WRITING THE ESSAY II: THE DANGER OF A SINGLE STORY: REWRITING IDENTITY. Today we are witnessing huge shifts in attitudes toward how we, collectively and individually, want to identify and claim ourselves. We are asking—some of us for the first time: Who am I? Who do I want to be? How do I rewrite my story? At this moment in time, we are deciding to reject the destructive and often divisive categories + oppressive histories of race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexual orientation. We are now rewriting the (his)story, so to speak, and choosing to flood the world with new stories that reflect our evolution and desire to live our lives with authenticity + power. This first-year research seminar asks students to explore the ways postcolonial writers, and what we might call post-postcolonial writers, have always (and are) reimagining and rewriting their histories in the quest to reclaim their personal, cultural, and national identity. Students will have the opportunity to engage with this practice by conducting research, writing, workshopping, and revising their writing. We will read a variety of post-colonial writers and critics, which may include Chinua Achebe, Arundathi Roy, Jamaica Kincaid, Maxine Hong Kingston, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Edward Said, Kamau Brathwaite, Kiese Laymon, Marlon James, Natalie Diaz, and other.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: THE BODY NEVER LIES. Some might say we are in the age of the body – a time when we’re collectively embracing and reclaiming our bodies. No doubt, this reclamation was ushered in by the social unrest and global health pandemic of 2020 – a moment when fear, anxiety, and grief became too much to bear. Despite this, we have been given the opportunity to (re)learn that the body is a powerful resource and has much to offer as our minds – maybe more. This course will explore the body not only as needing deep care and healing, but also as a generative source of power that infiltrates all aspects of our lives. We’ll consider what it might be like to build a bridge between the intellect and the somatic, privileging a wholly embodied way of learning and being. What do our bodies need to express? How do we become empathic witnesses to the truths being revealed? How can we tap into the generative power of embodiment with deep awareness? Our readings will be intersectional in nature, weaving together works from a variety of fields including literature, queer/gender/race theory, science, somatics, philosophy, and the healing arts. Authors may include Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Alice Walker, Resmaa Menakem, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Joy Degruy, Saidiya Hartman, Kiese Laymon, Bessel Van der Kolk, Magdalena Zurawski, June Jordan, and others.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: RADICAL MEMOIR. In this first-year writing seminar we look at texts that defy the boundaries of genre to create a narrative form true to the fragmented, shifting composition of memory itself. Memoirist, diarist, theorist, philosopher: the authors we will consider perform the ongoing project of the construction of the self, or successive versions of self, through the creation of fragmented autobiographical texts. Students will write a series of essays responding to these texts and also learn to construct a longer, research paper. Authors considered will likely include Roland Barthes, James Baldwin, Anne Carson, Claudia Rankine, Beatriz Preciado, Teresa Hak-Kyung Cha, Wayne Koestenbaum, Edouard Louis, Brian Blanchfield and Saeed Jones.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: BYE BYE BI. Bisexual erasure is real. The gender binary is real. Non-binary identities are real. Growing up biracial is real. Binary math makes what we see on computer screens real. And, in the U.S., bipartisan politics are all too real. So what does it mean to be bi anything? Why is there biphobia within the LBGTQIA+ community? How do we deal with the reality that any identity labeled with the prefix bi- can be inherently polarizing by definition? This course will try to understand why our world is so dependent on binary constructs. In this first-year writing seminar, we will explore personal, political, and cultural issues related to bi- experiences. We will examine how bi- issues reflect the ways that sexuality and desire are shaped by - yet often liberated from - the patriarchy’s paradigms of gender. To make visible the hidden impact of monosexism in healthcare, relationships, and even DEI initiatives, we will engage in conversation with a wide variety of creative works, contemporary media, and historical documents. Digital media; influencer videos; social activists’ Twitter feeds; .gov and .org websites, along with community-building discussions involving journalistic, literary, and scholarly sources, will also be considered. Students will develop research methods and critical inquiry skill-sets to produce genderographies of truth and possibility.