Upcoming - Fall 2024

1110: Composition I

Many days, times, and online sections available

Covers Composition I: Stretch I and II in one semester, focusing on analyzing rhetorical situations and responding with appropriate genres and technologies. (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 or Lobo Course Placement English Placement Tool = 20 or WritePlacer = 6-8.

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, all courses in this sequence (ENGL 1110X, ENGL 1110Y) must be taken and passed.

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  =<449 or ACCUPLACER Sentence Skills =<278 or Lobo Course Placement English Placement Tool = 10 will begin their English Composition Sequence with ENGL 1110X. 

1120: Composition II

Many days, times, and online sections available

Focuses on academic writing, research, and argumentation using appropriate genres and technologies. (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 or Lobo Course Placement English Placement Tool = 30

1410.001: Introduction to Literature: The Way We Read Now

Face to Face, TR 0930-1045

Jesus Costantino, jcostantino@unm.edu

This course takes a unique approach to the study of contemporary literature. While the ultimate goal for the course is to read and understand the concerns and styles of present-day writers, the course also recognizes that “reading” happens in many varied forms beyond printed books, and even beyond digital e-books. The frequent opposition between print and digital reading disguises the important ways that each format has grown increasingly heterogeneous and blended. In fact, despite what many doomsayers claim, we very likely read more now than ever before.

There is no overt “theme” that unites the texts we will read in this class; instead, you will learn to be attentive to the ways in which new literary forms better suit today’s needs. By the end of the course, you will have developed an informed understanding of the many different guises that literature adopts in contemporary life. Be prepared to read from a broad sample of texts and to produce regular short written responses, analyses, and creative work.

1410.004: Introduction to Literature

Online

In this course, students will examine a variety of literary genres, including fiction, poetry, and drama. Students will identify common literary elements in each genre, understanding how specific elements influence meaning.

2000-Level

1000-Level | 2000-Level | 300-Level | 400-Level

2110.001: Traditional Grammar

Face to Face, MWF 0900-0950
C. Tyer Johnson, ctylerjohnson@unm.edu

In this course, I hope to convince you that grammar is not something to fear; grammar is your friend. You rely on grammar all day and every day, regardless of whether you realize it. As a speaker of English, you have 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: Foundations of Greek Mythology

Face to Face, MWF 0900-0950
Averie Basch, abasch@unm.edu

This course will cover the basics of Greek mythology, starting with the pantheon of Greek gods and continuing into classical stories of gods, heroes, “monsters,” and mortals. Students will learn the characteristics of each of the Olympians (including their Roman counterparts) and be able to identify the natural and social powers that these immortals represent. Alongside classical sources, we will read versions of the myths that take on nontraditional perspectives. We will cover the origin stories and how themes presented there compare and contrast to other mythologies, and additionally, how those themes still resonate in today’s society.

2120.002: Intermediate Composition: Writing for Audio: Podcasts and Beyond

Face to Face, MWF 1100-1150
John Hardberger, jhardberger@unm.edu

Audio is an increasingly popular format for engaging with the written word. Audio storytelling has a rich history that goes far beyond recent trends. In this class, we will explore the written word through various spoken formats, learning to produce our own audio-narrative in the process. You will learn the technical ins and outs of audio production with the goal of crafting engaging, unique audio content. We will discuss the ethics and practice of recording in various situations, as well as editing for clarity and effect, and, of course, the process of writing scripts, essays, monologues, interview questions, etc., through projects that embody audio-narrative forms.

2120.003: Intermediate Composition: The New West: Contemporary Writers of the American West

Face to Face, MWF 1300-1350
Julie Peterman, jpeterman1@unm.edu

When you think of “Western” literature, what do you imagine? Independent cowboys? Tumbleweeds? Rugged terrain and isolated travelers? In this class, we’ll explore contemporary literature that is forging a new story of the American West. We’ll discover writers whose sense of place, landscape, and identity have shaped nuanced literary worlds, beyond romanticization or cliché. And together, we’ll read texts that explore the American West holistically — its landscape, its cultures, its identities, its beauty, and its challenges. We’ll read texts across genres, from writers based in the American West (including several New Mexican authors) such as Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Louise Erdrich, Joy Harjo, Jennifer Givhan, and more.

