Interested in taking an upper-level writing class in the company of other transfer students and professors experienced in working with the transfer population? If you have received WC credit for English 101/College Writing, consider taking English 301: College Writing for Transfer Students. This course can fulfill one of your upper-level Core Curriculum WCr or WCd core writing requirements. Students will write two four-page essays that emphasize the writing, reading, and critical thinking skills valued by Rutgers, and then complete an 8-10 page research paper on a subject of personal interest.
To enroll in English 301, students must:
- request a Special Permission Number (SPN) at
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . - They can also contact Dean Robin Diamond, the Director of the School of Arts and Sciences Transfer Services office, at
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Section Topics & Descriptions for Spring 2026:
Taboos and Transgressions
Instructor: Sara Blomquist
'Taboos and Transgressions' invites students to explore forbidden and stigmatized ideas and behaviors. Among other questions, it asks why some practices are shunned, and how unpopular beliefs can fight for greater legitimacy and acceptance. The course is curious about what cultural taboos signify, who makes the rules, and how the rules might be overturned. Subjects for student research projects can be drawn from the political, religious, social, cultural, and art-and-entertainment realms; the only requirement is that students be open-minded about the forbidden places their research journey might take them.
Constructing Identities
Instructor: Dawn Lilley
If asked to describe your identity, what aspects would you emphasize? Would you focus on your political views, the music you love, family bonds, religious beliefs, or your class, race, or gender? How much of you has been influenced by the stories, cultures, and communities around you? This course examines the forces that shape who we become and how we are seen by others—how our identities are constructed, performed, and transformed.
Possible areas of research include everything from TikTok trends, fashion sub-cultures, and slam poetry, to romantic chatbots, body modification, and extremist political groups.
Imagining the Future
Instructor: Peter Molin
What will tomorrow look like? Next year? 50 or 100 years from now? With new technologies appearing, environmental crises looming, alternative lifestyles becoming normalized, the economy uncertain, and the political landscape shifting, the world is transforming in profound and unpredictable ways. Imagining the Future asks students to envision possibilities both promising and frightening by drawing on exciting ideas and theories about the shape of things to come.