ENG 338 Public Humanities
This course examines the role that literature plays in public life. By way of a focused study of an author’s work, literary forms and texts, or a book collection, the course offers an introduction to the public humanities. Students will identify with a social justice or cultural initiative in Memphis, and receive training in the methods and practices by which publicly engaged literary study is used to spark civic engagement and personal and political dialogue between diverse members of a community. Sections of the course may be devoted to a speaker’s series with partners administering public humanities programs; the intersection of the humanities and law, medicine, sociology, computer science, or another discipline; the role that businesses and organizations play in shaping literary and cultural discourse; cultural heritage preservation; the digital humanities and oral/print/digital communications in service of the public humanities; and public programming and writing. By turning Memphis into the literature classroom, this course offers an applied approach to fulfilling a literature requirement. Course may be repeated to a maximum of 9 hours under different subtitles.