Spring Term Courses

Environmental Literature

ENG 180/3880

In this course, we will consider a broad range of American environmental literature, assessing the ways in which writers—from Thoreau to Cormac McCarthy—and filmmakers have portrayed the relationship of identity and environment. We will look in particular at themes of sustainability, food/agriculture and landscape, with a particular focus on Michigan. The course will include day trips to organic farms in Gratiot County and regional Superfund sites, and we will spend several days in the Upper Peninsula wilderness romanticized by writers from Ernest Hemingway to Jim Harrison.


Asian American Culture & Literature

ENG 181/381

Examine contemporary Asian American writers and their historical/cultural experiences through a representative selection of novels, poems and drama. Asian American writers embrace a multiplicity of identities as immigrants/citizens/expatriates, identities requiring complex negotiations in terms of ethnic and political affiliations between one’s “native” and one’s “adoptive” home. Along with the discussion, we will also travel within Michigan—going to a Japanese tea ceremony, to Korean and Indian food fests, to a Buddhist center, etc., to enrich our cultural understanding through real-life connections.


 

Bob Devaney, a 1939 graduate of Alma College, went on to become known as one of the greatest coaches in collegiate football history. In his 11 years as head coach at Nebraska, Devaney produced 11 winning seasons with two national championships. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1981. At Alma he played end and was the Scots’ Most Valuable Player in 1938.

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Graduate Profile

Julie Bolitho-Lee

Julie Bolitho-Lee
Graduation: 2006
Major: English

Since graduating from Alma College in 2006, Julie Bolitho-Lee has gotten married, finished a master’s degree, earned status as a dual citizen, published poetry, adopted two dogs and a cat, and traveled to more than 15 different countries.

Yet not once has Bolitho-Lee forgotten the incredible support she received from the English faculty when she was a student at Alma.

“I have always loved English—reading and writing,” she says. “I knew it would be my major before I even went to Alma, but the faculty in the English department fed and indulged my passions in unexpected and beautiful ways.”

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