papers, and a final 15-minute presentation connecting theory to an artistic text.

ENGL 207  Interpretation and Critical Analysis

CRN:  47518, 47519

Days/Time:  MWF 10:00-10:50

Instructor:  Ainsworth Clarke

This course is an introduction to the key terms and debates that define the field of literary study. Using the transformation of detective fiction from the classic detective story to the postcolonial crime novel as our case study, we will explore how questions of genre, literary form, agency, and narratology that circulate within the field inform critical analysis. Authors include: Poe, Doyle, Chandler, Himes, Auster, Chamoiseau, Condé.  Coursework includes: Response papers; Final essay

ENGL 207  Interpretation and Critical Analysis

CRN:  47516, 47517

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:   Pending

Pending

ENGL 207  Interpretation and Critical Analysis:  Interpreting Poems, Fairy Tales, and Fiction

CRN:  47524, 47525

Days/Time:  MWF 12:00-12:50

Instructor:  Christina Pugh

What do we mean by “interpretation”? As a gateway course to upper-level study in the English major, this section of English 207 will sharpen your skills as a reader and interpreter of poems (by Emily Dickinson and Wallace Stevens), fairy tales, and fiction, as well as critical texts that analyze them. The course will develop your ability to move between these two types of reading and will give you practice in making judgments about the viability of critical writings with respect to specific literary works. Poems by Emily Dickinson and Wallace Stevens, fairy tales by Brothers Grimm, fiction by Jorge Luis Borges, criticism by Jonathan Culler, Vladimir Propp, others. Short papers and a final paper; brief presentation.

ENGL 208 English Studies I:  Beginnings to 17th Century – LECTURE

CRN:  47528 LEC

Days/Time:  MW 10:00-10;50

Instructor:  Alfred Thomas

Linked sections LEC with a DIS on Fridays

ENGL 208 English Studies I:  Beginnings to 17th Century – DISCUSSION SESSION

CRN:  47529 DIS

Days/Time:  F 10:00-10:50

Instructor:  Christian Mack

Linked with LEC 47528

ENGL 208 English Studies I:  Beginnings to 17th Century – DISCUSSION SESSION

CRN:  47530

Days/Time:  F 9:00-9:50

Instructor:  Christian Mack

Linked with LEC 47528

ENGL 209 English Studies II:  17th Century to Today – LECTURE

CRN:  47533LEC

Days/Time:  MW 11:00-11:50

Instructor:  Mark Canuel

Linked course LEC and DIS

This course surveys literature in English by authors from the Enlightenment to the present. We will concentrate on honing skills of close reading. In addition, we will focus on English literature as a national phenomenon and as an ever-mutating literature of colonial expansion, revolution, and resistance. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun; Poems by Alexander Pope, Phyllis Wheatley, William Wordsworth, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Derek Walcott. attendance, 2 papers, in-class writing assignments, midterm and final examinations

ENGL 209 English Studies II:  17th Century to Today – DISCUSSION SESSION

CRN:  47534DIS

Days/Time:  F 11:00-11;50

Instructor:  Brianne Neptin

Linked with LEC 209 47533

ENGL 209 English Studies II:  17th Century to Today – DISCUSSION SESSION

CRN:  47599DIS

Days/Time:  MW 12:00-12:50

Instructor:  Brianne Neptin

Linked with LEC 209 47533

ENGL 213 Introduction to Shakespeare: Shakespeare in Revolution

CRN:  47460, 47461

Days/Time:  TR 12:30-1:45

Instructor:  Raffi Magarik

We will read several Shakespeare plays, with an interest in how they portray revolutions in the past, reflect social upheaval in Shakespeare’s present, and were adapted and repurposed in modern transformation. King Lear, the Pullman strike, and the creation of UIC; the Tempest and anti-colonial revolt; Henry VI part Ii and the Communist Manifesto; and so on. Shakespeare: King Lear, The Tempest, Richard II, and lots of supplemental readings. Midterm and final (passage identification, keywords); three short essays.

ENGL 223 Introduction to Colonial and Postcolonial Literature:  Post Colonial Clap Back

CRN:  47474

Days/Time:  TR

Instructor:  Natasha Barnes

This introductory course in post colonial literature will focus on the reading and critical attention of two texts: Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (1899) and Chinau Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958). Conrad’s novella is a staple in the canon of early literary modernism and (post) colonial fiction. We will read this difficult novel slowly and carefully, turning to historical articles that ask questions about the ethics of Conrad’s novelistic depiction of the King Leopold’s (Belgium) imperial adventures in the Congo. Then we will read Chinau Achebe’s groundbreaking Things Fall Apart, a novel that is now read as a famous “clap back” to Conrad’s depiction of Africa. In this course we will read two seminal texts carefully while learning how critical interpretation changes the manner in famous books are read. And we’ll have fun doing something important: thinking carefully and smartly about difficult texts.
” Chinau Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. These are the only two texts we will buy, it’s important that we use the paper edition (analog is back!) and the same edition. A midterm exam, a final test and an end of term essay. You will have manageable weekly readings (we will read slowly and thoughtfully). There may be occasional pop quizzes and class presentations.

ENGL 229/GLAS 229/MOVI 229 Asian Film

CRN:  43803

Days/Time:  TR 3:30-4:45

Instructor:  Mark Chiang

Pending

ENGL 230/MOVI 230 Introduction to Film and Culture:  Gender, Race, and the Other in American Horror Film

CRN:  47484

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

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 the ways they are influenced by historical context, social movements, and changing ideologies about gender, sexuality, race, and the Other. Carrie (1976), Jennifer’s Body (2009), Halloween (1978), It Follows (2014), Night of the Living Dead (1968), Get Out (2017), Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Barbarian (2022) Graded in-class writing; midterm and final exams

ENGL 232/AH 232/MOVI 232 Film History I:  1890-WWII

CRN:  12114, 12118

Days/Time:  MW 1:00-2:50

Instructor:  Harry Burson
Co-Instructor:  Seanalissa Baca

This course serves as an introduction to the history of cinema: from its roots in 19th century optical and aural technologies to the popularization of the talkie in the 1930s. In addition to learning the history of cinematic aesthetics and technologies, students will develop skills in analyzing films as both formal and cultural objects. Students will be introduced to the social, economic, and scientific contexts that shaped cinema into an international industry and major art form in the late 19th and early 20th century. We will focus on the rise of early film, the gradual development of cinematic narrative, the growing political and ideological power of narrative cinema, the development of national cinematic styles in the 1920s, the transition to sound cinema, and the proliferation of genres and studio filmmaking of the 1930s. Course readings and screenings will provide students with an overview of the significant debates and developments that shaped the movies’ first decades. Oscar Micheaux, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Alfred Hitchcock, Dziga Vertoc essays, exams

ENGL 234 History of Television

CRN:  29021

Days/Time:  MW 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Walter Podrazik

See instructor for description

ENGL 236 Young Adult Fiction

CRN: 48468

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Lauren Reine Johnson

In this course, we’ll explore the contested space that is YA Lit through examining literature and media created for (and sometimes by) young people through a range of texts and genres, including those proposed by students, alongside different critical perspectives and lenses. Texts include S.E. Hinton’s Outsiders, Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak, Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X, and Akwaeke Emezi’s Pet, among others. Major assessments include participation, a literary autobiography, short reading responses, a group project, and an essay/presentation.

ENGL 237 Graphic Novels

CRN:  48469

Days/Time:  MWF 9:00-9:50

Instructor:  James Drown

Pending

ENGL 237 Graphic Novels

CRN:  47578

Days/Time: TR 12:30-1:45

Instructor:  Keegan Lannon

This course will explore a wide range of comics from a few of the major comic-producing cultures—everything from bright colored superheroes to black-and-white underground comics and everything in between. We’ll discuss both the form and structure as well as the narrative content. Civil War (Marvel), The Many Deaths of Layla Star, Bitch Planet, Look Back, and others Two exams, one essay, and a reflective comic.

ENGL 238 Speculative Fiction, Sci Fi, and Fantasy

CRN:  48450

Days/Time:  MWF 12:00-12:50

Instructor:  Alfred Thomas

Pending

ENGL 238 Speculative Fiction, Sci Fi, and Fantasy

CRN:  49739

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Mary Anne Mohanraj

In this course we’ll survey speculative literature, a catch-all term meant to 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 — any piece of literature containing a fabulist or speculative element. The Big Book of Classic Fantasy, The Big Book of Science Fiction, A Psalm for the Wild-Built, All Systems Red One mid-semester essay, two passage presentations, a weekly reading journal, and a final paper or project.

ENGL 245  Gender, Sexuality, & Literature

CRN:  47477

Days/Time:  MWF 2:00-2:50

Instructor:  Zara Imran

This course will introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of Gender & Women’s Studies through a range of literary and theoretical texts. Drawing on historical perspectives and literary theory from the fields of women’s studies, sexuality studies and queer theory, this course will consider some of the major issues that have concerned these fields and the different ways in which they have been presented in literature. Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name Audre Lorde, Citizen Claudia Rankine, Jasbir Puar Monster, Terrorist, Flag, In The Dream House Carmen Maria Machado Weekly discussion posts, final paper, final presentation.

ENGL 245  Gender, Sexuality, & Literature:  Banned Womxn Writers

CRN:  47475

Days/Time:  TR 8:00- 9:15

Instructor:  Robin Gayle

Most scholars consider books to be mirrors of one’s experiences or windows into understanding other people’s experiences. So why are books that depict the lives of marginalized groups frequently censored in schools?  By reading banned books, we will investigate what larger themes emerge around censorship and educational content. ” Maya Angelou, Assata Shakur, Sandra Cisneros, & Laurie Halse Anderson Close Reading; Feminist Artivism Project; Essay Exam

ENGL 247 Women and Literature:  Introduction to Chicana Literature

CRN:  47467

Days/Time:  MW 3:00-4:15

Instructor:  Esmeralda Arrizon-Palomera

This course is an introductory survey of Chicana literature. Students will read a variety of texts such as novels, memoirs, short stories, poetry, and plays by Chicana writers. By the end of this course, students will be able to identify and discuss key concepts and major themes in Chicana literature, examine Chicana literature with attention to aesthetic movements, cultural traditions, and historical context, and determine Chicana literature’s contribution to the development of Chicana Feminist Thought. Major texts may include: Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands = La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987), Sandra Cisneros’s Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991), Ana Castillo’s The Mixquiahuala Letters (1986) Major assessments may include: in-class writing assignments, response papers, midterm exam, and final exam.

ENGL 247 Women and Literature: The Brontë Sisters: Race, Class, and Madness

CRN:  47465

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  Jennifer Rupert

In this section of ENGL 247, we will not only be reading three major novels by the Brontë sisters— Emily’s Wuthering Heights (1847), Charlotte’s Jane Eyre (1847), and Anne’s Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848)—but also viewing and discussing various film adaptations of these legendary literary works. Yes! We will be watching and discussing Emerald Fennell’s steamy and controversial “Wuthering Heights” and spending time with the critical reception of her interpretation. In doing so, we will wonder if Fennell’s claim that her movie is NOT an adaptation but rather a work of art meant to capture her libidinous first-impressions of the novel as a 14-year-old girl is a legitimate defense of the artistic choices she made.
Other works on the syllabus will include Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) as an anti-colonial and feminist counter-narrative/postmodern prequel to Jane Eyre as well as John Duigan’s NC17 filmic adaptation (1993) of Rhys’s novel as erotic thriller.
Throughout the semester, we will be looking for the ways in which the Brontë sisters and their heroines continue to be alluded to in popular culture (including fan fiction iterations), particularly in stories about young women’s desire for independence, creative self-expression, and longing for a meaningful existence. In doing so, we will be investigating not only the ways in which these works seek to critique patriarchal social conditions but also how they interrogate social constructions of “whiteness” as a racial category; “purity” as the defining trait of a certain class of young women; and “madness” as connected to non-normative (and often racialized) gender identities and sexualities.
” Emily’s Wuthering Heights (1847), Charlotte’s Jane Eyre (1847), and Anne’s Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848) 4 response papers/small group discussion facilitating/midterm and final paper projects

ENGL 253 Environmental Rhetoric

CRN:  48452

Days/Time:  MWF 11:00-11:50

Instructor:  Kate Boulay

Tree Huggers. Climate Deniers. How do you think about the environment? What is The Environment? Why does it matter? Does it matter more now than previously? How do societies relate to the environment? Environmental Rhetoric is the study of movements, activism, and public persuasion on environmental issues. Students in the course identify relevant environmental issues and we set out on an  investigation. We start with rhetoric – sometimes language, sometimes images – and build a case for or against the ways and whys issues are positioned as they are. You will not need to purchase texts for this course. Assignments include four in-class writing assignments and emphasis on participation.

ENGL 261/BLST 261 Reading Black Women in Writing

CRN:  27175

Days/Time:  MW 4:30-5:45

Instructor:  Jackson

Pending

ENGL 269 Introduction to Multiethnic Literatures in the United States

CRN:  47471

Days/Time:  MWF 1:00-1:50

Instructor:  Lyla Lee

Have you ever wondered who gets to define American literature, and whose stories are placed at the center of it? In this course, we will rethink what counts as “American” by examining how multiethnic writing has shaped the literary landscape of the United States. Through the comparative study of Black, Asian American, Latinx, and Indigenous writers, we will move these works from the margins of a predominantly white, European canon and treat them as central to American literary history. Our approach will be both literary and historical, using close reading to explore how each text emerges from its specific historical moment while also considering how its themes continue to resonate in our own complex present. Across novels, poems, and short stories, we will analyze how these writers represent American identity through diverse ethnic and cultural perspectives, asking how their work showcases, challenges, and complicates dominant narratives of nationhood, belonging, and identity. By the end of the course, you will have a deeper understanding of how American literature is constructed and continually reimagined through multiple voices and lived experiences. Toni Morrison, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Amy Tan, Jhumpa Lahiri, Carlos Bulosan, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Sandra Cisneros, Gloria Anzaldua Essays (Close Reading, Final Paper), and Presentations

ENGL 280 Media and Professional Writing

CRN: 47496

Days/Time:  MWF 9:00-9:50

Instructor:  Gregor Baszak

This class will introduce you to core professional writing practices, from keeping sentences short to organizing stories in ways that keep readers hooked. We will begin with basic news reporting and work our way toward long-form features, which you’ll eventually present on your own website. Tim Harrower, Inside Reporting & Sam Leith, Write to the Point Press release, practice job application, profile, feature, review, WordPress page

ENGL 280 Media and Professional Writing

CRN: 47495

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Keegan Lannon

Students learn the fundamental skills in media and communication that are used in the professional workplace. We will explore several of the major genres of professional writing. Students will research, discuss, and analyze aspects of journalism, feature writing, and public relations. The American Journalism Handbook and The Evolving World of Public Relations Press Release, Professional Bio, Podcast Review, Feature Story, Blogs, WordPress Site, Resume and Cover Letter

ENGL 280 Media and Professional Writing

CRN: 47497

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Jay Shearer

Students will develop skills and new perspective regarding writing in media and professional forms. Through extensive reading, interviewing, writing and discussion, they will learn to analyze and produce work appropriate to these evolving industries. Students examine multiple forms of media—from journalism to PR—and eventually produce a writing portfolio. News Reporting and Writing (Bedford St. Martins digital) + varied excerpts and articles Projects include a research report article, press release, profile feature story, two blogs (based in research), a final research project and a personal web page.

ENGL 282 Peer Tutoring in Writing Center

CRN:  47510, 47511

Days/Time:  W 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Antonio Guerrero

English 282 prepares students to tutor writing from all academic disciplines. This reading- and writing-intensive course draws on theory and practice from writing center studies. Students tutor two hours a week starting Week 5 and continue meeting in class to critically engage tutoring theories and develop collaborative tutoring approaches. Emphasizing integrating learning with practice, 282 is ideal for students who want to develop professional skills.” Course texts include Aleksa et al.’s UIC Tutoring Handbook, Bunn’s “How to Read Like a Writer,” and Lunsford’s “Collaboration, Control, and the Idea of a Writing Center.” Students are assessed based on weekly reflective writing and discussion posts, an analytic essay, an interview-based case study, and completion of tutoring hours.

ENGL 282 Peer Tutoring in Writing Center:  Introduction to Theory and Practice

CRN:  47512, 47513

Days/Time:  T 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Katharine Romero

English 282 prepares students to tutor writing from all academic disciplines. This reading- and writing-intensive course draws on theory and practice from writing center studies. Students tutor two hours a week starting Week 5 and continue meeting in class to critically engage tutoring theories and develop collaborative tutoring approaches. Emphasizing integrating learning with practice, 282 is ideal for students who want to develop professional skills. Course texts include Aleksa et al.’s UIC Tutoring Handbook, Bunn’s “How to Read Like a Writer,” and Lunsford’s “Collaboration, Control, and the Idea of a Writing Center.” Students are assessed based on weekly reflective writing and discussion posts, an analytic essay, an interview-based case study, and completion of tutoring hours.

ENGL 282 Peer Tutoring in Writing Center

CRN:  47514, 47515

Days/Time:  W 3:00-4:15

Instructor:  Deanna Thompson

English 282 prepares students to tutor writing from all academic disciplines. This reading- and writing-intensive course draws on theory and practice from writing center studies. Students tutor two hours a week starting Week 5 and continue meeting in class to critically engage tutoring theories and develop collaborative tutoring approaches. Emphasizing integrating learning with practice, 282 is ideal for students who want to develop professional skills. Course texts include Aleksa et al.’s UIC Tutoring Handbook, Bunn’s “How to Read Like a Writer,” and Lunsford’s “Collaboration, Control, and the Idea of a Writing Center.” Students are assessed based on weekly reflective writing and discussion posts, an analytic essay, an interview-based case study, and completion of tutoring hours.

ENGL 290 Introduction to Writing of Poetry

CRN:  47506

Days/Time:  MWF 2:00-2:50

Instructor:  Gordon Middleton

We will be exploring the gamut of tools and tricks that we can use to write poetry. Some, as in traditional forms, have been called “rules” but we will consider these within a broader context of the practice of poetry, formal and otherwise. Robert Haas: A Little Book of Form (2017). Students also pick a book from the list in the syllabus for their independent study, response poems, and presentation. Daily poetry journal, reading responses, response poems, presentation, poetry portfolio.

ENGL 290 Introduction to Writing of Poetry

CRN:  47507

Days/Time:  TR

Instructor:  Kabel Mishka Ligot

Together, we’ll demystify poetry as both a medium and discipline through reading, writing, and revising poems from a wide range of subjects, forms, places, and periods. We’ll explore the various formal elements and conventions of poetry and observe how these change throughout time and contexts through prompts, workshops, and revision. A wide range of English-language poems, with an emphasis on the contemporary period, accompanied by a selection of 3-5 craft essays and one full-length collection. Daily class discussion and reading, writing activities and homework. Guided group revision workshops. Final portfolio of five poem drafts and revisions, with an artist’s statement.

ENGL 291 Introduction to Writing of Fiction

CRN:  47508

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Kim O’Neil

This is an introductory undergraduate fiction workshop. We will start by studying the craft of fiction, “reading as writers” a diverse, strange, and pleasing range of work by published authors and examining what each is up to—by way of narrative POV, distance, voice, and speed; detail and dialogue; characterization; structure; scene and summary, syntax and sound. This is our toolbag as writers. In order to figure out how our tools work, we will pay close attention to how others have used them and to what effect. And we’ll bring these understandings of craft to bear as readers for each other in workshop. Early in the term, we’ll stretch our brains by experimenting with fiction exercises inspired by our readings. Then we’ll shift our attention to developing short stories which we workshop and revise. In workshops, we’ll support each other as a collaborative class community, meeting each writer where they are at with the kind of thoughtful, specific, respectful peer feedback we all want: attentive to intent, identifying what’s working, as well as opportunities to grow. Along the way, you will be encouraged to take risks to find the kind of stories you want to tell and the choices that best serve the writerly effects you seek. Rather than limit our concept of what fiction can do, we will work toward an expansive understanding of the genre. [NOTE–course descriptions didn’t use to be capped at 50 words; if this is a new rule, and you need it abbreviated, please let me know). short stories by writers such as Louise Erdrich, ZZ Packer, Carmen Maria Machado, Aleksander Hemon, Jamaica Kincaid, Donald Barthelme, Ling Ma, Joyce Carol Oates, Ted Chiang and others craft annotations of readings; short writing exercises inspired by our readings; two short stories for workshop; a final revision of a story and cover letter reflecting on choices made and how feedback played a role

ENGL 291 Introduction to Writing of Fiction

CRN:  47509

Days/Time: MWF 12:00-12:50

Instructor:  Eric Pahre

This course is an introduction to the art and craft of writing fiction. Our focus will be on the components that go into literary storytelling, with a particular emphasis on things like plot, character, prose style, dialogue, and theme. Short Stories/Readings by Amber Sparks, Gabriel Marquez, John Cheever, Donald Barthelme, George Saunders, Haruki Murakami, Raymond Carver, Ken Liu, Alissa Nutting, Carmen Maria Machado. Assessments: Two short stories, final revision, written peer critiques, two primary critic reports, writing journal.

ENGL 292 Introduction to the Writing of Nonfiction Prose

CRN 47494

Days/Time:  MWF 9:00-9:50

Instructor:  Tricia Park

This course offers an introduction to the writing of creative nonfiction (CNF), an expansive genre of writing that encompasses a range of styles and techniques to tell life stories. We will explore different approaches through close reading, discuss how these writerly choices impact the reader’s experience of the essay, and experiment as we borrow and integrate new techniques in our own writing. Carmen Maria Machado, Ross Gay, Claudia Rankine, Victoria Chiang, Maggie Nelson The first half of the semester will be focused on craft, reading discussions, plus short generative writing assignments. The second half of the semester will focus on workshop, and student writing, to allows students to offer and receive constructive feedback.

Still have questions about a course? Click on any of the instructor’s name to be directed to their email.

ENGL 316 British Romantic Literature/Gothic Romanticism

CRN:  49170

Days/Time:  MW 3:00-4:15

Instructor:  Mark Canuel

This course examines a range of “Gothic” English poems and novels from the 1790s through the early 1800s—literature featuring vampires, zombies, monsters, and bloodthirsty villains. And we’ll examine how these works employed Gothic tropes to comment on complex problems of their own time, from global revolution to class stratification. Novels by Ann Radcliffe and Jane Austen; poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charlotte Smith, Percy Shelley, and Lord Byron Attendance and participation, 2 papers, in-class writing assignments, midterm and final examinations

ENGL 335 Studies in Literature and Pop Culture:  Adventures in Black Female Middlebrow Fiction 

CRN:  47536

Days/Time: TR 12:30-1:45

Instructor:  Natasha Barnes

This course will look at a variety of African diaspora women writers whose critical reception is tempered by their popularity. What’s the difference between Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie whose intricate family stories land her work in the pages of the New York Review of Books, and Atlanta-based Tayari Jones whose Southern family dramas are rarely reviewed in The New York Times where she frequently makes the bestseller list. We will examine some of the literature that is emerging in what we call black middlebrow. Books that we will read include Tayari Jones, An American Marriage and Deesha Pilyaw, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies. If there’s a page-turner you (or better yet, your mom) encountered in a book club, send me an email about it and perhaps that book may be included in our reading list. We will also examine the preeminent middlebrow reading “institution:” the book club. Oprah’ Book Club may have started this phenomenon, but we will look at the proliferation of black female literary and commercial enterprises, where authors have learnt to monetize book reading with “self love” packages that include candles, bath products, even vibrators! We will also examine the ways in which black women writers stood at the vortex of middlebrow and critical literary categories through figures like Alice Walker, Gayl Jones and Octavia Butler. Please be prepared for lively conversation…which you can’t have if you’re not in class, a midterm and an end of term test, and one paper. ” Deesha Philyaw’s, The Secret Lives of Church Women, Tayari Jones, An American Marriage, Octavia Butler, Kindred among others Midterm exam, end of term test, short written assignments, major paper

ENGL 345/GWS 345  Queer Theory

CRN:  49118

Days/Time:  TR 3:30-4:45

Instructor: Ronak Kapadia

See instructor for description

ENGL 380 Professional Writing, Ethics, and Argumentation

CRN:  47537

Days/Time:  MWF 2-2:50

Instructor: Philip Hayek

This advanced professional writing course bridges the public and private sectors to 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 by practicing the genres that make up these debates. No major texts, just readings relevant to studying the different genres. White paper; crisis management memo; branded copywriting; social media analysis

ENGL 382 Editing and Publishing

CRN:  44817

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Sammie Burton

Pending

ENGL 383 Writing Digital and New Media

CRN:  49508

Days/Time:  MWF 11:00-11:50

Instructor:  Jeffrey Kessler

This course will examine theories and practices of writing for digital media. We will build a foundation in theories of media (“the medium is the message!”) while attending to specific principles of design that will facilitate writing with a variety of digital media. Throughout the course, we will move between critical theory and pragmatic application, while paying careful attention to the discourses around media and technology. Topics will include media theory (McLuhan), accessibility (Williams), design theory (Nguyen and Reynolds), generative artificial intelligence, and social media (Egan and Swanson), among others. Students will complete 4 writing projects: Slide Deck revision, Video Essay, Usability Review Memo, and Critical Digital Essay. While no advanced technological knowledge is required, you should plan on experimenting with and exploring new programs, platforms, and technologies in this class.

ENGL 384 Technical Writing 

CRN:  43391

Days/Time:  MWF 10-10:50

Instructor:  Philip Hayek

In this Technical Writing course, we will learn new genres by analyzing audience and purpose, organizing information, designing graphic aids, and writing such specialized forms as instructions, proposals and reports. Texts include Technical Communication 12th Edition ( Mike Markel, Stuart A. Selber). Assignments include translation of scientific article; process documentation; proposal; recommendation report.

ENGL 389  Writing for Community Advocacy and Activism

CRN: 47580

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  Karen Leick

In this course, students research and write a variety of documents related to local nonprofit work, advocacy, and activism. We discuss the history of non-profit organizations in Chicago, and focus on the writing and communication goals of local organizations and community advocates. Selected readings: Jane Addams, Ida B. Wells, Rachel Carson. Major assignments: an Op-Ed, a newsletter, a fundraising letter, a grant proposal for a non-profit organization, and a service-learning project about food insecurity in Chicago.

Still have questions about a course? Click on any of the instructor’s name to be directed to their email.

