Summer 2023 Course Descriptions

200-Level English Courses

ENG 202 Writing About Literature 5cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 101 or instructor permission.

CRN: 30185 DAY/TIME: In person, MTWR 12:00-01:50 pm Instructor: Bell, Michael

Or…"How Nerds Won Culture." This section of English 202 involves critical inquiry into the effects of literature that created and sustains what we might term “nerd culture”: the activities, properties, concerns, and texts of what is arguably the dominant mode of contemporary narrative production. The genres under our purview will include horror, fantasy, and science-fiction, and their various combinations and offshoots. The specific forms we will study will of course include the written word, but because so much of our contemporary culture is expressed and reflected in the visual realm, we will go beyond the page to include film, TV, and game narratives, both videogames and table-top, as well as web-based fandom.

All of our study will assume that whatever form it takes, fictional narrative has the power to construct and inform our worldly experience, even our reality. To sometimes great extent, we model our identities on literary stories, and build our perspectives from them. By making connection to our experiences and histories, stories illuminate the world, permitting us to see more texture and variety and possibility in our lives. Here in the United States, in the early 21st century, much of this on-going narrative field is being informed by genre fiction, and we will consider these narratives as literature worthy of our close attention. Through intensive reading, discussion, activity, and writing we will further develop our ability to make meaning from these texts, focusing our analyses through formal critical practices as well as rigorous play and experimentation. You will emerge from the course a stronger analytic writer and reader with greater appreciation of the power of literature to bring you to deeper self-knowledge and increased awareness of a wider, richer, more complex world.

ALL TEXTS PROVIDED OR SHARED FOR FREE. Texts will comprise the written word as well as video and
game texts.

ASSIGNMENTS: In addition to reading assignments and participation in class activities, requirements will
comprise one formal analytical paper, several informal writing assignments, and a final project. 

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300-Level English Courses

ENG 301 Writing and the Public 5cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 101; junior status; or instructor permission. 

CRN: 30616 DAY/TIME: ONLINE ASYNC Instructor: Lucchesi, Andrew

This course examines the concept of disability through a social and cultural lens, exploring its intersections with writing studies and the topic of public writing. We will think about what disability means in different contexts as it relates to rhetoric and public actions, such as activism and community building. We will observe that disability has long been a matter of public debate, from the Section 504 sit-ins that led to the first civil rights protections to the HIV/AIDS activism that fought for life-saving healthcare. We will pay attention to the ways disabled people and their allies have used rhetoric and community networks to care for one another and fight ableist discourse throughout society. At the same time, we will question notions of disability identity that have historically excluded the participation of BIPOC people from the disability rights movement. This will help us find new ways to understand disability in a broad, rhetorically grounded way, not only as a source of personal meaning but as an engine of public discourse.  

ENG 302 Technical Writing 5cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 101; junior standing; or instructor permission.

CRN: 30126 DAY/TIME: ONLINE ASYNC Instructor: Forsberg, Geri

English 302 is the English department’s introductory 300-level workshop course in technical writing. It is for juniors and seniors. It is a 5-credit writing proficiency course. English 302 emphasizes the writer-reader relationship in a variety of nonacademic writing situations. Students learn to identify their audience, develop objectives, organize the content of their documents and revise documents for readability. Students write and design a resume, letters, memos, a proposal, a formal report, an infographic, and a visual presentation. Students also learn to work in small breakout groups, collaborate on writing, and give peer feedback. The final project in this course is a professional portfolio which provides examples of your strongest work. When you have completed this course, you should be ready to write in the professional world.

CRN: 30137 DAY/TIME: ONLINE ASYNC Instructor: Sarkar, Rachel

English 302 addresses the essential elements of technical writing—or writing in action. My underlying objective for English 302 is to explore the power of language to change people, events, and self. We’ll explore ways to use writing skills to accomplish personal, professional, and ideological goals. In the process, we’ll also consider the use of humor, empathy, ethics, and storytelling in technical writing.  

ENG 310 Seminar: The Long 19th Century 5cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 202 or instructor permission.

