Independent Study Sample Topics

Below are sample topics for pursuing an Independent Study in Modern Languages. All requests for Independent and Applied study courses must be discussed with the instructor first and a one-page written proposal must be submitted before registering. Please contact the instructor for further information.

FRENCH:
Le bouc emissaire dans la littérature littérature québécoise (S. Urquhart)
Le monstrueux dans la littérature québécoise (S. Urquhart)
Molière (B. Dickinson)
French comedies from the 17th to the 20th Century (B. Dickinson)
Topics in French culture and civilization (B. Dickinson)
La littérature du XIXe siècle (B. Gerwin)
Du romantisme au réalisme : l’évolution moderne des genres littéraires (B. Gerwin)
Le Roman (B. Gerwin)
La ville au XIXe siècle (B. Gerwin)
La littérature et la psychanalyse : l’influence de Freud et son legs sur la littérature, et l’importance de la psychanalyse comme outil de lecture. (B. Gerwin)
La théorie littéraire : la question de la textualité, et le problème de la représentation. (B. Gerwin)
Représenter la différence sexuelle (B. Gerwin)
French theatre of the 17th century: tragedy, comedy, and tragic-comedy (T. Spagnolo Sadr)
Topics on gender and identity in 17th-century France (T. Spagnolo Sadr)
Transvestism in life, on the page, and on the stage in 17th and 18th-century France (T. Spagnolo Sadr)
Legal status of women in France during the Ancien Régime (T. Spagnolo Sadr)
Novels of Madame de Lafayette (T. Spagnolo Sadr)
Theory and problematic of biography and autobiography in 17th-century French literature (T. Spagnolo Sadr)
Monarchy and masculinity in 17th-century France (T. Spagnolo Sadr)
Poetic embrace of master and muse: Maurice Scève and Pernette du Guillet (T. Spagnolo Sadr)

SPANISH:
Teresa of Avila and the Spanish Mystics (R. Trillia)
Latin American Women Writers (R. Trillia)
Spanish Golden Age poetry, prose or drama Hispanic American "Boom" Novels (B. Devos)
Spanish for business purposes (L. Ospina)
Didactics of Spanish (L. Ospina)
New trends in language acquisition/learning (L. Ospina)
Psycholinguistics and language learning. (L. Ospina)
Critical reading and writing in Spanish. (L. Ospina)
Discourse analysis (Teun A. VanDijk) (L. Ospina)

LINGUISTICS:
Phonetics: Topics in phonetics, phonology, and morphophology

Sociolinguistics: (I. Genee) Language and ethnicity, language and identity. Bilingualism/multilingualism/code-switching. Pidgins, Creoles and mixed languages. Minority languages, language maintenance, language revitalization, immersion schooling.

Grammar: (I. Genee) Grammatical analysis of any language of interest to the student. Instructor has (some) knowledge of the Germanic languages (esp. Dutch, German, English), Romance languages (esp. French), Celtic languages (esp. Irish, Welsh), Classical languages (esp. Classical Latin), Algonquian languages (esp. Blackfoot), but other languages will be considered. The student may focus on syntax, morphology or phonetics/phonology depending on interest.

Typology: Contrastive analysis of any linguistic phenomenon across a number of different languages, e.g. animacy, ergativity, word order, case systems, tone languages.

Historical linguistics: (I. Genee) History of any language or language family of interest to the student. Specific diachronic studies, e.g. the development of French out of its Latin roots.

Language acquisition: (I. Genee) Normal acquisition of specific aspect of linguistic development (e.g. pronunciation, grammatical constructions, communicative development). Aspects of delayed acquisition or acquisition in special populations (e.g. Down syndrome, autism, dyslexia). Aspects of speech and language treatment/therapy (speech-language pathology).