ENGL 414 Enlightenment Narratives, Colonial Subjects: Literature & Empire in the 18th Century

CRN:  49957UG, 49958GRAD

Days/Time:  TR 3:30-4:45

Instructor:  Sunil Agnani

This course contrasts “Enlightenment narratives” of progress and the rights of man with the perspectives of “colonial subjects” to question one-sided, optimistic understandings of the era. We explore how 18th-century literature reveals tensions between the “circle of freedom” and the realities of global capitalism and slavery. Primary authors include Behn (Oroonoko), Defoe (Robinson Crusoe), Swift (Gulliver’s Travels), Equiano, Burke, Rousseau, Diderot, and Wollstonecraft. Secondary readings include Edward Said. Grading comprises class participation (15%), one presentation (15%), frequent written responses (15%), a midterm paper (25%), and a final paper (30%).

ENGL 452  The Freshwater Lab

CRN:  48620UG, 48621GRAD

Days/Time:  W 2:00-4:50

Instructor:  Rachel Havrelock

This unique course combines humanities methods with urban planning and policy in order to understand the contemporary water landscape and advance creative solutions. Along with guest speakers, field trips, and hands-on projects, our class will be paired virtually with a course at the University of Toronto so students can explore parallels between two cities, two countries, and two Great Lakes. “1. Leanne Betasamosake, theory of water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead. 2. Anna Clark, The Poisoned City: Flint’s Water and The American Urban Tragedy. 3. Alexandra Kleeman, Something New under the Sun. New York: Hogarth, an imprint of Random House, 2021.” Freshwater Lab Project: After selecting a water issue, students will brainstorm how they would like to address the issue. Approaches can take the form of an academic or policy paper, a website, a film or video, an event, a newspaper article or op-ed, a delivered or draft lecture, an art show or artwork, a campaign (media or otherwise), a design or planning proposal, a podcast, a neighborhood or city initiative, a prototype, a supplement or extension of an existing project, etc.

ENGL 480  Introduction to Teaching ENGLISH

CRN:  47552UG, 47553GRAD

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  Lauren Johnson

Pending

ENGL 482  Writing Center Leadership 

CRN:  21190, 21191

Days/Time:  TR 11-12:15

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 Writing Center Studies, read about multiple theoretical perspectives and practice research methods common to writing center research Mackiewicz, J., & Babcock, R. D. (Eds.). (2019). Theories and methods of writing center studies: a practice guide. London: Routledge. The major project is a semester-long portfolio where students design their own learning center.

ENGL 484  Topics in the Teaching of English

CRN:  49624

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Abby Kindelsperger

Intended as an elective for Teaching of English majors, this course will provide deep, scaffolded practice of instructional planning. Focal topics and tasks include modifying existing curricular materials to meet the needs of diverse learners, incorporating technology tools in lesson plans, and designing unit plans around topics of interest. Commonly taught literature selected by students; Pedagogical articles Teaching Demonstration, Instructional Artifacts, and Independent Study Project

ENGL 486  The Teaching of Writing in Middle and Secondary Schools 

CRN:  47023UG, 47024GRAD

Days/Time:  TR 12:30–1:45

Instructor:  Kate Sjostrom

We will apply theories and practices suggested by experienced writing teachers as we write together in various genres and respond to each other’s and area high school students’ work. In essence, we will create an environment where you can develop your professional identity as a writer and teacher of writing. Inside Out, 4th edition by Kirby and Crovitz; Beyond Literary Analysis by Marchetti and O’Dell 12-15 hours of field work in an area high school; 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:  47558UG/47559GRAD

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  Abby Kinedlsperger

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 diverse learners and English language learners. Fieldwork required. Teaching Literature to Adolescents by Beach et al; Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat Lesson Plan Sequence, Teaching Demonstration, Unit Plan

ENGL 488 Methods of Teaching English

CRN:  48771 UG, 48772 GRAD

Days/Time:  TR  3:30-4:45

Instructor:  Todd DeStigter

English 488 is the final course in the sequence of English Education methods courses. 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. Making the Journey by Leila Christenbury and Ken Lindblom Weekly responses to readings, teaching demonstrations, instructional unit plan

ENGL 490  Advanced Writing of Poetry

CRN:  12504UG, 20335GRAD

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Mark Magoon

Poet Marvin Bell remarked, “The plain truth is that, except for mistakes that can be checked in the dictionary, almost nothing is right or wrong. Writing poems out of the desire to find a way to be right or wrong is the garden path to dullness.” In this section of ENGL 490, we’ll be writing and revising poems with an “obstructionist” approach with the goal of bypassing predictability—and the work we produce will be far from dull! This approach is predicated on the idea that a poet can often find the greatest freedom of expression within the strictest of constraints. If you enter this class with an open mind and if you strive to cultivate an attitude of flexibility and fun, your willingness to embrace these obstructions and interferences will lead you to tremendous creative discoveries—about structure, about content, and about processes and preoccupations.

The course will consist of extensive writing exercises and readings, as well as through craft lectures—primarily, however, through workshop. Participation in workshop is vital to the formation and evolution of one’s ideas about what poetry is, and about how it may be created. You will be writing about poems, and we will be examining poetic forms as well as free verse strategies, but most importantly, you will also be required to revise your work, dramatically and extensively as a member of our workshop and “writing community.”” For you to be successful in this class, you must be open to criticism and suggestions—my “obstructions”—and you must also be willing to be part of a collective effort that requires professionalism, preparation, and courtesy.” Lewis Turco’s Book of Forms. The documentary/drama The Five Obstructions, a film by Lars von Trier. Poems and essays posted on Blackboard and distributed in class, including, Elisa Gabbert, Garielle Lutz, Gregory Orr, Inger Christensen, Louise Glück, and more. In this course we will be writing poems in specific genres and revising in odd and sometimes frustrating fashions. You will produce six original poems to be submitted as a final portfolio or “submission packet”—as the ultimate goal is to produce publishable work—by the completion of the course. Students will also write a prose introduction to their portfolios in the form of a cover letter, artist statement, or process essay—their choice—as well as a critical paper based on our readings.

ENGL 491  Advanced Writing of Fiction

CRN:  12509UG, 20342GRAD

Days/Time:  MWF 1:00-1:50

Instructor:  Lisa Stolley

English 491 is for fiction writers who have a working knowledge of the components and structure of the short story or novel. This class is workshop-based; over the semester, you will write and share two complete stories (or novel chapters) in the workshop setting and provide constructive feedback to your fellow writers. Various published stories; Instructional excerpts from published novels; excerpts from Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft – Janet Burroway

• Story drafts of no less than 6 typewritten pages.
• Revised and extended final story draft based on workshop feedback.
• Written constructive feedback for your fellow writers’ stories.
• Each of you will act as “”primary critic”” in the workshop setting two or three times, leading discussion of stories being reviewed.

ENGL 492 Advanced Writing Nonfiction Prose

CRN:  12510UG, 20346GRAD

Days/Time:  MWF 9:00-9:50

Instructor:  Willow Schenwar

This course will explore the eclectic, unruly, and evolving genre of creative nonfiction. We will examine texts in various associated subgenres in order to deepen our awareness of the literary strategies that shape this field, and to inspire our own writing. This is a small, student-centered community of writers in which participants will offer and receive thoughtful feedback on their creative nonfiction. Some key authors include: Gloria Anzaldúa, Audre Lorde, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Kiese Laymon, Claudia Rankine, Virginia Woolf, Rebecca Solnit, Ta-Nehisi Coates, James Baldwin Students are assessed on their own original creative non-fiction work; active participation in a supportive workshop environment; and short reflective writing exercises.

ENGL 493 Internship in Nonfiction Writing

CRN:  25243CNF, 25244PR

Days/Time:  W 1:00-2:15

Instructor: Jeffrey Kessler

This once-a-week seminar will help you maximize your internship experience with an eye towards combining your academic and professional development and an emphasis on initiative, planning, and meeting deadlines. Both the instructor and internship supervisor mentor students during the course. Students earning 3 credits must work 8 hours a week at the internship; those earning 6 credits must work a minimum of 10 hours a week.

Students complete their internship, keep a journal of their work, and present about their internship at the end of the semester.

Prerequisite(s): Grade of C or better in ENGL 280 and consent of the instructor.

ENGL 496 Portfolio Practicum

CRN: 49959

Days/Time:  T 12:30-1:45

Instructor:  Karen Leick

English 496 is a capstone course in the Professional Writing Program that focuses on career development. Students create an online portfolio that showcases their strongest work in a variety of professional genres, which may include public relations, journalism, technical writing, as well as proposals, grant writing, and business communication. Short reading assignments are related to career exploration; navigating the job market; and current trends and controversies relevant to professional writing careers. Assignments include: the creation of an online portfolio; the extensive revision of assignments from previous courses; preparation of job search documents; and peer review.

Prerequisite(s): Grade of C or better in ENGL 280 and consent of the instructor.

ENGL 498 Educational Practice with Seminar I

CRN:  12518LEC, 40998PR

Days/Time:  W 4:00-5:50

Instructor:  Kate Sjostrom

and II 498/499; 40998/41001 W 4:00–5:50 A two-segment sequence of practice teaching (“student teaching”) to meet certification requirements for teaching in grades nine through twelve, with accompanying seminar. Seminar is structured to support collaboration with colleagues and field instructors to develop classroom materials and strategies; reflection on your classroom teaching; and preparation for your job search. Major texts will be determined by field placement. Lesson and unit plans; journal entries; drafts of job search materials; professional portfolio

ENGL 499 Educational Practice with Seminar II

CRN:  12530CNF, 41001PR

Days/Time:  Asynch

Instructor:  Kate Sjostrom

A two-segment sequence of practice teaching (“student teaching”) to meet certification requirements for teaching in grades nine through twelve, with accompanying seminar. Seminar is structured to support collaboration with colleagues and field instructors to develop classroom materials and strategies; reflection on your classroom teaching; and preparation for your job search. Major texts will be determined by field placement. Lesson and unit plans; journal entries; drafts of job search materials; professional portfolio

Still have questions about a course? Click on any of the instructor’s name to be directed to their email.

ENGL 500 Master’s Proseminar:  English at UIC

CRN:  22397

Days/Time:  T 5:00-7:50

Instructor: Raffi Magarik

As an introduction to the UIC English department, we will read work by current and perhaps past) UIC faculty (and perhaps grad students!), as well as primary and secondary texts that help us understand that work and its contribution. Some of the people we read will join us in the classroom. TBD An in-class presentation related to the reading; a 10-15pp paper responding to something we read, with scaffolding assignments throughout the semester.

ENGL 503 Literary Knowledge

CRN:  21006

Days/Time:  T 5:00-7:50

Instructor: Anna Kornbluh

This course introduces English PhD students to conversations about literary knowledge and critical knowledge. How does literature think? What does it know? What kind of knowledge does literary criticism offer? What’s involved in advanced study of literary and cultural production, and what is its own product, besides sensibility? IA Richards, Edward Said, Bruce Robbins, Fredric Jameson, Eric Hayot, and Sianne Ngai Henry James, Toni Morrison, Nick Hornby, RF Kuang. discussion facilitation, short form writing, long form writing

ENGL 527 American Literature and Culture: Chicana Migration Narrative

CRN:  31746

Days/Time:  W 5:00-7:50

Instructor: Esmeralda Arrizon-Palomera

This seminar will interrogate how migration has shaped Chicanx literature and culture. Primary texts will include nineteenth- and twentieth-century novels, short stories, plays, and poetry collections that bring our attention to the ways race, class, gender, sexuality, and legal status inform Chicanx migration narratives. Secondary texts will include recent scholarship on Chicanx literature and culture as well as on migration. Together, our course readings will provide both an introduction to Chicanx Studies and important context for recent migration narratives published by undocumented and formerly undocumented writers. Primary texts may include: Rodolfo Acuña’s The Making of Chicana/o Studies: In the Trenches of Academe (2011), Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton’s Who Would Have Thought it? (1872) , John Rechy’s City of Night (1963), Tomas Rivera’s And the Earth Did Not Devour Him … y no se lo trago la tierra (1971), and Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands=La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987) Major Assessments may include: class presentations, a book review, and a final paper.

ENGL 540 Seminar in Modern and Contemporary Studies:  Concretism/Concretismo/Konkretyzm/Konkretismus

CRN:  35522

Days/Time:  T 2:00-4:50

Instructor:  Nicholas Brown

This course will seek to answer the question, “What was concretism?” Concretism had its origins (perhaps) in Central Europe, and adherents in the U.S., but it may have been most at home in the semi-periphery: Brazil (and Latin America generally), Poland (and Eastern Europe generally), Japan. But what was it? What was philosophically, historically, aesthetically, and politically at stake in the concretist impulse? We will be looking at artworks and primary texts — both poetry and criticism and theory— from four continents. ”
Grades will be based on 70% final paper, 20% interpretive responses/presentations, 10% class discussion.”

ENGL 555 Teaching College Writing

CRN:  12546

Days/Time:  W 2:00-4:50

Instructor:  Mark Bennett

English 555 prepares you to teach FYW courses at UIC and to examine the teaching of writing as an intellectual activity that fits within the disciplinary work of English Studies. This course is meant to give you the time and space to let you develop our own approaches and perspectives to the teaching of writing, which you’ll be doing for the duration of your TAship at UIC. We will also focus on other class activities, including conducting both small-group and full-class discussion, responding with written feedback, grading student work, and engaging students in peer review. You will feel conversant with current trends in rhetoric and writing studies, and familiar with practical approaches to the teaching of college writing. You will feel confident and well prepared in your own future FYW classroom. You’ll have two exquisitely crafted, highly detailed syllabi that you’ve designed that you can teach from most anywhere with minimal adjustments. You may even begin to think more carefully about your own writing as a scholar.

Texts to be provided on the course Canvas site. Students will design two complete syllabi that they will use in their own courses (one for ENGL 160 and one for ENGL 161), design and teach one lesson, and observe another instructor’s own classroom teaching.

ENGL 557  Language and Literacy: Teaching English and the Quest for Democracy

CRN:  23604

Days/Time:  R 5:00-7:50

Instructor:  Todd DeStigter

This course will explore what it means to teach English for “democracy” and “justice,” along with whether it’s even possible to do so. We’ll pay special attention to the ideological nature of reading and writing and to the tensions between race and socioeconomic class in defining our political priorities. PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED by Paulo Freire, ORIGINAL SINS by Eve Ewing, WHITE POVERTY by William Barber III, Bi-weekly “conversation” papers, mid-term reflection, final paper/project

ENGL 570 Poetry Workshop

CRN:  33612

Days/Time: M 2:00-4:50

Instructor:  Christina Pugh

This graduate poetry workshop welcomes poets, fiction writers, nonfiction writers, and other graduate-level writers. Varied styles and aesthetic commitments on the part of workshop participants are also welcome. Discussion of student work will be the primary focus here, but we will also read some recent volumes of contemporary poetry in addition to selected critical readings that directly treat issues of poetic making, including the study of syntax, line, and linguistic music. Students will write new poems (including the possibility of prose poems) that will be discussed in workshop and revised for a final portfolio; they will also produce an artist’s statement. My goal is for you to be writing with energy and focus, and for you to deepen your own writing practice by thinking critically about the elements of craft that poetry makes available to you, whether you are a poet or a writer focusing on other genres. I also strive to create a classroom environment that is encouraging and supportive – while staying seriously focused on the art and craft of making poems. Books of recent contemporary poetry change each semester; criticism by John Hollander, James Longenbach, Paul Fussell, and others. Poems written over the semester; workshop discussion; presentation with written component; portfolio of revised poems with artist’s statement.

ENGL 571 Fiction Workshop

CRN: 33333

Days/Time:  R 5:00-7:50

Instructor:  Chris Grimes

This is your fiction workshop, so bring it! Open to all forms of fiction: long, short, micro, auto, mash-up, you name it. As long as it can be loosely described as fiction, we’ll champion it along. Your MSS. Earnest engagement, openness and broad humanity.

ENGL 574 Non-Fiction Workshop

CRN:  33334

Days/Time:  M 5:00-7:50

Instructor:  Luis Urrea

Pending

ENGL 585 Theoretical Sites

CRN:  29630

Days/Time:  M 5:00-7:50

Instructor:  Pending

ENGL 590 Environmental Humanities: After the End: Relics, Remnants, and Futures

CRN:  48690

Days/Time:  R 2:00-4:50

Instructor:  Rachel Havrelock

Octavia Butler’s seminal novel Parable of the Sower begins in 2024 when familiar social and ecological systems collapse. What does it mean to read Butler, along with the Climate Fiction genre she launched, in the time afterward?
This seminar pivots on literary representations of fossil fuels along with narrative and media about the fallout in the wake of their ubiquitous consumption. As we contextualize the themes and formal aspects of prominent works of climate fiction we will probe whether cli fi recycles the same old visions of apocalypse and utopia or extends new visions.  Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower; Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement; Imbolo Mbue, How Beautiful We Were; Andreas Malm, How to Blow Up a Pipeline; Alexandra Kleeman, Something New under the Sun Presentation of one week’s assigned reading; research paper and/or creative project.

ENGL 207 Interpretation and Critical Analysis:  Reading Closely

CRN:  46163, 46609

Days/Time:  MW 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Nicholas Brown

The discipline of literary study presumes that literary works are essentially different from other kinds of written artifacts. From the beginnings of literary discourse as we know it, the meaning of the literary work has been bound up with the legible self-understanding of the work itself. The literary text thus calls for a peculiar mode of reading in which the artwork becomes a “thousand-eyed argus,” where every element becomes potentially charged with meaning. The words we have for this mode of reading are all metaphors, but the traditional “close reading” will do as well as any other. This course will be a practicum in close reading. In addition to the required prose texts, we will be reading widely in Romantic and Modernist poetry.
Books
Jorge Luis Borges, _Ficciones_
Ivy Compton-Burnett, _A House and its Head_
Samuel Beckett, _How it Is_
Rachel Kushner, _Flamethrowers_
Herman Mellville, _Billy Budd, Bartleby, and Other Stories_

ENGL 207 Interpretation and Critical Analysis:  Doing Things with Texts

CRN:  46166, 46611

Days/Time:  MWF 2:00-2:50

Instructor:  Mark Canuel

This class concentrates on histories and theories associated with defining what a text is and how a text is to be interpreted. And it deploys those histories and theories to sharpen our own reading and writing strategies. Beginning with eighteenth-century attempts to isolate aesthetic “form,” we explore the intriguing and often slippery discourses that define literary (and non-literary) forms in relation to their connected discourses and contexts. On the way, we address many crucial questions that have continued to provoke theorists and critics for centuries: what makes a text literary? What is the relation between literary surface and depth, or between “reading” and “reading into” a work? What is the relation between a text and the context in which it is produced and/or read? As we explore a series of vibrant contributors to the history of textual analysis ranging from Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud to bell hooks and Barbara Johnson, we’ll hone our theoretical knowledge and skill to vitalize our readings of literary works by John Keats, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Ocean Vuong. Requirements include faithful attendance, short writing assignments, and completion of a final paper that applies a work of theory to a text of your choice. All assigned texts for this class will be supplied online.

ENGL 207 Interpretation and Critical Analysis

CRN:  46164, 46610

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Sibyl Gallus-Price

The arrival of ChatGPT has paradoxically reanimated questions that have long been central to the literary-critical tradition. What is a text? What are its limits? How do texts embody meaning? In the age of AI, what does it mean to engage in the act of self-expression and the practice of critical reading? This course asks students to immerse themselves in analytical and interpretative practice, considering the methodological and philosophical questions literature raises in relation to machines and other media. With this in mind, students will look at literary, visual, and critical works from the 19th century to the contemporary moment, examining a broad scope of literary-critical examples. In this course students will encounter a variety of literary genres and critical essays including works by Henry James, Edgar Allen Poe, Gertrude Stein, Hart Crane, César Aira, Nestor García Canclini, Oswald de Andrade, Roland Barthes, Rosalind Krauss, and others. In addition to traditional writing assignments and assessments, students will create their own experimental literary-critical projects.

ENGL 207 Interpretation and Critical Analysis

CRN:  46167, 46612

Days/Time:  TR 8:00-9:15

Instructor:  Alonzo Rico

How do we make meaning of current events? One way of doing so is through the literature we read. Much like Thomas Carlyle’s Past and Present where the Condition of England question is understood through the writings of Medieval monk, Samson, this course will follow in the same spirit by introducing students to several different types of Victorian fiction in conjunction with several modes literary of interpretation as a means to fathom the here and now. Tentative works specific but not limited to Charles Dickens’s The Tale of Two Cities, Rudyard Kipling’s The Man Who Would Be King, and essays by George Eliot in tandem with theoretical pieces from Marxism, psychoanalysis, New Historicism, and Postcolonial theory. By analyzing works of literature through these interpretative lens, the material reality that we find to be so elusive might start to make sense and come into focus.

ENGL 207 Interpretation and Critical Analysis

CRN:  46168, 46613

Days/Time:  46168, 46613

Days/Time:  MWF 10:00-10:50

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, psychoanalytic, historical, structuralist and post-structuralist literary and social theory in order 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 what literary theory is and how to apply it to texts, and they will also know how to formulate their own thesis based on this understanding.

ENGL 208 English Studies I:  Beginnings to 17th Century

CRN:  46620 DIS

Days/Time: F 11:00-11:50

Instructor:  Ethan Lafond

This is a discussion section for English 208, and should be taken alongside the lecture section. In this course, we will be exploring English literature from its beginnings to the 1600s, a massive amount of time with a wide variety of texts. We will be exploring the influences on and effects of English literature throughout its history, with the goal of trying to understand the transformations it has undergone, and hopefully come out with a strong appreciation of the historical background that modern English literature has emerged from.

ENGL 208 English Studies I:  Beginnings to 17th Century

CRN:  46630 DIS

Days/Time: F 10:00-10:50

Instructor:  Ethan Lafond

This is a discussion section for English 208, and should be taken alongside the lecture section. In this course, we will be exploring English literature from its beginnings to the 1600s, a massive amount of time with a wide variety of texts. We will be exploring the influences on and effects of English literature throughout its history, with the goal of trying to understand the transformations it has undergone, and hopefully come out with a strong appreciation of the historical background that modern English literature has emerged from.

ENGL 208 English Studies I:  Beginnings to 17th Century: Utopia: Early English literature through Milton and Cavendish

CRN:   46099 LEC

Days/Time:  MW 10:00-10:50

Instructor:  Raphael Magarik

This course survey British literature to 1674. The period we will be studying involved massive historical transformations—the discovery of the Americas and beginnings of European colonialism, the Protestant Reformation, the English Civil War (and the first execution of a European monarch by an elected parliament), the invention of the printing press, the birth of commercial capitalism, the rise of companionate marriage, increases in women’s literacy, and more.
We will study this shifting, convulsing world, from which (in part) modernity derives, through its literary forms—that is, through the ways English writers made meaning, organized their (often chaotic and threatening) experience into art. For instance: What is an epic? Why did it play such an important role in literary culture, and how did that change?
To emphasize these processes of change, I am organizing the course around the theme of utopia—around fantasies of societies in which the contradictions and deficits of the real world have been overcome. Such utopias are central to some of the greatest literature of the period: Thomas More coined the word in the early sixteenth century; John Milton daringly depicted the first utopia of all, the Garden of Eden, in Paradise Lost; Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World tells a science-fiction story of a journey to a world of perfect knowledge and gendered inversion… and more. Focusing on utopia, we will ask how societies imagine their own transformations; how we got the recognizably modern world is emerging by the end of our period; and whether we can resurrect the exhilaration and wild confusion of this tumultuous period, the world repeatedly turned upside down.

ENGL 208 English Studies I:  Beginnings to 17th Century

CRN:  46649 DIS

Days/Time:  F 10:00-10:50

Instructor: Krista Muratore

Instructor Magarik’s course description

ENGL 208 English Studies I:  Beginnings to 17th Century

CRN:  46650 DIS

Days/Time:  F 11:00-11:50

Instructor: Krista Muratore

Instructor Magarik’s course description

ENGL 209 English Studies II: 17th Century to Today

CRN:  46583 LEC

Days/Time:  MW 11:00-11:50

Instructor:  Nicholas Brown

This course will be an introduction to the study of modern literature in English, beginning from the English Romantic movement at the turn of the 19th century, and ending with the postcolonial novel in Nigeria and the cusp of postmodernism in the United States. Our focus will be on the novel, with a secondary emphasis on poetry. Works studied may include: Jane Austen, _Pride and Prejudice_; Mary Shelley, _Frankenstein_; Henry James, _The Aspern Papers and Other Tales_; Joseph Conrad, _Heart of Darkness_; Ford Madox Ford, _The Good Soldier_; Virginia Woolf, _To the Lighthouse_; Ivy Compton Burnett, _A House and its Head_; Chinua Achebe, _Arrow of God_; Joan Didion, _A Book of Common Prayer_

ENGL 209 English Studies II: 17th Century to Today

CRN:  46170 DIS

Days/Time:  F 11:00-11:50

Instructor:  Hy Damitz

Instructor Brown’s course description

ENGL 209 English Studies II: 17th Century to Today

CRN:  46631 DIS

Days/Time:  F 10:00-10:50

Instructor:  Hy Damitz

Instructor Brown’s course description

ENGL 209 English Studies II: 17th Century to Today

CRN:  46584 DIS

Days/Time:  F 10:00-10:50

Instructor: Miles Parkinson

Instructor Brown’s course description

ENGL 209 English Studies II: 17th Century to Today

CRN:  46633 DIS

Days/Time:  F 11:00-11:50

Instructor: Miles Parkinson

Instructor Brown’s course description

ENGL 213 Introduction to Shakespeare:  Then and Now

CRN:  46498, 46629

Days/Time:  MW 4:30-5:45

Instructor:  Vainis Aleksa

Hamlet walks up to the edge of the stage, turns to us, and using the simplest words in English, offers us a phrase that has been undying for over four hundred years: “To be or not to be?” Macbeth is a killing machine until he realizes he, too, is mortal. He turns to us and turns into a poet: life “is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Cleopatra, trapped by Caesar, but not outsmarted, is a poet too, using words to embody a new reality, transforming herself into a god: “I am fire and air.” These characters offered compelling entertainment for their Elizabethan audience and still speak to us today, putting into language what we can only feel in our hearts: what it means to love, lust for power, long for harmony, be sucked into violence, or refuse to succumb to a world of trouble. We will view the drama from many perspectives — how Shakespeare reflects both the ideals and evils of his society as well as ours. Because we will emphasize discussion and listening to one another, presence in class will be essential. We will focus on Hamlet, As You Like It, Macbeth, Antony & Cleopatra, Much Ado about Nothing, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The course will help you develop a personal and lasting relationship with Shakespeare.

