Fall '25 Class Visit Flyers

Our student advisory council will be making visits to classes in the coming weeks to talk about the English major and minor at Villanova. Here are some of the flyers they'll be showing:

SPRING 2026 UPPER-LEVEL ENGLISH COURSES

2003 Intro to Creative Writing TR 1:00-2:15, Alan Drew

Designed for students who wish to experiment with composing several kinds of creative writing: short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry.

2006 Writing of Poetry TR 8:30-9:45, Cathy Staples

Instruction in poetry writing, including how to craft imagery, figurative language, sound, line, and rhythm, as well as traditional and contemporary forms. Students read widely and write lyric, narrative and experimental poems that are shared in a supportive workshop setting.

2013 Writing of Memoir TR 11:30-12:45, Tsering Wangmo

Memoir is an opportunity to understand life. This writing workshop provides students with practical skills in reading and writing about the events, memories, places that inform their lives.

2023 Journalism MWF 12:50-1:40, Kate Szumanski

Introduces students to key techniques of news gathering and news writing. We will also explore the principles and rules that guide the writing of news pieces, editorials, and features.

2250 Ways of Reading TR 11:30-12:45, Kamran Javadizadeh

An exploration of how we engage, understand, explicate, and enjoy texts of all sorts.

2360 Adaptation: Film as Literature MW 1:00-2:15, Adrienne Perry

The relationship between movies and literature dates back to film's earliest days. Comparing films and texts allows for an explanation of storytelling and the fascinating choices auteurs make. Plot, tone, and symbolism are considered alongside questions of power and representation.

2994 Reading and Community T 6:00-7:15 for first 10 weeks of the semester, Mary Mullen

Studying the kind of reading that takes place outside of the classroom in book groups and community reads, this course practices reading in community while studying hot new books selected by students in the course. Please note: this is a one-credit course.

3350 Milton: Gender and Genre TR 10:00-11:15, Lauren Shohet

The writing of John Milton has fascinated and infuriated English-speaking people for 350 years. We explore why Milton's sometimes radical ideas about conscience, liberty, gender, and marriage remain influential, and how other writers (especially women) have responded to Milton.

3425 British Gothic Fiction TR 4:00-5:15, Joseph Drury

Traces the development of British gothic fiction from the late eighteenth century to today, exploring its themes of violence, sexuality, anxiety and social turmoil alongside its historical contexts and major theoretical approaches to understanding this genre.

3622 Virginia Woolf TR 2:30-3:45, Megan Quigley

Virginia Woolf, novelist, essayist, and diarist, is one of the most influential 20th-Century Writers. Woolf explores the self, modernity, depression, and the joy of an ardent feminist life. We will read Woolf's novels and contemporary debates about form, gender, and sexuality.

3660 Contemporary Literature & Film in India TR 2:30-3:45, Tsering Wangmo

India produces some of the most innovative and engrossing literature in the world, while also releasing more films than any other nation. Through both forms, we'll explore debates in contemporary India concerning border tensions, caste, gender, fantasy, and imperial histories.

4010 Early Textual Bodies MW 3:20-4:35, Kimberly Takahata

This course asks: how can we read about early American bodies, and how are bodies legible? We will chart how Indigenous, Black, and settler persons used developing forms and genres to navigate identity in texts from sixteenth- through nineteenth- century America.

4624 Crime Fiction and Gender MWF 9:35-10:25, Jean Lutes

This course studies crime and detective fiction as an intellectually rich phenomenon preoccupied by gender/sexuality. It examines how crime narratives from the nineteenth century to the present critique socioeconomic realities and address fundamental questions about the nature of knowledge.

4646 Race and Ethnicity: American Novel MW 4:45-6:00, Yumi Lee

This course examines a fascinating range of contemporary US literary texts to explore the ways that gender and sexuality intersect with race, class and other categories of identity to form our experiences of selfhood, community, national belonging, and power.

4702 Authors On & Off the Page TR 4:00-5:15, Alan Drew & Adrienne Perry

Do you love to write? Dream of visiting with authors to discuss their work and the publishing world? This course combines creative writing workshops with literary analysis and the chance to hob-nob with prestigious authors during the Villanova Literary Festival.

5000 Melville MW 1:55-3:10, Travis Foster

Encounter 19th-century America through its most challenging writer. From the high seas of Moby-Dick to the urban claustrophobia of “Bartleby” and the moral fog of Benito Cereno, we'll explore Melville’s prophetic visions and relentless critique of American exceptionalism. The course culminates with the somber poetic examination of the Civil War, Battle-Pieces, and an original research project positioning Melville as a vital voice on the nation’s ongoing crises.

5000 Adaptation: Page, Stage, Film TR 11:30-12:45, Lauren Shohet

How and why do artists recycle old stories? In this seminar, we’ll explore ways that inherited texts move into different media, settings, and contexts: myth into film, poem into novel, medieval Scotland into twentieth-century South Africa. Together, we will study some theories of adaptation (how is cultural adaptation like/unlike genetic evolution? Is the book always better than the movie?) and consider a variety of adaptive projects (the Coen brothers Odyssey movie O Brother, Where Art Thou; Nina MacLaughlin’s contemporary feminist retellings of Ovid; and a range of ways Macbeth has been retold on stage, screen, and page). For your capstone paper, each of you will revisit a text you’ve studied before (or always wanted to), then research and write about its afterlives (or its heritage).

