First-Year Courses

Eve Preus
Sections 005, 006
In Person

Change. Transformation. Evolution. Conversion. These are all words that describe the process of moving from one state of being to another—shifting form, function, perspective, or identity in response to time, experience, or intention. Put another way, they describe the process of becoming rather than a fixed state of being. In this course, we will read a variety of texts — poems, creative essays, short stories, a play, a novel, and a film — that explore what it means to move from one thing to something else entirely. We will analyze how becoming emerges as a philosophical inquiry within the characters who seek to represent human experience, and within their literary genres that seek to reimagine what their forms can become.

Connor Byrne
Section 050
In Person

In this course we will read short stories and novels in order to showcase a range of approaches and goals within the genre of fiction. From Edgar Allan Poe to Toni Morrison, from psychological realism to experimental proto-science fiction to film adaptation - and many spaces in between - this section of English 1106 will enrich your understanding and appreciation for the endlessly-fascinating worlds story and story-telling.

Ryan Miller
Sections 003, 004
In Person

ENGL 1106 aims to recognize and understand a variety of literary devices and textual elements, and in so doing promotes the development of close reading and analysis skills. During the semester, we will draw from the (sub)genres of post-apocalyptic, romantic, and historical fiction. These novels are Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven (2014), André Aciman’s Call Me by Your Name (2007), and Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace (1996), respectively. Our readings include a depiction of life for the survivors of a global pandemic, a sexually charged summer between two young men in Italy, and the tale of a servant girl convicted for her role in a double murder in Ontario in 1843.

Jason Bourget
Section 080
In Person

In this course, which is part of the Ireland Field School, we will explore the contradictory stories that the people of Ireland tell about themselves. Reflecting a nation politically divided in one way or another for much of its history, many of Ireland’s stories are stories of conflict between Protestants and Catholics, between nationalists and unionists, between English and Irish speakers, between religion and secularism, and between tradition and modernity. Our search for these competing narratives will lead us to works set in the Gaelic-speaking Aran Islands, to short stories that show what Dublin looked like in the early twentieth century before, during, and after the Irish War of Independence and subsequent Irish Civil War, and to poems that meditate upon the terror experienced by, and the resilience of, those who lived through the worst years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. As we examine these many conflicting retellings of the “truth” of Ireland, we will also discuss how at least some communities, such as the late 1970s punk scene of “alternative Ulster,” attempted to move beyond these polarizing and all-too-often-destructive narratives of political belonging.

Taylor Breckles
Section 002
Hybrid

ENGL 1109 provides an introduction to the study of literature within a wider sociocultural framework. The theme of this course is Comedy as Curtain: Humour as a Rhetorical Tool for Discussing Difficult Topics. This course will explore fictional texts, poems, and a play that all feature humour as a rhetorical strategy for discussing topics like grief, intergenerational trauma, colonialism, sexism, and racism, among others. Students will learn how to apply humour theory to literary texts, identify and analyze literary devices, and recognize genre-specific features. The readings will be predominantly 20th and 21st Century.

John Rowell
Section 001
Hybrid

Monsters, Form, and Comedians
This course will cover three literary themes. We begin with monster narratives and question why we tell stories about creatures that inhabit the night. From there, we move to Canadian-based form poetry to see how structure works in stereo with art. Finally, we'll look at the one-person show and stand up comedy as a form of theatre.

Dylan Jackson
Sections 003, 004
In Person

Climate and Conservation

Simon Rolston
Sections 001, 002
In Person

Crime and Punishment

John Rowell
Sections 009, 010, 016
In Person

The Ethics of Technology