Courses Taught in English

C LIT 101 A01: World Literature I, Instructor: Chris Reyns-Chikuma

This course is an introduction to major works of the world’s literary heritage, presented in their historical, social, and cultural contexts. It covers the period from the beginnings of literary civilizations (Gilgamesh, Bible, Odyssey, ...) until 1600 (..., Monkey King/Journey to the West, Shakespeare). We will read excerpts from these masterpieces supported by short videos of excerpts of movie adaptations and parodies to discussions in class.

This course is in English.

Note: Not open to students with C LIT 100.

C LIT 102 LEC B01: World Literature II; Instructor: TBA

This course weaves together the two related fields of Comparative and World Literature. Students will learn about various analytical approaches used in Comparative literature and will consider the intersection of literature, history, theory, and culture, paying close attention to how Comparative Literature offers the capacity to make cultural insights that are otherwise not accessible via other disciplines.

Through World Literature, students will be introduced to a selection of early modern and contemporary literary works from the Western and non-Western traditions. These works will span various cultural, national, and linguistic boundaries as well as various literary genres, including poetry, short stories, novels, plays, graphic novels and films.

Ultimately, this 100-level class will provide you with an early foundation for fundamental skills required for upper-level course work in this field.

C LIT 210 A01: Literature in The Digital Age, Instructor: Shahab Nadimi

This course examines how digital technologies have reshaped the creation, circulation, and interpretation of literature. We will analyze and compare contemporary multimedia literary experiences across various genres, including electronic literature, interactive fiction, fan fiction, generated text, and narrative video games alongside print culture. Students will also use accessible computational tools to analyze literary texts at scale. No technical or programming background is required. Through close reading, hands-on digital methods, and collaborative presentation, students will develop knowledge of digital literature and critical perspective for its ongoing transformation.

C LIT 220: Mythology And Literature, Instructor: Pogosjan,Jelena

C LIT 228 LEC B01: Literature, Pop Culture, and the Visual Arts, Instructor: Irene Sywenky

This course is designed to introduce students to a selection of popular genres in fiction and visual media (Detective/Crime, Horror, and Fantasy). Some of the critical issues examined in the course are the concepts of popular fiction and popular culture; popular genres in a historical and cross-cultural perspective; the appeal of popular genres; popular genre formulas; audiences and reception. In addition to representative texts from the English-speaking world, students will explore selections in translation from the European, Middle Eastern, Chinese, and Japanese traditions. Analysis of literary texts will be complemented by examination of select examples from other media. Class format will combine lectures, group work, and discussions.

C LIT 242 A01: Science Fiction, Instructor: Daniel Laforest (Online delivery)

In this course, we will examine different science fiction (SF) cultural expressions including popular cinema, animated series, TV shows, poetry, and short stories. We will focus on the relationship between these cultural expressions and intersectional notions of social class, ethnicity, and identity. We will also address how SF cultural expressions reveal relevant information about the human condition, and other social anxieties. These include the preoccupation with possible futures, the social significance of spiritual beliefs, otherness, dystopian sceneries, and social decay, among others. This is a lecture-based and project-based course, which means that, apart from attending lectures, you will have the opportunity to engage in a variety of in-class mini-projects to develop skills that will serve you well in professional settings requiring creative thinking, collaboration skills, effective communication, mentoring or leadership.

At the end of the course, you should be able to:

• Identify and examine the tropes and themes specific to science fiction
• Identify cultural allusions relevant to the works analyzed, and assess their role in articulating categories of identity, gender, ethnicity, and social class
• Assess the rhetorical, ideological, and aesthetic qualities of science fiction visual and written narratives
• Identify the literary and cinematic devices used in science fiction works and how they intervene in creating meaning.

C LIT 243: Fairy Tales And Folk Tales, Instructor: Pogosjan, Jelena

C LIT 352 LEC B01: Literature and the Other Arts: Navigating the City, Instructor Elena Siemens

C LIT 352 encourages students to explore how writers, filmmakers, photographers, and visual artists imagine and interpret the modern city across global media cultures. From Calvino, Murakami, and Coupland to Scorsese, Wenders, and Maddin, and from Rodchenko and Moriyama to Jeff Wall, the course traces how urban space becomes a site of creativity, conflict, memory, and identity. Students examine depictions of the city in relation to debates about consumption, globalization, social movements, race, gender, and style. Alongside traditional assignments, the course encourages creative engagement, including the option to contribute to a student pop‑up exhibit that reflects on the city’s presence in literature, film, photography, video games, graffiti, and advertising.