ENGL 223 The Literature of Decolonization: From Colony to Postcolony

CRN:  46499

Days/Time: MW 3:00-4:15

Instructor:  Sunil Agnani

Examine the powerful literary, cinematic, and essayistic narratives that emerged from a world shaped by European empire. This course explores the rich tapestry of 20th-century writings—spanning fiction, essays, and cinematic expressions—from regions affected by European colonialism. We begin by examining foundational European texts like Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Rudyard Kipling’s Kim, analyzing how they narrate empire. We then shift our focus to the voices that challenged it: anti-colonial nationalists such as Gandhi, Aimé Césaire, and Frantz Fanon.
The second half of the course investigates how contemporary writers like J.M. Coetzee, Assia Djebar, and Salman Rushdie respond to, rework, and reveal the contradictions within the languages of liberalism and progress that emerged in 19th-century Europe. We will use critical theory from Edward Said and others to train ourselves in the difficult task of shifting between aesthetic and political analysis. The course culminates by tracing the global legacies of empire, from the Black Atlantic to the Indian Ocean through the work of Amitav Ghosh. Fulfills the Creative Arts (2CA) and World Cultures (2WC) General Education Requirements.

ENGL 230/ MOVI 230 Introduction to Film and Culture: Chicago Plays Itself: Views of the Cinematic City

CRN;  46501

Days/Time: M 3;00-4:15/W 3:00-5:45

Instructor:  Harry Burson

What does Chicago look like at the movies? What stories are told and who gets to tell them? Since the dawn of cinema, filmmakers have been drawn to the city with hopes of capturing its distinctive architecture, lakefront, and people on screen. In Hollywood films across the decades, Chicago has been portrayed a metropolis alternately defined by cold-blooded gangsters, civil unrest, suburban malaise, and, most recently, vigilante superheroes. Today, as contentious portrayals of the city are driving national politics, this course will ask students to examine how Chicago has been both represented and misrepresented on film. We will trace the history of the cinematic city by exploring three major topics: the film industry in Chicago, depictions of crime and policing, and finally gentrification and urban renewal, with a focus on the neighborhoods around the UIC campus. Students will be encouraged to consider how films about Chicago compare to both historical accounts and their own everyday experiences of the city. Films will include: The Untouchables (1987), Widows (2018), Compensation (1999), Candyman (1992), Stranger Than Fiction (2006), and Medium Cool (1969).

ENGL 230/ MOVI 230 Introduction to Film and Culture:  Gender, Race, and the Other in the American Horror Film

CRN;  46500

Days/Time: T 3:30-4:45/R 3:30-6:15

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 the ways they are influenced by historical context, social movements, and ideologies about gender, sexuality, race, and the Other. We will also devote class time to a basic understanding of film and cultural studies, including major concepts, techniques, and terminology. Films screened will include CARRIE, PSYCHO, JENNIFER’S BODY, CANDYMAN, BARBARIAN, and ROSEMARY’S BABY.

ENGL 233/AH233/MOVI 233 Film History II: WWII to Present

CRN:  14589, 14590

Days/Time:  MW 1:00-2:50

Instructor:  Harry Burson

Co-Instructor:  Brianne Neptin

This introductory course will examine the history of cinema from the onset of World War II to the present day as we survey the international development of film as art form, political tool, and commercial medium. Beginning with Hollywood noir and Italian neorealism films responding to the traumas of the Second World War, we will then explore the development of national cinemas, auteur directors, and radical new waves in the post-war era. In the wake of the cultural turmoil of the 1960s, we will trace the rise of politically engaged film movements including feminist, queer, and anti-colonial cinemas. Weekly screenings will familiarize students with the major aesthetic and technological innovations in the past eighty years of film history, including: studio and post-studio era Hollywood, Italian neorealism, film noir, Japanese cinema, the French New Wave, Third Cinema, Iranian docufiction, New Queer Cinema, and the contemporary franchise film. Screenings will include: Rome, Open City (1945), Rashomon (1950), Rear Window (1954), Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), Touki Bouki (1973), Illusions (1982), Close-Up (1989), and Mission Impossible (1996). Prior enrollment in Film History I is not required to take this course.

ENGL 236 Young Adult Fiction

CRN:  46171

Days/Time: TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Kate Boulay

This course is an introduction to one of the most popular and financially successful genres – young adult fiction (or YA). We examine the genre’s history, track dominant themes and critically explore the ways texts deal with socio-cultural issues. The course aims to be radically inclusive in determining what constitutes YA fiction. All of the readings address issues (murder, racism, sexual violence, sexual activity, etc.) that some students may find upsetting. If you fall into this category, please raise any concerns you may have with me.

ENGL  237 Graphic Novels: Introduction to Comic Studies

CRN:  46172

Days/Time:  MWF 12:00-12:50

Instructor:  Keegan Lannon

Thanks in large part to the success of Marvel and DC movies and anime TV shows, most people have some understanding of what a “comic” or “graphic novel” is. It’s never been easier to gain access to all the genres of graphic storytelling, with most bookstores dedicating significant floor space to comics, graphic novels, and manga. Unfortunately, that access can be overwhelming. There are so many choices, and often the books in the store are arranged merely by publisher or author.
If you have ever wondered about comics as a medium for storytelling and are looking for a sampler of American comics, then this is the course for you. We will explore a wide range of comics, from explosive superhero classics to intimate slice-of-life stories. You will leave this course with a better understanding of what comics are, how comics work, and what comics are getting published.

ENGL 237 Graphic Novels

CRN:  48034

Days/Time:  TR 12:30-1:45

Instructor:  David Schaafsma

This course will introduce you to sequential storytelling through words and visuals, storytelling in the form of graphic novels and comics. Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics will be one guide to our travels, one way to learn the grammar of the form. We’ll look at a range of comics genres including crime comics, horror, romance. We’ll look at queer comics, YA, and some of the classics in realistic fiction and memoir. We will read some superhero comics and manga and look at some anime as well. If you are interested in this class and have a type of comic or particular text you would love to read, email me. I’m just in the process of choosing texts as of 11/1/25.

ENGL 238 Speculative Fiction, Sci-Fi and Fantasy

CRN:  46173

Days/Time:  MWF 1:00-1:50

Instructor:  Jennifer Lewis

Snow White retold as a contemporary tale of family secrets. A seemingly innocuous tea that transforms 19th Century female factory workers into silkworms, in a rapidly industrializing Japan. A post-pandemic world where our civilization has been obliterated and transformed. A besttor:  Amanda Bohne friend who’s actually a robot. All of these are stories that fall under the umbrella of speculative literature. Speculative literature works by imagining or speculating about a world different than our own, with different and sometimes inexplicable rules and features including things like magic, non-human characters, or advanced science. In this course, we will explore the stories described above in order to delineate the literary strategies that distinguish three sub-genres of speculative literature: fabulism, magical realism, and science fiction. And though the speculative is typically associated with fiction and storytelling, we will consider how it might apply to poetry as well. We will encounter poems that enter haunted houses, that use science as metaphors for political unrest, and that use magical thinking to make reality look like dreams. In these ways, we will trace the formal, rhetorical, and literary threads that constitute speculative genres; we will consider their relation to social, cultural, political, and psychological issues and we will determine the place of magic in contemporary life and literature. What will we read? A mix of novels, short stories and poetry by authors including Daniel Orozco, Kazuo Ishiguro, Ursula LeGuin, Ted Chiang, Mary Shelley, Zachary Schomburg, N.K. Jemisin and Nnedi Okorafor.

ENGL 238 Speculative Fiction, Sci-Fi and Horror

CRN:  48035

Days/Time:  TR 12:30-1:45

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 classic fantasy and science fiction as starting points, then branch out to a culturally diverse range of contemporary authors.

ENGL 245/GWS 245 Gender and Sexuality in Early British Literature

CRN:  46171

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Amanda Bohne

This course will consider how premodern literary narratives depicted and conceptualized gender and sexuality in Britain between the years 1000 and 1600 (or so), before the introduction of the modern categories we now understand. Engaging these works may disrupt our expectations: how do the constructions of gender and sexuality that we find in these works correspond to the twenty-first-century depictions of the “medieval” we often encounter? Course texts will include some canonical works as well as less well-known narratives, such as Silence, a romance in which a couple raises their child, “the boy who is a girl,” as a knight. We will also examine some 20th and 21st-century reimaginings of and responses to some texts. Theoretical scholarship on medieval and modern sex and gender and some historical documents will support our discussions. Any texts not written in modern English will be provided in translation.

ENGL 247/GWS 247  Women and Literature

CRN:  46177

Days/Time:  TR 8:00-9:15

Instructor:  Virginia Costello

In this course, we will study the historical and cultural contexts of a range of literary texts written by and about women. While we will survey texts from a wide range of genres and time periods, we will begin by reading David Grene’s translation of the Ancient Greek drama, Antigone, alongside Anne Carson’s contemporary rendition of the same work. This comparison will provide a rich foundation for developing evaluation criteria and exploring two central but very different questions of this course: What does it mean to be human? What makes a text worthy of study?
Through close readings of our selected texts and supporting documents, we will address, at least tangentially, a range of topics including but not limited to wonder/terror (δεινός), translation, death and dying, mental illness/mental health, immigration, and gender. Authors we will study include Sophocles, Maxine Kingston, Ernest Hemingway, Emma Goldman, Silvia Plath, Toni Morrison, Sandra Cisneros, Leo Tolstoy, and Anne Carson.

ENGL  247/GWS 247  Women and Literature:  Horror and Insanity

CRN:  46178

Days/Time:  MWF 12:00-12:50

Instructor:  Bridget English

This course will be an introduction to the study of modern literature in English, beginning from the English Romantic movement at the turn of the 19th century, and ending with the postcolonial novel in Nigeria and the cusp of postmodernism in the United States. Our focus will be on the novel, with a secondary emphasis on poetry. Works studied may include: Jane Austen, _Pride and Prejudice_; Mary Shelley, _Frankenstein_; Henry James, _The Aspern Papers and Other Tales_; Joseph Conrad, _Heart of Darkness_; Ford Madox Ford, _The Good Soldier_; Virginia Woolf, _To the Lighthouse_; Ivy Compton Burnett, _A House and its Head_; Chinua Achebe, _Arrow of God_; Joan Didion, _A Book of Common Prayer_

ENGL 247/ GWS 247 Women and Literature

CRN:  46179

Days/Time:  TR 12:30-1:45

Instructor:  Robin Gayle

Dangerous Womxn:
Reformers, Radicals, & Revolutionaries in 20th Century USA
In the 1920s, the Daughters of the American Revolution & the Reserve Officer’s Training Corps dubbed Chicago social reformer and activist Jane Addams “the most dangerous woman in America,” and the FBI maintained a dossier on her. Throughout the 20th century, radical womxn in the US have been depicted as “dangerous,” and oftentimes, they have been actively persecuted by the US government. During this course, we will examine the lives of femxle reformers, radicals, & revolutionaries, and we will explore how the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPro) illegally suppressed these “threats.” During the course, we will tour Jane Addam’s Hull House & the Latinx Cultural Center’s indoor mural, which includes an autographed depiction of Puerto Rican activist Lolita Lebron’s arrest. Other dangerous womxn we will study include Zora Neale Hurston, Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, Maya Angelou, Assata Shakur, Anna Mae Aquash, Judith Heumann, Sandra Cisneros, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha and others.
Note: This course does not assume any prior knowledge or experience with feminism, queer theory, and/or the application of these theories to literature.

ENGL 261/GWS 261/BLST 261 Reading Black Women Writings

CRN:  38023

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Lynette Jackson

ENGL  262/BLST 262  Back Performance

CRN:  41036

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Mario LaMothe

ENGL 264/NAST 264 Introduction in Native American Literature

CRN:  46180

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  John Casey

Still here today, is a phrase meant to remind people that Native American communities and cultures are all around us. Too often the study of these literatures is treated as a historical exercise in analyzing creation myths and trickster tales. Although we will read some of these older stories, the texts we will focus most of our attention on are those building upon earlier traditions and showing readers how Native American culture is experienced and expressed in more modern times. Readings for this class will include some criticism to guide us in our analysis such as Thomas King’s The Truth About Stories, which will serve as our main text for this purpose. Fiction readings will include works from before during and after the Native American Renaissance from authors such as John Rollin Ridge and Zitkala Sa as well as Louise Erdrich, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Tommy Orange. We will also examine some Native American storytelling in other mediums such as graphic novels and television and film. Assignments will involve a research paper focused on a specific Native American narrative technique and a short biography of a Native American author. You will also be asked to write a weekly response paper that we will use to guide class discussions on the assigned readings.
This is a General Education Course meeting the requirement for Creative Arts and US Society.

ENGL 270/ITAL 270  The Sopranos Effect

CRN:  42715

Days/Time: ARR

Instructor:  Maria Fabbian

ENGL 280  Media and Professional Writing

CRN:  46187

Days/Time:  MWF 9:00-9:50ONLINE

Instructor:  Gregor Baszak

Writing well means to use as few words as you can to convey a message. It also means always keeping your audience in mind. Our class will be about these core principles of professional writing and more. You will learn the ins and outs of some core journalistic and public relations genres and assemble a portfolio that you will present on a personal website at the end of the semester. English 280 is the prerequisite for English 493, the English internship for Nonfiction Writing.This is a fully asynchronous online class, meaning you complete work on your own time by scheduled due dates. There will be no mandatory online meetings. However, we will have one entirely optional live session on Zoom every week on Fridays during our scheduled class time (see on the right and under.

ENGL 280  Media and Professional Writing

CRN:  46986

Days/Time:  MWF 10:00-10:50

Instructor:   Jay Shearer

In this course, you will develop both skills and a fresh perspective regarding writing in media and professional forms. Through extensive reading, interviewing, writing and discussion, you will learn to analyze and produce work appropriate for these evolving industries. As you know, this is a moment of acute transformation in the way we ingest and disseminate the printed 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 (as presented via links on your personal web page), preparing you for internship and employment opportunities. Projects include a research report, the press release, the resume with cover letter, a profile feature story (based on an interview), two blogs (each based to some degree in research), a final project (a white paper or general interest feature) and finally, a personal web page (in this case, your own).
This course is a prerequisite for ENGL 493, a writing internship. It’s possible it might even be actual fun (no guarantees).

ENGL 280 Media and Professional Writing

CRN:  46184

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Karen Leick

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 ENGL 493: Internship in Nonfiction Writing.

ENGL 282 Peer Tutoring in Writing Center

CRN:  46189, 46587

Days/Time:  W 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Antonio Guerrero

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 Week 5 of the semester. Students continue to meet in class 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. May not be repeated for Credit.

ENGL 282 Peer Tutoring in Writing Center

CRN:  46987, 46988

Days/Time:  W 3:00-4:15

Instructor:  Deanna Thompson

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 Week 5 of the semester. Students continue to meet in class 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. May not be repeated for credit.

ENGL 282 Peer Tutoring in Writing Center

CRN:  46191, 46585

Days/Time:  T 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Katharine Romero 

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 Week 5 of the semester. Students continue to meet in class 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. May not be repeated for Credit.

ENGL 290 Introduction to Writing of Poetry

CRN:  46194

Days/Time:  MWF 12:00-12:50

Instructor:  Ann Marie Thornburg

Poetry creates spaces for us to engage language, noticing its nuances and how it
operates in our lives and in the world. In this course we will approach poetry
as a practice we develop over time through reading, writing,
listening, and reflecting, with others and on our own. We will learn to read
poems as poets, giving them our generous attention and in turn learning from the
many ways fellow poets engage language, craft, and meaning. We will develop
a vocabulary for discussing how poems are made and a craft toolkit for our own
work. We will write our own poems, offer one another thoughtful feedback, and work
to discern and develop a poem’s possibilities through revision.

ENGL 291 Introduction to Writing of Fiction

CRN:  46196

Days/Time:  MWF 12:00-12:50

Instructor:  Gen Kwon

In this course, you will explore fiction’s techniques across cultures, languages, and histories, engaging with short stories and novel excerpts that challenge assumptions about what a story can be. Each week, we will examine a craft element—voice, language, perspective, narrative structure—through diverse literary traditions. You will not only analyze these techniques but experiment with them, using imitation and play to disrupt familiar habits and discover new creative possibilities. Writing, after all, is not about performing culture or fulfilling expectations; it is about uncovering the story you need to tell and questioning the self who tells it. As Matthew Salesses asks, “How can a writer know what they can do without knowing many different ways that things have been done before?” Writing, like learning a language, requires risk, failure, and discomfort—but only by stepping into the unfamiliar can we arrive somewhere original.

ENGL 291 Introduction to Writing of Fiction

CRN:  46195

Days/Time:  TR 3:30-4:45

Instructor:  Eliza Marley

This course is an introduction to the art and craft of writing fiction. Our focus will be on the components that go into literary storytelling, with a particular emphasis on things like plot, character, prose style, dialogue, dramatization, and themes. In the earlier half of the semester, we will read short stories by established and emerging writers in a variety of styles. Unlike an English literature class, rather than analyzing these texts for cultural significance or meaning, we will analyze them on the level of craft, examining for story elements and focusing on the writing itself. Our goal as readers will be to understand how a story works from the ground up, and how the “moving parts” of fiction weave together. We will do writing exercises corresponding to these different aspects of craft as we build along the semester. The second half of our semester will be workshop based, at which time you will produce two stories along with providing thoughtful, constructive feedback for your classmates. As a group, we will establish specific workshopping style and guidelines we want to go by prior to discussing student work and we will practice beforehand by discussing published stories across the first half of our semester.

ENGL 292 Introduction to Writing of Nonfiction Prose

CRN:  46198

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  Willow Schenwar

This course will explore the eclectic, unruly, and evolving genre of creative nonfiction. Together, we will closely examine texts from various associated subgenres–literary journalism, memoir, the personal essay, ecological creative nonfiction, and other hybrid forms–in order to cultivate an awareness of the literary strategies that shape this field and to inspire our own writing.
Along the way, we will discuss questions such as: What is creative nonfiction, and what are its distinguishing characteristics? Why do people choose to write in these forms, rather than others? What drives us to transform our memories, emotions, histories, opinions, and realities into literary art? What ethical considerations and political objectives might we engage with as writers in these genres?
In addition to these conversations, students will create their own original written works, and share these during class workshops, giving and receiving feedback. Throughout the semester, reflective prompts and in-class exercises will help direct our attention to both inner and outer landscapes, nurturing the creative energies that might incline us towards a central project of creative nonfiction: telling truths while telling stories.

ENGL 295/LAS 295/SPAN 295  Latino Literary Studies

CRN:  34683

Days/Time:  MW 3:00-4:15

Instructor:  Joel Huerta

ENGL 311 Survey of  Medieval English Literature

CRN:  37297

Days/Time:  MW 3:00-4:15

Instructor:  Alfred Thomas

The Once and Never King: Medieval Arthurian Romance from Geoffrey of Monmouth to Sir Thomas Malory
The nineteenth-century image of King Arthur portrayed by Alfred Lord Tennyson in his “Idylls of the King” is that of a Victorian gentleman. Such a sentimentalized portrait is a far-cry from the complex and in many ways contradictory depiction of Arthur in the medieval period. In this course we examine the constantly permutating character of England’s most famous king– who probably never existed– in the light of the feudal politics of medieval Britain. For Geoffrey of Monmouth, who first invented King Arthur as we know him today, Arthur was a warrior king bent on the conquest of the British Isles and Europe, a role model for the Norman rulers who had conquered England in 1066. For the Plantagenet king Edward I, Arthur was at once a figure to be emulated and a rival to be feared, which is why he presided over Arthur’s “reburial” at Glastonbury Abbey in 1278. For Sir Thomas Malory, the greatest of all the English Arthurian writers, Arthur was an ineffectual weakling at the mercy of his own “overmighty subjects” and incapable of preventing the dissolution of his beloved Round Table. Clearly a reflection of the ruinous Wars of the Roses of the fifteenth century, Malory’s Arthur is the polar opposite of the Galfridian ideal of the supremely self-confident and ambitious conqueror. Far from being a “once and future king” removed from the real world and transcending its vicissitudes, Arthur emerges as a chimerical figure constantly resurrected in the interest of changing political conditions and reflective of the ongoing crisis of medieval feudalism.

ENGL 325 20th and 21st Century American Literature:  Narratives of U.S. National Decline

CRN:  48671

Days/Time:  TR 12:30-1:45

Instructor:  Helen Jun

This course focuses on narratives of American national decline, in which the United States is no longer imagined as an exceptional domain that promises “the Good Life,” nor an indispensable and legitimate authority in a shifting world order. We will examine cultural imaginings of national decline in the context of global capitalist restructuring. In turning to cultural texts, we might expect to find only apocalyptic scenarios or anxious narratives of mourning and nostalgia, but we’ll see how even seemingly predictable stories of loss can disclose contradictory and unexpected expressions of possibility, humor, and even freedom. We will consider how Black, Latinx, Asian/American, and Arab/American cultural texts provide distinct vantage points on a changing new world order forged from a century of racialized U.S. militarization.

ENGL 380  Advanced Professional Writing

CRN:  47979

Days/Time:  TR 8:00-9:15

Instructor;  Philip Hayek

This advanced professional writing course teaches students how to position themselves 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 by participating in the genre ecologies that make up these debates. Integral to the course is how clear thinking and good writing can create the common ground necessary for these professional communities to work and to work together.

ENGL 382 Editing and Publishing

CRN:  42660

Days/Time:   MWF 1:00-1:50

Instructor:  Sammie Burton

This section of English 382 immerses you in the world of academic editing and publishing.
You will take part in dynamic peer discussions, whole-class dialogues, and hands-on editing workshops that challenge you to critique, revise, and refine scholarly prose. In-class assignments will engage you in real-world editing scenarios and publication-style exercises designed to mirror professional academic practices. By the end of the course, you will have developed a stronger editorial eye, a deeper understanding of academic communication, and the practical skills needed to navigate the editing and publishing of scholarly texts with confidence.

ENGL 383 Writing Digital and New Media

CRN:  39948

Days/Time:  TR -9:30-10:45

Instructor: Philip Hayek

Writers increasingly rely on digital media to conduct their work, and the definition of “writing” is evolving to include visual communication, audio and video editing, content management, and social media. This course is designed to familiarize you with all of these topics through theoretical exploration of digital media and practical training with a variety of software tools. Broadly stated, the key goal of this course is to increase your “digital literacies.”

ENGL 384 Technical Writing

CRN:  43679

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor: Philip Hayek

Technical writing is a subject that encompasses more than communicating complex information clearly and accurately. Technical writers have the opportunity to confront the STEM fields in the interest of ultimately fusing with them, supporting them and being in concert with these other disciplines in the effort to shape all knowledge, and to point that knowledge in the direction of a global humanity. We will learn new genres by analyzing audience and purpose, organizing information, designing graphic aids, and writing such specialized forms as instructions, proposals and reports.

ENGL 388 Writing for Health Professions: Mental Illness and Public Health

CRN:  46602

Days/Time:  MWF 2:00-2:50

Instructor:  Bridget English

Medical journalism and creative non-fiction are two of the most exciting and popular developments in professional writing. This course is focused on how to write and edit articles for professional publication, with a particular focus on mental illness. Students in this course will investigate how structural racism, social inequities, and medical biases perpetuate health disparities, and the different ways that writing can advocate for health justice.
In this course we will ask who decides how mental illnesses are narrated: diagnosed, attributed, and treated? How have gender, race, class, ability, and sexual orientation affected the treatment and experiences of people deemed “mad”? To answer these questions, we will look at the history of psychiatric discourse from degeneracy to hysteria, shell shock to paraphilia, and protest psychosis. We will consider how theoretical lenses from fields such as disability studies, medical anthropology, and public health can help us think in complex ways about the root causes of mental health inequity. We will read texts ranging from patient narratives, memoirs, and journalism to creative non-fiction to consider how the formal and rhetorical choices across these genres can inform our own writing about these topics.

ENGL 389 Writing for Advocacy and Activism

CRN:  48858

Days/Time:  TR 12:30-1:45

Instructor:  Karen Leick

In this course, students will learn about writing strategies and genres related to nonprofit organizations, advocacy, and activism. One major assignment for the class will be researching, designing, and writing a grant proposal for an organization of your choice. Other projects will include an op-ed, a newsletter for a nonprofit organization, a fundraising letter, and a Food Insecurity Project and presentation.

ENGL 407  THE MACHINE STOPS: DYSTOPIAN VISIONS OF THE FUTURE IN FICTION AND FILM FROM “THE TIME MACHINE” to AI

CRN:  46991, 46994

Days/Time:  MW 4:30-5:45

Instructor:  Alfred Thomas

In 1909 the British novelist E.M. Forster published a short story named “The Machine Stops” which may be said to have inaugurated the dystopian vision of the future in English and American literature. Reacting to the optimism of H.G. Wells, Forster envisaged a future world in which people live in subterranean isolation far from the surface of the planet; they communicate with each other solely through consoles and computer screens, yet they boast a plethora of “friends” they have never met in person, thus anticipating the rise of Facebook and current social media platforms. This course traces the evolution of twentieth- and twenty-first-century dystopian fiction and film from H.G. Wells’ “The Time Machine” to the present world of AI. Readings include fiction by H.G. Wells, E. M. Forster, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Mikhail Bulgakov, Aldous Huxley, and Ray Bradbury. Films include “Bladerunner” (1982) and its sequel “Bladerunner 2049” (2017); and “Ex Machina” (2014).

ENGL 425  20th and 21st Century American Literature and Culture:  Advanced Studies in Middlebrow Fiction 

CRN:  48674, 48675

Days/Time:  MW 3:00-4:15

Instructor: Natasha Barnes

The day before the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in literature was announced, the famous New York Times literary critic, A.O. Scott published “What’s Good about Good Literature?”arguing that literary “greatness” has an “old fashioned, arbitrary ring.” “Every canonization,” Scott cheekily argues “is a cancellation waiting to happen.” This course will take up some of this provocation with a study of “middlebrow” fiction, the literature that makes best-seller and celebrity reading lists, but is not reviewed in The London Review of Books and certainly not praised by A.O. Scott in the New York Times. We will do less reading of the not-so-great books but immerse ourselves in historicizing and theorizing the “middlebrow.” Why are so many women reading titles like Anita Shreve’s The Pilot’s Wife (1998) and why are so many minoritized women forming armies of reading clubs made up of titles that never get studied in English or ethnic studies departments.
We will start with a short examination of the modernist beginnings against which the “middlebrow” derives its meaning. Our theoretical readings will come from a range of approaches, including Janice Radway, Raymond Williams, Tim Aubry, Blakey Vermule and Gerald Early among others. We will pay attention to how narrative form: firstly free indirect narrative and first person narrative creates the psychological intimacy that blurs the distinction between readers and the fictional worlds they consume. We will examine how particular class and racial identities get normalized in fiction marketed and consumed as “relatable.”
Books that we will read can include Tayari Jones’ decidedly middlebrow, An American Marriage (2018) and the middlebrow-turned-critically-acclaimed speculative fiction novel, Kindred (1978) by Octavia Butler. Where on the spectrum are Curtis Sittenfeld’s First Lady novels, American Wife (2009) and Rodham (2020)? Students are encouraged to select the fiction they want to read and discuss.

