Course Descriptions

EDUC 315 - Music and Movement for Elementary Education

EDUC 340 - Elementary Language Arts and Social Studies Methods

EDUC 341 - Practicum: Elementary Language Arts and Social Studies Methods

EDUC 343 - Elementary Math and Science Methods

EDUC 344 - Practicum: Elementary Math and Science Methods

EDUC 353 - Middle and Secondary Content Area Reading and Writing

EDUC 354 - Practicum: Secondary Content Area Reading and Writing

EDUC 356 - Methods for Middle and Secondary Education

EDUC 357 - Practicum: Methods for Middle and Secondary Education

EDUC 365 - Methods for Foreign Language

EDUC 366 - Practicum: Methods for Foreign Language

EDUC 369 - Urban Education and Poverty

EDUC 375 - Elementary and Secondary Instrumental Music Methods for Woodwinds and Brass

EDUC 376 - Practicum in Elementary and Secondary Instrumental Music Methods for Woodwinds and Brass

Credits: 1-2
Corequisite: EDUC 375.

Graded Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory. An introduction to the teacher’s role in instructional settings. Includes non-music observations in public schools and a music project in which students observe and participate as instructional aides. Class sessions focus on techniques for observing and recording classroom behavior, relationships between the teaching of reading and the teaching of music, and planning music instruction. Students must complete a placement on both the elementary and the secondary level. To meet the course requirements, students must complete 30 hours of fieldwork during the term. May be taken for a second credit if a different placement is completed. Staff.

EDUC 377 - Elementary and Secondary Instrumental Music Methods for Strings and Percussion

EDUC 378 - Practicum in Elementary and Secondary Instrumental Music Methods for Strings and Percussion.

EDUC 401 - Directed Individual Study

EDUC 402 - Directed Individual Study

EDUC 403 - Directed Individual Study

EDUC 451A - Directed Teaching Seminar: Pre-K to 12

EDUC 451E - Directed Teaching Seminar: Elementary

EDUC 451S - Directed Teaching Seminar: Middle and Secondary

EDUC 461A - Directed Teaching: Pre-K to 12

EDUC 461E - Directed Teaching: Elementary

EDUC 461S - Directed Teaching: Middle and Secondary

ENGN 101 - How It Works, How It’s Made

ENGN 203 - Mechanics I: Statics

ENGN 204 - Mechanics II: Dynamics

ENGN 207 - Electrical Circuits

ENGN 208 - Electronics

ENGN 225 - Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering

ENGN 240 - Thermodynamics

ENGN 250 - Introduction to Engineering Design

ENGN 251 - Experimental Methods in Physics and Engineering

ENGN 255 - C++ for Engineering and Physics

ENGN 260 - Materials Science

ENGN 265 - Integrative Science: Cardiovascular Disease

ENGN 267 - Bioengineering and Bioinspired Design

ENGN 295 - Intermediate Special Topics in Engineering

Credits: 3 credits for fall or winter; 4 credits for spring.
Planned Offering: Offered when interest is expressed and departmental resources permit.

Spring 2013 topic:

ENGN 295-01: Intermediate Topic in Engineering Design: Concrete Canoe (4). Prerequisite: PHYS 111 and PHYS 112. The concrete canoe competition takes place annually and is sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The goal of the competition is to encourage students to apply engineering theory and materials science to the design and construction of a concrete canoe. Additionally, sustainability is emphasized through the use of recycled materials. Therefore, this course introduces students to principles of engineering design and construction. The students gain knowledge in design, concrete proportioning, concrete chemistry, construction methods, report writing and presentation of results, culminating with the race of the canoe. Ramniceanu.

Winter 2013 topic:

ENGN 295: Nuclear Applications (3). Prerequisite: PHYS 111 and PHYS 112 or by instructor consent. This course provides a broad understanding of basic principles of nuclear physics and applications of nuclear techniques in different fields including human life and health. Topics include radioactive decay, interaction of radiation with matter, fission, fusion, reactors, safety, and applications in medical imaging, non-invasive diagnostics, food preservation, archaeology, geoscience, and nuclear forensics for interdicted materials and art forgery. Samanta.

Fall 2012 topic:

ENGN 295A-01: Machine Dynamics and Design (3). Prerequisite: ENGN 204. An investigation of the kinematic and kinetic analysis of machine systems. Design and selection of machine components and connections along with a study of failure modes. Design projects include analytical solution methods, simulations, and standard construction techniques. Kuehner.

