English, Communications and Media
Department Chair: Madeleine Esch, Ph.D.
Storytelling is the thread that connects each course in the Department of English, Communications and Media. Whether working in fact or fiction, we explore how writers and creators employ language and structure narratives. Through the study of literature, creative writing, media and communications, our students discover how stories -- in all their varied forms -- help us connect to each other, understand the enduring values that have shaped western civilization, and enrich our global, multicultural society.
Our majors develop their own voices as storytellers, publishers and educators through hands-on projects, writing intensive courses and lively in-class discussions. Our programs foster the creative, critical, and analytical skills needed for graduate study and for a variety of rewarding careers in fields such as publishing, news and entertainment media, education, law, marketing, social media, business and government. Our alumni also pursue careers with nonprofit groups and international-aid organizations.
Majors and Minors
Students may choose a major in Literature, Literature/Secondary Education, Communications, or Creative Writing and Publishing. To graduate with a major in Literature, Communications or Creative Writing and Publishing, students must take a total of 13 courses with at least 7 courses (21 credits) for the major taken while enrolled at Salve Regina University, and achieve an average GPA in these courses of 2.0 (C).
The Department of English, Communications and Media offers four minors: Literature, Communications, Creative Writing, and Film. A minimum of six courses (18 credits) is required. Only two courses may also count toward a major or another minor.
Literature
The Literature major offers students the opportunity to engage with the principles of literary theory and criticism; to improve written and oral skills; and to investigate the major genres and periods of American, British, and World literature. Majors are able to apply the results of this progressive experience in upper-division courses that demand analytical skills and refined research techniques. Students interested in teaching English at the high school level pursue the same course of study as Literature students but major in Secondary Education as well.
Communications
The Communications major offers students a selection of courses designed to develop skills in media writing, reporting and editing; multimedia and social content creation and strategy; and critical analysis and research. The program provides a strong foundation for students who plan careers in newspapers and magazines, public relations, social media, marketing, book publishing, podcasting, and related fields. To develop the skills needed to succeed in the fast-paced media world, including skills in social media and multimedia storytelling, the program provides both real-world experiential learning and a more theoretical study of the media industries and media literacy.
Creative Writing and Publishing
The Creative Writing and Publishing major offers students the opportunity to combine their own creative work in poetry, fiction, and literary nonfiction with an understanding of the world of print and digital publishing that brings such works to the public. This program is designed to address all aspects of this multifaceted discipline, and to find in our students future poets, playwrights, screenwriters, speechwriters, copywriters, educators, and publishers.
Film (Minor only)
The film minor combines foundational study of the form and history of cinema with specialized courses in film genres, directors and theoretical perspectives. Students are also encouraged to develop their creative skills through courses in cinematography, screenwriting and/or acting.
Accelerated Bachelor's/Master's Degree in Creative Writing
Salve Regina University offers a vibrant, highly personalized Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing -- The Newport MFA.
For motivated, academically talented undergraduates, we offer an accelerated pathway that allows students to begin MFA coursework in the winter session of their senior year. With this accelerated pathway, undergraduates can complete the MFA program with 1.5 additional years of coursework. Undergraduate Creative Writing and Publishing majors/minors may apply for this pathway in their junior year.
For full program information, interested students are encouraged to consult the Graduate Catalog and speak with Program Director Dr. Jen McClanaghan.
Student Learning Outcomes
At the completion of the program, students will be able to:
- Employ analytical skills to see connections within and across significant texts and their social/cultural/historical contexts and will be able to articulate and act on those insights in a cogent, analytical and persuasive manner.
- Understand writing and all forms of storytelling/content creation as craft and process, considering content, language, form, purpose, audience, and the value of revision. They will grow as capable creators of original work.
- Deepen their curiosity about the world, understanding that stories help us explore beyond our own lived experiences and will acquire tools for inquiry appropriate to their discipline such as interviewing, observation, research, and media and information literacy.
- Practice empathy by attending to the voices of others, especially those whose voices have often been ignored, and by working collaboratively in community.
- Recognize the transformative power of stories and use their skills as authors, creators, and global citizens to effect positive social change.
- Discover their own voice as a writer, creator, educator, scholar and understand the ethical responsibilities that accompany personal agency.
Communications
COM-180: Introduction to Public Relations (3 Credits)
This course is designed to provide students with an overview of the theory, principles, techniques and practices of public relations. It is designed for those with little or no previous experience or course in public relations. Emphasis is divided between a conceptual understanding of theory and philosophy and applications of theory through specific tools and techniques. Key topics include: defining public relations, careers in public relations, the history and growth of the profession, the organization of PR firms, research and measurement in PR, message strategies, etc.
COM-195: Media and Culture (3 Credits)
This course provides students with an overview of the role the media play in an increasingly complex global society and with an introduction to media theory and history. Over the course of the semester, students explore the role and power of media in influencing social values, political beliefs, identities, and behaviors. Media discussed include newspapers, magazines, film, radio, television and the digital platforms such as video games and social media. Foundation Course required of all Communication Majors and Minors.
Theme: Defining the American Experience.