C LIT 440 A01: Comparative Studies in Popular Culture, Instructor: Shahab Nadimi

This course investigates what counts as popular culture in the age of technology and mass media, and what happens to a work's status as it moves between cultures, media, and levels of prestige. We compare popular culture across national borders and its relation to the canon while using key theories to frame each case. We will analyze various genres, including short stories and their adaptations, fairy tale and folk tale, film, novel, podcast, music, games, and internet memes. We also read collectively and annotate shared texts together as a class. Through close (annotated) reading, comparative methods, and collaborative presentation, students will develop knowledge of popular culture and a critical perspective on their contemporary and historical status.

LA ST 399 LEC B01: Topics in Latin American Studies: Aztec Language, History, and Culture, Instructor: Ann De Leon

In this course, you will be introduced to the basics of contemporary Nahuatl (the “Aztec” language), a language with over 2 million speakers today. Along the way you will also learn about Aztec history, religion, and culture. You will learn how to decipher Aztec pictographs and will get to work with reproductions of ancient Aztec pictorial manuscripts (codices) housed in the U of A’s rare books library (Bruce Peel). You will also get to create your own codex inspired by your own life-narrative using the conventions of Aztec pictorial language. Lastly, we will end the course by looking at how the Aztecs have been represented in popular culture (movies, comics, video games etc.)

No prerequisites. Taught in English. LAST 399 is cross-listed with MLCS 399.

Also counts as an elective for the BA in Ancient and Medieval Studies within the Department of History, Classics, and Religion.

This course also counts toward the Certificate in International Learning.

MLCS 210 LEC A01; Approaches to Cultural Studies, Instructor: Elena Siemens

MLCS 210 is a foundational course that offers an engaging introduction to Cultural Studies and gives students the conceptual tools needed to analyze how culture is created, circulated, and contested. Through interdisciplinary approaches that span language, literature, linguistics, folklore, and translation, the course examines how signs, images, identities, and narratives shape everyday life. Lectures, case studies, discussion, and writing help students explore key concepts such as representation, otherness, power, nation, race, gender, canon formation, and popular culture. This course is well suited to students who want to understand how culture works and how to read it with greater insight.

This course counts toward the Certificate in International Learning.

MLCS 231 LEC A01: Language and Power; Instructor: Ife Adebara

Did you know that language is never neutral? There is always a power dynamic at play. Who decided that one way of speaking English is correct — and everything else needs to be fixed? If AI learns language from the internet, and the internet is mostly in English, whose version of the world is AI learning? This course examines how language — spoken, written, and digital — creates and sustains social, political, and economic power. Drawing on critical linguistics and discourse analysis, students investigate how social power shapes whose language is heard and valued, how politics and advertising use language to persuade, and how economic forces determine which languages thrive in the digital age and which disappear.

Questions include: why are some accents treated as professional and others as uneducated? Why does Siri understand some Canadian accents more readily than others? What does it mean that Swahili has 200 million speakers but barely exists in AI training data?

The required textbook is Annabelle Mooney and Betsy Evans' Language, Society and Power (6th ed., Routledge). Recommended readings include Rosina Lippi-Green's English with an Accent, Paul Simpson and Andrea Mayr's work on critical linguistics, and recent peer-reviewed research evaluating AI performance across African languages. Students also analyse news media, political speeches, and advertisements as primary texts. Assessment includes two take-home open-book exams grounded in real-life observation, and a collaborative group paper and live presentation. No prior knowledge of linguistics or technology is required.

Taught in English.

MLCS 300 LEC A01: Introduction to Translation, Instructor: Ann De Leon

In this course, students will learn basic concepts of translation and will establish a dynamic, self-reflexive context to frame their practice. By the end of the course students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of key issues in translation theory and praxis; analyze how time, context, and culture create the framework for a (non-)literary text and can influence the choices made by the translator; develop and implement appropriate strategies for tackling translation challenges; critically evaluate their own and others’ translations using professional terms; and build inter- and cross-cultural awareness in a multilingual class setting.

This course is taught in English, but translation discussions and examples will include the different languages the students are fluent in.

This course may count towards the MLCS Certificate in Translation Studies and the Certificate in International Learning.

MLCS 399 LEC B01: Topics in Latin American Studies: Aztec Language, History, and Culture; Instructor: Ann De Leon

In this course, you will be introduced to the basics of contemporary Nahuatl (the “Aztec” language), a language with over 2 million speakers today. Along the way you will also learn about Aztec history, religion, and culture. You will learn how to decipher Aztec pictographs and will get to work with reproductions of ancient Aztec pictorial manuscripts (codices) housed in the U of A’s rare books library (Bruce Peel). You will also get to create your own codex inspired by your own life-narrative using the conventions of Aztec pictorial language. Lastly, we will end the course by looking at how the Aztecs have been represented in popular culture (movies, comics, video games etc.)