ENGL  435/GLAS 490 Topics in Popular Culture:  US Orientalism

CRN:  46866, 46867

Days/Time:  R 3:30-6:00

Instructor:  Mark Chiang

This course will trace discourses and representations of Asia in American culture from the colonial period to the 20th century, including art, material objects, cultural practices, literature, film, and music. We will examine the purposes, functions, contradictions, and consequences of Asia and Asians in the American racial imaginary, beginning with the commercial trade with Asia in the early history of the Americas, the arrival of Chinese in the US and the development of the anti-Chinese movement in the 19th century, the period of Asian exclusion, World War II, the postwar occupation of Japan and the Cold War, and ending with the rise of Japan and the “Asian economic miracle” of the 1970s and 1980s. The course will explore questions of race, gender, sexuality, labor, immigration, capitalism, imperialism, eugenics, and the family, among others. Texts for the class will include anti-Chinese plays, the various permutations of Madame Butterfly, writers such as Jack London, Lothrop Stoddard, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Sui Sin Far, and Don Delillo, and such films as Piccadilly, Sayonara, Flower Drum Song, Lawrence of Arabia, and Rising Sun.

ENGL 453/PA 453/UPP 453  Freshwater Lab in Practice Internship Course

CRN:  46589, 46590

Days/Time R 3:30-6:15

Instructor:  Rachel Havrelock

Help Build a Common Future
Learn about water governance, legislation and culture while being part of a dynamic student cohort envisioning adaptive infrastructure, inclusive policy and future systems for the Great Lakes region.
The Freshwater Lab spring 2026 paid internship course offers you a deep dive into environmental history and interdisciplinary thought focused on water. Engage with local experts and community leaders and participate in special events and field trips.
Apply what you learn in the classroom as part of an individualized internship placement at an organization focused on water or the environment. No matter your major, your skills can be accommodated in ways that make tangible contributions to the public good. All internships will be paid.
For more information, contact Professor Rachel Havrelock, raheleh@uic.edu
or visit freshwaterlab.org/internship.

ENGL 480 Introduction to Teaching ENGLISH

CRN:  46218, 46278

Days/Time:  TR3:30-4:45

Instructor:  Brennan Lawler

English 480 is the first methods course for English Education majors (and anyone interested in exploring the possibility of becoming an English teacher)! Our goal in this course will be to answer a seemingly simple question: Why teach English? This question will undoubtedly lead to other, 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 related to justice, equity, and belonging, and reflect on our own assumptions in an attempt to develop an emerging framework for how we might approach English teaching. Course requirements include 12 hours of field experience in an area high school.

ENGL 482  Campus Writing Consultants

CRN:  14540, 14542

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 of Writing in Middle and Secondary Schools

CRN:  19256, 19257

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.
Prerequisite: ENGL 480 or consent of instructor

ENGL 487 Teaching of Reading and Literature

CRN:  46282, 46220

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 diverse learners and English language learners. Major assignments include lesson plans and a teaching demonstration.
3 undergraduate hours. 4 graduate hours. Field work required.

ENGL 488 Methods of Teaching ENGLISH

CRN:  47113, 47114

Days/Time:  TR 3:30-4:45

Instructor:  Todd Destigter

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 47113, and M.A. students should register for CRN 47114. 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 Writing of Poetry

CRN:  29431, 29430HYBRID

Days/Time:  MW 4:30-5:45

Instructor:  Christina Pugh

In this class, we’ll be writing and revising poems in selected specific genres presented in the recent anthology *The Eloquent Poem.* In our workshop discussions, we’ll note and appreciate the strengths of class members’ poems; and we’ll also work to inspire and encourage poets on to new revisions of their work. For this reason, class participation and commenting on others’ poems is crucial. Throughout the course, we will pay particular attention to the relationship between sentence and line – especially as it is expressed in line breaks, line length, and stanza formation. We’ll consider varieties of poetic music and poetic voice. The course includes critical materials addressing these issues, as well as older and contemporary poems that we’ll be reading for illustration and inspiration. We’ll be considering strong literary (lyric) models and will work from the notion that critical and creative thinking inform one another. Our emphasis will be on the discussion of student poems and on the development of craft at the advanced undergraduate level — in an environment that is rigorous, but also positive and encouraging. In addition to writing poems throughout the semester, students will write a short critical paper. The final project for the course is a portfolio of revised poems (written throughout the semester), accompanied by a prose introduction. This course is also open to graduate students in English and other departments. Prerequisite of ENGL 290.

ENGL 491 Advanced Writing of Fiction

CRN:  22828, 22829

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Kim O’Neil

This is a combined graduate and advanced undergraduate fiction workshop. We’ll start by “reading as writers” a wide range of exemplary short stories by classic and contemporary authors, ranging in style from traditional literary fiction to magic realism to “Gothic” horror. We’ll notice how their authors play with conventions— experimenting with structure, interweaving thematic threads, and playing with the inherent music of language. We’ll examine what each writer is up to—by way of narrative POV, distance, voice, and speed; detail and dialogue; characterization; scene and summary, syntax and sound. This is our toolbag as writers. In order to figure out how our tools work, we will pay close attention to how others have used them and to what effect. We will do this through craft annotations of the published stories we read. And then we’ll bring these understandings of craft to bear as readers for each other in workshop.
Early in the term, we’ll stretch our brains through a few short writing exercises or “influence pieces” inspired by our readings. Then we will shift our attention to developing two short stories each for workshop and revision. The main goal is to challenge yourself to write about something you care about deeply: this might be something that interests you, surprises you, irks you, perplexes you, inspires curiosity by its strangeness. You may not know why your subject moves you at first, so you trust your gut. In the early stages of writing you should work on your fiction with an open mind, letting the writing lead you to a place you had not anticipated.
In workshops, we’ll support each other as a collaborative class community, meeting each writer where they are at with the kind of thoughtful, specific, respectful peer feedback we all want: attentive to intent, identifying what’s working, as well as opportunities to grow. Along the way, you will be encouraged to take risks to find authors you want to read and structures that best serve the writerly effects you seek. I am not strict on genre and believe that most great work tends to disregard, expand, or transgress genre. Rather than limit our concept of what short stories can do, we will work toward an expansive understanding of the form.

ENGL 491 Advanced Writing of Fiction

CRN:  19260, 19261

Days/Time:  MWF 1:00-1:50

Instructor:  Jay Shearer

This course is designed for students who have a practical understanding of the elements of short stories and novels and hope to improve as fiction writers. We will read a diverse array of published fiction, examining these works less as literary critics than as fellow writers, our focus being process and technique, i.e., the writer’s craft, how writers do what they do, what stories deliver and why. Examining specific traits of the craft—voice, perspective, characterization, conflict, setting, detail, dialogue, etc.—will help sharpen our skills as both readers and writers. The coursework involves readings, short exercises and a rotating student workshop, wherein each student produces at least two short stories or novel chapters. Our discussion and workshopping of peers’ stories will focus on the elements and techniques studied and practiced throughout the semester. As writers, readers, editors and critics, we will engage in an active semester-long practice. It might even be actual fun (no guarantees). Prerequisite of ENGL 291.

ENGL 493 Internship in Nonfiction Writing

CRN:  26976, 26977

Days/Time:  W 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  Jeffrey Kessler

Earn course credit while working at an internship with a writing focus. This once-a-week seminar will help you maximize your internship experience with an eye towards combining your academic and professional development and an emphasis on initiative, planning, and meeting deadlines. Both the instructor and internship supervisor mentor students during the course. Students earning 3 credits must work 8 hours a week at the internship; those earning 6 credits must work a minimum of 10 hours a week.
Students must contact instructor in advance for course approval and guidance with obtaining their own internship.
Prerequisite(s): Grade of C or better in ENGL 280 and consent of the instructor
Recommended background: Junior or senior standing
To be properly registered, students must enroll in one Conference and one Practice

ENGL 496 Portfolio Practicum

CRN:  41077

Days/Time:  W 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Jay Shearer

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. In order 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 in order to establish a recognizable and marketable professional identity. In a culminating assignment, students will not only present their portfolio to the class but also practice talking to future employers through mock interviews. 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 young professionals well-prepared to utilize the writing skills they have carefully developed and honed during their university education.
Prerequisite: Consent of Instructor and grade of C or better in ENGL 380 or ENGL 382 or ENGL 383 or ENGL 384 or ENGL 388 or 389 AND simultaneous registration in one of the following: ENGL 380, 382, 283, 384, 388, 389.

ENGL 498 Educational Practice with Seminar I

CRN:  14558

Days/Time:  ARR

Instructor:  Todd Destigter

English 498/499 is the semester of student teaching for English education students (498), plus the accompanying weekly seminar (499). These courses are to be taken concurrently, and they are only open to student teachers. Eligible students must enroll in both courses (498 & 499), and students may select any CRN’s that remain open, regardless of who is listed as the instructor.

ENGL 498 Educational Practice with Seminar I

CRN:  14555

Days/Time:  ARR

Instructor: David Schaafsma

English 498/499 is the semester of student teaching for English education students (498), plus the accompanying weekly seminar (499). These courses are to be taken concurrently, and they are only open to student teachers. Eligible students must enroll in both courses (498 & 499), and students may select any CRN’s that remain open, regardless of who is listed as the instructor.

ENGL 498 Educational Practice with Seminar I

CRN:  14554 LCD

CRN: 14558 PRACTICE

Days/Time:  ARR

Instructor:  Todd Destigter

English 498/499 is the semester of student teaching for English education students (498), plus the accompanying weekly seminar (499). These courses are to be taken concurrently, and they are only open to student teachers. Eligible students must enroll in both courses (498 & 499), and students may select any CRN’s that remain open, regardless of who is listed as the instructor.

ENGL 498 Educational Practice with Seminar I

CRN:  14556, 36162

Days/Time: ARR

Instructor:  Kate Sjostrom

English 498/499 is the semester of student teaching for English education students (498), plus the accompanying weekly seminar (499). These courses are to be taken concurrently, and they are only open to student teachers. Eligible students must enroll in both courses (498 & 499), and students may select any CRN’s that remain open, regardless of who is listed as the instructor.

ENGL 499 Educational Practice with Seminar II

CRN:  14560 CNF

Days/Time:  W 4:00-5:50ONL

Instructor:  Todd Destigter

English 498/499 is the semester of student teaching for English education students (498), plus the accompanying weekly seminar (499). These courses are to be taken concurrently, and they are only open to student teachers. Eligible students must enroll in both courses (498 & 499), and students may select any CRN’s that remain open, regardless of who is listed as the instructor.

ENGL 499 Educational Practice with Seminar II

CRN:  14561

Days/Time:  ARR

Instructor:  David Schaafsma

English 498/499 is the semester of student teaching for English education students (498), plus the accompanying weekly seminar (499). These courses are to be taken concurrently, and they are only open to student teachers. Eligible students must enroll in both courses (498 & 499), and students may select any CRN’s that remain open, regardless of who is listed as the instructor.

ENGL 499 Educational Practice with Seminar II

CRN:  36163

Days/Time:  ARR

Instructor:  Kate Sjostrom

English 498/499 is the semester of student teaching for English education students (498), plus the accompanying weekly seminar (499). These courses are to be taken concurrently, and they are only open to student teachers. Eligible students must enroll in both courses (498 & 499), and students may select any CRN’s that remain open, regardless of who is listed as the instructor.

ENGL 499 Educational Practice with Seminar II

CRN:  14562

Days/Time:  ARR

Instructor:  Kate Sjostrom

English 498/499 is the semester of student teaching for English education students (498), plus the accompanying weekly seminar (499). These courses are to be taken concurrently, and they are only open to student teachers. Eligible students must enroll in both courses (498 & 499), and students may select any CRN’s that remain open, regardless of who is listed as the instructor.

ENGL 527 American Literature and Culture: Criticism in the Subjunctive Mood

CRN:  47424

Days/Time:  M 5:00-7:50

Instructor:  Ainsworth Clarke

ENGL 527 will be an advanced introduction to Black critical theory, focusing on how we arrived at the theoretical vocabularies that dominate the field. The seminar’s guiding assumption and the hypothesis that we will explore is that the current moment in Black critical theory – its disagreements and theoretical investments – arises from conflicting views on the origin and promise of Black Studies. This backdrop will be our point of departure. Our seminar will begin by reading excerpts from three different accounts of the trajectory of Black Studies (Abdul Alkalimat, The History of Black Studies; Bill Readings, The University in Ruins; Roderick Ferguson, The Reorder of Things: The University and Its Pedagogies of Minority Difference) before embarking on an analysis and discussion of how we can situate influential strands of Black critical theory (e.g., Frank Wilderson’s Afropessimism, Fred Moten’s fugitive poetics, Hortense Spillers critical Black feminism, etc.) in relation to the questions raised by Alkalimat, Readings, and Ferguson. We’ll then turn, in the second half of the semester, to a reading of recent critical work that seeks to either extend, rethink, or problematize the theoretical frameworks provided by the critics we’ve been examining. These latter authors include David Scott, Calvin Warren, Rei Terada, Rizvana Bradley, and David Marriott, amongst others. The authors we’ll be reading here are a varied group and take up from various critical perspectives the question(s) that will have been animating our discussion.

ENGL 540 Seminar in Modern Contemporary Studies: The Culture Industries

CRN:  34227

Days/Time:  M 2:00-4:50

Instructor:  Anna Kornbluh

Culture – extraordinary arts and ideas as well as ordinary everyday activities and beliefs – is orthogonal to industry’s teleological manufacture. Yet as long as there have been self-consciously professional critics of culture, the overlap of culture and industry has threatened to swallow the underlap. This seminar reflects on the history of the study of culture, with special attention to the founding queries of “cultural studies” and to a number of signature objects situated at the junction of culture and industry from crucial intervals like the fin-de-siecle, modernism, postwar and neoclassical Hollywood, postmodernism, and too late capitalism. We will explore how and with what degree of autonomy aesthetics mediate processes of industrialization like mass production, urbanization, and globalization; how media technologies like photography, cinema, television, and the internet reframe the interface of culture and industry; whether any questions from the origins of the academic study of culture have been answered; how frameworks for periodization and theories of ideology reckon with not only the industrialization of culture but the more recent culturalization of industry; the industrialization and deindustrialization of criticism; and whether the culture industry tends toward or away from a middle. Primary objects likely to include Henry James, Raymond Chandler, Alfred Hitchcock, Sydney Pollack, Toni Morrison, Jonathan Franzen, Aaron Sorkin, Percival Everett; theoretical resources involving Matthew Arnold, Karl Marx, Theodor Adorno, Raymond Williams, Stuart Hall, Fredric Jameson, Gayatri Spivak, JD Connor, Mark McGurl, Sianne Ngai, Sarah Brouillette, Yannis Varoufakis.

ENGL 555 Teaching First-Year Writing at UIC

CRN:  42699

Days/Time:  W 5:00-7:50

Instructor:  Sarah Primeau

English 555 prepares you to teach First Year Writing courses at UIC and to examine the teaching of writing as an intellectual activity that fits within the disciplinary work of English Studies. This course is meant to give you the time and space to start developing your own approaches and perspectives to the teaching of writing, which you’ll continue to rethink and refine for the duration of your TAship at UIC. You will create two detailed syllabi, one for your own version of English 160 and one for English 161, that focus on writing as a situated activity. Your chief task is to design writing projects and plan instruction that supports your students’ work on those projects. Day-to-day activities that help students successfully complete their writing projects may include strategies for analyzing the genre of the task at hand, understanding the context and situation of a writing task, paying attention to sentence structure and its rhetorical effect, analyzing readings for content or as examples of a genre, and discussing the possible consequences of a piece of writing. We will also discuss a variety of approaches to planning class activities: using active learning strategies, conducting both small-group and full-class discussions, providing students with written feedback on their writing, grading student work, and engaging students in peer review. Discussion topics from composition pedagogy research may include theories of learning process, teaching multilingual students, antiracist assessment of student writing, and the influence of Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models on learning and the teaching of writing.

ENGL 570 The Poetics of Fiction

CRN:  49411

Day/Time:  T 6:00-9:00 ZOOM

Instructor:  Christina Pugh

ENGL 570 Graduate Poetry Workshop

CRN:  35448

Days/Time:  R 2:00-4:50

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. We will be driven by this spirit of making things, as artists, in a classroom together, and we will approach our writing vigorously, passionately, and obsessively. Thus this workshop is much more about generating new work than it is about critique. Our discussions will revolve around process, poetics, aesthetics, language, voice, and helping each writer develop individualized approaches to writing about what is most important to them. Students will think hard about what relationship their writing will have to the worlds and languages they live in, and what kinds of artistic and poetic lineages and conversations they want to identify with and participate in. Students will be encouraged to write from research, to create documentary projects, to employ unconventional formal constraints, to use found text, to write in response to visual art, to translate or write in multiple languages, to write for performance, to incorporate video and sound, among other approaches. We will read a broad range of poems and essays by canonical and contemporary authors with the aim of figuring out how we can apply what we learn about this writing to our own poetry. This class welcomes graduate student poets, and writers and artists of other genres and media as well. Writers with different aesthetic styles are also welcomed.

ENGL 571 Program for Writers Graduate Workshop (fiction)

CRN:  14577

Days/Time:  W 2:00-4:50

Instructor:  Christopher Grimes

This workshop is all about championing each other’s work. There are no genre, formal or thematic restrictions, just as long as you’re submitting fiction.

ENGL 574 Non-Fiction Workshop:  Cross-modality workshop: Let’s Get Published!

CRN:  48691

Days/Time:  T 2:00-4:45

Instructor:  Luis Urrea

This is an advanced creative writing workshop which will feature cross-genre submissions. You’ve already begun to do these things, now we can focus on your individual project. The point of the course is to prepare you for publication. We will have guests and each student must prepare a manuscript for publication and be prepared to submit it before the semester ends. This could be a story, a poem, an article for a magazine or a completed manuscript. Time to take the leap of faith! We’ll make sure you are ready.

ENGL 583  Theories of the Popular:  Disliking It: Poetry For Amateurs

CRN:  47001

Days/Time:  R 5:00-7:50

Instructor:  Peter Coviello

I, too, dislike it, says Marianne Moore, in her poem, “Poetry.” In this seminar, we will aim neither to praise nor to poetry but to understand, in great detail, its varied workings – and to understand as well something of the genre’s long history as a vehicle for heightened expression in the English language. We will consider the basic materials (words, lines, metaphors, sentences) from which poems have traditionally been assembled; and we will look to build a vocabulary for describing the poems we read by studying as meticulously as we can the granular components of meter, diction, syntax and line, rhyme, and figure. Our goal will be to arrive at an ampler sense of poetry as a versatile and hugely adaptive medium for a range of human endeavors, including contemplation and reverie; philosophical meditation; seduction; persuasion; the expression of sorrow, outrage, conviction and confusion; and the many varieties of exaltation.

ENGL 150 Introduction to Academic Writing for Nonnative Speakers:  Multimodal Composition for Multilingual Writers

CRN:  47912

Days/Time:  TR 12:30-1:45

Instructor:  Katharine Romero

In this section of English 150, we will explore more than one mode of communication to persuade, inform, or express meaning within our writing. As we strengthen our linguistic skills this semester, we will connect with our creative side to compose three major multimodal projects in different genres: the literacy narrative essay, the rhetorical analysis essay, and the persuasive essay. These essays will require some photo-taking, with options to create an infographic, podcast, video, and more!
Our classroom will operate as a writing community where we will engage in drafting and revision through frequent peer review sessions, one required session with a Writing Center tutor, and individualized, instructor feedback. Our writing community is made up of multilingual writers, which we will use to our strengths. By the end of this course, we will strengthen crucial academic writing skills such as critical reading, reflection, and argumentation for your future university coursework and beyond.

ENGL 151 Introduction to Academic Writing

CRN:  47913

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  Robin Gayle

First Generation Students Writing Legacy
This course is designed specifically for first-generation college students, meaning you are the first in your family to attend a university. This course will enable you to increase your confidence as an academic, establish a strong community of like-minded students, and ultimately, craft a legacy to be passed down to incoming undergraduates. The classroom will be structured as a “homeplace” that builds on each pupil’s cultural richness. You will learn how to access and use available resources and develop networks within UIC support services and enrichment programs. After attending campus tours and learning about the Sustainable Development Goals as delineated by the United Nations, including the goal of quality education, you will develop Artivism (art+activism) Legacy Projects that you will share at an open Gallery Presentation at UIC. In short, this course will help to prepare you for the rigors of academic writing, required First-Year Writing courses at UIC, and collegiate life.

ENGL 151 Introduction to Academic Writing

CRN:  48053

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Robin Gayle

First Generation Students Writing Legacy
This course is designed specifically for first-generation college students, meaning you are the first in your family to attend a university. This course will enable you to increase your confidence as an academic, establish a strong community of like-minded students, and ultimately, craft a legacy to be passed down to incoming undergraduates. The classroom will be structured as a “homeplace” that builds on each pupil’s cultural richness. You will learn how to access and use available resources and develop networks within UIC support services and enrichment programs. After attending campus tours and learning about the Sustainable Development Goals as delineated by the United Nations, including the goal of quality education, you will develop Artivism (art+activism) Legacy Projects that you will share at an open Gallery Presentation at UIC. In short, this course will help to prepare you for the rigors of academic writing, required First-Year Writing courses at UIC, and collegiate life.

ENGL 159  Academic Writing Workshop

CRN:  47504GLOBAL

Days/Time:  R 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:  41349GLOBAL

Days/Time:  W 3:00-3:50

Instructor:  Ling He

This on-campus course is designed to support you in your English 160 learning. It provides an opportunity for you to bring specific questions that arise as you work on your English 160 writing projects. Your individual questions and learning needs shape the focus of the class. In addition, the course offers space to review and discuss feedback from your English 160 instructor, explore effective revision and editing strategies, and reflect on your writing experiences. You will participate in class activities that include in-class dialogue with the instructor and your peers, along with regular assignments to support your learning. A course site will be shared with you, where you can access the weekly teaching plan, homework, and relevant supporting materials.

ENGL 159  Academic Writing Workshop

CRN:  41345

Days/Time:  W 1:00-1:50

Instructor: Ling He

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:  41346GLOBAL

Days/Time:  M 1:00-1:50

Instructor:  Deanna Thompson

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:  41348

Days/Time:  M 3:00-3:50

Instructor:  Deanna Thompson

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 160 Academic Writing I

CRN:  44572

Days/Time:  ARR

Instructor:  Erin Benincasa

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I

CRN:  43255

Days/Time:  ARR

Instructor:  Donald James

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:  Talkin’ Bout Your Generation

CRN:  26188

Days/Time:  MWF 10:00-10:50ONLINE

Instructor:  Gregor Baszak

You don’t read your homework assignments. You constantly cheat by using AI tools for school. Your professors say they have noticed a “stunning level of disconnection” among you. You can barely focus your attention on any one task because you feel constantly distracted. And what little concentration you can muster is only thanks to powerful ADHD drugs.
Does this sound like you? Maybe you’re outraged by this mischaracterization. You say you don’t fit this stereotype of the lazy, cheating, confused, overwhelmed Gen Zer. Whatever is right, this first-year writing class is for you: We’ll explore readings that discuss the struggles of young adults today, and in turn you’ll get to correct the record through four diverse genres of writing, ranging from the narrative to the argumentative.
This is a fully asynchronous online class, meaning you complete work on your own time by scheduled due dates. There will be no mandatory in-person or online meetings. However, we will have one entirely optional live session on Zoom every week on Fridays during our scheduled class time.

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:  Talkin’ Bout Your Generation

CRN:  46438

Days/Time:  MWF 11:00-11:50ONLINE

Instructor:  Gregor Baszak

You don’t read your homework assignments. You constantly cheat by using AI tools for school. Your professors say they have noticed a “stunning level of disconnection” among you. You can barely focus your attention on any one task because you feel constantly distracted. And what little concentration you can muster is only thanks to powerful ADHD drugs.
Does this sound like you? Maybe you’re outraged by this mischaracterization. You say you don’t fit this stereotype of the lazy, cheating, confused, overwhelmed Gen Zer. Whatever is right, this first-year writing class is for you: We’ll explore readings that discuss the struggles of young adults today, and in turn you’ll get to correct the record through four diverse genres of writing, ranging from the narrative to the argumentative.
This is a fully asynchronous online class, meaning you complete work on your own time by scheduled due dates. There will be no mandatory in-person or online meetings. However, we will have one entirely optional live session on Zoom every week on Fridays during our scheduled class time.

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: AI Anxieties

CRN:  41435

Days/Time:  MWF 11:00-11:50

Instructor:   Harry Burson 

This course examines how something called “Artificial Intelligence” is supposedly on the verge of reshaping every aspect of our daily lives. We are inundated with proponents of AI proclaiming that this technology is ushering in a new era of productivity for business, government, and education. Critics have meanwhile cast AI as a grave threat to human civilization itself. Pushing beyond this hyperbolic prognostication, in this class we will consider the cultural response to AI, situating it as part of a longer history of disruptive “new” media technologies. Students will read recent scholarship addressing the social impacts of AI and will watch films and television shows that portray artificial intelligence as an ever-evolving source of anxiety for humanity. Questions we’ll ask include: what exactly do we mean by the term “artificial intelligence”? How have fears about AI changed over time? What are the environmental impacts of AI? How does artificial intelligence alter how we think about human intelligence and identity? Writing assignments throughout the semester will encourage students to critically investigate AI as we reconsider our everyday encounters with this omnipresent technology.

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:  Writing About Popular Media, Resistance, and Social Change

CRN:  29527

Days/Time:  MWF 11:00-11:50

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 the 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:  Popular Music and Politics

CRN:  14379

Days/Time:  MWF 12:00-12:50

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

CRN:  14366GLOBAL

Days/Time:  MWF 12:00-12:50

Instructor: Heather Doble

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I

CRN:  14372GLOBAL

Days/Time:  MWF 1:00-1:50

Instructor:  Heather Doble

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Popular Music and Politics

CRN:  44765

Days/Time:  MWF 1:00-1:50

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:  Writing About Popular Media, Resistance, and Social Change

CRN:  19835

Days/Time:   MWF 1:00-1:50

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 the 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:  Popular Music and Politics

CRN:  14360

Days/Time:  MWF 2:00-2:50

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: Writing About What You Love

CRN:  27288

Days/Time:  MWF 2:00-2:50

Instructor:  Keegan Lannon

The primary goal of this course is, broadly speaking, to learn how to write. You’ll notice that I don’t say how to write “well.” Writing, like most skills, takes a lifetime of practice to get good at it, and you will spend most of your time in college trying to get better. What we will do here is start this process by learning how to think like a writer, so that you can go forth and hone your skills over the next four years.
To learn this writerly way of thinking, we’ll answer one question: If time and money were not concerns, what would you be doing with yourself? This is a common ice-breaker question, because the answer reveals something about what drives you in life. It’s probably fairly easy to identify and articulate who and what you would like to occupy your time if you were free from other responsibilities. What is likely harder is articulating why these people and things are so important to you, and why they are worth occupying your time. In this class you will have the opportunity to explain why your passions are valuable—even if only to you—and why they are worth your time.

