Spring 2016
College Writing Seminars (WRTG 101)
WRTG 101.001 MTH 8:55am-10:10am
Turf Wars
Professor Edward Helfers
Are cities greener than suburbs? Is public space a human right? Should all historical
buildings be preserved? What do ethics have to do with architecture? How do we balance
population growth with dwindling resources?
These are just some of the questions we will tackle in this course. Our readings will cover
a range of academic disciplines including: American Studies, Economics, Environmental
Science, History, Philosophy, and Sociology. Our discussions will explore the promises
and pitfalls of starchitect structures, master planned communities, urban renewal projects,
and more. We will look booth near (the National Building Museum) and far (Dubai's new
eco-city, Masdar); real (One World Trade Center) and Imagined (Le Corbusier's "City
of Tomorrow"). Our exercises and assignments will help you read critically and write
persuasively. In the process, we will come to a better understanding of how we shape our
spaces, and how our spaces shape us.
Because many of our case studies are local, students will be asked to conduct 2-3
site visits, including the National Mall. Three major essays are required: analytic (3-4
pages), conversation (5-7 pages), and research-based (7-12 pages).
WRTG 101.002 MTH 8:55am-10:10am
College Writing Seminar: This Written Life
Professor Stina Oakes
“Each week on our program, of course, we choose a theme, and bring you different kinds
of stories on that theme.” – Ira Glass, This American Life
In this seminar, following the structure of the popular podcast This American Life,
you will develop an individual topic to explore throughout the semester. Your topic will
be completely up to you, but it should be something you have some knowledge of or are
passionate about. Past topics have included: show choir, nutrition, fashion, boy bands,
NASCAR, dictators. You will write three pieces on your topic – a personal introduction
to the topic, a researched feature, and a scholarly piece.
Since this course is an academic writing course, our primary focus will be to
continue to practice and refine writing skills through critical reading, research, writing,
and discussion. As a class, our theme will center on the craft and process of writing; we
will examine the issues and rhetorical strategies of academic writing. We will be using a
variety of texts that focus on writing, reading, and research, such as Joseph Harris’
Rewriting, Roy Peter Clark’s Writing Tools, and articles from WritingSpaces.org.
WRTG 101.003 MTH 8:55am-10:10am
“’The Passion of Nicki Minaj’”: Examining and Questioning the Value and Values
of Popular Culture
Professor Alison Thomas
In a recent cover story interview, writer Vanessa Grigoriadis contextualizes artist Nick
Minaj in the canon of female icons in 2015. But is there actually a “canon” of female
icons? And can anything in popular culture really be canonical?
We think of pop culture artifacts and trends as fleeting, low-brow and sometimes
mindless entertainment. In this class, while we’ll debate the canonization of the likes of
skinny jeans, Queen Bey, and The Weeknd, we’ll also consider what analyzing these pop
culture artifacts can lend to academic conversations. Can such topics help scholars in
particular fields learn something about who we are as humans? About how we think of
ourselves, or interact with others?
This course will invite students to examine the value and values of popular culture
artifacts as texts in order to master the skills and concepts of academic writing and
research. Ultimately, students will make meaningful, provocative arguments about
popular culture to both academic and popular audiences. This will require students to
practice “reading” texts and engaging with scholarly research. Students will build on
research and writing strategies from WRTG 100 - establishing existing conversations to
join, and adding something of their own.
Students will write a scholarly essay, and will then consider the deeper question
of the relationship between scholarship and popular texts. The capstone project for this
course will be to write an essay for a popular publication like Rolling Stone, The New
Yorker, Vulture, etc.
Texts may include:
Essays by Malcolm Gladwell, Chuck Klosterman, Roxanne Gay, Caitlin Moran and
other cultural critics
Jon Ronson – So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed
Jill Lepore – The Secret History of Wonder Woman
WRTG 101.004 MTH 8:55-10:10am
On Campus: Writing about University Life
Professor Lacey Wootton
“College” is not only a place where one studies; it has become an object of study, too.
The popular press, pundits, government officials, scholars—they’re all talking and
writing about issues related to university life. How does college foster economic and
social mobility, and how might colleges inhibit mobility? What are the rewards and
advantages of a college education? Are there limits to academic freedom? How are
colleges addressing such problems as sexual assault and racism? In this class, we’ll join
some of those conversations to explore successes, problems, and trends on college
campuses. Colleges are complex systems, and we’ll deal with the particular challenges
involved in researching and writing about complexity with clarity but without
oversimplification. We’ll also work with the challenges of writing about a system from
within that system; how can one analyze an environment from within? And we’ll talk
about ways to find something original to say about “good news,” not just “problems.”
You’ll be able to research and write about issues of importance to you, using the work of
other scholars to better understand the complexities and consequences of what’s going on
around us on campus.
Note: This class will deal with challenging and potentially disturbing material,
including sexual assault, racism, and classism.
Texts may include:
Armstrong, Elizabeth, and Laura Hamilton. Paying for the Party: How College
Maintains Inequality
Arum, Richard, and Josipa Roksa. Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College
Campuses
Harris, Joseph. Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts
Krakauer, Jon. Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town
WRTG 101.006 MTH 8:55am-10:10am
The Rhetoric of Style and the Style of Rhetoric
Professor Derek Tokaz
“Style is a simple way of saying complicated things.” – Jean Cocteau
This course will explore the mechanics behind style in several contexts, with special
attention to how style can serve as a vehicle for ideas. Though “style” is often discussed
in contrast to “substance,” this course will look to the times when style and substance
cannot be distinguished.
We will begin the semester by examining style within the context of academic
writing, and explore the purpose behind a number of style rules. Students will research
the history and purposes of existing style rules, present challenges to these rules, and
propose alternative style guidelines. We will then apply the lessons and techniques
learned from examining academic style to other areas, including film and fashion.
Readings will include Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, Nina
Garcia’s The Little Black Book of Style, and excerpts from Sidney Lumet’s Making
Movies.
WRTG 101.007 MTH 8:55am-10:10am
Music as a Reaction to Societal Ills and as a Source of Community
Professor Bruce Miller
From homemade banjo-like stringed instruments employed by rural Malawians, Florida
musician Moses Williams fashioning a one-stringed instrument out of a door, to Nigerian
Afro beat pioneer Fela Kuti’s slogan that “music is a weapon”, various types of sound art
have been used to stare down poverty, radicalize groups of people into a movement for
social justice, or simply allow us all to recognize something about where we come from.
In this course, we will survey writing, performance, video, documentary, and no doubt
some deep listening in order to craft our own writing, and perhaps opinion, on the
subject. Along the way, we’ll take on everything from urban free jazz, rural folk and the
complexities inherent in semi-known folk-pop hybrids from Mauritania to Thailand.
Students will craft three major papers that can trace anything from origins of a particular
musical form and how it was shaped by environment to musical statements, both cultural
and political, to various folk traditions, and how they are either preserved or threatened.
There may also be a chance to write short reviews or other commentary on the
importance of an artist or style.
Texts may include:
Alan Lomax’s The Land Where the Blues Began (video)
Michael Azerrad’s Our Band Could Be Your Life
Francis Bebey’s African Music: A People’s Art
Photo collections of early phonograph memorabilia from around the globe
Reebee Garofalo’s Rockin’ The Boat: Mass Music and Mass Movements
Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part Harmony
…and of course, select recordings to enhance what we discuss and write about.
WRTG 101.008 TF 8:55am-10:10am
The Mind at Work While at Play: Videogames, Thought, and Rhetoric
Professor Chuck Cox
Despite a skeptical public discourse about videogames that fixates on reductive “scare”
topics of violence, addiction and distraction, a dynamic, interdisciplinary scholarship has
emerged around gaming; these academic conversations are as complex and diverse as
games themselves have become. Literacy scholar James Paul Gee describes videogames
as “a new tool with which to think about the mind and through which we can externalize
some of its functions.” Meanwhile, game designer and researcher Ian Bogost argues that
videogames make “claims through procedural rhetorics” and thus “possess the power to
mount equally meaningful expression.” In other words, through their interactive, yet rulebased structures, videogames – from small smartphone apps like Candy Crush to
MMORPGs like World of Warcraft – can mimic the functions of the mind, show us how
our minds work, and make arguments through their very processes. Following in the path
of Gee and Bogost, this seminar will use research and writing to approach the theme of
videogames rhetorically and cognitively, exploring them as means of communication,
persuasion, thinking, and learning. And since matters of thought are contextual, we will
also investigate communities – scholarly and otherwise – that concern themselves with
videogames and their meanings. Since the goal of this writing seminar is to deepen and
complicate students’ academic skills, students will engage in scholarly research, critical
reading, and writing in several academic genres. Gaming experience is not necessary for
this class; however, an open, curious mind is essential.
Readings will include Joseph Harris’s Rewriting, as well as the works of
videogame scholars and public intellectuals, possibly including James Paul Gee, Ian
Bogost, Jane McGonigle, Nick Yee, Bonnie A. Nardi, and others.
WRTG 101.009 TF 8:55am-10:10am
Food (and) Writing
Professor Heather McDonald
Food: a simple word for a complex concept. Food writing: a simple label for a complex
genre. From reviewers to novelists, from journalists to memoirists, food writers explore
how their subject is both literal and metaphorical fuel for individuals and communities.
This course goes well beyond the idea that “food tastes good.” We will examine the
genre as writers, by sharpening critical thinking skills, practicing writing techniques, and
honing research skills. We will combine texts on writing with topic-specific texts.
Texts may include:
Rewriting, by Joseph Harris
How to Write a Sentence, by Stanley Fish
The Tastemakers: Why We're Crazy for Cupcakes but Fed Up with Fondue, by David Sax
Eating Wildly, by Ava Chin
The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food, by David Barber
The Gastronomical Me, by M.F.K. Fisher
The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook
WRTG 101.010 TF 8:55am-10:10am
The Earth Untrammeled: Rhetoric of the American Wilderness
Professor Mary Switalski
“A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the
landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are
untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” – Section 2c,
Wilderness Act, 1964
In September of 1964, the 88th Congress signed into law the Wilderness Act, considered
one of America’s greatest achievements in conservation and preservation. In the fifty
years since its adoption, nearly 110 million acres of our nation’s natural treasures have
been protected as wilderness for posterity, and new proposals reach Congress each year.
What is it that we value so deeply about the wild? We go into the wild as a visitor, to
marvel at it, or to test our mettle. We go to it for recreation; in it, we are re-created. In
this course, we’ll explore meanings of wilderness in the American imagination, from
Puritans and pioneers through contemporary nature writers. You’ll write a thesis-driven
profile essay about an individual whose rhetoric and actions contributed significantly to
our perception of wilderness and its value. We’ll also research and analyze modern
environmental theory and policy, and in a formal academic essay, you’ll explore a topic
of your choice related to wilderness law and/or environmental ethics.
Texts may include:
Excerpts from the journals of The Corps of Discovery, Thoreau’s Walden, Gary Snyder’s
The Practice of the Wild, Annie Dillard’s Teaching a Stone to Talk, Jon Krakauer’s Into
the Wild, and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring; Wild by Cheryl Strayed; and lots of
scholarly articles in support of your own projects.
WRTG 101.011 TF 8:55am-10:10am
Terror: What Are We Afraid Of?
Professor Hildie Block
Terror! What does it mean? How can we define this term? Is it an act by individuals
against civilians for political purpose or the emotion that you feel on a roller coaster? Is
what you experience watching a horror film or CNN’s “terror ticker”? Is it what happens
in an abusive home or an oppressive government’s “Reign of Terror”? This course
continues the work of LIT-100, and students will continue to evolve their inquiry and
research methods, and explore the topics like analyzing a text, evaluating a source,
logical fallacies, and fine tune ability to think and write critically to further prepare you
for scholarly writing at the university level.
Texts may include:
Communicating Terror by Joseph S. Tuman
Rewriting by Joseph Harris
Frankenstein (Case Studies in Criticism) by Mary Shelley and Johanna M. Smith
WRTG 101.012 TF 8:55am-10:10am
Re-thinking Gender
Professor Maya Brown
What makes us male or female? Is it our genes? Our anatomy? Our behavior? How do
we define what it means to be a man or a woman? If gender is, as Judith Butler says, “a
way of making the world secure,” what do we do when this dichotomy breaks down? In
this class we will be looking at the social construction of gender and especially what it
means to be a woman in a patriarchal society. We will look at essays, novels, news
articles, television, and film to attempt to understand what gender means in our society.
Through our readings and research we will explore definitions of gender and their impact
on the individual and society. The major course requirements will include a personal
essay, a researched article, and a final presentation based on your research.
