LCS 121. Introduction to Literary Studies. 3 Credit Hours.

This course introduces students to reading and writing about texts. Through intensive reading and writing about the elements of imaginative literature and other creative practices, students develop the skills necessary for literary analysis and effective writing. The goal is to aid students in becoming discerning readers, critical thinkers, and thoughtful writers.
Session Cycle: Fall, Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 220. Creativity and the Arts. 3 Credit Hours.

Creativity is vital to achievement in many fields, from science, to business and the arts. This course will explore creativity both as a general process of engagement with the world around us and as an introduction to creative cultural expression in the Arts. It will engage students in thinking about creativity as an intrinsic part of their educational, personal and professional lives, as it engages them in creative practice and reflection upon creative process.
Session Cycle: Fall, Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 230. Introduction to Film Studies. 3 Credit Hours.

This course has three major aims: to introduce students to what might be called the language of film, to investigate the relationship between movies and culture, and to consider film as both an art form and a social practice. Students will examine the tools filmmakers employ to bring their works to the screen, including cinematography, production design, acting, editing, music, sound design, and narrative structure. Students will also focus on how the cinema both reflects and perpetuates aspects of culture, investigating images of masculinity, femininity, class, and race relations. By semester's end students should have a much clearer sense of what goes into the making of movies, and should have become more active, critical viewers of film. This course is cross-listed with COM 230.
Session Cycle: Fall, Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 240. Introduction to the Environmental Humanities. 3 Credit Hours.

Why do we think “nature” is apart from human “culture”? How have past representations of this disconnect informed our attitudes today? What is the potential agency of the arts and humanities to create and sustain a more resilient and biologically diverse world in our present moment of global ecological crisis? This introduction to ecocriticism in visual art, film, literature and popular culture tackles these questions while raising more about ethical and political concerns for the environment, nonhuman animals, and environmental justice. Students have creative opportunities to make ecocritical texts and images.
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 242. Introduction to Global Anthropology. 3 Credit Hours.

This course studies the consequences of globalization for human beings as they come to understand and value themselves, their relations to others, and their "place in the world." Students discuss a number of challenges to traditional concepts of "culture" important to understanding an anthropological approach to the concept of globalization. The course approaches "globalization," the movement of information, goods, services, capital and people throughout the global space, from a variety of perspectives, including discussion of global migration and diaspora and consideration of the globalization of media. This course is cross-listed with GLOB 242.
Session Cycle: Fall, Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 243. Honors: The Anthropology of Globalization. 3 Credit Hours.

In this course, students interpret global transformations through studying anthropological texts and films that provide in-depth analysis of local-level instances of globalization. These ethnographic studies allow students to improve their specific knowledge of people and places throughout the world and also to develop more theoretically rigorous approaches toward explaining what is meant by the term globalization. To this end, students examine, among other themes, ethnicity to better comprehend issues of power, resources, and land in conflict situations; the movement of textiles to recognize post-Fordist social and economic practices; human trafficking to conceptualize commodification of the human body; and refugee migrations to understand transnationalism. In short, this course offers micro-level case studies, methods, and approaches toward learning about and explaining broad social and cultural processes. Students who receive credit for LCS 242/GLOB 242 cannot receive credit for this course. This course is cross-listed with GLOB 243.
Prerequisites: Honors Program
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 250. Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. 3 Credit Hours.

This course takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding how gender and sexuality shape our world. The course explores the origin and evolution of women's studies, the shift to questions concerning the social construction of gender, and the emergence of scholarly investigations of sexual identities. Students will interrogate various conceptions of gender and sexuality and explore how these conceptions might reinforce or disrupt social structures. The primary goals of this course are to encourage students to think critically about how dominant discourses of gender and sexuality have shaped the lives of both women and men. This course is cross-listed with WGS 250.
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 260. Introduction to Philosophy. 3 Credit Hours.

