WRI 101 - Course list for Writing in the Liberal Arts

Fall 2019 Sections

WRITING 101 [A] White Surpremacy and Racism
M W F 12:30 - 1:20
W Foley

The core questions that guide this course and its written assignments are “How have enslaved and oppressed people of color in the United States most poignantly and incisively expressed their experience of white supremacy?” and “How, in turn, have white people most effectively and cunningly legitimated-at least in their own minds-their supremacy and its concomitant racism?” Students will be asked to post several short, low-stakes, unrevised writing assignments on Moodle as well as to complete four major projects, each drafted, responded to in either workshop or conference, and revised.

WRITING 101 [B] The American Dream
M W F 9:30 - 10:20
Roberts

The central question this seminar asks is: Why does the  concept of the American Dream work as a touchstone of our American society and politics? In this seminar, we will unpack what political scientist Cal Jilson has called “one of the most evocative phrases in our national lexicon,” namely the American Dream. We will examine its origins and endurance in American democracy. Ubiquitous in political rhetoric, this concept of the American Dream has animated our views on race, class, education, housing, immigration, income inequality, and upward mobility. Through analyzing philosophies of the Founders, legislation, and political discourse, we will come to understand how this concept has been embedded and extended in our national psyche. The course will involve a number of low-stakes, shorter response papers, three papers, and one research project.

WRITING 101 [C] Print:Noun…Verb…Adjective?
T R 12:15 - 1:30
Rippeon

How do we orient ourselves to the multivalent term “print”? It can be something we own (as in a limited-edition print); it can be something we do (as in print by hand, print by laser-jet, or print on demand); and, it can describe entire modalities of reception (as in print-journalism or a print-book). We’re surrounded by information; much of it is textual, but it no longer makes sense, as perhaps it once did, to assume that the primary vehicle of text is print. This writing class examines the contested (some might say “endangered”) status of print in the 21st century. What questions arise when we consider form in relation to content? How do communities of readers emerge, and how are they supported by different forms of textuality? We will explore questions of ownership, access, and use, and we’ll situate our critical writing in relation to our own practices and habits as readers and writers-consumers and producers-of text in various modalities. Our investigations will cover a wide array of materials and experiences: we will

examine holdings in the College’s Special Collections; we’ll engage with popular journalism and cultural criticism concerning “the death” (and possible re-birth) of print; we’ll consider a few literary examples; and we’ll practice technologies of print-materiality.

WRITING 101 [D] Print:Noun…Verb…Adjective?
T R 1:40 - 2:55
Rippeon

How do we orient ourselves to the multivalent term “print”? It can be something we own (as in a limited-edition print); it can be something we do (as in print by hand, print by laser-jet, or print on demand); and, it can describe entire modalities of reception (as in print-journalism or a print-book). We’re surrounded by information; much of it is textual, but it no longer makes sense, as perhaps it once did, to assume that the primary vehicle of text is print. This writing class examines the contested (some might say “endangered”) status of print in the 21st century. What questions arise when we consider form in relation to content? How do communities of readers emerge, and how are they supported by different forms of textuality? We will explore questions of ownership, access, and use, and we’ll situate our critical writing in relation to our own practices and habits as readers and writers-consumers and producers-of text in various modalities. Our investigations will cover a wide array of materials and experiences: we will

examine holdings in the College’s Special Collections; we’ll engage with popular journalism and cultural criticism concerning “the death” (and possible re-birth) of print; we’ll consider a few literary examples; and we’ll practice technologies of print-materiality.

WRITING 101 [E] Family Way
M W F 11:30 - 12:20
Plank

This course focuses on the nature and diversity of American family experience as it shows itself in selected literary memoirs. In doing so, it will ask throughout about the process of recollecting a life and writing about it, how the story we tell of ourselves is also a story of others, especially those we know as kin; and, it will probe these stories for what they tell us about the impact of gender, race, class, generation, and ethnicity in the shaping of family experience. These are big questions. We get at them by the smaller tasks of reading good texts well day after day and writing clearly about them. The smaller tasks add up and may be the greater endeavor after all.

