Mark,
At the university where I am, grad English students have the option of proposing their own versions of the freshman comp course, and students can take these specialized courses if they so choose.
Right now, we have a few courses being offered that are similar to the one you found: "Vampires: An American Love Affair," "Fear and Loathing in America: The Horror Genre and Cultural Anxiety," and "Gothic Monsters and Damsels in Distress: American Pop Culture and the Gothic Imagination."
The vampire course is geared toward looking at how presentations of vampires as of the 20th century have become more sympathetic. They're reading Stoker and Rice, but they're primarily looking at a lot of tv and film.
The course you've found is the same sort of specialized version of freshman comp that we teach here. It's actually Virginia Tech, not U of Vermont.
If it had about 20 novels and various critical texts listed, the reading of which would most likely lead to blurred vision and bifocals prior to the age of 30, then it would be a grad course.
As for why the instructor hasn't contacted you, that is probably because s/he is a grad student who never really considered the possibility.
