English 102 Topics— Spring 2026
English 102 Topics | Spring 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 | 2:30-3:45 & 4:05-5:20
Our specific course theme is Inquiry into Food. This semester we will examine the issue of food and our relationship to it. Food is a subject that necessarily concerns every human on earth. It is key to our survival, but also to our sense of pleasure in life. It can bring delight and joy, and it can also bring 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 conduct three kinds of research: secondary source, archival, and qualitative. The secondary source project will examine a current debate surrounding agriculture, nutrition, or a related issue. 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. Finally, In the archival project, we will explore the historical significance of a particular recipe, dish, food trend, or innovation over the past century.
Arinze Akpa | Inquiry into Hip-Hop
MWF | 12:40-1:30
This course explores the art of rhetoric in hip-hop music and culture, examining how artists use language, imagery, and performance to persuade, provoke, and inspire. We will analyse how hip-hop expresses and challenges dominant cultural values, political ideologies, and social norms. Through close readings of lyrics, music videos, and live performances, we will investigate the rhetorical strategies employed by hip-hop artists to address issues such as race, gender, class, sexuality, and social justice. While the aforementioned take centre stage, this course also introduces students to AAVE as spoken and written while recognising other Englishes as they currently exist in Hip-Hop, in America and beyond.
Jeff Amos | Inquiry into Place
MWF | 11:30-12:20, 1:50-2:40, & 3:00-3:50
What do we mean when we say something happened in a “place?” Are we referring simply to its geography, its position on a map? Or do we have in mind something more nuanced? How do memories, history, imagined futures, or the ecosystem combine in various ways to make something a “place?” In this section of English 102, we will write about significant places in our own lives as the starting point for intersecting research projects that examine what gives place its shape and meaning. Our interrogations might force us to ask questions about cultural history, human geography, or changes in the land through manmade and natural forces. In the end, our goal is to understand not just what makes those places so meaningful to us but what makes them unique in their own right. How have they evolved, naturally and culturally, and where might they be going?
Michaela Anderson | Inquiry into Detection
TR | 12:55-2:10
Inquiry into detection examines the issues of detection, detective fiction, and detective media, which have received increasing attention due to the genre’s sustained pop culture relevance. We will use this topic to develop research and writing skills. This course will feature three kinds of research: secondary source, archival, and qualitative. The secondary source project will examine a debate about detective media. In the archival project, we will explore the historical significance of detective media from its popularization in 19th century fiction, to its present day relevance across genres and modes. Finally, we will conduct qualitative research by interviewing or surveying participants in order to investigate their experiences with and/or beliefs about detective media. This course will hone your writing and research skills through drafting, peer review, and revision.
Ben Ashley | Inquiry into TBA
MWF | 12:40-1:30 & 3:00-3:50
Hank Backer | Inquiry into Videogames and Popular Culture
TR | 11:20-12:35, 2:30-3:45, & 4:05-5:20
This section of English 102 will explore the evolution of the gaming industry starting in the 1970s and moving forward from the arcade to the console. As we look at the evolution of the platforms and the games, we will also examine the social aspects of the gaming community and the increasing popularity of gaming over the last twenty years. You will have the opportunity to research the historical evolution of some of your favorite games or game series, examine 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 and qualitative research while using secondary source research to inform your qualitative and archival topics.
Melinda Backer | Inquiry into Videogames and Gaming Culture
TR | 9:45-11:10 & 2:30-3:45
This section of English 102 will explore the evolution of the gaming industry, starting in the 1970s and moving forward from the arcade, to the console, to the personal computer. As we look at the evolution of the platforms and the games, we will also examine the social aspects of the gaming community and the increasing popularity of gaming over the last twenty years. You will have the opportunity to research the historical evolution of some of your favorite games or game series, examine 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 the course topic.
Brad Bannon | Inquiry into American Horror
TR | 2:30-3:45 & 4:05-5:20
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.
Anna Grace Barnett | Inquiry into Myths and Monsters
TR | 9:45-11:00 & 12:55-2:10
This course will center around the “human monster.” We will rely on Greek Mythology, classic literature, comic books, and media interpretations of half-human beings. Some of the works will include: The Walking Dead comics, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Medusa, and Centaurs. Through these depictions, we will analyze what it means to be human and how the term “monster” is reclaimed as a source of power.
Rachel Bryan | Inquiry into the South
MWF | 11:30-12:20 & 12:40-1:30
This section of English 102 will approach academic research methods using the theme “Inquiry Into the South.” Our course will explore the Southeastern United States as a region, construct, culture, and site of history. Students will develop academic research, writing, and communication skills as we learn from each other’s research and writing. In each research-based project, students can investigate the South from several academic perspectives (or within their major). Students will develop research topics using multiple methodologies to make academic arguments about southern music, foodways, politics, race, gender constructs, economics, folkways, sports, art, or other topics of interest. Throughout the semester, students will conduct archival, qualitative, and secondary source research and will present their arguments about southern culture, history, or regional identity to academic audiences in discipline-appropriate papers.