The writing assignments include a number of short essays (in the vicinity of 5-6) that may range from a paragraph to 4-5 pages. These may involve matters of style (the power of a well-chosen word, a paragraph that does what a paragraph ought to), questions of interpretation (explanation, analysis), or thematic concerns (back to that family and why everyone is talking about his or her father). As a final project, each student will write an episode of family narrative (7-8 pages) with commentary (2-3pages) relating the narrative to two other works read in the course. We will focus less on how much we write than how well.

Texts for the course include: Alison Bechdel, Fun Home; Mary Karr, The Liars’ Club; Li-Young Lee, The Winged Seed; Tracy Smith, Ordinary Light; and Tobias Wolff, This Boy’sLife.

WRITING 101 [F] Religion in the Public Square
M W F 9:30 - 10:20
Blum

The ideal of democracy is a society in which well-informed citizens who disagree with each other engage in free and reasoned debate, guided by the shared aim of cultivating a flourishing society. The role of religion in this ideal has always been a contentious topic, and in recent years it has reemerged as a matter of dispute. This class poses the question: what role should religion play in public discourse? The class will draw on a variety of perspectives that speak to fundamental questions about the rights, freedoms, and responsibilities that citizens have, and the role that religion plays in those challenging questions. Students will write three major papers, in addition to a number of smaller, lower-stakes writing assignments.  

WRITING 101 [G] Religion in the Public Square
M W F 10:30 - 11:20
Blum

The ideal of democracy is a society in which well-informed citizens who disagree with each other engage in free and reasoned debate, guided by the shared aim of cultivating a flourishing society. The role of religion in this ideal has always been a contentious topic, and in recent years it has reemerged as a matter of dispute. This class poses the question: what role should religion play in public discourse? The class will draw on a variety of perspectives that speak to fundamental questions about the rights, freedoms, and responsibilities that citizens have, and the role that religion plays in those challenging questions. Students will write three major papers, in addition to a number of smaller, lower-stakes writing assignments.  

WRITING 101 [H] Religion in the Public Square
M W F 1:30 - 2:20
Blum

The ideal of democracy is a society in which well-informed citizens who disagree with each other engage in free and reasoned debate, guided by the shared aim of cultivating a flourishing society. The role of religion in this ideal has always been a contentious topic, and in recent years it has reemerged as a matter of dispute. This class poses the question: what role should religion play in public discourse? The class will draw on a variety of perspectives that speak to fundamental questions about the rights, freedoms, and responsibilities that citizens have, and the role that religion plays in those challenging questions. Students will write three major papers, in addition to a number of smaller, lower-stakes writing assignments.  

WRITING 101 [I] Fake News, Real Science
T R 9:40 - 10:55
M Campbell

We are inundated with information from multiple sources, but how can scientific data help us make sense of the world? Students will become a local expert on one “controversial” topic and write about this topic using data to formulate logical arguments. Students will be guided in methods for drafting and revising their work which will be critiqued by classmates. Course work includes multiple brief, low-stakes written assignments, as well as consistent engagement with course readings through regular participation in class discussion. Six minor and one major written projects are required, each of which involves detailed analysis of texts, while also challenging students to articulate and defend their own positions based on data.

WRITING 101 [J] Writing Criticism
M W F 2:30 - 3:20
Ingram

This section of WRI 101 considers criticism broadly, from online reviews to professional scholarship.  This section thus pushes beyond simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down assessments; it focuses on criticism as writing that deepens our understandings of cultural texts-literature, theater, film, and more.  Campus events will provide a number of our cultural texts, including books by visiting writers and plays on Davidson’s stages.  We will write about these texts, and we will respond to one another’s writing, those responses being an essential form of criticism for this section of WRI 101.  By the end of the semester, students will be more attentive readers of a range of cultural texts, including their own prose.   

WRITING 101 [K] Justice and Piety
M W F 8:30 - 9:20
Shaw

The course offers students a chance to investigate an age-old and central question of political life: what is the relation of political justice and religious faith? While most of us in 21 st century liberal democracies assume that politics and religion have nothing in common-or at least, ought to remain entirely separate-political philosophers have long acknowledged their intimate and mutually implicative relationship.

We’ll explore this relationship by reading closely and discussing extensively writings that span several genres (epic poetry, historical narrative, rhetoric and dramatic dialogue) by four Greek authors: Homer, Thucydides, Sophocles and Plato. We’ll attempt this task as well by writing often and in a variety of formats. In all assignments students will be encouraged to articulate and defend their own interpretations and points of view.

