Courses & Advising
Experience and Engage
CSU English Department Courses
English department courses are opportunities for you to explore the ways in which we employ the language to meet demands of the twenty-first century. A vibrant and diverse group of teacher educators, linguists, literary scholars, novelists, composition specialists, and writers of creative nonfiction comprises your faculty.
Scroll down for descriptions of Fall 2024 course offerings (class time and instructor subject to change) and access important links to help you begin mapping out your English education today.
Course Registration, Availability, and the University Course Catalog
The course descriptions on this web page aim to provide a sense of our disciplinary scope. To search for course availability or register for courses, students with access can login to RAMweb. Incoming or prospective students can visit CSU's online course catalog to browse a general listing of English department courses. New students can apply to CSU or reach out for more information. New undergraduates can schedule a visit.
Fall 2024 Courses
Click on course titles to expand their respective descriptions, and to help plan your immersion in the interdisciplinary study of language arts. Class times/instructors are subject to change.
Undergraduate Courses, Fall 2024
AMST100 Self/Community in American Culture, 1600-1877 | 3 credits | 02:00 - 02:50 PM | MWF | James Roller
Critical analysis of the meaning and development of American culture, 1600-1877, through themes of self and community in art, politics, society, and religion.
AMST101 Self/Community in American Culture Since 1877 | 3 credits | Multiple Meeting Times | Multiple Instructors
Critical analysis of the meaning and development of American culture since 1877, through themes of self and community in art, politics, society, and religion.
CO130 Academic Writing | 3 credits | Multiple Meeting Times | Multiple Instructors
Academic writing, critical thinking, and critical reading through study of a key academic issue.
CO150 College Composition | 3 credits | Multiple Meeting Times | Multiple Instructors
Understanding and writing for rhetorical situations; critical reading and response; writing source-based argument for academic and public audiences.
Must have taken CO 130 or Composition Challenge Essay (score of 3, 4, or 5) or SAT Verbal/Critical reading score of minimum 570 or SAT Evidence Based Reading/Writing score of minimum 620 or ACT COMPOSITE score of minimum 26 or Directed Self-Placement Survey code of 15.
Sections may be offered online.
CO300 Writing Arguments | 3 credits | Multiple Meeting Times | Multiple Instructors
Reading, analyzing, researching, and writing arguments.
Prerequisite: CO 150 or HONR 193. Sections may be offered online.
CO301A Writing in the Disciplines: Arts and Humanities | 3 credits | Multiple Meeting Times | Multiple Instructors
Learning writing strategies for addressing general audiences in arts and humanities.
Prerequisite: CO 150 or HONR 193. Sections may be offered online.
CO301B Writing in the Disciplines: Sciences | 3 credits | Multiple Meeting Times | Multiple Instructors
Learning writing strategies for addressing general audiences in sciences.
Prerequisite: CO 150 or HONR 193. Sections may be offered online.
CO301C Writing in the Disciplines: Social Sciences | 3 credits | Multiple Meeting Times | Multiple Instructors
Learning writing strategies for addressing general audiences in social sciences.
Prerequisite: CO 150 or HONR 193. Sections may be offered online.
CO301D Writing in the Disciplines: Education | 3 credits | 04:30 - 06:50 PM | W | Kelly Burns
Learn to read and write like a teacher. This course emphasizes real-world assignments and activities for future teachers.
Prerequisite: CO 150 or HONR 193. Sections may be offered online.
CO302 Writing in Digital Environments | 3 credits | Multiple Meeting Times | Multiple Instructors
Writing strategies, patterns and approaches for online materials.
Prerequisite: CO 150 or HONR 193.
E140 The Study of Literature | 3 credits | Multiple Meeting Times | Multiple Instructors
Basic principles of reading literary texts.
This course fulfills Category 3B: Arts & Humanities for the AUCC requirements.
E142 Reading Without Borders | 3 credits | 08:00 - 08:50 AM | MWF | Amanda Memoli
Authors from a range of international, cross-national, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds focusing on themes of immigration, exile, or education.
E150 English Studies Symposium | 3 credits | 03:00 - 3:50 PM | MWF | Multiple Instructors
Introduces majors to the study of English across the whole array of the department's concentrations and approaches.
Credit not allowed for both E 150 and E 181A1.
