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Upper Division Courses - Spring 2008
Please note: the following list is subject to change and may not be comprehensive. Please check the online course listing for the full roster along with information on class days/times. The course location is at UHD Main Campus unless otherwise noted.
Course Titles
ENG 3302 - Business and Technical Report Writing
ENG 3302 - Business and Technical Report Writing
ENG 3304 - Advanced Business and Technical Report Writing
ENG 3305 - Essay Writing (Online)
ENG 3306 - Introduction to Literary Theory
ENG 3331 - Advanced Desktop Publishing
ENG 3352 - Introduction to Folklore
ENG 3355 - Young Adult Literature
ENG 3367 - Nineteenth-Century British Literature and Culture
ENG 3367 - Nineteenth-Century British Literature and Culture: Victorian London
ENG 3377 - Twentieth-Century British Literature and Culture: Violence and the City
ENG 4313 / HUM 4313 - Psychology Through Literature
ENG 4322 - Editing, Rewriting, and Copyreading
ENG 4327: Advanced Film Studies: Noir Nation
ENG 4350 - Advanced Gender Studies: It Rhymes with Witch: Exploring the 'B' Word in World Drama
ENG 4390 - Topics in Language and Literature: LGBT Representations in America
ENG 4390 - Harlem on My Mind: The Literature, Sights, and Sounds of the Harlem Renaissance
ENG 5325 - Advanced Medical Writing
Course Descriptions
English 3302 - Business and Technical Report Writing
Wayne Schmadeka, Ph.D.
TR 4:00 pm - 5:15 pm (CRN 20897)
MW 11:30 am - 12:45 pm (CRN 20898)
MW 1:00 pm - 2:15 pm (CRN 20899)
Prerequisite
Three credit hours of English literature.
Description
Students will study and practice writing the types of documents frequently used in the workplace, including cover letters and resumes, proposals, progress reports, formal reports, and PowerPoint presentations.
Objectives
Students will learn to develop documentation to identify, study, and document real world solutions for the real world challenges they face in their work and personal lives.
Major assignments include writing
- Cover letters and resumes in response to job announcements
- A proposal for a formal report
- A progress report
- A formal recommendation report
Recent examples of formal reports include
- Recommending construction of a pedestrian walkway from an off-campus parking lot to the UHD campus
- Evaluating whether it is better for a student to remodel her existing home or build a new home
- Soliciting funds from the Gates Foundation for an HIV prevention program in provincial China
- Recommending upgrading HISD Police vehicles with state-of-the-art communications equipment
Textbook
Jones, D., and Lane, K. Technical Communication . 7th ed. New York : Pearson Education, 2002. ISBN: 0205325211.
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English 3302 - Business and Technical Report Writing
Dr. Natalia Matveeva
MW 8:30 - 9:45am
MW 10:00 - 11:15am
Tue/Thur 8:30 - 9:45am
Click here to see the main goals and objectives of the course and assignments.
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ENG 3304 - Advanced Business and Technical Report Writing
Dr. Natalia Matveeva
TR 10:00-11:15am
Click here to see the main goals and objectives of the course and assignments.
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English 3305 - Essay Writing (Fully Online)
Dagmar Stuehrk Scharold
CRN 20323 & 21831
Course
Description: In
this course, students will study, analyze, and practice advanced rhetorical
principles in non-fiction, with a view to increasing clarity, effectiveness,
and precision in academic style. The prerequisites for English 3305
are Sophomore Literature and junior standing. This semester we will
focus on the topic of education, writing in the discipline of the social
sciences, and the APA style for formatting and documentation of sources.
Course Objectives: Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to
- Analyze and apply basic rhetorical principles to any piece of writing
- Demonstrate clarity, effectiveness, and precision in extended, researched essays
- Utilize current technology to search databases for information
- Apply principles of editing to your own writing and that of others
- Demonstrate proficiency with standard written English grammar
- Apply the APA style to formatting and documentation of sources
Required Texts
- McCourt, Frank (2006). Teacher Man. Scribner Publishers. ISBN: 0743243781.