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: TRANSLATION: BRIDGING THE CULTURE GAP. In this course we will read, discuss, & respond to exemplary works of literature in translation. We live in a globalized world, borders continue to dissolve, yet the most dazzling works of literature from other countries have notoriously struggled to reach an American audience. This class asserts that we cannot truly know our place in the world without first expanding our views of literature from such a cloistered perspective. We will focus on short forms in translation (poetry and short prose), and also leave room to explore how writers have explored the immigrant experience in the U.S. Writers include the likes of Clarice Lispector, Mahmoud Darwish, Antoine Volodine, Paul Celan, Fiston Mwanza Ujila, Natalia Toledo, and Lynn Xu. Writing assignments will involve close readings, critical analysis, with a final research project that may merge scholarly and creative elements. Fluency in a language other than English is not required, but final projects may include your own translations from a language of your choice.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: WHAT IS RAPE CULTURE? Ugh. It’s everywhere. But what is Rape Culture? This first-year writing and research seminar looks at sexual violence in literature and pop culture and asks students to consider different, perhaps difficult, points of view. We will investigate social and political issues including violence, equality, sexual justice and patriarchy through critical writing and art from the 1970s to the present. Digital events will be looked at in real time during the months this class is in session. This course emphasizes close readings and a research paper.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: SOCIAL COMMENTARY. This research-writing seminar is designed to make you more informative and persuasive in writing about social issues that matter to you and to your readers. The centerpiece of this course is the long-form social commentary, a 10-15-page essay, which will be the product of brainstorming, freewriting, tailored research, interim writing assignments, workshopping, drafting, redrafting, and critical feedback from your instructor, fellow students, and yourself. By term’s end, you will learn and practice basic research methodology by conducting strategic web-based searches and academic research. You will also learn and practice how to execute these methods into clear, engaging writing that speaks to issues of enduring significance. Course readings will be interdisciplinary in content and expansive in approach; they may include selections from Tressie McMillan Cottom, Elizabeth Colbert, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Eric Schlosser, Carl Hart, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Frances Lee, Danielle Allen, Jenny Odell, and others.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: THE BODY NEVER LIES. Some might say we are in the age of the body – a time when we’re collectively embracing and reclaiming our bodies. No doubt, this reclamation was ushered in by the social unrest and global health pandemic of 2020 – a moment when fear, anxiety, and grief became too much to bear. Despite this, we have been given the opportunity to (re)learn that the body is a powerful resource and has much to offer as our minds – maybe more. This course will explore the body not only as needing deep care and healing, but also as a generative source of power that infiltrates all aspects of our lives. We’ll consider what it might be like to build a bridge between the intellect and the somatic, privileging a wholly embodied way of learning and being. What do our bodies need to express? How do we become empathic witnesses to the truths being revealed? How can we tap into the generative power of embodiment with deep awareness? Our readings will be intersectional in nature, weaving together works from a variety of fields including literature, queer/gender/race theory, science, somatics, philosophy, and the healing arts. Authors may include Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Alice Walker, Resmaa Menakem, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Joy Degruy, Saidiya Hartman, Kiese Laymon, Bessel Van der Kolk, Magdalena Zurawski, June Jordan, and others.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: COMING OF AGE SHORT FICTION. Baudelaire says that “genius is…childhood recaptured,” and without question some of our most important fiction—from Twain to Salinger to Harper Lee—is rendered through the eyes of younger protagonists. In this first-year research seminar we’ll explore a variety of short story writers and characters of diverse backgrounds, regions, and ethnicities, including Jamaica Kincaid, Junot Diaz, Maile Meloy, Edward P. Jones, and Sandra Cisneros, who together reveal the complexity of what growing up entails. We’ll consider the struggle for identity and belonging, but also for self-determination and independence, amidst mainstream expectations of community, family, or tradition. The course emphasizes close-reading, multiple drafts of essays, and proficiency with research skills, culminating in a longer final research paper.