Karen Carr

Senior Lecturer
Image
a photo portrait of RISD faculty member Karen Carr
BA, Evergreen State College
CERT, RI School of Design CE
MA, University of Rhode Island
PHD, University of Rhode Island

A native of New Haven, CT, Karen L. Carr earned her PhD in English from the University of Rhode Island in 1993 and started teaching at RISD in 1997. She has developed and taught courses in a wide range of literary and cultural studies, including gender studies, race and ethnicity and the history of freak shows, minstrel shows and the carnivalesque. Her story, “Until She Sings,” won first prize in the Providence Journal’s fiction contest. Her writing has also appeared in Postmodern Culture, The Fertile Source and, most recently, Contrary Magazine.

Courses

Fall 2024 Courses

LAS E101-33 - FIRST-YEAR LITERATURE SEMINAR
Level Undergraduate
Unit Literary Arts and Studies
Subject Literary Arts and Studies
Period Fall 2024
Credits 3
Format Seminar
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

LAS E101-33

FIRST-YEAR LITERATURE SEMINAR

Level Undergraduate
Unit Literary Arts and Studies
Subject Literary Arts and Studies
Period Fall 2024
Credits 3
Format Seminar
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2024-09-04 to 2024-12-11
Times: MTH | 4:40 PM - 6:10 PM Instructor(s): Karen Carr Location(s): College Building, Room 302 Enrolled / Capacity: 15 Status: Closed

SECTION DESCRIPTION

An introduction to literary study that helps students develop the skills necessary for college-level reading, writing, research and critical thinking. Through exposure to a variety of literary forms and genres, historical periods and critical approaches, students are taught how to read closely, argue effectively and develop a strong writing voice. The course is reading and writing intensive and organized around weekly assignments. There are no waivers for LAS-E101 except for transfer students who have taken an equivalent college course.

First-year Students are pre-registered for this course by the department.

Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Transfer Students register into designated section(s).

Major Requirement | BFA

LAS E101-24 - FIRST-YEAR LITERATURE SEMINAR
Level Undergraduate
Unit Literary Arts and Studies
Subject Literary Arts and Studies
Period Fall 2024
Credits 3
Format Seminar
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

LAS E101-24

FIRST-YEAR LITERATURE SEMINAR

Level Undergraduate
Unit Literary Arts and Studies
Subject Literary Arts and Studies
Period Fall 2024
Credits 3
Format Seminar
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2024-09-04 to 2024-12-11
Times: MTH | 2:50 PM - 4:20 PM Instructor(s): Karen Carr Location(s): College Building, Room 424 Enrolled / Capacity: 15 Status: Open

SECTION DESCRIPTION

An introduction to literary study that helps students develop the skills necessary for college-level reading, writing, research and critical thinking. Through exposure to a variety of literary forms and genres, historical periods and critical approaches, students are taught how to read closely, argue effectively and develop a strong writing voice. The course is reading and writing intensive and organized around weekly assignments. There are no waivers for LAS-E101 except for transfer students who have taken an equivalent college course.

First-year Students are pre-registered for this course by the department.

Sophomore, Junior, Senior or Transfer Students register into designated section(s).

Major Requirement | BFA

Wintersession 2025 Courses

LAS E508-101 - PHOTOTEXTUALITY: LITERATURES OF THE EMBEDDED IMAGE
Level Undergraduate
Unit Literary Arts and Studies
Subject Literary Arts and Studies
Period Wintersession 2025
Credits 3
Format Seminar
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

LAS E508-101

PHOTOTEXTUALITY: LITERATURES OF THE EMBEDDED IMAGE

Level Undergraduate
Unit Literary Arts and Studies
Subject Literary Arts and Studies
Period Wintersession 2025
Credits 3
Format Seminar
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2025-01-03 to 2025-02-06
Times: TH | 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM | 02/06/2025 - 02/06/2025; W | 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM | 02/05/2025 - 02/05/2025; M | 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM | 02/03/2025 - 02/03/2025; TH | 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM | 01/30/2025 - 01/30/2025; M | 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM | 01/27/2025 - 01/27/2025; TH | 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM | 01/23/2025 - 01/23/2025; W | 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM | 01/22/2025 - 01/22/2025; TH | 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM | 01/16/2025 - 01/16/2025; M | 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM | 01/13/2025 - 01/13/2025; TH | 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM | 01/09/2025 - 01/09/2025; W | 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM | 01/08/2025 - 01/08/2025; M | 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM | 01/06/2025 - 01/06/2025 Instructor(s): Karen Carr Location(s): College Building, Room 434 Enrolled / Capacity: 20 Status: Closed

SECTION DESCRIPTION

Photography and Literature are often seen as separate, yet kindred, disciplines, each working to depict, contest, alter, and reframe that which we think of as reality. This course will explore various ideas about the melding of photography and literature by looking at texts that work to create dialogue between the two mediums, as well as theoretical writings that offer ways of contemplating such fusions. We will study texts by writers/photographers such as: Walker Evans, James Agee, W.G. Sebald, Sigmund Freud, Roland Barthes, Teju Cole, John Berger, Sophie Calle, Paul Auster, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, and Lance Olsen. Students will write several short essays about the readings, as well as a longer project, which will combine photography and writing.

Elective

Spring 2025 Courses

LAS E426-01 - GRAPHIC NARRATIVE
Level Undergraduate
Unit Literary Arts and Studies
Subject Literary Arts and Studies
Period Spring 2025
Credits 3
Format Lecture
Mode In-Person
Start date
End date

LAS E426-01

GRAPHIC NARRATIVE

Level Undergraduate
Unit Literary Arts and Studies
Subject Literary Arts and Studies
Period Spring 2025
Credits 3
Format Lecture
Mode In-Person
Start and End 2025-02-13 to 2025-05-23
Times: W | 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM Instructor(s): Karen Carr Location(s): College Building, Room 346 Enrolled / Capacity: 25 Status: Closed

SECTION DESCRIPTION

This course will deal with graphic narrative in many of its forms: fiction, memoir, historical (auto)biography, journalistic investigation.  We will be reading graphic narratives that helped create the genre of Comics Studies, as well as more contemporary narratives that are re-imagining and re-shaping the possibilities within the genre.  We will also be reading scholarship that deepens our understanding of some of the ways these texts can be understood within a larger critical context.  Students will have the opportunity to frame their responses to the readings in both traditional and visual modes.  We will be reading such authors as:  Art Spiegelman, Alison Bechdel, Jean Yuen Yang, Marjane Satrapi, Joe Sacco, Lynda Barry, Ron Wimberly.


Elective

Image
a photo portrait of RISD faculty member Karen Carr
BA, Evergreen State College
CERT, RI School of Design CE
MA, University of Rhode Island
PHD, University of Rhode Island