E210 Beginning Creative Writing | 3 credits | Multiple Meeting Times | Multiple Instructors
Basic techniques of writing fiction and poetry, including writer workshops. May include some elements of drama and/or creative non-fiction.
Sections may be offered online.
E232 Introduction to Humanities | 3 credits | Multiple Meeting Times | Multiple Instructors
Literature of Western cultural tradition from ancient times to present.
This course fulfills Category 3B: Arts & Humanities for the AUCC requirements.
E236 Short Fiction | 3 credits | Multiple Meeting Times | Multiple Instructors
Examines form, technique and interpretation in short fiction.
This course fulfills Category 3B: Arts & Humanities for the AUCC requirements.
E237 Introduction to Science Fiction | 3 credits | 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM | TR | Leif Sorensen
This introduction to science fiction provides an overview of the history of the genre from its origins in the late 19th century, before it had a name, through the pulp era of the early 20th century, and on into the present. In the process we will discuss how the genre transforms as a result of both the development of new technologies and areas of scientific inquiry and the contributions of creators of color, women writers, and LGBT+ artists to the genre. We will survey a range of short fiction alongside a few selected novels by major figures in the development of the field. The class will also provide opportunities to explore the impact of science fiction on creators working in other media and moments, like a famous one in the 1980s when Ronald Reagan invited a selected group of SF writers to Washington DC to discuss the prospect of nuclear war and its aftermath, when this seemingly escapist form of popular entertainment becomes involved in serious political and social debates. A sampling of the writers we will discuss includes: H. G. Wells, H. P. Lovecraft, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Philip K. Dick, Ursula K. Le Guin, Samuel R. Delany, Octavia E. Butler, Nnedi Okorafor, Ted Chiang, and Vandana Singh.
E238 Contemporary Global Fiction | 3 credits | Multiple Meeting Times | Multiple Instructors
Contemporary fiction chosen for its relevance to global and cultural awareness.
Sections may be offered online.
E240 Introduction to Poetry | 3 credits | 12:30 - 1:45 PM | TR | slp (sarah louise) pieplow
Development of critical skills necessary to understand and enjoy poetry.
E242 Reading Shakespeare | 3 credits | 09:00 - 09:50 AM | MWF | Elizabeth Steinway
Reading of Shakespeare texts, using various approaches of interpretation for understanding and relation to our contemporary cultural situation.
This course fulfills Category 3B: Arts & Humanities for the AUCC requirements.
E245 World Drama | 3 credits | 11:00 - 11:50 AM | MWF | Mitch Macrae
World drama in cultural contexts.
Sections may be offered online.
E270 Introduction to American Literature | 3 credits | 1:00 - 1:50 PM | MWF | Catherine Ratliff
History and development of American writings from 16th-century travel narratives through early 20th-century modernism.
This course fulfills Category 3B: Arts & Humanities for the AUCC requirements.
E276 British Literature: Medieval Period to 1800 | 3 credits | 02:00 - 02:50 PM | MWF | William Marvin
British literature from Beowulf through the 18th century in relation to its historical contexts.
This course fulfills Category 3B: Arts & Humanities for the AUCC requirements.
E277 British Literature: After 1800 | 3 credits | 10:00 - 10:50 AM | MWF | Mitch Macrae
British literature from the Romantics to the present in relation to its historical contexts.
This course fulfills Category 3B: Arts & Humanities for the AUCC requirements.
E305 Principles of Writing and Rhetoric | 3 credits | 02:00 - 02:50 PM | MWF | Lisa Langstraat
This course offers a humanities-based exploration of central principles of writing and other forms of rhetoric. Students will explore critical concepts in ancient and contemporary readings – everything from Plato to Nietzche to Foucault. We’ll ask questions like, what is rhetoric? What is writing? How has our 12 understanding of them changed over time? Do rhetoric and writing create or merely reflect reality? How do writing and rhetoric reinforce and challenge power? And why should we care?
This is a required core course in the Writing, Rhetoric, and Literacy concentration. It counts as English elective credit for all others.
E310 – Researching and Writing Literary Criticism | 3 credits | 01:00 - 01:50 PM | MWF | Barbara Sebek
This class is designed to practice skills in conducting research and writing literary criticism—skills that will facilitate your success in upper-division literature courses. We will also study strategies for translating these skills to research and writing occasions beyond the literature classroom. We’ll read and discuss an array of literary texts from ancient to modern, loosely gathered around the theme of “aestheticizing violence across periods and genres.” Graded assignments will consist of a series of structured research exercises that will culminate in formulating your own independent research project—an annotated bibliography and detailed prospectus for a longer work of literary or cultural analysis.
