English 102 Topics— Fall 2026
English 102 Topics | Fall 2026
Jump to list of English 102 Topics
Each instructor’s section of English 102 is organized around a distinctive topic; please choose one that appeals to you and your interests. Topics for sections that currently do not have an instructor listed in Banner will be updated closer to the beginning of the semester, or as sections are assigned. All English 102 sections teach archival, qualitative, and secondary source research and writing.
All English 102 sections require 2 textbooks, Rhetoric of Inquiry, 5th edition, and The Writer’s Harbrace Handbook, 6th edition. Each section may have additional required texts; please check with the Bookstore to see whether additional texts are required for your section.
English 102 Inquiry Topics
Heather Akers | Inquiry into Food
TR | 9:45-11:00 & 11:20-12:35
Our specific course theme is Inquiry into Food. This semester we will examine the issue of food and our relationship to it using various approaches and perspectives. Food is a subject that necessarily concerns every human on earth. It is key to our survival, but also to our sense of delight in life. It can bring pleasure and joy, and it can also present challenges and problems. Food is one of the key aspects that give identity, structure, and sustenance to a particular culture. It is big business. It concerns the global economy. It can also be a deeply personal matter of health, ethics, and belief systems. This semester, we will use the topic of food to develop our research and writing skills. To accomplish this goal, we will have two major projects and will conduct three kinds of research: secondary source, archival, and qualitative. In the archival project, we will use primary sources to explore the historical significance of a particular food-related issue in the past century, such as a recipe, ingredient, food brand, nutrition or diet trend, agricultural innovation, or kitchen technology. In the qualitative project, we will conduct qualitative research by interviewing, surveying, and/or observing participants in order to investigate their experiences, opinions, behaviors, and/or beliefs about food.
Jeff Amos | Inquiry into the Memoir
TR | 12:55-2:10 & 2:30-3:45
in this section of English 102, we will examine the research and creation of personal and family history. You will be asked to interview friends and family members to understand social and historical perspectives, as well as dig into the archives (both personal and public) to find the traces of memory and family. Your writing will have you mining personal experience and research to tell stories of your family or your own history, and along the way we will read and interrogate the work of authors who have used their own experiences as the ground for deep personal or cultural introspection.
Melinda Backer | Inquiry into Videogames and Pop Culture
MWF | 1:50-2:40 & 3:00-3:50
English 102 advances the concepts introduced in English 101 and provides students with intensive writing instruction focused on inquiry and research. Throughout the semester, we’ll focus on strategies for formulating and investigating questions, locating and evaluating information, using varied sources and research methods, developing positions on intercultural and interdisciplinary issues from diverse texts (print, digital, and multimedia), and presenting research using appropriate rhetorical conventions. This section of English 102 will explore the evolution of the gaming industry and its impact on popular culture from the 1970s to the present. As we look at the evolution of the platforms and games, we will also examine the social aspects of the gaming community and the increasing popularity of gaming over the last thirty years. You will have the opportunity to research the historical evolution of some of your favorite games or game series, examine the gaming culture as it stands today, discuss representation of games and gamers in the media and in games themselves, and explore how gaming has influenced your own field of study. Like all 102 sections, we will engage in archival, qualitative, and secondary source research to investigate our course topic, gaming and its impact on popular culture.
Brad Bannon | Inquiry into American Horror
MWF | 12:40-1:30
Why is Edgar Allan Poe’s face among the most recognizable in American Literature? Why are television shows, documentaries, films, and film franchises like American Horror Story, Stranger Things, Lovecraft Country, Insidious, Get Out, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Halloween so popular? What is the appeal of the American horror genre, and why is it so ubiquitous? In this section of 102, students will develop their research and writing skills while seeking to understand the socio-historical and cultural contexts of American horror as a distinct genre, as well as what continues to draw audiences to it as a form of expression in literature, film, and popular media. We will discuss classic and influential examples of the form and consider some more recent historical accounts as we trace the origins of American horror. These discussions will complement our investigation into the phenomenon of the genre as students learn how to conduct qualitative, archival, and secondary research.
