Julie A. Minich

E 316M  l  American Literature

Instructor:  Minich, J

Unique #:  35285-35330

Semester:  Spring 2022

Cross-lists:  n/a

Prerequisites:  One of the following: E 303C (or 603A), RHE 306, 306Q, or T C 303C (or 603A).

Description:  American Dreams and Nightmares –

Rather than treating the course title – American Literature – as something taken for granted, something we’ve all agreed upon in advance, this course begins from the premise that both “American” and “literature” are contested terms, ideas up for debate.  “America” has never been a fixed entity; rather, questions about which territories and peoples are properly “American” have been disputed from the very beginning. Similarly, the concept of “literature” – and which texts count as literature – is also a matter of lively discussion.  Throughout the semester, then, we will repeatedly ask:  What is American? and What is literature?  To ponder these questions from a variety of perspectives, we will engage with the theme of American Dreams & Nightmares.  Although we are sometimes told that there is one American Dream that draws people to the United States, the truth is that people have many dreams of and about this nation … and one person’s American dream may constitute another’s American nightmare.

Our explorations will take place across the following units:  1) Before America (texts may include the chronicles of Christopher Columbus and Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá, as well as indigenous creation stories); 2) Becoming America (authors may include Benjamin Franklin, Phillis Wheatley, Mary Jemison, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Ida B. Wells, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Bonnin, and José Martí); 3) Unbecoming America (authors may include Américo Paredes, Flannery O’Connor, Willa Cather, James Baldwin, and Sandra Cisneros) 4) After America (authors may include Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, Danez Smith, and Jericho Brown).

Requirements & Grading:  Reading Quizzes (30%); Short Critical Reflections (40%); Participation in discussion section (20%); Creative Project (10%).

This course will explore Latinx literature from the past two decades, with a simultaneous emphasis

on both the aesthetic and political engagements of Latinx writers. In other words, we will read

contemporary Latinx literature for both its content and for its form. We will also investigate how the

methods of literary study (close reading, formal analysis, political critique) can be useful for further

work in the interdisciplinary field of Latinx Studies. Our readings will reflect a broad range of Latinx

identities/experiences as well as multiple literary genres (poetry, essays, novels, short stories,

memoir, literary journalism).

Queer-Of-Color Critique

The term queer-of-color critique, used to name a body of theory that addresses the intersections between race and sex/uality, first appeared in Roderick Ferguson’s 2003 landmark study Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique. However, the antecedents of queer-of-color critique in Black and U.S. Third World Feminisms predate Ferguson’s book by several decades, and its impact can be seen in fields like disability studies (where, for instance, Jina B. Kim has proposed a crip-of-color critique). This course will trace the emergence and influence of queer-of-color critique in the work of theorists like Audre Lorde, Chela Sandoval, Cathy Cohen, Roderick Ferguson, José Esteban Muñoz, Juana María Rodríguez, Kandice Chuh, Jasbir Puar, and Jina B. Kim (among others).

This course examines the intersection between Latinx feminism and health justice activism. The course begins with an overview of Latinx feminisms, emphasizing how questions of wellbeing, care and healing have been central to the development of Latinx feminist theory and activism, and continues with an analysis of Latinx expressive culture (film, music, visual art and literature) that contain feminist engagements with the idea of health. Topics addressed throughout the semester are likely to include many of the following: mental health, diabetes, sexuality, intimate partner violence, body love and fat activism, reproductive justice, environmental justice, safety at work, and transgender health.

E 343U  l  Literature, Health, and Disease-WB

Instructor:  Minich, J

Unique #:  36145

Semester:  Spring 2021

Cross-lists:  none

Prerequisites:  Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description:  In this seminar, we will read contemporary texts in multiple genres (novels, memoirs, literary journalism, short stories, essays, poems, films) by multiethnic writers concerned with the idea of health. Questions we will explore together include the following:  What does contemporary literature about health and well-being teach us about our broader society? Can literature be an effective tool for combatting health inequities? Can literature help us understand or change health policy?  In addition to exploring the topic at hand, our work together will also be guided by the following two goals:  1) interrogating the presumed division between literature and the society that produces it (or, more precisely, addressing why literature matters in the so-called “real world”), and 2) developing persuasive writing skills.

Texts may include the following:  Eula Biss, On Immunity; Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, The Undocumented Americans; Esmé Weijun Wang, The Collected Schizophrenias; Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones; ire’ne lara silva, Blood Sugar Canto.

