Summer 2025 Course Descriptions

200-Level English Courses

ENG 202 Writing About Literature 5 cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 101.  

CRN: 30842, DAY/TIME: Online MTWR 10:00am - 11:50am, Instructor: Michael Bell

Or…”How Nerds Won Culture.” This online 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.  

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 us nerds, 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.

THIS IS AN ONLINE SYNCHRONOUS CAMERAS-ON COURSE

ALL TEXTS PROVIDED OR SHARED FOR FREE: We will be negotiating the specific texts we address on our first day together, but these will comprise written texts, a comic, films/TV shows, a videogame, and a table-top RPG (played online).

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.  

300-Level English Courses

ENG 301 Writing and the Public 5 cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 101.  

CRN: 30423, DAY/TIME: Online Async, Instructor: Jeremy Cushman

One magical thing about Video Essays is that they refuse to shy away from the fact that writing is embodied. 

So often, writing, especially writing meant to address a relatively large or abstract public, can feel disembodied. Indeed, writing for abstract publics can feel like it requires a writer to purposefully ignore their own body so they can participate in a "reasonable" or "logical" discourse that's devoid of all those pesky bodily "problems"— supposed problems like an itchy nose, blushing, elevated heart rate, sweat, shape, age, sex/gender identification, racial identification, visible or audible disability, and on and on. In other words, anything that is explicitly embodied seems to be out of place or, worse, inappropriate when it comes to writing for a relatively large or abstract public. Writing for a public seems to assume or even require an abstract or even an invisible body, but, of course, an "abstract body" is never abstract.  

Video Essays have little to no time for the concept of “abstract” bodies! Even in those that don’t make visible a writer’s body, video essay-ing, I think, is a kind of writing that foregrounds the body. Foregrounding the body changes and challenges what it means to write to and/or for a public. So, together, we'll obsess about Video Essays. We'll watch/read them, we'll compare and question them, we'll track the ways they circulate, and of course, we'll make them!  

In the end, my hope is that we'll create a 'writing culture,' even a asynchronous writing culture, where you can stretch your understanding of writing for a public and engage in a kind of public writing of which you can be super proud.  

ENG 302 Technical Writing 5 cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 101.

CRN: 30108, DAY/TIME: Online Async, Instructor: Rachel Sarkar

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.  

CRN: 30116, DAY/TIME: Online Async, Instructor: Nicole Brown

This interdisciplinary course puts knowledge into action by communicating technical and disciplinary knowledge in accessible ways to a range of audiences. The course engages with an exciting rhetorical praxis that in addition to accessible design and writing strategies considers the influence of globalization and localization on information and information technologies. Paying attention to the behaviors of readers/users in relationship to cultural, social, economic, and ecological contexts, we reflect upon how we view authorship and our disciplinary responsibility towards the social construction of knowledge. A primary goal for the course is to construct a portfolio of rhetorically savvy and accessibly designed documents for use with public audiences [most likely] outside the class: resumes, cover letters, memos, interpretive materials, instructional documents, usability testing reports, proposals, and other verbo-visual representations of information. Similar to most professional and technical writing contexts, these projects require you to work individually (as well as collaboratively) to conduct out of class observations and research and to practice/learn new knowledge concepts and computer applications.

ENG 308 Seminar: Early Modern 5 cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 202. For summer session: ENG 308 may apply towards English major requirements in place of ENG 318 (Survey in Early Modern literature) with advisor permission. Please email English Advisor, Elle Starr, at elle.starr@wwu.edu with your W# to inquire.

CRN: 30843, DAY/TIME: Online, TR 12:00pm - 01:50pm, Instructor: Jenny Forsythe

Who invented science fiction? SF scholar John Rieder asserts that SF has no single point of origin, and that SF is not any one set of texts but rather a practice for reading and drawing relationships among texts. In this seminar, our goal is to build a deeper understanding of genre theory and literary history. 

How can contemporary conversations about SF sharpen our understanding of 16th- and 17th-century literature? Better yet, how can 16th- and 17th-century literature deepen our understanding of SF? How are texts written hundreds of years ago connected to what Darko Suvin terms the literature of cognitive estrangement? To what Grace Dillon names Indigenous futurisms? To what Rieder calls the stubbornly visible colonial scenario beneath the fantastic script of SF? 

