Sample Courses
ENG 280: Introduction to Film
University of Kentucky, Fall 2021
What does it mean to be an American? What does it mean to be a citizen? And how could some of the most celebrated movies from the 1940s to the 2010s help us explore the relationship between these two loaded concepts? By approaching citizenship as not just a formal, legal category, but as a matter of cultural belonging, we will study films as the sites of citizenship production. Specifically, we will explore how movies construct particular bodies as American and others as un-American, some bodies as first-class citizens and others as second-class citizens, as we discuss films’ representations of gender, race, class, sexuality, and nationality in relation to their historical context. We will also learn the introductory terminology of film studies and practice formulating arguments grounded in visual analysis.
​
Fulfills UK Core: Intellectual Inquiry in the Humanities requirement.
ENG 180: Great Films
University of Kentucky, Spring 2021 (online; synchronous)
If we consciously approach film as a celluloid space of hope production, some interesting questions begin to arise: where do some of the most celebrated films of the past decades take us? Into the nostalgic past, alternative present, or to the fantasy worlds? What do the characters hope for? Whose hopes are represented, whose hopes are shattered, and whose hopes do come true? We will address the questions as we view a wide range of films—comedy, drama, satire, film noir, and thriller—from the 1940s to 2020. We will also attend to the films’ cultural context and major cinematic elements (mise-en-scene, montage, sound design, actors’ performance, genre categories) as we explore these diverse manifestations of American hope(s) and their relationship to “greatness.”
​
Fulfills UK Core: Arts and Creativity requirement.
WRD 112: Accelerated Composition and Communication I & II
University of Kentucky, Spring 2020 & Spring 2022
The rise of social platforms— Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and, most recently, TikTok—is reconfiguring not only our everyday communication and entertainment but also our civic engagement in staggering and complex ways. In the past decade, popular hashtags such as #BringBackOurGirls, #BlackLivesMatter, #OscarSoWhite, #MeToo, #YesAllWomen, #StopAsianHate, and #VogueChallenge, have created new avenues for collective action and have brought attention to race-, class-, and gender-based injustices on a national level. At the same time, the platforms used for sharing these messages have been accused of spreading misinformation, amplifying hate speech, embedding unfair and harmful biases into their algorithms, and exploiting user data at the expense of user privacy. This semester, we will engage with the arguments made on and about the three most prominent social media platforms—Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok—to explore the power and limitations of digital activism.
​
WRD 112 is an accelerated version of the standard Composition and Communication sequence (WRD 110 + 111), meeting the UK Core requirement for integrated oral, written, and visual communication skills.
WRD 111: Composition and Communication II
University of Kentucky
Fall 2018, 2019; Spring 2018, 2019, 2023
In the past decade, social platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and most notably Twitter have become recognized not only as means of communication but also as spaces of resistance. Beginning with the Occupy Wall Street movement, digital spaces have been used to raise visibility and awareness around issues that have historically been neglected by the country’s majority and/or traditional media. In the recent past, hashtags such as #BlackLivesMatter, #TakeTheKnee, #BringBackOurGirls, and #MeToo have sought to bring attention to race-, class-, and gender-based injustices on a national level, while the local campaign with the hashtag #BasicNeedsUK made a change on our own campus. Turning our attention to national and local fights against injustices, we will spend a lot of time this semester on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube as we rhetorically analyze and learn to employ various forms of digital counter-narratives.
​
WRD 111 focuses on rhetorical analysis, deliberation, and argumentation and meets the UK Core requirement for integrated oral, written, and visual communication skills.
WRD 110: Composition and Communication I
University of Kentucky, Fall 2022 (online; asynchronous)
Places and spaces figure prominently not only in our everyday lives but also in our life stories. Where are you from? What is your favorite place in the world? Why did you come to UK? As you answer these questions, you attach meaning to different locales and create stories about these places: what you think of you home town, where you see yourself, how you see UK. But did you consider that places and spaces can also tell stories about us?
Spaces–parks, classrooms, coffee shops, social media sites, and even your dorm room–are rhetorical. That is, they are created for purposes, audiences, and contexts. Through rhetorical analysis, we can learn about their functions, who is welcome (and not welcome) within them, who built them and why, and how we affect and are affected by our various spaces and places. As we explore the difference between “space” and “place”, the relationship between communities and spaces, and the stories told about spaces vs stories told by spaces, we’ll work on critical inquiry and research as well as writing proficiencies, reading skills, and critical thinking skills.
​
WRD 110 focuses on critical inquiry and research and meets the UK Core requirement for integrated oral, written, and visual communication skills.
