| Topics in Literature: The Craft of Fiction English 3950 Prof. T. Aubry Mon/Wed/Thur 11:00-1:30PM In-person Tues/Fri Online Hybrid Synchronous | How do literary works grab our attention and how do they keep us reading? Why do some stories excite us and others bore us? What strategies are involved in getting us to care about fictional characters? How do authors create suspense? How do they give us a vivid sense of the worlds they are depicting? How do they make us laugh or cry? In this class, we will examine genres ranging from serious literature to fantasy in order to get a better sense of the techniques authors use to inspire engagement from readers. Considering examples from writers including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zora Neale Hurston, Octavia Butler, Alice Munro, Ted Chiang, Flannery O’Connor, Tomi Adeyemi, Lee Child, and Colleen Hoover, we will explore key strategies such as exposition, point of view, pacing, characterization, and world-building. Students will produce both analyses of literary texts and short pieces of fiction. The goal of the course will be to help students understand how fiction works and develop techniques they can use in their own creative writing, thus giving them the tools they need to craft entertaining and emotionally compelling stories. |
| Topics in Literature: Fairy Tails English 3950 Prof. D. Odnopovoza Mon/Wed/Fri 11:00-1:30PM Online Synchronous Tues/Thu In-person Hybrid Synchronous | This course will study fairy and folk tales across cultures, centuries and media. The texts we explore range from familiar stories, such as “Cinderella,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” and “Snow White,” to lesser-known texts from Thousand and One Nights and Panchatantra. We will explore the shape-shifting of fairy tales as they travel from one culture to another, from oral tradition to written form and from text to screen. In addition, we will engage with methodologies developed by Freud, Jung, Campbell, Frazer, Propp and Maria Tartar to understand the universal appeal and power of the fairy tale. You will be writing a 7-10 paper for this course. |
Month: October 2024
SPRING 2025 UPPER-DIVISION COURSES DESCRIPTIONS
| Crafting Stronger Sentences English 3001 Prof. F. Cioffi Tues/Thu 10:45-12:00PM | This course will focus on English grammar–the form, variety, and extraordinary possibilities of the English sentence, from the simple to the advanced. This course will examine how sentences are put together, how they work, and how they carry power to persuade an audience and effect change. The course will discuss issues of correctness, grammaticality, common usage, and formal writing, and will help students generate correct, sophisticated, audience-appropriate prose. |
| Survey of English Literature I English 3010 Prof. L. Silberman Mon/Wed 10:45-12:00PM | Find out what inspired Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. See how Satan first became a glamorous anti-hero. In this course, we will be reading representative works of English literature from Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight through selections from Milton’s Paradise Lost. Other readings will include selections from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales—the romantic, the bawdy, and the moral–one of the plays of Shakespeare, a Renaissance epyllion—a short, erotic narrative–and selected Renaissance love lyrics. There will be two short, critical essays, a midterm and a final exam. |
| Survey of English Literature II English 3015 Prof. C. Grandy Tues/Thu 4:10-5:25PM | In this class we will read British literature from the last three centuries, spanning intellectual and aesthetic movements that include the enlightenment, romanticism, realism, modernism, and postmodernism. We will place these readings in their historical contexts, from the toppling of monarchies to reckonings with colonialism. Our overarching focus will be how literary forms evolve in response to historical circumstances, while also creating new ways of seeing and thinking about the world. How does poetry that uses everyday language expand the notion of what is picturesque or beautiful? How does the rise of the novel form and free indirect discourse create a new sense of the public sphere? How do experiments in first person perspective expand the self-consciousness of subjectivity? This course will challenge you to read literature not just for its content (what it’s about) but for its form (how it’s written), expanding your abilities in both close reading and textual analysis. This is a discussion-based class and is reading-intensive, asking students to annotate texts in preparation for class sessions. Students will also be asked to write short essays and a midterm exam. Writers we will read include Jonathan Swift, William Blake, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Jane Austen, George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Alfred Tennyson, Oscar Wilde, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Seamus Heaney, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Zadie Smith. |
| Survey of American Literature I English 3020 Prof. A. Yoon Mon/Wed 5:50-7:05PM | This course explores the development of American literature from its beginnings through the Civil War. Texts including letters, histories, autobiographies, political documents, poems, plays, and novels, illuminate the rich complexity of this period in American literary history and culture. These works reveal the often interconnected and overlapping stories of discovery and exploration; private piety and public life; the development of national identity; race; gender; slavery and the movement toward its abolition. |