This course introduces students to the historical and thematic dimensions of philosophical traditions through selected philosophical readings from ancient times to the present. Students in the course will practice philosophy by entering into dialogue with philosophical texts through discussion, explication, synthesis and critique.
Session Cycle: Fall, Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 270. Introduction to Cultural Studies. 3 Credit Hours.

This course serves as an interdisciplinary introduction to the humanities and cultural critique. It explores the ways in which cultural forms of knowledge and expression shape and are shaped by human practices and experiences. Students explore different models for understanding cultural forms through discussion of a wealth of material from a variety of sources and societies. While the course emphasis is upon contemporary cultures, intellectual, cultural, social, and scientific history is critical for the understanding of such and is significant to the development of course themes.
Session Cycle: Fall, Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 275. Introduction to Visual Culture. 3 Credit Hours.

Visual Culture is a new category of study that incorporates several previously discrete disciplines: cultural studies, art history, film studies, media studies, and critical theory. But this class will not be surveying all of these fields; instead, by focusing attention on languages of the visual and historically specific ways of seeing, we will be asking different sets of questions about the cultural significance of visual perceptions--of many kinds. This course offers a toolbox of methods and approaches to visual culture; rather than an exhaustive range of visual material, we will use these methods to discuss representative case studies.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Fall, Spring
Yearly Cycle: Varies.

LCS 280. Introduction to World Music. 3 Credit Hours.

In this course, students learn about music as an expressive art form. Part of the course is dedicated to "hearing" music, where students build a vocabulary of terms for describing music and expanding their ability to appreciate a diverse body of sounds. Learning terms, such as timbre, melody, harmony, as well as indigenous vocabularies, and listening to musical examples are central components of this course. In addition to hearing music, students also study the cultures of music, which includes understanding different conceptions of aesthetics, traditions, values, politics, and other areas of society that inform the composition and performance of music. Through listening to and learning about music in many parts of the world, students will better appreciate diverse ways of hearing sound and expressing culture.
Session Cycle: Fall, Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 282. Introduction to American Studies. 3 Credit Hours.

This course introduces students to key themes, concepts, and debates in American Studies. Students use a foundation in American Studies methodology to interpret a range of materials and develop a richer understanding of the United States, its cultures, and its peoples. Objects of study may include literary texts, films, historical documents, music, visual art, and products of popular culture. Specific course topics may vary. This course is cross-listed with HIS 282.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 320. Design in Contemporary Culture. 3 Credit Hours.

This course examines the rhetorical and formal principals of graphic design, with an emphasis on conceptual development and problem-solving. Assignments and lectures encourage students to investigate formal design aesthetics and the nuances of effective visual communication, while developing an understanding of the historical and cultural contexts of design and the role of the designer in society. Creative assignments are part of the coursework.
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 321. Drawing Studio. 3 Credit Hours.

Drawing is the foundation of visual art and design. This course introduces students to the creative and expressive use of various graphic media such as charcoal, pencil, crayon, chalk, pen and ink and/or brush and wash. The history and practice of specific techniques such as form modeling, spatial illusions and principles of linear perspective will be explored in addition to basic aesthetic and technical drawing skills that enable students to represent three-dimensional objects in an environment.
Session Cycle: Fall, Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 322. Art and Design Studio. 3 Credit Hours.

Studio courses offer students hand-on opportunities to explore many creative mediums in the visual arts. Through sustained studio practice, critique and portfolio reviews, students will build skills and proficiency in the medium of focus (collage, painting or advanced design for example) or genre of art (such as socially engaged or environmental art) emphasized in the instructor's specific iteration of the course. Students will have the opportunity to engage with local and regional contemporary art exhibits and artists.
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 323. Digital Studio Workshop. 3 Credit Hours.

This course is an introduction to digital art studio practice with a focus on digital imaging and cross-media experimentation. Creative projects include creating digital images, sound files and sound and video. Contemporary new media, digital culture and key works by digital artists are explored. Students will explore fundamental concepts and methods of digital media through conceptual and technical manipulation of sound and images. This is a studio course emphasizing creative and critical thinking as well as digital literacy.
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 324. Digital Photography. 3 Credit Hours.