Texts may include:
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Selections from Writing Spaces.org
Films and TV shows including Boys Don’t Cry
Additional essays and articles
WRTG 101.013 TF 8:55am-10:10am
Nine to Five: Defining, Understanding, and Writing About Work
Professor Isabel Galbraith
Theodore Roosevelt claimed that "Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the
chance to work hard at work worth doing." As a college student, you’re probably
contemplating what your life’s work will be. Choosing a path is challenging, for society
sends mixed messages about careers. Some people tell you to follow your bliss, while
others (like, ahem, parents) say to be practical. Some employees “lean in,” while others
prioritize a work-life balance. Meanwhile, the working poor, who we’ll read about in
Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, are trying to pay the bills. Was it always this
way? To find out, we’ll read accounts of careers from the 1950s (ie, the jobs your
grandparents may have held) in Studs Terkel’s Working. These texts, along with essays
from writers like David Foster Wallace, Annie Dillard, and Joseph Campbell, will help us
define the concept of “work.” You’ll enter the conversation through writing assignments
like a personal narrative essay and a researched argument paper. Throughout the course,
you’ll strengthen your critical reading, writing, research, and argumentation skills -- and
perhaps discover what kind of work is, to you, “worth doing.”
WRTG 101.014 TF 8:55am-10:10am
Lost in Translation: Communicating in a Globalizing World
Professor Angela Dadak
“Languages are more ancient than anything we have built with our hands. They are
monuments to human genius,” says linguist and AU graduate David Harrison. In this
view, English stands as a modern, diverse, towering pinnacle among the world’s tongues.
With the ever-increasing numbers of English speakers in the world, English has become a
truly global language. Yet even when two people speak the same language,
miscommunications can disrupt personal, business, and diplomatic relations. In this
course we will examine the position and use of English around the world, and we will
question in what ways having a global language both facilitates and complicates
communication. Will English continue to dominate the global linguistic landscape? What
role, if any, does English play in the extinction of other languages? We will consider
what it means to be multilingual and multicultural, why people create artificial languages,
and how we adapt our own language use in different situations – including academic
ones. All of these investigations will be aided by and contribute to the writing you do
throughout the semester.
Texts may include:
You Are What You Speak by Robert Greene
Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages by Mark Abley
Switching Languages: Translingual Writers Reflect on their Craft by Steven Kellman
Language Power by Dana Ferris
Other readings by Chinua Achebe, Gloria Anzaldúa, David Crystal, David Harrison,
Henry Hitchings, Akira Okrent, Ilan Stavans, and Amy Tan.
WRTG 101.015 MTH 10:20-11:35 am Decoding Social Justice: Writing about Injustice and Social Reform
Professor Amanda Choutka
“Be the change you want to see in the world,” may be what Gandhi said, but he didn’t
live in modern day D.C. and have a full class schedule. We will move beyond that easy
slogan to consider the implications, systems, and limitations to social reform and access
to basic human rights. We’ll read about movements and events that propelled service
work, such as Hurricane Katrina, the fall of Detroit, and education inequality in America.
You’ll work on understanding what kind of reform captures the hearts and hands of
nonprofits, lawmakers, and citizens – and what doesn’t.
This course will examine the implications of inequality, injustice, and social
mobility through writing assignments and course readings. We will read and analyze the
rhetoric of social justice advocates, diverse communities, and service work. Major
writing assignments may include a scholarly essay on why individuals serve and a
portfolio that showcases your writing from the semester. (Former students have used
these portfolios as work samples to obtain internships and jobs.). There will be short
writing or group assignments and readings due nearly every class.
Students enrolled in this course may add the optional Community Service Learning
Project’s fourth credit, which enables student to earn an additional academic credit
through completing 40 hours of direct service volunteer work in the D.C. community,
completing a service project for their community service partner, and a reflective essay
(which is also the final essay for our course).
Texts may include:
Chasing Chaos by Jessica Alexander
Various articles and essays from The Atlantic, Slate, The Washington Post, and The New
York Times
Excerpts from various Best American anthologies, including David Ramsey’s “I Will
Forever Remain Faithful: How Lil Wayne Helped Me Survive My First Year Teaching in
New Orleans”
Articles from WritingSpaces.org
Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts, Joseph Harris
Excerpts from On Writing Well, William Zinsser
WRTG 101.016 MTH 10:20-11:35 am Criminal Perceptions
Professor Caimeen Garrett
Our society is fascinated with crime, though a cursory glance through Harold Schechter’s
anthology True Crime reveals that this interest is nothing new: from Puritan execution
sermons to 19th century murder ballads, the American public has always hungered to
“hear the whole disturbing story.” What does our fascination with crime reveal about us?
Why do certain crimes seize the public imagination? Why are some criminals and victims
more compelling than others? How has the media coverage of crime shaped our
perceptions and expectations? In this course we will examine how crime is written—or
not written—about. We will explore changing historical representations of crime, and
closely examine the rhetorical choices the chronicler of crime makes, whether for
mainstream journalism, the tabloid press, or true crime novels.
Texts may include:
True Crime: An American Anthology, edited by Harold Schechter
Fatal Vision, by Joe McGinniss
The Journalist and the Murderer, by Janet Malcolm
A Wilderness of Error, by Errol Morris
WRTG 101.017 MTH 10:20-11:35 am The Politics of Language: Or I Learned to Love Grammar and Boldly Split that
Infinitive
Professor Hunter Hoskins
In response to being fined by the NFL for using the n-word, Terrance Knighton
responded that to him "the N-word is not as aggressive as people make it seem. It's a
culture thing. It's just something that African-Americans use, and it's not always in a
derogatory way [. . .] When you have [the NFL Commissioner] — someone who is white
— enforcing [the ban of the N-word from football field], he doesn't quite understand the
relationship I have with another African-American. He doesn't understand that." Terrance
Knighton here shows language’s effect on our daily lives and how language intersects
culture, class, gender, and race. It’s not just words, however, that expose the fissures that
crack the façade of cultural unification, it’s also the G-word that power uses to divide and
conquer.
Therefore, it’s no surprise that most of us who bother with the matter would admit
that we sweat at the first mention of “Grammar.” We get anxious. We feel wrong and,
often, wronged. But, mostly, we just feel judged. We see grammar as a tool with which
teachers and other “grammar Nazis” make us feel inferior. We see grammar as a tool by
which we are publicly shamed, if not humiliated. Grammar often scares us, but--often
without us even noticing—it defines us. Indeed, it genders us; it cultures us; it classes us.
It conquers and divides. Grammar is political.
In this course, then, we will explore the ways grammar defines us—and is used to
define us. We will research the way authority uses grammar to reinforce itself while
disempowering those it sees as threats. We will write about ways grammar shapes us
(who{m} we are?). We will historicize various “prescriptive” rules in order to better
understand who made these rules and to what end. We will even write about whether or
not colleges should even teach the prescriptive rules of grammar or even require a
“college writing” for that matter. We may even rethink plagiarism in order to decide
whether or not Rand Paul and Joe Biden really should be punished for “borrowing”
language or if Bob Dylan should “tip out” every line he “borrows” in his auto-biography.
In short, this class will explore the politics of grammar in order to better understand its
rhetorical nature.
This class should interest not only language mavens and budding cultural theorists
among us, but also those who are interested in careers in politics and diplomacy and
public relations. Students will not only explore their own experiences with grammar and
instruction to see how they themselves have been shaped by language and how they use it
define others, but they will research various grammatical “rules” to better understand the
politics and the history behind them. Ultimately, a final project might have you research a
particular grammatical construct in order to shed light how it came to be and why and
how it’s used today for good and ill. Depending how things go, perhaps we might invent
our very own language with its own rules and constructions.
Texts may include:
George Orwell, “The Politics of the English Language.”
David Foster Wallace / Bryan A Garner, Quack This Way
Scholarship in the field of linguistics and rhetoric
Political speeches and writing
Gloria Naylor, “The Meaning of a Word.”
WRTG 101.018 MTH 10:20am-11:35am
Writing With A Sense of Place
Professor Brett Puryear
College Writing isn’t merely a writing course. It is a course on thinking, a course in
which you learn to think critically, attain a deep knowledge-of-subject through rigorous
research, and render your critical assertions found therein onto the page. Writing is the
physical rendering of human thought, of ideas. Sometimes we don’t discover our
thoughts, our assertions, our ideas, until we discover new ones or expound upon existing
ones through the process of research. To be a good writer one must be a good reader, a
good researcher.
James Joyce stated, “in the particular lies the universal,” and in College Writing
101 you will compose essays concerned with place. A study of a place entails research in
which you garner an understanding of a place’s people, social norms, way of life,
economy, and perhaps traditions. You will compose thesis-based essays for which you
make assertions informed by an understanding of place. To write effectively about
Hurricane Katrina you ought to have an understanding of the cultural climate of New
Orleans. The same goes for Hurricane Sandy. Perhaps you’d like to write an essay
concerning a depreciating economy in your hometown, or a burgeoning economy.
Students in the past have focused on race relations, fashions, public school systems, local
politics, local biases, and so forth. Getting to the heart of that issue’s source involves
research toward getting to the heart of a place.
You will engage in rigorous academic research. You will learn how to explore
source material that lies outside Wikipedia. You’ll discover credible publications within
online databases found through AU’s library website. However, we’ll also discuss how
one can use social media as a tool for discovering source material (for instance, a Twitter
newsfeed allows you to follow droves of credible journals, newspapers and magazines,
and to see what’s relevant––what are people talking about? What’s important in our
current cultural landscape?).
Possible texts will include essays by John Jeremiah Sullivan, Joan Didion, Willie
Morris, Zadie Smith, Jess Walter, and books by Graff and Birkenstein (They Say/I Say) as
well as Andrea Lunsford’s Easy Writer.
WRTG 101.019 MTH 10:20-11:35 am College Writing Seminar: This Written Life
Professor Stina Oakes
“Each week on our program, of course, we choose a theme, and bring you different kinds
of stories on that theme.” – Ira Glass, This American Life
In this seminar, following the structure of the popular podcast This American Life,
you will develop an individual topic to explore throughout the semester. Your topic will
be completely up to you, but it should be something you have some knowledge of or are
passionate about. Past topics have included: show choir, nutrition, fashion, boy bands,
NASCAR, dictators. You will write three pieces on your topic – a personal introduction
to the topic, a researched feature, and a scholarly piece.
Since this course is an academic writing course, our primary focus will be to
continue to practice and refine writing skills through critical reading, research, writing,
and discussion. As a class, our theme will center on the craft and process of writing; we
will examine the issues and rhetorical strategies of academic writing. We will be using a
variety of texts that focus on writing, reading, and research, such as Joseph Harris’
Rewriting, Roy Peter Clark’s Writing Tools, and articles from WritingSpaces.org.
WRTG 101.020 MTH 10:20-11:35 am “’The Passion of Nicki Minaj’”: Examining and Questioning the Value and Values
of Popular Culture
Professor Alison Thomas
In a recent cover story interview, writer Vanessa Grigoriadis contextualizes artist Nick
Minaj in the canon of female icons in 2015. But is there actually a “canon” of female
icons? And can anything in popular culture really be canonical?
We think of pop culture artifacts and trends as fleeting, low-brow and sometimes
mindless entertainment. In this class, while we’ll debate the canonization of the likes of
skinny jeans, Queen Bey, and The Weeknd, we’ll also consider what analyzing these pop
culture artifacts can lend to academic conversations. Can such topics help scholars in
particular fields learn something about who we are as humans? About how we think of
ourselves, or interact with others?
This course will invite students to examine the value and values of popular culture
artifacts as texts in order to master the skills and concepts of academic writing and
research. Ultimately, students will make meaningful, provocative arguments about
popular culture to both academic and popular audiences. This will require students to
practice “reading” texts and engaging with scholarly research. Students will build on
research and writing strategies from WRTG 100 - establishing existing conversations to
join, and adding something of their own.
Students will write a scholarly essay, and will then consider the deeper question
of the relationship between scholarship and popular texts. The capstone project for this
course will be to write an essay for a popular publication like Rolling Stone, The New
Yorker, Vulture, etc.
Texts may include:
Essays by Malcolm Gladwell, Chuck Klosterman, Roxanne Gay, Caitlin Moran and
other cultural critics
Jon Ronson – So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed
Jill Lepore – The Secret History of Wonder Woman
WRTG 101.021 MTH 10:20-11:35 am On Campus: Writing about University Life
Professor Lacey Wootton
“College” is not only a place where one studies; it has become an object of study, too.
The popular press, pundits, government officials, scholars—they’re all talking and
writing about issues related to university life. How does college foster economic and
social mobility, and how might colleges inhibit mobility? What are the rewards and
advantages of a college education? Are there limits to academic freedom? How are
colleges addressing such problems as sexual assault and racism? In this class, we’ll join
some of those conversations to explore successes, problems, and trends on college
campuses. Colleges are complex systems, and we’ll deal with the particular challenges
involved in researching and writing about complexity with clarity but without
oversimplification. We’ll also work with the challenges of writing about a system from
within that system; how can one analyze an environment from within? And we’ll talk
about ways to find something original to say about “good news,” not just “problems.”
You’ll be able to research and write about issues of importance to you, using the work of
other scholars to better understand the complexities and consequences of what’s going on
around us on campus.
Note: This class will deal with challenging and potentially disturbing material,
including sexual assault, racism, and classism.
