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2023-2024 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
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2023-2024 Undergraduate Catalog

Course Descriptions

Course Numbering System

The following lists include all courses normally offered at Albion College. However, not all courses are offered every year. When possible, courses offered in alternate years are designated. For details, students should consult the Class Schedule for each semester, available online at: www.albion.edu/registrar. The College reserves the right to add or withdraw courses without prior announcement, as conditions may require.

Unless otherwise stated, 100 level courses are intended for freshmen, 200 level for sophomores, 300 and 400 level for juniors and seniors.

A list of courses which meet the core and category requirements, organized by departments, is available online at www.albion.edu/registrar.

Further information may be obtained at the Registrar’s Office in the Ferguson Student, Technology, and Administrative Services Building.
 

English: Literature
  

  • ENGL 122: Black Environmentalism

    1 unit
    An interdisciplinary exploration of past and present relationships between Black folks and the land, with a particular interest in 1) the way communities of color carry an unjust weight of environmental degradation in the U.S. and 2) how institutional racism, white privilege, and economic class have shaped the environmental movement in the U.S.  Christensen
  

  • ENGL 123: Family Matters

    1 unit
    An introduction to literary study focusing on representations of family in literature.  Genres and forms include poems, short stories, novels, and plays. Miller
  

  • ENGL 124: Myth and Legend

    1 unit
    A survey of ancient myths and legends from a variety of traditions.  Discussion topics include creation myths, the development of narrative, the nature of the divine, the cultural contexts of ancient literature, the role of “the classics” in constructions of a western European “tradition.” MacInnes
  

  • ENGL 125: Writing Through the Pain

    1 unit
    This class addresses the question of literature’s relevance and the practice of reading critically, purposefully, and pleasurably.  It explores how literature people deal with shit – that is, with the waste human bodies produce (and become), the turmoil they experience in their hearts and minds, and the many ways they bump up against the brokenness of the world.  Roberts
  

  • ENGL 128: Fight the Man!

    1 unit
    This course considers the pleasures and potencies of novels, poems, and essays that fight systems of oppression and unjust institutions through the power of the imagination and the written word.   Christensen
  

  • ENGL 129: Secrets and Lies

    1 unit
    An introduction to literary study focusing on secrets, lies, and other literary manipulations. Topics include mystery, deception, misinformation, and the ability of literary form to withhold as well as reveal truths.  Genres and forms range from short poems to novels and plays. Miller
  

  • ENGL 130: Reading Dangerously

    1 unit
    What does it mean to “read dangerously”?  How is this different from reading for an assignment or reading for entertainment?  Is it about reading “dangerous books” or is it about something else?  And why do it at all?  These are some of the questions we’ll consider as we explore various texts that help us consider the importance of literature in our lives and societies. L. Brown
  

  • ENGL 153: Us vs. Them

    1 unit
    Explores representations of identity, discrimination, and resistance through select science fiction and fantasy works by Octavia Butler, Yoon Ha Lee, and others.  MacInnes
  

  • ENGL 155: Antiracism & Young People’s Lit

    1 unit
    This class will explore the complicated place of racism and antiracism in literature written for young people.  Students will read picture books, chapter books, and YA books in order to examine the ways that kids’ books reinforce and, as important, disrupt racist ideas. Roberts
  

  • ENGL 157: Animals & Animality

    1 unit
    Explores the representation of non-human animals in literature, from animal fables to modern animal stories.  Topics include the nature of the human and negative animality as a tool for legitimizing violence not only against non-human animals but also against other humans. MacInnes
  

  • ENGL 158: Dystopian Narratives

    1 unit
    Just as utopia is an imagined ideal society typically characterized by peace, safety, harmony, and satisfaction, dystopia is its opposite–a society rife with injustice, disarray, struggle, and collapse.  Because dystopian texts reflect the values, desires, and fears of the time and place in which they’re written, this course will explore several such narratives, considering how they both respond to and actively shape our social, political, and environmental perspectives and behavior.  Texts vary by semester, but regularly featured authors include Margaret Atwood and Octavia Butler. L. Brown
  

  • ENGL 159: Redneck Environmentalism

    1 unit
    An environmental literature and writing course that values and explores land-based traditions–such as hunting, fishing, and farming–while interrogating the ways those very traditions might teach us to ignore or deny how inequalities of race, class, and gender undermine the health and beauty of our environment. Christensen
  

  • ENGL 222: Shakespeare

    1 unit
    Prerequisites: One of the following:  Completion with a 2.0 or better of THEA 209  , THEA 280  , or one course numbered ENGL 120 to ENGL 189; or junior standing.
    Examines the language and performance in Shakespeare’s plays and poetry with particular attention to the representation of gender.  Same as THEA 222  .   MacInnes
  