This course serves as an introduction to creative photographic methods and ideas, integrating techical skills with individual creative goals. Using digital cameras and complimentary tools, students will address the essential technical, conceptual, and artistic problems that have been associated with photography since its birth, as well as some of the new issues that have arisen with the advent of digital imaging.
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

LCS 325. Studies of the Book: Paper, Collage and Book Making. 3 Credit Hours.

Studies of the Book is a combined focus course--with attention to the history, theory and criticism of paper, books and collage, as well as studio practice in making paper and collage, and binding books.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

LCS 341. Philosophy of Art. 3 Credit Hours.

This course examines the history of aesthetic theory to see various and conflicting ways in which people have understood the nature and purpose of art. It also examines art and its many forms - visual arts, literature, music, film, performance - to consider the philosophical issues raised by the art itself.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 352. Studies in Poetry. 3 Credit Hours.

In this course students will investigate the power of poetry from diverse perspectives. Focusing primarily upon poetry as a craft, students will come to understand the relationship between the strategic decisions poets make and the meanings derived through active and imaginative reading. In addition, students will examine poems as the results of historical and cultural circumstances and as products of poets' experiences.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 353. Studies in Drama. 3 Credit Hours.

This course focuses on dramatic literature in its various forms. Students will examine representative works, which may be drawn from any historical, cultural, and social documents. Elements of performance may also be addressed.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 354. Animation Theory, History, Practice. 3 Credit Hours.

Animated film has a long rich history and an exciting present. Some of the earliest "moving images" were made using animation techniques; early film abounded with creative use of animation; many of us grew up loving Disney as children and anime' as young (and not so young) adults; some of the most exciting films of our own era, like Avatar, deploy animation techniques for their stunning visual style, and animation's significance transcends the cinema in video games and military training and news simulations. This course is built upon the premise that animation is a vital component of film studies and central to contemporary visual culture and aesthetics. Students in this course will explore its theory, history and practice.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Varies.

LCS 356. Studies in Narrative. 3 Credit Hours.

In this course, students investigate various forms of narrative literature such as novels, short stories, and experimental narrative forms. Imaginative and active readings of these forms will be encouraged through study of the theoretical literature as well as historical and cultural contexts.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 357. Studies in Ethnic Literature of the United States. 3 Credit Hours.

This course examines the literature of the United States from the perspective of minority writers: African, Asian, Hispanic, Chicano and Caribbean Americans. Students will explore the ways in which these "other" Americans have brought their various backgrounds and differing world views to bear upon the national literature. Emphasis will vary.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Varies.

LCS 358. Introduction to Studies in Jazz. 3 Credit Hours.

This course introduces students to the American art form of jazz, building an appreciation of it, its different forms, its practitioners, and the various cultures that spawned and have nurtured it. The course includes music theory; African, American, and European social and cultural history; jazz's roots in slave, Gospel, R&B, blues, and soul music; the economics of the music and recording industries; and the relationship between the bounded culture of jazz and its adherents and the larger dominant culture.
Prerequisites: LCS 121 and sophomore standing
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Varies.

LCS 359. Popular Music and Culture. 3 Credit Hours.

This course examines popular music musicologically (critiquing the sound, tone, and sonority of the music) and anthropologically (analyzing the culture of the people who create and perform the music). The course starts with building a working vocabulary for describing music and then moves into analyzing various popular music genres and the cultural background that created each genre. Students will gain a stronger fluency in listening to and talking about music, and also in comprehending the roles that music plays cross-culturally.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

LCS 360. Studies in Nonfiction. 3 Credit Hours.

This course will offer students the opportunity to read, analyze, and conduct research on works of nonfiction. Featured texts for study may include biographies, autobiographies, news reportage, journalism, nonfiction novels, essays, film documentaries, collections of letters, and journals.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

LCS 361. Studies in International Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

This course focuses on the interrelations between representative texts from different cultures. The course may concern the literature of a particular region (Central Europe, Latin America) or a specific historical moment (literature of the New Europe). Readings in literary theory address how to approach diverse literary and cultural texts from a variety of countries. Readings, both fictional and theoretical, will be in English translation.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

LCS 362. The Human/Animal in Philosophy and Culture: An Intro. to Animal Studies. 3 Credit Hours.

