Professor explaining concepts to two students in a classroom
Liberal Arts

Curriculum & Courses

Learning Outcomes

  • LA_SLG1) Ways of Knowing Students: Students will demonstrate awareness and appreciation of multiple ways of knowing, as reflected in the fields of study and areas of expertise within the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.

    LA_SLG2) Cultural Breadth and Global Awareness: Students will demonstrate familiarity with a range of cultural, social, and intellectual traditions in the context of a changing, globalized world.

    LA_SLG3) Critical and Analytical Thinking: Students will be able to analyze, evaluate, and construct arguments, engaging with ideas, evidence, and artifacts.

    LA_SLG4) Effective Communication Skills: Students will be able to speak and write effectively, communicating with precision, clarity, and rhetorical force.

  • HUM_SLG 1) Students will study and question how crucial ideas about human and non-human nature, knowledge, experience, and value have been developed, supported, and/or expressed in major areas of the humanities, such as philosophy, religion, literature (including poetry and the dramatic arts), and music in various cultures and time periods.

    HUM_SLO1.1) Students will demonstrate understanding of the methods used in the humanities, such as argumentation and interpretation.

    HUM_SLO1.2) Students will demonstrate understanding of the crucial ideas in the humanities as they have been explored in different cultures and times, and/or in connection to issues that currently affect individuals and societies across the globe.

    HUM_SLO1.3) Students will evaluate claims and the evidence and/or reasons given in support of these claims, as found in primary and secondary sources.

    HUM_SLO1.4) Students will construct their own claims and defend them in written and/or oral forms, and using proper methods of documentation (e.g. citation and bibliography).

  • SCI_SLG1) Students will increase their knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of the natural world, science, and mathematics.

    SCI_SLO1.1) Students will demonstrate knowledge of the nature of science and/or mathematics as a knowledge making process. 

    SCI_SLO1.2) Students will develop and evaluate claims that involve a scientific or mathematical component.

    SCI_SLO1.3) Students will display curiosity about nature, natural science, and/or mathematics.

    SCI_SLO1.4) Students will confidently attempt reasoning tasks that involve a scientific or mathematical component.

    SCI_SLO1.5) Students will demonstrate appreciation for the role of science and/or mathematics both in everyday life and in contemporary issues.

  • FYS_SLG1) Students will learn to embrace the writing process and establish writerly habits, while developing guided critical reading, thinking, and writing skills necessary for their success in upper-level course work. Students will learn to collaborate and to take their work, and the work of their peers seriously, thereby establishing best practices of critique.

    FYS_SLO1.1) Students will formulate inquiries emerging from readings of texts.

    FYS_SLO1.2) Students will establish research methods.

    FYS_SLO1.3) Students will analyze and synthesize multiple texts and cite evidence. 

    FYS_SLO1.4) Students will construct a complex claim and an argument.

    FYS_SLO1.5) Students will practice the writerly process (i.e. revision, reflection, and peer review).

  • SOSCI_SLG 1) Students will question and explore how human behavior, societal arrangements, and cultural practices vary across time and space.

    SOSCI_SLO1.1) Students will demonstrate understanding of the investigative methods used in the social sciences. 

    SOSCI_SLO1.2) Students will evaluate and develop claims based on primary and secondary sources. 

    SOSCI_SLO1.3) Students will communicate clearly in written and oral forms.

    SOSCI_SLO1.4) Students will write citations and bibliographies in accordance with one or more social science disciplines.

Courses

Title Catalog Instructor Schedule

Description

Reading Art is a seminar that orients students to college studies and emphasizes students' advancement of college-level critical reading and thinking skills. Students learn how to read and analyze artworks using the formal vocabulary of art and design, as well as how to read about art in art history textbooks, scholarly journals, and other sources. Students improve their ability to process, retain, and apply information by using active learning strategies and graphic organizers, including a schematic note-taking system. In addition to weekly readings and exercises, students complete an in-depth synthesis project on an artwork of their choosing. Regular museum visits complement class work.

