Spring 2026 Undergraduate English Courses

01  TTH5   CAC   12250     GRISSOM     MU-301 Where do the words you use every day come from? The English language has always been a dynamic mixture of influences, changing in response to social and political shifts in addition to linguistic processes. This course introduces students to a comprehensive history of the development of the English language, from its origins in Proto-Indo-European to its current form and diversity of dialects. Using methods of historical linguistics and linguistic description,...

01   MTH3   CAC   12251    NOVACICH   HH-B2 This course looks at a range of different forms of travel in the Middle Ages and investigates ways of thinking about the relationship between travel and narrative. We will examine pilgrimages such as those undertaken by Saint Brendan, Margery Kempe, and Dante; consider the exploration of “new” worlds and older ones as they are described in the sagas and in Mandeville’s Travels; study examples of the romance quest; and think about the relationship between...

01   CAC   MW4   12163   KLEIN   ABW-2100

01   CAC   MW5   12164    AIELLO  HC-S120  Reading Medieval Manuscripts What if your textbook was over 750 years old? What would happen if you read a piece of early literature not as an isolated text printed in a modern paperback, but as it originally existed: hand-written (“manu”-“script”), artistically constructed, and sharing the page with other supposedly random texts? This seminar introduces students to the vibrant world of medieval manuscripts through one remarkable thirteenth-century manuscript,...