Graduate Course Descriptions
Fall 2026
Need more info?
For the most up-to-date list of classes offered, visit the dynamic schedule. For questions about classes, consult our graduate advising page or contact the listed instructor. To see what we'll be offering in future semesters,
visit our two-year course rotation template. Interested in studying literature, taking a writing workshop, improving your writing
skills, or brushing up your teaching skills, but don't want to pursue a degree? You
should apply as a Non-Degree Seeking Student.
Jump to:
- Applied Linguistics/TESOL Courses
- Creative Writing Courses
- Literary & Cultural Studies Courses
- Writing, Rhetoric, & Technical Communication Courses
Click on each course title to read the professor's full course description; click on each thumbnail image to view the course flyer.
Applied Linguistics:
ENGL 4533 - ESL/EFL in Multicultural Settings | Dr. Rebecca Adams | Online
Approaches to working with ESL or EFL students in multicultural settings. Upon completion
of this course, students will be able to engage with bilingual and translanguaging
practices for equitable teaching, articulate classroom management plans that address
social justice and advocacy concerns for diverse learners, discuss the importance
of cross-cultural issues in teaching mathematics, sciences, and literacy, and more!
ENGL 7/8507 - Empirical Methods in Linguistic Research | Dr. J. Elliott Casal | Online
Applied Linguistics is a highly interdisciplinary field which draws on diverse methodologies
to address a variety of empirical linguistic questions. The goal of this course is
develop your methodological literacy for reading published research in applied linguistics,
prepare you for asking meaningful research questions in your own inquiry, designing
procedures for finding answers to these questions, collecting and analyzing linguistic
data, and writing research for Applied Linguistics communities.
ENGL 7/8510 - Gender and Language | Dr. Lyn Wright | Wednesdays 1-4pm
This course examines the study of gender and language from multiple perspectives from
foundational research in the field to contemporary applications. We will investigate
the gender differences and the negotiations of power that are instantiated in language
and interrogate how language provides an important resource for constructing gender
identities and roles. We will consider different aspects of language, from address
terms and pronouns to conversational dynamics and speech acts, as they relate to gendered
meanings. Finally, we will contemplate how foundational findings and beliefs about
language and gender have transformed in our contemporary understanding of what gender
is and how it intersects with other identities.
ENGL 7/8511 - Survey of Linguistics | Dr. Leah Windsor | Online
Introduction to the nature of language with emphasis on basic principles of English
phonology, morphology, and syntax; emphasis on collecting and analyzing linguistic
data for research purposes.
ENGL 7/8531 - Theory & History of ESL | Dr. Emily Thrush | Online
Survey of relation of linguistic principles to second language acquisition.
ENGL 7/8533 - Methods & Techniques in ESL K-12 | TBA | Tuesdays at 5:30pm
This course provides students with a comprehensive understanding of a range of methods
and materials for teaching ELLs within ESL, EFL, bilingual, and mainstream classrooms,
including relevant topics on second language acquisition and assessment. Through a
program of lectures, readings, discussions, and practical teaching exercises, students
will explore the educational contexts in which English is taught and learned, some
methods and materials that students can use to teach it, the links between what teachers
and learners do in class, and what applied linguistic research tells us about how
second languages are learned.
ENGL 7/8535 - ESL Grammar | Dr. Emily Thrush | Online
Grammatical systems and strategies of Modern English; analysis of English structures
that tend to cause difficulty for ESL/SESD speakers.
ENGL 7/8590 - Applied Theory of Linguistics: Multimodal Discourse | Dr. Sage Graham
| Thursdays at 5:30pm
Is it harder to be polite online? How do people's identities change on different digital
platforms? Are people more toxic on social media than they are on email? Where & when
do people use emojis, memes, and GIFs? How do spoken conversations differ from conversations
on Discord? We will examine all of these questions and more this fall! ENGL 7/8590 is repeatable for up to 9 credit hours.
Creative Writing:
ENGL 7472 - Forms of Poetry | Dr. Emily Skaja | Tuesdays at 5:30pm
ENGL-7472 is a graduate course devoted to the intensive study of poetic forms. As
poets, we are both scholars and practitioners of a craft, so our efforts to explore
the relationship between form and content will be part critical and part creative.
Together, we will study and practice a wide variety of formal strategies—not only
traditional forms like the sonnet, the villanelle, and the ghazal, but also contemporary
and experimental forms like the prose poem, the Golden Shovel, and the Duplex. We
will approach each form with attention to its history, using our analysis of the texts
as a guide for creative practice, and we will challenge each other to discover the
psychology and utility of each form as we consider how to involve formal innovation
in our own creative work. May be repeated up to 6 hours with change of topic/course content and approval of
Program Coordinator.