Requirements & Grading:  Periodic Self Evaluations: 5%; Short Papers (2 @ 15% each): 30%; Participation: 30%; Preparation for Final Paper (proposal, rough draft, peer review, etc.): 20%; Final Paper: 15%

The guiding principle of this course is that Latinx literary studies is necessarily interdisciplinary scholarship. The course will benefit students of Latinx cultural studies who are interested in incorporating literature into their work as well as students of literature interested in incorporating interdisciplinary ethnic studies methods into their work. Readings each week will pair a Latinx literary text with scholarship from a range of disciplinary perspectives as we interrogate how Latinx literary studies engages with history, sociology, anthropology, performance studies, etc. and with social justice questions (immigration, health, feminism, sexuality, etc) that exceed the confines of singular academic disciplines.

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

In 2006, the massive nation-wide May Day protests and marches, were not only emblematic of immigrantworker resistance, but a turning point in evolving Latina/o/x pan-ethnoracial identities. Through the rallying cry of “Day Without an Immigrant,” across cities from Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago to Atlanta, diverse peoples of the United States became exposed to the fundamental ways Latin@/x populations are embedded within the very fabric of the nation through their endless labor, contributions, innovations, and community-building. In this introductory course, students study the field of Mexican American and Latina/o/x Studies as an interdisciplinary and intersectional arena of academic inquiry, which centers on challenging and dismantling the inherent inequalities and multiple oppressions foundational to the making of the United States through the eyes of the Mexican American, Chican@/x, Latin@/x experience. We survey the historical, political, socioeconomic, and cultural fabric, which shapes this heterogenous populace and examine the formation of Latin@/xs as an ethnoracial group(s) in the United States. We explore the multifaceted histories of colonialism in the Americas and U.S. imperialism through an investigation of transnational, transborder contexts of corporate, military, and political interventions that have (re)defined national boundaries and human migrations in the Americas. Last, students use an intersectional approach to unravel how race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, language, migration, indigeneity, and citizenship are integral to the multiplicity identities forming Latinidad.

Examines the historic rise of neoliberal reform and narco culture as a tie to the North American Free Trade Agreement
brokered between the United States, Canada, and Mexico in 1994.

This course is designed to enable graduate students with a wide range of scholarly interests to gain expertise in the major theoretical debates within the interdisciplinary field of disability studies. As an emergent field, disability studies has both drawn from and often critiqued the theoretical models employed in more established interdisciplinary fields like feminist studies, critical race theory, and queer theory. As a result, students will benefit from some background in one or more of these areas, but no prior knowledge of disability studies is required. We will begin by reading the work of scholars who initially brought disability studies into the scholarly mainstream (Tobin Siebers, Rosemarie Garland-Thompson, Michael Bérubé, David Mitchell & Sharon Snyder, Lennard Davis) before exploring more recent work that explores the connections and ruptures between disability theory and queer theory/critical race theory (Mel Chen, Ellen Samuels, Cynthia Wu, Robert McRuer, Alison Kafer, Jasbir Puar, Nirmala Erevelles). Students interested in pursuing a dissertation project that may include a disability studies component are strongly encouraged to take this class, regardless of professed field or period specialization.

“Advanced Topics in Latina Feminisms” will expose students to key theories, praxis, and research skills related to the field of Latina Feminist studies. Methodological approaches may include but are not limited to Ethnography, Oral History, Archival Research, Historiography, Folklore, Cultural Studies, Disability Studies, Environmental Justice, and Theory, among others. Students will leave the course with ability to produce an advanced research project that demonstrates advanced comprehension of Latina Feminist Theories from a multi-disciplinary perspective.

Instructor:  Minich, J

Unique #:  35500

Semester:  Spring 2017

Cross-lists:  LAH 350

Restrictions:  English Honors, Liberal Arts Honors

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisites:  Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description:  In this seminar, we will read contemporary texts in multiple genres (novels, memoirs, literary journalism, short stories, essays, poems, films) by multiethnic writers concerned with the idea of health.  Questions we will explore together include the following:  What does contemporary literature about health and well-being teach us about our broader society? Can literature be an effective tool for combatting health inequities? Can literature help us understand or change health policy?  In addition to exploring the topic at hand, our work together will also be guided by the following two goals:  1) interrogating the presumed division between literature and the society that produces it (or, more precisely, addressing why literature matters in the so-called “real world”), and 2) acquiring literary research skills: identifying research questions, selecting primary and secondary sources, and making and defending original arguments.

Texts may include the following:  Monica Sone, Nisei Daughter; Junot Díaz, This Is How You Lose Her (selections); Sherman Alexie, selected short stories; Damon Tweedy, Black Man in a White Coat; Rafael Campo, The Desire to Heal (selections) and selected poems; Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks; Eula Biss, On Immunity.

