Literary and Cultural Studies (LCS)

LCS 220. Introduction to Arts and Creative Industries. 3 Credit Hours.

This course explores creativity and the arts as an essential part of the human experience. Students are introduced to the scholarship of creativity, engage in creative practice, and examine the field of creative industries. With a focus on creativity through visual art, performing arts or creative writing, this course has both a hands-on approach to creative production and a concentration on the industries that support this production. Depending on the section, experiential aspects may include drawing, painting and design (visual arts), improvisation/theater, storytelling and music (performing arts), and poetry, fiction and non-fiction (creative writing). Students will contemplate creativity as an intrinsic part of their personal and professional lives and a driving force in a variety of creative industries.

LCS 221. Studies in Fiction. 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.
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 222. 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.
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 223. 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.
Session Cycle: Varies.

LCS 224. Introduction to Hip-Hop Culture. 3 Credit Hours.

This course explores hip-hop culture and its impact on society. Introduction to Hip-Hop Culture delves into the birthplace of Hip-Hop, the West African cultural influences, and the diverse musical traditions that set its foundation, such as blues, jazz, funk, and soul. It examines hip-hop as a significant cultural and political movement shaping African American identity in American society. Introduction to Hip-Hop Culture will provide an overview of the cultural movement and art form through several critical themes, including African Cultural Retention in the American Context, the History of African American Music Traditions and the Birth of Hip-Hop, Political Activism in Hip-Hop, Gender Dynamics in the Black Community and Hip-Hop Culture, and Hip-Hop and its Global Impact. This course compels students to think, write, engage with, and discuss hip-hop's origins, themes, and future in the context of African American life, history, and culture.

LCS 225. Professional Writing. 3 Credit Hours.

This professional writing course introduces students to the strategies and skills necessary for effective written communication and documentation across a variety of fields. Through critical analysis and applied practice, this course fosters an understanding of professional writing as both a practical skill and an ethical responsibility. Focusing on adapting complex, field-specific knowledge for diverse and general audiences, students will learn to analyze and produce clear, engaging documents tailored to professional contexts. Additionally, students will explore the ethical dimensions of professional writing, including issues of accuracy, confidentiality, bias, and responsible use of AI tools in workplace communication, preparing students to navigate professional discourse in their careers.
Prerequisites: Sophomore Standing
Session Cycle: Every Fall Semester.

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 has nature been considered separate from human culture and why has this disconnect persisted? How can the humanities prepare us to face and accept the climate crisis and create new processes, connections, and ways of thinking and being to meet this challenge? From visual art and film to philosophy, literature, and popular culture, introduction to the environmental humanities and ecocriticism tackles these questions while raising more about ethical and political considerations for the environment, nonhuman animals, and environmental justice. Emphasis will vary.

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

This course offers students the opportunity to apply a critical lens to fundamental structures of human interaction and cultural production. Students learn about current scholarship in women’s history and culture, gender studies, sexuality studies, feminist and trans* theory. Questions motivating this scholarship include: How have gender and sexuality been used as systems of social control throughout history? How have they served as catalysts for social change? Are gender and sexuality biologically determined or socially constructed? What messages do mass media and popular culture communicate about gender and sexuality, and how do these messages influence self-identity? In studying a range of interdisciplinary perspectives, students develop a deeper understanding of the structures of power that shape gender and sexual identity. This course is cross-listed with WGS 250.

LCS 251. 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.

LCS 260. Introduction to Philosophy. 3 Credit Hours.

Philosophy is the study of ideas central to the ways we think and live. However, the value of many of our key concepts is often hidden or taken for granted. We forget why truth matters or acting decently is a minimal requirement for treating others justly. Philosophy cultivates techniques for understanding the reasons for our choices, actions, thoughts and beliefs. Philosophy, more than any other field, is not so much a subject as a way of thinking, one that can be appreciated fully only by joining in. When reading about metaphysics, for example, you want to consider your own views of reality. Arguments are from Western and non-Western as well as classical and contemporary philosophies.

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

Students will have an opportunity to reflect upon a wide variety of texts—from art and literature to various forms of popular culture (such as film, television, popular music, celebrities, sports culture). Cultural studies ask questions such as: What are cultural practices and their relationship to power? What does it mean to make culture and to be made by culture? How do we study culture as it is situated in society and its multiple conflicts? With this course as a foundation, students will be able to take advanced courses in Literary and Cultural Studies that build upon diverse traditions of cultural studies–diasporic studies, disability studies, ethnic studies, gender and sexuality studies, media studies, women’s studies.
Session Cycle: Fall, Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

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.
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

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.
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Varies.

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.
Session Cycle: Varies
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.
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.
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.
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: Sophomore standing
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Varies.

LCS 359. Music and Society. 3 Credit Hours.

