Writing 5 Section Descriptions for Fall Term 2023

Writing 5 -- Expository Writing

Hour: 9L; Instructor: Francine A'Ness

Description:

WRIT 05.01

Course Title: Experience and Education: Students, Teachers, Institutions, and the Power of Learning
Description: “Writing” is a process; one that includes a series of discrete yet always related tasks. The goal of this course is to explore the writing process and practice these related tasks through a series of in-class and out-of-class activities. Our topic will be education in a broad sense. In addition to reflecting on your own educational journeys from kindergarten to college, we will analyze, from a cross-cultural perspective, a series of artworks, plays and films that deal directly with education, social change, and social mobility. The foundational text for the course will be John Dewey’s classic 1938 text on educational reform ""Experience and Education."" We will supplement Dewey’s text with other essays from the field of educational philosophy and sociology. Some of the questions we will address will be: What is the relationship between education and schooling? What makes an experience educational? How can education be both oppressive and lead to liberation? In addition to these questions, you will have an opportunity to pursue your own education-related interests.
Divisional Affiliation: Arts & Humanities

Textbook(s)Required:

Deresiewicz, William. Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Path to a Meaningful Life. Free Press, 2014.

Hour: 10A; Instructor: Eugenie Carabatsos

Description:

WRIT 05.02

Course Title: Understanding the Craft of Dramatic Writing
Description: What makes for a good story? How do writers create “prestige” television, “bingeable” podcasts, and “grounding breaking” theater? Whether it’s an engrossing fictional podcast like "Homecoming", a character driven, award-winning television show like Mad Men, or a musical sensation like Hamilton, all dramatic mediums start from the same storytelling fundamentals. This course will explore how writers from different mediums—film, television, theater, and fictional podcasts—craft dramatic stories, the various techniques they use, and what differentiates these dramatic forms. Over the course of term students will discuss and write essays about the essentials of dramatic writing and how to find the best artistic medium for a given story. Class will be discussion based and centered around the creative materials and student essays. Students will workshop and revise three major essays in order to hone their arguments and writing skills. Their analyses of these creative works will be put into conversation with the work of scholars, critics, and industry professionals.
Divisional Affiliation: Arts & Humanities

Textbook(s)Required:

Cochran, Karina. Where All Good Rabbits Go. Original Works Publishing, 2019. ISBBN: 978-1-63092-124-8
Sophocles (translated by Rogert Fagles). Oedipus Rex. Penguin Classics. ISBN: 978-0140444254.

Hour: 3B; Instructor: Eugenie Carabatsos

Description:

WRIT 05.03

Course Title: Understanding the Craft of Dramatic Writing
Description: What makes for a good story? How do writers create “prestige” television, “bingeable” podcasts, and “grounding breaking” theater? Whether it’s an engrossing fictional podcast like Homecoming, a character driven, award-winning television show like Mad Men, or a musical sensation like Hamilton, all dramatic mediums start from the same storytelling fundamentals. This course will explore how writers from different mediums—film, television, theater, and fictional podcasts—craft dramatic stories, the various techniques they use, and what differentiates these dramatic forms. Over the course of term, students will discuss and write essays about the essentials of dramatic writing and how to find the best artistic medium for a given story. Class will be discussion based and centered around the creative materials and student essays. Students will workshop and revise three major essays in order to hone their arguments and writing skills. Their analyses of these creative works will be put into conversation with the work of scholars, critics, and industry professionals.
Divisional Affiliation: Arts & Humanities

Textbook(s)Required:

Cochran, Karina. Where All Good Rabbits Go. Original Works Publishing, 2019. ISBBN: 978-1-63092-124-8
Sophocles (translated by Rogert Fagles). Oedipus Rex. Penguin Classics. ISBN: 978-0140444254.

Hour: 2; Instructor: John Barger

Description:

WRIT 05.04

Course Title: How to Look
Description: The seventeenth century Japanese poet Bashō said, “What pertains to the pine tree, learn from the pine tree; / what pertains to the bamboo, learn from the bamboo.” He recommended that, while looking, we abandon our “subjective preoccupation” with ourselves: better to empty ourselves of expectations rather than projecting our bias onto the object. This might be how certain artists prefer to look, but what about a neuroscientist, a psychologist, an anthropologist, a philosopher, a filmmaker, or a foodie? Using the 1983 French documentary film Sans Soleil—in which Chris Marker obsessively “looks” at Japan, Guinea-Bissau, Hitchcock’s Vertigo, and many other things—as our primary text, this course examines the ways that authors from various genres and eras think we should observe the world. Drawing on a range of objects that students will analyze in detail in their papers, we will discuss, among other topics, what the eye does when confronted with a grocery store or a renaissance painting; how our collective attention has changed since the coming of the internet; whether Bashō was right that it’s better to observe without subjective prejudice. We will examine readings from different disciplines, voices within and beyond the English-speaking world, and will emphasize the multilingual and cross-cultural context of both our course texts and your own writing. By practicing academic writing as a mode of critical analysis that navigates between languages and cultures, you will develop strategies of expression, argument, and critique that will prepare you to think and write effectively at Dartmouth and beyond.
Divisional Affiliation: Arts & Humanities

Textbook(s)Required:

None

Hour: 10; Instructor: Rebecca Clark

Description:

WRIT 05.05

Course Title: Image and Text
Description: This class will look at a variety of works—ekphrastic poetry, graphic novels, advertisements, political cartoons—that combine images with text to tell stories. How, we will ask, do words and images play with, against, or off of one another when we read these hybrid works? How does their combination help authors create fantastical new worlds, document painful or playful quotidian realities, or navigate and narrate traumatic personal and national histories? What special demands do these works make on their readers? What narrative and thematic possibilities do they open up? How can we analyze, research, and write about them? In this course, you will produce approximately 32 pages of written work through a gradual process of drafting, editing, reviewing, and revising. We will work on reading critically, posing analytical questions, crafting and supporting well-reasoned arguments, and developing research skills. The course will culminate in an original research paper.
Divisional Affiliation: Arts & Humanities

Textbook(s)Required:

None

Hour: 11; Instructor: Rebecca Clark

Description:

WRIT 05.06

Course Title: Image and Text
Description: This class will look at a variety of works—ekphrastic poetry, graphic novels, advertisements, political cartoons—that combine images with text to tell stories. How, we will ask, do words and images play with, against, or off of one another when we read these hybrid works? How does their combination help authors create fantastical new worlds, document painful or playful quotidian realities, or navigate and narrate traumatic personal and national histories? What special demands do these works make on their readers? What narrative and thematic possibilities do they open up? How can we analyze, research, and write about them? In this course, you will produce approximately 32 pages of written work through a gradual process of drafting, editing, reviewing, and revising. We will work on reading critically, posing analytical questions, crafting and supporting well-reasoned arguments, and developing research skills. The course will culminate in an original research paper.
Divisional Affiliation: Arts & Humanities

Textbook(s)Required:

None

Hour: 3B; Instructor: William Craig

Description:

WRIT 05.07

Course Title: Reviewing Ourselves: Critical Writing and Personal Values
Description: Writing effectively about aesthetic experience requires us to find words for "gut reactions." Would you like that book your friend is recommending? Should you see that movie the critics loved? The critic you can trust offers a consistent point of view expressing personal values. Research can support or challenge our first impressions. The critical process becomes a boundless conversation, a dialogue through which we develop our aesthetics, our ethics and ourselves. No experience in the arts is required. This class will focus on writing, workshops and multi-draft revision to create polished critical essays. Topics will range from shared experiences — e.g., campus architecture or artworks at the Hood Museum — to a self-designed research project. Studying effective and engaging style, we'll embrace revision as the creation of clarity. Course texts (see below) sample lively criticism and encourage clear, concise writing. As writers and readers, we’ll engage uncertainty, ambiguity and risk as elements of scholarship, critical thinking and citizenship. Committing our perceptions and opinions to the page, we can’t be ""wrong,"" so long as we're willing to do the work of examining, supporting and articulating our ideas.
Divisional Affiliation: Arts & Humanities

Textbook(s)Required:

Ross, Alex. Listen to This. Picador, 2011. ISBBN: 0312610688
Scott, A.O.. Better Living Through Criticism. Penguin, 2017. ISBN: 0143109979.
Williams, Joseph & Bizup, Joseph. Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace. Pearson, 5th edition. 978-0321953308.

Hour: 9L; Instructor: Phyllis Deutsch

Description:

WRIT 05.08

Course Title: Gender and the Holocaust
Description: Writing is a process that includes the ability to undertake research in primary sources, analyze diverse texts, and develop coherent evidence-based arguments. The goal of this course is to explore all aspects of the writing process through the lens of Gender and the Holocaust. Examining three memoirs written in the context of immediate or remembered extremity, you will learn how to organize an argument, incorporate evidence, develop a strong voice, and respond to provocative texts in original ways. One film and secondary sources will enrich our close reading of these extraordinary memoirs. Because revision is an important aspect of the writing process, you will frequently submit drafts of papers and receive feedback from your peers and from me. You will participate in peer reviews, group discussions, and writing workshops. Formal requirements are three formal essays, short written responses to readings and in-class writing exercises collected in a journal, and one group presentation.
Divisional Affiliation: Social Sciences

Textbook(s)Required:

Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz. Simon & Schuster/Touchstone, 1996. ISBBN: 978-0-684-82680-6
Bruck, Edith. Who Loves You Like This. Paul Dry Books, 2001. ISBN: 0-9664913-7-8.
Kluger, Ruth. Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered. The Feminist Press, 2001. ISBN: 978-155861369.

Hour: 10; Instructor: Phyllis Deutsch

Description:

WRIT 05.09

Course Title: Gender and the Holocaust
Description: Writing is a process that includes the ability to undertake research in primary sources, analyze diverse texts, and develop coherent evidence-based arguments. The goal of this course is to explore all aspects of the writing process through the lens of Gender and the Holocaust. Examining three memoirs written in the context of immediate or remembered extremity, you will learn how to organize an argument, incorporate evidence, develop a strong voice, and respond to provocative texts in original ways. One film and secondary sources will enrich our close reading of these extraordinary memoirs. Because revision is an important aspect of the writing process, you will frequently submit drafts of papers and receive feedback from your peers and from me. You will participate in peer reviews, group discussions, and writing workshops. Formal requirements are three formal essays, short written responses to readings and in-class writing exercises collected in a journal, and one group presentation.
Divisional Affiliation: Social Sciences

Textbook(s)Required:

Levi, Primo. Survival in Auschwitz. Simon & Schuster/Touchstone, 1996. ISBBN: 978-0-684-82680-6
Bruck, Edith. Who Loves You Like This. Paul Dry Books, 2001. ISBN: 0-9664913-7-8.
Kluger, Ruth. Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered. The Feminist Press, 2001. ISBN: 978-155861369.

