English Studies Online

English Studies Online: Programs, Practices, Possibilities represents a collection of essays by established teacher-scholars across English Studies who offer critical commentary on how they have worked to create and sustain high-impact online programs (majors, minors, certificates) and courses in the field. Ultimately, these chapters explore the programs and classroom practices that can help faculty across English Studies to think carefully and critically about the changes that online education affords us, the rich possibilities such courses and programs bring, and some potential problems they can introduce into our department and college ecologies. By highlighting both innovative pedagogies and hybrid methods, the authors in our collection demonstrate how we might engage these changes more productively. Divided into three interrelated conversations — practices, programs, and possibilities — the essays in this collection demonstrate some of the innovative pedagogical work going on in English departments around the United States in order to highlight how both hybrid and fully online programs in English Studies can help us to more meaningfully and purposefully enact the values of a liberal arts education. This collection serves as both a cautionary history of teaching practices and programs that have developed in English Studies and a space to support faculty and administrators in making the case for why and how humanities disciplines can be important contributors to digital teaching and learning. Contributors include Joanne Addison, William P. Banks, Lisa Beckelhimer, Dev K. Bose, Elizabeth Burrows, Amy Cicchino, Erin A. Frost, Heidi Skurat Harris, John Havard, Marcela Hebbard, Stephanie Hedge, Ashley J. Holmes, George Jensen, Karen Kuralt, Michele Griegel-McCord, Samantha McNeilly, Lilian Mina, Catrina Mitchum, Janine Morris, Michael Neal, Cynthia Nitz Ris, Rochelle Rodrigo, Cecilia Shelton, Susan Spangler, Katelyn Stark, Eric Sterling, and Richard C. Taylor.

"Bringing together 100 essential critical articles across 4 volumes, Literature and the Environment: Critical and Primary Sources is a comprehensive collection of the most important academic writings on ecocriticism and literature's engagement with environmental crisis. With texts by key scholars, creative writers and activists, the articles in these four volumes follow the development and history of environmental criticism, as well as interdisciplinary conversations with contemporary philosophy and media studies. Literature and the Environment includes work by such writers as: Stacy Alaimo, Jonathan Bate, Jacques Derrida, Ursula K. Heise, Richard Kerridge, Bruno Latour, Rob Nixon, Ken Saro-Wiwa, William Shakespeare, Leslie Marmon Silko, Henry David Thoreau, E.O. Wilson, Cary Wolfe and William Wordsworth"--

The "breathtakingly brilliant" novel by the author of Infinite Jest (New York Times) is a deeply compelling and satisfying story, as hilarious and fearless and original as anything Wallace ever wrote. The agents at the IRS Regional Examination Center in Peoria, Illinois, appear ordinary enough to newly arrived trainee David Foster Wallace. But as he immerses himself in a routine so tedious and repetitive that new employees receive boredom-survival training, he learns of the extraordinary variety of personalities drawn to this strange calling. And he has arrived at a moment when forces within the IRS are plotting to eliminate even what little humanity and dignity the work still has. The Pale King remained unfinished at the time of David Foster Wallace's death, but it is a deeply compelling and satisfying novel, hilarious and fearless and as original as anything Wallace ever undertook. It grapples directly with ultimate questions -- questions of life's meaning and of the value of work and society -- through characters imagined with the interior force and generosity that were Wallace's unique gifts. Along the way it suggests a new idea of heroism and commands infinite respect for one of the most daring writers of our time. "The Pale King is by turns funny, shrewd, suspenseful, piercing, smart, terrifying, and rousing." --Laura Miller, Salon

A Handbook of Middle English Studies “This sharp-minded, coherent set of essays both maps and liberates: not only does it map the intellectual territory of contemporary cultural debate; it also liberates the extraordinary texts of later medieval England to move across that contemporary cultural terrain.” James Simpson, Harvard University “Marion Turner has skilfully choreographed an exciting ensemble of fresh accounts of the English Middle Ages. We see the period in a new light that shows with compassion and imagination, as well as thoughtful scholarship, how the literature of the past speaks to contemporary preoccupations.” Ardis Butterfield, Yale University “Strikingly original: theory-literate and materially-grounded ways of reading Middle English texts.” David Wallace, University of Pennsylvania A Handbook of Middle English Studies presents twenty-six original and accessible essays by leading scholars, analyzing the relationship between critical theory and late-medieval literature. The collection offers a range of entry points into the rich field of medieval literary studies, exploring subjects including the depiction of the self and the mind, the literature of conquest, ideas of beauty and aesthetics, and the relationship between place and literature. Topics that have long been central to the field, such as authorship, gender, and race, feature alongside areas only recently coming under critical scrutiny, such as globalization, the environment, and animality. Collectively, the essays demonstrate that the manuscript culture of late medieval literature raises key theoretical issues concerning the relationship between authors, texts, and readers. A Handbook of Middle English Studies models diverse approaches to medieval texts and stakes a claim in debates about topics ranging from class to the canon, from imagination to nationhood, from sexuality to the public sphere.