In this seminar, we will read around 100 pages per week (including both primary texts and contemporary criticism) of Thomas More’s Utopia (1516), Inca Garcilaso de la Vega’s Royal Commentaries of the Incas (1609), Guaman Poma de Ayala’s First New Chronicle and Good Government (1612-15), William Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1610-11), Johannes Kepler’s Somnium (1634), Margaret Cavendish’s Blazing World (1666), and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s “First Dream” (1692). You’ll socially annotate texts, write short response papers, compose learning and participation commentaries, create one interpretive project, and produce a mini (3-4 page) research project.

ENG 310 Seminar: The Long 19th Century 5 cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 202. For summer session: ENG 310 may apply towards English major requirements in place of ENG 320 (Survey in the Long 19th Century literature) with advisor permission. Please email English Advisor, Elle Starr, at elle.starr@wwu.edu with your W# to inquire. 

Cancelled due to insufficient enrollment. 

ENG 314 Critical Theories & Prac II 5 cr

Notes & Prerequisites: Prerequisites are not enforced for this course during summer session.

CRN: 30844, DAY/TIME: Online, M 2:00pm - 3:50pm, Instructor: Lysa Rivera

English 314 is the second of two literary theory courses required for the literature concentration of the English major. In it, students will engage in discussion and writing (both informal and formal) various branches in the broad field of literary theory and criticism. I always encourage students to think of this class as a type of intellectual toolkit that equips and empowers students with different frameworks and methods for analyzing literature (and other cultural artifacts, such as visual art, films, and so forth) in other courses in literature and culture that the English department offers. The different branches or ‘schools’ of literary theory vary widely across time, place, and culture. Some focus on literature within the contexts of class, gender, race, and/or nationality, while others engage with questions related to form and/or style. Still others direct our attention to the discipline of “English” itself by asking important questions about what it means to study literature in institutions such as our own. By the end of our time together, students will have completed the following learning outcomes:

• Identified and summarized major concepts in literary theory and criticism from the twentieth century.
• Applied different theoretical framework to analyze and close-read literary texts.
• Constructed well-supported arguments using evidence from the text and literary theory.  
• Write analytical essays that demonstrate a nuanced understanding of literary works and their critical/theoretical interpretations.  

Required Text: Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, Third Edition (NATC) 

ENG 347 Studies in Young Adult Lit 5 cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 202 or instructor permission. Please email instructor with W# to inquire. 

CRN: 30541, DAY/TIME: Online, MW 8:00am - 9:50am, Instructor: Anthony Celaya

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 other relevant sociocultural issues.  

We will read and discuss a variety of YA novels as a class. For each week, you will chose one YA novel from a curated selection of 2-3 books that reflect our given topic for the week. You will have the opportunity to discuss your selected curated novel in small groups, and engage in larger discussions drawing from your selected novel with readers of other texts.  

Some of the curated choice novels that you will choose from include:

• With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
• Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay  
• Mexican Whiteboy by Matt de la Peña
• Dry by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
• The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera
• The Music of What Happens by Bill Konigsberg
• Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
• Felix Ever After by Kacen Callendar
• Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, & You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
• Everything I Learned About Racism I Learned in School by Tiffany Jewell
• Accountable by Dashka Slater

In addition to the curated 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 5 cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 101  

CRN: 30382, DAY/TIME: Online Async, Instructor: Simon McGuire

Examines the fundamentals of at least two genres, such as fiction, nonfiction, playwriting, or poetry. The course will include both lectures, focused on model texts, and workshop-style discussions, focused on student work. 

ENG 351 Intro to Fiction Writing 5 cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 350 or instructor permission. Please email instructor with W# to inquire. 

CRN: 30542, DAY/TIME: In-person, MTWR 10:00am - 11:50am, Instructor: Kiik Araki-Kawaguchi

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 350 or instructor permission. Please email instructor with W# to inquire. 

As a community of writers, we will strengthen our competencies through reading, writing, discussing and reflecting. You will be tasked with developing fictional worlds, characters and predicaments. We will have conversations about the fundamental elements of fiction (e.g. tense, pov, dialog, voice, conflict), as we examine a diverse body of published works and the early drafts (stories) written by you and your peers.  

Expect this to be an exciting and challenging course. We hope you will develop new ways of thinking, working, writing and communicating. We hope you will take risks. Count on being brave, respectful, and a hard worker. You are also encouraged to visit me in office hours, attend literary events, and connect with your peers.  

We will examine a diverse body of published work across genre boundaries. I attempt to keep course costs as low as possible, but I require access to a few critical materials:  

• Wonderbook by Jeff VanderMeer ($14)
• An electronic device (e.g. smartphone) that will allow you to access podcasts

ENG 353 Introduction to Poetry Writing 5 cr

CRN: 30324, DAY/TIME: Online Async, Instructor: Kami Westhoff

Welcome to English 353. In this course, you will read the work of established poets, engage in extensive practice of the poetic techniques, forms, and styles they employ, participate in asynchronous discussions and peer workshops, and eventually produce a portfolio of your own poetry. Though this class will be conducted asynchronously, there will be opportunity for individual conferences over Zoom. 