Class Number

1003

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 501

Description

At the heart of the writing project is the writing process: from sketching to planning, free writing to drafting, envisioning to revisioning. Writing requires both the creative and critical mind; it asks for patience with not knowing and provides us with the means--if we allow ourselves to follow where it may lead--to get from nowhere to somewhere, from not having the words to finding our voice. Process is primary in this writing seminar: students will explore their own and others' ways of making, read artists' writings about art, write in a variety of short forms, including the essay, and pursue a longer, multi-part writing project.

Class Number

1323

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 111

Description

This writing course emphasizes close reading of texts, critical thinking, and the analysis of problems and concepts arising in works about travel experiences through the writing of essays. We will use the writing process as a means to achieving insight, and students will be asked to employ brainstorming, freewriting, drafting, outlining, re-writing, revising, and editing. Throughout the term, students will be asked to reflect on their development as they establish their own writing process that will enable them to develop new understandings and clearly communicate them in essays for this course and beyond. Writer Pico Iyer says, ¿We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves.¿ New places are alluring. New places are disruptive. In this course, we¿ll read accounts of those who ventured to distant lands and discovered new territories within themselves. We will read the likes of Langston Hughes, Bernard Cooper, Jamaica Kincaid, Flannery O¿Connor, George Orwell, Susan Sontag, and others, as we see what these writers found when they lost themselves abroad. Students will join the well-traveled, too, as they write about a not-usual place, even if it¿s right here in Chicago. In addition to short writing assignments and in-class journals, students should expect to write and revise 4 essays totaling 15-20 pages of formal prose.

Class Number

1303

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 816

Description

In this writing-intensive course, we will explore the line between originality and plagiarism in a variety of fields including art, media, technology, music, business, entertainment, and medicine. In what contexts is copying an art? A science? A crime? How much should we be allowed to borrow from the work of artists and writers who have come before us? Do we owe them anything when we do? What are the economic, social, and political implications of copying? Readings will cover a range of subtopics such as genetic cloning, music sampling, artistic forgery, cultural appropriation, film adaptations, drug patents, fan fiction, body modification, and fair use. We will also analyze the work of artists and writers whose work speaks to some of these issues, including Kenneth Goldsmith, Fred Wilson, Jeff Koons, Sherrie Levine, DJ Dangermouse, and Jen Bervin. Writing assignments ? totaling 15-20 pages over the course of the semester ? will emphasize analysis, argument, research, revision, and other academic writing skills.

Class Number

1343

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1427

Description

In our class we will read contemporary poetry from authors responding to historic and current political injustices. We¿ll also read about the political events themselves to gain an understanding of the authors¿ creative works. The poems and poetry collections are written by individuals but they shed light on the political impacts that affect the collective of humanity. Readings often include works by Layli Long Soldier, Ilya Kaminsky, Rajiv Mohabir, and Don Mee Choi. In our FYS I class, we will develop our critical reading, writing, and thinking skills. This is a studio writing class in which we will focus on writing as a process. We will freewrite, formulate conceptual questions for the readings, write responses, and compose and revise 15-20 pages in multidraft essays. Students will direct the topic of the final essay based on their individual inquiry into a historic or current political event. FYS I develops college-level writing skills, prepares one for FYS II and upper-level Liberal Arts courses, and allows one to improve expressing their ideas in writing.

Class Number

1324

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 203

Description

Notable speeches in English from various historical periods and from diverse cultures will form the basis for this seminar, in which students will develop and advance their critical thinking, critical reading, and critical writing skills. Examples of such speeches include ¿Ain¿t I a Woman¿ by Sojourner Truth and ¿The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro¿ by Frederick Douglass. In addition, other examples of effective and convincing argumentation such as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.¿s ¿Letter from Birmingham Jail¿ will also be considered. Students will analyze these speeches and other texts in their historical or contemporary contexts as exemplars of rhetorical argumentation and learn, through discussion, oral presentations, and writing assignments, how to write successful argumentative essays that include arguments, counter-arguments and refutation. Students should expect to write 15-20 pages of formal, revisable writing in addition to homework and in-class workshops. First Year Seminar I provides students with guided experience in college-level writing, thereby forming the necessary foundation for First Year Seminar II and upper-level Liberal Arts classes.

