English Course Offerings- Spring 2024

Group shot of faculty in English and Philosophy

Note for Students

Registration begins Nov. 6th. Advising week is Oct. 30-Nov. 3. We encourage you to meet with your advisor or Dr. Jessica Winston, our interim undergraduate director. Her email is: jessicawinston@isu.edu. She has office hours Mon. 12-2, Wed. 10-12, Thurs. 12-2, or by appointment.

Please note there could be some adjustments in delivery mode options, like an additional SO section associated with an in-seat class. These changes may not be reflected in this listing but could be found in the online schedule when it goes live on October 23rd.

For a full listing of all the courses offered in English, please see the undergraduate catalog or graduate catalog.

Also, did you know that ISU has millions of dollars in scholarships available every year? Register in the Bengal Online Scholarship System to receive updates on scholarships relevant to your major and interests. Sign up today.

English also offers scholarships specific to our program for undergraduate students and TAships/Fellowships for graduate students. You can find information about these awards here.

Delivery Mode Legend

SO courses are online courses that meet Synchronously Online (have a specific day/time meeting pattern).

AO courses are online courses that meet Asynchronously Online (are done anytime on your schedule).

BL courses are blended courses whose in-seat time has been reduced due to a strong online component.

DL courses are distance learning courses that have sections on different campuses such as Pocatello, Idaho Falls, Twin Falls, and/or Meridian as well as a possible online option.

If no delivery mode is indicated, this is an in-seat only course.

ENGL 1101/1101P (Objective 1): Writing and Rhetoric I/Plus

Multiple sections offered, see BengalWeb class schedule.

In this course students will read, analyze, and write expository essays for a variety of purposes consistent with expectations for college-level writing in standard edited English.

ENGL 1102 (Objective 1): Writing and Rhetoric II

Multiple sections offered, see BengalWeb class schedule.

Writing essays based on readings. Students will focus on critical reading, research methods, gathering ideas and evidence, and documentation.

ENGL 1107 (Objective 7): Nature of Language

01: TR 11-12:15 SO with Elizabeth Redd (CRN: 20845)

This course is an introduction to the field of linguistics. We will look at how the study of language is approached by linguists within the discipline of linguistics and by linguists within the discipline of anthropology, as well as exploring how other fields utilize linguistics for their own interests while impacting the whole field of linguistics in the process. Because this is a survey course, we only examine a portion of the many areas within linguistics without going into great detail in any one area.

ENGL 1123: Advanced Academic Writing for Non-Native Speakers of English

01: TR 9:30-10:45 with Melissa Anderson (CRN: 21776)

Introduction to the writing process (prewriting, drafting, revising, editing) and concepts such as audience, purpose, and thesis. Continued emphasis on development of grammar and vocabulary.

ENGL 1126 (Objective 4A): Art of Film I

01-04: Thurs. 6-8:30 pm DL with Carlen Donovan

Art of Film I examines the creative process, aesthetic principles and historical background of cinematic arts. The course will introduce you to important movements, critical approaches, and technical aspects of film. Our class goal is that you analyze and evaluate film texts critically for yourself, both in class and beyond, and that you develop a greater understanding of the human condition through the art of film.

ENGL 1126 (Objective 4A): Art of Film I

05: MW 1-2:15 with Roger Schmidt (CRN: 23401)

A history of film from its early years in Hollywood to the most recent Oscar winners, with emphasis on aesthetic principles, technical aspects, and the creative process. Classic films in a variety of genres and from each era will be watched and discussed.

ENGL 1126 (Objective 4A): Art of Film I

06: TR 1-2:15 with Carlen Donovan (CRN: 23402)

ENGL 1175 (Objective 4A): Literature and Ideas: Those Who Seek; Those Who Wander

01: MWF 10-10:50 with Michael Stubbs (CRN: 22406)

In this course we will read novels, non-fiction narratives, short stories, and poems about people who are looking for something. Our writers and characters will wonder and wander. Whether they seek solutions to personal problems, answers to life’s big questions, enlightenment, peace, or a better way of life, we will travel with them. Do these stories have what we are looking for? We will examine what makes the stories of seekers and wanderers worth our time and attention.