2120.004: Intermediate Composition: A Study of (Non) Romantic Relationships in Media

Face to Face, TR 1400-1515
Jesyln Pool, pooljm23@unm.edu

Are romantic relationships the highest form of relationship? With some polls indicating that Gen Z wants less sex & less hyperfixation on romantic relationships in media, a study of relationship representation in popular culture is primed. What relationships might be more intimate than romantic ones? Parent-child? Siblings? Bromance? Best friends? Found family? Have all cultures been as romantically focused as dominant/Hollywood US culture historically? In this class, we will research a range of material (film, music, graphic novels, short stories, etc.) from the past and present to forecast what the next era of relationship narration and representation might look like in popular culture.

2120.005: Intermediate Composition: Scientific Narratives

Face to Face, TR 1230-1345
Bianca Lucero, blucero18@unm.edu

This course allows you to explore any scientific topic that sparks your curiosity. Topics discussed throughout the course of the semester are based exclusively on your interest, encouraging you to immerse yourselves in the scientific topic of your choice, and share your findings with an engaged audience. You will employ formalistic strategies in that you will take traditional scientific formats and represent them in a relevant, everyday manner for beginners, non-scientists, and hobbyists in the field. You will deepen your understanding of gathering reputable and peer reviewed articles, analyzing your sources, and explaining how they are an appropriate fit for your narrative goals.

2120.006: Intermediate Composition: Taking Control: Video Games as Literature

Face to Face, TR 930-1045
Robin Babb, rbabb@unm.edu

In this class, we will approach video games as primary sources to read closely, analyze, conduct research into, and respond to. With contemporary AAA games like The Last of Us as well as some of the historical foundations of the medium like Doom, we will not only look at the content of the games themselves but discuss the broader cultural impact and context of video games. With the help of video game journalism and cultural criticism, we will engage honestly with the question of violence in games, their notoriously sexist background, and why (or if) they can be considered literature.

2120.020: Intermediate Composition: Narrative 2.0: Narrative Writing and Design in Video Games

Online
Amy Dotson, adotson1@unm.edu

Over the past thirty years, video games have graduated from their cultural designation as mindless timewasters to opportunities for telling touching, diverse, and culturally relevant stories. But these stories are not like the traditional stories we’re used to reading in books. Video games, by definition, are multimodal experiences, which means narrative-driven games use narrative in non-traditional ways. Writing and designing narratives for video games requires attention to multiple elements to provide multi-dimensional experiences that transcend the page. In this course, you will research and analyze narrative-driven games that currently exist and use what you learn to build your own branching narrative games using Twine.

2210: 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.

Course description video

2240.001: Intro to Studies in English

Face to Face, 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: Intro to Studies in English

Face to Face, W 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.

2310.001: Intro to Creative Writing

Face to Face, MWF 1300-1350

Paris Baldante, pbaldante@unm.edu 

This course will introduce students to the basic elements of creative writing, including short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Students will read and study published works as models, but the focus of this "workshop" course is on students revising and reflecting on their own writing. Throughout this course, students will be expected to read poetry, fiction, and non-fiction closely, and analyze the craft features employed. They will be expected to write frequently in each of these genres. Prerequisite: 1110 or 1110Y or 1110Z.

2310.002: Intro to Creative Writing

Face to Face, TR 1100-1215

Bianca Lucero, blucero18@unm.edu 

This course will introduce students to the basic elements of creative writing, including short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Students will read and study published works as models, but the focus of this "workshop" course is on students revising and reflecting on their own writing. Throughout this course, students will be expected to read poetry, fiction, and non-fiction closely, and analyze the craft features employed. They will be expected to write frequently in each of these genres. Prerequisite: 1110 or 1110Y or 1110Z. 