  • ENGL 224: Victorian Ghosts

    1 unit
    Prerequisite: Completion with a 2.0 or better of one unit numbered ENGL 120 to ENGL 189, or permission of instructor.
    An exploration of elegies and ghost stories grounded in the historical contexts of 19th-century Britain.  Topics include the rise of modern funerary culture; religion and spiritualism; scientific approaches to the afterlife; and the development of psychology and evolutionary theory.  Texts will include poems, short stories, and novels. Miller
  

  • ENGL 225: Monsters Within: Violence in Medieval and Renaissance Literature

    1 unit
    Prerequisites:  Completion with a 2.0 or better of one unit numbered ENGL 120 to ENGL 189, or permission of instructor.
    A study of the pervasive issue of violence in early literature, including the way that literature both encodes and challenges the structural violence of race, class, and gender.  Texts range from warrior epics of the migration era to the tragedies of Shakespeare. MacInnes
  

  • ENGL 230: Defining the Human

    (1 Unit)
    Prerequisite: Completion with a 2.0 or better of one unit numbered ENGL 120 to ENGL 189, or permission of instructor.
    A survey of representative works of English literature from the seventeenth to the late nineteenth century. Authors typically include Dryden, Swift, Montagu, Pope, Johnson, Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Austen, Tennyson, Hopkins, and Wilde. Miller.
  

  • ENGL 233: Writing Women in America

    1 unit
    Prerequisite: Completion with a 2.0 or better of one unit numbered ENGL 120 to ENGL 189, or permission of instructor.
    This class will explore what women wrote and how they were written in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in America.  It will examine how male and female writers constructed gender in their respective texts, by turns reinforcing and disrupting the gendered expectations of early America.  Topics will include the role of emotion and reason, the intersections of race and gender, and economic and political work of the imagination.  Roberts
  

  • ENGL 251: Contemporary Literature

    (1 Unit)
    Prerequisite: Completion with a 2.0 or better of one unit numbered ENGL 120 to ENGL 189, or permission of instructor.
    A study of British and American writers whose major work has been done since 1945. Staff
  

  • ENGL 252: African American Literature

    1 unit
    Prerequisite: Completion with a 2.0 or better of one unit numbered ENGL 120 to ENGL 189, or permission of instructor.
    A survey of African-American literature from the eighteenth century until the present day. Authors typically include Phyllis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, Nella Larsen, James Baldwin, and Toni Morrison. l. Brown, Roberts
  

  • ENGL 254: Latinx Literature

    1 unit
    Prerequisites: Completion with a 2.0 or better of one unit numbered ENGL 120 to ENGL 189; or sophomore standing; or permission of instructor.
    A survey of contemporary poetry, short stories, and novels (written in English) by Chicanx, Cuban American, Dominican American, and Puerto Rican authors.  Discussion topics include the construction of the “Latinx” identity and questions of immigration, the homeland, gender, and class, as well as the role of language and storytelling within acculturation.  Mesa
  

  • ENGL 260: Immigration in Literature

    1 unit
    Prerequisite: Completion with a 2.0 or better of one unit numbered ENGL 120 to ENGL 189, or permission of instructor.
    The representation of immigration and immigrant life in North America, especially in texts written by people who are themselves immigrants or the children of immigrants. Topics considered include working class experience, the psychic upheaval caused by drastic relocation, the special tensions that arise between children and parents as life is made in a new world, and the formation of ethnic/racial identity through contact with those already resident in North America. Staff
  

  • ENGL 262: Divided Nations

    1 unit
    Prerequisites:  Completion with a 2.0 or better of one unit numbered ENGL 120 to ENGL 189, or permission of instructor.
    An exploration of the ways that various writers have engaged with issues of national division, destruction, or discord.  We’ll read contemporary literature across a range of national contexts to examine how issues identify, citizenship, social justice, and human rights unfold across various stages of national creation, internal conflict, or dissolution. L. Brown
  

  • ENGL 263: Orcs, Elves, & the Environment

    1 unit
    Prerequisites:  Completion with a 2.0 or better of one unit numbered ENGL 120 to ENGL 189, or permission of instructor.
    An extended exploration of J.R.R. Tolkien’s, The Lord of the Rings, focused on its literary and imaginative value and its relevance to current issues of environmentalism, sustainability, and ecological literacy. Christensen
  