Required for Literature concentrators.
E311A Intermediate Creative Writing: Fiction | 3 credits | 09:30 - 10:45 AM | TR | Nina McConigley
Group discussion of student writing, literary models, and theory; emphasis on developing individual style.
Must register for lecture and recitation. Sections may be offered online.
E311B Intermediate Creative Writing: Poetry | 3 credits | 09:00 - 09:50 AM | MWF | Airica Waters
Group discussion of student writing, literary models, and theory; emphasis on developing individual style.
Must register for lecture and recitation. Sections may be offered online.
E311C Intermediate Creative Writing: Nonfiction | 3 credits | 02:00 - 02:50 PM | MWF | Instructor TBA
Group discussion of student writing, literary models, and theory; emphasis on developing individual style.
Must register for lecture and recitation. Sections may be offered online.
E324 – Teaching English as a Second Language | 3 credits | 10:00 AM - 10:50 AM | MWF | Fabiola Ehlers-Zavala
This course offers participants with an introduction to the teaching of English to speakers of other languages in the U.S. or abroad. This is a course that may potentially contribute to teacher certification. This is a highly interactive and participatory course intended to offer a rich introduction to this exciting area of work in the field of applied linguistics. It will offer a combination of both theory and practice with plenty of opportunities to discuss current topics related to the teaching of English learners across contexts.
This is a required core course in the Linguistics and Culture Interdisciplinary Minor and strongly advised for students with the Linguistics concentration.
E328 – Phonology, Morphology, and Lexis | 3 credits | 11:00 - 11:50 AM | MWF | Luciana Marques
E328 introduces and develops the concepts, terminology, and analytic skills needed to do basic phonetic, phonological, morphological, and lexical analyses. Phonology is the study of how speech sounds function in languages and how speakers produce and perceive them. Morphology studies basic meaningful units of language and the ways in which they are combined to form words. Lexis is the study of words, their forms, meanings, and organization in dictionaries, minds, and brains. The course focuses on the phonology, morphology, and lexis of English, but it expands to other languages too. E328 is recommended for students who are interested in language description and its applications, including teaching English as a second or foreign language (TESL/TEFL), language documentation, computational linguistics, foreign language teaching and teaching in linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms.
This course is part of the Linguistics and Culture Interdisciplinary Minor and the Linguistics concentration, and it can be an upper-division elective in English.
E330 – Gender in World Literature | 3 credits | 09:00-09:50 AM | MWF | Catherine Ratliff
Ideas about gender are expressed differently around the globe and this course explores these various literary representations from a range of cultures. We will examine identities, bodies, experiences, and sexualities to help shape our understandings of the meanings and influences of gender throughout the world. Our texts include multiple genres (such as novels, short stories, poetry, theoretical texts, and young adult fiction), which will allow us to explore the processes that shape global understandings of gendered experiences and identities. We will also consider the ways that ideas of gender can influence our interpretations of texts and global cultures. Thus, the course is not just about gender in literary texts, but also about the methods of conceptualizing gender and its connected themes as a field of academic study. These questions will generate others, and your involvement in raising such questions is central to the spirit of inquiry essential to this course. English majors and non-majors are welcome.
This course fulfills a Category 3 elective requirement for English majors.
E337.001 Western Mythology | 3 credits | 12:00 - 12:50 PM | MWF | William Marvin
The gods who emerged from the timelessness of pre-creation, the cannibal gods and the cosmic gods who with war shaped the order of existence, and the gods who loved sacrifice, ruled in discord, and had ado with mortals in the guises of human-and-animal-kind: These are the personified inscrutables that “western myth” built a coherent core of narration around, and to this narration attached plots and characters in endless variety. Even the story-telling itself, like creation, began in time immemorial. Its main cycles coalesced in spite of migrations and the wrack of civilizations, long even before the advent of writing and literature. But literature, when it came, changed everything. No longer was hieratic myth, the mythology of priests, to be solely the property of cult. This course is about how poets in the age of writing reshaped the potential of the gods. We will track the gods’ wanderings from their cultic origins in magic and hymn to their fluorescence in Sumerian and Greek creation myth, Indic and Germanic dragon slaying, Greek siege epic around the war for Helen of Troy, up to the point of the Roman de-sacralization of the gods in a modern kind of erudite, humane irony. We shall discover furthermore how myth first prompted literary criticism, when readers asked if what Homer said about the immortal gods was true? So, the course will also cover the history of reading myth from classical antiquity to the present, develop this history into a set of critical perspectives, and apply these as hermeneutic tools to the myths as we read them.