Spring '25 Class Visit Flyers

Our student advisory council will be making visits to classes in the coming weeks to talk about the English major and minor at Villanova. Here are some of the flyers they'll be showing:

FALL 2025       

  UPPER-LEVEL ENGLISH COURSES

2003 Intro to Creative Writing TR 8:30-9:45, Tsering Wangmo

Designed for students who wish to experiment with composing several kinds of creative writing: short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. 

 

2005 Writing the Short Story TR 4:00-5:15, Alan Drew

In this writing workshop course, we will explore setting, point of view, characterization, plot and other craft elements that make short stories run. We will read influential authors and give feedback to one another to foster our growth as writers.

 

2006 Writing of Poetry MW 10:00-11:15, Tsering Wangmo

Instruction in poetry writing, including how to craft imagery, figurative language, sound, line, and rhythm, as well as traditional and contemporary forms. Students read widely and write lyric, narrative and experimental poems that are shared in a supportive workshop setting.

 

2018 Nature Writing Workshop TR 2:30-3:45, Cathy Staples

The natural world will be a source for the creative non-fiction, poetry, and fiction pieces students will write in this class. Through readings, field trips, writing exercises, and workshops students will learn to sharpen their language and see more deeply.

 

2020 Digital Journalism MWF 11:45-12:35, Lara Rutherford-Morrison

Introduces students to the fundamentals of journalism, with an emphasis on digital media. Class will focus on the ins and outs of digital journalism as a practice, with students gaining hands-on experience within a variety of media platforms.

 

2023 Journalism TR 8:30-9:45, Kathryn Szumanski

Introduces students to key techniques of news gathering and news writing. We will also explore the principles and rules that guide the writing of news pieces, editorials, and features.

 

2043 Pop Culture & Resistance MW 4:45-6:00, Karyn Hollis

An analysis of notable works of art, music, literature, video and social media created by people of various international, ethnic and minoritized groups to publicize situations of importance to their communities.

 

2061 Editing & Publishing TR 10:00-11:15, Adrienne Perry

Literary publishing in a diverse, compelling field involving both art and commerce. This hands- on class explores the economic, social, and artistic forces that shape contemporary literature.

Grapple with what it means to "make culture" while honing editorial skills.

 

2250, Ways of Reading TR 1:00-2:15, Joseph Drury

An exploration of how we engage, understand, explicate, and enjoy texts of all sorts.

 

2306 Harry Potter: Quests/Questions MWF 10:40-11:30, Evan Radcliffe

In this course we will use the tools of literary analysis to discuss all seven Harry Potter novels. Central topics will include how the series evolves; Rowling’s use of novelistic form, character and characterization, and literary models; and the books’ representations of gender, class, and other social issues.

 

2360 Adaptation: Film as Lit MW 4:45-6:00, Adrienne Perry

The relationship between movies and literature dates back to film's earliest days. Comparing films and texts allows for an explanation of storytelling and the fascinating choices auteurs make. Plot, tone, and symbolism are considered alongside questions of power and representation.

 

2790 Comics as Literature MW 8:00-9:15, Robert Berry

This course will focus on American comics. In that history, and particularly in the past fifty years, we will see the struggle of cartoonists to take their craft out of the limitations of the marketplace and make it a respected form for self-expression, reportage, memoir, non-fiction, adaptation and more. We will read and discuss some of the critical work done in the field and learn how comics operate differently than film, theater or text.

 

2790 Genres of White Supremacy TR 11:30-12:45, Crystal Lucky

"Genres of White Supremacy" centers literature by Indigenous, Black, and white American writers to consider some of the most pressing concerns of our contemporary moment. Alongside visual images, historically grounded modules on the construction of race, and a critical dialogic component, the course supports all students in their exploration of racial and social hierarchies through the powerful expressions of key nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first century writers, including Leslie Marman Silko, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and Herman Melville.

 

3170 Medieval Romance TR 1:00-2:15, Brooke Hunter

Medieval romances - texts about chivalry and love - have shaped everything from racial identity to flirting. This course considers how romances depict sexuality and gender; construct notions of religious otherness; and shape ideas about peoples and political power.

 

3250 Shakespeare MW 3:20-4:35, Lauren Shohet

This course studies the plays and/or poems of Shakespeare. It may be focused on a particular genre of Shakespeare's work, a period in his career, or a topic. The course seeks to develop students' appreciation of Shakespeare's artistry and relevance.

 

3508 Austen: Then & Now TR 2:30-3:45, Joseph Drury

Jane Austen's novels have never been more popular than they are today. To understand why, we will read several, exploring their historical context and reception, as well as influential modern critical interpretations and the most interesting recent movie adaptations.

 

3621 Contemporary British Novel & Brexit TR 4:00-5:15, Megan Quigley

This course examines the intriguing relationship between literature and institutions, including governments, schools and prisons. Reading nineteenth-century literature in relation to our contemporary moment, we focus especially on universities, interrogating students' experiences of universities and institutional narratives about universities.