Class Number

1344

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1427

Description

Writers can have the power to create space for communities that are marginalized in society, but this work is never easy. In this class, we will examine the works of writers who have attempted this and analyze the success and cost of such attempts. Our readings will include works by: Esme Weijun Wang, Rupi Kahur, Ryka Aoki, Patsy Mink, and others. We will also utilize SAIC¿s amazing resources like the Service Bureau, the Art Institute, the writing center, the diversity department, and Title IX office. In this class, students will exercise their voices and embrace the writing process. They will think of writing beyond what happens on the page.Towards this end, each class begins with mindfulness and connection activities. Students will be required to write weekly reflections, multiple drafts of an essay, and do a class presentation. Students in FYS I should expect to write 15 to 20 pages of formal, revisable writing. Attendance is extremely important and heavily weighted.

Class Number

1345

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1428

Description

As an art form, humor is often considered menial and unrefined. In reality, the psychology of humor ¿ exactly what it is that makes something funny ¿ is complicated and requires careful mastery. This course will examine how writers and artists have historically used humor to reach audiences deeply, emotionally, and politically. Through works by Mark Twain, Franz Kafka, Calvin Trillin, Jade Chang, Percival Everett and others, we will get to the heart of what makes something funny, and how humor has changed over time. Students will build on foundational academics habits with weekly short writings. To complete the course, students must write 3 papers (one analytical, one argumentative, and one creative.

Prerequisites

Must complete AAP: Academic Foundations Seminar (AAP1001) and Foundations Writing Workshop (AAP 1011)

Class Number

1341

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 919

Description

This writing course emphasizes close reading of texts, critical thinking, and the analysis of problems and concepts arising in works about near-death experiences through the writing of essays. We will use the writing process as a means to achieving insight, and students will be asked to employ brainstorming, freewriting, drafting, outlining, re-writing, revising, and editing. Throughout the term, students will be asked to reflect on their development as they establish their own writing process that will enable them to develop new understandings and clearly communicate them in essays for this course and beyond. Some of us have had a near-death experience in which our survival felt in doubt. Almost all of us have had nearness-to-death experiences in which we glimpse the passing of some other person or creature and must contend with death?s significance. In this course, we?ll study short works that explore what nearness to mortality reveals to us. We?ll read Virginia Woolf, Tim O?Brien, Annie Dillard, Lu Hsun, Tobias Woolf, Wole Soyinka, and Nancy Mairs, among others, as we examine how death?s presence has impacted these writers in unanticipated ways. Students should expect to write and revise 3 major essays in addition to short writing assignments, totaling 15-20 pages of formal prose.

Prerequisites

Must complete AAP: Academic Foundations Seminar (AAP1001) and Foundations Writing Workshop (AAP 1011)

Class Number

1321

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 206

Description

In this writing intensive course, we will develop the skills of argument-driven writing as we examine film noir and the question of genre. What does it mean to look at a series of disparate cinematic texts as examples of the same textual category? Is ¿film noir¿ best defined by a pattern of visual motifs? Can the genre be better characterized by the repetition of various story structures, themes, and character archetypes? Or is ¿film noir¿ (and perhaps ¿genre¿ itself) a categorizing term which has outlived its usefulness as a way of understanding individual film texts? Students will explore these questions through an examination of three key films: The Big Sleep (1946), The Reckless Moment (1949), Devil in a Blue Dress (1995), and The Deep End (2001). Readings will include critical works by Raymond Borde, Étienne Cahumeton, Janey Place, Megan Abbott, and Joan Copjec. These materials will inform multiple argument-driven essays students will draft and revise over the course of the semester. In composing these essays, students will study thesis formation, rhetorical modes, and ways to incorporate sources into evidence-based arguments.