2310.007: Intro to Creative Writing

Online

Lucas Garcia, lgarcia20@unm.edu 

This course will introduce students to the basic elements of creative writing, including short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. Students will read and study published works as models, but the focus of this "workshop" course is on students revising and reflecting on their own writing. Throughout this course, students will be expected to read poetry, fiction, and non-fiction closely, and analyze the craft features employed. They will be expected to write frequently in each of these genres. Prerequisite: 1110 or 1110Y or 1110Z.

2510.001: Analysis of Literature

Face to Face, TR 0930-1045

Leandra Binder, lbinder@unm.edu 

This course is the gateway to the English major. 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 these skills together in an argumentative research essay. In this course, you will gain a cultural and historical framework for the long nineteenth century as we examine important works of poetry, drama, and fiction. Through the analysis of these texts, you will be encouraged to explore the nature of literature, what defines a work as literature, and what factors inform an individual or cultural reading of any work. To inform discussion on these themes, we will read key texts from theoretical disciplines often applied in literary analysis, such as Marxism, Feminism, Psychoanalytic Criticism, and Post-Structuralism. Students taking this course will be asked to question not only the texts they read, but what informs their own reading of each text, and the act of reading itself.

2510.002: Analysis of Literature

Face to Face, MWF 0900-0950

Doaa Omran, domran@unm.edu 

This course is the gateway to the English major. You will learn the fundamental skills needed for literary textual analysis. These skills include critical reading practices, the construction of an argument, the use of textual evidence to support an argument, and the best practices for bringing these skills together in a research essay. Students become familiar with the genres of poetry, fiction, and drama, and they learn how to use theory and criticism to engage in literary textual analysis. Students will also learn valuable research skills and the ability to think critically about literary genres. They will come away from the class with the ability to engage in oral and written forms of literary textual analysis. 

2610.001: American Literature I

Face to Face, TR 1230-1345
Kathryn Wichelns, wichelns@unm.edu

In this class we begin by reading key texts of the pre-colonial and -colonial era, many but not all from the territories that would come to be called the United States of America. Starting in the 1600s, we will focus on the conflicting experiences of indigenous Americans and European arrivals. Oral accounts and speeches suggest the challenge that Native peoples presented to European social structures and notions of individual and community purpose. Mary Rowlandson’s narrative of her captivity by the Narragansett, and the contradictions between Mattaponi oral history and later revisionist accounts of the life of Pocahontas, tell us of the violence at our nation’s origins. The narratives of Jean de Léry and Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca remind us that the history we think we know is profoundly hybrid—and the result of a series of mistakes, contingencies, and adaptations. Mary Prince’s and Olaudah Equiano’s narratives of their enslavement and escape help us explore the racialized social hierarchies that began to develop during this period. These works reveal the assumptions upon which concepts of individual freedom are based in early American culture, as outlined by Thomas Paine, Washington Irving, Simón Bolivár, Victor Séjour, William Apess, and other writers of the Revolution and Early Republic era. An emphasis on non-literary writing 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.

2620.001: American Literature II

Face to Face, TR 1100-1215
Bernadine Hernandez, berna18@unm.edu

In this course, we will survey the development of U.S. literary history from the end of the civil war (1865) to the present as we examine a diverse scope of authors and major literary movements, styles, and forms in the development of the nation. We will be looking at the major literary movements and consider texts in the context of new poetics, realism, naturalism, modernism, the Harlem Renaissance, postmodernism, creative non-fiction and the contemporary and neo-slave novel. We will also link historical moments, such as the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, The Civil War, Reconstruction, the World Wars, and the Civil Rights Movement to literary styles, genres, and movements.  Simultaneously, as we attempt to understand the characteristic and importance of each movement, we will also examine that many authors and texts resist easy categorization and what literary innovations they use to comment and respond to a changing nation. Additionally, we will look at how processes of differentiation, such as race, class, gender, and sexuality manifest throughout American history.  Over the course of the semester, we will be supplementing and complementing our readings and discussions of later American literature in two ways: first, to think about this literature within a larger cultural context, we will look at it alongside other media from the period, including film, music, and art. Additionally, we will incorporate digital tools for literary and cultural study as a way of interpreting American literature of this period.

