Spring 2024 Course Descriptions
1110: Composition I
Many days, times, and online sections available
In this course, students will read, write, and think about a variety of issues and texts. They will develop reading and writing skills that will help with the writing required in their fields of study and other personal and professional contexts. Students will learn to analyze rhetorical situations in terms of audience, contexts, purpose, mediums, and technologies and apply this knowledge to their reading and writing. They will also gain an understanding of how writing and other modes of communication work together for rhetorical purposes. Students will learn to analyze the rhetorical context of any writing task and compose with purpose, audience, and genre in mind. Students will reflect on their own writing processes, learn to workshop drafts with other writers, and practice techniques for writing, revising, and editing. (EPW)
Credit for both this course and ENGL 1110X may not be applied toward a degree program.
Meets New Mexico Lower-Division General Education Common Core Curriculum Area I: Communications.
Prerequisite: ACT English =16-25 or SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing =450-659 or Next Generation ACCUPLACER Writing =>279.
1110X: Composition I (Stretch I)
Many days, times and sections available
First semester of Composition I stretch sequence. Focuses on analyzing rhetorical situations and responding with appropriate genres and technologies. (EPW)
This is the first course in a two-part sequence. In order to receive transfer credit for ENGL 1110, students must proceed to take and pass ENGL 1110Y in the semester following the semester after taking ENGL 1110X.
Credit for both ENGL 1110X and ENGL 1110 may not be applied toward a degree program.
Students with ACT English <15 or SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing <430 or ACCUPLACER Sentence Skills <109 will begin their English Composition Sequence with ENGL 1110X.
1110Y: Composition I (Stretch II)
Many days, times, and sections available
Second semester of Composition I stretch sequence. Focuses on analyzing rhetorical situations and responding with appropriate genres and technologies. (EPW)
This is the second course in a two-part sequence. In order to receive transfer credit for ENGL 1110, both courses in this sequence (ENGL 1110X and ENGL 1110Y) must be taken and passed.
Credit for both ENGL 1110X and ENGL 1110 may not be applied toward a degree program.
Prerequisite: 1110X.
1120: Composition II
Many days, times, and online sections available
In this course, students will explore argument in multiple genres. Research and writing practices emphasize summary, analysis, evaluation, and integration of secondary sources. Students will analyze rhetorical situations in terms of audience, contexts, purpose, mediums, and technologies and apply this knowledge to their reading, writing, and research. Students will sharpen their understanding of how writing and other modes of communication work together for rhetorical purposes. The emphasis of this course will be on research methods. (EPW)
Meets New Mexico Lower-Division General Education Common Core Curriculum Area I: Communications.
Prerequisite: 1110 or 1110Y or 1110Z or ACT English =26-28 or SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing =660-690.
1410.001: Introduction to Literature
Face to Face, TF 1230-1345
Matthew Hofer, mrh@unm.edu
The primary objective of this course is to develop a greater understanding of and increased enjoyment from literature. Since this class is designed for non-English majors, we will be introduced to different literary genres and themes; different strategies for reading literature; and effective practices for writing about literature that are appropriate for an introductory level course.
1410.002: Introduction to Literature
Online
TBD, someone@unm.edu
The goal of this course is for you to get more comfortable reading and analyzing literature.
2110.001: Traditional Grammar
Face to Face, MWF 0900-0950
Carl Johnson, ctylerjohnson@unm.edu
In this course, I hope to convince you that grammar is not something to fear; grammar is your friend. You intuitively use grammar all day and every day, regardless of whether you realize it. As a speaker of English, you employ an enormous repository of grammar information. This course will use that intuitive, unconscious knowledge of grammar to create an explicit, conscious roadmap of English grammar so that you can be more confident of your communicative choices.
By the end of the semester you will have the ability to: recognize word forms and explain their functions in phrases and sentences; identify sentence constituents and analyze common sentence patterns; recognize and understand structural relationships among verb phrases, noun phrases, and adverbial and adjectival modifying phrases and clauses; demonstrate flexibility of composition through phrase modification, nominalization, and other writing strategies that employ knowledge of grammatical forms and functions; distinguish differences of prescriptive and descriptive grammar.
2120.001: Intermediate Composition: The House Where I Grew Up: Coming of Age Across Borders
Face to Face, TR 0930-1045
Deanna Tenorio, dtenorio24@unm.edu
Growing up is a deeply personal experience. The moments in our backyards, at the dinner table, and in the hallways, have shaped who we have become. In this class, we will look at a variety of readings about coming of age told by characters who are navigating multiple identities across borders. For the research component, students will engage in scholarship on the coming-of-age experience and note the changing landscape of what it means to grow up in the United States today. We will pay attention to specific moments where identity settles and shifts in adolescence, where new levels of understanding are reached.
2120.002: Intermediate Composition: What We (Don't) Talk About When We Talk About Death
Face to Face, MWF 1100-1150
Rae Stringfield, stringfield@unm.edu
In this course, we will study rhetoric through various mediums (essays, podcasts, art, poetry, and more), all focused on the theme of death and dying. Our exploration extends beyond physical death, encompassing topics like traditional and evolving death rituals, the ethical dimension of true-crime podcasts, and the intersection of race and the funeral industry. We examine how language shapes and is shaped by normalized depictions of death, impacting individual and societal understandings. Throughout the semester, we return to the central question: What does death (rhetoric) reveal?