Andrew Butler | Inquiry into Music
TR | 8:10-9:25 & 9:45-11:00
Music, perhaps more than any other aspect of popular culture, forms an important part of our identity. We bond with friends over shared musical tastes, judge each other over their choices with the aux cord, feel closer to previous generations when we hear their favorite songs. The music we listen to doesn’t just express who we are, but creates our sense of who we are.
Underneath music’s role in day-to-day life, however, rest some interesting questions. To what extent is the music we choose to listen to the result of historical and social trends? Why do we tend to associate certain kinds of music with certain attitudes and styles of dress? How have musical genres developed over time, and why do they sound like they do today? Why does music take such an interest in relative terms such as “pop,” “indie,” and “alt”? Students will develop their own research questions and formulate original arguments using three different modes of research: secondary, archival, and qualitative. Through research, students will gain an insight into the role of music both historically and in the present
Sarah Cantrell | Inquiry into Myths and Monsters
MWF | 9:10-10:00, 12:40-1:30, & 1:50-2:40
Monsters are often reflective of the cultures and historical moments in which they appear. How do Zombies reflect our exhaustion with routine: get-up-go-to-work-rinse-repeat? Does the vampire represent 19th-century British fears of the Eastern European Jew, transgressive sexual desires, or fear of AIDS? How does King Kong illustrate fears of Black male virility in pre-Civil Rights America? How did early colonists use the “monster” framework to characterize Native Americans and Black Africans? What about American Psycho’s Patrick Bateman, who doesn’t “look” like a monster, or Twilight’s Edward, who is handsome and sympathetic? How do 1950s movies about aliens and extraterrestrials reflect the Cold War and nuclear armament? What kinds of “forbidden freedoms” do monsters like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein have?
Mary Christensen | Inquiry into the Monstrous
TR | 8:10-9:25, 9:45-11:00, & 2:30-3:45
This section of English 102 focuses on the topic of monstrosity. Through reading and analyzing both scholarly and creative genres, through navigating archival spaces, and conducting our own research, we will view monstrosity as social commentary. Perhaps, more importantly, we will learn to ask ourselves: Who are the monsters, really?
Elizabeth Cooley | Inquiry into Disability
MWF | 11:30-12:20, 1:50-2:40, & 3:00-3:50
In this section, we’ll question what “disability” really is; how history, scholars, and our contemporaries have viewed it; and what our assumptions are about disabled people. We’ll observe accessible designs and how they shape our everyday lives. In group projects, you’ll research and propose solutions to accessibility at UT.
Grant Currier | Inquiry into End Times
TR | 11:20-12:35
Earthquakes, floods, pandemics, wars and unrest, prophecy, technology, disaster, redemption: Inquiry into End Times broadly examines issues of how cultures develop, identify, respond to, and react against ideas of an “end times.” Throughout history, numerous civilizations became increasingly polarized—Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Medieval Europe and the Levant, 20th century Europe, 21st century America. This course will explore questions such as “What singular events have been re-interpreted by the public across cultures?”, “How do end times narratives shape a nation’s sense of identity and purpose?”, and “How do imagined and/or recorded apocalypses train us to hope?” The course features secondary, archival, and qualitative research methods. You will use skills such as drafting, peer review, and revision to improve your work over the course of the semester.
Jasmine Flowers | Inquiry into the South
TR | 12:55-2:10
Inquiry into the South explores the American South as a region, construct, and source of identity. The course will use this topic as a foundation for developing research and writing skills. During the semester, students will conduct archival and qualitative research to support their arguments in two major projects. In each project, students can investigate the South from several academic perspectives (or within their major). We will explore how the history and culture of the South inform various communities’ understanding of place and identity. How is Southern culture represented, and what makes someone a Southerner? How does the South’s history impact politics, economics, education, music, food, religion, and other cultural aspects? Together, we will consider all the voices that contribute to ideas about the region and ask how we can contribute our own voices as members of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville community.
Jessica Freeman | Inquiry into Food
MWF | 10:20-11:10, 12:40-1:30, & 1:50-2:40
English 102 provides students with intensive writing instruction focused on inquiry and research. The theme of our course is Inquiry into Food. Food not only provides nutrition to our physical bodies, but it also sustains and feeds us in a multitude of ways. This semester, we will read a variety of texts that approach food and food culture. As we conduct research, we will explore major ideas such as agriculture, poverty, pop-culture, and psychosocial factors and needs. We will look at memoirs, chefs, and home cooks and explore beliefs about what we eat, when we eat, and how it informs our culture. In what ways is food political? In what way does food connect us to ourselves, to one another, and to place?
We will formulate questions, investigate, locate, and evaluate information, and use a variety of sources and research methods as we discover how food relates to us, to rhetoric, and to the communities that surround us.
