Critical Writing Course Collection System

CWP description

Craft of Prose

Following Francois Bourguignon?s The Globalization of Inequality (2015), this course will explore the question of whether countries are becoming more inequal and, if so, how and whether globalization has brought this about. Along with looking at economics, we will also explore how different policies create or help to address global inequality.

This writing seminar examines the role of the city in the twenty-first century. In an increasingly urbanized world, the city has been portrayed as both a scourge and a panacea for humans. What constitutes a Global City? Can such a city be determined merely according to its size, or are there are other considerations? This writing seminar considers the phenomenon of the Global City and considers how cities defined as such grapple with numerous challenges while continuing to grow and thrive. The main text for this seminar, Edward Glaeser?s Triumph of the City argues that cities can provide solutions to some of the world?s most pressing problems, and this proposition is examined in great detail.

Downloading copyrighted music and videos. Posting photos of drinking friends to Facebook. Adapting articles found online for an academic paper. These ethical dilemmas arise whether our role is contributor to or audience for online content. Using the cases of privacy, intellectual property, and participation, this seminar will examine the ways in which people, particularly young people, are approaching their online activities. Thinking critically about online activities, we will address what does and does not make the digital environment unique such as constant connectivity, persistence, archivability of digital material, and anonymity. Moving beyond optimism and despair, we will examine whether or not there may be a digital ethics gap emerging. Using scholarship in digital communication and education, the goal of this course is to help you develop as a writer by improving your knowledge of rhetoric, reasoning, research, and synthesis.

In most of the world, multiple therapeutic traditions co-exist, sometimes symbiotically and at others competitively. Many societies have radically different ideas and practices concerning health, the body and disease than in the US. And these ideas and practices are contested both within these societies and between different societies in an emerging global world. In this writing seminar, we will examine several contested topics within the field of medical anthropology in Haiti, Ghana, Eastern Europe, Japan, India, Southern Africa and the US: holistic versus ontological approaches towards disease, the politics of suffering, religious healing and contestation, the meaning(s) of organ donation, biomedicine under conditions of poverty, female circumcision, the ethics of clinical trials in the developing world, and finally, HIV/AIDS. This course is designed to improve students? writing skills via peer review, multiple drafts and revisions of essays, and midterm and final portfolios.

From Facebook pages read by a few hundred ?friends? to YouTube videos with over a billion views, digital media have created opportunities for its users to reach a far-flung and potentially massive following. By allowing, at least in theory, anyone with a laptop, an internet connection, and the necessary degree of digital literacy to access the kind of audience that was previously available only to institutions like television stations or movie studios, digital tools have changed our relationship to media production and consumption. At the same time, they have created new challenges, including the need to manage one?s online image and the inability to predict who will be in one?s audience. In this class, we will consider the power and the contradictions of online audiences, exploring such topics as Twitter etiquette, online memes, and the rise of a so-called sharing economy. In so doing, we will deepen and complicate our understanding of one of the oldest relationships in the study of rhetoric and writing, that between the author and the audience.

Global crises from earthquakes to tsunamis, from war to hunger, increasingly inspire in individuals a desire to ?make a difference.? This course will consider questions such as, what does it mean to help others? What does it mean to be ?in need?? And why are some causes deemed more worthy of aid than others? We will explore various themes within the world of humanitarianism such as philanthropy, empathy, and volunteerism. Our course text will focus on the humanitarian work that takes place outside of formal humanitarian organizations such as Oxfam or Save the Children, exploring the circumstances that compel individuals to initiate humanitarian projects. Students will learn how anthropologists use evidence to construct effective arguments and will leave this course with the critical thinking and writing skills necessary to work across disciplines and to follow their own interests.

For families on the road to the Ivy League, the extracurricular activities of elementary school children shape parenting strategies. After-school activities, such as soccer, dance, and chess teach lifelong lessons about internalized winning, bouncing back from loss, and performance under pressure. As a highly desired trait in the university system, competitiveness demonstrates a student's ambition and ability to adapt. This class looks at the contemporary effects of after-school activities and their connection to parenting, gender and social inequality in American families.

How does archaeology support or refute the historical narratives found in the Old Testament of the Bible and contemporary texts? For example, does the available material evidence support a united kingdom of Israel ruled by Saul, David, and Solomon? Was monotheism really the dominant religious practice during the Iron Age, as the Book of Kings indicates? Underlying these specific questions is the larger debate between history and archaeology. That is, do historical sources ?speak? more about the past than material objects, or do material remains present a more ?objective? perspective? Although these questions drive the content of the course, emphasis will be placed upon the development of critical reading and writing skills through drafting, peer review, and synthesis. Students will compose a literature review, a public argument, and two portfolios that exhibit their skills in critical reading and writing.

