British Studies Minor

HIST2424 This course explores the role of mass, multi-million man armies engaged along the 500-mile Western Front in WWI. Within 25,000 miles of trenches, a war of attrition generated casualties of an unprecedented magnitude, owing to the role of industrialization, militarism, and nationalism.

HIST2425 This course will explore the role of highly mechanized and aerial warfare in the German Blitzkrieg that conquered Western Europe from Norway to France in less than 11 weeks (thus breaking the strategy of trench warfare from WWI); the aerial bombardment of civilian targets with focus on Battle of Britain; the fate of population in occupied Western Europe; the opening of the Second Front with D-Day invasion followed, by the 11-month campaign to V-EDay.

HIST3350 Explores the expansion of the United States from a British settlement colony to that of a national continental empire. Topics include the conquest and settlement of Native American lands, negotiations and conflicts with neighboring powers, and completing visions over expansion as related to slavery and trade.

LITS3020 Representative British verse, drama, and prose from the late 17th century to the early 19th century.

LITS3021 Representative British poetry and prose from 1832 to early 20th century, consideration of the emergence of popular genres and interaction between popular and literary styles.

LITS3054 Representative poetry and prose from 1789-1832 in England and Europe; attention to the interaction between social movements and literary styles, and other artistic forms such as art and music.

LITS3073 This course surveys some 1,500 years of Irish literature in the Irish language (read in translation) as well as Irish literature in English. Students will have the option of learning some modern Irish.

LITS3201 Reading and analysis of selected major authors assessing their aesthetic achievements and their cultural influence. Topics change with each offering.

LITS3212 Selection from The Canterbury Tales and other works, with some attention to their relationship to European literature of Chaucer's past and present.

LITS3213 Shakespeare's comedies, romances, and problem plays, and select discussion of Shakespeare's language, life and times and the critical reception of his work.

LITS3214 Shakespeare's histories and tragedies, and select discussion of Shakespeare's language, life and times and the critical reception of his work.

LITS3230 Through film and fiction, the 20th and 21st centuries have not stopped re-inventing and interpreting Jane Austen. The goal of this course is to return to the original six novels published during and after her lifetime and to understand them in the context of 18th Century Literature, the Regency Era in Britain, and Romantic movements in Europe.

LITS3301 An introduction to the systematic study of the structure and grammar of English in light of contemporary linguistic theory; survey of the historical development of English with emphasis on etymology; consideration of language in its social context; language acquisition; and recent linguistic controversies (e.g., bilingualism, non-stand dialects, gender differences). Recommended for prospective teachers.

UNIV2001 In the third course in the University Core program, students learn to describe and analyze cultural phenomena in their own lives, to grapple with cultural differences and to understand cultural conflicts. Through a study of samples across a variety of cultures, students examine the fluidity and multiplicity of cultural identities and borders. Ways in which cultures changes, how cultures shape and are shaped by individuals, how misunderstands and conflicts arise within and between cultures, and how those differences evolve are central to the course. Critical thinking skills are a developed and brought to bear on these topics.