Undergraduate Courses - Fall 2023
This list includes courses with a special emphasis. Go to the online LSU catalog for general course descriptions not listed here. Refer to the online Schedule Booklet for course times, classrooms, and updates.
ENGL 2000– Section 2 (English Composition)
Christina Armistead
Cultural Exchanges
Includes a Service-Learning Component. This section of English 2000 will ask you to think globally. You will research and analyze issues relevant to countries outside the U.S. to deepen your understanding of the world outside America. To help you do this effectively, you will participate in a service-learning partnership that asks you to engage one-on-one with an international student. Through one-hour meetings each week, you will help your partner improve his/her spoken English and you will sharpen your ability to engage with and understand cultural perspectives beyond your own.
ENGL 2000 - Sections 4, 27, and 30 (English Composition)
Corrie Kiesel
Understanding Home
Includes a Service-Learning Component. We will consider the concept of “home” from multiple perspectives as we connect research and writing related to students’ areas of interest to issues we observe in the community. This course counts toward the LSU Engaged Citizen Program.
ENGL 2000 - Sections 9 and 17 (English Composition)
Nolde Alexius
Our Built Environment
This course takes as fundamental that today’s college students are essential to building environments that are just, accessible, functional, and beautiful, and that societal problems are the result of human made environments, both physical and conceptual. Your academic disciplines hold the potential to address these problems. You will consider how societal problems such as racism, gender inequality, environmental pollution, health risks, and others exist in your field. From there you will choose an area of research that interests you and explore it.
ENGL 2000 - Sections 14 and 22 (English Composition)
Sharon Andrews
Writing for Community Action and Advocacy
Includes a Service-Learning Component. This is a special emphasis course with a focus on the use of language, especially written language, as a tool for empowerment within the community. Students will be challenged to think about their role in the community and the use of writing to inspire and affect change. This course includes a service-learning component providing the opportunity to learn first-hand about significant issues important to the community.
ENGL 2025- Section 1 (Fiction)
Brodrick Hampton
Heroes in Classic and Modern Media
A survey of “the hero” throughout the history of literature and media—from Gilgamesh to Superman to HALO’s Master Chief. Topics include classic and modern definitions of the hero in relation to current-day, real-world concepts of heroism; the heroic journey; common themes across stories and genres; and the psychological, social, and moral context surrounding our depictions of heroes…and how we respond to those depictions!
ENGL 2025 - Section 2 (Fiction)
Nolde Alexius
LSU Fiction
Communication-Intensive Learning. English 2025 examines a 60-year span of fiction writers who were students, editors, and faculty at Louisiana State University starting with 3-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Robert Penn Warren. We will read these writers’ fiction in its various forms: short stories, novels, and novellas. You will learn to think critically about the fiction you read and write one original essay of literary analysis.
ENGL 2123 - Section 1-5 (Studies in Literary Tradition and Themes)
Brannon Costello
Comics and Graphic Novels
This general education course will offer students a critical introduction to the medium of graphic narrative (comics, graphic novels, and so on) as a form of literature. No previous experience reading graphic narratives is required.
ENGL 2123 - Section 7 (Studies in Literary Traditions and Themes)
Alison Grifa
Food, Hunger, and Dominion
We are what we eat! Through fiction, poetry, film, and drama, this course examines how our food traditions have influenced our communities, cultures, and civilizations around the world from the Renaissance to the present. Considering recipes of delight and disaster, we’ll discuss food in the context of celebration, security, resistance, and the macabre. How do these texts relate to us even though our experiences might seem far removed from places like Ireland, Morocco, Uruguay, Ghana, and the post-apocalyptic U.S.? What are our common folklores, fears, and dysfunctions? Authors may include: Swift, The Brothers Grimm, Lahiri, Truong, Esquivel, McCann, Collins, and others.
ENGL 2123 - Section 8 (Studies in Literary Traditions and Themes)
Talon Shoemake
Swift and Shakespeare-Voices of a Generation
I have often heard it said that “Taylor Swift could write Romeo and Juliet, but William Shakespeare could not write ‘Enchanted.’” This course's efforts will be centered on examining eight of Shakespeare’s plays alongside a smattering of Swift’s songs in an attempt to find similarities, bridging the gap between high and popular culture and four centuries of time.