In this course, students learn about traditional and popular musicians, songs, and genres in different parts of the world, and the ways that music impacts communities, politics, and everyday life. Students study musical aesthetics, traditions, values, and other cultural attributes that shape compositions and performances. Through listening to and learning about music in many parts of the world, students gain a stronger fluency in listening to and talking about music, as well as in comprehending the roles that music plays in shaping the world around us.
Prerequisites: sophomore standing.

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.
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.
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

LCS 362. Topics in the Environmental Humanities. 3 Credit Hours.

How can the humanities prepare us to face and accept the climate crisis and create new processes, connections, and ways of thinking to meet this challenge? Drawing on vibrant, recent scholarship in the interdisciplinary environmental humanities including visual culture, ecocriticism, film, literature, Indigenous Studies, critical race studies, new materialisms, and animal studies, this course examines historical and contemporary relationships between human and more-than-human worlds of nature and the environment. Course topic themes will vary, but each iteration of LCS 362 will present opportunities for critique and creative production.
Prerequisites: Sophomore standing
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

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.
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.
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.
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.
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

LCS 370. Poetry Writing Workshop. 3 Credit Hours.

The Poetry Writing Workshop introduces students to a hands-on opportunity to see how poetry is built. Through regular presentations of their original writing to the class, students learn to harness their imaginative potential while gaining important craft tools in form, revision, and the discipline of the art of writing. The fundamental structure of poetry is examined in assignments dealing with poetic devices, narrative point of view, imagery, and theme. Multiple exercises and poem assignments help students to work as writers do through the process of drafting, feedback, and rigorous revision. 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, researching agents, college-level writing contests, and area readings.
Session Cycle: Varies
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 371. Fiction Writing Workshop. 3 Credit Hours.

The Fiction Writing Workshop introduces students to a hands-on opportunity to see how stories are built. Through regular presentations of their original writing to the class, students learn to harness their imaginative potential while gaining important craft tools in 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. Multiple exercises and story assignments help students to work as writers do through the process of drafting, feedback, and rigorous revision. 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, researching agents, college-level writing contests, and area readings.
Session Cycle: Fall, 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.
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.
Prerequisites: GEN 106 and sophomore standing
Session Cycle: Fall
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.
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.
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.
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 380. Latin American Studies. 3 Credit Hours.

This course carefully examines a variety of Latin American and Latinx traditions, histories, and forms of cultural production. It aims at expanding students' knowledge of Latin America, including U.S. Latinx communities, while providing the necessary tools to develop a culturally sensitive frame of reference. Emphasis may vary.
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 381. Native American Studies. 3 Credit Hours.

This course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to the history, culture, and contemporary experiences of Indigenous people in North America. Students will examine topics such as the impact of settler colonialism on Indigenous societies; the fight for political, cultural, and intellectual sovereignty; and strategies of decolonization, revitalization, and empowerment. Materials will reflect the broad diversity of Indigenous communities and contexts and may be drawn from film, visual art, music, education, performance, literature, activism, museum studies, and other modes of expression.
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

LCS 382. American Studies. 3 Credit Hours.

This course examines primary sources - historical documents and novels - that have contributed to the formation of United States national culture. A selective history of American writing will provide the context for reading a set of classic American novels. Authors may include Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Willa Cather, and William Faulkner. Students that receive credit for ECS 382, American Studies cannot receive credit for this course.
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.
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

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: Sophomore standing
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

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.
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Varies.

LCS 388. Religious Studies. 3 Credit Hours.

This course can cover a variety of religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Currently, this course is taught as an introduction to Judaism through the examination of traditional texts throughout Jewish history. Biblical, Rabbinic, legal, philosophical and theological works will be studied through traditional partnered text study, along with modern scholarship on the time periods and texts covered. Examining Judaism as a living evolving entity throughout its history will lead to a survey that looks at the past through written works and raises questions about the present and future.
Session Cycle: Fall, Spring
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

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: Junior/senior standing and the approval of a supervising faculty member and the department chair.

LCS 402. Life and How to Live It. 3 Credit Hours.

This course attempts to answer two fundamental questions: What does it mean to live well? What does it mean to die well? The course format is unconventional: For ten weeks, class meets Wednesday for five hours (class meets for 60-90-minutes the remaining weeks). Students check their laptops and phones at the classroom door. Students receive a short book at the beginning of each five-hour session. Over the course of an evening, we read together, eat together, and discuss the book together. The booklist covers an international range of literary and philosophical works: some ancient, some contemporary, all thought-provoking. The course is about the process of learning as much as it is about the product: fifty percent of the grade rests on what occurs in the classroom; the other fifty percent on weekly journal reflections and one final paper. A proposal for this course was awarded Bryant University’s Faculty Innovation Grant.
Prerequisites: Sophomore standing and Instructor approval
Session Cycle: Alternate Spring Semesters.

LCS 403. The Philosophy of Technology. 3 Credit Hours.

