Undergraduate
We live in a media-rich world, and our society needs people who can quickly and effectively create engaging digital content for all kinds of media platforms: websites, streaming video, print, social media, podcasts, and others. The BA in Writing and Media is designed to develop the skills you need to produce written media content, and market studies predict strong growth in this jobs sector.
Students in this bachelor’s program will develop the ability to:
- Write effectively in a variety of contexts: creative, professional, technical, and others
- Compose multimodal texts that combine different elements of communication: verbal text, graphics, audio, video, etc.
- Use creativity to edit, produce, and promote digital and non-digital content
- Develop proficiency with industry-standard technologies
In the BA in Writing and Media, you will take courses in both Professional Writing and Creative Writing to improve your ability to write precisely and imaginatively and to learn how to speak to different audiences. You will combine these writing courses with electives—such as graphic design or screenwriting or documentary filmmaking—so you can tailor your degree around your own interests.
For more information on the BA in Writing and Media, see the UAB Undergraduate Catalog.
The Bachelor of Arts in English is designed for students with a passion for reading, writing, and thinking about language. The BA is an excellent choice for students interested in fields such as teaching, librarianship, law, creative writing, editing, linguistics, advocacy, non-profits, higher ed, and many others.
All students in this degree program take shared foundational classes, and then they select one of the following four concentrations for more in-depth study.
This BA program is for students who would like a wide exposure to the various aspects of English studies, and it’s particularly good for those with interests in literature and linguistics.
Students pursuing this degree also have the option to enter our departmental Honors track and, in close collaboration with a faculty mentor, to write an honors thesis on a subject of their choosing. This is excellent preparation for those considering future graduate work. See our Honors program page for more information.
Pyramids! Vikings! Gladiators! Explore the Wonders of the Pre-Modern World!
This interdisciplinary minor is focused on material, intellectual, sociopolitical, literary, and linguistic approaches to the Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance periods. You’ll learn current theories and methods for working with a range of source materials and objects, from archaeological finds and architecture to historical documents and poetry. Visit the UAB Course Catalog to learn more.
For more information, reach out to Dr. Jill Clements (
Following are the courses being offered in the upcoming Fall semester. Please check the online class schedule listing for the most accurate scheduling information.
200-Level Courses
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EH 213-1BB: Ideas in Lit: Contemporary Women’s Literature
Instructor: Slaughter
Remember those heavy literature anthologies from high school full of canonical works written by, mostly, dead white dudes? Well, that is what this class is NOT. This introductory literature course will look at the daring, funny, dark, weird, beautiful, challenging literature being composed by women writers alive and working today. While we will occasionally cast our lens to years past to understand the origin of the poets, novelists, essayists, and short story writers we will encounter, it’s likely that most of the writers we will read have websites, as well as Instagram and Twitter. As we read, we will study secondary and background materials which will supply the specialized vocabulary we will use in our informal and formal discussion. Upon completing the course, students will understand the conventions of literary genres and will have developed their analytical skills through close reading, critical thinking, and scholarly writing about literary texts. What do “our voices” sound like now? Let’s find out together.
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EH 213-1CA (HON): Ideas in Lit: Reading Birmingham
Instructor: Young
In this course, we will explore the rich, diverse, and complicated literary, historical, and cultural heritage of the Magic City through works representing a variety of literary genres (including book-length texts) written by authors associated with the Greater Birmingham area. Our reading will invite us to be curious about our surroundings and to explore the city with fresh eyes—whether we grew up here or only recently started calling Birmingham home. In addition to extensive reading, we will respond to assigned texts from a range of historical periods during class discussions and through formal, informal, and multimodal writing produced individually and as part of a team. We will also leave the classroom at times to experience firsthand the city that inspired (and continues to inspire) the authors we study.
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EH 213-1CC: Ideas in Lit: Queer Literature
Instructor: Butcher
Though often portrayed as a single, unified group, the LGBTQ+ community is filled with diverse—and sometimes competing—voices. We will examine fiction, creative nonfiction, graphic literature, film, documentary, poetry, and social media as we explore queer identities and queer experiences in writings by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, nonbinary, and asexual authors. Along the way we will learn some queer history and consider the impact of social and institutional forces on queer lives—as well as the ways that queer lives can impact society and institutions.
Whether you are gay, straight, ally, or simply curious, this course is designed as an introduction to LGBTQ literature and issues. Students need bring only a willingness to read carefully, discuss openly, and think carefully about the topics and texts at hand. As with other 200-level courses, assignments may include tests, essays, quizzes, and journals.
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EH 213-1D: Ideas in Lit: Asian Food Stories
Instructor: Dwivedi
Taking its cue from Kothari’s, “If you are what you eat, then what am I?” this course will explore the ubiquitous perception of “Asian Food,” the issues of cultural representation and the diasporic experience of Asian immigrants. Food matters not only in terms of what is cooking, but also in terms of who is cooking, where they are cooking ,and who is eating. How does the relationship with food alter with immigration, mobility, and assimilation?
Asian American culinary discourse problematizes the role of food at the center of race, ethnicity, gender, and class. The course will be an invigorating unpacking of such issues; reading materials will range from framework texts like Eating Asian America: A Food Studies Reader and Eating Identities: Reading Food in Asian American Literature, to an assortment of literary works, Twitter threads on Chicken Tikka Masala, fusion menus from Asian Food Network, and snippets from TV shows/art/documentaries. All learning materials will be available on Canvas. In terms of major assignments, there will be one essay, a group project, and a final digital project.
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EH 213-1E: Ideas in Literature: Exploring Witch Narratives
Instructor: Dwivedi
After exploring the sociohistorical context of witches, we will go on to study three novels, and parts of the corresponding texts that they derive from, to understand how authors have resisted the established discourse on witches and appropriated the witch narrative from the past to make it relevant in the current context. For instance, we will situate Maryse Conde’s I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem within the context of Arthur Miller’s representation of Tituba in The Crucible, and gather other narratives from around the world in order to consider the many appropriations of Tituba’s voice in present times. The two other novels will be Gregory Maguire’s Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, and Madeline Miller’s Circe.
Apart from the three novels, all materials (shorter works, podcasts, and film excerpts) will be available on Canvas. In terms of major assignments, there will be a multimodal group project, a midterm exam, and a final essay.
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EH 213-2C & 2D: Ideas in Lit: Nature Writing
Instructor: Grimes
Global warming, urban sprawl, shrinking biodiversity, pollution, viruses from bats...the relationship between humankind and the environment is one of the abiding issues of the modern world. And, at least since the days of Genesis, nature has also been one of the great and recurrent themes of both creative literature and non-fiction prose. In this course we will explore the many expressions of Nature in writing. Through such classic writers as Wordsworth and Thoreau and even Grimms' Fairy Tales, through more modern writers like Rachel Carson, Loren Eisley, Gary Snyder, Wendell Berry, Margaret Renkl and others, and even through national park brochures, nature magazines, and conservation and industry websites, we will consider some of the questions about Nature that have been significant in our history and that have bearing on current environmental discussion:
- Are natural resources here for human use, or do we damage Nature by using natural resources?
- Is Nature simply an uncivilized and perhaps violent chaos that we need to "tame," or is Nature a beautiful, perhaps even spiritual essence with which we should strive to live in harmony?
- Does natural beauty express some genuine moral or ethical values?
- Is there some deeply spiritual quality in Nature that we need to protect, or is Nature just our name for a set of biochemical and mechanical processes that are indifferent to human desires?
- Why do people spend energy and time working to buy things like cars and houses...and then spend their weekends fishing, or camping, or hunting, or "getting back to Nature?"
There are as many questions about Nature as there are nature writers fascinated by its marvelous, terrible, necessary beauty. This course will consider writing about nature from a very wide perspective--everything from reverent celebrations of natural beauty to hard-headed scientific essays that "explain" nature. In the process, students will come to a deeper understanding and clarification of our thinking about Nature as well as an enriched enjoyment and understanding of writing about Nature.
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EH 213-QLA and QLB : Ideas in Lit: Dog Lit
Instructor: Major
In this class we’ll read about dogs. We’ll learn about the history of the complex bond between humans and dogs, and we’ll explore a range of texts that use dogs as symbols, voices, characters, or inspiration. We’ll examine how the dog has been “constructed” (literally and figuratively). We’ll analyze texts to understand how they work as literature, and we’ll ponder what this literature teaches us about dogs, as well as what it reveals about humans through our relationships with dogs. This investigation will also provide entry into various social issues and ethical questions involving dogs. Ultimately, the literature this semester will help us better understand our personal, cultural, and ethical relationships with dogs, and it will encourage us to reevaluate how we (humans and dogs) inhabit each other’s worlds—both real and imagined.
300-Level Courses
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EH 301-1F: Reading, Writing, and Research
Instructor: Bach
This course is designed to teach students to read and write well in senior level literature courses. I teach writing as a craft. Students will also learn MLA documentation, library research techniques, scansion, literary terms, and some critical theory. Although students may write their final research papers on a number of different texts, the class will read poems, a play, and a novel together and explore different critical approaches to those texts.
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EH 307-2E: Beginning Creative Nonfiction
Instructor: Madden
This is an undergraduate workshop in the writing of creative nonfiction. From memoir to personal essay to literary journalism, our objective will be to explore the range of possibilities in writing creative nonfiction. In addition to free-writes to capture voice, we’ll discuss different authors in creative nonfiction through Dinty W. Moore's book, The Truth of the Matter. From Joan Didion to Joseph Mitchell to Roxane Gay to Cheryl Strayed to James Baldwin to Sandra Cisneros to Richard Rodriguez to Heather Sellers to Rebecca Skloot to Ta-Nehisi Coates to Imani Perry, we will be reading a range of authors working in the field of creative nonfiction, including graphic memoirs by Allie Brosh and Alison Bechdel.
