General Education Course Descriptions: Spring 2026
| Course | Course Description |
|---|---|
|
ENGL 2630: Introduction to American Studies |
In this course, we’ll examine how American identity has been shaped, challenged, and reimagined through popular culture. Beginning with early foundational texts, we’ll explore how ideas about freedom, citizenship, and national character took shape in the nation’s early years. From there, we’ll trace the evolution of these ideas through 20th-century novels and other cultural works that question, complicate, or expand the story of who counts as American. Using American Studies methodologies, we’ll dive into literature, film, music, and other cultural materials to analyze how popular culture not only reflects American values and beliefs but also actively constructs and contests them. Whether examining a founding document or a modern novel, we’ll uncover how cultural texts reveal competing visions of America and imagine new possibilities for belonging. If you're ready to explore how a declaration and a bestseller can speak across centuries—and how pop culture continues to redefine the meaning of America—this class invites you in. |
| ENGL 2140: Introduction to LGBTQ+ Literature - BHU (Wheaton: In-person) |
This course examines literature that represents and considers the experiences (historical, cultural and discursive) of individuals within LGBTQ+ community. We will engage novels, graphic narratives, protest writing, essays, film, and more. Together, we will especially focus on texts that invite and illustrate critical self-expression, community solidarity, and resistant counter-storying. Texts include but are not limited to Baldwin’s Go Tell it on the Mountain, Kushner’s Angels in America, Bechdel’s Fun Home, and The Stonewall Reader. |
| ENGL 2200: Understanding Literature - BHU (Icard: Carrie: Online) |
Understanding Literature is an introductory survey course that welcomes any student looking to fulfill the Breadth Humanities requirement, or someone who is interested in literature and “always wanted to try” a first course. Students will focus on analytical readings in literature, with attention to types, terms, and historical development. Emphasis will be on approaching selected texts with understanding and appreciation. Readings will include fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama by a wide variety of authors including Steinbeck, Dickinson, Cisneros, and Shakespeare. |
| ENGL 2230: Introduction to Film - BHU (Gregory: Virtual) |
In this “Intro to Film Course” we discuss films from the early days of cinema to 21st-century award winners. Students will gain an understanding of film techniques and learn how filmmakers apply these techniques to communicate meaning to their audiences. We will hone our skills by closely analyzing short and full-length films. At the same time, we will consider the broader cultural impacts of specific noteworthy films and how influential films have changed the art of movie making. |
| ENGL 2230: Introduction to Film - BHU (Crawford: In-person) |
This course introduces students to global film from the 19th century to contemporary award winners and examines how authorship, genre, presentation, and narrative structure contribute to meaning. Students will learn to evaluate films as reflections of culture and mediums for communication while becoming familiar with film techniques, terminology, and basic film concepts through film analysis and criticism. In Person Logan |
| ENGL 2230: Introduction to Film: Classic Monster Movies - BHU (Cooper-Rompato: In-person) |
This BHU class explores famous monsters from the 1920s-1970s, including Nosferatu (1922), Dracula (1931), The Mummy (1932), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), The Wolf Man (1941), The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Godzilla (1954), The Blob (1958), Empire of the Ants (1977), and the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (1978). We’ll start from the understanding that monsters are always saying something about us. We’ll explore why the living dead, cryptids, and gigantic amphibians both repulse and attract us and how they unsettle our established interpretive categories. We will discuss how societies define the monstrous, what anxieties and desires the monstrous can represent, and how film deploy monsters for particular sociopolitical objectives. Along the way we’ll learn about film techniques and film vocabulary. Assignments include keeping a film journal, writing short reviews, giving a presentation on a monster movie of your choice, and a final project. |
| ENGL 2240: Introduction to Poetry - BHU (Rice: In-person) |
In this course, we will study how poets use a range of techniques involving sound, measure, form, and figure to make space, cross space, belong to place, and reckon with displacement. More broadly, we’ll learn how to talk about what a poem is, how it works, what it can do, and how its functions have changed over time. Course readings will be geared toward a historically wide-ranging survey, allowing us to explore what poetry can do for you and your communities in the here and now. |
| ENGL 2250: Introduction to Creative Writing - BHU (Kunz: In-person) |
ENGL 2250 will explore the core elements, techniques, and practices essential to writing in Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Nonfiction. This course is designed to empower students to embrace risk, discover their unique literary voice, and build a more in-depth relationship to the craft of writing. Students will develop a working knowledge of the distinct structures of each genre, including:
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| ENGL 2250: Introduction to Creative Writing - BHU (Olsen: Virtual) |
What do we think of when it comes to creative writing? Poetry? Fiction? Personal essays? Plays? Yes! Creative writing isn’t just one genre, so we should never approach it that way. In this class, we will travel through many different genres and learn how to be a better writer from each one. A good writer isn’t someone who stays in one genre and never changes their approach. Instead, this class will emphasize the ways genres intersect. This class will introduce students to the basics of creative writing, and students will learn to understand different genres and then get opportunities play in the intersections of those genres. |
| ENGL 2300: Introduction to Shakespeare - BHU (Christensen Barnum: In-person) |
What do love triangles, epic battles, political treachery, and wild humor all have in common? Shakespeare. In this course, we'll use the sonnets as comprehension primers—then dive into the surprisingly relatable world of the Bard’s plays, exploring how his words still shape everything from ads to modern relationships. You'll build skills decoding his language, uncover the scandals behind the scenes, and discuss timeless subjects like ambition, betrayal, friendship, and love. We’ll investigate multiple perspectives on his work—and most importantly—your own. Whether you're into theater or not, Shakespeare’s got something for everyone. Come see why his work still slaps centuries later. |
| ENGL 2640: Race & Ethnicity in the U.S. - BHU (Holt: In-person) |
Talking about race is hard! This course introduces you to the complex subjects of race and ethnicity in U.S. society, providing skills to talk about race in the U.S. knowledgeably and thoughtfully. We'll learn central approaches and concepts for the study of race and ethnicity from interdisciplinary perspectives. We'll also examine the history of race & ethnicity in the U.S., the role these concepts play in the present, and debates and divisions surrounding these ideas, drawing on works of literature, history, sociology, biology, law, policy, and cultural studies. |
| ENGL 3060: The Rhetoric of Health and Healing - DHA (Greenwood: In-Person) |
How do we define health, and how is it perceived by medical professionals, patients, journalists, scientists, government agencies, and everyday people? After discussing the connection between writing and health identity, we will explore attitudes toward and expressions of mental health, physical health, illness, and disability, as well as consider how morality, power, culture, and socioeconomics contribute to health perceptions. Readings will include memoirs, poetry, essays, memes, art, children’s books, music, speeches, nonfiction, video, and academic articles. Please reach out if interested in learning more about this class. |
| ENGL 3030: Perspectives in Literature - Travel the World Through Literature and Writing - DHA (Thornley: Online) |
This course examines the motivations for human travel and migration by studying journeys depicted in literature and other modalities, including art, music, and film. Comparing and contrasting historic, economic, political, and social influences will help explain the complexity of human experiences as characters navigate through multifaceted landscapes and interact with diverse cultures. Analyzing modes of transportation will identify accessibility factors that limit mobility and the impact that has on the capacity to thrive. Students will apply the knowledge they gain by presenting their own journeys, whether across campus or across the world, by researching and producing a variety of contemporary travel genres such as travelogue, memoir, guidebooks, maps, video blogs, and social media, and adapting their choices for diverse audiences. |
| ENGL 3630: The Farm in Literature and Culture - DHA (Allred: In-person) |
In the course The Farm in Literature and Culture, we examine the farm and farming through various lenses including literature, architecture, folklore, popular culture, film, music, and material culture. Students will read from classical texts, historical texts, memoir, and nonfiction. Through critical reading, class activities, and discussion, the course examines how farming has shaped identity, tradition, and social issues in America. Students will gain a deeper appreciation for the narratives that cultivate our understanding of rural life and the farm. |
| ENGL 3640: Nature Writing - DHA (Nelson: Virtual) |
In this General Education course that fulfills the Depth Humanities requirement, we will explore how literary texts impact the relationship between humans and the environment. Starting with Thoreau, Muir, and Powell, we’ll learn how these writers shaped ideas about America as an Edenic garden and playground. We will take a deep dive into the idea of wilderness by reading Aldo Leopold’s Sand County Almanac; Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire; understanding the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964; and learning about the fight over damming the Colorado River in the 1960s. We’ll read about how texts like Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring influenced public policy and perceptions of the environment. We will end by focusing on how current activists use texts and images to shape ideas about current environmental crisis', especially here in Utah. Students will have the opportunity to not only learn about how texts shaped environmental ideology, land use, and politics, but also engage in their own projects to advocate for an issue or place they care about. |