Literature, Media, and Writing Courses

LMW-104: Books That Changed the World (Credits: 4)

Literature can be a powerful tool for social change. This course examines the international tradition of literary activism in which writers expose injustice, demand change, and inspire solidarity and struggle. (WCore: WCFAH, WE)

LMW-105: Communicating Through Writing (Credits: 4)

This course immerses students into the process of becoming college writers. The workshop oriented class provides an opportunity for students to learn about the following: how rhetorical context shapes writing, how to write about readings, how to understand the information literacy needs and approaches to research, and how to synthesize research into a student's own writing. By the end of the course, students will have confidence to read, write, research, and communicate in a college context. (WCore: WCFAH, WE)

LMW-109: Academic Reading/Writing Internationals (Credits: 3)

This course is designed to help advanced multilingual students to effectively orient themselves when reading complex academic texts, develop skills in organizing information from such readings, and write papers that build on the knowledge they acquired in their reading process. Additional emphases will be placed on vocabulary development and grammar and stylistics.

LMW-114: Searching for America (Credits: 4)

This course explores the rich tradition of modern American literature by featuring some of the most captivating texts and innovative authors, including US minority writers of different ethnic background. Emphasizing pertinent connections between literature and culture, class discussions will showcase how imaginative writing illuminates, interrogates, and complicates fundamental aspects of American culture. We will discover that whether literary protagonists dream of freedom, refuge, success, or happiness, they all imagine and experience modern America in uniquely compelling ways. (WCore: WCFAH, DE)

LMW-115: The Bible and Literature (Credits: 4)

We will examine the ongoing cultural dialogue between literature and the Christian Bible, focusing on themes such as creation, temptation, fall, revelation, exodus, testing, persecution, conversion, apocalypse, and the problem of evil. Works by authors such as Shakespeare, Milton, William Blake, C.S.Lewis, Kafka, and Dostoevsky will be read in the context of relevant passages from the Bible. What light do the Bible and literature throw on perennial human issues? Our basic approach to these texts will be anthropological. (WCore: WCFAH, WE)

LMW-116: The Serious Art of Humor (Credits: 4)

This writing emphasis (WE) Exploration course focuses on humor as a pivotal human experience in the twenty-first century. Students will explore how humor is tied to social contexts, and gain a deep understanding of ways in which humor entertains, instructs, and illuminates political issues. We will read comedy as a cultural text and explore a myriad of subgenres that span geographical contexts (including works by social activist Wanda Sykes, contemporary satirist George Saunders, Indian joke master Kushwant Singh, and cultural critic Barry Sanders), as well as examine styles of comic performances from Ali G's shock-comedy to Margaret Cho's political satire. In the process, we will investigate the meanings and effects of humor that have proliferated through social and digital media in the backdrop of such historical events as 9/11 and the Asian Tsunami. Throughout the course, students will reevaluate the concept of humor and ask "What's funny and why?" (WCore: WCFAH, WE)

LMW-121: How Literature Matters Now (Credits: 4)

This course considers how literature continues to be a vital element of human experience in the 21st century. It may focus on how literary tropes and ideas manifest themselves in other media (in adaptations, allusions, or mashups), on how digital tools have opened up new ways of understanding literary texts, or on how the techniques of literary analysis can help us to understand political narratives. (WCore: WCFAH, WE)

LMW-130: Self-Discovery: Film and Literature (Credits: 4)

Great films and literature testify to the difficulty and the crucial importance of self-discovery. Literary and cinematic protagonists throughout history have struggled to "know thyself," as the oracle commands. The failure to know oneself can have tragic consequences. For us today, film and literature are a challenging and enjoyable route to self-knowledge. This class will study works of literature and cinema which speak to the process of self-discovery. (WCore: WCFAH)

LMW-131: Shakespeare, Culture and Society (Credits: 4)

Shakespeare's plays and poems are important cultural artifacts of English society, its customs, traditions, structures, and institutions. We will investigate how the performance of Shakespeare's works function in 17th-century England and global modernity, drawing on theorists such as Stephen Greenblatt, Clifford Geertz, and Ren Girard. We will consider the role of Shakespeare's art in relation to issues of social order and of social change. (WCore: WCSBS, WE)

