Upcoming Course Descriptions

ENG 1000: English First-Year Experience

Note: This is not a GE course; it is a core requirement for all English majors. Take it in your first year, whether you're a freshman or transfer student. ENG 1000 introduces you to CPP, the English & Modern Languages department, the English major, and your fellow English majors. This class will help you settle into CPP, identify and access campus resources, and learn all the ropes you'll need to successfully complete your BA in English!

ENG 2105: Written Reasoning (GE A3)

Learn how to use rhetorical concepts to analyze how people build real arguments, and build strong, compelling, and valid arguments of your own. We'll study logical claims, lines of reasoning, how to interpret evidence, and how audiences judge arguments.

ENG 2200: Introduction to English Linguistics (GE C2)

This class takes a scientific and cultural approach to studying English as a language. We'll explore the fundamental properties of English and how it differs from other languages. Topics will include the sounds, word formation and meaning, syntax, history, and dialects of English.

ENG 2320: American Literature Survey (GE C2)

Read broadly across American literature! We'll dig into authors like Twain, Hurston, Ellison, Silko, or Pynchon, discuss themes like class, race, gender, or trauma, and aesthetic movements like the Harlem Renaissance or the Beat Generation.

ENG 2331: Introduction to US Latino/a Literature (GE C2)

Read works by and about Latino/as in English within a broader historical and cultural context. We'll study the history of this umbrella category, which includes many different national and hybrid identities, with an eye toward the shared experiences of colonialism, migration, and racialization.

ENG 2332: Literature & the African American Experience (GE C2 or F)

This class uses an Ethnic Studies framework to study African American literature within historical, cultural, social, political, and economic conditions in order to better understand contemporary racial politics, structural racism, and strategies of resistance. Topics may include the relationship between Neo-Slave Narratives and the Civil Rights Movement, the Black Arts Movement and the Black Power movement in the 1970s, or Afrofuturism and post-racial discourse in the present. Note: This class can cover either your GE C2 or F requirement, but not both.

ENG 2500: Introduction to Shakespeare (GE C2)

Get to know The Bard! This class studies selected plays by William Shakespeare in historical and cultural context, analyzing prose and poetry. We'll focus on the plays as performed text, considering how things like delivery, blocking, costuming, and audience interaction shapes the plays' meaning.

ENG 2720: World Literature Survey (GE C2)

This class surveys a wide swath of world literature, considering mmajor themes like the journey from Faith to Reason, the unconscious and irrational, or crises of morality in selections from western and non-western cultures, with emphasis on historical contexts.

ENG 2804: Children's Literature

This course is a critical survey of literature intended for children. We'll study texts including chapter books, picture books, fairy tales and folklore, poetry, and illustrations.

ENG 2885: Introduction to Fiction (GE C2)

Students in this class will read with an emphasis on the value and function of literature in human culture. We will explore reasons for and value of reading fiction, including how it provides alternative models of identity and culture in relation to the world as we perceive it.

ENG 3000: Introduction to Literary Studies

English Education & Literary Studies majors: after you have taken your 2000-level literature surveys — but before you can take 4000-level literature classes — take ENG 3000! This course teaches you the fundamentals of studying literature in a more rigorous and professional way. You'll learn new reading practices, write analytical papers, conduct rigorous literary research, learn to use literary theory to frame a literary argument, and make meaningful revisions to written projects.

ENG 3010: Literary Theory & Cultural Studies

English Education & Literary Studies majors: after you have taken your 2000-level literature surveys — but before you can take 4000-level literature classes — take ENG 3010! In this class, you will analyze work by selected major literary critics and apply theoretical principles in your own critical essays.

ENG 3142: Creative Non-Fiction

We'll read some of the best English-language essayists of the 20th and 21st centuries, including writers like James Baldwin, EB White, Joan Didion, Toni Morrison, Annie Dillard, Audre Lorde, Rebecca Solnit, John McPhee, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Tressie McMillan Cottom, and more. You'll learn the fundamentals of writing creative non-fiction essays by practicing different approaches to structure and organization, developing characters, writing dialogue, experimenting with point of view and focalization, and making arguments. We'll revise your drafted work toward submission for publication.

ENG 3150: Advanced Expository Writing

In this class, you'll get additional practice writing and revising essays, articles, reviews, blog posts, and other documents with a focus on developing your individual voice and style.

ENG 3151: Writing for the Professions

This class is all about how people write at and for work. We'll study the rhetorical principles of business and other professional writing. You'll get extensive practice writing letters, memos, reports, and other professional documents.

ENG 3152: Literacy, Language & Cultural Practices

This course focuses on the reciprocal relationship between our cultures and how we use language and literacy. We'll focus on how these relations influence our identities and the judgments we make about different kinds of literacy practices.

ENG 3153: Theory to Practice in Student Literacy

This class for pre-credential English Education majors will help you develop a deep understanding of literacy through student reading, writing, and research of theory and its practical application in secondary school classrooms involving lesson-planning, presentations, and fieldwork.