In most of the world, multiple therapeutic traditions co-exist, sometimes symbiotically and at others competitively. Many societies have radically different ideas and practices concerning health, the body and disease than in the US. And these ideas and practices are contested both within these societies and between different societies in an emerging global world. In this writing seminar, we will examine several contested topics within the field of medical anthropology in Haiti, Ghana, Eastern Europe, Japan, India, Southern Africa and the US: holistic versus ontological approaches towards disease, the politics of suffering, religious healing and contestation, the meaning(s) of organ donation, biomedicine under conditions of poverty, female circumcision, the ethics of clinical trials in the developing world, and finally, HIV/AIDS. This course is designed to improve students? writing skills via peer review, multiple drafts and revisions of essays, and midterm and final portfolios.

In recent years, public institutions and community organizations have come to rely less on the State for support, and more on the philanthropic donations of corporations and wealthy individuals. Schools, nonprofits and aid organizations, thus, are often beholden to the vision and mission of their funders. This course will focus on the contradictions between intentions and outcomes in corporate and individual charitable giving. Through readings in anthropology, political science and business, we will explore the ways in which philanthropy might serve to maintain class, race and gender inequality and inhibit democracy. In reading, writing and class discussions, we will ask: Does the marketing of people?s need to funders depend on narratives that perpetuate poverty, inequality and hardship? Are powerful corporations and individuals capable of being socially responsible? This course will improve students? skills in research, critical reasoning and academic writing.

The 21st century has witnessed an explosive growth in the presence of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on the world scene, in particular, their role in the ?development industry.? Yet ?development? has consistently failed to deliver on promises of poverty reduction and social justice. In this course we will explore the politics of the NGO world through an investigation of the causes of failure and success in development and humanitarian aid programs. We will question popular buzzwords such as ?participation? and ?empowerment? and consider how an anthropological perspective can contribute to improving development interventions and outcomes. Students will become familiar with how scholars in anthropology utilize various forms of evidence to construct effective arguments and in so doing will learn to identify weaknesses in their own. Students will leave this course with the critical thinking and writing skills necessary to work across disciplines and to follow their own interests wherever they may lead.

For many, art IS politics. Whether in the service of the state during the Cold War, expressions of resistance during the Civil Rights, anti-war, and peace movements, or banners for queer, environmental and anti-globalization protest, art can be a high stakes enterprise. Art matters to artists and arts enthusiasts as well as to a variety of disciplines, including art history, cultural studies, philosophy, sociology, and urban studies. This course will focus upon American art in American contexts, exploring the scholarship on American political and public art from the 1940s to the present. Guided by Claudia Mesch?s _Art and Politics: A Small History of Art for Social Change since 1945_, we will explore how art performs within sociological, political, and cultural contexts.

Between the rise of high-profile directors such as Justin Lin and Steve McQueen and the emergence of television shows such as Blackish and Fresh Off the Boat, minorities have been changing the face of media both in front of and behind the camera. In this course we will explore media by and about people of color across television, film, and short video and include both popular and independent productions. Students will also be given the opportunity to participate in events and programs related to the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival (PAAFF).

Memories form an integral component of our personal identity. However, an understanding of how memories are created as well as enhanced, destroyed, or modified is the topic of extensive debate. This seminar explores the biological basis of memory, the importance of memory within society, and the various ways in which memory can be affected. We will examine different types of memory and discuss the role of memory in defining our identity. We will compare and contrast current theories of how our brain forms, stores, and modifies memories. We will encounter examples of how memory can play a role in different diseases including amnesia, Alzheimer?s disease and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). And we will consider memory reconstruction and distortion, which suggest how this integral part of our self-identity can be easily altered. Students will practice persuasive writing and produce a synthesis of research for their final writing portfolio.

For centuries, scientists and philosophers have grappled with the desire to understand the basis of our human behaviors. Are we biological machines, whose ?brains made us do it?? Or do we have full choice over our actions? Recent findings from the field of neuroscience have provided important insights on this dilemma. Through this course we will examine the relationship between the mind and the brain, keeping in mind its relevance to individual responsibility. We will investigate the underlying ?hardwiring? of the human brain that leads to inherent reflexes as well as shared perceptions and actions. Conversely, we will also see how our human behaviors do not happen in an isolated vacuum, and our interactions with other people, the environment, and our own personal sense of responsibility play a crucial role in our actions. These findings have important implications in the examination of legal responsibility as well as in our ability to understand our own behavior. Throughout this course, we will advance our understanding of the biological basis of free will through reading, researching, and writing about the topic.