ENGL 1175 (Objective 4A): Literature and Ideas: Literature and the Natural World

02: AO Late 8 Session with Curtis Whitaker (CRN: 23420)

Humanity’s relationship to the natural world has figured prominently in literature from the earliest days to the present. Questions about how we connect to animals, to plants, and to the larger systems of nature that surround us are perennial ones that artists have explored in stories, poems, and films. This introductory course will consider how these engagements happen over time in diverse landscapes from Africa, China, Europe, Latin America, and the U.S., with an eye toward the environmental crisis we face in the present.

ENGL 2206: Creative Writing Workshop

01: TR 11-12:15 with Bethany Schultz Hurst (CRN: 22072)

This class will introduce you to the study of creative writing craft in the genres of poetry and the short story. We’ll read a variety of contemporary texts from a craft- based perspective to learn how authors construct their work. We’ll also practice elements of the creative process, from generating material to revising polished drafts, with the goal of creating works that are valuable to and rewarding for an audience of readers. In class-wide workshops of student works, we’ll practice giving and being receptive to critical feedback. We’ll also have fun with discussions and collaborative activities designed to encourage creative thinking.

ENGL 2210 (Objective 9): American Cultural Studies: 'That's Entertainment' in American Culture

01: AO with William Donovan (CRN: 21502)

Learn about American Culture through what entertains us: ghost stories, Disney animated features, and attending elite cultural events. Textbook available free as a pdf download, or for less than $30 in physical form.

ENGL 2211: Introduction to Literary Analysis

01: TR 1-2:15 with David Lawrimore (CRN: 21503)

This course serves as an introduction to the practice of literary interpretation and analysis. We will read a wide variety of short fiction, poetry, and drama, asking what distinguishes literary texts from other cultural productions, why an author might utilize a specific literary form in order to achieve a particular effect, and what critical approaches we might take in interpreting literature. We will also explore a range of secondary criticism in order to see some of the arguments that scholars, past and present, have made about the works we’re examining.

ENGL 2211: Introduction to Literary Analysis

02: MWF 11-11:50 with Matthew VanWinkle (CRN: 22996)

03: MWF 11-11:50 SO with Matthew VanWinkle (CRN: 25344)

Writing that lives in our memories often does so because it has caught something particularly intricate or enduring about experience. This course provides a vocabulary for writing about these representations of complexity, these compelling insights into what abides, in more detailed, discerning, and persuasive ways. It offers methods in close reading, and in recognizing interpretive possibilities. It also provides a vocabulary for describing significant features of literary craft, and how attending to these features can help form and refine decisive responses to the choices offered by challenging and evocative texts. Taken together, these methods and vocabularies afford the opportunity to read and write about literature with greater interest, enjoyment, insight, and skill.

ENGL 2215 (Objective 4A): Survey of World Mythology

01: TR 1-2:15 with Alan Johnson (CRN: 24774)

03: TR 1-2:15 SO with Alan Johnson (CRN: 25340)

This is an introductory survey of ancient and medieval mythic tales from around the world, including Greece and Rome, India, Japan, Mesopotamia, Northern Europe (Norse, Celtic), and the Indigenous cultures of the Americas. We will also consider why we continue to read and re-tell these myths, whether for entertainment, religious, or philosophical reasons. We’ll consider the role of heroes and heroines, written and oral epic traditions, and myths about creation and disaster. We’ll read up-to-date translations of select tales, as well as at least one re-telling, and watch clips of film adaptations. As we do so, we’ll ponder questions like: What is the relationship between humans and the natural world? What roles have these mythic tales played in different cultures, both past and present, and how have they reflected regional and ethnic group identities? We’ll consider how and why certain patterns, or archetypes, are repeated across cultures, and the storytelling devices various authors have used to construct their stories. To help us do this, we’ll apply some well-known analytical lenses to our readings of these stories in order to help us more deeply understand and enjoy them. Requirements include short reflection papers, an essay, reading quizzes, and class discussions.