2120.003: Intermediate Composition: Popular Fairytales
Face to Face, MWF 1300-1350
Averie Basch, abasch@unm.edu
Storytelling holds a vital role in any culture. Oral storytelling traditions have held strong historically, but in our modern society, literature-based and media-based styles prevail. IN this class, we will explore popular literature on classic fairytales, focusing mainly on those narratives preserved in text by the Brother’s Grimm. In this class we will look into the common themes within a selection of these tales, comparing and contrasting them to modern adaptations. Students will explore different, often uncommon, perspectives within these tales and storytelling practices and will research how the written versions could have developed from oral practices.
2120.004: Intermediate Composition: Making Monsters
Face to Face, MWF 900-950
Anja Sanchez, anjasanc@unm.edu
Where do monsters come from, and why are they so popular? Monsters can be found anywhere at any time in history, spanning across cultures and nations. Monsters aren’t as big a mystery as you may think. Using Jeffrey Cohen’s Monster Theory, this class will consider how societies make monsters. We’ll consider classic Gothic literature and even modern horror, to understand how monsters were influenced by marginalized groups. how horror/fear functions within minority groups, and how pop culture has adapted old prejudices into modern horror. We will explore where monsters come from, and why they always come back.
2120.005: Intermediate Composition: Narrating Tomorrow: Indigenous Futurisms in Art, Media, and Literature
Face to Face, MWF 1000-1050
Madeline Mendoza, mmendoza13@unm.edu
This course looks at various short stories from foundational anthologies of Indigenous Futurisms Literature. The genre Indigenous Futurisms are stories that imagine present Indigenous futures using science fiction extending to speculative and fantasy sub-genres. We will examine how Indigenous Futurisms Literature, as a powerful act of storytelling, paired with Art, Music, Films, Video Games, and Fashion contributes to the existence of Indigenous social alterities, and as pathways forward that consider the past, present and future for Indigenous cultures. Topics to be discussed include the relationships between Indigenous futurisms and literary, artistic, and digital storytelling; Indigenous futurisms and decolonization; Indigenous science; and Indigenous understandings of time.
2120.006: Intermediate Composition: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Science Fiction
Face to Face, TR 1100-1215
Vicki Vanbrocklin, vvanbrocklin@unm.edu
This course will ask students to examine literary texts under the umbrella of race, gender, and sexuality. Students will engage with science fiction texts, and under the course umbrella, they will choose a topic that comes from their understanding of the texts. Students conduct library research to create an annotated bibliography that will be used later to compose a research project. The annotated bibliography requires in-depth library research so that students not only practice the task of research but they develop an argument. Using their research skills, they can determine the best sources to develop their paper. Once they have completed their research, they will give a short presentation that asks them to create an image that focuses on the trajectory of their research. This presentation will be multimodal for students who choose to use digital forms. They will select a text from our reading list that falls under their topic and present a literary analysis that will be included in their final research paper. Armed with research and literature, they will compose a research paper that develops the trajectory of their topic. Finally, they will reflect on their writing and research practices in the portfolio.
2120.007: Intermediate Composition: Alternative Research Methods
Face to Face, TR 1400-1515
Echo Jardini, echojardini@unm.edu
What is research? If every field of study approaches and understands research differently, how can we come to a collective understanding of research? If research is associated with academia, is there non-academic research? What would this look like? If research is collecting information so that we– from the individual to the whole species– might learn, how do we actually learn? This class is a collaborative attempt to answer these questions. Drawing from many approaches– neuroscience, meditation, craftsmanship, and use of archives to name a few– we will work to improve our skills of observation, making connections, and communicating knowledge.
2120.015: Intermediate Composition: For Your Eyes Only: Diaries and Letters in and as Novels
Online
Gwyneth Henke, jhenke1@unm.edu
Diaries imply truthfulness and a lack of pretense, but they’re often where we deceive ourselves the most. Letters allow us to communicate—but what? And with whom? This Expository Writing course explores diary novels, epistolary novels (novels written through letters), and everything in between. We’ll explore how authors use diaries and letters to establish a unique (and sometimes disturbing) intimacy between protagonist and reader. Course texts will include Nazlı Koca’s The Applicant, Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Remains of the Day, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, and Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair.
2210.001: Professional & Technical Communication
Many days, times, and online sections available
Professional and Technical Communication will introduce students to the different types of documents and correspondence that they will create in their professional careers. This course emphasizes the importance of audience, document design, and the use of technology in designing, developing, and delivering documents. This course will provide students with experience in professional correspondence and communicating technical information to a non-technical audience. (EPW)
Meets New Mexico Lower-Division General Education Common Core Curriculum Area I: Communications.
Prerequisite: 1120 or ACT English =>29 or SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing =>700.
2220.001: Introduction to Professional Writing
Face to Face, MWF 1100-1150
Julianne Newmark, newmark@unm.edu
This is an Intro to Professional Writing course. This class will introduce you to methods of effectively communicating technical, professional, and business information to multiple audiences, in multiple modes. You will develop an understanding of theories of technical communication and will practice technical communication in many forms. With an eye constantly focused on audience needs and expectations, we will plan, organize, draft, revise, and edit documents and multimedia texts. We will learn that the content and appearance of each written document must be appropriate to the intended audience. This course introduces strategies of Intermediate Composition style, persuasive communication, and multimodal document design. You will also learn about ethical considerations in the workplace that impact technical and business communicators and the public. Assignments in this course will represent the most common genres of workplace writing, including resumes, informational graphics and data visualization, usability studies, memoranda, business letters, technical reports, white papers, and instructions. In addition, this class will serve as an introduction to the field of professional communication, and will educate you about the history of Technical and Professional Communication (TPC), about career options in TPC and related fields, and about workplace issues in these fields (including analysis of audience, significance of user-centered design and usability, expectations for collaborative work, and the standards of web writing). All projects in this course are designed to help you create some initial materials for a portfolio you can use when looking for an internship or employment in the field. Key components of this course are group collaboration and the engagement (virtually and in-person) with working professionals in the field.