ENGL 7485 - Literary Arts Programming | Prof. Courtney Santo | Wednesdays at 5:30pm
In this experiential course, students will be deeply involved in editing, producing,
and marketing a literary magazine, including selecting poetry, fiction, nonfiction,
and art; editing and proofreading manuscripts; preparing texts for print publication;
and marketing, distribution, and sales. Students will gain skills related to editing
and publishing their own creative work. This course also provides an introduction
to the larger literary job market, and we will discuss the process of building a career
in a literary community by working in the nonprofit private or government sector to
promote literary events and community programs. The course will also focus on literary
criticism as students read and interview contemporary authors about their work. These
interviews are intended for publication and students will be encouraged to submit
them for publication.May be repeated for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
ENGL 7602 - Fiction Workshop | Prof. Courtney Santo | Mondays at 5:30pm
This graduate-level workshop devotes most of its sessions to reading and workshopping
student work. Our focus is on bettering translations of story from a writer’s head
to the page. We will achieve this through peer critique, self-assessment, revision,
traditional workshop methodologies, and by learning from other published authors by
analyzing their approaches to plot, character, structure, timescape, setting, and
identity disturbance. Our goal is to recognize the different possibilities available
when constructing a narrative, so that students make informed choices when producing
their own work. Students are expected to write a minimum of twenty-five pages of new
material during the semester. Our discussion theme for this workshop centers on endings. We will analyze a wide range of literary texts in order to explore the structure
and tone of different types of endings. Is the state of literature as Ben Marcus has
said that “the positive is already given, and what’s left for writers is to depict
the negative, the darkness, the bleakest possibilities” or is there a reason to depict
joy?
ENGL 7603 - Poetry Workshop | Dr. Emily Skaja | Thursdays 5:30-8:30pm
ENGL-7603 is a graduate-level workshop devoted to the creation, revision, and critical
analysis of poetry. Students will submit original work and improve their craft through
dedicated practice and intensive study. Analyzing contemporary collections of poetry,
the students will work to understand how the poet is using figurative language, form,
music, and arrangement to create intricate layers of meaning. The workshop is a constructive
community environment where students are invited to encourage and challenge one another
as they refine their work.
Literary & Cultural Studies:
ENGL 7/8000 - Literary Research: How to Do Things with Literature | Dr. Donal Harris
| Thursdays at 5:30pm
This course offers a selective introduction to recent initiatives in the professional
study of literature. Our goal is to acclimate new MA and PhD students to the expectations
of graduate-level research and writing, with an eye toward the types of professional
practices that will mostly likely be expected of an individual with a PhD in English.
We have three related course objectives: 1) a primer on trends in contemporary criticism and literary theory; 2) a practicum on developing and then executing graduate-level scholarship; 3) an overview of what types of research recent English PhDs have produced, and how
they use their degrees. NOTE: This course is required for Literature majors and should be taken in the first
year of graduate study.
ENGL 7/8335 - “When the Past is the Subject of the Present”: African American Literature 1989-Present | Dr. Ladrica Menson-Furr
| Wednesdays at 5:30pm
In this seminar, we will study African American literature penned during the last
decade of the twentieth century and into the present. Specifically, we will examine
the genre of historical fiction (or historically situated literature) as a “literary site” of contemporary literature and its important role in providing authors and scholars
with new perspectives and theoretical frameworks through which to interpret and interrogate
past and present cultural, economic, educational, political, and social contexts,
realities, and movements.
ENGL 7/8392 - American Poetry | Dr. Kathy Lou Schultz | Mondays at 5:30pm
Intensive study of American poetry.
ENGL 7/8469 - African American Women Writers | Dr. Shelby Crosby | Tuesdays at 5:30pm
Examines the variety of ways black women writers have reclaimed the creative power
of agency, emphasizing areas of difference as well as continuity within the African
American literary tradition; combines considerations of context, both historical and
political, with rigorous textual and theoretical analyses.
Writing, Rhetoric, & Technical Communication:
ENGL 6618 - Document Design | Dr. Chloe Robertson | Online
ENGL 6618 takes a theoretical approach towards visual and written communication, honoring
the interrelationship between visual and verbal elements present in documentation.
In other words, we will interrogate how documents are designed to be both visually
and verbally appealing for audiences while conveying the necessary information clearly
and artfully. We will then apply what we have learned to create our own documents,
practicing what it means to be thoughtful authors and designers in solo and collaborative
settings.
ENGL 6620 - Digital Rhetoric and Writing | TBD | Online
This course focuses on contemporary theories and practices in digital rhetoric and
writing, preparing students entering both the academic field and the private sector
with scholarship and trends surrounding digital rhetoric.
ENGL 7/8003 - Theory/Practice Teaching Composition | Dr. Katherine Fredlund | Mondays
1-4pm
Designed for graduate assistants teaching English 1010. Emphasis on the ways and techniques
of teaching rudiments of English composition on college level. Each graduate teaching
assistant in the Department of English must enroll in English 7003-8003 before or
concurrent with first teaching assignment.
ENGL 7/8350 - Rhetorical Theory | Dr. Joseph Jones | Wednesdays at 5:30pm
Rhetoric is both a cause and an effect, and rhetorical theory interrogates both by
developing philosophical and practical knowledge about the ways human beings use language
to understand the world and relate to others. Our curated readings will include foundational
texts from ancient Greece and Rome; texts associated with the Scottish Enlightenment;
and selected contemporary texts that explore some applications for rhetorical theory.
Our especial emphases throughout will be rhetorical invention (“the process and art
of creation, discovery, or problem solving”), and the relationship of rhetoric and
virtue. Those emphases have been matters of importance and enduring inquiry in rhetorical
theory; each has relevance for our current, troubled cultural moment.