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I

CRN:  46437GLOBAL

Days/Time:  MWF 2:00-2:50

Instructor:  Heather Doble

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:  Writing About Popular Media, Resistance, and Social Change

CRN:  14359

Days/Time:  MWF 2:00-2:50

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 the 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

CRN:  14365

Days/Time:  TR 8:00-9:15

Instructor:  Willow Schenwar

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? What futures might we imagine, and how do we set ourselves towards (or away from) these possible futures? How are people affected differently by social and ecological conditions, based on race, gender, ethnicity, ability, and economic and citizenship status? In this course, students will develop a conceptual framework through which to approach such questions. 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, youth activism, and media literacy and misinformation.

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing Across Audiences and Genres

CRN:  41136

Days/Time:  TR 8:00-9:15ONLINE

Instructor:  Ling HE

This is a fully online course. Required class components (lectures, discussions, active participation, etc.) is delivered synchronously (live interactions) on Tuesday and Thursday via Zoom. You will have access to the course materials (Syllabus, Weekly Teaching Plans, Course ePackage, Panopto Videos, Assignment Deadline, Assignment Submission, and Discussion Board) on the Blackboard course site using your UIC NetID and password.
This online course is thoughtfully structured around four major writing projects designed to help you develop genre-specific knowledge by focusing on the purpose of writing, audience, and context. These projects encompass five types of writing: Academic Summary, Reading Response, Argumentation, Rhetorical Analysis, and Reflection. By mastering these genre-based strategies, you will be well-equipped to succeed in university-level coursework and effectively address various rhetorical situations and appeals. Reading is seamlessly integrated into the writing process, offering essential insights into topics, deepening your grasp of genre conventions, and serving as a model to enhance your learning. Emphasizing a student-centered approach, this course ensures an engaging and supportive learning environment, with ongoing instructor feedback on multiple drafts and interactive teacher-student discussions in and after class, and genre analysis.

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I

CRN:  46441

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

Instructor:   Willow Schenwar

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? What futures might we imagine, and how do we set ourselves towards (or away from) these possible futures? How are people affected differently by social and ecological conditions, based on race, gender, ethnicity, ability, and economic and citizenship status? In this course, students will develop a conceptual framework through which to approach such questions. 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, youth activism, and media literacy and misinformation.

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I: Writing Across Audiences and Genres

CRN:  14367

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45ONLINE

Instructor:  Ling HE

This is a fully online course. Required class components (lectures, discussions, active participation, etc.) is delivered synchronously (live interactions) on Tuesday and Thursday via Zoom. You will have access to the course materials (Syllabus, Weekly Teaching Plans, Course ePackage, Panopto Videos, Assignment Deadline, Assignment Submission, and Discussion Board) on the Blackboard course site using your UIC NetID and password.
This online course is thoughtfully structured around four major writing projects designed to help you develop genre-specific knowledge by focusing on the purpose of writing, audience, and context. These projects encompass five types of writing: Academic Summary, Reading Response, Argumentation, Rhetorical Analysis, and Reflection. By mastering these genre-based strategies, you will be well-equipped to succeed in university-level coursework and effectively address various rhetorical situations and appeals. Reading is seamlessly integrated into the writing process, offering essential insights into topics, deepening your grasp of genre conventions, and serving as a model to enhance your learning. Emphasizing a student-centered approach, this course ensures an engaging and supportive learning environment, with ongoing instructor feedback on multiple drafts and interactive teacher-student discussions in and after class, and genre analysis.

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:  Writing About Stand-Up Comedy

CRN:  14364

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  Marc Baez

In this course, we’ll write about the art and social context of stand-up comedy. The first writing project is a descriptive summary where you will summarize a satirical argument by George Carlin. In addition to summarizing what the comic says, this kind of summary asks you to try and capture the mood and atmosphere of live performance by including details of delivery and audience reaction. The second writing project is a rhetorical analysis where you will analyze Louis C.K. or Joey Diaz bits through the lens of ethos, logos, pathos, and kairos. The point of this is to become familiar with a specific tool for analysis. The third writing project is an argumentative essay where you will make an argument about a stand-up comic of your choice. This argument will include descriptive summary and analysis as well as an additional focus on context. The idea here is to try to persuade an audience that might likely disagree with your argument to take your argument seriously. The fourth and final writing project is a Reflection where you will make an argument about your work as a writer in this course. Your argument will include summary and analysis of the three papers you wrote leading up to this final project. And finally, in addition to the writing projects, you will participate in a presentation where you will tell a story.

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:  Multicontextual Rhetoric and Discourse, Past and Present

CRN:  27287

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  Amanda Bohne

As students, you spend much of your time looking at print works on the page and the screen, and you look at images and writing in other contexts every day, just as people did before the digital and printing revolutions. Whether or not you seek them out, rhetorical messages reach you and you probably have a sense of how to respond. Reading an article, listening to a speech, or encountering a post on social media, you already know how to “read” these arguments and respond to them in a general sense. In this class, you will develop these perceptive skills to create strong, critically aware arguments in your papers or any other medium you choose to communicate your point of view. At the same time, you will gain a deeper understanding of how modern multimedia discourse draws on pre-digital traditions.
This course is an introduction to writing, rhetoric, and research. Though each of these terms can be defined in numerous ways, we will focus most carefully on writing and rhetoric as the craft of constructing an argument and research as the process of investigation and analysis. Since good writing begins with good thinking, this course will emphasize the importance of critical reading and will ask you to analyze a variety of texts throughout the term.

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I

CRN:  38834

Days/Time:   TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:   Angela Dancey

One of the learning goals of English is to improve “rhetorical awareness of audience through different genre-based assignments.” In other words, to practice writing in different genres to learn more about appealing to and communicating effectively with your intended audience. Some of the selected genres in this course might be familiar to you as a reader (i.e. the curated list, or “listicle”) but less familiar to you as a writer. This course is designed to give you a thorough understanding of each genre before you start writing and support you throughout the process of drafting and revising.
Another aim of this course is to challenge some outdated beliefs and unhelpful ideas about 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, and writing for simplicity and concision.
Finally, I purposely designed this course to (hopefully!) make writing enjoyable in ways it might not have been for you in high school, and maybe (hopefully!) shift your perception of yourself as a writer.

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:Writing Across Audiences and Genres

CRN:  26190

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15ONLINE

Instructor:  Ling HE

This is a fully online course. Required class components (lectures, discussions, active participation, etc.) is delivered synchronously (live interactions) on Tuesday and Thursday via Zoom. You will have access to the course materials (Syllabus, Weekly Teaching Plans, Course ePackage, Panopto Videos, Assignment Deadline, Assignment Submission, and Discussion Board) on the Blackboard course site using your UIC NetID and password.
This online course is thoughtfully structured around four major writing projects designed to help you develop genre-specific knowledge by focusing on the purpose of writing, audience, and context. These projects encompass five types of writing: Academic Summary, Reading Response, Argumentation, Rhetorical Analysis, and Reflection. By mastering these genre-based strategies, you will be well-equipped to succeed in university-level coursework and effectively address various rhetorical situations and appeals. Reading is seamlessly integrated into the writing process, offering essential insights into topics, deepening your grasp of genre conventions, and serving as a model to enhance your learning. Emphasizing a student-centered approach, this course ensures an engaging and supportive learning environment, with ongoing instructor feedback on multiple drafts and interactive teacher-student discussions in and after class, and genre analysis.

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I

CRN:  14361

Days/Time:  TR 12:30-1:45

Instructor: Charitianne Willams

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:  Multicontextual Rhetoric and Discourse, Past and Present

CRN:  14374GLOBAL

Days/Time:  TR 12:30-1:45

Instructor:  Amanda Bohne

As students, you spend much of your time looking at print works on the page and the screen, and you look at images and writing in other contexts every day, just as people did before the digital and printing revolutions. Whether or not you seek them out, rhetorical messages reach you and you probably have a sense of how to respond. Reading an article, listening to a speech, or encountering a post on social media, you already know how to “read” these arguments and respond to them in a general sense. In this class, you will develop these perceptive skills to create strong, critically aware arguments in your papers or any other medium you choose to communicate your point of view. At the same time, you will gain a deeper understanding of how modern multimedia discourse draws on pre-digital traditions.
This course is an introduction to writing, rhetoric, and research. Though each of these terms can be defined in numerous ways, we will focus most carefully on writing and rhetoric as the craft of constructing an argument and research as the process of investigation and analysis. Since good writing begins with good thinking, this course will emphasize the importance of critical reading and will ask you to analyze a variety of texts throughout the term.

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:  Writing About Stand-Up Comedy

CRN:  19837

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Marc Baez

In this course, we’ll write about the art and social context of stand-up comedy. The first writing project is a descriptive summary where you will summarize a satirical argument by George Carlin. In addition to summarizing what the comic says, this kind of summary asks you to try and capture the mood and atmosphere of live performance by including details of delivery and audience reaction. The second writing project is a rhetorical analysis where you will analyze Louis C.K. or Joey Diaz bits through the lens of ethos, logos, pathos, and kairos. The point of this is to become familiar with a specific tool for analysis. The third writing project is an argumentative essay where you will make an argument about a stand-up comic of your choice. This argument will include descriptive summary and analysis as well as an additional focus on context. The idea here is to try to persuade an audience that might likely disagree with your argument to take your argument seriously. The fourth and final writing project is a Reflection where you will make an argument about your work as a writer in this course. Your argument will include summary and analysis of the three papers you wrote leading up to this final project. And finally, in addition to the writing projects, you will participate in a presentation where you will tell a story.

ENGL 160 Academic Writing I:  Writing about the Work of Art

CRN:  14357

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15ONLINE

Instructor: Eric Von Klosst-Dohna

What is the work of art? What place does it hold in our society? Is there any real difference between Manet and Monet? Or even Monet and money? This course will use the work of art in its many forms as the backdrop to learn to write in many genres. We will discuss both the pleasure that comes along with interacting with the work of art as well as the philosophical questions concerning what a work of art is and what it does if anything at all. Whether we are writing a memoir about a personal experience with a work of art or an argumentative essay where interpretation and proof is key, this course will prepare you to produce a foundation for cogent, thoughtful writing no matter what major you decide to study during your time at UIC.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Society, Multimedia, and Groupthink

CRN:  49403

Days/Time:  ARR

Instructor:  Antonio Guerrero

At its core, this course will explore how 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 media and information influences our individual and collective trajectories. In short, we aim to understand why we think the way we do and what influences our thought process.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Society, Multimedia, and Groupthink

CRN:  14395

Days/Time:  ARR

Instructor:  Antonio Guerrero

At its core, this course will explore how 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 media and information influences our individual and collective trajectories. In short, we aim to understand why we think the way we do and what influences our thought process.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  26879

Days/Time:  ARR

Instructor:  Todd Dertinger

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  26883

Days/Time:  ARR

Instructor:  Todd Dertinger

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  47673

Days/Time:  ARR

Instructor:  Todd Dertinger

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14407

Days/Time:  ARR

Instructor:   Jenna Hart

Please note that this is an online, asynchronous course, and best suited for students who are motivated and self-directed.
We live in a time when we’re inundated with media reports on any number of catastrophic things, almost daily. How can we determine what is worth our attention? How can we know which reports are the most valuable? What issues should we be invested in? We’ll be using these questions to look at texts and other media in a critical way, as a tool to begin learning about academic dialogue. The course will consist of layered assignments—an annotated bibliography, literature review, proposal, outline— that lead up to a longer academic research paper on a topic of your choosing.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14452

Days/Time:  ARR

Instructor:   Jenna Hart

Please note that this is an online, asynchronous course, and best suited for students who are motivated and self-directed.
We live in a time when we’re inundated with media reports on any number of catastrophic things, almost daily. How can we determine what is worth our attention? How can we know which reports are the most valuable? What issues should we be invested in? We’ll be using these questions to look at texts and other media in a critical way, as a tool to begin learning about academic dialogue. The course will consist of layered assignments—an annotated bibliography, literature review, proposal, outline— that lead up to a longer academic research paper on a topic of your choosing.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  47378

Days/Time:  ARR

Instructor: Robin Gayle

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  21585

Days/Time:  ARR

Instructor:   Jenna Hart

Please note that this is an online, asynchronous course, and best suited for students who are motivated and self-directed.
We live in a time when we’re inundated with media reports on any number of catastrophic things, almost daily. How can we determine what is worth our attention? How can we know which reports are the most valuable? What issues should we be invested in? We’ll be using these questions to look at texts and other media in a critical way, as a tool to begin learning about academic dialogue. The course will consist of layered assignments—an annotated bibliography, literature review, proposal, outline— that lead up to a longer academic research paper on a topic of your choosing.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14434

Days/Time:  MW 8:00-9:15

Instructor:  Snezana Zabic

In this section of English 161, we will explore the intersection of film and society. The underlying assumption is that films, whether they focus on one character’s inner life or depict scenes of mass revolt (or anything in-between those two extremes), tell stories deeply intertwined with both negative and positive developments in society. Within our general inquiry about film and society, you will research a scripted feature film, find and evaluate scholarly and popular sources, discuss your sources and respond to them during in-class presentations and in writing. You will produce essays that go through drafting, peer-review, and revision phases. Assignments include: 1) an annotated bibliography, 2) a research proposal, 3) a literature review, and 4) a research essay. You will conduct research using the UIC library and databases, and write arguments based on the knowledge gained during this research. You will discuss your ideas from inception to completion.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Violence in American Life

CRN:  14398

Days/Time:  MW 8:00-9:15

Instructor:  John Goldbach

This course is dedicated to the topic of violence in American life, from the visible, “subjective” violence carried out by an identifiable person or group, most notably in acts of crime, terror, and civil unrest, to the invisible, “objective” violence — inherent to language and culture — that overdetermines the causes and conditions of its visibility in historical experience. What kind of violence do we see in the images of violence on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama or in the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia? Wherein lies the difference between violence and nonviolence, the power of violence and the violence of resistance? And under what conditions, if any, do we recognize a right to use violence in the interest of opposing a greater violence? Such questions — which will also necessarily touch on difficult questions pertaining to identity and identification (e.g., race, gender, and class), ethics and morality, and politics and political economy — will inform class discussion and help lead students to develop their independent and critical thinking, reading, and writing skills.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Violence in American Life

CRN:  14427

Days/Time:  MW 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  John Goldbach

This course is dedicated to the topic of violence in American life, from the visible, “subjective” violence carried out by an identifiable person or group, most notably in acts of crime, terror, and civil unrest, to the invisible, “objective” violence — inherent to language and culture — that overdetermines the causes and conditions of its visibility in historical experience. What kind of violence do we see in the images of violence on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama or in the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia? Wherein lies the difference between violence and nonviolence, the power of violence and the violence of resistance? And under what conditions, if any, do we recognize a right to use violence in the interest of opposing a greater violence? Such questions — which will also necessarily touch on difficult questions pertaining to identity and identification (e.g., race, gender, and class), ethics and morality, and politics and political economy — will inform class discussion and help lead students to develop their independent and critical thinking, reading, and writing skills.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  32285

Days/Time:  MW 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Snezana Zabic

In this section of English 161, we will explore the intersection of film and society. The underlying assumption is that films, whether they focus on one character’s inner life or depict scenes of mass revolt (or anything in-between those two extremes), tell stories deeply intertwined with both negative and positive developments in society. Within our general inquiry about film and society, you will research a scripted feature film, find and evaluate scholarly and popular sources, discuss your sources and respond to them during in-class presentations and in writing. You will produce essays that go through drafting, peer-review, and revision phases. Assignments include: 1) an annotated bibliography, 2) a research proposal, 3) a literature review, and 4) a research essay. You will conduct research using the UIC library and databases, and write arguments based on the knowledge gained during this research. You will discuss your ideas from inception to completion.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Solastalgia and Environmental Distress

CRN:  14399

Days/Time:  MW 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Lyla LEE

Have you ever missed a place from your childhood? Is there a place that only exists in your memories? Solastalgia, a term coined by Glen Albrecht, is a concept that tackles the grief one feels for a place that no longer exists. Solace means finding comfort in sorrow, and nostalgia, longing for something in the past. Together, solastalgia refers to the feelings of distress produced by environmental changes and centers the impact of people who are directly connected to their home environments. In this course, you will explore the complex emotions between identity and environment, as well as the ways communities experience feelings of displacement. Through short essays, memoirs, and narratives, you will engage in critical discussions about climate change, environmental issues, and belonging. This is a writing-intensive course, and you will be required to produce FOUR writing projects: an annotated bibliography, a research proposal, a synthetic essay, and a research paper. In addition, students are expected to give a presentation on their final research project at the end of the term. These assignments are designed for you to broaden your ideas of the environment and address how emotion and place intersect. By the end, you’ll develop a deeper understanding of the environment and its impact on humanity.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing Within Your Major

CRN:  14469

Days/Time:  MW 3:00-4:15HYBRID

Instructor:  Carla Barger

Argument is the driving force behind academic writing. In this course, you will learn to analyze what others are saying and will jumpstart your engagement with academic writing in your major or field of interest. Together we will analyze a central set of readings, but each student will choose a topic on which they will complete a series of assignments culminating in an original academic research paper. The course is designed to support individualized inquiry and discovery while emphasizing revision and giving writers the chance to practice critical thinking, researched argument, and peer review. Daily classroom activities include practicing critical reading and research methods, and researching and evaluating source material as well as summarizing and synthesizing that material. By the end of the semester, you will have valuable practical experience writing in your major or area of interest, which will serve you throughout your college career.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14431

Days/Time:  MW 3:00-4:15

Instructor:  John Goldbach

This course is dedicated to the topic of violence in American life, from the visible, “subjective” violence carried out by an identifiable person or group, most notably in acts of crime, terror, and civil unrest, to the invisible, “objective” violence — inherent to language and culture — that overdetermines the causes and conditions of its visibility in historical experience. What kind of violence do we see in the images of violence on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama or in the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia? Wherein lies the difference between violence and nonviolence, the power of violence and the violence of resistance? And under what conditions, if any, do we recognize a right to use violence in the interest of opposing a greater violence? Such questions — which will also necessarily touch on difficult questions pertaining to identity and identification (e.g., race, gender, and class), ethics and morality, and politics and political economy — will inform class discussion and help lead students to develop their independent and critical thinking, reading, and writing skills.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  26194

Days/Time:  MW 3:00-4;15

Instructor:  Snezana Zabic

In this section of English 161, we will explore the intersection of film and society. The underlying assumption is that films, whether they focus on one character’s inner life or depict scenes of mass revolt (or anything in-between those two extremes), tell stories deeply intertwined with both negative and positive developments in society. Within our general inquiry about film and society, you will research a scripted feature film, find and evaluate scholarly and popular sources, discuss your sources and respond to them during in-class presentations and in writing. You will produce essays that go through drafting, peer-review, and revision phases. Assignments include: 1) an annotated bibliography, 2) a research proposal, 3) a literature review, and 4) a research essay. You will conduct research using the UIC library and databases, and write arguments based on the knowledge gained during this research. You will discuss your ideas from inception to completion.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  29121

Days/Time:  MW 4:30-5:45

Instructor:  Mishka Ligot

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Critical Inquiry and Analysis: It IS That Deep

CRN:  41600

Days/Time:  MWF 8:00-8:50

Instructor:  Madison Cramer

It’s not uncommon to hear a thought-provoking interpretation of a text or other piece of media interrupted with, “It’s not that deep.” What should we make of this trend of rejecting thorough analysis and reasoning, and how can we resist it in scholarship and beyond? In this section of 161, we will explore methods for uncovering and expressing that which is meaningful to you. Throughout the semester, we will explore approaches to interpreting our everyday lives, from the ads we encounter to the music we listen to. At the same time, we will learn about and make connections to the ways scholars and academics come up with, shape, and disseminate ideas about the world around them. Over the course of the class, you will choose a topic to research, which you will develop through four major writing projects, the last of which will be a fully-formed Research Paper. As you take a deep dive into your chosen topic and learn about the academic and linguistic techniques that will help make your position clear, we will also hold class discussions about how we can oppose and critically respond to such phenomena as: the spread of misinformation, a rise in anti-intellectualism, apathy and/or burnout in the face of ecological and humanitarian crises, and more. By the end of this class, you will be better equipped to respond about why your way of understanding the world “IS that deep” and deserves the attention you give it.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing from the Margins

CRN:  44764

Days/Time:  MWF 8:00-8:50

Instructor:  Moni Garcia

Using bell hooks’ “Choosing the Margin as a Space of Radical Openness” as a jumping off point, students will be “Writing from the Margins”. By looking towards Black, queer, feminist writings (as well as other work by queer feminist writers of color), we’ll be looking at how they used language to think about their position in the world, how structures of oppression shape how they navigate the world, and how writing can be a critical tool to examine one’s lived realities. Your task for this course is to choose an issue that feels urgent to you and that you believe is important to address. The course will also consist of layered assignments—an annotated bibliography, literature review, proposal, outline— that will culminate to a longer academic research paper and presentation.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Video Games and Society

CRN:  473871

Days/Time:  MWF 8:00-8:50

Instructor:  Juan Herrera

In this class you will conduct academic research and read texts from a variety of sources. The course topic will be Video Games and their effects on society as a whole. I will encourage you to research different aspects, themes and impacts video games have. The point of the class is to reinforce research and reading strategies and use them to defend a position in relation to a topic. Throughout the Writing Projects, you will dive into the impact of video games on our society and pick a theme to write your Research Paper on. I want to encourage your own choice on picking something about video games you like the most and would like to explore.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14388

Days/Time:  MWF 8:00-8:50

Instructor:  David Jakalski

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Your Voice in the Conversation

CRN:  48314

Days/Time:  MWF 8:00-8:50

Instructor:  Carly LaPotre

Here you are. Plugging away at your Gen Ed requirements, juggling classes, work, life. And yet, you haven’t really had the chance to dig a topic that excites you–something that you truly care about. That’s what we’ll do: identify, research, and write about your big questions.
In this class, you’ll learn how to join real academic conversations in a sustainable way that makes sense for undergraduates. You’ll develop methods to analyze and interpret research through your own lens, with scholarly sources reinforcing your ideas. You’ll practice what it means to think, write, and research at an R1 university like UIC. Along the way, we’ll get to know each other and each other’s interests. We’ll inquire, form opinions, refine those opinions. In short, we’ll put our minds to work. Join us!

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Posthuman Bodies in Film

CRN:  42684

Days/Time:  MWF 9:00-9:50

Instructor:  Ji Woo Choi

In a world increasingly shaped by technology, what does it mean to be human? This course will use film as a lens to explore how technology, media, and culture transform and challenge our understanding of what it means to be human. From cyborgs and artificial intelligence to virtual identities and genetic modification, this course will look at how films imagine posthuman bodies and the social, ethical, and political questions they raise.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Critical Inquiry and Analysis: It IS That Deep

CRN:  14473

Days/Time:  MWF 9:00-9:50

Instructor:  Madison Cramer

It’s not uncommon to hear a thought-provoking interpretation of a text or other piece of media interrupted with, “It’s not that deep.” What should we make of this trend of rejecting thorough analysis and reasoning, and how can we resist it in scholarship and beyond? In this section of 161, we will explore methods for uncovering and expressing that which is meaningful to you. Throughout the semester, we will explore approaches to interpreting our everyday lives, from the ads we encounter to the music we listen to. At the same time, we will learn about and make connections to the ways scholars and academics come up with, shape, and disseminate ideas about the world around them. Over the course of the class, you will choose a topic to research, which you will develop through four major writing projects, the last of which will be a fully-formed Research Paper. As you take a deep dive into your chosen topic and learn about the academic and linguistic techniques that will help make your position clear, we will also hold class discussions about how we can oppose and critically respond to such phenomena as: the spread of misinformation, a rise in anti-intellectualism, apathy and/or burnout in the face of ecological and humanitarian crises, and more. By the end of this class, you will be better equipped to respond about why your way of understanding the world “IS that deep” and deserves the attention you give it.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14386

Days/Time:  MWF 9:00-9:50

Instructor:  Lissett De La Torre

Music has been around since the dawn of time. Humans play instruments, birds sing, and bees hum in the orchestra that harmonizes with the Earth. However, we tend to often overlook how music has evolved with us as a society and how it has gained its consciousness besides us as a species. We live everyday observing it change to fit the standards of society, but we do not seem to wonder why. This course aims to ponder those questions and plethora of more as we dive into the evolution of music.You will choose a genre or decade and center your research for this course on the aspect of music you have chosen.
In ENGL 161, we will enhance our writing and research skills through our investigation and passion for music. You will be able to explore different databases and master the use of library resources for future research that you will need to collect in the classes following this semester. This course will include both in-class and online discussions that center around your research topic, along with four writing assignments that are expected to broaden your knowledge on humanity’s evolution of music. Following this course, you will be able to evolve your academic writing into real world situations.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing from the Margins

CRN:  26192

Days/Time:  MWF 9:00-9:50

Instructor:  Moni Garcia

Using bell hooks’ “Choosing the Margin as a Space of Radical Openness” as a jumping off point, students will be “Writing from the Margins”. By looking towards Black, queer, feminist writings (as well as other work by queer feminist writers of color), we’ll be looking at how they used language to think about their position in the world, how structures of oppression shape how they navigate the world, and how writing can be a critical tool to examine one’s lived realities. Your task for this course is to choose an issue that feels urgent to you and that you believe is important to address. The course will also consist of layered assignments—an annotated bibliography, literature review, proposal, outline— that will culminate to a longer academic research paper and presentation.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Video Games and Society

CRN:  47506

Days/Time:  MWF 9:00-9:50

Instructor:  Juan Herrera

In this class you will conduct academic research and read texts from a variety of sources. The course topic will be Video Games and their effects on society as a whole. I will encourage you to research different aspects, themes and impacts video games have. The point of the class is to reinforce research and reading strategies and use them to defend a position in relation to a topic. Throughout the Writing Projects, you will dive into the impact of video games on our society and pick a theme to write your Research Paper on. I want to encourage your own choice on picking something about video games you like the most and would like to explore.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14470

Days/Time:  MWF 9:00-9:50

Instructor:  David Jakalski

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Your Voice in the Conversation

CRN:  48312

Days/Time:  MWF 9:00-9:50

Instructor:  Carly LaPotre

Here you are. Plugging away at your Gen Ed requirements, juggling classes, work, life. And yet, you haven’t really had the chance to dig a topic that excites you–something that you truly care about. That’s what we’ll do: identify, research, and write about your big questions.
In this class, you’ll learn how to join real academic conversations in a sustainable way that makes sense for undergraduates. You’ll develop methods to analyze and interpret research through your own lens, with scholarly sources reinforcing your ideas. You’ll practice what it means to think, write, and research at an R1 university like UIC. Along the way, we’ll get to know each other and each other’s interests. We’ll inquire, form opinions, refine those opinions. In short, we’ll put our minds to work. Join us!