Amanda Gaines | Inquiry into Contemporary American Horror
TR | 9:45-11:10 & 11:20-12:35
The enduring appeal of the American horror genre is rooted in its ability to give tangible form to the nation’s deepest anxieties and historical traumas. From the Puritanical fears of damnation in Poe’s gothic tales to the Cold War paranoia of 1950s monster movies and the anxieties of suburban isolation in slasher films, horror has consistently served as a socio-historical mirror. The genre is ubiquitous because it provides a safe, controlled space for audiences to confront real-world fears—such as economic instability (Parasite), institutionalized racism (Get Out), or technological alienation (Host)—by externalizing them into monsters and terrifying narratives. In this class, we’ll discuss contemporary horror in conversation with theoretical texts 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.
Joseph Gaines | Inquiry into Life Writing
TR | 8:10-9:25
Inquiry into life writing examines the issues of self representation and the textual representation of others, which has received increasing attention because of the global advance of technologies that allow individuals to publish their own digital versions of their lives. We will use this topic to develop research and writing skills. The course will explore questions such as – how does biographical writing represent reality and how does it distort reality? Have the technological advances of the 21st century fundamentally changed the kinds of stories that we craft about our own lives? The course features secondary, archival, and qualitative research projects. You will use skills such as drafting, peer review, and revision to improve your work over the course of the semester.
Catherine Garbinsky | Inquiry into Food & Culture
TR | 12:55-2:10
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.
Greg Gillespie | Inquiry into the Humanities and Digital Culture
MWF | 9:10-10:00
In this course, students will learn to think like a researcher while exploring how the humanities enhance our understanding of identity, society, and culture. We will analyze literature, art, history, and philosophy from diverse cultural perspectives, examining their representation across digital media—including social media, digital storytelling, and virtual communities. Emphasis will be placed on cross-cultural communication and collaboration, encouraging students to share and reflect upon their unique experiences. Students will develop writing and critical thinking skills through secondary source analysis, archival research, and qualitative methods, and participate in reflective, community, and peer workshop activities. By selecting topics that resonate with their cultural backgrounds and interests, students will have the opportunity to connect their writing to their majors and daily lives, while preparing to confidently engage with academic and professional genres.
Sandra Gomez Amador | Inquiry into Girlhood
MWF | 11:30-12:20
This course will explore how girlhood has been portrayed in media through time. From Little Women (1994) to Derry Girls (2022), we will examine how stories of girlhood approach themes of love, desire, friendship, and coming of age. Together, we will study the depictions of girls across literature, film, music, and television that have shaped cultural understandings of identity. Students will learn to analyze how these representations influence popular culture and history. This course aims to develop critical writing and argumentative and research skills through an interdisciplinary lens.
Molly Granatino | Inquiry into Banned Books
TR | 8:10-9:25, 9:45-11:00, & 2:30-3:45
This 102 course looks at all facets of the conversation surrounding banned books, from freedom of speech to parental rights. We examine what subjects tend to be challenged, from historical to current cases. We also read excerpts from two frequently banned books, The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Maus II, to help frame our discussion. Students are encouraged to interpret the banned books theme broadly and research in areas that interest them which might include censorship, education, marketing, politics, or social media.
Sam Granoff | Inquiry into Food and Culture
TR | 11:20-12:35
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.
Emily Harrison | Inquiry into Food
MWF | 9:10-10:00 & 1:50-2:40
Our ENGL 102 course this semester will be focused around the theme, Inquiry into Food. We have all heard the phrase, “you are what you eat,” but do we realize what this phrase suggests about our health, our identities, and our culture? In this writing and research-intensive course, we will investigate the various and complex relationships that we have with that most essential but often unexamined part of our lives: food. In addition to our personal relationships with food, we will also explore the ways our food choices have larger social, political, and environmental significance. In this course, students will develop skills in academic research, writing, and communication through the versatile topic of food. Students will be encouraged to pursue research projects that foster their individual interests while also allowing for useful and engaging peer and instructor collaboration within this general course theme.
Izzy Herring | Inquiry into Myths and Monsters
TR | 12:55-2:10
Inquiry into Myths and Monsters examines classic and contemporary representations of monsters in literature, archival materials, and popular TV programs. We will use this topic to develop research and writing skills. This course will feature three kinds of research: secondary source, archival, and qualitative. Secondary source research will be present throughout the two major projects in this course. In the archival project, we will explore the historical significance of iconic literary monsters like Stoker’s Dracula and Shelley’s Frankenstein. Finally, we will conduct qualitative research by interviewing participants in order to investigate their beliefs about monsters and their experiences with the enduring cultural implications of monsters.
Max Hunt | Inquiry into Memoir
Online Asynchronous
In Inquiry into Memoir, students will creatively apply concepts of inquiry and research primarily through the reading and writing of memoir. Students will be encouraged to connect their own histories, identities, and worldviews to larger historical, social, and cultural contexts. This research-forward process focuses on providing students with hands-on secondary, archival, and qualitative research experience, with the secondary goal of providing a space for students to take creative risks and deepen their understandings of themselves.
