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Vanderbilt University Department of English
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The Vanderbilt University Department of English serves as the academic unit at Vanderbilt University responsible for delivering a broad undergraduate curriculum in English literature, composition, creative writing, and related interdisciplinary topics, with courses eligible for major or minor credits listed in the undergraduate catalog or YES system. It offers introductory composition classes like ENGL 1100 on research and rhetoric, requiring concurrent enrollment in CORE 1010 and focusing on rhetorical knowledge and critical thinking. Specialized courses include explorations of the autobiographical gesture across texts from Aristotle to Trump tweets, British literature from 1660 challenging traditional canons, and Pre-1800 drama by Shakespeare and contemporaries. The department features faculty-taught offerings such as Vera Kutzinski's ENGL 1210W on living with aliens, Gabriel Briggs's African American literature on Harlem, and Jay Clayton's science fiction from golden age to Afrofuturism, alongside creative workshops emphasizing poetry chapbooks and ekphrasis. Themes connect to race, gender, technology, empire, and secularization, with seminars probing modernity's ties to power and racialization. No external sources are attributed; all details derive from course descriptions.
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The Vanderbilt University Department of English serves as the academic unit at Vanderbilt University responsible for delivering a broad undergraduate curriculum in English literature, composition, creative writing, and related interdisciplinary topics, with courses eligible for major or minor credits listed in the undergraduate catalog or YES system. It offers introductory composition classes like ENGL 1100 on research and rhetoric, requiring concurrent enrollment in CORE 1010 and focusing on rhetorical knowledge and critical thinking. Specialized courses include explorations of the autobiographical gesture across texts from Aristotle to Trump tweets, British literature from 1660 challenging traditional canons, and Pre-1800 drama by Shakespeare and contemporaries. The department features faculty-taught offerings such as Vera Kutzinski's ENGL 1210W on living with aliens, Gabriel Briggs's African American literature on Harlem, and Jay Clayton's science fiction from golden age to Afrofuturism, alongside creative workshops emphasizing poetry chapbooks and ekphrasis. Themes connect to race, gender, technology, empire, and secularization, with seminars probing modernity's ties to power and racialization. No external sources are attributed; all details derive from course descriptions.
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The Vanderbilt University Department of English serves as an academic unit at Vanderbilt University, offering a diverse array of undergraduate and graduate courses in literature, creative writing, theory, and interdisciplinary topics such as pop music, digital culture, and environmental issues. It provides courses like ENGL 3898.01 on women artists in pop music taught by Emily Lordi Women in Pop course details, ENGL 3898.02 on 1925 cultural production by Scott Juengel 1925 Art and Literature course, and ENGL 4998.01 Honors Thesis preparation by Rachel Teukolsky Honors Thesis course description. The department features workshops such as ENGL 1290.02 Beginning Poetry by Kinsale Drake Beginning Poetry Workshop ENGL 1290.02 and advanced seminars like ENGL 8410.01 on 19th-century literature and visual culture Romantic Victorian visual culture. It supports Shakespeare studies across multiple courses Shakespeare tragedies and romances, poetry from Renaissance to modern English Renaissance Poetry, and interdisciplinary offerings like ENGL 3728 Science Fiction Science Fiction course ENGL 3728. Undergraduate requirements emphasize courses numbered 2050 and above Courses counting toward English major, independent studies with specific enrollment procedures Independent study enrollment process, and fulfillment of AXLE core curriculum components AXLE Writing Requirement courses. Faculty including Dana Nelson, Major Jackson, and others connect the department to broader themes like forgiveness, contemporary writers, and AI's racial implications, while courses link to authors such as Woolf, Kafka, and Milton.
Facts (90)
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Courses | Department of English | Vanderbilt University as.vanderbilt.edu 90 facts
claimVanderbilt University Department of English offers ENGL 3658.01, titled 'Latino-American Literature', taught by Candice Amich.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 1210W.01, titled 'Reading Fiction: The Art of Style', is taught by Gabriel Briggs in an online synchronous format during the Summer 2025 term, meeting Monday through Friday from 1:10 PM to 4:00 PM.
referenceThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course 'American Jewish Songwriters' (JS 2420.01), taught by Judy Klass, explores the contributions of Jewish songwriters to American music from the late 19th century to the present, including genres such as Vaudeville, Tin Pan Alley, stage musicals, folk, rock, pop, and country.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 8410.01, titled 'Studies in Romantic and Victorian Literatures: Nineteenth-Century Literature and Visual Culture' and taught by Rachel Teukolsky, studies nineteenth-century British literature alongside the era's visual culture, including paintings, sculptures, stereoscopes, panoramas, and world exhibitions.
claimVanderbilt University Department of English offers ENGL 3654.01, titled 'African American Literature: Home to Harlem', taught by Gabriel Briggs.
referenceThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3898.01, titled 'Special Topics: Women in Pop' and taught by Emily Lordi, examines women artists in pop music as creators of meaningful responses to the world, analyzing lyrics, musical elements, performative elements, videos, interviews, documentaries, and social media accounts.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3340, titled 'Shakespeare: Representative Selections', covers a selection of plays including histories, tragedies, comedies, and romances to provide students with a sense of the full range of Shakespeare's work in one semester.
claimVanderbilt University Department of English offers ENGL 3230.01: Intermediate Fiction Workshop, taught by Sheba Karim, which focuses on the revision and reworking of short stories.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course 'Exploratory Core: Contemporary Writers at Work' (CORE 2500.19), taught by Major Jackson, engages students with contemporary writers featured in the Gertrude C. and Harold S. Vanderbilt Reading Series.
referenceThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3720.01 includes the study of films such as 'Blade Runner' (1982), 'A.I.' (2001), 'Ex Machina' (2015), and 'Companion' (2025).
claimVanderbilt University Department of English offers ENGL 3726 and ENGL 3726W New Media, which cover the history, theory, and design of digital media, including literature, video, film, and online games.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English offers courses that fulfill both the Writing and Liberal Arts requirements of AXLE, the College of Arts and Science's core curriculum.
referenceThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3720.01, titled 'Literature, Science, and Technology: AI, Robots, and Clones' and taught by Jay Clayton, examines how literature and film shape public attitudes toward science and technology, covering works from Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' (1818) to Kazuo Ishiguro's 'Klara and the Sun' (2021).
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3260 requires students to create a poetry chapbook and emphasizes the importance of community in a writer's life.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 1100.05, 1100.06, and 1100.07, titled 'Composition: Research and Writing Rhetoric' and taught by Payam Rahmati, serves as an introduction to expository, analytical, and research-based academic writing.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 1100.02, 1100.03, and 1100.04, titled 'Composition: Individuals and Communities' and taught by Jordan Ivie, explores the dynamic between individual rights and community responsibilities through various genres and media, culminating in a persuasive research paper.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 8331.01, titled 'Studies in Medieval and Early-Modern British Literature' and taught by Shoshana Adler, examines the history of race-making and racial ideologies in medieval and early modern English literature.
referenceThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course 'Exploratory Core: Forgiving: Why To Do It and How' (CORE 2500.03), taught by Dana Nelson, examines the concept of forgiveness through behavioral and moral psychology and literary sources in the context of modern cancel culture.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3348, titled 'Milton', covers the early English poems, 'Paradise Lost', 'Paradise Regained', 'Samson Agonistes', and the major prose works of John Milton.
referenceVanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3748 Introduction to English Linguistics provides a systematic study of present-day English sounds, words, sentences, and the contexts of language production.
claimIndependent study and directed study courses in the Vanderbilt University Department of English are primarily intended for majors in their junior and senior years, though exceptions may be made for well-qualified sophomores.
perspectiveThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course on Jane Austen argues that the perception of Jane Austen as untouched by the historical and political upheavals of her time is a misunderstanding of her work.
claimAll courses numbered 2050 and above in the Vanderbilt University Department of English count toward the English major, with the exception of English 4999.
referenceThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course 'Hysterical!: Insanity, Impropriety, and Gender' (MHS 2155.01), taught by Lauren Mitchell, examines the history of hysteria as a 19th-century mental health pathology and its connection to contemporary representations of gender, race, and societal expectations regarding appropriate behavior.
referenceVanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3728W Science Fiction covers social and historical developments within the genre from the late nineteenth century to the present, including cultural issues such as race, gender, sexuality, violence, and the representation of science.
referenceVanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3730 Literature and the Environment examines environmental issues from British, American, and global perspectives, utilizing methodological approaches such as ecocriticism, environmental and social justice, ethics, and activism.
referenceVanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3736 Words and Music investigates literary works that have inspired musical settings, emphasizing literary and musical analysis and interpretation without assuming prior musical background.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English recommends survey courses 2310, 2311, and 2316(W) for sophomores to provide background for more advanced coursework.
claimThe Department of English at Vanderbilt University offers courses that satisfy all four components of the AXLE Writing Requirement.
referenceVanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3746 Workshop in English and History is team-taught by a historian and an interdisciplinary scholar, exploring the intersection of disciplines through close examination of texts in historical context.
referenceThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3659W.01, titled 'Cultures of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands' and taught by Jason Ahlenius, explores the evolving cultures of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands over two centuries, utilizing media such as literature, film, cartography, visual and performance art, and photography.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English seminar on modernity investigates the histories of critique, narratives of secularization, and claims of secular modernity by reading authors including Baruch Spinoza, Immanuel Kant, Karl Marx, Walter Benjamin, Michel Foucault, Jacob Taubes, Sylvia Wynter, Talal Asad, and Saba Mahmood.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3620.01, titled '19th-Century American Literature: Black Atlantic Currents' and taught by Ajay Batra, focuses on the 'Black Atlantic' tradition, which encompasses the creative expression and resistance of Black individuals and communities across West Africa and the New World in response to the transatlantic slave trade and chattel slavery.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3654.01, titled 'African American Literature: Black Memoir' and taught by Emily Lordi, examines the memoir genre within the African American literary tradition, specifically focusing on how authors use the form to communicate realities ignored by the dominant culture and to create community through shared experience.
referenceThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 1250W.01 and 1250W.02, titled 'Introduction to Poetry' and taught by Lisa Dordal, organizes the first half of the course around formal considerations including diction, tone, imagery, figures of speech, and sound.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English seminar on modernity explores how progressive visions of modernity may obscure relations to state power and how secularization processes are connected to racialization.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 8442.01, titled 'Media Studies: Race and Digital Culture' and taught by Huan He, explores topics including the automation of empathy via virtual reality, the representation of race and racism in video games, and the labor required to maintain digital worlds.
claimVanderbilt University Department of English offers ENGL 3215.01: The Art of Blogging, taught by Amanda Little, which examines the history of blogging, online journalism, and self-published manifestoes.
measurementThe Vanderbilt University Department of English requires a cumulative 3.4 G.P.A. for the course regarding AI and the imaginary of the human.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English offers courses that examine how writers utilize language, voice, style, and structure to engage with cultural, social, historical, and political questions.
referenceThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3720.01, titled 'Literature, Science, and Technology: Early Modern Science, Race, and Empire' and taught by Pavneet Aulakh, examines the relationship between science, the expansion of European empires, and the construction of race during the scientific revolution.
referenceThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3898.02, titled 'Special Topics: 1925: A Year in Art, Literature, and Film' and taught by Scott Juengel, focuses on the literary, artistic, and cultural production of the year 1925, including works by Fitzgerald, Woolf, Kafka, Cather, Hemingway, Dos Passos, Alain Locke, Chaplin, Eisenstein, Dreiser, Maugham, T.S. Eliot, Langston Hughes, Hitchcock, Louis Armstrong, Walter Benjamin, Walter Lippmann, and Marcel Mauss.
measurementStudents in the Vanderbilt University Department of English may earn a maximum of 3 credits per semester for independent study courses and a total of 6 credits for ENGL 3851 and 3852 combined, provided there is no duplication in topic.
referenceThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 1100.06, titled 'Composition: Speculative Realities' and taught by Mark Wisniewski, examines the relationships between fiction, culture, technology, and identity through the lens of speculative fiction.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English curriculum includes the study of literary events, curation, marketing, and the implementation of reading series as cultural practices.
referenceThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 4998.01, titled 'Honors Thesis' and taught by Rachel Teukolsky, prepares students to write an Honors Thesis by exploring critical, theoretical, and creative approaches to literary texts and methodologies, including research methods and modes of argumentation.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English ENGL 3230 course requires students to read published stories and essays on craft, critique peer narratives, and complete writing exercises.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3280.01, taught by Su Cho, explores how history, language, and family influence and 'haunt' the work of poets and writers.
referenceThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 1250W.04, titled 'Introduction to Poetry: On Secrets and What We Don't Say' and taught by Su Cho, emphasizes the practice of clear, critical, and concise writing through essays, short responses, and creative work.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course 'ENGL 3734.01: Law and Literature: U.S. Empire' is taught by Helen Makhdoumian and meets on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 1:25 PM to 2:15 PM.
referenceThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course 'Imagining the Alien: Jewish Science Fiction' (JS 2290.01), taught by Judy Klass, examines science fiction and speculative fiction written by Jewish authors within their cultural context, covering themes such as aliens, robots, secret identities, time travel, utopia, political critique, and Jewish identity.
referenceThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 1260W.01 and 1260W.02, titled 'Literature and Culture: The Art of Style' and taught by Gabriel Briggs, involves a multi-disciplinary exploration of literature and culture in relation to society, politics, and aesthetics, including the analysis of media, music, public spaces, and advertisements.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3336, titled 'Shakespeare', examines approximately twenty of the major plays in chronological order over two terms, with an emphasis on Shakespeare's development as a dramatic artist, focusing primarily on comedies and histories.
referenceVanderbilt University Department of English courses ENGL 3734 and ENGL 3734W Literature and Law study the relationship between the discourses of law and literature, focusing on topics such as legal narratives, metaphor in the courts, and representations of justice on the social stage.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 1100.01, titled 'Composition: Narrative and the Human Experience' and taught by Mark Wisniewski, examines the ethical implications of narrativizing reporting, the dependence of personal identity on the ability to narrativize events, and the criteria for determining which narratives deserve attention.
referenceVanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3742 Feminist Theory introduces topics including cross-cultural gender identities, the development of masculinity and femininity, racial/ethnic/class/national differences, sexual orientations, ideology, resistance strategies, visual and textual representations, and the nature of power.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course on the Victorian Period focuses on the Brontë sisters (Emily, Charlotte, and Anne) and their works, including Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and Villette.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course 'ENGL 3892.01: Special Topics in Critical Theory: Modernity, Religion, and Secularization' is taught by Alex Dubilet and meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:00 AM to 12:15 PM.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course 'ENGL 3728.01: Science Fiction: The Golden Age to Afrofuturism' is taught by Jay Clayton and meets on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 9:05 AM to 9:55 AM.
claimVanderbilt University Department of English undergraduate course requirements include a group presentation, short research projects, informal meditations, and regular class participation.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3337, titled 'Shakespeare', examines approximately twenty of the major plays in chronological order over two terms, with an emphasis on Shakespeare's development as a dramatic artist, focusing primarily on tragedies and romances.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3335, titled 'English Renaissance: Poetry', covers the development of the English poetic tradition from 1500 to 1700.
referenceThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course 'Exploratory Core: On Lying and Deception' (CORE 2500.09), taught by Matthew Congdon and Scott Juengel, studies the social and ethical consequences of false claims in response to the erosion of civil discourse and the use of lying as a political strategy.
claimVanderbilt University Department of English offers ENGL 3728 Science Fiction, which studies the social and historical developments within the genre from the late nineteenth century to the present.
referenceThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3726.01, titled 'New Media: Race and Digital Culture' and taught by Huan He, examines the history of the 'digital age' and addresses questions of race, identity, and technology, including how AI reproduces concepts of the human that reinforce whiteness.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3360, titled 'Restoration and the Eighteenth Century', explores the aesthetic and social world of letters from the English Civil War to the French Revolution, including drama, poetry, and prose such as Restoration plays, political poetry, satire, travel narratives, and tales, with authors including Behn, Dryden, Congreve, Addison, Swift, Finch, Pope, Fielding, Burney, Johnson, and Inchbald.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3346, titled 'Seventeenth Century Literature', covers poetry and prose from 1600 to the English Civil War, including Metaphysical and Cavalier poetry, essays, romances, and satires, with authors such as Bacon, Cavendish, Donne, Herbert, Jonson, Lanier, Marvell, and Wroth.
claimThe Department of English at Vanderbilt University provides courses in five categories of the AXLE Liberal Arts Requirement: Humanities and the Creative Arts (HCA), Perspectives (P), History and Culture of the United States (US), International Cultures (INT), and Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS).
