Amy Minett Coordinator, Certificate in Writing and Rhetoric aminett@salemstate.edu 978.542.2621
English Department Faculty directory.salemstate.edu/english School of Graduate Studies
978.542.6323
GRADUATE STUDENT
IMPORTANT PROGRAM DATES
• October 8 – Writers Series: Carmen Maria Machado, 7:30 pm, Recital Hall
• October 16 – Thesis and Manuscript Proposals for Spring Due
• October 21 – Writers Series: Jan Lindholm, 7:30 pm, Recital Hall
• November 1 – Scholars Toolkit: Lance Eaton, Director, Faculty Development and Innovation at College Unbound, “Don’t Look at My Desktop! Navigating the Digital Clutter of Information, Knowledge, and Resources,” 12-1 pm. Register for the Zoom Link – Navigating Digital Clutter
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
SPRING 2025
JANUARY
• November 14 – Writers Series: Eileen Cleary and Heather Treseler, 7:30 pm, MLK, Ellison Campus Center
• November 15 – Scholars Toolkit, Jan Allen, PhD, Associate Dean, Academic and Student Affairs, Cornell University, “Maintaining Writing Productivity, 12-1 pm, Register for the Zoom Link – Writing Productivity
• December 1 – Graduate Racial Justice Writing Contest submissions due
• January 1 – Masters in English Regional Conference (MERC) submissions due
• January 13 – First Full Complete Teaching Day Full Semester Courses
• January 17 – Full Semester Add/Drop Period Ends
• January 20 – MLK Jr. Day
• February 7 – Application for March Language Exam Due (to School of Graduate Studies)
FEBRUARY
• February 17 – Presidents’ Day Holiday
• February 21 – CPS/G Makeup Day for Presidents’ Day Holiday
• February 24 – Registration for Summer Opens (current students)
• March 1 – Masters in English Regional Conference (MERC), at Bridgewater State University
MARCH
• March 5 – Language Exam
• March 15 – Graduate Application Due (through Navigate)
• March 15-21 – Spring Recess
IMPORTANT PROGRAM DATES
APRIL
• April 4 – Last Day to Withdraw from Spring Semester Courses
• April 7 – Intention to Complete a Thesis or Manuscript in the Summer/Fall Due
• April 7 – Fall Registration Opens (current students)
• April 15 – Thesis and Manuscript Proposals for Summer/Fall Due
• April 21 – Patriots’ Day Holiday
• April 25 – CPS/G Make-up Day for Patriots’ Day Holiday
• May 1 – Final Thesis and Manuscripts with ALL Signed Paperwork Due
• May 1 – Intention to Complete a Portfolio in Summer/Fall Due
MAY
JUNE
JULY
• May 1 – Intention to Complete a Thesis/Manuscript in Fall Due
• May 10 – Last Day of Classes
• May 15-17 – Commencement Ceremony
• June 13 – Application for July Language Exam Due to School of Graduate Studies
• July 12 – Language Exam
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
SPRING 2025
ENG 704 Contemporary American Fiction (Literature, American)
Professor Peter Walker
Thursdays: 4:30-6:50 pm, in-person
ENG 704, Contemporary American Fiction, will focus on novels and short stories by contemporary American authors such as Tim O’Brien, Helen Benedict, Sara Novic, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Viet Thanh Nguyen.
ENG 770N Culture and Context in TESOL (English Elective)
Professor Amy Minett
WWW, Online Asynchronous
This course provides a foundation for understanding the field of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). Local, national, and international contexts are examined and used in investigating various historical and current approaches to teaching linguistically diverse learners. Topics include laws and language policies, cultural identity, language diversity, and culturally responsive and affirming teaching to forge family and/or community relations. Three lecture hours per week. Field-based assignments are required.
