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1 | This document was last updated: Thursday 5/23/2024 at 12:35 p.m. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
2 | Course Number | Section | Long Title | Units | Days | Start | End | Instructor | Course Description (Double click on the cell to read the entire course description.) | |||||||||||||||||
3 | 76207 | A | Special Topics in Literature & Culture | 9.0 | MWF | 12:00 | 12:50 | Dieterich, Elizabeth (edieteri) | Topics very by semester and section. F24: Drama of Power & Resistance - Writers throughout history have harnessed the power of the pen to give a voice to the silenced, center the marginalized, or dissent from systems of oppression. Politically charged poems, novels, and essays have changed the world. But of all genres, drama, one of the oldest art forms in the world, has been uniquely impactful in speaking truth to power and effecting social change. Dramatists from Ancient Greece until the modern age have harnessed the power of political commentary, resistance, and protest in their works for the stage. This class will examine politically engaged dramatic literature from a wide array of international and diverse voices ranging from protest plays of Ancient Greece (such as Aristophanes' Lysistrata), through Shakespearean histories that question the legitimacy of rulers and their power (King John or Coriolanus), to modern plays that force contemporary audiences to reconsider political polarization, war, and systemic inequalities in our society, such as Arthur Miller's The Crucible, the rock musical Hair, or Lynn Nottage's Ruined. We will look at the scripts, cultural contexts, and performance histories of such works, as well as interrogate what makes drama so unique as a genre and collaboratively develop reading strategies for plays. We will explore how realities of society such as systems of power, class, race, gender, and marginalization have been taken up by centuries of playwrights to comment on social and political systems. To supplement our reading, we will engage with multimedia adaptations and reimaginings of plays. In addition, our inquiry into how drama has impacted society will take a broad view of 'theater,' and look beyond the stage to examine how non-literary forms of activism and political response can also be seen as theatrical. | |||||||||||||||||
4 | 76210 | A | Banned Books | 9.0 | MW | 3:30 | 4:50 | Newman, K (kn4) | Literature is powerful! Indeed, we're interested in books that are so controversial that people will shout, argue, and try to change laws in order to have a book removed from a curriculum, a school or public library, or a prison. At the same time we'll learn about how, in response, other people work extremely hard to defend books against removal and censorship. The term "banned books," can be a bit misleading in the US context; only in very rare cases does the US federal government get involved in trying to ban or censor a published work. Nonetheless, the US is a hot spot for those who seek to attack books, and for those who seek to defend them. In this course you will find that the actions of attackers and the actions of defenders are often mutually reinforcing. Every student in this course will contribute to a public facing website called The CMU Banned Books project. This website is used by journalists, scholars and activists around the world. This semester's books for reading and discussion include some of the most frequently banned and challenged books of the last five years, including The Handmaid's Tale, Gender Queer, The 1619 Project, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Since 2020, organizations that track book banning tell us that the numbers of books banned and/or challenged are at an all-time high. | |||||||||||||||||
5 | 76210 | B | Banned Books | 9.0 | MW | 3:30 | 4:50 | Instructor TBA | Literature is powerful! Indeed, we're interested in books that are so controversial that people will shout, argue, and try to change laws in order to have a book removed from a curriculum, a school or public library, or a prison. At the same time we'll learn about how, in response, other people work extremely hard to defend books against removal and censorship. The term "banned books," can be a bit misleading in the US context; only in very rare cases does the US federal government get involved in trying to ban or censor a published work. Nonetheless, the US is a hot spot for those who seek to attack books, and for those who seek to defend them. In this course you will find that the actions of attackers and the actions of defenders are often mutually reinforcing. Every student in this course will contribute to a public facing website called The CMU Banned Books project. This website is used by journalists, scholars and activists around the world. This semester's books for reading and discussion include some of the most frequently banned and challenged books of the last five years, including The Handmaid's Tale, Gender Queer, The 1619 Project, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Since 2020, organizations that track book banning tell us that the numbers of books banned and/or challenged are at an all-time high. | |||||||||||||||||
6 | 76220 | A | Mystery: From Detective Fiction to True Crime | 9.0 | MW | 12:30 | 1:50 | Wassif, M (mwassif) | Mystery fiction is one of the most enduring and popular literary genres, and there is no doubt that the current media landscape has hugely expanded the concept of the "armchair detective" to include podcasters, journalists, and true crime addicts. This course provides a better understanding of narrative and genre, as well as social norms around gender and race, by looking at the conventions of mystery fiction and true crime. What can these "formulaic" genres teach us about storytelling, character development, and narrative point of view? What do they reveal about a society's notions of justice and order? And how is textual analysis itself an act of detection? Texts may include podcasts, documentaries, and newstories; classic works by Wilkie Collins, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Walter Mosely; and contemporary works by Kiley Reid and Oyinkan Braithwaite | |||||||||||||||||
7 | 76221 | A | Books You Should Have Read By Now | 9.0 | MWF | 2:00 | 2:50 | Williams, Benjamin (benjamiw) | opics vary by semester and section. F24: The United States prison system continues to grow, with nearly 2 million incarcerated people and over 6,000 prisons, jails, and detention centers nationwide. Its expansion disproportionately impacts impoverished communities, people of color, and LGBTQ+ people, as it is connected to a fraught history. Throughout this class, we will engage with novels, memoirs, letters, essays, and poetry written by incarcerated or formerly incarcerated people to understand the critiques they wage against the carceral state. We begin with early depictions of penitentiaries, then turn to political responses to imprisonment throughout the twentieth century, and close with literature about the contemporary carceral state. In studying representations of the US prison's development over time, we will ask: How do prison writers bear witness to and resist the prison-industrial complex? Readings might include works by Reginald Dwayne Betts, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Assata Shakur, Malcolm X, George Jackson, Jack Henry Abbot, and Chester Himes. | |||||||||||||||||
