3000-Level Course Descriptions
FALL 2025 | FALL WINTER 2025-26 | WINTER 2026
ENGL-3110-001 | Writing Creative Non-Fiction | J. Wills
Course Delivery: IN PERSON
ENGL-3160-001 | Topics in Young People's Texts and Cultures: Imagning Salem: The Salem Witch Trials in History and Narrative | C. Tosenberger
Course Delivery: IN PERSON
The Salem witch hunt occupies a key place in the American imagination. Despite the fact that the 1692 trials were small-scale, and far less lurid, than their European analogues, their imagery—particularly of the howling “afflicted” girls—has become central to Western ideas not just of the early modern witch hunts, but also of the dangers of intolerance, misogyny, religious fanaticism, and judicial malfeasance. In this course, we will examine both historical documentation and literary/media interpretations of the Salem trials, with a special focus on the young people at the centre of the trials as both accusers and accused.
In the first part of the course, we will closely examine the trial documents themselves, to hear the voices of the participants in their own words; through focusing on specific individuals—such as Tituba, Abigail Hobbs, Ann Putnam Jr., and Mercy Lewis—we will see how early New Englanders, and Puritans specifically, constructed and interpreted categories of gender, race, age, class, and ability. Particular attention will be paid to the Puritans’ white supremacist theology, and the impact of ongoing war against Indigenous peoples, on the trials. The second part of the course will study modern creative responses to the trials, in both literature and film, that centre young people; we will be especially concerned here with how Salem has been imagined and invoked as a cultural touchstone.
Readings are still being finalized, but will definitely include the following texts:
Baker, Emerson W. A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience
Dimaline, Cherie. VenCo
Godbeer, Richard. The Salem Witch Hunt: A Brief History with Documents
Hemphill, Stephanie. Wicked Girls
Jackson, Shirley. Hangsaman
ENGL-3520-001 | Contemporary Poetry | H. Milne
Course Delivery: IN PERSON
This course offers a broad survey of contemporary poetry from the 1950s to the present, covering a range of poetic movements, including Beat poetry, the New York School, Language poetry, the Black Arts movement, feminist poetry, dub poetry, conceptual poetry, ecopoetics, and queer poetics. We will divide our time between close readings of poems and broader analysis of the history, culture, aesthetics, politics, and controversies attached to different poetic movements. Readings will consist of poems as well as essays on poetry and poetic movements.
ENGL-3708-001 | Canadian Literature | C. Rifkind
Course Delivery: IN PERSON
ENGL-3709-001 | Topics in Canadian Literature | CAS
Course Delivery: IN PERSON
ENGL-3719-001 | Literature of Manitoba | C. Russell
Course Delivery: IN PERSON
In this course, we explore the literary culture of the Canadian Prairies through poetry, fiction, and drama by authors who live or have lived in Manitoba, and in which Manitoba is a main setting. History and geography of the province will provide a framework as we examine representations of the experience of Indigenous people before and after European contact; colonization by French and British fur traders and settlers; subsequent waves of new immigrants; and contemporary life in this province. Themes examined will include: establishing new communities in unfamiliar territory while recalling a cultural history from another place; different perceptions of nature and the land; small town life versus big city life; and the search for intellectual, social, and religious freedom amidst perceived parochialism. Particular topics will include representations of the North End of Winnipeg, the Winnipeg General Strike, the fur trade, and rural life in the province. We will include some exploration of texts that represent Manitoba for children and young people. Evaluation in the course likely will include three tests, a group presentation, a term project, and a final exam.
ENGL-3725-001 | Topics in Cultural Studies | A. Burke
Course Delivery: IN PERSON
ENGL-3980-001 | Topics in Comitcs and Graphic Narratives | C. Rifkind
Course Delivery: IN PERSON
FALL/WINTER 2025-26
ENGL-3101-770 | Creative Writing Comprehensive | L. Wong
Course Delivery: *ONLINE SYNCHRONOUS
*This creative writing workshop will be taught virtually on Zoom synchronously. Students are expected to arrive on-time, keep their mics muted when others are speaking, and use the raise hand function when they wish to ask a question and/or comment. I ask that the video be turned on when you are giving peer feedback during the workshop so that the author can see the person who is speaking.