 

3660 Contemporary Literature & Film of India TR 4:00-5:15, Tsering Wangmo

India produces some of the most innovative and engrossing literature in the world, while also releasing more films than any other nation. Through both forms, we'll explore debates in contemporary India concerning border tensions, caste, gender, fantasy, and imperial histories.

 

3661 Black British Literature & Film MW 1:55-3:10, Chiji Akoma

This course explores British fiction written after the second World War until today. What stories do novelists tell about the meaning of "Britishness" after the British empire? We investigate themes of nostalgia, xenophobia, feminism, and class warfare in stylistically varied novels.

 

4510 Early American Poetry MW 1:55-3:10, Travis Foster

We will immerse ourselves in four transformative poets -- Anne Bradstreet, Phillis Wheatly Peters, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickinson -- while also considering how their lives and work have inspired contemporary culture from prestige television to Taylor Swift.

 

4649 Intro to Asian American Literature MW 1:55-3:10, Yumi Lee

Examines literature, film, art, and other cultural productions by Asian Americans and explores Asian American histories from the early 20th century to the present.

 

4706 Intro to Latinx Lit TR 2:30-3:45, Michael Dowdy

We will explore the vibrant field of Latinx literature, including fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry by Puerto Rico, Chicano (Mexican American), Dominican American, Cuban American, and Central and South American descent writers and artists. Knowledge of Spanish is not required.

 

5000 The Indigenous Atlantic MW 3:20-4:35, Kimberly Takahata

This course asks: how does centering Indigenous peoples change how we conceive of the Atlantic World and literary history? Reading novels, poems, reports, legal acts, letters, and a newspaper issue from early colonization to the present day, we will explore why literatures in all their forms matter to how we understand colonialism, sovereignty, identity, and art.

You can find our English Alumni Careers Booklet here.

Fall '24 Class Visit Flyers

 Our student advisory council will be making visits to classes in the coming weeks to talk about the English major and minor at Villanova. Here are some of the flyers they'll be showing:

SPRING 2025

UPPER-LEVEL ENGLISH COURSES

2003 Intro to Creative Writing TR 8:30-9:45, Cathy Staples

In this introductory course, students will develop as creative writers and readers. We’ll begin with creative non-fiction, drawing upon memory and sense of place, then move on to poetry, engaging imagination and the lyric voice, then conclude with short fiction, honing our storytelling skills.

2004 Writing Creative Non-Fiction TR 2:30-3:45, Adrienne Perry

Creative nonfiction has been described as "true stories well told." Students will write, close read, and workshop "true stories," including travel writing, food writing, and the lyric essay.

2009 Writing the Novella TR 11:30-12:45, Alan Drew

A creative writing workshop course designed for students eager to leap into the complex process of writing a novella or short novel. Students will close-read short novels to analyze elements of craft and workshop sections of their own novel in-progress.

2020 Digital Journalism MW 3:20-4:35, Lara Rutherford-Morrison

Introduces students to the fundamentals of journalism, with an emphasis on digital media. Class will focus on the ins and outs of digital journalism as a practice, with students gaining hands-on experience within a variety of media platforms.

2022 Writing Through Conflict TR 10:00-11:15, Alan Drew

In this creative writing workshop you will study contemporary Irish/Northern Irish writers while working on your own creative pieces. Over semester break, you will travel to Belfast for a week of seminars and creative writing workshops at the Seamus Heaney Centre.

2024 Scriptwriting MW 1:55-3:10, Michelle Filling-Brown

In this creative writing course, students will study drama and techniques that lead to developing characters, crafting stories, and writing scenes. In the collaborative scriptwriting workshop, students will work as authors, editors, and critics, ultimately each crafting a one-act play.

2025 Making Comics MWF 10:40-11:30, Robert Berry

We will make, understand, and appreciate the storytelling medium of comics. For artists, writers and enthusiasts of all levels; no drawing experience necessary. Through exercises, readings and collaborative assignments, students learn the language of comics and create their own stories.

2070 Legal Writing & Analysis MWF 9:35-10:25, Karen Graziano 

Fundamentals of legal writing and analysis.

2250, Ways of Reading TR 10:00-11:15, Michael Dowdy

An exploration of how we engage, understand, explicate, and enjoy texts of all sorts.

2400 Classical Hero in Ancient Lit MW 1:55-3:10, Evan Radcliffe

In this course we delve into some of the most famous and influential works of classical Western literature, including Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, and Virgil. We will discuss the complexities and depth of their explorations of issues such as war, glory, political power, the place of the gods, and tragic loss.

2801 Editing Law M 4:45-6:00 for first 10 weeks of the semester, Karen Graziano

Law is consistently criticized for lacking the ABCs of effective legal writing: accuracy, brevity, and clarity. Using current laws, students will learn how to edit legal writing to improve its readability and advocate more effectively for clients. Communicating and applying skills of English Majors in the workplace.

2994 Reading and Community M 6:15-7:30 for first 10 weeks of the semester, Mary Mullen

Studying the kind of reading that takes place outside of the classroom in book groups and community reads, this course practices reading in community while studying hot new books selected by students in the course.

