University Bulletin (2022-2023)

The First Year Writing Program at Brandeis University is the foundation of the University Writing Program. The University Writing Seminar introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding.

The program offers a selection of topic-driven seminars that challenge students to formulate meaningful arguments, support them with observations and evidence, and convey them clearly and persuasively. In so doing, students will engage with writing as an integral part of academic and professional life, recognizing its value and utility as well as its capacity to foster an engaged citizenry through critical thinking and discussion. By instilling and strengthening flexible writing and research skills, the program invites students to participate in the intellectual discourses of the University. Each seminar addresses the distinct discursive requirements of various disciplines, including the sciences, social sciences and humanities. Students thus learn to write effectively and confidently in any field or profession.

The requirement will be satisfied by completing one University Writing Seminar (UWS) in the student's first year, during which the student attends a Critical Conversation.

First-year students entering in the fall of 2009 and thereafter must satisfactorily complete one UWS course.

COMP 1b Composition

Prerequisite: Placement by the director of university writing. Successful completion of this course does NOT satisfy the first-year writing requirement. Enrollment open to native English speakers.

A course in the fundamentals of writing, required as a prerequisite to the first-year writing requirement for selected students identified by the director of university writing. Several sections will be offered in the fall semester.
Staff

CSEM 1a Composition Seminar

Prerequisite: Placement by the director of university writing. Successful completion of this course does NOT satisfy the first-year writing requirement.

A course in the fundamentals of writing, required as a prerequisite to the first-year writing requirement for selected students identified by the director of university writing. Several sections will be offered in the fall semester.
Staff

UWS 2b Darwinian Dating: The Evolution of Human Attraction
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.
Among animals, individuals choose mates based on biologically informative features such as long colorful tail feathers, large canines, or a red, swollen posterior. We typically assume that human attraction (and love) is much more nuanced and complex...but is it? Many features that humans find beautiful or attractive, such as small waists, curvy hips, and large eyes, can be tied to biological explanations. Even behavioral features, such as nurturing behaviors, may be attractive for adaptive reasons. In this course, we will explore and write about biological explanations for these and many other aspects of human attraction. Using an evolutionary perspective, we will examine global patterns of attraction and challenge stereotypes of beauty. Do nice guys really finish last? Do traditionally attractive features in western cultures'such as low body weight'actually provide an evolutionary benefit, or might some preferences be culturally derived? For the final essay, students will supplement library research with data collection to produce an interdisciplinary research paper. Usually offered every year.
Elissa Jacobs

UWS 4a Medical Ethics
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.

The Hippocratic Oath is a guiding principle amongst doctors: 'First, do no harm.' But what if your patient is a potential mass murderer? Does the doctor's obligation lie first with the patient or with society at large? We will explore these questions and others across a variety of genres, including the acclaimed medical mystery television series House and other forms of social media such as Ted talks and Instagram posts. In addition, students will have the opportunity to research a case study on a topic of their choice ranging from designer babies to anti-vaxers. This course will foster the development of incisive analysis and sophisticated academic writing as well as an understanding of disciplinary differences through the exploration of bioethical dilemmas. Usually offered every year.
Lisa Rourke

UWS 5a The Social Life of Sugar
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.

Sugar and sweeteners have played a large role in influencing human societies. From its earliest origins as an exotic substance to its commodification and democratization at the hands of capitalism, sugar has shaped empires, fueled systems of slavery, and revolutionized the human diet. Even today, this commodity continues to shape our cultures, our vocabularies, our diets, our health, and our environment in surprisingly pervasive ways. Why and how has this seemingly ordinary substance had such an impact upon our lives, and how can we constructively manage and responsibly enjoy it in the global future? In this course, we will examine its nature and the complex history of human interactions with this sweet commodity through film, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, poetry, novels, blogs, and art. We will also engage with current debates over how to manage its public health and environmental impacts and how to remedy the injustices that still accompany its production. Usually offered every year.
Robert B. Cochran

UWS 8b The American Dream
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.
The 'American Dream' is a source of pride, controversy, and frustration. Many understand it as the pursuit of wealth, power, and social mobility. But when we apply this ideal to our contemporary society the American Dream becomes infinitely more complex. If the American Dream is about the 'pursuit of happiness' and we live in time of so much abundance, then why is there a seemingly equal amount of sadness, discontent, and rage? In this class we will explore the American Dream within the social, economic, and cultural context of capitalism. We will examine how this idea unfolds in film, such as the 2018 hit Sorry to Bother You and graphic novels. At the end of the day, what, if anything, does the American Dream promise for contemporary society?
Jared Berkowitz

UWS 13b Business Ethics
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.

