Going to Jail

This course examines the history of incarceration practices in the United States through poetry, fiction, and nonfiction prose. We will also consider the perspectives of several academic disciplines; these may include anthropology, history, journalism, legal studies, psychology, and sociology. This course satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement for BA-Engl majors.

Dystopian Games, Comics, Media

In this class, we will study video games, postmodern cultural theory, and (tangentially) comic books as we ask questions about the persistence of dystopian narratives in print and digital visual culture. For example, what do dystopian narratives in comics, video games, and new media productions have in common? What makes "dark," "moody," and outright apocalyptic narratives like The Walking Dead, Half-Life 2, Left 4 Dead, Sweet Tooth and the web series Down Twisted popular in this current historical moment?

Codes, Ciphers, Hackers & Crac

This course offers a practical introduction to and reviews the history of codes and ciphers, from medieval allegories to the Vernam Cipher. In order to break codes, it examines the structures of the English language, as well as the distributive characteristics of words and phonemes. Students will examine the relationship between a system and its component elements. Starting with the relationship between letters and cipher types, we will move to the relationship between users and networks, writers and literary markets, and to the larger cultural issues of hackers (and crackers) and The System.
Subscribe to