8 | 76239 | A | Introduction to Film Studies - Required Lecture | 9.0 | MWF | 1:00 | 1:50 | Hinkelman, J (jh51) | NOTE: There is a required screening for this course, M 7:00-9:50, in addition to the MWF 1:00 -1:50 meetings. This course is an introduction to the history, technology, aesthetics, and ideology of film. Our main focus is the narrative fiction film, but we will also discuss documentaries, avant-garde work, and animation. The central organizing principle is historical, but there are a number of recurring thematic concerns. These include an examination of the basic principles of filmmaking, the development of film technology, the definition of film as both art and business, and the history of film as an object of critical and cultural study. The goals of this course are threefold. First, it will provide you with a solid grounding in the key issues and concepts of film studies. Second, it will expand your ability to knowledgeably critique individual cinematic works and their relationship to the larger culture. Lastly, it will provide you with experience in expressing your critiques in writing. | |||||||||||||||||
9 | 76239 | A | Introduction to Film Studies - Required Screening | M | 7:00 | 9:50 | Hinkelman, J (jh51) | This is the required screening for this course. To view the description for this course, see 76239 Introduction to Film Studies - Required Lecture. | ||||||||||||||||||
10 | 76241 | A | Introduction to Gender Studies | 9.0 | MW | 2:00 | 3:20 | Rowley, Robyn | Intersectional feminism. Structural oppression. Biological sex vs. gender roles. LGBTQIA+ rights. Consent. Masculinity. #metoo and gender-based violence. Sexual politics. Global feminism. This course offers students a scholarly introduction to these social and political issues through critical readings, literature and film. In this discussion-based class, students read and discuss contemporary gender studies that speaks to questions of identity, race, nation, sexuality, and disability. Critical readings include work by Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Judith Butler, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Sara Ahmed, Eve Sedgewick, Raewyn Connell, Mari Matsuda, Mona Eltahawy, Rosemarie GarlandThomson, and Kate Bornstein. Fiction might include Toni Morrison, Ocean Vuong, and Alison Bechdel. | |||||||||||||||||
11 | 76245 | A | Shakespeare: Tragedies & Histories | 9.0 | F | 2:30 | 5:10 | Wittek, S (swittek) | For F24 only: In the closing decades of the sixteenth century, enterprising cultural producers in early modern London began to develop a new commercial venture called ‘playing’: a business that offered ordinary people a few hours of dramatic entertainment for the price of one penny. In addition to watching the professional players onstage, spectators also participated in a form of play themselves (in a sense) because theatrical experience provided a unique opportunity to engage imaginatively with otherwise inaccessible people, worlds, and ideas. More than four hundred years later, the drama of the period now ranks among the most esteemed texts in all English literature, and the name ‘Shakespeare’ has become a byword for literary genius. This course will offer an overview of Shakespeare’s tragedies and histories. As we read through a selection of key works, we will endeavor to understand what, and how, they meant in their original context, thereby developing a historically informed perspective on their influence over our own cultural landscape. The course counts toward the GenEd requirement, and is also part of the CMU Prison Education Project. Classes will take place at Mercer State Correctional Institution (SCI). CMU students will study alongside incarcerated students. A bus will provide transport for the students from CMU. Students will have to fill out a brief questionnaire before enrolling. For further details, see: https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/students/undergraduate/programs/pep/index.html | |||||||||||||||||
12 | 76259 | A | Film History | 9.0 | TR | 2:00 | 3:20 | Shumway, D (shumway) | This introductory course will focus on the history of the American film industry, 1930-1980. On most weeks, we will screen two films that reflect the most important genres and most enduring achievements of the era. We will be concerned with understanding how the studio system produced and marketed these works, and how that system changed significantly from the 1950s-1970s. By focusing on individual studios (for example, MGM and Warner Bros.) as "test cases," the class will also examine how particular companies produced films of a certain type in terms of such parameters as genre, theme, player, class address, and/or style. Readings will deal with the history of Hollywood, the various films, stars and/or filmmakers considered, as well theoretical/critical issues such as authorship, reception, and high vs. low culture. Students will learn important skills for film history, including reception study, archival research, and contextual analysis. Grades will be based on three papers that require different kinds of historical research, a midterm, and a final. | |||||||||||||||||
13 | 76260 | A | Introduction to Writing Fiction | 9.0 | MW | 9:30 | 10:50 | Gonzalez, K (keving) | This is an introduction to the reading and writing of short fiction. Character development and the creation of scenes will be the principal goals in the writing of short stories during the course of the semester. Revisions of the stories will constitute a major part of the final grade. Reading assignments will illustrate the different elements of fiction reviewed and practiced, and students will analyze and discuss stories from a writer's point of view. | |||||||||||||||||
14 | 76260 | B | Introduction to Writing Fiction | 9.0 | TR | 2:00 | 3:20 | England, J (jasone) | This is an introduction to the reading and writing of short fiction. Character development and the creation of scenes will be the principal goals in the writing of short stories during the course of the semester. Revisions of the stories will constitute a major part of the final grade. Reading assignments will illustrate the different elements of fiction reviewed and practiced, and students will analyze and discuss stories from a writer's point of view. | |||||||||||||||||
15 | 76261 | A | Intro to Writing Creative Nonfiction | 9.0 | TR | 11:00 | 12:20 | Mccafferty, J (janem) | This course will expose you to several contemporary Creative Non Fiction writers, while helping you connect with your own life stories so that they can be shaped into narratives. You'll be reading and analyzing both short and long form non fiction, so as to learn the elements of the art and craft of this genre. A high priority will be given to creating a community spirit in our class, so as to inspire you and your writing through connections not just to professional writers, but to the writers who will be your classmates. | |||||||||||||||||
