Literature & Writing

A window to worlds

Writing expands your horizons, opens your mind, and requires hard, careful work. Writing is the process through which we refine our thinking and critically engage with diverse ideas to make sense of human activities and lived experiences. Similarly, literature connects you to both the world beyond and the world within your own being. Not only are reading and writing richly rewarding in themselves, they also develop fundamental academic, life, and professional skills. Reading, writing, and thinking are crucial to every organization and profession.

Diverse course offerings and contemporary topics

Our courses are designed with collaboration in mind and centered on critical engagement, discussions, and hands-on activities.

Writing courses are grounded in critical inquiry and analysis of discourse to help develop your rhetorical awareness and knowledge of everyday, academic, professional genres. Our courses are thematic and address how writing intersects with current social issues, politics, language diversity, discourse, rhetoric, multilingualism, multimodality, and identity. Course offerings in writing include, but are not limited to, Food and Identity in Writing ; Intro to Journalism ; Life Stories ; The World of Ms. Marvel; Ethics, AI, and Authorship; Journeys: Writing for Voyagers, Trekkers, and Wanderers; Research for Change ; Communicating Science, and Writing for Nonprofits.

Literature courses explore the world in space and time through a diversity of literary works, written in different contexts and spaces, and through several theoretical frameworks and lenses. Course offerings in literature include, but are not limited to, Introduction to Postcolonialism ; Toni Morrison ; 19th Century American Women; Setting Sail with Amitav Ghosh ; Epic Heroines;   Nature of Narrative; Gender, Politics, & Nature in Folk/Fairy Tales; and Literature of Exile.

Creativity in multiple ways

Courses transcend established boundaries and create space for creativity and exploration. In writing courses, students have opportunities to examine various genres in personal, professional, and academic domains to suit their interests. A diverse range of print and multimodal genres are used to facilitate your literacies, such as social media, resumes, cover letters, personal statements, research papers, news articles, and food writing genres. You will create portfolios of writing, including research and evidence-based writing to document and showcase your learning. Students in literature classes actively engage in deep analytical work in various genres beyond the traditional written pieces, including multimodal genres to make sense of human experiences.

Reminder: Areas of study at COA aren’t majors or formal concentrations. All COA students design their own major in human ecology and are free to chart their own path. Your major is defined by you, not us.