Courses

English courses explore how writers, cultures, and institutions tell the stories that shape our world. With an average undergraduate class size of 23 students, we create engaging and supportive spaces where students learn to think and write critically – essential skills for college success, career readiness, and ethical living. Our undergraduate and graduate programs offer training in established fields and techniques as well as distinctive offerings in environmental humanities, comics studies, medical humanities, disability studies, rhetoric, digital humanities, and the study of race and ethnicity.


The University of Oregon course catalog offers a four year degree plan and a complete list of undergraduate and graduate courses in the Department of English.


Course Highlights

These three courses span lower and upper division coursework.

graphic of 3 book spines surrounded by curly braces, above the words "ENG 250 Literature + Digital Culture" - all in neon blue and purple on a yellow background

ENG 250
Literature and Digital Culture
Instructor: Mattie Burkert

In this class, we will read science fiction classic Frankenstein (1818) and consider the myriad ways Mary Shelley’s novel continues to resonate across digital culture -- from its reinterpretation in electronic literature like Shelley Jackson’s Patchwork Girl (1995) to its frequent invocation in debates over the ethics of AI. Each student will develop a portfolio website of written work interpreting the text of Frankenstein and experimenting with new, digitally-enabled methods of literary analysis. As the foundation for the Digital Humanities minor, this class involves learning to use digital tools and technologies in a supported environment, but no prior technical experience or training is required.  

Professor Ben Saunders with Marvel's Hulk

ENG 280
Intro to Comic Studies
Instructor: Kate Kelp-Stebbins

This class provides an introduction to the history and art of comics and to the methodologies of the academic discipline of Comics Studies. Students will be exposed to a range of different comic-art forms (including newspaper strips, collections of serialized comic books, and free-standing graphic novels), as well as examples of contemporary comics scholarship.

graphic of a spotlight surrounded by small amount of smoke with visible light beams, on left the words "ENG 260, Media Aesthetics"

ENG 260
Media Aesthetics
Instructor: Ari Purnama

This course explores the fundamentals of film and media aesthetics, including narrative, mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound. By learning how to analyze film and utilize proper cinematic language, students will begin to critically understand film as an art form and a product of culture. By the end of the course, students will see all aesthetic elements in a film as a series of choices made through the complex collaboration of artists and craftspeople. Students will also gain the key tools and concepts that they will implement in their own creative work.


Upcoming Courses

The table below lists the courses that the Department of English anticipates offering for Fall Term 2023 for the English major. The table is updated as curriculum decisions are made, so check back when considering future registration choices.

Course Number

Course Name Instructor
Undergraduate Courses
Lower Division Courses
ENG 104 Introduction to Literature: Fiction TBA
ENG 107 World Literature Huang
ENG 200 Public Speaking as a Liberal Art Waddell
ENG 205 Top Short Stories Southworth
ENG 207 Shakespeare Dawson
ENG 208 Shakespeare Bovilsky
ENG 209 Craft of the Sentence Upton
ENG 230 Introduction to Environmental Literature LeMenager
ENG 243  Introduction to Chicano/Latino Literature Cortez
ENG 244 Introduction to Native American Literature  Brown
ENG 250 Literature and Digital Culture Burkert
ENG 260M Media Aesthetics Purnama/OkH
ENG 280 Introduction to Comic Studies Kelp-Stebbins
Upper Division Courses
ENG 303 Foundations of the English Major: Text Dawson/Laskaya/Wood
ENG 330 Oral Controversy and Advocacy  Cortez
ENG 381M Film, Media, and Culture McGuffie
ENG 391 American Novel Clevinger
ENG 399 Special Studies: Writing Associates Development  Bryant-Berg
ENG 401 Research  STAFF
ENG 403/503 Thesis STAFF
ENG 404 Intern Disabilities Studies STAFF
ENG 404 Intern Center for Teaching and Writing  STAFF
ENG 404 Intern Community Literacy STAFF
ENG 405 Reading STAFF
ENG 407 Seminar Writing for Comics Johnson
ENG 410/510 Cascade Ice and Fire Sayre
ENG 410/510 Medicine Ethics in Literature Wood
ENG 410/510 Top Digital Story Telling Burkert
ENG 428/528 Old English I Bayless
ENG 457/557 Top Secrets and Scandals  Cheng
ENG 479/579 Top Virginia Woolf Southworth
ENG 492/592 Historical Rhetoric and Composition  Crosswhite
Graduate Courses     
ENG 601 Research STAFF
ENG 603 Dissertation STAFF
ENG 605 Reading STAFF
ENG 608 Work Coll Politics, Culture, and Identity (PCI) STAFF
ENG 608 Work Diss Politics, Culture, and Identity (PCI) STAFF
ENG 610 Composition GE Work Simnitt
ENG 613 GTF Composition Apprentice Gershow
ENG 615  Top Folk Known Natural History Sayre
ENG 690 Introduction to Graduate Studies Alaimo
ENG 695 Top Ungenderable Media Miller