Celebrated at its release and frequently voted the best British film of all time, The Third Man figures among the most iconic and influential movies in cinema history. An early espionage thriller, it anticipates a modern genre of anti-heroic spy films that runs from The Spy Who Came in From the Cold to The Bourne Identity. Set in the rubble of postwar Vienna, the film is about its location as much as its plot and raises fascinating questions about what roles cities play in contemporary cinema ? from backdrop to action, agent in the action, or actual film subject. But The Third Man occupies an equally striking place in political history. Because of its postwar occupied Vienna setting and its American character who tries to ?do the right thing,? the film is a standard in American foreign policy courses. In this writing seminar, we will explore some of the many interpretations of The Third Man, together with the remarkable role played by the film in cinema history.

From filmstrips to Netflix series, from daguerreotypes to iPhone selfies, the camera has been a tool for self-representation and documentation. Cameras promise to show us the `truth,? allowing us to create, or contest, collective and individual narratives. The documentary tradition builds on older practices of portraiture, cultural exhibition, and historical documentation, and includes not only historical documentaries, but also newsreels, propaganda films, film memoirs, and reality television. American filmmakers in particular have used documentaries both to shape the national narrative and to point out its limits and failures. In this course, we will examine the visual and verbal rhetoric of these documentaries: How does the popular, documentary version of the `truth? compare with its scholarly counterpart? How do these stories shape identities? We will also work on constructing our own new scholarly and personal narratives, through a variety of writing genres.

We have all heard that elephants never forget. But how many of us know that they also weep? Or that captive orcas can learn to "speak dolphin?" Scholars from areas as diverse as philosophy, biology, social justice, and the arts are currently formulating a new field: animal studies. These scholars are exploring how animals think, what they feel, and in some cases working with animal rights activists to question our laws and personal behaviors in light of these discoveries. In this course we will add to the conversation by looking at how popular culture - especially films like Blackfish and the Cove - reflect and shape our understanding of non-human animals.

Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back?sound familiar? Romantic comedies may offer few surprises in the way of plot, but they never fail to please, as their blockbuster status attests. This course will investigate why we can?t resist these ?chick flicks,? and what, beyond the guaranteed happy ending, we can gain from these movies. Are these films?starring women, for women, and sometimes even by women?feminist? What do they tell us about gender? Genre? About politics and race? About consumerism or careerism? In this course, we will analyze and research both the production and the reception of several ?new millennial? ?rom coms,? such as Enchanted, Maid in Manhattan, and The Proposal. We will learn to read, write, and watch critically in order to better understand the various ideologies at play in the film industry and contemporary culture as a whole. All genders very welcome, but purse-sized pooches need special permit.

From filmstrips to Netflix series, from daguerreotypes to iPhone selfies, the camera has been a tool for self-representation and documentation. Cameras promise to show us the `truth,? allowing us to create, or contest, collective and individual narratives. The documentary tradition builds on older practices of portraiture, cultural exhibition, and historical documentation, and includes not only historical documentaries, but also newsreels, propaganda films, film memoirs, and reality television. American filmmakers in particular have used documentaries both to shape the national narrative and to point out its limits and failures. In this course, we will examine the visual and verbal rhetoric of these documentaries: How does the popular, documentary version of the `truth? compare with its scholarly counterpart? How do these stories shape identities? We will also work on constructing our own new scholarly and personal narratives, through a variety of writing genres.

From Zeus and Europa to Pan and Prometheus, the myths of ancient Greece and Rome seem to exert a timeless power over us. But what do these myths represent, and why are they so enduringly fascinating? In this seminar, we will explore the rich history and diverse interpretations of classical mythology. Examining how myths are used and understood in both high art and popular culture, we will travel from the ruins of Pompeii to the skyscrapers in New York and find classical myths in a variety of unexpected places: from arabic poetry and Hollywood films to psychoanalysis, the bible and New Age spiritualism.

The surviving plays of Roman comic playwright Plautus are a treasure trove of wit, wordplay, and an almost Vaudevillian hilarity. They also offer a fascinating window through which to glimpse ancient Romans? everyday experiences and concerns, via Plautus? sensitive treatment of such themes as friendship, marital and romantic relationships, and the (mis)treatment of children and slaves. In this class, we will read some Plautus in translation, along with selected secondary readings, taking time along the way to explore how comedy makes us laugh?and how it makes us think.

For centuries, classical Greek literature like Homer?s Iliad played a fundamental role in Western education. Many viewed the Greeks as forebears of the West, and considered studying them essential for understanding key features of Western culture. These range from forms of government to styles of architecture, and include concepts such as freedom, democracy, rule of law, and civic virtues. The last several decades produced a strong backlash against this assumption. Many noted that the Greeks promoted and practiced slavery, misogyny, xenophobia, and imperialism. In this course, we will explore the debate by focusing on Victor Davis Hanson and John Heath?s book, Who Killed Homer?, which argues passionately?and controversially?in support of a privileged role for Greek literature in undergraduate education. We will also examine the critical response to the book as we question the value of the study of the Greeks in contemporary society.