2240.001: Introduction to Studies in English
Face to Face, T 1230-1345 & Remote Scheduled, T 1230-1345
1H **This course is scheduled for the FIRST eight weeks**
Diane Thiel, dthiel@unm.edu
English 2240 is a one-credit, eight-week class that brings together students majoring in English. It is a required course and must be taken before embarking on the major coursework. Students are introduced to the subfields of rhetoric and professional writing, creative writing, and literary studies. Students will be introduced to the life of the department through in-person class visits with faculty members, attendance at departmental events, and a variety of additional online readings and discussions. Some class sessions will include conversations about employment or opportunities for graduate school. The final task will be to craft a letter of intent documenting an intended course of study and future goals.
2240.002: Introduction to Studies in English
Face to Face, W 1300-1350 & Remote Scheduled R 1300-1350
2H **This course is scheduled for the SECOND eight weeks**
Diane Thiel, dthiel@unm.edu
English 2240 is a one-credit, eight-week class that brings together students majoring in English. It is a required course and must be taken before embarking on the major coursework. Students are introduced to the subfields of rhetoric and professional writing, creative writing, and literary studies. Students will be introduced to the life of the department through in-person class visits with faculty members, attendance at departmental events, and a variety of additional online readings and discussions. Some class sessions will include conversations about employment or opportunities for graduate school. The final task will be to craft a letter of intent documenting an intended course of study and future goals.
2310.002: Introduction to Creative Writing
Face to Face, TR 1230-1345
Gwyneth Henke, ghenke1@unm.edu
This course introduces students to the basic elements of creative writing, including short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Students will read and study published works of poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction as models, but this is first and foremost a writing workshop, with the focus of the course on students writing, revising, reflecting and productively critiquing their own and others pieces in all three of these genres.
Prerequisite: 1110, 1110Y, or 1110Z, or ACT English score of 26-28 or SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing score of 660-690.
Prerequisite: 1110 or 1110Y or 1110Z.
2310.003: Introduction to Creative Writing
Face to Face, MWF 1100-1150
Isabella Valdez, ivaldez3@unm.edu
This course introduces students to the basic elements of creative writing, including short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Students will read and study published works of poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction as models, but this is first and foremost a writing workshop, with the focus of the course on students writing, revising, reflecting and productively critiquing their own and others pieces in all three of these genres.
Prerequisite: 1110, 1110Y, or 1110Z, or ACT English score of 26-28 or SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing score of 660-690.
2310.004: Introduction to Creative Writing
Face to Face, TR 1400-1515
Julianne Peterman, jpeterman1@unm.edu
This course introduces students to the basic elements of creative writing, including short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Students will read and study published works of poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction as models, but this is first and foremost a writing workshop, with the focus of the course on students writing, revising, reflecting and productively critiquing their own and others pieces in all three of these genres.
Prerequisite: 1110, 1110Y, or 1110Z, or ACT English score of 26-28 or SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing score of 660-690.
2310.015: Introduction to Creative Writing
Online
Kyndall Benning, kbenning3@unm.edu
This course introduces students to the basic elements of creative writing, including short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Students will read and study published works of poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction as models, but this is first and foremost a writing workshop, with the focus of the course on students writing, revising, reflecting and productively critiquing their own and others pieces in all three of these genres.
Prerequisite: 1110, 1110Y, or 1110Z, or ACT English score of 26-28 or SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing score of 660-690.
2510.001: Analysis of Literature
Face to Face MWF, 1000-1050
TBD, someone@unm.edu
English 2510 is the gateway course to the English major. In it you will learn the fundamental skills needed for textual analysis in literary and cultural studies, including critical reading practices, the construction of an argument, the use of textual evidence to support an argument, and the best practices for bringing all of these skills together in a research essay. To do so, you will study a variety of texts in the major genres (literary fiction, poetry, and drama, as well as film and graphic novels), many of which have then been adapted, transformed, or created as an homage to a text in a different genre. Close analysis of these texts will allow us to see clearly the ways that concepts of genre, inherently involving reader/viewer expectations, affect our reading practices.
2510.002: Analysis of Literature
Face to Face, TR 0930-1045
TBD, someone@unm.edu
English 2510 is the gateway course to the English major. While you learn disciplinary knowledge and disciplinary skills, you will also reflect on your reading practices and what it means to read for the profession and the self. We will be facilitating all of this important learning through contemporary works; fiction, short-stories, poetry, and drama from the last twenty years.
This course will be rigorous. You will read around one novel of material a week, and although it will be “pleasure” reading, it will be a lot of reading. You will also spend significant time investigating your own reading practice and begin to answer the question, what is it that literary critics do? And how can we use those skill in a lot of different applications. While this course does not assume that you will go on to become a literary academic, it will give you the skills needed to do so while also preparing you for lifelong learning, reading, and writing.