Students will also be expected to submit their work to professional literary journals along with proof of submission. Weekly workshop discussions of student-written work will be a major part of the workshop as well the necessary revisions to shape the material. Flannery O'Connor wrote, "Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days." Joan Didion wrote: “We tell our stories in order to live.” With the words of O'Connor and Didion in mind, this seminar will focus on finding our voice in our own personal narratives and discovering place as character and how a strong sense of setting breathes both life and voice into creative nonfiction.
This seminar will be a combination of lecture, discussion, and writing prompts. We’ll also be doing some writing-in-place workshops in areas of Birmingham, including the archives of the Birmingham Public Library.
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EH 340-1C: Developing Digital Documents
Instructor: Bacha
This course is designed to help students develop the ability to write and design documents using computer aided publishing technologies. In this course, students are given the opportunity to improve their critical thinking skills as they relate to planning, writing, and revising the content and design of dynamic documents. Students will also explore a number of industry standard content management and publication tools used by working professional and technical communicators. No prior experience with any type of technology is required for this course.
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EH 376-1D: Shakespeare: An Introduction
Instructor: Bach
Reading six of Shakespeare’s plays together, the class will think about how the plays can be staged and interpreted. We will watch different versions of scenes and compare them to the texts. Through reading and listening to Shakespeare’s language closely, students will gain comfort with Shakespeare’s rhythms and his syntax. Discussions will focus particularly on how Shakespeare gives characters individual voices and how interpretations of Shakespeare’s characters have changed over time.
Plays to be read may include Henry V, As You Like It, Measure for Measure, and King Lear.
Three short paper assignments will include options such as writing about how one might direct a scene.
400/500-Level Courses
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EH 401/501-2D: Tutoring Writing
Instructor: Wells
Students will study the complex processes of learning and teaching writing. Students will also learn practical strategies for teaching writing one-on-one. The course will balance reading and discussion with hands-on experience and observation in the University Writing Center. Course readings will include scholarly articles about writing pedagogy, practical tutoring guides, and real tutors’ published reflections on their work. Course projects will include observation write-ups, tutoring reflections and philosophies, and an academic paper appropriate for presentation at a tutoring conference. Undergraduate students must take this course to qualify for employment in the University Writing Center; however, due to a limited number of available positions, taking EH 401 does not guarantee employment in the UWC.
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EH 412/512-7M: Forms of Poetry Writing Workshop
Instructor: Vines
We will write in received forms and modes; we will write about those who write in form; we will think in form; we will talk in form; we will walk in form; we will eat and drink in form; we will waller around in forms as if they were forty pounds of pudding in the trunk of a '72 Dodge Dart Swinger Special, and then we will dream about said wallering. By the time you leave this class, you will be scanning everything from turkey flirts and alley caterwauls to the Apostles’ Creed and Cartman’s ramblings. You will find yourself intoning rhymes for exegesis, placebo, monkeyshines, and Luca Brasi.
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EH 426/526: Special Topics: The History of the Book
Instructor: Chapman
When most of us say, “I love books,” we are usually referring to the contents of books. This course is not about what’s inside books in the sense of what they mean or of what the words on the page say. Instead, this is a course about books as objects, as material artifacts. The book is one of the most transformative inventions in human experience, and we’ll spend a semester tracing its fascinating history. We’ll start with stone inscriptions, runes, and scrolls; spend a lot of time with medieval manuscripts; and then learn about the astonishing impact of the printing press. Along the way, we’ll also consider the material substances that make up books: paper, ink, bindings, etc. Students will get to work with rare books in the Reynolds Historical Library, and we’ll hear presentations from librarians, artists, writers, and scholars about books as objects.
Assignments may include weekly journals or blog posts, two tests, and a final project in which students research one aspect of book history and present this research in digital form, using Adobe’s Spark web publishing tool. MA students will do a longer research project into book history and read more extensively about book history and bibliographic theory.
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EH 431/531-1B: Multicultural Cinema
Instructor: Siegel
This class will look at movies from different cultural contexts, both within the United States and internationally. The course will introduce you to a number of films and artists that you may not have encountered before, and we’ll think together about the ways that these movies deal with questions of identity, difference, and belonging. We’ll also practice analyzing movies as works of art and appreciating the nuances of visual storytelling. Filmmakers will likely include Julie Dash, Charles Burnett, Agnès Varda, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Barry Jenkins, Claire Denis, Jane Campion, Pedro Almódovar, Asghar Farhadi, and others.
You are welcome and encouraged to take the course even if you’ve never studied film before! Every week students will view films outside of class and write informal weekly responses. You’ll also learn how to use video editing tools to create your own documentary analysis, and for your formal work you’ll produce three “video essays.”
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EH 436/536-9H: Writing for Young People
Instructor: Madden
This workshop for juniors and seniors and graduate students will focus specifically on writing stories for young people. Students will be presented with a range of children's authors and genres from picture book to early reader to middle grade to young adult. From Maurice Sendak to James Marshall to Kwame Alexander to Judy Blume to Jaqueline Woodson to Linda Sue Park to Rainbow Rowell to Laurie Halse Anderson to Gary Paulson to Irene Latham to Pam Muñoz Ryan, students will read a range of stories and styles and learn about writing for children both in fiction and nonfiction.
Students will write three picture books, including a fractured fairy tale, one chapter of a middle-grade novel, and one chapter of a young adult novel. They will also be expected to revise their work based on feedback in the workshop. A visiting author will come to the workshop during the semester either in person or via zoom to discuss writing and children's literature and publishing today The class will culminate in a visit to Epic Magnet or Glen Iris School near campus for UAB students to read their stories developed in the workshop to the children in grades K-5 at Epic.
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EH 444/544-2F: Women’s Literature and Theory
Instructor: Jessee
Unlike a course titled “American Literature” or “Shakespeare,” when we name a course “Women’s Literature,” we are invoking two bodies: a body of literature and the writer’s gendered body. This course will focus on those two bodies. We will read various theories of the body, and we will explore how notions of the body inform a body of literature by women. We will grapple with questions like: How does our literature shape bodies and how do bodies shape literature? What happens to human bodies when represented in bodies of literature that do not conform to dominant cultural norms? What makes a body gendered, and do bodies of scientific literature have the potential to change our conceptions of the gendered body? While our goal is not to fully answer all of these questions, I hope that we will come away from the course with intriguing ideas concerning the complex relationship between gender and literature.
Required texts:
- Virginia Woolf’s Orlando
- Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye
- Casey Plett’s Little Fish
- Naomi Alderman’s The Power
- Janet Price and Margaret Shildrick’s Feminist Theory and the Body: A Reader
Course assignments will consist of short essays as well as a digital research project.
Note: This course fulfills the theory requirement for the Literature concentration.
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EH 457/557: Writing and Medicine
Instructor: Ryan
In this course, we will examine how medical knowledge and practice are “written”—or constructed—according to particular socio-historical values. Overarching institutional assumptions and norms as well as specific texts and practices will be considered in our study of medical discourse, including:
- examination of historical influences on the biomedical model privileged in Westernized medicine
- analysis and critique of “mediated” medicine, identifying frames and other presentation devices that influence how the human body, states of health and illness, and the field of medicine—its scope and authority—are represented to specific audiences
- evaluation and composition of texts situated in particular cultural contexts (e.g., health campaigns)
- introduction to working terminology in the investigation of and contribution to medical discourse
Required Text: Skloot, R. (2010). The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Broadway Paperbacks (imprint of Crown/Random). Several editions of this book exist. Please purchase this specific version.
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EH 462/562-2E: American Literature 1820-1870
Instructor: G. Temple
The years between 1820 and 1870 gave rise to some of the most significant economic and cultural transformations in the history of the United States. Phenomena like the opening of the Erie Canal, the development of the railroad, the invention of the telegraph, unprecedented Westward expansion, and the entrenchment of capitalism, inspired Americans with a tremendous sense of hope and promise about the nation’s future. That optimism was tempered, however, by anxiety over just exactly what kind of society those changes would ultimately create. Institutions and practices such as slavery, Native American “removal” and genocide, and the continued disenfranchisement of women, represented what many felt was a profoundly unethical corollary to the much ballyhooed “progress” of the day. Would the United States fulfill the promise of its democratic ideals? Or would new developments instead create a land of shallow, opportunistic, self-serving individualists who shun traditional ideals in favor of wealth and power?
In English 462/562 we will investigate how writers of this period in American history addressed these important questions, and we will further attempt to mine their significance to our lives in the present day. We will cover writers such as Robert Montgomery Bird, Louisa May Alcott, Harriet Jacobs, T. S. Arthur, and Herman Melville. Course requirements for graduate students will include a midterm essay, an archival research assignment, and a final term paper.
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EH 472/526-2B : Introduction to Old English
Instructor: Clements
Old English was spoken and written in England between roughly 500 and 1100 CE, and has survived in a wide range of beautiful and evocative texts, from simple inscriptions on stone crosses to the epic poem Beowulf. In this language and translation course, you will encounter some of the very oldest literature in the English language—the tales of kings, exiles, heroes, saints, and monsters that have inspired such writers as Milton and Tolkien. Because Old English is like a foreign language to Modern English speakers, the course will begin with the basics of Old English grammar and translation practice before moving on to more in-depth study of selected prose and verse texts. Students will also have the opportunity to examine Old English writing in its original manuscript context and to consider how we encounter these texts today through the processes of transcription, translation, and interpretation.
Note: This course counts as a Pre-1800 course, and can count as an elective for Linguistics concentrators.