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? It is taken as a given that the word “love” functions as a signifier in society, but the question of what precisely it signifies remains elusive. In this first-year research seminar, students read and write about romantic love. Is it just a fantasy, something we hope to be true? Or a reality, for those who are lucky or who work hard to make it true? Students consider whether romantic love is a socially-constructed illusion or merely an elaborate rationalization for physical desire. To do this effectively, students must hone their skills for reading, analyzing, and thinking critically about how notions of romantic love are strongly influenced by cultural assumption. In the process, students are required to think through complicated issues, write in order to critically examine that thinking, share their ideas, and make arguments based on their perspectives and understanding. Authors include William Shakespeare, e.e. cummings, Sharon Olds, and Laura Kipnis.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: MIX AND MATCH: THE POSSIBILITIES OF GENRES. In this first-year research seminar, we'll explore works that use experimental forms to push boundaries in creativity and meaning. From epistolary form to retelling of mythologies to prose poetry we'll discuss how your ideas can be enhanced by playing with form. How can you weave together sociology with personal narrative or personal narrative with cultural criticism? Throughout the semester, as you experiment with your own hybrid forms, we'll read James Baldwin, Matthea Harvey, Eula Biss, Kae Tempest, Anne Carter, N. Scott Momaday, Olivia Laing, William Burroughs, Anne Waldman, and more. The course will culminate in a research project.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: THE DEPTHS OF BOREDOM. Now more than ever, boring experiences threaten our enjoyment of life. Living in lockdown. Washing the dishes. Attending required college courses. But what do we mean when we call something "boring"? Where does boredom come from? And is there any benefit to being bored? In this first-year writing seminar we'll explore these questions and many more through an exciting and unpredictable selection of reading and writing assignments, with an emphasis on research skills. Topics may include: small talk, long speeches, the science of how we experience time, quarantine, smartphones, capitalism, chores, reality television, intentionally boring films, monks, meditation, mindfulness, opiates, prison, the Internal Revenue Service, the fear of missing out, the lives of zoo animals, summer vacation, heaven, and silence.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: HUMAN RIGHTS: ARTISTIC RESPONSES-EMPHASIS ON THE PERSONAL ESSAY AND HYBRID LITERATURE. Through selected readings, essay, poetry, combined forms, film, historical perspectives and current events, this course will examine human rights, human expression, themes of survival, freedom, what makes us human to violations of human rights domestically and globally. Through writing prompts and assignments, Writers in the course will respond to given materials with some elements of research over time. We will examine issues of race, women’s rights, immigrant rights feminism, lgtbqi issues, class and workers rights, asking questions such as Where do the personal and political interface in literature? How do artists and respond writers articulate and intervene in human rights abuses? Do artists have a responsibility in record keeping? What constitutes political writing? What is the writers role in society? Can craft and political writing coexist? We will also discuss issues such as self vs. governmental censorship and visibility vs. invisibility. Is writing inherently activism? Some of the writers surveyed will be Safiya Bukhari, Hannah Arendt, Kevin Bales, Sadiya Hartman, Joy Harjo, Karen Finley, Angela Davis, James Baldwin, Ta-Nehesi Coates, Chimamanda Adiche, and more.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: FUNNY OR NOT: THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF COMEDY. “There is nothing very benevolent about laughter,” wrote Henri Bergson in 1900. Indeed, laughter—and comedy, the discourse that aims to provoke it—can be quite cruel. In this writing-intensive course, we will examine the numerous ways in which comedy has been used to reflect and at times reshape often troubling social attitudes. We will explore the rhetorical strategies of a wide range of comedic genres and forms, from stand-up comedy to memes, investigating the politics and pleasures of both laughing and not. Why is a particular sign, situation, or performance funny—or not? What are the uses and effects of particular comedic traditions (e.g., language play, slapstick, parody, satire)? What does it mean to take up the role of a feminist killjoy, to be a spoilsport, to refuse to laugh at your boss’s or family member’s racist or sexist or transphobic or ableist joke? As we take up these questions, we will examine others’ arguments and construct our own in response, in the form of both academic and (optionally) comedic writing.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: EXPERIMENTS IN THE ESSAY. You could argue that the essay is defined by experimentation. After all, its name is etymologically linked to French and Old English words for “try,” “weigh,” and “trial.” But that’s not how most of us were taught to write essays in school. In this research-based course, we’ll find, read, and practice bold and wild experiments with the form and process of essay-writing. Our questions: How do the conventions of scholarly and creative work support and delimit what we create? What becomes possible when we test out (try, weigh, essay) new structures and practices, and create our own conventions? Texts may include works by Nuar Alsadir, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Saidiya Hartman, Cathy Park Hong, Carmen Maria Machado, M. NourbeSe Philip, Solmaz Sharif, and more.