In this seminar, we will examine the myriad uses and abuses of classical antiquity in contemporary America, in mediums ranging from fiction, films, comics, drama, television ? and even internet forums. Some examples we will examine include TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Star Trek, and movies such as 300 and Superman: Man of Steel. This kaleidoscope of receptions?from calls for marriage equality to examinations of gang violence to passionate pleas for peace (or war)?reveals a ?classical antiquity? that reconfigures itself daily, as modernity explains itself to itself through ever-expanding technologies and media.

How do you rig races so your team wins, make your neighbors' crops fail while yours flourish, compel that shopkeeper?s daughter to love you? The ancient Greeks and Romans had spells, amulets and charms for all these purposes, and many more. In this class we will explore the place and practice of magic in the ancient world. What were the Greeks and Romans reaching out to in their efforts to control the world around them, and how did they imagine it worked? The magician?s art was a source of tensions and controversies that gives us a glimpse into the hopes and fears of Classical antiquity. Studying how magic was portrayed in the literary sources as well as the spells and tablets themselves, we will think about magic?s relationship to the religious, political and social contexts in which it was used.

The discovery of extraterrestrial life has long been a staple of science fiction films. From the lovable Ewoks of Star Wars to the tentacled creatures seeking to exterminate the human race in Independence Day, aliens assume a range of forms, reflecting our hopes, fears, and prejudices. This course will examine how science fiction films use aliens to question our assumptions about what it means to be human, with a particular emphasis on the role of gender. Through close study of the Alien film franchise, we will consider such questions as: how does the evolution of the films? protagonist, Lt. Ellen Ripley, reflect evolving definitions of gender and identity? How do we map our ideas about gender onto alien beings? How do these films disrupt the typical boundary between human and alien? And how does science fiction as a genre grapple with female heroes?

Celebrities arguably make up the royalty of the United States. Today?s celebrities are not only those who are talented in sports or the performing arts, they are also our politicians and intellectuals. We even question the validity of some of our celebrities, particularly those starring in reality TV shows. This course examines celebrity culture, and in particular, the role of media and new media technologies in celebrity culture in the US. We will consider how contemporary celebrities are constructed, and will question how media industries and celebrity culture even impact our understandings of democracy. We will also look at how celebrity industries and new media technologies shape communication methods and media institutions.

Fulfills the Writing Requirement The late 1800s-early 1900s was a rich period of time both in science and the arts. New ideas and discoveries were flooding the cultural environment in ways that inspired both artists and scientists. Although Einstein and Picasso never met or knew of each other's work, the social, scientific and intellectual milieus in which they lived led each to ideas in science and art which forced us to dramatically reconsider the very nature of reality. This course will explore the cultural and intellectual environments of the late 1800s, the lives of two revolutionary thinkers and the nature of their creativity, and how and why the revolutionary concepts E=mc2 and Cubism came within two years of each other in the early 1900s.

Through no fault of their own, former Comedy Central late-night hosts Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have become media messiahs to a whole generation. How did Stewart?s `Daily Show? and Colbert?s `Colbert Report,? both created as faux-news parodies, gain legitimacy among the political elite? Why are they increasingly cited as primary news sources by Americans under 30? We will examine the unique satire of these insurrectionary `newsmen,? as well as that of HBO's John Oliver and TBS's Samantha Bee, among others, and what it says about us as a culture. Or, as Colbert puts it, ?I am America, and so can you!?

Fairy tales are fantastical stories that endure through generations and convey and reinforce cultural values within the community. While there are nearly infinite variations of style and story, fairy tales are immediately recognizable. In this class, we will focus on the elements of the fairy tale as a genre: who is the intended audience and who the teller? why are they told, and why do they retain their social impact? Reading a critical study of fairy tales as well as analyzing some examples of the genre will give us the opportunity to reflect not only on the specific form, but more broadly on concepts of story and audience, as well as different ways of making meaning in particular social contexts.

In 2000, world leaders and experts declared the eradication of hunger to be an urgent and attainable goal. Since then, the rise in commodity food prices has been linked to both a widening global gap between the rich and the poor, and to political unrest from the Arab Spring to Latin America. With the right-wing focused on private sector solutions and the left-wing dedicated to the use of public money, new forms of technocratic philanthropy have promised a humanitarian relief model capable of transcending traditional political categories. Speaking to G20 leaders in 2011, Bill Gates argued that ?people who are pessimistic about the future tend to extrapolate from the present in a straight line.? The Gates Foundation would break that straight line. Yet, can a philanthrocapitalism that David Rieff recently described as ?irreducibly undemocratic? live up to its big promises? This seminar examines controversies of global food security and the troubled new solutions for extra food production.

