ENGL 3245: Introduction to Drama
Performing San Antonio
Fall 2017 Tuesday & Thursday 2:00 PM-3:15 PM Madla 237
Office Hours: T/R 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM & 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM and by appointment
Instructor: Adrianna M. Santos, Ph.D.
eMail: adrianna.santos@tamusa.edu
Office Phone: 210-784-2278
Office Location: CAB 319A
Catalog Description: Selected topics in American, British, or continental and/or Non-Western drama. Emphasis may be on historical development, certain periods or some other approach to the study of drama. Prerequisite: ENGL 1302. Fulfills the 3 semester credit hour requirement in Creative Arts (050).
Core Objectives: Critical Thinking Skills, Communication Skills, Teamwork and Social Responsibility
Course Description: This course introduces students to performance studies through a critical lens that traces the field from its foundations and major influences through the cutting edge of performance studies scholarship. Students will examine theories of performance with special focus on how performances in artistic contexts (theatre, dance, music, performance art, etc.) speak to performances in non-artistic settings (i.e., performances in culture and everyday life). The course proposes ways of examining, reflecting on, and critically evaluating the phenomena of performance and live art in a highly technologized and globalized world. The overall goal of the course is to challenge students to think about performance both as an object of study as well as a paradigm for critical analysis. We will take as a special focus the performance of San Antonio – its history, its traditions, its residents, and its values.
Required Materials: The required text is available at the bookstore. You may also purchase them from Amazon or another book vendor, but be aware that we will begin using the texts immediately. You must get the specified edition.
Performance Studies: An Introduction (PS), 3rd ed., by Richard Schechner, media editor Sara Brady, Routledge 2013. www.routledge.com/cw/schechner[1] (PS)
College-level Dictionary & Thesaurus
[1] Weekly seminar writing (response paper) and workshop prompts can be found on the companion website under Student Resources (“write about” and “perform”).
ENGL 5300: Introduction to Graduate Studies in English
Developing Your Academic Voice
Texas A&M University-San Antonio
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Arts & Humanities
Fall 2017 Monday 5:00PM-7:45PM Madla 237
Instructor: Adrianna M. Santos, Ph.D. Office Hours: T/R 12:00PM-2:00PM
email: adrianna.santos@tamusa.edu Office Location: CAB 319A
Catalog Description: Provides a foundation for the M.A. in English, serving as an introduction to methods of research in literature and to advanced level scholarship in language and literature. Must be taken by all graduate English majors and supporting fields during the first year of enrollment in the program. Prerequisite: 12 semester hours of advanced English.
Grade Breakdown: Grades will be calculated using the following scale:
90-100=A 70-79=C 59 or lower=F
80-89=B 60-69=D
Required Materials: The required texts are available at the bookstore. You may also purchase them from Amazon or another book vendor, but be aware that we will begin using the texts immediately. You must get the specified edition. In addition to the texts below, additional required reading will be placed on the class Blackboard site.
College-level Dictionary & Thesaurus
Culler, Jonathan.
Literary Theory:
A Very Short Introduction
Hayot, Eric.
The Elements of Academic Style:
Writing for the Humanities
Semenza, Gregory, Colón.
Graduate Study for the 21st Century:
How to Build an Academic Career in the Humanities, Second Edition.
Course Description: While there was a time when “English Studies” referred almost exclusively to the study of British and American literature, during the waning decades of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century, English Studies has grown to encompass a range of additional “fields” or areas of interest including Composition and Rhetoric, Creative Writing, Cultural Studies, Film Studies, Textual Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Multicultural Studies, Professional Writing, Literacy Studies, Discourse Analysis, and Multimedia Literacy. However, many if not most students beginning graduate study in English are not aware of these diverse tendencies and fields that characterize “English Studies.” From the perspective of the outsider or newly initiated, the proliferation of areas of interest within English Studies can be confusing if not daunting. It is the goal of this course to familiarize new graduate students with the historical development of English Studies and the shape of English Studies today, including traditions, issues, problems, and debates. Designed as one of the core courses for all English MA students, this course will include studies of the profession, experience in writing professional documents (such as conference proposals, abstracts, book reviews, thesis proposal), practical guidance in relevant research methods, and inquiry into the major theoretical and disciplinary issues and challenges of English Studies. It also aims to familiarize you with some of the procedures of being a graduate student. Finally, we will discuss the basics of teaching, including both philosophy and praxis. The course will by no means answer all of your questions about critical and literary theories, or even about graduate study itself. In fact, we will probably raise more questions than we will answer. If so, then we will have successfully entered the conversation that formulates graduate and post-graduate studies today. This course, then, begins English graduate students’ initiation into the profession. Over the course of a semester students will be invited to confront and attempt to answer questions such as: How have various theorists and scholars defined “English Studies?” How do we account for disciplinary change over time? What are the relationships among the various theoretical approaches and fields within “English Studies?” What counts as scholarship in these new and complex fields?
