Undergraduate Course Descriptions: Summer 2025

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For the most up-to-date list of classes offered, visit the dynamic schedule. For questions about classes, consult our undergraduate 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.

General Education Requirements:

ENGL 1010 - English Composition (multiple sections; online courses available)
Practice in expository writing with emphasis on content, organization, and style (levels of usage and sentence structure) for different purposes and audiences.

ENGL 1020 - English Composition/Analysis (multiple sections; online courses available)
Practice in expository writing that synthesizes ideas from various readings. Includes library work and production of documented papers.

ENGL 2201 - Literary Heritage (multiple sections; online courses available)
Major texts of literary heritage; modes of literary expression and cultural context; emphasis on works as products of their historical contexts and as processes shaping human consciousness.

ENGL 2202 - Literary Heritage: African American Literature (multiple sections; online courses available)
Consideration of major texts of literary heritage with emphasis on African-American culture; modes of literary expression and cultural context; emphasis on work as products of historical contexts and as processes shaping human consciousness.

First Half-Term Summer 2025:

ENGL 3501 - Modern English Grammar | Dr. J. Elliott Casal | Online
Introduction to current grammatical theory; description of sounds, word structures, syntax, and semantics of English within theoretical frameworks.

ENGL 3601 - Intro to Technical & Professional Writing | Dr. Scott Sundvall | Online
Introduction to rhetoric and style of documents written by scientists, engineers, technical writers, and other professionals; extensive practice in writing reports, proposals, manuals, and correspondence.

ENGL 3603 - Engineering Communication | Prof. Gabrielle Alston | MTWRF 10:50am-12:30pm
Form and contexts of written and oral communications in engineering professions; extensive practice in oral reporting, written reports, manuals, and proposals. *Does not apply to the English major or minor.*

ENGL 4373 - African American Authors Since the Harlem Renaissance | Dr. R. Nicole Smith | Online
In-depth study of two or three authors since 1930, focusing on relationships among them and comparing their aesthetics. May be repeated for maximum of 6 hours credit with change in course content.

ENGL 4452 - Modern Drama | Prof. Rhonda Powers | MTWRF 10:50am-12:30pm
Theater has historically been the most censored of all artistic forms as it responds most immediately to social and political change, often representing a voice of opposition or a reflection of civil unrest. In this course, we will examine the specific culture conditions and preoccupations of "Modernists," the late 19th and early 20th century artistic rebellion against academic historicist traditions and Victorian cultural absolutism. Reading the plays of such dramatists as Ibsen, Pirandello, Shaw, Beckett and Miller, we will focus on the rapidly evolving art of drama--from Realism/ Naturalism, Expressionism, Symbolism, to Epic and Absurdist Theater, to study rapidly changing cultural conditions brought on by industrialization and the resulting individual alienation.

Second Half-Term Summer 2025:

ENGL 3220 - British Literature Since 1750 | Dr. Jeffrey Scraba | MTWRF 10:50am-12:30pm
Survey of major authors, themes, and movements in American literature from the colonial period through 1865.

ENGL 3604 - Persuasive Writing | Prof. Terry Ansbro | Online
Study and practice of writing essays and reports with emphasis on persuasion; introduction to empirical and library research, application of rhetorical principles, and nature of evidence, including numerical; academic and professional writing, editing, and revision.

ENGL 4531 - Methods & Techniques in ESL | Prof. Tammy Jones | Online
Methods and techniques of teaching English as a Second Language in various settings.

Undergraduate Course Descriptions: Fall 2025

Jump to:

African American Literature Courses
Applied Linguistics/TESOL Courses
Creative Writing Courses
Literature Courses
Professional Writing Courses
Honors & Internships

Click on each course title to read the professor's full course description; click on each thumbnail image to view the course flyer.

General Education Requirements:

2201.010 - Literary Heritage: LGBTQ+ Literature | Prof. Nina Myers | MW 12:40-2:05
This class offers a space to engage with texts by Southern and Filipino/a/x American writers in an effort to explore gender identity and sexuality as they relate to both familiar and culturally distinct literary contexts.

2201.303 - Literary Heritage Honors | Dr. Darryl Domingo | TR 9:40-11:05
Students will study the major literary modes of fiction, poetry, and drama, and engage, through writing and discussion, with literature representing a variety of cultures and literary forms. This Honors section of ENGL 2201 will encourage students to cultivate a critical self-consciousness by focusing their attention on the ways in which authors of different kinds in different contexts reflect upon their own art and invite their audience to reflect upon their special role as arbiter, interpreter, literary critic.