This course fulfills a Category 4 elective requirement for English majors and world literature for English Education concentrators. It also counts toward the Religious Studies minor.
E340 – Literature and Film Studies: War and Peace and Film Adaptation | 3 credits | 11:00 - 11:50 AM | MWF | Philip Tsang
This course is an intensive study of Leo Tolstoy’s epic novel War and Peace and its 1965 film adaptation.
E341 Literary Criticism and Theory | 3 credits | Multiple Meeting Times | Multiple Instructors
Theory and practice of modern literary analysis and evaluation; writing about literature.
E344 - Shakespeare | 3 credits | 02:00 - 02:50 PM | MWF | Elizabeth Steinway
Shakespeare’s dramatic and poetic works.
This course fulfills a Category 1 or 4 elective requirement for English majors.
E373 - The Afterlives of Literature | 3 credits | 03:00 - 03:50 PM | MWF | Barbara Sebek
What do ancient Roman poet Ovid, the Beatles, and William Shakespeare have in common? How can we complicate and theorize how shared narrative, poetic, and dramatic materials seem to transcend different periods, cultures, and media? This course in literary adaptation and appropriation will explore such questions by grouping ancient, Renaissance, and modern versions of core stories and tropes. We will sample recent scholarly work such as the Routledge Handbook of Shakespeare and Global Appropriation to enrich our understanding of “appropriation” as a critical model for exploring literary afterlives.
This course fulfills a Category 1-4 elective requirement for English majors.
E384.001 Supervised College Teaching: Classroom | 1 to 3 credits | Multiple Meeting Times | Multiple Instructors
Supervised assistance in instruction.
Written consent of department chair. A maximum of 10 combined credits for all 384 and 484 courses are counted towards graduation requirements.
E401 Teaching Reading | 3 credits | 03:30 - 06:00 PM | R | Rosa Nam
Theory and pedagogy for understanding, interpreting, and evaluating print and visual texts.
E402 Teaching Composition | 3 credits | 04:30 - 07:20 PM | T | Kelly Burns
Writing is our thinking made visible. In this course, we cultivate writers through evidence-based writing instructional practices that are embedded within the writing workshop model to move past outdated writing practices into iterative, agency-based, and authentic writing that honors the "mesearch" of individuals and the research of our communities in service of social change and civic engagement.
E405 Young Adult Literature | 3 credits | 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM | TR | Rosa Nam
Come read and discuss contemporary diverse young adult literature using various lenses in Young Adult Literature. We'll read best-sellers and hidden gems that support critical literacy skills.
3 credits of CO or E.
E412A Creative Writing Workshop: Fiction | 3 credits | Multiple Meeting Times | Multiple Instructors
Individual projects with group discussion and analysis.
Must register for lecture and recitation. Maximum of 6 credits allowed in course. Sections may be offered online.
E412B Creative Writing Workshop: Poetry | 3 credits | 03:30 - 04:45 PM | TR | Matthew Cooperman
Individual projects with group discussion and analysis.
Must register for lecture and recitation. Maximum of 6 credits allowed in course. Sections may be offered online.
E412C Creative Writing Workshop: Nonfiction | 3 credits | 2:00 - 02:50 PM | MWF | Sarah Perry
E428 – Postcolonial Literature of India | 3 credits | 09:00 - 09:50 AM | MWF | Philip Tsang
In this course, we will study a series of literary works by British and Indian authors in order to explore the complex history of British rule in the Indian subcontinent. We will examine how India came under the control of the East India Company in the eighteenth century, how a rebellion in 1857 resulted in the transfer of power to the British government, how the nationalist movements of the early 20th century led to the dissolution of British rule in 1947, and how the legacy of colonialism continues to shape post-independence India. Our texts will include short stories by Rudyard Kipling, Rabindranath Tagore’s Gora, Premchand’s Gaban, Mulk Raj Anand’s Coolie, Anita Desai’s Clear Light of Day, and Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things.