If your success at work or in school depends on your ability to communicate persuasively in writing, you'll want to get Good with Words. Based on a course that law students at the University of Michigan and the University of Chicago have called "outstanding," "A-M-A-Z-I-N-G," and "the best course I have ever taken," the book brings together a collection of concepts, exercises, and examples that have also helped improve the advocacy skills of people pursuing careers in many other fields--from marketing, to management, to medicine. "There is nobody better than Patrick Barry when it comes to breaking down how to write and edit. His techniques don't just make you sound better. They make you think better. I'm jealous of the people who get to take his classes." --Professor Lisa Bernstein, University of Chicago Law School and Oxford University Center for Corporate Regulation "Whenever I use Patrick Barry's materials in my class, the student reaction is the same: 'We want more of them.'" --Professor Dave Babbe, UCLA School of Law "Working one-on-one with Patrick Barry should be mandatory for all lawyers, regardless of seniority. This book is the next best thing." --Purvi Patel, Partner at Morrison Foerster LLP "I am proud to say that, when it comes to writing, I speak Patrick Barry. What I mean is that I use, pretty much every day, the writing vocabulary and techniques he offers in this great book. So read it. Share it. And then, if you can, teach it. There are a lot of good causes in the world that could use a new generation of great advocates." --Professor Bridgette Carr, Assistant Dean of Strategic Initiatives and Director of the Human Trafficking Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School "Patrick Barry is my secret weapon. I use his techniques every time I write, and I also teach them to all my students." --Professor Shai Dothan, Copenhagen Faculty of Law "I know the materials in this book were originally created for lawyers and law students. But I actually find them really helpful for doctors as well, given that a lot of what I do every day depends on effective communication. There is a tremendous upside to becoming 'Good with Words." --Dr. Ramzi Abboud, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

English is now a global phenomenon no longer defined by fixed territorial, cultural and social functions. The Routledge Companion to English Studies provides an authoritative overview of the subject area. Taking into account the changing conceptualisations of English, this Companion considers both historical trajectories and contemporary perspectives whilst also showcasing the state-of-the-art contributions made by the established scholars of the field. The Routledge Companion to English Studies: provides a set of broad perspectives on English as a subject of study and research highlights the importance of the link between English and other languages within the concepts of multilingualism and polylingualism investigates the use of language in communication through the medium of digital technology covering key issues such as Digital Literacies, Multimodal Literacies and Games and Broadcast Language explores the role of English in education taking account of social, ethnographic and global perspectives on pedagogical issues. This collection of thirty-four newly commissioned articles provides a comprehensive and up-to-date picture of the dynamic and diverse field of English Studies and will be an invaluable text for advanced students and researchers in this area.

Doing a Research Project in English Studies is the essential guide to undertaking research and developing academic English literacy skills for students new to research. With a particular focus on the needs of students in contexts where English is used as a foreign or an additional language, this accessible textbook takes the reader through the research process in five main sections: getting started (arriving at a topic, interacting with a supervisor); finding bibliographic resources; collecting data; developing academic writing skills; preparing for the oral defence. Each chapter contains exercises; the answer key facilitates independent study throughout. Extracts from published research articles provide invaluable illustration of the features of academic writing. This is a must-have resource for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students embarking on a research project in English studies.

Combining literary criticism and theory with anthropology and cognitive science, this highly relevant book argues that we are fundamentally shaped by dialogue. Patrick Grant looks at the manner in which dialogue informs and connects the personal, political, and religious dimensions of human experience and how literacy is being eroded through many factors, including advances in digital technology. The book begins by tracing the history of evolved communication skills and looks at ways in which interconnections among tragedy, the limits of language, and the silence of abjection contribute to an adequate understanding of dialogue. Looking at examples such as “truth decay” in journalism and falling literacy levels in school, alongside literary texts from Malory and Shakespeare, Grant shows how literature and criticism embody the essential values of dialogue. The maintenance of complex reading and interpretive skills is recommended for the recuperation of dialogue and for a better understanding of its fundamental significance in the shaping of our personal and social lives. Tapping into debates about the value of literature and the humanities, and the challenges posed by digitalization, this book will be of interest and significance to people working in a wide range of subjects, including literary studies, communication studies, digital humanities, social policy, and anthropology.