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: THE FAIRY TALE. Marxists, feminists, fascists, Jungians, Freudians, utopians, and reactionaries have all claimed the fairy tale for their own. But the stories themselves, in all their fertile retellings, resist reduction to any one interpretation. In this class, we will read multiple versions of some classic European tales, and consider what knowledge—about the body, animals, sexuality, gender, and violence—come smuggled beneath their deceptively flat surfaces. More broadly, we will ask what various epistemological approaches to the tales yield. Ultimately, students will choose an approach, such as ethnographic, historical, literary, feminist, or psychological, in which to write a long research essay focusing on one of the tales. Readings may include the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, Angela Carter, AS Byatt and Helen Oyeyemi alongside theorists such as Benjamin, Freud, Berger, Warner, and Tatar.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: THE DEPTHS OF BOREDOM. Now more than ever, boring experiences threaten our enjoyment of life. Living in lockdown. Washing the dishes. Attending required college courses. But what do we mean when we call something "boring"? Where does boredom come from? And is there any benefit to being bored? In this first-year writing seminar we'll explore these questions and many more through an exciting and unpredictable selection of reading and writing assignments, with an emphasis on research skills. Topics may include: small talk, long speeches, the science of how we experience time, quarantine, smartphones, capitalism, chores, reality television, intentionally boring films, monks, meditation, mindfulness, opiates, prison, the Internal Revenue Service, the fear of missing out, the lives of zoo animals, summer vacation, heaven, and silence.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: FUNNY OR NOT: THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF COMEDY. “There is nothing very benevolent about laughter,” wrote Henri Bergson in 1900. Indeed, laughter—and comedy, the discourse that aims to provoke it—can be quite cruel. In this writing-intensive course, we will examine the numerous ways in which comedy has been used to reflect and at times reshape often troubling social attitudes. We will explore the rhetorical strategies of a wide range of comedic genres and forms, from stand-up comedy to memes, investigating the politics and pleasures of both laughing and not. Why is a particular sign, situation, or performance funny—or not? What are the uses and effects of particular comedic traditions (e.g., language play, slapstick, parody, satire)? What does it mean to take up the role of a feminist killjoy, to be a spoilsport, to refuse to laugh at your boss’s or family member’s racist or sexist or transphobic or ableist joke? As we take up these questions, we will examine others’ arguments and construct our own in response, in the form of both academic and (optionally) comedic writing.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: RETURN OF THE QUEER PAGE. In this first-year seminar we will read, discuss, and respond in writing to a multiplicity of queer texts, from foundational works of queer theory to contemporary fiction, essays and poetry. This course will consider the relationship between body and text, and we will practice close reading a wide range of LGBTQIA textual bodies; queer pages that work to counter hegemonic norms. This course will be a practice in how to incorporate ourselves into our research, and we will explore the intersections of personal essay and scholarly research. This course views research as a conversation and an act of community and solidarity. We will practice responsible and rigorous engagement in the intersections of our own experiences and the (written) experiences of others, learning how to place ourselves among them. We will practice how to speak with, and not for. We will read queerly, and define what that means for us as we go along. Texts may include work by: Sara Ahmed, Judith Butler, Samuel Delaney, Audre Lorde, E. Patrick Johnson, José Esteban Muñoz, Dean Spade, Candace Williams, and Monique Wittig.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: THE MEANING OF MYTH. In this first-year research seminar, we will discuss and write about an exciting range of myths in order to develop key composition and research skills. Myth is a far-reaching category that intersects with such fields as literature, history, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, theology, gender studies, political science, and psychology. Myths are said to address the origin and nature of things, how people should act, what motivates human behavior, and what it means to be human. Readings cover many genres and may include short foundational Western and non-Western tales, such as the Hymn to Demeter and the Inanna tales; excerpts from longer texts such as Genesis and The Odyssey; selected short works such as Grimms’ Fairy Tales, Wells’ Time Machine, Eliot’s Waste Land, and Camus’ “Myth of Sisyphus"; the poetry of Anne Sexton, Adrienne Rich, and others; and essays by Darwin, Marx, Freud, Jung, Malinowski, Campbell, and Eliade. The class also addresses mythic themes in visual art, and how myths continue to inform politics and contemporary thought. In the course of composing and workshopping essays related to the readings, students will explore how to formulate interesting questions, conduct close readings, construct and organize arguments, locate apt sources, marshal evidence, improve grammatical clarity, and reorganize and revise. Essays build toward a fully developed research paper.