ENGL 2000: Our Built Environment

Instructor: Nolde Alexius

Meeting times:

Section 15: MWF 2:30PM-3:20PM
Section 25: MWF 3:30PM-4:20PM
Section 56: MWF 1:30PM-2:20PM

All assignments this semester will explore, feature, contemplate, and prompt original literary analysis of the work of published fiction writers who served on the LSU faculty, enrolled in undergraduate or graduate classes, and edited the university’s literary magazines.   

ENGL 2000: Writing for Community Action and Advocacy 

Instructor: Sharon Andrews

Meeting times:

Section 34: TTH 10:30AM-11:50AM
Section 193: TTH 12:00PM-1:20PM

We will engage with issues that challenge our communities. We will compose writing that first examines scholarly and community perspectives on these issues and then moves toward problem solving and persuasion. 

ENGL 2000: The Good Life, or Something Like it 
Instructor: Jesse Delong

Meeting times:

Section 22: TTH 9:00AM-10:20AM
Section 164: TTH 10:30AM-11:50AM

What does it mean to have a “good life”? What are people referring to when they invoke this term, and what, exactly, constitutes happiness or fosters joy? In this composition course, students will use writing, reading, and research to investigate the paths possible to find some sort of contentment in their lives, which has seemingly become more difficult with the fleeting “American dream”, with our society’s habits of alienation, and with social media’s propensity to isolate rather than connect. To this end, this will be a device-less course during our classroom time.

ENGL 2000: Political Rhetoric & Writing in the 21st Century 
Instructor: Derek Dirckx

Meeting times:

Section 103: TTH 1:30PM-2:50PM
Section 109: TTH 4:30PM-5:50PM
Section 184: 10:30AM-11:50AM

Whether one considers it or not, political discourse shapes our lives in profound ways. In this course, we will think deeply about all the ways political rhetoric operates in our culture and society, and we will learn to analyze political rhetoric in many forms. This includes reflecting on and discussing, respectfully, our own political values and practicing the expression of those values clearly and honestly.

ENGL 2000: Writing Culture
Instructor: Christy Foreman

Meeting times:

Section 116: TTH 9:00AM-10:20AM
Section 139: TTH 1:30PM-2:50PM
Section 140: TTH 3:00PM-4:20PM
Section 179: TTH 10:30AM-11:50PM

Writing Culture invites students to become researchers of the communities, spaces, practices, and people around them. Using ethnographic methods such as observation, interviews, oral histories, and archival research, students will gather their own evidence and use writing to explore the patterns, meanings, and stories they discover.

ENGL 2000: Living Stories, Burial Grounds: Louisiana Cemeteries
Instructor: Emily Goldsmith

Service-Learning Course

Meeting times:

Section 104: MWF 7:30AM-8:20AM
Section 138: MWF 8:30AM-9:20AM
Section 160: MWF 11:30AM-12:20PM

This course asks you to consider and engage with the kinds of writing being done in different disciplines and fields. With a special emphasis on “Living Stories, Burial Grounds: Louisiana Cemeteries,” we will consider the role of history and the past on our present-day issues from a variety of perspectives. Through primary and secondary research (including an off-campus service-learning experience), we will engage with local issues, the importance of memorialization to culture, and the meaning of neglect to the living and the dead. Developing our ability to conduct research and sound reasoning, as well as compose writing, we will consider rhetorics of cemeteries, rhetorics of Louisiana, and end-of-life rhetoric. Examining systemic troubles and their perpetuation, even in death, we will compose writing that first examines scholarly and community perspectives on these issues and then moves toward problem-solving and persuasion. Our problem-solving will not only be imaginative and theoretical as this service-learning course requires in-person volunteering at a local cemetery. No prior knowledge or special skills required!

ENGL 2000-174: Journeys in Travel and Travel Writing Instructor: Marina Gomez

Meeting time:

MWF 1:30PM-2:20PM

This course is designed to allow students to explore travel journeys through a variety of disciplines, modes, and purposes. Readings for this course will help students understand the nuances, politics, results, and discoveries that come from travel, as well as see how travel is widely defined and practiced. Students will do formal and informal writing, analyze different travel technologies and approaches to travel, and culminate in a research paper on a relevant travel issue, using the course themes as a guide.