Prerequisites

Must complete AAP: Academic Foundations Seminar (AAP1001) and Foundations Writing Workshop (AAP 1011)

Class Number

1342

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 818

Description

This course will chronologically survey American poetry from its earliest periods to recent times. Students will be introduced to a wide spectrum of the finest poetry ever to be written, including (among others) poems from Phyllis Wheatley, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen, e.e. cummings, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Amit Majmudar, Terrance Hayes, Sherman Alexie, Garrett Hongo, and Natalie Diaz. Individual interpretations will be emphasized and slow-and-close reading will be emphasized, both in class and in formal writing assignments. In addition, students will be introduced to methods of literary study, appropriate terminology, and (art) historical contexts to help orient scholarship¿including how poets across time and space operate and innovate within literary conventions. Students will also write about poetry in both personal responses and formal analyses and will practice the process of writing, including prewriting, drafting, peer reviewing, and revising. FYSe develops college-level writing skills, prepares one for FYS II and upper level Liberal Arts courses, and allows one to improve expressing their ideas in writing.

Prerequisites

Must complete AAP: Academic Foundations Seminar (AAP1001) and Foundations Writing Workshop (AAP 1011)

Class Number

1322

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 919

Description

FYS (EIS) are theme-based writing courses designed for first-year international students who have successfully completed their English for International Students Fluency course, with an emphasis on teaching Academic English skills to English Language Learners. Students will improve their Academic English skills by learning to embrace the writing process and establish writerly habits, while developing guided critical reading, thinking, and writing skills necessary for their success in future course work at SAIC. FYS (EIS) sections offer different topics. For example, students may investigate modern and contemporary art movements or analyze popular visual culture or media. While faculty have autonomy in determining course theme, the theme is an accessory to the writing; the balance in these classes is weighed toward explicit writing instruction and workshopping of student writing, not content. This course provides guided experience in writing college-level essays of various kinds. Students investigate the class topic through close readings and class discussions. They explore and develop their ideas by writing short responses and longer multi-draft papers which may include analytical, argumentative, expository, and/or evaluative essays. A significant amount of time is devoted to the craft of writing. Grammatical and organizational strategies, argumentation, and skills in thesis/claim and idea development are explored. Students should expect to write 15-20 pages of formal, revisable writing across the course of the semester. A significant amount of time may be devoted to re-writing essays, so as to develop first drafts into final versions. In-class writing and short homework exercises may be included. Through peer review and workshops, students learn to collaborate and to take their work, and the work of their peers seriously, thereby establishing best practices of critique. Classes are capped at 12 students and individual meetings to discuss each student's papers should be expected.

Prerequisites

Must complete English Fluency I (EIS 1021)

Class Number

1348

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 919

Description

FYS (EIS) are theme-based writing courses designed for first-year international students who have successfully completed their English for International Students Fluency course, with an emphasis on teaching Academic English skills to English Language Learners. Students will improve their Academic English skills by learning to embrace the writing process and establish writerly habits, while developing guided critical reading, thinking, and writing skills necessary for their success in future course work at SAIC. FYS (EIS) sections offer different topics. For example, students may investigate modern and contemporary art movements or analyze popular visual culture or media. While faculty have autonomy in determining course theme, the theme is an accessory to the writing; the balance in these classes is weighed toward explicit writing instruction and workshopping of student writing, not content. This course provides guided experience in writing college-level essays of various kinds. Students investigate the class topic through close readings and class discussions. They explore and develop their ideas by writing short responses and longer multi-draft papers which may include analytical, argumentative, expository, and/or evaluative essays. A significant amount of time is devoted to the craft of writing. Grammatical and organizational strategies, argumentation, and skills in thesis/claim and idea development are explored. Students should expect to write 15-20 pages of formal, revisable writing across the course of the semester. A significant amount of time may be devoted to re-writing essays, so as to develop first drafts into final versions. In-class writing and short homework exercises may be included. Through peer review and workshops, students learn to collaborate and to take their work, and the work of their peers seriously, thereby establishing best practices of critique. Classes are capped at 12 students and individual meetings to discuss each student's papers should be expected.