- Galvan, Jose L. (2006). Writing Literature Reviews: A Guide for Students of Social and Behavioral Sciences. 3rd Edition. Pyrczak Publishing. ISBN: 1-884585-66-3.
Online Time Available per Week
Traditionally, a university student is expected to spend 2 hours outside of class for each hour spent within class. Therefore, approximately 8 hours per week should be devoted to our online class. The course is divided into three-week units. Each unit will begin on a Monday and end on a Sunday, at midnight, with the exception of the first week of the course. Time-management skills are essential.
Scheduled attendance times or places, if any
There will be one scheduled, mandatory face-to-face meeting on Saturday, January 19th from 10-noon.
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John H. Hudson, Ph.D.
R 5:30 p.m. – 8:15 p.m. (Kingwood College)
CRN 21980
This is a course in advanced non-fiction writing in which we will analyze and practice advanced rhetorical principles, with a view to increasing clarity, effectiveness, and precision. The prerequisite for this course is three hours of literature.
The theme for this particular section of English 3305 will be “(Re)presenting Identities.” Through our reading and writing, we will explore many aspects of the complex process of identity formation and (re)presentation, particularly the ways in which we present (or re-present) our identities to others and how others read (or mis-read) our identities. We will seek evidence for our arguments in a wide range of readings drawn from fiction, poetry, autobiography, journalism, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and more.
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
• Analyze and apply basic
rhetorical principles to any piece of writing;
• Demonstrate clarity, effectiveness, and precision in extended,
researched essays;
• Construct strong, convincing, and well-supported arguments;
• Effectively and gracefully blend source material into student
writing; and
• Apply principles of editing to student writing.
Requirements: Class attendance (we only meet once per week), active participation in class activities and discussions, thorough reading of assigned materials, and six to seven revised essays of varying lengths.
Textbooks:
1. Williams, Joseph M. Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace. Eighth ed. New York: Longman, 2005. ISBN: 978-0321288318
2. Keene, Michael, and Katherine Adams. Instant Access: The Pocket Reference for Writers. New York: McGraw Hill, 2003. ISBN: 978-0072819922
Other readings for the course will be provided electronically.
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English 3306 - Introduction to Literary Theory
Paul Kintzele
Two sections:
MW 1:00 pm - 2:15 pm (Downtown)
T 11:30 am- 2:15 pm (The University Center, The Woodlands)
We live in a theoretical age. In the film School of Rock (2003), Jack Black is horrified when his students claim to have never heard of Led Zeppelin and AC/DC, and he immediately announces that his curriculum will now include classes on "Rock Appreciation" and "Rock Theory." The film is, at first glance, playing for a laugh: how could there be such a thing as a course on rock theory? Isn't rock music somehow—obvious? Isn't it something so straightforward that it has little or no theoretical underpinning that a course could analyze? However, in putting his band together, Jack Black's character appears to have a very specific notion of what he wants to do in music, and what he wants music to do for him. In other words, he operates under certain implicit assumptions about what "rocks" and what does not. He has a theory of what rock music is. So his proposed course isn't so absurd, after all.
Literature, a human pursuit with a much longer history, also works according to implicit assumptions—assumptions that often vary from writer to writer and from period to period. What we hope to do in this course is to make those invisible “rules” of literature visible. This activity of thinking about literature as such and how one should go about interpreting it extends all the way back to Aristotle, and while we will briefly examine that long history of literary theory, our focus will be on the explosion of interpretive methodologies in the twentieth century (psychoanalysis, Russian formalism, New Criticism, structuralism, poststructuralism, and approaches centered on race, class, sexuality, and gender). We also will read several short literary works that will give us opportunities to exercise these new ways of looking at texts. This course is designed for the eager beginner, and presupposes no prior engagement with literary theory. Requirements: three essays and occasional short summary papers.