ENGL 2215 (Objective 4A): Survey of World Mythology

02: MW 11-12:15 with Roger Schmidt (CRN: 24775)

This survey offers a broad view of the traditional stories that serve as a foundation for many cultures around the world. We will study multiple cultures and regions of the world from ancient times to the present: Greece and Rome, the Far East, the Americas, and more. As we do so, we will consider the purpose and persistence of these myths as we analyze, discuss, and write about them.

ENGL 2268: Survey of British Literature II

01: TR 11-12:15 with Alan Johnson (CRN: 20032)

02: TR 11-12:15 SO with Alan Johnson (CRN: 25341)

This course covers British literature from the late 1700s to our century. This era encompasses great changes in literature and culture: new ways of imagining the individual’s relationship to society, fluctuating fortunes of Britain and its global empire, and relationship between the present and a variety of imagined pasts. What effects did these changes have on literary works? How did these works shape ideas about empire, science, religious, gender, race, class, and economics? And how are we, today, shaped by these ideas and these literary works? These and other questions will guide our reading of classic works in different genres—short and long fiction, narrative and lyrical poetry, and personal and polemical essays. By the end of the course, you’ll have a deeper appreciation for the depth and variety this period has to offer, and for the intersection of literature and society.

ENGL 2278: Survey of American Literature II

01: TR 9:30-10:45 with David Lawrimore (CRN: 20033)

Take a broad view of American literature from the Civil War to the present. Reading widely across a range of genres, we will consider how different social groups responded to the changing circumstances of their historical moment, leading us to the nation we have today.

ENGL 2280: Grammar and Usage

01: TR 2:30-3:45 with Sonja Launspach (CRN: 20034)

This course is designed to help you understand foundational grammatical structures, understand how variation among these foundational structures is realized among different varieties of English, and build your communication skills through a conscious awareness of language structures.

Approaching grammar from a descriptive rather than a prescriptive perspective, (that is, describing what a language variety does rather than making judgments about its usage), this course helps build a foundation for understanding how language variation and grammar structures interact, helping speakers and writers gain agency, analyze situational contexts, and make appropriate rhetorical choices.

ENGL 2281: Introduction to Language Studies

01-05: MW 11-12:15 DL with Thomas Klein

Most people are interested in language, but feel that they don’t really understand how it works. English 2281 introduces us to the field of linguistics. We’ll spend roughly two-thirds of the course on descriptive linguistics: the sound system, words, phrases and sentences, and meaning. Then we will focus on applied linguistics, which looks at how we interpret language, and how it relates to culture and social relations. We will explore such questions as where does language come from? Do animals have language? Do different genders use language different? And just why do teenagers use slang?

ENGL 3305: Art of Film II: The Art of Animation

01: TR 2:30-3:45 with Matthew Levay (CRN: 22269)

02: TR 2:30-3:45 SO with Matthew Levay (CRN: 22678)

This course focuses on the animated film, asking how a popular art form largely associated with children’s entertainment became a global phenomenon for all ages. How does animation work, and how does it work differently than live-action film? How has the aesthetic and technological flexibility of animation made it a cultural force for well over a century? To answer these questions, we’ll examine numerous animated films from multiple eras, from the earliest short films of the Fleischer Brothers and Walt Disney to contemporary features by Pixar and Studio Ghibli, along with a smattering of experimental films that have expanded audiences’ conceptions of what animation can be.

ENGL 3306: Intermediate Creative Writing Workshop

01: MWF 12-12:50 with Susan Goslee (CRN: 21268)

In this intermediate creative writing course, we will read and write in fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Class sessions will be a mix of discussion, generative writing, collaborative games, brief craft lectures, reading comprehension checks, and workshop. Your homework will be a mix of writing prompts, reading assignments, critical reading questions, and revising drafts up to fully-realized short stories, essays, and poems. Each prompt focuses on a different formal or thematic move that you will later draw on to write complete works. These polished pieces will strive to reward multiple readings, avoid the familiar, respect (or knowingly slight) grammar, earn their surprises, and make a stab at beauty—or proudly decide to do otherwise.

ENGL 3307: Professional and Technical Writing

Multiple sections offered, see BengalWeb class schedule.

