Course Offerings
The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at KU offers a range of courses on science fiction, speculative fiction, and related topics and genres such as science, technology, and society, fan fiction, and fantasy.
View a list of past courses here.
Check the course links below to see whether specific SF and related courses are currently being offered at KU. Since many of these courses are topics courses, please note the section titles and departmental course descriptions to ensure that the topics of the course(s) offered given semester are relevant to your interests.
View Upcoming Courses
ENGL 329: Speculative Fiction
SUMMER 2023
In this course, students will explore new worlds through the exploration of fantasy literature. This course will focus on classic tales written by Lewis Carroll and Ursula K. Le Guin and explore the ways the genre has changed throughout time and varied experiences by reading authors like Daniel José Older and Cherie Dimaline. Through class discussion and reading analytical essays on the genre, students will explore how these “new” worlds can mirror the real-life terrors and inequities outside of the presented fantasy. While the study of literature is the focus of the course, the curriculum will interrogate how the characters, imagery, and thematic elements of the materials address (or do not address) topics of race, gender, sexuality and class in society. Students will learn how analyze beyond the fantastical aspects of these new worlds and to synthesize literary analysis and social theory. Assignments will include a book review, short response papers and a final multimodal project.