This course fulfills a Category 3 elective requirement for English majors.
E433 – Literature of the American West | 3 credits | 02:00 - 03:15 PM | TR | Matthew Cooperman
What is the American West? Where is it? When? Do we still live in the American West or is that term more accurately applied to Gunsmoke and spaghetti westerns? There’s something mythic about the West, something heroic and solitary and innocent. Something democratic. So too, something radical, illicit, savage, outlaw. It’s a moving target, fugitive in its wandering. Yet the ambiguities surrounding our definitions have shaped our national character, our sense of democracy and our institutions. In this course we will explore our various experiences and conceptions of the American West. We will do so by examining a range of sources and types of literature, from novels to histories to poetries to movies. We will also explore its material history—the horse, the pistol, water, barbed wire—the implements and elements by which its space was “won.”
Possible Texts: Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop; Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose; Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian; Terry Tempest Williams, Refuge; Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony; Gretel Ehrlich, The Solace of Open Spaces.
This course fulfills a Category 2 elective requirement for English majors.
E451 – Medieval Literature | 3 credits | 11:00 - 11:50 AM | MWF | Lynn Shutters
Genres, themes, and authors of the Middle Ages.
Full course description coming soon!
This course fulfills a Category 1 elective requirement for English majors.
E456 – Topics in Critical Theory – Literature and Philosophy of the Non-Human: Plants, Animals, Minerals | 3 credits | 03:30 - 04:45 PM | TR | Lynn Badia
Experiments in narrative form have created new ways of seeing and thinking from non-human perspectives. This course examines the theoretical and narrative project of understanding non-human agencies, and, as Donna Haraway has described, “multispecies becoming-with.” In the process of taking on the perspective of the animal, plant, and mineral, the texts examined in this course necessarily reconsider what it means to be human. We will be reading post-humanist theory alongside a range of literary authors such as John Joseph Mathews, Ursula K. Le Guin, Leslie Marmon Silko, Franz Kafka, and J. M. Coetzee.
This course fulfills Category 2 or 3 elective requirement for English Majors.
E458 – Topics in Language, Law, and Justice | 3 credits | 12:30 - 1:45 PM | TR | Gerry Delahunty
Societies are governed by laws and, ideally, justice is determined according to law. Laws are crafted in language, and, ideally, people should be able to read the laws they are subject to. However, the language of English law is very different from other uses of English. Few of us are skilled in reading legal texts because of the strangeness of their language. And we are only superficially knowledgeable about the laws that are most immediately relevant to us, e.g., those governing reasonable search and seizure, Miranda rights, and freedom of speech. We will investigate these and many other issues by studying the language in which laws are written, how laws govern language use and interpretation, and how legal actors have interpreted and manipulated those laws. We will examine an instance where law and justice have not aligned for linguistic reasons and examine the ideologies of language that affected the jury's decision in that case, as well as media reactions to the speech of the most important prosecution witness. We will also examine cases in which expert testimony by linguists has prevented injustice and cases where such testimony has led to the release of people unjustly convicted. Linguists' study of language in legal settings has a substantial research history which is growing in influence in legal settings. This course will explore the intersections of these two important disciplines and pay particular attention to how laws about language, and the beliefs they are based on, affect access to justice by all, but especially by linguistically diverse populations.
This course fulfills a Category 3 or 4 elective requirement for English majors and can count as an upper division Supporting Course for the Linguistics and Culture Interdisciplinary Minor and the Legal Studies Interdisciplinary Minor.
E465.01 – Topics in Literature and Language (Capstone) | 3 credits | 01:00 - 01:50 PM | MWF | Cindy O'Donnell-Allen
Be in touch with what is wondrous, refreshing, and healing both inside and around you. Plant seeds of joy, peace, and understanding in yourself in order to facilitate the work of transformation in the depths of your consciousness.
- Thich Nhat Hanh, “Interbeing: Fourteen Precepts of Engaged Buddhism”
In case you haven’t noticed, mindfulness has gone mainstream. A simple Google search promotes it as a quick fix that can reduce dental anxiety, calm children at bedtime, enhance athletic performance, and even increase one’s enjoyment of chocolate! These contemporary renditions of mindfulness stand in sharp contrast to the enduring guidelines quoted above by the late Buddhist monk, poet, and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh. They also ignore the fact that literacy practices, such as compassionate dialogue, courageous speech, deep listening, and critical self-reflection, have been (and continue to be) embedded in the diverse range of wisdom communities and contemplative traditions from which mindfulness principles and practices originate.