16 | 76265 | A | Introduction to Writing Poetry | 9.0 | TR | 12:30 | 1:50 | Costanzo, G (gc3d) | This course is meant to serve as an introduction to the craft of poetry. We'll look closely at traditional forms in an effort to understand the effects of more formal choices on the page, and we'll examine the craft choices of modern and contemporary poets to expand our understanding of poetic approaches. Our analysis of poetry will begin at the level of the syllable and progress to words, lines, stanzas, series, and collections. You will be required to read both published work and the work of your classmates with a critical eye, to write your own poems, both formal and not, to write several short analysis essays, to write a longer critical essay, and to demonstrate your knowledge on one in-class exam. The most important take-away from this class is the ability to talk knowledgeably and critically about poetry. What you learn here will pave the way for your future as both a writer and a reader. | |||||||||||||||||
17 | 76265 | B | Introduction to Writing Poetry | 9.0 | TR | 9:30 | 10:50 | Shapiro, L (shapirol) | This course is meant to serve as an introduction to the craft of poetry. We'll look closely at traditional forms in an effort to understand the effects of more formal choices on the page, and we'll examine the craft choices of modern and contemporary poets to expand our understanding of poetic approaches. Our analysis of poetry will begin at the level of the syllable and progress to words, lines, stanzas, series, and collections. You will be required to read both published work and the work of your classmates with a critical eye, to write your own poems, both formal and not, to write several short analysis essays, to write a longer critical essay, and to demonstrate your knowledge on one in-class exam. The most important take-away from this class is the ability to talk knowledgeably and critically about poetry. What you learn here will pave the way for your future as both a writer and a reader. | |||||||||||||||||
18 | 76269 | A | Introduction to Screenwriting | 9.0 | MW | 9:30 | 10:50 | Dilworth, S (sd20) | This is a course in screenplay narrative. The screenplay has a certain format observed by every screenwriter. It is not so difficult to learn the format. The difficulty is in developing a screen story populated by believable characters, creating an expressive and logical relationship between the scenes by manipulating screen space and screen time (knowing what to omit from the story and what to emphasize), and finally writing dialogue that sounds real, but that does not simply copy everyday speech. The class will be structured into weekly writing exercises, discussion of the narratives under consideration, presentation and discussion of student work, and a final writing project. | |||||||||||||||||
19 | 76269 | B | Introduction to Screenwriting | 9.0 | MW | 11:00 | 12:20 | Dilworth, S (sd20) | This is a course in screenplay narrative. The screenplay has a certain format observed by every screenwriter. It is not so difficult to learn the format. The difficulty is in developing a screen story populated by believable characters, creating an expressive and logical relationship between the scenes by manipulating screen space and screen time (knowing what to omit from the story and what to emphasize), and finally writing dialogue that sounds real, but that does not simply copy everyday speech. The class will be structured into weekly writing exercises, discussion of the narratives under consideration, presentation and discussion of student work, and a final writing project. | |||||||||||||||||
20 | 76275 | A | Introduction to Critical Writing | 9.0 | TR | 12:30 | 1:50 | Aguiar, M (aguiar) | (This course was formerly titled Critical Writing Workshop.) The goal of this course is to sharpen your ability to read and write about literary and other imaginative works. Critical reading and writing mean gathering and evaluating language and images to form an interpretation of a print, visual, or other media text. To that end, you will learn analytical keywords and terms from literary and cultural theory and how to apply them to texts and other objects. The focus will be on theories of race, gender and empire and how they inform literary texts and our reading of them. Our course's method for critical writing instruction will be to workshop drafts of your essays. To that end, you will write four short interpretive papers in the course. You will also gain practice at oral presentation, peer-review and critique. Since this is a writing workshop and our time for reading will be somewhat limited, we will read a several shorter literary texts in a range of genres (fiction, drama, poetry) while we consider questions of form. The communication and analytic skills you acquire in this class will transfer to your work in a wide range of academic disciplines and professional contexts. | |||||||||||||||||
21 | 76278 | A | Japanese Film & Literature: The Art of Storytelling | 9.0 | MW | 11:00 | 12:20 | Yasuhara, Yoshihiro | This course explores how the art of storytelling is in tandem with the vicissitudes of the human condition as illustrated in Japan's variety of fictions, non-fictions, and films in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Analyses of each storytelling not only reveal the cultural dynamics behind Japanese modernity, but also invite students to find new insights into Japanese culture and their ways of perceiving our globalized world. What kind of cultural exchanges took place between modern Japan and the West? How are Japan's traditional values transformed in the face of modern technicalization and industrialization, compared to the modernization of other countries? And, in turn, what kind of impact has modern Japanese culture had on today's world? Tackling these questions among others, the course also extends to such issues as the legacy of traditional Japanese culture, the modern Emperor system, World War II experiences, emerging voices of minorities, and popular culture (e.g., anime and subculture). | |||||||||||||||||
22 | 76286 | A2 | Oral Communication | 6.0 | MW | 3:30 | 4:50 | Wolfe, J (jowolfe) | Oral presentations are essential to professional success. Yet many people find themselves growing weak in the knees at the thought of presenting in front of a group. They read off of notes, speak too fast, or pepper their speech with nervous filler words such as "um" or "you know." 76-286 Oral Presentations is a mini intended for students who want to boost their confidence in presenting in front of others. You will learn strategies for structuring the content of a presentation, designing effective presentation slides, and controlling your voice and body language to produce a smooth, confident-sounding oral delivery. We will begin with giving short informal presentations and gradually increase the stakes as your confidence improves. You will have weekly opportunities to practice and improve your skills. We will also find opportunities to practice in a variety of physical settings so you can envision yourself as a calm, confident speaker no matter your surroundings. Grades in the course will be based on improvement and effort to encourage students to focus on their development rather than on final outcomes. | |||||||||||||||||