COM-238: Podcasting (3 Credits)
Podcasting, building on an ancient tradition of oral storytelling, brings listeners tales that vary from the personal to the political. Students will study various types of popular podcasts to learn how they are constructed from concept and research to recording and editing. With a significant hands-on component, students will gain experience producing audio stories.
COM-256: Writing for Public Relations (3 Credits)
Pre-requisite(s): ENG-180 or COM-180 and ENG-271 or COM-271 or permission of instructor is required.
This course provides students with a comprehensive writing experience in the field of public relations. Students learn the role of communication and media specialists, especially on social media and they will learn how to write a fact sheet, a biography, a media list, a press release, a pitch, a blog, and how to create a social media plan for a client of their choice.
COM-261: Exploring American Diversity Through (3 Credits)
This course introduces students to strategies for interrogating the issues of race, ethnicity, class, gender and other cultural identities presented in-and excluded from-popular media narratives in film and television. What factors shape whether audiences are offered diverse and nuanced visions of American society? By studying historical and contemporary examples and sharpening our critical viewing skills, we'll seek a better understanding of American life on-screen and off.
COM-267: Introduction to Television Studies (3 Credits)
Television in American culture is an art form, a commercial industry, a social force, and a source of entertainment. In this course, students will learn the vocabulary needed to analyze television forms and apply this knowledge to programs and practices from television's early years to its contemporary digital transition. Additional topics may include the role of the audience, television's role in social change, and the impact of television's commercial structure.
COM-271: Introduction to Media Writing (3 Credits)
In this introduction to the basic skills involved in recognizing, gathering, and writing news, students learn the fundamentals of interviewing, researching, and writing for print, broadcast, and online delivery. The course is excellent preparation for work in newspapers, magazines, public relations, and online media. Foundation Course required of all Communications Majors and Minors.
COM-273: Multimedia Storytelling (3 Credits)
Pre-requisite(s): ENG-271 or COM-271 is required.
Students in this course will learn to use a variety of digital tools to gather and edit audio and video in the service of skillful storytelling and reporting. The emphasis of the course is on storytelling rather than technology. The skills developed in the course will be of use to those who contemplate careers in print, broadcast, and online news and information as well as in public relations. Foundation Course required of all Communications Majors and Minors.
COM-291: Internship (1-3 Credits)
Pre-requisite(s): ENG-195 or COM-195 and ENG-271 or COM-271 for Communications majors or permission of instructor is required.
Interns work under supervision at local and area newspapers and magazines, public relation firms, non-profit agencies, advertising agencies, and television and radio stations. Literature or Creative Writing and Publishing majors may take this course once for credit toward the major. Does not substitute for required COM-491: Internship course required of senior Communications majors.
COM-355: Case Studies in Public Relations (3 Credits)
Pre-requisite(s): ENG-256 or COM-256 or permission of instructor is required.
This advanced public relations course uses a case studies approach to examine critical issues and developments in the field of public relations. Topics could include crisis communications, identity and reputation management, public relations for nonprofit groups, corporate communications challenges, and others. Students will learn to apply advanced public relations theories and techniques.
COM-357: Editing and Publishing (3 Credits)
Pre-requisite(s): ENG-271 or COM-271 and ENG-250 or CWP-250 or permission of instructor is required.
From online content curation and copyediting to publication design and story selection, today's editors take on any number of tasks. This course provides students with the foundation skills in editing needed for work in public relations, online and print news, magazines, and book publishing. The course covers both the macro issues (such as working with authors, commissioning articles, navigating legal and ethical issues) and micro issues (proofreading and copyediting, line editing, fact-checking, using AP style) facing editors today.
COM-358: Global Media (3 Credits)
Pre-requisite(s): ENG-195 or COM-195 or junior academic standing is required.
This course takes as its subject the globalization of media production, distribution, and reception, and the development of global media systems. The focus of the course may change from semester to semester with possible topics including global media and social justice, women's issues in global media, the global film industry, media and migration, and media and cultural identities.
Theme: Building Global Awareness.
COM-360: Social Media Strategies (3 Credits)
Pre-requisite(s): ENG-195 or COM-195 or junior academic standing or permission of instructor is required.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok are changing the way journalists, editors, public relations specialists, and other communications professionals are doing business. Social media also plays a key role in campaigns and the daily work of public relations professionals. This class will integrate the growing research in the area with the social media practices in public relations in particular. It will focus on the three underpinnings of successful social media activity: Analytics, Listening and Engagement. Emphasis is also on communications strategies and theories of social networking as they pertain to real-world challenges in publishing and public relations and on writing for both established and niche platforms.
COM-365: Women's Magazines and the Construction of Gender (3 Credits)
With their glossy advertisements and their personal tone, women's magazines have long played a role in influencing the ways in which gender is performed. This class looks at some of the most influential women's magazines in media history-including Cosmopolitan, Ms., Godey's Lady's Book, and Vogue-to explore the ways in which such publications defined new gender roles, reinforced traditional norms, and otherwise became forums for discussions of changing ideas of gender, sexuality and social rights. This course will also consider 21st century changes in the women's magazine industry and the ways in which the pressures of online publishing and social media have affected representations of women and the position of women in the industry.