2630.001: British Literature I

Face to Face, MWF 1100-1150
Lisa Myers, myersl@unm.edu

This course is a survey of literary works produced in Britain from the early Middle Ages to the close of the 18^th century. Readings include the epic Beowulf, the romance Sir Orfeo, medieval and Renaissance drama, the poetry of John Donne, Eliza Haywood’s novel Fantomina and the memoir of Olaudah Equiano. The goal of the course is both to gain an understanding of the development of literary forms and traditions as well as to put texts into conversation with each other in order to gain a sense of both the history and the variety of human experience.

2640.001: British Literature II

Face to Face, MWF 1000-1050
Bradley Tepper, btepper@unm.edu

In this survey of British and Irish Literature, students will be introduced to key authors and works from the late 18th century to the modern era. To add structure to our discussions, this course will also address relevant historical, cultural, and biographical details and trace shifting ideals surrounding power and agency woven through texts from Romanticism, Victorianism, Literature in Transition, Modernism, Post-modernism and Postcolonialism. Students will learn analytical and argumentative methods foundational to literary studies and will practice writing about literature effectively.

2650.001: World Literature I

Face to Face,  MWF 1200-1250
Averie Basch, abasch@unm.edu

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; Medieval Romance poetry from the British Isles and the Continent; selections from the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures and the 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.

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.

2660.001: World Literature II

Face to Face, MWF 1300-1350
Sarah Townsend, sltownse@unm.edu

If shady political deals are a sign of our time, they are also a well-traveled phenomenon. English 2660 will explore narratives about “deals with the devil” in world literature from the 17th century to the present. Why do devils, demons, goblins, and trickster figures appear so often in literature as emblems of modern compromise and corruption? What kinds of deals with the devil do characters strike in order to survive, and which kinds of deals destroy them in the end? Our readings will traverse the world: we will encounter fiction, drama, poetry, and nonfiction from Africa, Asia, the Arab world, Europe, and the Americas. Throughout the course we will ask the following questions: Why do the same kinds of stories appear in many different literary traditions across time and space? Do narratives travel from one site to another, or do similar forms and plots emerge independently in societies that find themselves on the brink of modernity?

Class assignments will invite students to think about how literature is produced, funded, sold, circulated, and adapted. We will read about early editions of books, and we will explore digital archives for historical items that will offer us a sense of the time and place in which our literary works were created. We will also try our hand at theatrical set and sound design, book publicity, and community reading projects. Throughout, students will consider the artistic, financial, and institutional forces that bring literature into the world.

300-Level

1000-Level | 2000-Level | 300-Level | 400-Level

304.002: 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 English and American Literature. There are weekly quizzes and class discussions, two exams, and one short presentation. 

305.001: Mythology

Face to Face, TR 0930-1045
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: T: Moby Dick Afterlives

Face to Face, TR 1230-1345
Jesse Aleman, jman@unm.edu

This course is an in-depth study of the influences and afterlives of Herman Melville's whale of a tale, Moby-Dick. We'll spend considerable time with the narrative itself, situating it in Melville's lifetime and his mid-nineteenth-century literary context. While we'll read some of Melville's nautical, fictonal, and ethnographic influences, the class will devote itself to understanding and analyzing the abiding influence Moby-Dick has on US readers and American popular culture production. We'll view several cinematic versions of the novel (or loose adaptations), analyze comic and graphic novel versions, read segments of Emoji Dick, and perhaps even play Moby-Dick, The Card Game. 

315.002: T: Black Horror Film and Literature

Face to Face, TR 1100-1215

Belinda Wallace, bwallace@unm.edu

Since the release of Jordan Peele’s 2017 blockbuster Get Out, there has been a notable surge in scholarly interest in the horror genre, particularly in Black horror. Films and literature have long served as a vehicle for exploring societal issues. In this course, students will utilize Black horror movies (e.g., Get Out, Antebellum) and literature (e.g., Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror, The Reformatory) to explore themes of Black American history, social justice movements, and contemporary liberation philosophies. With the assistance of appropriate scholarship, our analysis of these texts aims to deepen our understanding of ourselves and our humanity.