Required Texts:
Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. 2nd edtion. New York: Routledge, 2006. ISBN: 0415974100.
Malpas, Simon, and Paul Wake, eds. Routledge Companion to Critical Theory. New York: Routledge, 2006. ISBN: 0415332966.
Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams. Trans. James Strachey. New York: Avon, 1965. ISBN: 0380010003.
Barthes, Roland. S/Z. Trans. Richard Miller. New York: Hill and Wang, 1974. ISBN: 0374521670.
Foucault, Michel. The Foucault Reader. Ed. Paul Rabinow. New York: Pantheon, 1984. ISBN: 0394713400.
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English 3309 - Creative Writing
Jane Creighton
MW 4:00 p.m. --5:15 p.m.
CRN 21732 - Creative Writing
This course will introduce you to basic components of fiction and poetry, so that you might get a sense of both genres and find out what you delight in doing. The course involves a good amount of reading and writing. The one, of course, feeds the other, particularly as you learn to read poems and stories for the pleasures of understanding how they are put together. Good reading will suggest ideas for your own writing. You have very particular ways of looking at--and being moved by--the events of your world. In this course you will explore the muscular possibilities of language, developing the precise ways you can use it to say what you most want to say.
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English 3311 - Studies in Poetry
Dr. Caroline Kimberly
MW 8:30-9:45pm
CRN 20777
“If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire ever can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?” – Emily Dickinson
What makes poetry “poetry”? How has poetry changed over the years? Does it speak to the heart or to the head? Can it address both, and if so, what tools can we use to understand it more easily? This class will serve as an overview of the poetic form as a literary genre, giving students both the tools and the historical context necessary to better understand poetry on a variety of levels. Most importantly, this course hopes to make poetry more accessible and interesting to the student, both through an analysis of content and study of the poets themselves. Beginning with Old English works and continuing through the twenty-first century, we will cover both British and American canonical poetry and noncanonical authors of increasing importance. Course requirements will include class discussion and in-class work, in-class presentations, essays, and a midterm and final exam.
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English 3330 - Desktop Publishing
Barbara Canetti
W 5:30 pm – 8:15 pm
CRN 20884
Prerequisite
ENG 3302, or current enrollment in ENG 3302 or permission of department
Description
An introduction to desktop publishing, covering specific applications of typography, graphics, layout and presentation, and using desktop publishing software.
Objectives
• To learn design and
production skills on the computer utilizing InDesign and other software
• To become familiar with the kinds of communications used in business
and industry and give practice in producing these kings of materials.
• To provide a framework for preparing documents that are appropriate
for and appealing to various target audiences
• To improve verbal and visual skills
Requirements
Students will be required to complete exercises in InDesign from a textbook. At the completion of the five exercises, students will be assigned design projects: letterheads, information sheets, advertisements, brochures to be produced independently.
One quiz on design/fonts. One final exam.
Textbooks
The NonDesigners
Design Book, Robin Williams
Visual Quickstart Guide InDesign, Sandee Cohen
Course ILT InDesign Basic
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English 3331 - Advanced Desktop Publishing
Barbara Canetti
W 1 pm – 3:45 pm
CRN 20885
Prerequisite
Eng 3330 or permission of department
Description
A continuation of desktop publishing techniques using additional software for more complex projects.
Objectives
• To learn design
and production skills on the computer utilizing InDesign and other software
• To become familiar with the kinds of communications used in business
and industry and give practice in producing these kings of materials.
• To provide a framework for preparing documents that are appropriate
for and appealing to various target audiences
• To improve verbal and visual skills
Requirements
Students will be required to complete exercises in InDesign from a textbook. At the completion of the seven exercises, students will be assigned design projects: brochures, fliers, newsletters, catalogues, corporate ID package to be produced independently.
