 English 101: Self, Community, and Culture In this course, we move from reading rhetorically to rhetorical and contextual analysis essays to assignments that ask students to take a stance and to argue with sources. In Unit 1 we read Mark Haddon's A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night- Time, which tells the story of a young boy with Asperger's syndrome. Unit 2 features Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel Persepolis, which depicts Satrapi's childhood in revolutionary Iran. And in Unit 3 we read The Laramie Project, a play that dramatizes the 1998 murder of gay college student Matthew Shephard. Read about the research, theory, and practice informing this course at UTK's ITC site. 2005-6 Co-Teachers: Miya Abbott, Devon Koren Asdell, Bill Doyle, Stacey Pigg and Amanda Watkins. Textbook cover art by Aisling Asdell. |
 Every section of English 355 introduces students to key concepts in rhetoric and writing, including argument, audience, citizenship, education, literacy, and media. Most sections also take a thematic approach. In 2007, in conjunction with the film/speaker series, "Citizenship, Literacy, Media," English 355 challenged students to examine how rhetorical education promotes both local and global citizenship. The course also asked students to inquire and argue with digital video, and students' main project was a multi-stage 3- to 5-minute interview-based digital documentary. In 2008, in collaboration with Dr. Bump Halbritter and his students at MSU, this course will invite students to examine election rhetorics in their communities. Watch an ITC Faculty Showcase about this class. With Jess Irwin and John Nelson. Poster art by Dan Reiff. |
 English 582: The Emergence of Public Culture Designed for all graduate students in English (CW, LCTS, RWL), this course takes a cultural approach to long eighteenth-century rhetoric and writing. Specifically, by exploring the idea of the public, its historical emergence, and its usefulness as a critical tool, participants in this course will consider the role that different types of texts and different textual activities played in the advent and early development of modern print-literate culture. Course readings include Jurgen Habermas's Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, Michael Warner's Publics and Counterpublics, Samuel Richardson's Pamela, and selections from Richard Steele and Joseph Addison's Tatler and Spectator essays, actor David Garrick's writings, Hugh Blair's Lectures of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, and George Jardine's Philosophical Outlines. |
Additional courses include English 493: College Composition and Writing Research (Independent Study); English 492/592: Drama in New York; English 495: Introduction to Rhetoric and Writing in History, Theory, and Practice; English 582: Eighteenth-Century Writing; English 587: History of Rhetoric, Part II; English 593: Eighteenth-Century Politics and Taste (Independent Study); and Freshman [sic] Seminar: Speak! Slam! Write!