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14465

Days/Time:  MWF 9:00-9:50

Instructor:  William Wells

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Science Writing

CRN:  14392

Days/Time:  MWF 9:00-9:50

Instructor:  Christian Mack

In this class, you will study the ways in which scientific concerns impact and inform both research and rhetorical practices. In doing so, you will have a solid grasp of the foundational elements of scientific discourse as it is found and utilized in the humanities and the material sciences.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Chicago In Flux

CRN:  14408

Days/Time:  MWF 10:00-10:50

Instructor:  Grace Adee

In this course, we’ll investigate some of the artistic, intellectual, and political movements that have shaped Chicago into the city that it is today. First, we’ll attempt to define movements: How and why do individuals come together to form shared visions and goals? Then, we’ll analyze specific Chicago historical movements, including the Chicago Imagists, the Chicago School of Economics, the Chicago Black Renaissance, and ACT UP Chicago. What did the members of these movements share, and how did they differ? What historical context or situation were these movements responding to? How did these individuals come to be categorized together in the historical record? What was the long-term impact of these movements on the city and beyond? As we consider these key questions, students will gain research tools to support them as they explore a Chicago-based movement of the past or present that aligns with their disciplinary interests.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  43491

Days/Time:  MWF 10:00-10:50

Instructor:  Seannalisa Baca

The architecture of the psyche is repeatedly constructed. With memories and narratives built and knowledges done, undone, altered, we write to understand, to make meaning through contradictory truths of our own and collective histories at present, for some as yet unknown outcome. In this course we will consider the process of producing arguments and their relation to both personal and collective histories, revisions thereof, and their resurgences, repetitions, and alterations occurring in society and ultimately our own written work. What are our purposes in looking back, bringing back, repeating, changing? How do we build with the materials we have? We will apply these questions to our own work as researchers and academic writers this semester, and in doing so, will become more conscious, strategic, and effective writers in our academic careers and beyond. The course will include four written assignments culminating in a research paper that will help you towards this end, and will be generated by your own research interests and ideas.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: The Poetics of Chicago

CRN:  25973

Days/Time:  MWF 10:00-10:50

Instructor:  Kelty Barrett

Poet Reginald Shepherd once wrote, “In its radical juxtapositions and abrupt transitions, its densities and overdetermination, Chicago is structured like a modernist poem…To use the semiotician Charles Peirce’s typology of the sign, Chicago is at once the symbol, the icon, and the index of modernity.” In this class, we will explore the major social, cultural, and political influences that have shaped both the splendor and misery of our radically contradictory, uniquely modernist city. You will identify a specific topic of your choice within this theme to pursue a semester-long research project, culminating in a final research paper. Through our work together, you will develop and hone your skills as a critical reader, writer, and independent researcher.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  48313

Days/Time:  MWF 10:00-10:50

Instructor:  Sammie Burton

This semester in English 161, you will embark on a journey through different genres of writing that focus on the recursive, yet rewarding, nature of academic inquiry. Whole group discussions, small group discussions and writing activities will further cement concepts and ideas presented within the class content. Four writing genres will be explored: the Annotated Bibliography, the Literature Review, the Proposal, and Evidence-based Research. In addition to peer-review sessions, you will also receive feedback from your professor to help produce clear and thought-provoking writing projects.
The theme of this course centers on students’ majors and career fields. Each student will adopt a professional lens for inquiry. For example, your instructor will pose as “Jane Doe,” an education major researching a theory within the field of education. Similarly, you will explore a theoretical model, ethical standards and/or policies relevant to your own area of study or career interest. This thematic approach encourages you to see yourself as a participant in an ongoing conversation, as someone who uses research and rhetoric to engage with the intellectual, social, and ethical dimensions of your profession.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Posthuman Bodies in Film

CRN:  44769

Days/Time:  MWF 10:00-10:50

Instructor:  Ji Woo Choi

In a world increasingly shaped by technology, what does it mean to be human? This course will use film as a lens to explore how technology, media, and culture transform and challenge our understanding of what it means to be human. From cyborgs and artificial intelligence to virtual identities and genetic modification, this course will look at how films imagine posthuman bodies and the social, ethical, and political questions they raise.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Writing Through the Issues of the Working Poor

CRN:  47382

Days/Time:  MWF 10:00-10:50

Instructor:  Jennifer Lewis

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 sources for our own research. You will develop your reading, writing, research and communications skills through assignments and activities such as writing and revising, class discussion, in-class writing and workshopping, and peer review. Everything we do, beginning Week One, connects with and builds toward your final research paper.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Science Writing

CRN:  14402

Days/Time:  MWF 10:00-10:50

Instructor:  Christian Mack

In this class, you will study the ways in which scientific concerns impact and inform both research and rhetorical practices. In doing so, you will have a solid grasp of the foundational elements of scientific discourse as it is found and utilized in the humanities and the material sciences.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Chicago In Flux

CRN:  14439

Days/Time:  MWF 11:00-11:50

Instructor:  Grace Adee

In this course, we’ll investigate some of the artistic, intellectual, and political movements that have shaped Chicago into the city that it is today. First, we’ll attempt to define movements: How and why do individuals come together to form shared visions and goals? Then, we’ll analyze specific Chicago historical movements, including the Chicago Imagists, the Chicago School of Economics, the Chicago Black Renaissance, and ACT UP Chicago. What did the members of these movements share, and how did they differ? What historical context or situation were these movements responding to? How did these individuals come to be categorized together in the historical record? What was the long-term impact of these movements on the city and beyond? As we consider these key questions, students will gain research tools to support them as they explore a Chicago-based movement of the past or present that aligns with their disciplinary interests.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  47379

Days/Time:  MWF 11:00-11:50

Instructor:  Jay Shearer

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14459

Days/Time:  MWF 11:00-11:50

Instructor:  Seannalisa Baca

The architecture of the psyche is repeatedly constructed. With memories and narratives built and knowledges done, undone, altered, we write to understand, to make meaning through contradictory truths of our own and collective histories at present, for some as yet unknown outcome. In this course we will consider the process of producing arguments and their relation to both personal and collective histories, revisions thereof, and their resurgences, repetitions, and alterations occurring in society and ultimately our own written work. What are our purposes in looking back, bringing back, repeating, changing? How do we build with the materials we have? We will apply these questions to our own work as researchers and academic writers this semester, and in doing so, will become more conscious, strategic, and effective writers in our academic careers and beyond. The course will include four written assignments culminating in a research paper that will help you towards this end, and will be generated by your own research interests and ideas.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: The Poetics of Chicago

CRN:  14445

Days/Time:  MWF 11:00-11:50

Instructor:  Kelty Barrett

Poet Reginald Shepherd once wrote, “In its radical juxtapositions and abrupt transitions, its densities and overdetermination, Chicago is structured like a modernist poem…To use the semiotician Charles Peirce’s typology of the sign, Chicago is at once the symbol, the icon, and the index of modernity.” In this class, we will explore the major social, cultural, and political influences that have shaped both the splendor and misery of our radically contradictory, uniquely modernist city. You will identify a specific topic of your choice within this theme to pursue a semester-long research project, culminating in a final research paper. Through our work together, you will develop and hone your skills as a critical reader, writer, and independent researcher.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  47385

Days/Time:  MWF 11:00-11:50

Instructor: Mark Brand

The pandemic changed us as a culture in ways we are only now fully reckoning with: mass-isolation on a scale not seen in a century; being always online all of the time for work, school, and play; social distancing and color-coded weekly saliva tests. Though the virus is still with us, the quarantine moment eventually retreated, and we confronted a changed world. And then, weirdest of all: we stopped talking about it. As we will discover in this class, experiences like the Covid-19 pandemic shape not just individuals but entire cultures, and it falls to the mass culture that emerges—stories, songs, games, modes of expression and socialization—to explain what happened. Why are people forming relationships with AI companions now? What’s the “dead internet” theory? Did you or someone you love play a thousand hours of Fortnite or watch a thousand episodes of One Piece during lockdown? If so, this course may be for you. We will examine mass culture trends since the pandemic which will form the basis of your individual, semester-long research projects. These unfold over four stages: annotated bibliography, proposal with review of literature, and finally a research paper, and serve as your entrée to scholarly research at UIC.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14432

Days/Time:  MWF 11:00-11:50

Instructor:  Sammie Burton

This semester in English 161, you will embark on a journey through different genres of writing that focus on the recursive, yet rewarding, nature of academic inquiry. Whole group discussions, small group discussions and writing activities will further cement concepts and ideas presented within the class content. Four writing genres will be explored: the Annotated Bibliography, the Literature Review, the Proposal, and Evidence-based Research. In addition to peer-review sessions, you will also receive feedback from your professor to help produce clear and thought-provoking writing projects.
The theme of this course centers on students’ majors and career fields. Each student will adopt a professional lens for inquiry. For example, your instructor will pose as “Jane Doe,” an education major researching a theory within the field of education. Similarly, you will explore a theoretical model, ethical standards and/or policies relevant to your own area of study or career interest. This thematic approach encourages you to see yourself as a participant in an ongoing conversation, as someone who uses research and rhetoric to engage with the intellectual, social, and ethical dimensions of your profession.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Change and its (Dis)Contents

CRN:  43494

Days/Time:  MWF 11:00-11:50

Instructor:  Marissa Hamilton

Virginia Woolf wrote “on or about 1910 human character changed” with the rise of industrialization, wars, and famine, human character was bound to change… right? How does culture influence our society? And where can we pinpoint events of “change”? In this course, you will individually focus on a single question relating to “change” or a pivoting of “culture” Throughout the course we will define culture and look at singular events that have affected “human character” or culture in general. We will focus on the 1920s and today. Both are times full of technological, scientific, societal, and queer change. These are avenues available for exploration as we look at evidence of specific times and mindsets that changed how things are today. These topics can include, but are not limited to epidemics, wars, art exhibits, paintings, music, books, theories, and people. With a research lens, you will learn through library trips and 4 assignments: Annotated Bibliography, Research Proposal, Literature Review, and finally, the Research Paper. Culminating in the final research project, this will be a time to dive into personal interests within the realm of change and development.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Video Games and Society

CRN:  14467

Days/Time:  MWF 11:00-11:50

Instructor:  Juan Herrera

In this class you will conduct academic research and read texts from a variety of sources. The course topic will be Video Games and their effects on society as a whole. I will encourage you to research different aspects, themes and impacts video games have. The point of the class is to reinforce research and reading strategies and use them to defend a position in relation to a topic. Throughout the Writing Projects, you will dive into the impact of video games on our society and pick a theme to write your Research Paper on. I want to encourage your own choice on picking something about video games you like the most and would like to explore.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14450

Days/Time:  MWF 11:00-11:50

Instructor:  David Jakalski

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Writing Through the Issues of the Working Poor

CRN:  14387

Days/Time:  MWF 11:00-11:50

Instructor:   Jennifer Lewis

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 sources for our own research. You will develop your reading, writing, research and communications skills through assignments and activities such as writing and revising, class discussion, in-class writing and workshopping, and peer review. Everything we do, beginning Week One, connects with and builds toward your final research paper.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  47380

Days/Time:  MWF 11:00-11:50

Instructor:  Wesley McGehee

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14461

Days/Time:  MWF 11:00-11:50

Instructor:  Andrew Ronstadt

As the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Ever since the conception of photography, pictures have played a crucial role in how we perceive the world, society, and ourselves. More specifically, photography as an art form has often been used to portray complex ideas and a visual avenue of perception and understanding. In this course, we will consider photography as a multifaceted form of representation and communication. As we explore the works of both significant and lesser-known photographers of the 20th and 21st centuries, we will learn how to not only write about the photographs at hand, but also the messages they convey and the influence they have had on societal perception and movement. Photography will then work for us as an avenue to explore complex societal issues. We will research and consider how the work of photographers helped to both inform viewers of the issues of their time and create multifaceted narratives to provoke nuanced thought and social progress. From David Turnley to Nan Goldin, photographers have continuously offered us a view into the countless facets of this world that many of us would not otherwise have.
Throughout the course, you will develop a working knowledge of academic writing as you work towards writing an academic research paper centered around photography and social change. While we will explore the works of several photographers accompanied by critical writings as well as other writings within the broad conversation of social movement, you will be expected to find your own specific topic that you will research and develop throughout the course, one that is both interesting and important to you.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Mass Culture from the Pandemic to the Present

CRN:  42685

Days/Time:  MWF 12:00-12:50

Instructor:  Mark Brand

The pandemic changed us as a culture in ways we are only now fully reckoning with: mass-isolation on a scale not seen in a century; being always online all of the time for work, school, and play; social distancing and color-coded weekly saliva tests. Though the virus is still with us, the quarantine moment eventually retreated, and we confronted a changed world. And then, weirdest of all: we stopped talking about it. As we will discover in this class, experiences like the Covid-19 pandemic shape not just individuals but entire cultures, and it falls to the mass culture that emerges—stories, songs, games, modes of expression and socialization—to explain what happened. Why are people forming relationships with AI companions now? What’s the “dead internet” theory? Did you or someone you love play a thousand hours of Fortnite or watch a thousand episodes of One Piece during lockdown? If so, this course may be for you. We will examine mass culture trends since the pandemic which will form the basis of your individual, semester-long research projects. These unfold over four stages: annotated bibliography, proposal with review of literature, and finally a research paper, and serve as your entrée to scholarly research at UIC.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14457

Days/Time:  MWF 12:00-12:50

Instructor:  Ovidiu Brici

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Change and its (Dis)Contents

CRN:  14449

Days/Time:  MWF 12:00-12:50

Instructor:  Marissa Hamilton

Virginia Woolf wrote “on or about 1910 human character changed” with the rise of industrialization, wars, and famine, human character was bound to change… right? How does culture influence our society? And where can we pinpoint events of “change”? In this course, you will individually focus on a single question relating to “change” or a pivoting of “culture” Throughout the course we will define culture and look at singular events that have affected “human character” or culture in general. We will focus on the 1920s and today. Both are times full of technological, scientific, societal, and queer change. These are avenues available for exploration as we look at evidence of specific times and mindsets that changed how things are today. These topics can include, but are not limited to epidemics, wars, art exhibits, paintings, music, books, theories, and people. With a research lens, you will learn through library trips and 4 assignments: Annotated Bibliography, Research Proposal, Literature Review, and finally, the Research Paper. Culminating in the final research project, this will be a time to dive into personal interests within the realm of change and development.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  42688

Days/Time:  MWF 12:00-12:50

Instructor:  Zara Imran

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Social Justice as the Mirror and the Lens

CRN:  47394

Days/Time:  MWF 12:00-12:50

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 as a result 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 on a daily basis.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14397

Days/Time:  MWF 12:00-12:50

Instructor:  Dana Scott

In the mid-1930s, the Hays Production Code would begin being enforced on all films produced in Hollywood. This form of censorship would persist for approximately thirty years, being officially abolished in the year 1968. In this section of English 161, we will be exploring Code-era Hollywood and the impact that strict censorship laws had on depiction of sexuality, gender, race, and narratives in general. Through writing about a Code-era film of your choice, this class will encourage you to relate films of the past to contemporary social issues of today. This class will be structured around four major assignments: an annotated bibliography, a research proposal, a literature review, and a final research essay. 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:  Mass Culture from the Pandemic to the Present

CRN:  14114

Days/Time:  MWF 1:00-1:50

Instructor: Mark Brand

The pandemic changed us as a culture in ways we are only now fully reckoning with: mass-isolation on a scale not seen in a century; being always online all of the time for work, school, and play; social distancing and color-coded weekly saliva tests. Though the virus is still with us, the quarantine moment eventually retreated, and we confronted a changed world. And then, weirdest of all: we stopped talking about it. As we will discover in this class, experiences like the Covid-19 pandemic shape not just individuals but entire cultures, and it falls to the mass culture that emerges—stories, songs, games, modes of expression and socialization—to explain what happened. Why are people forming relationships with AI companions now? What’s the “dead internet” theory? Did you or someone you love play a thousand hours of Fortnite or watch a thousand episodes of One Piece during lockdown? If so, this course may be for you. We will examine mass culture trends since the pandemic which will form the basis of your individual, semester-long research projects. These unfold over four stages: annotated bibliography, proposal with review of literature, and finally a research paper, and serve as your entrée to scholarly research at UIC.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Social Justice as the Mirror and the Lens

CRN:  14411

Days/Time:  MWF 1:00-1:50

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 as a result 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 on a daily basis.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  47383

Days/Time:  MWF 1:00-1:50

Instructor:   Erich Pahre

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Popular Culture and Social Change

CRN:  14466

Days/Time:  MWF 1:00-1:50

Instructor:  Adison Reder

Writer John Podhoretz once said, “pop culture is a reflection of social change, not a cause of social change”. In this course, we will explore Podhoretz’s idea by examining everything about popular culture. Together we will discern what pop culture is, answer questions about who invents it, and most of all, how it becomes popular. We will discuss trends of the past and present and how they reflect cultural and social movements. This class will culminate with a research paper wherein you will choose a social change from the past or present and detail the pop culture trends that came from it.
This course focuses on analysis and synthesis as central components of the academic research paper. As you learn these topics, you will be supported by your peers and myself as an instructor. You will participate in a variety of in-class activities to build your toolkit as a writer and student. Together, we will learn how to find and evaluate a variety of primary and secondary sources for our own research. You will receive a mix of peer and instructor feedback on your writing to learn your strengths and opportunities for growth as a writer. This course will prepare you for a variety of research-based strategies that will benefit you during and beyond your years at UIC.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14474

Days/Time:  MWF 1:00-1:50

Instructor: Ovidiu Brici

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  What is Truth?

CRN:  32291

Days/Time:  MWF 1:00-1:50

Instructor:  Sylvie Schwartz

All research deals in some way with the challenge of finding out what’s true. These challenges might relate to evaluating the reliability of sources, designing an experiment that adequately isolates a variable, confirming the validity of the conclusions we’ve drawn, or simply acknowledging our human fallibility and finite cognitive capacity. Each field has designed its methods in response to these challenges in a way that’s tailored to the kinds of questions it asks and what kinds of knowledge it values. In this course, we’ll be “researching about research” to better understand these challenges and the procedures researchers have created in response. To start our class, we’ll compare methodologies across broad categories of research (statistical, scientific, archival, and critical) and consider challenges to the research landscape today, including issues around trust, gatekeeping, disciplinary boundaries, and the advent of “post truth.” From there, students will be launched on a semester-long research journey in which they will choose a topic related to our course theme on which to write their own research essay. To prepare us for the final essay, students will also write an article summary, a research proposal, and a literature review.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Change and its (Dis)Contents

CRN:  43519

Days/Time:  MWF 2:00-2:50

Instructor:  Marissa Hamilton

Virginia Woolf wrote “on or about 1910 human character changed” with the rise of industrialization, wars, and famine, human character was bound to change… right? How does culture influence our society? And where can we pinpoint events of “change”? In this course, you will individually focus on a single question relating to “change” or a pivoting of “culture” Throughout the course we will define culture and look at singular events that have affected “human character” or culture in general. We will focus on the 1920s and today. Both are times full of technological, scientific, societal, and queer change. These are avenues available for exploration as we look at evidence of specific times and mindsets that changed how things are today. These topics can include, but are not limited to epidemics, wars, art exhibits, paintings, music, books, theories, and people. With a research lens, you will learn through library trips and 4 assignments: Annotated Bibliography, Research Proposal, Literature Review, and finally, the Research Paper. Culminating in the final research project, this will be a time to dive into personal interests within the realm of change and development.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14454

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 humanities. What are the humanities? As opposed to 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; jurisprudence; philosophy; archaeology; comparative religion; ethics; the history, criticism and theory of the arts; those aspects of the social sciences which have humanistic content and employ humanistic methods; 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

CRN:  44763

Days/Time:  MWF 2:00-2:50

Instructor:  Ovidiu Brici

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Camp, Trash, and (Good?) Bad Movies

CRN:  14404

Days/Time:  MWF 2:00-2:50

Instructor:  Adam Jones

This section of English 161 is about bad movies. Specifically, we’ll be reading and analyzing a variety of texts that seek to explain the appeal of watching bad movies: Susan Sontag’s “Notes on ‘Camp’” (1964), Pauline Kael’s “Trash, Art, and the Movies” (1969), and Carol J. Clover’s Men, Women, and Chain Saws (1992), among others. In doing so, we will critically discuss theoretical concepts like camp, trash, and “the final girl.” We will also watch some classic bad movies and ask if they’re really so bad. (Might they even be secretly good?)
Completing the work in this course will provide you with the tools that you will need to engage in academic inquiry. You will complete writing assignments in which you will learn to summarize, analyze, and synthesize class readings; you will also write a research proposal about one aspect of the course you’d like to research. You will then spend the remainder of the semester turning your proposal into a research-assisted essay using the skills we learn from the various assignments. In sum, this class will enable you to contextualize your own experiences within broader debates about aesthetic quality and taste, and thus enter what is a significant and still unresolved conversation in contemporary American culture and politics.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14383

Days/Time:  MWF 2:00-2:50

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

CRN:  42682

Days/Time:  MWF 2:00-2:50

Instructor:  Wesley McGehee

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  41601

Days/Time:  MWF 3:00-3:50

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 humanities. What are the humanities? As opposed to 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; jurisprudence; philosophy; archaeology; comparative religion; ethics; the history, criticism and theory of the arts; those aspects of the social sciences which have humanistic content and employ humanistic methods; 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 about Happiness

CRN:  48059

Days/Time:  MWF 3:00-3:50

Instructor:  Chris 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

CRN:  14428

Days/Time:  MWF 3:00-3:50

Instructor: Pending

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Camp, Trash, and (Good?) Bad Movies

CRN:  14413

Days/Time:  MWF 3:00-3:50

Instructor:  Adam Jones

This section of English 161 is about bad movies. Specifically, we’ll be reading and analyzing a variety of texts that seek to explain the appeal of watching bad movies: Susan Sontag’s “Notes on ‘Camp’” (1964), Pauline Kael’s “Trash, Art, and the Movies” (1969), and Carol J. Clover’s Men, Women, and Chain Saws (1992), among others. In doing so, we will critically discuss theoretical concepts like camp, trash, and “the final girl.” We will also watch some classic bad movies and ask if they’re really so bad. (Might they even be secretly good?)
Completing the work in this course will provide you with the tools that you will need to engage in academic inquiry. You will complete writing assignments in which you will learn to summarize, analyze, and synthesize class readings; you will also write a research proposal about one aspect of the course you’d like to research. You will then spend the remainder of the semester turning your proposal into a research-assisted essay using the skills we learn from the various assignments. In sum, this class will enable you to contextualize your own experiences within broader debates about aesthetic quality and taste, and thus enter what is a significant and still unresolved conversation in contemporary American culture and politics.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14438

Days/Time:  MWF 4:00-4:50

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 humanities. What are the humanities? As opposed to 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; jurisprudence; philosophy; archaeology; comparative religion; ethics; the history, criticism and theory of the arts; those aspects of the social sciences which have humanistic content and employ humanistic methods; 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 about Happiness

CRN:  26193

Days/Time:  MWF 4:00-4:50

Instructor:  Chris 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:  Camp, Trash and (Good?) Bad Movie

CRN:  14381

Days/Time:  MWF 4:00-4:50

Instructor:  Adam Jones

This section of English 161 is about bad movies. Specifically, we’ll be reading and analyzing a variety of texts that seek to explain the appeal of watching bad movies: Susan Sontag’s “Notes on ‘Camp’” (1964), Pauline Kael’s “Trash, Art, and the Movies” (1969), and Carol J. Clover’s Men, Women, and Chain Saws (1992), among others. In doing so, we will critically discuss theoretical concepts like camp, trash, and “the final girl.” We will also watch some classic bad movies and ask if they’re really so bad. (Might they even be secretly good?)
Completing the work in this course will provide you with the tools that you will need to engage in academic inquiry. You will complete writing assignments in which you will learn to summarize, analyze, and synthesize class readings; you will also write a research proposal about one aspect of the course you’d like to research. You will then spend the remainder of the semester turning your proposal into a research-assisted essay using the skills we learn from the various assignments. In sum, this class will enable you to contextualize your own experiences within broader debates about aesthetic quality and taste, and thus enter what is a significant and still unresolved conversation in contemporary American culture and politics.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  47505

Days/Time:  MWF 4:00-4:50

Instructor:  Wesley McGehee

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Writing about Happiness

CRN:  47386

Days/Time:  MWF 5:00-5:50

Instructor:  Chris 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:  Critical Reading, Writing, and Thinking About Rumors, Fear, and the Madness of Crowds

CRN:   14415

Days/Time:   TR 8:00-9:15

Instructor:  Scott Grunow

What psychosocial factors cause groups of persons to get involved in a disturbing dynamic of rumors, fears, and mass hysteria? In the late 20th and early 21st century in particular, one has noticed several cases of mass hysteria, ranging from the moral panics such as “Satanic” day care centers in the 1980s and Pizzagate, to the viral spread of conspiracy theories such as QAnon, all of which have caused incidents of persecution, scapegoating, and mob violence. Yet many of these incidents contain roots in previous movements dating as far back as the medieval period, often related to fears about the end of the world, the apocalypse.
In this course, you will learn to form your own inquiry about our topic of rumors, fear, and the madness of crowds by learning the skills of analytical and research-based writing. You will learn the essential elements of writing a social sciences academic research paper, a 10-page, researched-based project on a topic related the course’s area of inquiry.
While we will be reading and discussing causes of mass hysteria and panic, this is not a course about rumors, fear, and the madness of crowds; it is a course about conducting academic research and writing with an emphasis on the social sciences, using the phenomenon of mass hysteria as our area of inquiry. The topic is rich and fascinating, and, as you will soon discover, always relevant, but in the context of our writing and inquiry, the topic is not the end point, but rather a springboard for our mutual investigation of academic reading and writing.
I emphasize the word mutual, because while writing about the topic, the class will become a research community as we enter into classic and contemporary discussions about mass hysteria and evaluating their complex arguments and the reliability of their sources.

