Stephen Pihlaja who is also Programme Leader for BA English, specifically responsible for recruitment so you may have spoken to him at Open Events or after you applied. Stephen teaches English language and has an interest in online discourse and religion. This year he is working on an externally funded project called ‘Language and religion in a super-diverse city’ in semester one.
You can contact Stephen if you have any questions about this course: S.Pihlaja@staff.newman.ac.uk
Helen Cousins is the Programme Leader for BA English and also the APT (Academic Personal Tutor) for all first year English students. She will be teaching you in the first semester of your first year on a module called ‘Time and Space’ (ENU415)
You can contact Helen if you have any questions about this course: H.Cousins@staff.newman.ac.uk
Anna is an English language specialist, and will be teaching your semester one module ‘How words work’ (ENU417).
Louise McDonald who mainly teaches in the areas of film and Victorian literature. She will be teaching your semester one module called ‘Reading Identity Politics’ (ENU419). She will also be teaching you ‘Introduction to Film’ in semester two.
Kerry Myler who will be teaching your module ‘Challenging the Canon’ in semester two. Kerry also teaches short fiction and literary theory.
You will be doing three separate modules in your first semester. The timetabled hours for these are 3 hours each but you are expected to do additional work independently as explained below. That means that you need to plan to do around another 3 hours a week for each module and possibly more when you start to work on your assessments.
Your modules are taught in small groups so we don’t do too many formal lectures. Usually classes blend together elements of a lecture – where the tutor gives you information – and seminars – where you are expected to discuss ideas or do tasks in groups. For each class you will be given work to do in advance (rather than work afterwards as in the ‘homework’ you might be used to) and you must make time in your schedule to do this so you are well-prepared for the discussions in class. This may be a short reading task, something to watch or listen to, and tasks relating to those. We will be talking more about this in our induction meetings. In addition, we may set ‘directed tasks’ for you to follow up things from the classes: these are part of your independent work and become more important as you get towards the module assessments.
Tuesdays 9:00-10:00am & 11:00am-13:00pm
Wednesdays 10:00am-13:00pm
Fridays 9:00-11:00am & 12:00-14:00pm
Full details of your individual academic timetable will be available on mynewman after you have completed online enrolment and set up your student login.
To prepare for your first semester, we suggest that you buy and read the following books:
H. G. Wells The Time Machine. (You can get a free eBook of this from Project Gutenberg; if you want a printed copy the Penguin Classics (2005, ISBN-10: 0141439971) offers an introductory essay and notes – this is also available as a Kindle eBook. However, there are cheaper print copies available which will also be fine.)
Alice Oswald (2002) Dart. Faber & Faber. (You will need to buy your own copy of this, new or second hand. Any edition is fine.)
Helen Oyeyemi (2006) The Icarus Girl. Bloomsbury. (You will need your own copy of this book too; again, new or second hand and any edition is fine.)
Robert Dale Parker (2014) How to Interpret Literature: Critical Theory for Literary and Cultural Studies. 3rd edition. Oxford University Press. (We suggest this 3rd edition; there is a 4th edition, but it is twice as expensive without any more significant content than this one!)
Jackie Kay, Trumpet (this was first published in 1998 but you can buy any edition as it has been republished several times since then by different publishers).
Other useful books for Semester One are:
Anderson, Catherine. (2018) Essentials of Linguistics. Ontario: Press Books. (This is available to read online so no need to buy a copy)
Mullany, L. and Stockwell, P. (2010). Introducing English language: a resource book for students. London: Routledge. (This is available as an eBook via Newman library so you will have access to it once you have enrolled.)
For Semester Two, you will need your own copies of the following books:
Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (any edition). J M Coetzee, Foe (any edition).
The other useful books for Semester Two are both available as eBooks via Newman’s library so you will have access to them once you have enrolled. These are:
Cameron, D. (2001) Working with spoken discourse. London: Sage. Carter, R. et al. (2001) Working with texts: a core introduction to language analysis. London: Routledge. Sikov, E. (2020) Film Studies: An Introduction. New York: Columbia University Press.