| Survey of American Literature II: American Literature from the Civil War to Present English 3025 Prof R. Walker Tues/Thu 2:30-3:45PM | This course surveys the wealth of literature published in the United States between the end of the Civil War and the present day, with an emphasis on the period between 1880 and 1945. Students will leave the course with a solid grasp on the major literary movements that flourished in modern America, including realism and regionalism, modernism, and postwar literature, along with the major players of those movements (from Henry James and Charles Chesnutt to Toni Morrison and Junot Díaz). |
| Post-Colonial Literature English 3036 Prof. S. Bosu Mon/Wed 12:50-2:05PM | This course examines postcolonial literary texts written in English,specific to nations and regions that were once European colonies,especially in Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Caribbean. The focus is onliterature of empire, especially, but not limited to, works of variousgenres produced in the years leading up to, during, and after thestruggles for ?independence,? including works by such writers asChinua Achebe, Chimamanda Adichie, Michelle Cliff, J. M. Coetzee, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Jamaica Kincaid, Imbolo Mbue, V.S. Naipaul, Ng ugiwa Thiong’o,Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Arundhati Roy, and Salman Rushdie. |
| Survey of Caribbean Literature English 3038 Prof. K. Frank Tues/Thu 2:30-3:45PM | This course charts the development of Caribbean literature in English from the 19th century to the present and emphasizes its formal and thematic aspects. Special attention is given to the influence of Caribbean Geography and Caribbean history on its literature. Themes include anti-imperialism and nationalism, globalization, migration and exile, the treatment of race, the treatment of women and carnivalesque subversions. |
| Latino/a Literature in the U.S. English 3059 Prof. J. Caroccio Maldonado Mon/Wed 9:05-10:20AM | This course examines significant works of literature written in English by Latinos and Latinas in the U.S. It concentrates on novels, short stories, and essays from the late 19th century to the present. Special attention is given to issues of cultural identity, social class, race, and gender, as well as bilingualism and code-switching. While focusing on the diversity of the Latino, a literary expression, this course also explores the sociopolitical contexts in which the works emerged and the commonalities and differences of the experiences of the Latin American diasporas in the U.S. |
| Craft of Poetry: English 3645 Prof. S. W. Mao Mon/Wed 2:30-3:45PM | In this course, students will read and examine contemporary voices in poetry in order to build their own poetry writing practice. Students will actively engage in lively questions about poetic process and the craft of writing as they work to define and contextualize poetry in class discussions, then move to a workshop model of inquiry, feedback, and revision. Students will draw out craft lessons from contemporary poetry by reading book-length collections by established poets as well as read and discuss craft essays and guides that help students navigate writing poetry as a practice of observing, imagining, and bending language. In the workshop model, students will produce material and submit drafts to the workshop for discussion where collectively we will offer rigorous feedback. By the end of the course, students will have developed a deeper understanding of poetry and the craft of writing, and cultivated a growing sense of their own aesthetic interests and voice, culminating in a small body of their own original poems. |
| Contemporary Drama English 3780 Prof S. Vella Mon/Wed 12:50-2:05PM | In a world full of mass media options, why does live theatre continue to thrive? In this class we will study a selection of plays and theatrical productions produced around the world in the last 25 years. This will include selections from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East that range in scale from mega-musicals produced in international urban centers to works produced for culturally-specific, local communities. We will focus on the unique ways in which contemporary theatre allows artists and audiences to engage both locally and globally with the urgent social, political, ecological, and cultural issues in our lives. In addition to reading plays and watching video documentation of performances, this course will also take advantage of the vibrant New York City contemporary theatre scene, and will include field trips. Assignments will include short written assignments and one longer paper. |
| Topics in Film: Cyborgs, Androids, AI English 3940 Prof. P. Hitchcock Tues/Thu 10:45-12:00PM | This course provides an opportunity to study important filmmakers, genres, national cinemas, and themes not found or only touched on in other film courses. Representative subjects include the films of Ingmar Bergman, Asian cinema, Eastern European film before and after the fall of Communism, the animated film, the image of the city, and the samurai film and the western. This format allows for an intensive examination of such topics, which may vary from semester. Students may enroll in this course more than once if the topic is different. |
