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3020 Topics in Writing:

The following list is alphabetical, by course title. Not every course shown below is offered every semester. Check the current Course Schedule.

AFTER THE HOLOCAUST, Don Eron
In After the Holocaust, we will engage the practice of rhetoric through the lens of contemporary Jewish experience, as (inevitably) influenced by the Holocaust. Through studying relevant literary genres, including translated yizkor (memorial) books written by Holocaust survivors, we will analyze and argue considerations of Jewish identity, with particular attention to Paul Zakrzewski’s formulation of the “bad Jew”—the Jew who risks ostracism in challenging the status quo, elevating the quest for truth and justice above more prosaic (and convenient) values.

AMERICAN ROAD TRIP, Steven Caldes
The road is where both opportunities arise and dreams die. The road is peopled with a variety of characters—the outcast, the runaway, the opportunist, the felon, the lost soul, the intellect, the sopping wet and hopeless, the observer, the elitist, and the phony, just to name a few. While there are similarities between all these people, the road offers something different to each. In this class we will investigate the myriad reasons why we take to the road and attempt interpretations of what happens when we get there (wherever or whatever “there” is). Questions such as: In what ways might these forces, these exploratory impulses, be distinctly American, and in which ways are they more central to the essence of the human character? What is the role of the road in literature/media/art, and how does this role help shape public consciousness concerning the road? What do we seek to learn through travel? Can travel teach us anything about the value of slowing down or speeding up? Can it give us any insight into the human character that lies beneath cultural trappings? Once we’ve heard from others, we will then attempt to enter the conversation ourselves through an extended piece of literary journalism in an attempt to show through personal experience and contemplation some of the ideas, questions and concepts explored in the course.

AMERICAN SHORT STORIES, Tobin von der Nuell
Working under the concept that "everything is an argument," we will explore the realm of contemporary American short stories to shape and defend arguable opinions. We first will work through the challenges of reading stories critically to discern what questions they raise. Next we will derive working issues to frame arguments, and then we will analyze the text to find evidence to support our claims in defense of a thesis. We will shape arguments to convince a variety of audiences to our opinions. We will not be crafting short stories in the class; on the contrary, we will work hard to learn how to pull stories apart and argue within the confines of their data. The stories will come from such sources as the Best American Short Stories series, The New Yorker, Harper's, and The Atlantic Monthly.

BEST AMERICAN ESSAYS, Dr. Sarah Massey-Warren
In this course, we’ll explore the protean, creative form of the essay, using a selection of essays drawn from a number of sources, including The Next American Essay, by John D’Agata and other readings that will be on e-reserve. What is an essay? Why is an essay “American”? Can we classify essays that way? How do current events, locations, politics, ethnicity, other genres, cultural psychology, economics, and so forth affect the form and narrative of the essay? In this class, we will extract the essay from its academic box and understand what a rich poetic heritage it has. We will investigate the essay’s vital role in social, political, physical, and emotional exploration into what it means to be human on this planet. We will query how the narrator’s position in relation to audience, use of rhetorical devices and poetics, publication medium, and real world context affect the essay. An understanding of the work of essayists can influence your own forays into critical and creative writing and thinking. You will write a series of essays of different lengths to experiment with different kinds of essays for different audiences. Your essays will constitute a substantial part of class reading..

BIOMEDICAL ETHICS, Don Wilkerson
We will use current issues in biomedical ethics to study the basic elements of an argument. We will write three papers, the first of which will be patterned after the MCAT writing test. This assignment is designed to introduce students to the basic elements of awritten analysis. (The assignment might also offer valuable test-taking preparation to students planning to take the MCAT.) In the second paper, students will respond to a fictional case study or public policy scenario in light of some of the common ethical precepts that inform biomedical debate. This assignment is designed to help students develop a sense of audience and to teach them how to summarize and refute counterarguments. In the last paper, students will perform one of the following tasks: they will refute a brief essay on a current issue in biomedical ethics, or they will analyze an existing policy or professional code to show that it is unlikely to achieve its stated ends. This is not a survey course in biomedical ethics; instead, we will use issues in biomedical ethics as a framework for developing the students' skills as writers and analytical thinkers.

BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH ETHICS, Dr. Naomi Rachel
We will explore the complexity of this vital topic by reading selections from “Case Studies in Biomedical Research Ethics” (MIT) as well as selected readings from “The New Yorker”, “Vanity Fair” and “Mother Jones.” Students will give presentations based on interviews with experts. In addition to writing essays relating to the reading, students will write a VERY SLOW RESEARCH PAPER from proposal to outline to abstract and scope. Throughout the term, guests in the field will come to class including an expert in PTSD who works in a psychiatric ward, and a famous malpractice attorney. In addition to the usual writing class critiques, we will have live debates and other creative exercises. Participation is 20% of your grade so be prepared to be engaged. The work done in this class is modeled on the MCATs and will help students form opinions on current major medical issues.

COMIC FRAME, Nathan D. Pieplow
This section of the course explores the rhetoric of humor. Many people believe that humor has great rhetorical power—according to popular culture, humor allowed jesters in medieval courts to say to kings what no one else could say, and some would argue that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert fill the same role in contemporary America, like Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor before them. Others argue that humor is ultimately a rhetorical liability: an argument framed as a joke can be difficult to take seriously, and the more serious the subject, the less the joke will be appreciated, at least by certain audiences. In this class, we will first examine the nature of humor and the foundation of rhetorical theory, including genre theory and the poetic frames of Kenneth Burke; then we will investigate how humor functions (or fails to function) as rhetoric in modern America, in an effort to answer the central questions of the course: Can humor actually change minds? If so, when and how? We will write regular blog posts in addition to researched and analytical papers, and we will try our own hands at using humor in our writing in addition to analyzing it.

COMPOSING CIVIC LIFE - FOOD, SUSTAINABILITY, and SERVICE LEARNING, Dr. Veronica House
How is food rhetorical? What arguments do you make with every food purchase and with every bite you eat? Food is not only a daily necessity to sustain the body; the need for food, its production, its preparation, and its consumption make it an important site for cultural analysis. The question of “eating right” becomes an arena for the negotiation of the ethics of consumption: Processed food. Organic. Local. Vegan. Vegetarian. Discussions of these food choices highlight the complex relationships between food and cultural dynamics and social values, which you will explore in your writing assignments.

As a class, we are going to study the rhetoric surrounding burgeoning food movement in the United States. To do so, we will consider the history of U.S. agricultural practices, the rise of agribusiness, counter-movements such as the organic and local movements, and social issues such as food security and food justice. We will consider who has access to what kinds of food, the socio-economic consequences of our current food system, the role of government subsidies, the practices of factory farming, how community food enterprises have responded to the current food climate and the challenges they face, and the effects of various agricultural practices on the environment and people.

Our course readings, discussions, writing assignments, and community work will center on the intersection of food, sustainability, and community. We will read Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation and excerpts from Michael Pollan, Wendell Berry, Barbara Kingsolver, and others. We will watch documentaries about the national and global food crisis. For the service-learning portion of the course, you will work with community organizations that engage in food issues in Boulder. Assignments will include a comparative rhetorical analysis, an academic research essay, and an oral presentation. The course will end with a service-learning showcase for the CU and Boulder communities, featuring your poster presentations and multimedia or interactive projects about local and national food concerns.

CONVERSATIONS ON THE LAW, Kathryn Pieplow
The law pervades American society: from the O.J. Simpson trial to Judge Judy, from contracts to traffic tickets. Through our writings, we will discuss the law as its own creation and as a civilizing force. Topics for exploration may include the unique language of the law, how the law is viewed by those inside and outside of the profession, the development of common law versus statutory law, alternatives to "the law," and the law in other societies.

CROSS-CULTURAL WRITING FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS, Dr. Andrea Feldman
Cross-Cultural Writing for International Students is a section of WRTG 3020, 3030, and 3040 that is intended for non-native speakers of English who wish to enroll in an upper-division writing course. The course is taught as a rigorous writing workshop using advanced readings and materials, emphasizing critical thinking, analysis, and argumentative writing. Course readings focus on cross-cultural communication in the arts, business, and scientific fields. Assignments will be tailored to meet the needs and interests of individual students.