ENG 3210: The Grammar of Modern English

In this class, you'll study the syntax and morphology of contemporary English, with an emphasis on Standard English, though we will also discuss grammatical variations in different social and regional dialects. Students will analyze the grammar of different kinds of texts.

ENG 3212: Language Acquisition

How do humans learn their first language? We'll study language development from birth through adolescence. Then, we'll consider how children and adults acquire second and subsequent languages. This course covers the linguistic, biological, and social factors that facilitate and hinder language learning and studies both theoretical and practical applications.

ENG 3520: Harry Potter as Literature & Culture (GE C3)

This seminar studies the Harry Potter series as both literature and a cultural phenomenon. The class emphasizes critical reading, thinking, discussion, and research.

ENG 4110: Technologies of Writing (GE C3)

What technologies have humans used to communicate? This class is a multimodal answer to that question in the past and present. We'll study historical composing practices like manuscript and letterpress, textile crafts like needlecraft and scrapbooking, and digital making like textual editing, multimodal storytelling, and design.

ENG 4210: The History of the English Language

Why is English so weird? This class explains the principles of historical language change to help you understand the contemporary pronunciation, spelling, word formation, grammar, and usage of English as a language. We'll also discuss the social and cultural influences that continue to shape it.

ENG 4220: Sociolinguistics (GE D4)

This course studies language use in society, and the mutual influences of society and language on people. We'll focus on regional and social dialects, language ideology, and language and social categories (gender, ethnicity, social class).

ENG 4332: African American Literature

Get ready to explore a rich variety of African American literary works, authors, and cultural contexts! Potential topics include narratives by enslaved people and tales of resistance, the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement, civil rights and the Prison-Industrial Complex.

ENG 4410: Internship Cooperative Education

Gain practical on-the-job professional experience tutoring English language learners, putting knowledge and skills gained through your coursework into practice. Contact Dr. Alyssa Kermad for permission to enroll in the course.

ENG 4500: Chaucer

Get to know to Middle English language and culture! We'll spend a lot of time closely reading Chaucer’s magnum opus, The Canterbury Tales, was well as his other works.

ENG 4511: British Romanticism

How do history and politics shape poetic production, especially the French Revolution? What were the industrial and environmental implications? This seminar will consider the historical-political context for English Romanticism and offer a sample of the major work: Romantic lyrics, closet drama, fragment, epic, prose, and criticism.

ENG 4513: British Drama to 1890

This course explores the development English Drama from the medieval mystery and morality plays to the late 19th century, with an emphasis on non-Shakespearean drama and on the transformation from text to performance in the different theaters.

ENG 4610: Senior Symposium

In this capstone course, you'll reflect on and demonstrate mastery of essential skills in the English major: literature, literary theory, linguistics, and rhetoric, through the study of a major author.

ENG 4740: Chinese Civilization & Culture (GE C3)

This comprehensive study of Chinese civilizational heritage and cultural traditions takes both cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspectives. We'll read and discuss Chinese philosophy, literature, art, and sciences to achieve an in-depth synthetic understanding of China’s past and present.

ENG 4882: Myth as Literature

This class will read widely across classical mythologies, such as Roman and Norse, with an emphasis on the literary qualities of myths, their authors, and on myths as the basis for later literature.

ENG 4884: Film as Literary Genre

This class uses media studies and genre theory to analyze the sociocultural work that films do. We'll look at the aesthetic decisions of filmmakers, consider how visual narratives are constructed, and analyze how those decisions shape our view of the world. Topics may include adaptation, performance studies, the gaze, fandoms, inequity in the film industry, and/or the development of cinematic universes.

ENG 4990: Special Topics: Harvest International

Students enrolled in this class will advertise, select manuscripts, produce, publish, and distribute CPP’s literary magazine, Harvest International. Note: This course can petition to cover ENG 4401A: Journal Publishing.

SPN 1110: Introduction to the Spanish-Speaking World (GE C2)

An overview of the Spanish language in our contemporary world, with a specific focus on its presence in the United States. We'll study issues of language structure, dialect, multilingualism and sociolinguistics. Note: This course is taught in English and does not count as a foreign language course for English majors.

SPN 1111: Elementary Spanish I (GE C2)

We'll cover the essentials of spoken and written Spanish in a cultural context for beginners. This class will give you practice with the fundamentals of communicative competence, including basic vocabulary, grammar, listening/speaking, and the ability to negotiate everyday situations.

SPN 1112: Elementary Spanish II (GE C2)

Builds on the language development in SPN 1111.

SPN 1130: Spanish for Spanish Speakers I (GE C2)

This language course is for those who grew up speaking Spanish. We'll work on all four basic skills in the language: listening comprehension, speaking, reading and writing. The course emphasizes orthography, formal writing style, and developing your ability to distinguish between non-standard varieties and general Latin American Spanish.

