The English Department contributes several courses to SUNY Fredonia's general education program, Fredonia Foundations. Go to YourConnection to search for all university courses by Fredonia Foundations theme and category.
Fall 2024 Fredonia Foundations Course Offerings
None of these classes count towards majors within the department except where indicated.
US History & Civic Engagement/Critical Reasoning & Analysis
| Prof. Stephine Hunt | Section 01
| This version of the course, “Becoming Americans: Migration, Exile, and (Home)Land,” is designed to give students opportunities to meet the campus-wide Baccalaureate Goals: to be Skilled, Creative, Connected and Responsible. Assignments and readings of historical and recent American literature, across multiple genres, will build on and expand students’ critical reading, writing and research skills, encourage their creativity in crafting assignments, connect them to the experiences of ethnically diverse American writers, and challenge them to take responsibility and develop an ethics of being toward others. We will take a close look at how some of the common stories of America evoke and shape the land and people who call this place home to develop an understanding of the process of “becoming Americans.” |
The Arts/Creativity & Innovation
| Dr. Ici Vanwesenbeeck | Section 01 MWF 9:00-9:50 | In this course, we will explore the interrelation between word and image in ekphrastic poetry, calligraphy, cartoons, and graphic novels. Our broad thematic approach will be romance. |
The Arts/Creativity & Innovation
| Prof. Alison Pipitone | Section 01 Internet-Based Course Section HR Internet-Based Course | This is an online/asynchronous course, open to students with or without songwriting experience. Students will complete assignments on lyrics; music; production; close listening- and more! We will also explore the concept of Resilience in songs, using three eras in history as a starting point. |
Humanities/Critical Thinking & Analysis
| Prof. Daniel Laurie | Section 01 TR 12:30-1:50 | This section of Reading Humanity focuses on group dynamics and the sense of belonging. The key questions we will consider are: What does it mean to belong? What does it mean to be an outsider? And what’s at stake in conformity? |
| Prof. Daniel Laurie | Section 02 Section 03 | This section of Reading Humanity focuses on the theme "Representing Animals," and the course explores depictions of animals in literary works, philosophical discussions, and examples from art history. |
World Hist & Global Awareness/Global Perspectives
| Dr. Jeanette McVicker | Section 01 TR 12:30-1:50 | The course will explore narratives of geographic, species, linguistic, temporal, spatial and planetary border crossings. We’ll consider formations of the human, inhuman and non-human and how this informs the idea of land/territory/nation/empire. We’ll further consider the ways that gender, race and class contribute to ideas regarding borders as in-between spaces and contact zones. |
| Dr. Birger Vanwesenbeeck | Section 02 Internet Based Course | Can the Holocaust be represented? To capture the scope and magnitude of the Nazi atrocities has often been said to lie beyond the limits of the literary or artistic imagination even as artists have also recognized the need to do so. This course will offer an overview of various writings--philosophical, literary, and historical--as well as documentaries and how they have sought to bear witness to the Holocaust. |
Humanities/Creativity and Innovation
Dr. Ann
| Section 01
| As one would guess, students in this course study plays and films, and in this case, through the lens of change and our response to change. We'll explore the impact of choices made in the visual representation. This class counts as an elective in the English major.
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Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Social Justice/Critical Reasoning & Analysis
| Dr. Bruce Simon | Section 01 Section 02
| What has it meant, what does it mean, what could it mean, what should it mean to be an American? This semester, while conducting our interdisciplinary "exploration of the historical construction of American gender, ethnicity/race, and class; their present status; and their literary and cultural representations," we will focus on the power and future of the stories we tell ourselves and each other about “America," thereby cultivating our curiosity about contemporary American identities and developing our skills for identifying, analyzing, assessing, responding to, and remixing a broad range of narrative constructions of U.S. national identity. |
The Arts/Creativity & Innovation
Prof. Jason Bussman
| Section 01 Section 02 | First in the sequence and the prerequisite for all higher-level creative writing courses. Conducted in an informal workshop setting, the course provides practical experience in the writing and exploration of poetry, personal essays, and short fiction. Basic forms, techniques, genres, and craft elements are considered through the study of contemporary examples, writing activities, and writing assignments. |
Prof. Rebecca Cuthbert
| Section 03 Section 04
| First in the sequence and the prerequisite for all higher-level creative writing courses. Conducted in an informal workshop setting, the course provides practical experience in the writing and exploration of poetry, personal essays, and short fiction. Basic forms, techniques, genres, and craft elements are considered through the study of contemporary examples, writing activities, and writing assignments. |
| Prof. Michael Sheehan | Section 08
| This multi-genre course will introduce core concepts in creative writing, with readings of published works and peer works, as well as regular writing exercises. |