English

Literary exploration of genders and sexualities across different historical periods, geopolitical spaces, and cultural practices within the queer literary tradition. Readings and other works reflecting intersectional approaches to sexuality, race, ethnicity, gender, nation, class, ability, and religion. Critical analysis of fiction, poetry, other texts and performance pieces of queer scholars, writers, and artists through socio-historical contexts, as well as queer, postcolonial, gender, and critical race theories, towards an understanding of diverse, lived queer experiences. 

Study of literature from an environmental perspective. Analysis of texts across time, place, and space to explore the relationship between nature and culture, the human and non-human. Examination of how literature reflects, shapes, and constructs perceptions of built and natural environments. Emphasis on intersections between literature, activism, and environmental justice from the perspectives of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, dis/ability, citizenship, geography, and species. 

Reading and discussion of Latino/a literature and its relationship to social issues and identity politics of Latinos/as. Critical examination of fiction, poetry, essays, and drama by and about the Latino/a communities, including those of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Caribbean, and South and Central American descent. 

This course introduces students to multicultural American Literature from the end of the Civil War in 1865 to the present, focusing on the evolution of literary traditions, genres, cultural voices, and ecological landscapes within historical, philosophical, social, political, and aesthetic contexts. Special emphasis on the role of diverse writers in redefining the nature of American literature from the late nineteenth century through the 21st century, and thereby reshaping American national identity as the United States becomes a global superpower.