| Topics in Film: Mexican Melodrama English 3940 Prof. C. Castro Tues/Thu 4:10-5:25PM | Explores the genealogy of melodramatic audiovisual products —from early silent film to contemporary sitcoms— across the 20th and 21st century. While the regional focus is Mexico, the class is designed to form parallels with other Latin American countries and to think about Mexican film within a global context. This course aims towards a critical study of melodrama as genre and affective modality that defines Mexican film production to this day. This course provides an opportunity to study important filmmakers, genres, national cinemas, and themes not found or only touched on in other film courses. Representative subjects include the films of Ingmar Bergman, Asian cinema, Eastern European film before and after the fall of Communism, the animated film, the image of the city, and the samurai film and the western. This format allows for an intensive examination of such topics, which may vary from semester. Students may enroll in this course more than once if the topic is different. |
| Topics in Literature: Essentials of Publishing English 3950 Prof. T. Aubry Wed 12:50-2:05PM Hybrid Asynchronous  | In order to become what we think of as literature, every text needs to work its way through the publishing industry. This means an editor must decide that it deserves to be circulated and read. It will likely require further development and revision, a process that typically involves ongoing dialogue between the author and editor. The text will need to be copy-edited and proofread. Designers will work to make it visually appealing, creating a cover that grabs people’s attention and helps convey what the book is about. Publicists will seek to garner attention for the work through blurbs from established authors, readings, book parties, panels, social media posts, and reviews in prominent venues. If the editorial team has guessed right, the work may become a bestseller or a viral sensation, the author a literary celebrity. Or, if they guessed wrong, as is often the case, it will be forgotten within a matter of weeks. In every case, a host of individuals is responsible for shepherding a successful work of writing through myriad processes so that it can reach the reading public. The publishing industry shapes every reader’s encounter with literature; without it, there would be no books, no stories, no articles, no literary culture in the United States. ENG 3950: The Essentials of Publishing is designed to offer knowledge of how this industry operates. Specifically aimed at students interested in working in publishing during and after graduation, it will have a hybrid structure. Students will spend half the time participating in a weekly seminar engaged in critical conversations about different features of the publishing industry; and they will spend the other half interning at a publishing house in New York City. Students in the course will have the opportunity to get hands-on work experience, learn how books get produced, and start building a network of contacts they can turn to when they go on the job market after graduation. All of internships in the publishing industry will be arranged by the professor. Students do need to apply for internships on their own. All students who participate will receive a $2000 fellowship to support their work as interns. The course will be capped at twelve students and admission is by application only. Students who are interested should send a 1-2-page cover letter, resume, and 3-5 page writing sample to [email protected] by Friday October 25. The writing sample may be an essay from a previous class or a work that the student produced independently. The cover letter should explain why the student is interested in publishing and what contributions they think they can make to the course and to the industry. Applicants are encouraged to indicate how they can help promote diversity, equity, and inclusivity in our literary and intellectual culture. Finalists may be asked to interview with editors before the semester begins, and acceptance in the class will be contingent upon being given a position at a particular publishing house. |
| Topics in Literature: Jane Austen English 3950 Prof. S. Hershinow Tues/Thu 10:45-12:00PM | This special topics course will examine Jane Austen’s role in the history of the novel and consider her enduring popularity. In novels like Sense and Sensibility (1811) and Pride and Prejudice (1813), Austen opened up new possibilities for the novel as a literary form. We will highlight Austen’s literary innovations (her satire and style, her experimentation with the marriage plot and psychological characterization) and social commentary (on the legal status of women, the transatlantic slave trade, and the French revolution). We will explore each of Austen’s six published novels along with excerpts from contemporary literary and political texts, critical commentary, and popular adaptations. By diving deep into the work of a single author, we’ll gain a rare perspective on the development of a writer’s craft. Our course will also coincide with the 250th anniversary of Austen’s birth, and we’ll consider the reception of her work over time and in our moment. Austen fans and those entirely new to Austen are very welcome. |
