This class explores American fiction through the genre of the Gothic. Traditionally, the Gothic genre exploits scenes of fear. What questions, then, about individuals and about societies, does a discourse of fear make possible? In this course we will focus on fear of place, fear of the supernatural, fear of the grotesque, and fear of madness. We will be examining several short stories by authors like Flannery O'Connor, Ray Bradbury, Shirley Jackson, Edgar Allen Poe, and Stephen King as well as full-length novels and films. Students will be tested over the material but will also be asked to engage with new media, including iMovie and blogging.
The course explores how arguments are formed about film and within films. We will examine several aspects of movies including marketing strategies, sound tracks, trailers, special effects, and agendas to determine how arguments are being shaped. We will focus on cultural impact and ideology presented through the visual rhetoric of films in three major writing assignments. The course will culminate with students creating their own visual rhetoric in the form of a movie trailer. Film Studies students are welcome and encouraged to enroll.
Using the movie industry as a frame of reference, this course focuses on the types of writing and rhetorical situations that accompany this theme. The course is a writing workshop focused on writing as a kind of inquiry and the critical thinking that occurs while we write. Students will engage in processes of invention, critical reading, drafting, revision, and editing as we complete a range of writing tasks that include primary and secondary research. In addition, students will engage with new media throughout the course, such as blogging and imovie. Film studies students are welcome and encouraged to enroll.
This course is a writing workshop focused on writing as a kind of inquiry and the critical thinking that occurs while we write—not before we write. Students will engage in processes of invention, critical reading, drafting, revision, and editing as we complete a range of writing tasks—from personal essays to argument essays—that include primary and secondary research.
Women’s Writing examines a wide range of essays, novels, and films by female authors in the 20th century. The course focuses primarily on the themes of race, class, education, and the media. Students will be tested over the material but will also engage with new media components, such as imovie, as we expand our knowledge of women’s contributions to literature and rhetoric as well as explore how women are portrayed in the American culture. The reading list is comprised of authors such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Kate Walberg, Zora Neale Hurston, Kate Chopin, Amy Tan, Sandra Cisneros, and Dorothy Alison.
The course satisfies a requirement for a Women’s Studies Minor or emphasis. This course will serve as an interdisciplinary introduction to Women´s Studies, focusing on major issues, theories, and selected disciplinary applications, for which the idea of gender will provide the unifying theme. Lectures, discussions, and assignments will encourage students to recover and understand the lived experiences of women by studying concepts of gender difference. Readings will facilitate discussion and understanding of differences in age, class, sexual diversity, race, and ethnicity.
Course satisfies Written Communication 2 (WCO) requirement in the TCU Core Curriculum. Writing workshop that builds on ENGL 10803 by focusing on the analysis and production of arguments in a variety of media (i.e., print, visual, oral, digital). Students will work individually and collaboratively to read, research, and compose effective arguments on issues of local and national importance.
This course is a writing workshop focused on improving basic grammar skills. Students will engage in processes of invention, critical reading, drafting, revision, and editing as we complete a range of writing tasks—from personal essays to argument essays—that include primary and secondary research.
Introduction to Women’s Studies
WGST 20003 Spring 2014 & Spring 2016
Introduction to Women's Writing
ENGL/ WGST 20623 Spring 2014
Intro to Lit: The American Gothic
ENGL 10103, Fall 2013
Intermediate Composition: Rhetoric of the Cinema
ENGL 20833, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, & Summer 2014
Intermediate Composition: Writing as Argument
ENGL 20803, Fall 2012
Writing as Inquiry: Rhetoric of the Cinema
ENGL 10803, Spring 2015, Fall 2016
Introductory Composition: Writing as Inquiry
ENGL 10803, Fall 2011-Spring 2012
Basic Writing
ENGL 101
Internship in Women and Gender Studies
WGST 49003, Fall 2015
Internships (usually local in Tarrant County) arranged with the consent of the Director of the Women and Gender Studies Program for declared minors, taken on a strictly Pass/No Credit basis.
Writing as Inquiry: Disability Rhetorics
ENGL 10803T, Fall 2016
At least a sixth of the people in the United States have some form of disability (physical, social, learning, mental, etc.). That fact alone suggests that disability is worth considering when we think about American culture. Studying disability helps us to explore what our culture decides is “normal,” and asks us to consider what makes us human. In this course, we will use disability studies as a lens or a starting place with which to write, and we will examine it from a variety of different perspectives and angles as it applies to society today. The course is a writing workshop focused on writing as a kind of inquiry and the critical thinking that occurs while we write. Students will engage in processes of invention, critical reading, drafting, revision, and editing as we complete a range of writing tasks that include primary and secondary research. In addition, students will engage with new media throughout the course.
Major American Writers
ENGL 20503, Fall 2016
The Study of texts by major American writers in the Twentieth Century. In this class we will explore the themes of race, gender, class, and disability as they are represented in Southern literature by authors like William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Carson McCullers, Flannery O'Connor, Zora Neale Hurston, Cormac McCarthy, Richard Wright, Margaret Walker, etc.
Creative Writing: Fiction and Poetry
Summer 2016 & 2017
An extended education program sponsored by the TCU New Media Writing Studio designed to teach middle and high school students how to write creatively in the genres of short fiction and poetry. In this seminar students produce five poems and one short story, publishing their work to the ezine Writer's Block.