Prerequisites

Must complete English Fluency I (EIS 1021)

Class Number

1349

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 818

Description

FYS (EIS) are theme-based writing courses designed for first-year international students who have successfully completed their English for International Students Fluency course, with an emphasis on teaching Academic English skills to English Language Learners. Students will improve their Academic English skills by learning to embrace the writing process and establish writerly habits, while developing guided critical reading, thinking, and writing skills necessary for their success in future course work at SAIC. FYS (EIS) sections offer different topics. For example, students may investigate modern and contemporary art movements or analyze popular visual culture or media. While faculty have autonomy in determining course theme, the theme is an accessory to the writing; the balance in these classes is weighed toward explicit writing instruction and workshopping of student writing, not content. This course provides guided experience in writing college-level essays of various kinds. Students investigate the class topic through close readings and class discussions. They explore and develop their ideas by writing short responses and longer multi-draft papers which may include analytical, argumentative, expository, and/or evaluative essays. A significant amount of time is devoted to the craft of writing. Grammatical and organizational strategies, argumentation, and skills in thesis/claim and idea development are explored. Students should expect to write 15-20 pages of formal, revisable writing across the course of the semester. A significant amount of time may be devoted to re-writing essays, so as to develop first drafts into final versions. In-class writing and short homework exercises may be included. Through peer review and workshops, students learn to collaborate and to take their work, and the work of their peers seriously, thereby establishing best practices of critique. Classes are capped at 12 students and individual meetings to discuss each student's papers should be expected.

Prerequisites

Must complete English Fluency I (EIS 1021)

Class Number

1350

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 816

Description

FYS (EIS) are theme-based writing courses designed for first-year international students who have successfully completed their English for International Students Fluency course, with an emphasis on teaching Academic English skills to English Language Learners. Students will improve their Academic English skills by learning to embrace the writing process and establish writerly habits, while developing guided critical reading, thinking, and writing skills necessary for their success in future course work at SAIC. FYS (EIS) sections offer different topics. For example, students may investigate modern and contemporary art movements or analyze popular visual culture or media. While faculty have autonomy in determining course theme, the theme is an accessory to the writing; the balance in these classes is weighed toward explicit writing instruction and workshopping of student writing, not content. This course provides guided experience in writing college-level essays of various kinds. Students investigate the class topic through close readings and class discussions. They explore and develop their ideas by writing short responses and longer multi-draft papers which may include analytical, argumentative, expository, and/or evaluative essays. A significant amount of time is devoted to the craft of writing. Grammatical and organizational strategies, argumentation, and skills in thesis/claim and idea development are explored. Students should expect to write 15-20 pages of formal, revisable writing across the course of the semester. A significant amount of time may be devoted to re-writing essays, so as to develop first drafts into final versions. In-class writing and short homework exercises may be included. Through peer review and workshops, students learn to collaborate and to take their work, and the work of their peers seriously, thereby establishing best practices of critique. Classes are capped at 12 students and individual meetings to discuss each student's papers should be expected.

Prerequisites

Must complete English Fluency I (EIS 1021)

Class Number

1351

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 818

Description

¿Genre¿ and tradition in music are nebulous terms, yet we can¿t escape them. Examining these genre distinctions consistently reveals two things - the history and tradition that helped birth the genre ¿category,¿ and the web of influences between genres that make such distinctions unstable. Nowhere is this ¿instability¿ more apparent than in American music, a country whose relatively young socio-political history makes the notion of ¿tradition¿ especially complicated. ¿Americana¿ is an overarching term to describe a variety of American musics, in an attempt to smooth over some of the complicated relationship between genre and tradition. One thing we will explore in this course is the effectiveness of that endeavor. Complicated spaces, of course, are fertile ground for argument, and that is the primary skill we will practice in this course. We begin with short writing assignments that force students to make arguments about our texts. Our class discussion allows us to workshop these claims, and we write larger papers that demonstrate the ability to take greater risks with our theses. In this course we will focus on the core skills of reading and writing, preparing us for all our future coursework at SAIC. Students learn to make nuanced observations about the texts we study, observations which form the basis for the argumentative papers we write. This course will focus on artists representative of the various genres said to populate Americana music. Special attention, however, will be paid to those artists who trouble the genre definitions, such as the Staple Singers, Gillian Welch, and Sturgill Simpson. Assignments consist of informal, observational journals, short papers and a larger Final Paper at the end of the course.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1306