Hour: 10A; Instructor: Christiane Donahue

Description:

WRIT 05.10

Course Title: Creativity, Originality, and Ownership of Ideas
Description: Who owns images, sounds, and words? Who “owns” creativity? What is originality? In this writing course we will study the many ways that we use and reproduce all kinds of creative work in the U.S. As we explore, we will study the media in which we are immersed, read policies and laws about ownership and reuse of print, image, and sound, and consider who makes these laws and how they affect us. We will turn a critical eye on these policies and practices, reading essays by authors including John Berger, Larry Lessig, and M.M. Bakhtin and studying ways that words, images, sound are (re)used on the Internet, in advertising, or in other contexts. We will analyze different types of creative works, for example at the Hood Museum or on YouTube. Coursework will include many short informal writing pieces and discussion presentations, two more formal essay projects with several revisions, and a final project that will focus on an issue of your choice from the various subjects we cover.
Divisional Affiliation: Social Sciences

Textbook(s)Required:

Williams, Joseph & Bizup, Joseph. Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace. Pearson, 5th edition. 978-0321953308.

Hour: 10A; Instructor: Christopher Drain

Description:

WRIT 05.11

Course Title: Ethics on the Internet
Description: This course examines ethical and political issues emerging from the rise of ubiquitous computing in the 21st century, with readings drawn from philosophy, political science, and sociology, as well as recent tech-journalism. Topics include “platform capitalism” (e.g., Google, Facebook, Airbnb); algorithmic harms and digital surveillance (whether governmental or private); disinformation and echo chambers; and first amendment issues in the wake of trolling and social media bans. We will also explore more philosophical aspects of technological mediation, including questions concerning agency, design, and the political status of technical artifacts, with the goal of coming to terms with whether technology can ever be a morally neutral enterprise. As a writing seminar, we will critically examine the rhetorical structure of our texts and workshop analytic and argumentative compositions to learn the contours of academic prose. Shorter written assignments will scaffold the development of a research paper. Students should expect to draw on peer and instructor feedback throughout the term.
Divisional Affiliation: Arts & Humanities

Textbook(s)Required:

Srnicek, Nick. Platform Capitalism. Polity, 2016. ISBN: 1509504877.
Seymour, Richard. The Twittering Machine. Indigo, 2019. ISBN: 1999683382.

Hour: 2A; Instructor: Christopher Drain

Description:

WRIT 05.12

Course Title: Ethics on the Internet
Description: This course examines ethical and political issues emerging from the rise of ubiquitous computing in the 21st century, with readings drawn from philosophy, political science, and sociology, as well as recent tech-journalism. Topics include “platform capitalism” (e.g., Google, Facebook, Airbnb); algorithmic harms and digital surveillance (whether governmental or private); disinformation and echo chambers; and first amendment issues in the wake of trolling and social media bans. We will also explore more philosophical aspects of technological mediation, including questions concerning agency, design, and the political status of technical artifacts, with the goal of coming to terms with whether technology can ever be a morally neutral enterprise. As a writing seminar, we will critically examine the rhetorical structure of our texts and workshop analytic and argumentative compositions to learn the contours of academic prose. Shorter written assignments will scaffold the development of a research paper. Students should expect to draw on peer and instructor feedback throughout the term.
Divisional Affiliation: Arts & Humanities

Textbook(s)Required:

Srnicek, Nick. Platform Capitalism. Polity, 2016. ISBN: 1509504877.
Seymour, Richard. The Twittering Machine. Indigo, 2019. ISBN: 1999683382.

Hour: 3A; Instructor: James Godley

Description:

WRIT 05.13

Course Title: Writing at the Limits of Democracy
Description: It's no secret that democracy is in trouble. Between the challenge to Western democracies posed by the usual suspects (Russia, China, North Korea, Turkey), the rollback of civil liberties in the US Supreme Court, deepening class divides, renewed racial and anti-immigrant enmities, and the systemic effects produced by "natural" catastrophes such as COVID and climate change, more people than ever seem to be questioning the health or even the benefits of democratic governance. In this course, we will try to make sense of these interlocking crises and, through writing, experience the potential for new ways of thinking. Writing, we will come to see, has often served as a kind of life-preserver for people who might otherwise feel overburdened or powerless by world events. In readings from philosophy, literature, trenchant journalism, and legal activism, we will draw inspiration to not only analyze the "limits" of democracy today, but to explore what might lie beyond those limits.
Divisional Affiliation: Arts & Humanities

Textbook(s)Required:

None

Hour: 12; Instructor: Min Young Godley

Description:

WRIT 05.14

Course Title: Metamorphosis and Otherness
Description: In this course, we will examine the ways that bodies and forms of life transform themselves or are transformed by others. Such an idea lies close to the heart of writing as a practice, not only because writing is a process of continual construction and reconstruction, but because effective writing is what aims to produce change in oneself and others. What, then, does it mean for language to become a means of metamorphosis? Can someone really change their identity and become someone (or something) entirely “other”? How does language affect our experience of our own bodies and what we take them to stand for or represent? By reading and discussing classic and contemporary texts on various types of “becoming Other,” we will equip ourselves to better explore issues of body image, sexual violence, deception, estrangement, and pain. But it is ultimately by writing about these issues that we will learn to have an effect upon what we study, by understanding, challenging, and overturning pre-given ideas and creating openings through which something new might emerge. In order to do this, students in this class will acquire knowledge of the standards, norms, and unwritten rules of academic writing and practice engaging in critical dialogue with literary and critical texts. This doesn’t mean copying rigid formulas, but rather exploring scholarly writing as a rigorous, yet plastic medium. Formal assignments will consist of two short essays, one research paper, and a multi-media presentation. Through these assignments, students will propose literary interpretations, conduct scholarly research, analyze and respond to scholarly arguments, and defend their readings. Through multiple drafts and participation in workshops, we will share knowledge generously and practice giving and drawing from thoughtful feedback on each other’s work.
Divisional Affiliation: Arts & Humanities

Textbook(s)Required:

Graff, Gerald & Birkenstein, Cathy. They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. W.W. Norton & Co., 2016, 3rd edition. ISBN: 978-0393617436.
Han, Kang. The Vegetarian. Hogarth, 2016.

Hour: 2; Instructor: Min Young Godley

Description:

WRIT 05.15

Course Title: Metamorphosis and Otherness
Description: In this course, we will examine the ways that bodies and forms of life transform themselves or are transformed by others. Such an idea lies close to the heart of writing as a practice, not only because writing is a process of continual construction and reconstruction, but because effective writing is what aims to produce change in oneself and others. What, then, does it mean for language to become a means of metamorphosis? Can someone really change their identity and become someone (or something) entirely “other”? How does language affect our experience of our own bodies and what we take them to stand for or represent? By reading and discussing classic and contemporary texts on various types of “becoming Other,” we will equip ourselves to better explore issues of body image, sexual violence, deception, estrangement, and pain. But it is ultimately by writing about these issues that we will learn to have an effect upon what we study, by understanding, challenging, and overturning pre-given ideas and creating openings through which something new might emerge. In order to do this, students in this class will acquire knowledge of the standards, norms, and unwritten rules of academic writing and practice engaging in critical dialogue with literary and critical texts. This doesn’t mean copying rigid formulas, but rather exploring scholarly writing as a rigorous, yet plastic medium. Formal assignments will consist of two short essays, one research paper, and a multi-media presentation. Through these assignments, students will propose literary interpretations, conduct scholarly research, analyze and respond to scholarly arguments, and defend their readings. Through multiple drafts and participation in workshops, we will share knowledge generously and practice giving and drawing from thoughtful feedback on each other’s work.
Divisional Affiliation: Arts & Humanities

Textbook(s)Required:

Graff, Gerald & Birkenstein, Cathy. They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. W.W. Norton & Co., 2016, 3rd edition. ISBN: 978-0393617436.
Han, Kang. The Vegetarian. Hogarth, 2016.

Hour: 9L; Instructor: Clara Lewis

Description:

WRIT 05.16

Course Title: Authenticity: Self & Society
Description: Have you ever wondered how selfies and social media impact your sense of self or connection with others? How do you judge an image, product, or person’s authenticity? Social scientists argue that authenticity is now more highly valued than ever. Realness is idealized. Yet the same social forces that make the performance of authenticity a valued marketing ploy also make us crave connection and self-knowledge. These tensions serve as the starting point for our writing-intensive seminar. We will begin the term with two linked essays that capitalize on the value of writing as a tool for observation, analysis, and idea development. For these essays, we will read and write a mix of social theory and personal narrative. Next, you will have an opportunity to explore an original question by conducting in-depth research using the library’s online and physical collections and write a literature review. In previous terms, students have studied subjects including the role of authenticity in education, psychological wellness, medicine, the arts, and tourism. Topics vary from luxury brand marketing to wine authentication, from online dating to religious identity, and from niche subculture performances to linguistic norms. Across the term, we will work on becoming better writers and researchers for college and beyond. To that end, we will focus on the advanced literacy skills required to comprehend and contribute to scholarship; the foundations of analysis; and the full writing process.
Divisional Affiliation: Social Sciences

Textbook(s)Required:

None

Hour: 10; Instructor: Clara Lewis

Description:

WRIT 05.17

Course Title: Authenticity: Self & Society
Description: Have you ever wondered how selfies and social media impact your sense of self or connection with others? How do you judge an image, product, or person’s authenticity? Social scientists argue that authenticity is now more highly valued than ever. Realness is idealized. Yet the same social forces that make the performance of authenticity a valued marketing ploy also make us crave connection and self-knowledge. These tensions serve as the starting point for our writing-intensive seminar. We will begin the term with two linked essays that capitalize on the value of writing as a tool for observation, analysis, and idea development. For these essays, we will read and write a mix of social theory and personal narrative. Next, you will have an opportunity to explore an original question by conducting in-depth research using the library’s online and physical collections and write a literature review. In previous terms, students have studied subjects including the role of authenticity in education, psychological wellness, medicine, the arts, and tourism. Topics vary from luxury brand marketing to wine authentication, from online dating to religious identity, and from niche subculture performances to linguistic norms. Across the term, we will work on becoming better writers and researchers for college and beyond. To that end, we will focus on the advanced literacy skills required to comprehend and contribute to scholarship; the foundations of analysis; and the full writing process.
Divisional Affiliation: Social Sciences

Textbook(s)Required:

None

Hour: 8L; Instructor: Erkki Mackey

Description:

WRIT 05.18

Course Title: What is Fundamental?
Description: Startling insights from modern physics and cosmology have altered our understanding of reality and raised profound questions about the universe and our experience in it. Central to this class is one in particular: does consciousness emerge from an underlying physical reality, or is it possible that what we perceive as physical reality emerges from some kind of fundamental consciousness? We will attempt to answer this and many other questions about the fundamental nature of reality, and we will use writing as a tool for contemplating and developing responses to our questions. Readings will include selections from The Nature of Consciousness by Rupert Spira and Quantum Enigma by Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner, along with a few supplementary essays. We will analyze both the arguments and rhetorical forms of our texts. You will complete numerous informal writing assignments and will write multiple drafts of at least two formal essays. You can expect extensive feedback from both peers and your instructor.
Divisional Affiliation: Sciences

Textbook(s)Required:

None

Hour: 9L; Instructor: James Murphy

Description:

WRIT 05.19

Course Title: Ethics and Politics in the Bible
Description: In this course, students will learn how to write blogs, short essays, and a term-paper about the Book of Books. For better or worse, many of our ideas about love, sex, marriage, killing, war, peace, slavery, freedom and government come from the Bible – not to mention our ideas about the origin and the end of the universe. At the same time, no book has been more controversial and more divisive than the Bible: it is the most beloved and the most hated book of all time. We shall study selected stories from the Bible and discuss the moral and political ideas we find there. Your daily blog posts will serve as a rough draft for your short essay of biblical exegesis and for the term paper, which we shall tackle in stages throughout the term.
Divisional Affiliation: Social Sciences

No required textbooks available

Hour: 10A; Instructor: Rachel Obbard

Description:

WRIT 05.20

Course Title: Deus et Machina: Sports, Science and Ethics
Description: This writing course examines the intersection of sport, technology and ethics. In it, we will examine normative theories of sport and the ways they affect our decisions, particularly those around implementing new scientific understanding and technical innovation. We will begin by looking at the dilemma of doping, through a close reading of pro cyclist David Millar’s autobiographical narrative “Racing Through the Dark” (2011) through which we will make observations about the role of identity, experience, embodiment, and agency in decisions about doping. In the second part of the course, we will examine the importance of gender in sport, and the similarities and differences in the ways that the inclusion of transgender athletes and hyperandrogenic athletes are discussed in women’s sports. During these two major assignments, students will read a variety of sources, including scholarly writing from the fields of philosophy, bioethics, English, gender studies, humanities, and science/engineering. In their third major paper, students will identify and enter the scholarly conversation around another technology that has brought controversy to sport. In this course, you will read and write a lot, and will find that writing is transformative, a means by which ideas are discovered, examined, compared, evaluated, refined, and promoted. We will meet twice a week as a class to discuss what we've read and written, experiment with various composition and revision techniques, and reflect on our writing. There will be several short writing assignments or discussion prompts a week, which will help you work toward the major assignments.
Divisional Affiliation: Arts & Humanities

Textbook(s)Required:

Millar, David. Racing Through the Dark: Crash. Burn. Coming Clean. Coming Back. Touchstone, 2012. ISBN: 978-1451682687.
Williams, Joseph & Bizup, Joseph. Style: the Basics of Clarity and Grace. Pearson, 2014 (5th edition), ISBN: 978-0321953308.
Graff, Gerald & Birkenstein, Cathy. They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. W.W. Norton & Co., 2016, 3rd edition. ISBN: 978-0393617436.

Hour: 2A; Instructor: Rachel Obbard

Description:

WRIT 05.21

Course Title: Deus et Machina: Sports, Science and Ethics
Description: This writing course examines the intersection of sport, technology and ethics. In it, we will examine normative theories of sport and the ways they affect our decisions, particularly those around implementing new scientific understanding and technical innovation. We will begin by looking at the dilemma of doping, through a close reading of pro cyclist David Millar’s autobiographical narrative “Racing Through the Dark” (2011) through which we will make observations about the role of identity, experience, embodiment, and agency in decisions about doping. In the second part of the course, we will examine the importance of gender in sport, and the similarities and differences in the ways that the inclusion of transgender athletes and hyperandrogenic athletes are discussed in women’s sports. During these two major assignments, students will read a variety of sources, including scholarly writing from the fields of philosophy, bioethics, English, gender studies, humanities, and science/engineering. In their third major paper, students will identify and enter the scholarly conversation around another technology that has brought controversy to sport. In this course, you will read and write a lot, and will find that writing is transformative, a means by which ideas are discovered, examined, compared, evaluated, refined, and promoted. We will meet twice a week as a class to discuss what we've read and written, experiment with various composition and revision techniques, and reflect on our writing. There will be several short writing assignments or discussion prompts a week, which will help you work toward the major assignments.
Divisional Affiliation: Arts & Humanities