23 | 76292 | A | Introduction to Film Production | 9.0 | TR | 3:30 | 4:50 | Strollo, I (istrollo) | This course is an introduction to the process of filmmaking. Students will develop a personal cinematic language and create a short final film from the ideation, to the synopsis and shot list, the set then to the editing room. The course will introduce technical tools to create audio and visual forms that serve the content developed in a film treatment through filming assignments, planning and producing a short film, peer review and group work. The focus will be on understanding shots and coverage of a scene, the various aspects of the cinematic language, with an emphasis on the basic visual components such as space, movement, and rhythm - and how they are used to tell the story visually. Audio layering to create a meaningful soundscape and the art of Editing will be discussed extensively. | |||||||||||||||||
24 | 76295 | A | Russian Cinema: From the Boleshevik Revolution to Putin's Russia | 9.0 | MW | 2:00 | 3:20 | Kats, Naum | "Last night I was in the kingdom of shadows," said the writer Maxim Gorky in 1896 after seeing a film for the first time. "How terrifying to be there!" Early film inspired fear and fascination in its Russian audiences, and before long became a medium of bold aesthetic and philosophical experimentation. This seminar-style course surveys the development of Russian and Soviet film, paying equal attention to the formal evolution of the medium and the circumstanceshistorical, cultural, institutionalthat shaped it. We will examine Sergei Eisenstein's and Dziga Vertov's experiments with montage in light of the events of the Bolshevik Revolution and the directors' engagement with Marxism; Georgi Alexandrov's and the Vasiliev brothers' Socialist Realist production against the backdrop of Stalinist censorship; Andrei Tarkovsky's and Kira Muratova's Thaw-era films within the broader context of New Wave Cinema; and the works of contemporary directors, including Aleksei Balabanov, Alexander Sokurov, and Andrey Zvyagintsev, in connection with the shifting social and political landscape of post-Soviet Russia. Besides introducing students to the Russian and Soviet cinematic tradition, this course will hone their skills in close visual analysis. No prior knowledge of Russian language or culture is required. The course is conducted in English, but students will have the option to do work in Russian for three extra course units. | |||||||||||||||||
25 | 76299 | A | 19th Century Russian Masterpieces | 9.0 | TR | 2:00 | 3:20 | Gershkovich, Tatyana | In the 19th century, Russian writers produced some of the most beloved works of Western literature, among them Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. These novels continue to captivate audiences and inspire adaptations in theater, film, and television. This course will examine the fertile century that yielded such masterpieces. In addition to the works mentioned above, students will encounter texts by writers who may be less well known but are no less significant, including Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Chekhov, and Pavlova. We will consider the social and cultural circumstances in which these works were produced and reflect on the reasons these Russian masterpieces have appealed to audiences well beyond the Russian-speaking world. | |||||||||||||||||
26 | 76300 | A | Professional Seminar | 3.0 | M | 12:30 | 1:50 | Ishizaki, S (suguru) | This weekly, 3-unit seminar is designed to give professional and technical writing majors an overview of possible career and internship options and ways to pursue their professional interests. Each session will feature guest presenters who are professionals working in diverse communications-related fields such as web design, journalism, public relations, corporate and media relations, technical writing, medical communications, and working for non-profits. The visiting professionals talk about their own and related careers, show samples of their work, and answer student questions. The course is required for first-year MAPW students and is open to all English undergraduates, who are urged to participate in their sophomore or junior years to explore options for internships and careers. | |||||||||||||||||
27 | 76302 | A1 | Communication Support Tutoring Practicum | R | 7:00 | 9:50 | Instructor TBA | The Communication Support Practicum is designed to introduce students to communication scholarship and pedagogy as well as the methods and theories that inform them for the purpose of communication support and tutoring in CMU's Student Academic Success Center. Students will explore communication (written, oral, and visual) in multiple disciplines and genres with a focus on gaining knowledge and skills to respond to communicators and their texts. Lectures, discussion, and assignments will offer a chance to think critically about tutoring practices and the ideologies and values on which they are based as well as ways to challenge the bias inherent in them. There will be many occasions to reflect on and evaluate tutoring skills, observe others in tutoring situations, and practice a variety of methods that consider the different needs of communicators. Students will gain awareness of how various spaces, identities, technologies, and abilities inform textual production as well as how to create a meaningful response to meet the diverse needs. | ||||||||||||||||||
28 | 76312 | A | Crime and Justice in American Film | 9.0 | MW | 3:30 | 4:50 | Hinkelman, J (jh51) | Films dealing with criminal activities and criminal justice have always been popular at the box office. From the gangsters of the Thirties and the film noir of the Fifties to the more recent vigilante avenger films of Liam Neeson, the film industry has profited from films about crime and its consequences. How those subjects are portrayed, however, tells us a great deal about larger trends in American history and society. Every imaginable type of criminal activity has been depicted on screen, as have the legal ramifications of those acts. But these films raise profound questions. What is the nature of crime? What makes a criminal? Are there circumstances in which crime is justified? How do socioeconomic conditions affect the consequences? How fair and impartial is our justice system? Perhaps most importantly, how do depictions of crime and justice in popular media influence our answers to these questions? This class will utilize a variety of films to discuss the ways in which popular media portrays the sources of crime, the nature of criminals, the court and prison systems, and particular kinds of criminal acts. Films to be screened may include such titles as The Ox-Bow Incident, Out of the Past, 12 Angry Men, Young Mr. Lincoln, Brute Force, The Equalizer, Jack Reacher and Minority Report. By thoroughly discussing these films and related readings we will be able to trace the various changes in attitude towards crime and justice in America over the last century. | |||||||||||||||||