LMW-133: Walking (Credits: 4)

In this arts and humanities course, we will explore the cultural history of walking in the United States, we will walk with intention, and we will write and make art about walking. Some people walk only out of necessity. Others walk to improve their well-being, to see the world, or to save the earth. Depending on who is walking where, when, why, and how, this seemingly simple and ordinary activity can become an adventure, a sport, a crime, an artistic performance, a spiritual practice, a political protest, and more. By studying and practicing the art of walking, we will ask important questions and uncover sometimes uncomfortable truths about ourselves and our world. This course welcomes all people. For our purposes, walking is defined as slow movement across the land. (WCore: WCFAH, WE)

LMW-202: Worlds of Fantasy (Credits: 4)

While the fantasy genre has its roots in truly ancient myths and legends, it is very much a product of the twentieth century. In Worlds of Fantasy, we will examine the origins and development of fantasy media in all their forms, from literature to TV, film, and games. Our central concerns will be how fantasy represents the past; how readers, viewers, and gamers experience fantasy; and how fantasy both expresses and challenges oppressive concepts of gender and race. Readings will draw from a diverse range of fantasy authors. (WCore: WCFAH)

LMW-204: Epistolarity: Letters to and From (Credits: 4)

This writing emphasis (WE) W seminar focuses on letters as both reading and writing texts. Students will read letters both real and imagined (for example Heloise and Abelard, Frederick Douglass, Roland Barthes' A Lover's Discourse, Sojourner Truth, Madame de Stael, M.L.King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail," Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, McSweeney's Letters to People or Entities Unlikely to Respond) across a variety of genres. Students will also write their own letters (love letters, rejection letters, condolence letters, complaint letters, etc.) to themselves, their loved ones, the instructor and classmates, the editors of newspapers or magazines, their communities, etc. The course seeks to combine a deep understanding of rhetoric (awareness of audience, purpose, and information literacy) with literary modes across a broad spectrum of relevance. Letters might include emails, texts, and tweets. The seminar aims to teach students the importance of establishing ethos in conjunction with educating one's audience. Workshop format, with at least 20 pages of writing, including multiple drafts of each assignment. The course addresses three college-wide learning goals (writing/critical thinking/creative-reflective), plus diversity, because understanding issues of power, subordination, and privilege are inextricable from creating a standpoint from which to speak. (WCore: WCFAH, WE)

LMW-205: Goddesses, Heroes, and Others (Credits: 4)

From ancient scriptures to contemporary comics, these literary characters-goddesses, heroes, and "others" (figures marginalized by the dominant group)-rule. This course investigates and supports your investigations of these character types. It poses basic questions asked by many literary critics: where do these characters come from and how are they adapted by so many cultures and literary genres? To answer these questions, we'll delve into current theory and historical research. We'll do our part to keep goddesses, heroes, and others alive! (WCore: WCFAH, RE)

LMW-207: Global Food Movements: Farms to Social (Credits: 4)

This course is a study of social movements around food and agriculture in the Global South. From farm worker movements in India to the indigenous fight for environmental justice in Ecuador, this course will investigate how global "food systems" intersect with issues of land, hunger, environment, and the economy. The focus will be on the phenomenon of food crises and the social movements in response to them. (WCore: WCFAH, WE)

LMW-210: Digital Narratives (Credits: 4)

In this course we will learn how to create stories using digital media such as video narratives and podcasts. Alongside exploring creative elements, we will also reflect critically on how new media shape our understanding of narrative and audiences. The online forum will allow us to be fully immersed in a digital experience. We will create what Anne Burdick calls, "imaginative techno-texts" and critique each other's works online. To develop a common vocabulary, we will read critical texts about narrative and media. In the process, we will analyze the relationship between creator and audience, between form and medium, by asking questions like, "how do the intersections between technology and storytelling affect the ways in which we explore and express our stories?" Students don't need technical proficiency. We'll spend some time going over basic technical and production guidelines. (WCore: WCFAH, WE)

