Courses Taught at Whitman College (syllabi available upon request)

Introduction to Drama: Witchcraft and Empire

A study of plays as literary texts, examining the forms and techniques of drama across cultures and time periods. We will consider the dynamics of reading (as opposed to watching) plays and will discuss how dramatic texts are developed and interpreted through performance. As a way of organizing our reading, we’ll focus on the intersection of two of the most influential themes in both early and modern drama: witchcraft and empire. In pairing premodern and contemporary drama, we will consider how different writers and cultures have adapted dramatic forms to speak to their particular cultural moment.

Medieval Nature(s) and Environmental Crisis

The Middle Ages was a period of significant environmental crisis. Extreme drought, flash flooding, and volcanic eruptions, led to widespread agricultural failure, famine, and, consequently, a steep rise in climate refugees. And yet, medieval representations of nature and the natural world, while often bleak, were also imaginative, playful, and hopeful. This course will explore these tensions and contradictions in medieval understandings of nature and environmental crisis through a study of the drama, folklore, poetry, riddles, and animal fables of the period. By examining these literary representations of nature and the environment, we'll explore how medieval people mourned environmental disaster, critiqued human sources of ecological crises, and imagined better futures. May be elected for the Environmental Humanities Major. 

Brave New Worlds: Medieval and Early Modern Travel Narratives

From fantastical accounts of distant lands in The Travels of John Mandeville to the magical island at the heart of Shakespeare's The Tempest, travel narratives and encounters with distant and different worlds fill Medieval and Early Modern literature. What can these literary encounters tell us about how medieval and Early Modern persons understood the world and their place in it? This course will explore this question through a study of texts ranging from early Irish descriptions of a "Paradise" hidden in the Atlantic to the stories of magic and (mis)adventure detailed in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, from Sir Walter Raleigh's early arguments for settler colonialism to Margaret Cavendish's fantastic tale of adventure and empire in The Blazing World.

Courses Taught at Birmingham-Southern College (syllabi available upon request)

Seminar in Critical Writing and Thinking: Monsters and Monstrosity (first year introduction to academic writing)

Survey of British Literature: From Beowulf to Zadie Smith

Game(s) of Thrones: Medieval Literature and Popular Culture

Winter is coming—and with it, the ideal time to consider popular culture’s obsession with the medieval world. From George R.R. Martin’s titillating Game of Thrones to the mythical world of C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, popular culture imagines and re-imagines the medieval. Why? What imaginative possibilities does the medieval world hold for contemporary authors and their readers?

 In order to better understand why fantasies of the Middle Ages have increased in popularity, we’ll read medieval texts alongside contemporary poetry, novels, and critical theory. One of the goals for this course will be to consider what popular re-imaginings and perceptions of the Middle Ages suggest about the political and ethical commitments of our own time period. As such, we’ll consider HBO’s adaptation of Game of Thrones in relation to Sir Thomas Malory’s epic tale of King Arthur, Le Morte d’Arthur. Alongside the novels of C.S. Lewis, we’ll read the philosophy of Edward Said as well as the medieval Arthurian legend Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. This course serves as an introduction to medieval studies and literary studies; students need not have prior experience with either.

Medieval Sex Ed: Sex, Gender, and Power in Medieval Literature

This course examines the ways sex, sexuality, and gender were theorized in the Middle Ages, as well as their representation in literature. It explores how medieval authors understood sex and sexuality, as well as their construction of behavioral and sexual norms. Reading assignments include wide-ranging selections from European and Arabic prose (medical treatises, philosophy, and history) and poetry (drama, lyric, and romances). Subjects addressed include gender stereotypes and ideals, power relations related to gender, queer identity, and the social conditions of women. A service-learning designated course in partnership with the Magic City Acceptance Center.

Queer Archives and Digital History: Punks, Artists, and Revolutionaries

Introductory course in queer theory and archival research. This course studies the history, social context, and political implications of the formation of queer archives. The course has a dual focus. In each class, read and analyze foundational theoretical texts about queery theory and the archive. These theoretical readings are paired with a set of case studies and/or literary works that enable the class to consider theoretical readings within their social context, then to put those theories into practice by processing and describing archival materials. A service-learning designated course, done in partnership with the Invisible Histories Project.

Literature, Technology, and New Media (History of the Book and Introduction to Digital Humanities)

This course studies the history, social meaning, and political implications of changing media technologies. The course has a dual focus. In each class, we will read and analyze foundational theoretical texts about media and technology. We will pair these theoretical readings with a set of international case studies and/or literary works that enable us to consider the political and ethical themes these texts raise within their social context. Students will also have the opportunity to develop their own digital project exploring the social and political role of media technologies.