In “Contact Zones,” we’ll consider how individual and national identities are shaped in a world where people are on the move, literally and metaphorically, voluntarily and involuntarily.  When borders are crossed and histories are remade, what is lost and what is gained?  As Mohsin Hamid observes, “To a certain extent we are all refugees, at least in an emotional sense. Migration is the fundamental nature of what it is to be a human being. A human being is somebody with a particular genetic configuration: yes. But a human being is also someone who migrates through time.”

Through fiction, drama, poetry and film, we’ll explore the myriad ways in which we learn to “see,” “unsee,” and “resee” one another across the borders of sexuality, religion, ethnicity, and nationality.  Writers will include Chimamanda Adichie, Ocean Vuong, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Lynn Nottage, Tommy Orange, Mohsin Hamid, and Carmen Maria Machado, among others.  Supplemental readings will provide frameworks for talking about a range of critical issues. 

English 693: Contact Zones is a Writing Intensive course that fulfills the Theory/ Poetics requirement for the Literary Studies option and the Digital Language Arts option within the Literary Arts and Studies major. At UNH Manchester, it also fulfills the diversity requirement for the B.A. in English Teaching.  4 credits.

English 693 may be repeated for credit, up to a maximum of 8 credits, provided that content is not significantly duplicated.