Drop/Add Guide for Spring 2026

Ah, yes, it’s that time of the year again! That time when you spend days crafting the perfect schedule, furiously greeting group chats and tracking your exact walk to class. Will you have enough time to grab a coffee from Bella? Fingers crossed! 

 

When 7 am rolls around on registration day, you will sit next to your roommate frantically working out the math: can you get from Gross Hall to Biddle in under twenty-five minutes? Is an 8:30 am class on a Friday really so bad? (It always is.)

 

So even if course registration didn’t go smoothly for you, some exciting English courses next semester still have open seats–both tried and tested classics and also some enticing new courses to try out! This is what drop/add is for, right? 

 

In a post climate-change world, what has nature become to us? And how is it used in literature? In our ever changing landscape of a world, these are big questions to consider. But the crisis of nature has been present in literature far before the idea of the ozone layer became general knowledge. Through examining texts from Alexander Pope, William Wordsworth, T.S Eliot and more, perhaps we can begin to understand why nature has captivated the minds of authors for centuries. 

 

Never was there an enigma such as Whitman. How was he able to fit so many identities at once? Wear so many hats and yet manage to create such an intimate relationship between himself and his readers? By diving into his work and contextual inspiration, perhaps we will slowly begin to understand how America’s bard became so beloved. 

 

A course with both incredible breadth and depth that takes you across three major chunks. First, you will start in the French Revolution, before moving on to works of literature that surround the years of Napoleon's reign, before quickly speeding onto the final part of the course that centers around what happened next–how the impact of these eras was felt not just in literature created in the years after but also in literature familiar to us. Hint: ABBA! 

 

Through investigating both literature and works of media, students will work towards understanding the realities of the Vietnam war and the impact it had upon both worldwide literature and culture. Students will investigate works such as Thi Bui’s debut graphic narrative The Best We Could Do, Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s docuseries The Vietnam War, Nha Ca’s landmark Mourning Headband for Hue, and Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. 

 

What makes a piece of writing a masterpiece? No matter your personal opinion on the matter, it is certain to say that certain texts have stuck around with us for slightly longer than others have, fully cementing their way into literary canons across the world. The class will start with the Bible before moving onto Dante’s Inferno, Othello and other Greek dramas in order to create a full sense of what earns recognition across the globe as a masterpiece. 
 

How was literature meant to be read? Can we look at literature in the same way we may a song or a piece of music? How was it meant to be consumed? Students will compare music to literature, seeing how one may succeed more or less than the other at creating an ephemeral euphony of sounds. Texts will include The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, James Weldon Johnson; Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf; Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison; Krapps's Last Tape, Samuel Beckett, as well as a variety of critical essays. Take your bets now: which text will provide the best hype song? 

 

The way I consume literature has (even if I am incredibly embarrassed to admit this) definitely been changed by BookTok. And whilst I would never confess this to my 10th grade English teacher, social media is definitely a consideration in why we choose the texts we want to consume. What happens when people leave paperbacks behind and move completely towards embracing the Kindle or iPad? How is technology included in literature, and when did it start? This course will investigate texts such as Dracula and White Noise to see how media changes our perception of literature. 

 

I can already see some English students (including myself) wincing at the word computational in the title of this class, but this class does in fact promise no need of statistical or programme background needed. Instead you just need a bright sense of curiosity around how programming can work. This course looks into how computers shape the way we assess texts, as well as gender, race and representation. 

 

Another seminar for the list – Ouma’s class has been on the list for a few years now and is constantly finding ways to update and revive itself. It looks at a novel as a system of contexts and interwoven stories where intertextuality is key to understanding a patchwork of tales centered around Africa. Students will receive an expansive, immersive reading experience that journeys from satirical pieces to pieces that aim to understand the legacy that colonisation has left. You will jump around the continent and even across the pond. Let your imagination grow!