ENGL 207 A: Introduction to Cultural Studies

Course Description

English 207 introduces cultural studies as a field and practice by examining female action heroes in US popular culture. We will identify classical roots of the female warrior figure before turning to 20th- and 21st-century depictions of female heroes in action films and comics. The course explores iconic superheroes like Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, and Ms. Marvel as well as "everyday" women like Pam Grier’s Coffy, Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley, and Charlize Theron's Imperator Furiosa. In analyzing how and why women kick ass, we will connect female action heroes to ongoing cultural debates around gender, particularly as it intersects with race, sexuality, disability, and sexuality.

English 207 fulfills A&H and W general education credits as well as counting toward the English major or minor. Please note that accelerated terms compress a ten-week course into four and a half weeks. The course thus moves quickly and has a heavy workload.

Course Objectives

By the end of this course, you will be able to

1. Describe literary and artistic precedents for contemporary female warriors
2. Analyze how popular culture texts use expressive tools to represent female heroes
3. Relate individual works to the cultural contexts in which they were produced
4. Explain cultural discourses around gender and the intersection of gender, race, sexuality and disability in the United States
5. Compare depictions of female action heroes produced by different artists, at similar/different times, or in different media
6. Create complex arguments supported by appropriate, carefully explicated evidence

Course Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this course—just be willing to critically analyze texts you may currently view as escapist entertainment.

Course Materials

Comic Books

You will need to purchase the following textbooks for this course in digital or print book form. The UW Bookstore comic book section has print copies of the Claremont, Rucka, Marston, and Wilson comic books, but you're welcome to search the online retailers listed below or brick-and-mortar bookstores for the best prices on new or used copies. Your local public library should also have copies. Since comic book storyworlds are frequently rebooted, use the ISBN information below to ensure you have the correct book.

The X-Men and Ms. Marvel books are on reserve at Odegaard Undergraduate Library. I’ve also reserved a Wonder Woman collection with some of the same stories featured in our assigned textbook. Your UW Libraries account allows you to check out books from other UW campus as well as institutions within the Summit consortium, many of which hold course texts.

• Chris Claremont and John Byrne, X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga. [New Printing 2] Marvel, 2023. ISBN: 9781302950033. [Amazon |Barnes & Noble | Penguin Random House]. Used copies of earlier editions may be purchased instead of the new printing.
• Kelly Sue DeConnick, Dexter Soy, and Emma Rios, Captain Marvel, Vol. 1: In Pursuit of Flight. Marvel, 2013. ISBN: 0785165495. [Amazon | Internet Archive | Strand Books]
• Gail Simone, Terry Dodson, and Bernard Chang, Wonder Woman: The Circle. DC Comics, 2008. ISBN: 1401220118. [Amazon | Internet Archive]
• Marston, William Moulton, Wonder Woman: The Golden Age, Volume 1. DC Comics, 2017. ISBN: 1401274447. [AbeBooks | Amazon | Internet Archive]
• Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona, Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal. Marvel, 2014. ISBN: 078519021X. Digital version is free for Amazon Prime members. [Amazon | Better World Books]

Films

You will also be required to view the following films. All but the listed Marvel films and television series are available via the course Canvas site. The listed Marvel media are available via streaming services. Your local public library may also have copies.

• Aliens(James Cameron, 1986, 137 min.)
• Coffy (Jack Hill, 1973, 90 min.)
• Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015, 120 min.)
• Wonder Woman (Patty Jenkins, 2017, 141 min.)
• A Marvel film or two series episodes from the following list: Black Widow(Cate Shortland, 2021, 134 min.), Captain Marvel (Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, 2019, 123 min.), Ironheart (Chinaka Hodge, 2025, 40-57 min./episode),   Marvel (Bisha K. Ali, 2022, 45-50 min./episode), The Marvels (Nia DaCosta, 2023, 105 min.), or Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Ryan Coogler, 2022, 161 min.). 

Other Materials

The course Canvas site includes digitized scholarly articles on course comic books and films as well as narrated Panopto and PowerPoint lectures and links to supplementary videos.

Course Organization

The course is organized into six modules. Modules last anywhere from half a week to a week-and-a-half. Each module includes overviews that feature a lecture or lectures with accompanying polls, videos modeling analytical methods, course readings, and critical annotation, discussion posting, and reading question assignments. Modules 1-5 focus on course comic books, films, and scholarly readings. Module 6 involves drafting the major project, discussing your draft with peers, and revising from feedback.