Few of us stop to consider how we learned to fulfill our very basic need for food. Yet historians, nutritionists, psychologists, and anthropologists tell us that there is nothing about the way we eat that is not conditioned by our culture. In this class, we will explore the fascinating topic of why we eat what we do, and why our tastes dispose us towards certain foods rather than others. Sweet, salty, spicy?how do we learn to appreciate certain flavors, and why do why do we reject others? Bee Wilson?s book First Bite will form the centerpiece of our explorations, but everything from picky childhood eaters (chicken nuggets, anyone?) to the cultural differences that distinguish ?Mediterranean? from ?Asian? or ?Southern? cuisine will be open to investigation. While this class focuses on a topic of relevance to us all and will touch on research from several different academic disciplines, the emphasis throughout will be on analysis, synthesis, and research.

Reality TV has been dubbed the ?end? of scripted television, the guiltiest of guilty pleasures, and yet this media phenomenon continues to proliferate, leading to what some scholars have considered a fascinating, new ?inter-generic space? with the power to redefine concepts of audience and authenticity, performance and voyeurism. Drawing on sociology, media studies, and cultural politics, will consider the range of recent reality TV productions, both in the U.S. and abroad, from talent competitions like American Idol to sports entertainment, such as wrestling, with stops at every reviled and revered Kardashian and Big Brother contestant in between. As we become cannier, more critical viewers, we will also sharpen our research and writing skills by analyzing and practicing a variety of ?real world? genres, such as cover letters, abstracts, and op-eds.

This class will explore what Michael Bishop in The Good Life calls "a network theory of well-being," which, instead of focusing on one aspect that correlates with happiness (for example, gratitude), proposes that people in a "groove" have created a web of positive emotions, attitudes, traits and accomplishments that lead to a self-perpetuating cycle of well-being. We will begin with findings from psychology and philosophy, as well as our own research in the class, to examine not only why some people are better able to position themselves for well-being than others, but also how researchers from different fields--including medicine, economics, business, the sciences, neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy--are helping to solve the puzzle of how and why some of us are able to put ourselves, or get stuck in, a positive web of well-being.

Public schools are frequently touted as the best means for creating a more free and democratic society. However, American education policy has changed rapidly over the past twenty-five years, resulting in substantial shifts in the shape and form of public schooling?particularly affecting the urban U.S.A. This writing seminar examines how education policies surrounding charter schools, standardized testing and school curriculum have recently altered American education policy. We will ask: How has schooling changed in the U.S.A. over the past twenty-five years? How do students, teachers and schools experience the results of these changes? How do these changes align with America?s democratic principles and ideals?

While the study of engineering involves performing calculations and solving equations, what does the practice of engineering involve, and how has this changed over time? Guided by Eugene Ferguson?s Engineering and the Mind?s Eye, we will consider the concept of engineering knowledge and how it has been developed and disseminated through the centuries. From moving the Vatican Obelisk in the 16th century to launching satellites into orbit in the 21st century, visual and communication skills have been critical to the successful completion of engineering projects, even though they may be more arts than sciences. Taught by a licensed Professional Engineer, this seminar will lead students through an exploration of engineering as a multifaceted endeavor and it will encourage students to enrich their understanding of the breadth of skills that successful participation in the field encompasses.

The term "Comic Art" today encompasses many types of expression with one thing in common: words and pictures working together to tell a story. Originating, some say, hundreds of years ago, but taking off in modern form in the early twentieth century, comic art has been used to tell jokes, weave tales of fantasy and adventure, make political and social commentary, and much more. And in the last two or three decades, the study of Comic Art has blossomed into a lively academic discipline. This seminar is an inquiry into what defines Comic Art, how it functions, and what modern audiences can derive from it. We will read examples of the art, from comic strips to graphical novels and anime, spanning more than a hundred years, and we?ll also read scholarly literature on the subject. Students will write and revise several short essays, participate in numerous workgroup writing exercises, produce a research-based writing sequence, and prepare midterm and final portfolios of their work.

The term "Comic Art" today encompasses many types of expression with one thing in common: words and pictures working together to tell a story. Originating, some say, hundreds of years ago, but taking off in modern form in the early twentieth century, comic art has been used to tell jokes, weave tales of fantasy and adventure, make political and social commentary, and much more. And in the last two or three decades, the study of Comic Art has blossomed into a lively academic discipline. This Seminar is an inquiry into what defines Comic Art, how it functions, and what modern audiences can derive from it. We will read examples of the art, from comic strips to graphical novels and anime, spanning more than a hundred years, and we?ll also read scholarly literature on the subject. Students will write and revise several short essays, participate in numerous workgroup writing exercises, produce a research-based writing sequence, and prepare midterm and final portfolios of their work.