WRITING 101 [L] In Stitches
M W 8:05 - 9:20
Stutts

Psychological functioning has a profound effect on one’s health. In recent decades, research has focused on the contribution of positive emotions on overall wellbeing.  This course will explore the intersection of positive psychology and healthcare by answering this broad question: How do positive psychological variables affect health?   We will investigate this question through the discussion of empirical articles, memoirs, case studies, and videos.  In addition, there are five major writing projects: 1) personal reflection on how positive variables influenced your health or someone’s health in your life, 2) text analysis of how positive psychology concepts map onto a patient memoir, 3) argument paper about how the mind affects the body, 4) research paper on a specific positive psychology and health topic of your choice, and 5) synthesis paper of the major themes across the course and an extension into what the field should prioritize in the future to optimize functioning.

WRITING 101 [M] From Papyrus to Print to iPad: The History of Scripture
M W F 10:30 - 11:20
Snyder

Where does “scripture” come from? How does it grow and change over time? How does its form-handwritten, then printed, and now digital-affect its meaning? These questions lie at the heart of the course, and we’ll explore them by looking at the Hebrew Bible, the Christian Bible, and the Qur’an. Along the way, we’ll create our own handwritten manuscript with reed pens and papyrus; we’ll set type and print our own documents in the letterpress shop in order to understand the printing revolution, and work with artifacts in the Rare Book Room. Finally, we’ll consider what happens when scriptures are digitized and move into “the cloud.” How do the new digital forms of scripture influence its interpretation and authority?

The course features four writing projects, each of which passes through distinct stages that will prepare you for every paper you’ll write in college: finding and assimilating reliable sources, citing them; capturing your ideas, drafting, revising, and revising again. Along the way, we’ll form a collaborative community of writers and editors, learning how to comment helpfully on the work of others and to benefit from the comments of our fellow writers.

WRITING 101 [N] The American West
M W F 10:30 - 11:20
Garcia Peacock

What is the American West? Where is the American West? And, why does discussion of the ways in which its diverse people, places, and spaces have changed over time ignite passionate debate among historians and the public alike? In this writing seminar, we will pursue answers to these questions through an examination of the key ideas and images that have shaped our view of this region since the nineteenth century. A series of writing projects will help students gain broader and more nuanced understandings of the West through a pursuit of three key themes: race, environment, and representation. Each of these writing projects will take the form of a multi-week sequence of activities aimed at encouraging critical and close engagement with a wide range of texts, including: journalistic writing, creative non-fiction, scholarly articles, historical monographs, and visual material such as painting, photography, public art, and the landscape itself. By the end of the course, students will emerge with a portfolio of several essays that should, as set, offer a unique perspective on how and why the American West remains a relevant topic and site of debate in early twenty-first century.

WRITING 101 [O] Building Stories
M W F 9:30 - 10:20
Churchill

Architecture is not a passive structure we occupy; it shapes our minds and imaginations, influencing what we do and how we do it. In this course, we’ll explore virtual and real spaces ranging from websites and home pages, to homes, hospitals, and prisons. We’ll also approach writing as a form of building, breaking out of the boring 5-paragraph essay blueprint into order reimagine essays as enticing dwelling spaces for readers. In this course, you must think of yourself not just as a writer of college papers, but as an architect, designer, and builder of multimedia essays. The course itself inhabits the digital realm: you’ll publish your essays on a course website and design a website of your own, which you can use to showcase your work throughout your career. No previous technological training needed, but creativity, critical thinking, and a collaborative spirit are required.

WRITING 101 [P] Writing Criticism
M W F 9:30 - 10:20
Ingram

This section of WRI 101 considers criticism broadly, from online reviews to professional scholarship.  This section thus pushes beyond simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down assessments; it focuses on criticism as writing that deepens our understandings of cultural texts-literature, theater, film, and more.  Campus events will provide a number of our cultural texts, including books by visiting writers and plays on Davidson’s stages.  We will write about these texts, and we will respond to one another’s writing, those responses being an essential form of criticism for this section of WRI 101.  By the end of the semester, students will be more attentive readers of a range of cultural texts, including their own prose.   