3160 Fabulous Middle Ages MW 3:20-4:35, Brooke Hunter

The Middle Ages mixed history (historia) and fable (fabula) freely. This course traces the intersections between the fabulous (the fictional and fantastic) and the "real" in medieval narratives about the history, global travel, and the natural world.

3507 Strange Cases: Imagining Health & Illness TR 1:00-2:15, Joseph Drury

Explore literary responses to pivotal developments in medical science and practice from the eighteenth century to the present. Study works that engage with the new ideas about illness, treatment, and disability that arose alongside changing understandings of the human body.

3530 Victorian Doubles MW 4:45-6:00, Mary Mullen

Investigate how Victorian literature represents doubles - self and other, women and men, past and present, public and private - and study changing constructions of gender, industrialization, and imperial expansion in nineteenth-century Britain.

3615 Ulysses TR 2:30-3:45, Megan Quigley

A study of the novels and short stories of James Joyce, with concentration on Ulysses.

4520 American Novels to 1945 TR 2:30-3:45, Jean Lutes

Want to track some of the most influential American stories ever told? In this course you’ll study19ᵗʰ century books inspired by the institution of slavery before turning to extraordinary contemporary novels that build directly upon their literary provocations.

4632 African American Drama TR 11:30-12:45, Crystal Lucky

"The play's the thing" to capture the conscience of not only a king but a nation. Students will read plays written by African Americans including Lorraine Hansberry, Amiri Baraka, August Wilson, Anna Deavere Smith, and Suzan Lori Parks.

4647 Gender & Sexuality in U.S. Lit TR 4:00-5:15, Yumi Lee

This course examines a fascinating range of contemporary US literary texts to explore the ways that gender and sexuality intersect with race, class and other categories of identity to form our experiences of selfhood, community, national belonging, and power.

4654 25 Poems TR 10:00-11:15, Kamran Javadizadeh

To be alive today is to feel distracted. This course offers us the chance to slow down. We read just one short poem per class meeting and learn how to give it our full attention, in writing and in conversation.

4655 Contemporary Lit & Film in Translation TR 4:00-5:15, Adrienne Perry

This course taught in English introduces students to contemporary world literature and cinema in translation. The study of these texts as translations equips students with an understanding of how translation allows movement among diverse languages and cultures, including our own.

4702 Authors On & Off the Page TR 4:00-5:15, Lisa Sewell & Tsering Wangmo

Do you love to write? Dream of visiting with authors to discuss their work and the publishing world? This course combines creative writing workshops with literary analysis and the chance to hob-nob with prestigious authors during the Villanova Literary Festival.

4703 21ˢᵗ Century American Apocalypse TR 1:00-2:15, Heather Hicks

This course surveys major contemporary novels depicting American disasters and their aftermath. We'll consider the varieties of apocalypse that are imagined -- including economic collapse, pandemic, "zombie apocalypse," and climate disruption -- in relation to gender, race, and literary form.

5000 George Eliot’s Middlemarch MW 3:20-4:35, Mary Mullen

In this senior seminar we will study George Eliot’s Middlemarch and consider what it teaches us about the form of the novel, literary history, and the canon. We will think about gender, genre, race, and colonialism.

GWS 5000 Feminist Fictions TR 11:30-12:45, Megan Quigley

An interdisciplinary course that focuses on a topic through methodology that requires students to provide input from the research areas of their majors. Open to GWS majors, minors and ENG majors, 

minors.

HON 5440-100 At Stoneleigh Garden: Reading & Writing Children’s Stories, April 11-13, 2025, Cathy Staples 

From Goodnight Moon and The Woman Who Flummoxed the Fairies to Wind in the Willows, Sukey 

and the Mermaid, and Alice in Wonderland—we will read and write our way through Stoneleigh’s 

gardens, meadows, and woods in this one-weekend workshop.

HON 5440-101 At the Barnes: One Credit Poetry Workshop February 7-9, 2025, Cathy Staples

Dr. Barnes’ collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and early Modern paintings will be the centerpiece for this one-weekend poetry writing workshop. From Cezanne’s cardplayers and Picasso’s acrobats to Matisse’s storytelling interiors—we’ll write our way through the galleries.

You can find our English Alumni Careers Booklet here.

Spring '24 Class Visit Flyers

Our student advisory council will be making visits to classes in the coming weeks to talk about the English major and minor at Villanova. Here are some of the flyers they'll be showing:

 

Fall 2024 UPPER-LEVEL ENGLISH COURSES

2003 Intro to Creative Writing TR 11:30-12:45, Tsering Wangmo

Designed for students who wish to experiment with composing several kinds of creative writing: short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry.

2006 The Writing of Poetry, MW 3:20 – 4:35, Lisa Sewell

Instruction in poetry writing, including how to craft imagery, figurative language, sound, line, and rhythm, as well as traditional and contemporary forms. Students read widely and write lyric, narrative and experimental poems that are shared in a supportive workshop setting.