In this course, we will learn about contemporary writers who do not separate the humanities from the sciences; the left brain from the right brain; or inspiration, creativity and expression, from data, logic, and rules. Writers experimenting at the intersections of creative writing and mathematics will help us examine how, and why, these two fields of inquiry are so often divided--and what can happen when we bring them together. Do you find yourself obsessing over your next move in Words with Friends? Do you like palindromes ("was it a cat I saw", "now I won," rotator, sagas, civic) and anagrams (dormitory, dirty room)? If so, you are probably already engaged in the practice of ?Writing by the Numb3rs," and in this class you will be in good company.

In this course we will look at how poets, both historically, and recently, use scientific discoveries and methods in the their work. Using Peter Middleton's study of the relationships between poetry and science, we will encounter poets that challenge our understanding of what science can do and scientists that expand how we can read poetry. We will ask how poetry and the sciences can define and redefine our sense of self, how poetry can perform valuable research, and how these disciplines and their practitioners have been and continue to be in dialogue.

If every age gets the hero it deserves, twenty-first-century America is apparently in need of plenty. From 2002-2012, over fifty high-profile Hollywood films featuring superheroes were made. Obsessively returning to events such as terrorism, war, and financial crisis, but also the concerns of what an American hero or antihero should look like, these films sit uncomfortably at the intersection of private and public fantasies. What can these stories tell us about politics, particularly in an era where political rhetoric (such as Bush?s ?you?re either with us or against us?) sounds like the script of a film, and the Terminator was the Governor of California? What can they tell us about the expectations, desires, fears, and anxieties that constitute everyday life in contemporary America? In this seminar, we'll use the "superhero rhetoric" so central to our political age as a way to think about rhetoric in general, about logical coherence, and about navigating real-world genres of writing.

With the success of Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman became an international celebrity, the likes of which American letters had never quite seen before. As Michael Robertson shows in Worshipping Walt: The Whitman Disciples (2010), fraternal societies formed in his name, admirers crossed the Atlantic to profess their love, and still others revered him as a prophet imbued with divine understanding. Whitman was equally enticing to major fields of scientific study in the nineteenth century. Orson Fowler found him a provocative case for phrenology. Richard Maurice Bucke became obsessed with the poet?s genius, considering it a marvel of human psychology. Meanwhile, Edward Carpenter and J.A. Symonds saw in Whitman?s ?Calamus? poems a perfect case study for the evolving science of sexology. Inspired by these fanatical attachments?a phenomenon one contemporary would dub ?Whitmania??this course introduces students to Whitman?s career and the factors that went into making him a celebrated, if also controversial, figure of the late nineteenth century. In addition to reading the final edition of Leaves of Grass and the critical study Worshipping Walt, we will make field trips to Whitman?s home in Camden, New Jersey, as well as his tomb at Harleigh Cemetery.

What exactly is ?chick lit?? Is it the literary equivalent of cotton candy or just a label to apply to something written by a woman? What kind of ?chicks? get to be the subject of this ?lit?: can or should these texts claim to speak for all women, or do they only speak for a narrow segment of the population? What do we make of the genre?s dominant narratives of cities, consumerism, and courtship? In our quest to answer these questions and more, we?ll consider texts including Sex and the City, Bridget Jones?s Diary, and Kavita Daswani?s For Matrimonial Purposes. We will also turn our critical gaze to current media representations of women in blogs and magazines. What does chick lit reveal about gender, race and power in American culture?

What exactly is ?chick lit?? Is it the literary equivalent of cotton candy or just a label to apply to something written by a woman? What kind of ?chicks? get to be the subject of this ?lit?: can or should these texts claim to speak for all women, or do they only speak for a narrow segment of the population? What do we make of the genre?s dominant narratives of cities, consumerism, and courtship? In our quest to answer these questions and more, we?ll consider texts including Sex and the City, Bridget Jones's Diary, and Kavita Daswani?s For Matrimonial Purposes. We will also turn our critical gaze to current media representations of women in blogs and magazines. What does chick lit reveal about gender, race and power in American culture?

In this writing seminar we will trace the primary ways that Africa has been portrayed in the West from ancient times to the present. Much of our focus will be on popular mistakes about the continent, the most salient of which is, of course, that Africa is not an enormous continent, but rather a singular country. Troubling popular ideas about the continent and its peoples, we will begin to understand how mistaken notions helped construct modern Africa. We will probe the lasting effects of racism, including images of the naive native and contemporary renditions of the so-called doomed continent. Much of our focus will be on acts of critical thinking and of writing, from researching and writing to editing and revising genre-based assignments. In this setting, students will grapple with questions surrounding how and why the western world imagines Africa.