ENGL 161  Androids, Automation, and Artificial Intelligence: Robots in fiction and reality as a source of inspiration and anxiety

CRN:  42528

Days/Time:  TR 8:00-9:15

Instructor:  Faith Harris

They did surgery on a grape. Is artificial intelligence making humans less intelligent? Are androids people? Robots have been the topic of discussion in both fiction and reality from long before they were apart of our daily lives. In this course, we will discuss how robots and other machines have impacted our lives and captured our imagination. Considering fictional robots often leads us to consider humanity and what it means for us. Technology is continually changing and automation is abounding, but is there a point where more is lost than gained in our constant striving for innovation? These conversations and others will contribute to individual research leading up to a final argumentative essay that thoughtfully engages with a specific focus in the realm of robots, automation, and related topics.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  42687

Days/Time:  TR 8:00-9:15

Instructor: Evan Steuber

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Apocalyptica!

CRN:  14401

Days/Time:  TR 8:00-9:15

Instructor:  Janson Jones

From climate collapse and AI emergence to viral pandemics and zombie apocalypses, the end of the world has never been more popular. Yet behind every cinematic explosion and viral headline lies a myriad of real-world questions about how we perceive, predict, and prepare for global risk. In this section of Engl 161, we will examine how media —from blockbuster films and online news to TikTok trends and doomsday podcasts— represents disaster, crisis, and collapse. Together, we will analyze how these narratives shape public understanding of science, politics, and culture while blurring the lines between fact and fiction.
In this course, you will research the reality behind one potential apocalyptic risk of your choice, investigating what the data, experts, and scholarship actually reveal about it. Using our course text, Writing for Inquiry and Research, you will develop skills in academic research methodology, critical reading and analysis, persuasive and professional writing, and evidence-based argumentation. Special emphasis will be placed on individualized inquiry, discovery, and learning. Throughout the semester, you will complete four major writing projects (an Annotated Bibliography, a Research Proposal, a Literature Review, and a final Research-Based Report) building toward a nuanced, research-grounded understanding of what might truly end the world (and what probably won’t).

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  From Mesopotamia to Mesoamerica: A Grand Tour of Civilizations to 1520

CRN:  29118

Days/Time:  TR 8:00-9:15

Instructor:  Paul Ross

This course will teach students the fundamentals of academic research and writing while offering a sweeping and fascinating tour of civilizations from the pre-industrial world, emphasizing the cultural touchstones and lasting legacies of Mesopotamian, Mediterranean, South Asian, East Asian, and Mesoamerican cultures.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: The Challenge of AI in the Composition Classroom

CRN:  14422

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Virginia Costello

In this investigative class, we will analyze, evaluate, and write about AI programs such as ChatGPT, Grammarly, Chatpdf, and Research Rabbit. We will examine these programs in terms of how they might help, hinder, or simply annoy us. We will ask tough questions about AI in relation to the environment, privacy, bias, and labor. Students can expect to be a part of uncomfortable conversations about unethical use of AI (“cheating”), astounded by advances of AI (particularly in the medical field), and witness spectacular failures (hallucinations) that are often humorous.
While at the beginning of the semester we will identify malicious actors and Deepfakes, the main goal of this class is to enhance our own AI literacy and grapple with questions about how AI is changing how we teach and learn. Finally, throughout all of our conversations and writing assignments, we will think about what it means to be human in this age of rapid technological, political and social change. Writing assignments include but are not limited to the following: Annotated Bibliography, Proposal, Literature Review, and Research Paper.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Show Me Your Teeth and I’ll Tell You Who You Are

CRN:  14396

Days/Time:  TR 8:00-9:15

Instructor:  Todd Sherfinski

Georges Cuvier, aka the Father of Paleontology, claimed that teeth were the revelators of creatures that possessed them. Teeth were the depositories of lifetimes. In this course, we’ll consider Cuvier’s claim and examine why teeth matter, for whom, and for what? We’ll be using Peter S. Ungar’s Teeth: A Very Short Introduction and Mary Otto’s Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America as the starting point for our research. In addition to four Writing Projects, expect short daily reading and writing assignments and plenty of group work.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  48309

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Joshua Adams

Students learn about academic inquiry and complete several writing projects including a documented research paper. In this section, we will write about different art forms (poetry, books, comics, films, tv shows, anime/manga, standup comedy, etc.). Though this is a writing class first and foremost, students will introduced to a few relevant genre and media conventions in order to effectively think about and write about works of art. Students will combine critical reflection with academic research to craft prose that is fluid, audience-focused, aesthetically engaging, and intellectually rigorous.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 160 or the equivalent. All students take the Writing Placement test except for those with test-based exemptions noted here. If students place into ENGL 060, ENGL 070, ENGL 071, and ENGL 160, the student must take the course (or courses) prior to enrolling in ENGL 161. Students with an ACT English subscore of 27 or higher, SAT Evidence-Based Critical Reading score of 630 or higher, AP English Language & Composition score of 3 or higher, or IB English Language A: Language & Literature score of 6 or higher, receive credit for ENGL 160 and permission to enroll in ENGL 161. Class Schedule Information: Students may register for any section. Course descriptions for composition courses are available at the First-Year Writing Program website: http://www.uic.edu/depts/engl/programs/1styearwriting/.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  26882

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

Instructor: Evan Steuber

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: The Challenge of AI in the Composition Classroom

CRN:  42686

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Virginia Costello

In this investigative class, we will analyze, evaluate, and write about AI programs such as ChatGPT, Grammarly, Chatpdf, and Research Rabbit. We will examine these programs in terms of how they might help, hinder, or simply annoy us. We will ask tough questions about AI in relation to the environment, privacy, bias, and labor. Students can expect to be a part of uncomfortable conversations about unethical use of AI (“cheating”), astounded by advances of AI (particularly in the medical field), and witness spectacular failures (hallucinations) that are often humorous.
While at the beginning of the semester we will identify malicious actors and Deepfakes, the main goal of this class is to enhance our own AI literacy and grapple with questions about how AI is changing how we teach and learn. Finally, throughout all of our conversations and writing assignments, we will think about what it means to be human in this age of rapid technological, political and social change. Writing assignments include but are not limited to the following: Annotated Bibliography, Proposal, Literature Review, and Research Paper.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Examining the relationship between Gender/Sexuality and Film/Television

CRN:  32295

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  James Drown

Movies and television deliver information to us, both overtly and covertly, about social expectations concerning gender and sexuality. And because movies and television are embedded in the ideologies of their creators, it is basically impossible to make a show that does not address gender and sexuality in a way that is significant or controversial to one group or another. In relation to this, a question we might ask is “How much effect do these shows and films have on our expectations concerning gender and sexuality?” After all, media influence is only one of the social mechanisms that influence how we understand gender and sexuality. We will be focusing on questions concerning this relationship between film/television and gender/sexuality. We will begin by examining various concepts and social theories, including readings by Stuart Hall, Judith Butler, Audre Lorde, Barthes and Foucault. We will also examine more general social theories/concepts, such as ideology, hegemony, semantics, and confirmation bias. We will create an Annotated Bibliography for these (and other readings) and using this information we will develop a relevant 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:  Critical Reading, Writing, and Thinking About Rumors, Fear, and the Madness of Crowds

CRN:  14463

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Scott Grunow

What psychosocial factors cause groups of persons to get involved in a disturbing dynamic of rumors, fears, and mass hysteria? In the late 20th and early 21st century in particular, one has noticed several cases of mass hysteria, ranging from the moral panics such as “Satanic” day care centers in the 1980s and Pizzagate, to the viral spread of conspiracy theories such as QAnon, all of which have caused incidents of persecution, scapegoating, and mob violence. Yet many of these incidents contain roots in previous movements dating as far back as the medieval period, often related to fears about the end of the world, the apocalypse.
In this course, you will learn to form your own inquiry about our topic of rumors, fear, and the madness of crowds by learning the skills of analytical and research-based writing. You will learn the essential elements of writing a social sciences academic research paper, a 10-page, researched-based project on a topic related the course’s area of inquiry.
While we will be reading and discussing causes of mass hysteria and panic, this is not a course about rumors, fear, and the madness of crowds; it is a course about conducting academic research and writing with an emphasis on the social sciences, using the phenomenon of mass hysteria as our area of inquiry. The topic is rich and fascinating, and, as you will soon discover, always relevant, but in the context of our writing and inquiry, the topic is not the end point, but rather a springboard for our mutual investigation of academic reading and writing.
I emphasize the word mutual, because while writing about the topic, the class will become a research community as we enter into classic and contemporary discussions about mass hysteria and evaluating their complex arguments and the reliability of their sources.

ENGL 161  Androids, Automation, and Artificial Intelligence: Robots in fiction and reality as a source of inspiration and anxiety

CRN:  14463

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Faith Harris

They did surgery on a grape. Is artificial intelligence making humans less intelligent? Are androids people? Robots have been the topic of discussion in both fiction and reality from long before they were apart of our daily lives. In this course, we will discuss how robots and other machines have impacted our lives and captured our imagination. Considering fictional robots often leads us to consider humanity and what it means for us. Technology is continually changing and automation is abounding, but is there a point where more is lost than gained in our constant striving for innovation? These conversations and others will contribute to individual research leading up to a final argumentative essay that thoughtfully engages with a specific focus in the realm of robots, automation, and related topics.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Apocalyptica!

CRN:  14433

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Janson Jones

From climate collapse and AI emergence to viral pandemics and zombie apocalypses, the end of the world has never been more popular. Yet behind every cinematic explosion and viral headline lies a myriad of real-world questions about how we perceive, predict, and prepare for global risk. In this section of Engl 161, we will examine how media —from blockbuster films and online news to TikTok trends and doomsday podcasts— represents disaster, crisis, and collapse. Together, we will analyze how these narratives shape public understanding of science, politics, and culture while blurring the lines between fact and fiction.
In this course, you will research the reality behind one potential apocalyptic risk of your choice, investigating what the data, experts, and scholarship actually reveal about it. Using our course text, Writing for Inquiry and Research, you will develop skills in academic research methodology, critical reading and analysis, persuasive and professional writing, and evidence-based argumentation. Special emphasis will be placed on individualized inquiry, discovery, and learning. Throughout the semester, you will complete four major writing projects (an Annotated Bibliography, a Research Proposal, a Literature Review, and a final Research-Based Report) building toward a nuanced, research-grounded understanding of what might truly end the world (and what probably won’t).

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Home in Chicago 

CRN:  14403

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Heather  McShane

Do you think of Chicago as your home? Your new home? What does “home” mean for people living in Chicago? Historically and currently, housing in Chicago is mired in such controversial sociopolitical issues as immigration, racial segregation, and gentrification. In this section of English 161, we will investigate examples of Chicago housing practices by taking field trips to Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, the National Public Housing Museum, and Special Collections in the Daley Library. Additionally, we will look at Chicago-based architecture, art, and literature that show and give shape to Chicago homes, at times constraining people, and at other times, inspiring or even socializing them. Home in Chicago will serve as the theme of the four major writing assignments required for English 161: an annotated bibliography, a literature review, a research paper proposal, and a research paper.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Show Me Your Teeth and I’ll Tell You Who You Are

CRN:  14409

Days/Time:  TR 9:30-10:45

Instructor:  Todd Sherfinski

Georges Cuvier, aka the Father of Paleontology, claimed that teeth were the revelators of creatures that possessed them. Teeth were the depositories of lifetimes. In this course, we’ll consider Cuvier’s claim and examine why teeth matter, for whom, and for what? We’ll be using Peter S. Ungar’s Teeth: A Very Short Introduction and Mary Otto’s Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America as the starting point for our research. In addition to four Writing Projects, expect short daily reading and writing assignments and plenty of group work.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  48310

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  Joshua Adams

Students learn about academic inquiry and complete several writing projects including a documented research paper. In this section, we will write about different art forms (poetry, books, comics, films, tv shows, anime/manga, standup comedy, etc.). Though this is a writing class first and foremost, students will introduced to a few relevant genre and media conventions in order to effectively think about and write about works of art. Students will combine critical reflection with academic research to craft prose that is fluid, audience-focused, aesthetically engaging, and intellectually rigorous.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 160 or the equivalent. All students take the Writing Placement test except for those with test-based exemptions noted here. If students place into ENGL 060, ENGL 070, ENGL 071, and ENGL 160, the student must take the course (or courses) prior to enrolling in ENGL 161. Students with an ACT English subscore of 27 or higher, SAT Evidence-Based Critical Reading score of 630 or higher, AP English Language & Composition score of 3 or higher, or IB English Language A: Language & Literature score of 6 or higher, receive credit for ENGL 160 and permission to enroll in ENGL 161. Class Schedule Information: Students may register for any section. Course descriptions for composition courses are available at the First-Year Writing Program website: http://www.uic.edu/depts/engl/programs/1styearwriting/.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  41131

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor: Evan Steuber

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: The Challenge of AI in the Composition Classroom

CRN:  26880

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  Virginia Costello

In this investigative class, we will analyze, evaluate, and write about AI programs such as ChatGPT, Grammarly, Chatpdf, and Research Rabbit. We will examine these programs in terms of how they might help, hinder, or simply annoy us. We will ask tough questions about AI in relation to the environment, privacy, bias, and labor. Students can expect to be a part of uncomfortable conversations about unethical use of AI (“cheating”), astounded by advances of AI (particularly in the medical field), and witness spectacular failures (hallucinations) that are often humorous.
While at the beginning of the semester we will identify malicious actors and Deepfakes, the main goal of this class is to enhance our own AI literacy and grapple with questions about how AI is changing how we teach and learn. Finally, throughout all of our conversations and writing assignments, we will think about what it means to be human in this age of rapid technological, political and social change. Writing assignments include but are not limited to the following: Annotated Bibliography, Proposal, Literature Review, and Research Paper.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  47646

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  Carrie McGath

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Art, Labor, and the Machine

CRN:  32286

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  Sibyl Gallus-Price

In her 1895 essay “Art and Labor,” Hull-House co-founder Ellen Gates Starr makes the declaration that a “product of a machine may be useful, and may serve some purposes of information, but can never be artistic.” Indeed, as Starr herself puts it, the moment “a machine intervenes between mind and its product, a hard, impassable barrier—a non-conductor of thought and emotion—is raised between the speaking and the listening mind.” This declaration conjures the stark image of mechanized labor that would soon be captured in photographs like Lewis Hine’s Sadie Pfeifer, a Cotton Mill Spinner (1908), documenting the degrading conditions of the North Carolina cotton mills. Much like Hine’s photographs, Hull-House’s mission straddled problems that belonged to both art and labor. It’s precisely here at Hull-House, one of the first major settlements in the U.S. to support social reform, that Chicago’s fin de siècle arts and crafts movement flourishes. For founders Addams and Starr, the problems of art and labor were not isolated issues but deeply related to Hull-House’s central mission which sought to address problems created by urbanization, industrialization, and immigration. The arts and craft movement, positioned as a response to industrialized capitalism, called for the end of the division of labor and the beginning of a shared project of arts and labor activism. This class explores the legacy of art and social reform central to the Hull-House settlement. Positioning Hull-House as a model of synthesis, we’ll explore the legacy of art, labor, and the machine in Hull-House’s adjacent digital and actual archives, resituating research as an active, multimodal community-driven process. In doing so we’ll take into account the objects produced by artists and activists, and the role institutions and archives play in shaping aesthetic and social discourse. Through a cross-disciplinary, hands-on approach, students will gain an understanding of how archives, exhibitions, and museums shape knowledge, writing, and research. As students visit cultural institutions at UIC and throughout Chicago, they’ll examine how institutions historicize and continue to mobilize collective experience.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  32292

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  Jeffrey Gore

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Composition & Performance

CRN:  14471

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15ONLINE

Instructor:   Em Williamson

In this course, we will find our study at the intersections of composition and the performing arts. Like performance, writing is a social act meant for audience consumption. This fundamental truth will be the central basis of our course, in which you will complete a variety of writing assignments and in-depth readings all pertaining to the course topic of performance. Along the way, we will consider various modes of performance, including theater, dance, drag, and even social media platforms. As a student in this class, you will never be asked to perform; rather, you will be asked to think critically about the nature of performance in order to hone the skills of academic research and writing.

ENGL 161  Androids, Automation, and Artificial Intelligence: Robots in fiction and reality as a source of inspiration and anxiety

CRN:  22118

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  Faith Harris

They did surgery on a grape. Is artificial intelligence making humans less intelligent? Are androids people? Robots have been the topic of discussion in both fiction and reality from long before they were apart of our daily lives. In this course, we will discuss how robots and other machines have impacted our lives and captured our imagination. Considering fictional robots often leads us to consider humanity and what it means for us. Technology is continually changing and automation is abounding, but is there a point where more is lost than gained in our constant striving for innovation? These conversations and others will contribute to individual research leading up to a final argumentative essay that thoughtfully engages with a specific focus in the realm of robots, automation, and related topics.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14451

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  Aaron Krall

English 161 is an academic writing course situated in academic inquiry, where students explore a topic as a community of inquiry. This section will focus on Chicago neighborhoods: how they are defined, what they mean, the kinds of identities and ways of life they support, the roles they play in local politics and economies, the ways they bring people together or keep them apart, and how they change. We will initially focus on the neighborhoods that surround the UIC campus, but our inquiry will take us across the City of Chicago and into a diverse and intersecting group of communities. This 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 genres of academic writing.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Fandom!

CRN:  14442

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  Doug Sheldon

Are you a fan? Of course you are. Don’t lie to me! Fandom is in all of us and we tend to take it very personal! In this course, we will examine the concept of Fandom/Fan Culture through the lens of students’ individual research interests. This is designed to not only define the terms “Fandom” and “fans”, but how these definitions shift over time and between social groups. Students will be afforded opportunities to examine these shifting definitions and apply them to research focused on academic expectations. Working with research methods that encourage personal and academic exploration, we will discover and elaborate on the cultural relevance of these definitions as they apply to the ethics, motives, and individual behaviors. We will examine modes of presentation that engage us with these cultural concepts and allow for students to discover research topics that will benefit both critical writing and reading skills as their college careers progress.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Show Me Your Teeth and I’ll Tell You Who You Are

CRN:  14453

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  Todd Sherfinski

Georges Cuvier, aka the Father of Paleontology, claimed that teeth were the revelators of creatures that possessed them. Teeth were the depositories of lifetimes. In this course, we’ll consider Cuvier’s claim and examine why teeth matter, for whom, and for what? We’ll be using Peter S. Ungar’s Teeth: A Very Short Introduction and Mary Otto’s Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America as the starting point for our research. In addition to four Writing Projects, expect short daily reading and writing assignments and plenty of group work.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  The Politics of Beauty: Image and Appearances

CRN:  26881

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  Tricia Park

Don’t judge a book by its cover, the saying goes. But the truth is, we are inundated by images; from print and online advertising to Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and whatever new social media is on the horizon, we live in a world crammed with messages about beauty and appearance. In this course, we will examine a range of texts about idealized standards of beauty and the ways they intersect with race, age, and other factors that contribute to external and internal social biases. Through this particular lens, we will explore rhetorical situations, learn what it means to take a position on a topic and investigate what makes for persuasive arguments. This course will help you develop the essential skills to better express yourselves in a variety of writing genres, improve your ability to analyze texts and other media forms as well as understand how they are constructed to impact your thoughts and opinions.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Finding Voice Through Media

CRN:  47672

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor: Alonzo Rico

Have you ever read a novel and felt completely upset at how it ended? Was there ever a film where you felt certain characters were a waste of space? Or where the plot just dragged on unnecessarily? Have you ever wondered why to any of this? And do you harbor strong opinions about this question of why but cannot find the right words to express them? If so, then you find yourself in good company, and possibly in the right place. We consume vast amounts of information with hardly the time to say anything about it, or even the inclination that we should. This course will attempt to provide that space in which we think critically about the literature and art we love, and, in doing so, hopefully find the critical voice we need in order to answer that question of why—and maybe even to questions we have about the world at large.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14394GLOBAL

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  Eman Elturki

A university campus functions as a microcosm of a city, with its varied facilities and operations (e.g., lecture halls, libraries, laboratories, residence halls, dining services, transportation, parking, health care, campus security, space heating and cooling, and water management). These activities and spaces on campus, along with our actions as community members, have a significant impact on the environment. Besides serving as a hub for intellectual stimulation and economic growth, universities play a key role in instilling environmental awareness and transforming practices. A growing number of higher education institutions around the globe are adopting sustainable practices to minimize their environmental footprint and “create and maintain the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony to support present and future generations” (EAP , 2023). UIC, for example, is among the institutions that have made commitments to sustainability by working towards becoming a: (1) carbon neutral university, (2) zero waste university, (3) net zero water university, (4) biodiverse university, and (5) transformative scholarship university.
In this course, you will contribute to UIC’s sustainability efforts while enhancing your research, academic writing, and critical reading skills. You will undertake a course-long research project on a topic related to one of UIC’s five climate commitments. The course assignments are designed sequentially to guide your research process. Preliminary research will involve reading and analyzing texts on sustainability, particularly in college campuses and your area of interest, and will culminate in an Annotated Bibliography. After establishing some knowledge of the topic, you will consolidate your understanding of your selected area of sustainability by conducting a Literature Review, in which you will synthesize and analyze sources relevant to your inquiry. Next, you will put forward a Research Proposal outlining your research focus, its significance, research question, and plan. Finally, building on your extensive research from earlier assignments, you will engage in the final round of research to produce your Research Essay and then give an Oral Presentation to share your findings with the class. By the end of this course, you will gain a deeper understanding of scholarly writing conventions and enhance your critical reading, research, and revision skills.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Examining the relationship between Gender/Sexuality and Film/Television

CRN:  49406

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  James Drown

Movies and television deliver information to us, both overtly and covertly, about social expectations concerning gender and sexuality. And because movies and television are embedded in the ideologies of their creators, it is basically impossible to make a show that does not address gender and sexuality in a way that is significant or controversial to one group or another. In relation to this, a question we might ask is “How much effect do these shows and films have on our expectations concerning gender and sexuality?” After all, media influence is only one of the social mechanisms that influence how we understand gender and sexuality. We will be focusing on questions concerning this relationship between film/television and gender/sexuality. We will begin by examining various concepts and social theories, including readings by Stuart Hall, Judith Butler, Audre Lorde, Barthes and Foucault. We will also examine more general social theories/concepts, such as ideology, hegemony, semantics, and confirmation bias. We will create an Annotated Bibliography for these (and other readings) and using this information we will develop a relevant 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: Apocalyptica!

CRN:  22117

Days/Time:  TR 11:00-12:15

Instructor:  Janson Jones

From climate collapse and AI emergence to viral pandemics and zombie apocalypses, the end of the world has never been more popular. Yet behind every cinematic explosion and viral headline lies a myriad of real-world questions about how we perceive, predict, and prepare for global risk. In this section of Engl 161, we will examine how media —from blockbuster films and online news to TikTok trends and doomsday podcasts— represents disaster, crisis, and collapse. Together, we will analyze how these narratives shape public understanding of science, politics, and culture while blurring the lines between fact and fiction.
In this course, you will research the reality behind one potential apocalyptic risk of your choice, investigating what the data, experts, and scholarship actually reveal about it. Using our course text, Writing for Inquiry and Research, you will develop skills in academic research methodology, critical reading and analysis, persuasive and professional writing, and evidence-based argumentation. Special emphasis will be placed on individualized inquiry, discovery, and learning. Throughout the semester, you will complete four major writing projects (an Annotated Bibliography, a Research Proposal, a Literature Review, and a final Research-Based Report) building toward a nuanced, research-grounded understanding of what might truly end the world (and what probably won’t).