Thus, as a starting point in this course, we will do two things: 1) critique colonizing conceptions of mindfulness that center whiteness and focusing excessively on the individual and 2) explore the literacies, texts, and language practices through which mindfulness has been enacted over time and across cultures. You will also examine how science has recently “caught up” to these ancient traditions by exploring findings in the field of neuroscience that shed light on the impact of mindfulness practices for physical and emotional well-being.
In the process, you will develop a nuanced understanding of mindfulness that is rooted in compassion for self and others and geared toward shaping a more just and peaceful world. You will explore the principles associated with engaged mindfulness and use critical literacies, expressive discourse, teaching techniques, and embodiment practices to work toward intentional, compassion-based change within your personal and professional lives and communities. By engaging in signature mindfulness practices together, we will challenge injustice, forge interpersonal connections, and work toward individual and collective transformation.
E465.02 – Topics in Literature and Language (Capstone) | 3 credits | 09:30 - 10:45 AM | TR | Kelly Bradbury
In an era of “fake news” and “post-truth politics,” we are taught to evaluate the reliability of the sources we use to participate actively in the world. Critical information literacy teaches us to go beyond our reliability rubrics, asking us to evaluate the social, political, and economic systems that influence how information is produced, circulated, accessed, and consumed (Gregory and Higgins). Such work asks questions like the following: How do online filter bubbles influence our understanding of the world and the ways we participate in it?, In what ways do biased search engines perpetuate problematic cultural narratives?, How is AI affecting how we circulate and digest knowledge?, and How might we present our ideas and research to a contemporary audience persuaded more by confirmation bias than by facts? In this course, English majors will study the significant ways in which the circulation of information can enable—or disable—social justice in our world. Students will also reflect on what tools they have available from their disciplinary focus to help disrupt unequal, exclusive, and oppressive methods for circulating knowledge.
E479 – Recent Poetry of the United States | 3 credits | 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM | TR | Sasha Steensen
Over three decades ago, poet Dana Gioia published an essay in The Atlantic entitled “Can Poetry Matter?” This is not a new question (Edmund Wilson asked the same question in 1934). It is a perennial question. A quick internet search will turn up no less than a dozen articles, many written in the last five years or so, that attempt to answer this question. Some authors are ready to lower poetry’s coffin into the ground while others are rolling the stone away from the tomb, insisting on poetry’s resurrection. We cannot ignore the fact that poetry’s readership has declined, but how do we explain the incredible proliferation of poetry books, poetry journals, online publications, poetry readings, poetry slams, community poetry workshops, and MFA programs? Obviously, poetry can matter, but how and to whom? We will explore these questions directly by reading and discussing several essays on the import of contemporary poetry in the larger American culture, but our deeper, more meaningful exploration will no doubt take place as we read each of the books assigned this semester.
Contemporary American poets are indebted to their modern and post-modern predecessors, but the ways in which those debts are expressed are manifold. Before turning our attention to our assigned books, we will briefly review some of the characteristics of modern and post-modern American poetry. The chosen books are not meant to be exhaustive of the current poetry landscape. Rather, they are meant to give us a taste of the diversity that characterizes that landscape while also providing us with an opportunity to read closely and carefully. As we discuss the books assigned for class, we will come to a better understanding of what poetry can do, as well as what it is doing right now. Assignments will include presentations, short papers, active participation and a final paper.
This course fulfills a Category 2 and 4 elective requirement for English majors.
E487B.001 Internship: Literary Editing – Greyrock Review | 1 credit | 07:30 PM - 09:50 PM | M | Stephanie G'Schwind
Students can receive credit (one free elective credit per semester for up to four semesters) for an internship with Greyrock Review, CSU's annual, student-run, undergraduate literary magazine. During this year-long internship, students learn the intricacies of publishing, printing, and promoting a literary journal. As a staff intern, you will be expected to attend weekly staff meetings to discuss promoting the call for submissions, reading submissions, copyediting, layout, proofreading, and publicity.
Students must be Junior or Senior English majors or minors with a minimum GPA of 3.0 and should have taken E210. Qualified students must register for both Fall 2022 and Spring 2023—this is a one-year commitment. Interested students should contact Stephanie G’Schwind at Stephanie.GSchwind@ColoState.EDU.