WRITING 101 [Q] Democracy’s Bodies
T R 9:40 - 10:55
Fox

Democracy in the United States refers to a form of representative government that invokes powerful values such as fairness, equality, and freedom. By learning of the nation’s founding, participating in communal activities, and observing politics in action, citizens absorb these omnipresent values starting in childhood, when aspirations about the shape of civic life begin to be formed.  One might say that since a young age, we are effectively saturated with democracy’s ideologically-directed promises and predispositions.  Among many other influences, democracy exerts its force on the body itself. The ideal democratic citizen is often conjured up as having certain idealized characteristics related to its physicality, its ability, its integrity, and its social behaviors. Beginning with a close and critical reading of the Declaration of Independence and a brief study of its genesis, and extending to several narratives of how the “democratic body” is both embraced and rejected, and ending with considerations of how the democratic body speaks and listens in a variety of public settings, the course explores the question: How have U.S. citizens variously embodied democratic ideals, and what are the strengths and limits of those manifestations? The course requires students to carry out four major writing projects, each drafted and revised.

WRITING 101 [R] Democracy’s Bodies
T R 9:40-10:55
Hillard

Democracy in the United States refers to a form of representative government that invokes powerful values such as fairness, equality, and freedom. By learning of the nation’s founding, participating in communal activities, and observing politics in action, citizens absorb these omnipresent values starting in childhood, when aspirations about the shape of civic life begin to be formed.  One might say that since a young age, we are effectively saturated with democracy’s ideologically-directed promises and predispositions.  Among many other influences, democracy exerts its force on the body itself. The ideal democratic citizen is often conjured up as having certain idealized characteristics related to its physicality, its ability, its integrity, and its social behaviors. Beginning with a close and critical reading of the Declaration of Independence and a brief study of its genesis, and extending to several narratives of how the “democratic body” is both embraced and rejected, and ending with considerations of how the democratic body speaks and listens in a variety of public settings, the course explores the question: How have U.S. citizens variously embodied democratic ideals, and what are the strengths and limits of those manifestations? The course requires students to carry out four major writing projects, each drafted and revised.

WRITING 101 [S] #MeToo: Speaking Sexual Violence
T R 3:05-4:20
Horowitz

This course examines the rhetoric of #MeToo, the most recent iteration of the movement against gender-based violence, in the context of earlier representations of sexual harassment and assault. We will begin by studying recent historical flashpoints in the national dialogue about sexual abuse, including the Anita Hill hearings (1991); David Mamet’s controversial play Oleanna (1992); President Bill Clinton’s impeachment (1998); the Boston Globe’s exposé on the Catholic Church (2002). Approaching #MeToo as a genre of storytelling still taking shape, we will uncover emerging tropes and patterns in the narration of experiences of sexual abuse, in media portrayals thereof, and in the critical backlash. Based on our investigations, we will attempt to answer the questions, “Whose and what kinds of stories of sexual violence are likeliest to capture a national audience? Whose and what kinds are likeliest to be silenced or ignored, and why?” Our rhetorical analyses will follow the method advanced in David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen’s Writing Analytically. The first assignment asks students to analyze the organizing themes and contrasts of a popularly circulated #MeToo story of their choosing. In the second, we will uncover assumptions about who and what constitutes an “ideal victim” in our class readings. The third assignment asks students to use a theoretical text on narratives of sexual abuse as a lens through which to interpret characters’ actions and motivations in a fictional work on the topic. For their final project, students will perform close textual analyses of interviews with women faculty about their experiences of workplace sexual harassment and situate them with respect to the narrative priorities, possibilities, and limitations we have identified as shaping the broader movement.

WRITING 101 [T] Buddhism and Violence
M W F 9:30 - 10:20
Pang

Buddhism evokes images of meditation, monks, and peace in the popular imagination. Indeed, “non-harm” (Skt. ahimsa) is one of the fundamental tenets of the religion. And yet, in recent decades, there has been a rise in cases of what the media has termed “Buddhist” forms of nationalism and violence. How can the members of a religion based on compassion for all sentient beings engage in ethnic intolerance, extreme nationalism and violence?