ENG 797 Feminist Rhetorical Theory (Writing, Literature, Certificate in Writing and Rhetoric)
Professor Jan Lindholm
Mondays: 4:30-6:50 pm, in-person
Feminist scholars in composition, rhetoric, communication, and literacy studies have transformed understandings of communication as they’ve challenged and reinterpreted canons, expanded possible sites and subjects for research, complicated the nature of researchers’ relationship to their subjects, articulated the complexities of context in relation to communication, revealed dynamics of power and privilege, asserted the importance of listening attentively, and developed sophisticated research agendas and methodologies that emerged from their commitments to social justice, peace, and healing. And that’s only some of what they’ve done! In Spring Semester 2025, we have the opportunity to join the important conversations that these scholars have started, adding our own voices to the mix—and I, for one, can’t wait to begin that work with you!
ENG 812 Poetry and Poetics
(Literature, Writing)
Professor J.D. Scrimgeour
Thursdays: 7:00-9:20 pm, in-person
How do poems work? And how do they play? This course explores the way poems are put together. We will learn about the use of the conventional elements of poetry, such as image, metaphor, allusion, lineation, tone, symbol, and all that is encompassed in prosody. We will study the various forms of poetry, from sonnets, villanelles, and sestinas to more recent forms, such as the duplex and the bop. The focus throughout will be finding ways to best enjoy, appreciate, and understand poetry, whether it’s studying speech acts or a poet’s biography, literary history or reader responses. We will look at classic and contemporary poems and poets, including poems in translation. While this is not a poetry writing course, the work will include writing poetry as a way to help us understand the art.
The course is designed for those who wish to study poetry intensively, those planning to teach poetry in K-12, and those who are just curious.
ENG 817 Contemporary Approaches to Teaching Composition
(MAT English Core, Certificate in Writing and Rhetoric)
Professor Alexandria Kirby
Tuesdays: 4:30-6:50 pm, in-person
This survey course introduces current and prospective teachers to an array of writing pedagogies including process, rhetorical, genre, and multimodal. We will examine how these pedagogies intersect and how we can use them to inform our own teaching practices. We will also learn and practice how to create effective writing assignments—both formative and summative—and how to assess student writing. We will explore how to center students’ voices through writing while operating within the modern school system. Students will engage in hands-on activities during each class to support them in developing their own writing voice and teaching writing effectively.
ENG 833 Topics in Writing: Multimodal Storytelling
(Writing, Certificate in Writing and Rhetoric, Certificate in Digital Studies)
Professor Tanya Rodrigue
Wednesdays: 4:30-6:50 pm, hybrid synchronous This course introduces students to the theory and practice of multimodal storytelling. This kind of storytelling strategically uses a combination of different vehicles of communication such as visuals, sound, and spoken and written language to make and convey meaning. Students will explore and analyze multimodal stories in various genres to learn more about the composing process, the decision-making process of choosing modalities, and the kinds of strategies that can be employed to craft powerful and engaging multimodal stories. Students will experiment composing in different modes and will craft multimodal stories in genres of their choosing, such as graphic novels, photo essays, or spoken-word poetry.
ENG 870 Writing Center Graduate Practicum (Writing, Certificate
Professor DeCiccio
in Writing and Rhetoric)
Wednesdays: 1:40-3:30 pm, in-person
Welcome to ENG 870: Graduate Writing Center Practicum! In this course, we will examine the ways in which writing interventions can benefit writers by exploring a range of strategies for tutoring writers. We’ll explore everything from what makes a successful writing center session to new media and online tutoring, working with writers in the disciplines, working with multilingual writers, working with graduate student writers and faculty members, and investigating how different identities surface and play out in the Writing Center. In addition to attending and participating in our Wednesday meetings, you will be required to tutor (in-person or remotely) in the Mary G. Walsh Writing Center for three hours each week. Your work in the Center will be the basis for the rest of our course. As you read, write, think, discuss, and research, you will always be reflecting on your tutoring sessions, using your experiences in the Center to push back on the texts we read and theorizing how to build new knowledge about writing centers. Anyone interested in working at the Mary G. Walsh Writing Center as a tutor must successfully complete this course. Invitations to tutor will be based on a comprehensive assessment of your work, your professionalism, and your enthusiasm for working with others.