Texts may include:
Armstrong, Elizabeth, and Laura Hamilton. Paying for the Party: How College
Maintains Inequality
Arum, Richard, and Josipa Roksa. Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College
Campuses
Harris, Joseph. Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts
Krakauer, Jon. Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town
WRTG 101.022 MTH 10:20am-11:35am
Our Friends, Our Foes, Our Food: The Bizarre Relationship Between Humans and
Other Animals
Professor Lydia Morris Fettig
Our relationship with animals is far more complex and pervasive than most of us realize.
While we all know about animals in the wild, in zoos, in labs, and in our homes, we
rarely think about the many other ways we encounter animals. So, for a moment, consider
that neighbor, friend, or relative we all have--the one who obsessively collects pig
figurines. Or think about the many animals that serve as school mascots, or the animals
served as school lunch, or the animals dissected in school classrooms. Too upsetting?
Then shift your attention to the plethora of cat videos on YouTube or focus instead on the
simple existence of doggles (eye wear for dogs?!). And, if you’re still not convinced that
our relationship with animals is both multifaceted and omnipresent, reflect upon the
relentless anthropomorphism that Disney movies provide; or those elderly women who
care for more than fifty cats in their homes; or the man from Ohio who, before shooting
himself, released his extensive collection of exotic wild animals on an unsuspecting
public.
While some of our inquiries will lead us to a study of animal rights and what
appears to be a human need to dominate animals, we will also enter critical conversations
about our inherent affection for and attraction to animals. For this reason, we will
thoroughly examine the human-pet bond. By the end of the term, our inquiries will have
led us through explorations and writings rooted in the natural and social sciences,
economics, environmental issues, race, culture, gender, and concepts of selfhood. Major
course assignments will include two research-based projects. Students will also prepare
and participate in a series of multimedia presentations.
Texts may include:
Animals Make Us Human (Temple Grandin)
Eating Animals (Jonathan Safran Foer)
Mine: The Pets That Hurricane Katrina Left Behind (documentary film)
Pets in America: A History (Katherine C. Grier)
Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted
Inhabitants (Robert Sullivan)
Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts (Joseph Harris)
Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight
About Animals (Hal Herog)
Why We Love Cats and Dogs (documentary film)
Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume I and Volume II
Excerpts and/or short works by Aristotle, Arnold Arluke, Jeremy Bentham, Matt
Cartmill, Rene Decartes, Malcolm Gladwell, Leslie Irvine, Tom Regan, Clinton Sanders,
Peter Singer, and others.
WRTG 101.023 TF 10:20-11:35 am Monster Culture
Professor Jona Colson
Enter freely and of your own will! As critic Jeffrey Jerome Cohen states, “We live in a
time of monsters.” Whether the monsters take the form of werewolves, witches,
vampires, dragons, beasts, or the forces of illness, monsters do a great deal of cultural
work. This course will examine the ways in which monsters challenge and question
contemporary culture and shape societies. Students will interrogate historical and recent
incarnations of monstrosity and how they reveal what we desire and fear. This course is
not for the faint of heart.
Texts may include:
American Gothic Tales, edited by Joyce Carol Oates (Plume)
Monsters edited by Brandy Ball Blake and L. Andrew Cooper (Fountainhead Press V
Series)
WRTG 101.024 TF 10:20-11:35 am Pictures or It Didn’t Happen: Meditated Memory in Film and Culture
Professor Mike Cabot
What is a memory? Is our memory of a past event the same thing as the event itself, a
close approximation, or simply a recollection the last time we recalled that event? Are
the vacation photos that we post to Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accurate depictions
of those moments, or are they carefully crafted – even invented – based on our own
perception?
To form individual memories and pass them off to others, we often facilitate
recollection through photos, albums, letters, diaries, notes, films, and digital media. New
media scholar José van Dijick notes that these documents and tools “mediate not only
remembrances of things past; they also mediate relationships between individuals and
groups of any kind.” When curating our own personal memories, we have a choice in the
character of those items; but when it comes to constructing a shared cultural memory,
who gets to decide its content and form? If journalist Joshua Foer is correct in his
suggestion that, “Our culture is an edifice built of externalized memories,” it may be
important to consider who has the power to shape those monuments and narratives.
This class will examine the relationship between writing and memory, and we will use
writing (of our own and others) to explore these questions. Because memory is filtered
through multiple forms, we’ll explore this topic through a range of media including film,
graphic novels, and public memorials. In addition to a lot of reading and writing, you
should also be prepared to complete a site visit to a local memorial, and to screen several
films outside of scheduled class meeting times.
Texts may include:
Maus by Art Spiegelman
Rewriting by Joseph Harris
Films by Michel Gondry, Christopher Nolan, Chris Marker, Patricio Guzmán, and Orson
Welles
WRTG 101.025 TF 10:20-11:35 am Pickling the Linguistic Turnip: Writing about Words and Discourse
Professor Kelly Joyner
“What [man] cannot express, he cannot conceive; what he cannot conceive is
chaos, and fills him with terror.” - Susanne K. Langer
“Don’t ask, don’t tell.” - President Bill Clinton
“It’s dangerous using words.” - Bob Garfield
We are surrounded by unexamined language. Face-to-face and online
conversation . . . written texts . . . live and recorded public speech . . . signs, posters, and
advertisement . . . song lyrics and shouts in the night. In this class, we’ll try to step back
from ourselves and the many texts around us and figure out what all this language is
saying about who we really are, what we believe and assume, what we’d like to tout, and
what we’d like to hide. We’ll establish an academic foundation with the help of the
writers listed below, and we’ll create our own scholarship by analyzing, close-reading,
arguing, and speculating about words.
Texts may include works by:
Malcolm Gladwell, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Susanne K. Langer, Michael
Lewis, Geoffrey Nunberg, George Orwell, David Skinner, Deborah Tannen, and D.F.
Wallace.
WRTG 101.026 TF 10:20-11:35 am Writing Better
Professor Sarah Marsh
“Illness,” Virginia Woolf writes, “is a part of every human being's experience. It
enhances our perceptions and reduces self-consciousness. It is the great confessional;
things are said, truths are blurted out which health conceals.” As Woolf suggests, the
experience of illness prompts us to speak—and sometimes to speak in ways we would not
if we were healthy.
What is the relationship between language and illness? How do we use language
to structure our individual and cultural experiences of illness, healing, and death? Why do
we use illness as a metaphor for other experiences? How do narratives of contagion shape
human relations in a global society? In this course, we will use writing to explore answers
to these questions.
Texts may include:
“What the Doctor Said,” by Raymond Carver
Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science, by Atul Gawande
[selections]
“The Ebola Epidemic Is Stoppable,” by Atul Gawande
A Not Entirely Benign Procedure: Four Years as a Medical Student, by Perri Klass
[selections]
“When the Fever Breaks,” by Luke Mogelson
The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity, by Roy Porter
[selections]
“Perspective Shift,” by Daniel Shapiro
Illness as Metaphor, by Susan Sontag [selections]
Contagious: Cultures, Carriers, and the Outbreak Narrative, by Priscilla Wald
[selections]
“The Use of Force,” by William Carlos Williams [selections]
WRTG 101.027 TF 10:20-11:35 am Food (and) Writing
Professor Heather McDonald
Food: a simple word for a complex concept. Food writing: a simple label for a complex
genre. From reviewers to novelists, from journalists to memoirists, food writers explore
how their subject is both literal and metaphorical fuel for individuals and communities.
This course goes well beyond the idea that “food tastes good.” We will examine the
genre as writers, by sharpening critical thinking skills, practicing writing techniques, and
honing research skills. We will combine texts on writing with topic-specific texts.
Texts may include:
Rewriting, by Joseph Harris
How to Write a Sentence, by Stanley Fish
The Tastemakers: Why We're Crazy for Cupcakes but Fed Up with Fondue, by David Sax
Eating Wildly, by Ava Chin
The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food, by David Barber
The Gastronomical Me, by M.F.K. Fisher
The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook
WRTG 101.028 TF 10:20-11:35 am The Earth Untrammeled: Rhetoric of the American Wilderness
Professor Mary Switalski
“A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the
landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are
untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” – Section 2c,
Wilderness Act, 1964
In September of 1964, the 88th Congress signed into law the Wilderness Act, considered
one of America’s greatest achievements in conservation and preservation. In the fifty
years since its adoption, nearly 110 million acres of our nation’s natural treasures have
been protected as wilderness for posterity, and new proposals reach Congress each year.
What is it that we value so deeply about the wild? We go into the wild as a visitor, to
marvel at it, or to test our mettle. We go to it for recreation; in it, we are re-created. In
this course, we’ll explore meanings of wilderness in the American imagination, from
Puritans and pioneers through contemporary nature writers. You’ll write a thesis-driven
profile essay about an individual whose rhetoric and actions contributed significantly to
our perception of wilderness and its value. We’ll also research and analyze modern
environmental theory and policy, and in a formal academic essay, you’ll explore a topic
of your choice related to wilderness law and/or environmental ethics.
Texts may include:
Excerpts from the journals of The Corps of Discovery, Thoreau’s Walden, Gary Snyder’s
The Practice of the Wild, Annie Dillard’s Teaching a Stone to Talk, Jon Krakauer’s Into
the Wild, and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring; Wild by Cheryl Strayed; and lots of
scholarly articles in support of your own projects.
WRTG 101.029 TF 10:20-11:35 am Nine to Five: Defining, Understanding, and Writing About Work
Professor Isabel Galbraith
Theodore Roosevelt claimed that "Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the
chance to work hard at work worth doing." As a college student, you’re probably
contemplating what your life’s work will be. Choosing a path is challenging, for society
sends mixed messages about careers. Some people tell you to follow your bliss, while
others (like, ahem, parents) say to be practical. Some employees “lean in,” while others
prioritize a work-life balance. Meanwhile, the working poor, who we’ll read about in
Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, are trying to pay the bills. Was it always this
way? To find out, we’ll read accounts of careers from the 1950s (ie, the jobs your
grandparents may have held) in Studs Terkel’s Working. These texts, along with essays
from writers like David Foster Wallace, Annie Dillard, and Joseph Campbell, will help us
define the concept of “work.” You’ll enter the conversation through writing assignments
like a personal narrative essay and a researched argument paper. Throughout the course,
you’ll strengthen your critical reading, writing, research, and argumentation skills -- and
perhaps discover what kind of work is, to you, “worth doing.”
WRTG 101.030 TF 10:20am-11:35am
Eating in America
Professor Kate Wilson
Decisions, decisions! Organic apples? Free-range chicken? Locally sourced cilantro?
Beef that was kind to cows? Humanely raised chickens? Or should I just pick up the stuff
I usually do? What do these labels even mean? Maybe I’ll just run screaming out of the
supermarket!
In this course we will examine the notion of “eating in America”—what do we
eat? How do we make our decisions? Is one thing “healthier” than another? And who’s in
charge of my choices anyway? Course materials will include sociological studies of
particular food products by a variety of scholars; articles and books by modern food
industry critics such as Michael Pollan, Marion Nestle and Dan Barber; films about food
in the US; and a series of short narrative works about food and eating. Students will write
in multiple genres, including textual analysis, extended research project and narrative.
WRTG 101.032 MTH 11:45am-1:00pm
The Boom Poetic: Hip Hop and the Art of the Emcee
Professor Sarah J. Trembath
In 1979 in the Bronx, NY, an art form called Hip Hop was born. It transformed youth
culture and revitalized the art of poetry worldwide. During Hip Hop’s hey day in the
1990s, now regarded by scholars as the Golden Era of Hip Hop, there arose an important
wave of street poets known as emcees: rappers who honed their skills in freestyle
cyphers, recorded their compositions with ingenious producers and DJs, and created a
body of work that is now legendary and is being included in the American literary canon.
This body of work is steeped in both the West African griot function and the American
funk tradition and is characterized by fluid mastery of English-language poetics in their
uniquely African American incarnation. This lyricism is referred to here as the boom
poetic, and it is the focus of this class.
This is a writing class, and so you will be applying the tools of scholarly research
and analysis to your exploration of this impactful movement. You will therefore study
both the artists’ work—the song lyrics themselves—and secondary sources on it. These
secondary source authors have socio-historically contextualized and critically analyzed
the works of golden era Hip Hop artists and, thus, provide models for your own
scholarship on (a) golden era poetics and (b) remnants of golden era poetics in
contemporary hip hop culture.
Texts may include:
Blues People by LeRoi Jones
Prophets of the Hood, by Imani Perry
Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America by Tricia Rose
The Rap Anthology, by Adam Bradley
Book of Rhymes, by Adam Bradley
iTunes
Other texts, sound recordings, and audiovisual media, provided by the teacher
WRTG 101.033 MTH 11:45am-1:00pm
Storytelling: Creative Nonfiction in a Digital Age
Professor Arielle Bernstein
This course will examine the genre of creative nonfiction, where writers share personal
stories or use the subjective experience as a means to investigate the world. We’ll
consider how the genre has shifted in an era of digital communication and whether the
advent of social media has changed what we think of as private or public knowledge. Is
writing about the self a kind of oversharing? Or is sharing our personal stories an
inherently political act? In order to delve into these questions we’ll read and analyze
essays from authors such as Joan Didion, George Orwell, David Foster Wallace, Leslie
Jamison, Roxane Gay, Lena Dunham, Cheryl Strayed and many others. We will also read
scholarship about the changing face of journalism in a digital age. Over the course of the
semester students will use their critical thinking skills to consider prominent writers in
the field of creative nonfiction, and will also have the opportunity to write a major
research paper on a topic that is personally meaningful to them, using both intensive
library and field research. We will consider how personal experiences can shape our ideas
and ignite our passions, while also discussing the dangers of buying a story that lacks
sufficient evidence outside of a single narrative.