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EH 483/583: British Romanticism
Instructor: Grimes
The literature of the romantic period presents one of the major turning points in Western social, political, and literary culture—this was the age of revolutions (the French Revolution, the American Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, etc.) in which a recognizably modern world was born.
The chief aim of this course is to help students become conversant with the canonical works and the canonical writers of the Romantic period: Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley & Keats. These writers—the poets are frequently called the "Big Six"— dominated the discussion of Romanticism through much of the 20th century; a knowledge of their work is essential to students of the period. At the same time, however, recent criticism has raised a number of compelling reasons to question both the legitimacy and the effects of the dominance of the writers traditionally labeled as the "major" or canonical romantics. There are a number of approaches to this emerging critique of canonical Romanticism, and I have included a few works such as Charlotte Smith’s sonnets and Beachy Head, Byron's Don Juan, Thomas Love Peacock’s Nightmare Abbey, and Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (themselves canonical texts, though romantic misfits) in order to introduce this critique.
As a result, students should emerge from the class with a comprehensive grasp on the traditional definitions of romanticism as well as a heightened critical sense of the significance—and the limitations—of these traditional definitions.
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EH 487/587-1D: The Nineteenth-Century British Novel
Instructor: Siegel
Victorian England was a culture of reading. Readers of every social class devoured newspapers, pamphlets, scandal sheets, sermons and tracts, histories and memoirs, collections of poetry, and above all fiction. Novels—endlessly innovative and outrageously long—flooded the market. Many of these came out periodically, so a reader might be in the middle of eight or ten novels at once.
In this class, we’ll read and enjoy some of the great novels of the period, by writers like Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, and others. As we go, we’ll learn about Victorian reading practices and we’ll think about our own. Students will keep close track of the story, of your reactions and predictions, and of the passages that you especially enjoyed; a big part of the class will be a detailed response log, which you’ll eventually shape into a formal project. Students will also write two essays.
Here’s the one iron-clad rule: because this class is so focused on the reading experience, students will be required to keep exactly on pace with the reading and discussions: no reading ahead and no falling behind. The reading will be substantial, usually 200 pages a week and sometimes more. So only take this class if you can commit to reading every word of every page of these wonderful, bloated Victorian novels.
600/700-Level Courses
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EH 601-9I: Classical Rhetorical Theory
Instructor: Minnix
Secondary Title: How to Win Friends and Influence People from the Ancient World to the Sixteenth Century
This seminar in classical to early modern rhetoric is for any student interested in how our understandings of democracy, community, culture, and persuasion emerged and why they are still important. Our journey will take us to the beginnings of Greek democracy, to the Roman republic, and to the dynasties of ancient China. We will then journey to the “House of Wisdom” of ancient Baghdad, to the Byzantine world, and to the Christian monasteries and early universities of Europe, to the voyages of the great book-hunter Poggio Bracciolini, who rediscovered Quintilian’s complete Institutes of Oratory. Our voyage will end in the early modern period, with the intense, and at times violent, debates over rhetoric’s identity and its use in education.
We will not simply learn about rhetoric as a theory of persuasion, but learn to critically analyze rhetoric in action, from its portrayal in ancient epics and drama to its use in historical and contemporary political discourse. We will also take advantage of recent work by digital humanities scholars to visualize what some of the key spaces of rhetorical discourse in the ancient world looked like. No prior knowledge of the ancient or medieval world or rhetoric is necessary for this course. The history of rhetoric is bound up tightly with the history of art, literature, religion, science, and philosophy, and the course should be equally interesting and fascinating whether your graduate concentration is Rhetoric and Composition, Literature, Linguistics, or Creative Writing.
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EH 605-39: Introduction to Graduate Studies
Instructor: Bach
This class will introduce you to the MA Program in English at UAB. We will discuss the reasons for pursuing a Masters degree and the worlds this degree can open up for you. In addition, we will discuss what it means to be a Masters student--what is expected of graduate students, what differentiates graduate students from undergraduate students--and how universities and departments are structured. We will also discuss the specifics of UAB’s program. The class is designed to help you begin the process of becoming a professional in the field of English.
Masters students are on their way to becoming the peers of their professors. This new status requires you to adjust your outlook on the field you have chosen to study—to write and read and teach as your professors do, and to understand the academy and the field as they do. Beginning the process of becoming a professional is much easier when you are part of a community engaged in that process. This class is also a way of establishing that community.
Following are the courses being offered in upcoming semesters. Please check the online class schedule listing for the most accurate scheduling information
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Spring 2023 Courses
200-Level Courses
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EH 205-QLA: Intro to Creative Writing
Instructor: Slaughter
This course is an introduction to the practice of creative writing, with a particular focus on poetry and fiction writing. By the completion of the course students will:
- Employ the crucial vocabulary and terms necessary to discuss, read and write poetry and fiction;
- Practice and apply a range of techniques to help students write original, image-driven, polished poetry and fiction;
- Discover the incredible amount, quality, and range of writing being produced by living writers via contemporary online literary journals;
- Revise their creative writing and recognize that successful creative writing is always the result of a lot of hard work.
To this end, expect to devote considerable attention to strategies for observation and focus, modeling, accurate language choice, achieving a precise image, and the elements of structure.
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EH 213-1A: Ideas in Literature: Latino/a/e/x Lit
Instructor: Santiago
Hispanic? Latino? Latine? Latin@? Latinx? While the blanket terms used to define this diverse population are often contested, what is inarguable is the fact that Latinos constitute the largest ethnic minority group in the United States—a fact that has profound political, social, and cultural implications. Importantly, Latine experiences are not monolithic; there are as many experiences and perspectives about Latinidad as there are ethnicities and nationalities. In this course we will study selected works from the rich body of literature produced by Latinx authors residing in the U.S.A. and writing in English. Particularly, we will examine questions of home, identity, ethnicity, and nationality as manifested in Latine literature. These texts often ask:
- What does it mean to be Latin American?
- How do race, ethnicity, and nationality overlap? How do these identities interact with those related to gender, class, religion, and ability?
- How do does one remain authentic when straddling multiple identities?
- What does it mean to be an American who lives on literal or metaphorical borderlands?
As we explore these questions we will encounter multiple genres of classic and contemporary texts—from Sandra Cisneros to Bad Bunny—while examining their historical and social contexts. Assignments and expectations will be typical of 200-level lit courses.
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EH 213-1CB: Ideas in Literature: Queer Literature
Instructor: Butcher
Though often portrayed as a single, unified group, the LGBTQ+ community is filled with diverse—and sometimes competing—voices. We will examine fiction, creative nonfiction, graphic literature, film, documentary, poetry, and social media as we explore queer identities and queer experiences in writings by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, nonbinary, and asexual authors. Along the way we will learn some queer history and consider the impact of social and institutional forces on queer lives—as well as the ways that queer lives can impact society and institutions.
Whether you are gay, straight, ally, or simply curious, this course is designed as an introduction to LGBTQ+ literature and issues. Students need bring only a willingness to read carefully, discuss openly, and think carefully about the topics and texts at hand. As with other 200-level courses, assignments may include tests, essays, quizzes, and journals.
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EH 213-1EB/1FA: Ideas in Lit: Money and Happiness
Instructor: Temple
In this class, we will read American literary explorations of connections between money and, for lack of a better term, “happiness.” By reading from writers such as Benjamin Franklin, Elizabeth Stoddard, Horatio Alger, Ralph Ellison, Richard Yates, and Cormac McCarthy, we will discuss issues such as the moral/ethical ramifications of the pursuit of money; the effects of race and gender on access to money and the pursuit of happiness; and the kinds of communities, institutions, pastimes, and even perversions that result from a society structured around the goal of private accumulation. Assignments will include two essays, an out-of-class final exam, and periodic study questions.
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EH 213-2A/2B: Ideas in Literature – Sweet Home Alabama?
Instructor: Major
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” was written in response to two songs by Neil Young—“Southern Man” and “Alabama”—that deal with themes of racism and slavery in the American South. The song’s lyrics, which call Neil Young out by name in a rebuke of his Yankee criticisms in some places and are problematically vague in other places, are controversial—heralded by some as admirable, defiant pride and criticized by others as a strutting defense of old Confederate values. In many ways, the tensions and complexities embodied within this song reflect conversations that are still very much alive today about pride, identity, and the ways in which Alabama’s troubling past continues to manifest itself in the present.
This class will begin by placing a question mark after the Southern rock anthem’s title: “Sweet Home Alabama?” What is this place and its people about? What are the different narratives that contribute to Alabama’s mythology? What does it mean to call Alabama home? What, if anything, is sweet about that experience? We’ll attempt to answer these questions by examining the contemporary literature of the place. Our approach will be kaleidoscopic: we’ll read a wide range of texts from a diverse group of authors who are from (or who spent significant time in) various places in Alabama and whose writing was deeply influenced by and directly responds to that experience. We’ll read this material critically and in the context of the cultural ethos from which it comes, and we’ll discuss and write about texts both individually and in relation to each other. As we do this, we’ll consider significant themes of contemporary Alabama writing and explore how this complicates, deepens, or explodes our understandings of place and identity—and why that matters in both historical and current political and social contexts.
This course is appropriate for anyone interested in Alabama, contemporary Southern literature, Alabama history, the Civil Rights Movement, social justice, or theories of place and identity.
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EH 213-2C/2D: Literature at the Movies
Instructor: Ellis
This course will explore intersections between literature and film by studying stories that take their characters to the movies, poems about cinema, and the ways films interpret literature by adapting stories for the screen. We will examine films about the study of literature and author biopics, as well as criticism and reviews of film, film theory, and screenplays as literary texts. Looking through both page and screen as lenses, we will consider identification, spectatorship, psychoanalysis, narrative, and the cinema as cultural institution. Works may include selections from Agee, Anzaldua, Baldwin, Ellison, Farrell, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, King, Morrison, Puig, and Schwartz.