LMW-211: Reading and Detection (Credits: 4)

While investigating the history of the detective genre in film and literature, this course compares the work of interpretation with detective work. It is a famous staple of the detective narrative that the detective explains her or his method of detection, often in considerable philosophical detail. In this course, students will imitate these self-reflective detectives by cultivating and describing their own unique methods of interpretation. They will articulate these methods in essays, discussions, and other linguistic performances. (WCore: WCFAH)

LMW-215: Vampire Literature (Credits: 4)

This course proceeds from the assumption that reading literature bears certain uncanny similarities with vampirism, and that these similarities partly account for the success of the vampire subgenre in popular literature and cinema (the reception of which we will regard as a kind of reading). In particular, literary texts put their readers in a state of passivity that is at once often nerve-wracking and intensely pleasurable. Meanwhile, we will regard writing as a form of vampiric seduction, luring the reading into a receptive state only to strike at the decisive moment and thus achieve its aims (which we will assume are somewhat less violent than the aims of a vampire). (WCore: WCFAH, WE)

LMW-222: Texts and Media in Context (Credits: 4)

This course positions literary texts, films, and media events as aesthetic productions linked to other, larger networks, including politics, technology, intellectual, artistic, and social trends. In addition to studying other scholars' analyses of literature, film, and other media in particular contexts, students will conduct research to situate their own interpretations. Among the key issues considered are how literature, film, and other media reflect and affect contemporary tastes, how political struggles manifest themselves in narrative arts, how means of distribution and consumption influence audience reactions, and how works construct identities in terms of race, class, gender, and other categories.

LMW-223: Critical Theory for Texts and Media (Credits: 4)

Being a literary, film, and media critic requires thinking about how and why we read and consume narrative arts. This course introduces critical approaches to literature, film, and other media as well as essential methods of academic research. Students will develop analytical viewing, reading, writing, and research skills that will prepare them for advanced levels of literary and media scholarship. Students will also begin identifying the basic aims and concepts underlying interpretive theories such as feminism, critical race theory, and disability theory, articulating the similarities and differences among them, and reflecting on the implications of interpreting works through various lenses.

LMW-230: Introduction to Creative Writing (Credits: 3)

Students learn the building blocks of creative writing--including diction, figurative language, narrative, imagery, point of view, meter, and form--by reading examples of professional writing, writing short stories and poems of their own, and meeting visiting writers. This workshop course emphasizes experimentation and imitation and is designed to expand the students' repertoire of literary technique. Strongly recommended as a prerequisite to other creative writing courses.

LMW-231: Global Shakespeares (Credits: 4)

William Shakespeare is exceptional in the worldwide reach of his plays and poems, and his influence continues to grow with performances, translations, and adaptations to a variety of mediums, notably film. Global Shakespeares will examine how his plays are adapted for different cultures and formats in far-flung places across the globe. We will view his plays from a sociological perspective, to see how they mediate the society of Shakespeare's England first, and then how they mediate various global cultures. Our study of global Shakesepeares will help us to better understand and meaningfully engage with the many cultures and countries that continue to enjoy, consume, use, and engage with his texts. We will pay especial attention to the representation of gender relations and the treatment of marginalized groups and individuals in performances of Shakespeare. (WCore: EWRLD)

LMW-300: Special Topics in Periods and Movements (Credits: 1 to 4)

A changing topics course that addresses specific literary periods or movements, such as the Victorian period, the Harlem Renaissance, or magical realism. Possible topics include works by particular authors or individual long works. This course fulfills the Periods & Movements requirement for LMW majors.

LMW-305: Creative Research Workshop (Credits: 3)

This course explores the ways in which research is essential -- and exciting -- in the creative writing process. We will discover how various forms of research, from directed daydreaming to accessing archives, develop a habit of inquiry that can be applied to poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, drama, or digital texts. Students produce creative works (short story, poems, etc.) using research tools they have practiced during the semester. This cross-genre creative space will generate discussions that will challenge students to think outside their preferred genres, as well as reinforce the multiple genres taught in LMW 230.