  • ENGL 264: Native American Literature

    1 unit
    Prerequisites:  Completion with a 2.0 or better of one unit numbered ENGL 120 to ENGL 189, or permission of instructor.
    An exploration of 20th & 21st century Native American literature.  We will consider myth and folklore, as well as poetry, novels, memoir, short stories, essays, comics, and film as we investigate the role and features of language and storytelling across different indigenous oral and print traditions.  Discussion topics include the ongoing negotiations of identity in language (“Indian”; “indigenous”; “Native American”), citizenship and tribal autonomy, acculturation, and gender, as well as religious and spiritual beliefs.  L. Brown
  

  • ENGL 272: Wild Things: Wilderness Lit

    1 unit
    Prerequisites: Completion with a 2.0 or better of one unit numbered ENGL 120 to ENGL 189, or permission of instructor.
    An exploration of literary representations of wildness and wilderness–as ideas and geographical realities.  We’ll reflect on what we value in the natural world and why, and we’ll investigate how the fictional and nonfictional stories we tell ourselves about wildness and wilderness shape our decisions regarding which aspects of our environment we find worthy of protection.   Christensen
  

  • ENGL 278: Terrorists and Treehuggers

    1 unit
    Prerequisite: Completion with a 2.0 or better of one unit numbered ENGL 120 to ENGL 189, or permission of instructor.
    An interdisciplinary study of the past, present, and future of environmental radicalism. Typical authors include Rachel Carson, Edward Abbey, Paul Watson, and Wangari Maathai. Christensen
  

  • ENGL 285: LGBTQ+ Literature

    1 unit
    Prerequisite: Completion with a 2.0 or better of one unit numbered ENGL 120 to ENGL 189, or permission of instructor.
    Examines LGBTQ+ literature written in Great Britain and America from the Renaissance to the present, including works by such writers as Shakespeare, Whitman, A. Lowell, Woolf, Forster, Baldwin, Obejas, Lorde, Becker, Winterson, and Cunningham.  Considers such questions as: What makes a text ‘gay’?  To what extent does the cultural oppression of LGBTQ+ lives shape the literary texts they produce?  To what extent do these works affect literary genres, form a literary tradition, and influence existing traditions? Staff.
  

  • ENGL 321P: Redeeming Eve: Renaissance Women’s Writing

    1 unit
    Prerequisites:  Completion with a 2.0 or better of at least three units in English, including one unit numbered ENGL 220 to ENGL 289; or permission of instructor.
    An introduction to Renaissance women’s studies and to literature written by English women in the early modern period (1500-1700). The readings combine literature and nonfiction of the period with modern critical works on women in the Renaissance. Examines the ways in which authorship was defined in the period and the ways such definitions either excluded or restricted female authors. Particular attention is given to larger issues of Renaissance studies such as the status and role of women, the gendering of subjectivity, and the relationship between gender and sexuality. MacInnes
  

  • ENGL 324P: The Age of Elizabeth

    1 unit
    Prerequisites:  Completion with a 2.0 or better of at least three units in English, including one unit numbered ENGL 220 to ENGL 289; or pemission of instructor.
    An exploration of Elizabethan literature in its literary and cultural context. Examines the ways in which writers deployed poetry, prose, and drama in the service of political ambition, literary aspiration, and religious sentiment, as well as erotic desire. The broad goal is to use these literary expressions to discuss the ways that subjectivity in the Renaissance rested uneasily on distinctions between self-assertion and narcissism, soul and body, health and disease. Particular attention is given to ways in which poetic expression contributes to the gendering of subjectivity. MacInnes
  

  • ENGL 326: The British Romantics

    1 unit
    Prerequisites:  Completion with a 2.0 or better of at least three units in English, including one unit numbered ENGL 220 to ENGL 289; or permission of instructor.
    Studies in the Romantic Period (from 1789 to roughly 1830) in Britain. Involves considerable study of the works of the major six poets of the period (Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, and Keats) as well as many other writers increasingly gaining scholarly attention (including Mary Wollstonecraft, Dorothy Wordsworth, Thomas de Quincey, Mary Shelley, John Clare, and Felicia Hemans). Examines the Romantic questioning of traditional notions about God, sex, the imagination, the family, the rights of women and of the working classes, the natural world, science, slavery, and aesthetics. Miller.
  

  • ENGL 327: The 20th Century in English Literature

    1 unit
    Prerequisites:  Completion with a 2.0 or better of at least three units in English, including one unit numbered ENGL 220 to ENGL 289; or permission of instructor.
    An examination of ideas surrounding nation, national literature, citizen and political standing, family, anti-colonialism, and post-colonialism. Although some important non-literary documents are considered, the selected texts are principally literary and include works by such writers as Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, Chinua Achebe, Virginia Woolf, Zadie Smith, Pat Barker, Anita Desai, and Michael Ondaatje. Staff
  

  • ENGL 329: Modern Poetry

    1 unit
    Prerequisites:  Completion with a 2.0 or better of at least three units in English, including one unit numbered ENGL 220 to ENGL 289; or permission of instructor.
    A study of the major modern poets: Eliot, Yeats, Frost, Stevens, and others. Staff.
  