No matter what field you are going into, communication both written and oral will be a major part of your daily life. This course will teach you how to communicate professionally through various documents such as proposals, emails, reports, webpages, resumes and more. Course content will enable students to tailor documents for readers and users within their chosen fields of study. Additionally, since most people will be working collaboratively in the professional world, team work is stressed. Students often remark that this is one of the most valuable courses they have taken because it prepares them for work beyond the university.

ENGL 3308: Business Communication

Multiple sections offered, see BengalWeb class schedule.

An advanced course in conventions of business communications, emphasizing purpose and audience. Focus on style, semantics, research skills, format, persuasion, and critical analysis and synthesis of data.

ENGL 3311: Literary Criticism and Theory

01: TR 11-12:15 with Amanda Zink (CRN: 21108)

02: TR 11-12:15 SO with Amanda Zink (CRN: 23426)

In this writing-intensive course you will continue honing your close-reading skills. We will build on these skills by introducing ourselves to the major critical and theoretical patterns of thought in literary scholarship, reading both critical essays on each trend and literary and cultural texts that can bear such theoretical scrutiny. You will learn about ten such trends: New Criticism, Structuralism, Deconstruction, Psychoanalysis, Feminism, Queer Studies, Marxism, Historicism and Cultural Studies, Postcolonial and Race Studies, and Reader-Response Criticism.

ENGL 3321: Genre Studies in Drama: Drama in Contemporary Performance

01: MW 10-10:50 BL with Jessica Winston (CRN: 24780)

02: MW 10-10:50 SO/BL with Jessica Winston (CRN: 25304)

French author Tristan Bernard is credited with saying, “In the theater the audience wants to be surprised but by things that they expect." What do audiences expect when they watch plays? Do these expectations change over time and with different genres? Exploring western drama from classical Greece through the present day, we will study the history, forms, conventions, techniques, and subjects of theatre. By viewing and discussing contemporary theatrical adaptations of each of the assigned plays, we will focus on how dramatic scripts are a springboard for theatrical production.

ENGL 3327: Special Topics in Genre: Migration and Movement in US Latinx Literature

01: TR 1-2:15 with Gibette Encarnacion (CRN: 24781)

02: TR 1-2:15 SO with Gibette Encarnacion (CRN: 24802)

This course examines literature of migration in many different contexts and from many different countries across the Americas. We will look at books depicting the lives of immigrants, the challenges of cultural adjustment, the perils of border crossings, and the hostile environments immigrants often find themselves in. In addition to movement between Latin America and the United States, we will explore migrations outside of what we traditionally consider, between countries that rarely connect. The primary goals in this course are to introduce students to a range of recent creative work that centers on the experience of both immigration and the everyday risks of living in the “Golden Dream.” Reading literature depicting this experience will help develop an understanding of some of the critical issues involved in the study of contemporary immigration experiences, attitudes, practices, and policies.

ENGL 4401/5501: Advanced Composition: The Rhetoric of Music Albums

01: W 4-6:30 pm with Robert Watkins (CRN: 21505/21506)

Learn about rhetorical genre and document design by analyzing music albums and producing a multimodal writing portfolio.

ENGL 4406/5506: Advanced Poetry Workshop

01: M 4-6:30 pm with Bethany Schultz Hurst (CRN: 22681/22680)

Imagination, William Carlos Williams writes in Spring and All, “is an actual force comparable to electricity or steam. . . Its unique power is to give created forms reality.” In what ways can poetry allow the imagination to shape our social and historical realities? This semester, we will consider contemporary poetry collections that represent a spectrum of approaches: from poems that create fictional worlds (Ilya Kaminsky’s Deaf Republic), to poems that document and reflect on historical narrative (Jena Osman’s Public Figures; Tracy K. Smith’s Wade in the Water), to poems that take the lyric self as subject (Ada Limon’s The Hurting Kind). We’ll study how poetry’s rhetorical moves can sharpen the imagination’s power, using Amorak Huey and W. Todd Kaneko’s craft book Poetry as a guide, and practice these elements in informal exercises and poem drafts that we’ll share in workshop.