African American Literature:

ENGL 3325 - African American Literature Through the Harlem Renaissance | Dr. Verner Mitchell | MWF 9:10-10:05
Examination of works by black authors starting with the Colonial Enlightenment, continuing with slave narratives, and ending with the rise of the black novel.

ENGL 3326 - African American Literature Since the Harlem Renaissance | Dr. R. Nicole Smith | MW 12:40-2:05
Examination of African American literary tradition from the Harlem Renaissance to the present; Chicago writers, integrationist aesthetics of the 1950’s; black aesthetics of the 1960’s.

ENGL 4372 - African American Authors of the Harlem Renaissance | Dr. Shelby Crosby | TR 11:20-12:45
In this course we will examine the nineteenth century through the lens of the neo-slave narrative. A neo-slave narrative is a contemporary narrative of slavery that uses race, gender, notions of home/place and sexuality as reference points to discuss the enduring legacy of slavery. This class will interrogate how twentieth and twenty-first century Black authors re-imagine and give voice to the enslaved. As a class we will interrogate notions of freedom, resistance, power and literacy. May be repeated for maximum of 6 hours credit with change in course content.

ENGL 4374 - African American Literary Movements | Dr. Verner Mitchell | Online
As an American cultural phenomenon, the Harlem Renaissance extends far beyond the geographical boundaries of New York. Artists from all over the United States, including New Mexico, California, Utah, Kansas, and Tennessee contributed to the movement. The work of Renaissance writers Langston Hughes and Claude McKay, among others, was translated and was well-known in Europe and the Soviet Union. You can expect to come away from the class having read major works of Harlem Renaissance fiction, poetry, drama, and autobiography, as well as a number of important essays. May be repeated for a maximum of 6 hours credit with change in course content.

Applied Linguistics/TESOL:

ENGL 3501 - Modern English Grammar | Dr. Elliott Casal | MW 12:40-2:05
Introduction to current grammatical theory; description of sounds, word structures, syntax, and semantics of English within theoretical frameworks.

ENGL 3511 - Intro to Linguistics | Dr. Rebecca Adams | Online
This course introduces the scientific study of language as a means for understanding the cognitive, behavioral, and social aspects of language use and learning. We will explore how the human mind processes and constructs language, how human language is potentially different (or similar to) other types of animal communication, how language development and learning occur, the social meanings encoded in the ways in which we speak, sign, write, and communicate, and the sociopolitical aspects of language in broader society.

ENGL 3521 - The American Language | Dr. Lyn Wright | Online
What is American Language? In this course we will look at the diversity of English (and other spoken and signed languages) used across the United States. We will examine the emergence of an “American” English and how different dialects of English formed in different regions across the country. We will also consider how social factors such as gender, sexuality, social status, and ethnicity, among others, affect our language and what role our language(s) play in producing social identities. We will look at multilingualism and multilingual communities in the U.S. and consider how the different languages in our country make up a diverse language ecology. Students in this class will participate in a citizen sociolinguistic project to document the varieties, dialects, and languages of Memphis during the semester.

ENGL 4521 - Language and Society | Dr. Sage Graham | TR 1:00-2:25
Place of language in society and how it creates and reflects social relationships; geographical and social dialects, male/female differences, and language of various subgroups within our culture; intensive examination of implications of language differences.

ENGL 4531.M50 - Methods & Techniques in ESL | Dr. Ronald Fuentes | Online
Approaches to working with ESL or EFL students in multicultural settings.

ENGL 4531.001 - Methods & Techniques in ESL | TBA | TR 11:20-12:45
Approaches to working with ESL or EFL students in multicultural settings.

ENGL 4533 - ESL/EFL in Multicultural Settings | Dr. Emily Thrush | MW 2:20-3:45
Approaches to working with ESL or EFL students in multicultural settings.

Creative Writing:

ENGL 3606 - Poetry Writing | TBA | TR 9:40-11:05
Exploration of the creative process within the forms and traditions of poetry. Emphasis on student’s own work.

ENGL 3607.001 - Fiction Writing | Dr. Kendra Vanderlip | MWF 11:30-12:45
Calling all writers! ENGL 3607 is an introductory class for anyone who wants to learn more about writing and reading fiction. Students will learn the conventions of the genre through close reading, analysis, creative practice, and constructive critique studying contemporary selections of fiction to analyze the use of style, structure, and figurative language. We will compose short stories throughout the semester with guided prompts, culminating in a portfolio at the end of the semester showcasing the writer’s growth and understanding of literary fiction conventions.

