Spring 2026 Topics Courses, Department of English, CSUSB
English 3620 Feeling Moved?: Exploring the Intersections of Affect and Rhetoric
TR 10:30-11:45 am (hybrid in person and online)
Prof. Jasmine Lee
Rhetoric is, at least in part, the work of persuasion, of clear communication. It is the deployment of carefully crafted language to do specific, intentional kinds of work in the world. But what about those moving feelings, the ones we sense and that our bodies can know before we process them? Where do they come from? How do they work persuasively? In this class, we explore the intersections of affect theory and rhetorical studies, consider rhetorical agency in a new light, and get nerdy about the vibes of our times.
This class considers the intersections of affect theory and rhetorical studies, with a focus on the role of pre-conscious intensities in persuasion and the consequences thereof for rhetorical agency. It situates this study in the context of contemporary discourse.
English 4410 What Remains: The Literature and Legacy of Edgar Allan Poe
MW 1:00-2:15 pm
Prof. Chad Luck
More than perhaps any other nineteenth-century American writer, Edgar Allan Poe continues to exert an outsized influence on the contours of contemporary mass culture. Poe’s diverse body of writing persistently inspires writers, filmmakers, artists, and musicians to produce new work in dialogue with his old masterpieces. This course will investigate the mystery of Poe’s continuing cultural resonance by reading a range of his writings (stories, poetry, essays, and his one novel) in relation to twentieth- and twenty-first century responses and adaptations. So, for instance, we will read The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym and then follow it up with Mat Johnson’s hilarious rejoinder, the 2011 satirical novel, Pym. We will consider some of Poe’s most celebrated short stories as they relate to twentieth-century film adaptations. And we will explore the remarkably robust body of visual art and popular music that has been inspired by Poe’s writing. Throughout the course, our aim will be to chart the growth of “Edgar Allan Poe” as a cultural phenomenon, a fertile figure of the modern(ist) imagination and a nexus of high and low culture.
English 5130 World Building in Fiction and Poetry
MW 4:00-5:15 pm
Prof. Chad Sweeney
Whether we write realistic urban fiction, science fiction or fantasy, poetry of imagism, philosophy, traumatic memory or eco-poetics—whether we write coming-of-age memoirs or zombie invasions—the art of WORLD BUILDING is essential to the fulfillment of our writing projects. In this writing workshop, students will discuss how master writers create the world of their stories, novels and poems, and will explore and experiment with new writing techniques in order to heighten the sensory and imaginative experience for readers living inside their created worlds. In science fiction, world-building might mean new technologies, floating trees or invented languages; in poetry it might mean capturing the sounds of traffic, gunfire, or the blur of jasmine spilling over a back fence; and in memoir it might mean trying to portray a bilingual argument at the dinner table or the memory of falling asleep under a peach tree on the last day of war. This workshop will serve to develop a more thorough, textured and dimensional perception and creation of the worlds of our writing, whether these worlds occur in realism, magical realism, fantasy, sci-fi or poetry. We will focus on developing scenes, settings, linguistic zones, cultural zones, vibrant living spaces of sense perceptions, memory and imagination, and we will write several new pieces for workshop in the spirit of experimentation and growth.
English 5140 Community-Based Writing: Prison Education Project
Thursday 5:30-8:15 pm
Prof. Vanessa Ovalle Perez
This class is offered in partnership with the Prison Education Project (http://www.prisoneducationproject.org/index.html) and is open to both graduate and undergraduate students. Students will work in collaboration with Dr. Vanessa Ovalle Perez to design and teach a course in a local prison. The class with incarcerated students will run for 7 weeks during the semester. The rest of the semester will be devoted to preparation and research on mass incarceration, prison education, and writing in/from prisons. This is a great class for anyone considering a career as a teacher or for anyone interested in the connections between social justice and education.
Students will be able to choose from three different roles in the class based on their interests:
- Researchers will identify a question of interest surrounding prison education and will conduct a research based analytical or creative project throughout the semester.
- Teachers will help to design and lead class activities for incarcerated students.
- Writers will complete reading and writing assignments based on the topic for the class.
All students must complete a mandatory, virtual orientation with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).