This course explores the relationship between the human and the animal, or more particularly, humans and their animality. It considers how human nature came to be defined in contradistinction to the animal and how human moral, social and political institutions have drawn upon this distinction. The course then explores a broad range of contemporary cultural material from literature, film and the arts to consider how shifting conceptions of nature and animality are being assimilated into the culture at large.
Prerequisites: LCS 121 and sophomore standing
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Varies.

LCS 363. British Literary Contexts Beginnings to the Restoration. 3 Credit Hours.

This course examines the critical, social, cultural, and historical contexts crucial for understanding British literacy production from the beginnings to the Restoration. Materials will include canonical and non-canonical works representing the broad diversity of perspectives and voices in British literature. Students will employ a variety of current critical methodologies to examine the ways texts both reflect and shape political and aesthetic values.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 364. British Literary Contexts Restoration to the Present. 3 Credit Hours.

This course examines the critical, social, cultural, and historical contexts crucial for understanding British literary production from the Restoration to the present. Materials will include canonical and non-canonical works representing the broad diversity of perspectives and voices in British literature. Students will employ a variety of current critical methodologies to examine the ways texts both reflect and shape political and aesthetic values.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 365. American Literary Contexts Beginnings to the Civil War. 3 Credit Hours.

This course explores the critical, social, cultural, and historical contexts crucial for understanding American literary production from periods before European contact to just after the Civil War. Materials include canonical and non-canonical works representing the broad diversity of perspectives and voices in American literature. Students will employ a variety of current critical methodologies to examine the ways political tensions, social movements, cultural shifts and other influences shape, and are shaped by, American literary texts.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

LCS 366. American Literary Contexts Civil War to the Present. 3 Credit Hours.

This course explores the critical social, cultural, and historical contexts crucial for understanding American literary production from after the Civil War to the present. Materials include canonical and non-canonical works representing the broad diversity of perspectives and voices in American literature. Students will employ a variety of current critical methodologies to examine the ways political tensions, social movements, cultural shifts and other influences shape, and are shaped by, American literary texts.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

LCS 370. Poetry Writing Workshop. 3 Credit Hours.

The Poetry Writing Workshop provides students with a hands-on opportunity to see how poetry is built. Through regular presentations of their original writing to the class, students learn to tap their imaginative potential while absorbing important ideas about form, revision, and the discipline of the art of writing. Outside readings will be assigned from our culture's best recent and current poets. Students will also gain exposure to the contemporary writing world through presentations on literary magazines, college-level writing contests, and area readings.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 371. Fiction Writing Workshop. 3 Credit Hours.

The Fiction Writing Workshop provides students with a hands-on opportunity to see how stories are built. Through regular presentations of their original writing to the class, students learn to tap their imaginative potential while absorbing important ideas about form, narrative voice, revision, and the discipline of the art of writing. The fundamental structure of fiction is examined in assignments dealing with setting, character development, imagery, plot, and theme. Outside readings illustrate how well known writers have successfully dealt with writing situations applicable to student work. Additionally, students gain exposure to the contemporary writing world through presentations on literary journals, college-level writing contests and area readings.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 372. Creative Writing Workshop. 3 Credit Hours.

The Creative Writing Workshop offers students the opportunity to explore creative writing in specific genres or areas. Each course will address a distinct creative writing topic (for example, creative non-fiction, writing for children, memoir, or screenwriting). The course includes reading and study of the form, extensive drafting, and critique.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

LCS 374. Modern Art in Europe 1880-1945. 3 Credit Hours.