Nurul Islam | Inquiry into Food
TR | 12:55-2:10
This section of English 102 will explore issues related to food, a topic which has always received attention due to reasons such as obesity, global hunger, food culture, and genetically-modified foods. We will use this topic to develop research and writing skills. To accomplish this goal, we will conduct three kinds of research: secondary source, archival, and qualitative. In the secondary source project, we will conduct academic research to examine current debates about food.
Emily Jalloul | Inquiry into True Crime and Memoir
TR | 8:10-9:25 & 9:45-11:00
In this course, we will investigate memoir through the vehicle of true crime. We’ll read memoir and write micro-memoirs of our lives, supported by research and revision.
Chiagoziem Jideofor | Inquiry into Food
TR | 9:45-11:00
This section of English 102 will explore issues related to food, a topic which has always received attention due to increasing concerns over obesity, health and nutritional inequalities, global hunger, food diversity, culinary transition, sustainable food-related practices, and genetically modified foods. We will use this topic to develop research and writing skills. To accomplish this goal, we will conduct three kinds of research: secondary source, archival, and qualitative. In the secondary source project, we will conduct academic research to examine current debates about food. For instance, we can explore genetically modified foods along with assessing their global importance and status. In the archival project, we will explore the historical significance of food, focusing on specific topics like the emergence of fast-food chain restaurants in the US, and the need for more diverse food options (think halal, ethically sourced ingredients, intercontinental cuisines). Finally, we will conduct qualitative research by interviewing specific populations to investigate their experiences with and/or beliefs about a food-related topic. A possible example would be to interview several employees of a popular fast-food about their experiences serving and preparing fast food. After the data are collected, we will work on finding underlying patterns among the responses to see what the respondents (do not) have in common. The point of this course is to develop your academic research, writing, and communication skills. We’ll learn about our course topic through each other’s research and writing. You’ll be able to investigate the topic from any academic perspective that interests you (hopefully your major). You’ll learn how to conduct archival, qualitative, and secondary source research and will present what you’ve learned to academic audiences in traditional discipline-appropriate papers and a poster presentation.
Eli Kibler | Inquiry into Pop Culture and Fandoms
MWF | 11:30-12:20 & 1:50-2:40
This course will explore the intersection between pop culture and the fandoms which keep popular subcultures alive and involved. Students are encouraged to pull from a wide array of media and cultural production, including films, shows, music, anime, novels, comics, and fashion, in order both analyze and form arguments related to the history, evolution, and perception of specific artistic output.
Henry Kirby | Inquiry into Humor in American Culture
TR | 9:45-11:00 & 2:30-3:45
The question of why we laugh is as old as humanity. Aristotle famously wrote that human beings are “the only living thing that laughs.” Centuries later, American physicist Richard Feynman said that “the highest form of understanding we can achieve are laughter and human compassion.” Why have thinkers, philosophers, poets, and physicists all defined laughter as essential to humanity? 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 humor, and to investigate it as a philosophical, psychological, and humanistic phenomenon. We will look at examples from literature, media, and politics to examine the various meanings and effects of laughter for both the empowered and disenfranchised. These discussions will complement students’ investigations into how people used humor in the past and how it continues to shape their everyday lives.
Elizaveta Komkova | Inquiry into Happiness and Meaningful Life
TR | 12:55-2:10
Inquiry into Happiness and Meaningful Life investigates the concepts of happiness, fulfillment, and the search for meaning through historical, philosophical, social, cultural, and other lenses. This section of English 102/132 engages students in critical reading, writing, and discussion, encouraging them to explore diverse perspectives on what constitutes a meaningful life. Students will develop research and writing skills through secondary, archival, and qualitative research projects, utilizing drafting, peer review, and revision strategies to enhance their work. By analyzing multimodal texts across various genres and cultures, students will strengthen their skills in argumentation, rhetorical analysis, and academic research. Additionally, the course emphasizes personal reflection, prompting students to connect course themes to their own experiences and aspirations.
Jamie Kramer | Inquiry into True Crime
TR | 8:10-9:25
While “True Crime” is a more recent genre of storytelling, the public has always been fascinated with the tragic stories of victims and their families whose lives have been forever changed, the investigative methods that help to capture killers, and the judicial systems that punish those found guilty. In the last 20-25 years, the fallibility of forensics and the legal and judicial systems not only in America–but also internationally–has also gained greater public interest. In this class, crime-related research topics will help us to consider historical contexts, societal attitudes and beliefs, and how crime can shape the world around us and our perception of others. Additionally, we explore the positives and setbacks of forensic science, criminal investigation, and our legal and judicial system. We will consider these topics in the context of our three major assignments over the course of the semester.
