These courses are open to all students and have no prerequisites or registration restrictions.
Superheroes and the idea of the "Superman" in Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and more.
Plus historical and philosophical contexts in cultural anxieties, utopia, World War II and Nazi ideology.
English 365b (VLPA)
Global climate change has been described as the “end of nature.” What does that mean for art?
For literature? What is “nature” anyway? This course will explore the implications for reading,
enjoying and thinking about imaginative literature and art in the context of global environmental
crisis. We will think about how literature and art help us to think about humans, nature, and the
environment in ways that may not be accessible via scientific, political, or even ethical debate.
This course will trace an arc from early environmentalism in the founding of the U.S. National
Park system and the “wilderness” movement in the American west, through more recent struggles
to come to terms with pollution, toxicity, extinction, and anthropogenic climate change in the
21st century. We will place particular emphasis on global environmental justice and the unequal
distribution of ecological crisis. This is an interdisciplinary course. Students from all majors are
welcome. No prior English courses required.