ENGN 301 - Solid Mechanics

ENGN 311 - Fluid Mechanics

ENGN 312 - Heat Transfer

ENGN 330 - Mechanical Vibrations

ENGN 351 - Solid Mechanics Laboratory

ENGN 361 - Polymer Science and Engineering

ENGN 395 - Special Topics in Engineering

ENGN 401 - Engineering Problems

ENGN 402 - Engineering Problems

ENGN 403 - Engineering Problems

ENGN 421 - Directed Individual Research

ENGN 422 - Directed Individual Research

ENGN 423 - Directed Individual Research

ENGN 493 - Honors Thesis

ENGL 201 - Advanced Expository Writing

ENGL 202 - Topics in Creative Writing: Playwriting

ENGL 203 - Topics in Creative Writing: Fiction

FDR: HA
Credits: 3 credits in Fall or Winter; 4 credits in Spring
Planned Offering: Fall, Winter, Spring

Spring 2013 topic:

ENGL 203: Topics in Creative Writing: Short Fiction. (4). We examine and discuss a wide range of fictional styles and techniques, with readings drawn from among both classic and contemporary examples of the genre. The purpose of the readings is to increase students’ appreciation of the creative possibilities short fiction offers the writer, with a view toward broadening their approach to their own work. Each student writes three stories (20-40 pages in total), and these creative efforts provide our workshop’s primary focus, with each student story being extensively reviewed and commented on by the class as a whole, as well as by the professor in conference. (HA) B. Oliver. Spring 2013

ENGL 204 - Topics in Creative Writing: Poetry

ENGL 205 - Poetic Forms

ENGL 206 - Introduction to Writing Creative Nonfiction

ENGL 230 - Poetry

ENGL 231 - Drama

ENGL 232 - The Novel

ENGL 233 - Film

ENGL 234 - Children’s Literature

ENGL 235 - Fantasy

ENGL 236 - The Bible as English Literature

ENGL 237 - The Bible as Literature: Exile and Return

ENGL 240 - Arthurian Legend

ENGL 242 - Individual Shakespeare Play

ENGL 243 - Performing Shakespeare

ENGL 250 - British Literature: Medieval and Early Modern

ENGL 251 - British Literature in an Age of Global Expansion, 1660s-1790s

ENGL 252 - Shakespeare

ENGL 253 - Southern American Literature

ENGL 254 - Jane Austen: The Works and the Phenomenon

ENGL 255 - Superheroes

ENGL 256 - Southern Women Writers

ENGL 260 - Literary Approaches to Poverty

ENGL 261 - Reading Gender

ENGL 262 - Literature, Race, and Ethnicity

ENGL 285 - Reading Lolita in Lexington

ENGL 291 - Seminar

ENGL 292 - Topics in British Literature

ENGL 293 - Topics in American Literature

FDR: HL
Credits: 3-4
Planned Offering: Fall, Winter, Spring

Winter 2013 topic:

ENGL 293: Topics in American Literature: Form and Freedom in Modern American Poetry (3). Robert Frost once said that writing free verse is like playing tennis without a net. This course explores that statement by studying several modern American poets. We examine varieties of free verse from Walt Whitman through Sylvia Plath and compare those writers’ works to poets like Frost and Richard Wilbur, who preferred traditional forms. We also see how individual poets have worked with both form and freedom throughout their careers. In the process the course studies many verse forms, including sonnets, villanelles and sestinas, and concludes by sampling some contemporary experimental approaches. (HL) Brodie.

Fall 2012 topics:

ENGL 293-01: Topics in American Literature: American Environmental Poetry (3). In this course we read a selection of works by American poets from the seventeenth century to the present, but the majority of our readings are from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We ask how “nature poetry” becomes “environmental poetry,” and what the difference in terminology signifies. We develop skills in formal and thematic analysis of poems. We ask how we read poems from different periods both within their own historical context and within our present historical context. Poets include Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, Gary Snyder, Simon Ortiz, and Pattiann Rogers. (HL) Warren.