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EH 223-2E: Witches
Instructor: Dwivedi
The issue of representation is problematic, particularly for witches; this semester, we will explore the identity of witches as violators/violated. We will study two novels (Maguire’s Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, and Conde’s I, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem), a few fairy tales, and some excerpts to understand how authors have resisted the established discourse on witches and appropriated the witch narrative in their own writing.
There will be short supplemental materials, which will be posted on Canvas, and which will help you understand the context and how the narrative has changed. For instance, we will read chapter 12 from Wizard of Oz, which is about the Wicked Witch of the West, and then start reading Wicked. In terms of major assignments, there will be a literary analysis essay, a midterm exam, and a final project.
300-Level Courses
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EH 301-1E: Reading, Writing, and Research
Instructor: Grimes
English 301 is a methods course focusing on the practice of reading literary texts, locating and studying the critical and historical contexts of those texts, and writing well-crafted and well-informed critical essays that explore the meaning, value, and significance of those texts. Having taken EH 301, students will be able to:
- Read closely such that they can recognize and describe the significant features of a given literary text. This skill presumes that the student has command over the basic terminology used in literary and rhetorical criticism and has a fundamental understanding of the major literary genres and periods of literary history.
- Conduct effective library research in secondary sources using databases such as the Modern Language Association International Bibliography (MLAIB) and the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL). They should also be able to use JSTOR and other full-text repositories of critical materials, and they should be able to locate and use materials from the Sterne Library collection. Students who have developed these abilities will also recognize both the legitimate uses and the limitations of such tertiary sources as "SparkNotes" or other students' guides.
- Write critical essays which situate an original thesis in an appropriate and well-informed scholarly context. Students should be able to incorporate both primary and secondary source material into their own writing and then document the essay accurately but unobtrusively using the MLA documentation system.
- Recognize the aims and principles of some of the central theoretical approaches to literary analysis that have been prominent in recent critical writing. While EH 301 is not a course in literary theory, students should gain sufficient exposure to prominent theoretical approaches so as to be able to recognize when a critic is writing within, for example, a psychoanalytic or feminist or poststructuralist (or other) context.
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EH 305-2D: Beginning Poetry Writing Workshop
Instructor: Vines
EH 305 is a poetry writing workshop that emphasizes reading, writing, and critiquing poetry. Throughout the semester, we will explore the fundamental elements of poetry and closely examine poetry by writers with various styles and sensibilities. Our discussions will employ the types of vocabulary and considerations specific to poetry and poetry criticism. These discussions should help you to articulate your impressions and criticisms—a facility you'll need for workshopping the poems of your peers and for writing critical responses and original poetry.
Required Texts
- Chad Davidson and Gregory Fraser, Writing Poetry: Creative and Critical Approaches
- Two contemporary poetry collections
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EH 315-1B: Introduction to Professional Writing
Instructor: Wells
In this course, students will explore and practice the work of professional writers. We will study how professional writers use research to better understand their rhetorical situation, which often includes the organization(s) for whom they are writing. From there, we will study how professional writers make choices about their writing based on what they have learned about their audience, purpose, and context. Students will practice processes of invention, audience analysis, document design, drafting, giving feedback, revising, and editing.
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EH 327-2B: Finding the Lost Generation
Instructor: Young
Extended Title: Modernist Expatriates in Early-Twentieth-Century Paris
“You are all a lost generation.”
This is the epigraph from Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises. He credits the comment to his literary mentor, the iconoclastic American writer Gertrude Stein. The idea of a lost generation may not have been new in 1926, however. Indeed, in his posthumous memoir A Moveable Feast, Hemingway recounts that Stein overheard a French garage owner use the phrase with exasperation as he berated a mechanic. But when Stein says it, she does so with an eye toward the young, mostly American writers and artists who populate her Paris salon. At once pithy and enigmatic, Stein’s observation provides a way for these artists to self-identify and to explain what they are seeking—in their work and in Paris. They are looking for themselves. And in that search, they find each other.
In this course, we will explore texts by writers who made up the artistically fertile early-twentieth-century expatriate community in Paris. We will not limit ourselves to works by American writers but will also consider those of writers from other English-speaking countries as well as performing artists. Our work will deepen our understanding of what literary scholar Donald Pizer calls the “Paris moment” specifically and Modernism generally and will allow us to draw connections with our own historical and cultural moment.
We will read fiction, non-fiction, and poetry produced by writers like T. S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Ezra Pound, and Gertrude Stein, though we will certainly add selections by others.
Major assignments will include two exams and a multimodal project.
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EH 345-1S ST: Rhetoric of Human Rights
Instructor: Minnix
It is difficult to imagine a situation where words matter more than in the advocacy, activism, law, and policy-work that seeks to secure and protect the rights of our human community. In fact, we might say that a significant part of the work that takes place in social movements, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOS), legislative bodies, and other key organizations is rhetorical work, work designed to compel the recognition of human dignity and rights through the power of persuasive speech.
In this course, we will explore this fascinating work in two ways. First, we will explore the rhetorical history of some of the most enduring and important rhetorical and philosophical statements of human rights. Second, we will take a case-study approach that asks us to explore what we know about practicing rhetorical history and the history of human rights. We will examine specific cases of human rights activism and advocacy, and students will have the opportunity to pursue a research project that allows them to develop their own rhetorical case-study of a particular human rights movement, event, law, or conflict that interests them. In addition, students will have the opportunity to meet and discuss the practice of human rights rhetoric with practitioners, activists, and advocates.
400/500-Level Courses
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EH 402/502-7P: Writing in Popular Periodicals
Instructor: Ryan
Required Texts and Materials
- Anthology of recent periodical writing.
- Assigned journal articles and book chapters available through Sterne Library Databases and provided by the instructor.
Course Description
This course will introduce you to the conversations that flourish in a plethora of periodical forms: print and digital, consumer and trade, historical and contemporary. Throughout this course, we’ll be examining:
- The cultural phenomenon of the “popular periodical” in global cultures, including the early history of newspapers and magazines and the role/s they played, and continue to play, in civil society
- Approaches to understanding periodical audiences and their consumption habits Strategies for pitching and producing effective prose for targeted periodicals
Course Assignments and Percentages
Assignments to be completed in this course include the following:
- Reading Journal (15%): a series of mostly in-class and occasional out-of-class short writing assignments based on class readings and discussions. Additional requirements may be given to students in EH 502 for several of these assignments, including a required discussion leader exercise worth 15 points. Since reading journal prompts will be assigned throughout the semester, the grade for this portion of the course will be incomplete until the end of the semester. The instructor will, however, send updates about the number of points earned/points available at intervals throughout the semester.
- Slice of History Paper (20%): paper examining an aspect of popular periodicals in historical context (e.g., representation of a particular historical issue in the pages of a single title). Research required. EH 402: 5-7 pages EH 502: 8-10 pages Final Project (30%) and Final Project Oral Pitch (10%): completion of a project drawing on each student’s interests in the periodical industry. Research required Reading Journal (15%): a series of mostly in-class and occasional out-of-class short writing assignments based on class readings and discussions. Additional requirements may be given to students in EH 502 for several of these assignments, including a required discussion leader exercise worth 15 points. Since reading journal prompts will be assigned throughout the semester, the grade for this portion of the course will be incomplete until the end of the semester. The instructor will, however, send updates about the number of points earned/points available at intervals throughout the semester. Slice of History Paper (20%): paper examining an aspect of popular periodicals in historical context (e.g., representation of a particular historical issue in the pages of a single title). Research required.
- EH 402: 5-7 pages
- EH 502: 8-10 pages
- Final Project (30%) and Final Project Oral Pitch (10%): completion of a project drawing on each student’s interests in the periodical industry. Research required
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EH 427/527-1C: Money and Happiness
Instructor: Temple
In Volume I of Capital, Marx describes money as “the alienated essence of man’s labor and life.” In Marx’s view, the work we do as subjects of capitalism, our aspirations in life, and even the judgments we make about the moral character of others, are fundamentally connected to money, an abstract and essentially arbitrary symbol that “dominates us” as we “worship it.”
Marx’s critique of capitalism and its primary goal, the accumulation of ever-increasing profit, was not universally shared, however. In fact, writers from a seemingly limitless array of disciplines and perspectives have examined the social ramifications of capitalism since at least the early decades of the nineteenth century. In this class, we will read American literary explorations of connections between money and, for lack of a better term, “happiness.”
By reading from writers such as Benjamin Franklin, Elizabeth Stoddard, Horatio Alger, Ralph Ellison, Richard Yates, and Cormac McCarthy, we will discuss issues such as the moral/ethical ramifications of the pursuit of money; connections between competitive individualism, the American dream, and inequality in America; the effects of race and gender on access to money and the pursuit of happiness; and the kinds of communities, institutions, pastimes, and even perversions that result from a society structured around the goal of private accumulation.
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EH 427/527-1C: Poems
Instructor: Grimes
This is a course in the “appreciation” of British and American poetry. Our aim will be to develop a comprehensive sense of the emergence and evolution of poetic techniques and traditions from the Early Modern period to the present. We will do this by close-reading a small sample of poems that have been influential in shaping the historical trajectory of poetry in English. By the end of this class students should have a detailed and comprehensive grasp on the history of English poetry, an intimate familiarity with a number of highly influential poems, and (if all goes well) a few new favorite poems.