 In this course, we will explore a variety of perspectives on this issue, including ethnographies, academic articles, writings by public intellectuals, and journal articles from the New York Times, the Economist, the Atlantic, and other news sources. In conjunction with developing an informed understanding of this issue, we will learn to craft robust and compelling arguments that will serve as the foundation of strong argumentative writing at the college level

WRITING 101 [U] Sex, Love, and Friendship
M W F 12:30 - 1:20
Studtmann

Sex presents a number of moral and legal questions. Is it moral to have pre-marital sex? What is the difference between perverse sex and non-perverse sex? What is the appropriate legal stance toward various sexual activities, for instance prostitution, gay sex, and pre-marital sex. What are the moral and legal limits of consent? In this class, we read several contemporary philosophers who address these and other questions.

WRITING 101 [V] Critical Reading and Critical Writing
M W F 9:30 - 10:20
Gay

During this semester, students and the course instructor will work as a team to answer one complex question: What is critical thinking? In this quest, we will read a series of non-fiction texts intended to develop critical reading skills and write a series of essays intended to develop critical writing skills.

WRITING 101 [W] Race on Film
M W F 11:30 - 12:20
McCarthy

Recent Oscar-related controversies have highlighted the representation of race on film. This course will provide students with analytic tools for approaching this topic from a variety of angles. Just as some films depict racial strife, whether historically known or obscured, they also draw on familiar categories that we may or may not recognize. The “white savior” model, for instance, has received its share of critique. But how should we think about scenarios that turn the historically oppressed into characters with magical or superhero powers? Equally important, what racial assumptions underpin films that seem, on the surface, to tell stories about what we perceive as a universal norm? And finally, how do the various facets of our own, individual identities filter our perceptions of what we see on film? This course will hone writing skills, foster critical thinking, and encourage collegial discussion of a perennially controversial subject. Assignments consist of three short essays and one final research paper.

WRITING 101 [X] Language and Identity
T R 12:15 - 1:30
Fernandez 

Though the primary focus of the course is the production of academic and intellectual writing- your writing and work-in-progress-thematically, the course invites you to examine and evaluate the relationship between language, identity, and the expression of voice and agency in academic and public life. In generations past, academic and professional success often was dependent one a person’s ability to conform to privileged discourses-ways of thinking, valuing, speaking, writing and being characteristic of traditionally educated, upper-classes-while shedding all traces of their home language, culture, and identity. While some individuals achieved public success this way, numerous personal testimonies attest to their painful personal and cultural losses. In an effort to lessen such negative consequences and to increase acceptance of difference, linguistic and otherwise, many scholars today espouse an intriguing alternative, a translingual orientation. These scholars believe that, rather than force individuals of different backgrounds to fulfill arbitrary communicative standards at the expense of their primary identities, they should be empowered to navigate our increasingly diverse academic and professional spaces by drawing on their full repertoire of communicative resources. Such a perspective is not without detractors, however. Critics, even those sympathetic to the challenges of students from diverse backgrounds, argue that the rules of the past still apply, that while inclusive and flexible approaches toward linguistic and cultural difference may help college students from underserved backgrounds in the short term, the lack of emphasis on traditionally privileged discourses undermines students’ academic and long-term career prospects. These critics suggest, first, that the power of non-mainstream individuals to change the status quo is limited, and second, that personal and cultural losses, are a small price to pay for success in public life.   Because these concerns touch on issues of equity and social justice, the topic is relevant to all Davidson students, regardless of linguistic and cultural background.

Spring 2020 Sections

WRITING 101 [A] Good Argument: Deliberation in Democratic Life
T R 12:15 - 1:30
Hogan

Our contemporary public and political spheres are marked by bluster, badgering, and unproductive winner-take-all debate.  Glancing at the daily news, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to locate sites of productive disagreement where citizens assemble for sustained, reasonable conversation that welcomes and accounts for  difference. But if, as some classical thinkers claimed, human life is by nature marked by disagreements, then perhaps we shouldn’t fear opportunities to open our disagreements to the light of mutually-beneficial conversations where we come to better understand why and how it is that we have come to our contrasting conclusions.  Deliberation, the interactive process of navigating disagreements with charitable listening, reciprocal accountability, and an expectant spirit of progress provides us with tools for reclaiming our mutual responsibilities as attentive citizens.  The course will offer the rhetorical tools for making robust arguments in the face of public and intellectual disagreements, discourses that take into account the history of a controversy, the diverse claims that have been made, and the persons to whom particular ways of thinking and being matter.  The course is structured around four major writing projects, each taken through a cycle of research, deliberation, drafting, and revision, with plentiful opportunities for enriching, extending, and transforming one’s own arguments in light of good reasons.