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 501

Description

Please confirm/update desc: Unlike traditional folk fairy tales, intended primarily for children, the German Romantic Kunstmärchen (literary fairy tales) were written for an audience of adults. German Romantic philosophers, who believed in Nature as an ideal and the primacy of the individual creative imagination, saw the fairy tale as the perfect medium for the expression of these ideas. The timeless, mythical qualities of the fairy tale were seen by these thinkers as a way to bring the realm of the supernatural to earth, making the irrational and the magical part of our everyday existence. Unlike the traditional fairy tales, in which everyone lives happily ever after, the Märchen emphasizes the struggle between negative and positive forces in which death and disaster often prevail and man is caught in the tragic dichotomy between the real and the ideal. In this course we will explore these and other themes by reading the works by such authors as Novalis, L. Tieck, E.T.A Hoffman and Kafka. Students should expect to write 20-25 pages of formal, revisable writing, in addition to homework exercises and in-class writing. FYS II will build upon the foundational writing skills students began learning in FYS I, with the introduction of more rigorous argumentation and research. Eventually, writing will be more self-directed in this FYS II class.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1326

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 206

Description

In our creative practices we take our lives into account. You determine the format to share your story. In this course we will read different forms of autobiography: graphic novels, memoirs, essays, poetry, and journals. We will look at the various creative forms writers use to convey information about their lives, discuss why we make artwork about ourselves, and study how each form connects with readers. Though we will read about individual experiences, we will consider their impact on the collective. Readings often include works by Ocean Vuong, Trevor Noah, Diana Khoi Nguyen, EJ Koh, and Kazim Ali among others. In our FYS II course, we will develop our critical reading, writing, and thinking skills. This is a studio writing class in which we will focus on writing as a process. We will freewrite, formulate conceptual questions for the readings, write responses, and compose and revise 20-25 pages in multidraft essays. FYS II develops college-level writing skills, prepares one for upper-level Liberal Arts courses, and allows one to improve expressing their ideas in writing.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1327

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 501

Description

FYS 2 provides continued guided experience in college-level writing, thereby forming the necessary foundation for upper level Liberal Arts classes. The phrase 'illegal alien' is used by various politicians and commentators, but what does it really mean? What does it literally mean? What is it assuming? What does it entail? Together we will read, write, think, and discuss the ways in which contemporary media imagines 'the Other,' in particular our enduring legacy of colonial and neocolonial attitudes and behaviors. We will also study the metaphors that extraterrestrial alien cinema present, in terms of settler colonialism and its aftermath. Readings and screenings will include science fiction and horror films, documentaries, primary autobiographical narrative, and critical scholarship on these topics. Students should expect to write 15 to 20 pages of formal, revisable writing (i.e. two essays and one in-depth revision) in addition to homework exercises and in-class writing.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1329

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 112

Description

¿One night many years ago, a French family was driving through the North Region of Cameroon when they ran out of gas. As they scrambled to refill the tank, the car was surrounded by a pride of lions. To protect their young daughter, the parents locked her in a metal trunk. The animals circled the vehicle continuously, and to distract herself from danger the girl repeated her own name.¿ Contemporary French director Claire Denis blurs the boundaries between dream and reality. In films such as Chocolat (1988), Beau Travail (1999) and White Material (2009), she constructs a tenuous world in the aftermath of European colonialism. In FYSII, we will expand our critical reading, writing and thinking skills. We will develop a vocabulary of forms¿camera movement, cutting and composition¿to understand the sensory experience of a work of art. We will write two critical essays (20 to 25 pages of formal writing), which will be workshopped in class and revised.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1331