WRTG 101.034 MTH 11:45am-1:00pm
The Politics of Language: Or I Learned to Love Grammar and Boldly Split that
Infinitive
Professor Hunter Hoskins
In response to being fined by the NFL for using the n-word, Terrance Knighton
responded that to him "the N-word is not as aggressive as people make it seem. It's a
culture thing. It's just something that African-Americans use, and it's not always in a
derogatory way [. . .] When you have [the NFL Commissioner] — someone who is white
— enforcing [the ban of the N-word from football field], he doesn't quite understand the
relationship I have with another African-American. He doesn't understand that." Terrance
Knighton here shows language’s effect on our daily lives and how language intersects
culture, class, gender, and race. It’s not just words, however, that expose the fissures that
crack the façade of cultural unification, it’s also the G-word that power uses to divide and
conquer.
Therefore, it’s no surprise that most of us who bother with the matter would admit
that we sweat at the first mention of “Grammar.” We get anxious. We feel wrong and,
often, wronged. But, mostly, we just feel judged. We see grammar as a tool with which
teachers and other “grammar Nazis” make us feel inferior. We see grammar as a tool by
which we are publicly shamed, if not humiliated. Grammar often scares us, but--often
without us even noticing—it defines us. Indeed, it genders us; it cultures us; it classes us.
It conquers and divides. Grammar is political.
In this course, then, we will explore the ways grammar defines us—and is used to
define us. We will research the way authority uses grammar to reinforce itself while
disempowering those it sees as threats. We will write about ways grammar shapes us
(who{m} we are?). We will historicize various “prescriptive” rules in order to better
understand who made these rules and to what end. We will even write about whether or
not colleges should even teach the prescriptive rules of grammar or even require a
“college writing” for that matter. We may even rethink plagiarism in order to decide
whether or not Rand Paul and Joe Biden really should be punished for “borrowing”
language or if Bob Dylan should “tip out” every line he “borrows” in his auto-biography.
In short, this class will explore the politics of grammar in order to better understand its
rhetorical nature.
This class should interest not only language mavens and budding cultural theorists
among us, but also those who are interested in careers in politics and diplomacy and
public relations. Students will not only explore their own experiences with grammar and
instruction to see how they themselves have been shaped by language and how they use it
define others, but they will research various grammatical “rules” to better understand the
politics and the history behind them. Ultimately, a final project might have you research a
particular grammatical construct in order to shed light how it came to be and why and
how it’s used today for good and ill. Depending how things go, perhaps we might invent
our very own language with its own rules and constructions.
Texts may include:
George Orwell, “The Politics of the English Language.”
David Foster Wallace / Bryan A Garner, Quack This Way
Scholarship in the field of linguistics and rhetoric
Political speeches and writing
Gloria Naylor, “The Meaning of a Word.”
WRTG 101.035 MTH 11:45am-1:00pm
Lives on the Margins
Professor Caron L. Martinez
Military veterans, minimum wage workers, newly-arrived immigrants, people of color,
devout members of religious sects: these and other groups often occupy a place outside of
the U.S. mainstream. In this course, located at the intersection of social psychology and
cultural analysis, we will explore communities "on the margins" with an intent to
examine human behavior, social norms, and identity. What does it mean to live in a
society with widely divergent socio-cultural differences? How diverse can democracies
become without risking fragmentation or lacking empathy? What are the roles of research
and writing in expanding people’s awareness and tolerance in an effort to create the
conditions for change? To answer these and other questions, we will cultivate an attitude
of inquiry and even self-inquiry as we explore the experiences of diverse groups of
people and write about their everyday realities "on the margins.” You’ll have the
opportunity to choose a marginalized group that interests you, and explore it, semesterlong, through a variety of writing genres. Some of our course texts might include:
Beyond Duty: Life on the Frontline in Iraq by Shannon Meehan and Roger Thompson
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America by Kathryn Edin and H. Luke Shaefer
WRTG 101.036 MTH 11:45am-1:00pm
Music as a Reaction to Societal Ills and as a Source of Community
Professor Bruce Miller
From homemade banjo-like stringed instruments employed by rural Malawians, Florida
musician Moses Williams fashioning a one-stringed instrument out of a door, to Nigerian
Afro beat pioneer Fela Kuti’s slogan that “music is a weapon”, various types of sound art
have been used to stare down poverty, radicalize groups of people into a movement for
social justice, or simply allow us all to recognize something about where we come from.
In this course, we will survey writing, performance, video, documentary, and no doubt
some deep listening in order to craft our own writing, and perhaps opinion, on the
subject. Along the way, we’ll take on everything from urban free jazz, rural folk and the
complexities inherent in semi-known folk-pop hybrids from Mauritania to Thailand.
Students will craft three major papers that can trace anything from origins of a particular
musical form and how it was shaped by environment to musical statements, both cultural
and political, to various folk traditions, and how they are either preserved or threatened.
There may also be a chance to write short reviews or other commentary on the
importance of an artist or style.
Texts may include:
Alan Lomax’s The Land Where the Blues Began (video)
Michael Azerrad’s Our Band Could Be Your Life
Francis Bebey’s African Music: A People’s Art
Photo collections of early phonograph memorabilia from around the globe
Reebee Garofalo’s Rockin’ The Boat: Mass Music and Mass Movements
Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part Harmony
…and of course, select recordings to enhance what we discuss and write about.
WRTG 101.037 MTH 11:45am-1:00pm
On Campus: Writing about University Life
Professor Lacey Wootton
“College” is not only a place where one studies; it has become an object of study, too.
The popular press, pundits, government officials, scholars—they’re all talking and
writing about issues related to university life. How does college foster economic and
social mobility, and how might colleges inhibit mobility? What are the rewards and
advantages of a college education? Are there limits to academic freedom? How are
colleges addressing such problems as sexual assault and racism? In this class, we’ll join
some of those conversations to explore successes, problems, and trends on college
campuses. Colleges are complex systems, and we’ll deal with the particular challenges
involved in researching and writing about complexity with clarity but without
oversimplification. We’ll also work with the challenges of writing about a system from
within that system; how can one analyze an environment from within? And we’ll talk
about ways to find something original to say about “good news,” not just “problems.”
You’ll be able to research and write about issues of importance to you, using the work of
other scholars to better understand the complexities and consequences of what’s going on
around us on campus.
Note: This class will deal with challenging and potentially disturbing material,
including sexual assault, racism, and classism.
Texts may include:
Armstrong, Elizabeth, and Laura Hamilton. Paying for the Party: How College
Maintains Inequality
Arum, Richard, and Josipa Roksa. Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College
Campuses
Harris, Joseph. Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts
Krakauer, Jon. Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town
WRTG 101.038 MTH 11:45am-1:00pm
The American Dream: Where Do You Fit in?
Professor Susan Mockler
We will begin the semester considering the definition of the American Dream, how the
definition has changed, and what it means today. We will read various texts detailing
different groups of people’s search for the American Dream in the U.S. and of those who
came to America in search of the Dream. Students will reflect on what the American
Dream means to them and experiences they or their families might have had with it.
Texts may include:
The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a Nation by Jim Cullen
Sweet Hope by Mary Bush (the Italian immigrant experience) with possible class visit by
the author
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (Dominican Republican
experience)
Richard Blanco’s poetry and memoir (2008 inaugural poet) the Cuban American
experience
The Italian Americans (PBS Documentary)
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
WRTG 101.040 TF 11:45am-1:00pm
Your Brain and You: The Culture of Human Nature
Professor Edward Comstock
We all know that scientists have made major strides in understanding the human brain,
cracking the genetic code, and forming a knowledge of human nature. Riding this wave
of scientific advance, popular magazines, newspapers, and television news outlets
trumpet the latest developments in medicine and neuroscience—finally, we’re told, the
secret recesses of our humanity are revealing themselves to us. And we’re buying in.
Feeling unproductive? There’s a pill for that. Voting Republican? That’s just your genes.
Don’t fancy modern art? Well, the structure of your brain repels you from it. Thanks to
science, we’re told, we now have control over this crazy thing we call humanity. But is it
all too good to be true?
In this course you will explore the uses and limits of science, examining its
distortions within various media that pray on our latent desires, biases, and needs. You
will consider the long history of racist, sexist, and homophobic ideas as they well up
through dubious science and into the popular imagination. At the same time, you’ll
discover that the scientific method usually prevails over error and bias. In this process,
you will become empowered to critique ideas and problematic claims made under the
banner truth, and you’ll study works from the field of cognitive neuroscience about how
you can become a better, more persuasive writer. But ultimately, the goal of this course
will be to cultivate the research and writing skills that will enable you to debunk myths
and falsehoods and to make a significant contribution in the name of truth through
research and writing.
Texts may include:
Brooks Landon Building Great Sentences: How to Write the Kinds of Sentences You Love
to Read
Steven Pinker The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st
Century
Scott O. Lilienfeld, et al. 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread
Misconceptions about Human Behavior
Joseph Harris Rewriting
Stanley Fish How to Write a Sentence
WRTG 101.041 TF 11:45am-1:00pm
The Mind at Work While at Play: Videogames, Thought, and Rhetoric
Professor Chuck Cox
Despite a skeptical public discourse about videogames that fixates on reductive “scare”
topics of violence, addiction and distraction, a dynamic, interdisciplinary scholarship has
emerged around gaming; these academic conversations are as complex and diverse as
games themselves have become. Literacy scholar James Paul Gee describes videogames
as “a new tool with which to think about the mind and through which we can externalize
some of its functions.” Meanwhile, game designer and researcher Ian Bogost argues that
videogames make “claims through procedural rhetorics” and thus “possess the power to
mount equally meaningful expression.” In other words, through their interactive, yet rulebased structures, videogames – from small smartphone apps like Candy Crush to
MMORPGs like World of Warcraft – can mimic the functions of the mind, show us how
our minds work, and make arguments through their very processes. Following in the path
of Gee and Bogost, this seminar will use research and writing to approach the theme of
videogames rhetorically and cognitively, exploring them as means of communication,
persuasion, thinking, and learning. And since matters of thought are contextual, we will
also investigate communities – scholarly and otherwise – that concern themselves with
videogames and their meanings. Since the goal of this writing seminar is to deepen and
complicate students’ academic skills, students will engage in scholarly research, critical
reading, and writing in several academic genres. Gaming experience is not necessary for
this class; however, an open, curious mind is essential.
Readings will include Joseph Harris’s Rewriting, as well as the works of
videogame scholars and public intellectuals, possibly including James Paul Gee, Ian
Bogost, Jane McGonigle, Nick Yee, Bonnie A. Nardi, and others.
WRTG 101.042 TF 11:45am-1:00pm
“Touched with Fire”: Creativity & Madness
Professor Leah Johnson
In the wake of countless national and international tragedies, there is much talk of the
connection between mental illness/madness and destruction. Equally interesting, though
not nearly as pressing, are questions about the link between madness and creativity. Why
have so many great artists struggled with insanity? Is it necessary to be “a little mad” to
create works of art? Or does the artist create in spite of his/her madness? Is one’s
creativity enhanced or hampered by extremes of temperament? What price must the artist
pay for his/her sensitivity? And the overriding question: Is there, in fact, a link between
creativity and madness?
In this course we’ll address these questions. We’ll read a series of personal
narratives (short essays and books) by individuals who have struggled with madness, a
film that shows both creativity and madness at work, a substantive scientific article about
the role the brain plays in creativity, and a major work of fiction that represents a creative
transformation of madness. Guest speakers (a psychologist, a psychiatrist, and a
musician) will punctuate our reading and viewing with their own experiences and
expertise about the subject, deepening our understanding of the artistic temperament and
of the role madness may or may not play in the creative life of the artist.
Texts may include:
Engaging Questions by Carolyn E. Channel and Timothy W. Crusius
They Say, I Say by Gerald Graff and Kathy Birkenstein
Darkness Visible by William Styron
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Film:
Pollock, directed by and starring Ed Harris
WRTG 101.043 TF 11:45am-1:00pm
The Power of Narrative
Professor Jocelyn McCarthy
In After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory, the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre argues
that “man is in his actions and practice, as well as in his fictions, essentially a storytelling animal.” Many of us would agree. Human beings tell stories about virtually
everything and for virtually every purpose: to strengthen emotional bonds, to
transmit values to the next generation, and to unite people for a cause, among other
things. As listeners and readers, we itch for a good story – to know “how it ends.”
As writers, we understand that we’re tapping into a powerful force when we tell a
story.