LMW-310: Theory and Teaching of Writing (Credits: 3 to 4)

This course will introduce you to the teaching of college-level writing as well as the ideas and history that inform it. In addition to learning about rhetoric and composition theory, you will observe how writing is taught in the Westminster College Writing Center and conduct your own writing consultations as the semester progresses. Completing this course will make you eligible to work in the Writing Center as a paid consultant. Students will complete readings on composition theory and practice, observe and conduct consultations in the Writing Center, and write short responses and consultation reports. Offered for variable credit. This course fulfills the Writing or Theory requirement for LMW majors and is a Civic Engagement course.

LMW-320: Creative Writing: Fiction (Credits: 3)

A course that focuses on the writing of short stories and short-short stories and integrates workshop experience with readings of various narratives and theoretical material. This course fulfills the Writing requirement for LMW majors. This course is repeatable for credit.

LMW-321: Creative Writing: Plays (Credits: 3)

Workshop in playwriting which examines structure and style in dramatic literature as a starting point for student's work in scene writing. This course fulfills the Writing requirement for LMW Literary Studies majors and counts as a Writing Elective for LMW Creative Writing majors.

LMW-322: Creative Writing: Poetry (Credits: 3)

This course, often taught around a central theme, combines reading of poetry and criticism combines reading of poetry and criticism with workshop discussion of students' own poems. Meter, form, line, imagery, figurative language, and point of view are among the topics addressed. Students read work of visiting poets and meet with them. This course fulfills the Writing requirement for LMW majors. This course is repeatable for credit.

LMW-323: Creative Writing: Screenwriting (Credits: 3)

A course that focuses on writing film scripts, stressing effective narrative, dialogue and character development. Coursework includes viewing films as well as writing and analyzing scripts. This course fulfills the Writing requirement for LMW Literary Studies majors and counts as a Writing Elective for LMW Creative Writing majors. This course is repeatable for credit.

LMW-324: Creative Writing: Nonfiction (Credits: 4)

A course in writing nonfiction including essays, personal narratives, and articles. Writing for workshop will be balanced by readings of various model texts. This course fulfills the Writing requirement for LMW majors. This course is repeatable for credit.

LMW-326: College Publications: Ellipsis (Credit: 1)

Students learn how to evaluate contemporary literature and how to produce a literary/arts magazine, the nationally recognized student-edited journal Ellipsis. In ENGL 326, the fall semester, the emphasis is on evaluating submissions of poetry, fiction, and essays; and on designing and placing ads. Students also meet with visiting writers and editors. May be taken four times for credit, eight times for creative concentration LMW majors. This course fulfills the Writing requirement for LMW majors. This course is repeatable for credit.

LMW-327: College Publications: Ellipsis (Credit: 1)

This spring course continues evaluative work through the beginning of February, but then shifts into production. Visual art is chosen in January. Once the materials are chosen, the focus is on design, layout, proofreading, publicity, updating the website, and distribution. Students in both semesters sometimes meet with visiting writers and editors. In the Spring, applications are taken for paid editorial positions for the following year. May be taken four times for credit; eight times for creative writing concentration LMW majors. This course fulfills the Writing requirement for LMW majors. This course is repeatable for credit.

LMW-329: Special Topics in Creative Writing (Credits: 1 to 4)

Advanced course focusing on changing topics in creative writing. This course fulfills the Writing requirement for LMW majors. Prerequisite: LMW 311.

LMW-331: History and Structure of English (Credits: 4)

This course offers an introduction to linguistics, the formal study of language, and explores the development of the English language from its ancient origins in Proto-Indo-European to the present. In addition to the features of Old, Middle, and Early Modern English, we will survey the various areas of linguistic study, from the sounds of language to word parts, vocabulary, meaning, and sentence structure. We will also study how English has shaped and been shaped by social and political forces: how language encodes social prestige and stigma, how English has been used as an instrument of colonization and empire, and how standard language ideology maintains social inequities. Assignments will involve you in thinking like a linguist and give you the opportunity to apply linguistic concepts to the study of literature. As a result, you will see English in an entirely new way.

