NEW OPPORTUNITY FOR
GRADUATE STUDY
AT USM
Certificate
in
Theory, Literature, and Culture
July 1-28, 2002
Subjectivity/Identity: The Body
The Department of English at the University of Southern Maine plans to offer an interdisciplinary graduate certificate that can be completed over the course of two summer sessions. This interdisciplinary graduate-level certificate program in literature and culture is designed for students who want to develop or expand their understanding of current critical theory and pursue individual inquiry. It is a perfect course of study for those who want to explore culture and its material realities.
Certificate
requirements: 14 credit hours taken in the form of four classes and two
colloquia broken down as follows:
Typically, a three-hour course will run as a four-week summer session in July. For the first summer, two courses will be run concurrently during the morning and afternoon time slots three days per week.
At the conclusion of the four-week period, graduate students will be expected to complete a three-day colloquium, which will feature speakers from outside the institution. The invited faculty will conduct a public lecture and at least one workshop/panel. Students who are not a part of the certificate program may take the colloquium for one academic credit.
The theme for the colloquium will change each time it is offered, but will fit under one of the five rubrics covered by the introductory course— subjectivity/identity; signification; ideology/ hegemony/discourse; audiences/readers/spectators/literacy; culture/popular culture. The subject matter of at least one of the topics courses will complement the colloquium and will be taught by USM faculty.
Graduate students: a bachelor's degree (with an official transcript from the degree-granting institution that shows the degree received and the degree date), a writing sample of no more than 20 pages, a statement of purpose.
Undergraduate students: senior status, a writing sample, permission of the director.
Please note that though graduate credit in the program may eventually be transferable to a graduate program under the transfer credit policies outlined at that time, acceptance to this certificate program does not constitute acceptance to a master's or certificate of advanced study program.
Introduction to Theory, Literature, and Culture
ENG 599 P2413,
Monday-Wednesday, 6-9:15 p.m., July 1-26
An introduction to the major concepts of modern critical theory with exploration of agreement and divergence between theories and methods for interpreting language, culture, literature, and social practices.
Please note that this course fulfills the requirement in Criticism and Theory for the English major.
Richard Swartz, associate professor of English at the University of Southern Maine, has published on Romantic writers and is researching American political culture and issues of extremist political violence.
ENG 599 P2412, Monday-Wednesday, 12:30-3:45 p.m., July 1-26
This seminar will focus on the human body in literature, theory, and culture ranging from its origins in the human geography of psychoanalysis and the materialism of Marx to its postmodern incorporations.
Please note that this course fulfills the Interdisciplinary and Cultural Studies requirement for the USM English major.
Lisa Walker, associate professor of English at USM, writes on 20th century American literature and culture, and lesbian and gay studies. Her current research interests include fashion theory and beauty culture. She is the author of Looking Like What You Are: Sexual Style, Race, and the Construction of Lesbian Identity.
Colloquium in Theory, Literature, and Culture
ENG 599 P3163, Monday-Wednesday, 10a.m.-6 p.m., July 26-28
The colloquium will consist of a formal presentation and a workshop by each member of the colloquium faculty. A reading list will be provided to students before July 25.
Please note that this colloquium may be taken by students who are not part of the certificate program.
Faculty: Jane Gaines, professor of literature and English and director of the film and video program at Duke University. Her recent work is in African and African-American literature and film melodrama. She has co-edited Fabrications: Costume and the Female Body, and more recently, Collecting Visible Evidence, edited Classical Hollywood Narrative Cinema: The Paradigm Wars, co-edited Collecting Visible Evidence, and published Fire and Desire: Mixed Race Movies in the Silent Era and Contested Culture: The Image the Voice and the Law, for which she received the Katherine Singer Kovacs Award for the best new book in film studies.
Faculty: Judith Halberstam, associate professor of literature at University of California, San Diego, teaches gender studies, queer theory, film, and literature. She has written on gothic literature, postmodernism, masculinity, and queer performance. She is currently working on books on drag kings and transgender politics. A film reviewer for Girlfriends magazine, she is the author of Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters, Female Masculinity, and The Drag King Book.
Faculty: Susan Willis, associate professor of English and literature, Duke University, teaches courses in minority writing and popular culture. She is the author of Specifying: Black Women Writing the American Experience and A Primer for Daily Life and the co-author of Inside the Mouse: Work and Play at Disney World. Her work aims at revealing the contradictions of capitalism in everyday life and discovering utopian content in culture.
FOR
AN APPLICATION FORM AND FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Department
of English
University
of Southern Maine
P.O.
Box 9300
Portland
ME 04104 USA
Tel:
(207) 780-4117; Fax: (207) 780-5457
E-mail:
shelton.waldrep@alumni.duke.edu
To download an application, please click here: 
To download a brochure, please click here: 
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