The English Department held a preview of English Courses for the Spring 2023 semester on Sept. 19. English majors and minors were encouraged to attend where they enjoyed popcorn, candy, and other snacks while viewing the short preview videos that each professor had made to promote their course. Several English professors were in attendance as well. 16 different video previews were shown. 

In Dr. Patricia Hopkins’ video preview for English 412 Multicultural Literature, she explained that literature reflects human experiences like a mirror. 

When talking with The Captain’s Log about this upcoming course, Hopkins said, “My keyword is diversity and students come to CNU sometimes in a bubble. And that bubble reflects, remember like the mirror, it just reflects what they already know. Multicultural lit is more like a window, so people get to see into diverse cultures, language, tradition. I mean it’s all within America.”

Hopkins said that students who take her course, “will learn that… multiculturalism, multicultural lit, isn’t a bad word.” She continued, “People will leave my class and hopefully understand and respect diversity.”

Dr. Kyle Garton-Gundling shared what he is most excited about in his two spring courses, English 343 PostModern America and English 490 Senior Seminar: Literature and Knowledge.

Garton-Gundling said, “For Postmodernism, I’m most excited about diving into texts that are crazy. These texts push the envelope, they shatter boundaries.”

He explained that students will be examining multiple different forms of media, beyond just fiction and poetry, “So to be able to find those common features across so many different kinds of productions and to be able to see how the irreverence of postmodernism critiques and lays waste to everything is an absolute blast.”

For his Senior Seminar course, Garton-Gundling said, “I’m most excited about being on the cutting edge. We’re going to apply the emerging subfield of literary epistemology to subjects that are combining readings from multiple disciplines that nobody has combined before. We’re going to have different points of view talk to each other that don’t normally talk to each other. So we are going to annihilate intellectual silos throughout the academy.”

For both courses, Garton-Gundling emphasized that, for students, “The main thing that you will learn is what culture means. How do you navigate the images that you see, the words that you read, and how do you talk back with words of your own? Understanding culture and finding your place in that culture is what I want to help students learn how to do.”

Dr. Andrew Rose will teach two courses next spring, one is English 335 Sports Journalism and the other is English 326 Interdisciplinary Environmental Writing. 

Rose looks forward to the newly created journalism courses at CNU, “I’m really excited about giving the students the chance to engage with the campus sports community. One of the things I wanted to do, besides just practicing the skills of the main genres, like the game story and the profile, is also have a conversation in class about sports culture. I plan to introduce some readings that will have us thinking about how sports permeates.”

He also wants to include discussion about sports in relation to recent social issues and changes. 

By the end of the course, Rose hopes that students “will have learned more than just the basics of the genre and they will have learned how to tell a story that matters about sports.”

For his other course, environmental writing, Rose explained that it will be centered around community engagement.

“We’re actually going to work with the Newport News Fire department. Students will be doing research on environmental justice policy… The students are going to get a chance to develop writing that may really influence and is definitely engaged with the local community,” said Rose. 

Students will learn about the challenges facing the Newport News community and how they can use their writing and research skills to make a difference.