My typical course offerings cycle between introductory writing seminars, British literature surveys, courses on animal studies, and advanced English classes on nonhumans in the Victorian era. Scroll down or click the images below for a representative sample.
First-Year & Sophomore Writing Seminars
The Undead and the Meaning of Life
This first-year writing seminar examines ghosts, zombies, vampires, and other terrifying creatures who are neither alive nor dead to discover what scares us most about death, and how to define a life well-lived. (Because it's a first-year writing seminar, there's a chilling amount of grammar review, too.) Texts may include: Charles Dickens's beloved classic A Christmas Carol, Jim Jarmusch's artsy take on vampires in Only Lovers Left Alive, and Zora Neale Hurston's first-person encounter with a zombie in Go Tell My Horse.
This first-year writing seminar examines ghosts, zombies, vampires, and other terrifying creatures who are neither alive nor dead to discover what scares us most about death, and how to define a life well-lived. (Because it's a first-year writing seminar, there's a chilling amount of grammar review, too.) Texts may include: Charles Dickens's beloved classic A Christmas Carol, Jim Jarmusch's artsy take on vampires in Only Lovers Left Alive, and Zora Neale Hurston's first-person encounter with a zombie in Go Tell My Horse.
English Courses
Reading Literature: Sense and Nonsense
Is it totally nonsensical to spend your undergraduate years studying literature? This introduction to college-level English answers that question by analyzing nonsense itself, asking how words or ideas that seem pointless or meaningless at first can prove not only significant, but profound. Students gain extensive experience in writing and close reading, while also encountering a suite of terms and concepts helpful for understanding complex literary works. Texts may include: Tim O'Brien's conflicted descriptions of combat in "How To Tell A True War Story," Suzan-Lori Parks's poignant plays on race relations in The America Play, and the whimsical mirror-world of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass.
Is it totally nonsensical to spend your undergraduate years studying literature? This introduction to college-level English answers that question by analyzing nonsense itself, asking how words or ideas that seem pointless or meaningless at first can prove not only significant, but profound. Students gain extensive experience in writing and close reading, while also encountering a suite of terms and concepts helpful for understanding complex literary works. Texts may include: Tim O'Brien's conflicted descriptions of combat in "How To Tell A True War Story," Suzan-Lori Parks's poignant plays on race relations in The America Play, and the whimsical mirror-world of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass.
Studies in Later British Literature: Revolutionary Writing
A survey of British literature from Romanticism to Modernism. Beginning with the hypothesis that the history of modernity is best understood as a history of revolutions—real and imagined—this class starts with the French Revolution, traces its impact on the Romantic movement, examines the counter-revolutionary impulses of the Victorian era, and concludes with the Modernists' insistence on their own revolutionary break from the past. Texts may include: Mary Shelley's meditations on what makes a man in Frankenstein, Alfred Tennyson's ambivalent image of royal leadership in "Ulysses," and Wyndham Lewis's call for a new old England in the BLAST manifesto.
A survey of British literature from Romanticism to Modernism. Beginning with the hypothesis that the history of modernity is best understood as a history of revolutions—real and imagined—this class starts with the French Revolution, traces its impact on the Romantic movement, examines the counter-revolutionary impulses of the Victorian era, and concludes with the Modernists' insistence on their own revolutionary break from the past. Texts may include: Mary Shelley's meditations on what makes a man in Frankenstein, Alfred Tennyson's ambivalent image of royal leadership in "Ulysses," and Wyndham Lewis's call for a new old England in the BLAST manifesto.
Literature About the Environment
This course focuses on the relationship between aesthetics—what we find beautiful or sensuously appealing—and environmentalism. Beginning with 18th-century discourses on the difference between beautiful, sublime, and picturesque landscapes, it moves through the major touchstones of British and American nature writing to show the historical development of our current modes of imagining humanity's relationship to the natural world. Texts may include: William Wordsworth's nostalgic reflections on a childhood spent in nature in "Tintern Abbey," Henry David Thoreau's early advocacy for rugged (but not too rugged) survivalism in Walden, and Indra Sinha's attempt to capture the ways environmental disasters maim humans and nonhumans alike in Animal's People.
This course focuses on the relationship between aesthetics—what we find beautiful or sensuously appealing—and environmentalism. Beginning with 18th-century discourses on the difference between beautiful, sublime, and picturesque landscapes, it moves through the major touchstones of British and American nature writing to show the historical development of our current modes of imagining humanity's relationship to the natural world. Texts may include: William Wordsworth's nostalgic reflections on a childhood spent in nature in "Tintern Abbey," Henry David Thoreau's early advocacy for rugged (but not too rugged) survivalism in Walden, and Indra Sinha's attempt to capture the ways environmental disasters maim humans and nonhumans alike in Animal's People.
Topics in Victorian Literature: Evolution in Early Science Fiction
Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection was a remarkable imaginative synthesis of his vast collection of anecdotes and personal observations. This course begins with Darwin's scientific writings, exploring how literary tropes and genres facilitated the formulation and acceptance of his ideas. We then dive into some of the many science fiction texts published in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, asking how Darwinian ideas shaped our collective understanding of science as a force of good and of ill. Texts may include: Charles Darwin's revolutionary treatise On the Origin of Species, H. G. Wells's imaginary voyage to a more evolved society in The Time Machine, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's attempt to picture a world of compressed evolutionary time in The Lost World, where humans and dinosaurs coexist.
Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection was a remarkable imaginative synthesis of his vast collection of anecdotes and personal observations. This course begins with Darwin's scientific writings, exploring how literary tropes and genres facilitated the formulation and acceptance of his ideas. We then dive into some of the many science fiction texts published in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, asking how Darwinian ideas shaped our collective understanding of science as a force of good and of ill. Texts may include: Charles Darwin's revolutionary treatise On the Origin of Species, H. G. Wells's imaginary voyage to a more evolved society in The Time Machine, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's attempt to picture a world of compressed evolutionary time in The Lost World, where humans and dinosaurs coexist.
Interdisciplinary Courses
Animals, Culture, and Society
An introduction to animal studies, the interdisciplinary field that explores the significance of nonhuman animals to human culture and society. Students integrate scientific knowledge and humanistic values to analyze recent controversies arising from human-animal relationships, including the use of chimpanzees for scientific research, the impact of house cats on declining bird populations, and the use of the Endangered Species Act to protect beetles at great public expense. (Co-taught with Ben Haywood, Environmental Science Department)
An introduction to animal studies, the interdisciplinary field that explores the significance of nonhuman animals to human culture and society. Students integrate scientific knowledge and humanistic values to analyze recent controversies arising from human-animal relationships, including the use of chimpanzees for scientific research, the impact of house cats on declining bird populations, and the use of the Endangered Species Act to protect beetles at great public expense. (Co-taught with Ben Haywood, Environmental Science Department)