2013 Writing of Memoir TR 4:00-5:15, Tsering Wangmo

Memoir is an opportunity to understand life. This writing workshop provides students with practical skills in reading and writing about the events, memories, places that inform their lives.

2017 Writing Detective Fiction TR 10:00-11:15, Alan Drew

Do you love detective fiction? Have you always wanted to write your own "whodunit?" In this course, you'll read and analyze classic and contemporary detective fiction while working to produce, workshop, and polish your own creative work.

2018 Nature Writing Workshop TR 2:30-3:45, Cathy Staples

The natural world will be a source for the creative non-fiction, poetry, and fiction pieces students will write in this class. Through readings, field trips, writing exercises, and workshops students will learn to sharpen their language and see more deeply.

2023 Journalism TR 1:00-2:15, Kathryn Szumanski

Introduces students to key techniques of news gathering and news writing. We will also explore the principles and rules that guide the writing of news pieces, editorials, and features.

2043 Pop Culture & Resistance MW 3:20-4:35, Karyn Hollis

An analysis of notable works of art, music, literature, video and social media created by people of various international, ethnic and minoritized groups to publicize situations of importance to their communities.

2061 Editing & Publishing MW 1:55-3:10, Adrienne Perry

Literary publishing in a diverse, compelling field involving both art and commerce. This hands-on class explores the economic, social, and artistic forces that shape contemporary literature. Grapple with what it means to "make culture" while honing editorial skills.

2250 Ways of Reading TR 10:00-11:15, Michael Dowdy

An exploration of how we engage, understand, explicate, and enjoy texts of all sorts.

2304 Contemporary World Lit & Environment MW 4:45-6:00, Lisa Sewell

The study of global contemporary fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, and film that focuses on the environment, climate change, social justice and the future of nature.

2306 Harry Potter: Quests/Questions MWF 10:40-11:30, Evan Radcliffe

In this course we will use the tools of literary analysis to discuss all seven Harry Potter novels. Central topics will include how the series evolves; Rowling’s use of novelistic form, character and characterization, and literary models; and the books’ representations of gender, class, and other social issues.

3150 Chaucer MW 1:55-3:10, Brooke Hunter

This course introduces the work of Geoffrey Chaucer through a reading of his lively collection of stories and storytellers, The Canterbury Tales. Through its devout stories, explicit comedies, and probing romances, we will explore medieval society, Chaucer's insights on subjectivity, and influential medieval genres.

3181 Irish Epics TR 8:30-9:45, Joseph Lennon

A study of Irish literature from its origins in the world of Celtic mythology, epic and saga through the development of Anglo-Irish literature.

3550 Victorian Publics & Populations MW 3:20-4:35, Mary Mullen

Reading nineteenth-century literature with an eye to who was reading, what they were reading, and how this reading shaped political debates, we'll consider the Victorian Britain's burgeoning print culture, mass movements, colonial publics, and emergent demographic thinking.

3620 Modernism & Fanfiction TR 2:30-3:45, Megan Quigley

This class studies the surprise connections between literary modernism, the early 20th-century experimental literature that explored taboo language, new ideas about empire, sexuality, race and technology, and contemporary fanfiction. We will read fanfiction, bio fiction, and early 20th-century classics and write analytical essays and fanfic of our own.

4000 American Literary Traditions I TR 1:00-2:15, Kimberly Takahata

What makes literature “American”? Who gets to decide? This course examines how literary traditions developed and changed in nineteenth-century America, with a particular focus on race, citizenship, colonialism, and history-making.

4646 Representation Matters: Race & Ethnicity in Cont. America TR 4:00-5:15, Yumi Lee

Canonical texts that treat questions of race and ethnicity. Focus on the critical role of language and literature in constructing and deconstructing racial categories.

4651 Lives of the Undocumented TR 1:00-2:15, Tsering Wangmo

The lived experiences of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. told in their own words through memoir, fiction, poetry, graphic novel, testimony, creative and critical essays.

4652 Letters, Texts, & Twitter TR 10:00-11:15, Kamran Javadizadeh

How does writing bring together distant lovers, friends, family? We'll read letters, the digital forms (social media, instant messaging) that have replaced them, and their representation in novels, poems, and essays to explore how intimacy forms across distance.

4690 Motherhood & Reproductive Fictions TR 11:30-12:45, Jean Lutes

What power do mothers have? Who has the power to define motherhood? This course examines

U.S. narratives of motherhood from the nineteenth century to the present, with special attention

to issues of reproductive justice. Race, ethnicity, class, and religion will be central to our

discussions.

4704 Borders in Latinx Literature TR 8:30-9:45, Michael Dowdy

How do borders impact our lives, and how might they be imagined differently? This course examines how “the border” shapes Latinx literatures, from the U.S.-Mexico national boundary to alternative sites and conceptions of borders, including texts by Latinx writers from various national origins and in multiple genres.

4705 Literature of Addiction & Recovery MWF 10:40-11:30, Travis Foster

This community-based course for Villanova students and incarcerated men will use literature to explore the causes and experience of addiction in addition to the routes taken toward recovery.

On Fridays, students will leave Villanova for SCI Chester at 9:00 a.m. and return to campus by noon. All registered students will be required to attend a spring semester orientation and to complete clearance forms necessary for entrance into the prison.

