Fall 2025 Elective Course Descriptions

ENGL 210 | Methods Workshop | TR 2:30-3:45PM | Ottum

The purpose of this course is to introduce you to English as a field of academic study. You can think of ENGL 210 as a "starter kit" for the English Major or Minor.

“Methods” = you’ll learn about some of the common methodologies literary critics use to interpret texts, such as close reading and historical contextualization. You’ll also learn about the ways that scholars conduct and present research in the field of literary studies.

“Workshop” = unlike other English courses you may have taken, ENGL 210 will involve hands-on practice of key reading, thinking, research, and writing skills for the major and minor. We’ll dig deeply into what makes a good discussion of a text “work.” We’ll also practice the nitty-gritty skills involved in researching and writing about texts at the college level. By the end of the semester, you’ll have the skills to develop fruitful, critically-informed questions about texts, and the tools to pursue these questions.

ENGL 210 is capped at 15 to facilitate intensive conversation and skills practice. Expect to speak regularly in class, and to share your writing with others.

Attributes:
Restrictions: ENGL 101/115 Prereq.; English Majors and Minors
Lit Major: ENGL 210 Methods Workshop
WC Major: ENGL 210 Methods Workshop

ENGL 221 | Poetry | TR 1:00-2:15PM | Renzi

Poetry—whether you’re dreading it, excited about it, or ambivalent, the study of it has long been central to the undergraduate education in both English literature and the liberal arts more broadly. Reading and understanding poetry has often been conceived of as “challenging” (to say the least!)—well, in this course, we will tackle this challenge head-on. You will learn to read poetry carefully and to analyze the words, poetic structures and forms, and linguistic nuances; it is also my hope that through this semester, you will also come to enjoy poetry as a living, breathing, moving form of art that has intoxicated its readers and listeners for centuries.

We will read individual poems throughout the canon of English-language poetry; we will also read full collections from several poets. In doing so, you will get both a taste of the “song” and “album” contexts in which poetry has been—and still is—published. Throughout, you will be asked to bring your analytical and emotional skills of interpretation to the table in working through this difficult language together. Take some risks and enjoy yourselves, too—I’m looking forward to a great semester!

Attributes: Humanities Elective; Oral Communication Flag
Restrictions: ENGL 101/115 Prereq.
Lit Major: Required
WC Major: Lit/Linguistics/Theory Elective

ENGL 305 | Professional Writing | MWF 12:00-12:50PM | Gerding

ENGL 305 | Professional Writing | MWF 1:00-1:50PM | Gerding

In this class, students will learn the rhetorical principles and writing practices necessary to communicate effectively with a diverse audience, both individually and in collaboration with others. This course provides students with extensive practice writing different genres of professional communication as well as an overview of document design, collaborative writing, and oral presentations. In addition, this is an engaged learning experience during which students will partner with a real client from a local business to create professional documents with a real audience and purpose. This is an upper-level writing course designed for English majors, students in the Writing Concentration, and English or Writing minors. It is also accessible for students in other disciplines who are committed to expanding their communication abilities.

Attributes: Humanities Elective, Immersive Learning Experience, Oral Communication Flag, Writing Flag Core
Restrictions: ENGL 101/115 Prereq.
Lit Major: Elective
WC Major: Required

ENGL 309 | Creative Writing Poetry | TR 11:30AM-12:45PM | Kamara

In this course, we will be exploring the content and craft of poetry through both the study and practice of this genre of writing. The semester will be divided into modules which will facilitate examinations of poems organized by theme which will allow us to 1.) contemplate varied modes of storytelling and 2.) provide opportunities to consider how intentional aesthetic choices inform one’s own engagement with poetry. Students will also write several drafts of their own poems and participate in revision and workshopping sessions, which will serve to enhance their writing practice and that of their peers.

Attributes: Creative Perspectives, Humanities Elective, Writing Flag Core
Restrictions: ENGL 101/115 Prereq.
Lit Major: Elective
WC Major: ENGL Writing Elective

ENGL 315 | Composition Tutoring | MWF 2:00-2:50PM | Maffetone

Composition Tutoring serves two main purposes: 1) as an upper-level writing course, it gives you opportunities to improve your skills and to gain insight into your writing habits and process 2) as a course focused on one-on-one tutoring, it offers hands-on training in assisting others to improve their writing. Although the course is clearly beneficial to those who want to tutor or teach writing, it is also useful to students contemplating careers in any field that requires good communication skills (oral and written): editing and publishing, technical writing, counseling, consulting for business, legal work, helping professions and so forth. The nature of this course requires that students be comfortable with collaborative activities.

