IMPORTANT PROGRAM DATES
FALL 2025 OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
• October 16 – Intention to complete a thesis or manuscript in Spring 26 due
• November 3 – Spring 26 Registration opens for current graduate students
• November 6 – Writers Series: Bill Roorback, 7:30 pm, Forten 123
• November 7 – Thesis and manuscript proposal and application for thesis and manuscript registration for Spring 26 due
• December 9 – Final theses and manuscripts, with all signed paperwork, due for fall graduation
DECEMBER
SPRING 2026
FEBRUARY
• December 22 – Submission deadline for Masters in English Regional Conference
MARCH
• February 6 – Deadline to apply for March Language Exam
• February 28 – Masters in English Regional Conference, Salem State University, ECC, MLK, Jr., Room
• March 4 – Language Exam
• March 15 – Graduation applications due (through Navigator)
• March 31 – Faculty Reading, 11 am, MLK, Jr., Room, ECC
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
ENG 716 Ecopoetics
Professor Stephenie Young
Tuesdays, 4:30–6:50 pm, in-person
Ecopoetics can be defined as an exploration into the ways in which literature responds to and represents the environments we inhabit and imagine. The course will introduce students to eco theory and environmental studies through gender, philosophy, science, history, and other disciplines that impact how we write and think about the environment. For spring 2026 we will mainly focus on the region of Latin America and consider how its writers (ex. Samanta Schweblin [Argentina], Benjamín Labatut [Chile], Clarice Lispector [Brazil], Pablo Neruda [Chile], Natalia Toledo [Zapotec/Mexico] and artists both celebrate nature and warn against her demise. Subjects that we may cover include indigenism, the U.S./Mexican border, deforestation in the Amazon basin, the disappearance of the night sky
in the Chilean Atacama Desert, climate change and glacial disintegration in the Andes, air and water pollution and the sprawl of the megalopolis as seen with Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and São Paolo, and cosmic horror and real terror in the face of “progress.” We will confront our own ecological heritage and legacy. Please contact Professor Young syoung2@salemstate.edu if you have any questions.
ENG 717 African American Literature
Professor Arthur Riss
Wednesdays, 7–9:20 pm, in-person
The course will examine the work of African American novelists and short story writers from William Well Brown to the present, including such major figures as Zora Neale Hurston, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison and Toni Morrison. The course will place the writing in its historical setting and emphasize the development of the African American tradition in fiction.
ENG 748 Young Adult Literature
Professor Theresa DeFrancis
Thursdays, 7–9:20 pm, online synchronous Young adult literature has found its place in the middleand high-school curricula. It has also established itself within college curricula. This course will examine YAL in much the same way we would interrogate any literature coupled with a lens on whether the chosen texts should/ could be taught in middle and/or high schools.
ENG 799 Study and Travel Institute: From
Mussolini to the Mafia: Authoritarianism in Modern Italian Literature, History and Culture
In-person meetings Mondays, 2/2/26, 3/2/26 and 4/6/26, 4:30–6:45 pm
Travel to Italy (Rome, Naples, Sorrento, Palermo): April 17–25, 2026 (MA School Vacation)
The study and travel course is specifically designed for graduate students, current and future educators and community members interested in learning about fascism, dictatorship, the mafia and the influence of the “strong man” personality in Italy. With a focus on the literature, history and culture of dictatorship and organized crime, we will visit sites such as the Jewish Ghetto, Mussolini’s famous fascist EUR quarter, Mausoleo Fosse Ardeatine , Italian Resistance Memorial, the Curia di Pompeo, and the Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia (Rome); Palazzo Casa del Mutilato, Palazzo Poste, Palazzo Questura (Naples); No Mafia Memorial Museum and the Mafia Museum in nearby Salemi. (Salemi and Palermo). There will be free time in each of these exciting cities to explore culture, music, restaurants, sites, and museums.
Price: TBD. Price includes round-trip airfare (Logan Airport, Boston) including all landing fees and taxes, airport transfers in Europe, 3–4-star hotels nightly, full hot breakfast at every hotel, luxury air-conditioned coach and entrance and fees to required tours, sites visits and museums. Educators joining us can take the 3-credit graduate options and convert them into 67.5 PDPs. Non-credit travel options for educators and members of the community are available on a space-only basis. Please contact Professor Stephenie Young, English, Meier Hall 102A or write to syoung2@salemstate.edu if you have any questions.
ENG 818 Poetry Workshop
Professor M.P. Carver
Mondays, 4:30–6:50 pm, in-person
A writing course for those who wish to concentrate exclusively on poetry. Participants will be expected to write a series of poems, to read widely in contemporary poetry and in poetic theory and to write critical reviews. This course may be repeated for a maximum of nine credits. Three lecture hours.
ENG 835 Mindful Writing
Professor Alexandria Peary
Thursdays, 4:30–6:50 pm, in-person
Mindfulness, or present-focused awareness, is a powerful metacognitive practice that can change our writing lives. This course is an in-depth exploration of mindful writing, offering grounding in rhetorical theory and frequent handson practice for creative, scholarly, personal and professional writing. Through mindful awareness, we can better manage the stressors around writing in the short- and long-term, with benefits in graduate school and beyond. With a focus on present temporality, we explore originality, motivation, productivity, community, genre, high-stakes projects like
theses and dissertations, and resilience in the face of rejection or failure. Every moment can be a prolific moment if we abide with the Present at the desk. Students will establish a mindfulness approach to writing based on audience proximity, detachment, impermanence, verbal emptiness, preconceptions, embodiment, interbeing, intertextuality, and self-care for writers. This course is helpful for people who are writers or who tutor or teach writing to others.
ENG 870 Graduate Writing Center Practicum
Professor Al DeCiccio
Wednesdays 1:40–3:30 pm, in-person
In this course, we will examine how 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.