In fact, in the writing world, narrative is frequently acknowledged as one of
the best ways to get and keep a reader’s interest. Though we don’t often think of
stories when we think of persuasive, argument-driven writing, many effective
nonfiction writers find ways to blend the two. Even in the world of densely
researched scholarly writing – a world we’ll explore in our reading and writing –
touches of narrative are increasingly used to make argument and research more
inviting.
We’ll also explore what scholars have written about the power of narrative,
particularly in the fields of communications and rhetoric. Central to our
examination will be Walter Fisher’s narrative paradigm theory – which posited that
narrative is the basis of human communication – and the reaction to it.
In this course, we’ll strengthen our research and argument skills, we’ll
explore scholarly discourse, and we’ll examine strategies for harnessing the power
of narrative to create more powerful and persuasive academic writing.
WRTG 101.044 TF 11:45am-1:00pm
Arguments We Argue About (and What They Can Teach Us About Argument)
Professor Adam Tamashasky
Religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin—Linus (of Peanuts fame) tells us these are the
three things never to discuss with anyone. Part of the reason for this advice might be that
so many people haven’t read some of the texts that have begun or altered conversations
we have about the controversial issues of our day (notably, abortion, religion, evolution,
political and economic systems, and race in the U.S.). This course aims to use a handful
of these argument-driven texts to deepen the lessons learned in WRTG100; by studying
these arguments to see how the theories learned in 100 come to practical fruition (or die
on the vine), you’ll continue honing your college writing skills.
We’ll read and study major Supreme Court decisions (like Roe v. Wade, Plessy v.
Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education, and Dred Scott v. Sandford), influential books
(like Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents, and
excerpts of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations), and compact but powerful tracts (like
Marx’s & Engel’s Communist Manifesto, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, and
Machiavelli’s The Prince). Expect daily reading, writing, and thinking (and, spoilers, no
Great Pumpkin).
WRTG 101.045 TF 11:45am-1:00pm
What’s in a Pronoun? Writing Gender, Genre, and Intersectionality
Professor Marnie Twigg
What are your pronouns? This simple question only begins to acknowledge vast
differences between assigned sex and gender identity. It also pushes us to question the
assumptions we make about gender, whether we identify as a man, a woman,
genderqueer, or agender, etc. Is it in our faces, the way we walk, the sound of our voices,
the people we love, whether we like shoe shopping or football? How could these
questions ever be covered in two (or more) categories? More importantly, why are we
pressured to categorize gender at all?
Our course will begin with writing about these questions, but it will not end there.
This class will empower you to research and write about how gender affects privilege and
identity through its intersections with race, class, sexuality, country of origin, home
language, religion, and ability. Using these conversations, we will investigate the
connections between approaches to gender and approaches to writing. By considering
how these approaches may overlap, we will discover whether the ways we choose to
write can be an act of resistance as much as what we write about.
Texts may include:
Decolonizing Transgender 101 by b. binaohan
Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity edited by Mattilda
Bernstein Sycamore
Selections from Gloria Anzaldúa, Lovemme Corazon, Kortney Ryan Ziegler, Julia
Serano, J Mase III, Nico Dacumos, Dean Spade, Ryka Aoki, Naeem Mohaiemen, Audre
Lorde, Janet Mock, Eric Stanley, Kate Bornstein, Toni Newman, Rocko Buldagger,
Jasbir Puar, Susan Stryker, Laverne Cox, Nia King, TS Madison, and local LGBTQ+
writers
WRTG 101.046 TF 11:45am-1:00pm
Terror: What Are We Afraid Of?
Professor Hildie Block
Terror! What does it mean? How can we define this term? Is it an act by individuals
against civilians for political purpose or the emotion that you feel on a roller coaster? Is
what you experience watching a horror film or CNN’s “terror ticker”? Is it what happens
in an abusive home or an oppressive government’s “Reign of Terror”? This course
continues the work of LIT-100, and students will continue to evolve their inquiry and
research methods, and explore the topics like analyzing a text, evaluating a source,
logical fallacies, and fine tune ability to think and write critically to further prepare you
for scholarly writing at the university level.
Texts may include:
Communicating Terror by Joseph S. Tuman
Rewriting by Joseph Harris
Frankenstein (Case Studies in Criticism) by Mary Shelley and Johanna M. Smith
WRTG 101.049CB MTH 1:10-2:25 p.m. Rewriting the Starfish Story: Writing for Community Engagement
Professor Amanda Choutka
Do you believe you can discernibly “change the world” through volunteer work in your
community? Is volunteering one’s energy to a non-profit organization a religious, moral,
or civic duty? What are the ethical and political implications at stake when choosing a
community to volunteer in? What factors will influence the relationship between the
volunteer and the members of the community served? After service, does the volunteer
change? And can a volunteer substantively contribute to a local community through a
semester of service?
This course will examine the implications of service through writing assignments,
course readings, and a required fieldwork experience. (The fieldwork experience is
required of all students enrolled in the course and includes 15 hours of volunteer work in
one of four Washington, D.C. community service organizations, which include Horton’s
Kids, THRIVE DC, D.C. Reads or Jumpstart, and another to be determined by student
interest.) We will read texts on the rhetoric of social justice, community-based learning,
and service experiences. Major writing assignments may include a scholarly essay on
why individuals serve and a writing portfolio that showcases your academic and
community-based writing from the semester. (Former students have used these portfolios
as work samples to obtain internships and jobs.) There will be short writing or group
assignments and readings due nearly every class. This is a Community-Based Learning
(CB or CBL) course; CBL courses emphasize social responsibility and engagement in
D.C. while practicing reciprocity.
Students enrolled in this course may add the optional Community Service
Learning Project’s fourth credit, which enables student to earn an additional academic
credit through completing an additional 40 hours of direct service volunteer work,
completing a service project for their community service partner, and a reflective essay
(which is part of the portfolio for the course).
Texts may include:
Chasing Chaos by Jessica Alexander
Excerpts from various Best American anthologies, including David Ramsey’s, “I Will
Forever Remain Faithful: How Lil Wayne Helped Me Survive My First Year Teaching in
New Orleans” Articles from WritingSpaces.org
Rewriting, Joseph Harris
Writing with Style, John R. Trimble
Excerpts from On Writing Well, William Zinsser
WRTG 101.050 MTH 1:10pm-2:25pm
The Politics of Language: Or I Learned to Love Grammar and Boldly Split that
Infinitive
Professor Hunter Hoskins
In response to being fined by the NFL for using the n-word, Terrance Knighton
responded that to him "the N-word is not as aggressive as people make it seem. It's a
culture thing. It's just something that African-Americans use, and it's not always in a
derogatory way [. . .] When you have [the NFL Commissioner] — someone who is white
— enforcing [the ban of the N-word from football field], he doesn't quite understand the
relationship I have with another African-American. He doesn't understand that." Terrance
Knighton here shows language’s effect on our daily lives and how language intersects
culture, class, gender, and race. It’s not just words, however, that expose the fissures that
crack the façade of cultural unification, it’s also the G-word that power uses to divide and
conquer.
Therefore, it’s no surprise that most of us who bother with the matter would admit
that we sweat at the first mention of “Grammar.” We get anxious. We feel wrong and,
often, wronged. But, mostly, we just feel judged. We see grammar as a tool with which
teachers and other “grammar Nazis” make us feel inferior. We see grammar as a tool by
which we are publicly shamed, if not humiliated. Grammar often scares us, but--often
without us even noticing—it defines us. Indeed, it genders us; it cultures us; it classes us.
It conquers and divides. Grammar is political.
In this course, then, we will explore the ways grammar defines us—and is used to
define us. We will research the way authority uses grammar to reinforce itself while
disempowering those it sees as threats. We will write about ways grammar shapes us
(who{m} we are?). We will historicize various “prescriptive” rules in order to better
understand who made these rules and to what end. We will even write about whether or
not colleges should even teach the prescriptive rules of grammar or even require a
“college writing” for that matter. We may even rethink plagiarism in order to decide
whether or not Rand Paul and Joe Biden really should be punished for “borrowing”
language or if Bob Dylan should “tip out” every line he “borrows” in his auto-biography.
In short, this class will explore the politics of grammar in order to better understand its
rhetorical nature.
This class should interest not only language mavens and budding cultural theorists
among us, but also those who are interested in careers in politics and diplomacy and
public relations. Students will not only explore their own experiences with grammar and
instruction to see how they themselves have been shaped by language and how they use it
define others, but they will research various grammatical “rules” to better understand the
politics and the history behind them. Ultimately, a final project might have you research a
particular grammatical construct in order to shed light how it came to be and why and
how it’s used today for good and ill. Depending how things go, perhaps we might invent
our very own language with its own rules and constructions.
Texts may include:
George Orwell, “The Politics of the English Language.”
David Foster Wallace / Bryan A Garner, Quack This Way
Scholarship in the field of linguistics and rhetoric
Political speeches and writing
Gloria Naylor, “The Meaning of a Word.”
WRTG 101.051 MTH 1:10pm-2:25pm
Modernity & Manifesto: The Patterns and Polemics of Technologized Life
Professor Lee Scrivner
Sigmund Freud said our modern technologies are like prosthetic limbs that render us
omnipotent, even "godlike." But sometimes these mechanical hands clearly get the upper
hand. The same system that gives us global communication and material abundance also
brings about (among other things) a mass culture and a mental life of machine-like
regimentation.
This course will investigate what commentators have said about life in
technological modernity, both in positive and negative terms, over the last hundred and
fifty years or so. Students will be expected to join in on this conversation with a series of
well-researched academic essays.
Texts may include:
Georg Simmel’s “The Metropolis and Mental Life”
Donna Haraway's "A Cyborg Manifesto"
Sigmund Freud's Civilization and its Discontents
Sam Harris' The Moral Landscape (excerpts)
Friedrich Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morals (excerpts)
Carl Jung's Modern Man in Search of a Soul (excerpts)
Nicholas Carr's The Shallows (excerpts)
Joseph Harris's Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts
WRTG 101.052 MTH 1:10-2:25 p.m.
The Personal Essay
Professor Gretchen Vanwormer
“Personal essayists are adept at interrogating their own ignorance. Just as often as they
tell us what they know, they ask…what it is that they don’t know—and why. They
follow the clue of their ignorance through the maze.”
-Phillip Lopate, The Art of the Personal Essay
This course looks at the ways that essayists have used their personal experiences to add to
their understanding of a problem. We’ll look at a variety of forms including analytic
meditation, humor, memoir, reportage, and portrait, and we’ll read a variety of voices—
from Montaigne to Adrienne Rich to Richard Rodriguez. Our aim is to combine
reflection on our personal experiences with academic research to further interrogate our
beliefs and encourage our readers to do the same. Readings will explore a range of
themes: nature, race and ethnicity, family ties, love, hatred, etc. The central thread is
that all these essayists are using their personal experiences to deepen their discussion and
widen their audience.
WRTG 101.053 MTH 1:10pm-2:25pm
Mining Our Lives for Stories Worth Exploring: The Craft of the Personal Essay
Professor Nancy Kidder
“A man who has nothing in particular to recommend him discusses all sorts of subjects at
random as though he knew everything.” –Sei Shonagon, journal recordings, 10th century,
Japan “The path of least resistance has a lot going for it. The comfort zone isn't where
you lose yourself. It's where you find yourself.” -- Meghan Daum, The Unspeakable: And
Other Subjects of Discussion, 2014
For over a century, the personal essay has been one of the richest and most
vibrant of all literary forms. A subset of the informal essay, this genre is noted by its
intimate style and its autobiographical content, usually with a drive toward candor and
self-disclosure. Often sourced from the minutiae of daily life (i.e. vanities, fashions,
foibles, oddballs, seasonal rituals, love and disappointment, and the pleasures of
solitude), writers share their lives to hopefully offer insight into the human condition.
Throughout this course, we will evaluate essays of influential pioneers from
ancient Rome, the Far East, the French Renaissance, and the golden age of the English
essay. Looking towards the 21st Century, the readings will push the boundaries of the
genre, including a graphic novel. We will also study the craft of this form, studying the
maneuvers and “nuts-and-bolts’ of storytelling (i.e. turning “I” into a character). Lastly,
you will write your own essays. Through recounting your own experiences, you will
hopefully demonstrate the underlying power of the personal essay— that honest
introspection may lead to universal truth.
Texts may include:
Seneca, Sei Shonagon, Michel de Montaigne, William Hazlitt, Phillip Lopate, Bill
Roorbach, Leslie Jamison, Meghan Daum, Cheryl Strayed, John Jeremiah Sullivan,
Sloane Crosley, Marjane Satrapi
WRTG 101.056 TF 1:10pm-2:25pm
Your Brain and You: The Culture of Human Nature
Professor Edward Comstock
We all know that scientists have made major strides in understanding the human brain,
cracking the genetic code, and forming a knowledge of human nature. Riding this wave
of scientific advance, popular magazines, newspapers, and television news outlets
trumpet the latest developments in medicine and neuroscience—finally, we’re told, the
secret recesses of our humanity are revealing themselves to us. And we’re buying in.