  • ENGL 335: Contemporary U.S. Literature

    1 unit
    Prerequisites:  Completion with a 2.0 or better of at least three units in English, including one unit numbered ENGL 220 to ENGL 289; or permission of instructor.
    An exploration of U.S. literature across the past fifty years, this course will examine work by established and emerging authors to consider how various texts have shaped and responded to ongoing contestations over issues such as race, gender, sexuality, class, and citizenship in contemporary society.  This includes debates regarding notions of “America” and “American-ness” as well as thinking about the U.S. and its literature in an increasingly post-modern, multicultural, global context.  Texts will be drawn from a range of authors and a variety of genres.  L. Brown
  

  • ENGL 343: Emerson, Thoreau, Du Bois

    1 unit
    Prerequisites:  Completion with a 2.0 or better of at least three units in English, including one unit numbered ENGL 220 to ENGL 289; or permission of instructor.
    An extended exploration of three key works of American Literature–Ralph Waldo Emerson’s- Essays, Henry David Thoreau’s- Walden, and W.E.B. Du Bois’s- The Souls of Black Folk – guided by one primary question:  What do these authors and their work have to tell us about how we should live our lives today in the midst of so much racial inequality and environmental crisis? Christensen
  

  • ENGL 344P: Whitman and Dickinson in Context

    1 unit
    Prerequisites:  Completion with a 2.0 or better of at least three units in English, including one unit numbered ENGL 220 to ENGL 289; or permission of instructor.
    An examination of two of the most important and decidedly different poets ever to have lived and written in the United States. Considers Whitman and Dickinson in relation to one another and within a number of contexts that shaped the composition and reception of their work—nineteenth-century poetry and poetics, the American Civil War, the expanding and evolving print culture, and the early and late twentieth-century conceptions of nineteenth-century American poetry. Roberts
  

  • ENGL 346: Voices of Liberty: Milton & 17th Century

    1 unit
    Prerequisite: Completion with a 2.0 or better of at least three units in ENGL, including one unit numbered 220 to ENGL 289; or permission of instructor.
    England in the seventeenth century was a country torn apart by deep divisions, political, social, and religious. From this turmoil, from civil war and political revolution, arose a host of new ideas and new ways of seeing the world. This course explores the poetry and prose of this period, with special emphasis on John Milton and Paradise Lost. Discussions range from cavalier love poetry to grand topics such as good and evil, free will, and divine Providence. MacInnes
  

  • ENGL 351: Four American Poets

    (1 Unit)
    Prerequisite: Completion with a 2.0 or better of at least three units in ENGL, including one unit numbered 220 to ENGL 289; or permission of instructor.
    A study of four twentieth- or twenty-first-century American poets and advanced work in critical approaches to writing about poetry. Recent poets include Robert Frost, Muriel Rukeyser, Natasha Tretheway, Wallace Stevens, and William Carlos Williams. Focus is on whole collections. Staff
  

  • ENGL 352P: Toni Morrison

    1 unit
    Prerequisites:  Completion with a 2.0 or better of at least three units in English, including one unit numbered ENGL 220 to ENGL 289; or permission of instructor.
    A close study of Toni Morrison’s work across genres, including her fiction, speeches and essays, literary criticism, children’s books (co-authored with her son), and glimpses of her work as an editor.  Major attention is given to issues of race, gender, class, community, and nation; other topics include the history of critical response to Morrison’s fiction and the variety of theoretical approaches to reading and interpreting her work.  Students will engage with published scholarship on Morrison’s work to produce an original literary analysis of a chosen text or theme in Morrison’s oeuvre.  L Brown
  

  • ENGL 360: The Problem of Race in American Literature

    (1 Unit)
    Prerequisite: Completion with a 2.0 or better of at least three units in ENGL, including one unit numbered ENGL 220 to ENGL 289; or permission of instructor.
    An examination of a number of continuing problems expressed in American poetry, fiction, drama, and essays by white and black writers from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries. Writers include Larsen, Baldwin, Ellison, Beatty, Senna, O’Connor, and McCullers. Lockyer.
  

