Studies of works, principally novels and short stories, by Southern writers from the late 1920s on. The main emphasis is on Faulkner; others to be read may include Tate, Welty, Hurston, O'Connor, Percy, and Martin.

This course explores how London has emerged as a rich site of literature and popular culture, a multicultural contact zone drawing writers and filmmakers to the metropolitan center of the former imperial Empire. It focuses on Britain's more recent experience of migration, displacement, and transplantation. The course examines how contemporary writers investigate the meaning of 'Englishness,' along with their own vexed relation to British history and identity. Authors include Sam Selvon, V.S.

Arthurian legend conjures enduring stereotypes of chivalry and romantic love, but how do we go about situating medieval romance in literary history? Where does it come from, why was it written, who read it, and how did it change over time? In this course, students will learn about romance's historical and social contexts, its form, tropes, and imagery. We will think about romance's contemplation of justice, loyalty, subjectivity, love, and shame, especially as this body of literature grapples with the conflicts that arise between the mortal and divine.

Fouqué's Undine, a 'migrant' author's bestseller of Romanticism -- the iconic era of German Nationalism -- inspired Austrian Bachmann in her 1961 subversive tale Undine geht, which challenges and transcends gender and other social-cultural boundaries. Weimar Cinema 'realized' the cultural-critical and economic dimensions of Romantic texts by filming the margins: Dracula, shadows, fairytales. Even Nazi-supporter Riefenstahl drew on the dark side of the tradition.

This course examines historical, cultural, and political developments that continue to frame debates about the twentieth century, World War II, the former GDR, and German unification. Thematic focus helps students develop accuracy, fluency, and complexity of expression. Reading, writing, and speaking are consistently integrated. Special emphasis is placed on text organization toward expanding students' language abilities, with a gradual movement from personal forms of expression to written and public discourse.

This course provides an overview of the immigrant rights movement, emphasizing diverse undocumented Latina/o students throughout the K-20 pipeline.

This course analyzes the concepts of race and racism from an interdisciplinary perspective. Students will be asked to bring a critical lens to the ubiquitous, yet frequently misunderstood concepts of race and racism. We will study the sociocultural, political, economic, and historical forces that collaborate and compete with one another in the production of racial categories. This approach will require us to draw connections between wide-scale processes and everyday interactions.

This course will examine the urban as a social, political, cultural, and economic formation, and set of social relations, with focus on Latina/o identities and culture(s). Urban scholars have long studied the changing and evolving city -- this course explores this notion in relation to Latina/o research, populations, and urban social change movements. We will examine historical and contemporary conditions and cover a broad range of topics including: urbanization, urban planning, place-making, social policy, migration/immigration, segregation, urban education, language, and more.

From live sacrifice to sacred dances, from pilgrimage to bodily purification, rituals have long been considered a hallmark of religion. Yet, ritual activities are also important to apparently non-religious spheres of life, such as sporting events and political mobilization. This course will examine examples of ritual activity from a range of cultural contexts through the lens of anthropological, sociological, psychological, and religious studies theories of ritual.

This course explores teachings and practices having to do with interpersonal relations in Jewish religious tradition, including notions of 'spiritual friendship,' relations between parents and children, teachers and disciples, and loving partners. Drawing broadly on the many varieties of Jewish religious literature, with a special interest in the mystical traditions of Judaism, the course also addresses diverse ethical questions such as the nature of forgiveness, responsibility towards the needs of others, and sexual ethics.