Textbooks
The NonDesigners
Design Book, Robin Williams
Visual Quickstart Guide InDesign, Sandee Cohen
Course ILT InDesign Advanced
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English 3340 – Cultural Criticism
Robin Davidson
MW 5:30 pm – 6:45 pm
CRN 20309
Imagine that you wake up one December morning to the imposition of martial law in your country. All airports are closed, access to main highways is restricted, and travel between cities is forbidden. In the days which follow you discover that television and radio programming is restricted to only one channel or station, your cell phone service is suspended, and your mail is strategically censored. What would you do? In 2007 in the United States, we rarely consider such threats to our individual freedom, but other world nations know this scenario all too well. In this course, we will examine East European culture—especially Poland, the Czech Republic, and Romania—nations whose people lived most of the twentieth century under the rule of totalitarian governments. In particular, we will explore the trajectory of East European literature from the Holocaust of World War II through the fall of communism in 1989, in order to consider the role of art—especially the poetic volume and the novel—in a totalitarian society. Readings will include literary selections from the Polish (Herbert, Milosz, Zagajewski, Szymborska, Lipska), the Czech (Kafka, Kundera, Hrabal), and the Romanian (Celan). Photographs and videos of Poland and the Czech Republic will comprise part of our cultural study. We will also consider the notion of “liberal democracy,” both with regard to “Central” Europe and contemporary American culture and literature. You will be asked to compose an annotated bibliography, two critical essays, and an oral presentation. For more information and a sample syllabus, contact Dr. Davidson at davidsonr@uhd.edu.
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English 3352 - Introduction to Folklore
Dr. Sandra Dahlberg
MW 8:30-9:45 CRN 20248 (Downtown)
Tues. 8:30-11:15 CRN 20322 (The University Center)
This course will examine the contradictions and similarities between folklore (communal myths and legends) and the historical record. We will examine the folkloric qualities of two Western icons—Gregorio Cortez and Billy the Kid—to find ways that folklore creates “alternative” and/or “authentic” sources that support and/or complicate our understanding of our cultures and our collective past. We will explore the “cultural work” performed by folklore on various levels: familial, communal, and societal. We will also learn how to research folklore and create our own collection of Western folklore. This is very definitely a hands-on course. This class will determine a final research focus (as a group) and each person will research an aspect of that subject.
Works we will read include Anaya, Rudolfo, Billy the Kid; Garrett, Pat F., The Authentic Life of Billy, the Kid; Kelton, Elmer, Manhunters; Limerick, Patricia, "America the Borderland"; Otero, Miguel Antonio, Jr., The Real Billy the Kid; Paredes, Americo, With His Pistol in His Hand: A Border Ballad & Its Hero; and Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian.
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English 3355 - Young Adult Literature
Sara Farris
TR 8:30 am - 9:45 am
Young Adult Literature is the study of literary texts that engage adolescence. Whether they are written for or only about young adults (and this will be a matter of no small debate), all of the texts on our reading list will contribute to our understanding and critique of the historically recent categorization of adolescence or young adulthood. We will explore a variety of literary genres and critical approaches to literature. Students will write a series of short response papers and two extended essays.
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English 3367 - Nineteenth-Century British Literature and Culture: Victorian London
Dan Shea
W 5:30 pm - 6:45 pm
In 1869 Henry James remarked, “I have been crushed under a sense of the sheer magnitude of London—its inconceivable immensity—in such a way as to paralyse my mind.” Why did London exert such force and influence? What made it “inconceivable”—and yet irresistible—to James and so many others? Why does Victorian London continue to haunt us? In this course we will answer such questions by exploring depictions of the beautiful and terrible, intimate and isolating, sophisticated and savage Victorian metropolis in literature, visual arts, and popular culture from the 1830s to 1900.