DON'T FENCE ME IN, Dr. Jay Ellis
"I don't know what happens to country." — John Grady Cole in All the Pretty Horses. How is it that Americans feel entitled to open spaces, with privacy somehow included? This course studies the aesthetics of, ambivalence about, and violence in American spaces (real and imagined) to provide students with a field of inquiry for writing well researched and radically revised academic essays. We will range widely from poetry and fiction through spatial theory in two progressions. Progression I, Dimensional American Fictions, leads through brief exercises to a revised close reading essay on literature or film. Progression II, Histories and Theories of Space, explores the violence that tensions over space elicit in art and life; students weave extensive research through several revisions of an interdisciplinary essay. Readings may include poetry from Emily Dickinson to Walt Whitman; fiction from Chester Himes to Flannery O'Connor and Cormac McCarthy; and brief selections of non-fiction from F. J. Turner to Michel de Certeau and contemporary journalists. We will study one film, such as Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven . All students are welcome: close reading skills, advanced research, attention to the writing process, and stylistic prowess are goals of - not prerequisites to - this class.

EDUCATION/AUTHORITY/GOOD STATE, Tim Lyons
In this course, we will explore the connections between education, authority (particularly governmental), and our efforts to bring about a good society. Readings will include such works as Plato's Republic and Crito, Stanley Milgram's Obedience to Authority, Ivan Illich's Deschooling Society, and may include other writings such as those of Alfie Kohn, John Taylor Gatto, Harold Bloom, Adrienne Rich, and others. In personal research projects, students can explore current issues (e.g. No Child Left Behind, bi-lingual education, Ebonics, the role of religion in public education, current funding priorities) or more general concerns (e.g. the role of church and/or state in the formation of educational programs and curricula).

ENVIRONMENTAL WRITING, Dr. Olivia Chadha
In this course we will seek to define the often misused term “sustainability” through an historical approach to eco-critical texts and the environmental movement. In addition to rhetorically analyzing key texts we will be viewing and analyzing films, websites, and documentaries. The course will assist students in understanding the discourse through an historiographical perspective in order to become productive individuals in the environmental arena. Students will engage with a range of modes of writing pertaining to the field of environmental thought. Through the process of reading, discussing, and practicing different kinds of environmental writing, students will develop a variety of writing skills in addition to an appreciation of writing as an important form of environmental action. Many different areas will be explored including but not limited to deep ecology, Green vs. green movement, eco-politics, the food industry, and sustainability.

ENVIRONMENTAL WRITING, Dr. Lonni Pearce
While the term “sustainability” has been embraced and employed by various social, economic, and political groups in the U.S., its vague definitions and ubiquitous presence in the media often conceal the contradictory agendas of these disparate groups. In this course, we’ll rhetorically analyze a variety of texts—including films, websites, and essays—to investigate how rhetorical strategies both mask and reveal competing views about what it means to be “sustainable.” We’ll especially consider the tensions in conversations about sustainability as they happen within the context of our consumer culture—what are some of the environmental, social, and economic complexities that we confront in a society where our identity is closely associated with what we do (or don’t) buy? To consider these questions, students will write/present short rhetorical analyses, conduct campus and community-based research, and write/present a targeted and in-depth argument that advocates a specific response to an issue related to sustainability.

ENVIRONMENTAL WRITING, Dr. David Williams
In this course we will researching and discussing a host of environmental topics, everything from the historical debate between Conservation and Preservation, to Eco Worldviews past and present, Global Warming, Wildlife Extinction, Sustainability, and Environmental Ethics. We will also examine our deep connection to nature through evolutionary theory, dealing with issues ranging from DNA to neuroscience to gender, and how all of these play into our thinking about ecological concerns. Students will engage in the rhetorical analysis of writing and media in relation to the environment, and they will create and critique their own work through various papers and media presentations.

