University of St. Thomas

4 Credit Hours

Social media, texting, and instant messaging: these are all examples of 21st-century technology that is changing the way we read and write. Instead of declaring the death of the book, we will consider how print and digital literacy converge in a participatory culture that produces creative work, encourages collaboration, and shapes the flow of information. Our approach to what constitutes a "text" will be flexible and may include blogging, texting, media boards, videomaking, podcasting, wikis, etc. The writing load for this course is a minimum of 15 pages of formal revised writing. Prerequisite: ENGL 121.

4 Credit Hours

Social media, texting, and instant messaging: these are all examples of 21st-century technology that is changing the way we read and write. Instead of declaring the death of the book, we will consider how print and digital literacy converge in a participatory culture that produces creative work, encourages collaboration, and shapes the flow of information. Our approach to what constitutes a "text" will be flexible and may include blogging, texting, media boards, videomaking, podcasting, wikis, etc. The writing load for this course is a minimum of 15 pages of formal revised writing. Prerequisite: ENGL 121.

4 Credit Hours

Social media, texting, and instant messaging: these are all examples of 21st-century technology that is changing the way we read and write. Instead of declaring the death of the book, we will consider how print and digital literacy converge in a participatory culture that produces creative work, encourages collaboration, and shapes the flow of information. Our approach to what constitutes a "text" will be flexible and may include blogging, texting, media boards, videomaking, podcasting, wikis, etc. The writing load for this course is a minimum of 15 pages of formal revised writing. Prerequisite: ENGL 121.

4 Credit Hours

Social media, texting, and instant messaging: these are all examples of 21st-century technology that is changing the way we read and write. Instead of declaring the death of the book, we will consider how print and digital literacy converge in a participatory culture that produces creative work, encourages collaboration, and shapes the flow of information. Our approach to what constitutes a "text" will be flexible and may include blogging, texting, media boards, videomaking, podcasting, wikis, etc. The writing load for this course is a minimum of 15 pages of formal revised writing. Prerequisite: ENGL 121.

4 Credit Hours

In "AmeRican," Puerto Rican poet Tato Laviera dreams to "take the accent from / the altercation, and be proud to call / myself american, in the u.s. sense of the / word, AmeRican, America!" These lines capture an essential quality about Latino life in the United States, an existence in which Latinos are caught between worlds, between languages, between cultures, and often struggle for inclusion in an American mainstream that views them as homogenous at best, and as outsiders at worst. In reality, Latinos are as diverse a group as any major urban population--racially, ethnically, culturally, linguistically and nationally. In this class, we will read contemporary fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry by Latino authors that grapples with the multifaceted reality of Latino experience in the United States. As we read these texts, we will ask how authors attempt to define, negotiate, and contest American identity, and how these texts struggle with the relationship of Latinos to the nation in the context of a history of U.S. imperialism. Possible authors to be discussed include Junot Diaz, Ana Menendez, Luis Alberto Urrea, Cristina Garcia, Julia Alvarez, Daniel Alarcon, Sandra Cisneros, Ana Castillo, Achy Obejas, Luis J. Rodriguez, Martin Espada, Josefina Lopez, and Ernesto Quinonez. Texts will be in English, with the possibility of occasional Spanish usage by individual authors. This course fulfills the Human Diversity requirement of the core curriculum and the Diversity distribution requirement for English majors. Prerequisite: ENGL 121 and/or ENGL 201, 202, 203, or 204.

4 Credit Hours

In "AmeRican," Puerto Rican poet Tato Laviera dreams to "take the accent from / the altercation, and be proud to call / myself american, in the u.s. sense of the / word, AmeRican, America!" These lines capture an essential quality about Latino life in the United States, an existence in which Latinos are caught between worlds, between languages, between cultures, and often struggle for inclusion in an American mainstream that views them as homogenous at best, and as outsiders at worst. In reality, Latinos are as diverse a group as any major urban population--racially, ethnically, culturally, linguistically and nationally. In this class, we will read contemporary fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry by Latino authors that grapples with the multifaceted reality of Latino experience in the United States. As we read these texts, we will ask how authors attempt to define, negotiate, and contest American identity, and how these texts struggle with the relationship of Latinos to the nation in the context of a history of U.S. imperialism. Possible authors to be discussed include Junot Diaz, Ana Menendez, Luis Alberto Urrea, Cristina Garcia, Julia Alvarez, Daniel Alarcon, Sandra Cisneros, Ana Castillo, Achy Obejas, Luis J. Rodriguez, Martin Espada, Josefina Lopez, and Ernesto Quinonez. Texts will be in English, with the possibility of occasional Spanish usage by individual authors. This course fulfills the Human Diversity requirement of the core curriculum and the Diversity distribution requirement for English majors. Prerequisite: ENGL 121 and/or ENGL 201, 202, 203, or 204.

4 Credit Hours

This course explores urban experience through the perspective of writers working in fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. It will focus on the way writers in those three genres use language and literary devices to address the life and landscape of the city. Although most of the writing done in this class will be analytical, we will also look at each of the three genres from a user's perspective, using some of the tools of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry to make our own sense of the urban environment. The writing load for this course is a minimum of 15 pages of formal revised writing. This course is available only to students in the Aquinas Scholars Honors program.

4 Credit Hours

This course explores urban experience through the perspective of writers working in fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. It will focus on the way writers in those three genres use language and literary devices to address the life and landscape of the city. Although most of the writing done in this class will be analytical, we will also look at each of the three genres from a user's perspective, using some of the tools of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry to make our own sense of the urban environment. The writing load for this course is a minimum of 15 pages of formal revised writing. This course is available only to students in the Aquinas Scholars Honors program.

3 Credit Hours

In January 2013, Cuban-American Richard Blanco was the first immigrant, Latino, and openly gay poet to be invited to read at a presidential inauguration. Blanco's presence, along with those of Sonia Sotomayor and Charles Rangel, point to a national recognition of Latino participation in U.S. political, civic, and cultural life. But Blanco's self-identification as immigrant, Latino, and gay also signals the multiplicity of identity that characterizes the lives of U.S. Latinos today. In our class, we will read contemporary fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and film to consider how these texts construct and/or interrogate discourses of citizenship and American identity, focusing on very recently published work by Sandra Cisneros, Sonia Sotomayor, Victor Lavalle, Junot Diaz, Luis Alberto Urrea, Richard Blanco, and others. We will also examine new and recent critical directions in ethnic and Latino Studies, including theories of post-ethnicity or post-race, transnational and hemispheric studies, as well as global approaches to Latinidad. This course satisfies the Multicultural Literature distribution requirement.

3 Credit Hours

In January 2013, Cuban-American Richard Blanco was the first immigrant, Latino, and openly gay poet to be invited to read at a presidential inauguration. Blanco's presence, along with those of Sonia Sotomayor and Charles Rangel, point to a national recognition of Latino participation in U.S. political, civic, and cultural life. But Blanco's self-identification as immigrant, Latino, and gay also signals the multiplicity of identity that characterizes the lives of U.S. Latinos today. In our class, we will read contemporary fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and film to consider how these texts construct and/or interrogate discourses of citizenship and American identity, focusing on very recently published work by Sandra Cisneros, Sonia Sotomayor, Victor Lavalle, Junot Diaz, Luis Alberto Urrea, Richard Blanco, and others. We will also examine new and recent critical directions in ethnic and Latino Studies, including theories of post-ethnicity or post-race, transnational and hemispheric studies, as well as global approaches to Latinidad. This course satisfies the Multicultural Literature distribution requirement.