College of Arts and Sciences
Curriculum
While your courses will certainly feature well-known literary texts from the past and present, you will also focus on neglected literary works, film and other forms of audio-visual media, historical documents and non-fictive forms that also demand interpretation. Further, you will consider the cultural discourses and social institutions that influence acts of reading and writing. The optional film and screen studies concentration will allow you to explore the rich and diverse histories of “screen culture” and develop the skills to interpret it.
- Recognize how meanings are created through acts of critical reading and analysis of texts.
- Analyze texts in relation to their aesthetics, forms and genres.
- Analyze texts using theoretical paradigms for literary and cultural studies.
- Analyze texts in relation to their historical contexts and as bearers of political and ethical meaning and as mediators of power relationships.
- Analyze the way texts construct categories of difference, including differences of race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexuality and class.
- Formulate sustained interpretive, analytical or conceptual arguments based on evidence drawn from texts.
- Develop research skills and methods.
- Narratives of Culture: Introduction to Issues of Critical Reading
- Hip Hop and Ya Don’t Stop: Issues, Debates and Controversies
- The Literature of War and Peace
- Science Fiction
- World Literature, 1000 to Present
Extracurricular Opportunities
Raymond Carver Reading Series
Through the Raymond Carver Reading Series, you can attend readings by 12-14 prominent writers, followed by a Q&A session with the author. Recent authors include Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Jamaal May, Monica Youn, Brandon Taylor, Valeria Luiselli, Ilya Kaminsky and Percival Everett.
Write Out Syracuse
Write Out is a community writing collective that partners University students, local writers and professional authors with youth-focused afterschool programs to provide a joyful literary experience. The program is co-designed with public-facing community organizations to provide youth a space to share their own stories—on their own terms.
Student-Run Publications
Through many student-run publications and campus organizations, hone your writing capabilities, meet peers with common interests and enjoy professional development and networking opportunities in writing and other related fields. Consider publications like The Daily Orange, Moody Mag and The OutCrowd Magazine; and student groups like Write Out and Nu Rho Poetic Society.
Learn more about this program