No prerequisites. Taught in English. MLCS 399 is cross-listed with LA ST 399.

Counts as an elective for the BA in Ancient and Medieval Studies within the Department of History, Classics, and Religion.

Also counts toward the Certificate in International Learning.

MLCS 400 LEC B01: The History of Translation, Instructor: Jeffrey Longard

Translators are rarely mentioned in history books. Yet their contribution has been essential—whether in the spread of religions, the circulation of knowledge, or the consolidation of national languages. The purpose of this course is not only to shed light on the little-known role of translators in world history, but also to use the lens of translation to reflect on overarching issues, such as colonialism, Indigeneity, the environment, and gender.

This course counts towards the MLCS Certificate in Translation Studies.

MLCS 410 B01/MST 400 B02: Capstone Course, Instructor: Beard, Laura

SCAND 326 LEC A01: Scandinavian Children’s Literature, Instructor: John Eason

Discover the surprisingly rich—and sometimes wonderfully strange—world of Scandinavian children’s literature! This course explores stories, novels, and picture books from the 17th century to the present, tracing changing ideas about childhood from early moral and religious literature to modern works that place children, their experiences, and their perspectives at the centre of the story.

Along the way, we’ll encounter some of the most influential figures in Scandinavian children’s literature, including Astrid Lindgren, while exploring works such as Pippi Longstocking, Ronia, the Robber’s Daughter, and The Glassblower’s Children. We’ll consider not only what these stories tell us, but how they use narrative, illustration, fantasy, humour, and sometimes darker themes to represent childhood and the world around it.

Through readings, lectures, discussions, and small-group activities, we’ll examine questions of gender, identity, ethnicity, the environment, power, family, and the child’s place in society. We’ll also consider how Scandinavian children’s literature both reflects and challenges the cultures and historical periods in which it was produced.

No knowledge of a Scandinavian language is required. The course is taught entirely in English and has no prerequisites.

SCAND 328 LEC B01: Scandinavian Crime Fiction, Instructor: John Eason

Enter the dark and compelling world of Nordic Noir! Scandinavian crime fiction has become an international phenomenon, but these novels offer much more than murder mysteries and suspense. In this course, we’ll explore the development of modern Scandinavian crime fiction from the groundbreaking work of Swedish writers Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö in the 1960s to internationally known authors such as Henning Mankell, Stieg Larsson, Karin Fossum, Peter Høeg, and Arnaldur Indriðason.

As we travel through Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland, we’ll use crime fiction as a cultural mirror, asking what these stories reveal about the societies that produced them. We’ll examine issues such as the Scandinavian welfare state, gender and feminism, immigration and multiculturalism, marginalization, globalization, national identity, and the tensions that can lie beneath the image of prosperous and socially progressive Nordic societies.

Along the way, we’ll read some of the genre’s best-known works, including Roseanna, Smilla’s Sense of Snow, Sidetracked, Jar City, He Who Fears the Wolf, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Films and screen adaptations will allow us to consider how Nordic Noir moves from page to screen and why Scandinavian crime fiction has captured audiences around the world.

No knowledge of a Scandinavian language is required. The course is taught entirely in English and has no prerequisites.

SCAND 344 LEC A01: The Icelandic Sagas, Instructor: Natalie Van Deusen

This course, which is taught in English, introduces students to the rich literary tapestry of medieval Iceland, from myths about Odin, Thor, and Loki to legendary romances featuring female rulers and warriors. Through a combination of lectures and in-class discussions, we will examine the evolution of vernacular literary production, and in doing so will trace key cultural, social, and historical themes and moments.

Note: SCAND 344 is a cross-listed course with Ancient and Medieval Studies in the Department of History, Classics, and Religion. 

SLAV 204 LEC A01: Slavic Folklore and Mythology, Instructor: Oleksandr Pankieiev

This course explores the history, beliefs, and cultural traditions of Slavic folklore and mythology. It examines traditional customs associated with life-cycle events—such as birth, marriage, and death—as well as seasonal and religious holidays, including how these celebrations have evolved over time. The course also investigates the influence of political ideologies and historical change on traditional practices.

The course also examines traditional leisure activities, including dance, music, singing, games, jokes, and cuisine, as important expressions of identity. In addition, it explores the traditions and cultural practices of Slavic diaspora communities and how they have preserved and adapted these traditions in new social and cultural contexts.

Finally, the course examines how Slavic folklore is represented in popular culture and how various media have reshaped, reinterpreted, and transmitted folkloric traditions.