The course focuses on topics such as writing assessment, the dynamics of tutoring, the writing process, grammar and mechanical conventions, and writing across the curriculum. Additionally, we will also focus on learning how to assist different kinds of writers—those whose first language may not be English or who come from diverse linguistic backgrounds, for example. Students put their study of writing into practice by apprenticing as tutors for an English 101 course (first-year Composition) throughout the semester. ENGL 101 tutorials are followed by debriefing sessions where methods, strategies, difficulties, alternative approaches, and connections to our reading are discussed. This course counts toward the Writing Minor and satisfies the Writing Flag and Solidarity & Kinship Flag requirements, though you can only apply this course toward one Flag.

Attributes: Humanities Elective, Writing Flag Core, Solidarity & Kinship Flag
Restrictions: ENGL 101/115 Prereq.
Lit Major: Elective
WC Major: ENGL Writing Elective

ENGL 336 | Creative Writing: Topics in Prose | MWF 9:00-9:50AM 8-week Term 1 Blended OL/in-person

In this course, students will analyze the narrative techniques and stylistic features of novels, short stories, and essays that incorporate unreliable narrators. We will begin with Wayne C. Booth's foundational distinction between reliable and unreliable narration, a concept first introduced in the 1960s as part of his reader-focused approach to literary criticism. We will then move on to James Wood’s book How Fiction Works which distinguishes between reliably unreliable and unreliably unreliable narrators.

Unreliable narration spans a wide range of literary traditions and genres, including ghost stories, epistolary fiction, confessional narratives, and literary hoaxes, offering students the opportunity to engage with texts from diverse historical periods and literary movements.

Throughout the course, we will investigate how unreliable narration contributes to suspense, complexity, and multiple competing perspectives within a text. We will explore the use of frame narratives and oral storytelling techniques that invite the reader to question the authority of the narrator. Discussions will situate these works within established literary and craft debates, examining the distinctions between reliable and unreliable unreliability, and the role of the audience—both implied and actual.

Students will read assigned texts independently and engage in in-depth discussions of selected excerpts in a supportive, collaborative environment. They will be introduced to critical perspectives and contemporary scholarship, integrating these sources into their own analyses and their own creative work. The course will help students develop skills in close reading, critical analysis, academic writing, and effectively engaging with secondary sources as well as continuing to hone their craft as writers.

Attributes: Creative Perspectives, Humanities Elective, Writing Flag Core
Restrictions: ENGL 101/115 Prereq.
Lit Major: Elective
WC Major: ENGL Writing Elective

ENGL 343 | Latine Literature | TR 4:00-5:15PM | Nieto

This class familiarizes students with twentieth and twenty-first century literature written by Latine writers with emphasis on the distinctions and similarities that have shaped the experiences and the cultural imagination among different Latine communities. By critically analyzing works from a range of genres and cultural expressions including poetry, fiction, film, and performance, along with recent literary and cultural theory works, the course will explore some of the major themes and issues that inform the cultural productions of Latine authors. Topics to be discussed include identity formation and negotiation in terms of language, race, gender, sexuality, and class; the colonial subject; diaspora and emigration; and activism through art.

Attributes: Humanities Elective, Peace and Justice, applying for solidarity and kinship flag; xl-ENGL 543
Restrictions: ENGL 101/115 Prereq.
Lit Major: Elective
WC Major: Lit/Linguistics/Theory Elective
Prof Ed: Race & Ethnicity course

ENGL 350 | Resistance Literature | TR 10:00-11:15AM | Steckl

Productions of resistance present the struggle of oneself and one’s people in order to enact a more favorable future in regard to violence, oppression, and inequality. This course examines cultural productions from marginalized populations throughout the world. The focus will be on literature, though art, music, and film will also be studied. Students will reflect on the cathartic role of storytelling under oppression and the significance of literature in preserving individual and collective memories for people at risk of erasure.