| Topics in Literature: The Real X-FIles English 3950 Prof. C. Mead Mon/Wed 10:45-12:00PM | In this course, we will examine the phenomenon of UFOs—now more commonly called UAPs, or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena–from the post-World War II period to the present day. Starting with the supposed Roswell crash in 1947, we will continue on to the Pentagon’s recent shocking admission that UFOs are, in fact, real. We will examine the ways in which theories of UFOs tend to reflect the particular anxieties and fears of their historical moments, and we will ask what our current conversations about the subject say about how we feel about our government. Key texts and media in the class will include such nonfiction books as Leslie Kean’s UFOs and Garrett Graff’s UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government’s Search for Alien Life; fiction including Ted Chiang’s STORY OF YOUR LIFE and Nnedi Okorafor’s BINTI Trilogy; films including ARRIVAL and CONTACT; and selected documentaries |
| Special Topics in Language English 3960 Prof. L. Blankenship & Prof. D. Libertz Wed 2:30-3:45PM Hybrid Asychronous | This course introduces students to the field of rhetoric and writing studies. Students will become acquainted with the variety of ways intellectuals have engaged with the nature and uses of rhetoric and writing, to include philosophical, theoretical, critical, and social scientific study of rhetoric and writing. Examples of subjects of study include: meaning, persuasion, identity, argument, style, mediation and modality, genre, and circulation. Students explore practical applications to their areas of study across different disciplines, career paths, and personal interests. |
| The Globalization of English English 4015 Prof. K Belmihoub Mon/Wed 5:50-7:05PM | In this course, we will investigate the state of English in the world today – how the English language aids globalization, and how globalization changes English as it becomes central in diverse speech communities. English today is part of new modes of literacy and discourse practices, and has dynamic relationships with other languages and cultures. These changes call for us to re-examine our understandings of language standards, speech communities, linguistic identities, and best practices for English language teaching. We will begin by studying the historical and geopolitical bases for the rise of English as a global language. We then explore the implications of decolonization, diaspora communities, and digital technology for diversifying the structure, norms, and usage of the English language. We will discuss the controversial history, changing attitudes, new competencies, and competing ideologies associated with English both globally and locally. Specifically, this course has the following objectives: To develop a critical understanding of the interconnections between globalization and the English language; To analyze the ways a language changes from new communication technologies, plural speech communities, and transnational economic relationships; To explore the ways in which the changes in English impact business practices and language teaching in the 21st century. |
Radical Bestiaries: Animals and Humans in the Atlantic World IDC 4050H-MTH (4420) Tuesdays, 11:20-2:05PM Rick Rodriguez (English) Elizabeth Heath (History) | In the middle panel of Hieronymus Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights” humans and animals wildly coexist. This riotous image stands in stark contrast to that of The Great Chain of Being, where all creatures are neatly and vertically organized in subordination to humans. It is fair to say that the ideas that animate the visuals in The Great Chain of Being have come to dominate how we think and write about human history and culture and perhaps more importantly how that history and culture have been made, though not without opposition. We’ll examine the ideas, beliefs, and practices underpinning these images in literary and historical texts, tracking their development from the 15th through the 19th centuries and to our own time. Doing so will not only yield a more complex appreciation of the entangled relations between humans and animals but also how these relations contributed to the making and unmaking of the Atlantic World. |
| Chaucer English 4120 Prof. H. Ramdass Mon/Wed 5:50-7:05PM | This course is devoted to an intensive study of the Canterbury Tales, a work that founds the English literary tradition. Written at the end of the fourteenth century, Geoffrey Chaucer’s composition is a fascinating medley of stories that range from the serious and pious, to the unabashedly earthy and outrageously funny. The tales are told by a cast of memorable pilgrims that include a dashing knight, a drunken miller, a bookish young scholar, a monk, a conniving pardoner, a self-indulgent nun, and a bold and enterprising Wife. Students are introduced to a range of genres—from epic, satire, allegory and romance to fable, elegy, dream-vision, autobiography, and travel narrative. In piecing together Chaucer’s portrait of late medieval society, readers will discover how the Poet reflects and distorts social and political realities, rendering a colorful portrait of late medieval life that appears strangely familiar six hundred years later. |
| Shakespeare English 4140 Prof. A. Deutermann Mon/Wed 4:10-5:25PM | This course offers an in-depth survey of the work of William Shakespeare, plausibly regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language. Students will examine a range of Shakespeare’s works, from early plays heavily influenced by classical models through his great comedies and tragedies to his late romances. The course will consider these works in the context of political, religious, and cultural issues of Shakespeare’s time and in light of particular thematic concerns recurring in Shakespeare’s work. We will analyze the plays both as dramatic works intended to be performed and as literary productions that reward careful close reading. |