Module Overview

• Module 1: The Female Warrior in Classical Art and Literature
• Module 2: We Can Do It! Wonder Woman in WWII and Beyond
• Module 3: Women and the Blaxploitation Genre
• Module 4: SciFi Action: Hardbodies of the Future
• Module 5: X-Women and Female Superheroes in the Marvel-Verse
• Module 6: Major Project

Assignments

Students will complete the following assignments. Lecture polls and reading questions and comments ask you to engage with module lectures and scholarly readings. Discussion postings, critical annotations, and the major project require you to apply concepts from lecture, scholarly readings, and “In Practice” videos to your own analyses of one or more course texts. You’ll also submit a few introductory assignments, including a syllabus quiz and account set-up and testing. Note that you will submit all assignments via Canvas, even if you use third-party tools like VideoANT, PollEverywhere, or UW Google Docs to complete them:

• Introductory assignments (3)
• Lecture polls (1-2 submissions per module)
• Reading questions and comments (1 submission; I’ve divided the class into groups, with individual members responsible for submitting reading questions during their assigned week)
• Discussion postings and replies (1-3 initial postings and 2-6 replies per module)
• Critical annotations of comics panel sequences or film scenes (4)
• Major project (involves description, draft, peer review, and revision)

Assessment and Grading

Grades in English 207 will be computed by points, with 400 points equaling a 4.0, 300 points a 3.0, and so on. If your total falls between grades, I will round up if you score one to five points below the higher grade and round down if you score one to four points above the lower grade. For example, 274 points equals a 2.7 and 275 points a 2.8. Students who score less than 65 points total will receive a 0 for the course, as the UW grading system does not scale grades lower than .7.  Anyone earning 385 or more points will receive a 4.0.

Discussion postings, the self-intro video, lecture polls, reading questions, and the major project description and draft receive points on a full/partial/no-points basis, with full points granted to on-time work that meets length requirements and seriously engages the prompt or peers’ ideas. All other assignments will be evaluated on accuracy of responses and quality of analysis. You will receive assessment of your work in the form of grades and instructor feedback, whether freeform, within a rubric, or as an announcement to the class. Since this is an online course, I rely on your assignments to assess your understanding of the course content. If you do not understand course readings, films, instructional materials, or assignment prompts, ask questions in the Q&A Forum, come to drop-in hours, or email me (kgb@uw.edu).

Each component of the course is worth the following number of points. Please note that Canvas does not integrate well with my point schema. Canvas automatically converts points into percentages, a conversion that can make your grade seem lower than it actually is. For example, 10/20 points represents the C range under my system and the F range (50%) under a percentage system. For this reason, I include point range information on each assignment. In short, focus on your total points and ignore Canvas's percentage conversion.

Connecting with Others

In addition to interacting with others in online discussions, you have other opportunities to connect with peers and the instructor:

Q&A Forum

The Q&A Forum is an asynchronous space where you can ask general questions about the course, readings, or assignment prompts. Posting questions in the forum helps others with the same question. It also allows students to share answers the instructor might not have.

Drop-in Hours

You need not have a specific question about the class, course texts, an assignment, or work-in-progress to attend my drop-in hours. I’m available every Tuesday from 4:00-6:00 p.m. via Zoom (https://washington.zoom.us/j/99595331924). Come visit me to discuss your interests, experiences at UW, or even the class. If you cannot make my scheduled drop-in hours, please contact me to set up an alternative time.

Policies

Lateness

Components of the course build on one another; for example, ideas generated in discussion postings may fuel your major project and lecture polls and reading questions ensure you understand key concepts before you compose critical annotations. Keeping up with discussions, lecture polls, and reading questions are essential to building course knowledge and skills. Similarly, the description, draft, peer review, and revision process is essential to fulfilling the W requirement. Therefore, I do not accept late discussion postings, lecture polls, reading questions, project descriptions, drafts, or peer reviews. Late critical annotations and major projects receive a 10-point deduction per day late, including weekends and holidays.

Your lowest discussion posting score will be dropped. You may submit one critical annotation 24 hours after the original due date. No need to contact me if you choose to do so.

Technology glitches or incorrect permissions settings do not constitute valid excuses for lateness. To avoid computer problems, you should save frequently while working, and you should back up work saved on a hard drive to Dropbox, iCloud, UW Google Drive, or your personal file space on Canvas. When submitting files or URLs to Canvas, you are responsible for copying/pasting the correct URL or selecting the correct file. You are also responsible for double-checking sharing settings to ensure others can access your work. If Canvas breaks down, contact UW-IT technical support (help@uw.edu) and email your work directly to me (kgb@uw.edu).