COM-367: Reality Television (3 Credits)
Pre-requisite(s): ENG-195 or COM-195 or junior academic standing or permission of instructor is required.
Often derided as just trash television, reality TV deserves serious study for what it can tell us about contemporary media industries and for how it may shape our society. This course considers the ethics, economics and educational potential of the popular genre. Our analysis of contemporary and "classic" reality programs will draw on readings exploring key issues in media studies including political economy, ideology, and genre theory.
COM-368: Media and Gender (3 Credits)
Pre-requisite(s): ENG-195 or COM-195 or junior academic standing or permission of instructor is required.
Understanding gender as a continuum of performed identities, this course examines how mainstream media texts circulate powerful (and often harmful) ideas about masculinity and femininity. Students will employ close reading strategies drawn from semiotics, feminist criticism, and cultural studies to analyze representations in print and visual media and explore media's potential for challenging restrictive gender norms.
COM-369: Media and Social Change (3 Credits)
This course looks at the ways marginalized people, including women, racial and ethnic minorities and LGBTQ+ individuals, have used media to challenge the status quo and fight for social change. We also consider how mainstream news media have covered protest movements and how new digital technologies may be affording activists more power in shaping media agendas.
COM-371: Feature Writing (3 Credits)
Pre-requisite(s): ENG-273 or COM-273 or permission of instructor is required.
Magazine feature writing is a craft that involves creativity, imagination, style and substance. Students in this class become familiar with the magazine industry and the current market for feature articles while developing their own writing and reporting skills. Projects for the class may include how-to stories, list articles, personality profiles, and trend pieces.
COM-372: Fan Culture (3 Credits)
Cult films, TV series and novels can inspire fierce devotion among audiences. Fans unite around media texts and fictional characters they love and often produce their own fan fiction, mash-up videos, blogs and other artistic creations. This course will introduce students to key scholars and theories in the field of fan studies to explore questions such as these: How do fans form virtual communities? How has the Internet aided the spread of fan cultures? How does fandom complicate our understanding of media producers and consumers as distinct groups?
COM-373: Advanced Multimedia Reporting (3 Credits)
Pre-requisite(s): ENG-273 or COM-273 is required.
Building on foundational skills in audio and video storytelling, this course teaches students strategies for in-depth reporting for multimedia. Projects will emphasize field reporting, interviewing, and editing for story structure. Through analysis of online video and broadcast news, we'll explore how the pros make complex stories accessible and engaging for viewing audiences and then apply these techniques to independent projects packaged for the web.
COM-374: Advertising and Consumer Culture (3 Credits)
Pre-requisite(s): ENG-195 or COM-195 or junior academic standing or permission of instructor is required.
Madison Avenue does more than sell products: It sells lifestyles and dreams, values and beliefs. Using a cultural studies approach to media, students will learn critical approaches to analyzing advertisements and will be introduced to the history of the modern advertising industry in relation to the expanding media landscape. Advertising controversies and methods, developments in social media advertising, and international advertising campaigns will also be studied.
COM-399: Special Topics in Communications (3 Credits)
This seminar will provide the advanced student the opportunity to do intensive study of a major issue in communications and media. Topics may include, but are not limited to, media and social justice; women's magazines; television studies; censorship; media and politics; wartime journalism; crisis communications; and media research methods.
COM-480: Public Relations Campaigns (3 Credits)
Pre-requisite(s): ENG-256 or COM-256 or permission of instructor is required.
This course gives students the opportunity to apply the foundation skills learned in other communications courses to the development and implementation of a real-world public relations campaign. Working with a local client, students will research, set objectives, and identify strategies and tactics for a short-term campaign that they will then implement.
COM-489: Critical Writing and Research (3 Credits)
An intensive preparation for research-based and in-depth writing projects, this course provides students with opportunities to improve their skills in research methods and to refine their writing style. Senior Communication majors only. Foundation Course required of all Communications Majors.
COM-490: Senior Seminar Capstone (3 Credits)
Each student will select a topic for study and research. The seminar sessions will meet regularly for the presentation and critique of students' progress. Each student is expected to produce a significant research paper and make an oral presentation and defense. Foundation Course required of all Communications Majors.
COM-491: Internship (3 Credits)
Interns work under supervision at local and area newspapers and magazines, public relation firms, non-profit agencies, advertising agencies, and television and radio stations. Creative Writing and Publishing or Literature majors may take this course once for credit toward the major. Senior academic standing or permission of department chair is required. Foundation Course required of all Communications Majors.
COM-499: Independent Study (3 Credits)
Students with compelling reasons may participate in independent study under the direction of a faculty member in the Department of English, Communications and Media. Permission of department chair is required.
Creative Writing & Publishing
CWP-224: Elements of Craft (3 Credits)
Reading is so basic and so difficult at the same time, depending on the occasion. By college, we've all known how to read for a long time, but what does it mean to read like a writer? In this course we'll look closely at a variety of texts with the aim of discovering the many craft elements at play. What, for example, can we learn about the pacing of story, rhythm of sentences, and manipulation of time from a personal essay? How has the world been built, the characters been developed and what do these contribute to the tension or the plot in a short story? We'll examine the many choices writers make to create a very intentional and cohesive work of writing.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: American Experience.