Anne Langendorfer | Inquiry into TBA
TR | 11:20-12:35 & 2:30-3:45
Elliot Lay | Inquiry into Pop Culture
TR | 11:20-12:35
Inquiry into pop culture will provide students with an opportunity to reflect on how digital discourses and fan culture fill diverse discursive roles. Through various modes of research, including secondary source, primary source, and qualitative, students will discover the ways in which pop culture functions in contemporary society. By filtering academic research questions through familiar mode, students will come to a greater understanding of the significance of academic study in the day-to-day, and will thus begin to view other aspects of their lives through an academic lens.
Kristen LeFevers | Inquiry into Social Class
TR | 11:20-12:35 & 12:55-2:10
In this section of English 102, you’ll examine readings, film and video clips, and other digital media related to social class, a topic that yields itself to rich discussions on historical and current social issues. We’re going to use this theme to develop research, writing, and critical thinking skills. Along with regular journal prompts and shorter, social media-esque comment threads, you’ll complete two major research projects: qualitative and archival, with secondary source research methods woven into both. Issues and concepts we get to explore this semester include upward mobility, working-class narratives, poverty, wealth inequality, food and housing insecurity, first-generation student narratives, “bootstraps” rhetoric, intersections of social class and language, and intersections of social class and marginalized identities. Because our theme is broad, I hope you’ll think outside the box and consider how this course theme will connect uniquely with your own majors, interests, and/or lived experience!
Jacob Lietz | Inquiry into Food
MWF | 11:30-12:20 & 3:00-3:50
In this course, we’ll be analyzing our personal and cultural relationship with food.
Bre Lillie | Inquiry into Memoir
Online Asynchronous
Memoir is where memory, research, and storytelling meet, creating a rich space to explore personal and cultural narratives. In this section of English 102, we’ll focus on writing driven by memory and experience. You’ll examine memoirs—primarily nonfiction, with a few fictional examples—that reveal how emotional truth and factual accuracy often intersect. Our exploration will emphasize how history, place, and identity shape both stories and storytelling.
This course is designed to enhance your academic research, analysis, and communication skills. You’ll gather information through family archives, interviews, and traditional research methods. Along the way, you’ll practice key elements of the writing process—prewriting, reflection, and revision—while developing your ability to see writing as an ongoing process.
You’ll also present your findings in a variety of academic genres, such as archival research papers, qualitative research papers, annotated bibliographies, and secondary source papers. These assignments will help you strengthen your research and communication skills while deepening your understanding of how personal and cultural narratives intersect.
Iris Loehr | Inquiry into Myths and Monsters: The American Gothic
MWF | 12:40-1:30
Inquiry into Myths and Monsters: The American Gothic introduces students to academic, archival, and qualitative research skills by exploring how American anxieties have manifested in objects and creatures of horror. We will examine how a national Gothic reflects a nation’s history, and question what Gothic narratives can teach us about the American people throughout time. From the New England mythos of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s House of the Seven Gables to the monster of the Chicago projects in Bernard Rose’s Candyman, the American Gothic offers us unique lessons about the country we live in, and this course is designed to help students learn crucial research skills while interrogating this genre.
Kyle Macy | Inquiry into Pop Culture: Cults, Conspiracy, and Crime
TR | 2:30-3:45 & 4:05-5:20
“It’s a cult!”— You’ve undoubtedly heard this acidic accusation levied about in American society in contexts as varied as the political sphere, social media health & fitness influencers, and Taylor Swift fandoms. But what exactly is at play when one portion of culture points at another to condemn it as so radical or fanatical it amounts to a coercive, predatory, “brainwashing” group? Capital “C” Cults are driven by conspiratorial narratives and propelled toward violent criminal outcomes, yet we also speak of “cult followings” or “cult classics” in music and film to reflect a certain ardent appreciation. True Crime, too, has its own “culty” vibe, the sense that one must be a little transgressive or deviant or “weird” to find aesthetic or intellectual intrigue in such sordid subjects.
In this course, we will study the relationships between these sensational terms, what you might call “The Three C’s of Intellectual Profanity,” topics that, for all our world-weariness, we cannot help but feel drawn toward despite their repellent cultural cache. We will research and evaluate the cultic and conspiratorial from a critical perspective, seeking to understand how this unsavory section of your neighborhood bookstore can descend into the most totalizing romantic rebellions against modernity.
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 discuss the origins of the heroic concept as well as modern characterizations in popular culture, and we shall consider how ideas about heroes 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 various essay assignments.
Julia P. McLeod | Inquiry into Food and Culture
TR | 9:45-11:00 & 4:05-5:20
If we are what we eat, then what do the choices we make on a daily basis say about us? This writing and research course is an investigation of the complex relationship that humans have with food. We’ll look at what, when, with whom, and how we eat and what these choices reveal about ourselves and our culture. You’ll formulate your own research questions about the collective and individual effects of food on culture, which you’ll then investigate through qualitative, archival, and secondary source research.