  • ENGL 362P: Love in the 19th Century

    1 unit
    Prerequisites:  Completion with a 2.0 or better of at least three units in English, including one unit numbered ENGL 220 to ENGL 289; or permission of instructor.
    Love is many things–it is an idea, a feeling, an action, a religious imperative, and a political and literary tool.  This class uses love to examine the various ways that American writers both challenge and reinforce racial and gender hierarchies.  Texts will include novels and poetry by white and BIPOC authors who wrote in (or in a few cases wrote about) nineteenth-century America.   Roberts
  

  • ENGL 364: Literature of the American Civil War

    1 unit
    Prerequisites:  Completion with a 2.0 or better of at least three units in English, including one unit numbered ENGL 220 to ENGL 289; or permission of instructor.
    An examination of the literature of the American Civil War, broadly conceived. Texts include fiction and poetry, political documents and slave narratives. Discussions address the relationship between history and literature, print culture, and the human experience of war, among other things. Roberts
  

  • ENGL 367: The American Novel

    1 unit
    Prerequisites:  Completion with a 2.0 or better of at least three units in English, including one unit numbered ENGL 220 to ENGL 289; or pemission of instructor.
    An examination of novels written by Americans over the last two and a half centuries that are interested in the complicated work of telling the truth. These works look squarely at the revelatory beauty and equally revelatory ugliness of being human. They enable readers to confront and attend to worlds that are, at once, alien and familiar. At times, they press language to its outermost limits. Collectively, the novels will enable readers to come to a richer understanding of a particular social issue relevant to their American context. Roberts
  

  • ENGL 368: Literature of the Great Lakes

    1 unit
    Prerequisites:  Completion with a 2.0 or better of at least three units in English, including one unit numbered ENGL 220 to ENGL 289; or permission of instructor.
    An investigation of Great Lakes writers from a bioregional perspective focusing on how geographical terrain, animal and plant communities, and human consciousness play powerful roles in shaping the literature of a specific place. Christensen
  

  • ENGL 370P: Pre-Modern Ecologies

    1 unit
    Prerequisites:  Completion with a 2.0 or better of at least three units in English, including one unit numbered ENGL 220 to ENGL 289; or permission of instructor.
    Examines the role that non-human animals, plants, and the environment play in the poetry and drama of pre-modern writers.  Attention is given to the ways in which attitudes toward nature and definitions of humans are implicated in continuing environmental problems such as deforestation, urbanization, precarity, climate change, and extinction. MacInnes
  

  • ENGL 373: Victorian Sexualities

    1 Uint
    Prerequisite: Completion with a 2.0 or better of at least three units in ENGL, including one unit numbered ENGL 220 to ENGL 289; or permission of instructor.
    An exploration of how Victorians wrote and thought about sexuality and gender. Authors typically include Tennyson, Rossetti, Carroll, Collins, Stevenson, Wilde, and Gissing. Discussions address such topics as Victorian marriage, “fallen women,” imperial desire, sexual violence, and homosexuality.
  

  • ENGL 375P: Literary Detectives

    1 unit
    Prerequisites:  Completion with a 2.0 or better of at least three units in English, including one unit numbered ENGL 220 to ENGL 289; or permission of instructor. 
    A study of detective fiction focusing on its origins in nineteenth-century Britain. Investigates the historical contexts that shaped the development of the genre, including the rise of criminology and anthropology, scientific debates about nationality and race, British imperialism, and the occult.  Texts range from nineteenth century works (including Sherlock Holmes stories) to twenty-first century detective novels. Miller
  

  • ENGL 380P: The Novel and the New

    1 unit
    Prerequisites:  Completion with a 2.0 or better of at least three units in English, including one unit numbered ENGL 220 to ENGL 289; or permission of instructor.
    Traces the development of the novel in England from the beginnings in the late seventeenth century up through the Romantic period. Considers the novel’s origins in genres like travel narratives, spiritual autobiography, romance tales, criminal biographies, and personal letters. Also considers the effect of historical and cultural factors like criminal law, the slave trade, gender roles, the rise of capitalism, and the literary marketplace on the novel. Authors read include Behn, Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Sterne, Radcliffe, Austen, and Bronte. Miller
  

  • ENGL 382: British Fiction after 1850

    1 unit
    Prerequisites:  Completion with a 2.0 or better of at least three units in English, including one unit numbered ENGL 220 to ENGL 289; or permission of instructor.
    A study of the British novel from the time of Dickens to the present. Staff
  

  • ENGL 383: (Un)Settling Homeland

    1 unit
    Prerequisites:  Completion with a 2.0 or better of at least three units in English, including one unit numbered ENGL 220 to ENGL 289; or permission of instructor.
    A consideration of the relationship between domestic practices and national projects (such as colonialism and imperialism) in literature.  We will draw on feminist and postcolonial theory to examine novels and short stories by a diverse range of writers and study how gender, racial, ethnic, and national identities inform the histories and/of nation represented (and negotiated) in fiction. L. Brown
  

  • ENGL 384: Idea of Nature

    (1 Unit)
    Prerequisites:  Completion with a 2.0 or better of at least three units in English, including one unit numbered ENGL 220 to ENGL 289; or permission of instructor.
    An interdisciplinary exploration of the relationship between the imagination and the natural world in the works of key American writers. Draws on the creative and critical tools of multiple disciplines—including literary studies, creative writing, and natural history. Typical authors include H.D. Thoreau, Annie Dillard, James Galvin, Bernd Heinrich, and Mary Oliver. Christensen.
  