Our careful study of depictions of London and its people in canonical and non-canonical poetry, drama, fiction, and non-fiction; photographs, paintings, etchings, and cartoons; and Victorian popular culture will reveal a variety of perspectives on the major concerns and crises which emerged as London did. We will work to define the rise of Victorian London as a phenomenon which brought unprecedented changes to the lived experiences of daily life, to forms of literary and cultural expression, and to England’s understanding of itself and its place in the world. We will work to understand how London life changed the way people thought. Authors whose works we’ll focus on include Charles Dickens, William Morris, Amy Levy, James Thomson, Ella Hepworth Dixon, Oscar Wilde, Matthew Arnold, and Robert Louis Stevenson.
PLEASE NOTE: Enrollment in the course is limited to students participating in the study abroad trip to England from May 12-23. For more information about the Summer in England program and this course, see
http://www.uhd.edu/academic/colleges/humanities/london/index.htm
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English 3377 - Twentieth-Century British Literature and Culture: Violence and the City
Dr. Nicole LaRose
M 5:30-6:45
Jack-the-Ripper's murders, Queen Victoria's death, the World Wars, trench warfare, the Blitz. Based on these events we can see violence lurking around every corner in twentieth century Great Britain. This course will seek out the meaning of these atrocities through a survey of the literature of the period. We will travel through London with guides such as Sherlock Holmes before we embark on a journey of our own. We will study a variety of genres, including poetry, short stories, novels, graphic novels, and films. In addition to learning about the literature, we will also learn how to better read cities by thinking about the meaning of space and how space influences our lived experiences. This course requires travel to England in May 2008. Please see
http://www.uhd.edu/academic/colleges/humanities/london/index.htm
for more information.
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English 3387 - Studies in World Literature and Culture: Fiction and History: Postcolonial Narratives of India
Cara Murray
MW 7:00 am - 8:15 am
India, once England’s largest colony and now the world’s most populous democracy, boasts the world’s largest film industry and has produced some of the world’s most renowned novelists. In this course we will explore how India’s progression from colony to sovereign nation has been vividly told in novels and films. We will read novels by Mulk Raj Anand, Anita Desai, Rohinton Mistry, Amitov Ghosh, Bapsi Sidhwa, and Salman Rushdie and view classical and Bollywood films by Satyajit Ray, Mehboob Khan, and Ramesh Sippy. Alongside of these fictional works, we will read nonfiction accounts of India found in histories, autobiographies, and speeches of political leaders such as Mohandas Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. As we read literary works in their historical contexts, we will explore the larger questions of the relationship between history and literature, history and genre, and we will think about why so many postcolonial writers turn to fiction to tell the “truth” about their nations.
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English 4313 / HUM 4313 - Psychology Through Literature
Jon Harned
TR 10:00-11:15
From this class students both in literature and the other humanities and social sciences will become capable practitioners of psychoanalytic criticism. We will read substantial excerpts from the writings of Sigmund Freud and his postmodern heir Jacques Lacan. Students will write two shorter analytic essays, one on Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and one on a film by Alfred Hitchcock. For the research papers students will pick a topic from their major and present the papers to the class at the end of the semester. Students should be prepared for an excursion into the neurotic, the infantile, the deviant, the creepy, and everything we’d like to forget about ourselves but can’t—what Joseph Conrad calls “the fascination of the abomination.” Major texts: The Freud Reader (Norton, ISBN: 0553213695); The Metamorphosis (Mass Market Paperback, ISBN: 0553213695).
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English 4322 - Editing, Rewriting, and Copyreading
Catherine Howard
W 5:30 pm – 8:15 pm
CRN: 20895
In this course students will learn to copyedit manuscripts, mark copy, and proofread redlines, galleys, and page proofs. We will cover editing both paper and digital copy as well as editing online. In addition, we will discuss such topics as consistency of style, visual design, creating style sheets, and dealing with authors. Fair warning: there will be a heavy emphasis on grammar and mechanics. (By next fall ENG 3318, Studies in English Grammar, will be a prerequisite for 4322. Although 3318 is not required as of Spring 2008, we would still strongly recommend that students complete it before attempting 4322.)