The ebb and flow of the market has caused global financial panics, ousted presidents, started wars, and put millions on the dole. At the center of every panic in American history has been consumer debt?and the failure to repay debt?leading some to dub the U.S. ?a nation of deadbeats.? From Congressional fistfights over the gold standard to gunboat diplomacy in Peru, the history of financial panics is as enthralling as it is important. In this course, we?ll look at history?s losers as well as its winners, and we'll explore the following questions: What is the relationship between risk, doubt and debt? How does a crisis on Wall Street become a crisis on Main Street? What can financial panics tell us about contemporary America?

Today, we think little when we hear that something is `genetic?. Conversations about specific genetic conditions (such as tay-sachs and down?s syndrome) have blended in everyday discourse with a looser understanding of what is attributable to the omnipresent and omnipotential `gene?. However, the idea of genetics and the ease with which we talk about this topic is relatively new. Before the 1950s, neither doctors nor the public spoke in terms of genes- illnesses could have a host of sources, many shrouded in mystery and attributed to a host of mythical or mystical causes. The rise of biomedicine, and the acceptance made genetics more wipe spread in the medical community, but the acceptance of genetics into everyday medical discourse took much longer. Between 1950 and the present, genetic medicine went from a relatively young field to a commonplace way of understanding human disease and wellness. This class explores the history and current status of `medical genetics?

?So death, the most terrifying of ills, is nothing to us, since so long as we exist, death is not with us; but when death comes, then we do not exist.? - Epicurus This course examines the value of human existence and contemporary debates surrounding our responsibilities to potential/future people. Our discussions and assignments will emerge from a careful reading of the anti-natalist philosophy of David Benatar, as presented in Better Never to Have Been (Oxford, 2006). Most importantly, the course will ask students to confront the significance of potential or future people and the ultimate meaning of human extinction. Students participating in the course will be introduced to a variety of written genres within contemporary philosophy and catastrophic/existential risk studies.

With the election of Barack Obama in 2008, many heralded the coming of a ?post-racial? America. But recent events in Ferguson and Baltimore, the tragedy of Flint, Michigan, and the emergence of a black-led protest movement against police brutality and structural inequality have upended those predictions. How can we make sense of the persistence of race and the enduring inequalities of American life? What does it mean to assert that race is ?socially constructed?? Drawing on Fatal Invention by Dorothy Roberts, this course will examine the role of science and economics in the reproduction of race as an American ideology. We will consider how race is ?naturalized? by seemingly objective pursuits like pharmaceutical development and population genetics and inquire into the relationship between race as a framework for conceiving the world and racism as concrete acts of discrimination. Does the reality of biological race precede racism? Or does ongoing racism perpetuate the illusion of race?

Psychological research suggests that we are born with some moral understanding, such as the ability to distinguish between kindness and cruelty. When given the opportunity, one-year-olds will punish a ?bad? puppet, and even three-month-olds show a preference for helpful cartoon characters over unhelpful ones. Other aspects of morality, it is argued, develop during one?s lifetime. In this class, we will consider various facets of morality, such as the feelings of empathy and compassion, understanding of fairness and punishment, in-groups and out-groups, and even disgust. We will examine the evidence of these moral faculties in babies, and the nature of the moral sense in adults.

The physician Cesare Lombroso, in the late 1800?s, believed that criminals could be identified on the basis of ?atavistic stigmata,??physical features such as a sloping forehead, a furrowed tongue, and low-set ears. This model of criminality gained traction for half a century before falling out of favor with the mid-20th-century emphasis on the sociological roots of behavior. In this seminar, we will explore the causes and cures of criminal behavior through a twin biological-sociological lens. Guided by the latest book of Adrian Raine, a leading researcher in the fields of psychology and criminology, we will explore how violent brains malfunction; how abnormalities in the autonomic nervous system?for example, a low resting heart rate?give rise to violent behavior; how early nutrition and health contribute to violence; and finally, how new biosocial treatments may be able to change brains and prevent violence.

When it comes to bodies, what is ?normal,? and what is your basis for judging what is or isn't normal? Trying to answer these questions can raise a number of other questions. When you define ?normal? are you thinking of a) health, b) ability, c) sexuality, d) appearance, e) something else entirely, or f) all of the above? Consider the impact certain definitions of ?normal? can have on people deemed ?abnormal." In extreme examples whether one is regarded as normal or abnormal can have profound, even fatal, consequences. In this seminar we will read Robert McRuer's Crip Theory as a means of critically exploring how the language we use to write and speak about bodies variously supports, subverts, or changes particular beliefs about normalcy, as we study the rhetoric of normalcy and the lessons it has to teach us as writers and as members of a diverse community.