In 1978 childhood friends Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield founded Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream using socially responsible principles such as funding the Ben and Jerry's Foundation to pay for community-oriented projects. They prided themselves on their small company independence and touted their unique approach to melding business with social responsibility. Yet, in 2000 Ben and Jerry sold the company to the international food conglomerate Unilever. Many wondered: was this a sellout? This class on business ethics will explore different Harvard Business School cases studies such as this one using ethical lenses including Milton Friedman's 'Free Market' theory and Utilitarianism. In addition to analyzing case studies on topics such as the National Football League and concussions, we will examine the acclaimed film The Big Short to consider the boundaries of ethical behavior in the business world. This course will also foster the development of incisive analysis and sophisticated academic writing as a way to explore dilemmas relating to business ethics. Structured assignments, class discussions, peer group workshops, and conferences will direct us as we explore different writing tasks.
Lisa Rourke

UWS 16a Sex and Advertising
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.

Sex Sells! It's the immortal truism of the advertising industry. But how does sex sell? For decades, advertisers have used hot bods and innuendo to suggest that power and pleasure can be bought. In the 1970s, the battle cry, 'You've come a long way, Baby!' pushed cigarettes as the hip accessories of feminism and the sexual revolution. Today, brands blend consumerism with gender activism, invite LGBTQ to the mainstream marketplace, and tempt millennials with new promises of sex and success. In this course, students find and write about advertising that delights, infuriates, and perplexes them. In the first essay, they dissect their choice of pornographic food commercials, Budweiser bromances, and Calvin Klein billboards that titillate consumers and reshape social constructs of masculinity and femininity. The research paper challenges students to locate and comprehend recent studies of sex and gender in advertising and apply them to a defined set of ads or a major campaign of their choice. Usually offered every year.
Doug Kirshen

UWS 17b Bodies of Evidence: Forensic Science in Fact and Fiction
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.
In 2009, a woman was found murdered in rural Louisiana. There were no witnesses, but seeming evidence led police to suspect undocumented immigrants. The victim's DNA, however, did not match any of the Mexican suspects. Years later a new forensic technology generated a portrait of the killer ' a blonde male of Northern European ancestry, and an arrest was made. Forensic science has not only helped to identify the dead, to solve crimes, and to bring culprits to justice. Forensic techniques, accepted at the time but later discredited, have also led to false convictions, as in the case of a man found guilty of rape who spent decades in prison before DNA tests confirmed his innocence, or in the case of an arsonist who was exonerated by the State of Texas in 2011 but had been executed years earlier. This course invites students to explore the achievements and shortcomings of forensic science. We will investigate the work of forensic anthropologists, take a look at real-life cases to learn about the history and effectiveness of investigative techniques, and analyze how forensic science has been portrayed (and transformed) in popular television series such as Bones, CSI, or Crossing Jordan. Usually offered every year.
Katrin Fischer

UWS 20b "Bad" English
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.

A thick accent, bunch of grammar errors, jumble of different languages, and so on: it feels embarrassing to speak 'bad' English. We casually hear or say, 'you speak very good English!' Is it a compliment or insult? What do we assume as 'bad' and what counts as 'good'? In this seminar, we will look into how different forms of English are represented and consumed in literature, film, video, and visual art, starting with the film Lost in Translation. Students are welcomed to bring in and share their own experiences on issues including 'foreignness,' migration, language learning, and translation, to name but few. By focusing on how multiple Englishes meet and clash in fictional and real environments, we will try to rethink the hierarchies of language and culture. Our ultimate goal is to reflect on how this conversation could influence both our class environment and daily lives. Usually offered every year.

Amanda Presswood

UWS 33a Dystopian Worlds
[ uws ]

This course introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.
The Matrix Resurrections. The Hunger Games. Blade Runner 2049. Ready Player One. Divergent. The Handmaid’s Tale. In recent years, dystopias have been a mainstay of popular books, movies, and TV. These depictions of brutal fictional worlds and the heroes who fight to change, escape, or just survive them have a lot to tell us about our own world. They explore issues of individual freedoms, reproductive justice, digital privacy, family power dynamics, capitalism, and nearly every other problem we face in our modern society. In this course, we will explore a variety of dystopian fiction on screen and in literature in order to understand how creators use dystopian allegories to teach us about ourselves. We will watch and discuss episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale together for our first paper, and then students will choose their own pieces of dystopian fiction to research and analyze for a larger final project. Usually offered every year.