CWP-245: Book Publishing in the United States (3 Credits)
This course provides an overview of the history of book publishing in the United States from the mid-Nineteenth century to the present. In addition to examining some of the most famous publishing houses in the United States, including the celebrated Charles Scribner's Sons, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, Alfred Knopf, and HarperCollins, authors the course will look at the tension between art and commerce in the book industry, at the pressures to have a "bestseller," and at the relationship among authors, editors, agents and others in today's book industry.
CWP-250: Introduction to Creative Writing (3 Credits)
This course fulfills literature and media core for students enrolled prior to fall 2025 and fulfills Creative Expression in Fine Arts for students enrolled beginning fall 2025. This course, the required foundation course for the Creative Writing and Publishing Major and Creative Writing Minor, is meant to introduce the fundamental techniques of writing imaginatively in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. It assumes that you may wish to try writing in a variety of genres before committing yourself to advanced courses in one genre or the other. In a larger sense, the course should enable you to strengthen your ability to use written language for expression and communication.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: Engaging Creative, Aesthetic and Spiritual Experience.
CWP-268: Screenwriting (3 Credits)
Through the completion of in-class workshops, screenplay/motion picture analysis and writing assignments, students will demonstrate understanding of how the visual language is used to influence on-screen representation, understand the "structure" of narrative writing for the screen, demonstrate the ability to work "story" into this structure, and demonstrate understanding of screenplay format. Sophomore academic standing or above or permission of instructor is required.
CWP-361: Travel Writing (3 Credits)
This course will help students develop the skills they need to publish professionally in the travel market, including writing feature articles, blog posts, social media copy, and you-are-there stories. Students will be encouraged to submit their articles to actual publications for consideration.
CWP-395: Special Topics in Creative Writing (3 Credits)
Pre-requisite(s): CWP-250 or ENG-250 or permission of instructor is required.
This seminar will focus on a special topic in creative writing, investigating in-depth a curiosity, wonderment or particular point of craft in fiction, nonfiction, or poetry.
CWP-451: Advanced Creative Writing (3 Credits)
Pre-requisite(s): CWP-250 or ENG-250 or permission of instructor is required.
This course is offered for majors and minors in Creative Writing. Each student will undertake a manuscript of poems, fiction, or literary nonfiction.
CWP-499: Independent Study (3 Credits)
Students with compelling reasons may participate in independent study under the direction of a faculty member in the Department of English, Communications and Media. Permission of department chair is required.
English
ENG-075: Career Pathways in English (1 Credits)
This one-credit course, taken in the junior year or senior year, acquaints students with the essentials of a career search, including, but not limited to, networking, resumes, job letters, portfolio reviews, and job shadowing.
ENG-090: Writing Pedagogy for Tutors (2 Credits)
Provides new Academic Center for Excellence (ACE) tutors with tools, resources & pedagogical strategies required to tutor and coach students from all disciplines at Salve Regina University's ACE. Attendees will also learn ACE policies and the "nuts & bolts" of basic job requirements including scheduling, payroll and university student confidentiality policy.
ENG-190: Introduction to Literature (3 Credits)
Through the study of poetry, short fiction, novel, drama, and creative non-fiction, students will identify literary elements including plot, character, theme and imagery. Exploring various traditions of literary interpretation and analysis, the course prepares students for ENG-247: Introduction to Literary Theory and Criticism and emphasizes active, responsive reading; close, attentive textual analysis; significant writing; and lively class discussion. Foundation Course Required of all Literature Majors and Minors. Does not count toward Core Literature requirement.
ENG-201: Literary Masterpieces (3 Credits)
Students in this course will focus on critical thinking and interpretation of major literary works from a variety of genres, including poetry, fiction and drama.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: Engaging Creative, Aesthetic and Spiritual Experience.
ENG-205: Contemporary Global Literature (3 Credits)
In this course students explore the literary and rhetorical qualities of various contemporary texts. Readings are chosen for their relevance to both local and global perspectives. To fully appreciate the literature, students will develop a basic familiarity with the historical and cultural factors at play in each text. This course will improve students' close reading skills as well as engage them in some of the major debates in today's increasingly globalized world.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: Building Global Awareness.
ENG-210: Myth and Symbol (3 Credits)
Symbols, archetypes, and mythological allusions saturate world literature. To increase awareness and appreciation of these powerful presences, this course provides a brief survey of Greek mythology, traditional folk and fairy tales, and contemporary examples of densely symbolic works.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: Building Global Awareness.
ENG-215: Elements of Modernism in Twentieth-Century American Literature (3 Credits)
In response to two world wars, advancements in technology, and new theories of psychology, twentieth century American authors often rejected traditional social, economic, and spiritual values and struggled to find new meaning in their writing. The works in this course illustrate the stylistic experimentation of the period and chart the currents of disillusionment, alienation, and existentialism in the period.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: Defining the American Experience.
ENG-216: Literature and Medicine (3 Credits)
This course highlights story-telling as a common element between literature and medicine. Students examine how illness relates to identity. Readings provide cross-cultural perspectives on healing and well-being. In addition to formal writing skills, students reflect on their professional and personal goals.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: Engaging Creative, Aesthetic and Spiritual Experience.