29 | 76314 | A | Data Stories | 9.0 | TR | 9:30 | 10:50 | Warren, C (cnwarren) | Every dataset has a story. In the age of big data, it is vital to understand the unlikely casts of algorithms, data miners, researchers, data janitors, pirates, data brokers, financiers, etc. whose activities shape culture. This course will feature a range of "farm to table" data stories, some going back hundreds of years, and introduce students to resources and strategies for contextual research. It will explore cases such as the London cholera epidemic, Google Books, Netflix, the Oxford English Dictionary, the Strava map, and the Queen Nefertiti scan alongside several pieces of art and fiction that capture aspects of data stories typically obscured elsewhere. Research methods introduced will include book history, media archeology, history of information, infrastructure studies, ethnography, narratology, and digital forensics. Students will read scholarly articles, novels, journalism, and popular non-fiction; they will test algorithms; and they will develop individualized long-form research and writing projects informed by computational methods in data studies, journalism, and art. | |||||||||||||||||
30 | 76323 | A | Text to Screen | 9.0 | TR | 12:30 | 1:50 | Martin, M (mmartin1) | This course is an introduction to the fundamentals of narrative filmmaking and the attendant creative processes. Students will explore the symbiosis between film literature, visual storytelling, team building and the practical planning essentials universal to making film. | |||||||||||||||||
31 | 76340 | A | Hospitable Worlds: Migration and Settlement on Earth and in Space | 9.0 | MW | 9:30 | 10:50 | Newman, K (kn4); Wynn, J (jwynn) | Are you an artist, writer, designer, science major or film major who has ever thought about living on Mars? Do you watch sci-fi movies and think, “whoa, that looks cool,” or “no way, that’s not how it would work!” Do you worry about climate change on planet Earth, and think about how to use your creativity to imagine a better future? This class invites students in the visual/literary arts and the sciences to explore planetary hospitality. With each passing year, climate change makes our planet less hospitable for human life. As concerns about Earth’s climate grow and the costs of space travel shrink, there has been renewed interest in establishing settlements in outer space. The goal of this class is to explore both the diminishing hospitability of our planet and the prospects of hospitality on others. We will investigate these themes through a variety of media (written, visual, auditory, etc.) and use the questions/themes of the course as inspiration for creating collaborative artistic productions incorporating art and media of all kinds (sketches, poems, paintings, videos, music, etc.). | |||||||||||||||||
32 | 76342 | A | Love: A Cultural History | 9.0 | TR | 9:30 | 10:50 | Aguiar, M (aguiar) | This is a course about the cultural history of love. We will focus on romantic love, with an emphasis on how ideas about love have been a dynamic part of our social, political and economic world. Some of the questions to be addressed include: How, historically, did the idea of love become coupled with freedom? How did romantic love come to be considered the epitome of self-fulfillment and what are the problems with that idea? How has the idea of romantic love been mobilized on behalf of things like the state, the nation, capitalism or revolution? How do types of love function as a measure of belonging or deviance? How does the discourse of love enter different kinds of institutional arrangements, such as marriage or state citizenship? As a way to explore these questions, this course looks primarily to literature, including fiction, poetry, and drama, but also to philosophy, history, anthropology, sociology and law. Students will immerse themselves in an interdisciplinary range of material as they read, discuss and write about these representations. We will roam through cultural theory of affect, psychoanalytic notions of love, historical constructions of marriage, and feminist discussions of love and sexuality. Possible texts include works by William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Toni Morrison, Arundhati Roy and Ocean Vuong. | |||||||||||||||||
33 | 76347 | A | Major Fiction | 9.0 | T | 7:00 | 9:50 | Williams, J (jwill) | We read newspapers for news about our world. But we also read fiction—novels and stories—to tell us about how it feels to live in the world. Sometimes they are like our world, and sometimes very different. In this course we’ll read fiction that offers realistic portraits of 19th century society, like Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations or Anne Bronte's The Governess, alongside more fantastical portraits like "Rip van Winkle" or contemporary scifi. We will sample fiction from the 19th through the 21st century to trace the course of fiction from romance to realism through modernism to contemporary genre, like dypstopian masterpieces like Station Eleven or Severance. We will also consider about what they say about their culture and society. | |||||||||||||||||
34 | 76364 | A | Reading in Forms: Fiction | 9.0 | TR | 3:30 | 4:50 | Bernstein, J (janebern) | What does it mean to feel at home? In this course, we will read and discuss fiction, memoir, and other creative work that centers on the search for home. We’ll expand the idea of home to include not only the desire for comfort in a particular place, but also for a feeling of home in one’s body, family, or culture. Expect to read nine or ten books, to write a response paper for each class, and to do one in-class presentation, in which you will lead the discussion. Active participation in discussions is a major part of your course work. | |||||||||||||||||
35 | 76365 | A | Beginning Poetry Workshop | 9.0 | TR | 3:30 | 4:50 | Rankine, C (crankine) | In this workshop, we’ll explore the building blocks of poetry, as participants develop their eye and ear as poetry readers, and practice different poetic techniques in their writing. Students will read the work of contemporary poets, attend poetry readings, respond to writing prompts, and read and respond to each other’s work. Through our reading, discussions, and creative exercises, we’ll examine the role of line, line break, shape, sound, silence, rhythm and form in poetry, with an eye toward how craft choices communicate on the page and how they reflect the world of the poet. | |||||||||||||||||
36 | 76368 | A | Role Playing Game Writing Workshop | 12.0 | TR | 12:00 | 1:50 | Klug, Chris | Role playing games (RPGs) are a vibrant and viable popular medium for interactive storytelling. This workshop builds upon dramatic theory DNA existing in plays, TV and film. Gameplay is performance. The skills developed when creating any time-bound media transfer well to games but must be seen through a different lens - the lens of the player. To do so, we first examine and dissect both RPG story and game design (using pencil and paper examples) seeking an understanding of both game systems as well as narrative best practices. In class we focus our examination on the most popular existing intellectual property (The Lord of the Rings). Students who desire admittance to this class should be at least somewhat familiar with that world to succeed in the class. Each student works on a four-person team to create an original RPG campaign-style adventure for an already existing story world. The final product is a portfolio-quality set of dramatic scenes, epic tabletop encounters, and character sketches. This is not an RPG design course. Any level of writing experience is welcome, BUT experience playing RPGs -- either tabletop or video game -- is a must. Experience as a GM for an RPG is a big plus, and applicants who possess such experience should be sure to let the instructor know in advance. | |||||||||||||||||