5000 Black Diaspora & Identity MW 1:55-3:10, Chiji Akoma

This course investigates the notion of Blackness, principally as it is represented in fiction. Using Blackness as an identity category, we’ll examine how writers across the Diaspora spectrum, principally, Africa, the Americas, and Europe, delineate the place of Africa in the formation of Diaspora culture and identity. But beyond the black particularities of the texts, the seminar invites students to consider ideas of hybridity, multi-ethnicity, nationalism, and ways in which one’s “received” culture intersect with “perceived” culture as templates for identity formation.

HON 5440-100 Poets in the Gallery at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Weekend of Oct. 25-27, 2024, Cathy Staples

The workshop begins on Friday in the Honors seminar room with exercises in memory and observation. On Saturday morning, we’ll take the train into Philadelphia and spend the day at PMA on the parkway. We will write our way through the galleries, using the paintings as well as sculpture and installation as entry points for new poems. On Sunday, we’ll gather to share new work over coffee, tea, French toast, & banana bread.

You can find our English Alumni Careers Booklet here.

 

English Flyers Fall '23

Our student advisory council will be making visits to classes in the coming weeks to talk about the English major and minor at Villanova. Here are some of the flyers they'll be showing:

 

 

SPRING 2024 UPPER-LEVEL ENGLISH COURSES

2003 Intro to Creative Writing TR 11:30-12:45, Tsering Wangmo
Designed for students who wish to experiment with composing several kinds of creative writing: short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry.

2004 Writing Creative Non-Fiction MW 3:20-4:35, Adrienne Perry
Creative nonfiction has been described as "true stories well told." Students will write, close read, and workshop "true stories," including travel writing, food writing, and the lyric essay.

2005 Writing the Short Story TR 2:30-3:45, Alan Drew
In this writing workshop course, we will explore setting, point of view, characterization, plot and other craft elements that make short stories run. We will read influential authors and give feedback to one another to foster our growth as writers.

2006 Writing of Poetry MW 1:00-2:15, Lisa Sewell
Instruction in poetry writing, including how to craft imagery, figurative language, sound, line, and rhythm, as well as traditional and contemporary forms. Students read widely and write lyric, narrative and experimental poems that are shared in a supportive workshop setting.

2019 Writing for Social Change TR 10:00-11:15, Tsering Wangmo
Can stories change society? In this workshop you will braid your social justice, environmental, healthcare, and migration interests into creative pieces. We will read works by contemporary writers that address existing problems and call for justice, resistance, equality, activism.

2020 Digital Journalism MWF 10:40-11:30, Lara Rutherford-Morrison
Introduces students to the fundamentals of journalism, with an emphasis on digital media. Class will focus on the ins and outs of digital journalism as a practice, with students gaining hands-on experience within a variety of media platforms.

2070 Legal Writing and Analysis MWF 9:35-10:25, Karen Graziano 

Fundamentals of legal writing and analysis.

2250, Ways of Reading TR 1:00-2:15, Brooke Hunter
An exploration of how we engage, understand, explicate, and enjoy texts of all sorts.

2302 Apocalyptic Literature TR 1:00-2:15, Heather Hicks
One of the oldest forms of narrative, apocalyptic literature is more popular - and powerful - than ever. Starting with Revelation, this course traces this tradition through fascinating poems, stories, novellas, novels and films to the present day.

2360 Adaptation: Film as Lit MW 4:45-6:00 Adrienne Perry
The relationship between movies and literature dates back to film's earliest days. Comparing films and texts allows for an explanation of storytelling and the fascinating choices auteurs make. Plot, tone, and symbolism are considered alongside questions of power and representation.

2991 English Majors as Leaders 1st Session: Friday, January 19 - 1:55-4:55; 2nd Session: Sunday, February 9 - 1:55- 4:55, 3rd Session: Friday, March 15 - 1:55 – 4:55: 4th Session: Friday, April 5 - 1:55 – 4:55, Karen Graziano 

Communicating and applying skills of English Majors in the workplace.

2994 Reading and Community M 6:15-7:30 for first 10 weeks of the semester, Mary Mullen
Studying the kind of reading that takes place outside of the classroom in book groups and community reads, this course practices reading in community while studying hot new books selected by students in the course.

3350 Milton MW 3:20-4:35, Lauren Shohet
Why has the writing of John Milton (especially Paradise Lost fascinated and infuriated English-speaking people for 350 years? We will explore how and why Milton's sometimes radical ideas about conscience, liberty, gender, and marriage remain influential, and how other writers (especially women) have responded to Milton.

3426 Science, Lit & Enlightenment TR 4:00-5:15, Joseph Drury
In this course, students will read and analyze some of the key philosophical texts that established the founding principles of modern science alongside literary texts from different genres that explore science's social meaning and its moral and political implications.

3540 Institutional Fictions MW 4:45-6:00, Mary Mullen
This course examines the intriguing relationship between literature and institutions, including governments, schools and prisons. Reading nineteenth-century literature in relation to our contemporary moment, we focus especially on universities, interrogating students' experiences of universities and institutional narratives about universities.