FIELD STUDIES IN CIVIC ENGAGEMENT, Dr. Rolf Norgaard
This course is a rhetorically informed upper-division seminar that examines the role and challenges of civic and ethical engagement in higher education. The course explores key scholarly contributions to the topic as a prelude to your own local ethnographic research, which will have you analyze sites of civic engagement on campus and in the local community. The course takes a rhetorical perspective on civic engagement, with a focus on how language works to develop and maintain values and to prompt action. The course is taught as an intensive writing workshop emphasizing critical thinking, revision, oral presentation skills, and strategies for addressing specialized disciplinary and/or discourse communities.

FILM NOIR AND NEO-NOIR, Molly LeClair
This course teaches students to write analyses and arguments about film noir, an indigenous American style of filmmaking. We will explore its aesthetic and literary origins in German expressionism and American detective and crime fiction. We will examine significant themes, characterizations, visual elements, and recurring icons that create the style's distinctive identity, and chart filmnoir's incursion into contemporary cinema. Finally, we will look at the way in which ethnic and gender issues are reflected in noir narratives. Students will write three major papers: an analysis, a critical review, and an argument. The class will be conducted as a guided seminar, and all major papers will undergo revisions and peer reviews.

GENDER AND SEXUALITY, Dr. Matthew Wilsey-Cleveland
This course will explore the logos, ethos, and pathos of a range of prevalent feminist and queer theoretical frameworks from the late-20th Century onwards. Aside from developing the ability to identify, assess, and meaningfully discuss rhetorical components of these theoretical structures, students will also learn how to apply and instrumentalize particular feminist and/or queer “lenses” to interpreting selected textual (fictional and non-fictional) and visual (cinema, television, art) media. Through essays, journaling, peer-editing workshops, discussion, lectures, and various class activities, students will acquire skills of critical reading and communication (written and oratory) germane to formal (professional and academic) contexts.

THE GROTESQUE, Dr. Nancy Hightower

"When you assume that your audience holds the same beliefs you do, you can relax a little and use more normal means of talking to it; when you have to assume that it does not, then you have to make your vision appear by shock--to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures” (Flannery O’Connor). Authors and artists who incorporate the grotesque into their work use a culture’s construction of what is “normal” or “acceptable” and distort the image, allowing thereader to see the incongruities that marginalize people and ideas within that framework. In this course we will examine how authors such as Flannery O’Connor, Franz Kafka, and artists such as Mark Ryden, Laurie Lipton, and Jenny Saville use the grotesque in their writing and art in response to their ever-fracturing cultures. Students will examine the verbal and visual rhetoric authors and artists use in order to illuminate and criticize the distortions they see in their own society.

MULTI-CULTURAL RHETORICS, Dr. Andrea Feldman
This course will ask students to write analyses and arguments based on readings that reflect our multi-cultural heritage. In responding to texts that represent cultural diversity, students will evaluate issues and relate them to their own multi-cultural experiences. Through these readings as well as class discussion of written assignments, students will learn to make reasoned arguments in defense of their own opinions. By examining diverse voices, this course helps students meet the challenges of academic writing. The need for a cross-cultural writing course becomes more apparent as the United States becomes ever more interdependent with its worldwide neighbors. Students need to join this "global village" by thinking critically about the roles of writing and language in forging a multi-cultural society. Because language and writing are necessarily culturally bound, diverse aspects of our own culture are often neglected in traditional writing courses. This course offers a chance to examine and debate concerns which are all too often undervalued or ignored. Language -- often a tool to disenfranchise -- can thereby become a tool to meld.

MULTI-CULTURAL RHETORICS, Dr. Anna MacBriar
This course will ask students to write analyses and arguments based on readings that reflect our multi-cultural heritage. In responding to texts that represent cultural diversity, students will evaluate issues and relate them to their own multi-cultural experiences. Through these readings as well as class discussion of written assignments, students will learn to make reasoned arguments in defense of their own opinions. By examining diverse voices, this course helps students meet the challenges of academic writing. The need for a cross-cultural writing course becomes more apparent as the United States becomes ever more interdependent with its worldwide neighbors. Students need to join this "global village" by thinking critically about the roles of writing and language in forging a multi-cultural society. Because language and writing are necessarily culturally bound, diverse aspects of our own culture are often neglected in traditional writing courses. This course offers a chance to examine and debate concerns which are all too often undervalued or ignored. Language -- often a tool to disenfranchise -- can thereby become a tool to meld.