Laura Heath-Stout 

UWS 34a Reading and Writing Boston
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.

What is Boston? Boston is best known for baked beans, Fenway Park, The Boston Marathon, and over 50 colleges and universities that attract nearly 200,000 students in the Greater Metropolitan area. In the 1700's, Boston was called the 'Athens of America' because of its literate and engaged citizenry, wisdom, knowledge and education. Boston is a city of FIRSTS: the first public park, Boston Common, in 1634; the first public school, Boston Latin, in 1635; the first street-car subway system in the nation in 1897. In 2017, Boston ranked fifth in the world for innovations including cultural assets, education centers, transportation, and biking/walking accessibility. From the Esplanade on the Charles River, the Back Bay, Fens and Boston Common to the newer 15-acre Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, the beauty of Boston is unsurpassed. In this section of UWS, we will be using material on the City of Boston and its neighborhoods, with readings that focus on the historical, sociological, literary and contemporary beat of the city. The main goal for UWS is to further develop your academic research and writing skills , and this course will utilize the City of Boston as a textbook, enabling you to 'experience' Boston, close to where you have chosen to spend your college years. Usually offered every year.
Marsha Nourse

UWS 37a The Biology of Morality
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.
Humans often consider themselves to be "the moral animal," distinguished from other animals by our complex and socially derived systems of morality, characterized by empathy and cooperation. However, when comparing humans with the rest of the animal world, are we really so different? In this course, we will examine through discussion and writing the degree to which human morality is grounded in our evolutionary past. We will explore the development of human morality during childhood and adulthood through the lens of evolution and will look at classic scientific tests of morality/ethics (e.g., the trolley problem). Additionally, we will engage with evidence for morality in non-human species and probe the degree to which our primate relatives engage in altruistic, empathetic, and moral behaviors. During the final paper, students will have the freedom to choose their own topic and to utilize interdisciplinary literature in their exploration of the nature and nurture of morality. Usually offered every year.
Elissa Jacobs

UWS 39a Science Studies and the Problem of Truth
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.

We depend upon scientific research to guide many facets of our lives, from medicine to technology to social and educational policy and beyond. Considering the current trend of ignoring science ' for example, the climate change denial movement ' we may live in a dangerous time to question the validity and objectivity of scientific knowledge. But there is also a dark history of scientific research and knowledge on marginalized populations: 'science' continually found that women were less emotionally stable then men, and people of color were less intellectually capable than white people; the now-infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study intentionally left a population of black men with untreated syphilis for 40 years, all in the name of science ('science' for whom, we might ask). As such, it may be even more dangerous to let the enterprise of science march on unquestioned than to hold it under a critical lens. This course will examine materials from fields such as Science Studies, Feminist Philosophy of Science, and Critical Data Studies, all of which hold science up to the standards of truth and objectivity, of freedom from bias and ideology, that it claims to have. Our goal in critiquing science is to strive toward better and more just uses of scientific methods and thinking, so that we see the realities of the world more clearly and less ideologically. Usually offered every year.
Joshua Lederman

UWS 43a Storytelling in Business
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.

Storytelling plays a crucial role in our lives. We draw on stories to make meaning of ourselves and others, to shed light on our experiences, and to express who we are or would like to be. The same holds true for businesses. Storytelling is not only a core competency of business leaders but an indispensable component of functional organizations. Successful companies take pride in compelling stories; troubled companies tend to lack institutional stories and a culture of storytelling. Capable business leaders are effective storytellers, and strategic storytelling has been a proven means of initiating change and of turning companies around. This course invites students to investigate the power of stories and storytelling in business contexts. By analyzing texts from various media, we will discuss questions such as: What characterizes effective stories? What is the importance of storytelling and story-making in companies? How can storytelling bring about organizational change? Which traits do storytellers and business leaders share? What is the connection between storytelling and leadership? Usually offered every year.
Katrin Fischer

UWS 43b Animals in a Human World
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing, and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructor.
How do we define our relationship with animals: which we keep as livestock, which we keep as pets, and which we keep in zoos? Human-animal interactions have developed over hundreds of thousands of years; in that time, animals have had a significant impact on human behavior and on the development of human societies. In this class, we will explore the deep history of the relationship between humans and animals. We will consider how different cultures and subsistence strategies cultivate different interspecies dynamics, and particularly how domestication changes the way we perceive animals and their place in the world. To explore these questions, we will use multiple lines of evidence, including ethnographic data, material culture, and scientific analyses of faunal remains. Students will have the opportunity to research and write about the relationship between humans and animals in a wide variety of ancient and modern cultures. Usually offered every year.
Catherine Scott

UWS 48a Love: Where, When, How, Who?
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing, and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructor.