ENGL 2000: Louisiana Legends and Lore 
Instructor: Brian Hopper

Meeting times:

Section 23: MWF 9:30AM-10:20PM
Section 58: MWF 1:30PM-2:20PM
Section 73: 2:30PM-3:20PM

This course will use Louisiana's unique cultural heritage as a framework for practicing academic research and writing techniques.

ENGL 2000-191: Film and Rhetoric 
Instructor: Mark Hue

Meeting time:

MWF 11:30AM-12:20PM

Why did that film disappoint me when the trailer was so good, and who do I love this film that critics are tearing apart? To answer these questions and other similar inquiries, this course is designed to give students a general overview of the rhetoric surrounding filmmaking, ranging from topics such as film marketing, critical reception, scholarly evaluation, cult status, and more. These topics will be explored through a wide range of experience of a film as it relates to it’s surrounding rhetorical discourse. Not only will students gain a better understanding of film in this course, but they will also learn how to properly read academic articles and perform in-depth research on a specific film topic of their choosing.

ENGL 2000: The Language of Music Criticism 
Instructor: Brett Hymel

Meeting times:

Section 39: TTH 10:30AM-11:50AM
Section 86: TTH 3:00PM-4:20PM
Section 100: TTH 4:30PM-5:50PM

Music, often described as a universal language, seems to lack a particular definable quality. This multimedia class seeks to break open the question: how do you use writing to describe a sound? Students will engage in in-depth analyses of music, as well as existing criticism in the form of essays, music journalism, and video reviews. The class seeks to broaden both students’ musical horizons as well as their abilities to discuss and engage with culture and media at large.

ENGL 2000-094: Environmental Imagination 
Instructor: Mohammad Islam Zahidul

Meeting time:

TTH 3:00PM-4:20PM

This course explores how contemporary environment is represented in literature and film and media. Discussions might relate to rhetorical understanding, critical insights, and elemental understanding of our built environment and their representation, with particular attention to voices from the Global South and Indigenous communities. Through fiction and films, we will examine how writers imagine relationships between humans and nonhuman worlds, and how environmental harm is entangled with other things. We will practice close reading, research, and argumentative writing as we analyze how literary texts shape public conversations about environmental justice, responsibility, and possible futures. Throughout the semester, we will develop our own critical voice by entering existing scholarly debates and connecting course readings to contemporary environmental issues.

ENGL 2000-127: Writing about Robots and Ai 
Instructor: Kelsey Jaye

Meeting time:

TTH 7:30AM-8:50AM

Advancements in artificial intelligence and robotics technologies have caused a variety of responses, both positive and negative, and the academic debates around these ideas provide a tense but fruitful ground for analyzing rhetoric and composing our own argumentative responses. In this course, we will investigate some of the origins of this technology as it appears in texts from a variety of disciplines to think more critically about this important new technology and its impacts.

ENGL 2000-154: Monsters in Writing 
Instructor: Amber Jurgensen

Meeting time:

TTH 3:00PM-4:20PM

Contact instructor for course description.

ENGL 2000-020 Understanding Home
Instructor: Corrie Kiesel

Service-Learning Course

Meeting time: TTH 12:00PM-1:20PM

We will consider the concept of “home” from multiple perspectives as we connect research and writing related to students’ areas of interest to issues we observe in the community. This course counts toward the LSU Engaged Citizen Program.

ENGL 2000: Con Artists in American Literature
Instructor: Jennie Lightweis-Goff

Meeting times:

Section 30: TTH 3:00PM-4:20PM
Section 35: TTH 10:30AM-11:50AM
Section 68: 1:30PM-2:50PM

America is the land of opportunity, no less for the con artist than for the honest civilian. In this course, we explore the history of con artists and scammers alongside American history and economics. Our exemplary scams include fake Fountains of Youth, Fyre Festival, "rat societies," and the persistent marketing of vinegar as a miracle cure.

ENGL 2000: Horror 
Instructor: Erin Little

Meeting times:

Section 91: TTH 3:00PM-4:20PM
Section 145: TTH 1:30PM-2:50PM
Section 149: TTH 9:00AM-10:20AM

How have humans constructed the meaning of “horror”? How has that meaning changed over time? How does horror appear in different disciplines? The class asks us to consider more mature and specific rhetorical tactics writers may use to develop and support claims in all sorts of areas. Developing our ability to conduct research and sound reasoning, as well as compose writing, we will consider the uses and abuses of horror in fiction, film, environmental science, digital media and more. 