ENG-217: African American Literature (3 Credits)
Through a survey of writings by African American authors, including a range of periods and genres-fiction, poetry, autobiography, and nonfiction, students will examine how African American traditions explore a diverse body of ideas which nonetheless coalesce around the preoccupations of identity freedom, mobility, and security.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: Defining the American Experience.
ENG-218: Food and Literature (3 Credits)
This course explores the uses of food in literature. Broadly speaking, food captures aspects of identity that are often difficult to articulate. For example, food expresses efforts to invent a past or future self, enter a different culture or context, and imagine an idealized existence. Thus, depictions of food and eating reflect religious as well as social and economic themes.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and media.
Theme: Engaging Creative, Aesthetic and Spiritual Experience.
ENG-228: The Romantic Revolution (3 Credits)
This course explores the revolutionary theories and poetic forms of William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and John Keats along with the economic, social, and personal themes of Anna Barbauld, Mary Robinson, Mary Wollstonecraft and Jane Austen.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: What is Western Heritage?-Ancient and Modern.
ENG-229: Victorian Literature (3 Credits)
This course surveys themes of change in England from 1830-1901: Industrialism, Evolution, Equality, Education, and Empire. Research is conducted and a major paper is written on poetry, prose, drama, and novels of writers such as: Tennyson, Browning(s), Rossetti(s), Hopkins, Shaw, Eliot, Stevenson, and Dickens.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: What is Western Heritage?-Ancient and Modern.
ENG-230: British Modernism and the End of Empire (3 Credits)
This course spans British literature from the rise of modernism before World War I through to the turbulent, angry '60s and beyond. This survey studies the responses of representative novelists, poets, and playwrights to the cataclysmic social, economic, and political forces that saw the diminishment of the British Empire to the status of island-nation.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: What is Western Heritage?-Ancient and Modern.
ENG-240: Witches in American Literature (3 Credits)
The idea of witches has a long history world-wide, but in America the Salem Witch Trials has had a particularly lasting, fascinating influence on literature, film and television. How we understand witches, and the persecution of those accused of witchcraft, has changed over time, and witches have become central to many powerful themes/tropes/allegories in American letters. This course explores the beliefs, fears and historical contexts of witchcraft in America through its stories, novels, drama, poetry and occasionally film/tv.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: Defining the American Experience.
ENG-241: Film and Literature (3 Credits)
Through investigation of current theories of adaptation, students will learn to analyze and appreciate film adaptations of literature and other artistic forms (such as graphic novels, television, and video games); become familiar with critical film and literary terminology; and grapple with several current strands of film and narrative theory.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: Engaging Creative, Aesthetic and Spiritual Experience.
ENG-247: Introduction to Literary Theory and Criticism (3 Credits)
The study of literature has undergone radical transformations in the past few generations. This course examines how the sweeping social, cultural, and political changes of the past century have influenced the traditional use of literature to delight and instruct. Students will learn about the development of literary criticism from its moral, philosophical, and historical beginnings through its encounters with thinkers such as Freud and Marx and the modern currents of, for example, formalist, feminist, post-structuralist and postcolonial thought. Foundation Course required of all Literature Majors and Minors.
ENG-281: Advanced Composition (3 Credits)
Pre-requisite(s): UNV-102 is required.
Students in this course will build on their earlier writing experience. Appropriate diction, syntax, organization, and style will be studied and practiced. Class discussions of assigned readings and students' writing will be integral. This class is excellent preparation for student teaching and for serving as a writing tutor. Required of all English/Secondary Education Majors.
ENG-284: America in the Graphic Novel (3 Credits)
This course explores how graphic novels see America and the diversity of the American experience, including the Midwest, New England, California, Texas, Chicago, the Bronx, the South, suburbia and the inner city. Novels may include Fun Home, A History of Violence, Black Hole, Ghost World, Kindred, American Born Chinese, and Unterzakhn.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: Defining the American Experience.
ENG-291: Internship (1-3 Credits)
Pre-requisite(s): ENG-195 or COM-195 and ENG-271 or COM-271 for Communications majors. ENG-190 and ENG-247 for Literature majors. ENG-250 or CWP-250 for Creative Writing and Publishing majors or permission of instructor are required.
Interns work under supervision at local and area newspapers and magazines, public relation firms, non-profit agencies, advertising agencies, and television and radio stations. Communications and Literature majors may take this course once for credit toward the major. Does not substitute for required ENG-491: Internship course required of senior Communications majors. Open to Literature majors.
ENG-310: Fairy Tales and Fantastic Literature (3 Credits)
This course explores the meaning and importance of fairy tales and other stories of magic and the uncanny. Such stories are among the oldest and most frequently recounted narratives, found in cultures worldwide. They address the basic conditions of our existence and confront such human desires as the wish for transformation of the self, and defeat of death. The tales will be considered in both their traditional historical context and from modern scholarly perspectives.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: Building Global Awareness.
ENG-311: Speculative Literature (3 Credits)
This course will focus on determining what constitutes the increasingly growing genre of speculative literature with both utopian and dystopian themes. With More's Utopia as a framework, the class will explore the future worlds of authors such as LeGuin, Atwood, Gibson and Collins. Themes encompass gender roles, environmental issues, biogenetic ethics and attempts to design the desired world of the future.