ENG 4322 is a core requirement for the Professional Writing major.
Books:
1. Carolyn D. Rude, Technical Editing, 4th ed.
New York: Longman, 2005.
ISBN: 0-321-33082-X
2. U of Chicago P Staff, eds., The Chicago Manual
of Style. Chicago: U of Chicago P,
2003. ISBN: 0-226-10403-6
Course Prerequisite: ENG 3302 or permission of department.
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English 4323 - Feature Writing
Anthony Chiaviello
MW 4:00 pm - 5:15 pm
This is an upper-level professional writing course that covers the conception, development, writing, revision, and marketing of magazine feature stories. Students will research story markets, write editorial queries, and develop one long or two short feature stories and then follow up with editors on revision and publication. The level of writing expected for the course is intermediate to advanced, and the successful student will be able to demonstrate independent thought and the ability to formulate marketable story ideas and support those ideas with independent research and writing projects.
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English 4327: Advanced Film Studies: Noir Nation
Dr. Chuck Jackson
MW 10:00 am - 11:15 am
This upper-division course is a narrative and ideological study of some of the darkest, most anxious depictions of life in the United States from around 1940 until the mid- to late-1950s. Generally speaking, film noir (literally “black film”) represents a historical turn in Hollywood cinema from uplifting tales of American exceptionalism to stories about down-on-their-luck or corrupt men and women who congregate in alleyways, street corners, bars, back rooms, motel rooms, cheap apartments, and other border-sites of the modern nation. And, much like the twisted psyches of many characters that populate these films, the narrative structure of films noir are often complex or maze-like; they refuse the straightforward beginning, middle, and ending of classic Hollywood cinema. Our goal all semester will be to theorize not only how noir stories are told, but also what these stories tell us about social and cultural crises in postwar America.
We will begin by reading and discussing theories of the “noir cycle” in film, including articles about cinematic history, genre, character, and narrative structure. As the semester progresses, we might supplement our discussions of film and theory with noir fiction, such as Dashiell Hammet’s The Maltese Falcon (1930) or Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep (1939), and possibly short stories by Richard Wright, Ann Petry, William Faulkner, Chester Himes, or William S. Burroughs. Towards the end of the semester, we will swerve away from classic film noir into the perhaps unexpected territory of early-1970s blaxploitation film. Such a move raises crucial theoretical questions. What counts as “noir”? How does this category relate to racial blackness? And what do both have to do with more recent cinematic articulations of national (counter)culture?
All films will be screened outside of class as part of a special Noir Film Series that will take place on Thursday evenings at the UHD campus (dates and times TBA). And while these screenings are not mandatory for the course, it is highly recommended that students make ritual attendance a part of their class experience -- bring friends! and family members! Film screenings will be open to the public, so there will be more in attendance than students enrolled the course. All films will be on reserve in the library, as well, and you should make use of rental places (including Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, or the most amazing collection of old films in town, Audio-Video Plus on Waugh Street in northern Montrose), or set up a Netflix account.
Possible films include:
The Maltese Falcon (dir. John Houston, 1941)
Double Indemnity (dir. Billy Wilder, 1944)
The Big Sleep (dir. Howard Hawkes, 1946)
Gilda (dir. Charles Vidor, 1946)
Out of the Past (dir. Jacques Tourneur, 1947)
Sunset Blvd. (dir. Billy Wilder, 1950)
Kiss Me Deadly (dir. Robert Aldrich, 1955)
Touch of Evil (dir. Orson Welles, 1958)
Shaft (dir. Gordon Parks, 1971)
Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (dir. Melvin van Peebles,
1971)
The Spook Who Sat By the Door (dir. Ivan Dixon, 1973)
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English 4350 - Advanced Gender Studies: It Rhymes with Witch: Exploring the 'B' Word in World Drama
Dr. Bailey McDaniel
TR 4:00 pm - 5:15 pm
Martha Stewart, L'il Kim, and Tonya Harding. In cinema, ancient Greek drama, reality tv, or even The Old Testament, this identity has reared its often unlikable head throughout Western culture. As its meaning has shifted for the men and women earning the title, it frequently absorbs whatever qualities its cultural moment disallows, particularly for its marginalized citizens. What does it mean to be labeled a bitch? Why is it a qualified compliment in some circles and an ultimate, last-straw insult for others? What is implied - as in prison jargon, for example - to "make someone" this identity? And finally, how do class-, gender-, sexual-, and race-specific paradigms of power become engaged in this social construct?