The politics and practice of visual art movements in Europe from the 1880s to World War II is the focus of this class. Avant Garde art movements and styles from this era include symbolism, expressionism, cubism, abstraction, futurism, and surrealism. Modern visual art of the late 19th and early 20th centuries will be discussed in terms of formal, political, historical, theoretical and social contexts. Students engage with critical and theoretical texts as well as the presentation of modern art in the context of cultural institutions.
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

LCS 375. Landscape, Visual Culture and Ecology. 3 Credit Hours.

This course is concerned with landscape and modern experience as it examines the place of ecology, landscape, nature and human subjectivity in Western art and visual culture, providing critical and historical background to our present ecological condition and exploring models of hope and change. Recent cultural studies approaches to tourism, nationalism, gender and ecological awareness will inform a critical examination of landscape as a wide genre: from academic painting to performance and land based contemporary environmental art.
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

LCS 376. Global Art History Before 1850. 3 Credit Hours.

This is a roughly chronological series of case studies that explore histories, interpretations and reception of art and visual culture from prehistory to 1850. Emphasis is placed upon western narratives of art in the context of global contact, migrations, trade, colonialism and empire.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

LCS 378. African American Studies. 3 Credit Hours.

This course explores the past and present experiences, cultures, and achievements of people of African descent in the United States. It examines the history of slavery, colonialism, and systematic racism and their lasting effects. It also considers the complexity of Black identity in all of its incarnations. The specific focus of the course will vary.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 379. Asian American Studies. 3 Credit Hours.

This course will allow students to explore the development of the field of Asian American Studies. Since its inception in 1969, Asian American Studies has developed into an incredibly rich interdisciplinary field that overlaps not only with the humanities but also with areas such as public policy, law, psychology, education, and social work. This course will provide an overview of three strands of Asian American Studies: literary studies, cultural studies, and social movement history in the United States. We will examine a variety of cultural texts: scholarly essays, documents from the Asian American Movement, imaginative literature, memoirs, films, hip hop/spoken word.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 380. Latin American Studies. 3 Credit Hours.

This course carefully examines a variety of Latin American and/or Latino cultural products (i.e. literature, cinema, critical theory, music and art). It aims at expanding students' knowledge of Latin America, including U.S. Latino communities, while providing the necessary tools to develop a culturally sensitive frame of reference. Emphasis may vary.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 381. Native American Studies. 3 Credit Hours.

Students examine traditional and contemporary texts from several geographic locations in North America. Selections include narratives, myth, rituals, and poetry, as well as the critical approaches to both oral and written texts. Exploration of tribal contexts enhances our understanding of the diversity and sophistication of Native American cultures.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

LCS 383. Sexuality and Culture. 3 Credit Hours.

This course will deal with a modern Western invention: "sexuality." The historical premise of the course is that during the second half of the 19th century pre-modern understandings of human sexuality were radically reconfigured to make way for new sexual paradigms organized around "homosexual" and "heterosexual" definitions. Both historical and theoretical, this course analyzes key texts from the canon of sexuality studies (Freud, Kinsey, Foucault, e.g.) and explores the cultural struggles resulting from thinking sexuality in binary terms: not only homosexual/heterosexual, but natural/unnatural, normal/deviant, biological function/pleasure.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 384. Comparative Religions. 3 Credit Hours.

This course introduces students to Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Students examine each religion from several interrelated perspectives: the historical, literary and cultural contexts from which it emerged and has developed; its central assumptions, beliefs, and practices; its core values and ethical principles; and its conception of the nature and purpose of human existence.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Varies.

LCS 386. African Heritage in the Americas and Caribbean. 3 Credit Hours.

The objective of this course is to provide an international perspective of the African Diaspora by focusing on critical analysis of cultural products by authors and artists of African descent. We study a variety of cultural expressions including, music, festivals, literature, painting and religion. The primary focus is on Latin America and the Caribbean, although discussions will remain a dialogue with works by scholars and artists from Africa, United States and Britain.
Prerequisites: LCS 121 and sophomore standing
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

LCS 387. African Popular Culture. 3 Credit Hours.