MYTHS OF THE AMERICAN WEST, Dr. James McVey
In this class we will work on developing your academic writing skills while adding to your rhetorical knowledge. We will build on your ability to comprehend and write advanced forms of academic writing. Our topic for the semester is the American West and its primary myths and realities. We’ll look at how the rhetoric surrounding the American West has shaped the US and the world, and we’ll also consider how that rhetoric has changed over time. You’ll read a number of western novels and essays in addition to watching western movies. You will write three major papers for the course. Through reading academic essays, all highly readable, you’ll get an idea of the range and possibilities of academic writing. You will also be engaging with your colleagues and me regularly, and you’ll frequently do worksheets on basic writing conventions.

ON THE BORDER: U.S. AND MEXICO, Dr. Tracy Ferrell
This course will explore the spaces where Mexico and the U.S. intersect both on a literal and metaphorical level. We will look at the unique cultures of the “frontera”, the effects of government legislation on the peoples of the two nations and the ways in which Mexican and U.S. cultures inform one another on a larger scale. In exploring these issues, students will explore such questions as: What effect has NAFTA had on the peoples and economies of the two nations? In what ways is illegal immigration beneficial or detrimental to the two countries? Does Mexican and American cultural integration create new forms of culture? How do drug cartels and the war on drugs affect the border regions? The course will employ fiction, non-fiction, music and video in exploring these topics. Readings may include T.C. Boyle’s The Tortilla Curtain, Sandra Cisneros’ short stories, essays by Gloria Anzaldua and more.

RACE, CLASS, GENDER, Dr. Patricia Sullivan
Race, class, gender—all three are tied to the basic question of identity. In this class, we’ll begin by reading and discussing a wide range of perspectives on identity. We’ll then explore how various definitions of identity are revealed in matters of race, class, and gender through analyzing both scholarly and popular texts. The course will involve three major writing projects that emphasize analysis and argument.

THE RHETORICS OF SUSTAINABILITY - SERVICE LEARNING, Catherine Lasswell
In this course we will read and write about many current environmental topics as we cultivate our awareness of writing as engaged environmental action. We will investigate various issues of sustainability facing today’s world including climate change, energy use, industrialized food production and examine the ways these issues are discussed rhetorically. Through reading a variety of environmental genres, we will explore our own human connections to nature, our own “place in the family of things.” Course texts will include influential writers such as Bill McKibben, Barbara Kingsolver, Michael Pollen, John Muir, Alan Weisman, and E. O. Wilson whose essays will be studied for their rhetorical effectiveness. We will study scholarly research pertaining to sustainability and incorporate research into a persuasive essay in which we find ways to effect a positive change. At times we will “go local” as we write to effect environmental change in Boulder County and the Front Range through studying and writing about local initiatives. Throughout the course, we will seek ways to de-politicize environmental writing in order to reach wider audiences and to carve out spaces of shared values and common ground.

SPORTS IN AMERICAN CULTURE, Dr. Peter Kratzke
This section of WRTG 3020 will examine how sports not only define but, sometimes, even transcend their competitive boundaries. That they do is easy to spot: in 1971, people everywhere were mesmerized by a chess match--a chess match!--between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky; in 1980, folks far from the frozen ponds of the upper Midwest pulled over in their cars, honking their horns to the US Hockey Team's "Miracle on Ice." This spring, we'll examine why such moments register and ripple in our collective conscious and, so, have both reflected and informed American history. As such, the course should appeal to those with interests in Sociology, History, American Studies, and the like. But beware: our topic will provide only the occasion for students to continue developing their writing skills; assignments will include succinct essays and three sustained arguments.

SPORTS IN AMERICAN CULTURE, Amy Bertken
Course description coming soon.