In this course we'll explore who gets coded with this identity and why, as well as what happens to ideologies of race, sex, class, and gender as they support or undermine that identity's existence. While a handful of earlier examples will employ The Old Testament's Delilah, Sophocles' Medea, and Shakespeare's Shrew, most class materials will come from 20th c. theatre, including the plays of Caryl Churchill, Tomson Highway, Gabriel Garcia Lorca, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Miguel Piñero, David Henry Hwang, Lillian Hellman, and Judith Thompson. Course requirements include active class discussion, one large paper, several smaller/less formal essays, a class-wide mock conference, and an in-class presentation on the play or playwright of the student's choice.
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English 4390 - Topics in Language and Literature: LGBT Representations in America
John H. Hudson, Ph.D.
MW 11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m.
CRN 20399
Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transgender (LGBT) Americans have made enormous progress in recent decades in terms of legal rights and social acceptance. Or have they? While there is clearly greater LGBT visibility in society than ever before, is this visibility indicative of genuine social acceptance or of mere tolerance? And if so, what are the limits of that tolerance? Is such visibility indicative of substantive progress in challenging, reducing, and even eliminating homophobia and heterosexism in society? Or is recent LGBT “progress” simply window dressing, obscuring a stubborn lack of progress in challenging homophobia and heterosexism in our social institutions: families, schools, government, business and industry, and places of worship? Has the LGBT “community” bought into what activist Urvashi Vaid calls “virtual equality—a state of conditional equality based more on the appearance of acceptance by straight America than on genuine civic parity” (Virtual Equality [Anchor Books, 1995] xvi)?
In this course we will attempt to formulate answers to these questions and many more by examining the changing—and sometimes unchanging—representations of LGBT people in America, drawing for our evidence from autobiographical, journalistic, scholarly, and visual texts. Beginning with the pre-Stonewall era of the 1950s and 1960s, we will move through the heyday of 1970s Gay Liberation, the onset of the AIDS Pandemic and resulting backlash of the 1980s, and on to recent LGBT concerns: same-sex unions, “gay” adoption, hate crimes legislation, “don’t ask, don’t tell,” bullying and sex education, as well as the continuing AIDS crisis and its aftermath. While our investigations will constitute a survey of recent LGBT history, our primary focus will be on the ways in which language—and the strategic deployment of language, in particular—shapes and constructs social reality vis-à-vis LGBT Americans and the issues and debates of concern to them.
Requirements for the course will include active participation in class and online discussions, quizzes (if necessary), several short reaction writings, and two papers, one linked to a presentation.
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English 4390 - Harlem on My Mind: The Literature, Sights, and Sounds of the Harlem Renaissance
Dr. Vida Robertson
TR 10:00 am - 11:15 am (UHS Cinco Ranch)
CRN 20326
This course examines one of the most tumultuous and exciting moments in American cultural history, the "Harlem Renaissance." Through the consideration of literature, history, politics, art, and music, we will probe the impetus behind this unprecedented period of artistic experimentation and socio-political activism as well as its meaning and legacy. The divergent perspectives of African American leaders such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Alain Locke, and Marcus Garvey gave rise to the eclectic nature of "The New Negro Movement." Our class readings will primarily focus on literary texts, with careful and considerable attention given to their historical and political contexts. We will attempt to come to our own definition of when and why the Renaissance started and ended. We will explore all aspects of the debate surrounding whether it was, as many critics have argued, a flowering of Black art, or whether it was, as others claim, a period when Black artists allowed their work to be appropriated and exploited by mainstream America. Finally, this course will examine the products of the Harlem Renaissance literarily in relation to Modernism, politically in relation to communism, and historically in relation to the “roaring twenties” of the American industrial age.