  • ENGL 385: Literary Theory

    1 unit
    Prerequisites:  Completion with a 2.0 or better of at least three units in English, including one unit numbered ENGL 220 to ENGL 289; or permission of instructor.
    A study of key theoretical concepts (like “intention” and “discourse”) and theoretical orientations (for example, new criticism, deconstruction, feminist criticism, and the new historicism). Assignments range from applying a theoretical approach to developing a response to a theoretical question. Staff

English: Special Studies
  

  • ENGL 187: Selected Topics

    (1/4 Unit)
    An examination of subjects or areas not included in other courses. Staff.
  

  • ENGL 188: Selected Topics

    (1/2 Unit)
    An examination of subjects or areas not included in other courses. Staff.
  

  • ENGL 189: Selected Topics

    (1 Unit)
    An examination of subjects or areas not included in other courses. Staff.
  

  • ENGL 287: Selected Topics

    (1/4 Unit)
    An examination of subjects or areas not included in other courses. Staff.
  

  • ENGL 288: Selected Topics

    (1/2 Unit)
    An examination of subjects or areas not included in other courses. Staff.
  

  • ENGL 289: Selected Topics

    (1 Unit)
    An examination of subjects or areas not included in other courses. Staff.
  

  • ENGL 387: Selected Topics

    (1/4 Unit)
    An examination of subjects or areas not included in other courses. Staff.
  

  • ENGL 388: Selected Topics

    (1/2 Unit)
    An examination of subjects or areas not included in other courses. Staff.
  

  • ENGL 389: Selected Topics

    (1 Unit)
    An examination of subjects or areas not included in other courses. Staff.
  

  • ENGL 391: Internship

    .5 unit
    Opportunities in journalism, editing, publishing, and other fields. Offered on a credit/no credit basis. Staff.
  

  • ENGL 392: Internship

    (1 Unit)
    Opportunities in journalism, editing, publishing, and other fields. Offered on a credit/no credit basis. Staff.
  

  • ENGL 394: Internship

    (2 Units)
    Opportunities in journalism, editing, publishing, and other fields. Offered on a credit/no credit basis. Staff.
  

  • ENGL 401: Seminar

    (1/2 Unit)
    Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or higher or permission of instructor.
    Advanced study of selected writers, and/or literary genres. Examples of recent seminars include Three Irish Poets, Fiction of Cormack McCarthy, and The American Renaissance. Staff.
  

  • ENGL 402: Seminar

    (1 Unit)
    Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or higher or permission of instructor.
    Advanced study of selected writers, and/or literary genres. Examples of recent seminars include Three Irish Poets, Fiction of Cormack McCarthy, and The American Renaissance. Staff.
  

  • ENGL 411: Directed Study

    (1/2 Unit)
    Prerequisites: Junior or senior standing and permission of instructor.
    (Permission of department required to be counted toward the major.) Usually taken in preparation for the honors thesis. Staff.
  

  • ENGL 412: Directed Study

    (1 Unit)
    Prerequisites: Junior or senior standing and permission of instructor.
    (Permission of department required to be counted toward the major.) Usually taken in preparation for the honors thesis. Staff.

English: Writing and Language
  

  • ENGL 100W: Writing Essentials

    1 unit
    An introduction to the basics of college writing, with special attention to word and sentence fundamentals. Emphasizes generating ideas for writing, imagining words that match ideas, and learning/practicing writing (and revising) grammatically and structurally sound papers, in a variety of styles and genres. Must be taken for a numerical grade. (Not counted toward the major.) Staff
  

  • ENGL 101W: College Writing

    1 unit
    An introduction to the idea and practice of college writing. Emphasizes writing as process, with close attention to generation of ideas, clarity of expression at the sentence level, organization and logic of argumentation, conventions of academic discourse, and strategies for revision. Staff
  

  • ENGL 102W: Honors College Writing

    (1 Unit)
    An introduction to the idea and practice of college writing. Emphasizes writing as process, with close attention to generation of ideas, clarity of expression at the sentence level, organization and logic of argumentation, conventions of academic discourse, and strategies for revision. (Not counted toward the major.) Staff.
  