TELEVISION AND AMERICAN CULTURE, Dalyn Luedtke
Throughout the past decade the quality of television programming has significantly increased. Programs such as The Wire, Battlestar Galactica, The Sopranos, Band of Brothers, Mad Men, and others have continued to push the boundaries of storytelling, character development, and production value to new limits—limits that are often said to be literary as opposed to televisual. Of course, the nature of the medium itself has also changed drastically during this same period of time. Watching TV no longer means sitting down in your living room during primetime to watch that night’s lineup; instead, we can watch just about any show—from The Mary Tyler Moore Show to The Walking Dead—at just about any time and place. Indeed, for a large number of people, the verb “watching” is no longer representative of the ways in which they experience TV. Because of these drastic changes to the television landscape, the medium demands more critical attention than we have previously given it. As a class, we will use a variety of approaches to assess the material, rhetorical, and cultural impact of television; specifically, we will study the development of TV as a medium that has been popularly characterized as “the vast wasteland” to one that is a powerful vehicle for audience engagement, social commentary, and community building. Students will be required to keep a regular blog, respond to classmates’ blog posts, create multimedia texts that engage with various issues in TV, write a critical analysis of a television show or genre, and choose one network to research in order to create a pitch for an original television program.

TRAVEL WRITING, Darin Graber
In this course we will take a wide-ranging look at travel writing, from travel memoirs to visionary accounts that trouble the borders of the real and the fictional, always questioning the author/narrator’s perspective as we go.

As an entry point into the genre, we’ll examine contemporary tropes of travel writing, considering both the problematic border between what we call “travel” and what we call “tourism” and the potential problems “tourism” presents to the conscientious writer. We will also spend time accounting for less traditional notions of travel writing as a nonfictional genre, with the following concerns at the forefront of our thinking: What is the nature of travel, and what are the obligations or expectations placed on the writer as witness to the unfamiliar?

We will write both in critical and creative veins, dissecting and fashioning travel narratives with equal care and energy. Extensive travel experience is not necessary, but regular attendance and willingness to participate are. Possible readings include works by Tim O’Brien, Pentti Saarikoski, W.G. Sebald, John Krakauer, Brian Doyle, Ted Conover, Hunter S. Thompson, and contemporary travel/outdoor magazines and blogs like Matador Network.

TRAVEL WRITING, Dr. Ginger Knowlton
In the mid-Nineteenth century, during his travels to the Kingdom of Hawaii, Mark Twain wrote “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” In more recent years, Larry McMurtry suggested that, “It may be that the availability of speedy travel has mainly worked to make the human animal—or at least the American animal—more impatient.” There is a lot of philosophical space between these statements, which we will explore throughout the course of this term via an exploration of the following:

Barry Lopez suggested that in order to become a good writer, one ought to “get away from the familiar.” But he went on to say that travel to exotic destinations need not be the way to exit the familiar. So what, then, does travel mean?
Etymologically, travel is akin to travail. Is travail, in fact, an imperative element of enlightened travel?
What is the distinction between traveler and tourist? Is this distinction dissolving, particularly within the pressures of globalization?
What dangers of cultural appropriation exist? How should a traveler treat a distinct (and foreign) culture? What value exists in preservation of /noninterference with existing/unique cultures? How do concepts of cultural relativism factor into these arguments?
Is the notion of enlightenment though travel a pretentious intellectual construct? Must one launch into any journey, of any length and type (physical, emotional, etc.) with an existing seed of understanding for the beautiful, for the potential for enlightenment?
What is the role of place in literature; what is its role in shaping consciousness? What relationships exist between place and movement, between place and culture?
How might travel function as access to the commons?
What do we seek to learn through travel? Can travel teach us anything about the value of slowing down or speeding up? Can it give us any insight into human character independent of cultural trappings?

This writing course (Spring 2012) will be enriched through experiential learning and community engagement; it is a service-learning course.