ENG-313: The American Literary Renaissance (3 Credits)
The literature of the American Renaissance took shape before the Civil War as debates about nationalism, slavery, women's rights, and industrialization raged. This course examines the way the works of authors such as Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Catharine Sedgwick, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller, Walt Whitman, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Emily Dickinson reflect the preoccupations of the period.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: Defining the American Experience.
ENG-314: Realism and Naturalism in Nineteenth- Century American Literature (3 Credits)
The Civil War marks a major transition in the vision of American writers. After a preliminary study of American romanticism, this course examines major and minor writers and theories of realism and naturalism within their historical and cultural contexts. Authors may include Mark Twain, Louisa May Alcott, Theodore Dreiser, William Dean Howells, Henry James, Mary Wilkins Freeman, Charles Chesnutt, W.E.B. DuBois, Kate Chopin, and Edith Wharton.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: Defining the American Experience.
ENG-315: The Harlem Renaissance (3 Credits)
In the first half of the twentieth century New York City was the center of a remarkable African-American movement that came to be known as the Harlem Renaissance. Writers, thinkers, artists, and musicians from all over the country gathered in this vibrant section of Manhattan to live and work, and such dynamic figures as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Alain Locke, Countee Cullen, Duke Ellington and Jacob Lawrence changed the face of American culture. In this interdisciplinary course, students will read the literature, study the philosophy, hear the music, and view the artworks of this exciting period in American history.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: Defining the American Experience.
ENG-320: Literary Nonfiction (3 Credits)
This course will examine nonfiction writings, including social and political commentary, biography, autobiography, memoir, travel narrative, and humor, focusing on the eloquent and powerful works of past and present masters of nonfiction and rhetoric. The course will also consider what distinguishes literary nonfiction and how writers of nonfiction may employ techniques of fiction-writing effectively and ethically.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: Engaging Creative, Aesthetic and Spiritual Experience.
ENG-321: British Literature from Beowulf to Everyman (3 Credits)
British literature from its inception in Anglo-Saxon times to the end of the medieval period will be studied in light of the historic, linguistic, and cultural forces that gave it shape. Works studied will include Old English heroic and religious poetry; the medieval romance, religious allegory, and popular ballad; selections from the works of John Gower, William Langland, Geoffrey Chaucer and the Pearl Poet; and the mystery cycle plays and moralities.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: What is Western Heritage?-Ancient and Modern.
ENG-322: Literature of the English Renaissance From Wyatt to Marvell (3 Credits)
The late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries in England is one of the most remarkable artistic and cultural periods, producing authors of incredible talent and range. Among the writers this course will study are the poets Thomas Wyatt, Surrey, Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, John Donne, George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, John Milton, and Andrew Marvell, along with the dramatists Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and John Webster.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: What is Western Heritage?-Ancient and Modern.
ENG-325: Studies in Shakespeare (3 Credits)
While firmly establishing Shakespeare within the social, political, and philosophical contexts of his time, this course also strives to account for Shakespeare's unparalleled impact on succeeding generations. Particular attention is given to the conventions of staging under which the playwright labored and to the myriad ways in which developments in technology can make him more (and sometimes less) accessible to contemporary audiences. Readings are selected from Shakespeare's tragedies, comedies, and histories. Foundation Course required of all Literature Majors and Minors.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: Engaging Creative, Aesthetic and Spiritual Experience.
ENG-326: Restoration and Eighteenth- Century British Literature (3 Credits)
England's emergence as a world power at the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth centuries was matched with a proliferation of new literary forms and developments, including witty urban comedies, trenchant satires, the beginnings of the modern novel, and the rise of women authors. This course will examine the works of such writers as John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Samuel Johnson, Jonathan Swift, Aphra Behn, and others.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: What is Western Heritage?-Ancient and Modern.
ENG-327: Young Adult Literature (3 Credits)
This course takes a theoretical approach to canonical and contemporary young adult literature. Content is variable, but may include the young adult problem novel, dystopian fiction for the young adult reader, and constructions of race, slavery, class and gender in children's and young adult literature. Recommended for English/Secondary Education majors.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: Engaging Creative, Aesthetic and Spiritual Experience.
ENG-329: The Inklings: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and their Circle (3 Credits)
During the 1930s and 1940s C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and a group of friends and colleagues met regularly in the city of Oxford to discuss literature and to read works in progress. This distinguished group, known as the Inklings, produced some of the most important and most popular literature of the twentieth century. This course will consider such works as Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia and The Screwtape Letters, Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Charles Williams's All Hallows Eve, and Dorothy Sayers's Gaudy Night
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: What is Western Heritage?-Ancient and Modern.
ENG-330: Literary Landscape of Newport (3 Credits)
Your own backyard in Newport has long been home to a range of distinguished authors and served as a setting for their literary works. Featured in this study are Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry James, Edith Wharton, and Thornton Wilder, with discussions considering their writings, as well as their interaction with the people and places of Newport. Enriching the readings and discussions are bus and walking tours of important Newport sites.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: Defining the American Experience.