Mary Christensen | Inquiry into the Monstrous
TR | 8:10-9:25, 12:55-2:10. & 2:30-3:45
This section of English 102 focuses on the topic of monstrosity. Through reading and analyzing both scholarly and creative genres, conducting our own research, and through navigating archival spaces, we will come to view monstrosity as social commentary. Perhaps, more importantly, we will learn to ask ourselves: Who are the monsters, really?
Elizabeth Cooley | Inquiry into Disability
TR | 11:20-12:35, 2:30-3:45, & 4:05-5:20
In this section, we’ll question what “disability” really is, how history, scholars, and our contemporaries view and have viewed it, and what our assumptions are about both disabled and abled people are. We’ll also observe accessible designs and how they shapes our everyday lives. In group projects, we will research and propose solutions to problems with disability and accessibility at UTK.
Taylor DeMichael | Inquiry into Social Media
Online Asynchronous
Many of us have probably heard the term “chronically online” tossed around the internet. Our course, “Inquiry into Social Media,” seeks to dive deeper into what it means to be “chronically online,” focusing on our engagement with the digital world in our day-to-day lives as well as how social media and new technologies are rapidly changing and influencing the world around us. The point of this course is to develop your academic research, writing, and communication skills through various modes of research, including secondary source, primary source, and qualitative research. You’ll be able to investigate topics from a multitude of academic perspectives and, hopefully, relate your research to your major or personal interests.
Catherine Garbinsky | Inquiry into Food and Culture
MWF | 8:100-8:50 & 10:20-11:10
This section of English 102 will explore the ways in which culture influences food and food influences culture. We will examine how food and food sharing builds communities and cultures. Even when we are not eating, we are constantly surrounded by images and language that engage with food. It permeates our lives, impacting our health, daily habits, and our relationships with family and friends. Food can be aesthetic, interactive, and functional. It can hold memories and enrich our ties to our culture. It can be regionally specific, a fusion that reflects changing tastes and communities, it may tied to a particular holiday or tradition, passed down for generations, and it can be a result of experimentation, pushing new boundaries. Throughout the semester, you’ll learn how to conduct archival, qualitative, and secondary source research on this subject and will present what you’ve learned in both new and traditional formats.
Greta Gessert | Inquiry into Pop Culture
MWF | 11:30-12:20
Inquiry into Pop Culture examines how popular media—movies, TV, music, sports, social media content, podcasts, etc.—contribute to wider discourse about social or political issues. Through two key forms of research—archival and qualitative (each supplemented with secondary source research)—students will examine the ways that their pop culture interests are part of larger conversations in our culture. Students may explore topics like: What does the evolving depiction of “The Bachelorette” in promotional posters reveal about how our culture views women? How did sports advertising change pre- and post-NIL? How do college students feel about the ever-increasing political advocacy of celebrities? Why do Taylor Swift fans believe they connect to her music? This course will hone writing and research skills through drafting, peer review, revision, and reflection.
Sam Granoff | Inquiry into Food and Culture
TR | 2:30-3:45 & 4:05-5:20
Food is never just food. It’s identity, memory, pleasure and politics, all served up on a plate. Balancing both curiosity and critique, we’ll investigate how a drive-thru burger, a grandmother’s recipe, or a street vendor’s grill can reveal personal narratives, social systems, and global histories of migration. Students will develop research and writing skills through three approaches: secondary source research (examining current debates around issues like sustainability and cultural appropriation), archival research (tracing the histories of dishes, ingredients, or industries), and qualitative research (interviewing people about their food-related experiences, from restaurant work to family traditions). Along the way, we’ll sharpen our writing skills, mixing sensory detail with critical insight. By the end of the semester, students will learn to see every dish has a story, and that to write about food is to write about what it means to be human.
