Coming Fall 2012: ENGL 5340: Literature for Youth

ENGLISH 5340: Literature for Youth is described as "the study of literature written for young people." When I teach it in fall 2012, the focus of the course will be the intersections of adolescence, secondary education, literary analysis and graphic novels.

Students in UTEP's English MAT program will be the bulk of enrollment. We'll be reading comics featuring young people in schooling and social situations. In addition to a core textbook on adolescence and education and articles on comics and literacy, students will be asked to read from among the following graphic novels:

American Born Chinese
Any Empire
Anya's Ghost
The Arrival
Black Hole
Blankets
Blue Beetle: Boundaries
Epileptic
Fun Home
Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S.
Habibi
Hereville
Incognegro
La Perdida
Level Up
Refresh Refresh
Persepolis
Skim
Stitches
Stuck Rubber Baby
White Tiger: A Hero's Compulsion
Wonderstruck
Young Allies
Yummy
Zahra's Paradise

I've just put in my book order and am gathering secondary reading resources now. I'm also working out assignments. But, I'm excited about this course!

Lynn University English Instructor Uses Super Heroes in Class

Great post that I saw on Comic Book Literacy's facebook page regarding Elaine Deering's class, "Comic Book Superheroes" at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida.

Get Your Graphic Novel Degree at Napier University

"Edinburgh’s Napier University will become the first university in Britain to include comic books and graphic novels on a Masters level Creative Writing course," reports Emma Towers of The Journal.

Dundee University has also added a comics course to their English degree, according to the story.

So, comics studies programs are building steam overseas. Maybe information like this can help those of us who want to see CSP's here in the states as well. I just had a student e-mail asking about comics-related coursework at UTEP and had to tell him that we were working on it but that it may or may not ever happen. I recently read a book on academic life that quoted a Cornell professor as saying the academy's mantra is "never be the first to do anything." That's probably going hold true for folks like myself in the states who would like to see CSP's, but I'm happy to let our European brothers and sisters take the lead, because another line of old school thinking is "If Europe is doing it, we should too." So, we may see some "trickle down" effect from this. :)