The seminar and survey time periods are not repeatable. If you have taken ENG 310 or ENG 320, do not take ENG 310.

CRN: 30475 DAY/TIME: ONLINE SYNC, R 02:00-03:50 pm Instructor: Hardman, Pam

This course will be held online. We’ll have required Zoom classes every Thurs, 2:00-3:50; otherwise you’ll do the work in your own time, meeting weekly deadlines.  

You can register for either 310 or 320 for this course. Most readings and assignments will be the same for both CRNs, although you will be able to chose some material specific to the seminar or the survey.  

CONTENT: In this course we’ll explore a variety of texts created by women in North America during the long 19th century. Each of the texts challenges traditional narratives, resisting not only genre expectations but also broader cultural assumptions and structures. Many of the texts give agency and voice to marginalized women, providing – to borrow bell hooks’ words – ways to subversively claim space that normally excludes them. We’ll consider different types of media in addition to writing, such as scrapbooks, embroidery, samplers, recipes, and quilts. 

ASSIGNMENTS: Assigned reading; Canvas discussions; short writing responses; final multi-media project. 

TEXTS: may include the writers Sui Sin Far, Zitkala-Ša, Harriet Jacobs, Louisa May Alcott, Rose Terry Cooke, Fanny Fern, Pauline Hopkins, and Emily Dickinson, as well as examples of scrapbooks, samplers, embroidery, recipes, and quilting. 

ENG 311 Seminar: The 20-21st Century 5cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 202 or instructor permission.

The seminar and survey time periods are not repeatable. Do not take ENG 311 if you have already taken ENG 321 or 311.

CRN: 30337 DAY/TIME: In person, MTWR 08:00-09:50 am Instructor: Wise, Christopher

Modernism 

This course will focus on pre- and post-WWI modern literature of American, English, and French writers living in Paris. We will read and compare the writings of poets and novelists like Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Mallarmé, Pound, Stein, Hemingway, and Proust. We will also compare literary texts with choreography of the Ballets Russes, paintings of Cézanne, Monet, Braque, and Picasso, and early modern films. We will study orientalism, impressionism, cubism, surrealism. Assigned readings will include poems, short stories, literary manifestoes, novels, memoirs. Students should come to class ready to write. 

Course Requirements 

A midterm essay exam, a final essay exam, and a formal paper of 4-5 pages. Regular participation and attendance. Although this is a six-week class, students will also have the option of completing final writing assignments in eight weeks. 

Texts: 

• Charles Baudelaire, Paris Spleen 
• Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast 
• Gertrude Stein, Selected Writings of Gertrude Stein 
• Gertrude Stein, Picasso 
• Andre Breton, Manifesto of Surrealism 
• Marcel Proust, Swann’s Way 

ENG 313 Critical Theories & Prac I 5cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 202 or instructor permission.

CRN: 30293 DAY/TIME: ONLINE ASYNC Instructor: Cushman, Jeremy

The thing about engaging with what gets called ‘theory’ or ‘philosophy’ is that it gives us the chance to jump into a pretty heated and certainly long-running squabble. And it’s a squabble that, whether you’re currently conscious of it or not, shapes how you understand and respond to the worlds in which you act. This is a squabble that, to say the least, matters. 

So the whole point to our time together this summer is all about giving you the chance to work out the possible ways ‘theory’ or ‘philosophy’ can help you make different, maybe even a more useful kinds of sense of the differing ‘texts’ you encounter. That is, I want the class to help you practice reading all the varied kinds of material that matters to you across and with this ancient squabble called ‘theory’—material like Marvel movies, long emails from the university’s president, short stories, intimidating healthcare documentation, a Netflix series, and so on. Theory, even (and I think especially) theory that predates Christianity and the Enlightenment, has an awful lot to say to us about the critical ways we make meaning out of the ‘texts’ or material that matters to us. 

So we’ll jump into this squabble around 500 BCE, and try to make some sense of the people who get called the ‘Pre-socratics,’ or the Sophists. We don’t have much from these writers and thinkers, just torn fragments of text and notes that some of their students left behind. But what we do have is wonderfully weird and sometimes profound. Their work seemingly anticipates what much of our own squabbles about truth, justice, and living in right relationship with the others and with the natural world. 