English 102 provides students with intensive writing instruction focused on inquiry and research. It does so by emphasizing 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.
Beth Meredith | Inquiry into Inquiry into Business Ethics (Venture LLC)
TR | 11:20-12:35, 2:30-3:45, & 4:05-5:20
This section will focus on an inquiry into business ethics: what is business ethics, what are current and past issues involving business ethics, how has business ethics changed, and how do other people feel and/or what do they think about business ethics?
Emily Moeck | Inquiry into Horror Cinema
TR | 9:45-11:00 & 11:20-12:35
The main function of horror cinema, one of the most popular and enduring global genres in the history of film, is to unsettle and shock its audience through eliciting emotions of fear and disgust. Because of this, the historical contextualization of horror cinema becomes a study of the social and cultural anxieties and fears governing each generation from which these cinematic works emerged. This course will study early cinema’s Nosferatu (Murnau 1922) and Robert Eggers’ recent adaptation (2024) through the lens of Linda Hutcheon’s definition of adaptation as both ‘product and process’ as a way to expand our understanding of film as a space where cultural anxieties around identity, sexuality, religion, technology, the environment, and other social tensions are constantly being renegotiated.
Michael Moran | Inquiry into Pop Culture
TR | 8:10-9:25 & 12:55-2:10
Inquiry into pop culture examines the complex interactions between media/marketing, culture, and discourse in our society. We will use this topic to develop research and writing skills. The course will explore questions such as “How has reality TV fandom developed over time?” or “What role has marketing played in the spread of religion in the internet age?” This course will hone your writing skills through drafting, peer review, and revision, and familiarize you with typical academic standards/processes for research. By allowing students to choose from a broad base of cultural concerns, and filtering these debates through established academic genres, students should become more comfortable viewing their own media consumption and culture through an academic lens.
Harry Newburn | Inquiry into Environmentalism
MWF | 9:10-10:00, 10:20-11:10, & 1:50-2:40
In this English 102 course, we’ll be examining environmentalism, namely the socio-political discussion of environmental concerns. The importance and primacy of this topic within our cultural discourse does not need to be explained. Still, we will read articles located on Canvas to generate class discussion and to achieve a more rounded understanding of the topic and how people are discussing it in specific ways. This course will require you to take part in those conversations. You’ll develop research and writing skills by investigating environmental issues, past and present. You’ll formulate your own research questions about specific aspects of this broad theme–questions that you’ll then investigate through secondary source, archival, and qualitative research.
Patrick Nome | Inquiry into Memoir
MWF | 10:20-11:10 & 1:50-2:40
In this course, we will explore the genre of memoir and use your life experiences, interests, and passions to guide your research.
Ucheoma Onwutuebe | Inquiry into Memoir
MWF | 11:30-12:20
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.
Zuleyha Ozturk | Inquiry into Food
TR | 11:20-12:35
Our specific course theme for English 102 is Inquiry into Food. This semester we will identify, analyze, and examine the issue of food and our relationship to settings regarding food. Our course material will include a wide variety of scholarly and creative examinations of food. Specifically, we will inquire into social, historical, and personal accounts of food and the food service industry. We will be engaging with a wide variety of texts and resources including Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential, the widely watched Hulu original The Bear, Eating in Theory by Annemarie Mol and more. Food, consumption, and labor around food is a part of the universal human experience and we will attempt to bite into the complexities of this experience. We will use Inquiry into Food as a guiding compass to develop our research and writing skills. This course will feature three kinds of research: secondary source, archival, and qualitative.
David Peavie | Inquiry into Horror Cinema and Popular Culture
MWF | 12:40-1:30 & 4:10-5:00
Inquiry into Horror Cinema and Popular Culture examines the debate around and topic of horror film, which has received increasing attention because of how the genre changes over time. We will use this topic to develop research and writing skills. The course will explore topics such as discussing what makes horror more than just cheap scares or vulgarity and examine questions such as just how can horror films reveal the histories of our (and other) culture’s social anxieties and fears. By looking at trends in horror films alongside current social events, we will look at what exactly contributes to the creative choices in the genre. The course features secondary, archival, and qualitative research projects. Additionally, you will use skills such as drafting, peer review, and revision to hone your work over the course of the semester.
Clayton Powers | Inquiry into Myths and Popular Culture
Online Asynchronous
This section of English 102 will explore the role of myth in culture, particularly how the transmission of knowledge and values across generations often occurs through storytelling. Our collective histories as nations, as people groups, and as individuals are made up of frameworks which help us to make sense of spiritual and natural realities. Certain repeating themes—such as the “Hero’s Journey” or “Monomyth” commonly seen in Hollywood blockbusters and popular book series—unite times and places by speaking in universal terms to what it means to be human. These stories and themes constitute myth, a vehicle by which truth is told through fiction. In this course, students will learn to write and research through an examination of traditional and popular myths such as the fairy story, the folk legend, and its modern counterpart, the superhero tale.