ENGL 293-02: Topics in American Literature: Recent American Fiction (3). This course examines writing from the past quarter of a century, including novels, short stories, and nonfiction, with an emphasis on works that have achieved immediate critical acclaim. Writers represented are likely to include: Don DeLillo, Junot Diaz, Dave Eggers, Louise Erdrich, Jonathan Safran Foer, Toni Morrison, Marilynne Robinson, David Foster Wallace. (HL) Crowley.

ENGL 293-03: Topics in American Literature: American Short Story (3). A study of the evolution of the short story in America from its roots, both domestic and international, tracing the main branches of its development in the 20th century.  We also explore more recent permutations of the genre, such as magical realism, new realism, and minimalism.  Having gained an appreciation for the history and variety of this distinctly modern genre, we focus our attention on the work of two American masters of the form, contemporaries and erstwhile friends who frequently read and commented on each other’s work–Hemingway and Fitzgerald. We examine how they were influenced by their predecessors and by each other and how each helped to shape the genre.

ENGL 293-03: Topics in American Literature: American Short Story (3). A study of the evolution of the short story in America from its roots, both domestic and international, tracing the main branches of its development in the 20th century.  We also explore more recent permutations of the genre, such as magical realism, new realism, and minimalism.  Having gained an appreciation for the history and variety of this distinctly modern genre, we focus our attention on the work of two American masters of the form, contemporaries and erstwhile friends who frequently read and commented on each other’s work–Hemingway and Fitzgerald. We examine how they were influenced by their predecessors and by each other and how each helped to shape the genre. (HL) Oliver.

ENGL 293-04: Topics in American Literature: Subverting Stereotypes: Modern Appalachian Literature (3). The stereotype of the Appalachian dweller–a dirty, lazy, ignorant, moonshining, feuding, but musical and comic fundamentalist–is so inaccurate one wonders how it was contrived, as well as why anyone would believe it. However, the residents of the Appalachian Mountains have long struggled to throw off the images foisted upon them in film and print. In this course we examine the counter-narratives presented by recent fiction writers and poets of the region in their effort to probe beyond the highlanders’ notorious peculiarities and reach the recognizably human mysteries–diversity, humor, spiritual conflict, divided loyalties–which complicate the nature and experiences of the native mountain people. Our reading includes work by the Afrilachian poets, Charles Wright, Ann Pancake, Denise Giardina, David Huddle, Thomas Wolfe, Kathryn Byer and others, and we supplement the reading with films and music. Each student is required to keep a reading journal, make an oral presentation to the class, and write both a short paper and a longer, research-based paper, with an option to substitute creative work for the short paper. (HL) Smith.

ENGL 294 - Topics in Environmental Literature

ENGL 295 - Spring-Term Seminar in Literary Studies

FDR: HL
Credits: 4
Planned Offering: Spring

Spring 2013 topics:

ENGL 295-01: Spring-Term Seminar in Literary Studies: The American Hero in Fiction and Film (4). Prerequisite: Completion of FDR FW requirement.  What is a Hero? And what does it mean to be a specifically American Hero? American history and culture is richly populated with heroic figures, ranging from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln, from Mickey Mantle to Eleanor Roosevelt, from Rosa Parks to John F. Kennedy. In American literature, we find a similar abundance of heroic figures, exhibiting the full complexity of what it means to be a hero. In this course, we examine four iconic representations of American Heroes in literature: Twain’s boy-hero, Huckleberry Finn; Fitzgerald’s romantic quester, Jay Gatsby; Hurston’s ground-breaking presentation of the liberated woman in Janie; and Charles Johnson’s fictionalization of Martin Luther King Jr. in his recent novel, Dreamer.  We also examine four renowned presentations of the American hero in film: The Natural; The Godfather, parts 1 and 2; The Color Purple; and Malcolm X. Finally, we engage several non-fiction works to help us grasp the complexity of the American Hero. (HL) Conner.

ENGL 295-02: Spring-Term Seminar in Literary Studies: The Western Novel: On the Page and On the Screen (4). Prerequisite: Completion of FDR FW requirement. Students read novels view films about the American West: Wister’s The Virginian, Clark’s The Ox-Bow Incident, Leonard’s Hombre, Portis’s True Grit, Hansen’s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Bob Ford, McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove, and Parker’s Appaloosa. We begin with American westward expansion and early ”frontier” texts (Cooper, Sedgwick, Crane, Twain, Harte, Grey). Discussion topics include romance and reality, convention and invention/type and character, the allure and labor of the margin, landscape/ inscape/escape, brotherhood of the saddle, hero and antihero, morality and pattern, the American Adam, mythmaking and breaking, ritual and law, justice and expediency. (HL) Smith.