37 | 76372 | A | News Writing | 9.0 | T | 7:00 | 9:50 | Twedt, S (twedt) | In this course, we will study and learn the fundamental skills of journalistic writing as well as discuss topics related to how different media outlets cover news. On the writing side, we will start with the basics - the importance of accuracy, clarity and fairness, writing for audience, striving for objectivity, judging newsworthiness, meeting deadlines. The core class work (and most of your grade) will be based on seven writing assignments due approximately every two weeks throughout the semester. Expect to do some writing each class period. We will learn how to write a story lead, how to structure a story and how to write different kinds of news stories, from crime news to features to editorials and commentary. We also will learn how to research a news story, conduct an interview and sort through mountains of information to discern what's important so we can write about it in a clear, concise manner. | |||||||||||||||||
38 | 76373 | A | Argument | 9.0 | TR | 3:30 | 4:50 | Coulson, D (dcoulson) | This course introduces the fundamentals of argumentation theory and offers guided practice in analyzing and producing arguments. Through analysis, we will learn what an argument is, how to identify one, and what the names and functions of a variety of argument features are. We will also explore the production of argument by pursuing the questions: What are my argumentative goals? How do I build a theory of my audience? What means of persuasion are available for me to achieve my goals? And how should I order the contents of my argument? To answer these questions, we will explore argument in a variety of genres including visuals, op-eds, presidential speeches, and congressional testimonies. | |||||||||||||||||
39 | 76376 | A | Crafting Race in 19th-Century Britain | 9.0 | MW | 12:30 | 1:50 | Makonnen, A (amakonne) | This course explores how the idea of race was developed, deployed, and reinforced through nineteenth-century British culture, from novels to museums to ballet. Students investigate how literature and art produced and replicated arguments about race that justified or fought against oppression. Alongside literary texts, students will also work with advertisements, paintings, filmic adaptation, and theatrical practice. We take an intersectional approach, thinking not only about race, but also the connections between gender, class, sexuality, and disability. What are the roots of problems we think of as modern, like whitewashing in media? How has racial thinking been passed down through time and across oceans? Ultimately, our investigation aims to provide insight to modern issues of race through a better understanding of cultural history. Note: we will have one field trip during class time (Carnegie Museum of Art and Natural History) | |||||||||||||||||
40 | 76388 | A | Coding for Humanists | 9.0 | MW | 3:30 | 4:50 | Ishizaki, S (suguru) | This course provides students with the foundational knowledge and skills to develop and/or utilize computer-aided research tools for text analysis. Through a series of hands-on coding exercises, students will explore computation as a means to engage in new questions and expand their thinking about textual artifacts. This course is designed for students with no, or very little, coding experience. So, if you have already taken a programming course, this course is most likely not for you. Students who have taken 15-110 and/or 15-112 may not take this course. For the final project, you will develop a small research project involving a computational analysis of a corpus of texts. You will plan, design, and write a computer program that processes and analyzes a textual corpus of your choice. Students who are taking the course for 9-unit will write a brief project report (3-5 pages) that summarizes your final project. Graduate students in the MA in Rhetoric/PhD programs must register for 12-unit, and will complete a research paper (4,000-5,000 word). | |||||||||||||||||
41 | 76389 | A | Rhetorical Grammar | 9.0 | TR | 2:00 | 3:20 | Brown, D (dwb2) | This is a course in fundamental grammatical structures of English and how these structures fit into the writer's toolkit. This means you will learn a lot about English-language grammar in this course en route to understanding a lot about English language writing. This course is designed for MA students in professional writing and undergraduates who want to improve their grammar, their writing, and their depth of understanding of how improvement in grammar impacts improvement in writing. | |||||||||||||||||
42 | 76390 | A | Style | 9.0 | TR | 12:30 | 1:50 | Idzik, S (sidzik) | This course teaches you how to write clearly. Specifically, the principles you learn in this course will help you 1) to clearly represent actions and the characters responsible for them; 2) to make your paragraphs coherent and cohesive; 3) to write sentences that stress important information; 4) to cut unnecessary prose; and 5) to reshape lengthy sentences so as not to perplex your reader. | |||||||||||||||||
43 | 76391 | A | Document & Information Design | 9.0 | MW | 2:00 | 3:20 | Ishizaki, S (suguru) | This course provides students who have already learned the foundation of written communication with an opportunity to develop the ability to analyze and create visual-verbal synergy in printed documents. Students will be introduced to the basic concepts and vocabulary, as well as the practical issues of visual communication design through a series of hands-on projects in various rhetorical situations. Assigned readings will complement the projects in exploring document design from historical, theoretical, and technological perspectives. Class discussions and critiquing are an essential part of this course. Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator will be taught in class, and used to create the assigned projects. | |||||||||||||||||
44 | 76416 | A | Rhetorics of Race & Empire | 9.0 | TR | 2:00 | 3:20 | Idzik, S (sidzik) | The construction and enforcement of racial hierarchies has been a central phenomenon in empire-building around the world. This class takes as its main focus the relationship between imperialism and race, especially in, but not limited to, the United States. How has the U.S. justified imperial expansion around the world–military, economic, and cultural? How have its actions triggered the movements and migrations of populations, and how have those movements and displacements been explained? What cultural shifts around racial meanings have occurred, here and abroad, as a result of U.S. imperialism? How has the role of the U.S. in relation to the rest of the world, particularly peripheries and the global South, been narrated? We will take a special interest in the role of language in constructing and perpetuating racial meanings in the context of empire, and in the everyday communicative practices that both shape and have been shaped by imperial impulses. Students will learn to think critically about the presence of such discourses in everyday life, and produce a final paper or project analyzing a narrative of their own choosing in which race and empire intersect. | |||||||||||||||||