Then we’ll turn to philosophers who, many say, have structured what we call the Western Tradition: Plato and his student Aristotle. The squabble between the Sophists and Plato/Aristotle is legit. So we’ll dwell here for a bit before turning to people that began to transform this squabble into wildly influentially ideas about political institutions, and who used it to invent lasting interpretations of Christianity that impact you whether you know it or not. 

After that, we’ll quickly (because we don’t have time to go slow) make our way though others that jumped into the squabble as it carried on. These are thinkers, writers, ‘theorists,’ and ‘philosophers’ that, while you’ve maybe never read them, they’ve helped shape your underlying understanding of identity, reason, love, religion, history, and other giant conceptions that allow us to interpret our world one way rather than another.  

Texts: There’s no required texts to buy for the course because our original sources are in the ‘public domain,’ and I’ll be sending along the more contemporary essays about these texts. 

Class Structure: 

• Monday: You’ll get an assigned text from one or two of our ‘theorists.’ You’ll also get a recorded, podcast-style, ‘lecture’ from me about that week’s ‘theorists.’ (Plus, I'll run an optional meeting when most people are available) 
• Wednesday: You’ll write responses to my prompts about that week’s reading and my ‘lecture’ (Plus, I'll run an optional meeting when most people are available) 
• Thursday: Early on in the class, I’ll send along examples of how to practice reading differing ‘texts’ or material across and with the ‘theorist’ and ‘philosophers’ that we’re engaging. About a quarter of the way through the class, I’ll start sending ‘texts’ and a prompt for you to do this kind of work on your own. That work will be ‘due’ the following Monday. Then it all starts again. 

ENG 320 Survey: The Long 19th Century 5cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 101 or instructor permission.

The seminar and survey time periods are not repeatable. If you have taken ENG 310 or ENG 320, do not take ENG 320.

CRN: 30465 DAY/TIME: ONLINE SYNC, R 02:00-03:50 pm Instructor: Hardman, Pam

This course will be held online. We’ll have required Zoom classes every Thurs, 2:00-3:50; otherwise you’ll do the work in your own time, meeting weekly deadlines.  

You can register for either 310 or 320 for this course. Most readings and assignments will be the same for both CRNs, although you will be able to chose some material specific to the seminar or the survey.  

CONTENT: In this course we’ll explore a variety of texts created by women in North America during the long 19th century. Each of the texts challenges traditional narratives, resisting not only genre expectations but also broader cultural assumptions and structures. Many of the texts give agency and voice to marginalized women, providing – to borrow bell hooks’ words – ways to subversively claim space that normally excludes them. We’ll consider different types of media in addition to writing, such as scrapbooks, embroidery, samplers, recipes, and quilts. 

ASSIGNMENTS: Assigned reading; Canvas discussions; short writing responses; final multi-media project. 

TEXTS: may include the writers Sui Sin Far, Zitkala-Ša, Harriet Jacobs, Louisa May Alcott, Rose Terry Cooke, Fanny Fern, Pauline Hopkins, and Emily Dickinson, as well as examples of scrapbooks, samplers, embroidery, recipes, and quilting. 

ENG 321 Survey: The 20-21st Centuries 5cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 101 or instructor permission.

The seminar and survey time periods are not repeatable. If you have taken ENG 311 or ENG 321, do not take ENG 321.

CRN: 30476 DAY/TIME: In person, MTWR 08:00-09:50 am Instructor: Wise, Christopher

Modernism 

This course will focus on pre- and post-WWI modern literature of American, English, and French writers living in Paris. We will read and compare the writings of poets and novelists like Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Mallarmé, Pound, Stein, Hemingway, and Proust. We will also compare literary texts with choreography of the Ballets Russes, paintings of Cézanne, Monet, Braque, and Picasso, and early modern films. We will study orientalism, impressionism, cubism, surrealism. Assigned readings will include poems, short stories, literary manifestoes, novels, memoirs. Students should come to class ready to write. 