WRITING 101 [B] Astrobiology Life in Universe
T R 8:15 - 9:00
Thompson

Are we alone? Is there life elsewhere in the Universe? These questions hold much public interest, and the answers to them would have profound scientific, religious, and philosophical implications. To fully appreciate any answer that may be found, we must first explore a different question: What is life? The answer to this seemingly straightforward question is not simple at all, and has been one of the great debates among scientists. Is there one definitive answer as to what constitutes life? Does the answer to this question depend upon where in the Universe the life in question resides? In this course, we will explore life on a variety of scales, including life on and near Earth, life on Mars, life in the Solar System, and life in the Universe. As we move farther into space away from our Earthly home, science has provided less evidence and we therefore must rely more heavily on our own beliefs, knowledge, and creativity to formulate meaningful stances about the possibility of life on the grandest of scales. The course will be organized in four sections, each exploring the meaning and current understanding of life on the scales mentioned above, from Earth to the Universe at large. Students will be asked to complete four writing projects, each exploring the meaning and current understanding of life on one of the size scales mentioned above. Each project will consist of one or two low-stakes, unrevised writing assignments and one larger piece that will be drafted and revised. 

WRITING 101 [C] Nuclear Science, Tech, and Policy
M W F 8:30-9:20
A. Kuchera 

The discovery of the atomic nucleus in the early 1900s quickly led to history-changing technologies around the world. While some applications provide societal benefits, others have the power to cause mass destruction. A science with potential to advance and yet destroy civilizations needs global cooperation to understand the pros and cons of the technologies involved. In this course we will discuss the scientific principles behind the nucleus of the atom for a general audience and investigate how the properties can be harnessed for use in everyday life. From there we will discuss the risks and what role national and international policy should play in safeguarding the materials and regulations of nuclear science. This course has four major sections where students will reflect on what are the risks and rewards of: basic science, technological applications, environment, and governmental policy. No previous nuclear science or policy background in needed.

WRITING 101 [D] True Crime
T R 9:40 - 10:55
Lewis

A New York Times article from July, 1999, entitled “Journalists, or Detectives?  Depends on Who’s Asking,” reported that “Edmund J. Pankau, a private investigator who teaches techniques to journalists and detectives alike, said similar research skills were required for both jobs.”  Predicated on the similarities between academic research and detective work, this course focuses on forensics as a model for evaluating evidence and using it to construct an argument. Readings, many of which come from sources like the New Yorker magazine, consist of reporting on notable real-life mysteries, both solved and unsolved; actual characters who execute, offend, and elude the law; and current quandaries in criminal law. A few films will also be included. Students’ writing will largely, though not exclusively, involve reporting on real crime in its many facets and from various perspectives.

WRITING 101 [F] Religion and Violence
M W F 10:30 - 11:20
Blum

News outlets regularly carry stories of individuals or groups engaging in violence that is presented-by either the perpetrator or the media-as religious in nature. This course is animated by the central question of how intimate the relationship between violence and religion is and how it may best be explained. Course assignments include regular written questions in response to course readings; brief low-stakes “discussion papers” that guide class conversation; and three major written projects-each of which will undergo review and revision-that consider different perspectives on the relationship between religion and violence. The goal of the course is to provide a variety of theoretical resources on which students can draw in formulating their own positions on this fraught question.

WRITING 101 [I] Voice, Noise, Sound, Sense
M W F 11:30 - 12:20
Rippeon

If “voice” commonly refers to both human “speech” and a writer’s “style,” how do literary artists, cultural critics, theorists, and philosophers engage with these simultaneously overlapping and divergent concepts of “voice”? What does it mean to “find your voice,” to “have a voice,” or to “lose your voice”? What is “noise,” who decides, and what are the stakes of making this determination? This seminar will encourage its members to consider how speaking and writing-and their complimentary concepts listening and reading-mutually inform one another in various literary, artistic, and cultural contexts. We will furthermore explore and experiment with our own practice of “voice,” and will consider the acoustic ecology of the Davidson campus and community.