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course on eighteenth-century women writers examines how authors like Aphra Behn, Eliza Haywood, Anna Barbauld, Frances Burney, and Mary Wollstonecraft challenged the masculinist public sphere.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3891.01, taught by Didi Jackson, focuses on ekphrasis, the tradition of poetry describing, interpreting, and engaging with visual arts.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3897.01, taught by Alex Dubilet, examines the definition of revolution, its relationship to political modernity, and the motivations behind revolutionary action in the context of capitalism, the modern state, and colonialism.
claimVanderbilt University Department of English offers ENGL 3720 and ENGL 3720W Literature, Science and Technology, which examine the relationship of science and technology to literature, film, and popular media, including topics like digital technology and genetics.
referenceThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3726.01, titled 'New Media: Race and Digital Culture' and taught by Huan He, investigates questions regarding the automation of empathy through virtual reality, the representation of race in video games, and the labor involved in creating digital worlds.
procedureTo enroll in an independent study course at the Vanderbilt University Department of English, students must follow these steps: (1) Obtain permission from the chosen instructor and the Director of Undergraduate Studies before the enrollment window opens. (2) Complete the Contract for Registration in Independent Study Course, detailing the project and credit amount, and obtain signatures from the instructor and the Director of Undergraduate Studies or Department Chair before the tenth day of classes. (3) Submit the contract to Rachel Mace before the end of the first week of classes to be manually registered in the YES system.
referenceThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 1250W.03, titled 'Introduction to Poetry' and taught by Roger Moore, focuses on reading English and American poems organized by major themes such as love, loss, and nature, while also examining specific poetic forms like the sonnet or dramatic monologue.
referenceVanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3740 Critical Theory covers major theoretical approaches that have shaped critical discourse, reading practices, and the relationship between literature and culture.
referenceThe Vanderbilt University Department of English offers a course on science fiction that explores the genre's influence on society and questions of literary value, featuring readings from authors such as H. G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia Butler, Samuel R. Delany, N.K. Jemisin, and Nnedi Okorafor, and films including Blade Runner, Dune, Interstellar, Gravity, Annihilation, Gattaca, and Arrival.
claimVanderbilt University Department of English offers ENGL 1290.03: Beginning Poetry Workshop, taught by Sydney Mayes, which focuses on poetic form and constraint as a tool to develop poetic capabilities.
referenceThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course 'How does AI reproduce an imaginary of the human that reinforces whiteness?' examines the history of the digital age, race, and identity in virtual spaces through theoretical essays, literature, art, and interactive media.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English offers a course that examines Chaucer and Shakespeare alongside contemporaneous texts to assess the history of taste and literary value within the English canon.
claimVanderbilt University Department of English offers ENGL 1290.02: Beginning Poetry Workshop, taught by Kinsale Drake, which focuses on contemporary poetry, poetic form, and the role of the poet in the current world.
referenceThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3662.01, titled 'Asian American Literature' and taught by Huan He, explores the definition of 'Asian American' in literature and culture, examining whether it is defined by author identity, character representation, narrative tropes, political orientation, or aesthetic style.
referenceVanderbilt University Department of English offers ENGL 1280.02: Beginning Fiction Workshop, where students write and revise two short stories in a workshop environment.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3654.02, titled 'African American Literature: Home to Harlem' and taught by Gabriel Briggs, examines the Harlem Renaissance as an extension of the earlier 'New Negro' tradition and as a response to early twentieth-century social, political, and economic stimuli.
referenceVanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 3744 Advanced Poetry involves formal analysis and close reading of major poems in the extended British and American poetry canon, alongside related historical, theoretical, and applied criticism.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course ENGL 1260W.01, titled 'Literature and Culture: Love Books: Sex and Literature from Antiquity to Early Modernity', is taught by Jessie Hock in an online asynchronous format.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course on the Bible in literature explores how writers from the medieval period to the present engage with Biblical stories, images, and characters.
claimThe Vanderbilt University Department of English offers two Honors seminars each semester, which are 3000-level courses requiring a 3.4 GPA for enrollment.
claimVanderbilt University Department of English offers ENGL 3678.01, titled 'Anglophone African Literature', taught by Akshya Saxena.
referenceThe Vanderbilt University Department of English course 'Friction in the Machine: Society, Technology, Safety, Freedom' (CAL 2180.01), taught by Dana Nelson, explores the evolution of freedom and the relationship between individuals, society, and technology from the nineteenth century to the present.