321.002: Intermediate Creative Writing – Fiction

Online
Andrew Bourelle, abourelle@unm.edu

Previously, in English 224: Introduction to Creative Writing, you were exposed to the genres of literary fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. In this class, we will build upon what you have already learned and focus specifically on fiction.  You will read, analyze, and discuss published examples of fiction, examining elements of craft. You will also write short stories and share your work with classmates, giving and receiving feedback as a way to improve your writing and the writing of your classmates.

322.001: Intermediate Creative Writing – Poetry

Face to Face, TR 1100-1215
Diane Thiel, dthiel@unm.edu

In this intermediate workshop course, the readings and class sessions will focus on particular techniques or elements of poetry (i.e.: perspective, diction, rhythm, forms of poetry, etc.).  Creative exercises and assignments will accompany these discussions. Students will also be workshopping several poems throughout the course. Because students arrive in such courses with a variety of backgrounds, styles, and interests in poetry, conversations about lineage and the different schools of thought in poetry will be a vital element of the class. Some of this discussion will arise from the workshop of student poems.

323.001: Intermediate Creative Writing – Nonfiction

Face to Face, MWF 1000-1050
Daniel Mueller, dmueller@unm.edu

Discerning the difference between contemporary fiction and creative nonfiction can sometimes be difficult.  Often both genres employ the first person point-of-view and engage readers by encouraging them to willingly suspend their disbelief.  In this workshop, we'll examine the narrative techniques and strategies practitioners of both genres employ as we help one another transform the raw experiences of our own lives into essays crafted to hook readers' interest.  We'll share our written work with one another, placing an emphasis on constructive critique.  We'll read and discuss examples of essays published by some of today's most successful nonfiction writers and compose from prompts derived from the structural decisions these writers have made in their work.  In so doing, we'll have a unique kind of fun, I promise.

324.001: Introduction to Screenwriting

Face to Face, M 1730-2000
Jaymes Thompson, jaymesthompson1@unm.edu

Writing workshop on basics of character structure, scenes, visualization, and good old story telling as it applies to the screenplay. Students read scripts, watch film clips, and begin writing an original screenplay.

351.001: Chaucer

Face to Face, TR 1530-1645

Anita Obermeier, aobermei@unm.edu

In this course, we will explore Geoffrey Chaucer’s most famous work, The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer’s collection of competitive pilgrimage tales is one of the greatest, most imaginative, and varied pieces of all English literature: poetry and prose, romances, sermons, and bawdy stories. Chaucer is credited with writing the first viable women characters in the English language. Consider also the fascinating historical backdrop in late fourteenth-century England: a generation prior, the plague had swept through Europe decimating the population; a child king had taken the throne; peasants rose up in rebellion; and the Bible was translated into English—a world of both decay and dazzling possibility. Through the voices of colorful storytellers, Chaucer’s last great poem tests the boundaries of social possibility in his age, weighing the competing claims of allegory and realism, chivalry and commerce, men and women, traditional authority and individual experience. And it does so in our ancestor language of Middle English, simultaneously a colorful, earthy, funny, and lofty idiom. We will, in essence, ride along with the pilgrims on our own journey to Canterbury and through the Middle Ages.

352.001: Early Shakespeare

Face to Face,TR 1400-1515

Carmen Nocentelli, nocent@unm.edu

Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, The Merchant of Venice – you may think that you know these plays, but think again! In this fully online course you will revisit these plays as well as encounter new works, such as the Quentin Tarantino-like revenge plays Titus Andronicus and the Machiavellian history of Richard III. Using a variety of online resources and active-learning strategies, you will develop knowledge of Shakespeare’s earlier writings and the contexts of their creation and reception. Special attention will be paid to Shakespeare’s language on page and on stage. Organizing our study of these texts and contexts will be, on the one hand, early modern notions of race and intersecting identity positions, such as gender and disability, and on the other hand, your self-identification and affinities with classmates.