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EH 429/529-QL: Memoir in Film and Spoken Word
Instructor: Madden
"What would you write if you weren't afraid?" asks Mary Karr in her book, On Memoir. This is a memoir class. You will be mining your life's stories to create a memoir. We will be reading memoirs and watching films based on those memoirs, so you will also get to see the possibilities in adapting your memoir to film. Your memoir may be about a single period in your life, or it may be a series of connected stories.
Through a series weekly writing sparks and readings, you will begin to discover the story you want to tell. Every memoir has a container. The container in Cheryl Strayed's memoir, Wild, is the Pacific Crest Trail, but it is actually the story of her late mother gone too soon. The container in Sarah Broom's The Yellow House is Broom's childhood home in New Orleans East, but it's really a story about family, loss, and the devastation wrought by Katrina. Art is the container in Allie Brosh's hilarious memoir, Hyperbole and a Half, about her crippling anxiety.
From graphic to traditional memoirs, we'll be reading memoirists like Alison Bechdel, Vivian Gornick, Amy Tan, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Mary Karr, Jesmyn Ward, Amos Oz, Tobias Wolff, Sally Mann, Jeannette Winterson, Tara Westover, and many others in our workshop. This class is an opportunity for you to consider how to shape part of your life experience into a narrative, and by the end of the workshop, you will have approximately 30-60 pages of a memoir. You will also create a Submittable Account to begin the process of submitting short and long essays to literary journals seeking the voices of new writers.
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EH 442/552-2F: Literary Theory/Criticism: 20th Century to the Present
Instructor: Bach
In this class, we will read some of the greatest hits of literary theory. We will start with Psychoanalytic Theory and Marxist Theory, and move on to Feminism, Queer Theory, Critical Race Theory, Animal Studies, Postcolonial Theory, Ecocriticism, and Science Studies. That trajectory will help students to understand both the history of literary theory and the ground on which current theorists are building their texts. Students will learn how to take apart difficult theoretical texts and use their insights to read in new ways.
Course Requirements:
- A reading journal collected weekly
- Three exams
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EH 455/555-2D: Digital Publishing
Instructor: Bacha
Beginning with the shift from print to digital publication practices, students in this course analyze how the act of text production is changing and learn rhetorical strategies necessary to publish information in newer communication contexts. Specifically, students explore how newer trends and technologies for digital communication are influencing how people read, write, interact with, and share publicly available information.
Students in this course are also introduced to a variety of industry standard communication technologies designed to help them prepare and publish interactive information (including web-based and video productions) designed to function in a number of different communication contexts. No prior experience with any type of technology is required for this course.
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EH 476/576-2E: Shakespeare Across the Centuries
Instructor: Bach
In this class, we will read four Shakespeare plays intensively, and we will look at how those plays have been responded to and transformed since they were written more than four hundred years ago. We will read early editors of Shakespeare and talk about how and why his plays have been heavily edited. We’ll also read responses to Shakespeare from 19th and 20th century authors. We’ll talk about how his plays have been rewritten to conform to later ideas about gender, sexuality, and race. Students will learn to read the plays carefully in relation to their original cultural context, and they will learn what has happened to Shakespeare and his plays over the last four hundred years.
Plays
- As You Like It
- Twelfth Night
- Othello
- The Tempest
Course Requirements:
- Six 750-word Responses
- One 8-page Paper
- A Final Exam
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EH 478/578-2F: Milton
Instructor: Chapman
Sometime in the late 1650s, the blind poet John Milton began writing to “justify the ways of God to man.” Specifically, he was trying to understand why there is evil in the world and how a loving God can allow suffering and death. The resulting poem, Paradise Lost, retells the fall of Adam and Eve, although Milton does not confine his imagination just to the Garden of Eden. The poem also includes the landscapes of Heaven and Hell, and the vast, wind-battered realms of Chaos.
Many readers over the centuries have considered Paradise Lost the single greatest poem in the English language, and our main goal this semester will be to read it in its entirety. Along the way, we will sample other works by Milton and his contemporaries in order to develop a broader sense of seventeenth-century ideas about gender, theology, justice, ecology, and politics.
Assignments for undergraduates will include a number of low-stakes reading responses, two short papers (which may include creative or multimedia work), and a final exam. Graduate students will write a longer final essay in place of the exam.
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EH 496-QLA: English Capstone
Instructor: Wells
In the Capstone Seminar, students will reflect on their experiences as English majors, explore options for careers and continued education, and practice finding and analyzing job ads. Additionally, students will learn to describe their skills and experiences in documents like résumés and personal statements and study how to manage their professional identities and networks in online spaces like LinkedIn. Students will receive peer and instructor feedback on their job materials and will have many opportunities to revise.
600-Level Courses
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EH 646 7P: Practicum in Teaching Writing
Instructor: Mina
This course is designed to prepare graduate students to teach writing at the college level. The course focuses on the theories, research, and pedagogies of teaching and learning college composition through readings, discussions, reflection, and mentored practices. Students will observe instructors, practice commenting on papers, design writing assignments and units, and plan and teach a class session while being mentored by an experienced instructor. Students will also produce their own teaching materials using the conceptual learning and classroom experiences accumulated during the course of the semester all while reflecting on their learning and teaching knowledge and practices.
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EH 693-7M: Death in Medieval Literature
Instructor: Clements
This graduate seminar is centered on the topic of death in the early Middle Ages with a particular focus on dying and the dead in medieval literary texts. Students will be introduced to death’s historical and material contexts to explore how medieval cultures managed the event of dying and the various physical and spiritual stakes related to the handling of the body, burial, and mourning. We will use this contextual work to examine how early medieval writers addressed or represented death in a range of textual genres, from homilies and sermons to carved inscriptions and epic poetry.
Students will read both primary and secondary sources each week, learning the history of scholarship on this topic over the last two centuries. Each student will present prepared material and lead discussion and will complete a culminating research project that explores this theme more deeply in a given text.
Assignments will include midterm and final essays, an out-of-class final exam, and a critical presentation. Graduate students will be expected to produce more sophisticated, critically and theoretically nuanced, and consequently longer essays than their undergraduate classmates.
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EH 205-QLA: Intro to Creative Writing
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Spring 2024 Courses
200-Level Courses
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EH 213-2B and 2C: SciFi Lit and Film
EH 213-2B and 2C: SciFi Lit and Film
Instructor: Ronald Guthrie
Over the course of the semester, we will discuss what it means to be human in the 21st century by analyzing science fiction short stories and films from both past and contemporary authors and directors. We will also read several nonfiction pieces, including news stories, to give context to the fictional readings and movies. During the first half of the semester, we will look at works focused on robotics and artificial intelligence with an eye toward the possible ramifications of giving machines “human” rights or imposing laws to control them, especially if they become self-aware. During the second half of the semester, we will focus on cyborgs by examining how society has already adapted and will have to adapt even more to people who are both human and machine in light of the predictions made by speculative fiction and film.
This course will require considerable reading, writing, and classroom discussion. Students should be aware that some of the texts and films include uncomfortable and controversial subject matter such as prejudice and discrimination, religion, sex, drug use, and violence.
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EH 213 QLE and QLF: Storytelling
EH 213 QLE and QLF: Storytelling
Instructor: Aparna Dwivedi
This class will be about: 1) exploring how stories determine who we are by studying story shapes: where they come from and how they shape our understanding of ourselves and others 2) evaluating strategies of impactful storytelling by considering the elements of point of view, voice, humor/tone, and structure in a range of genres; and 3) identifying resources for finding stories as well as telling personal stories. The course will be an invigorating unpacking of issues pertaining to stories: who tells them, whose stories are told, how stories are told in genres ranging from fiction/creative nonfiction to stand-up comedy, mockumentaries, podcasts etc., how to identify which stories to tell etc. Reading materials will include: The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez (purchase); selections from Alice LaPlante’s The Making of a Story (on Canvas); Michelle Zauner’s Crying in H Mart (purchase); Cathy Park Hong’s, Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning (downloadable ebook on Canvas); personal essays by Adichie, Sedaris and others; and episodes from podcasts like The Moth, This American Life, and Alabama Folklife. In terms of major assignments, there will be one multimodal project, an essay, and a final research/creative project; there will be weekly journal writing and group posts on the discussion board.
300-Level Courses
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EH 301 7M: Reading, Writing, and Research for English Majors
EH 301 7M: Reading, Writing, and Research for English Majors
Instructor: Leonard Kyle Grimes
Intended chiefly for prospective English majors, EH 301 will introduce students to advanced methods in reading and interpretation, to the techniques of library research on literary and historical topics, and to the practices and conventions of writing about literature. Having completed EH 301, students will be able to... ...conduct effective library research in secondary sources using the Modern Language Association International Bibliography (MLAIB) and other such resources. They should also be able to use JSTOR and other full-text repositories of critical materials, and they should be able to locate and use materials from the Sterne Library collection. Students who have developed these abilities will also recognize both the legitimate uses and the limitations of such tertiary sources as "SparkNotes" or other students' guides. ...write a critical essay which situates an original thesis in an appropriate and well-informed scholarly context. Students should be able to gracefully incorporate both primary and secondary source material into their own writing and then document the essay accurately but unobtrusively using the MLA documentation system.
...read closely such that they can recognize and describe the significant features of a given literary text. This skill presumes that the student has command over the basic terminology used in literary and rhetorical criticism and has a fundamental understanding of the major literary genres and periods of literary history.
...recognize the aims and principles of some of the central theoretical approaches to literary analysis that have been prominent in recent critical writing. While EH 301 is not a course in literary theory, students should gain sufficient exposure to prominent theoretical approaches so as to be able to recognize when a critic is writing within, for example, a psychoanalytic or feminist or poststructuralist (or other) context.
