UW20 Courses - Summer 2011

Last Updated: 4/7/08 | 5:00 pm

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About UW20

Because all UW20 sections are theme-based, with their own individualized readings and writing assignments, it's important that you peruse the course descriptions below to find a theme that is of interest to you.

REQUIREMENTS: The following requirements and workload expectations are consistent across all sections of UW20. Students will complete a total of 25-30 pages of finished writing, developed through a process that may include pre-draft preparation, drafts, and revisions based on instructor's advice and classmates' comments. Each student will complete at least three writing assignments of increasing complexity. Papers will be based on assigned texts and often on additional reading; although instructors will develop assignments that reflect a variety of academic writing projects, one paper will require significant research.

Summer Courses

Summer Scholars

COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

 

Emily Bliss - The Search for Happiness

Cultural and media messages inundate us with the idea that happiness lies in money, material objects, and social status. Yet, a sense of emptiness – of chronic searching – seems endemic to any life dedicated mainly to accruing things and attaining power. So what is it, then, that makes us happy? What are the paths and choices that bring fulfillment, meaning, and joy? In this writing- and research-intensive course we will examine how sociologists, psychologists, philosophers, and neuroscientists have used writing to explore and study the search for happiness and fulfillment. The course will involve short writing assignments, in-class writing exercises, discussions, workshops, one-on-one conferences, and three analytical papers of increasing length and complexity. Our readings may include The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt, Social Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, and several essays and articles.

 

Emily Bliss - Craft and Memoir


How do memoirists get us to feel surprise, joy, anger, and sorrow? What in their writing makes us feel as though we know personally the characters who populate their work? How do they decide which parts of their stories to tell, and which parts to omit? How do they determine which images they elaborately depict, and in those depictions, how do they select their language?

These questions all relate to the elements of craft – that is, the components of writing that, together, create the total effect and impact of a piece of writing. In this unique, advanced writing seminar, we will isolate and develop the elements of stylistically innovative, artful and creative writing through our work both reading and writing memoir and personal essays. Short, frequent writing assignments will include playful, creative, and unconventional personal narratives that focus on specific elements of craft, e.g., voice, perspective, organization, imagery, pacing, and style conventions. Longer assignments will include personal essays and memoir that incorporate the interrelated elements of craft we’ve explored together. You need not be a practiced writer to take this course, but the course will be best suited to students who enjoy writing creatively, who feel a passion for language, and who want to both have fun and work hard. Readings will include personal essays and contemporary literary memoir.

NOTE: Successful completion of UW 1020 is required to take this course.
NOTE: This course satisfies a WID requirement.

 

Charles Coulter - Science Fiction in Film


We all but live in a science fiction universe. A genre once sidelined as kid’s stuff increasingly dominates both worldwide box office and the growing attention of serious film studies.

From Escape from New York to Minority Report, science fiction has become more than the home of Pixar’s witty blockbusters. The genre’s visions take on sexuality, American consumerism, and American culture’s most Utopic dreams. This class explores how filmmakers popularize the visions of Phillip K. Dick (Minority Report, Bladerunner), Robert Heinlein, and Arthur C. Clarke to arrive at new, sometimes distinctly postmodern storytelling methods. Viewing these films while taking into account the context in which they were created, we will attempt to answer how these futuristic visions address contemporary concerns.

Text(s): In addition to the Hacker writing text, we will read: Thomas M. Disch’s Ur-text The DREAMS OUR STUFF IS MADE OF: How Science Fiction Conquered the World, and Will Booker’s British Film Institute text, Star Wars, one of the more serious looks at what critics have often regarded as George Lucas’s prettily polished hit.

Ultimately, however, this is a course about writing, thinking and reading (both film texts and appropriate articles), in order to arrive at polished university essays that contribute to a dialogue still very much locked in its “high vs. low art” nascent stage. We will write one brief paper (7-8 pgs.), one extended research paper centering on one of the genre’s iconic themes (12-14pgs), and a science fiction film treatment, or “script-ment,” a 6-8 page piece often used to sell studios on an author’s vision. Critic Jean Luc Godard believed criticism and creation were intertwined; in this course, you will see exactly what that means.

 

Katherine Howell - Expletive Written: How Cursing Shapes our Culture

Students in this course will explore not only the cultural taboos surrounding expletives, but also the force they have in our history. Issues of class, history, gender, and race come into play when we discuss swearing, and we’ll use linguistic scholars, essayists, and cultural theorists to explore these issues. We will explore our own relationships with curse words, we’ll write about cussing in culture, and we’ll explore the etymology of the words we call expletives.

 

Leah Jablonski - That's Epic! (and Romance)


This is a UW20 course about brave warriors and noble ladies in Medieval Literature. Come explore college-level writing as a genre and a skill, while having the opportunity to read some of the most influential Epic and Romance literature of all time: Beowulf, as a text in translation and through the eyes of Tolkien, works by Chrétien de Troyes, and selections by Sir Thomas Malory. It simply does not get any more enjoyable!

There will be knights and princesses, there will be seminal literary criticism regarding these works (which you may or may not agree with), and there will be three major writing assignments and one group research project (designed to ease your workload and certainly not to add any interpersonal stress to your life): An 8-10 page essay, a 10-12 page research paper engaging with specific literary critics regarding one or two works that you have read, and a 5-page article written to a student audience. The group research project will comprise a 6-page annotated bibliography and group presentation of a single article from your research.

No previous experience is necessary – simply bring your enthusiasm, writing ability, and your laptops (which are required for this course).

 

Mark Mullen - Covering Chaos

Nowadays even the most respectable news outlets seem to diminish the magnitude of their daily stories of war, disaster, torture, and terror by granting equal time and status to the drunken exploits of pampered celebutantes, sensationalized crime stories, and jokes of the day. Yet regular access to news remains a high priority for a majority of people in the US. While viewership for the traditional “Big Three” television network news shows continues to decline, this has been more than made up for in the proliferation of new forms of news coverage, ranging from 24-hour cable news networks, magazine shows, and, more recently, the rise of blogs and podcasting.

We will spend the semester examining the ways in which the news media cover international events, with a special focus on war reporting and coverage of disasters (famine, earthquakes, etc.). Starting with an exploration of the history of war reporting, we will also consider the development of the mainstream vs. the alternative press, the role of objective journalism, the impact of military, governmental and civilian censorship, the ethics of using disturbing and/or offensive images, and the influence of changing patterns of media ownership. As a specialized form of communication, news coverage throws many of the challenges inherent in writing in general into sharp relief (tailoring your work to a specific audience, for example, or maintaining credibility) and we will be using examples of war and disaster journalism to help hone our writing skills in these areas. This course will also challenge you to develop sophisticated research projects comparing US and International journalistic coverage of events, and formulate a critical analysis of specific instances of war and disaster reporting, and learn to write effectively about multimedia formats.

 

Zachary Wolfe - Equality/Law:Intro To Legal Research

This advanced research and writing seminar introduces students to scholarship in the legal field, through exploration of a contemporary legal/social issue: what is the promise of equality, and how does government relate to it. We will discuss the revolution brought about by the civil rights movement, how the law is different as a result, and contemporary issues related to law and equality. Students will learn how legal scholars approach these issues in courts and academic papers, and much of the course will focus on the student’s own research and writing on a self-selected topic. In addition, Pre-law Advisor Michael Gabriel will offer expert advice on the process of applying to law school, including preparing the personal essay.

NOTE: Successful completion of UW 1020 is required to take this course.
NOTE: This course satisfies a WID requirement.