ENG 364 Introduction to Film Studies 5 cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 101  

CRN: 30325, DAY/TIME: Online, R 12:00pm - 1:50pm, Instructor: Jamie Rogers

This course is an introduction to the rich world of the cinematic arts. We will begin with the presumption that film is both an art form and a commodity industry, and that in both cases, it functions to shape cultural and political worlds (whether deliberately or not). We will practice techniques of film analysis through the study of filmmaking strategies, including editing, sound, mise-en-scène, cinematography, color and lighting, etc. We will also consider the role of distribution, industry norms, and reception. We will place particular emphasis on considerations of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, ability, and national identity within film analysis and the film industry.  

Course work will include a variety of formal and informal writing assignments and exams.  

The required textbook is The Film Experience: An Introduction by Timothy Corrigan and Patricia White. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2021.  

CRN: 30543 DAY/TIME: Online, R 4:00pm - 5:50pm, Instructor: Tony Prichard

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.

400-level English Courses

ENG 401 Wrt/Rhet Sem 5 cr

Notes & Prerequisites: Prerequisites are not enforced for this course during summer session. 

CRN: 30845, DAY/TIME: Online Async, Instructor: Andrew Lucchesi

This class focuses on the ways disability identity, expression, and community have deep connections to rhetorical traditions both ancient and contemporary. Topics will range from the rhetoric of personal disclosure, to the power of community writing about disability, to the ways disabled voices promote accessibility and activist reforms. We will draw from the Disability Justice principles of intersectionality, cross-movement solidarity, and collective liberation. What does it mean to question what is normal, or to move beyond individualist binaries of ability and disability? How can we be attentive to the connections between embodiment and rhetorical agency? Projects for this class will include recording public-facing videos and writing original research papers or creative projects on topics of your choosing. 

ENG 406 Topics: ContIndie Comix/Theory 5 cr

Notes & Prerequisites: Prerequisites are not enforced for this course during summer session. 

CRN: 30473, DAY/TIME: Online TR 10:00am - 11:50am, Instructor: Dawn Dietrich

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. 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)
• Making Comics, Lynda Barry (PDF available)
• Comix Theory and Criticism (Selected PDFs available)
• 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 459 Editing and Publishing 5 cr

Notes & Prerequisites: ENG 351, ENG 353 or ENG 354 or instructor permission. Please email instructor with W# to inquire. 

CRN: 30250, DAY/TIME: In person, MTWR 12:00pm - 1:50pm, Instructor: Kelly Magee

Welcome to the other side of creative writing! In this fast-paced, collaborative course, students will create a project that fits their interests and career ambitions, and then write and edit content for it—either a creative zine (a small magazine) or an chapbook (a small book). The class will work in Editorial Groups to read submissions of creative writing, provide different kinds of edits—content, line, proofread, fact check—and solicit funding to promote their creative projects. From there, students may elect to stay with their group projects or move to their own book-length works-in-progress, crafting cover letters, queries, synopses, promotional materials, and cover treatments. Whatever your interests in editing and publishing—from individual poems and prose to books and magazines—this class is for you! No experience necessary, but grammar geeks and punctuation nerds are especially welcome.    

ENG 464 Topics in Film Studies 5 cr

Notes & Prerequisites: Prerequisites are not enforced for this course during summer session. 

Cancelled due to insufficient enrollment. 

ENG 466 Screenwriting 5 cr

Notes & Prerequisites: Prerequisites are not enforced for this course during summer session. 

CRN: 30847, DAY/TIME: Online, MW 2:00pm - 3:50pm, Instructor: Greg Youmans

The course introduces screenwriting with an emphasis on the art of storytelling. We will focus on the writing of narrative screenplays, both short and feature-length. To guide our efforts, we’ll explore and analyze a range of examples, both as screenplays and final films, ranging from art cinema to mainstream Hollywood movies. Although our focus will be on writing for film, we will also look at writing for television and possibly other formats as well.  

Students will often work collaboratively in class on exercises geared toward developing stories, characters, dialogue, and screenplays. Although some time will be set aside for in-class writing, most of our time together will be devoted to inspiring and guiding the projects you’ll be working on outside of class. The term will culminate in substantial work toward a full treatment and at least ten polished pages of a feature-length screenplay.