Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• CAS EN 749: Environmental Humanities
  Graduate Prerequisites: Graduate standing. - The environmental humanities explore how humans interact with other-than-human beings and forces conceived of as "nature" or "environment" in Western modernity, decentering the human as the central agent of Earthly life at precisely the moment when faced with the Anthropocene.
• CAS EN 766: Milton Now
  Explores Milton's work and the current formation of "Milton studies," focusing on four interrelated topics: modes of reading, historicism, secularism, and gender and sexuality. Asks how and why we read Milton now, engaging conversations about the fate of the humanities.
• CAS EN 767: Topics in American Literature
  Graduate Prerequisites: Graduate standing. Explores various topics related to American literature and culture, broadly conceived. Topic varies by semester. Please see English Department's website for current description.
• CAS EN 771: The Novel in Theory and History
  Graduate Prerequisites: Graduate standing. - An inquiry into the state of novel theory today and the problem of accounting for the emergence of prose fiction in male and female, Christian and non-Christian, Western and Eastern, Neoclassical and Enlightenment authors between 1650 and 1800.
• CAS EN 777: American Popular Writing
  Graduate Prerequisites: Graduate standing. - Survey of best-selling writing (fiction, poetry, journalism, and otherwise) from the American Revolution to late nineteenth century. Questions of race, class, gender, literary conventionality, canonicity, sentimentalism and "reform." Possible authors include Rowson, Cooper, Douglass, Stowe, Alger, Longfellow, Barnum, Twain.
• CAS EN 788: Transnational Modernism
  Graduate Prerequisites: Graduate standing. - This interdisciplinary course explores how globalization shaped the emergence of modernist styles in the U.S. and the Caribbean. Topics include transatlantic migration; the effects of mobilization and world war; the rise of black internationalism; and modernist indebtedness to Asian cultures.
• CAS EN 792: Introduction to Recent Critical Theory and Method
  Graduate Prerequisites: Graduate standing. - Selective survey of recent literary theory and method. Representative topics: Post- Structuralism; Marxism; Frankfurt School; Film Studies; New Historicism; Science and Technology Studies; Performance Theory; Genre; Post-Colonial Studies; Book History; Gender Theory; Disability Studies.
• CAS EN 794: Professional Seminar
  Graduate Prerequisites: English PhD students in their final semester of coursework. - Developing professional skills and preparing for advanced independent scholarship for English doctoral students in the last semester of coursework. Course includes preparation for comprehensive exam and dissertation prospectus; conference paper submission; publication; fellowship and job applications.
• CAS EN 795: World Literature: Theory and History
  Graduate Prerequisites: Graduate standing. - We consider whether postcolonial studies might be expanded to include approaches whose primary aim is not to "subvert" empire. Imperial histories as well as Anglophone fictions and autobiographies by minorities will be studied with this in mind.
• CAS EN 799: Topics in Contemporary Literature and Culture
  Graduate Prerequisites: graduate standing. Explores texts, contexts, and theories that have shaped contemporary literary cultures. Interconnections between modern and contemporary literatures alongside theoretical paradigms such as critical studies of gender, race, sexualities, and class, global and comparative approaches to challenges, aesthetic experimentation, and more.
• CAS EN 993: Directed Study in English
  DS ENGLISH 1
• CAS EN 994: Directed Study in English
  DS ENGLISH 2
• CAS EN 996: Directed Study in Play Production
  Graduate Prerequisites: thesis-level student in the MFA in Playwriting. - Directed study devoted to production of the student's thesis play.
• CAS HI 500: Topics in History
  May be repeated for credit as topics vary. Topics for Spring 2027 - Section A1: The Crusade. This seminar examines the motivations for, and ramifications of, Christian holy war from its origins in the eleventh century until the early modern period; it focuses equally on Crusades in the Holy Land and intra-Christian campaigns in Europe. Section B1: Examines the affective and intellectual history of love as a site of social and political struggle over four centuries of African American history in relation to the broader movement for Black freedom by emphasizing courtship, marriage, friendship, and black radicalism's love politics.
• CAS HI 502: Drafts of History: Reporting, Revising, and Renewing Modern US History
  Considers episodes from US history, comparing initial reports and subsequent historical accounts. Analyzes how new evidence alters understanding of events, but also how different eras ask different questions about the past, interrogate different sources, and appeal to different audiences. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry 2, Oral and/or Signed Communication.
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  • Oral and/or Signed Communication
  • Social Inquiry II
• CAS HI 503: Race, Ethnicity, and Childhood in US History
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar. - The history of childhood in US History intersects with the interdisciplinary area of childhood studies. Within that, the histories of Black children and children of ethnic minorities and historically marginalized young people is a burgeoning subfield. This course examines how identities inclusive of (and structural inequities associated with) race, ethnicity, gender, social class, and sexuality have differently affected the lives and experiences of young people in the United States from the colonial period through to the 21st century. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Historical Consciousness (HCO), Creativity/Innovation.
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  • Creativity/Innovation
  • Historical Consciousness
  • Writing-Intensive Course
• CAS HI 504: The Civil War in American Memory
  From the immediate post-war years through very recent political conflicts, Americans have vigorously contested the memory of their Civil War. This course considers this question by exploring literature, film, and historical documents. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy.
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  • Historical Consciousness
  • Research and Information Literacy
• CAS HI 505: The American South in History, Literature, and Film
  Explores the American South through literature, film, and other sources. Considers what, if anything, has been distinctive about the Southern experience and how a variety of Americans have imagined the region over time. This course cannot be taken for credit in addition to the course with the same title that was previously numbered CAS HI 462. Also offered as CAS AM 505. Effective Spring 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Historical Consciousness.
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  • Aesthetic Exploration
  • Historical Consciousness
• CAS HI 506: The Transformation of Early New England: Witches, Whalers and Warfare
  New England’s history is filled with religious turmoil, warfare, political upheaval, and technological innovation. Come learn how religious schisms, witchcraft, conflict between Puritans and Native Americans, the American Revolution, and commerce transformed Puritan New England into an urbanized, industrial democracy. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry 1.
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  • Historical Consciousness
  • Social Inquiry I
• CAS HI 507: Three Revolutions
  The course examines how the English civil wars, the Glorious Revolution, and the American Revolution altered Anglo-American political thought and encouraged the rise of a democratic order and changed the nature of governance. Writers from Hobbes and Milton to Burke and Jefferson grappled with these transformations that created political modernity. The course situates these changes within their broader social and spiritual contextes and explores the continuation of inequality within a democratic order. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Social Inquiry II.
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  • Historical Consciousness
  • Social Inquiry II