2540.001: Introduction to Chicanx Literature
Face to Face, MWF 1100-1150
Melina Vizcaino-Aleman, mviz@unm.edu
This introductory course to Chicanx literature will examine a variety of literary genres—poetry, short fiction, and novels—to explore the historical development of Chicanx social and literary identity. We’ll cover several time periods, including the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as more contemporary ones. The class will focus on important issues such as race, class, sexuality, gender, religion, family, education, language; and it will consider how these issues shape the politics of representation in Chicanx literature. We’ll examine the way writers and other cultural texts represent the complexities of being caught betwixt race, nation, gender, and sexuality, and we’ll also consider key literary concepts and forms of visual expression that shape and define Chicanx literary production. By the end of the class, we’ll have a comprehensive understanding of the literary and visual formation of Chicanx identity and the complex, even contradictory experiences that characterize Chicana/o culture.
2610.001: American Literature I
Face to Face, MWF 1300-1350
Kathryn Wichelns, wichelns@unm.edu
In this class we begin by reading key texts that trace the encounters among distinctive concepts of personal and community identity in the territories that will become known as the United States of America. Starting in the 1600s, we focus on the conflicting experiences of European arrivals and the indigenous peoples of the Americas during the early colonial period. Oral accounts and speeches suggest the challenge that Native America presented to European social structures and notions of individual purpose. Mary Rowlandson’s narrative of her captivity by the Narragansett, and the contradictions between Mattaponi oral history and later American revisionist accounts of the life of Pocahontas, tell us of the narrative and other forms of violence that found our nation. Jean de Léry and Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca remind us that the history we think we know results from a complex series of chances, opportunities, and mistakes. Mary Prince’s and Olaudah Equiano’s narratives of their enslavement and escape concretize the social hierarchies that developed during the period. These works suggest the contradictions inherent to emerging concepts of human rights, as outlined by Thomas Paine and other American Revolution-era writers. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Washington Irving, writing in the early nineteenth century, sketch the ways that U.S. society already is haunted by its own past. An emphasis on oral traditions and historical context reveals the stakes involved in the literary works we discuss, and helps us to understand how this tumultuous time inaugurates the struggles of later periods.
2630.001: British Literature I
Face to Face, MWF 1200-1250
Jessie Bonafede, jkbonafede@unm.edu
Get ready to embark on a journey through a survey of British literature from the early Middle Ages to the close of the 18th century! In this course, we will explore intersections of literary expression, authorship, and audience by focusing on the thematic trends of sex, gender, and the body. From dragon-swallowed saints to ghost-infested castles, the Round Table, werewolves, and mystical erotic visions, the readings for this class are packed with intrigue concerning bodily experience and identity. In addition to analyzing key textual features, this class will also examine the importance of the historical and cultural milieus from which these texts originate and influence. Furthermore, this class will provide you with important skills to hone your literary analysis and arguments, as well as your comfortability engaging with the earliest parts of British literary history. Together we will delve into a rich trove of fantastic tales.
2640.001: British Literature II
Face to Face, TR 1100-1215
Leandra Binder, lbinder@unm.edu
2650.001: World Literature I: Community Building and Restorative Justice
Face to Face, MWF 0900-0950
Nahir Otaño Gracia, nahir@unm.edu
In this course, students will read representative world masterpieces from ancient, medieval, and renaissance literature. Students will broaden their understanding of literature and their knowledge of other cultures through exploration of how literature represents individuals, ideas and customs of world cultures. The course focuses strongly on examining the ways literature and culture intersect and define each other. Meets New Mexico Lower-Division General Education Common Core Curriculum Area V: Humanities and Fine Arts.
A general overview of early world literature and culture with a focus on the themes of hate and restorative justice. Readings will include all or parts of such works as the Epic of Gilgamesh; selections from the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures and Qur’an; a play by Euripides; poetry by Sappho, Li Bai, Ono no Komachi, and Farid ud-dun Attar, among others. Our ambitious goal is to investigate texts from China, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Japan, Persia, Arabia, India, and the Americas by exploring how we can read texts through a restorative justice model. Through this mode of study, we will gain a sense of the differences and similarities that shape the varieties of human experience across time and cultures. We will also explore how the globalization of colonization affects our understanding of early world literature and how to decenter a Western gaze in the study of the past.
2660.001: World Literature II: 17th Century to the Present
Face to Face, TR 1400-1515
Doaa Omran, domran@unm.edu
“This course introduces students to a representative sample of influential works from a variety of the world's literary traditions written in the past five centuries. Readings include works by writers from the Americas, China, Japan, Egypt, Sudan, Europe, India, and Nigeria, and comprise a variety of genres including some philosophical and historical texts, as well as poetry and prose. My goal is to examine world literature within different historical contexts as well as from different socio-cultural angles to better understand the rich and nuanced landscape of this vast body of texts. Students will use close reading strategies to formulate arguments about these texts and support their interpretations with other works from the course examples gleaned from close reading.
304.001: Bible as Literature
Online
Kelly Van Andel, kvanande@unm.edu
This course studies biblical texts within their historical and literary contexts, and it examines how the authors of the Bible utilize literary forms and tools such as the parable, proverb, allegory, and so on, to convey particular messages. It additionally explores the importance of the Bible as a source of English and American literature. Units of study include Narrative, Poetry, the Gospels, the Letter, Apocalyptic Literature, and the Hebrew Bible and Christian New Testament in literature. There are weekly quizzes and class discussions, two exams, and one short presentation.