Feeling unproductive? There’s a pill for that. Voting Republican? That’s just your genes.
Don’t fancy modern art? Well, the structure of your brain repels you from it. Thanks to
science, we’re told, we now have control over this crazy thing we call humanity. But is it
all too good to be true?
In this course you will explore the uses and limits of science, examining its
distortions within various media that pray on our latent desires, biases, and needs. You
will consider the long history of racist, sexist, and homophobic ideas as they well up
through dubious science and into the popular imagination. At the same time, you’ll
discover that the scientific method usually prevails over error and bias. In this process,
you will become empowered to critique ideas and problematic claims made under the
banner truth, and you’ll study works from the field of cognitive neuroscience about how
you can become a better, more persuasive writer. But ultimately, the goal of this course
will be to cultivate the research and writing skills that will enable you to debunk myths
and falsehoods and to make a significant contribution in the name of truth through
research and writing.
Texts may include:
Brooks Landon Building Great Sentences: How to Write the Kinds of Sentences You Love
to Read
Steven Pinker The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st
Century
Scott O. Lilienfeld, et al. 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread
Misconceptions about Human Behavior
Joseph Harris Rewriting
Stanley Fish How to Write a Sentence
WRTG 101.057 TF 1:10pm-2:25pm
Arguments We Argue About (and What They Can Teach Us About Argument)
Professor Adam Tamashasky
Religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin—Linus (of Peanuts fame) tells us these are the
three things never to discuss with anyone. Part of the reason for this advice might be that
so many people haven’t read some of the texts that have begun or altered conversations
we have about the controversial issues of our day (notably, abortion, religion, evolution,
political and economic systems, and race in the U.S.). This course aims to use a handful
of these argument-driven texts to deepen the lessons learned in WRTG100; by studying
these arguments to see how the theories learned in 100 come to practical fruition (or die
on the vine), you’ll continue honing your college writing skills.
We’ll read and study major Supreme Court decisions (like Roe v. Wade, Plessy v.
Ferguson, Brown v. Board of Education, and Dred Scott v. Sandford), influential books
(like Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents, and
excerpts of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations), and compact but powerful tracts (like
Marx’s & Engel’s Communist Manifesto, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, and
Machiavelli’s The Prince). Expect daily reading, writing, and thinking (and, spoilers, no
Great Pumpkin).
WRTG 101.058 TF 1:10pm-2:25pm
The Power of Narrative
Professor Jocelyn McCarthy
In After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory, the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre argues
that “man is in his actions and practice, as well as in his fictions, essentially a storytelling animal.” Many of us would agree. Human beings tell stories about virtually
everything and for virtually every purpose: to strengthen emotional bonds, to
transmit values to the next generation, and to unite people for a cause, among other
things. As listeners and readers, we itch for a good story – to know “how it ends.”
As writers, we understand that we’re tapping into a powerful force when we tell a
story.
In fact, in the writing world, narrative is frequently acknowledged as one of
the best ways to get and keep a reader’s interest. Though we don’t often think of
stories when we think of persuasive, argument-driven writing, many effective
nonfiction writers find ways to blend the two. Even in the world of densely
researched scholarly writing – a world we’ll explore in our reading and writing –
touches of narrative are increasingly used to make argument and research more
inviting.
We’ll also explore what scholars have written about the power of narrative,
particularly in the fields of communications and rhetoric. Central to our
examination will be Walter Fisher’s narrative paradigm theory – which posited that
narrative is the basis of human communication – and the reaction to it.
In this course, we’ll strengthen our research and argument skills, we’ll
explore scholarly discourse, and we’ll examine strategies for harnessing the power
of narrative to create more powerful and persuasive academic writing.
WRTG 101.059 TF 1:10pm-2:25pm
Food (and) Writing
Professor Heather McDonald
Food: a simple word for a complex concept. Food writing: a simple label for a complex
genre. From reviewers to novelists, from journalists to memoirists, food writers explore
how their subject is both literal and metaphorical fuel for individuals and communities.
This course goes well beyond the idea that “food tastes good.” We will examine the
genre as writers, by sharpening critical thinking skills, practicing writing techniques, and
honing research skills. We will combine texts on writing with topic-specific texts.
Texts may include:
Rewriting, by Joseph Harris
How to Write a Sentence, by Stanley Fish
The Tastemakers: Why We're Crazy for Cupcakes but Fed Up with Fondue, by David Sax
Eating Wildly, by Ava Chin
The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food, by David Barber
The Gastronomical Me, by M.F.K. Fisher
The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook
WRTG 101.064 MTH 2:35pm-3:50pm
Storytelling: Creative Nonfiction in a Digital Age
Professor Arielle Bernstein
This course will examine the genre of creative nonfiction, where writers share personal
stories or use the subjective experience as a means to investigate the world. We’ll
consider how the genre has shifted in an era of digital communication and whether the
advent of social media has changed what we think of as private or public knowledge. Is
writing about the self a kind of oversharing? Or is sharing our personal stories an
inherently political act? In order to delve into these questions we’ll read and analyze
essays from authors such as Joan Didion, George Orwell, David Foster Wallace, Leslie
Jamison, Roxane Gay, Lena Dunham, Cheryl Strayed and many others. We will also read
scholarship about the changing face of journalism in a digital age. Over the course of the
semester students will use their critical thinking skills to consider prominent writers in
the field of creative nonfiction, and will also have the opportunity to write a major
research paper on a topic that is personally meaningful to them, using both intensive
library and field research. We will consider how personal experiences can shape our ideas
and ignite our passions, while also discussing the dangers of buying a story that lacks
sufficient evidence outside of a single narrative.
WRTG 101.065 MTH 2:35pm-3:50pm
Criminal Perceptions
Professor Caimeen Garrett
Our society is fascinated with crime, though a cursory glance through Harold Schechter’s
anthology True Crime reveals that this interest is nothing new: from Puritan execution
sermons to 19th century murder ballads, the American public has always hungered to
“hear the whole disturbing story.” What does our fascination with crime reveal about us?
Why do certain crimes seize the public imagination? Why are some criminals and victims
more compelling than others? How has the media coverage of crime shaped our
perceptions and expectations? In this course we will examine how crime is written—or
not written—about. We will explore changing historical representations of crime, and
closely examine the rhetorical choices the chronicler of crime makes, whether for
mainstream journalism, the tabloid press, or true crime novels.
Texts may include:
True Crime: An American Anthology, edited by Harold Schechter
Fatal Vision, by Joe McGinniss
The Journalist and the Murderer, by Janet Malcolm
A Wilderness of Error, by Errol Morris
WRTG 101.066 MTH 2:35pm-3:50pm
Lives on the Margins
Professor Caron L. Martinez
"Military veterans, minimum wage workers, newly-arrived immigrants, people of color,
devout members of religious sects: these and other groups often occupy a place outside
of the U.S. mainstream. In this course, located at the intersection of social psychology
and cultural analysis, we will explore communities "on the margins" with an intent to
examine human behavior, social norms, and identity. What does it mean to live in a
society with widely divergent socio-cultural differences? How diverse can democracies
become without risking fragmentation or lacking empathy? What are the roles of research
and writing in expanding people’s awareness and tolerance? To answer these and other
questions, we will cultivate an attitude of inquiry and even self-inquiry as we
explore the experiences of diverse groups of people and write about their everyday
realities "on the margins.”
WRTG 101.067 MTH 2:35pm-3:50pm
Art of Activism: Reading and Writing Protest
Professor Melissa Scholes Young
Is protest effective in constructing social change? How has activism shaped the
world? Through scholarly research and writing, we’ll explore the strength of an
individual voice and the consequences of community radicalism. Students will read
and write about protest leaders, such as Mother Jones, Martin Luther King, Jr., and
Gandhi, and learn to express themselves and persuade others using the art of
argument. We’ll also evaluate modern protest movements, such as Arab Spring, Tea
Party, and Black Lives Matter, and critically examine how social media is utilized to
organize protest. Through responses to activist essays, music, and film, we’ll master
writing strategies that get your voice heard in a noisy world.
Texts may include:
Protest Nation: Words That Inspired a Century of American Radicalism Edited by
Timothy Patrick McCarthy and John McMillan
The Art of Protest: Culture and Activism from the Civil Rights Movement to the Streets
of Seattle by T.V. Reed
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
WRTG 101.068 MTH 2:35pm-3:50pm Decoding Social Justice: Writing about Injustice and Social Reform
Professor Amanda Choutka
“Be the change you want to see in the world,” may be what Gandhi said, but he didn’t
live in modern day D.C. and have a full class schedule. We will move beyond that easy
slogan to consider the implications, systems, and limitations to social reform and access
to basic human rights. We’ll read about movements and events that propelled service
work, such as Hurricane Katrina, the fall of Detroit, and education inequality in America.
You’ll work on understanding what kind of reform captures the hearts and hands of
nonprofits, lawmakers, and citizens – and what doesn’t.
This course will examine the implications of inequality, injustice, and social
mobility through writing assignments and course readings. We will read and analyze the
rhetoric of social justice advocates, diverse communities, and service work. Major
writing assignments may include a scholarly essay on why individuals serve and a
portfolio that showcases your writing from the semester. (Former students have used
these portfolios as work samples to obtain internships and jobs.). There will be short
writing or group assignments and readings due nearly every class.
Students enrolled in this course may add the optional Community Service
Learning Project’s fourth credit, which enables student to earn an additional academic
credit through completing 40 hours of direct service volunteer work in the D.C.
community, completing a service project for their community service partner, and a
reflective essay (which is also the final essay for our course).
Texts may include:
Chasing Chaos by Jessica Alexander
Various articles and essays from The Atlantic, Slate, The Washington Post, and The New
York Times
Excerpts from various Best American anthologies, including David Ramsey’s “I Will
Forever Remain Faithful: How Lil Wayne Helped Me Survive My First Year Teaching in
New Orleans”
Articles from WritingSpaces.org
Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts, Joseph Harris
Excerpts from On Writing Well, William Zinsser
WRTG 101.069 MTH 2:35pm-3:50pm
Degrees of Deviance: Risk Taking, Rule Breaking, and Criminal Undertaking on
College Campuses
Professor Lydia Morris Fettig
We tend to think of college as the safest and smartest next step—and yet a recent study
revealed that the high school graduates who go to college take more risks and break more
laws than those high school graduates who stay home or enter the workforce. In fact,
much social science research shows that, among deviant populations, college students
rank among the highest. But students are not the only criminals on campus. Professors
and other university officials have been known to bully and manipulate, abuse drugs and
alcohol, pursue inappropriate relationships, and plagiarize within academic work. This
course will examine both social deviance and criminal behavior across college campuses.
After considering the major theories of deviance from the social sciences, specific topics
of inquiry will range from the relatively benign (getting tattoos, forgoing conventional
methods of hygiene, participating in drum circles, experimenting sexually, etc.) to the
potentially dangerous (cheating, stealing, hazing, using and abusing illicit drugs and
prescription medications, etc.). Campus shootings and sexual assault will each be given
particular attention. We will also ask if the marked rise in anxiety and mental illness
among college students is in itself a category of deviance.
Readings will range from narrative accounts of deviant transgressions to academic
works and research studies about higher education, aberrant behavior, and crime. Major
course assignments will not only encourage student writers to examine how risk-taking
can work in writing, but also to break some of the rules they may have learned about
what makes a “good” academic essay. Students will complete two research-based
projects, one of which necessitates field research or first-hand experience. Students will
also prepare and participate in a series of multimedia presentations.
Texts may include:
Deviance and Crime in Colleges and Universities: What Goes On in the Halls of
Ivy (Huckson and Roebuck)
Girl, Interrupted (Kaysen)
The Hunting Ground (documentary film)
Justifiable Conduct: Self-Vindication in Memoir (Goode)
Readings in Deviant Behavior, 6th edition (Thio, Calhoun, and Conyers)
Renegade Kids, Suburban Outlaws: From Youth Culture to Delinquency(Wooden and
Blazak)
Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts (Harris)
Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume I and Volume II
Short works by Jo Ann Beard, Susan Cheever, Chuck Klosterman, Lorrie Moore, Joyce
Carol Oates, Chuck Palahniuk, David Sedaris, and others.
WRTG 101.070 MTH 2:35pm-3:50pm
Women Aren’t Funny and Other Nonsense from the Patriarchy
Professor Allison Sparks
Google “Women aren’t funny.” Surprised to see how many men will tell you that this is
true? Women in comedy have historically been a tricky business, to say the least. But is
the cultural moment for funny women finally here? In this seminar, we’ll explore the
careers of Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Lena Dunham, Mindy Kaling, Amy Schumer, Ilana
Glazer and Abbi Jacobson (and more!). We’ll delve into the past to explore who paved
the way for these women today by investigating feminism in its various iterations and
comediennes like Lucille Ball, Goldie Hawn (Kate Hudson’s mom), and Joan
Rivers. We’ll answer questions like is Hillary Clinton funny? What was up with SNL’s
stupid comments on women of color in comedy? Has the industry really changed for the
better? Or are these women simply refusing to be told “women aren’t funny”?
