For the upcoming May intersession, the Department of English will be offering an undergraduate course titled "Meaningful Mundanity in American Prison and Reentry Films."

The course, coded ENGL 39003 and ENGL 41403, will run from May 12 to 22, meeting from 9 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. in Kimpel Hall 116.

Many films over the last 100 years have claimed to portray what life in prison or after "is really like" for individuals. Where are these films accurately capturing such experiences, and where are they clearly fictionalizing? How do these portrayals impact an audience's understanding of how challenging barriers related to incarceration and reentry can be?

Assigned readings will be made up of articles or book chapters, available through links in the course Blackboard. The primary textbook will be Dawn K. Cecil's Prison Life in Popular Culture: From The Big House to Orange Is the New Black. In addition, class members will watch, in full or in part, a wide range of documentary films, dramatic films, and news clips.

The main goal of the course is to encourage analysis and evaluation of the strategies being applied in popular culture that engage, inform, or otherwise influence the public regarding various issues related to the experiences of incarceration and reentry in the U.S.

The main question guiding class discussions will be: "How effectively does film communicate the severe and complex barriers being faced on a daily basis by those in prison as well as those going through the process of returning to society from prison?"

Enrollment in the course can be done through UAConnect. Please contact LXP04@uark.edu with any questions.