LMW-332: Shakespeare and Film (Credits: 4)

Shakespeare continues to be one of the most popular Hollywood screenwriters, building on his past success as a Renaissance playwright. We will be examining how contemporary directors and actors have transformed Shakespeare's plays into film versions for a modern, mass audience. The class will discuss the different requirements and conventions of film versus stage presentation, as well as the problems associated with presenting a Renaissance text to a modern audience. We will engage closely with both the printed text and filmed versions. This course fulfills the Periods & Movements (pre-1800) or Language & Media requirement for LMW majors.

LMW-335: Englishes of the World (Credits: 4)

This course examines how the English language has spread across the world, accumulating accents and varieties to become a global language in the 20th and 21st centuries. By applying theories of globalization and post-colonialism, we will explore how English has been exported into South Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean through social or political coercion, mass media, or "choice." We will analyze print, visual, and digital texts written in English by non-native writers and gain awareness of issues like cultural translation, hybridity, broken English and the inherent ideological consequences when writers choose to represent cultures in a language other than their own. This course will also be linked to a service-learning project: Westminster's partnership with the Promise South Salt Lake initiative provides opportunities for student volunteers to interact with members of the Bhutanese and Somali refugee communities who take ESL classes to pass their citizenship tests. Our students will spend two class sessions with ESL students from Bhutan and/or Somalia, and through mutual interactions, gain a deeper understanding of how language (English) is inherently tied to ideas of power, identity, and cultural assimilation. Students will turn in a written assignment based on this experience. This course fulfills the Engaging the World requirement. This course fulfills the Language & Media requirement for LMW majors. (WCore: EWRLD)

LMW-339: Studies in Method, Theory, and Genre (Credits: 1 to 4)

This course is an opportunity for students to examine closely one or more of the theoretical issues introduced in such classes as 269 and 330. Students will gain an understanding of theoretical approaches to literary study, methods of relating theory to works of literature, theories and conventions of genre, and the works of literary theorists. Possible topics include structuralism and poststructuralism, poetics, anthropology and literary theory, gender criticism, postcolonialism, and ecocriticism. This course fulfills the Theory requirement for LMW majors.

LMW-350: Constructing Gender in Medieval Lit (Credits: 4)

This course builds upon the many medieval conduct manuals and literary descriptions of gender roles. It develops attitudes toward gender that derive from medieval Roman Catholicism, courtly manners, opportunities for work, levels of literacy, and more. In contrast, it also turns to estates satires that ridicule established gender models. For instance, while on the one hand the Virgin Mary's maternal sweetness is praised in devotional lyrics, on the other, that model of motherhood is ridiculed in Chaucer's Prioress, who coos over her little dogs. By highlighting multiple medieval perspectives on gender and presenting a gamut of gender models from the masculine warrior to the cross-dressing entertainer, in texts that were written by both men and women, the course opens up a wide variety of interpretations possible for medieval literature, including feminist, masculinist, queer, and other readings. This course fulfills the Periods and Movements (pre-1800) or the Theory requirement for LMW majors.

LMW-353: American Literature After 1945 (Credits: 4)

Featuring a select group of representative works, this course focuses on American literature developed after World War II. As we identify their thematic and aesthetic concerns across genres, we will examine how modern US authors decenter and diversify predominant literary traditions while capturing the reality of post-war America, from its economic might and new war involvements to the civil rights movements and new immigration and globalization patterns. This period of US literature is particularly exciting because it presents the most inclusive and varied literary canon, embracing minority voices and perspectives and broadening its international dimensions. This course fulfills the Periods & Movements or Language & Media requirement for LMW majors.

