Writing Seminars for Spring 2010
Humans as Emotional Beings
Intd 105 01/53555/Fraser 104/Duffy, Leigh TR 10:00-11:15
Intd 105 03/53557/ISC 325/Duffy, Leigh TR 11:30-12:45
Freedom and Equality
Intd 105 02/53556/Welles 131/Morgan, Sean TR 1:00-2:15
This course looks at how the concepts of freedom and equality interact with each other in our beliefs about justice. What doe it mean to be free and does freedom require a certain standard of living? What should be the role of the state in our lives? What does it mean to say all persons are equal, particularly given each individual’s unique characteristics? Students will read and analyze a selection of classical and contemporary texts, in order to compare and contrast the merits of opposing arguments. Examples of authors discussed include: Aristotle, John Locke, Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill, and John Rawls.”
Philosophy of Love
Intd 105 04/53558/Welles 132/Edgar, Stacey MWF 12:00-12:50
What is love? How is true love to be distinguished from false or illusory love? What is the relationship between love and beauty, between love and sex, between love and friendship? These questions and other related issues (such as the role of imagination or fantasy in love) will be critically examined. The main texts are: Plato’s Phaedrus, which is both about love and about the art of writing; Plato’s Symposium, a major philosophical work about love and beauty and a masterful literary work; and Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a literary work that insightfully examines the same philosophical questions (after all, it is set in Athens, the city of philosophers). Course material will be supplemented by poetry, art, music, and film clips related to the theme of romantic love. Essays will require a careful reading of the course texts, a developing skill in writing, and a critical ability to construct and evaluate arguments.
Ritual
Intd 105 05/53563/Welles 115/Derne, Stephan TR 8:30-9:45
What rituals guide your life? Do you love weddings? Hate graduations? Wonder why holidays are celebrated the way they are? In this course, students will consider how the late anthropologist Victor Turner analyzed ritual processes. Within structured, differentiated, hierarchical systems, human interactions are limited by defined roles.
But Turner argues that humans also want to interact based on principles of community and equality, and it is rituals that provide opportunity for such interactions. Turner uses this analysis to understand lifecycle rituals (like graduations) and calendrical rituals (like Easter, Ramadan, Holi, or Fourth of July celebrations.) Students will evaluate Turner's theory by considering their own experiences with ritual. In addition, students will be asked to find an empirical account of a ritual in the Geneseo library and evaluate how well this ritual fits Turner's model. Through these assignments, students will see the dynamic interplay of theory and evidence.
Intd 105 06/53566/Welles 134/Okada, Jun MWF 10:00-10:50
Intd 105 07/53591/Welles 119 T 3:30-6:00
Paris, A City Ancient and Modern: We’ll always have Paris
Intd 105 08/53592/Milne 105/Lutkus, Anne TR 8:30-9:45
This freshman writing seminar has Paris as its subject. The course will begin with legends about or impressions of Paris; the intent is to conclude with a sense of what Parisians think of and hope for their city. Most of the readings will be texts by American writers reacting to and reflecting on Paris. There will be some viewing of films about and/or set in Paris. Students will write several short papers and conclude with a longer more formal study of what Paris might be in the twenty-first century.
Identity-Multicultural Lit
Intd 105 09/53593/Milne 105/McAlpine, Amy MWF 9:00-9:50
Intd 105 10/53594/Milne 105/McAlpine, Amy MWF 10:00-10:50
This course examines the ways in which multicultural literature grapples with the idea of individual and group identity formation in the United States. In reading novels by Native American, African American, and Asian American writers since 1950, we will discuss the works as artistic expressions and as attempts to understand, represent, and come to terms with contemporary American life in the wake of our sometimes conflicted history. The intertwined questions of how we interpret fiction and how fiction interprets us – as individuals and as a society – will be explored throughout the semester, and we’ll consider the historical, spiritual, and unquestionably political implications in formal and informal writing assignments.