ENGL 295-03: Spring-Term Seminar in Literary Studies: Hitchcock (4). Prerequisite: Completion of FDR FW requirement. An intensive survey of the films of Alfred Hitchcock: it covers most of his major and several of his less well-known films. It supplements that central work by introducing students to several approaches to film analysis that are particularly appropriate for studying Hitchcock. These include biographical interpretation (Spoto’s dark thesis), auteur- and genre-based interpretation (Truffaut), psychological analyses (Rank and Freud), and dominant-form theory (hands-on study of one novel to film adaptation). (HL) Adams.

ENGL 299 - Seminar for Prospective Majors

FDR: HL
Credits: 3
Planned Offering: Fall, Winter

Winter 2013 topics:

ENGL 299-01: Seminar for Prospective Majors: Ritual, Religion, and Drama in Early Modern England (3). Is drama inherently ritualistic, even religious? While scholars once speculated that ancient Greek drama evolved out of religious rituals, post-Reformation drama (including Shakespeare’s) often actively worked to minimize its religious content to avoid accusations of idolatry. Why did some Protestant reformers so object to the theater? The role of the body, especially the senses, in dramatic performance (and spectatorship) fosters much of the controversy surrounding its ritual elements; divergent attitudes towards those ritual elements continue even into modern and postmodern drama. The course centers on plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries, putting them in the context of the historical debates about religion and theater in Shakespeare’s day. We pair the plays with theoretical readings about ritual, performance, and religion, and take a brief look at the classical origins and the postmodern afterlives of these debates. (HL) Pickett.

ENGL 299-02: Seminar for Prospective Majors: Henry David Thoreau and American Transcendentalism (3). This course focuses on the writings of Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), reading them in relation to other major figures of American Transcendentalism. During Thoreau’s short lifetime, New England culture was the site of far-reaching and profound social, political, scientific, and literary innovations. We combine close attention to works like Walden and The Maine Woods with research into the lyceum lecture series, anti-slavery movements, communitarian experiments, natural history and travel narratives, and the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson. (HL) Warren.

Fall 2012 topics:

ENGL 299-01: Seminar for Prospective Majors: American Creative Nonfiction (3). This course explores creative nonfiction in contemporary American literature. We read such memoirists and essayists as Mary Karr, Tobias Wolff, and David Sedaris. We also read literary criticism about life writing and reflect on the cultural forces that have made creative nonfiction such a force in the contemporary literary landscape. As students work toward writing a longer research paper, they gain skills and confidence in researching topics in English. (HL) Darznik.

ENGL 299-02: Seminar for Prospective Majors: Stuck on the Dixie Express: William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor (3). If you ask the world what they know about the American South, they first mention Gone with the Wind. If you press them further for the South’s greatest writers, they almost all mention Faulkner and O’Connor. In this course we study these two writers, talking about the fascinating picture of the South they have conveyed to the world and all the problems this picture has caused. Is the South a Gothic land of dilapidated old mansions, freaks, murders, rapes, incest, and mental torture destroyed by moral evils, or a glorious land of mint juleps, learning, culture, civility, and honor that we prefer to reenact at Washington and Lee? Why did Faulkner and O’Conner tell their gruesome stories? What have we who live in the South and love it gained and lost because of their amazing literary power? And how the heck do Southern readers and writers get rid of these stereotypes now and move on, so everyone is not stuck forever on this version of the Dixie Express, but can tell other stories that paint the South in a more positive and helpful light? (HL) Smout.

ENGL 307 - Advanced Creative Writing: Poetry

ENGL 308 - Advanced Creative Writing: Fiction

ENGL 309 - Advanced Creative Writing: Memoir

ENGL 311 - History of the English Language

ENGL 312 - Chaucer, Dante, Langland: Vision and Life

ENGL 313 - Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales

ENGL 314 - From Manuscript to Print: The History of the Book in Europe

ENGL 317 - Fantasies of Untamed Nature

ENGL 318 - Medieval and Renaissance Drama

ENGL 319 - Shakespeare and Company

ENGL 320 - Shakespearean Genres

ENGL 326 - 17th-Century Poetry

ENGL 330 - Milton