LMW-354: Medieval Entertainments (Credits: 4)

This course focuses on the wide variety of English literature composed between roughly 600 and 1500 as a form of entertainment for churches, courts, or town squares. It explores a variety of texts that were read for both edification and pleasure in monastic settings; songs, romances, and assorted vernacular poems that were performed at court; and plays that were enacted during city festivals. While most of the texts studied in this course were written as original compositions, some were recorded after generations of oral performance. Students will investigate the meanings and permeable boundaries of orality, aurality, and literacy in medieval cultures where only a minority were "literate" as understood today. In addition to theories of literary invention, perpetuation, and reception, students will learn effective strategies for close reading of Middle English writings and research methods for learning the contexts in which they became entertainments. The course associates the canon of medieval English literature with the popular culture of the past and today. This course fulfills the Periods and Movements (pre-1800) or the Theory requirement for LMW majors.

LMW-357: Environmental Literature (Credits: 4)

Survey of a broad range of works concerning the American environment and parallel historical and cultural trends. Works are selected from poetry, fiction, and such nonfiction genres as nature essays, autobiography, travel narrative, and political writing.

LMW-365: History of Genre (Credits: 4)

Each iteration of this course examines genre through an historical and cultural lens, concentrating on points of blur, change, and hybridity. For example, the novel is a genre developed from the other genres of autobiography, letters, travel writing, and journalism. In France and in England, readers and writers of early novels were primarily women. Some male writers even took female pseudonyms to publish potboilers. Yet in the next century female novelists took male pseudonyms in order to be taken seriously. What happened? A course on the novel as genre examines social and historical changes between 1700 and 1900. Other versions of this course might focus on the lyric poem, the epic, or the prose poem. In each course, we ask how genres are culturally created and how they are reinvented. By reading both typical and exceptional examples, students gain an understanding of how "the law of genre" (to use Derrida's term) is enforced or broken. This course fulfills the Periods & Movements or the Theory requirement for LMW majors.

LMW-367: Literatures of the African Diaspora (Credits: 4)

This course will survey literary texts in English that were published since 1900 by writers of the African Diaspora, including such figures as W. E. B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Aim Csaire, James Baldwin, Chinua Achebe, Frantz Fanon, Malcolm X, Toni Morrison, Jackie Kay, Zadie Smith, Jamaica Kincaid, Samuel Delany, Octavia Butler, and others associated with such movements as the Harlem Renaissance, la poesa negra, la Ngritude, and Black Arts. We will immerse ourselves in an international black literary conversation in which distinctive styles and techniques were used to explore urgent questions of identity and exile, authenticity and double-consciousness, the burdens of racism and history, and hope for the future. This course fulfills the Periods and Movements or Theory requirement for LMW majors.

LMW-368: U.S. Minority Lit: Writing From Margin (Credits: 4)

This course offers an in-depth study of modern U.S. minority literature, focusing on African American, Latino/a, Asian American, and Native American writers. As we consider different literary genres and cultural contexts, we will examine marginality, minority, and hybridity as dynamic aesthetic and sociopolitical concepts. The intersecting categories of class, race/ethnicity, gender, and sexuality will provide another important lens of critical inquiry. To complement class readings, we will also watch several videos and films that portray minority experiences from various perspectives. This course fulfills the Periods and Movements or the Theory requirement for LMW majors.

LMW-373: Postcolonial Literature and Theory (Credits: 4)

Through the lens of postcolonial theory, this course will explore the relationship between language and power. We will read literary, film, and interactive texts by Anglophone postcolonial writers, from Ben Okri to Kiran Desai, and analyze the enduring legacy of the colonial language on, as Gaurav Desai puts it, "the institutions of imagination." By refashioning the English language, how do postcolonial writers rupture conventions of a language they inherited, and how does that imply a mode of resistance? By investigating the politics of language within a postcolonial framework, students will question their own assumptions and approaches to the English language, and in the process, explore themes such as "hybridity," "accent," and even "arranged marriage." This course fulfills the Periods and Movements or the Theory requirement for LMW majors.

LMW-374: Studies in Language and Media (Credits: 4)

A changing topics course that addresses topics in the study of language or media. Possible topics include language politics, textual communities, graphic novels, and electronic media. This course fulfills the Language & Media requirement for LMW majors.