Taylor Hubbard | Inquiry into TBA
Online Asynchronous
Elizaveta Komkova | Inquiry into Happiness and Meaningful Life
MWF | 10:20-11:30
Food is never just food. It’s identity, memory, pleasure and politics, all served up on a plate. Balancing both curiosity and critique, we’ll investigate how a drive-thru burger, a grandmother’s recipe, or a street vendor’s grill can reveal personal narratives, social systems, and global histories of migration. Students will develop research and writing skills through three approaches: secondary source research (examining current debates around issues like sustainability and cultural appropriation), archival research (tracing the histories of dishes, ingredients, or industries), and qualitative research (interviewing people about their food-related experiences, from restaurant work to family traditions). Along the way, we’ll sharpen our writing skills, mixing sensory detail with critical insight. By the end of the semester, students will learn to see every dish has a story, and that to write about food is to write about what it means to be human.
Kelvin Massey | Inquiry into the Heroic
Online Asynchronous
In this section of 102, our readings, writing assignments, and research will be related to the concept of the hero and how it has changed through time. We shall examine the origin of the concept of the hero and also consider how heroic ideals show continuity as well as transformation through different time periods, cultures, and media. We shall use qualitative, archival, and secondary source research to explore our topic (which may also include role models, leaders, and villains) through formal essays, in addition to other types of written assignments and exercises.
Ucheoma Onwutuebe | Inquiry into Memoir
TR | 9:45-11:00 & 11:20-12:35
Not only would this class involve the rigorous study of various forms of memoirs—from interviews, profiles and personal narratives— students would create their own memoirs using archival research and studies.
Abhay Shetty | Inquiry into Short Stories
MWF | 8:00-8:50
Inquiry into Short Stories examines the form of the short story and its evolution by reading stories by Jorge Luis Borges, George Saunders, Lydia Davis, Lucia Berlin, Italo Calvino, Clarice Lispector etc., to understand the possible historical, social contexts behind the creative choices made. This course aims to develop a deeper understanding of rhetorical choices, by sharpening researching skills.
Kallye Smith | Inquiry into the Vampire
TR | 11:20-12:35
“Welcome to my house! Enter freely. Go safely, and leave something of the happiness you bring.” The vampire is one of the most popular and enduring figure, from ancient mythology to rural folklore to Hollywood dreamboat. But what is it that makes the vampire so eternal? What makes us keep thinking about them late into that dark night? Inquiry into the Vampire invites students to consider the vampire and it’s representation across cultures and genre. From monster to heartthrob, we will analyze the vampire in a variety of ways and using a variety of techniques. Students will use this topic to guide thoughts and projects around archival and qualitative projects, and through analysis and discussion. Students will also have the chance to deepen their skills in areas such as drafting, peer review, revision, and self-reflection. Don’t be afraid of the dark.
Sam Turner | Inquiry into the Titanic and Its Legacy
TR | 9:45-11:00, 2:30-3:45, & 4:05-5:20
The Titanic began as an engineering puzzle, became a historical trauma, and by the end of its century had become both an archeological challenge and a case study in the modern Hollywood blockbuster. This course will allow students examine both the ship and its legacy in all of these contexts. First students will study primary sources in the form of survivor accounts and press coverage of the disaster. They will then research recent scholarship in a discipline of their choice that will provide a methodological context for discussing some aspect of the ship or its enduring cultural resonance. Finally, students will conduct a qualitative research project in order to better understand the enduring fascination, in the twenty-first century, of spectacular historical tragedies.
Connor White | Inquiry into Memoir
Online Asynchronous
Inquiry into Memoir develops students’ academic writing, reading, and research skills through the lens of personal narrative. Students will explore how personal narratives reveal broader cultural, social, and historical contexts, examining how memory and identity shape storytelling. Through close reading, analytical writing, and guided research, students will learn to engage critically with memoirs while composing their own reflective and evidence-based essays. Emphasis will be placed on inquiry-based writing, revision, and using sources ethically and effectively. This course builds on the foundations of Composition 101.