Undergraduate Courses - Spring 2026
This list includes courses with a special emphasis. Go to the online LSU catalog for general course descriptions not listed here. Refer to the online Schedule Booklet for course times, classrooms, and updates.
ENGL 2000-19: The Archive
Instructor: Kyler P. Carter
Meeting Time:
T/Th 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
In this class, students will conduct service with Hill Memorial Archive (or, alternatively,
the National Archives) and use concepts from archive studies to enrich their understanding
of rhetoric, the composition process, and multimodal communication.
ENGL 2000: Writing Reality
Instructor: Halley McArn
Meeting Times:
Section 11: MWF 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM
Section 84: MWF 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Section 168: MWF 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM
Section 173: MWF 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
In a world that confuses fact with fiction, how do we, as writers, tell the truth?
In this course, we will strive to write "reality." First, we'll explore theories of
truth, political power, and performance through thinkers such as Aristotle, Michel
Foucault, and Susan Sontag. Then, we'll examine these theories through the lens of
our culture. We'll do close readings of reality television. We'll fact check conspiracy
theories. We'll consider why some people want some things to be true—and the methods
they use to "keep" them true. By the end of the semester, students will complete a
series of short reading responses, a video essay, and an in-depth research paper on
a piece of pop culture that reveals the nature of truth to them.
ENGL 2000: Writing About Mythical and Magical Beings
Instructor: Julie Roundtree
Meeting Times:
Section 075: MWF 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Section 079: MWF 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Section 117: MWF 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Many of the first stories written down are of mythical and magical beings. Humans
were so intrigued and influenced by these tales, which were even incorporated into
early religious practices, that they wanted to share them in writing for the generations
to come. In this class, students will explore the myth, lore, and modern-day tales
of magical beings such as mermaids, witches, ghosts, vampires, and werewolves. By
examining various texts, including artwork, films and their promotional posters, stories,
poems, and scholarly research, students will learn to identify and analyze rhetoric
as well as formulate their own engaging and effective written arguments. Through daily
writing assignments, individual and group activities, in-class discussions, the writing
of analytical essays and persuasive essays, as well as a final capstone essay on their
own topic of interest, students will hone the skills needed for successful and enjoyable
college-level reading and writing.
ENGL 2000-153: K-Pop: Performance and Language
Instructor: Seohye Kwon
Meeting Time: T/Th 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
This course uses K-pop as a central research text to explore the intersections of
performance and language in a global context. K-pop is both a musical form and a cultural
performance that combines choreography, staging, visual storytelling, and lyrics,
including code-switching and global fan communication. Students will practice translating
these multimodal elements into writing while developing their critical and analytical
skills. Writing assignments move from personal reflection to critical engagement with
scholarship, close analysis of music videos, collaborative digital projects, and a
final researched essay. Through this sequence, students will strengthen their rhetorical
awareness, refine their academic voice, and learn to connect their own perspectives
to broader cultural and intellectual conversations.
ENGL 2000-86: Film and Rhetoric
Instructor: Mark Hue
Meeting Time: T/Th 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Why did that film disappoint me when the trailer was so good, and why do I love this
film that critics are tearing apart? To answer these questions and other similar inquiries,
this course is designed to give students a general overview of the rhetoric surrounding
filmmaking, ranging from topics such as film marketing, critical reception, scholarly
evaluation, cult status, and more. These topics will be explored through a wide range
of readings and screenings that compare how the actual viewing experience of a film
relates to its surrounding rhetorical discourse. Not only will students gain a better
understanding of film in this course, but they will also learn how to properly read
academic articles and perform in-depth research on a specific film topic of their
choosing.
ENGL 2000: Our Built Environment
Instructor: Nolde Alexius
Meeting Times:
Section 15: MWF 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Section 25: MWF 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Section 56: MWF 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM
This course invites you to inquire into the special emphasis of "Our Built Environment"
and to envision solutions to societal problems through your research and writing this
semester. In Spring 2026, our course materials will guide you to select a research
topic and develop a persuasive argument regarding the built environment of food in
America. The assignments are connected to current issues which, by design, will challenge
you to engage your very best communication skills.
ENGL 2000: The Language of Horror
Instructor: Lisa Nohner
Meeting Times:
Section 64: MWF 12:30 – 1:30
Section 72: MWF 2:30 – 3:30
Section 82: MWF 3:30 – 4:30
This course asks you to consider and engage with the kinds of writing being done in
different disciplines and fields. The course presents an engaging, unique lens through
which to study different types of writing: The Language of Horror. How have humans
constructed the meaning of "horror"? How has that meaning changed over time? How does
horror appear in different disciplines? The class asks us to consider more mature
and specific rhetorical tactics writers may use to develop and support claims in all
sorts of areas. Developing our ability to conduct research and sound reasoning, as
well as compose writing, we will consider the uses and abuses of horror in fiction,
film, environmental science, digital media and more.