ENGL 2000: Writing Reality 
Instructor: Halley McArn

Meeting times:

Section 2: MWF 7:30AM-8:20AM
Section 84: MWF 12:30PM-1:20PM
Section 148: MWF 10:30AM-11:20AM

In this class, we’ll study various theories about the meaning of truth to discuss how people claim an understanding of reality in writing. Then, we'll complete writing assignments that practice our fact-checking and visual, rhetorical, and political analysis skills to come to a firmer grasp of the truth(s) evident in several recent public debates. To end the semester, students will craft a term paper on the nature of truth as it plays out in a pop cultural event of their choosing. 

ENGL 2000: The Language of Horror 
Instructor: Lisa Nohner

Web-based Course 

Meeting times:

Section 5: MWF 10:30AM-11:20AM
Section 64: MWF 12:30PM-1:20PM
Section 72: MWF 2:30PM-3:20PM

This course asks you to consider and engage with the kinds of writing being done in different disciplines and fields. The course presents an engaging, unique lens through which to study different types of writing: The Language of Horror. How have humans constructed the meaning of "horror"? How has that meaning changed over time? How does horror appear in different disciplines? The class asks us to consider more mature and specific rhetorical tactics writers may use to develop and support claims in all sorts of areas. Developing our ability to conduct research and sound reasoning, as well as compose writing, we will consider the uses and abuses of horror in fiction, film, environmental science, digital media and more. This course is synchronous and delivered via Zoom. Regular attendance is expected. Students will study and practice argumentative writing through the lens of horror and popular culture. 

ENGL 2000-013: Rhetoric in Horror
Instructor: Hayley Philips

Meeting time:

TTH 12:00PM-1:20PM

Contact instructor for course description.

ENGL 2000: I Want to Believe 
Instructor: Sarah Rosser

Meeting times:

Section 79: MWF 12:30PM-1:20PM
Section 114: MWF 10:30AM-11:20AM
Section 137: MWF 8:30AM-9:20AM

This course asks students to examine paranormal topics to better understand how rhetoric works in argument. They will examine various arguments centered around paranormal events, such as Bigfoot, demonic possession, and UFO/UAP activity, along with the responses to those arguments. They will strengthen their research skills and spend time examining the paranormal collection at Hill Memorial Library, learning that credibility flexes with audience. By examining an unconventional topic through an academic lens, students will leave the course empowered and equipped to take on any issue they might encounter in their future professions.

ENGL 2000: Writing about Mythical and Magical Beings
Instructor: Julie Roundtree

Meeting times:

Section 129: MWF 12:30PM-1:20PM
Section 146: MWF 10:30AM-11:20AM
Section 182: MWF 2:30PM-3:20PM

Many of the first stories written down are of mythical and magical beings. Humans were so intrigued and influenced by these tales, which were even incorporated into early religious practices, that they wanted to share them in writing for the generations to come. In this class, students will explore the myth, lore, and modern-day tales of magical beings such as mermaids, witches, ghosts, vampires, and werewolves. By examining various texts, including artwork, films and their promotional posters, stories, poems, and scholarly research, students will learn to identify and analyze rhetoric as well as formulate their own engaging and effective written arguments. Through daily writing assignments, individual and group activities, in-class discussions, the writing of analytical essays and persuasive essays, as well as a final capstone essay on their own topic of interest, students will hone the skills needed for successful and enjoyable college-level reading and writing.

ENGL 2000: Composition and Genre 
Instructor: Douglas Scully

Meeting times:

Section 62: 1:30PM-2:20PM
Section 75: 2:30PM-3:20PM
Section 99: 3:30PM-4:20PM

Contact instructor for course description.

ENGL 2000: Writing About Film
Instructor: Trey Strecker

Meeting times:

Section 62: MWF 1:30PM-2:20PM
Section 75: MWF 2:30PM-3:20PM
Section 99: MWF 3:30PM-4:20PM

Students in this course will study what constitutes successful film writing through a rhetorical focus on argument. Our reading, writing, and discussion will focus on issues of authorship, genre, representation, and narrative. Students will learn basic film concepts, techniques, and terminology in an effort to think critically about film and its role in our lives. Students will compose in multiple modes to improve their writing skills while gaining a more complex understanding of audience, form, and the contexts that inform effective argument. 