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 501

Description

¿Past, Present, and Future Chicago¿ examines the complex and layered histories of Chicago through the cultural lenses of literature, art, music, public space, and architecture. It actively presents the city as a place where various social groups have migrated, lived in proximity, struggled for equality and resources, as well protested, celebrated, and produced art and culture. Some events this class engages include the establishment of the city through the Chicago Treaty of 1833, the Great Migration of the early 1900s, post-industrialization, the formation of historic neighborhoods (Pilsen, Lawndale, Chinatown), and the rise of House and electronic music. We will conduct periodic field trips throughout the city to enhance our readings, research, and experience-based understanding of Chicago¿s ever-present histories. Relevant artists, writers, and activists include Gwendoline Brooks (poet), Gordon Parks (photographer), Amanda Williams (architect/artist), and Frankie Knuckles (DJ), among others. FYS II builds upon the foundational writing skills students began learning in FYS I, with the introduction of more self-directed rigorous argumentation and research. Students should expect to write 20 to 25 pages of formal, revisable writing (one experiential essay and one research project, both with multiple drafts), as well as homework exercises and in-class writing. Furthermore, peer review, class workshopping of student papers, and individual meetings to discuss each student's writing should be expected.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1308

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 206

Description

Discretionary time is time that is not constrained by the necessities of life. It is the domain of recreation and play. This class invites students to critically engage with modes of recreation: hobbies, games, outdoor activities, media consumption, creative pursuits, and vice. Through texts and discussion, students will inquire into how society produces and is produced by its modes of recreation, and how social relations are impacted through its dynamics. They will also bring greater attention to themselves and the values undergirding their personal modes of recreation. The focus of this class is to help students develop the skills required to perform academic research. Students will learn how to propose lines of inquiry, shortlist and interrogate sources, reference sources, and synthesize material. Ultimately, the final project for the class will be a high-quality research paper. Over the course of the semester, in total, students will be expected to produce 20-25 pages of material. Texts for the class include Diane Ackerman, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Tricia Hersey, Priya Parker.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1332

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 111

Description

The city has been a key motif in world literature. In this course we will chart the evolution of the imaginary city from East to West, from ancient to modern times and from ideal to surreal. We will explore how numerous novels, poems and philosophical works capture the ways in which cities reflect our collective dreams, desires as well as nightmares. In this course we will turn to narratives of travel, imagination and exploration ranging from Plato¿s ideal Kallipolis and Coleridge¿s opium induced dream of Xanadu to the dystopian and surreal visions of Nabokov and Carroll as well as evasive visions of Kafka and Borges. FYS II is an intensive writing course that prepares students for other Liberal Arts courses. In class, we will engage deeply with course materials in productive discussions that will foster critical thinking and inform student writing. In addition to weekly homework assignments and in-class writing, students can expect to compose and revise 20-25 pages of formal writing through a process approach to hone their argumentative skills and build their confidence in expressing their ideas clearly and effectively.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1333

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 816

Description

Tanner, Hughes, Baker. Prophet, Bearden, Chase-Rimboud. Wright, Baldwin, Himes. African-American visual, literary, and performing artists have journeyed to Paris for a few months, a year, or a lifetime to find what they could not in the United States, a space to fully explore, develop, and execute their artistic vision. This FYSII course examines the history of African American artists in Paris, exploring the cultural, political, and artistic forces that drew them to the city of light. Through short written responses and longer formal papers, students will continue to develop their writing skills as they consider this rich history.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1309

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 111

Description

This course serves as an introduction to philosophy through an exploration of some of its basic questions. Specifically, through a reading of two chapters from Descartes¿ Meditations the course will address questions that fall under the following headings: 1: Epistemology: What is knowledge? What are the sources of knowledge? What is philosophical skepticism about knowledge? What can be known with certainty? 2: Mind and Self: What is mind and how is it distinct from matter? What is consciousness? The course is writing intensive: students should expect to write 20-25 pages of formal, revisable writing, including the research paper.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1334

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 112

Description

Identity is a contested social field where internal notions war with external labels. In this class, we examine identity from a four-field anthropological perspective We explore the social nature of the human species, examine how the performance of language unites individuals and distinguishes groups, and discuss the problematic notion of bounded cultures and their reification in classic and contemporary ethnography and in archaeological writings.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1311