305.001: Mythology
Face to Face, MWF 1300-1350
Nicholas Schwartz, nschwar@unm.edu
There are no more important texts for understanding the world of the past and of today than cultures’ earliest: myths. The texts covered in this course—some thousands and others hundreds of years old—provide a lens through which one can glimpse the development of ideas, cultural mores, and traditions which continue to exert great influence in the Western world today. While these stories are often remembered and retold because they include accounts of perseverance, the miraculous, superhuman accomplishment, love, devotion, success, justice, and other fodder for inspiration, many of those same texts betray darker motifs like heteropatriarchal dominance, cultural chauvinism, misogyny, intolerance, and the victimization of the young, the powerless, the poor, and the other, amongst other themes. This course invites students to grapple with this duality present in so much of mythology. It encourages critical examination of these texts that have been so fundamental, for better and for worse, to the development of what has traditionally been called “Western Civilization.” No previous knowledge of mythology is required, and all are welcome to sign up for this course.
315.001: Hip Hop & the BLM Movement
Face to Face, TR 930-1045
Finnie Coleman, coleman@unm.edu
In this heavily layered course, we closely examine the historical tapestry of Hip Hop Culture, interrogate the politics and poetry of the Black Lives Matter Movement, and participate in an evocative conversation about the complicated role the “Public Image of Blackness” plays and has played in shaping race relations in the United States. Undergirding our study is Charles Mills’ treatise on political and moral philosophy – an illumination of the troublesome history of racial animus in Europe, the United States, and across the Black Diaspora. Our course is a study of the rhetorical traditions created by Black youth to challenge racial stereotypes, create and claim “Black” identities, name the privations created by White Supremacy, to demand the civil rights and personal privileges guaranteed them by virtue of their contributions to building the United States of America, and imagining into existence a future where the privations of White Supremacy are relegated to the dustbin of history. From the fiery staccato spoken word poetry of Amiri Baraka, nikki giovanni, Gil Scot Heron, Sonya Sanchez, and the Watts Poets to Tupac Shakur’s lilting The Rose That Grew from Concrete to the Afrofuturist stylings of Janelle Monet, Kendric Lamar, and Ryan Coogler this course is a vibrant exploration, critical examination, and unapologetic celebration of Black youth and their voices past, present, and future.
During the course of the semester, students will learn rhetorical concepts—how to make arguments, how to see through fallacious arguments, and how to empathize with arguments they don’t necessarily agree with—by looking at various examples from sports. Although students with strong interests in sports are encouraged to enroll, students need not be die-hard sports fans to succeed in the course.
321.001: Intermediate Creative Writing Fiction
Face to Face, MWF 1100-1150
Michelle Brooks, mbrooks7@unm.edu
English 321 emphasizes the analysis, production, and revision of literary short stories. Our class will read and analyze published stories by a diverse selection of authors and do exercises designed to hone the use of craft elements, such as scene and summary, plot, character development, POV, and setting. Ideally, these exercises will inspire ideas for your stories. You will write and significantly revise two short stories during the semester.
We’ll explore how to create complex characters and realistic situations through carefully selected details that strip away the mask of the mundane. The craft techniques we study and writing we do should ideally serve you in all areas of your creative work, and though the focus of our writing and readings will be literary fiction, we’ll touch on how our what we're learning may also be incorporated if you write speculative and genre fiction.
322.001: Intermediate Creative Writing Poetry
Face to Face, MWF 1300-1350
Marisa Clark, clarkmp@unm.edu
English 322 is an intermediate-level poetry writing workshop that aims to help you discover ways to shape your most meaningful content into well-crafted poems. Our writing assignments will promote creative discovery and output and will lead you to revise for originality, clarity, and precision. Close readings of published poems will teach you to recognize basic craft techniques and poetic forms and, I hope, will inspire fresh, inventive work from you. Our discussions will stem from our reading of Kim Addonizio’s Ordinary Genius (or a similar text), a diverse selection of contemporary poems, and your insights and questions. This class will also introduce you to workshopping, in which each student shares an original poem in progress and classmates offer constructive evaluations to help improve the work. From the outset, you will be viewed as poets and readers who are here to learn through both work and play. You’ll do a lot of writing in this class, as well as a lot of reading. At semester’s end, you will put together a portfolio showcasing a thoughtfully revised body of original work that demonstrates your understanding of the content and craft of successful poems. An equally important goal is that you end the semester with a strong desire to continue writing and reading poetry.
323.001: Intermediate Creative Writing Nonfiction: The Art of the Memoir
Face to Face, TR 1100-1215
Lisa Chavez, ldchavez@unm.edu
This is an intermediate level creative writing class in creative nonfiction, a wide-ranging genre that includes memoir, personal essay, literary journalism and the lyric essay, among others. Though we will likely focus on memoir, you will be introduced to a variety of different types of essays, and you will learn how to craft compelling scenes and reflection, as well as learn some of the unique ethical challenges of writing and discussing this genre. In addition to writing, we will read a lot—both work by established writers and work by you and your classmates.
330.001: T: Arab Women: Conflict & Resist
Face to Face, TR 1230-1345
Doaa Omran, domran@unm.edu
Do you want to know about Arab women and the struggles and conflicts they face? You can learn a lot about the Middle East through learning about Arab women. This course explores the written experiences of women from conflict-ridden countries such as Iraq, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, the Arabian Peninsula, and the resultant diaspora.
Knowledge of Arabic is NOT required; many of the assigned texts are written originally in English and the rest are translated. We will be reading short stories, novels, and watching documentaries.
This class is appropriate to all students including third- and fourth-year students interested in women’s and gender studies, political science, Arab women’s literature, Arabic literature, Asian studies and Middle East studies or Anglophone writings.