ENGL 3607.002 - Fiction Writing | TBA | TR 1:00-2:25
Exploration of the creative process within the forms and traditions of fiction. Emphasis on student’s own work.

ENGL 4601 - Poetry Workshop | Dr. Emily Skaja | TR 1:00-2:25
This is an upper-level undergraduate poetry workshop devoted to the creation, revision, and critical analysis of poetry. Building on the skills developed in ENGL-3606 (Poetry Writing), students will study poetry as an art form, working in admiration of its history, difficulty, and depth. The students will write original poems and read collections of poetry with attention to figurative language, form, music, and arrangement. The workshop is a supportive environment where students are invited to encourage and challenge one another as their creative work expands and intensifies. ENGL-3606 (Poetry Writing) is a prerequisite. All are welcome.May be repeated for maximum of 6 hours credit with permission of instructor.

ENGL 4603 - Fiction Workshop | Dr. Mark Mayer | TR 2:40-4:05
In a creative writing workshop, a community of other minds helps us to interrogate our own. By providing us with travelogues of their ventures into our fiction, our peers help us perceive what we have dreamt. This process requires difference—peers with their own instincts for language, their own sensitivities to experience, and their own narrative intuitions—and solidarity, a shared commitment to putting this difference in service of the author's vision. This upper-level workshop offers a rigorous exploration of fiction writing and revision. Through collaborative discussion and peer critique, we will focus on core elements of storytelling—story structure, character development, emotional depth, language precision—and the iterative nature of revision.

ENGL 4604 - Forms of Poetry | Dr. Emily Skaja | TR 11:20-12:45
Forms of Poetry is a creative writing course where students are introduced to a wide variety of poetic forms and invited to try them out in class. After studying each form and participating in writing exercises, the students select the poems they want to revise and submit for workshop. ENGL-4604 not only emphasizes traditional forms like the sonnet, the villanelle, and the ghazal, but also contemporary and experimental forms like the prose poem, collage poetry, the Golden Shovel (an homage to the great 20th century formalist Gwendolyn Brooks), and the duplex (invented by Jericho Brown). No prior experience with formal poetry is necessary. Everyone is welcome.

ENGL 4605 - Forms of Fiction | Dr. Kendra Vanderlip | MW 12:40-2:05
This course will take a closer look at indigenous writers and their storytelling methods. We will focus on a range of indigenous writers, such as Leslie Marmon Silko, Louise Erdrich, Tommy Orange, Nick Medina and others. This course places heavy emphasis on reading in preparation to better understand indigenous narratives and the history that complicates them. You do not have to be an indigenous identifying student to take this class, as the emphasis will be on identifying the choices writers make in craft in conversation with identity.

Literature:

ENGL 3105 - Law, Literature, and Justice | Dr. Joshua Phillips | TR 9:40-11:05
This class provides an exploration of literary representations of law and justice and analysis of the ways that literature, law, and justice interrelate. The class will consider law in literature, the laws of literature, and law and literature as two domains for interpreting and effecting justice. This class is perfect for those considering a career in the law or related fields and for those interested in problems of justice. Readings may include works by Aeschylus, Shakespeare, Kafka, James Baldwin, Claudia Rankine, and Jesmyn Ward.

ENGL 3210 - British Literature to 1750 | Multiple sections offered, online and honors available
Survey of major authors, themes, and movements from the medieval period through the 18th century.

3210.001 | Dr. Darryl Domingo | TR 1:00-2:25
This course will introduce students to the formative periods in the British literary tradition, beginning in the eighth century and running through to the middle of the eighteenth century. The course will survey some of the major authors and major works of the complex periods classified by literary historians as the Medieval, the Early Modern, and the Restoration and Eighteenth Century. We will examine the development of genres and themes over time and analyze their connection to broader developments in British culture. Yet given how foreign early British literature can often feel—the strangeness, curiosity, and novelty with which twenty-first century readers experience works written between the eighth and eighteenth centuries—this section of ENGL 3210 will pay particular attention to the ways in which authors reflect upon the very problems associated with cultural difference and historical distance.

3210.002/350 | Dr. Cristina Maria Cervone | MWF 11:30-12:25 *honors embedded*
Students will gain a broad overview of British literature and its cultural contexts from its beginnings in early Britain up to the middle of the eighteenth century. The class will ask the following questions of a variety of British literary texts and their original audiences: What do we consider literature? What did they consider literature? Why were certain forms, themes, and plots popular, and how can we learn to appreciate them from a modern perspective? How does a text become “timeless”?