Women and Work in Fiction and Non-Fiction
Intd 105 11/53595/Milne 105/Herzman, Ellen 11:30-12:45
What constitutes meaningful work for women? In this course, we will read works of non-fiction which discuss opportunities and challenges women have faced in the last century and what they have found valuable in the work they do. We will also look at some portrayals in fiction and film to see how they influence our ideas about women and work. Content will be covered in instructor lecture/demonstrations, class discussions, and student oral presentations. As this is primarily a writing course, a considerable portion of the work will focus on the construction of effective argumentative essays.
Metafiction
Intd 105 12/53596/Milne 105/Perri, Christopher TR 1:00-2:15
What do we know of the world other than the words we choose to express it? Language is humanity’s defining attribute, serving as the foundation for our construction of and commentary upon our existence. This design provides infinite subjective possibility within the words we use to communicate in our everyday lives as well as on the printed page. Metafiction is a realm of literature that is chiefly concerned with its own nature as a verbal construct. Novels and stories of this genre possess a self-awareness of their essence as little more than words on a page. Thus, the business of metafiction is not to render the world as we know it, but to make a world from the medium of language. This course will examine the medium of storytelling as it applies to metafiction and its “linguistic oversoul,” as well as the questions raised regarding the messages (or lack thereof) inherent within the form.
Octavia Butlet’s Parables
Intd 105 13/53597/Milne 213/McCoy, Beth TR 2:00-3:15
This particular section will explore science fiction writer Octavia Butler’s novel The Parable of the Sower and its sequel, The Parable of the Talents. Taking place in a future America that has slowly lapsed into political, environmental, and religious chaos, these novels follow the rise to power of Lauren Oya Olamina, a young black woman from California. In response to the destruction around her, Olamina develops a new religion, Earthseed, a religion based on the principle that “God is Change.” As Olamina’s followers grow in number, the novels raise important questions about power, celebrity, religious fundamentalisms, race (especially white supremacy), class, gender, corporate slavery, and mobility. Especially as this course will begin four years after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, students interested in this class should be prepared to meaningfully discuss and explore these provocative topics.
Looking on Darkness
Intd 105 14/53598/Fraser 104/Symington, Sidney TR 8:30-9:45
In this course, we will explore the views of darkness in Western literature. Major texts are Othello, Heart of Darkness, and Toni Morrison's Playing in the Dark. Other readings include biblical texts, travel writing by V.S. Naipal, and stories by Hawthorne, Stephen Crane and Barbara Kingsolver. Students will be asked to reflect on the authors' application of darkness as a cultural symbol and literary device, and to express in writing of their own the roots and ramifications of our hate-love relationship to The Dark.
Intd 105 15/53599/Welles 216/Paku, Gilliam WF 3:30-4:45
Intd 105 16/53600/Sturges 105/Thrasher, Michael MWF 10:00-10:50
Media & Madness
Intd 105 17/53601/ Sturges 106/Tomczak, Tim MW 3:30-4:45
Considers the portrayal of individuals with mental illness and their treatment in film and literature. Students will be required to critically and reflectively evaluate the content of various short and extended pieces of literature and at least two feature films with respect to the quality and accuracy of the information provided.
Affluence in America
Intd 105 18/53602/Fraser 104/Scipione, Paul TR 11:30-12:45
What’s more quintessential than the American Dream? It’s even guaranteed in our Declaration of Independence as the “pursuit of happiness.” Study hard and work even harder. Save and invest. Is the American Dream in need of redefinition? Have companies become too adept at “data mining” and exciting our passions to spend? Have “wants” somehow morphed into “needs?” And how do we explain pockets of poverty that have resisted four decades of social engineering? Class readings ranging from Steinbeck’s the Grapes of Wrath to Stanley’s The Millionaire Next Door, as well as shared nuggets discovered in the library, interviews with competing experts, and personal and family anecdotes will be used by students to develop both effective verbal and written positions on affluence in America. Our collective research will then be preserved in a written class Proceedings that we can share with others.
Why Is a Painting Like a Pizza?