353.007: Later Shakespeare

Online
Marissa Greenberg, marissag@unm.edu

Seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, even tasting—Shakespeare’s plays engage all our senses. In this class, we will examine plays such as Twelfth Night, King Lear, and The Tempest for their evocation of multisensorial experiences for playgoers and for readers. Our examination will include embodied research, like cooking early modern recipes and viewing public art in our region as points of entry to Shakespeare’s representations of healing and harm through food and drink and visual culture. At the same time, you will consider still-relevant issues in Shakespeare's plays, like racism, misogyny, settler colonialism, and sexual harassment. So students with learning needs that may impact their embodied research and students who have experienced trauma should reach out to the professor as soon as possible.  

This class is held fully asynchronously. What this means is that students need reliable internet connections and effective time management. In addition to weekly readings and instructor-made content, course activities include check-ins, group discussions, and experiential journaling culminating in a multimedia project.  

365.001: Chicanx Cultural Studies

Face to Face, TR 0930-1045
Bernadine Hernandez, berna18@unm.edu

This course is a comparative exploration of the cultural and political aesthetics of Chicana/o cultural production in relation to Chicanx Studies. We will explore the shift from the Chicano Movement to Chicanx Studies in our contemporary moment. For a portion of the class we will be looking at the cultural production that shapes the field of Chicano/a Studies in relation to the growing field of Chicanx and Latinx Studies. We will consider themes such as colonialism, gender, sexuality, and class, and migration. As a course in cultural studies, our class will traverse both primary and secondary sources. Primary sources being literature, art, film, performance art, and other cultural production. Secondary texts will introduce the class to key theoretical concepts that will elucidate the primary sources. While not exhaustive, this class will take a historical approach to the fields of Chicana/o/x Studies grapple with nineteenth-century colonialism and imperialism but mostly focus on contemporary cultural production. The Chicano Movement is one of the most important civil rights movements in the U.S. to date. While we will be focusing on the cultural production of that historical moment, this class will also elucidate how Chicanos in Albuquerque are resisting and using activism to create a different world.

387.001: Introduction to Poetry

Face to Face, MWF 1100-1150

Matthew Hofer, mrh@unm.edu

While poems may be easy to recognize, they are notoriously hard to define, and often any literary artifact that isn’t easily categorized as “prose” is by default called a “poem.” For our purposes here, a poem—regardless of shape or length, theme or occasion—is any instance of literary language charged to carry the greatest possible degree of meaning. Poems are about images, music, ideas, perceptions, and, sometimes, feelings. However, in a poem, how a thing is said is as important as what is said, or who is saying it, or where, or why. This is what form adds to mere communication, and it is why poems (unlike technical manuals) continue to interest readers who can accurately paraphrase their content. 

This introductory-level poetry course is literary critical: its purpose is to help you attain the skills necessary for rigorous analysis as well as meaningful evaluation. By examining one poetic feature or effect at a time—i.e., tone, speaker, situation, setting, language, sounds, internal structure, and external form—we will build a foundation for complex critical thinking, which means both a consideration of what poems can do and what critics can do with them. Successful students willnot only acquire a range of strategies for approaching difficult texts with confidence but also develop a vocabulary that is specifically suited to a crucial process of differential reading, line by line, word for word, in order to comprehend whole works fully.  

Although it is specifically designed to serve students majoring in English language and literature, this class is open to students with majors other than English and those who have yet to declare a major. There is no prerequisite other than an active curiosity about poetry.

400-Level

1000-Level | 2000-Level | 300-Level | 400-Level

417.001: Editing

Face to Face, TR 1400-1515
Bethany Davila, bdavila@unm.edu

This course teaches students how to approach editing as a career or as writers who want to improve 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 homework, quizzes, and two large editing projects as well as reflection on your progress toward the student learning outcomes.

418.001: Proposal and Grant Writing

Face to Face, R 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 I

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 is 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.