What is love? How does society encourage or discourage it? Who gets to fall in love and why? For many years, the study of love seemed to belong to poets, painters, singers, and playwrights. Scholars in different fields like history and anthropology avoided studying love, claiming that it was too special, too personal, maybe too sacred to be a topic of reflection and analysis. Yet love is all around us. What does it mean and do? This course explores films, case studies, and more to explore how love conforms to and challenges the prevailing social order and becomes a force for change or continuity. We will analyze readings about how people living in Africa, the USA, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East have described and experienced love as a vital emotion within or despite the expectations they face. Students will research a love-related issue of their choice and may choose from texts including written narratives, ethnographies, legal studies, films, works of art, novels, and other mediums. Usually offered every year.
Martha Lagace

UWS 50a Neurodiversity and Culture
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing, and revising'working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.
John Nash was a brilliant mathematician at Princeton who won the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in game theory even as he struggled with schizophrenia. How did academic culture influence Nash's personal and professional life, and, more broadly, what role does culture play in neurodiversity? How does social media, such as Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok influence perceptions of neurodiversity? In this course we will explore the way neurodiversity plays a role in culture beginning with an analysis of the film A Beautiful Mind, based on Nash's life. Students will then choose their own research topic and text on neurodiversity, ranging from films such as Prozac Nation and Silver Linings Playbook to television series, such as Homeland and The Good Doctor. This course will help prepare students for academic research and writing, introducing them to peer reviewed research, academic databases, and the fundamentals of disciplinary conventions. Usually offered every year.
Matthew Burkett

UWS 50b Public Health: Writing with Data
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.
Over the past year, particularly with the COVID-19 pandemic, we've seen an increasing reliance on public health data to inform public policies, monitor progress, and guide individuals' health decisions. Public health data has been spun into narratives about right versus wrong, infographics that motivate action, and graphs that illustrate trends, among others. Since we've been inundated with quantitative data, you likely know what it's like to experience data as an audience member, however in this course, you'll become the composer with data at your communicative disposal. This course will encourage you to think about questions like: What is public health data? How is data generated and collected? How is public health data used or misused in academic, professional, and societal contexts? How do writers frame data to achieve certain ends? How does data visualization relate to communication? We will explore these questions across a variety of texts including CDC and NIH publications, TedTalks, and academic articles. After analyzing public health data use in different genres, you'll then embark on your own quantitative reasoning journey by crafting a research essay that incorporates public health data and strategic data visualization. Usually offered every year.
Allison Gianotti

UWS 51a Professional Writing in the Sciences
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.
According to Charles Darwin, 'A naturalist's life would be a happy one if [they] had only to observe and never to write.' Unfortunately (or fortunately!), much of a naturalist's practice involves writing. In fact, the same holds true for those in other scientific fields'scientists must not only do science, but they, too, must write science. But what exactly are professional scientists writing? What motivates their composing and to whom do they write? What rhetorical choices do scientists make when communicating complex information? In this course, we'll examine the discursive and generic requirements scientists face when composing in different contexts for different audiences. By considering a number of professional scientific genres'including research articles, grant applications, poster presentations, and public talks'we will explore questions of accessibility, writerly agency, persuasion, and objectivity. You'll even have the opportunity to interview faculty members in the disciplines to learn about the writing tasks you might encounter as a working professional in your field. By the end of this course, you'll have a more sophisticated understanding of professional writing in the sciences, and as such, you'll be asked to produce two distinct genres of writing that take up the same research topic, albeit for different audiences and different communicative purposes. Usually offered every year.
Allison Gianotti

UWS 52a Playing Fair: Gender, Race, and Sports in America
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.
Whether you're an athlete or fan, you have likely noticed that issues of race and gender have become increasingly central to conversations in collegiate and professional sports. These issues have raised important questions: To what extent do sports create a 'level playing field' for women, transgender athletes and Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC)? How do intersections of social class, mental health, and physical ability impact the discourse about race and gender in sports? In this class, we will investigate the history of racist and sexist policies and practices in amateur and professional sports as well as developments that place sports on the cutting edge of gender and racial equality in society at large. Case studies will include the raised fist salute by Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, the passage of Title IX, current debates about financial compensation for elite NCAA athletes, and Colin Kaepernick's kneeling for the national anthem in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Usually offered every year.
Deborah Feingold

UWS 52b Environmental Justice
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing, and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.