45 | 76431 | A | Gender Play in Early Modern Drama | 9.0 | TR | 3:30 | 4:50 | Wittek, S (swittek) | The playhouses of early modern London offered access to an astonishing spectacle that would be difficult to find anywhere else in the city: men dressed as women, skillfully reproducing (but also exposing, interrogating, and refining) the significations that structure concepts of gender difference. In addition to this fundamental condition of performance and theatrical experience, the plots of the plays themselves regularly engaged with issues pertaining to gender and sexuality, an interest that runs through the raunchy satires performed by companies of adolescent boys, the innumerable comedies of cross-dressing and mistaken identity, and the equally numerous tragedies centered on problems of inequality and imbalances of power. This course will consider a wide range of drama from the period alongside a selection of readings in sexuality and gender theory, thus bringing early modern dramatists such as William Shakespeare and Thomas Middleton into conversation with contemporary thinkers such as Judith Butler and Sarah Ahmed. The body of core texts will include Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, As You Like It, The Roaring Girl, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tamer Tamed, The Island Princess, The Witch of Edmonton, The Silent Woman, Women Beware Women, and Galatea. Please note: First-year students are prohibited from registering for this course. Sophomore students must obtain instructor permission. | |||||||||||||||||
46 | 76434 | A | Literature & Social Change in the 19th Century | 9.0 | MW | 11:00 | 12:20 | Wassif, M (mwassif) | From the French Revolution to the Victorian era, literature began to play an explosive role in the forces of political transition and the struggle for social justice. This course studies novels, poetry and prose in relation to both political and industrial revolutions during the rise of empire and capitalism and the road to climate change. We will study apocalyptic novels like Mary Shelley's The Last Man and novels of empire like Jane Eyre and its retelling in Wide Sargasso Sea; poetry about living in revolutionary times by Wordsworth and Phillis Wheatley Peters; and anti-slavery writing such as Ottobah Cugoano's "Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery." Secondary readings for graduate students will draw from a variety of critical traditions such as critical race studies, environmental studies, gender studies, postcolonial studies. | |||||||||||||||||
47 | 76437 | A | Global Realisms | 9.0 | TR | 12:30 | 1:50 | Shumway, D (shumway) | In the standard history of the novel, the genre emerges in distinction from earlier narrative romances as a form bounded by a greater fidelity to ordinary life. In the nineteenth century, this general tendency is further specified in new narrative strategies and subject matter that define realism, which according literary historians, becomes identified with the novel per se. The standard history also insists that realism, while dominant in the 19th century, becomes a residual form in the 20th, replaced first by modernism, then postmodernism. In global/postcolonial fiction, ludic form, especially magical realism, becomes an important standard bearer of progressive politics in the mid20th century, again perceiving realism as residual. This course interrogates that history by looking again at classic realist texts from France and England, reading them in conjunction with novels from the U.S., India, the Caribbean, and Africa, by charting uneven development of forms and richer modes of reading. We will explore the continued importance of realist fiction and the ways it changes across time by placing it in a global context. Likely authors: Balzac, Zola, George Eliot, Joyce, Adiga, Adichie, Updike, Petry, and Sembène. Theoretical/critical writings: Woolf, Barthes, Jameson, Lukács, Howells, Zola, Brecht, Bloch, and others. | |||||||||||||||||
48 | 76460 | A | Beginning Fiction Workshop | 9.0 | MW | 12:30 | 1:50 | Gonzalez, K (keving) | In this writing-intensive workshop students will be laser-focused on producing and polishing their own fiction. We'll complement our workshops with readings from masters of short fiction and novels, with an eye on sharpening our own facility with dialogue, structure, and voice. Each student must be prepared to constructively critique and deconstruct her/his peers' work, as well as actively contribute to class discussions about the elements of craft that undergird successful works of fiction. Each student will be expected to produce a portfolio of original writing (short exercises originating from thematic prompts and a substantial story) by the end of the semester. | |||||||||||||||||
49 | 76462 | A | Advanced Fiction Workshop | 9.0 | TR | 3:30 | 4:50 | England, J (jasone) | This course will give you experience reading and writing in two genres: fiction and creative nonfiction. The course is discussion based, and several classes per month will be devoted to generative, in-class writing exercises, which students will then work on as drafts to revise. Readings will include novels, stories, essays, and short journalistic pieces. Attendance and participation is mandatory. If you're interested in delving more deeply into the craft and art of these prose genres, and willing to put the time in to develop your own writing, this is a good class for you. I stress that a classroom is a community, and emphasis will be on establishing real connection between students. We will see how writing can help create and build on these connections between people, and serve as a tool for healing during a particularly rough time in our culture. | |||||||||||||||||
50 | 76464 | A | Creative Nonfiction Workshop: NARRATIVE MEDICINE | 9.0 | TR | 12:30 | 1:50 | Mccafferty, J (janem) | Narrative Medicine looks at the intersection of writing and healing. How does narrative help heal the mind, and how are the mind and body inextricably linked? The couse will introduce you to several books and essays centered around the theme of wellness and illness--- and how these modes of being are represented and shaped by culture. You will write your own personal essays on these topics along with a final research paper. A great class for anyone interested in the power of story-telling in our own lives. | |||||||||||||||||
51 | 76465 | A | Advanced Poetry Workshop | 9.0 | TR | 12:30 | 1:50 | Rankine, C (crankine) | In this workshop, we'll investigate what's possible in poetry, as participants examine their relationship to the poetic practice both as readers and as writers. Through writing exercises, discussion, and readings, we will explore the diverse landscape of contemporary poetry, and experiment with form and technique. As we study different methods of making a poem, and different notions of what makes a poem, and what makes a poem great, participants will work to discover imaginative ways of approaching the line and the page. | |||||||||||||||||