ENGL 2000-135: Writing Terror, Writing the Planet
Instructor: Azharuddin
Meeting Time: MWF 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM
How do we think and write about a world where terrorism and environmental crisis overlap?
From drone strikes to wildfires, from "war on terror" rhetoric to "code red for humanity"
contemporary writing casts global threats in ways that are as emotionally urgent as
they are factual. This course explores how short texts—essays, op-eds, and political
speeches—use language to frame global crisis. We'll look at how speakers and writers
engage with terror and connect terror and environmental justice. Ultimately, we'll
practice writing that turns complex global issues into clear, persuasive arguments.
ENGL 2000-70: Sports Rhetoric
Instructor: Elizabeth Robertson
Meeting Time: MWF 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM
This course uses sports as an entry point for engaging with different genres of writing
across disciplines. Students will analyze a variety of sports-related texts, such
as advertisements, social media posts, speeches, and scholarly journal articles to
explore different rhetorical strategies for constructing and supporting an argument.
By examining the writing conventions and rhetorical strategies of different genres
and disciplines, students will learn how to apply these skills in various contexts.
ENGL 2000-29: The Grammar of Comics
Instructor: Matthew Mills
Meeting Time: MWF 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
How do comics persuade? How do sequential images and text work together to construct
arguments about identity, power, justice, and social change? How might the comics
medium be an appropriate multimodal form of academic writing in its own right? This
course examines comics as a rhetorical medium to answer these very questions while
developing critical reading, analytical writing, and research skills. As such, we
will examine serial and essay form comics to explore how the unique affordances of
the comics medium function as persuasive strategies and understand how those strategies
matter for students' own academic writing.
ENGL 2000: Rhetoric of Reality
Instructor: Rachel Howatt
Meeting Times:
Section 103: T/Th 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
Section 121: T/Th 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Section 156: T/Th 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Section 188: T/Th 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
In this course, we will use the language implemented throughout the Bachelor and Bachelorette
franchises as access points for analysis of the conventions of rhetoric and argument.
In comparing two seasons of the Bachelor franchise: one Bachelor and one Bachelorette,
this course aims to build students' understanding of rhetoric and argument, along
with what makes the execution of either successful or not.
ENGL 2000: Writing for Community Action and Advocacy
Instructor: Sharon Andrews
Meeting Times:
Section 38: T/Th 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Section 45: T/Th 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
This course is a special emphasis course with a focus on "Writing for Community Action
and Advocacy". We will discuss the use of language, especially written language, as
a tool for affecting change within the community. You will be challenged to think
about your role in the community and the use of writing to persuade, inspire and affect
change. Includes a required service-learning component.
ENGL 2000: Writing Louisiana
Instructor: Meghan Sullivan
Meeting Times:
Section 110: T/Th 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Section 163: T/Th 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Section 181: T/Th 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
This course asks you to consider and engage with Louisiana culture and tradition.
Using the history of Louisiana writers and literature, we will build specific rhetorical
claims as they pertain to all things Louisiana—religion and spirituality, disaster
and relief, food and music, ecology and loss along the Mississippi River. Developing
our ability to conduct research and sound reasoning, students will be asked to engage
with fieldwork by visiting a local museum, concert hall, or restaurant. We will consider
the various arguments embedded in place-based writing and learn how to move a conversation
forward.
ENGL 2000: Writing About Film
Instructor: Trey Strecker
Meeting Times:
Section 97: MWF 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM
Section 98: MWF 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Section 99: MWF 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
Students in this course will study what constitutes successful film writing through
a rhetorical focus on argument. Our reading, writing, and discussion will focus on
issues of authorship, genre, representation, and narrative. Students will learn basic
film concepts, techniques, and terminology in an effort to think critically about
film and its role in our lives. Students will compose in multiple modes to improve
their writing skills while gaining a more complex understanding of audience, form,
and the contexts that inform effective argument.
ENGL 2000-62: Writing and Righting the Environment
Instructor: Denis Waswa
Meeting Time: MWF 7:30 AM - 8:30 AM
This course will focus on reading and writing about nature & environment. We will
examine the rhetoric, representations, language, and ideas writers create about the
environment and nature as we reflect on questions such as: How can we imagine, collaborate,
share, and write about environmental concerns in the present climate crisis? How should
our writing, rhetoric, awareness, and action about the environment change? What role
does writing about nature play in the present environmental crisis? How is the environment
connected to contemporary political, ecological, social, and economic concerns? In
what ways do questions of agency and advocacy manifest in environmental writings?
How can we right the environment through writing? Students will explore writings about
nature and critique the impact of humans on the environment. In so doing, they will
develop their writing skills in ways that promote and enhance environmental concerns,
awareness, and sensitivities.