This section of UWS focuses on 'Environmental Justice,' which encompasses the equal access of all people, regardless of race, ethnic origin, or socio-economic status, to the benefits of nature as well as the equitable distribution of environmental harms. It gives visibility and voice to those who have been historically marginalized and suffered the most from environmental hazards and the effects of climate change: communities of color, indigenous peoples, and the poor. The course invites students to examine power inequities, historical contexts, and scientific concepts to understand the causes and effects of environmental injustices and environmental racism. It also invites students to explore stories of resilience and hope by researching, learning, and writing about inspirational individuals, groups, and movements who have taken action for a more just and equitable future. Usually offered every year.
Katrin Fischer

UWS 53b Mythology of the American West
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing, and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.
Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, the gold rush, and Conestoga Wagons. When we think of the American West, we might envision images of cowboys and Indians, of danger and folk heroes. But these images mask a darker side of struggles and colonization; some even argue that Westward expansion in the 19th Century lay the roots for American expansionist policies in the Cold War era and beyond. This course will interrogate these seemingly conflicting narratives. We will first watch the classic John Ford western film, Stagecoach, in which the mysterious cowboy/outlaw character, Ringo Kid, helps to protect a group of innocent pioneer townsfolk on a dangerous stagecoach trip across the American Southwest. For the research essay, students select a topic and text of their choice, ranging from the film Pocahantas, to a painting by Georgia O'Keefe, to a classic novel by John Steinbeck, in order to explore the idealization of the American West and the lingering effects of that idealization today. Usually offered every year.
Eric Hollander

UWS 54b Thinking About Borders Through Data
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.
As Eavan Boland's poem 'That the Science of Cartography is Limited' might remind us, maps are limited renderings of the places we encounter: not only because they are representations of these places rather than the places themselves, but because we make decisions about the features or data we encode in them and the borders we draw. Given how core the language of territory and borders is to how we understand what we know'What 'field,' for example, are you thinking of majoring in?'this course will consider borders metaphorically as well as literally. In both of these contexts, what does it mean to be a citizen, or a migrant, or a tourist? What are the documents that confer or communicate these identities? We will read from fiction, watch movies, and listen to podcasts to think critically about the boundaries that separate physical spaces, as well as those that separate conceptual spaces like fields of knowledge and genres. Further, we will think through the decisions that we make as writers when wandering through these spaces, while representing the identities we and others claim in them. Specifically, we will focus on what documents and data can and can't capture, as well as how they can, at different times, reinforce or break down the boundaries we draw. Usually offered every year.
Gregory Palermo

UWS 55a Making Decisions with Algorithms
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.

Should an algorithm be used to grade your paper, based on what other papers look like? How about to determine what videos you see on YouTube or TikTok, based on what it thinks you like? Or what about to decide how long you are incarcerated, based on your risk of future crime? In this course, we will read popular and journalistic texts to learn about algorithms and how they can carry the politics of their designers and propagate bias. Discussing issues like digital redlining, recidivism assessment, and facial recognition, we will consider the extent to which the digital technologies that shape our daily experiences when sorting through information can potentially cause harm. Moreover, we will consider our role in resisting the categories chosen for us when sorting through the content we engage, in spaces ranging from social media to grocery stores ' thinking, perhaps, about the times we are asked to be algorithmic ourselves as readers and writers. How might we still make space there for what we want to say. Usually offered every year.
Gregory Palermo

UWS 55b Homelessness and the Self-Perpetuating Cycle of Shame
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.
Why has the number of people experiencing homelessness in Massachusetts more than doubled since 1990? This course will investigate the changing face of homelessness over the past fifty years and question why the 'hidden homeless,' many of whom are couch-surfing college-age kids, constitute the fastest growing and least recognized segment of this population. Through literature, film and essays, this course will examine the shame that so often contributes to homelessness and discuss what it will take to shift this self-perpetuating cycle. Weekly reading responses, lively debate and your own mock profile of a person experiencing homelessness will help us address our individual and collective response to this national crisis. Guest speakers from area shelters will contribute to the discussion, and you will be prompted to dive deep into your own relation to homelessness through short essay assignments. Usually offered every year.
Julie Batten

UWS 56b Tracking the Digital Self
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.
Streaming service algorithms, smart home devices, predictive text, even sleep-tracking apps. These are just a few examples of technologies that shape our daily experiences. We use apps to order food, track our bodies, and even find love. We have robots that clean our floors as well as robots that surveil our streets. This seminar asks students to explore, through writing and research, some tricky questions about the technologies we come into contact with: how they shape our identities and track our bodies or how corporate powers exploit our data and influence our behavior. As a class, we will explore technology debates and representations of technology in cultural texts (stories, films, ads, news coverage etc.). For the final research papers, students will be expected to develop a research topic on a technology of their choosing. Usually offered every year.
Paige Marie Eggebrecht

UWS 57b Racial Difference and the Senses
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.