SPN 2111: Intermediate Spanish I (GE C2)

We'll review grammar and additional elements of Spanish structure presented within the context of Hispanic Cultures. You'll develop further communicative competence in conversation, reading and writing.

SPN 2120: Spanish for Spanish Speakers II (GE C2)

Building on SPN 1130, this course will continue developing Spanish heritage speakers' skills in Spanish comprehension, speaking, reading and writing. The course emphasizes orthography, written style, and the ability to distinguish between non-standard varieties and general Latin American Spanish.

SPN 2130: Spanish Intermediate Composition (GE C2)

This writing-intensive course studies the principles, structure, and strategies of expository writing in Spanish in the context of the cultures of the Spanish-speaking world.

SPN 2350: Introduction to Literature

This class introduces the terms and concepts necessary to analyze, discuss, and write on literary texts from the Hispanic world, taught through readings of literary texts.

SPN 3110: Advanced Spanish Writing and Academic Speech

Students in this class develop advanced writing and academic speaking skills within the framework of the Spanish-speaking world cultures. We will analyze and write texts and produce oral presentations for a variety of purposes that require a formal and/or academic style.

SPN 3210: Spanish Morphology and Syntax

This linguistics class studies Spanish morphology and syntax. We'll describe parts of speech and nominal and verbal morphology and word formation rules, and we will analyze Spanish sentences. Some fieldwork.

SPN 3330: Foundations of Literature: Theatre

Students will gain understanding of the techniques and reading practices necessary to analyze theatrical performances. We'll study transatlantic plays in their socio-cultural context, attending to concepts such as resistance, empire, violence, ethnicity, and transgression.

SPN 3410: Spanish Civilization

This course takes a panoramic approach to the history, art, literature, world outlook, and other aspects of Spanish civilization.

SPN 3420: Latin American Civilization (GE C3)

We'll focus on key strands in the development of Latin American culture from pre-conquest societies to the present, with emphasis on the ways that major ideas, literary texts, and artistic or musical works or styles emerge from geographic and historical conditions. Note: Lectures and readings will be given in English, with some readings provided in Spanish as well.

SPN 4210: Spanish for Teachers

Learn the vvocabulary, spelling, grammatical structures, and sociolinguistic and cultural concepts needed to teach Spanish as a heritage language, as well as in multilingual environments. We'll cover the characteristics of the Spanish spoken in the United States. Note: This course is taught in Spanish.

SPN 4370: Post-2000 Prose Fiction

Students in this class will sstudy Latin American and Spanish prose fiction published after 2000, with particular emphasis on writers and works exemplifying 21st century themes and styles. We'll pay attention to the socioeconomic and historical contexts of literary production. Note: This course is taught in Spanish.

SPN 4610: Spanish Capstone

This course will help you integrate and assess your cumulative experiences as a Spanish major through the production and presentation of a portfolio of your work. We'll also focus on specific seminar-style research issues, which vary by semester.

ENG 5010: Graduate Literary Research

This course offers practical instruction in literary studies, including advanced skills in reading, writing, researching, theory, citing, formatting, editing, and presenting. We'll study how to enter the academic community and how such skills translate outside higher education.

ENG 5100: Rhetorical History & Methodology

In this class, we'll study the history of rhetoric from pre-classical times through the 18th century, as well as the interplay of theory and practice in this history.

ENG 5232: Teaching Second Language Writing

This class covers topics in pedagogical and theoretical perspectives and methods for helping nonnative-English-speaking students master the requirements of basic and academic written English. We'll study strategies for integrating recent research on second-language composing into a course or curriculum in composition for multilingual students.

ENG 5236: Sociolinguistics

Students will investigate relations between linguistic phenomena and social organization. We'll ffocus on central theoretical approaches to sociolinguistics developed over the last forty years, covering topics like multilingualism, language and social categories, critical sociolinguistics, and sociolinguistic methods in literary studies.

ENG 5368: Multicultural Literature in the US

We will read selected authors and topics in African-American, Asian-American, Mexican-American and Native-American literatures. The course emphasizes comparative analysis to highlight the literary, cultural, and sociopolitical implications of these works.

ENG 5400: Professionalization Practicum

Students in this course engage and participate in professional activities including symposia, internships, and community projects. Contact Dr. Lise-Hélène Smith for permission to enroll.

ENG 5760: Exile & Diaspora in World Literature

This survey in world literature focuses on narratives of exile and diaspora in the context of sociopolitical interactions between nations. We will read selected authors and topics in world literature with an emphasis on war, trauma, displacement, migration, intercultural identity, nationhood, homelands, and/or belonging.

ENG 6970: Comprehensive Examination

This is your culminating experience in your primary area of study. Learn more about expectations on the Literary Studies, Rhetoric & Composition, or TESOL graduate program pages. Contact Dr. Lise-Hélène Smith for permission to enroll.

Fall 2025 Detailed Course Descriptions

Undergraduate English