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Artificial Intelligence in Our Present and Future Lives

CRN:  14435

Days/Time:  TR 12:30-1:45

Instructor:  Mark Bennett

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been in our daily 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 ChatGPT, which generate infinite possible texts instantly based on 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 “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” Or will it? Maybe AI is just another very neat tool we can use to help us in our everyday lives, and develop our own writing, like any other technology that’s come before.
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 161 course. We’ll write about AI and write with AI. We’ll use ChatGPT and other free AI programs to draft writing that we’ll use for this class, and compare it to writing that we ourselves produce without AI assistance. Over the course of the semester, you’ll do your own research and write a research paper about the uses of AI in your own chosen career or field of study. And you’ll reflect about it all in your own writing, coming to a greater understanding of how AI might affect your own life now and in the future.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Examining the relationship between Gender/Sexuality and Film/Television

CRN:  14472

Days/Time:  TR 12:30-1:45

Instructor:  James Drown

Movies and television deliver information to us, both overtly and covertly, about social expectations concerning gender and sexuality. And because movies and television are embedded in the ideologies of their creators, it is basically impossible to make a show that does not address gender and sexuality in a way that is significant or controversial to one group or another. In relation to this, a question we might ask is “How much effect do these shows and films have on our expectations concerning gender and sexuality?” After all, media influence is only one of the social mechanisms that influence how we understand gender and sexuality. We will be focusing on questions concerning this relationship between film/television and gender/sexuality. We will begin by examining various concepts and social theories, including readings by Stuart Hall, Judith Butler, Audre Lorde, Barthes and Foucault. We will also examine more general social theories/concepts, such as ideology, hegemony, semantics, and confirmation bias. We will create an Annotated Bibliography for these (and other readings) and using this information we will develop a relevant 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

CRN:  14382GLOBAL

Days/Time:  TR 12:30-1:45

Instructor:  Eman Elturki

A university campus functions as a microcosm of a city, with its varied facilities and operations (e.g., lecture halls, libraries, laboratories, residence halls, dining services, transportation, parking, health care, campus security, space heating and cooling, and water management). These activities and spaces on campus, along with our actions as community members, have a significant impact on the environment. Besides serving as a hub for intellectual stimulation and economic growth, universities play a key role in instilling environmental awareness and transforming practices. A growing number of higher education institutions around the globe are adopting sustainable practices to minimize their environmental footprint and “create and maintain the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony to support present and future generations” (EAP , 2023). UIC, for example, is among the institutions that have made commitments to sustainability by working towards becoming a: (1) carbon neutral university, (2) zero waste university, (3) net zero water university, (4) biodiverse university, and (5) transformative scholarship university.
In this course, you will contribute to UIC’s sustainability efforts while enhancing your research, academic writing, and critical reading skills. You will undertake a course-long research project on a topic related to one of UIC’s five climate commitments. The course assignments are designed sequentially to guide your research process. Preliminary research will involve reading and analyzing texts on sustainability, particularly in college campuses and your area of interest, and will culminate in an Annotated Bibliography. After establishing some knowledge of the topic, you will consolidate your understanding of your selected area of sustainability by conducting a Literature Review, in which you will synthesize and analyze sources relevant to your inquiry. Next, you will put forward a Research Proposal outlining your research focus, its significance, research question, and plan. Finally, building on your extensive research from earlier assignments, you will engage in the final round of research to produce your Research Essay and then give an Oral Presentation to share your findings with the class. By the end of this course, you will gain a deeper understanding of scholarly writing conventions and enhance your critical reading, research, and revision skills.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Art, Labor, and the Machine

CRN:  32289

Days/Time:  TR 12:30-1:45

Instructor:  Sibyl Gallus-Price

In her 1895 essay “Art and Labor,” Hull-House co-founder Ellen Gates Starr makes the declaration that a “product of a machine may be useful, and may serve some purposes of information, but can never be artistic.” Indeed, as Starr herself puts it, the moment “a machine intervenes between mind and its product, a hard, impassable barrier—a non-conductor of thought and emotion—is raised between the speaking and the listening mind.” This declaration conjures the stark image of mechanized labor that would soon be captured in photographs like Lewis Hine’s Sadie Pfeifer, a Cotton Mill Spinner (1908), documenting the degrading conditions of the North Carolina cotton mills. Much like Hine’s photographs, Hull-House’s mission straddled problems that belonged to both art and labor. It’s precisely here at Hull-House, one of the first major settlements in the U.S. to support social reform, that Chicago’s fin de siècle arts and crafts movement flourishes. For founders Addams and Starr, the problems of art and labor were not isolated issues but deeply related to Hull-House’s central mission which sought to address problems created by urbanization, industrialization, and immigration. The arts and craft movement, positioned as a response to industrialized capitalism, called for the end of the division of labor and the beginning of a shared project of arts and labor activism. This class explores the legacy of art and social reform central to the Hull-House settlement. Positioning Hull-House as a model of synthesis, we’ll explore the legacy of art, labor, and the machine in Hull-House’s adjacent digital and actual archives, resituating research as an active, multimodal community-driven process. In doing so we’ll take into account the objects produced by artists and activists, and the role institutions and archives play in shaping aesthetic and social discourse. Through a cross-disciplinary, hands-on approach, students will gain an understanding of how archives, exhibitions, and museums shape knowledge, writing, and research. As students visit cultural institutions at UIC and throughout Chicago, they’ll examine how institutions historicize and continue to mobilize collective experience.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Critical Reading, Writing, and Thinking About Rumors, Fear, and the Madness of Crowds

CRN:  14417

Days/Time:  TR 12:30-1:45

Instructor:  Scott Grunow

What psychosocial factors cause groups of persons to get involved in a disturbing dynamic of rumors, fears, and mass hysteria? In the late 20th and early 21st century in particular, one has noticed several cases of mass hysteria, ranging from the moral panics such as “Satanic” day care centers in the 1980s and Pizzagate, to the viral spread of conspiracy theories such as QAnon, all of which have caused incidents of persecution, scapegoating, and mob violence. Yet many of these incidents contain roots in previous movements dating as far back as the medieval period, often related to fears about the end of the world, the apocalypse.
In this course, you will learn to form your own inquiry about our topic of rumors, fear, and the madness of crowds by learning the skills of analytical and research-based writing. You will learn the essential elements of writing a social sciences academic research paper, a 10-page, researched-based project on a topic related the course’s area of inquiry.
While we will be reading and discussing causes of mass hysteria and panic, this is not a course about rumors, fear, and the madness of crowds; it is a course about conducting academic research and writing with an emphasis on the social sciences, using the phenomenon of mass hysteria as our area of inquiry. The topic is rich and fascinating, and, as you will soon discover, always relevant, but in the context of our writing and inquiry, the topic is not the end point, but rather a springboard for our mutual investigation of academic reading and writing.
I emphasize the word mutual, because while writing about the topic, the class will become a research community as we enter into classic and contemporary discussions about mass hysteria and evaluating their complex arguments and the reliability of their sources.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  47644

Days/Time:  TR 12:30-1:45

Instructor:  Carrie McGath

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Home in Chicago

CRN:  43493

Days/Time:  TR 12:30-1:45

Instructor:  Heather McShane

Do you think of Chicago as your home? Your new home? What does “home” mean for people living in Chicago? Historically and currently, housing in Chicago is mired in such controversial sociopolitical issues as immigration, racial segregation, and gentrification. In this section of English 161, we will investigate examples of Chicago housing practices by taking field trips to Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, the National Public Housing Museum, and Special Collections in the Daley Library. Additionally, we will look at Chicago-based architecture, art, and literature that show and give shape to Chicago homes, at times constraining people, and at other times, inspiring or even socializing them. Home in Chicago will serve as the theme of the four major writing assignments required for English 161: an annotated bibliography, a literature review, a research paper proposal, and a research paper.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Finding Voice Through Media

CRN:  32293

Days/Time:  TR 12:30-1:45

Instructor:  Alonzo Rico

Have you ever read a novel and felt completely upset at how it ended? Was there ever a film where you felt certain characters were a waste of space? Or where the plot just dragged on unnecessarily? Have you ever wondered why to any of this? And do you harbor strong opinions about this question of why but cannot find the right words to express them? If so, then you find yourself in good company, and possibly in the right place. We consume vast amounts of information with hardly the time to say anything about it, or even the inclination that we should. This course will attempt to provide that space in which we think critically about the literature and art we love, and, in doing so, hopefully find the critical voice we need in order to answer that question of why—and maybe even to questions we have about the world at large.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14446

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Joshua Adams

Students learn about academic inquiry and complete several writing projects including a documented research paper. In this section, we will write about different art forms (poetry, books, comics, films, tv shows, anime/manga, standup comedy, etc.). Though this is a writing class first and foremost, students will introduced to a few relevant genre and media conventions in order to effectively think about and write about works of art. Students will combine critical reflection with academic research to craft prose that is fluid, audience-focused, aesthetically engaging, and intellectually rigorous.
Prerequisite(s): ENGL 160 or the equivalent. All students take the Writing Placement test except for those with test-based exemptions noted here. If students place into ENGL 060, ENGL 070, ENGL 071, and ENGL 160, the student must take the course (or courses) prior to enrolling in ENGL 161. Students with an ACT English subscore of 27 or higher, SAT Evidence-Based Critical Reading score of 630 or higher, AP English Language & Composition score of 3 or higher, or IB English Language A: Language & Literature score of 6 or higher, receive credit for ENGL 160 and permission to enroll in ENGL 161. Class Schedule Information: Students may register for any section. Course descriptions for composition courses are available at the First-Year Writing Program website: http://www.uic.edu/depts/engl/programs/1styearwriting/.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing Within Your Major

CRN:  14412

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15HYBRID

Instructor:  Carla Barger

Argument is the driving force behind academic writing. In this course, you will learn to analyze what others are saying and will jumpstart your engagement with academic writing in your major or field of interest. Together we will analyze a central set of readings, but each student will choose a topic on which they will complete a series of assignments culminating in an original academic research paper. The course is designed to support individualized inquiry and discovery while emphasizing revision and giving writers the chance to practice critical thinking, researched argument, and peer review. Daily classroom activities include practicing critical reading and research methods, and researching and evaluating source material as well as summarizing and synthesizing that material. By the end of the semester, you will have valuable practical experience writing in your major or area of interest, which will serve you throughout your college career.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II : Our Resilient Chicago

CRN:  14443

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Daniel Barton

In her book, A Paradise Built In Hell, Rebecca Solnit explores how, in the wake of disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes—and contrary to beliefs that people tend to act in selfish interest after such events—, communities often come together and support each other. In a time of increasing environmental and social stress, Solnit’s revelation of peoples’ potential for cooperation offers a hopeful counternarrative about disaster and what it means—and what would it take—for a community to persevere through challenging times. This class will take up this question of community resilience in a moment of political, social, and environmental uncertainty, developing a definition of the concept by tracing the history of its development and analyzing various ideas on how to achieve it. Beyond sustainability, resiliency focuses on a community’s ability to adapt to adversity. We will also explore current challenges to this process. In a semester-long investigation, centered around the city of Chicago, we will identify pressing issues—from climate change to crises in housing, transportation, and social injustice—and how Chicagoans can and are addressing them in unique, creative ways. Through critical examination of various texts—scholarly, public, governmental, etc.—and an independent research project, we will build an understanding of important environmental and social issues while developing academic research and writing skills that will be important throughout your college career and beyond.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Happiness

CRN:  40110

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Kian Bergstrom

It seems obvious that each of us wants to be happy.  The US Declaration of Independence claims the pursuit of happiness to be an ‘unalienable right’, and one of the factors that led to you coming to UIC was probably that you thought studying here would help make you a happier person overall.  But what exactly is happiness?  What does it mean to live a *happy* life?  In recent years, the nature and importance of happiness has become a subject of intense discussion in philosophy, psychology, political science, and the arts.  In this section of English 161, we will look at some ways smart people, both ancient and modern, have thought about happiness and try to work answers out for ourselves for some of the great questions of life in general, including: is happiness the same as pleasure or contentment? is it possible to be wrong about whether or not we are happy? do we have an obligation to help other people be happy? are there bad kinds of happiness, or bad ways of being happy? can an unhappy life nevertheless be a worthwhile one? what does it mean to sacrifice our own happiness for someone else? can a machine be happy? a cat? a tree? can a society as a whole be happy, or is happiness always personal, individual? can simply being happy be an act of political resistance?

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  22116

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Sara Buchmeier

Chicago’s infamous Stock Yards, the once gruesomely unsanitary meatpacking district, is now the site of Packingtown Museum, which commemorates the working-class history of the area, and Bubbly Dynamics, LLC, where visitors can enjoy a drink at the Jungle Taproom or pick up greens from a sustainable farm. This course develops academic writing and research skills through the study of how Chicago commemorates work and workers. Focusing on monuments, memorials, and public narratives tied to the city’s industrial and labor history, students will examine how class dynamics shape collective memory in urban space. Students will immerse themselves in the world of labor history sites through readings from history, fiction, and pop culture as well as optional excursions to labor-oriented cultural institutions. From the Pullman Strike to the Memorial Day Massacre, we’ll cover the violence, resilience, trials, and triumphs as we work through a sequence of writing projects to build a research-based project about how Chicago’s working-class past is represented in its public landscapes.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14389

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  John Casey

The word sustainability is used today with such frequency that its meaning is rapidly being lost. 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 begin to read and analyze current research on the application of sustainability principles to the production, distribution, and consumption of food. These studies will 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: Examining the relationship between Gender/Sexuality and Film/Television

CRN:  14390

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  James Drown

Movies and television deliver information to us, both overtly and covertly, about social expectations concerning gender and sexuality. And because movies and television are embedded in the ideologies of their creators, it is basically impossible to make a show that does not address gender and sexuality in a way that is significant or controversial to one group or another. In relation to this, a question we might ask is “How much effect do these shows and films have on our expectations concerning gender and sexuality?” After all, media influence is only one of the social mechanisms that influence how we understand gender and sexuality. We will be focusing on questions concerning this relationship between film/television and gender/sexuality. We will begin by examining various concepts and social theories, including readings by Stuart Hall, Judith Butler, Audre Lorde, Barthes and Foucault. We will also examine more general social theories/concepts, such as ideology, hegemony, semantics, and confirmation bias. We will create an Annotated Bibliography for these (and other readings) and using this information we will develop a relevant 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:  Art, Labor, and the Machine

CRN:  14447

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Sibyl Gallus-Price

In her 1895 essay “Art and Labor,” Hull-House co-founder Ellen Gates Starr makes the declaration that a “product of a machine may be useful, and may serve some purposes of information, but can never be artistic.” Indeed, as Starr herself puts it, the moment “a machine intervenes between mind and its product, a hard, impassable barrier—a non-conductor of thought and emotion—is raised between the speaking and the listening mind.” This declaration conjures the stark image of mechanized labor that would soon be captured in photographs like Lewis Hine’s Sadie Pfeifer, a Cotton Mill Spinner (1908), documenting the degrading conditions of the North Carolina cotton mills. Much like Hine’s photographs, Hull-House’s mission straddled problems that belonged to both art and labor. It’s precisely here at Hull-House, one of the first major settlements in the U.S. to support social reform, that Chicago’s fin de siècle arts and crafts movement flourishes. For founders Addams and Starr, the problems of art and labor were not isolated issues but deeply related to Hull-House’s central mission which sought to address problems created by urbanization, industrialization, and immigration. The arts and craft movement, positioned as a response to industrialized capitalism, called for the end of the division of labor and the beginning of a shared project of arts and labor activism. This class explores the legacy of art and social reform central to the Hull-House settlement. Positioning Hull-House as a model of synthesis, we’ll explore the legacy of art, labor, and the machine in Hull-House’s adjacent digital and actual archives, resituating research as an active, multimodal community-driven process. In doing so we’ll take into account the objects produced by artists and activists, and the role institutions and archives play in shaping aesthetic and social discourse. Through a cross-disciplinary, hands-on approach, students will gain an understanding of how archives, exhibitions, and museums shape knowledge, writing, and research. As students visit cultural institutions at UIC and throughout Chicago, they’ll examine how institutions historicize and continue to mobilize collective experience.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN: 43520

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Corbin Hiday

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14464

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Travis Mandell

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  44763

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Carrie McGath

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  home in Chicago

CRN:  14444

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Heather McShane

Do you think of Chicago as your home? Your new home? What does “home” mean for people living in Chicago? Historically and currently, housing in Chicago is mired in such controversial sociopolitical issues as immigration, racial segregation, and gentrification. In this section of English 161, we will investigate examples of Chicago housing practices by taking field trips to Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, the National Public Housing Museum, and Special Collections in the Daley Library. Additionally, we will look at Chicago-based architecture, art, and literature that show and give shape to Chicago homes, at times constraining people, and at other times, inspiring or even socializing them. Home in Chicago will serve as the theme of the four major writing assignments required for English 161: an annotated bibliography, a literature review, a research paper proposal, and a research paper.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  42529

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Mike Newirth

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  32288

Days/Time:  TR 2:00-3:15

Instructor:  Lisa Stolley

In English 161, you will conduct independent research leading to a documented research paper that explores an aspect of the topic of American corporations and industries and their influence on our public and private lives. Through readings, videos, and discussions, we will examine the impact of corporations and industries on the government, economy, environment, mental and physical health, and consumer behavior in areas such as food, healthcare, and technology. We will also analyze how corporate branding, advertising, and social media influence perceptions of beauty, success, health, race, and gender, and the broader implications of that influence. Over the course of the semester, you will develop and apply the skills necessary to construct a sound, evidence-based argument, culminating in a thoroughly researched and well-crafted argumentative paper.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Our Resilient Chicago

CRN:  14468

Days/Time:  TR 3:30-4:45

Instructor:  Daniel Barton

In her book, A Paradise Built In Hell, Rebecca Solnit explores how, in the wake of disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes—and contrary to beliefs that people tend to act in selfish interest after such events—, communities often come together and support each other. In a time of increasing environmental and social stress, Solnit’s revelation of peoples’ potential for cooperation offers a hopeful counternarrative about disaster and what it means—and what would it take—for a community to persevere through challenging times. This class will take up this question of community resilience in a moment of political, social, and environmental uncertainty, developing a definition of the concept by tracing the history of its development and analyzing various ideas on how to achieve it. Beyond sustainability, resiliency focuses on a community’s ability to adapt to adversity. We will also explore current challenges to this process. In a semester-long investigation, centered around the city of Chicago, we will identify pressing issues—from climate change to crises in housing, transportation, and social injustice—and how Chicagoans can and are addressing them in unique, creative ways. Through critical examination of various texts—scholarly, public, governmental, etc.—and an independent research project, we will build an understanding of important environmental and social issues while developing academic research and writing skills that will be important throughout your college career and beyond.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Happiness

CRN:  22115

Days/Time:  TR 3:30-4:45

Instructor:  Kian Bergstrom

It seems obvious that each of us wants to be happy.  The US Declaration of Independence claims the pursuit of happiness to be an ‘unalienable right’, and one of the factors that led to you coming to UIC was probably that you thought studying here would help make you a happier person overall.  But what exactly is happiness?  What does it mean to live a *happy* life?  In recent years, the nature and importance of happiness has become a subject of intense discussion in philosophy, psychology, political science, and the arts.  In this section of English 161, we will look at some ways smart people, both ancient and modern, have thought about happiness and try to work answers out for ourselves for some of the great questions of life in general, including: is happiness the same as pleasure or contentment? is it possible to be wrong about whether or not we are happy? do we have an obligation to help other people be happy? are there bad kinds of happiness, or bad ways of being happy? can an unhappy life nevertheless be a worthwhile one? what does it mean to sacrifice our own happiness for someone else? can a machine be happy? a cat? a tree? can a society as a whole be happy, or is happiness always personal, individual? can simply being happy be an act of political resistance?

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  29119

Days/Time:  TR 3:30-4:45

Instructor:  Sara Buchmeier

Chicago’s infamous Stock Yards, the once gruesomely unsanitary meatpacking district, is now the site of Packingtown Museum, which commemorates the working-class history of the area, and Bubbly Dynamics, LLC, where visitors can enjoy a drink at the Jungle Taproom or pick up greens from a sustainable farm. This course develops academic writing and research skills through the study of how Chicago commemorates work and workers. Focusing on monuments, memorials, and public narratives tied to the city’s industrial and labor history, students will examine how class dynamics shape collective memory in urban space. Students will immerse themselves in the world of labor history sites through readings from history, fiction, and pop culture as well as optional excursions to labor-oriented cultural institutions. From the Pullman Strike to the Memorial Day Massacre, we’ll cover the violence, resilience, trials, and triumphs as we work through a sequence of writing projects to build a research-based project about how Chicago’s working-class past is represented in its public landscapes.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14460

Days/Time:  TR 3:30-4:45

Instructor:  John Casey

The word sustainability is used today with such frequency that its meaning is rapidly being lost. 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 begin to read and analyze current research on the application of sustainability principles to the production, distribution, and consumption of food. These studies will 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

CRN:  14425

Days/Time:  TR 3:30-4:45

Instructor:  Eman Elturki

A university campus functions as a microcosm of a city, with its varied facilities and operations (e.g., lecture halls, libraries, laboratories, residence halls, dining services, transportation, parking, health care, campus security, space heating and cooling, and water management). These activities and spaces on campus, along with our actions as community members, have a significant impact on the environment. Besides serving as a hub for intellectual stimulation and economic growth, universities play a key role in instilling environmental awareness and transforming practices. A growing number of higher education institutions around the globe are adopting sustainable practices to minimize their environmental footprint and “create and maintain the conditions under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony to support present and future generations” (EAP , 2023). UIC, for example, is among the institutions that have made commitments to sustainability by working towards becoming a: (1) carbon neutral university, (2) zero waste university, (3) net zero water university, (4) biodiverse university, and (5) transformative scholarship university.
In this course, you will contribute to UIC’s sustainability efforts while enhancing your research, academic writing, and critical reading skills. You will undertake a course-long research project on a topic related to one of UIC’s five climate commitments. The course assignments are designed sequentially to guide your research process. Preliminary research will involve reading and analyzing texts on sustainability, particularly in college campuses and your area of interest, and will culminate in an Annotated Bibliography. After establishing some knowledge of the topic, you will consolidate your understanding of your selected area of sustainability by conducting a Literature Review, in which you will synthesize and analyze sources relevant to your inquiry. Next, you will put forward a Research Proposal outlining your research focus, its significance, research question, and plan. Finally, building on your extensive research from earlier assignments, you will engage in the final round of research to produce your Research Essay and then give an Oral Presentation to share your findings with the class. By the end of this course, you will gain a deeper understanding of scholarly writing conventions and enhance your critical reading, research, and revision skills.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Climate and Energy Politics in The Time of Monsters

CRN:  14462

Days/Time:  TR 3:30-4:45

Instructor:  Corbin Hiday

In this course, we will pursue humanistic knowledge as it emerges in relation to questions of climate cultures, politics, energy and the environment. In doing so, we will interrogate challenges and concerns of our contemporary world through engagement with cultural forms, political power, social justice efforts, and scholarship. How do we conceive of political power in relation to climate change and can cultural representation help us imagine adequate futures? The critical thinking and writing skills practiced in the humanities offer creative and intersectional argumentative approaches to working through difficult challenges. Together as a class, we will explore a series of approaches to understanding the cultures and politics of climate change, including resistance efforts, apocalyptic imaginings, and utopian horizons. 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. Through the examination and analysis of various texts (climate journalism, official documents like IPCC reports, environmental humanities scholarship, fiction and documentaries), we will use this topic to develop skills of academic research and writing.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  47645

Days/Time:  TR 3:30-4:45

Instructor:  Travis Mandell

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14456

Days/Time:  TR 3:30-4:45

Instructor:  Mike Newirth

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  32290

Days/Time:  TR 3:30-4:45

Instructor:  Lisa Stolley

In English 161, you will conduct independent research leading to a documented research paper that explores an aspect of the topic of American corporations and industries and their influence on our public and private lives. Through readings, videos, and discussions, we will examine the impact of corporations and industries on the government, economy, environment, mental and physical health, and consumer behavior in areas such as food, healthcare, and technology. We will also analyze how corporate branding, advertising, and social media influence perceptions of beauty, success, health, race, and gender, and the broader implications of that influence. Over the course of the semester, you will develop and apply the skills necessary to construct a sound, evidence-based argument, culminating in a thoroughly researched and well-crafted argumentative paper.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Writing Within Your Major

CRN:  47384

Days/Time:  TR 5:00-6:15HYBRID

Instructor:  Carla Barger

Argument is the driving force behind academic writing. In this course, you will learn to analyze what others are saying and will jumpstart your engagement with academic writing in your major or field of interest. Together we will analyze a central set of readings, but each student will choose a topic on which they will complete a series of assignments culminating in an original academic research paper. The course is designed to support individualized inquiry and discovery while emphasizing revision and giving writers the chance to practice critical thinking, researched argument, and peer review. Daily classroom activities include practicing critical reading and research methods, and researching and evaluating source material as well as summarizing and synthesizing that material. By the end of the semester, you will have valuable practical experience writing in your major or area of interest, which will serve you throughout your college career.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Our Resilient Chicago

CRN:  48311

Days/Time:  TR 5:00-6:15

Instructor:  Daniel Barton

In her book, A Paradise Built In Hell, Rebecca Solnit explores how, in the wake of disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes—and contrary to beliefs that people tend to act in selfish interest after such events—, communities often come together and support each other. In a time of increasing environmental and social stress, Solnit’s revelation of peoples’ potential for cooperation offers a hopeful counternarrative about disaster and what it means—and what would it take—for a community to persevere through challenging times. This class will take up this question of community resilience in a moment of political, social, and environmental uncertainty, developing a definition of the concept by tracing the history of its development and analyzing various ideas on how to achieve it. Beyond sustainability, resiliency focuses on a community’s ability to adapt to adversity. We will also explore current challenges to this process. In a semester-long investigation, centered around the city of Chicago, we will identify pressing issues—from climate change to crises in housing, transportation, and social injustice—and how Chicagoans can and are addressing them in unique, creative ways. Through critical examination of various texts—scholarly, public, governmental, etc.—and an independent research project, we will build an understanding of important environmental and social issues while developing academic research and writing skills that will be important throughout your college career and beyond.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II: Happiness

CRN:  30804

Days/Time:  TR 5:00-6:15

Instructor:  Kian Bergstrom

It seems obvious that each of us wants to be happy.  The US Declaration of Independence claims the pursuit of happiness to be an ‘unalienable right’, and one of the factors that led to you coming to UIC was probably that you thought studying here would help make you a happier person overall.  But what exactly is happiness?  What does it mean to live a *happy* life?  In recent years, the nature and importance of happiness has become a subject of intense discussion in philosophy, psychology, political science, and the arts.  In this section of English 161, we will look at some ways smart people, both ancient and modern, have thought about happiness and try to work answers out for ourselves for some of the great questions of life in general, including: is happiness the same as pleasure or contentment? is it possible to be wrong about whether or not we are happy? do we have an obligation to help other people be happy? are there bad kinds of happiness, or bad ways of being happy? can an unhappy life nevertheless be a worthwhile one? what does it mean to sacrifice our own happiness for someone else? can a machine be happy? a cat? a tree? can a society as a whole be happy, or is happiness always personal, individual? can simply being happy be an act of political resistance?

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  32287

Days/Time:  TR 5:00-6:15

Instructor:  Sara Buchmeier

Chicago’s infamous Stock Yards, the once gruesomely unsanitary meatpacking district, is now the site of Packingtown Museum, which commemorates the working-class history of the area, and Bubbly Dynamics, LLC, where visitors can enjoy a drink at the Jungle Taproom or pick up greens from a sustainable farm. This course develops academic writing and research skills through the study of how Chicago commemorates work and workers. Focusing on monuments, memorials, and public narratives tied to the city’s industrial and labor history, students will examine how class dynamics shape collective memory in urban space. Students will immerse themselves in the world of labor history sites through readings from history, fiction, and pop culture as well as optional excursions to labor-oriented cultural institutions. From the Pullman Strike to the Memorial Day Massacre, we’ll cover the violence, resilience, trials, and triumphs as we work through a sequence of writing projects to build a research-based project about how Chicago’s working-class past is represented in its public landscapes.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II:  Climate and Energy Politics in The Time of Monsters

CRN:  14437

Days/Time:  TR 5:00-6:15

Instructor:  Corbin Hiday

In this course, we will pursue humanistic knowledge as it emerges in relation to questions of climate cultures, politics, energy and the environment. In doing so, we will interrogate challenges and concerns of our contemporary world through engagement with cultural forms, political power, social justice efforts, and scholarship. How do we conceive of political power in relation to climate change and can cultural representation help us imagine adequate futures? The critical thinking and writing skills practiced in the humanities offer creative and intersectional argumentative approaches to working through difficult challenges. Together as a class, we will explore a series of approaches to understanding the cultures and politics of climate change, including resistance efforts, apocalyptic imaginings, and utopian horizons. 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. Through the examination and analysis of various texts (climate journalism, official documents like IPCC reports, environmental humanities scholarship, fiction and documentaries), we will use this topic to develop skills of academic research and writing.

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  29120

Days/Time:  TR 5:00-6:15

Instructor:  Travis Mandell

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14391

Days/Time:  TR 5:00-6:15

Instructor:  Mike Newirth

ENGL 161 Academic Writing II

CRN:  14418

Days/Time:  TR 5:00-6:15

Instructor:   Lisa Stolley

In English 161, you will conduct independent research leading to a documented research paper that explores an aspect of the topic of American corporations and industries and their influence on our public and private lives. Through readings, videos, and discussions, we will examine the impact of corporations and industries on the government, economy, environment, mental and physical health, and consumer behavior in areas such as food, healthcare, and technology. We will also analyze how corporate branding, advertising, and social media influence perceptions of beauty, success, health, race, and gender, and the broader implications of that influence. Over the course of the semester, you will develop and apply the skills necessary to construct a sound, evidence-based argument, culminating in a thoroughly researched and well-crafted argumentative paper.