ENGL 2231 - Section 2 (Reading Film)
Jason Christian
Global Crime Cinema
This course introduces students to the language of film analysis and gives them tools to write critically about formal choices and themes represented on screen. The crime genre offers a unique window into society’s attitudes vis-à-vis social, political, and economic realities, particularly wrestling with notions of justice. Throughout the semester, students will watch around a dozen crime films from around the globe that span nearly a century.
ENGL 2423 - Section 1 (Introduction to Folklore)
Corrie Kiesel
Introduction to Folklore
Folklore genres of the world; sources of folklore; literary, psychological, sociological, anthropological and historical approaches to folk material; relationships between folklore and written literature.
ENGL 2593 - Section 1
Seohye Kwon
Gender & Literature
This course examines the representations of gender in literature and the globalized world with a focus on masculinities and their relationships to femininities.
ENGL 2593 - Section 2 (Gender & Literature)
June Pulliam
Images of Women (and Men) in Horror Fiction and Film
Margaret Atwood famously said that men feel threatened by women because they “are afraid women will laugh at them,” while women feel threatened by men because they are afraid of “being killed” by them. In horror, women are monstrous because they have female bodies that can bleed and give life, and they can laugh at men for desiring them, while men are monstrous because of their reactions to women’s bodies. In English 2593, we will explore the connection between gender and monstrosity by reading and viewing multiple works.
ENGL 2674 - Section 1
Angeletta Gourdine
Introduction to African American Literature
Major figures and popular texts of black American literature, including writers of fiction, poetry, drama and essays; influence of genre on the articulation of common political and social themes.
ENGL 2716 - Section 1
Irina Shport
Language Diversity, Society and Power
Also offered as LING 2716. Social construction of language ideologies and issues of power as they relate to language variation and use. Examination of why language variation exists and how dialect intersects with race, gender, and social class, with particular focus on political and social identities. Discussion focuses on how dialects and “Standard English” contribute to persistent economic and civic inequalities in contemporary American society.
ENGL 3020 - Section 1
Kevin Cope
British Literature I: The Middle Ages, Renaissance, and 18th Century
This course introduces students to both renowned and undervalued texts across the first millennium of British literary history, from the era of "Beowulf" to the Enlightenment. Masterpieces will mesh with genial oddities as students gain a knowledge of the full sweep of early literary efforts.
ENGL 3304 - Section 1 (Special Topics in Writing and Research)
Jonathan Osborne
The Sonic Experience: Writing with Sound
This course considers the role of sound in how we experience and do writing. Through readings in sound studies and sound-based assignments, students will gain a deeper perspective on the rhetorical nature of sound and how the sense influences writing.
ENGL 3401 - Section 1
Carolyn Ware
The Study of Folklore
Also offered as ANTH 3401. History of the study of folklore; methods of collection, interpretation and analysis of folklore materials; myth, folktale, legend, folk song, ballads, folk humor, festival and folk speech; psychological, contextual and structural analysis of oral literature; specific reference to the heritage of Louisiana and the South.
ENGL 3550 - Section 1 (Readings in Diverse Perspectives)
Michael Bibler
LGBTQ+ Literature
This course explores a diverse collection--what we might even call a tradition--of fiction, poetry, and drama written by, for, and about people we would generally identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, two-spirit, and queer. Focusing mainly on 20th and 21st century works, we will examine representations of queer identities, desires, love, politics, trauma, and triumph as a way to map our own relation to both our queer forebears in the past and our queer futures.
ENGL 4001 - Section 1
Joshua Wheeler
Intermediate Creative Nonfiction Workshop
From newspapers to YouTube, from Instagram to newsletters, from podcasts to documentaries: these days we are inundated with stories of what's "real." But how does one get creative while keeping it real? How do writers balance facts with entertainment? In this course we'll explore the long history of creative nonfiction (including memoir, travel writing, reportage, true crime, etc.) in order to figure out how to get real by being creative. You'll get to tell your stories, your way, while learning about the long tradition of writers who have done the same.
