CULS 402 Practicing Literary Studies Prepares students with the tools and conventions of contemporary research in Literary Studies in order to create a project proposal for the Cultural Studies Capstone Project course. Students learn to develop an inquiry that interests them, search the MLA and other databases for sources related to their project, and prepare a literature review that summarizes perspectives others have contributed to their proposed topic. After developing a focused inquiry, reviewing the existing literature, and articulating how they might contribute to ongoing conversations about their topic, students write a proposal that supports the development of a substantive piece of research in literary studies.