347.001: Viking Mythology
Face to Face, TR 0930-1045
Nicholas Schwartz, nschwar@unm.edu
This course is designed to comprehensively introduce students to Viking Mythology. It will cover Norse ideas about the creation of the world, the end of the world, and pretty much everything in between. Students should expect to read about Odin, Thor, Loki, and a host of other characters not so well-known today in addition to accounts of important events like the conversion to Christianity. Texts include, but are not limited to, The Elder/Poetic Edda, Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda, and The Saga of the Volsungs. Moreover, students will learn about the culture(s) that produced these wonderful stories and their literary conventions. This course will foster a valuable familiarity with this important mythological tradition and expose students to a variety of methods of reading them. Assignments include a midterm, final, written assignments, and discussion board posts. All are welcome to take this course.
350.001: Medieval Tales Wonder
Face to Face, MWF 1000-1050
Nahir Ontaño Gracia, nahir@unm.edu
From the Old English wundor (noun), wundrian (verb), wonder implies a feeling of surprise derived from something beautiful or unexpected, or a desire to know something unknowable. Tales of wonder emphasize descriptions of unknown lands, monsters and monstrous beings, dream visions, heroes, and antiheroes through the eyes of the fantastical. We will concentrate on tales that demonstrate interconnection and movement throughout the North / South Borders of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, creating border fantasies of expansion and Empire. We will emphasize how these fantasies construct race, whiteness, and borders in medieval literature. Finally, we will end with a section that thinks through the repercussions of these fantasies in the Mediterranean (fortress Europe), Latin America, and New Mexico.
352.001: Early Shakespeare
Face to Face, TR 1400-1515
Carmen Nocentelli, nocent@unm.edu
This course covers the Elizabethan-era works of William Shakespeare. In examining his drama and poetry, the course will focus on the various conventions of the sub-genres of comedy, histroy and tragedy. Students will gain familiarity with the early works of Shakespeare and an understanding of the Early Modern theater as well as the importance of Shakespeare’s dramatic innovations. Texts include: Comedy of Errors, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Merchant of Venice, Henry V, Richard III, Titus Andronicus, Julius Caesar and Hamlet.
353.002: Later Shakespeare
Face to Face, MWF 900-950
Lisa Myers, myersl@unm.edu
This course covers the Jacobean-era works of William Shakespeare, focusing on the various conventions of the genres of comedy, tragedy and romance. Student will gain familiarity with the later works of Shakespeare and an understanding of the Early Modern theater as well as the importance of Shakespeare’s dramatic innovations. Texts include: Twelfth Night, Troilus and Cressida, Othello, Macbeth, Coriolanus, Cymbeline and The Winter’s Tale.
355.001: Enlightenment Literature: Wigging Out: Tirades, Trolls, and Targets in 18th Century Social Media
Face to Face, W 1630-1900
John Knapp, jwknapp@unm.edu
So much for the eighteenth-century being the age of reason and politeness! Actually, Britain at this time was eerily similar to our own culture—with all kinds of people indulging (or wigging out) in a seemingly endless stream of gossipy, cruel, distasteful, intolerant, even repugnant attacks on each other. This seminar-style course explores many of these attacks and counterattacks, and it considers the perspectives of both trolls and targets, in context and across genres (verse, novels, plays, essays, periodical writing, satiric prints). We'll treat topics related to gender and sexuality, politics and partisanship, celebrity feuds, poverty and crime, high-and low-brow culture, and more. Well-known names such as Pope, Swift, and Hogarth share the spotlight with brilliant, lesser-known figures, men and women alike. Assignments in this cross-listed course range from short written responses and reading quizzes to expanded academic arguments and perhaps a comparative project and presentation. Regular active participation in discussion is a must.
397.001: Regional Literature
Face to Face, MWF 1000-1050
Melina Vizcaino-Aleman, mviz@unm.edu
Regional literature has shaped and responded to American history and culture from the very beginning of this nation’s founding. In this course, we will explore the development of US American regionalism, beginning with the early nineteenth-century writings of Washington Irving and ending with the mid-twentieth-century writings of Américo Paredes. We focus on the development of regionalism through its most comfortable genre—short fiction—and we learn about the aesthetic diversity of US American regional writing as it encounters romanticism, realism, naturalism, local color writing, modernism, and feminism. Readings focus on canonical and lesser-known short fiction writers, and class instruction focuses on the aesthetics of regional literature in relation to national and global pressures bearing down on a specific place: New England, the Deep South, Far West, and Southwest. Students come away with a solid grasp of the cultural and aesthetic diversity of regional American literatures across the United States and at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, during a time of rapid modern change. We will discuss the selected short fiction byway of three major themes: the newcomer, the folk, and modern change. Students will take three exams in the thematic areas, and they will write three critical analysis essays exploring each theme, with a one revision essay to cap the class.
411.001: Introduction to Ecocriticism
Face to Face, MWF 1300-1350
Lisa Myers, myersl@unm.edu
This course will introduce students to the major theories and practices of environmental criticism, or ecocriticism, focusing upon the interactions between literature and the environment. We will examine the ways in which a variety of texts and authors approach the natural world while considering some of the themes and debates that have helped to shape the field. While we will read key theoretical texts, the focus of the class will be upon the application of these theories to the understanding of literature from the beginning of civilization to today. Topics for discussion include: Wilderness, Ruins, Country vs. City, Apocalypse, and Environmental Justice. Literary texts will cover a wide range of world traditions, including Kalidasa’a Shakuntala and the Ring of Recognition, early Robin Hood ballads, Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, Karen Tei Yamashita’s Through the Arc of the Rainforest, and selected episodes of Reservation Dogs.