What is technology? How does it inform our understanding of what it means to be human? Reflecting on the nature of technology means engaging with one of our time’s most imperative philosophical topics. To do so, this seminar begins with a historical overview of technological developments – from stone tools to industrialization – and their impact on human evolution and the development of civilizations. Using literature and philosophy as entry points, we'll then explore technology's cultural, ethical, and political implications in the contemporary world. By incorporating interdisciplinary perspectives from the humanities, sciences, and business fields, students will investigate what it means to be human in an era largely defined by rapid technological transformation.
Prerequisites: GEN 106, ANY 200 Level LCS Course and Sophomore Standing.

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 443. Editing and Publishing Workshop: The Bryant Literary Review. 3 Credit Hours.

This course provides students with mentorship in literary magazine editing and an opportunity to review submissions as part of The Bryant Literary Review’s operations. The course focuses on independent publications, academic publishers, and literary journals. Students will evaluate and discuss the merits of the 250+ poetry and fiction submissions the BLR receives each fall. Each student in the course will become Student Editor of the BLR, and their name will appear in the volume’s masthead. In addition, the course will introduce students to independent and academic publishing professionals who will visit class to discuss their work and the industry at large. Ongoing research and discussion of contemporary literary presses, journals, and industry practice both online and in print will be required. Students will gain hands-on, marketable experience in editing and publishing, networking opportunities with publishing professionals, and skills that can lead to a successful career in the creative industries.
Prerequisites: sophomore standing
Session Cycle: Fall.

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.
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Varies.

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.
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.
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, cinematic, and cultural perspectives. By examining the image of business and the business person/a as a theme in literature, and exploring varying concepts of success and suffering, students have an opportunity to build critical and constructive bridges between the humanities and business dimensions of their undergraduate studies.
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

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

The historical study of literature is 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, Romanticism, and Gothic Literature.
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.
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.
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. The specific focus of the course varies depending on the instructor. Students may expect to engage case studies that range from film, to television, to fine art, to theater, to narrative, while exploring historical and recent critical theory on feminism, including the construction of women's gendered identities, sexual politics, and the intersectionality of gender and categories like race and ethnicity. The course may be retaken under different themes.
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 467. Art and Politics in Nineteenth-Century France. 3 Credit Hours.

The focus of this course is a cluster of related concepts in late nineteenth-century French visual culture: place, politics, ecology, centers and peripheries. Paris’s centrality as the 19th-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, industrial zones, the seaside, the provinces, colonies and abroad. Cultural interchange between these places will be discussed as relationships of gender, race, ecology, politics and class. We will discuss 19th century paintings, sculptures and prints as material “things” on the market as well as images, and will consider their agency in the world.
Prerequisites: Sophomore standing
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

LCS 468. Studies in Graphic Narrative. 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: sophomore standing
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Alternate Years.

LCS 469. Studies in 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.
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 470. Advanced Poetry Writing. 3 Credit Hours.

In this intermediate poetry writing course, students will continue the work of the poetry workshop, with particular attention paid to the initial work of making the poem, subsequent deep revision, and evolving language and detail. In addition to regular workshops, the course includes readings and presentations from the readings of modern and contemporary poets to help students develop insights into their own work, craft exercises in various forms of poetry, and create their personal set of poetic standards. A final portfolio of original poetry is required. Additionally, students gain exposure to the contemporary writing world through readying submissions for literary journals, researching publishers, and area readings.
Prerequisites: LCS 370 or permission of the instructor
Session Cycle: Spring
Yearly Cycle: Varies.

LCS 471. Sex, Love and 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: Sophomore Standing
Session Cycle: Varies
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. 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: Junior or senior standing
Session Cycle: Fall
Yearly Cycle: Annual.

LCS 491. Creativity and Research Portfolio Workshop. 3 Credit Hours.

This course serves the Arts and Creative Industries and Literary and Cultural Studies programs. It offers students the opportunity to reflect on past work in their major or minor, develop their creative and critical process, and prepare for roles in the creative industries beyond graduation. Students will create portfolios for the purposes of exhibition, performance, or journal submission, professional job applications, or entry into graduate studies. Website development and social media applications will be discussed and practiced.
Prerequisites: Junior Standing or Instructor approval
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.

LCS ST302. Creative Writing Creative Field Trips. 3 Credit Hours.

This course explores the crucial decisions writers and artists make when engaging with the natural world. To truly engage, the writer-artist must venture out into the natural world, and that is exactly what our class will endeavor to do each week. This course is designed around a dozen creative writing field trips to outdoor and (a few) indoor spaces around the campus and in the areas immediately outside the campus. During our explorative journeys, we will engage with the environment in creatively immersive ways designed to help writers generate new material for poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Activities will include hiking, journaling, (re)naming, description prompts, sensory scrutiny exercises, collaborative note-keeping, plein-air drafting, field guide development, and improvisational readings. This will be accompanied by a selection of readings on nature writing.
Session Cycle: Alternative Fall Semesters.