ENGL 2000: Writing Louisiana
Instructor: Megan Sullivan

Meeting times:

Section 162: TTH 1:30PM-2:50PM
Section 170: TTH 3:00PM-4:20PM
Section 178: TTH 10:30AM-11:50AM

This course asks you to consider and engage with Louisiana culture and tradition. Using the history of Louisiana writers and literature, we will build specific rhetorical claims as they pertain to all things Louisiana---religion and spirituality, disaster and relief, food and music, ecology and loss along the Mississippi River. Developing our ability to conduct research and sound reasoning, students will have the opportunity to engage with fieldwork by visiting a local museum, concert hall, or restaurant.

ENGL 2000: Film Criticism
Instructor: Rose Torres

Meeting times:

Section 97: TTH 1:30PM-2:50PM
Section 106: TTH 9:00AM-10:20AM
Section 156: TTH 3:00PM-4:20PM

How do we get from images on a screen and sound from a speaker to the variety of impressions with which a powerful film leaves us?  Building on skills from introductory composition, we will study writing through the lens of film—examining color, genre, storytelling, and visual style—and practice different forms of writing such as film analysis, reviews, interviews, and critical essays. Throughout the semester, students will learn how to use research to support their ideas, engage thoughtfully with art and media, and see writing not just as a response to texts, but as a form of creation that generates meaning and insight.

ENGL 2000: Health and the Food Industry 
Instructor: Michele Turner

Meeting times:

Section 96: TTH 4:30PM-5:50PM
Section 150: TTH 3:00PM-4:20PM

Contact instructor for course description. 

ENGL 2000: Writing and Communicating in the Age of AI
Instructor: Chris Tusa

Meeting times:

Section 92: TTH 1:30PM-2:50PM
Section 186: TTH 12:00PM-1:20PM

Writing and Communicating in the Age of AI explores how artificial intelligence is transforming the ways we write, communicate, and share ideas. Students will learn to use AI tools thoughtfully and effectively to support brainstorming, drafting, editing, and communication while developing their own voice, creativity, and critical thinking.

ENGL 2000: Disability Studies 
Instructor: Jennifer Urbanek

Meeting times:

Section 21: TTH 9:00AM-10:20AM
Section 78: TTH 1:30PM-2:50PM
Section 88: TTH 12:00PM-1:20PM

English 2000 will further develop the critical thinking, communication, rhetoric, research, and writing skills that will be useful in your academic and professional endeavors. Philosophies, policies, and designs influence our lives. This course will encourage analyzing, critiquing, and reshaping these discourses. We will examine real world issues such as accessibility in design, accommodation, and addressing systemic barriers. This aspect of the course will center around how society constructs concepts of normalcy and ability. We will investigate and move beyond the medical models of disability to focus on culture, community, and solutions. This concentration would be useful for students going into medicine, architecture, hospitality, engineering, education, and many other fields.  Students will conduct research, evaluate scholarly sources, and form compelling academic arguments. Through a recursive writing process, peer workshops, and attention to multimodal forms of communication, we will complete a researched persuasive essay and an informative scripted podcast. This class is a C-I (Communication Intensive) class.

ENGL 2000: Monsters in Majors 
Instructor: Amanda Wilhite

Meeting times:

Section 16: MWF 9:30AM-10:20AM
Section 83: MWF 3:30PM-4:20PM
Section 118: MWF 10:30AM-11:20AM

What is fiction?  If one looks up the original meaning of the word fiction in English, one will see in the OED that the word in English originated in the fifteenth century and meant, “feigning, counterfeiting; deceit, dissimulation, pretence.”

In this class, we will explore topics such as why fiction was historically perceived as deceitful, where the lines between truth, folklore, and fiction are drawn, and how fictional stories have the ability to shape history.  We will do this primarily by examining various narrators and authors in different fictional stories.