E487C.001 Internship: Community Literacy Center | 1-3 credits | Tobi Jacobi
Students may receive credit (up to 3 per semester for up to two semesters) for an internship with the Community Literacy Center, an outreach arm of the English Department, which coordinates creative writing workshops for confined populations in the community. In this internship, you will have opportunities to blend academic and experiential learning through three primary focus areas: program design and facilitation, administration and leadership, and public engagement and dissemination. An interest in literacy and confined communities is useful, though no experience is required. Training provided in facilitation methods and responses.
Students must be Juniors or Seniors with a minimum GPA of 3.0 Qualified students must register for both Fall 2022 and Spring 2023. This is a one-year commitment. Interested students should contact Tobi Jacobi at tobi.jacobi@colostate.edu.
LB393 – Seminar in Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences: Graphic Greenprints: Sustainability Stories in Marginalized Worlds | 3 credits | 10:00 AM - 12:50 PM | Team taught by Aparna Gollapudi and Maricela DeMirjyn
Want to create an imaginative blueprint for a sustainable and equitable world? Take the new course, Graphic Greenprints! You will study comics and graphic novels that amplify the voices of marginalized communities, explore issues of social justice and sustainability, and learn to analyze graphic storytelling as literature. This innovative course, team-taught by faculty from the Ethnic Studies (Dr. Maricela DeMirjyn) and English Literature (Dr. Aparna Gollapudi), equips you to analyze as well as create graphic narratives, fostering real change in the world. Join us in this interdisciplinary journey and become an agent of positive change!
This course will fulfill Category 2, 3, 4 and upper division elective requirements for English majors.
Academic Success Coordinators
provide first-year students and sophomores with their advising code
review check sheets and undergraduate degree plans
Help English students navigate their degree plan
Connect English students with resources across campus that will help them succeed
Academic Success
Coordinators
New 200 Level Courses
Join us for interdisciplinary explorations and deep-dives into Creative Writing, English Education, Linguistics, Literature, and Rhetoric!
How can we develop inquiry in learning spaces, in our own lives, and in community with others? Learn how to use public debate and deliberation to address social issues and global concerns. You’ll have choice in assignments to explore your interests!
This course examines the interaction of language with individuals and larger social communities, as well as with the many cultures represented within those various communities. Students explore how language functions to establish and/or solidify notions of power, ethnicity, gender, in addition to social and cultural identities. As a result of this course, it is our hope that students will develop an appreciation of how language can serve as an object of scientific study and will identify ways to apply what they learn about language to everyday social and cultural interactions in their own lives and communities.
This course emphasizes the transformative possibilities of creative writing by exploring its relationship to the social, environmental, intellectual, aesthetic, and personal. Engage and develop the many ways that creative writing methodologies can change both the self and the world.
We’ve all heard the claim, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” Yet in our contemporary culture, it can sometimes be difficult to reach readers, to shape opinion and inspire action. This course is intended to help you develop tools to do just that. We will discuss a multitude of texts that have stirred audiences, motivated social and legal change, and encouraged social justice. We’ll examine a variety of genres of activist writing—fiction, poetry, memoire, manifestoes, social media campaigns, etc.--to understand how they reach their intended audiences, how they promote new feelings and ideas, and how they build solidarity. You’ll have an opportunity to explore a variety of issues and to write a variety of genuine activist texts, all while participating in a community of writers whose ideas, while differing widely, will inspire new ways of thinking and communicating.
Incoming Students: Ready to take the next step?
If you're ready to join a diverse and inclusive group, which values individual voice and the power of community, and if you're curious about studying challenging ideas and texts, take the next step toward your English education at Colorado State University.
Click one of the options to schedule a visit, apply to CSU, or find more of the information you seek.
The Rambler
The Rambler is a semesterly printable document that provides current preregistration advising information and descriptions of special courses available for the coming semester. It also includes a range of timely and important topics for English majors and minors.
Click the button above for this semester's issue of The Rambler, and find an archive of past issues in The Rambler archive, also linked above.
In each issue of The Rambler, you will find:
- Advising information
- Course descriptions
- Registration details
- Important dates
- Composition Placement Challenge & Re-evaluation essay information
- Award information
- Internship information