Torre Puckett | Inquiry into Myths and Monsters
TR | 11:20-12:35 & 4:05-5:20
Monster theorist Jeffrey Jerome Cohen famously wrote that “the monster’s body is a cultural body.” “Inquiry into Myths and Monsters” invites you to use monsters as a lens to examine a variety of cultural tensions about knowledge, fear, and difference. How do we write academically on the obscene and terrifying—even the nonexistent? How do we productively question the elusive and the overwhelming? How do we distinguish what is real and what is hearsay or hoax? With this topic as your guide, you will develop your skills in research and writing through secondary, archival, and qualitative research projects. Along the way, you will deepen your skills in areas such as drafting, peer review, revision, and self-reflection. Here there be monsters—and they have a lot to teach us.
Gabriel Reed | Inquiry into Memoir
TR | 9:45-11:00 & 11:20-12:35
Advancing concepts introduced in English 101, English 102 provides students with intensive writing instruction focused on inquiry and research. It does so by emphasizing 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.
Our course theme is “Inquiry into Memoir.” Our theme will serve as a springboard to guide discussion, research, and process throughout the semester
Madina Sanatbekova | Inquiry into Food
TR | 8:10-9:25 & 11:20-12:35
This English 102 section focuses on food and presents an opportunity for developing academic research and writing skills. Throughout the course, students examine the notion of food from cultural, historical, and personal perspectives while applying these to secondary, archival, and qualitative research techniques.
This course, building upon concepts from English 101, facilitates and further enables students to engage with different texts and techniques so they can explore the topic of food from any disciplinary framework and subsequently equip themselves with the skills necessary for effective communication within their future writing practices and careers.
Joe Seale | Inquiry into Humor
TR | 9:45-11:00, 11:20-12:35, & 4:05-5:20
Inquiry into Humor will allow students to investigate humor across its many forms, modes, and genres. We will discuss humor’s common messages and tropes amid its increasingly broad array of target audiences, outlets, and platforms. Because it is constantly evolving, culturally specific, and inherently interactive, humor provides exciting opportunities to critique social and political institutions and current events, while deepening our understanding of ourselves and those around us. Particular attention will be paid to defining and differentiating key terms like humor, comedy, and amusement. We will also explore prominent humor theories and comedy’s therapeutic qualities with subjects like mental health, cultural differences, grief, and even trauma. This course will use the topic of humor to develop academic research and writing skills as students engage in secondary, qualitative, and archival research in search of definitive answers to inherently subjective questions.
James Shepard | Inquiry into Pop Culture: Social Media
MWF | 11:30-12:20 & 1:50-2:40
Inquiry into social media will provide students with an opportunity to reflect on how digital discourses that they use almost every day fill diverse discursive roles. Through various modes of research, including secondary source, primary source, and qualitative, students will discover the ways in which social media functions in contemporary society. By filtering academic research questions through familiar mode, students will come to a greater understanding of the significance of academic study in the day-to-day, and will thus begin to view other aspects of their lives through an academic lens.
Tyler Smith | Inquiry into Games, Design, and Narratives
TR | 11:20-12:35 & 4:05-5:20
Games are more than just entertainment—they tell stories, make arguments, and shape how we engage with the world. In this course, we’ll examine games as texts, analyzing how their mechanics, themes, and player interactions function rhetorically. How does Monopoly reinforce capitalism? How does Risk model historical power struggles? What can game evolution reveal about cultural or technological change? One major project involves creating a virtual museum exhibit—tracing the history of a game, mechanic, or theme using primary and secondary sources to build a rigorous narrative. We’ll also conduct qualitative research by participating in gaming communities and playtesting our own developing games. Using peer feedback, we’ll revise and refine our designs to better situate them within broader play cultures. By course’s end, we’ll sharpen our research, rhetorical analysis, and composition skills—all through the lens of game design. Whether analyzing games or crafting our own, we’ll explore play as a powerful form of storytelling and persuasion.
Rob Spirko | Inquiry into Disability
MWF | 10:20-11:10, 1:50-2:40, & 3:00-3:50
The way our human world is built relies on certain assumptions about what is “normal” and what is not. The function of scholarly inquiry is to question those common-sense assumptions: What does it mean to be abled or disabled? Where do those definitions come from? Who makes them? When do you shift from one category to another? How do our assumptions make it hard for us to understand what’s really going on? How we design a world to include the widest range of human bodies? Fundamentally, what does it mean to be human and have a body?
Once you know what you’re looking for, you’ll see how it affects many fields of study: art, literature, education, engineering, design, business, philosophy, religion, history and more. There’s ample room within this theme for you to explore topics of interest to you in terms of your major, interests, or other commitments.