Course Requirements 

A midterm essay exam, a final essay exam, and a formal paper of 4-5 pages. Regular participation and attendance. Although this is a six-week class, students will also have the option of completing final writing assignments in eight weeks. 

Texts: 

• Charles Baudelaire, Paris Spleen 
• Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast 
• Gertrude Stein, Selected Writings of Gertrude Stein 
• Gertrude Stein, Picasso 
• Andre Breton, Manifesto of Surrealism 
• Marcel Proust, Swann’s Way 

ENG 347 Studies in Young Adult Lit 5cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 202 or instructor permission.  

CRN: 30084 DAY/TIME: ONLINE ASYNC Instructor: Celaya, Anthony

Young adult literature (YAL) might conjure images of blockbuster successes (Harry Potter, Hunger Games) or superficial depictions of teenage drama (Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars), however in this course we will explore the incredibly diverse field to foster a more complex and critical understanding of young adult literature. We will learn about the history of young adult literature and explore a variety of contemporary topics within the field, including: reading for joy, dystopian novels, LGBTQ+ representation, nonfiction YAL, and addressing relevant sociocultural issues.  

We will read and discuss the following novels as a class. You will need to get a copy of each book for this course.  

• With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo 
• Dry by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman 
• The Music of What Happens by Bill Konigsberg 
• Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, & You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi 
• Dig by A.S. King 

In addition to the required novels, you will read four young adult literature novels of your choice with at least two novels coming from the Walden and/or Printz award lists. 

ENG 350 Intro to Creative Writing 5cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 101 or instructor permission.

CRN: 30079 DAY/TIME: In person, MTWR 10:00-11:50 am Instructor: Westhoff, Kami

This course will introduce you to the art of writing poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. We will read established authors and study the ways in which they create compelling work through unique use of voice, description, setting, form, character development, and experimentation. While reading and studying these authors, you will engage in various writing exercises, revision, and workshop to create a portfolio of your strongest work.  

CRN: 30546 DAY/TIME: In person, MTWR 12:00-01:50 pm Instructor: McGuire, Simon

In this course we will explore, discuss, practice and revise forms of poetry, short fiction and creative non-fiction. I'll introduce you to exercises in ekphrasis (writing about art), traditional forms, poetry machines and current trends in contemporary poetics (visual poetry, collaborative writing methods, conceptual writing, multilingual pieces.). Everyone will be required to participate each week in small group discussion forums to read and responds to assignments and complete attentive peer reviews. This course uses Imaginative Writing (4th ed.) as a main text, and I will offer other documents and sources on Canvas.

ENG 353 Introduction to Poetry Writing 5cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 350 or instructor permission.

CRN: 30435 DAY/TIME: ONLINE SYNC, MW 12:00-01:50 pm Instructor: Shipley, Ely

This course focuses on the practice of reading and writing poetry. While the primary concern is student writing, we work from the basis that in order to become better writers, we also must become better readers. We will explore a range of poetic traditions and contemporary developments and spend the quarter reading, writing, and discussing poetry through focusing on elements such as metaphor, image, rhythm, sound, line, and dramatic tension. You will be responsible for not only submitting original work, but also for offering thoughtful observations to each work discussed. We become better writers through reading, thinking and feeling intensely, learning from our own work, the work of others, and above all, by practicing. 

ENG 364 Introduction to Film Studies 5cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 101 or instructor permission.

CRN: 30437 DAY/TIME: ONLINE SYNC, TR 02:00-03:50 pm Instructor: Prichard, Tony

The course covers the key concepts in film studies. The basic terms and concepts regarding the production, theorization, and analysis of film will be introduced.

The viewings in the course will provide look variety of films throughout the history of cinema in order to practice employing the terms and concepts

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400-Level English Courses

ENG 406 Topics: Contemporary Indie Comix and Intermedial Theory 5cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 101 or instructor permission. All other prerequisites are waived for Summer Session. 