  • ENGL 104W: Pleiad Practicum I

    .25 unit
    Experience in journalism production with the Pleiad, Albion College’s award-winning, student-run campus news source. May include reporting, writing, editing, photography, videography, podcasting, marketing, and/or graphic design. Regular weekly meeting attendance required. All enrolled students must apply for and be accepted to a paid or volunteer position on the Pleiad staff. Offered on a credit/no credit basis in the Fall and Spring semesters under the close supervision of the Pleiad’s student leadership and faculty adviser. Quesenberry
  

  • ENGL 203W: Advanced Writing: College and Beyond

    1 unit
    Sophomore standing or above and one of the following:  completion of ENGL 101W   or ENGL 102W   with a grade of 2.0 or better, recommendation of student’s instructor in ENGL 100W  , placement during Orientation or advanced placement in English.
    Advanced study of and practice in writing beyond the 101W-level, with emphasis on writing for specific audiences, techniques of argumentation, stylistic choices available to writers, and increased sophistication in thought and expression.  Required of students obtaining elementary teacher certification. Staff
  

  • ENGL 204W: Pleiad Practicum II

    .5 unit
    Prerequisites: ENGL 104W   or instructor permission
    Experience in journalism production with the Pleiad, Albion College’s award-winning, student-run campus news source. May include reporting, writing, editing, photography, videography, podcasting, marketing, and/or graphic design. In addition to regular weekly meeting attendance, students will complete biweekly Pleiad assignments and work closely with the faculty adviser on journalism skills and goal-setting. All enrolled students must apply for and be accepted to a paid or volunteer position on the Pleiad staff equivalent to at least a 4-hour weekly commitment. May be repeated for credit up to a maximum of 2 units toward major or minor. Quesenberry
  

  • ENGL 207W: Multimedia Journalism

    1 unit
    Prerequisite: Completion of ENGL 101W   or ENGL 102W    with a grade of 2.0 or better, recommendation of student’s instructor in ENGL 100W  , advanced placement in English or permission of instructor.
    An introduction to reporting, writing, filming, and editing for print and online media, including discussion of media law and ethics, AP style, and magazine writing. Preparation for internships. Prerequisite for all advanced journalism courses. Quesenberry
  

  • ENGL 208W: Professional Writing

    1 unit
    Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or above and one of the following: completion of ENGL 101W   or ENGL 102W   with a grade of 2.0 or better, recommendation of student’s instructor in ENGL 100W  , placement during orientation or advanced placement in English.
    An introduction to the practice of workplace and technical writing, including design and visual argument. Emphasizes the analysis of a variety of professional rhetorical situations and the production of appropriate texts in response. Staff
  

  • ENGL 213W: Writing In Place

    1 unit
    Prerequisite:  Completion of ENGL 101W   or ENGL 102W   with a grade of 2.0 or better, recommendation of student’s instructor in ENGL 100W  , advanced placement in English, or permission of instructor.
    An experiential study of environmental writing, with a focus on place, nature, and the relationship between humans and their environments. Students write in a variety of genres and modes, including exposition and creative nonfiction. Christensen
  

  • ENGL 215W: Introductory Creative Writing

    1 unit
    Prerequisite: Completion of ENGL 101W   or ENGL 102W  with a grade of 2.0 or better, recommendation of student’s instructor in ENGL 100W  , advanced placement in English or permission of instructor. 
    A study in the craft of both poetry and fiction, including imagery, lyricism, character development, form, plot, and style. Students write and revise their own poems and short stories. Reading in and discussion of contemporary literature as well as critiques of fellow writers’ work. D. Brown, Mesa.
  

  • ENGL 218W: Introduction to Writing Creative Nonfiction

    1 unit
    Prerequisite: Completion of ENGL 101W    or ENGL 102W   with a grade of 2.0 or better, recommendation of student’s instructor in ENGL 100W , advanced placement in English or permission of instructor.
    A study of creative nonfiction in its various forms. Discussion of the ways in which writing creative nonfiction (memoirs, personal essays, etc.) differs from journalistic writing and the ways in which it employs lyrical and fiction-writing techniques. Students will write and revise their own creative nonfiction (minimum 30 pages). Requires written critiques of fellow writers’ work and extensive reading in and writing about contemporary creative nonfiction. D. Brown, Mesa
  

  • ENGL 219W: Screenwriting Fundamentals

    1 unit
    Prerequisite: Completion of ENGL 101W    or ENGL 102W   with a grade of 2.0 or better, recommendation of student’s instructor in ENGL 100W , advanced placement in English or permission of instructor.
    An intensive study of feature-film screenplay format and structure, including a workshop of student step outlines, treatments, and screenplays. In the first part of the semester, students are assigned exercises addressing specific screenwriting issues, including character, setting, dialogue, and subtext, and read and analyze already-produced screenplays. In the second part, students write and revise a short (minimum 30-minute) script. D. Brown
  