52 | 76469 | A | Screenwriting Workshop | 9.0 | TR | 2:00 | 3:20 | Bernstein, J (janebern) | This semester will begin with a review of the fundamentals of screenwriting, including character development, scene construction, dialogue, and story structure. Student work will include exercises that encourage writers to take creative risks with genre, tone, character, and structure, one collaborative project, and two short scripts. We will also view mainstream, personal, and experimental narrative films in both American and international cinema. | |||||||||||||||||
53 | 76475 | A | Law, Performance, and Identity | 9.0 | TR | 12:30 | 1:50 | Coulson, D (dcoulson) | Although rhetoric and law have long been closely associated, the modern professionalization of law has often promoted the idea that legal discourse is not rhetorical but a rigorously defined technical discourse that can be applied free of social, cultural, or political considerations. This view of legal discourse is disputed by critics who point out the figurative aspects of legal language, the relevance of character, emotion, and narrative in legal communication, and the ways in which law protects social structures of power such as race, class, and gender privilege. The course broadly examines the fraught relationship between rhetoric and law by considering the ways in which a variety of legal discourses serve to construct and reinforce identities, with a particular focus on the ways in which legal systems are portrayed to reflect the ideals of democracy to suit particular foreign relations goals. We begin by studying the ways in which Cold War foreign policy goals influenced desegregation and civil rights discourse in the United States, then we turn to the ways in which the prosecutions of deposed authoritarian rulers in various regions of the globe have been orchestrated to persuade global audiences that emerging democracies observe the "rule of law" for purposes of garnering international support. Alongside primary sources of legal discourse, we will study a selection of interdisciplinary scholarship about the relationship between rhetoric and law. Students write a two-stage research paper on a topic of their choosing regarding the relationship between legal discourse and the construction of identity. Please note: Freshmen are prohibited from registering for this course. Sophomores must obtain instructor permission. | |||||||||||||||||
54 | 76481 | A | Introduction to Multimedia Design | 12.0 | MWF | 2:00 | 3:20 | Staszel, B (staszel) | This class meets the increasing demand for professional/technical writers who understand multimedia and its communicative possibilities. It provides students with the opportunity to create both an explainer video and a more persuasive animation merging text, spoken voice, music, images, and video clips. Students will learn the basic concepts and vocabulary of motion graphics, practical issues surrounding designs that change over time, and digital storytelling through hands-on projects. Inspiration is drawn from popular Vox and Ted Ed explainer videos that have come to represent the genre. Students explore writing and recording their own narration and how to best utilize elements of time, motion, and sound to enhance their visual communication skills. Adobe After Effects will be taught to complete assignments and explore multimedia possibilities. Some Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Audition will also be taught to support specific tasks. Basic experience with Photoshop or Illustrator prior to taking this class is helpful, but not required. In-class discussions and critiques are essential components of the course. | |||||||||||||||||
55 | 76483 | A | Research Methods in Technical & Professional Communication | 9.0 | MW | 12:30 | 1:50 | Wolfe, J (jowolfe) | This course provides you with practical, hands-on experience with designing, collecting, and analyzing research in Technical and Professional Communication. These same research methods are also applicable to Writing Studies and classroom research. We will go into depth on three main methods in this class: interviews, surveys, and think-aloud protocols. In addition, we will touch on focus groups, eye-tracking analysis, and collaborative analysis techniques. More specifically, in this class you will learn how to design well-worded questions that produce reliable information; critically reflect on and improve your interview technique; explore software designed to aid in open-ended analysis of qualitative data; design an A/B (or control/experimental) study; write a data-driven research report, and experiment with a range of data collection techniques. Students taking the course for 12-units will have additional readings that look at how these research methods have been applied in Technical and Professional Communication and Writing Studies. | |||||||||||||||||
56 | 76490 | A | Digital Rhetorics | 9.0 | MW | 9:30 | 10:50 | Ranade, Nupoor | As most of the communication now takes place using digital technologies (such as Generative-AI, blockchain, AR and VR, and the Internet of Things), the nature of public speech has been fundamentally transformed in these environments. This course explores the connection between rhetoric, socio-political systems and digital media. In today's world, it is difficult to separate digital from human. Students in this class will examine a variety of digital media as they intersect with humans as well as with theories of rhetoric. Students will also have the opportunity to explore digital technology by actively participating in digital spaces and creating digital artifacts. The course provides in depth coverage of rhetoric as an historically rooted but evolving humanistic perspective covering argumentation and figuration, performance and text, and delineating its connections to logic, aesthetics, politics, and ethics. | |||||||||||||||||
57 | 76494 | A | Healthcare Communications | 9.0 | R | 7:00 | 9:50 | Castagnaro, M (marioc) | Healthcare communications is designed for students with an interest in how medical and health care information is constructed and transferred between medical experts, health care providers, educators, researchers, patients and family members who are often not experts but need a thorough understanding of the information to make important health decisions. Throughout the course, we will explore the interactions of current theory and practice in medical communication and the role of writing in the transfer and adoption of new therapies and promising medical research. We will also study how the web and social media alter the way information is constructed, distributed, and consumed. We will examine the ways medical issues can be presented in communication genres (including entertainment genres) and discuss how communication skills and perceptions about audience can influence clinical research and patient care. Additionally, we will explore clinical trials, grant writing, and press releases, and will feature guest speakers from these fields will discuss their experiences. | |||||||||||||||||
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