CRN: 30914 DAY/TIME: ONLINE SYNC, TR 12:00-01:50 pm Instructor: Dietrich, Dawn

Course Description 

This course will introduce you to the radical creativity of the Indie comix scene that largely originated in Seattle. Focusing on handmade comics and contemporary Indie presses, we will explore the intersectional themes of identity, community, and agency. Through our diverse range of texts, we will try to articulate and understand the strange, the beautiful, the complex, and the interesting . . . in these graphic narratives. The selected texts feature marginalized and under-represented characters and themes, including topics such as love and friendship (relationship building), depression, sexuality, resiliency, and loneliness/isolation. We will celebrate comix as a potentially queer space where openness, fluidity, and non-conformity represent textual strategies as well as characters’ identities. The themes in these writers’ works intersect and overlap with politics and rebellion while highlighting the complex ways in which individuals are situated in larger generational, regional, and national contexts. We will also study comix form and technique as well as intermedial theory. You will have the opportunity to write about comix and create your own small comix in the course. No artistic experience or illustrating talent is required for the Studio Comix assignments. Students receive full credit for playing with the prompts! Additionally, contemporary critical media such as multimodal blogs and/or podcasts will be used to engage in critical analysis rather than the traditional essay. I also invite you to share your favorite comix or web comix on the Canvas Graffiti Board throughout the quarter. 

*Please note: this class content contains adult language and themes. 

Assignments and Evaluation 

You will have the opportunity to read fabulous graphic novels and learn about intermedial theory in this course. Reading comics also requires a knowledge of the artform and an introduction to technical aspects of graphic art, which is super fun and interesting. You will have the opportunity to write 3 multi-modal blogs during the quarter as well as practice your own comic-making with Studio Comix exercises that come with full credit for completing the assignment! No artistic experience or illustrating talent is required. This seminar is geared for both literature and creative writing students as well as students in other majors who are interested in comix. 

Required Texts 

• Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud (PDF available) 
• Comix Theory and Criticism (Selected PDFs available) 
• Comix Samples, Eroyn Franklin (online) 
• Skim, Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki 
• Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me, Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell 
• Hot Comb, Ebony Flowers 
• My Favorite Thing is Monsters (vol. 1), Emil Ferris 
• Sabrina, Nick Drnaso 

ENG 410 Literary History: The American Discovery of Europe 5cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 202 or instructor permission. All other prerequisites are waived for Summer Session. 

CRN: 30916 DAY/TIME: ONLINE SYNC, TR 10:00-11:50 am Instructor: Forsythe, Jenny

Eurocentric accounts of the literatures of the American hemisphere (and of global modernity) begin with Christopher Columbus’s discovery of America in 1492. But recent scholarship from Indigenous and non-Indigenous historians powerfully contests this narrative by telling the stories of the Indigenous people (Mexica, Maya, Inuit, Inca, and many others) who discovered Europe both before and after 1492. In this class, we will analyze the power and flaws of origin stories, and we will take an in-depth look at scholarship centering Indigenous exploration and discovery. All our texts are available as e-books with your WWU library login and as PDFs on our canvas course site. In this class, you will learn to read like a (literary) historian by developing skills in

• reading dense academic texts strategically
• reading colonial archives against the grain
• identifying and responding to a historian’s main ideas
• writing short response papers
• developing and implementing discussion questions
• creating critical interpretive frameworks for primary documents

This hybrid online class is structured as a virtual reading group with 100-200 pages of reading per week, substantive writing assignments due twice a week, and two virtual meetings per week. I expect and require all students to be accountable to our learning community by showing up and actively participating in all virtual meetings and by respecting all due dates for all assignments. Please email me at jenny.forsythe@wwu.edu with any questions about this class or to request a copy of the syllabus.

ENG 459 Editing and Publishing 5cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 351, ENG 353, or ENG 354; or instructor permission   

CRN: 30309 DAY/TIME: In person, MTWR 08:00-09:50 am Instructor: Magee, Kelly

This class will engage two kinds of editing and publishing: magazine and book publishing. Each student will choose a project that fits their interests and write and edit content for it, as well as learn how to create, publish, and market content as editors for other writers. As writer-editors, you’ll work collaboratively in Editorial Groups and with other members of the class to solicit creative work, provide feedback, and construct a final publication packet. You’ll consider and study the market, including your ideal audience, and design a project that speaks to that audience. By the end of the course, you will have had practice editing and revising as writers, content editors, line editors, proofreaders, fact-checkers, marketers, and reviewers. The quarter will culminate in presentations of your final project, either a chapbook proposal packet or zine publication packet. 

