graduate courses taught

Five of the course descriptions from graduate courses offered in recent years appear below. Please consult the department's listings for current course descriptions and offerings.

Colonialism and Its Discontents

A comprehensive survey of early American writings, this course will cover materials from the era of Europeans' contact in the Americas through the era of the formation of the early republic in British North America , roughly the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries. Depending on student interest, we'll cover readings by Spanish, Dutch, French, British, Germans, Swedes, and other European groups, along with materials representing Native American and African cultures and women's issues – all with the goal of developing as full as possible an understanding of discourses of colonialism. We'll spend a larger amount of time with writings by English-speakers, including English-speakers of indigenous and African descent, because British political culture became dominant in the North America typically studied as "American literature," and this course is designed with a view to students' eventually teaching the materials as in a survey of American literature to undergraduates. We are likely to embrace the problem or question of "What is ‘American' literature?" as the course progresses. Assignments: In addition to high-quality class participation each class, assignments include the following: 1) a team analysis/discussion, plus handout (up to two pages, but no more), of the historical background and a cluster of writings by or about one of the following groups (Native Americans; Africans in America; women; Spanish/Portuguese colonists; French colonists; Germans/Dutch/Swedes); 2) the creation of a talking point for the seminar on a particular writer of interest from among the English-speakers. You will lead the seminar discussion on your selected writer on the day that writer is assigned; 3) three brief out-of-class essays (up to five pages maximum) on the writings from British North America, the writing assignments based on materials covered in class. These are tests of your knowledge of and ability to discuss the materials being covered; they are not seminar papers requiring secondary research because of the proseminar nature of the course; 4) a syllabus of your own design, to share with colleagues (and the professor). Books: The primary textbook we'll use is Early American Writings, gen. ed. Mulford (Oxford , 2002), along with a collection of essays, Teaching the Literatures of Early America (MLA, 1999).

The Problem of Enlightenment

This course is designed to enable us to examine the complicated issues related to the era of enlightenment in Europe, Britain, and British North America. By examining a number of what might be called foundational readings in British early modern liberalism, readings that directly relate to a so-called enlightened philosophy, we will consider how the print and cultural marketplace proffered the possibility of "enlightenment" to all, then, in effect, shut out whole groups of people from the discursive system. To grasp some initial points about early modern liberalism and its impact upon an ideology of cultural enlightenment, we'll examine writings by Milton, Locke, and some of the central theorists of the ideological construct that has come to be called the commonwealth tradition. We'll collaborate to cover readings central to the question of liberal, enlightened culture in the early modern era in Britain, including primary writings by Mandeville, Hobbes, Milton, Locke, Hume, Burke, Shaftesbury, Smith, Rousseau, and Pufendorf. We'll move from examining the British and European social and cultural theories of the era to their implementation in the writings of British and British North American writers, some of whom were central to the enlightenment tradition and some of whom were excluded from that tradition. In addition to the theorists identified above, we'll examine writings by Phillis Wheatley and additional writers of African descent alongside a select few Native American writers and writers like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Hannah Webster Foster, and Charles Brockden Brown. For students interested in poetry who would like their course papers to address poetry rather than prose, alternative readings in Pope, Swift, Grainger, Wheatley, Stockton, Dwight, and Barlow will be recommended. Additionally, for those interested in the interconnections between "sentiment," "race," and Enlightenment, alternative readings in writers who address such matters will be suggested. Assignments: In addition to high-quality class participation each class, assignments include a team analysis/discussion on a theorist of economy, print culture, and society (the first eight writers on the syllabus); the creation of a talking point for the seminar on a particular writer of interest; and a seminar paper created in two versions, a first version turned in but also presented to class, and a final version prepared as a scholarly analysis in the field. To introduce you to scholarly writing in the field, we'll examine individually or as a group in an optional class meeting some of the seminar papers by former 554 students (most of whom did not specialize in this field) that have been published in several different places.