Literary Texts:
Hughes, Langston. The Ways of White Folks. New York: A. A. Knopf, 1934. ISBN: 0679728171.
Hurston, Zora Neal. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: HarperCollins, 2000. ISBN: 0060931418.
Lewis, David Levering, ed. et al. Harlem Renaissance: Art of Black America. New York. Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1994. ISBN: 0810981289.
Lewis, David Levering. The Portable Harlem Renaissance Reader. New York: Penguin Books, 1994. ISBN: 0140170367.
Schuyler, George. Black No More. New York: The Modern Library, 1999. ISBN: 037575380X.
Thurman, Wallace.
The Blacker the Berry. New York: AMS Press, 1972. ISBN: 068481580X.
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ENG 5325 - Advanced Medical Writing
Professor: Dr. Karina Stokes
W 5:30 pm - 8:15 pm
Course Description
English 5325 (3 credit hours) involves “the study and practice of interpreting and incorporating findings and statistical results into clear, comprehensible, and well-organized prose.” Four short writing and editing assignments, a research paper on any issue in medical writing and/or ethics, and participation in class discussions (in-class and via Vista online discussion boards) will be the basis of students’ grades.
While we will look at statistical findings to gauge their likelihood of indicating relevant information and correct conclusions, we will not be learning how to do any statistical calculations in this course. The focus will be on producing clear and understandable documents with correct facts in professional formats. The career possibilities for individuals who have knowledge of scientific and medical writing are extraordinary – especially in the medical center area of Houston as well as in environmental agencies.
Required Text and Materials
• Internet
connection, understanding of how to use Vista and Microsoft Word.
• American Medical Association Manual of Style. 9th ed. ISBN 978-0-19-517633-9.
[for sure]
• Heifferon. Technical Writing in the Health Professions. 2005.
ISBN 0321105273. [probably]
Course Objectives
By the end of the course, you should be able to:
• Identify
distinct purposes and audiences in specific genres of medical and scientific
writing, including research reports, written procedures or guidelines,
case studies, bibliographies, and patient education materials (e.g., consumer
and commercial medical websites);
• Understand the role of the scientific method of inquiry as it
applies to medicine while appreciating why clinical medicine sometimes
departs from this model;
• Use scientific and medical databases to review the literature
on medical topics;
• Improve grammar, clarity, and precision in medical writing by
eliminating wordy constructions, choosing accurate words, avoiding passive
voice, and editing for consistency in number / tense;
• Hone an effective medical writing style for various purposes and
audiences; and
• Identify the features of clear and useful graphic representations
of medical and numerical data.
• Develop a peer review work ethic in editing your medical writing
by working collaboratively.
Assignments Include
Creating an Educational
Public Service Announcement – for diverse audiences (1-3 pgs)
Creating a Patient Information Handout – for non-medical individuals
(1-3 pgs)
Editing Research – by an ESL author for publication in an American
medical journal
Writing research – review article summarizing several selected studies
– for medical audiences (4-5 pgs)
Original Research Paper on issues in medical writing such as ethics, the
merit of the IMRAD formula, methods for achieving appropriate levels of
clarity for different audiences of medical information, etc.
Note about Dr. Stokes
• I have taught
workshops for doctors and medical researchers about research publication
and grant writing.
• I have been a Technical Writer for research hospitals (Shriner’s
Burns Institute and UTMB at Galveston School of Nursing) and have published
research on medical topics.
Contact Information
Email: stokesk@uhd.edu
Phone: 713-221-2771
Office: S-1054
One Main Street • Houston, TX 77002 • 713-221-8000
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