In this course, students will complete numerous low-stakes writing assignments (e.g., blog posts, Response Papers, discussion outlines, etc.), as well as four major writing projects that will each be subject to a series of process drafts and peer revision. In the first project, students will begin writing about sound and voice as objects of critical study. The second project asks students to analyze the function of sound and/or voice in a specific literary, cultural, artistic, or cinematic text, and the third project asks students to explore issues of acoustic ecology. The fourth project asks students to apply sound-studies discourse to texts and/or conditions of the contemporary social and technological moment.

WRITING 101 [J] Voice, Noise, Sound, Sense
M W F 12:30 - 1:20
Rippeon

If “voice” commonly refers to both human “speech” and a writer’s “style,” how do literary artists, cultural critics, theorists, and philosophers engage with these simultaneously overlapping and divergent concepts of “voice”? What does it mean to “find your voice,” to “have a voice,” or to “lose your voice”? What is “noise,” who decides, and what are the stakes of making this determination? This seminar will encourage its members to consider how speaking and writing-and their complimentary concepts listening and reading-mutually inform one another in various literary, artistic, and cultural contexts. We will furthermore explore and experiment with our own practice of “voice,” and will consider the acoustic ecology of the Davidson campus and community.

In this course, students will complete numerous low-stakes writing assignments (e.g., blog posts, Response Papers, discussion outlines, etc.), as well as four major writing projects that will each be subject to a series of process drafts and peer revision. In the first project, students will begin writing about sound and voice as objects of critical study. The second project asks students to analyze the function of sound and/or voice in a specific literary, cultural, artistic, or cinematic text, and the third project asks students to explore issues of acoustic ecology. The fourth project asks students to apply sound-studies discourse to texts and/or conditions of the contemporary social and technological moment.

WRITING 101 [K] Science versus Religion? Confronting Caricatures, Addressing Challenges
M W F 8:30 - 9:20
Lustig

In recent critiques from the so-called “new atheists,” religion and science are depicted as necessarily at odds in their respective claims. The trial of Galileo and fundamentalist resistance to Darwin’s theory of evolution invariably are cited as historical evidence of such conflict. This course will first explore the complexities of both the so-called “Galileo affair” and the mixed reception of Darwinism among religious thinkers.  It will then examine the typology of possible relations between religion and science developed by Dr. Ian Barbour: viz., conflict, independence, dialogue, and integration. The course will conclude by assessing recent developments in the physical and biological sciences that may pose challenges to traditional theological understandings of divine design and providential action. Students will post several shorter unrevised assignments on Moodle and will write and revise four major papers.

WRITING 101 [L] Irrationality
T R 12:15 - 1:30
Griffith

Human beings often behave and think in ways that seem irrational. We do things we know we shouldn’t (e.g., we procrastinate, or smoke, or stay up too late). We engage in various kinds of self-deception. We fail to align our beliefs with our best evidence. Although these behaviors are everywhere, philosophers throughout the centuries have wondered how they are possible. They have also puzzled over how best to describe or explain them. For example, how could someone really know that it is bad for her to do something and then go ahead and intentionally do it? What is going on when this happens? How can a person lie to himself, given that being able to lie requires knowing the truth?

In this course we will think, discuss, and write about these sorts of questions and what philosophers (and others) have had to say about them. Other questions we might consider are: What factors play a role in generating irrationality? Can irrationality be avoided? Is irrationality ever a good thing?

In four major projects, each involving several weeks of critical reading, drafting, and revision, students will respond to these complex and important questions.