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EH 304 7P Editing in Professional Contexts
EH 304 7P Editing in Professional Contexts
Instructor: Cynthia Ryan
EH 304 is for students interested in . . .
- Learning how editors work with authors/creators to develop ideas for print and digital texts ranging from articles to books to a variety of uniquely packaged products.
- Understanding the stages of the editing process (from developmental editing to proofreading) and getting hands-on experience at each stage.
- Developing research skills for identifying marketable ideas for target audiences.
- Acquiring a writerly voice for engaging with editors AND acquiring an editorial voice for engaging with writers.
- Gaining skills that will improve your unique writing process, whatever your professional ambitions might be!
Feel free to direct questions to Dr. Cynthia Ryan:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ....read closely such that they can recognize and describe the significant features of a given literary text. This skill presumes that the student has command over the basic terminology used in literary and rhetorical criticism and has a fundamental understanding of the major literary genres and periods of literary history.
...recognize the aims and principles of some of the central theoretical approaches to literary analysis that have been prominent in recent critical writing. While EH 301 is not a course in literary theory, students should gain sufficient exposure to prominent theoretical approaches so as to be able to recognize when a critic is writing within, for example, a psychoanalytic or feminist or poststructuralist (or other) context.
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EH 315 2B Introduction to Professional Writing
EH 315 2B Introduction to Professional Writing
Instructor: Jaclyn Wells
In this course, students will explore and practice the work of professional writers. We will study how professional writers use research to better understand their rhetorical situation, which often includes the organization(s) for whom they are writing. From there, we will study how professional writers make choices about their writing based on what they have learned about their audience, purpose, and context. Students will practice processes of invention, audience analysis, document design, drafting, giving feedback, revising, and editing.
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EH 320 2D Multimodal Writing
EH 320 2D Multimodal Writing
Instructor: Meagan Malone
This course provides students with foundational skills in understanding, analyzing, and critiquing multimodal texts. Specifically, students will analyze how multimodal components add meaning to written text, learn how to critique the effectiveness of multimodal texts, and apply what they learn in the production of their own multimodal texts. Students will also be introduced to ethical issues inherent in multimodal composition, such as questions of fair use, licensing, and copyright.
This course is a requirement for the new Writing and Media BA and it fulfills a Professional Writing Elective for the English BA.
400/500-Level Courses
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EH 427/527 2D (Post-1800); Sex and Gender in American Literature
EH 427/527 2D (Post-1800); Sex and Gender in American Literature
Instructor: Gale Temple
When the Puritans first set up a colony in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1620, their concepts of gender and sexuality were very different from those that circulate in the western world today. One of the most noteworthy of these differences is that early Americans did not recognize “sexuality” as a discreet category of identity (gay, straight, etc.); in other words, although a person might engage in a specific sex act, or feel intimacy towards men or women or both, those behaviors or predilections did not then classify that person as a “type,” or to use Michel Foucault’s famous formulation, a “species” whose entire being could be understood based on sexuality alone. Another way our culture contrasts with that of the Puritans is that what we think of as “sex” – or sex “acts” – were not necessarily performed or experienced separately from other aspects of cultural life. Sex may have been far more restricted among the American Puritans, but it was less compartmentalized as a strictly private concern, and specifically “sexual” desire was not necessarily separable from other forms of desire or passion (for God’s love, for example). Early Americans also had specific beliefs about gender norms that starkly contrast with those that exist today, beliefs that began to change in drastic ways beginning in the mid-eighteenth century. Despite these differences, however, early American literary, medical, legal, and theological writings can tell us a great deal about the sexual culture we inhabit today. In this class we will study early American writing in order to trace the evolution of these changes, while also reflecting on how our ideological assumptions about sex and gender today still retain many of the beliefs, fears, hopes, and anxieties of earlier phases of history. Writers we will study include Hannah Webster Foster, Theodore Winthrop, Herman Melville, Harriet Jacobs, T. S. Arthur, and Henry James.
Requirements:
Course requirements include a mid-semester essay, a final term paper, and an archival project in which you will find and report on a material artifact (literary text, advertisement, medical case history or treatment, invention or object, etc.) that has some bearing on the themes of the class. There will also be periodic reading quizzes, in-class writings, and study questions that will count towards your final grade. -
EH 431/531 2F Film Visions
EH 431/531 2F Film Visions
Instructor: Daniel Seigel
In this course we will dive into the work of three major filmmakers: Robert Altman, whose genre mash-ups break every Hollywood rule; Agnès Varda, whose films shine a light on people and communities with all their customs and quirks; and Hirokazu Kore-eda, who explores the deep emotional currents of modern life. We’ll discuss the different elements that enter into a director’s works—personal history, cultural background, political beliefs, thematic obsessions, visual style, philosophy—and the alchemy that combines them into what we might call the director’s “vision.”
You are welcome and encouraged to take the course even if you’ve never studied film before! Every week students will view films outside of class and write informal responses. For your formal work, you will learn how to use digital tools to create your own video commentaries.
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442/552 2EA Literary Theory
442/552 2EA Literary Theory
Instructor: Rebecca Bach
In this class, we will read some of the greatest hits of literary theory and some very recent significant theory. Theoretical movements covered include Animal Studies, Cultural Studies, Critical Race Theory, Ecocriticism, Feminist Theory, Marxism, Queer Theory, Postcolonial Theory, Science Studies, and Psychoanalytic Theory. Students will learn how to understand difficult theoretical texts and use their insights to read in new ways.
Students will write a weekly reading journal and take three exams. Graduate students will write a research paper using theory.
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476/576 2CA Shakespeare Across the Centuries
476/576 2CA Shakespeare Across the Centuries
Instructor: Rebecca Bach
In this class, we will read four Shakespeare plays intensively, and we will look at how those plays have been responded to and transformed since they were written more than four hundred years ago. We will read early editors of Shakespeare and talk about how and why his plays have been heavily edited. We’ll also read responses to Shakespeare from 19th and 20th century authors. We’ll talk about how his plays have been rewritten to conform to later ideas about gender, sexuality, and race. Students will learn to read the plays carefully in relation to their original cultural context, and they will learn what has happened to Shakespeare and his plays over the last four hundred years.
Undergraduates will write six responses, one eight-page paper, and take a final exam. Graduate students will write six responses, and a fifteen-page research paper.
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EH 483/583 1M British Romanticism
EH 483/583 1M British Romanticism
Instructor: Leonard Kyle Grimes
The literature of the Romantic period presents one of the major turning points in Western social, political, and literary culture. This was the age of revolutions (the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, etc.) in which a recognizably modern world was born. The chief aim of this course is to help students become conversant with the canonical works and the canonical writers of the Romantic period: Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley & Keats. These writers—the poets are frequently called the "Big Six"— dominated the discussion of Romanticism through much of the 20th century; a knowledge of their work is still essential to students of the period. At the same time, however, recent criticism has raised a number of compelling reasons to question both the legitimacy and the effects of the dominance of the writers traditionally labeled as the "major" or canonical romantics. There are a number of approaches to this emerging critique of canonical Romanticism, and I have included works such as Charlotte Smith’s Elegiac Sonnets and Beachy Head, Byron's Don Juan, Thomas Love Peacock’s Nightmare Abbey, and Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (themselves canonical texts, though Romantic misfits) in order to introduce this critique. As a result, students should emerge from the class with a comprehensive grasp on the traditional definitions of Romanticism as well as a heightened critical sense of the significance—and the limitations—of these traditional definitions.
A note about the Spring 2024 schedule: EH 483/583 is slotted into the 1M time period, MWF from 3:35-4:25. I will plan to offer an online option for most of the Friday sessions, and, depending on the needs and inclinations of the class, perhaps some of the Wednesday sessions as well.
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EH 496 QLA English Capstone Seminar
EH 496 QLA English Capstone Seminar
Instructor: Jaclyn Wells
In the Capstone Seminar, students will reflect on their experiences as English majors, explore options for careers and continued education, and practice finding and analyzing job ads. Additionally, students will learn to describe their skills and experiences in documents like résumés and personal statements and study how to manage their professional identities and networks in online spaces like LinkedIn. Students will receive peer and instructor feedback on their job materials and will have many opportunities to revise.
600-Level Courses
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EH 646 Practicum in Teaching Writing
EH 646 Practicum in Teaching Writing
Instructor: Lilian Mina
This course is designed to prepare graduate students to teach writing at the college level. The course focuses on the theories, research, and pedagogies of teaching and learning college composition through readings, discussions, reflection, and mentored practices. Students will observe instructors, practice commenting on papers, design writing assignments and units, and plan and teach a class session while being mentored by an experienced instructor. Students will also produce their own teaching materials using the conceptual learning and classroom experiences accumulated during the course of the semester all while reflecting on their learning and teaching knowledge and practices.
Course Objectives
At the conclusion of this course, you should be able to:
- Understand the connection between composition theories and pedagogies
- Develop a variety of teaching writing materials
- Respond with revision-oriented feedback to student writing
- Use rubrics to grade student writing
- Practice reflection on own learning and practices
- Design classroom activities to facilitate the teaching of writing
- Articulate a personal teaching philosophy informed by the course readings, discussions, and practices
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EH 693 9I Three London Writers
EH 693 9I Three London Writers
Instructor: Daniel Seigel
For centuries, London has been a city of contradictions, a center of both tradition and change. Royal palaces have stood cheek by jowl with railyards and shipping docks; monumental cathedrals have towered over crowded slums; parks and green spaces have competed for real estate with council flats; fashionable shoppers and theatre-goers have rubbed elbows with street vendors and crossing-sweeps. Moreover, London has always been profoundly multicultural, as the political center of a far-flung Empire and the home of many generations of immigrant communities.