Textbook(s)Required:

Millar, David. Racing Through the Dark: Crash. Burn. Coming Clean. Coming Back. Touchstone, 2012. ISBN: 978-1451682687.
Williams, Joseph & Bizup, Joseph. Style: the Basics of Clarity and Grace. Pearson, 2014 (5th edition), ISBN: 978-0321953308.
Graff, Gerald & Birkenstein, Cathy. They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. W.W. Norton & Co., 2016, 3rd edition. ISBN: 978-0393617436.

Hour: 2A; Instructor: Matthew Olzmann

Description:

WRIT 05.22

Course Title: Humor and Art
Description: A recent article in the Guardian claimed that “Crafting good comedy is often more difficult than drama, but the art form is rarely given its due.” Why is that? This writing course will explore the relationship between humor and contemporary literary art. To better understand this relationship, we’ll need to answer two questions: “What makes something funny?” and “What is art?” These questions are more complicated than they might seem. On the subject of humor, we can track everything that happens in the human body when we laugh—from what parts of our brains light up to which muscles are used (and in which order)—but when it comes to what actually causes us to laugh, the answers are more nebulous. And when it comes to art, well, Adorno once said, “It is self-evident that nothing concerning art is self-evident.” This class will consider a handful of humor theories and a few definitions of art. Then we’ll look at contemporary examples from selections of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, live comedic performances and (possibly) film. In many of these examples, humor might be a subtle or a minor element that only marginally contributes to the cumulative effects of the larger work. In other examples—such as satire or standup comedy—humor might be the defining feature. Because this is a writing class, we’ll write about our findings. We’ll learn to shape our ideas, refine our arguments, and revise our writing to bring greater precision and clarity into the work. A sense of humor (though useful) is not required to take this class.
Divisional Affiliation: Arts & Humanities

Textbook(s)Required:

None

Hour: 10A; Instructor: Thomas O'Malley

Description:

WRIT 05.23

Course Title: The Irish Short Story: Reimagining & Reinventing Ireland
Description: This course is designed to allow students to engage in extensive writing exercises—both formal and creative—and participate in weekly discussions and critiques of published works and other forms of media, including contemporary Irish film. Our focus will be on reading stories with the eye of a writer, exploring the thematic concerns of the writer, the historical cultural context in which these works take shape (from William Carleton and James Joyce of the 19th and 20th century to such contemporaries as Kevin Barry and Claire Keegan), and how a work is constructed to further reveal and illuminate these concerns. We will also consider the elements of the story—including character, conflict, perspective, dialogue, setting, plot, language, and narrative structure—that come together to create a successful whole. Through numerous exercises students will practice not only how to write a precise, coherent, and rigorously engaging paper but also come to understand the alternative and strange ways in which authors of fiction approach their subject and craft. Along with classroom exercises, there will be presentations and ample demonstrations explaining close reading, academic writing, and analysis. In round-table workshops students will have their own works considered and discussed by their peers and learn to develop a critical gaze regarding their work and their rewriting process. Finally, students will meet with me individually after each essay submission to plan further drafts and revision strategies. Attendance Statement: Class attendance is required. X-Hour Usage: We will not use x-hours unless a need arises.
Divisional Affiliation: Arts & Humanities

Textbook(s)Required:

None

Hour: 9L; Instructor: Ellen Rockmore

Description:

WRIT 05.24

Course Title: Free Speech on the College Campus
Description: Who is allowed to say what on college campuses? In this class we will learn about the right to free speech and why it is considered essential to liberty and democracy. We will also read judicial opinions defining the legal parameters of the first amendment, particularly as it pertains to “hate speech.” Then we will consider the specific case of the university, where values such as equality, inclusion, and pedagogy may sometimes be in tension with freedom. Students will read articles about our university culture, about the philosophical foundations of the first amendment, and about historical attempts to regulate speech on campuses. As this is a writing course, we will devote significant class time to student writing – both drafting and revising. Students will write three papers based on the assigned readings. Throughout the writing process, students will benefit from peer feedback, as well as from individual conferences with the professor. Students will also be introduced to the process of finding and understanding the scholarly sources available in Dartmouth’s library; students will complete a short research exercise that will prepare them for the independent research paper required in their winter term first-year seminar.
Divisional Affiliation: Social Sciences

Textbook(s)Required:

None

Hour: 11; Instructor: Ellen Rockmore

Description:

WRIT 05.25

Course Title: Free Speech on the College Campus
Description: Who is allowed to say what on college campuses? In this class we will learn about the right to free speech and why it is considered essential to liberty and democracy. We will also read judicial opinions defining the legal parameters of the first amendment, particularly as it pertains to “hate speech.” Then we will consider the specific case of the university, where values such as equality, inclusion, and pedagogy may sometimes be in tension with freedom. Students will read articles about our university culture, about the philosophical foundations of the first amendment, and about historical attempts to regulate speech on campuses. As this is a writing course, we will devote significant class time to student writing – both drafting and revising. Students will write three papers based on the assigned readings. Throughout the writing process, students will benefit from peer feedback, as well as from individual conferences with the professor. Students will also be introduced to the process of finding and understanding the scholarly sources available in Dartmouth’s library; students will complete a short research exercise that will prepare them for the independent research paper required in their winter term first-year seminar.
Divisional Affiliation: Social Sciences