| Topics in Shakespeare: Trickery, Gender, Power English 4145 Prof. L. Kolb Tues/Thu 2:30-3:45PM | Tricks abound in Shakespeare’s plays. In comedies like Much Ado About Nothing and Twelfth Night, strategic deceptions make some characters fall in love and others doubt their sanity. In tragedies like Richard III, Hamlet, and Othello, crafted ruses enable revenge and facilitate power grabs. In this class, we explore what tricks tell us about power, performance, and gender relations. What does acting have to do with ruling? What kinds of deceptions do people who lack power–women, servants, racial and cultural ‘outsiders’–use to seize it, from below? And what are the parallels between onstage tricksters’ manipulations of language to create social illusions and Shakespeare’s uses of it to spin theatrical fictions? Alongside a range of comedies, tragedies, and romances, we will read excerpts from Renaissance texts including Machiavelli’s The Prince (1532) and Richard Brathwaite’s The English Gentlewoman (1631) to better understand the entanglement of trickery, power, and gendered performance, onstage and off. |
| The Modern Short Story English 4450 Prof. E. Dreifus Thu 4:10-5:25PM HA | Significant short stories of the twentieth century. Faulkner, Joyce, Cather, Mansfield, Kafka, and others will be studied, explicated, and discussed with emphasis on symbol, myth, and relationships to nineteenth-century forerunners in the short story art. This course may serve as the capstone for the liberal arts English minor. |
| The Modern Short Novel English 4460 Prof. E. Chou Tues/Thu 10:45-12:00PM | What can a short a novel do that a long one cannot? This course pursues this and other equally compelling questions through close attention to an array of writers who make a resource of brevity. This course may have an international scope, perhaps including works in translation. |
| Literature of the Harlem Renaissance: English 4545 Prof. E. Richardson Tues 6:05-9:00PM | “From the 1920s through the 1930s, the Harlem Renaissance marked a flourishing of African American literature, culture, and intellectual thought. During this period, Black authors, artists, and thinkers worked to redefine Black identity, challenging persistent stereotypes and showcasing Black life as integral to the modern world. This movement was shaped by emerging technologies like film and photography, as well as the growth of modern print culture through periodicals and pamphlets. In this course, we will explore a wide range of literary and cultural works from this vibrant era, examining how they reflect and respond to the social and political landscapes of the time. Readings will include plays by Georgia Douglas Johnson and Willis Richardson, essays by Alain Locke, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Zora Neale Hurston, poetry by Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen, and novels by Claude McKay and Nella Larsen. Our discussions will engage with historical and cultural contexts, informed by concepts from gender and sexuality studies, queer studies, data studies, and Black studies. A sample* of the readings includes Blue-Eyed Black Boy by Georgia Douglas Johnson; The Chip Woman’s Fortune by Willis Richardson; “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston; “The Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes; “Yet I Do Marvel” by Countee Cullen; Home to Harlem by Claude McKay; and Passing by Nella Larsen. *Select readings of poems, essays and periodicals TBD by the instructor and the class in first 1-2 weeks of the course based on class discussion.” |
| The Global Business of Literature English 4615 Prof. M. Eatough Mon/Wed 2:30-3:45PM | It has become commonplace among many literary critics to say that we are living in the era of a “new” world literature. Indeed, even the most cursory examination of a display table at Barnes and Noble will show just how “global” contemporary reading tastes can be—translations of Japanese and Chinese novels sit side-by-side with Anglophone texts from Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, while Spanish-language texts jostle for attention with Greek and Latin classics. In this class, we will study the social, cultural, and economic factors that have led to the creation of this “new” world literature. Our approach to this topic will be broadly interdisciplinary: we will not only read works of world literature, but also examine world literature through the lenses of economics, history, and sociology. Our readings will thus range from historical scholarship on the rise of the modern publishing industry to sociological studies of literary prizes, and from analyses of subcultural readerships and niche marketing to detailed accounts of book series and literary magazines. We will also discuss the role that translation plays in shaping the works that we read—and, equally important, the role that private foundations and government programs play in funding such translations. Possible readings include novels by Chetan Bhagat, Roberto Bolano, NoViolet Bulawayo, Fernanda Melchor, Yu Miri, and Sally Rooney. |