ENGL 4409/5509: Literary Magazine Production

01: W 4-6:30 pm with Susan Goslee (CRN: 20038/20039)

From the call for American independence in the pamphlet “Common Sense” to the first state-side publication of “The Waste Land” in the Dial, small magazines and presses have fomented political and literary change in our country. While students in this course may not bring about similar revolutions, they will gain exciting hands-on experience in the production of Black Rock & Sage, ISU’s student journal of creative works. Students will first develop strategies for soliciting literary, art, music, and schematic submissions. Then in exciting and lively debates, they will select the stories, poems, and essays that are to be published. Students will also produce events on campus to promote the magazine and support ISU’s art culture and solicit businesses for advertising support for the journal. To inform our production of Black Rock & Sage, we will survey a variety of well-established student-run journals, read interviews with significant journal editors, study the history of the “little” magazine, and consider briefly the relationship among the arts, democracy, and culture. Students will participate with critical papers of varying lengths and discussion. In this class, students will help shape the ways in which Idaho State contributes to the nation’s literary dialogue.

ENGL 4453/5553: American Indian Literature: Murders and Monsters

01: TR 2:30-3:45 with Amanda Zink (CRN: 24782/24805)

02: TR 2:30-3:45 SO with Amanda Zink (CRN: 25426/25427)

In this course you will read literary works by North American native peoples, especially in relation to history, genre, and culture, including oral traditions and graphic narratives. We will begin by reading Thomas King’s The Truth About Stories and then read contemporary novels and graphic story collections that feature monsters and murders. This course will not make you an “expert” about American Indians: the history, culture, and literature of the native peoples on this continent is too vast and varied for any course to purport such a claim. Likewise, as you will see in our readings, this course will also not teach you what it means to be Native: individual experiences of Indians in the many and diverse native communities across the Americas preclude any definition of “Indianness.” Rather, by reading a variety of genres, you will learn how Native Americans have used narrative—oral, written, and graphic—to survive and adapt through over five centuries of colonialism on this continent.

ENGL 4463/5563: Studies in Renaissance Literature: Renaissance Literature and the Art of Persuasion

01: T 4-6:30 pm with Curt Whitaker (CRN: 24783/24806)

02: T 4-6:30 pm SO with Curt Whitaker (CRN: 25342/25343)

Rhetoric, the ancient art of persuasion, was given new life during the English Renaissance in the plays of Shakespeare and the books of the King James Bible. Much of the power of these works derives from persuasive techniques handed down from the great orators of ancient Greece and Rome, such as Demosthenes and Cicero—techniques that have made Shakespeare and the Bible the most quoted works in the English language. This course will study the Greco-Roman roots of rhetoric and how Renaissance writers such as Erasmus, Shakespeare, and the translators of the Bible employed it to manage the political and religious conflicts of their time.

ENGL 4469/5569: Studies in Contemporary Literature: Migration and Movement in U.S. Latinx Literature

01: TR 1-2:15 with Gibette Encarnacion (CRN: 24800/24801)

02: TR 1-2:15 SO with Gibette Encarnacion (CRN: 24803/24804)

ENGL 4486/5586: Old English: Runes, Riddles, Wisdom, and "Bros"

01: MWF 1-1:50 with Thomas Klein (CRN: 24784/24807)

02: MWF 1-1:50 SO with Thomas Klein (CRN: 24808/24809)

Dating from between 600 and 1100, Old English is the earliest stage of the English language. It is the language of Beowulf, The Wanderer, and the jewel-like Riddles, and was one of Tolkien’s central interests. This course offers an introduction to the language: pronouncing it, reading it, and adjusting our minds to live in it. Our goal is to learn enough of its structure to read short passages with ease. In doing so, we will inevitably be learning about our own language. We will also be learning about medieval artifact, modern recreations, and the latest approach to Beowulf by Maria Dahvana Headley (with its critique of “bro” culture).

ENGL 4493: Senior Seminar in Professional Writing: The Rhetoric of Music Albums

01: W 4-6:30 pm with Robert Watkins (CRN: 23428)

Learn about rhetorical genre and document design by analyzing music albums and producing a multimodal writing portfolio. 4493 students will also make a professional portfolio.