  • ENGL 303W: English Language

    1 unit
    Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing or permission of instructor.
    History, structure and usage of the oral and written English language. Required of students obtaining elementary teacher certification. Staff
  

  • ENGL 304W: Pleiad Practicum III

    1 unit
    Prerequisites: Credit in two semesters of ENGL 104W  ; completion of ENGL 204W   or ENGL 207W   with a 2.0 or better; or instructor permission.
    Experience in journalism production with the Pleiad, Albion College’s award-winning, student-run campus news source. May include reporting, writing, editing, photography, videography, podcasting, marketing, and/or graphic design. In addition to regular weekly meeting attendance, students will complete weekly Pleiad assignments and work closely with the faculty adviser on journalism skills, leadership skills, goalsetting, and reflection. All enrolled students must apply for and be accepted to a paid or volunteer position on the Pleiad staff equivalent to at least an 8-hour weekly commitment. May be repeated for credit up to a maximum of 2 units toward major or minor. Quesenberry
  

  • ENGL 306W: Science, Technical, and Medical Writing

    1 unit
    Prerequisites: One of the following: completion of ENGL 101W  , fulfillment of the Writing Proficiency Requirement, or the permission of the instructor.
    A study of writing in science, technology, and medical fields, with a focus on technical writing genres that may include academic research, journalism, data visualization, instructions, presentations, and/or grant writing. Students compose and revise documents relating to their own fields and interests, while examining how culture, ethics, inclusion, and accessibility factors influence technical writing. Quesenberry
  

  • ENGL 307W: Advanced Multimedia Journalism

    1 unit
    Prerequisite: ENGL 207W   or permission of instructor.
    An advanced media workshop with assignments including investigative reporting, specialized coverage, long-form articles, multimedia packages, and short video documentaries. Quesenberry
  

  • ENGL 309W: Writing for the Non-Profit Sector

    1 unit
    Prerequisites: One of the following: completion of ENGL 101W  , fulfillment of the Writing Proficiency Requirement, or the permission of the instructor.
    Advanced study of professional writing in the context of non-profit organizations. Emphasizes writing that is particularly relevant to non-profit work, which may include grants, donor relations, public relations, presentations, and reports. Quesenberry
  

  • ENGL 310W: Advanced Editing

    1 unit
    Prerequisite: At least one of the following: ENGL 203W   , ENGL 207W   , ENGL 208W  , or permission of instructor.
    An advanced workshop for editing professional and journalistic documents with discussion of standardized American-English grammar, revision for clarity and conciseness, legal and ethical compliance, and use of formal style guides.  Quesenberry
  

  • ENGL 316W: Intermediate Poetry Workshop

    1 unit
    Prerequisite:Completion with a 2.0 or better of ENGL 215W  or permission of instructor.
    A workshop for continued study and practice in writing poetry. Students examine form in free verse and traditional verse (the lyric, blank verse, sonnets, etc.); write new poems, including a series of formal exercises; and extensively revise their own poetry. Students also write critiques of fellow writers’ work and read contemporary poetry. Mesa
  

  • ENGL 318W: Intermediate Fiction Workshop

    1 unit
    Prerequisite:Completion with a 2.0 or better of ENGL 215W  or permission of instructor.
    A workshop for continued study and practice in writing fiction, with special emphasis on narrative design. In addition to producing 50 new pages of fiction, students substantially revise their work, and write and revise several short-short stories. This course also requires written critiques of fellow writers’ work and extensive reading in and writing about contemporary fiction. D. Brown
  

  • ENGL 416W: Advanced Poetry Workshop

    1 unit
    Prerequisite: Completion with a 2.0 or better of ENGL 316W  , or permission of instructor.
    A workshop for advanced poets. Writers further develop their own style and interests, workshop poems, produce a poetry sequence, and complete a polished portfolio. Discussion includes fellow writers’ poems, current trends in poetry, and a more nuanced conversation of poetic forms and devices. Poems will be submitted for publication. Mesa
  

  • ENGL 418W: Advanced Fiction Workshop

    1 unit
    Prerequisite: Completion with a 2.0 or better of ENGL 318W   or permission of instructor.
    A workshop for advanced fiction writers. Students write one long short story (minimum 30 pages) in addition to meeting individual goals set in consultation with the instructor, for a total of at least 60 pages over the course of the semester. In addition, students extensively revise their work, read several short-story collections and/or novels, and familiarize themselves with literary journals. This course may also require written critiques of fellow writers’ work and presentations of published stories. D. Brown