English 400 Themes

At the summer faculty workshop on English 400, the participants voted to use the theme of revolution for the fall sections. Because this announcement comes so late, we do not expect instructors to change their courses accordingly; however, any incorporation of the theme of revolution will be most welcome. Watch this site for ideas on how to do just that.

Themes provide the structure and interdisciplinary nature of English 400 by engaging a topic in the public sphere from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. For example, one semester the theme may be justice, and the readings would be drawn from works as diverse as the Bible, Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics, John Rawl's Theory of Justice, Malcolm X's Autobiography, Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," Albert Einstein's "The World as I See it," Simon LeVay's Queer Science, Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz's "Response," Leslie Marmon Silko's "Tony's Story," and Judith Lorber's "Biology as Ideology," and Allen Ginsberg's "Howl." Faculty are collaborative learners with students as they explore the theme through readings and writing assignments. Possible themes include:

• the public sphere
• media
• violence
• gender and sexuality
• knowledge
• origins
• belief
• power
• technology