Intd 105 19/53607/Brodie 154/Board, Marilyn MF 2:00-3:15
This class is about understanding, enjoying and responding to modern art. Students will read and discuss two basic texts on modern art in preparation for writing a response paper about the power of art in both personal and cultural frameworks, critiques of art exhibitions at the Lockhart and Lederer galleries on the Geneseo campus, and a short research paper on an individual artist. We will study historical, formal, and theoretical vocabularies of describing modern art; explore the relationships between modern art and its historical contexts, develop methodological tools for analyzing visual arts; hone oral presentation skills; and perfect the art of lively persuasive writing.
Sex, Skulls, & Aliens
Intd 105 20/53608/Sturges 14/Krumrine, Kristi TR 11:30-12:45
This course is designed to help students learn to think critically and to express themselves clearly in writing. The course is centered around controversial topics in anthropology, both from the history of the discipline as well as those currently debated. These topics include but are not limited to Margaret Mead’s work in Samoa, early human finds, and alien explanations for the appearance of complex societies. The nature of the course content encourages students to think critically about the scientific method and human bias and the structure of the course provides students with the opportunity to learn about the writing process.
Ancient Myths and Modern Life
Intd 105 21/CRN 53614/Sturges 113/Butterfield, Shane MW 3:30-4:45
Intd 105 22/CRN 53615/Sturges 113/Butterfield, Shane MW 5:00-6:15
Intd 105 is a course designed to improve your critical reading and academic writing skills through the study of selected academic content. During this semester, our class will examine the relationship between ancient myths and modern life in the most recent century. Among the questions we will work to answer are: Why are myths important to civilizations? What are the deeper meanings of ancient myths? In what ways are such myths with us in the present day? What can they reveal about modern society and human nature, more generally? Because this is a writing class, however, our focus will be on composition. Through classroom discussion, the drafting of essays, revision, self-assessment, peer review, and more, we will gain experience making inferences, presenting written arguments, sharing insights, and working to convey ideas effectively in our writing.
Intd 105 23/53624/Sturges 109/Adams, Catherine TR 1:00-2:15
Disability in America
Intd 105 24/53625/Holcomb 270/Ware, Linda MF 8:00-9:15
This section will address ableism in the example of disability and informed by disability studies. This interdisciplinary exploration of disability will draw from the humanities, the social sciences, and education in an effort to promote understanding disability as a richly complex human experience that exceeds the typical tropes of tragedy, cure, and care. Each week we will consider specific themes of representation in the texts and media sources assigned for the course.
Songs-Slavery, Songs-Freedom
Intd 105 25/53626/South 241/McClure, Glenn TR 10:00-11:15
Intd 105 26/53628/South 235/McClure, Glenn TR 8:30-9:45 The Atlantic Slave Trade set the stage for some of the most profound questions of American identity, as well as globalization. We often only study the basics of this historical narrative, but rarely get a chance to explore some of the lesser known, and vital parts of this complex history. In this course, we will examine a wide variety of primary and secondary source texts dealing with the Atlantic Slave Trade (circa 1580-1860) including Ghanaian music/drumming, slave narratives, Black Spirituals, slave ship documents, recent histories, and more. These texts illustrate the ways in which Europeans, West Africans, and Native Americans mixed, clashed, and/or collaborated to form the basis of many of our modern assumptions about culture, economics, race, and globalization.
Rethinking & Improving Education
Intd 105 27/53636/Welles 132/Frahm, Matthew MW 3:30-4:45
In recent years, new pieces of state and federal legislation have been created to set standards and increase academic achievement for all learners enrolled in school systems throughout the United States. However, while admirable in terms of goals and ambitions, many have raised troubling concerns about the content and skills not emphasized in public school classrooms. When speaking to a group of elected politicians, Bill Gates commented that “when I compare our high schools to what I see when I'm traveling abroad, I am terrified for our workforce of tomorrow.” This course will explore the writings of different individuals who have recently proposed ideas focused on rethinking and improving education in the 21st century.