This course will survey some of the most significant literary treatments of London over the last two centuries, in the novels of Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf, and Zadie Smith. Students will examine the way that London splashes the pages of these novels with its distinctive characters, scenes, and dialects; at the same time, we’ll consider the ways in which these novelists have attempted to give shape and meaning to the chaotic, evolving life of the city.
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EH 213-2B and 2C: SciFi Lit and Film
Placement
Information about course placement can be found on the university’s Course Placement Information page.
Transfer Credit
Students who have taken Freshman Composition courses at a different college or university may be eligible to transfer credit for EH101 and/or 102 at UAB. If the student has taken Composition at any of the schools listed by the Alabama Articulation and General Studies Committee, which includes most two and four year institutions in the state, their credit for the qualifying course (EH 101 or EH 102) should be automatically granted.
Students attempting to transfer credit for Composition courses taken at colleges or universities outside of the state or outside of the Alabama Articulation Agreement should speak with their academic advisor, who will contact the Director of Freshman English about the possibility of transferring credit for these courses.
Courses
Freshman composition courses include the following.
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EH 101: English Composition I
EH 101 focuses on analytical writing and the development of effective writing processes, with special attention to critical reading, revision, and writing for academic audiences. Students’ rhetorical knowledge is fostered through instruction in purpose-driven writing and the rhetorical moves of academic writing in the university. Students develop critical thinking, reading, and writing capacities through instruction in strategies of textual analysis, analysis of multiple genres and mediums of communication, and through analytical writing assignments that challenge them to think critically about the meanings and implications of persuasive texts. Like all UAB Freshman English courses, EH 101 promotes the development of students’ writing processes through an emphasis on revision throughout the course. Students learn to see writing as a process and develop critical strategies for invention or developing ideas, drafting, revising, and editing their work. Knowledge of the conventions of academic writing is promoted through instruction in the use of sources, academic argumentation, and academic genres.
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EH 102: English Composition II
EH 102 focuses on argumentation for academic and public audiences, with a particular emphasis upon academic research. Students develop rhetorical knowledge through analysis of various genres and their persuasive strategies, as well as through instruction in argumentation. Students’ Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing is fostered through instruction in academic research and critical reading of academic sources, as well as through instruction in writing for varying audiences, purposes, and contexts, and in different genres and mediums. Students develop important writing processes through an emphasis on revision throughout the course, which includes writing workshops for each individual project, as well as significant revisions of two essays. Students’ metacognitive understanding of their writing processes is also facilitated through a reflective argument on the development of their writing throughout the course. Knowledge of conventions is developed through instruction in citation practices for both print and visual texts, analysis of multiple genres and mediums of communication, and through workshops, instructor and peer response, and direct instruction.
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EH 106/096L: Introduction to Freshman Writing I
EH 106/096L are designed to tap into students’ knowledge, experiences, and abilities as writers in order to help them gain confidence writing for an entirely new community—the university. Students find that this course is neither a lecture course nor a drills and skills course but a course where they can develop their abilities as a writer by writing, getting feedback from other writers, and revising. A key part of becoming a stronger writer is learning how to use feedback. This is why EH 106 has an additional writing studio, EH 096L, attached to the class. In addition to meeting with the EH 106 class, students meet once a week with their writing studio and visit the University Writing Center eight times during the semester. Their weekly writing studio and meetings with writing center tutors give students fresh perspectives on their work and strategies for revision. Ultimately, the goal of EH 106 is to empower students as writers and to enable them to find confidence in their voice and use their voice to engage in the important conversations that shape university and public life.
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EH 107/097L: Introduction to Freshman Writing II
EH 107/097L builds on students’ development as writers in EH 106/096 by challenging students to choose and define a research project they feel passionate about and to communicate the importance of their project and ideas to a variety of different audiences. EH 107/097 seeks to tap into students’ power as a writer by placing their own ideas in conversation with the ideas of others. The course does this by immersing students not only in research but also in the process of expressing their ideas and arguments for a variety of audiences. Like EH 106/096, students will meet once a week with their classmates in a writing studio session and visit the University Writing Center eight times during the semester. The weekly writing studio and meetings with writing center tutors give students fresh perspectives on their work and strategies for revision. Ultimately, students’ experience in EH 107/097 will enable them to not only be an informed writer but also an adaptive writer, one who can use their voice to not only write effective research papers but also to engage in the life of their communities and work for the public good.
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EH 108: English Composition I for Second Language Writers
EH 108 supports the writing and revision processes of second language writers. EH 108 follows the same curriculum and pursues the same goals of EH 101 and provides the same course credit as EH 101. Students work with faculty who are experienced teaching second language writers. While EH 108 follows the same curriculum and achieves the same goals as EH 101, more time is given in the course to foster students’ understanding of writing in different genres, cultural contexts, and for a variety of different audiences. Ultimately, the goal of EH 108 is to build on the important literacies and knowledge that multilingual and international students bring to our classrooms and to provide an environment that supports their growing confidence as writers.
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EH 109: English Composition II for Second Language Writers
EH 109 builds on the skills of analytical and academic writing developed in EH 108 in by fostering the research writing processes of second language writers. EH 109 introduces vital research processes and information literacy skills, as well as challenging students to write in a variety of genres and mediums for a variety of audiences. EH 109 follows the same curriculum and pursues the same goals as EH 102. Students work with faculty who are experienced teaching research writing to second language writers. Significant time is given to helping students analyze the contexts of academic research and writing, as well as the contexts of writing for a variety of public audiences. Ultimately, EH 109 seeks to give students effective practices of academic research, confidence in writing with sources, and the rhetorical knowledge to communicate their research and writing to a variety of audiences.
The following are guidelines for students and faculty involved in Honors Thesis Committees through the UAB English Honors Program.
The English Honors Thesis is the final project for an English major enrolled in the departmental English Honors Program. Students may write a creative thesis or a critical thesis in the areas of literature, professional writing, or linguistics. The Honors Thesis should present a student’s original research and writing. It should demonstrate a student’s ability to think critically and write clearly and originally about the thesis subject, and, for critical theses, should demonstrate the student’s familiarity with published research in the thesis subject area.
The Honors Project receives final approval by a thesis committee consisting of the faculty mentor and the director of English Honors. All completed theses are kept on file in the English Department.
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Deadlines
- Hand in Application Form and Senior Thesis Committee Form to Honors Director — prior to 494 semester
- Hand in Thesis Proposal to committee — during 494 semester:
- November 29 (Fall)
- April 11 (Spring)
- July 26 (Summer)
- Hand in Thesis to committee — during 495 semester:
- November 23 (Fall)
- April 5 (Spring)
- July 20 (Summer)
- Send electronic copy of thesis to Undergraduate Director — before Defense
- Participate in Honors Symposium — during 495 semester: last week of classes or exam week
- Submit electronic copy to committee before Honors Symposium
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Meetings
The faculty mentor and student should decide how often to meet. Usually a meeting every week or two is sufficient. Faculty mentors and students should keep in touch frequently in order to make sure that students are making good progress on their projects.
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Forms and Documents
There are three central documents that students must submit to the Director of English Honors before completing the English Honors Program. These documents are:
- the Application Form and Senior Thesis Committee Form, which must be handed in before the student is accepted to the program;
- the Thesis Proposal, which must be completed during EH 494 and approved by all members of the thesis committee; and
- the Thesis, written during EH 495: Honors Thesis, and approved by all members of the thesis committee.
Application Form and Senior Thesis Committee Form
The Application Form and the Senior Thesis Committee Form are available on the English Department website. Students should complete the forms and hand them in to the Honors Director at least two weeks before they plan to register for their first term of thesis work. One semester is needed for the writing of the thesis proposal (EH 494); another term (EH 495) is needed for the writing of the honors thesis.
Thesis Proposal
In their first semester of honors work, students should write a thesis proposal under the direction of their Faculty Mentor.
The proposal of a critical thesis should run from five to eight pages; should clearly state the thesis claim and argument of the proposed study (the “what”) and the significance of the study in relation to existing research (the “why”); should include a short synopsis of proposed chapters or content of the thesis; and should include a bibliography of sources to be consulted, usually at least 15.
For a creative thesis, the proposal should include substantial work in progress, along with a concise (one-to-three-paragraph) explanation of the project. The explanation should describe the work’s genre, prospective length, subject, voice, style, and/or other significant characteristics.
The completed proposal is due to the committee on November 29 (Fall), April 11 (Spring), or July 26 (Summer). Before handing in the proposal, the student should already have revised and polished it in consultation with his or her Faculty Mentor. After receiving the completed proposal, the committee may approve it as is, or they may request further revisions.
Honors Thesis
At the end of the capstone semester (EH 495), the student will turn in a completed thesis. Literature, professional writing, and linguistics students will turn in a critical thesis (at least 30 pages) with an extensive list of works cited (15 or more sources). Creative writers will turn in a substantial creative project—short stories, a section of a novel, essays, a body of poetry, or a play—along with a one- or two-page reflection on their writing experience.preliminary pages, to the Defense.
A complete, error-free, paginated manuscript should be turned in to the committee on November 23 (Fall), April 5 (Spring), or July 20 (Summer). Before handing in the thesis, the student should already have revised and polished it in consultation with his or her Faculty Mentor. After receiving the thesis, the committee may approve it as is, or they may request further revisions.preliminary pages, to the Defense.
As soon as students have handed in their manuscripts, they should work on assembling the “preliminary pages” (see "Format the Honors Thesis"). The student should bring a final, bound version of the thesis, complete with preliminary pages, to the Defense.