In this course we examine multiple forms of music, literature, and art in sub-Saharan Africa to better comprehend their purpose and function in daily African life. Music, literature, and art reflect a diversity of ideas that exist on the African continent. These artistic forms teach us about history, politics, and culture, as well as artists' views of their social conditions. By the end of this course, students will have a strong appreciation for the diversity of people and art in contemporary Africa, and a working knowledge of the current issues and concerns facing people living on the continent.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 389. Fieldwork in Local Communities. 3 Credit Hours.

This course uses qualitative research methods to document and understand local communities. Students learn to conduct interviews, surveys, participant-observation, and other methods to interpret and understand complex social issues. Students also attain skills in taking photographs; capturing high quality audio recordings of live performances; and producing short documentary films. During the course students have the option of creating an academic research paper, a policy proposal intended for government agencies or nonprofit institutions, or a documentary film. The course provides valuable skills in research methods that can be applied to a number of social science and humanities disciplines.
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Varies.

LCS 391. Literary and Cultural Studies Internship. 3 Credit Hours.

Students engage in individually supervised work-study arrangements and learn to apply English language arts, theory, and principles in their work environment. Students must work at least ten hours per week on the job, meet periodically with a supervising faculty member, conduct research related to the field of the internship, and prepare a substantive report on their internship experience and the studies involved.
Prerequisites: LCS 121, junior/senior standing and the approval of a supervising faculty member and the department chair.

LCS 440. Arts and Entertainment: Issues in Arts Administration. 3 Credit Hours.

Issues in Arts Administration looks at the institutions, administrators and issues involved in presenting the arts. This class will examine arts institutions in cultural context, including community engagement in the arts, cultural policy and public arts; arts administrators and their leadership, roles and responsibilities; and key topics in arts administration, such as censorship, arts education and ethics. The course draws on readings and literature from various disciplines and fields in the social sciences, arts administration, and the arts as well as the popular media. Topics will be approached through discussion, case studies, field observations, and exercises that connect the readings with practical experience.
Prerequisites: LCS 220 or LCS 270 or LCS 275 or LCS 280
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 441. Film Theory. 3 Credit Hours.

Film can be entertainment or ideology and is often both at the same time. It is a beguilingly accessible form of media that has produced some of the greatest art of the twentieth and twenty first centuries. This is a course in film theory, which approaches film as both an art form and a social practice. Students will learn key texts in film theory, hone skills of visual analysis, and develop understanding of the social, cultural and political contests of film and visual culture. For qualified students, this course may be taken as a 500 level graduate content course. Permission of the instructor is required.
Prerequisites: LCS 230 or COM 230
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Varies.

LCS 450. Film Genre Studies. 3 Credit Hours.

A genre approach to film study (one which takes the way we might categorize a film as its point of departure) provides the most effective means for understanding, analyzing, and appreciating cinema because it sees moviemaking as a dynamic process of exchange between the film industry and its audience. This allows us to think about a movie not just as an aesthetic object, but also as a consumer item molded in part by the shifting demands of the mass market. A particular film, then, can tell us as much about the audience for which it's intended and the moment in history to which it belongs as it can about the institutions that produced it. This course examines the way this "dynamic process of exchange" works by looking critically at examples of genre filmmaking of the last several decades. This course is cross-listed with COM 450.
Prerequisites: COM 230/LCS 230 and junior standing
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 456. Contemporary Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

Students examine new and evolving literary forms and styles through reading and analyzing literature of the past decade. Selections are drawn from various literary genres as well as current critical approaches. Through these texts, students explore numerous responses to today's world of changing social and cultural values. Emphasis may vary.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 457. Ethics. 3 Credit Hours.

This course is an introduction to Ethics and Moral Philosophy. It introduces students to the history of ethics and various ethical theories and concepts. Students apply ethical theories to concrete situations and contemporary issues. The primary texts are philosophical, but students will also use literary examples, films, newspapers and magazines as the basis for their discussions.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Varies.

LCS 458. Anthropology of Music Industries. 3 Credit Hours.