Work comprises a substantial part of most people?s lives and is a building block of society. Since the 1970s, changes in work and employment and in the demographics of the workforce in the United States have led to the rise of precarious jobs and a polarity in the quality of jobs. Precarious jobs are those that pass on economic uncertainties from the employer to the worker and is a feature of what the sociologist Arne Kalleberg calls ?bad? jobs. Using Kalleberg?s book Good Jobs, Bad Jobs, this course will examine the growing gap between ?good? and ?bad? jobs in the United States, the historical context for this new economy, the global context for changes in the last four decades, the position of non-white, women, and immigrant workers in the economy, and the possibilities for new directions in the future of work. Students will be encouraged to contextualize their experiences ? e.g. career goals, summer internships, part-time jobs ? alongside the broader issues explored in this course.

What does it mean to be an adult today? And does this status mean the same thing to everyone? Currently, young people spend a decade or more being ?in between? adolescence and adulthood as they become autonomous but delay the achievement of the traditional milestones of adulthood-- completing education, moving out, financial independence, marriage, and parenthood-- until later ages. Yet, this life stage does not look the same for all as social factors strongly shape its experience and outcome. Through reading Jennifer Silva?s Coming Up Short: Working Class Adulthood in an Age of Uncertainty, we will learn about these sources of variation. In particular, we will discuss how parenthood, marriage, and work transitions are similar and different for young adults of different backgrounds and what factors matter most in making someone a ?grown-up.?

Racial tensions have become everyday news in the United States, most recently with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. In this seminar, students will learn to critically examine and write about race and racism by analyzing contemporary sociological theories. The seminar will draw from the foundational text, Racism without Racists: Color-blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America, by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva. Throughout the course, we will address questions such as: Why do we continue to see racial disparities in housing, education, incarceration, and wealth, despite the purported successes of the Civil Rights Era? And, how are racial categories formed and transformed over time? Students will also examine the concept of color-blindness, the Obama presidency, race and xenophobia, and the intersections of race, class, and gender.

Occupy Wall Street, #BlackLivesMatter, LGBTQ rights, immigration rights?these are just a few of the recent social movements capturing America?s attention. At core, social movements involve a radical re-imagining of who we are and what we could be, both as individuals and as a nation. But, what does it mean to fight for ?social justice? and what exactly is a ?social movement?? Why do movements see grassroots action and political protest as the best means for triggering social, economic and political change? Drawing upon popular and Sociological texts, this seminar will examine how activists see the purpose of social movements, and why they choose the actions that they do when striving to effect social and political change.

What happens when you put the brightest minds in Silicon Valley in charge of alleviating global poverty? An Apple Watch that monitors the health of children in poverty? A Samsung tablet that teaches farmers innovative farming techniques? An Uber that supplies day laborers for every economic need? We turn to technology as the savior of our modern ills, yet are these ills technical in nature, or do they require something else? In this interdisciplinary seminar, we explore the promises and pitfalls of technical solutions to our most complex issues. Drawing on research in economics, IT, global health, cognitive psychology, and management science, we will interrogate the outcomes of initiatives like One Laptop per Child, uncover the Messianic stature of technology in our thinking, and identify whether some problems are fundamentally "human problems" at heart.

For the first time in human history, more than half of all the people on earth now live in cities. From bursting megacities like Rio de Janeiro and Mumbai, to rising city-states like Dubai and Singapore, to financial powerhouses like London, New York, and Tokyo, the world?s economy, politics, and ecological future depend, increasingly, on what happens in cities. In this class, we will investigate this new reality in depth: What makes cities grow and thrive, and what makes them fail? What is causing the world-wide growth of slums, and what, if anything, can be done about it? Will growing cities be an ecological disaster, or a green opportunity? And ultimately, we will ask whether this new wave of urbanization means for humanity?s future. Students will improve their analytic and narrative writing abilities, use case studies of individual cities, and focused writing assignments to develop and articulate well-informed opinions about a complex, real-world topic without cut-and-dry answers.

This course is intended for capable writers who possess the maturity and temperament to work successfully as peer tutors at Penn. The course emphasizes the development of tutors' own writing through the process of collaborative peer-criticism, individual conferences, and intensive sessions on writing, from mechanics to style. The class meets twice weekly; tutors also work two hours weekly in the Writing Center or elsewhere, and confer regularly in small groups or one-on-one meetings with the instructor. Tutors are required to write five short papers, eight one-page peer reviews, and two responses to readings. Additionally, students keep a journal and give two class presentations. CWIC-affiliated course.

Course descriptions

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