| Medieval Romance English 4710 Prof. C. Christoforatou Mon/Wed 10:45-12:00PM | Fantasy, Faith, and Fiction in the Middle Ages Romance was medieval culture’s most popular non-religious literary genre. It is also the genre that has had the largest influence on subsequent history. From modern science fiction to soap opera, there is no form of contemporary popular narrative that does not draw in some way on the conventions of medieval romance. Together in this course we will chart the genre’s development from its emergence in fourth-century Africa to its subsequent revivals in the courts of tenth-century Persia, eleventh-century Constantinople, and twelfth and fourteenth-century France and England. Central to the study of romance as a genre is its creative reinterpretation of passion and faith in relation to fellowship and love. This was a necessary process that allowed medieval authors to preserve and question the contradictions at the heart of courtly love and the institutions of knighthood and marriage. To fully understand these contradictions, we will consider the genre’s ties to masculinity, femininity, community, faith, shame and honor, and question the extent to which the genre can be said to enjoy a certain autonomy from history. We will conclude with contemporary approaches to medieval romance. Readings for the course will include Pseudo-Callisthenes’ Alexander Romance, Chrétien de Troyes’ Arthurian cycle, Cliges, The Knight of the Cart (Lancelot),and The Story of the Grail (Perceval), Beroul’s Romance of Tristan, two anonymous Middle English romances, Pearl and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, as well as shorter romances in translation by Christine de Pizan and Marie de France. In addition, the class will explore romance’s affinities to other genres and systems of power by looking at the work of influential women patrons who served as scribes, narrators, and commentators |
| Gothic Mysteries English 4740 Prof. C. Jordan Mon/Wed 4:10-5:25PM | Against a background of haunted castles, demonic predators, and victims who unconsciously collaborate in their own ruin, Gothic literature takes us on a journey into the dark recesses of the human psyche that fascinated Freud and examines its insatiable appetite for danger and forbidden pleasure. Through psychoanalytical and feminist lens, we will explore Gothic stories by both men and women. We will see how Victorian medical attitudes towards the female body forced the female writer of the Gothic novel to create erotically coded texts that scholars are still unraveling today. If you like spectacular settings, you will revel in Jean Rhys’s Caribbean Gothic novel, Wide Sargasso Sea, about fatal passion, voodoo priestesses, sexual addiction, and mad Creole heiresses set in the lush islands of Jamaica and Dominica. You will love Sheridan Le Fanu’s thriller of voluptuous terror, Carmilla, which describes the seduction and possession of an innocent young woman by a tantalizingly beautiful female vampire who provides her victims with a taste of ecstasy before luring them into the world of the damned. Readings will include Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, that portrays one of the loneliest creatures in all of literature—the deformed offspring of an egotistical scientist, and Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, condemned as shocking and immoral when it was first published, but now recognized as one of the most daring and complex novels of its time. |
| Topics in Literature: Investigating Language Data English 4950 Prof. N. Lee Mon/Wed 4:10-5:25PM | Linguistic patterns — whether unconsciously embedded in spoken or signed language, or cast in literary or other texts, or carefully prompted in experimental settings — can illuminate both the substance of general human cognition and the social attributes of individual (groups of) speakers. Is the word the going away? Are our brains pre-set to learn “singular” and “plural” (but not other numbers)? Do gay men really lisp? Are literary novels wordier than genre fiction? This course provides a gentle introduction to quantitative methods for language data, with hands-on tutorials for counting or measuring various aspects of linguistic behavior and textual features. This course will guide students through ways to find, organize, and visualize language data. Students will learn how to carry out this exploratory data analysis with both discrete and continuous data, from text corpora, speech and audio recordings, and experimental measurements, using R, an open-source statistical software environment. These broadly transferable computational skills and competence in data science will serve students in the pursuit of linguistic, social, and humanistic questions. No prior data analysis or computer science / programming experience is required. |
| Topics in Literature: Language. Identity, and Social Media English 4950 Prof. B. Schreiber Tues/Thu 4:10-5:25PM | How do the language and images that we use online shape the way others see us – and the way we see ourselves? This class will explore how digital technology has changed language use and conventions, and how identities are formed online. In the first half of the course, we will examine case studies on personal and corporate social media use across various platforms around the world, considering how users select social media platforms and employ language resources, including multimodality, as they write. We will learn about options and tools for online research, and discuss the ethical concerns that arise in collecting data via social media. In the second half of the course, students will work on their own case studies examining how language is used to create community and identity within a particular forum or genre (such as Reddit, Instagram, TikTok, or online advertising). Evaluation will be based on discussion board posts, leading and participating in class discussions, the written case study, and a final research presentation. |