ENGL 252 - Muslim American Literature

Credits: 5
A study of Muslim American literature, including poetry, fiction, drama, spoken word, and/or memoir. Recognizing the diversity within Muslim America, students will interpret literary works in relation to culture, race, gender, sexuality, class/income, disability, immigration history, and/or language. Students will situate literary works in their historical, cultural, and political contexts, including Islamic and Arabic literature, U.S. slavery, European colonialism, Black Muslims, 9/11, Islamophobia, Islam and feminism, and/or the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Enrollment Requirement: Eligible for ENGL 99.

Satisfies Requirement: Humanities/Fine Arts/English and Diversity
Course Fee: $2.00

Course Outcomes:
Students who successfully complete this class will be able to:

Engage in close reading, critical thinking, discussion, and writing in response to various genres within Muslim American literature, including fiction, drama, poetry, spoken word, and/or memoir, along with related literary criticism.
Recognize the wide diversity within Muslim America, including culture, race, gender, sexuality, class/income, disability, immigration history, and/or language, as these inform the literature, including how Muslim Americans have responded to oppression through literature, popular culture, and/or activism.
Investigate the historical, cultural, and political contexts within which literary works emerge and function, including Islamic and Arabic literature, U.S. slavery, European colonialism, Black Muslims, 9/11, Islamophobia, Islam and feminism, and/or the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Situate Muslim American literature in relation to US history, the traditional American literary canon, and/or the (ethnic) literatures of other communities of color.

Program Outcomes
Demonstrate college-level reading skills by summarizing, analyzing, interpreting, synthesizing, and evaluating college texts; and develop an awareness of the approaches writers use for different audiences, genres, and rhetorical situations.

College-wide Outcomes

Critical Thinking - Critical thinking finds expression in all disciplines and everyday life. It is characterized by an ability to reflect upon thinking patterns, including the role of emotions on thoughts, and to rigorously assess the quality of thought through its work products. Critical thinkers routinely evaluate thinking processes and alter them, as necessary, to facilitate an improvement in their thinking and potentially foster certain dispositions or intellectual traits over time.