This elective course will be an introduction to contemporary World Literature that has been written in or translated into English. Students will read a variety of short stories, novels, plays, poems, and informational texts to identify universal themes across cultures. This is a seminar course that will rely upon assigned reading and independent research, participation in class discussion, and academic and informal writing responses. Novels that may be studied are Joy Kogawa’s Obasan, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus, and Rajaa Alsanea’s Girls of Riyadh.