ENGL 2000: Living on University Time
Instructor: Christy Foreman
Meeting Times:
Section 8: T/Th 7:30 AM - 9:00 AM
Section 21: T/Th 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Section 123: T/Th 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Section 140: T/Th 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
This course explores writing as a form of research through ethnographic study of how
time shapes university life. Students will examine everyday practices—such as studying,
eating, and commuting—to understand how institutional schedules intersect with personal
rhythms. Through fieldnotes, interviews, and analysis, students will generate original
research about campus life and its temporal structures. Writing assignments guide
students from proposal to polished essay, emphasizing research design, analysis, and
revision. By writing about the lived experience of "university time," students learn
to connect personal observation with broader academic inquiry.
ENGL 2000-34: Ways of Knowing
Instructor: Sarah Brockhaus
Meeting Time: T/Th 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
This course will introduce students to a variety of lenses as models for knowledge
making, including experiential hands-on knowledge through service-learning. Students
will learn different ways to build an argument, and practice employing these different
techniques in their own writing as they think about what it means to build knowledge
through writing across disciplines and in the disciplines of their majors and interests.
Across the course of the semester we will engage with poetic, theoretical, philosophical,
and experiential forms of knowledge and meaning making, as well as storytelling.
ENGL 2000: Living Stories, Burial Grounds: Louisiana Cemeteries
Instructor: Emily M Goldsmith
Meeting Times:
Section 24: MWF 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Section 46: MWF 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Section 57: MWF 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM
This is a Service-Learning Course. Benjamin Franklin said, "Show me your cemeteries,
and I will tell you what kind of people you have." In this section of ENGL 2000, we
will examine the roles of Louisiana cemeteries on culture, life, and dignity. Students
will volunteer with a specific local cemetery. Students will be asked to do field
research, analyze materials; research and document sources responsibly; present professional
written, verbal, and visual reports; and work collaboratively.
ENGL 2000-69: Language of Music Criticism
Instructor: Brett Hymel
Meeting Time: T/Th 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM
What defines a sound? In this class, students will learn the essential critical components
of musical criticism in order to build a framework by which they can assess music
and, more broadly, elements of culture. Students will look at existing criticism,
read theory, and analyze a broad range of music in order to build coherent arguments
around the sonic body of a work. Albums discussed in class will span a variety of
genres and eras and may include Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly, and Radiohead's Kid A, amongst others.
ENGL 2025: FanFiction
Instructor: Casey Patterson
Section: 001
Meeting Time: MW 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (with recitation)
Why do so many people write fanfiction? And why do so many people enjoy reading it?
This class will introduce students to key ideas for understanding the work that fan
communities produce while consuming original works of fiction—work which is criticized
as "derivative" while also celebrated as "transformative." We will explore both of
these dimensions, and the ways that they each showcase habits for thinking carefully
about published fiction. By practicing these habits ourselves, we will see what fan
fiction can teach us about fiction in general: how stories help form communities,
how communities proliferate genres, and how "original" works become indebted to the
fans who inspired them.
ENGL 2231-5: Horror and the Oppressed
Instructor: Julie Roundtree
Section: 5
Meeting Time: MWF 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM (with recitation)
In this class, we will view a selection of horror films from different points in history
and analyze how oppressed individuals are depicted and treated in these films. There
will be an emphasis placed on analyzing the depictions and treatment of women, people
of color, and those who are differently-abled. Some films will be viewed in class,
others will need to be viewed outside of class, in-class discussions will follow,
and students will write three essays over the course of the semester.
ENGL 3300-1: Rhetoric of Public Memory
Instructor: Jonathan Osborne
Meeting Time: MWF 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM
As a society, we create various artifacts to invoke a particular understanding of
a place, person, or event. These markers of history serve as a touchstone for people
in the future to remember the past according to a broadly agreed upon narrative about
the past. In other words, these artifacts are rhetorical in nature—they attempt to
persuade audiences on how to remember the past. In this course, we will investigate,
analyze, and question various artifacts, such as museums and Civil War monuments,
to understand their rhetorical influence on public memory in terms of politics, race,
gender, and culture.
ENGL 4071-1: How to Judge a Book
Instructor: Lauren Coats
Meeting Time: T/Th 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
How do we judge the value of a book? In this class, we'll read American novels and
stories—from Edgar Allan Poe to Octavia Butler to recent bestsellers—that have captured
the reading public's imagination, and read carefully to see what the stories tell
us about how to evaluate them. We'll also spend some time not reading, exploring other
methods for examining books for how they are valued such as judging books by their
covers, investigating marginalia, and other archival adventures.
ENGL 4680-1: The Novel & the News
Instructor: Pallavi Rastogi
Meeting Time: T/Th 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Headlines in Global Fiction
This course will focus on how global Anglophone novels of the present moment absorb
and retell the news. How does long-form fiction transform the frenzied pace of daily
events into the more leisurely rhythm of the novel? Can literary narrative ever capture
the speed, volatility, and often catastrophic scale of the news today? Exploring fiction
published in 2025—2026, we will read works from across the world that draw directly
on breaking events such as wars, climate change, and geopolitical upheaval.
Fiction may include Laila Lalami's The Dream Hotel, Salman Rushdie's The Eleventh Hour, and Esther Ifesinachi Okonkwo's The Tiny Things Are Heavier.