Course Objectives: Upon completion of the course the student will be able to…
- Identify and explain major and minor fields within English Studies
- Summarize the historical and recent development of English Studies in the United States
- Compose key professional documents such as a conference proposal, book review, and an annotated bibliography
- Differentiate approaches to English Studies at a range of English Departments across the country
- Demonstrate an understanding of the requirements and formal procedures of the MA English at A&M-SA
- Design an effective research plan
- Design a personal study program
- Analyze and interpret a literary text according to its formal characteristics (“close read”) with increasing sophistication
- Succinctly and accurately summarize a critical article and put it into a context
- Identify, locate, cite, and evaluate scholarly critical resources
- Enter the existing critical conversation about a work through a research-based, scholarly argument that intervenes in and advances that conversation
- Recognize and discuss the points of debate surrounding – Literary periods – Period aesthetics – Literary value and canonization – Distinctions among genres and how genre informs a work’s content, structure, and reception
IV. Assessment
Assessment of each student’s level of accomplishment with reference to the course objectives will be based upon a subset of the following:
- Writing assignments
- Research projects
- Active participation in class and class discussion
- Reflective essay
- Formal proposal to professional conference and/or journal
- Book Review
- Oral report
- Collaborative project
- Reading responses
- Draft of personal study program
- Draft of thesis proposal
- Professional documents
ENGL 4388: Latinx Literature
Representation & Cultural Production
Texas A&M University-San Antonio Fall Semester 2017
Tuesday & Thursday 5:00 PM – 6:15 PM Building 1C
Instructor: Adrianna M. Santos, Ph.D.
Email: Adrianna.Santos@tamusa.edu
Office Hours: Monday & Wednesday 10-11AM, 1:30-3:30PM, and by appointment
Office Location: CAB 319A
Catalog Description: Broad survey of Latinx writers.
Course Description: This course will provide you with an overview of Latina/o literary history. We will trace some of the key historical events, political movements, and social concerns that arise in and give way to Latina/o literature primarily in the late twentieth and twenty-first century. The course will introduce you to a broad spectrum of forms and genres employed by Latina/o writers, including the political essay, novel, autobiography, short story, and poetry. Through our readings we will explore the historical contexts that have produced racial, cultural, and class inequalities for Latino/as in order to situate the literature as responses to these multiple intersections of race, gender, class, citizenship, and sexuality. Overall, this class will provide you with a sample of the foundational texts of Latino/a literature as well as move through new terrain being explored by feminists, bi-cultural Latina/os, transnational immigrants, and queer writers at the beginning of the 21st-century. We will examine major politics and concerns addressed within Latina/o literature, such as concepts of identity, nation, mestizaje, masculinity, assimilation, bilingualism, and interracial dynamics, as well as migrant worker and cross-border experiences, and the politics of queer and feminist identities and cultural productions
Course Requirements:
- Participation 10%
- Group Presentation 15%
- Film Review 15%
- Smashbook Journal 15%
- Literary Analysis 20%
- Multimedia/Creative Project 25%
- Outside Learning Opportunity (extra credit)
Learning Objectives:
- Exhibit broad and substantial knowledge of Latina/o literature, and writers
- Comprehend key literary movements, themes, tropes, topics, arguments, and questions in Latina/o literature.
- Demonstrate recognition of literary, cultural, historical, political and theoretical contexts of the works.
- Demonstrate familiarity with research and form a critical position.
- Gain confidence in oral and written expression.
Required Materials: You will need a journal and the following text book…
Stavans, Ilan.
The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature
Some readings will be available as PDFs through our Blackboard course. You will be required to use both Blackboard and Digication in this course so please make arrangements to access a computer this semester to complete the class requirements. The following are some recommended texts that you might find helpful for this course but are not required.