3660 Contemporary Literature & Film of India TR 4:00-5:15, Tsering Wangmo

India produces some of the most innovative and engrossing literature in the world, while also releasing more films than any other nation. Through both forms, we'll explore debates in contemporary India concerning border tensions, caste, gender, fantasy, and imperial histories.

3661 Black British Literature & Film MW 1:55-3:10, Chiji Akoma
Focusing on notions of "blackness" and emigration, this course examines major British literature and film by persons of African descent and immigrants from former colonies in Asia and Africa. Writers include Zadie Smith, Sam Selvon, Hanif Kureishi, Bernardine Evaristo, Buchi Emecheta.

4010 Early American Textual Bodies TR 2:30-3:45, Kimberly Takahata
This course asks: how can we read about early American bodies, and how are bodies legible? We will chart how Indigenous, Black, and settler persons used developing forms and genres to navigate identity in texts from sixteenth- through nineteenth- century America..

4654 Twenty-Five Poems TR 11:30-12:45, Kamran Javadizadeh
To be alive today is to feel distracted. This course offers us the chance to slow down. We read just one short poem per class meeting and learn how to give it our full attention, in writing and in conversation.

4649 Intro to Asian American Literature MW 3:20-4:35, Yumi Lee
Examines literature, film art, and other cultural productions by Asian Americans and explores Asian American histories from the early 20th century to the present.

4702 Authors On & Off the Page TR 4:00-5:15, Alan Drew, Lisa Sewell
Do you love to write? Dream of visiting with authors to discuss their work and the publishing world? This course combines creative writing workshops with literary analysis and the chance to hob-nob with prestigious authors during the Villanova Literary Festival.

5000 U.S. Literature & Empire MW 1:55-3:10, Yumi Lee
This course explores how American writers have responded to the expanding place of the United States in the world. We will read literary works that reimagine contested spaces of US empire: the Indian reservation, the border, the overseas military base, and more.

5000 Woolf & Daughters TR 10:00-11:15, Megan Quigley
Virginia Woolf was prohibited from having children by her doctors and husband because they feared for her physical and mental health. Her novels examine maternal love, loss, and illness in the experimental style that came with Woolf's rage at patriarchy’s power. This class will examine both Woolf's works and that of her "spiritual” daughters: Toni Morrison, Hilary Mantel, and Rachel Cusk.

9730 Staging The Spanish Tragedy Meeting by Arrangement, Alice Dailey
Work with and as theatre-makers to contribute to a main stage production of the highly influential 16th century play, The Spanish Tragedy.

HON 5440-100 At Stoneleigh Garden: Reading & Writing Children’s Stories, April 12-14, 2024, Cathy Staples From Goodnight Moon and The Woman Who Flummoxed the Fairies to Wind in the Willows, Sukey and the Mermaid, and Alice in Wonderland—we will read and write our way through Stoneleigh’s gardens, meadows, and woods.

HON 5440-101 At the Barnes: One Credit Poetry Workshop February 16-18, 2024, Cathy Staples

Dr. Barnes’ collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and early Modern paintings will be the centerpiece for this one-weekend poetry writing workshop.

You can find our English Alumni Careers Booklet here.

 

 View the complete fall '23 course booklet here

English Flyers Spring '23

Our student advisory council will be making visits to classes in the coming weeks to talk about the English major and minor at Villanova. Here are some of the flyers they'll be showing:

 

 

You can find our English Alumni Careers Booklet here.

 

 View the complete course booklet here

 UPPER-LEVEL ENGLISH COURSES FOR FALL 2023

Many of these courses also fulfill requirements for other programs and core diversity.

2003 Intro to Creative Writing TR 11:30-12:45, Alan Drew
Designed for students who wish to experiment with composing several kinds of creative writing: short fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry.

2013 Writing of Memoir TR 10:00-11:15, Tsering Wangmo
Memoir is an opportunity to understand life. This writing workshop provides students with practical skills in reading and writing about the events, memories, places that inform their lives.

2018 Nature Writing Workshop TR 2:30-3:45, Cathy Staples
The natural world will be a source for the creative non-fiction, poetry, and fiction pieces students will write in this class. Through readings, field trips, writing exercises, and workshops students will learn to sharpen their language and see more deeply.

2023 Journalism TR 11:30-12:45, Kathryn Szumanski
Introduces students to key techniques of news gathering and news writing. We will also explore the principles and rules that guide the writing of news pieces, editorials, and features.

2061 Editing & Publishing MW 3:20-4:35, Adrienne Perry
Literary publishing in a diverse, compelling field involving both art and commerce. This hands- on class explores the economic, social, and artistic forces that shape contemporary literature. Grapple with what it means to "make culture" while honing editorial skills.

2250 Ways of Reading TR 1:00-2:15, Joseph Drury
An exploration of how we engage, understand, explicate, and enjoy texts of all sorts.

2300 Women in Literature MWF 12:50-1:40, Ellen Bonds
Study of the place of women in literature, with emphasis on modern fiction, drama and poetry written in English.