Textbook(s)Required:

None

Hour: 11; Instructor: Sarah Smith

Description:

WRIT 05.26

Course Title: Food for Thought
Description: French gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are.” Indeed, our food choices can be reflective of our families, religious beliefs, ethics, and emotions. Our decisions may be influenced by the media, our peers, or simply by convenience. What we eat also influences how food is grown, and therefore has wider reaching effects, such as on the environment, the economy, and public health. This idea that our world and our selves are shaped by food will serve as inspiration for the primary goal of this course – sharpening our writing and critical thinking abilities. We will explore the personal side of food writing as well as contemporary issues related to food. Our readings will come from authors such as MFK Fisher, Wendell Berry, and Michael Pollan, and will include magazine articles, scholarly papers, and the scientific literature. We will write about food in the form of critical analyses of course readings and academic arguments. Ample classroom time will be spent reviewing the principles that underlie writing in all disciplines, workshopping student writing, and discussing the processes of reading, writing, research, and revision.
Divisional Affiliation: Social Sciences

Textbook(s)Required:

None

Hour: 12; Instructor: Sarah Smith

Description:

WRIT 05.27

Course Title: Food for Thought
Description: French gastronome Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are.” Indeed, our food choices can be reflective of our families, religious beliefs, ethics, and emotions. Our decisions may be influenced by the media, our peers, or simply by convenience. What we eat also influences how food is grown, and therefore has wider reaching effects, such as on the environment, the economy, and public health. This idea that our world and our selves are shaped by food will serve as inspiration for the primary goal of this course – sharpening our writing and critical thinking abilities. We will explore the personal side of food writing as well as contemporary issues related to food. Our readings will come from authors such as MFK Fisher, Wendell Berry, and Michael Pollan, and will include magazine articles, scholarly papers, and the scientific literature. We will write about food in the form of critical analyses of course readings and academic arguments. Ample classroom time will be spent reviewing the principles that underlie writing in all disciplines, workshopping student writing, and discussing the processes of reading, writing, research, and revision.
Divisional Affiliation: Social Sciences

Textbook(s)Required:

None

Hour: 10; Instructor: Amanda Wetsel

Description:

WRIT 05.28

Course Title: Photographic Representations
Description: This course will examine photographs and their effects. We will write as a way to understand how photographs have circulated in the past and continue to circulate today. Course texts include book chapters, a magazine article, and academic journal articles that analyze displays of images. We will write three formal essays: a visual analysis of a photograph, an analysis of two articles, and an essay centered on a historical photograph from Rauner, Dartmouth’s special collections library. In this discussion-based seminar, we will treat writing as a mode of thinking and a collaborative social process.
Divisional Affiliation: Social Sciences

Textbook(s)Required:

None

Hour: 12; Instructor: Amanda Wetsel

Description:

WRIT 05.29

Course Title: Photographic Representations
Description: This course will examine photographs and their effects. We will write as a way to understand how photographs have circulated in the past and continue to circulate today. Course texts include book chapters, a magazine article, and academic journal articles that analyze displays of images. We will write three formal essays: a visual analysis of a photograph, an analysis of two articles, and an essay centered on a historical photograph from Rauner, Dartmouth’s special collections library. In this discussion-based seminar, we will treat writing as a mode of thinking and a collaborative social process.
Divisional Affiliation: Social Sciences

Textbook(s)Required:

None

Hour: 2A; Instructor: Leigh York

Description:

WRIT 05.30

Course Title: Reimagining the Fairy Tale
Description: This course will explore how twentieth- and twenty-first-century authors have adapted and transformed the Grimm fairy tales to address questions of race, gender, and power. By reading the Grimms alongside contemporary sci-fi and fantasy stories from writers like Octavia Butler, Nalo Hopkinson, and Helen Oyeyemi, we will learn about the ways that fairy tales can reimagine the present and transform the future. In this course, you will practice academic writing as a mode of critical analysis: you will learn to develop your own original arguments through skillful engagement with texts in multiple media and genres. By analyzing fairy tales and their contemporary adaptations, you will develop strategies of expression, argument, and critique that will prepare you to think and write effectively at Dartmouth and beyond.
Divisional Affiliation: Arts & Humanities

Textbook(s)Required:

None

Hour: 3B; Instructor: Leigh York

Description:

WRIT 05.31

Course Title: Reimagining the Fairy Tale
Description: This course will explore how twentieth- and twenty-first-century authors have adapted and transformed the Grimm fairy tales to address questions of race, gender, and power. By reading the Grimms alongside contemporary sci-fi and fantasy stories from writers like Octavia Butler, Nalo Hopkinson, and Helen Oyeyemi, we will learn about the ways that fairy tales can reimagine the present and transform the future. In this course, you will practice academic writing as a mode of critical analysis: you will learn to develop your own original arguments through skillful engagement with texts in multiple media and genres. By analyzing fairy tales and their contemporary adaptations, you will develop strategies of expression, argument, and critique that will prepare you to think and write effectively at Dartmouth and beyond.
Divisional Affiliation: Arts & Humanities