LMW-375: Lit in Manuscript, Print, and New Media (Credits: 4)

This course demonstrates Marshall McLuhan's dictum "[t]he medium is the message." In considering the past, present, and future of media, we will examine how the form that writing takes affects reading and how the ways in which texts are produced and distributed build communities of readers. Our investigation will focus on works of literature that were recorded and transmitted in various media, for example classical works first recorded on scrolls and later transcribed to codices and print. We will also examine electronic media, including web-based texts and film, to see how motion, sound and interactivity influence the presentation of texts. Hands-on assignments will provide experience working with texts in various media, for example by examining books at the University of Utah's Book Arts Program, making books at the Salt Lake Community College Publication Center, and refashioning one of the assigned readings in the medium of their choice. This course fulfills the Language & Medium requirement for LMW majors.

LMW-376: Adaptation, Distortion, and Fidelity (Credits: 4)

Living in the present is living awash in an immense variety of media, many of which would have been unimaginable just fifty years ago. Though film adaptations of books are as old as film itself, the current explosion of new media outlets gives us an opportunity to look at the problems of adaptation anew. This course will explore adaptations, remakes, parodies, and other derivative, secondary, or "parasitic" artworks. We will consider how adaptations re-interpret and change originals, how differences in media change what can be communicated in artworks, and how technology has changed our understanding of what an artwork is. The course will also investigate the implications of new ways of producing, distributing, and consuming artworks, including fan fiction, file sharing, and mashups. This course fulfills the Language and Media or Theory requirement for LMW majors.

LMW-377: Queer Theory and Posthumanism (Credits: 4)

Humanism is the belief that reason provides the best tools for solving the problems of the world. It has dominated political and literary thought at least since the seventeenth century. It is the foundation of human rights discourse, of many theories of democracy, and of the prevailing models of social justice. Nonetheless, humanism has its detractors, and the last several decades have seen the rise of "posthumanism," which seeks to challenge humanism's dominant position in political and social thought. Some critics suspect that humanism unconsciously upholds the racism, misogyny, and homophobia of the texts that established its terms in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Others are motivated by the challenges to reason presented by psychoanalysis, Marxism, and radical feminism. Queer Theory is among the must important posthumanist discourses in the United States, though not all queer theorists are posthumanists. This course investigates how queer theorists have attacked and defended humanism, and also explores queer theory's relationship to other posthumanist discourses. Authors to be considered may include Michel Foucault, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Donna Haraway, Lauren Berlant, Leo Bersani, Jasbir Puar, Lee Edelman, Jacques Derrida, Giorgio Agamben, and Joan Copjec. This course fulfills the Theory requirement for LMW majors.

LMW-378: Podcasting (Credits: 4)

As a disruptive technology, podcasts have reinvented the way we listen. While washing the dishes, walking the dog, and commuting we listen to podcasts on comedy, music, horror, news, knitting, murder, boating, walking, eating, film, TV, and video games. The topics for podcasts are endless and, so it appears, is our insatiable hunger for them! In this course we will spend our time listening and creating podcasts. We will explore different genres such as political podcasts and podguides and different formats such as video podcasts. The goals for this course include understanding audio storytelling, ethics, and diversity in podcasting through a transgender BIPOC-inclusive feminist approach that seeks to celebrate? lived experiences. You will learn basic broadcasting skills such as writing, research, interviewing, and editing. The projects for this course will involve podcasting about Salt Lake City, helping you develop an understanding of the historical and current impact of sex and gender on societies, individuals, and institutions in Salt Lake City and the greater Utah area. This requires that during class time we meet outside of campus. Students are required to have a smart phone or a camera with the capacity to record both sound and video. This course fulfills the Language & Media requirement for LMW majors.