Requirements & Grading:  Short Papers (2 @ 15% each): 30%; Presentation: 15%; Attendance and Participation: 10%; Preparation for Final Research Paper (proposal, annotated bibliography, outline, etc.): 20%; Final Research Paper: 25%.

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

E 376M  l  Deviant Bodies: Disability, Race, Sexuality

Instructor:  Minich, J

Unique #:  35535

Semester:  Fall 2016

Cross-lists:  MAS 374, WGS 335

Restrictions:  n/a

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisite:  Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description:  This course will examine the intersection of disability with race and sexuality in contemporary literature by U.S. writers of color (Latina/o, Asian American, African American, and Native American).  We will define disability broadly, to include topics related to neurodiversity, illness, and other forms of embodiment (like obesity) that exist outside the social norms that define people as capable, beautiful, healthy, or fit.  We will investigate how and why writers of color in the contemporary United States have so often engaged with themes of disability and sexuality as they examine the terms of social and political inclusion in the contemporary United States.  The overarching question that will guide our discussions throughout the semester is as follows: If the body politic of the United States was originally predicated on a white, upper-class, male, able-bodied, heterosexual norm, how does the representation of more diverse bodies in recent U.S. literature transform our understanding of political belonging?

Possible Readings:  Edwidge Danticat, Breath, Eyes, Memory; Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower; Audre Lorde, selected essays; Aurora Levins Morales, selected poems.

Requirements & Grading:  Short Essays (3 essays, 15% each), 45%; Final Paper (rewrite and expansion of one of the three short essays), 25%; Participation, 15%; In-class writing and reading quizzes, 15%.

Restricted to women's and gender studies majors and minors, priority to WGS majors.
Feminist theory with selections from women's and gender studies scholars. Recommended feminist theory course for women's and gender studies majors.

FLAGS:   CD  |  Wr

E 376M  l  Deviant Bodies: Disability, Race, Sexuality

Instructor:  Minich, J

Unique #:  34640

Semester:  Fall 2015

Cross-lists:  MAS 374, WGS 335

Flags:  Cultural Diversity in the U.S.; Writing

Restrictions:  n/a

Computer Instruction:  No

Prerequisite: Nine semester hours of coursework in English or rhetoric and writing.

Description: This course will examine the intersection of disability with race and sexuality in contemporary literature by U.S. writers of color (Latina/o, Asian American, African American, and Native American). We will define disability broadly, to include neurodivergence and psychiatric impairments, illness, and other forms of embodiment (like obesity) that exist outside the social norms that define people as capable, beautiful, healthy, or fit. We will investigate how and why writers of color in the contemporary United States have so often engaged with themes of disability and sexuality as they examine the terms of social and political inclusion in the contemporary United States. The overarching question that will guide our discussions throughout the semester is as follows: If the body politic of the United States was originally predicated on a white, upper-class, male, able-bodied, heterosexual norm, how does the representation of more diverse bodies in recent U.S. literature transform our understanding of political belonging?

Possible Readings: Toni Morrison, Beloved; Edwidge Danticat, Breath, Eyes, Memory; Octavia Butler, Parable of the Sower, Héctor Tobar, The Tattooed Soldier; Salvador Plascencia, The People of Paper; Ana Castillo, Peel My Love Like an Onion; Monica Sone, Nisei Daughter; Sherman Alexie, selected short stories.

Requirements & Grading: Short Essays (3 essays, 15% each): 45%; Final Paper (rewrite and expansion of one of the three short essays): 25%; Participation: 15%; In-class writing and reading quizzes: 15%.

The Signature Course (UGS 302 and 303) introduces first-year students to the university’s academic community through the exploration of new interests. The Signature Course is your opportunity to engage in college-level thinking and learning.

Explores concepts of gender and sexuality, race, class, religion, and nation; as well as skills in theory, history, and research methods relevant to LGBTQ studies. The course will also survey the making of modern understandings of sexual and LGBTQ identities in the last one hundred years and the implications of this history for broader understandings of gender and sexuality.

Feminist theory with selections from women's and gender studies scholars.

The purpose of this course is to examine the various experiences, perspectives, and expressions of Chicanas in the United States. This involves examining the meaning and history of the term “Chicana” as it was applied to and incorporated by Mexican American women during the Chicano Movement in areas of the Southwest U.S., such as Texas and California. We will also explore what it means to be Chicana in the United States today. The course will begin with a historical overview of Mexican American women's experiences in the U.S., including the emergence of Chicana feminism. We will discuss central concepts of Chicana feminism and attempt to understand how those concepts link to everyday lived experiences. Specifically, the relationship between gender, race/ethnicity, and class will be key as we discuss issues that have been significant in the experiences and self-identification of Chicanas, such as: family, gender, sexuality, religion/spirituality, education, language, labor, and political engagement. We will engage in interdisciplinary analysis not only concerning cultural traditions, values, belief systems, and symbols but also concerning the expressive culture of Chicanas, including folk and religious practices, literature and poetry, the visual arts, and music. Finally, we will examine media representations of Chicanas through critical analyses of film and television portrayals.