417.001: Editing
Online
Cristyn Elder, celder@unm.edu
This course places an emphasis on professional editing for the workplace and may also help students improve the editing of their own writing. Along with practicing advanced copyediting skills, you will learn how to perform comprehensive editing that results in documents that are complete, accurate, comprehensible, usable, and reader focused. Assignments include regular readings, homework, an editing project, and a reflection on your progress toward the student learning outcomes. This course does not include a midterm or final exam.
418.001: Proposal and Grant Writing
Face to Face, T 1600-1830
Charles Paine, cpaine@unm.edu
In this course, you will learn how to write persuasive grant proposals. Drawing off the principles of rhetorical analysis, you will learn how to develop a clear statement of need, offer achievable objectives, design logical step-by-step plans, create specific and accurate budgets, and present your organization powerfully. We will explore how to locate appropriate funding opportunities and how to evaluate requests for proposals. We will also discuss methods of writing persuasively that are both ethical and effective, and study how to use document design to create a professional proposal package.
Because proposal writing is rarely a solitary task, but rather a process of working with others to identify needs, locate opportunities, and develop persuasive solutions, it is helpful to understand how the process works in the real world. To accomplish this need for real world experience, the major project for the course will be to write a real proposal by working with a local organization in a community-engagement experience.
420.001: T: Blue Mesa Review II
Face to Face, MWF 1400-1450
Marisa Clark, clarkmp@unm.edu
This class introduces you to the production of UNM’s national literary magazine, Blue Mesa Review. We receive hundreds of submissions each year from writers hoping to see their stories, essays, or poems published in our journal. Your primary responsibility will be to work alongside graduate students in our MFA program to assess these submissions for possible publication in BMR. In addition, you will keep a log about your participation reading submissions, write a couple of short papers (maybe a blog post or book review for BMR's website), and engage in discussions that arise from the submissions we receive. Understanding how literary magazines work can be of great value for writers; not only can it help you improve your own writing, but it can focus your editorial sensibilities as well as help you learn more about the submission and publication process.
Ideally, to enroll, you will have completed at least the introductory creative writing course. Send an email to Dr. Clark detailing your literary interests and courses you've taken, and be sure to include your Banner ID number.
This is a class you can take multiple times for full credit. We thrive when there are experienced readers, so please join our team!
421.001: Advanced Creative Writing Workshop: Fiction
Face to Face, MWF 1000-1050
Michelle Brooks, mbrooks7@unm.edu
“The Muse visits while you’re writing, not before.” --Roger Ebert
People often think that to be a writer you have to have an idea and then write it down—that writing is thinking transcribed. So they wait for an idea to come and end up never writing. In this class, we won’t wait for inspiration. We’ll learn that writing is not thinking reported—writing is a form of thinking.
We’ll cover a wide variety of genres, forms, and styles of fiction, while paying particular attention to flash fiction as a way of pulling stories from our unconscious. Students will write weekly flash stories (1,000 words or fewer) while also working on and workshopping longer pieces of fiction. Additionally, students will read, analyze, and discuss published examples of fiction and craft essays. It’s my philosophy that students develop as writers by writing and reading a variety of fiction, and doing so in an environment conducive to experimentation. I hope to make our class such an environment.
Please note: If you don’t meet the prerequisites for this course but feel you have the writing background and experience to succeed in the class, email me (abourelle@unm.edu) and we can talk about a possible override.
422.001: Advanced Creative Writing Workshop: Poetry
Face to Face, TR 1400-1515
Lisa Chavez, ldchavez@unm.edu
Take your poetry to the next level! This advanced creative writing workshop in poetry will help you make your words shine. This class presupposes a certain understanding of the genre: ie. at least a basic understanding of the use of image, line, and form, but our goals will be to hone craft skills, try new styles and forms of poetry, and practice revision skills.We will read the work of published authors and focus on workshopping student poems.
440.001: Prose Stylistics
Face to Face, TR 1100-1215
Charles Paine, cpaine@unm.edu
Prose Stylistics is a wide-ranging course that tries to find out what makes for good prose (and what makes for wretched prose). We will study periodic sentences and running sentences, noun style and verb style, parataxis and hypotaxis. We will ponder such questions as “What do we mean by ‘voice’?”; “What assumptions do we bring to prose that we don’t bring to poetry?”; and “What do we mean by ‘high style’ and ‘low style’?” We will question whether prose is transparent or opaque, and what the ramifications of that are. Four or five short papers, no exams.
441.001: English Grammars
Face to Face, TR 1400-1515
Bethany Davila, bdavila@unm.edu
Studying grammar doesn’t have to be boring! This course helps students approach the study of grammar from different perspectives, all while attending to language politics, language attitudes, and language use. Projects include examining the rules that govern our language use, studying nonstandard language conventions, analyzing our own and others’ academic writing, and creating a public-facing response to linguistic injustice.
444.001: Practicum: Tutoring Writing
Face to Face, TR 0930-1045
Rachael Reynolds, reynoldsr@unm.edu
You'll learn how to discuss, analyze, and apply theories in composition, tutoring, and writing center pedagogy. You'll develop your own broad theoretical basis for helping others develop their writing skills, purpose, and voice. You'll also have the chance to work with these theories and pedagogical practices in real-life situations (e.g. working as a peer tutor with current Core Writing English students; assisting graduate instructors with supplemental informational workshops).
