PhD Exam Preparation

English is a global language with a distinctly imperial history, and this course serves as an essential introduction to literary works produced in or about the former European colonies. The focus will be poetry, film, fiction and non fiction and at least two geographic areas spanning the Americas, South Asia, the Caribbean and Africa as they reflect the impact of colonial rule on the cultural representations of identity, nationalism, race, class and gender. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings.

English is a global language with a distinctly imperial history, and this course serves as an essential introduction to literary works produced in or about the former European colonies. The focus will be poetry, film, fiction and non fiction and at least two geographic areas spanning the Americas, South Asia, the Caribbean and Africa as they reflect the impact of colonial rule on the cultural representations of identity, nationalism, race, class and gender. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings.

As jazz composer Duke Ellington once said, African Americans are “something apart” from
mainstream American society, but still “an integral part” of the nation’s identity and history. This course takes up Ellington’s provocation to consider how Black Americans have advanced important ideas about race, citizenship, activism, and culture that offer vital insight into African American and American history alike. Taking a broad view of intellectual history, the course will pair secondary literature with relevant primary
sources from politics, literature, education, and the visual and performing arts. We will explore how, denied full access to political representation, education, and mobility in public space, African Americans have developed innovative and insurgent modes of making their ideas about the world known to a multiracial public. Each week, we will ask: what does it mean to be an intellectual? How are ideas and actions interconnected? What forms can ideas take, and how do they circulate beyond texts? How do these examples help us understand discourse, culture, and activism in our current moment? Across class discussion and written assignments, students will come to appreciate the breadth, multiplicity, and dynamism of African American thought and culture. Together, we will examine the complex ambitions, morals, struggles, and triumphs of African American people to unlock a more profound understanding of past and present.

The course will focus on race and ethnicity in the United States. We begin with a brief history of racial categorization and immigration to the U.S. The course continues by examining a number of topics including racial and ethnic identity, interracial and interethnic friendships and marriage, racial attitudes, mass media images, residential segregation, educational stratification, and labor market outcomes. The course will include discussions of African Americans, Whites, Hispanics, Asian Americans and multiracials.

This course treats important themes and questions in modern and contemporary Spanish cultural production. Course content may vary. Please see specific section details.

This course explores an aspect of Postcolonial literature intensively. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings.

The course will focus on race and ethnicity in the United States. We begin with a brief history of racial categorization and immigration to the U.S. The course continues by examining a number of topics including racial and ethnic identity, interracial and interethnic friendships and marriage, racial attitudes, mass media images, residential segregation, educational stratification, and labor market outcomes. The course will include discussions of African Americans, Whites, Hispanics, Asian Americans and multiracials.

This course introduces students to colloquial Bengali. It gives equal emphasis to each of the four skills, reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Language will be studied in the context of socio-cultural aspects of West Bengal and Bangladesh. Besides lessons from the text, a major portion of the syllabus will be based on topics drawn from films, cultural events, festivals, food, and religion.

This seminar examines cultural representations of Brazil in relation to other imagined geographies, global discourses and transnational connections - Brazil and Latin America, Brazil and the Black Atlantic, etc. It provides a theoretical framework for comparative analysis, and its central cultural objects include Brazilian literature, visual culture and intellectual history.