Textbook(s)Required:

None

Hour: 11; Instructor: Rosetta Young

Description:

WRIT 05.32

Course Title: Interaction Ritual: the Novel and Sociology
Description: How do we define social interaction? How do we know the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful encounter? In this course, students will strengthen their argumentative and written skills through tackling these questions. Using both novels and works of sociology to structure our engagement, we will approach writing as a process by which we encounter and think through pressing critical problems. In the first units of this course, students will use social theory to read two literary classics—Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Nella Larsen’s Passing (1929)—and we will study how both novelists understood the interaction rituals of their time periods. We will conclude the class with a unit that focuses on these issues in modern education, reading two novels—Danzy Senna’s New People (2017) and Sally Rooney’s Normal People (2017)—that take the contemporary university as their setting. As we work through these novels, we will also simultaneously engage with the work of social theorists such as Erving Goffman, W.E.B. Du Bois, Pierre Bourdieu, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Shamus Khan. Students will be introduced to a range of influential sociological concepts, including cultural and social capital, double consciousness, intersectionality, and privilege. Reading fiction and sociology side-by-side, we will ask what knowledge the novel can offer us that sociology cannot; what view of the interaction that sociology gives us not available in the novel; and where these two genres of social knowledge intersect and overlap. Throughout, we will examine how class, race, gender, and sexuality shape the social interaction and how—in all of our course texts—historical and cultural context condition its expectations and rules. Most of all, we will be engaging in and thinking about writing as an intellectual practice. Students will gain comfort and familiarity confronting complex questions in the college-level essay and working between different types of sources. Students will learn how to build their own close readings, conduct and present analysis, formulate strong arguments, and to revise their own work in consultation with myself and their peers.
Divisional Affiliation: Arts & Humanities

Textbook(s)Required:

None

Hour: 2; Instructor: Rosetta Young

Description:

WRIT 05.33

Course Title: Interaction Ritual: the Novel and Sociology
Description: How do we define social interaction? How do we know the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful encounter? In this course, students will strengthen their argumentative and written skills through tackling these questions. Using both novels and works of sociology to structure our engagement, we will approach writing as a process by which we encounter and think through pressing critical problems. In the first units of this course, students will use social theory to read two literary classics—Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Nella Larsen’s Passing (1929)—and we will study how both novelists understood the interaction rituals of their time periods. We will conclude the class with a unit that focuses on these issues in modern education, reading two novels—Danzy Senna’s New People (2017) and Sally Rooney’s Normal People (2017)—that take the contemporary university as their setting. As we work through these novels, we will also simultaneously engage with the work of social theorists such as Erving Goffman, W.E.B. Du Bois, Pierre Bourdieu, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Shamus Khan. Students will be introduced to a range of influential sociological concepts, including cultural and social capital, double consciousness, intersectionality, and privilege. Reading fiction and sociology side-by-side, we will ask what knowledge the novel can offer us that sociology cannot; what view of the interaction that sociology gives us not available in the novel; and where these two genres of social knowledge intersect and overlap. Throughout, we will examine how class, race, gender, and sexuality shape the social interaction and how—in all of our course texts—historical and cultural context condition its expectations and rules. Most of all, we will be engaging in and thinking about writing as an intellectual practice. Students will gain comfort and familiarity confronting complex questions in the college-level essay and working between different types of sources. Students will learn how to build their own close readings, conduct and present analysis, formulate strong arguments, and to revise their own work in consultation with myself and their peers.
Divisional Affiliation: Arts & Humanities

No required textbooks available

Hour: 3A; Instructor: John Barger

Description:

WRIT 05.34

Course Title: How to Look
Description: The seventeenth century Japanese poet Bashō said, “What pertains to the pine tree, learn from the pine tree; / what pertains to the bamboo, learn from the bamboo.” He recommended that, while looking, we abandon our “subjective preoccupation” with ourselves: better to empty ourselves of expectations rather than projecting our bias onto the object. This might be how certain artists prefer to look, but what about a neuroscientist, a psychologist, an anthropologist, a philosopher, a filmmaker, or a foodie? Using the 1983 French documentary film Sans Soleil—in which Chris Marker obsessively “looks” at Japan, Guinea-Bissau, Hitchcock’s Vertigo, and many other things—as our primary text, this course examines the ways that authors from various genres and eras think we should observe the world. Drawing on a range of objects that students will analyze in detail in their papers, we will discuss, among other topics, what the eye does when confronted with a grocery store or a renaissance painting; how our collective attention has changed since the coming of the internet; whether Bashō was right that it’s better to observe without subjective prejudice. We will examine readings from different disciplines, voices within and beyond the English-speaking world, and will emphasize the multilingual and cross-cultural context of both our course texts and your own writing. By practicing academic writing as a mode of critical analysis that navigates between languages and cultures, you will develop strategies of expression, argument, and critique that will prepare you to think and write effectively at Dartmouth and beyond.
Divisional Affiliation: Arts & Humanities

Textbook(s)Required:

None