In order to enroll in this class, you should have first completed introductory creative writing. Send an email to Professor Clark detailing your literary interests and courses you've taken, and be sure to include your Banner ID number.

420.002: Rhetorical Figures of Speech

Face to Face, TR 1230-1345
Charles Paine, cpaine@unm.edu

There’s an old joke that goes like this: One fish asks another, “How’s the water today?” And the other fish replies, “What’s water?” Metaphor is the linguistic water in which we all swim. It is a fundamental mechanism of mind that allows us to use what we know about our physical and social experience to provide understanding of countless other subjects. In fact, some philosophers of language say that all language and knowledge is metaphorical—that we can understand something new only in terms of what we already know. Now “tropes” are a species of metaphor that writers use when they want to call attention to their use of metaphor. We’ll explore tropes that amplify, invert word order, repeat words or phrases, or are purposely ungrammatical or just plain unusual. By examining the vast array of tropes—“ways to turn a phrase”—we will attempt to become more aware of the metaphors we live by, that structure our thoughts, perceptions, and beliefs. We’ll do our best to make the water in which we swim more noticeable.

In one part of the course, we’re going to play around with language and the terms we have for language. Most of them come from Ancient Greek. It’s amazing to think that the Greeks came up with a term for almost anything you could do with language, almost every way to turn a phrase. Some of the terms include: erotesis, anadiplosis, anaphora, polyptoton, polysyndeton, antimetabole, chiasmus, hyperbaton, paronomasia, diacope. You will develop a store of particularly useful tropes to amaze your friends and confound your enemies. Not only will we write, but we will analyze other writings, learning to spot the coy occultatio, the elusive hypophora, the bullying argumentum ad baculum. You will be rubbing your nose in your own and others’ prose.  Between these two activities—writing and analyzing—we will try to fill six or seven slots in the grade book. There is no midterm, final, or similar milestone activity. We’re going to have fun with language, see what’s possible, see what’s see-able when we have the names to snag the tropes with.

And there’s another part of the course that will be more meta—people whose scholarship is about language, the connections among language, thought, worldview, etc. We’ll read some contemporary linguistics scholars and some of the Greeks and Romans, like Aristotle, Plato, and the Sophists.

421.002: Advanced Creative Writing Workshop - Fiction

Face to Face, MWF 1100-1150
Daniel Mueller, dmueller@unm.edu

In this upper division creative writing workshop, students will draft the stories and novel excerpts we'll examine in class with the intention of helping manuscripts-in-process find their larger audience through revision and, ultimately, publication. Augmenting our critical, constructive analysis of student-generated fiction will be short fiction exercises and assigned readings of narrative craft essays and contemporary short fiction, all designed to enlarge the student's understanding of how fiction imparts meaning. At the end of the course students will have completed a final portfolio of original fiction.

423.001: Advanced Creative Writing Workshop - Nonfiction

Face to Face, MWF 1300-1350
Lisa Chavez, ldchavez@unm.edu

This is an advanced creative writing workshop in creative nonfiction.  This class presupposes a certain understanding of the genre: ie. at least a basic understanding of the use scene and dialogue and reflection.  Our goals in this course will be to hone craft skills, try out new techniques in exercises,  and practice revision skills.  We will read the work of published authors and explore the variety of types of essays that fall into the category of creative nonfiction, including some full length memoirs.  However, our primary focus will be on workshopping student work.

448.001: Intermediate Old English

Face to Face, TR 1100-1215
Jonathan Davis-Secord, jwds@unm.edu

In this class, we will return to the earliest recorded form of English and read some of the oldest literature ever written in the language. This semester will cover Old English poetry, including canonical short works, neglected gems, and selections from Beowulf. All readings will be done in the original Old English, and the course will focus on mastering Old English grammar and style while also learning the historical contexts of the readings. Prerequisite: basic knowledge of Old English.