LMW-379: Narrative Across Media (Credits: 4)

Narrative is all around us, from novels and restaurant menus to social media profiles. This course provides an in-depth analysis of narrative--how narratives work, and why basic procedures and mechanisms may be common to all acts of storytelling. We will explore the various structures, genres, and characteristics of narrative-from novels and historical documents to visual and social media. The goal is not simply to enjoy the content, but to analyze how narratives are assembled and disseminated, and what their powers and limitations are in giving meaning to the human experience, across historical and cultural contexts. Issues include: mimesis, framed and cut-up narratives, literary tropes, stories on Twitter, etc. This course fulfills the Theory or Language & Media requirement for LMW majors.

LMW-380: Video Game Culture (Credits: 4)

Video games have emerged in the 21st century as one of the most-watched spectator sports. Pro-gamers compete for hundred-thousand-dollar prizes, and they receive sponsorships that can be worth millions. But to view the video game medium as only an economic force denies the complicated nature of gaming. In popular culture, gaming is the domain of nerdy teenagers, but video game conventions demonstrate that the average player is, well, everyone. This course focuses on the critical analysis of social issues in video games. Class time will be split between playing across different video game genres (such as role-playing, action-adventure, life simulation, strategy, sports, music, and literary hypertexts) and participating in current academic debates around gaming and game studies. Class discussions will engage with the ludic and narrative elements of game theory from an interdisciplinary perspective that considers video games as cultural artifacts, economic powerhouses, educational tools, drivers of technological innovation and works of art.? This course fulfills the Language & Media requirement for LMW majors.

LMW-387: Teach Assistant Literature Media Writing (Credits: 1 to 2)

For teaching assistants in the LMW classes. Practical experience in teaching and grading undergraduate LMW courses. A maximum of two credit hours of LMW 387 may be applied toward the major or minor. This course is repeatable for credit.

LMW-401: Directed Studies (Credits: 1 to 4)

A tutorial-based course used only for student- initiated proposals for intensive study of topics not otherwise offered in the Language Media Writing Program. Hours are arranged. Prerequisite: consent of instructor and school dean.

LMW-403: Thesis (Credits: 4)

A capstone course for LMW majors who are developing the skills to produce a well-researched, fully documented, comprehensive thesis on a literary topic. Students will interact with a faculty member and other students in a seminar setting. They will demonstrate their ability to grapple with complex issues of literary study and conduct advanced research. The course culminates in a successful completion of a written research project. (WCore: SC)

LMW-405: Thesis - Creative Writing (Credits: 4)

A course to support and guide LMW majors who have chosen the creative writing concentration in developing an original group of poems, short stories, creative nonfiction pieces, play(s) or novel. Ideally, this course should be taken after the student has completed all the other requirements for the creative writing concentration, as it will entail revising work submitted to workshops in addition to producing new work. Hours are arranged. (WCore: SC)

LMW-440: Internship (Credits: 1 to 8)

Offers students the opportunity to integrate classroom knowledge with practical experience. Students will be graded on assigned coursework and evaluation by their site supervisor. Prerequisites: 60 college credits completed (for transfer students at least 15 hours competed at Westminster or permission of instructor), minimum 2.5 GPA, and consent of faculty advisor and Career Center internship coordinator. Interns will work for 42 hours per each registered credit. This course is repeatable for credit. Some majors limit how many internship credits may count towards the major, consult your faculty advisor. REGISTRATION NOTE: Registration for internships is initiated through the Career Center website and is finalized upon completion of required paperwork and approvals. More info: 801-832-2590 https://westminstercollege.edu/student-life/career -center/internships.html

LMW-440S: Internship (Credits: 1 to 8)

LMW-450: The Myriad Internship (Credits: 1 to 4)

This online internship course teaches students how to evaluate and select submissions for the Westminster literary journal, The Myriad--an online academic journal featuring cross disciplinary works by Westminster students. It is published annually in April. In this course, students will learn the skills to evaluate academic submissions and learn the mechanisms of running an online journal. The deadline for submission to The Myriad is Jan 25. The responsibility of this class (taught in the spring) is to evaluate and select submissions for publication as well as to discuss the design layout for the website. Students do not need prior experience in design and editing to enroll in the course. The Myriad has an in-house designer. Students enrolled in the course will simply contribute with design ideas in addition to evaluating and selecting submissions.