English 5150 Humor, Imagination, and Healing
TR 9:00-10:15 am
Prof. David Marshall
For centuries, writers have cited laughter as good medicine. Whether Byron’s advice, “Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine” or Mark Twain’s observation that “against the assault of laughter nothing can stand,” humor has been recognized for its healing properties. But, if we look at Byron’s and Twain’s statements, we find that one seems to see healing properties while the other seems to see a different kind of recuperative strength in humor. One wonders if Twain is echoed in Bob Newhart’s own observation more than a century later: “Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it, and then move on.” The two American humorists seem to suggest that not only can humor recuperate bodies, but that it can heal communities. Perhaps it even calls to mind Einstein’s quip that “Imagination is intelligence having fun.” What if we combine the two? Humor and Imagination: two forces for recuperating us as individuals and as a society? As Professor Ruha Benjamin argues in her recent book, imagination is the tool necessary to change our own American society. And to imagine a different kind of society, perhaps we need to begin by listening to Christopher Fry, who tells us “Through humor, you see the world more clearly, because it doesn’t obey the rule of fear.”
This seminar will challenge us to examine how humor can be a tool for repairing ourselves and for repairing our world. Readings will include literary examples of humor, stand-up comedy, philosophies of humor and laughter, and political critiques of and news coverage about comedians such as Jimmy Kimmel, Chris Rock, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Joan Rivers, Moms Mabley, and Lenny Bruce, all of whom pushed the boundaries of “taste” in the name of trying to recuperate American society.
English 5150 To the Archive!
MW 10:30-11:45 am (online synchronous)
Prof. Vanessa Ovalle Perez
An archive refers to a place where records are kept, and yet archives are much more than simply collections of paper documents, computer files, images, or objects. The writer Diana Taylor insists that “the archival, from the beginning, sustains power.” What we collectively choose to archive and how our archives are read speaks volumes about who holds and maintains power in society. The archive becomes a function of whose history is preserved and made accessible, and this privileging is influenced by the intersectional politics of race, gender, class, sexuality, etc. One way to democratize our society is to democratize our history and our archives, thus the call: to the archive! This course has two main purposes: (1) to familiarize students with archival research methods and empower them to pursue their own archival research questions; and (2) teach students to read and write about literary texts with historical context in mind. Students will be asked to do a project in which they analyze an archival text that has not been written about by contemporary researchers. The course will be interdisciplinary, focusing on the interconnectedness of history, literature, archival science, and media studies.
English 6020 Seminar in a Literary Genre
Monday 5:30-8:15 pm
Prof. Luz Ramirez
In this synchronous graduate seminar, we'll analyze British mystery and detective fiction, situating each story within in its own cultural moment and by considering different kinds of adaptations and correlations. We begin with the concept of character "afterlives" in Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Empty House,” a Sherlock Holmes story set in the Victorian period and adapted for film. Next, we study the inquisitive scholar in MR James's mystery, “Mezzotint.” We’ll investigate how through James’s use of suspense and perspective we, as an audience, participate in the same act of inquiry and speculation as the protagonist. Such inquiry engages us as readers and, at the same time, we may find that discovery tends to push us away, to unhinge, unseat, and unsettle.
The fantastic fiction of James--driven by what Michalski calls the malice of inanimate objects—offers an important correlation to Bram Stoker’s Jewel of Seven Stars, an Egyptological mystery and romance we read in the second part of the seminar. We conclude the course with the “Queen of Crime,” Agatha Christie whose detective fiction invites a range of critical approaches. Theorists and critics include Linda Hutcheon, Robert Michalski, and JC Bernthal.
English 6310 Professional Writing, Rhetoric, and Community Engagement
TR 4:00-5:15 pm
Prof. Tom Girshin
Want to take your writing beyond the classroom and into the community? ENG 6310: Professional Writing, Rhetoric, and Community Engagement is a graduate seminar that puts theory into practice to make an impact. You’ll sharpen advanced skills in professional and technical writing while partnering with local organizations on real communication projects like drafting policy documents, shaping advocacy campaigns, or designing feasibility studies. We’ll explore key concepts from rhetoric to better understand how writing creates change in professional and civic contexts. In this course you can strengthen your writing expertise, expand your professional portfolio, and make a tangible difference through your work.