ENGL 2000: Understanding and Judgement: Writing About Complicated Lives in Film
Instructor: Geoff Trumbo

Section 87: TTH 3:00PM-4:20PM
Section 158: TTH 4:30PM-5:50PM
Section 188: TTH 10:30AM-11:50AM

Our course will be guided by two key recurring questions: What does it mean to understand another person, and what does understanding entitle us to conclude? We will apply these inquiries to a handful of documentary films, then move increasingly toward verbal texts as we learn, practice, and sharpen skills in writing arguments. The class will culminate in a formal, researched proposal paper.

ENGL 2025-009: LSU Fiction
Instructor: Nolde Alexius

Meeting time:

MWF 10:30AM-11:20AM

All assignments and activities in English 2025, LSU Fiction, explore, feature, contemplate, and prompt original analysis of the work of published fiction writers who served on the LSU faculty, enrolled in undergraduate or graduate classes, and edited the university’s literary magazines.  

The historical period of literature that we will examine spans 60 years, starting with 3-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Robert Penn Warren. We will read fiction in its various forms: short stories, novels, and novellas. You will learn to think critically about the fiction you read and write original literary analysis.

Specifically, our discussions of the required reading will analyze fiction as it develops plot, characterization, point of view, setting, theme, and style, and compare these elements in multiple works. These discussions will help you write Reading Responses, make an interesting and worthwhile Presentation to the class, write your Proposal, write your Literary Analysis Essay, complete your Final Assignment, and expand your personal preferences as a reader of great fiction.

ENGL 2025-013: The New 1920s
Instructor: Michael Bibler

Meeting time:

MWF 9:30-10:20AM

How did American writers imagine the creation of new kinds of people in the radical modernity of the 1920s? More than just the flappers, how did these writers depict new forms of race, sexuality, gender, and other identity categories?

ENGL 2025-005: Workers Fiction 
Instructor: Byron Miller

Meeting time:

MWF 1:30PM-2:20PM

This course explores the literatures produced by and about the working class in the United States. The lives of working people have long held the interest of readers. However, the reception of these stories has been mixed; sometimes widely read and praised, sometimes banned, sometimes dismissed as propaganda. Through exploration of these texts, we will develop a richer understanding of what is meant by the working class, still a potent political category to this day.

ENGL 2231-002: Public Enemies: The American Gangster Film
Instructor: Brian Hopper

Meeting time:

MWF 10:30AM-11:20AM

The course will study the crime film as an American genre, from the classic films of the 1930s through the twenty-first century. It will be an introduction to film form while asking how gangster movies examine ethnic identity, violence, family, work, business, capitalism, gender identity, respectability, “the American Dream,” etc.

ENGL 2231-006: Gender and Horror 
Instructor: Lisa Nohner

Web-based Course

Meeting time:

MWF 1:30PM-2:20PM

This course is synchronous and delivered via Zoom. Regular attendance is expected. Students will study horror films through various lenses, among them gender & historical criticism. 

ENGL 2231-003: The International Horror Film
Instructor: June Pulliam

Meeting time:

MWF 4:30PM-5:20PM

Most Americans are only familiar with Hollywood horror films along with some horror produced in the U.K., Japan, or South Korea.  In the International Horror Film, we will look at a wide variety of horror produced outside of the United States. This includes some English language horror from the U.K. and Canada, as well as horror in other languages from all over the world including Mexico, Finland, France, China, Indonesia, and New Zealand. 

ENGL 2231-005: Horror and the Oppressed 
Instructor: Julie Roundtree

Meeting time:

MWF 1:30PM-2:20PM

In this class, we will view a selection of horror films from different points in history and analyze how oppressed individuals are depicted and treated in these films. There will be an emphasis placed on analyzing the depictions and treatment of women, people of color, and those who are differently-abled. Some films will be viewed in class, others will need to be viewed outside of class, in-class discussions will follow, and students will write three essays over the course of the semester. 

ENGL 2231-001: Disability Studies Lens Applied to Film
Instructor: Jennifer Urbanek

Meeting time: TTH 10:30AM-11:50AM

This class will explore how film has challenged and reimagined depictions of disability. We will analyze these diverse portrayals through genres as varied as silent film (City Lights), musicals (The Greatest Showman), documentaries (Murderball), and horror (Freaks). We will consider cinematic adaptations page-to-screen when we read One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. You will learn the essential vocabulary from film and literary theory and disability studies needed to discuss, deconstruct, and analyze visual narratives.