How is a person’s race determined? Is it how they look, sound, or feel? Is it their biological or cultural filiation? While some may be tempted to say that race is merely a function of skin tone, it has historically been theorized as something much more complicated. Indeed, since 1896, when Plessy v. Ferguson established the “one-drop rule” as the law of the land in the United States, race has largely been understood to exceed the bounds of the visual, to be made up of something more than just the color of one’s skin. This “something more” will be the central focus of this course. Reading a wide range of creative, cultural-critical, historical, and scientific texts that grapple with the issue of racialized perception, we will spend the semester exploring how all five senses—not just sight—work to construct and deconstruct categories of racial difference. Usually offered every year.

Patrick Kindig

UWS 58a The Age of Distraction
[ uws ]

Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.

In 1941, poet T.S. Eliot lamented that the world had grown “distracted from distraction by distraction.” Living as we do in the era of Twitter and TikTok, we would be hard-pressed to disagree with him. But what exactly do we mean when we call something a distraction? How do distractions force us to attend to them, and why do we see this as a problem? In this course, we will explore how and why we draw the line between distraction and so-called “normal” or “healthy” attention. Borrowing analytical tools from the fields of medicine, psychology, philosophy, and cultural history and theory, we will examine both historical distractions (such as theater and film) and more contemporary ones (such as social media). We will also investigate the role played by distraction in such psychiatric disorders as ADHD and internet addiction. In analyzing these phenomena, we will develop a more nuanced understanding of how attention and distraction shape our experience of the world. Usually offered every year.

UWS 58b Nature and the Human Experience
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Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.
Whether camping in the White Mountains, walking through an urban park, or biking down a busy metropolitan road, humans interact every day with the natural world. This course explores the history of that relationship through various perspectives, geographies, terrains, and political traditions developing a conceptual understanding of our evolving relationship to the earth we inhabit. We will look at technology, agriculture, urban planning, forestry, and social movements as lenses through which to interpret that relationship. To do this, the course uses sources from history, film, literature, and political science to paint a broad picture of how humans have experienced the natural world and made sense of and/or resisted that experience. More importantly, students will come away from the class able to apply a critical and historically informed opinion of mainstream conceptions of the environment and our role within it. Usually offered every year.
Alexander Herbert

UWS 59b Museums and Cultural Heritage
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Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.
Cultural heritage—which includes a diversity of tangible (e.g., artifacts, monuments, buildings) and intangible (e.g., language, folklore, traditions) elements of culture—is a vital part of how we understand ourselves and the world. Here in Boston, we have a particularly close relationship with the cultural heritage of the founding of the United States; a stroll along the Freedom Trail will lead one past historically “sacred” sites such as the Old North Church and Bunker Hill, as well as to sites reminiscent of daily life such as the Boston Common and the Paul Revere House. However, communities in the United States and around the world often have a fraught relationship with cultural heritage because of the ways that it has been shaped by legacies of colonialism and oppression. These complexities are evident in longstanding debates around the repatriation of objects—such as the Elgin Marbles from Greece or the Benin Bronzes from what is now Nigeria—and in recent protests advocating for the removal of Confederate monuments. In this course, we will examine some of the conversations surrounding tangible cultural heritage. Who has the “right” to own objects? Who controls what stories are told about cultural heritage? And how do those stories shape our understanding of our place in the world? Usually offered every year.
Catherine Scott

UWS 60a Body Obsession and Representations of Bodies in the Media
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Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.

Examines ways that media constructs and reconstructs the “ideal” body and the ways in which that ideal continues to be reconfigured. From the supermodels of the 1990s to Kim Kardashian, it is clear that society is obsessed with how bodies, especially female bodies, are represented in the media. But what is the role of social media when it comes to representations of the body? Does it allow for a greater representation of body types or is it reproducing the idealized body portrayed by mainstream media? This course explores how media constructs, shapes, and reinforces the culture of the ideal body. We will also explore the stereotypes and ideologies regarding gender, race, and class embedded in body image. The course will introduce critical approaches and theoretical foundations used to examine the representations and impacts of body images. Areas of the study may include, but not limited to, television, movies, social media, magazines, and video games. Usually offered every year.