This course pushes students to conceptualize the music industry as both a business and a site of creativity and individuality. To achieve this, students study the music industry in three ways: 1) theoretically, to grasp the concepts of commodification and creativity within the music industry; 2) practically, to understand the way that the industry functions as a business; and 3 ) ethnographically, to broaden their knowledge of industries in the United States and other parts of the world. At the end of the course, students will have a firm grasp of the global music industry, how it functions, and how they can better interpret its place within societies.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

LCS 461. The Image of Business in Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

This course offers insight into the world of business from a variety of literary perspectives. By examining business as a theme in literature, studying evolving images of the business person, and exploring varying concepts of success, students have an opportunity to integrate the humanities and business dimensions of their undergraduate studies.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

LCS 462. Literature in a Historical Context. 3 Credit Hours.

The historical study of literature in often organized around movements, usually centering on a group of writers whose work shares several attributes and goals. This course examines one such movement or period in-depth. Possible offerings include Realism and Naturalism, Modernism and Post-modernism, and Gothic Literature.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Varies.

LCS 463. Studies in Comparative Literature. 3 Credit Hours.

In this course we analyze literature within a cross-cultural intertextual framework. This course concerns the development of a genre in an international context. Possible themes include fantastic literature, utopian fiction and the detective novel. Courses often relate literature to corresponding artistic, social, and historical movements.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

LCS 464. Major Literary Figures. 3 Credit Hours.

This course examines in-depth the work of one writer or a circle of writers. Along with focusing closely upon the literature itself, students will study the writer from a number of perspectives. Accordingly, readings may include biography, autobiography, letters, literary theory, and critical reaction from readers of the past and present. Authors who have been featured recently in this course include William Shakespeare, Toni Morrison, Emily Dickinson, and Latin American authors.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

LCS 466. Women and the Creative Imagination. 3 Credit Hours.

This course considers the creative cultural production of women. Depending upon the instructor, students may expect to engage case studies that range from film to television, to fine art, to theatre, to narrative while exploring historical and recent critical theory on feminism, including the construction of women's gendered identities, and sexual politics. Students who have received credit for ENG 362 or ECS 466, Women and the Creative Imagination cannot receive credit for LCS 466.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 467. Impressionism and Post Impressionism. 3 Credit Hours.

The focus of this lecture course is a sense of place in late Nineteenth Century French visual culture. Paris's centrality as the nineteenth-century art capital of Europe and its symbolic function as the image of bohemian modernity will be countered by artists working from other places or identities such as the French suburbs, provinces and colonies as well as other European countries. Cultural interchange between modernity and "primitive" cultures will be discussed as relationships of gender, politics and class.
Prerequisites: LCS 121 and sophomore standing
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

LCS 468. The Graphic Novel. 3 Credit Hours.

In this course, students will study comics and graphic novel as an art form with its own history and critical vocabulary. Autobiography, memoir, political documentary, and literary adaptation are a few of the new directions in the contemporary graphic novel. As a form of popular culture, the graphic novel raises cultural and historical questions that can be analyzed from a variety of perspectives. Possible authors include: Art Spiegelman, Alan Moore, and Marjane Satrapi. For qualified students, this course may be taken as a 500 level graduate course. Permission of the instructor is required.
Prerequisites: LCS 121 and sophomore standing
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

LCS 469. Political Satire. 3 Credit Hours.

This class examines the place of political satire within contemporary culture. It focuses on a wide variety of satiric texts on television, on film, on stage, online, and in print. The course also explores a number of contentious questions about satire, including whether it contributes to political understanding and engagement or merely circulates cynical withdrawal. Students will contemplate why satirical material is so popular right now, and, ultimately, what this tells us about the current state of politics, citizenship, and debate. For qualified students, this course may be taken as a 500 level graduate content course. Permission of the instructor is required.
Prerequisites: LCS 121
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 470. Advanced Poetry Writing. 3 Credit Hours.