447.001: Old English
Face to Face, MWF 1100-1150
Nicholas Schwartz, nschwar@unm.edu
This course will introduce students to the most ancient form of English, Old English, which was the dominant language in England from c. 600-c. 1100 CE. Students will learn Old English grammar, vocabulary, and a number of changes that affected the language’s pronunciation and written appearance. This course will also delve into Early England’s rich literature and history. Students should expect to take quizzes and exams in addition to completing various homework assignments. These assignments will include readings, grammar exercises, and translations of Old English texts. No prior experience with Old English or linguistics is required. All are welcome to take this course.
455.001: Middle to Late 18th Century: Wigging Out: Tirades, Trolls, and Targets in 18th Century Social Media
Face to Face, W 1630-1900
John Knapp, jwkanpp@unm.edu
461.001: American Romanticism
Face to Face, MW 1400-1515
Kathryn Wichelns, wichelns@unm.edu
In this course we will read some of the authors associated with American Romanticism in the context of their period. The writers and poets we’ll discuss were attempting to grapple with the implications of rapid social change, as the U.S. expanded massively over a few decades while also experiencing industrialization and increasing urbanization; more vocal abolitionist and women’s rights movements threatened long-standing assumptions about the social order. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the 1846-1848 war with Mexico marked the rise of U.S. military imperialism. In the ongoing context of legal slavery, some writers saw these policy developments as a betrayal of national principles, and a declaration that racist definitions of citizenship would be exported to new territories. Others viewed American expansionism as “the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent.” In a parallel tradition, a number of non-white writers use Romantic tropes to declare their humanity and to articulate resistance. We will explore the Transcendentalists (Emerson, Thoreau, and Fuller) as social critics, rejecting what they saw as the dehumanizing conformity of organized religion and conventional education. The “Fireside Poets” (including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and John Greenleaf Whittier) use form to express a sense of moral crisis, and urge a return to basic principles. Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Fanny Fern, and Edgar Allan Poe all examine shifting ideas about labor and value, in response to rising industrialism. Victor Séjour, Simón Bolívar, John Rollin Ridge, and Pauline Hopkins describe the hypocrisy of a period that glorifies individualism while denying individual rights. In addition to regularly participating in class discussions and taking a midterm essay examination, students will write a series of short papers and one longer argumentative research paper.
464.001: Advanced Study of Native American and Indigenous Literature
Face to Face, T 1600-1830
Sarah Hernandez, hernands@unm.edu
This advanced course on Native American and Indigenous Literature centers on contemporary Native American fiction and non-fiction. Many contemporary Native American writers are mixed-genre writers who use multiple forms of expression to explore issues and ideas that are relevant to contemporary tribal communities. This semester we will examine how contemporary Native/Indigenous writers use both literature and literary criticism to address some of the most pressing issues facing tribal nations today including: #MMIW, Landback, LGBT+ rights, boarding schools trauma, treaty rights, and sovereignty. Students will read literature and literary criticism by contemporary Native/Indigenous writers and scholars from a variety of tribal backgrounds and regions including: Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, Daniel Heath Justice, Beth Piatote, Jake Skeets, and Taté Walker to name a few. We will analyze and discuss these writers in their specific cultural/historical contexts, and start to examine some of their shared thematic concerns and literary strategies.
466.001: African American Literature
Face to Face, TR 1230-1345
Finnie Coleman, coleman@unm.edu
African American Literature II covers subsets of Black literature published from 1919 through 1987; from the beginnings of the Harlem Renaissance to the publication of Toni Morrison’s seminal novel Beloved. In this course we will study the literature of the Black Arts Movement. The movement is widely held to have begun in 1965 with the establishment of the Black Arts Repertory Theater in Harlem. LeRoi Jones (later Imamu Amiri Baraka) founded the theater in response to the assassination of Malcolm X in February of that year. Malcolm’s strident and unapologetic voice was at once awe-inspiring and terrifying for many Americans accustomed to vacuous platitude laden platforms for social justice and equality produced by mainstream Black political and social leaders. Jones was one of the many youthful Black artists who found themselves experimenting with new rhetorical strategies, more critical ways of analyzing the past, more creative and militant ways of thinking about the present, and perhaps most important, a new-found positivist and unapologetic vision for the future that decentered whiteness and philosophically and embraced Blackness (culturally, intellectually, and socially). We begin with a general overview of African American literature, history, and culture, the politics of race, and a brief look at the genesis of the “Public Image of Blackness” before delving into the poetry, short stories, plays, novels, and spoken word performances that ushered in a bold new era in African American cultural history. From the rise and fall of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense to the birth of Hip Hop culture to the arrival of nikki giovanni, Audre Lorde, Sonya Sanchez, Yusef Komunyakaa, Alice Walker, Samuel Delany, Alex Haley, Octavia Butler, and the inimitable Toni Morison, we will explore a powerful renaissance in Black literature and the heady new ways of expressing and celebrating Black Art.
499.001: Internship
Online
Tiffany Bourelle, tbourell@unm.edu
ENGL 499 is designed to allow students to earn course credit while gaining real-world experience. Students can work in a wide variety of internships, including technical communication, editing and publishing, public relations and marketing, news reporting, and more. The primary requirement is that the internship consists primarily of writing and/or editing.
English 499 is offered on a case-by-case basis (similar to an independent study). There is no regularly scheduled class.
Students who obtain professional writing or editing internships and would like to receive course credit should contact Associate Professor Tiffany Bourelle (tbourell@unm.edu). Instructor permission is required to enroll.