Amanda Presswood

UWS 61a Time Travel
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Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.

Time travel is a motif that appears regularly in the genres of science-fiction and fantasy—from recent popular television series like Doctor Who and Loki, to classic novels like H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine and Diana Gabaldon’s fantasy-romance series Outlander. But is time travel only the stuff of fiction, or could it be a real possibility? How do we understand time, and do we have the capacity to manipulate it? In this course, we will explore how time is conceived in different cultures and academic disciplines in an attempt to get a fuller picture of what time actually is and how it affects us. Using strategies from the fields of physics, sociology, philosophy, and psychology, we will analyze the scientific and ethical questions raised by cultural depictions of time travel. Through this analysis, we will develop a deeper understanding of how time affects our own lives, and how we might be able to affect it. Usually offered every year.

Rachel Dale

UWS 61b Anime and Cultural Identity
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UWS 62a Video Gameplay, Players, and Styles
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Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.

Video games afford opportunities to immerse ourselves in virtual worlds in an interactive and engaging manner. The creativity and imagination behind game design necessitate the interaction of a wide range of skills: coding, graphic design, storytelling, musical composition, and sound design. How is it that we can spend hours picking up virtual weeds in Animal Crossing, be fearful of turtle shells in Mario Kart, or experience immense satisfaction when leveling up our Pokemon or beating a boss in Dark Souls? This course addresses these questions by tracing the development of video games from the early pixelated heroes of Mario and Pac-Man to online spaces that involve the global participation of millions of people, such as League of Legends and Call of Duty. Students are required to think critically about the virtual worlds they inhabit and consider how video games implement play, immersion, and engagement and how their unique function as an interactive medium has evolved throughout the latter half of the 20th century to the present day. The interdisciplinary nature of game studies allows students to think and write critically on an array of topics concerning narrative, immersion, gender, music, technology, and game design. Usually offered every year.

James Hazelwood-Dale

UWS 63b Going Viral
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Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.

When something goes viral, it spreads. The pandemic has triggered a medical awareness of social distancing and community spread, but it has also instigated mob mentality and rampant misinformation through technological sharing. How do these concepts of contagion function? How do they impact individuals and communities, making connections while also causing marginalization? Can they be controlled? We will investigate how ideas and disease are spread, their short-term and long-term consequences, and the measures taken in response. Course readings and media will encourage students to think critically about human behavior that creates and destroys viral community. Students will analyze and research cultural and historical examples from zombies, to Twitter, to witch trials through the interdisciplinary lens of epidemiology, sociology, and psychology. By applying rhetorical analysis to instances of uncontrollable forms of communication, students will learn and reflect on their own strategies of academic communication. Usually offered every year.

Laura Kremmel

UWS 64a Culture and Illness
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Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.

The Joker, Hannibal Lecter, and Norman Bates are all villains defined by their mental illnesses: they’re weird, dangerous, even evil. Similarly, we draw on narrative tropes to understand real and fictional characters with physical illness. For example, depictions of cancer patients in popular culture often use metaphors of the battlefield to declare them victorious or defeated. Experiences of physical and mental illness—including related embodiments of confusion, pain, and grief—are notoriously difficult to articulate. Without feeling illness ourselves, we are left to representations like the ones above to provide insight into these conditions. How do those representations influence our behavior towards those who are ill? How do they inform understandings of our own health and sociopolitical, bioethical, or criminological programs? To address these questions, we will analyze representations of illness in a variety of genres, which may include film, ads, comics, and online media. This course will help students build skills in research, analysis, and rhetorical awareness of the many disciplines that representations of illness impact. Usually offered every year.

Laura Kremmel

UWS 64b The Resistance Mix-Tape: Music and Social Justice
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Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.

Considers music as a radical political tool for social justice. Guided by different genres of music and different social justice issues, we will listen to politically resonant songs in order to explore how music not only actively participates in and shapes our culture, but also offers modes of resistance to regimes of power. From the pro-labor and anti-war politics of folk music, the anti-establishment and anti-normative bents of punk, and the racial and social justice orientations of hip-hop, students will examine how music fights power, encourages activism, and effects social change. This course is designed in such a way that students may participate fully regardless of the level of their prior musical knowledge or experience. All of the music we will be examining involves texts that are linguistic, sonic, and occasionally, in the case of music videos, visual. Our study of these musical texts will be enhanced through various critical and theoretical approaches to the intersections of race, gender, and class. For final research papers, students will be encouraged to develop a research topic about music and social justice issues that are meaningful to them. Usually offered every year.

Ethan King

UWS 65a Everyday Apocalypse, or Living Through the Long Emergency
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Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.