Enlightened Fictions, the Formation of an "American" Nation

We'll be examining the constellation of presumed national values that emerged in eighteenth-century British North America as the print and cultural marketplace capitalized on the burgeoning wealth of the Americas and began to formulate visions of a virtuous citizenry. We'll consider the shift in genres from poetry to fiction, the shift in values from enlightened universalism to an en-racing of the body politic, and the shift from discourses of individual rights to those of good subject-citizens. In an effort to understand the Enlightenment in British North America, we'll begin by examining writings by Benjamin Franklin, William Byrd, and Thomas Jefferson in the context of writings by some writers from the Caribbean and writers of African descent. We'll spend slightly more than half the semester on the fictions of nationhood that emerged as the new United States was attempting to frame up for consumption the idea of a virtuous citizenry. The fiction-writers we'll study are Winkfield, W. H. Brown, Foster, and C. B. Brown. In addition to good class participation, assignments include a seminar paper and annotated bibliography (scholarly readings related to the course paper). Finally, by way of introducing the idea of scholarly writing in the field, we'll examine some of the seminar papers from former 554 students and from other scholars newer to the profession that have been published in several different places. Assignments: Each seminar participant will prepare talking points to initiate discussion of some area of interest in the primary reading(s) assigned. This ungraded assignment will occur twice for each participant in the seminar; it is meant simply to initiate class discussion. Nota Bene: This is a class-discussion assignment; no handouts will be used for talking points. Graded assignments include an annotated bibliography on secondary scholarly materials related to your course project, along with a seminar paper (submitted in two versions, a first paper and a second paper). You will share your seminar paper with our colleagues in the class between the time when you have written the first version and the second version.

Virtue's Commerce

By examining a number of what might be called foundational readings in early modern liberalism, we will consider how different conceptions of virtue entered the print and cultural marketplace in British North America during the eighteenth century. To grasp some initial points about early modern liberalism and its impact upon culture, we'll examine writings by Milton, Locke, and some of the central theorists of the ideological construct that has come to be called the commonwealth tradition. We'll collaborate to cover readings central to the question of "liberalism" in the early modern era in Britain, including primary writings by Mandeville, Hobbes, Milton, Locke, Hume, Burke, Shaftesbury, and Smith. We'll move from examining the social, cultural, and economic theory of the era to its implementation in the non-fiction and fiction of Defoe, Richardson, and Fielding. We'll then shift to examining writings from British North America, where liberal ideologies (and the critique of liberal ideologies) took different shape in the writings of some key colonial American theorists of liberalism and the virtuous citizenry. For the second half of the semester, then, we'll look at how writers found a reading market in eighteenth-century British North America by focusing on the various meanings of virtue in circulation in fiction and non-fiction. Here, we'll examine writings by Franklin, W.H. Brown, Foster, C.B. Brown. For students interested in poetry who would like their course papers to address poetry rather than prose, alternative readings in Pope, Swift, Grainger, Wheatley, Stockton, Dwight, and Barlow will be recommended. Assignments: In addition to high-quality class participation each class, assignments include a team analysis/discussion on a theorist of economy, print culture, and society (the first eight writers on the syllabus); the creation of a talking point for the seminar on a particular writer of interest; and a seminar paper created in two versions, a first version turned in but also presented to class, and a final version prepared as a scholarly analysis in the field. To introduce you to scholarly writing in the field, we'll examine individually or as a group in an optional class meeting some of the seminar papers by former 554 students (most of whom did not specialize in this field) that have been published in several different places.

English 602: Supervised Experience in College Teaching

English 602 for teachers of literature is designed to assist teachers of literature and culture. Developed to enhance teaching confidence and teaching quality, the course includes components related to: developing appropriate personal teaching goals and strategies; creating syllabi; creating assignments; assessing student performance in class and in written work; using technological support in the classroom; and developing and writing one's own philosophy of teaching. Concerns of the course are both pragmatic and philosophical, and they encompass additional professional issues (the job hunt, academic advising, etc.) as these might arise from student interest and expertise.