Texts may include:
Yes Please by Amy Poehler
Bossypants by Tina Fey
Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
I was Told There’d be Cake by Sloane Crosley
How to be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
And relevant movies, stand up specials, TV episodes, essays and short stories.
WRTG 101.071 TF 2:35pm-3:50pm
Pictures or It Didn’t Happen: Meditated Memory in Film and Culture
Professor Mike Cabot
What is a memory? Is our memory of a past event the same thing as the event itself, a
close approximation, or simply a recollection the last time we recalled that event? Are
the vacation photos that we post to Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accurate depictions
of those moments, or are they carefully crafted – even invented – based on our own
perception?
To form individual memories and pass them off to others, we often facilitate
recollection through photos, albums, letters, diaries, notes, films, and digital media. New
media scholar José van Dijick notes that these documents and tools “mediate not only
remembrances of things past; they also mediate relationships between individuals and
groups of any kind.” When curating our own personal memories, we have a choice in the
character of those items; but when it comes to constructing a shared cultural memory,
who gets to decide its content and form? If journalist Joshua Foer is correct in his
suggestion that, “Our culture is an edifice built of externalized memories,” it may be
important to consider who has the power to shape those monuments and narratives.
This class will examine the relationship between writing and memory, and we will use
writing (of our own and others) to explore these questions. Because memory is filtered
through multiple forms, we’ll explore this topic through a range of media including film,
graphic novels, and public memorials. In addition to a lot of reading and writing, you
should also be prepared to complete a site visit to a local memorial, and to screen several
films outside of scheduled class meeting times.
Texts may include:
Maus by Art Spiegelman
Rewriting by Joseph Harris
Films by Michel Gondry, Christopher Nolan, Chris Marker, Patricio Guzmán, and Orson
Welles
WRTG 101.072 TF 2:35pm-3:50pm
Pickling the Linguistic Turnip: Writing about Words and Discourse
Professor Kelly Joyner
“What [man] cannot express, he cannot conceive; what he cannot conceive is
chaos, and fills him with terror.” - Susanne K. Langer
“Don’t ask, don’t tell.” - President Bill Clinton
“It’s dangerous using words.” - Bob Garfield
We are surrounded by unexamined language. Face-to-face and online
conversation . . . written texts . . . live and recorded public speech . . . signs, posters, and
advertisement . . . song lyrics and shouts in the night. In this class, we’ll try to step back
from ourselves and the many texts around us and figure out what all this language is
saying about who we really are, what we believe and assume, what we’d like to tout, and
what we’d like to hide. We’ll establish an academic foundation with the help of the
writers listed below, and we’ll create our own scholarship by analyzing, close-reading,
arguing, and speculating about words.
Texts may include works by:
Malcolm Gladwell, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Susanne K. Langer, Michael
Lewis, Geoffrey Nunberg, George Orwell, David Skinner, Deborah Tannen, and D.F.
Wallace.
WRTG 101.073 TF 2:35pm-3:50pm
Writing Better
Professor Sarah Marsh
“Illness,” Virginia Woolf writes, “is a part of every human being's experience. It
enhances our perceptions and reduces self-consciousness. It is the great confessional;
things are said, truths are blurted out which health conceals.” As Woolf suggests, the
experience of illness prompts us to speak—and sometimes to speak in ways we would not
if we were healthy.
What is the relationship between language and illness? How do we use language
to structure our individual and cultural experiences of illness, healing, and death? Why do
we use illness as a metaphor for other experiences? How do narratives of contagion shape
human relations in a global society? In this course, we will use writing to explore answers
to these questions.
Texts may include:
“What the Doctor Said,” by Raymond Carver
Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science, by Atul Gawande
[selections]
“The Ebola Epidemic Is Stoppable,” by Atul Gawande
A Not Entirely Benign Procedure: Four Years as a Medical Student, by Perri Klass
[selections]
“When the Fever Breaks,” by Luke Mogelson
The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity, by Roy Porter
[selections]
“Perspective Shift,” by Daniel Shapiro
Illness as Metaphor, by Susan Sontag [selections]
Contagious: Cultures, Carriers, and the Outbreak Narrative, by Priscilla Wald
[selections]
“The Use of Force,” by William Carlos Williams [selections]
WRTG 101.074 TF 2:35pm-3:50pm
The Earth Untrammeled: Rhetoric of the American Wilderness
Professor Mary Switalski
“A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the
landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are
untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” – Section 2c,
Wilderness Act, 1964
In September of 1964, the 88th Congress signed into law the Wilderness Act, considered
one of America’s greatest achievements in conservation and preservation. In the fifty
years since its adoption, nearly 110 million acres of our nation’s natural treasures have
been protected as wilderness for posterity, and new proposals reach Congress each year.
What is it that we value so deeply about the wild? We go into the wild as a visitor, to
marvel at it, or to test our mettle. We go to it for recreation; in it, we are re-created. In
this course, we’ll explore meanings of wilderness in the American imagination, from
Puritans and pioneers through contemporary nature writers. You’ll write a thesis-driven
profile essay about an individual whose rhetoric and actions contributed significantly to
our perception of wilderness and its value. We’ll also research and analyze modern
environmental theory and policy, and in a formal academic essay, you’ll explore a topic
of your choice related to wilderness law and/or environmental ethics.
Texts may include:
Excerpts from the journals of The Corps of Discovery, Thoreau’s Walden, Gary Snyder’s
The Practice of the Wild, Annie Dillard’s Teaching a Stone to Talk, Jon Krakauer’s Into
the Wild, and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring; Wild by Cheryl Strayed; and lots of
scholarly articles in support of your own projects.
WRTG 101.075 TF 2:35pm-3:50pm
Zombies and All That
Professor Sarah Johnson
Since the mid-twentieth century, zombie culture has gradually infected American
consumerism. We watch zombies, listen to zombies, and read about zombies more now
than we ever have. Why have we popularized this current-day infectious zombie? How
does a popular television show like The Walking Dead examine and then complicate what
it means to be a consumer? What does the language in a zombie poem tell us about how
we displace not only the idea of death but also life? How might the very term “zombie”
complicate or enliven our perceptions of gender or self vs. other? In this class, you will
examine these questions and others about zombies and their fictions through close
readings, individual presentations, media discussions, and researched essays that you will
craft throughout the course of the semester. Class readings include but are not limited to:
excerpts from zombie novels such as Zone One, World War Z, and Monster Island;
critical essays; and clips from various zombie documentaries, television shows, and
movies like The Walking Dead, 28 Days Later, and World War Z.
WRTG 101.076 TF 2:35pm-3:50pm
Eating in America
Professor Kate Wilson
Decisions, decisions! Organic apples? Free-range chicken? Locally sourced cilantro?
Beef that was kind to cows? Humanely raised chickens? Or should I just pick up the stuff
I usually do? What do these labels even mean? Maybe I’ll just run screaming out of the
supermarket!
In this course we will examine the notion of “eating in America”—what do we
eat? How do we make our decisions? Is one thing “healthier” than another? And who’s in
charge of my choices anyway? Course materials will include sociological studies of
particular food products by a variety of scholars; articles and books by modern food
industry critics such as Michael Pollan, Marion Nestle and Dan Barber; films about food
in the US; and a series of short narrative works about food and eating. Students will write
in multiple genres, including textual analysis, extended research project and narrative.
WRTG 101.077 TF 2:35pm-3:50pm
What’s for Dinner? Professor Erin Nunnally
While we all need food to live, how we go about satisfying that need varies in some
pretty extraordinary ways. Whether we frequent McDonald’s or avoid meat and animal
products altogether, we are constantly making choices about what we put into our bodies.
Choosing what to eat is something we can’t avoid, but lately that decision-making
process has become tricky at best in America. Popular documentaries like Supersize Me
and Food, Inc. have called into question not only the quality of the food we eat, but also
the ethics of the food industry behind it, and the effects not only on our health and wallet,
but on the economy and job market, of what we put on the table. Rather than a source of
comfort, for many, food has become a source of anxiety and stress. In this course, we will
examine the food industry in America – its influences, agendas, and impacts – and its
relationship to our culture and identity. We will examine rhetorical choices of advertisers,
doctors, and chefs, among others, that seek to influence our decisions and explore ways
in which food impacts other aspects of who we are. You will add your voice to the
conversation on food culture and industry through research-driven, argumentative essay
assignments, group presentations, and various smaller writing assignments throughout the
semester.
Texts may include:
The Mad Feast, Matthew Gavin Frank
Food Matters, ed. Holly Bauer
Writing With Style, John Trimble
Writing Tools, Roy Peter Clark
Excerpts from The New Yorker, Bon Appétit, and various news and academic sources
WRTG 101.078 TF 2:35pm-3:50pm
Survival and Identity
Professor Brendon Vayo
Civilization bestows the wonders of cell phones, the internet, and the unlimited stream of
movies and television shows, but Henry David Thoreau worried that the comforts, and
conformity, of civilization denies us our identity. “We do not ride on the railroad,” he
warned, “it rides upon us.” Karl Marx also predicts that if we dedicate our lives to
material obsessions, it would determine our consciousness, the way we perceive the
world. We buy products and thus we become one; to borrow from René Descartes, we do
not “know thyself.” Thus, some travel to the wilderness, the antithesis of
civilization. There, they deprive themselves of materials and people in order to
(re)discover their identity; they try to “know thyself.” In the texts for this class, we will
see an example of one young man struggle to survive, and die. And in two others, we
will see a young man and a young woman struggle, and live.
These experiences will lead us to provocative questions: Does evidence exist that
these people “knew” themselves any better because of their struggle to survive? If so,
how has their concept of identity been altered? What might this insight into identity be?
Texts may include:
Graff, Gerald and Cathy Birkenstein. They Say, I Say. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2010.
Krakaeur, Jon. Into the Wild. New York: Anchor Books, 1996.
Lunsford, Andrea A. Easy Writer. 4th edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2010.
Ralston, Aron. Between a Rock and a Hard Place. New York: Atria, 2010.
Strayed, Cheryl. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. New
York: Vintage, 2013.
WRTG 101.079 MTH 4:00-5:15pm
Art of Activism: Reading and Writing Protest
Professor Melissa Scholes Young
Is protest effective in constructing social change? How has activism shaped the
world? Through scholarly research and writing, we’ll explore the strength of an
individual voice and the consequences of community radicalism. Students will read
and write about protest leaders, such as Mother Jones, Martin Luther King, Jr., and
Gandhi, and learn to express themselves and persuade others using the art of
argument. We’ll also evaluate modern protest movements, such as Arab Spring, Tea
Party, and Black Lives Matter, and critically examine how social media is utilized to
organize protest. Through responses to activist essays, music, and film, we’ll master
writing strategies that get your voice heard in a noisy world.
Texts may include:
Protest Nation: Words That Inspired a Century of American Radicalism Edited by
Timothy Patrick McCarthy and John McMillan
The Art of Protest: Culture and Activism from the Civil Rights Movement to the Streets
of Seattle by T.V. Reed
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
WRTG 101.080 MTH 4:00pm-5:15pm
Storytelling: Creative Nonfiction in a Digital Age
Professor Arielle Bernstein
This course will examine the genre of creative nonfiction, where writers share personal
stories or use the subjective experience as a means to investigate the world. We’ll
consider how the genre has shifted in an era of digital communication and whether the
advent of social media has changed what we think of as private or public knowledge. Is
writing about the self a kind of oversharing? Or is sharing our personal stories an
inherently political act? In order to delve into these questions we’ll read and analyze
essays from authors such as Joan Didion, George Orwell, David Foster Wallace, Leslie
Jamison, Roxane Gay, Lena Dunham, Cheryl Strayed and many others. We will also read
scholarship about the changing face of journalism in a digital age. Over the course of the
semester students will use their critical thinking skills to consider prominent writers in
the field of creative nonfiction, and will also have the opportunity to write a major
research paper on a topic that is personally meaningful to them, using both intensive
library and field research. We will consider how personal experiences can shape our ideas
and ignite our passions, while also discussing the dangers of buying a story that lacks
sufficient evidence outside of a single narrative.
WRTG 101.081 MTH 4:00pm-5:15pm
Degrees of Deviance: Risk Taking, Rule Breaking, and Criminal Undertaking on
College Campuses
Professor Lydia Morris Fettig
We tend to think of college as the safest and smartest next step—and yet a recent study
revealed that the high school graduates who go to college take more risks and break more
laws than those high school graduates who stay home or enter the workforce. In fact,
much social science research shows that, among deviant populations, college students
rank among the highest. But students are not the only criminals on campus. Professors
and other university officials have been known to bully and manipulate, abuse drugs and
alcohol, pursue inappropriate relationships, and plagiarize within academic work. This
course will examine both social deviance and criminal behavior across college campuses.