Latina/o Bodies and the U.S. National Imaginary

Latina/o bodies are ubiquitous in contemporary U.S. public discourse, where their spectacular visibility is often touted as evidence of a “post-race” society. Closer analysis of these images, however, reveals how a range of national anxieties have come to coalesce around Latina/o bodies, from fears about the U.S. economy and cultural identity that attach to laboring (often undocumented) Latina/o immigrant bodies to concerns about the destabilization of race, gender, and sexual norms adhering to Latina/o entertainers and sports figures. This course will explore how the hypervisibility of Latina/o bodies has led not only to the targeting of those bodies for discursive and physical violence but also to the proliferation of resistant texts and images created by Latinas/os. Drawing from a wide range of genres (novels, memoirs, short stories, plays, poems, and film), this course is designed to help graduate students develop expertise in U.S. Latina/o cultural studies (emphasizing both established and emerging Latina/o writers and filmmakers), as well as familiarity with theories of embodiment currently emerging from feminist, queer, and disability studies.

Although the focus of the course is relatively specialized, the range of primary source texts will give students a solid (survey-like) grounding in Latina/o cultural studies, while the secondary source texts will enable students to explore scholarly interests in feminist, queer, and disability theory.

Evaluation will be based on the following: Preparation and participation (15%), in-class presentation (20%), final paper prospectus (15%), and final paper (50%).

Primary Source Texts May Include the Following:

Richard Rodriguez, Days of Obligation (1993, memoir)

Justin Torres, We the Animals (2012, novel)

Gun Hill Road (film, 2011)

Manuel Muñoz, What You See in the Dark (2012, novel)

Héctor Tobar, The Barbarian Nurseries (2012, novel)

Machete and/or Machete Kills (films, 2010 and 2013)

Pedro Pietri, “Puerto Rican Obituary” (1973) and selected poems

Junot Díaz, selected short stories from Drown (1996) and This Is How You Lose Her (2012)

Cherríe Moraga, Heroes and Saints (1994, play)

Luis Valdez, The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa (1963, play)

Sandra Cisneros, selected poems from Loose Woman (1995)

Achy Obejas, We came all the way from Cuba so you could dress like this? (short stories, 1994)

Peloteros (film, 2012)

Sugar (film, 2009)

Secondary Source Texts May Include Selections from the Following:

Alicia Schmidt Camacho, Migrant Imaginaries (2008)

Robert McRuer and Anna Mollow, eds., Sex and Disability (2012)

Michael Hames-García and Ernesto Martínez, eds., Gay Latino Studies: A Critical Reader (2011)

Judith Jack Halberstam, In a Queer Time and Place (2005)

Mel Y Chen, Animacies (2012)

Tobin Siebers, Disability Aesthetics (2010)

Judith Butler, Precarious Life (2006) and/or Undoing Gender (2004)

Juana María Rodríguez, Queer Latinidad (2003)

Restricted to women's and gender studies majors and minors, priority to WGS majors.
Feminist theory with selections from women's and gender studies scholars. Recommended feminist theory course for women's and gender studies majors.

The purpose of this course is to examine the various experiences, perspectives, and expressions of Chicanas in the United States. This involves examining the meaning and history of the term, "Chicana" as it was applied to and incorporated by Mexican American women during the Chicano Movement in areas of the Southwest U.S., such as Texas and California. We will also explore what it means to be Chicana in the United States today. The course will begin with a historical overview of Mexican American women's experiences in the U.S., including the emergence of Chicana feminism. We will discuss central concepts of Chicana feminism and attempt to understand how those concepts link to everyday lived experiences. Specifically, the relationship between gender, race/ethnicity, and class will be key as we discuss issues that have been significant in the experiences and self-identification of Chicanas, such as: family, gender, sexuality, religion/spirituality, education, language, labor, and political engagement. We will be engaging in interdisciplinary analysis not only concerning cultural traditions, values, belief systems, and symbols but also in relation to the expressive culture of Chicanas, including folk and religious practices, literature and poetry, the visual arts, and music. Finally, we will examine media representations of Chicanas through critical analyses of film and television portrayals.