TRAVEL WRITING, Catherine Lasswell
“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things,” wrote travel memoirist Henry Miller. Is this why we leave home to venture into the unknown – to try to gain a new perspective? Sometimes we’re trying to escape our troubled inner landscapes as seen in Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love and Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild. In this course, we will read travel literature that will take us through history and across cultures: writings by Bill Bryson, Joan Didion, Jon Krakauer, Elizabeth Gilbert, Paul Theroux, Isak Dinesen, and Lawrence Durrell. Through these readings, we will learn the art and craft of travel writing which will aid us in writing our own travel narratives. We will also explore the ethical issues that travelers face, particularly in eco-travel and excursions to ‘dark sites in the newly emerging field of thanatourism. You need not be an experienced traveler to take this course.

WILDFIRE IN THE WEST, Tory Tuttle
When man runs up against wildfire, a necessary component of most natural ecosystems, questions arise for which there are no easy answers. In this course you will encounter those questions and grapple with answers. Along with other essays, we'll read selections from Norman Maclean's Young Men and Fire, and John Maclean's Fire on the Mountain, and examine issues of firefighting, fire control, technology, and decision making. We'll analyze successful firefighting plans and plans gone awry. Along with many short assignments you'll write two longer papers -- one analytical and one argumentative -- on wildfire issues that particularly interest you.

WOMEN WRITERS, Diane DeBella
It has become commonplace to say that women’s voices have been absent from the Western rhetorical tradition, as either practitioners or theorists. So total has been this erasure that no standard history of rhetoric includes even one woman, leading many to conclude that women had nothing to contribute to theories or practices of persuasion. Recently, however, there have been a number of challenges to such assumptions. As a result, we are recovering–and finally hearing–women’s voices, and we are examining how women’s life experiences—their personal truths—have led to greater societal change. In this course you will be exposed to history, literature, psychology, and feminist theory as you analyze the lives and writings of creative women who have examined themselves as subject since the eighteenth century, including Mary Wollstonecraft, Kate Chopin, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Adrienne Rich, Maya Angelou, Isabel Allende, Amy Tan, and others. You will see how their life experiences, choice of genre, and intended audience shaped their rhetorical message, and you will examine the impact those messages had on the society in which these women lived.

WOMEN WRITERS, Alyssa Raymond
Within the broad topic of Women Writers, we will focus on adolescent literature. This course defines adolescent literature to mean literature that represents adolescent protagonists, without regard to genre categorizations such as whether a novel is marketed as “young adult” or “adult fiction”. Adolescent protagonists are often depicted as struggling with “in-betweenness” as they both adopt and rebel against traditional gender roles and indicators of adulthood. In addition to scholarly texts, we will read novels that blend fiction and nonfiction and realism and fantasy to better understand what it means for adolescent protagonists, especially teenage girls, to establish their identities in the liminal space between childhood and adulthood. In particular, we will examine how adolescents cope with societal indicators of identity (age, gender, sex, sexuality, ethnicity, and class) while navigating among relationships and institutions (family, school, government, organized religion, and identity politics) that may empower and/or repress them.

WORD AND IMAGE, Dr. Hallie Meredith
Course description coming soon.

WRITING TO KNOW POETRY, Dr. Eric Burger
This course is an exploration of 20th century American poetry, with an emphasis on how students can come to know poems better through their own writing. You will write a variety of critical papers in this class: some traditional, some a bit unusual, some pretty far out. You will also produce imitations of the work of some assigned poets. We will workshop major assignments and we will read, among others, Gertrude Stein, Wallace Stevens, Elizabeth Bishop, Frank O’Hara, Robert Creeley, and James Tate. Throughout, we’ll consider the big question: What does it really mean to know a poem, anyway? It is my hope that in writing in a number of ways about poetry, you will develop a richer, more rewarding relationship with it.

WRITING TO KNOW POETRY, Dr. Sigman Byrd
This course will focus on poetry written in the United States and around the world since 1970 and will explore fresh, invigorating ways of writing about poetry that push beyond standard academic writing. While analyzing and evaluating the work of such poets as W.S. Merwin, Louise Gluck, Tomas Transtromer, and Wislawa Szymborska, we will also consider how genres such as the personal essay, literary journalism, analytical critiques and reviews can deepen our understanding of poetry and strengthen our vision of the poet as a provocateur of the imagination, or, in the words of Wallace Stevens, as one who “creates the world to which we turn incessantly.”

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