ENGL 4005 - Section 1 (Intermediate Fiction Writing Workshop)
Maurice Ruffin
Advanced Short Story Writing Workshop
This class is for students who love books, movies, anime, and tv shows—in other words: stories! Some reading will be required, but the focus will be on the production of fiction stories. All genres are encouraged. Above all this class is about the joy of writing. Students are invited to share their creativity and to learn from their very talented peers. Time will also be spent learning about revision and publication of stories. Bring your best tales!
ENGL 4015 - Section 1 (Forms of Creative Writing)
Mari Kornhuaser
Bending Genre Workshop
Students will cross two or three genres - e.g., horror/love story/social commentary (think Get Out) or Dystopian/social commentary/Thriller (think Mad Max series) in either poetry, fiction or scripts. Two different stories 10-20 pages each will be written and workshopped, no re-writes. Two PowerPoint presentations/pitches will be given regarding the chosen genre bending of your stories so we get a sense of tone and genres. Course designed to be a fun workshop environment.
ENGL 4023 - Section 1 (Studies in Life Writing)
Joseph Kronick
Confession & Autobiography
We will study confession and autobiography, beginning with Augustine and Rousseau. We will examine the dynamics of confession: why does Augustine confess if God knows everything? What is the significance of Rousseau's declaration that he is like no other human being? We will explore the paradoxes inherent in the representation of life. Other readings will include Henry David Thoreau, Zora Neale Hurston, Primo Levi, and Vladimir Nabokov.
ENGL 4040 - Section 1 (Studies in the Age of Elizabeth)
Emily King
Gender, Sexuality, and Power in Renaissance Drama
Attending to the intersection of gender, sexuality, and power, this advanced course introduces students to Renaissance drama beyond Shakespeare. Students can expect a teaching activity, two formal essays, shorter writing assignments, a midterm, and a final exam.
ENGL 4050 - Section 1
Kevin Cope
Studies in the Restoration and 18th Century
This course introduces the most applauded as well as some of the unusual and overlooked writings of the "long" British Enlightenment. Students will enjoy the full range of genres, whether satire, fiction, celebratory verse, or essays. The course will include occasional glimpses of the plastic and musical arts. Students will learn about the period that created modernity.
ENGL 4060 - Section 1 (Studies in Romantic Movement)
Christopher Rovee
Homesickness and Romantic Literature
What is the longing we call "homesickness" and how did this desire for a lost place enter into our secular literature around 1800? This course surveys the writing of British Romanticism with attention to this distinctive modern feeling.
ENGL 4148 - Section 1
William Demastes
Studies in Shakespeare
Attention to poetry and plays, literary and cultural significance; topics such as “The Comedies and Histories,” “The Tragedies,” “Shakespeare and Film,” “Shakespeare and Gender.”
ENGL 4300 - Section 1 (Studies in Rhetorical Theory)
Jonathan Osborne
Political Rhetoric in Theory and Practice
Students in this course will study political rhetoric in its ancient and modern forms, learning about the history and theory of the art of persuasion in political spaces. Focusing on politics within the United States, we will read and listen to a wide range of speeches from political actors – politicians, community organizers, concerning citizens, etc. We will inquire about differences in the use of rhetoric by rhetors from different political parties, how identity (race, gender, etc.) informs rhetoric, and the impact of modern influences on political rhetoric, such as social media and the Trump presidency.
ENGL 4680 - Section 1 (Studies in Post-colonial Literature and Culture)
Saumya Lal
Emotions and Postcolonial Literature
Why do emotions matter? How are emotions – such as anger, shame, disgust, fear, empathy, happiness – shaped by our moral and socio-political values? Conversely, how do emotions shape our values? How do cultural contexts influence the experience and expression of emotions? How can the representations of emotions in postcolonial literature enhance our understanding of the ethics and politics of emotions? How, and to what end, does postcolonial literature evoke and maneuver readers’ emotions? Authors may include Akwaeke Emezi, Arundhati Roy, Carly Phillips, Kazuo Ishiguro, Leila Aboulela, and Teju Cole.