Attributes: Humanities Elective, Jewish Studies Minor, Peace and Justice, applying for solidarity and kinship flag
Restrictions: ENGL 101/115 Prereq.
Lit Major: Elective
Prof Ed: World Lit
WC Major: Lit/Linguistics/Theory Elective

ENGL 357 | Black Thought, Black Tradition | MWF 10:00-10:50AM | Nix

What is Black intellectual thought? At its core, Black intellectual thought is comprised of various perspectives that contribute to articulations of blackness and group identity. This course explores the depths and complexities of Black writers, artists, and activists who have shaped the cultural, political, and social landscape of global society. We will trace the evolution of Black subject-matter by analyzing historical moments, foundational texts, and key artistic works that have helped to define and redefine Black experience and lived realities. Intellectuals and artists who will be discussed include, but are not limited to: Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. DuBois, Ida B. Wells, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Langston Hughes, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, George Washington Carver, Ralph Ellison, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Beyoncé. This course will equip students with the necessary skills to critically engage contemporary topics on identity, race, gender, class, and social justice.

Attributes: Humanities Elective, Africana Studies Minor; Solidarity & Kinship Flag; GDST Race and Ethnicity Conc; Gender & Diversity Studies
Restrictions: ENGL 101/115 Prereq.
Lit Major: Theory
WC Major: Lit/Linguistics/Theory Elective

ENGL 430 | 17^th-Century Literature | MWF 11:00-11:50AM | O’Leary

What made someone heroic in the Renaissance? This course seeks to answer that question and to track the changes in Renaissance conceptions of heroism from the virginal heroics of Elizabeth, to the courtly heroics of James, to the antiheroes of the English Civil War (1641-1660). Beginning with Book Three of Spenser’s Faerie Queene, we will read and ponder heroes from Britomart to Satan, finishing the semester with Milton’s Paradise Lost. We will discuss the heroics of love and religion in John Donne’s poems, of the intellect and rebellion in Milton’s prose and epic poem. We will read poetry, prose, and drama in the course, as well as historical material. In addition to spirited participation in class discussion, course requirements will include several short writing assignments, reading quizzes, one short presentation, and a final written project that incorporates research. This course carries the ERS flag attribute.

Attributes: ERS Focus Elective; Humanities Elective
Restrictions: ENGL 101/115 Prereq.
Lit Major: Pre-1800 British Literature
WC Major: Literature/Linguistics/Theory Elective

ENGL 488 | Modern American Drama | MWF 1:00-1:50PM | Herren

Some of the most interesting, provocative, and influential American literature of the past hundred years was written for the stage. In Modern American Drama we will study select plays from the 20^th and 21^st centuries, with an emphasis upon diverse playwrights, socially engaged subjects, and a wide variety of dramaturgical approaches. Plays are meant to be seen, not merely read. Throughout the semester we will emphasize the creative choices made by directors and performers to bring scripts to life through performance. Theater is also a highly collaborative art form, so we will pay careful attention to artistic contributions made by the props, wardrobe, lighting, and sound crews. Students will engage with the plays and with each other through class discussion, online posts, essays, and a research project.

Attributes: Humanities Elective
Restrictions: ENGL 101/115 Prereq.
Lit Major: Post-1900 American Lit
WC Major: Lit/Linguistics/Theory Elective

ENGL 499 | Senior Seminar: Mimesis | TR 2:30-3:45PM | Windon

Art, no matter how inventive, imitates life. This condition, called mimesis, and the contemplation of it is one of the deepest veins of literary criticism and will be the subject of our study in this senior seminar. We will ask and attempt to answer big questions like: is writing, due to its mimetic quality, the best empathy-generating technology ever invented? Or, by its derivative nature, unable to ever approach truth? We will examine writers’ techniques for heightening verisimilitude and for producing defamiliarization while considering their different effects. We will learn about concepts derived from mimesis like the scapegoat, the double, and double consciousness. After a period of study, students will pursue a project that is (inevitably) related to mimesis, whether in its conception, its technique, or its subject. Students will present a portion of this project, the Senior Thesis, at a public event at the end of the semester.

The senior seminar is a capstone course and serves as the culmination of your career as an English major at Xavier University. You will practice the wide range of skills—critical thinking, reading, speaking, writing, and researching—that you have been developing over the course of your undergraduate career and you will draw on the texts, contexts, and theories that professors have introduced you to in your English degree coursework. Because this course is a seminar, it demands significant student contribution to class discussion as well as self-directed, independent work. Requirements will include presentations, response papers, and the component parts (abstract, annotated bibliography, first, and final draft) of an extensive research project.

Restrictions: English Majors Only
Lit Major: Required
WC Major: Required

ENGL 543 | Latine Literature | TR 4:00-5:15PM | Nieto

Attributes: Cross-Listed with ENGL 343
Prof Ed: Race & Ethnicity course