ENG-336: The Catholic Imagination in Modern Literature (3 Credits)
Modern literature has witnessed a remarkable revival of interest in religious and specifically Catholic themes in both the British and American traditions. Both Anglo- and Roman Catholic authors have explored the place and importance of faith in our lives in a wide variety of poems, plays, stories and novels. Among the writers to be considered in this course are C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, T.S. Eliot, Evelyn Waugh, Gerard Manley Hopkins, G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy Sayers, W.H. Auden, Graham Greene, Walker Percy, and Flannery O'Connor.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: Engaging Creative, Aesthetic and Spiritual Experience.
ENG-337: Modern Irish Writers (3 Credits)
From the drawing room comedies of Oscar Wilde, through the sensuous, lyrical poetry of W.B. Yeats, to the innovative, monumental prose of James Joyce, and the dark absurdities of Samuel Beckett, Irish writers revolutionized, enriched and dominated English Literature for over a century; Irish writers are responsible for a remarkable number of the masterpieces of modern literature. Along with their countrymen and women such as John Synge, Lady Augusta Gregory, and Sean O'Casey, these authors shape subject matter as diverse as the mystical Celtic heritage of their island nation, love requited and unrequited, ironic and subversive commentary on their English neighbors and oppressors, examination of daily existence in both heroic and despairing terms, and investigations into the nature of language itself.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: What is Western Heritage?-Ancient and Modern.
ENG-338: Literature of Place (3 Credits)
This course takes advantage of Oxford's intellectual tradition to broadly examine the connection between literature and place. Assigned readings will demonstrate how setting shapes voice and character; contributes to the emergence of culture; and presents opportunities for reinvention. By using Oxford as a model, this course explores the idea of the city in various literary forms.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and media.
Theme: Engaging Creative, Aesthetic Spiritual Experience.
ENG-340: Afrofuturism in Literature and Culture (3 Credits)
What can cyborgs, spaceships, and extraterrestrial life forms tell us about the conditions of Black sociality in America? How can these and other science-fictional formations help us to engage the certitudes of bias and capitalism and imagine new ways of living and being? In an artistic moment in which we are increasingly attuned to histories of inequality, what is at stake in using literature, art, and culture to visualize dystopic or utopic futures and alternate timelines of reality? In this course, we will explore these and other inquiries by studying Afrofuturist and Africanfuturist literature and culture, including texts by authors and artists such as W.E.B. DuBois, Zora Neale Hurston, Samuel Delany, Octavia Butler, Toni Morrison, Colson Whitehead, Sun Ra, Erykah Badu, Janelle Monae, Rammellzee and Wangechi Mutu.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and media.
Theme: Engaging Creative, Aesthetic Spiritual Experience.
ENG-345: Studies in World Literature (3 Credits)
Studying literatures of other cultures, ages, and nations is a vital complement to the study of English and American literature. In this course students will take a literary world tour across time and space, reading a variety of ancient and modern classics in translation. Texts may range from the epics of Homer and Virgil, to the great nineteenth century European novels of Gustave Flaubert, Leo Tolstoy, and Fyodor Dostoevsky, and the contemporary bestsellers of Isabel Allende and Dai Sijie.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: Building Global Awareness.
ENG-346: Post-Colonial Literature (3 Credits)
This course will cover a variety of literary texts that (a) shaped the British Empire's worldview and created a British aesthetic to accommodate colonial expansion, and (b) challenged the presumptions and the very foundations of imperialism. Post-colonial theory (e.g., Edward Said, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and Franz Fanon) will provide a framework for students' exploration and analysis of literature. Readings may include Joseph Conrad, Jane Austen, E. M. Forster, Wole Soyinka, Salman Rushdie, and Latifa Al-Zayyat.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: Building Global Awareness.
ENG-349: Literature From the Middle East (3 Credits)
In this course students will study the literature of major contemporary writers from the Middle East. They will examine this literature through the lens of several categories of analysis, including gender, nationalism, post-colonialism, and globalism. The course will also introduce students to key literary trends in the recent history of the Middle East.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: Building Global Awareness.
ENG-375: Vienna and the Modern World (3 Credits)
Pre-requisite(s): UNV-102 is required.
At the beginning of the last century, Vienna was the capital of the second largest empire in Europe and exercised a remarkable influence on world culture through its achievements in art, music, literature, architecture, design, psychology, politics and city planning. Such figures as Sigmund Freud, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, Alma Schindler, Oscar Kokoschka, Gustav Klimt, Arthur Schnitzler and Theodore Herzl were all contemporaries who lived in close proximity, influencing one another and being influenced and inspired in turn. In this interdisciplinary course, students will read the literature, hear the music, view the paintings and study the architecture of this city that in many ways gave birth to the modern world in which we live.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: What is Western Heritage?-Ancient and Modern.
ENG-376: The World of Jane Austen (3 Credits)
This course seeks to explore the world of Jane Austen through her great novels - Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, and Persuasion - with a special focus on the questions of love, marriage, and social class in Regency England.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: What is Western Heritage?-Ancient and Modern.