3210.M50 | Prof. Rhonda Powers | Online

ENGL 3220.001 - British Literature Since 1750 | Dr. Grace Gal | TR 11:20-12:45
In this survey course, we will read, analyze, and deconstruct some of the most influential works in British literature from three major literary periods – Romanticism, Victorianism, Modernism, and beyond. In particular, we will critically explore how British writers have defined and conceptualized what it means to be “British,” both at home and abroad, since the late eighteenth century, and how this national identity – along with ideas of gender, class, race, and ethnicity – has shifted under the pressures of industrialization, urbanization, and globalization. By engaging with these texts both as foundational literary works and as constructs open to critique, we will consider how their authority has been upheld, challenged, and reinterpreted over time.

ENGL 3220.002 - British Literature Since 1750 | Prof. Stacy Smith | MWF 10:20-11:15
Survey of major authors, themes, and movements from the medieval period through the 18th century.

ENGL 3327.001 - American Literature to 1865 | Dr. Jeff Scraba | MWF 11:30-12:25
Survey of major authors, themes, and movements in American literature from the colonial period through 1865.

3327.002 - American Literature to 1865 | Dr. Andrew Donnelly | TR 9:40-11:05
When you make a claim, today, about the views of those writing the U.S. Constitution, or the legacy of enslavement in the US, or the history of colonialism, expansionism, or ‘Manifest Destiny,’ or the meaning of America as a national idea, you are saying something about how people thought and saw the world in the early period of the United States. The very best way to understand that—how people thought and saw the world—is through that period’s literature. In this course, we will explore that literature roughly from the European colonization of the New World, through the creation of the Puritan mindset, the founding moment of the national government, its subsequent territorial & state-building expansion, and the movement to abolish slavery, up to the point in time when Martin Delany abandoned his in-progress novel, Blake, to fight the Civil War.

3327.M51 | Dr. Christopher Black | Online
This survey will cover major texts, literary modes and cultural contexts of American Literature from its beginnings to the Civil War. Readings will include Freedom narratives, Indian captivity narratives, sermons, speeches, autobiographies, political tracts, poetry, criminal narratives and gothic tales. We will also read two novels: Charles Brockden Brown’s Wieland (1798) and William Wells Brown’s Clotel or the President’s Daughter (1853).

ENGL 3401 - Children's Literature | Dr. Lorinda Cohoon Multiple sections offered, online and honors available
3401.001/350 | TR 11:20-12:45 *honors embedded*
3401.M50 | Online
This course is a survey of children’s literature. You will be introduced to authors and texts that have defined the field of children’s literature. You will discuss children’s books and write about how children’s literature shapes and reflects cultural ideas about children and childhood. You will develop knowledge of children’s books and children’s authors and illustrators, and you will learn about the history of children’s literature as well as contemporary issues in the field of children’s literature and demonstrate this knowledge in discussions, exams and quizzes, presentations, and papers.

ENGL 3404 - Studies of Popular Texts: Dystopian Tales and Alternative Futures | Dr. Carey Mickalites | TR 11:20-12:45
Dystopian tales, stories that give form and expression to our collective fears, have long enjoyed a popular status. And yet maybe part of that popularity comes not only from the “relatability” of all that is horrific about the human experience, but for the way dystopian fantasies can summon our desire for a better world, for alternative futures that are not foredoomed by historical realities like authoritarianism, racism and sexism, or even the bland banality of evil we call contemporary capitalism. In other words, we will spend some time reveling in texts that deal with our darkest desires and fears, while asking how they point to the possibility of a better world. May be repeated for a maximum of 6 hours credit with a change in course content.

ENGL 4346 - Studies in American Literature: American Literature and its Publics | Dr. Donal Harris | TR 2:40-4:05
This course has two goals: 1) to explore how a select group of authors in the U.S. have conceptualized the idea of “the reading public,” and how those ideas have changed (or not) since the end of the nineteenth century 2) to survey how currently working humanities scholars, especially those in literary studies, create audiences for their work, with special attention to the recent emergence of the ‘public humanities’ as a research field.Rather than essays and exams, students will conduct project-based, multi-modal assignments that contribute to on-going public humanities projects. No prior knowledge is expected or assumed. Come one, come all! May be repeated for a maximum of 6 hours credit with a change in course content.