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: OUR LIVING GHOST: PERSPECTIVES IN THE EXPERIENCE OF LEAVING HOME. In this first-year research seminar, we will examine various theories and perspectives on the notion of leaving home. How many ways are there to leave home? What is responsible for the impressions we keep and what is lost? What do we lose about ourselves—and why—and what do we gain? How does the concept of home—once we define it—move through us and, most importantly, why does the mapping of these changes of these perspectives prove so fascinating for writers, artists and philosophers? From coming-of-age narratives, to political homelessness, exile, family trauma, we will read memoirs, essays, and novels. Students will write four critical response papers, conduct research and explore their beliefs and challenge assumptions as we ruminate on concepts and perspectives in the experience of leaving home.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: MEMORIES IN THE MAKING. This writing and research course will look at how we remember as collectives, cultures, and a country, how the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and our pasts affect our present and our futures. Our concepts of self, as both individuals and collectives, are created through the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. By looking at who gets to tell our stories and whose voices are muffled, we can begin to understand how power, privilege, and politics shape so much of the known world around us. We’ll look at how American culture is recorded impacts us, from the cold stone halls of museums to the very language we use to talk about the past. We’ll ask what our monuments saying, but also what do they say about us? This will ultimately lead to one extended research-based writing project that draws from a semester's worth of reading, discussion, and investigation.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: THE BODY NEVER LIES. Some might say we are in the age of the body – a time when we’re collectively embracing and reclaiming our bodies. No doubt, this reclamation was ushered in by the social unrest and global health pandemic of 2020 – a moment when fear, anxiety, and grief became too much to bear. Despite this, we have been given the opportunity to (re)learn that the body is a powerful resource and has much to offer as our minds – maybe more. This course will explore the body not only as needing deep care and healing, but also as a generative source of power that infiltrates all aspects of our lives. We’ll consider what it might be like to build a bridge between the intellect and the somatic, privileging a wholly embodied way of learning and being. What do our bodies need to express? How do we become empathic witnesses to the truths being revealed? How can we tap into the generative power of embodiment with deep awareness? Our readings will be intersectional in nature, weaving together works from a variety of fields including literature, queer/gender/race theory, science, somatics, philosophy, and the healing arts. Authors may include Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Alice Walker, Resmaa Menakem, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Joy Degruy, Saidiya Hartman, Kiese Laymon, Bessel Van der Kolk, Magdalena Zurawski, June Jordan, and others.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: VISIONS OF EXCESS. Excess, indulgence, and decadence serve very different functions either as expressions of wonder, adaptability, individuality, free will, or as a means of self-fashioning, or even as survival tactics. This course will explore decadence in writing: repetition, duplication, waste, reproduction, silence, machination, computation, sensationalism, eroticism, gluttony, spirituality, poverty, wealth, stimulation, depression, etc. We will read and write with our senses and sins, paying special attention to the way language enables and/or disables us from expressing urges, needs, demands and how contemporary censorship and social policing may or may not prevent us from “going there.” We might look at the work of Henry Miller, Hieronymus Bosch, Anais Nin, Kathy Acker, Proust, Oscar Wilde, David Foster Wallace, Kafka, Nabokov, Virginia Woolf, Jack Kerouac, Hunter S Thompson, Ottessa Moshfegh, George Bataille, Walter Benjamin and others. Students will be challenged to read critically and theoretically and respond in thoughtful and provoking writing to articulate the way excessivity functions within a certain work. The class will culminate in a creative research project based on the student's personal interests that will aim to examine a specific type of excess in literature, art, and the world.