ENG-378: Women Novelists (3 Credits)
The emergence of the novel as a new genre in the eighteenth-century afforded women a unique opportunity to find their own voice in literature. This course traces the development of that voice down to the present day with special reference to the depiction of women by women.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: Engaging Creative, Aesthetic and Spiritual Experience.
ENG-398: Special Topics in Literature (3 Credits)
This seminar will provide the advanced student the opportunity to study a particular author, period, genre, or topic.
ENG-410: British and American Novels After 9/11 (3 Credits)
This course studies significant American and British novels published after the millennium. Often haunted by the events of 9/11, these novels grapple with the moral and ethical dilemmas occasioned by the realities of our rapidly changing world.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: Engaging Creative, Aesthetic and Spiritual Experience.
ENG-412: Seminar in Major Authors (3 Credits)
Students will give concentrated attention to the work of significant literary figures from different eras, considered either individually or in small groups. Course content will vary by instructor, but may include, for example, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Milton, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie, and Margaret Atwood.
Fulfills Core Requirement in Literature and Media.
Theme: Engaging Creative, Aesthetic and Spiritual Experience.
ENG-489: Critical Writing and Research (3 Credits)
An intensive preparation for research-based and in-depth writing projects, this course provides students with opportunities to improve their skills in research methods and to refine their writing style. Senior English majors only. Foundation Course required of all Creative Writing and Publishing and Literature Majors.
ENG-490: Senior Seminar Capstone (3 Credits)
Pre-requisite(s): ENG-489 is required.
Each student will select a topic or a writer for study and research. The seminar sessions will meet regularly for the presentation and critique of students' progress. Each student is expected to produce a significant research paper and make an oral presentation and defense. Foundation Course required of all Literature and Communications Majors.
ENG-491: Internship (3 Credits)
Interns work under supervision at local and area newspapers and magazines, public relation firms, non-profit agencies, advertising agencies, and television and radio stations. Literature majors may take this course once for credit toward the major. Senior academic standing or permission of department chair is required.
ENG-499: Independent Study (3 Credits)
Students with compelling reasons may participate in independent study under the direction of a faculty member in the Department of English, Communications and Media. Permission of department chair is required.
Film
FLM-165: Introduction to Film Studies (3 Credits)
Provides an introduction to the study of film as narrative, art form, and a medium of cultural communication. Students will gain a basic understanding of the technical aspects of film, including cinematography, editing, acting, mise-en-scene, and sound. In addition to learning to analyze films using film terminology students will also explore the broader cultural impact and politics of film and the film industry.
FLM-208: Digital Cinematography-Narrative Film Production (3 Credits)
This course will provide hands-on instruction in narrative filmmaking/digital video production, introducing students to production, directing, editing, cinematography, and audio. Content involves technical concerns such as camera, lens, format, and lighting instruments, as well as various methods related to composition and subject modeling in order to tell the story.
FLM-253: History of Cinema (3 Credits)
This course, a required foundation course for the Film Minor, is the study of the history of motion pictures from their inception in the late nineteenth century to the present. Emphasis is placed on major directors, films, social and cultural developments, and aesthetic movements that have contributed to the evolution of cinema. Students will also learn the terminology and concepts necessary for the intensive study of film.
FLM-342: Animated Films (3 Credits)
This course takes a chronological and international approach to the study of animated films as a genre. We'll look not onty at how animation has developed (and continues to develop) as an art form, but at a number of salient topics in animation history: ontology, genre, economic context, narration, censorship, authorship, and others. We will study animation's major developments and historical periods within several national film-making traditions.
FLM-348: Women Filmmakers (3 Credits)
From the inception of the movies, women have played an integral role, yet their struggles to tell their stories persist. This course offers an overview of the careers and film productions of various internationally recognized women filmmakers (writers, directors, cinematographers, editors) focusing on their unique contributions to the cinema.
FLM-356: World Cinema (3 Credits)
This course investigates nation and identity in films that are approached in their specific cultural, historical, and theoretical terms. It includes the study of international film movements, individual directors, and comparisons between national cinemas.
Theme: Building Global Awareness.
FLM-364: Horror and Gender (3 Credits)
The cinematic genre of horror, although frequently marginalized and overlooked, serves an important social function. This course is thematic - the primary concern not so much the history of horror films but rather how horror explores gender issues/anxieties. Us versus them. Male versus female. Acceptable behavior versus deviance. Sex (procreation) versus violence (destruction). And yet despite these threats, we derive some sort of pleasure from horror films. Why? That's one of the many ideas we'll explore in the course.
FLM-397: Special Topics in Film (3 Credits)
This seminar will provide the advanced student the opportunity to do intensive work in Film Studies. Topics vary and may include the study of genre, individual directors, screenwriting, film production, or themes/issues.
FLM-496: Film Theory (3 Credits)
This course, a required foundation course for the Film minor, concentrates on film theory either as a general overview or focus on certain theoretical approaches, such as auteur studies, postmodernism, feminism, spectatorship, and post-colonialism. Junior/senior academic standing or permission of instructor is required.
FLM-499: Independent Study (3 Credits)
Students with compelling reasons may participate in independent study under the direction of a faculty member in the Department of English, Communications and Media. Permission of department chair is required.