ENG 460 Topics: Multi-Genre Creative Writing 5cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 351, ENG 353 or ENG 354; or instructor permission

CRN: 30918 DAY/TIME: In person, MTWR 02:00-03:50 pm Instructor: Steele, Harlin/Hayley

Topic: Place, Collaboration, Futurity 

How do we co-create the world in which we live? What does it mean as a writer to be situated in a given place and time? In this course, we will be writing across genres and media, including fiction, memoir, poetry, games, and e-lit, while thinking critically about the era in which we currently reside. We will play Jeeyon Shim's keepsake game, Field Guide to Memory, and we will read the novel No Gods, No Monsters by Cadwell Turnbull, along with Vanessa Springora’s memoir Consent, and Joshua Whitehead’s book of poetry, Full-metal Indigiqueer. We will likewise engage with other relevant creative and theoretical texts, including works on emergent strategy, colonial unknowing, consent, the commons, critical Indigenous theory, and critical theories of race.  

Our work will include individual and collaborative projects that explore themes of place, collaboration, and futurity, which will be assembled into a final portfolio. Beyond reading, viewing, and playing relevant works, we will also connect with community members in and beyond WWU who are doing different forms of future-oriented work, and explore ways their visions might inform our own creative projects. Ultimately, all writing and art that reaches the public is the result of a collaborative process, and as part of this course, we will gain practice in decision-making styles used in real-world creative collaborations. Drawing from the work of feminist philosophers, we will also work to map our own "situatedness" as we search for material that is uniquely ours, while exploring how we, as writers, can responsibly leverage language and narrative to bring attention to issues within and beyond our own communities and networks of kin.  

ENG 464 Film Stds: South Korean Cinema 5cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 364 or instructor permission.  

CRN: 30502 DAY/TIME: ONLINE SYNC, TR 08:00-09:50 am Instructor: Odabasi, Eren

When Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite (2019) won the Academy Award for Best Picture, this triumph marked the culmination of decades-long transnational popularity, acclaim, and recognition for South Korean Cinema. Korean films frequently enjoy immense success on the festival circuit and at the box office. Many Korean films have been remade in other countries or themselves are based on works in other languages. A large number of Korean directors, actors, and other film professionals have crossed borders and achieved global stardom through their work in and outside Korea. Such forms of cross-cultural exchange and circulation have turned South Korean film industry into one of the most popular, distinctive, and influential producers of cinematic content worldwide. 

This course explores the concept of cinematic transnationalism through a concentrated study of contemporary South Korean Cinema. We will unpack the industry practices, technological developments, and cultural trends that have been instrumental in increasing the global visibility and appreciation of South Korean films. We will analyze a wide range of texts covering many different genres (such as romantic comedies, spy thrillers, period films, and contemplative dramas), formats (feature films, streaming originals, remakes, episodic content), and cinematic sensibilities (from austere arthouse films to massive blockbusters). We will also question our own spectatorial positions and reflect on the political or ethical implications of image making and consumption across national boundaries. 

There will be two synchronous Zoom meetings and additional asynchronous activities every week. All the films will be made available via streaming. The course requirements include several short essays, reflection papers, and a term project.   

Required books: 

Transnational Korean Cinema: Cultural Politics, Film Genres, and Digital Technologies 

By Dal Yong Jin, Rutgers University Press, 2020. 

Movie Migrations: Transnational Genre Flows and South Korean Cinema 

By Hye Seung Chung and David Scott Diffrient, Rutgers University Press, 2015 

Both of these texts are available for free in e-book versions through Western Libraries. 

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English Graduate Courses

ENG 690 Thesis Writing 2 TO 10cr

CRN: 30008 No scheduled meeting time.

ENG 699 Continuous Enrollment 2cr

CRN: 30127 No scheduled meeting time.