After considering the major theories of deviance from the social sciences, specific topics
of inquiry will range from the relatively benign (getting tattoos, forgoing conventional
methods of hygiene, participating in drum circles, experimenting sexually, etc.) to the
potentially dangerous (cheating, stealing, hazing, using and abusing illicit drugs and
prescription medications, etc.). Campus shootings and sexual assault will each be given
particular attention. We will also ask if the marked rise in anxiety and mental illness
among college students is in itself a category of deviance.
Readings will range from narrative accounts of deviant transgressions to academic
works and research studies about higher education, aberrant behavior, and crime. Major
course assignments will not only encourage student writers to examine how risk-taking
can work in writing, but also to break some of the rules they may have learned about
what makes a “good” academic essay. Students will complete two research-based
projects, one of which necessitates field research or first-hand experience. Students will
also prepare and participate in a series of multimedia presentations.
Texts may include:
Deviance and Crime in Colleges and Universities: What Goes On in the Halls of
Ivy (Huckson and Roebuck)
Girl, Interrupted (Kaysen)
The Hunting Ground (documentary film)
Justifiable Conduct: Self-Vindication in Memoir (Goode)
Readings in Deviant Behavior, 6th edition (Thio, Calhoun, and Conyers)
Renegade Kids, Suburban Outlaws: From Youth Culture to Delinquency(Wooden and
Blazak)
Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts (Harris)
Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume I and Volume II
Short works by Jo Ann Beard, Susan Cheever, Chuck Klosterman, Lorrie Moore, Joyce
Carol Oates, Chuck Palahniuk, David Sedaris, and others.
WRTG 101.082 MTH 4:00pm-5:15pm
Decisive Moments: The Rhetoric of the Photograph
Professor Somer Greer
“Pics or it didn’t happen” is a popular taunt among those who don’t believe a good story.
For those of us with camera phones, coming up with photographic evidence has become
easier than ever. Yet, with this power to document almost any visible moment of our
lives, what have we gained? What exactly do we succeed in preserving when we take a
picture? What kinds of narratives do we want to create as we choose personal photos to
share through social media? What, if anything, can a photo of an event objectively show
us of what happened? We will ask these questions and more as we investigate the nature
of the photograph and the role of the photographer. We will read good writing on
photography and analyze good photos (after we think about what makes a photo good).
We will write research-based essays in order to determine the role that photographs play
in each our lives.
Texts may include:
“The Decisive Moment” by Henri Cartier-Bresson
“Dappled Things: Pinkhassov on Instagram” by Teju Cole
“The Rhetoric of the Image” by Roland Barthes
“Understanding a Photograph” by John Berger
“Brief Historical Sketch on the Invention of the Art” by William Henry Fox Talbot
“The Image-World” by Susan Sontag
and others.
WRTG 101.083 MTH 4:00pm-5:15pm
Infected: The Causes and Consequences of Nature’s Clever Killers
Professor Michael Moreno
The media today offer plenty of anxiety-inducing headlines about deaths at the hands of
villains, fighting factions, dictators, psychopaths and other unsavory sorts. But there are
even more terrifying killers against which we have limited means to defend ourselves.
They lurk in the rainforests, merrily moving from healthy host to human victim. They are
in the environment and getting into our food supply. They reside in our own bodies, just
waiting for the right moment to begin their siege. They are viruses, bacteria and mystery
molecules that turn our own bodies into disease factories. In this course, we examine the
history, present and future of these nefarious killers and analyze what the experts say can
and should be done to keep us safe. Discussion and research topics include the anthrax
attacks of 2001, the ongoing discussion about whether or not to destroy smallpox vaccine
stockpiles, explosive Ebola outbreaks in Africa, historical and recent incidences of foodand water-borne illnesses, and hotly debated autism research and the anti-vaccination
movement that has yielded spikes in infectious diseases such as measles and whooping
cough.
WRTG 101.084 MTH 4:00pm-5:15pm
On Expression and Deception: The Truth Behind Lies
Professor Chelsea Horne
Can you spot a liar? Have you ever wondered why some people are great at “reading” the
emotions and expressions of others? Is there a secret code?
This course will dive into current research to investigate the hard science behind
emotions and expression. We will work together to decode and demystify the “language”
of facial expressions so that in turn, we can better understand the modes of human
communication. And further, we will delve into the complexities of the human brain,
setting out to explore the act of deception, and its ramifications.
This class emphasizes researched writing and will provide you with core abilities
such as concepts of writing, writing process skills, reading/thinking skills, and research
skills. To do this, we will work with essays, novels, news articles, television and film
clips, and other popular and scholarly sources in order to develop in-depth understanding
of how and why humans express emotions the way they do.
Texts may include:
Emotions Revealed by Paul Ekman
Telling Lies by Paul Ekman
The Archaeology of Mind by Jaak Panksepp
Lie to Me (Fox TV Show)
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
WRTG 101.085 MTH 4:00pm-5:15pm
The Rhetoric of Activism: Exploring Argument through Environmental Literature
Professor Hanna Mangold
Although separated by generations and genres, American writers from Henry David
Thoreau to Michael Pollan have drawn inspiration from the natural world in order to
question and critique the human experience—from self-exploration to political activism.
Today, with global warming, deforestation, and resource consumption high on the
political agenda, there is more room than ever to join the conversation about
environmentalism.
In this class, we will explore environmental literature and its impact on the
American psyche. We will read works by Robert Frost, Rachael Carson, Aldo Leopold,
and Edward Abbey (among others); and consider documentaries like Planet Earth and
Cowspiracy, as we develop rhetorical abilities and research environmental activism,
conservation, and tourism. Assignments will combine narrative, informative, and
argumentative writing based on readings and scholarly research.
WRTG 101.086 TF 4:00pm-5:15pm
“Touched with Fire”: Creativity & Madness
Professor Leah Johnson
In the wake of countless national and international tragedies, there is much talk of the
connection between mental illness/madness and destruction. Equally interesting, though
not nearly as pressing, are questions about the link between madness and creativity. Why
have so many great artists struggled with insanity? Is it necessary to be “a little mad” to
create works of art? Or does the artist create in spite of his/her madness? Is one’s
creativity enhanced or hampered by extremes of temperament? What price must the artist
pay for his/her sensitivity? And the overriding question: Is there, in fact, a link between
creativity and madness?
In this course we’ll address these questions. We’ll read a series of personal
narratives (short essays and books) by individuals who have struggled with madness, a
film that shows both creativity and madness at work, a substantive scientific article about
the role the brain plays in creativity, and a major work of fiction that represents a creative
transformation of madness. Guest speakers (a psychologist, a psychiatrist, and a
musician) will punctuate our reading and viewing with their own experiences and
expertise about the subject, deepening our understanding of the artistic temperament and
of the role madness may or may not play in the creative life of the artist.
Texts may include:
Engaging Questions by Carolyn E. Channel and Timothy W. Crusius
They Say, I Say by Gerald Graff and Kathy Birkenstein
Darkness Visible by William Styron
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Film:
Pollock, directed by and starring Ed Harris
WRTG 101.087 TF 4:00pm-5:15pm
What’s in a Pronoun? Writing Gender, Genre, and Intersectionality
Professor Marnie Twigg
What are your pronouns? This simple question only begins to acknowledge vast
differences between assigned sex and gender identity. It also pushes us to question the
assumptions we make about gender, whether we identify as a man, a woman,
genderqueer, or agender, etc. Is it in our faces, the way we walk, the sound of our voices,
the people we love, whether we like shoe shopping or football? How could these
questions ever be covered in two (or more) categories? More importantly, why are we
pressured to categorize gender at all?
Our course will begin with writing about these questions, but it will not end there.
This class will empower you to research and write about how gender affects privilege and
identity through its intersections with race, class, sexuality, country of origin, home
language, religion, and ability. Using these conversations, we will investigate the
connections between approaches to gender and approaches to writing. By considering
how these approaches may overlap, we will discover whether the ways we choose to
write can be an act of resistance as much as what we write about.
Texts may include:
Decolonizing Transgender 101 by b. binaohan
Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity edited by Mattilda
Bernstein Sycamore
Selections from Gloria Anzaldúa, Lovemme Corazon, Kortney Ryan Ziegler, Julia
Serano, J Mase III, Nico Dacumos, Dean Spade, Ryka Aoki, Naeem Mohaiemen, Audre
Lorde, Janet Mock, Eric Stanley, Kate Bornstein, Toni Newman, Rocko Buldagger,
Jasbir Puar, Susan Stryker, Laverne Cox, Nia King, TS Madison, and local LGBTQ+
writers.
WRTG 101.088 TF 4:00pm-5:15pm
Eating in America
Professor Kate Wilson
Decisions, decisions! Organic apples? Free-range chicken? Locally sourced cilantro?
Beef that was kind to cows? Humanely raised chickens? Or should I just pick up the stuff
I usually do? What do these labels even mean? Maybe I’ll just run screaming out of the
supermarket!
In this course we will examine the notion of “eating in America”—what do we
eat? How do we make our decisions? Is one thing “healthier” than another? And who’s in
charge of my choices anyway? Course materials will include sociological studies of
particular food products by a variety of scholars; articles and books by modern food
industry critics such as Michael Pollan, Marion Nestle and Dan Barber; films about food
in the US; and a series of short narrative works about food and eating. Students will write
in multiple genres, including textual analysis, extended research project and narrative.
WRTG 101.089 TF 4:00pm-5:15pm
Writing Better
Professor Sarah Marsh
“Illness,” Virginia Woolf writes, “is a part of every human being's experience. It
enhances our perceptions and reduces self-consciousness. It is the great confessional;
things are said, truths are blurted out which health conceals.” As Woolf suggests, the
experience of illness prompts us to speak—and sometimes to speak in ways we would not
if we were healthy.
What is the relationship between language and illness? How do we use language
to structure our individual and cultural experiences of illness, healing, and death? Why do
we use illness as a metaphor for other experiences? How do narratives of contagion shape
human relations in a global society? In this course, we will use writing to explore answers
to these questions.
Texts may include:
“What the Doctor Said,” by Raymond Carver
Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science, by Atul Gawande
[selections]
“The Ebola Epidemic Is Stoppable,” by Atul Gawande
A Not Entirely Benign Procedure: Four Years as a Medical Student, by Perri Klass
[selections]
“When the Fever Breaks,” by Luke Mogelson
The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity, by Roy Porter
[selections]
“Perspective Shift,” by Daniel Shapiro
Illness as Metaphor, by Susan Sontag [selections]
Contagious: Cultures, Carriers, and the Outbreak Narrative, by Priscilla Wald
[selections]
“The Use of Force,” by William Carlos Williams [selections]
WRTG 101.090 TF 4:00pm-5:15pm
What’s for Dinner? Professor Erin Nunnally
While we all need food to live, how we go about satisfying that need varies in some
pretty extraordinary ways. Whether we frequent McDonald’s or avoid meat and animal
products altogether, we are constantly making choices about what we put into our bodies.
Choosing what to eat is something we can’t avoid, but lately that decision-making
process has become tricky at best in America. Popular documentaries like Supersize Me
and Food, Inc. have called into question not only the quality of the food we eat, but also
the ethics of the food industry behind it, and the effects not only on our health and wallet,
but on the economy and job market, of what we put on the table. Rather than a source of
comfort, for many, food has become a source of anxiety and stress. In this course, we will
examine the food industry in America – its influences, agendas, and impacts – and its
relationship to our culture and identity. We will examine rhetorical choices of advertisers,
doctors, and chefs, among others, that seek to influence our decisions and explore ways
in which food impacts other aspects of who we are. You will add your voice to the
conversation on food culture and industry through research-driven, argumentative essay
assignments, group presentations, and various smaller writing assignments throughout the
semester.
Texts may include:
The Mad Feast, Matthew Gavin Frank
Food Matters, ed. Holly Bauer
Writing With Style, John Trimble
Writing Tools, Roy Peter Clark
Excerpts from The New Yorker, Bon Appétit, and various news and academic sources
WRTG 101.092 TF 4:00pm-5:15pm
Imagining the Future: Genetics in Popular Culture
Professor Leigha McReynolds
From the mainstream news media to Hollywood, our obsession with genetics suggests
that some of our strongest fears surround the human ability to manipulate DNA. Our
cultural preoccupation with this issue is rooted in the birth of eugenics at the end of the
nineteenth century. Since then, scientific progress has led us to contemplate the
potentially threatening consequences of technologies from cloning to gene therapy.
Imagining dystopic futures where genes determine one’s destiny or where expensive
procedures create a genetic underclass is far more common than depictions of progressive
futures where a democratic society is enhanced by access to lifesaving therapies. In this
class we will explore where these fears come from; what, exactly, we are so afraid of; and
how our fears about and the promises of genetic research and technology are represented
and manipulated.
We will consult popular science writing by both scientists and science journalists, works
of literary fiction, as well as popular movies and television shows in an effort to trace the
growth, evolution, and representation of our cultural concerns with genetic science. We
may read excerpts from Darwin’s Origin of Species, novels such as Kazuo Ishiguro’s
Never Let Me Go and watch movies such as Gattaca or Jurassic Park. Your written
assignments for this class will ask you to synthesize scientific research, artistic
productions, and cultural analysis in order to address the intersections of genetics and
popular culture.