Undergraduate Program Description

First year courses

Provide the beginning skills for our upper year courses. Students entering first-year can take Foundations of Literary Study (required of English majors) as well as any other first year courses offered.

Literature courses

Are designed to introduce students to an international range of engaging texts, including novels, poetry, drama and short fiction from different historical periods. Students also learn to critically read strategies of persuasion and representation in a variety of media that could include advertising, correspondence, political speeches and film.

English 1115: Foundations of Literary Study

An introduction to literary study, focusing on texts from the major genres (drama, poetry, prose) within their historical and cultural contexts. Emphasis will be given to the development of skills in critical analysis, research, writing, and documentation.

NOTE: ENGL 1115 is a required course for all English majors.

English/MDST 1116: Native & Newcomer Literatures in Canada: Contact Zones

An introduction to First Nations and settler literature in Canada, focusing on the ways in which the writing of these groups helps to define, negotiate, and critique the relationships between all Canadian treaty people. Texts from a variety of genres, such as fiction, travel and exploration narrative, life writing, poetry, songs, drama and film, will be studied in their historical, political, and cultural contexts.

English/MDST 1117: Introduction to Popular Culture

An introduction to the critical study of popular culture, considering definitions of “the popular” and how popular movements, genres, and subcultures emerge and develop. Popular culture theories and their applications will be covered; a variety of cultural texts will be analyzed.

English/MDST 1118: Introduction to Film Studies

An introduction to the practices of reading, analyzing, and writing critically about film. Elements including mise-en-scène, cinematography, editing, and sound will be examined. Film form and style in a variety of genres, such as the documentary, experimental film, narrative cinema, and animation, will be covered. Attention will be paid to the role of cinema, and cinema studies, as cultural institutions.

Writing courses

Offer the opportunity to hone writing and research skills academically or professionally in a variety of modes and forms, providing students with valuable tools for their future studies in whatever discipline they pursue.

English 1014: Introduction to Creative Writing

An introduction to the craft of creative writing. Genres studied may include: drama, poetry, prose fiction, creative nonfiction.

English 1015: Introduction to Academic Writing

An introduction to university-level standards of composition, revision, editing, research, and documentation. A review of English grammar (word and sentence level) and rhetorical forms (paragraph level and beyond), and a study of the methods and conventions of academic argumentation and research, with an emphasis on finding and evaluating sources, formulating research questions, developing arguments, and composing various types of analyses including academic essays.

English 1016: Introduction to Professional Writing

An introduction to professional-level standards of composition, revision, editing, research and documentation. A review of English grammar (word and sentence level), rhetorical forms (paragraph level and beyond), and a study of writing in a variety of professional contexts with an emphasis on assessing rhetorical situations and crafting messages to inform and persuade diverse audiences in a variety of forms and formats.

Second Year Courses

Second year courses are half-credit or 0.5FCE courses

Courses being offered this year include:

FALL 2026:

ENGL 2012 FAO - Creative Writing, Prose Fiction

ENGL 2013 FA - Creative Writing, Poetry

ENGL 2250 FA/FAO - History of Literature 1

ENGL2251 FAO - History of Literature 2

ENGL/INDI 2717 FA/FAO - Indigenous Literature in Canada

ENGL 2913 FA/FAO - Intro to Literary and Cultural Theories

ENGL 2916 FDE - Popular Texts and Forms - zoom

ENGL 2917 FAO - Children's Literature

WINTER 2027:

ENGL 2010 WAO - Fantasy Literature

ENGL 2115 WDE - Shakespeare - web

ENGL 2250 WAO - History of Literature 1

ENGL 2251 WA/WAO - History of Literature 2

ENGL 2510 WDE - Global Literature - zoom
ENGL/WOME 2810 WA/WAO - Gender, Sexuality and the Body

ENGL 2817 WAO - Non Fiction Writing

ENGL 2913 WAO - Intro to Literary and Cultural Theories

ENGL/MDST 2950 WDE - Science Fiction - zoom

Third year courses

Tend to be more focused. Topics include: Medieval and Tudor Drama, Chaucer, Shakespeare, 16th, 17th C and 18th C Literatures, Contesting America: Modernism, British Romanticism, Canadian Literature to the Centennial, 21st Century Indigenous Storytelling, Creative Writing, Children's Literature, Immigrant Literatures, Young Adult Literature, Global South Asia, Cultural Studies, Women's Writing and Special Topics.

Courses being offered this year include:

Fall 2026

ENGL 3013 FAO - Public Writing

ENGL 3612 FA - Contesting America

ENGL 3710 FA/FDE - Canadian Literature to the Centennial - hybrid

ENGL 3713 FAO - Contemporary Canadian Literature
ENGL/INDI 3751 FA/FAO - Indigenous Children's Literature

ENGL 3911 FAO - Legends of King Arthur

ENGL 3919 FDE - Young Adult Literature

ENGL 3970 FA/FAO - Global South Asia

Winter 2027

ENGL 3011 WAO - Creative Writing - Poetry
ENGL 3014 WDE - Cultural Workers and Industries - zoom
ENGL 3015 WDE - Chaucer - web
ENGL/WOME 3850 WA/WAO - Queer Texts
ENGL 3935 WDE - Global Africa

Fourth year courses

Provide additional specialization for Honours students. These classes are much smaller and much more intimate. To view course syllabi for current fourth year seminars, please contact our Administrative Assistant engl@lakeheadu.ca.

Courses being offered this year include:

Fall 2026:

ENGL 4013 FA/FAO - Sex/Gender on the Early Modern Stage

ENGL 4014 FA/FAO - Mary Shelley

ENGL 4015 FA/FAO - Housing India

ENGL 4018 FDE - Radical Imagination in Art and Activism

ENGL 4115 FAO - Nature Poetry

Winter 2027:

ENGL/INDI 4012 WA/WAO - Tricksters in Indigenous Literature

ENGL 4013 WDE - Medieval Scottish Poetry - zoom

ENGL 4014 WAO - 18th Century Literature

ENGL 4015 WDE - African American Women Writers - zoom

ENGL 4115 WA - Life Writing