I will make exceptions to the lateness policy only in cases of illness or family emergency.

Academic Integrity

English 207 adheres to the University of Washington’s Student Conduct Code, which prohibits academic misconduct like distributing instructional materials outside class without permission, cheating and plagiarism: the unacknowledged use of others' words or ideas.

As a W course, English 207 limits use of generative AI like Copilot, Gemini, and Chat GPT for course assignments. You may use generative AI to help you brainstorm Major Project ideas and create outlines from your notes, provide feedback on draft work, suggest stylistic changes to your prose, or copyedit spelling, grammar, and usage. For example, your prompt may describe your topic and ask for 3-5 questions to help you generate ideas, request a few organization options for ideas you input, or solicit feedback on whether the body of your essay connects to your main argument. You may not use generative AI to write text for you, nor may you include materials for which you don’t have copyright in your prompts. Furthermore, you must document your use of AI, providing information on what tool you used, how you used it (for example, brainstorming, feedback, etc.), and the prompts you used.

The University of Washington offers a version of Microsoft Copilot with commercial data protection, which means that information you submit in your prompt will not become part of Microsoft’s AI training dataset. While the university’s agreement with Microsoft doesn’t address the environmental impact; inaccuracies, hallucinations, and bias; labor issues; and intellectual property concerns that AI brings, it does protect your privacy in ways openly-available generative AI platforms do not. However, you must log on to Microsoft 365 with your UW credentials to use the protected version.

All assignment prompts, readings, recorded lectures, film clips distributed via Canvas, and other handouts are for enrolled students only. Do not share lecture poll questions with fellow students. When drawing upon sources in your discussion postings, critical annotations, and project, make clear to your audience that you are incorporating others’ work by placing quotation marks around exact words and noting the author’s name whenever you quote, summarize or paraphrase. Submitting work authored by another person or AI, failure to credit sources or document generative AI use, or sharing course materials outside class may result in a failing grade for the assignment, a failing grade for the course, or other disciplinary action. If I see evidence of academic misconduct, I will make a report to the Community Standards & Student Conduct office.

Accommodations

Disability Accommodations

Disability accommodations grant students with ongoing or temporary disabilities access to educational opportunities. Disability Resource for Students (DRS) works to ensure access for students with disabilities by designing and implementing accommodations on an individual basis through an interactive process.  If you experience educational barriers based on disability, please visit Disability Resources for Students online for more information about accommodations. If you require disability accommodations, please contact DRS as soon as possible at or drop by the DRS office in Mary Gates 011 Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Staff can also work by phone, TTY, video chat, or email (uwdrs@uw.edu).

If you have already established accommodations with Disability Resources for Students (DRS), please communicate your approved accommodations to me as soon as possible so we can discuss your needs in this course.

Your experience in this class is important to me, and you may have accessibility needs not covered under DRS’s umbrella—for example spotty internet access, an unreliable computer, etc.—or you may be in the process of seeking DRS accommodations. Please talk with me as soon as possible so we can brainstorm solutions.

Religious Accommodations

In accordance with state law, UW provides reasonable accommodations for student absences, significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at the Religious Accommodations Policy website. Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form.

Technology Requirements

Because all learning takes place online, the following technology is essential to accessing materials and submitting assignments:

• Reliable Internet access.
• Web browser and computer specifications adequate for using the Canvas Learning Management system VideoANT, Panopto, PollEverywhere, Zoom, YouTube, and UW Google Docs.
• Webcam and microphoneor phone camera and microphone to participate in drop-in hours. Note that the Student Technology Fee loan program has laptops available for checkout if you need a computer.
• Headphones or speakers (internal or external) for film and lecture screenings and to participate in drop-in hours.
• Word processing software. Note that although you may use any software, you must submit written assignments in PDF or Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx). If you use any other program, use the Help function for instructions on converting your files to PDF or Word format. Students may get Microsoft Office 365 Pro Plus and a UW-licensed version of Google Apps for free.
• PDF viewer(Adobe PDF Reader or Apple Preview)
• Basic image editing tool that allows image cropping (Paint, Preview, Paint.net, Photoshop Express).
• UW Net ID/Email and activated UW Google account. The class email list uses your UW email. If you want UW email to go to another account, you must configure forwarding preferences with UW Net ID account management tools. We will also use the UW-licensed version of Google Workspace for selected course assignments.