ENGL 4401 - Young Adult Literature | Dr. Lorinda Cohoon | TR 1:00-2:25
This course examines the genre of young adult literature focusing on historically significant examples of young adult literature and also contemporary young adult texts, and it includes exploration of connections to other areas of literary and cultural studies; discussions of approaches to young adult literature in middle, high-school, and college classrooms; applications of critical and theoretical approaches to young adult literature and culture; and consideration of young adult literature’s efficacy in promoting literary, educational, critical, and cultural literacies and in developing a lifelong appreciation of the study literature.

ENGL 4454 - Studies in Forms & Genres | Dr. Cristina Maria Cervone | MW 2:20-3:45
In this course, we will privilege romance’s underlying sense of a fantastical story of travel and adventure. Drawn from a time span encompassing more than 800 years, readings include the twelfth-century lais of Marie de France; the thirteenth-century Roman de Silence; a fourteenth-century retelling of the Orpheus legend, Sir Orfeo; Sir Thomas Malory’s fifteenth-century Le Morte d’Arthure; William Shakespeare’s early seventeenth-century The Tempest; from the eighteenth century, Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story; from the nineteenth century, Edwin Abbott Abbott’s Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, and H. G. Wells’s The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance; and from the twentieth century, J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit: or, There and Back Again.
Permission of instructor is required. May be repeated for a maximum of 6 hours credit with change in course content.

ENGL 4461 - Bible as Literature | Dr. Dean Clement | MW 12:40-2:05
This course studies the sacred texts of Judaism and Christianity as works of literature with attention to the historical, cultural, and literary contexts of the Bible’s composition. Students will read books of the “Old” and “New” Testaments, as well as the Apocrypha, and study theories as to how the Hebrew Bible and Christian Bible, as we know them today, came together.

Professional Writing:

ENGL 3601 - Intro to Technical & Professional Writing | Multiple sections offered, online sections available
Introduction to rhetoric and style of documents written by scientists, engineers, technical writers, and other professionals; extensive practice in writing reports, proposals, manuals, and correspondence.

3601.001 | TBA | TR 1:00-2:25
3601.M50 | Prof. Terry Ansbro | Online
3601.M51 | Prof. Terry Ansbro | Online

ENGL 3602 - Professional Editing | TBA | Online
Workshop in techniques of editing effectively in academic, industry, government, literary, and research settings; developing practical genre familiarity for printed and online formats within those areas.

ENGL 3603 - Engineering Communications | Multiple sections offered, online sections available
Form and contexts of written and oral communications in engineering professions; extensive practice in oral reporting, written reports, manuals, and proposals. Does not apply to the English major or minor.

ENGL 3604 - Persuasive Writing | Multiple sections offered, online sections available
Study and practice of writing essays and reports with emphasis on persuasion; introduction to empirical and library research, application of rhetorical principles, and nature of evidence, including numerical; academic and professional writing, editing, and revision.

3604.001 | Dr. Joseph Jones | TR 11:20-12:45
3604.M50 | TBA | Online
3604.M51 | Dr. Joseph Jones | Online

ENGL 4602 - Advanced Composition: Style and/as Content | Dr. Scott Sundvall | Online
Recent advances in generative artificial intelligence (genAI), such as ChatGPT, have not posed a danger to writing so much as such advances have merely reflected a bankruptcy in how we understand, teach, and practice writing. GenAI can only gather information and mimic mechanical patterns of composing; it cannot invent with imagination nor produce style in the proper sense of the term. Nonetheless, GenAI arrives in the wake of a broader apparatus shift, wherein we must ask ourselves not only what writing is but how it works. We do not lack information; we merely lack the techniques (e.g., style) for working with an over-abundance of information. By way of experimental and avant-garde methods and modalities, this course will ask students to rethink composition as an art and to further explore how such an art can be augmented by emerging technologies, such as GenAI.

ENGL 4618 - Document Design | Dr. Chloe Robertson | Online
This course 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 creating our own documents, practicing what it means to be thoughtful authors and designers in solo and collaborative settings.

Honors & Internships:

ENGL 4640 - Internship in English | Rachel Cantrell | TBA
Experience with a local community partner requiring the assistance of English majors with strong oral and written communication skills. Dependent upon availability. Visit our internships page for more information.

ENGL 4995 - Honors Thesis Research | Dr. Cristina Maria Cervone | TBA
Students engage in individual, intensive study of a unique problem or issue in English Studies, culminating in a prospectus for their Honors thesis. Visit our English honors page for more information.