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Honors Symposium
Each semester, in consultation with their faculty mentor and the Director of English Honors, students in EH 495 will be asked to present their research and writing at our English Honors Symposium. Students will present their work to an audience of English department faculty and students. An electronic copy of the honors project should be submitted to the committee prior to the Symposium.
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Grading
The student must earn an A or B in EH 494 in order to proceed to EH 495. To receive departmental Honors, the student must earn an A in EH 495. The presumption is that all students who successfully complete and present work from a thesis at the Honors Symposium will receive an A and earn Honors.
If the student does not satisfactorily complete a thesis, but if the advisor still believes the student deserves credit for the course, the advisor may assign a grade other than A. By earning a C or above in EH 495, the student receives capstone credit.
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Format for Honors Theses
The English Honors thesis is a document that is longer that an average undergraduate term paper but not as long or involved a study as a Masters thesis. Generally, honors theses are about 30 pages long, excluding notes and bibliography. A critical thesis generally falls into three main parts: preliminary pages, text, and reference materials. A creative writing thesis may contain the first two or all three parts.
Formatting
The thesis should be typed in one primary font, preferably 12-point Times New Roman. Typeface should be black. Underlining and italics should not exist together within the document; students should choose one (italics is recommended) and stick with it throughout the text. The left margin should be 1.5 inches; right, top, and bottom margins should be 1 inch.
The text should be printed on one side of the page only. Standard double spacing should be used throughout the text. Headings and subheadings may be used but are not required; if used, they should be consistent in format throughout the text and followed by at least two lines of text at the ends of pages.
Text should be left justified, with standard 0.5” paragraph indentation. Pages should be numbered in the top right corner.
Preliminary Pages
The preliminary pages of the honors thesis include the title page, the signatory page, the acknowledgments, and any lists of tables, figures, or abbreviations used in the text. According to MLA format, preliminary pages are generally numbered with Roman numerals if they are numbered, while text pages are numbered with Arabic numbering.
- Title Page: The title page is required. It should include a thesis title that concisely states the topic of the thesis and indicates the texts studied and critical approaches used. It should also include the author’s name, the date the thesis was approved, and the name of the department to which it was submitted. See the dropdown for "Downloads" for the Appendix: Title Page format and text.
- Acknowledgments: The acknowledgments page is optional. Here the student may thank committee or family members or acknowledge other positive contributions to his/her academic experience.
- Lists of tables, figures, or abbreviations: These are all optional and are included only if the thesis includes these forms.
Text
The text of the thesis should present original creative or scholarly work. Neither parroting of existing research nor paraphrase of commonplace ideas in the subject area is acceptable. The thesis committee should work closely with the student to help him or her to research and consider the topic thoroughly but also to investigate a creative or scholarly approach that is uniquely the student’s own.
For the text, the main body of the document, a consistent style must be followed. Students should consult the MLA Handbook in its latest edition to determine the style for documentation and citation as well as general formatting of a critical essay. In critical theses, the text will include an introduction, a body discussion, and a conclusion or summary.
Works Cited and Reference Materials
- Critical Thesis: One of the goals of the critical thesis project is to teach undergraduate majors how to research a topic thoroughly and to document their critical investigation accurately. The faculty mentor and other thesis committee members should help the student compile a complete and accurate bibliography for the thesis. Partial or incomplete research is not acceptable, and the “Works Cited” section should show ample evidence that the student has consulted and taken into account the major available research on the subject, in all major forms of refereed references (websites, books, articles, interviews, etc). A “Works Cited” section (Bibliography) is required for all critical theses and should follow the MLA Handbook format for documentation and works cited. Students should list only works cited in this section. The reference materials may also include a “works consulted” secondary bibliography or a specialized bibliography citing related works if the student so wishes.
- Creative Writing Thesis: “Works Cited” sections for creative writing theses are optional. For the creative thesis, background research may be necessary for the integrity of the project but is not required; however, students should expect to do considerable revision in consultation with faculty mentors on their way to a final draft of the thesis.
Ethics
Plagiarism is using the words or thoughts of another person without proper citation. Specifically, it is submitting as one’s own work a portion of a book, magazine, journal, handout, original creation, speech, lecture, oral communication, website, paper or examination written by someone else. Plagiarism is a serious offense and in student documents could result in dismissal from the university and revocation of the degree. All members of the educational community must carefully avoid plagiarism by fully acknowledging the source of all statements, studies, projects and ideas that have been produced by another person. Students must be careful to provide complete documentation in their theses of all ideas originating in their primary and secondary research.
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Joining one or more student groups will augment your education and provide opportunities beyond those found in the classroom.
Sigma Tau Delta
Sigma Tau Delta is the International English Honors Society. The UAB chapter hosts occasional meetings and activities locally; members are also individually eligible to apply to the larger organization for scholarships, publication, or inclusion in the annual international convention.
For more information contact faculty advisor Dr. Alison Chapman.
Professional Writing Club at UAB
The Professional Writing Club equips students in any major interested in professional writing with knowledge and experience to prepare them for the workforce. It also gives students the opportunity to network with other students interested in professional writing and connect with professionals in the field by participating in industry-focused workshops. The club meets once a month during the Fall and Spring semesters and hosts monthly professionalization workshops which are open to the public.
For more information contact faculty advisor Jeff Bacha, and check them out on Facebook.
Employers know that internships give students hands-on experience with workplace skills, challenges, and environments — experiences that make those students valuable employees.
The English Department cooperates with university-wide and off-campus partners to give internship experiences to our undergraduate students. Our students have:
- contributed to campaigns and health messaging with UAB Health Systems Marketing and Children’s Hospital of Alabama
- worked with Birmingham organizations specializing in magazine and book publishing, non-profit fundraising, and education (e.g., Birmingham Holocaust Education Center; McWane Science Center)
- written copy for websites and organizations including GirlSpring and First Avenue Ventures
- assisted the editors of the literary magazines NELLE and Birmingham Poetry Review throughout the editorial process, including assistance with author readings and publication launches
BA in Writing and Media
If you are pursuing this degree, you will take EH 411, Capstone Internship, toward the end of the program. This is a graded class that also involves working with a community, industry, or campus partner, and it will allow you to apply many of the skills you have learned in the Writing and Media program.
BA in English
If you are enrolled in the English major, you have the option to take an internship class. Internships fall into two categories:
- EH 311 is intended for juniors or seniors who want to gain workplace experience before they graduate
- EH 411 is intended for juniors or seniors who want to gain workplace experience before they graduate while satisfying the Capstone requirement for the B.A. in English
Final grades for EH 311 and 411 are based on the student's work ethic and written work. Grades are determined by the Internship Coordinator in consultation with the student's on-site internship supervisor.
Next Steps
Students interested in internships should meet with
To participate in an internship through the English department, students should:
- have at least junior standing or the equivalent course credits
- be able to work 10-15 hours weekly to fulfill commitments to the employer, and
- enroll in the appropriate internship course (EH 311 or 411) for the internship semester and, under the supervision of the Internship Coordinator and fulfill all requirements for that course.
Make an appointment with the Internship Coordinator,
Contact
For more information about the Internship program, contact Dr. Jeff Bacha at
The Department of English offers several scholarships for undergraduate majors in English, as well as prizes for excellence in creative writing.
The Howton Scholarship is decided by faculty nomination. Students are required to apply for the other awards. You can apply for these scholarships through the UAB BSMART system.
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The Grace Lindsley Waits Scholarship in English
The Grace Lindsley Waits Scholarship was endowed by Dr. William E. Doggett III and other grateful students of Mrs. Waits, a distinguished English teacher at Banks High School for many years. Her love of literature and language is celebrated by this living legacy established in her honor. We will award one or two scholarships. To apply, a student must complete a general application in BSMART.
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The Walt P. Mayfield Scholarship
The Walt P. Mayfield Scholarship is funded by a gift from Walt Mayfield, who taught English at UAB for many years. The Department of English established this scholarship to honor Mr. Mayfield's activities as a positive and encouraging teacher and a respected adjunct instructor and colleague. We will award one or two scholarships. To apply, a student must be a currently enrolled English major and complete a general application in BSMART.
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The Phillips Scholarship in English
The Phillips Scholarship in English was created by the friends and alumni of Phillips High School, the premier high school in the greater Birmingham metropolitan area for decades. The Phillips faculty, especially Principal Sellers Stough, are gratefully remembered by the students to whom they dedicated their lives. To apply, a student must complete a general application in BSMART.
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The English Recruiting Endowed Scholarship
The English Recruiting Endowed Scholarship was endowed by the English Advisory Committee to recruit and support deserving students in the Department of English. To apply, a student must complete a general application in BSMART.
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Gloria Goldstein Howton Creative Writing Award
Gifts from friends and former colleagues of Gloria Goldstein Howton have been used to create an endowed scholarship in her honor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Income from the Gloria Goldstein Howton Endowment Fund is used to award an annual scholarship to a student enrolled in creative writing at UAB. To apply, a student must complete a general application in BSMART.
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The Barksdale-Maynard and Tom Brown Prizes in Creative Writing
The Barksdale-Maynard Prizes in Fiction and Poetry are made possible by a gift from Isabel Barksdale-Maynard in honor of her family. The Tom Brown Prize for Creative Nonfiction is named in honor of Dr. Thomas H. Brown, chair of the English Department from 1984-1992. Prizes are awarded annually for the best work of short fiction, creative nonfiction, and the best poem or group of poems. To apply, a student must complete a general application in BSMART.
Other UAB Scholarships
The university and UAB's College of Arts and Sciences offer many other scholarships to incoming and current students. You can explore these options and apply through the UAB BSMART system.