Courses Designed

Below are the descriptions for courses I've designed, as well as links to class webpages, where students can share their responses with their classmates and the digital world around them.

Return from Avalon: King arthur in the Middle ages

This course explores Arthurian literature from its medieval origins in the mists of Celtic legend to its manifestations in modern film and literature, in order to understand why such narratives continue to resonate with the public after hundreds of years. We will analyze each work on its own as literature worthy of study, but we will also be comparing them with other versions from the Arthurian traditions, focusing on questions like: How are Arthurian narratives changing over time? What do these changes tell us about the values and desires of the culture they are adopted into? What, if anything, remains consistent? Why do these stories persist?

Course webpage: Return from Avalon

Masculinity, Violence, and Medieval Literature

The primary goal of this course is to examine medieval conceptions of masculinity and violence. Together, we will explore the relationship between masculine identities and violence in the Middle Ages, so that we can form a more nuanced understanding about the period, and compare how those martial conceptions of manhood persist or change across time. How might medieval concerns about violence and proper conduct inform our understanding of contemporary modes of masculinity? How might our notions of 'the medieval' be deployed in the present, and how might these perspectives affect models of masculinity in the present?

Course webpage: Masculinity, Violence, and Medieval Literature

The (Medieval) Walking dead

This course explores the cultural significance of medieval 'zombies,' revenants, spirits, and other beings that we would classify as 'undead,' in order to understand how such monsters might relate to medieval concerns about death, dying, and the afterlife. Starting with an examination of contemporary narratives featuring undead, we shall come to an understanding of how the undead operate in the present, and then compare these models with medieval ones, in order to understand how they relate to one another.

English Composition/Rhetoric

This course will help us to think more critically and therefore, to write more critically about ourselves and the world around us. Together we will learn to read and interpret culture, by critically-engaging with such deceptively-familiar things as social media, advertisements, popular culture, and the city we live in. We will read and discuss writings by different authors, but your own writing will remain the primary focus of the class. Through writing, revision, reading, and discussion we will analyze the above as we explore the relationship between writing and critical thinking. You will need to participate actively in class, revise your work, and critique the work of fellow students, as you discover for yourself the ways in which our writing affects our thinking, and our thinking our writing.

Introduction to College Writing

This course will introduce students to the styles and conventions of academic writing in college. We will learn to read and interpret the rhetorical conventions in the familiar spaces of our digital social lives (ex. Facebook, Twitter), and then consider how those rhetorical situations relate to the unfamiliar field of academic writing at the college level. We will move on to critically analyze other genres of college writing, like the narrative, the argument, and the review. The course is organized into four thematic units, in which we will read and discuss essays by different authors, but your own writing will remain the primary focus of the class. Through writing, revision, reading, and discussion we will analyze the above as we explore the relationship between writing and critical thinking.

There and Back Again: Tolkien, Master of Fantasy

This course will focus on Tolkien's contributions to the genre of fantasy literature in the twentieth century. Together, we will explore how Tolkien's works relate to the literature and culture of the Middle Ages, as inflected through concerns of the author's own time. As Tolkien's narratives are long, prior familiarity with his literary works of Middle Earth is encouraged.

Outlaws and Rebels: Literature of Dissent

In American culture, the figure of the rebel holds a considerable and enduring appeal. In this course, we will explore how political dissent is expressed through outlawry and rebellion in England in the late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. We will begin by theorizing rebellion and exploring the different modes of rebellion available in the period, in order to understand the purposes behind these acts of dissent, how they might find expression in the characters who rebel, and how all of this relates to the culture and society from which these figures emerge.