Through regular presentation of their original writing, students gain a greater sensitivity to language and an appreciation of the imagination as a problem-solving tool. Outside readings of American masters and contemporary poets help students develop insights into their own work, as do exercises in formal poetry and the creation of a personal set of poetic standards. A final portfolio of original poetry is required.
Prerequisites: LCS 370 or LCS 371 or permission of the instructor
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Varies.

LCS 471. Friendship and Intimacy in the Age of Social Media. 3 Credit Hours.

Through an interdisciplinary lens (philosophy, literature, economic theory, gender and sexuality theory), this course critically examines the effects of social media and global capitalism on friendship and intimacy. It asks: what model of friendship is currently culturally dominant? Is friendship merely another commodity useful in augmenting one’s “human capital,” or do traditional models of friendship still have relevance? Given the important role social media play in movements for social justice, what new avenues for creative cooperation and intimacy become available through social media? We will seek answers to these questions through philosophical, literary, and historical analyses of friendship and intimacy, paying close attention to non-normative, one might say “queer” relationship practices through the ages. This is cross-listed with WGS 471.
Prerequisites: WGS 250 or LCS 250 or LCS 260 or LCS 270 and sophomore standing
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 475. Discourse Analysis: Producing Social Realities. 3 Credit Hours.

Discourse Analysis describes, analyzes and critiques the diverse ways in which talk, text and image are socially constructed. At the same time, Discourse Analysis is concerned to address the ways in which cultural, historical and institutional fields both constrain and enable the routine social construction of talk, text and image, yet also emerge through time as the very products of routinized social constructions. This course is cross-listed with COM 475.
Prerequisites: COM 203 or COM 204 and LCS 121 and junior standing
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 480. Cultural Studies Abroad. 3 Credit Hours.

This course studies the culture, history and literature of a country or an international city. It includes a 10 to 12 day research trip to the location. Students read relevant social history to root them in an understanding of the significance of particular literary and cultural artifacts and locations. The course includes a student-designed research project, which is conducted while studying abroad. The city of London, England, and the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland have been studied in this course. Expenses for the study abroad portion are in addition to the tuition for the course. Prerequisites are formal application approval and faculty permission as well as sophomore standing and LCS 121.
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Varies.

LCS 490. Critical and Cultural Theory. 3 Credit Hours.

This course is designed for any student interested in advanced reading in critical theory. It focuses on the theoretical traditions which have shaped literary, cultural, and aesthetic analysis and interpretation in the 20th and 21st centuries. Students will read work from a number of fields--philosophy, social theory, linguistics, psychoanalysis, gender studies, etc.--in addition to reading and engaging creative texts, in order to develop familiarity with the critical methodologies of Literary and Cultural Studies. A culminating course for students in Literary and Cultural Studies, the course is also appropriate for other students, especially those wishing to pursue graduate study in the humanities or careers in cultural enterprises.
Prerequisites: LCS 121 or instructor permission
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 491. Workshop in Creative and Critical Process. 3 Credit Hours.

The Workshop in Creative and Critical Process offers students the opportunity to work on developing their creative and critical process within the supportive contexts of academic and cultural communities. Students develop a portfolio of materials (comprised of sketchbook, journal, and web presence) that demonstrate competencies in several areas of critical and creative process, which may include writing, video, performance, photography, and pedagogy. Students also learn from local practitioners, who conduct workshops and give guest lectures. The course is a combination of workshops on process, practicum meetings with artists, and lecture/discussion on creative and critical praxis.
Prerequisites: LCS 121 or instructor permission
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 497. Directed Study in Literary and Cultural Studies. 3 Credit Hours.

This course is an opportunity for students to do independent, in-depth study or research for academic credit. The student works on an individual basis under the direction of a member of the English and Cultural Studies Department. The main requirement of the course is the development of a substantial paper or project.
Prerequisites: LCS 121.

LCS ST300. Special Topics in Literary and Cultural Studies: Philosophy of Religion. 3 Credit Hours.

This course offers focused study in the philosophy of religion. It will place a specific religion or religions in their historical contexts and consider the social, political and philosophical dimensions of its texts and tenets. The course can potentially be taken more than once as its content may change each time it is offered.