WRITING 101 [M] Good Argument: Deliberation in Democratic Life
T R 9:30 - 10:55
Hillard

Our contemporary public and political spheres are marked by bluster, badgering, and unproductive winner-take-all debate.  Glancing at the daily news, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to locate sites of productive disagreement where citizens assemble for sustained, reasonable conversation that welcomes and accounts for  difference. But if, as some classical thinkers claimed, human life is by nature marked by disagreements, then perhaps we shouldn’t fear opportunities to open our disagreements to the light of mutually-beneficial conversations where we come to better understand why and how it is that we have come to our contrasting conclusions.  Deliberation, the interactive process of navigating disagreements with charitable listening, reciprocal accountability, and an expectant spirit of progress provides us with tools for reclaiming our mutual responsibilities as attentive citizens.  The course will offer the rhetorical tools for making robust arguments in the face of public and intellectual disagreements, discourses that take into account the history of a controversy, the diverse claims that have been made, and the persons to whom particular ways of thinking and being matter.  The course is structured around four major writing projects, each taken through a cycle of research, deliberation, drafting, and revision, with plentiful opportunities for enriching, extending, and transforming one’s own arguments in light of good reasons. 

WRITING 101 [N] Good Argument: Deliberation in Democratic Life
T R 12:15 - 1:30
Hillard

Our contemporary public and political spheres are marked by bluster, badgering, and unproductive winner-take-all debate.  Glancing at the daily news, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to locate sites of productive disagreement where citizens assemble for sustained, reasonable conversation that welcomes and accounts for  difference. But if, as some classical thinkers claimed, human life is by nature marked by disagreements, then perhaps we shouldn’t fear opportunities to open our disagreements to the light of mutually-beneficial conversations where we come to better understand why and how it is that we have come to our contrasting conclusions.  Deliberation, the interactive process of navigating disagreements with charitable listening, reciprocal accountability, and an expectant spirit of progress provides us with tools for reclaiming our mutual responsibilities as attentive citizens.  The course will offer the rhetorical tools for making robust arguments in the face of public and intellectual disagreements, discourses that take into account the history of a controversy, the diverse claims that have been made, and the persons to whom particular ways of thinking and being matter.  The course is structured around four major writing projects, each taken through a cycle of research, deliberation, drafting, and revision, with plentiful opportunities for enriching, extending, and transforming one’s own arguments in light of good reasons. 

WRITING 101 [O] Who Killed Jesus?
M W F 10:30 - 11:20
Krentz

Who killed Jesus? For many centuries, the words of Matthew 27:25 (“His blood be upon us and upon our children!”) were used to justify the characterization of the Jews as Christ-killers. After the Holocaust, the Second Vatican Council rejected the idea that the Jewish people can be held responsible for Jesus’s death. Yet anti-Semitism persists. Perhaps each of us bears some responsibility for exploring why Jesus was executed.

The question is challenging because we lack eyewitness or even contemporary accounts. This course will begin by reading the trial narratives found in the canonical gospels. Then we will look at all the other ancient evidence for the trial (there isn’t much) before reading Josephus’s Jewish War for historical context and in particular to see what else is known about Pontius Pilate, the governor who presided over Jesus’s trial. Does Josephus treat Pilate fairly, or is what he writes “fake news”? To gain perspective on the trial narratives, we will then read the canonical gospels straight through. As we do, each student will research an aspect of the overall question that interests them.

The course will have four scaffolded writing projects of different kinds, different both in the writing done along the way and in the final products. The final project will be an investigation of some aspect of anti-Semitism, whether it be an historical event (such as the death of Simon of Trent in 1475, the alleged murder of the Holy Child of La Guardia in 1490, or the U. S. rejection of the S. S. St. Louis in 1939), a cultural event (such as the Oberammergau Passion play or Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ), or a recent act of violence or an incident involving hate speech.

WRITING 101 [Q] Denial and the Holocaust
M W F 1:30 - 2:20
McQuinn

The real and the fake; the interpretation of facts, phrases, and concepts; the appropriate way to use historical pasts in the present - these are some of the most hotly debated issues in contemporary discourse today. This course focuses on Holocaust denial, one of the most prominent and enduring forms of denying history, as a case study to look at larger issues of the way that we engage with history in present public discourse. At the center of the course, we will be examining the landmark court case where historian Deborah Lipstadt was forced to prove the existence of the Holocaust in court after being sued for libel by Holocaust denier David Irving. In addition to the case, we will be examining her book (which sparked the lawsuit), public discourse around the case, and the 2016 movie about the trial. We will also consider questions of the Holocaust’s place in history, including debates about whether the Holocaust can be compared to other human rights violations. Through this course, students will hone writing skills for different kinds of media and prepare students to engage in contemporary public debates over complex, sensitive, and contentious issues.