449.001: Irish Literature

Face to Face, MW 1400-1515
Sarah Townsend, sltownse@unm.edu

This course will explore race and identity in 20th- and 21st-century Irish literature and culture. Ireland is a fascinating site for exploring changing conceptions of whiteness and otherness due to its diasporic history and recent demographic transformations. Since the 1990s, the country has seen a significant number of immigrants and asylum seekers arrive to its shores, and today a sizeable population of racial and ethnic minorities live in Ireland. These changes have given rise to two very interesting but incorrect claims: 1) that until recently, the Irish could not have been racist because there were no people of color living there, and 2) that the Irish are naturally anti-racist because they were also treated poorly by British colonizers at home and by Americans when they first arrived as immigrants to the U.S. This class will explore both of those ideas through readings and discussions of Irish fiction, drama, and literary criticism, as well as through historical and archival research. We will see how the Irish were portrayed as an inferior race by the British prior to Ireland’s independence, and we will see those same people “become white” (or more precisely, use and abuse the advantages of their whiteness) upon arrival to the United States. We will also see how Irish nationalists perpetuated narrow definitions of Irishness in their nation-building efforts, and we will examine how the Irish have imagined and treated various “Others” like Travellers (a peripatetic ethnic minority), Jews, Muslims, and the more recent wave of immigrants from Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe, who are often collectively termed the “New Irish.” Most excitingly, we will read a number of literary works by young contemporary Irish writers of color who are changing the conversation about race and belonging. Course components will include an archival project, public-facing writing, a research essay, and visits with leading Irish Studies scholars. You’ll be guided throughout the semester by a Korean-American Irish literature professor and recently naturalized Irish citizen who is trying to make sense of what that means.

460.001: Early American Literature 

Face to Face, TR 1100-1215
Jesse Aleman, jman@unm.edu

This course considers a variety of forms produced by the peoples who survived at the margins of what's often called the early colonial period. We'll read early African American poetry; Native American folktales; Spanish colonial contact accounts; radical sermons, speeches, and pamphlets; and runaway slave adverstisements to locate literatures of survivance, fugitivity, resistance, anti-enslavement, and counter-hegemonic agency. We'll also examine how the rise of the early American period corresponded with innovations in print technologies that disseminated discourses about race, gender, nation, and colonial power. The course will introduce students to available digital databases that can serve as research portals or future teaching resources. 

463.001: Modern American Literature

Face to Face, MWF 1000-1050
Sarah Hernandez, hernands@unm.edu

This survey course examines the rise of modernism in American literature from 1900-1940. This semester we will focus on ethnic modernism and the making of U.S. multiculturalism. How did Native American, African American, Mexican American, European immigrants and other ethnic/multicultural writers perpetuate and/or challenge our understanding of the so-called American Dream? We will read poetry, fiction, drama, and non-fiction prose by writers such as Ella Deloria, Zora Neale Hurston, and Américo Paredes to name a few. Core assignments include weekly reflections papers, a midterm essay, final essay, and presentation.

487.001: T: The Story and the Writer

Face to Face, TR 1400-1515
Gregory Martin, gmartin@unm.edu

The Story and the Writer is a seminar for creative writers that focuses on what we can learn from diving deep into the work of a writer and reading not just their books, stories and essays, but also interviews with them, profiles of them, in the hopes that this will deepen our own understanding of their work, of their process, and of how they built a writing life for themselves.  More importantly, in doing this, we’re hoping to better understand how to write our own stories, how to build our own writing process and writing practice, and (yes) how to organize and live our lives.  We’re looking for inspiration and courage, and we’re looking to cultivate our aspiration, so that not just this semester, but five and ten years from now, we’re writing and living an artistic life.  The course is also practical.   Each week we ask the questions:  How was this made?  How does this work?  What is its design? What are its organizing principles?  How does an understanding of its construction shape my own work?  We will come to understand the “moving parts” of novels and stories and narrative essays and memoirs in much the same way a mechanic understands the parts of an engine.  Some writers we’ll likely be investigating include:  Jo Ann Beard, Ta-Nehesi Coates, Alice Munro, Susanna Kaysen, Claudia Rankine, Alison Bechdel, Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Sheila Heti, Zora Neale Hurston.