ENGL 4494: Senior Seminar in Creative Writing

01: TR 9:30-10:45 with Bethany Schultz Hurst (CRN: 21109)

In English 4494, the capstone course for Creative Writing majors and minors, students will focus on semester-long creative projects (poetry collections, novel chapters, short story collections, etc.) of their own design, while exploring specific craft issues in contemporary creative and critical texts. We’ll also consider what it means to be part of a writing community; we’ll not only workshop one another’s work but will interact with communities beyond our class- room. By the end of the course, students will have the skills necessary to meaningfully self-direct their creative writing and will be prepared to be citizens in larger writing communities.

ENGL 6610: Careers in English

01: TBD with Matthew Levay and Amanda Zink (CRN: 22679)

This course is designed to help English doctoral students navigate the academic faculty job market. Though primarily intended for those at or approaching the dissertation stage, anyone interested in the academic job search process—including graduate students from other programs, English PhD students at an earlier stage in their program, and English MA students—is welcome to enroll. Topics include: the process of searching for faculty jobs, distinctions between institutions, teaching philosophies, CVs, application letters, diversity statements, interviewing techniques, and applying for “alt-ac” positions.

ENGL 6624: Seminar in Literary Themes, Post-1800: American Writers in Europe

01: T 7-9:30 pm with Harold Hellwig (CRN: 24785)

02: T 7-9:30 pm SO with Harold Hellwig (CRN: 24810)

American artists and writers traveled to Europe and discovered what American culture could be and sometimes what it could not be. This seminar will rapidly review key works created from the confrontation between European culture and the American literary landscape, nostalgically remembering the nation’s rural, pre-industrial past, while criticizing many of the economic, political and cultural changes occurring in roughly two hundred years.

There are a number of sites for the emerging focus on transnational concerns within culture. In 1925, for example, Paris dominated the literary scene. It is a time of malaise and a time of great cultural change, and the old mores of society are undergoing enormous change at an exhilarating pace. Europe, devastated by the Great War, struggled to rebuild. In Paris cultural attractions abound and a variety of European art forms emerged to form the backbone of European Modernism. The mournful sounds of the new age, the Jazz Age, played over the wireless. James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Pablo Picasso, Igor Stravinsky, and Gertrude Stein were experimenting with the art forms that made culture an extension of the times. Paris, while not a major focus of the course, symbolized the changes in culture dominating the transnational scene. Venice, Italy, additionally, while on the periphery of some of these changes, served some of the American and British writers as a place of reflection and thought. Heidelberg, Germany, as well as other urban areas in Germany, fostered shifts in cultural thought.

The aim of this course will be to find the highlights of these trends in literature, with some useful digressions into other movements in music and art that find their place in the written expressions of the times. Digital images and other art forms will be presented as well as supplemental material. The reading will be broad, indeed, beginning with Washington Irving and Nathaniel Hawthorne and more or less ending with James Baldwin and Patricia Highsmith.

ENGL 6635: Special Topics in the Teaching of English: Teaching Visual Rhetoric

01: W 7-9:30 pm with Robert Watkins (CRN: 22986)

02: W 7-9:30 pm SO with Robert Watkins (CRN: 22991)

Visual rhetoric and multimodality have brought writing studies into the 21st-century. This course provides a primer for teaching rhetoric, visual rhetoric, and multimodality to a wide range of ages.

ENGL 6681: Theory of Second Language Acquisition: Foundations for Teaching Second-Language Learners

01: M 4-6:30 pm with Brent Wolter (CRN: 24786)

02: M 4-6:30 pm SO with Brent Wolter (CRN: 24811)

Learning a second language is considered a highly-rewarding, if extremely challenging, task. This course will explore theories and approaches aimed at understanding the processes underpinning successful second language acquisition, and how to apply our knowledge of these to improve the effectives of learning and teaching. Although the course will mostly consider English as a second language, the theories will be applicable to the learning of other languages as well.

ENGL 7731: Practicum in Teaching Composition

01: R 7-9:30 pm with Abraham Romney (CRN: 20040)

02: R 7-9:30 pm SO with Abraham Romney (CRN: 24812)

A course for second-semester M.A. teaching assistants. Weekly meetings and discussions, with periodic course observations to provide support and feedback to improve composition instruction. Focus on effective teaching strategies and fostering professional growth. The course may also be taken by PhD students who have not taught composition before.