Our contemporary moment has been marked by various catastrophes and crises: the pandemic, the climate emergency, the refugee crisis, widening economic disparities, rising nationalist extremism, and racial inequalities and police violence. These crises have combined to create a present moment of profound uncertainty and growing unrest, and daily life has become undergirded by a rising tide of anxiety. Using contemporary events and recent cultural texts as sites of inquiry about the global tumult of our present, students will consider how the convergence of the everyday and the catastrophic frame our “new normal,” as well as how distinctions between normalcy and emergency are connected to media narratives, corporate agendas, and political rhetoric and policy. Altogether, the course invites students to examine our experience of the contemporary world from multiple lenses and encourages students to research, learn, write about, and potentially reimagine the social, economic, and environmental challenges of our time. Usually offered every year.

Ethan King

UWS 65b Coming to America
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Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.

UWS 66a Travel and Self-Discovery
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Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.

The ocean, the open road, and the automobile all entice us to travel. From Thelma and Louise, a female buddy road crime film, to acclaimed food critic Anthony Bourdain, who samples foods from across the globe, travel has long worked in popular culture to offer the tantalizing possibilities of reinvention, of getting lost, of escape into the new. However, travel is more than just a romantic fantasy about self-transformation. In fact, British travel essayist Pico Iyer argues that our travel experiences are always structured by our preconceptions about ourselves and the world; for Iyer, we can never completely escape from ourselves. Building on the ideas of Iyer and others, we will investigate what we do when we travel and the motivations that drive the urge to explore. How does travel relate to identity, gender, and self-discovery? In this course, we will probe this question and others by watching films and reading texts from a variety of genres and disciplines, examining the desires, pressures, and delusions that propel us to hit the open road or take flight. Building on ideas from the course, students will be encouraged to write papers that engage with issues related to travel and self-exploration that they find compelling. Usually offered every year.

Collin Cook

UWS 66b Sports, Money, and Power
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Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.

Despite being united by the common desire to win, few relationships in popular culture are as fraught as the relationship between athletes and the various organizational structures—teams, leagues, coaches, agents—of sports. Indeed, given the amount of money at stake, the sports industry’s many competing interests make it a productive case study for thinking about this ever-shifting balance of power. Beginning with the film Jerry Maguire, this course will track these ongoing power negotiations by looking at a variety of relationships within sports, attempting to understand how different actors—athletes, coaches, owners—try to win, maintain dominance, and get paid. How do organizations respond, for example, when individual players like Tom Brady and Aaron Rogers upset the traditional hierarchies that govern teams? Are some coaching styles—such as those of Steve Kerr or Phil Jackson—better suited than others to balancing the competing personalities and interests of professional sports? To further engage with the topics we discuss, students will be encouraged to write papers that grapple with sports-related questions and issues of power dynamics that are of interest to them. Usually offered every year.

Collin Cook

UWS 67a Diversity and Justice on Campus
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Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.

Many news stories about college campuses emphasize social diversity and identity politics, from free speech debates to sexual violence to student worker unionization to affirmative action. Writers have discussed these issues in editorials, manifestos, fiction, memoirs, and academic research studies. We will examine several of these depictions in order to understand how many forms of diversity, inclusion, and oppression play out in the space of the college campus. We will begin by watching and studying the film Dear White People, then will examine how college is portrayed in a variety of genres of writing, and then students will choose a particular issue to research. Usually offered every year.

Laura Heath-Stout

UWS 67b Music, Protests, and Social Change of the Sixties
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Introduces students to the power of writing as a means of communication and a process of thinking and understanding. As students complete a series of writing assignments, they will engage in a process of reading, drafting, reviewing and revising, working in peer groups and individually with their instructors.

The Times They Are A-Changin…When Bob Dylan wrote this song in the early 1960s, it was the time of political and military upheaval in America. Dylan was trying to rally people to come together to bring about needed change in our society: culturally, socially, and politically. The decade marked revolutionary ideas and turmoil, and the most prevalent included individual freedoms, Civil Rights, Women’s Liberation, the Viet Nam controversy, Woodstock, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Gay Liberation, and more. Students played a major role in bringing about change as campus protests occurred across America. To explore their role, we will start by examining primary sources and personal narratives between 1960 and 1974 from the extensive archive at Brandeis. Through a series of writing assignments, this UWS will provide students an opportunity to examine the Sixties phenomena, first through the lens of music, then through a comparative analysis of controversies, and finally through research into movements that accomplished social change. Usually offered every year.

Marsha Nourse