2306 Harry Potter: Quests/Questions MWF 10:40-11:30, Evan Radcliffe
In this course we will use the tools of literary analysis to discuss all seven Harry Potter novels. Central topics will include how the series evolves; Rowling’s use of novelistic form, character and characterization, and literary models; and the books’ representations of gender, class, and other social issues.

2350 Narrative Television MW 4:45-6:00, Lauren Shohet

Plot, character, voice, point of view in visual, aural, dramatic, and verbal aspects of serial television. What works similarly or differently in television and prose fiction? In television and film?

3260 Legacies of Revenge in Drama, Fiction, Comics, and Film R 6:00-8:55, Alice Dailey & Chelsea Phillips
We will study a highly influential 16th c. play called The Spanish Tragedy in the context of western culture’s centuries-long fascination with the dynamics of revenge. We’ll work with and as theatre-makers to contribute to a main stage production of the play in spring 2024. (Spring participation encouraged but optional!)

3440 Harlots, Rakes, & Libertines TR 2:30-3:45, Joseph Drury
Discover the Libertine authors of the seventeenth and eighteenth century, whose witty, scandalous works promoted a freethinking philosophy of sexual pleasure and individual freedom, and provoked critics who blamed them for modern social problems such as prostitution, poverty, and crime.

3535 Gender, Authorship, & Authority TR 4:45-6:00, Mary Mullen
This class studies how and why women writers used pseudonyms and forged collective authorial identities to grapple with gendered expectations. It considers the knotty politics of authorship, biography, and autobiography in nineteenth-century Britain and the twenty-first century.

3621 Contemporary British Novel & Brexit TR 10:00-11:15, Megan Quigley

This course explores British fiction written after the second World War until today. What stories do novelists tell about the meaning of "Britishness" after the British empire? We investigate themes of nostalgia, xenophobia, feminism, and class warfare in stylistically varied novels.

3650 African Drama MWF 11:45-12:35, Chiji Akoma

Examination of the aesthetics, politics, and practices of the theatre and drama in Africa. Focused on written plays, course explores drama performances on stage, television, and movies. Introduces students to role-playing and small-scale adaptation of texts to American contexts.

4015 Why Indigenous Literature Matters MW 1:55-3:10, Kimberly Takahata
This course introduces students to a vivid spectrum of Indigenous literatures, exploring how Indigenous peoples have expressed their truths and imagined their futures. We will ask: what makes something “literary”? Why do Indigenous literatures matter, inside and outside our classroom?

4510 Early American Poetry MW 3:20-4:35, Travis Foster
We will immerse ourselves in four transformative poets -- Anne Bradstreet, Phillis Wheatley Peters, Walt Whitman, and Emily Dickinson – while also considering how their lives and work have inspired contemporary culture from prestige television to Taylor Swift.

4647 Gender & Sexuality in US Literature TR 4:00-5:15, Yumi Lee

This course examines a fascinating range of contemporary US literary texts to explore the ways that gender and sexuality intersect with race, class and other categories of identity to form our experiences of selfhood, community, national belonging, and power.

4651 Lives of the Undocumented MW 2:30-3:45, Tsering Wangmo
The lived experiences of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. told in their own words through memoir, fiction, poetry, graphic novel, testimony, creative and critical essays.

4652 Letters, Texts, & Twitter MW 1:55-3:10, Kamran Javadizadeh
How does writing bring together distant lovers, friends, family? We'll read letters, the digital forms (social media, instant messaging) that have replaced them, and their representation in novels, poems, and essays to explore how intimacy forms across distance.

4690 Crime Fiction & Gender TR 8:30-9:45, Jean Lutes
In this course, you'll study American crime fiction as an intellectually rich phenomenon that dramatizes social and economic realities, asks fundamental questions about the nature of knowledge, and investigates gender and sexuality as well as theft and murder.

4704 Borders in Latinx Literature TR 11:30-12:45, Michael Dowdy
How do borders impact our lives, and how might they be imagined differently? This course examines how “the border” shapes Latinx literatures, from the U.S.-Mexico national boundary to alternative sites and conceptions of borders, including texts by Latinx writers from various national origins and in multiple genres.

5000 Contemporary American Poetry: The Documentary Turn TR 1:00-2:15, Lisa Sewell 

This course will focus on recent contemporary poetry that investigates personal and public histories, incorporating documents, research, and the news as much as it relies on poetic inspiration. We will study the history of documentary poetry and read work about the slave trade, refugee crises around the world, natural and unnatural disasters, and historic events.

HON 5440-100 Poets in the Gallery at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Weekend of Oct. 20- 22, 2023, Cathy Staples
The workshop begins on Friday in the Honors seminar room with exercises in memory and observation. On Saturday morning, we’ll take the train into Philadelphia and spend the day at PMA on the parkway. We will write our way through the galleries, using the paintings as well as sculpture and installation as entry points for new poems. On Sunday, we’ll gather to share new work over coffee, tea, French toast, & banana bread.

The English Course Booklet, which is released closer to registration time, will also indicate which courses count toward core diversity requirements, as well as the Writing & Rhetoric Program, Irish Studies, Africana Studies, Gender & Women’s Studies, Peace & Justice, Sustainability, etc.