Fiction is one of the few experiences where loneliness can be both confronted and relieved. Drugs, movies where stuff blows up, loud parties — all these chase away loneliness by making me forget my name’s Dave and I live in a one-by-one box of bone no other party can penetrate or know. Fiction, poetry, music, really deep serious sex, and, in various ways, religion — these are the places where loneliness is countenanced, stared down, transfigured, treated.”- David Foster Wallace
“You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.”-Anne Lamott
The reason that fiction is more interesting than any other form of literature, to those who really like to study people, is that in fiction the author can really tell the truth without humiliating himself. -Jim Rohn
An autobiography can distort; facts can be realigned. But fiction never lies: it reveals the writer totally. - V.S Naipaul
In this intensive workshop-based creative writing course, we will focus on crafting memoir, short fiction, and novel chapters written for young people (ages 13+). Student manuscripts will form the primary texts, in addition to some assigned reading and in-class exercises.
Questions that we will explore but are not limited to: What is “emotional truth” told when using only the facts? What are the best ways to understand quality in a text written for young adults? How do we construct powerful pieces of short fiction? Within a stylistical, literary, and ethical context, what should we be aspiring to, as practitioners of this genre, and how can we be successful in breaking into the writing industry?
Students will submit 1-2 pieces of creative work during the term (depending on workshop size) and are responsible for placing as much attention on critique as on their own craft. Learning to successfully execute these three prose genres will be the focus of the workshop, and we will learn to hone our creative processes to produce compelling, original works of writing. The fall semester will focus on creative nonfiction (memoir) and the winter semester will focus on fiction (adult and young adult writing.)
Attendance, thoughtful feedback on peers’ works, and lively discussion are expected. A final grade will be based on participation, including but are not limited to: one or two workshop submissions, peer feedback letters, and a literary genealogy reflection and/or deconstruction of the structure of a popular YA novel of your choosing, and/or a novel outline/synopsis.
Students are encouraged to think about submitting their work to literary journals such as the University of Winnipeg’s Juice: https://www.uwinnipeg.ca/english/juice-journal-submissions.html
As this is an intermediate 3000-level writing workshop, students should be fairly independent, committed, and motivated to improve their craft. Late workshop submissions without permission will receive a zero if they are submitted a week after the deadline. Similarly, if you are being workshopped and you are unable to attend, we may not be able to accommodate you because of scheduling. It is your responsibility to switch with another student if you know that you will be away that week.
Students are selected for this course based on the strength of their writing sample: 5 pages of fiction and 5 pages of creative nonfiction (double-spaced).
ENGL-3112-770 | Advanced Creative Writing | S. Pool
Course Delivery: ONLINE SYNCHRONOUS
ENGL-3151-001 | Critical Theory | A. Brickey
Course Delivery: IN PERSON
ENGL-3209-001 | 18th Century Studies | K. Sinanan
Course Delivery: IN PERSON
WINTER 2026
ENGL-3116-770 | Creative Writing Comprehensive | S. Pool
Course Delivery: ONLINE SYNCHRONOUS
ENGL-3725-002 | Topics in Cultural Studies | K. Sinanan
Course Delivery: IN PERSON
ENGL-3756-001 | Topics in Ancient Literature: Ancient Folklore | C. Tosenberger
Course Delivery: IN PERSON
In this course, we will study popular narratives and beliefs in the Greek and Roman world, through the lens of folklore studies. We will examine some well-known works of literature, some that originate in oral culture, and others written as plays or novels; we will also look at how widespread folk beliefs about sex, death, and magic affected literature, art, politics, religion, and everyday life. We will pay special attention to narratives of magic, and the role they play in the development of the European fairy tale tradition. Of particular interest will be stories and folk beliefs concerning concepts of the Other—in terms of gender, sexuality, social class, national origin, or religious practice—and their impact on Greco-Roman culture.
Texts are still being finalized for this course, but will definitely include the following:
Hansen, William. The Book of Greek and Roman Folktales, Legends, and Myths
Ingemark, Camilla Asplund, and Dominic Ingemark. Representations of Fear: Verbalising Emotion in Ancient Roman Folk Narrative
ENGL-3812-001 | History of English Literature | Z. Izydorczyk
Course Delivery: IN PERSON
ENGL-3920-770 | Representations of Disability | TBA
Course Delivery: ONLINE SYNCHRONOUS
ENGL-3980-002 | Topics in Comitcs and Graphic Narratives | TBA
Course Delivery: IN PERSON