Andrew Todd | Inquiry into Fan Culture
MWF | 10:20-11:10, 12:40-1:30, & 1:50-2:40
We all have our favorite shows, music, celebrities, teams, and hobbies, but being a “fan” takes it to another level. Fandoms create communities, establish shared sets of values, and give a sense of belonging; they also breed tribalism, gatekeeping, and toxic behaviors. They can be healthy escapism, and they can be unhealthy avoidance. An entire city might shape its identity around a team, and yet, that same city might burn in riots when the team loses (or even when they win) a championship. This section of 102 will use this multifaceted aspect of fan culture as the basis of our research. You’ll be able to use the fandoms you love, the fandoms you hate, and the fandoms you find strange or curious to launch into researching big topics like how we form communities and relationships, how personal interests turn into a battlefield for deeper issues, how fan culture creates opportunities for new expressions of creativity, or how big corporations stoke our interests and passions to get our money and keep us on the hook. Our projects will look at the topic historically and contemporaneously, and over the semester, hopefully leave us with an idea of how niche interests are relevant—and important—parts of the big ideas of academic research.
April Trapgnier | Inquiry into Awe and Wonder
MWF | 8:00-8:50
This section of English 102 will explore awe and wonder as an interdisciplinary topic that encourages functions such as problem solving, invention, curiosity, beauty, innovation, resilience, and creativity. You’ll be able to investigate the topic from several academic perspectives that interest you through projects that develop research and writing skills through archival, qualitative, and secondary source research.
Sam Turner | Inquiry into the Titanic and Its Legacy
MWF | 11:30-12:20, 3:00-3:50, & 4:10-5:00
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. Students will study primary sources in the form of press coverage of the disaster. They will also 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.
Valerie Voight | Inquiry into Pop Culture
TR | 11:20-12:35 & 2:30-3:45
Inquiry into Pop Culture examines the intersection of pop culture and the idea of the Renaissance, from the musical & Juliet to Chappell Roan’s Joan-of-Arc-inspired VMA performance and the cover art of Beyoncé’s Renaissance album. We will use this topic to develop research and writing skills. The course will explore questions such as what it means to initiate a cultural renaissance, how reinventions and reinterpretations contribute to our understanding of history, and the concept of compositional and artistic remix. The course features secondary, archival, and qualitative research projects. You will use skills such as drafting, peer review, and revision to improve your work over the course of the semester.
Abby Wargo | Inquiry into Social Media
TR | 12:55-2:10 & 4:05-5:20
Inquiry into social media will provide students with an opportunity to reflect on how digital discourses that they use almost every day fill diverse discursive roles. Through various modes of research, including secondary source, primary source, and qualitative, students will discover the ways in which social media functions in contemporary society. By filtering academic research questions through a familiar mode, students will come to a greater understanding of the significance of academic study in the day-to-day, and will thus begin to view other aspects of their lives through an academic lens.
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.
Hayley Wilson | Inquiry into Myths and Monsters
TR | 12:55-2:10 & 2:30-3:45
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 course’s theme is Myths and Monsters. We will be using this theme to explore research techniques and styles and conduct our own inquiries in these modes.
Jessica Wright | Inquiry into Legends and Monsters
MWF | 9:10-10:00 & 11:30-12:20
Inquiry into Legends and Monsters examines how cultures imagine heroes and monsters, from medieval stories of knights and dragons to modern films, literature, and urban legends. We will explore how these tales reflect cultural fears, shape values, and influence ideas of heroism. Over the semester, you will strengthen your research and writing skills through secondary, qualitative, and archival research, while developing your own project on a legend or monster that interests you.
Kate Wright | Inquiry into Memoir
MWF | 10:20-11:10 & 11:30-12:20
Inquiry into Memoir will provide students with the opportunity to develop and practice skills in various modes of research while investigating an unlikely subject—themselves! This course aims to help students gain a deeper understanding of the things (places, people, experiences, etc.) that shape who they are and how they interact with and understand the world. While exploring their past, students will build necessary research skills by completing primary source, secondary source, and qualitative research projects. Encouraging students to engage in research-driven self-reflection will lead students to a better understanding of themselves as well as a practical understanding of how to apply research techniques to a wide variety of subjects.
Sarah Yancey | Inquiry into Myths and Monsters
MWF | 12:40-1:30 & 1:50-2:40
Inquiry into Myths and Monsters examines various cultural, social, and historical presentations of the monstrous. Throughout the semester, we will investigate notable examples of monsters throughout history, from Beowulf’s notorious Grendel to Appalachia’s own Mothman and Bigfoot. We will start with Qualitative research, engaging with current scholarship and interviewing participants to explore their experiences, beliefs, and/or feelings addressing each student’s chosen topic. We’ll conclude the semester with Archival research, investigating historical representations of the monstrous and considering what they represent about the cultures and time periods in which they were created. For this project, students will create a digital museum exhibit, curating artifact collections and constructing an informed argument to answer a research question of their choice.