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 501

Description

How can we think about a world today that exists within the long shadows of histories of colonial extraction, violence, and racism? How does history shape the languages and categories through which we feel, speak, think, and act? What is the nature of power, and what happens to power when the one who exercises it to dominate others disappears from direct view? What does it mean to be free, or to decolonize a world or a mind? These are the kinds of questions out of which 'postcolonial theory' developed. In this writing-intensive seminar, we will begin with foundational texts from Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Edward Said, Gayatri Spivak, and Homi Bhabha. We will then draw out the resonances of these writers through anti-colonial, Black radical, Afropessimist, feminist, and Marxist traditions that challenge and extend postcolonial theory's interventions into our concepts of 'theory' and political struggle. In the process, as a group working together in a studio writing class, we will interweave discussion with writing exercises oriented around conceptual problems at the center of postcolonial theory, including the power of writing itself. From various freewriting exercises to formal essays that will go through multiple processes of revision, we will practice several different writing styles in order to consider the various meanings of freedom, domination, and the possibilities of subversion as a guiding principle for writing itself. FYS II develops college-level writing skills, prepares one for upper level Liberal Arts courses, and allows one to improve expressing their ideas in writing.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1335

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 501

Description

Why do we love books and movies about people going mad? What is so interesting about those at the edge? In this writing course, students consider the character of the ¿madman¿ in literature and film, and ask why this character continues to speak to audiences. Readings and screenings will include ¿The Yellow Wallpaper,¿ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Monkey King by Patricia Chao, and the classic film Harvey. In addition to weekly writings, students will write essays with an emphasis on revision, culminating in a final research paper exploring the idea of the ¿madman¿ in popular culture.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1312

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1427

Description

In this writing intensive course, we will develop the skills of argument-driven composition as we examine the aesthetic shift in American cinema from the classic Hollywood studio system of the 1940s-1950s to the ¿New Hollywood¿ of the 1960s-1970s. What was the studio system, and how did it end? What system of production took its place? In tracing the cultural and economic shifts that led to the creation of the modern Hollywood, we¿ll also track the reinvention of genres like the melodrama, the musical, and the film noir. Readings will include critical works by Raymond Borde and Étienne Cahumeton, Jeanine Basinger, and Mark Harris. These materials will inform multiple argument-driven essays which students will draft and revise over the course of the semester. Students should expect to write 20-25 pages of formal, revisable writing, in addition to homework exercises and in-class writing. FYS II will build upon the foundational writing skills students began learning in FYS I, with the introduction of more rigorous argumentation and research. Eventually, writing will be more self-directed in this FYS II class.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1313

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 205

Description

FYS II is the follow-up course to FYS I, where students develop their writing skills to include research and argumentation. In this class we¿ll look at how the Irish fought to overthrow colonial rule in 1916-1922 and win the Irish War for Independence. We¿ll learn about the Old I.R.A. as well as the Cumann na Ban, the women¿s paramilitary that aided the guerilla fighters. In the second part of the course, we¿ll examine the partition of Ireland into Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. With a deep dive into The Troubles, we¿ll interrogate the weapons of terrorism as well as the nonviolent resistance of hunger strikes. We¿ll examine all sides of the issues by reviewing poetry (Seamus Heaney and Eavan Boland), political commentary and research (Fintan O¿Toole and Patrick Radden Keefe), and contemporary short stories and creative nonfiction (Clare Keegan, Dioreen ni Grioffa). We¿ll also unpack how current politics, especially Brexit and demographic changes, threaten to destabilize Northern Ireland. Through in-class writing exercises, drafting of papers, and mindful writing workshops, students will develop their writing and researching skills, with the creation of 20-25 pages of academic writing.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1336

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 818

Description

FYS II are theme-based writing courses designed for first-year students, with an emphasis on further developing the foundational writing skills students learned in FYS I. Students will continue to hone the intellectual skills of reading critically, and writing responsively, which forms the basis of each student's career at the School. While faculty have autonomy in determining course theme, the theme is an accessory to the writing; the balance in these classes is weighed toward explicit writing instruction and workshopping of student writing, not content. This course provides guided experience in writing college-level essays of various kinds, which may include critical, analytical and argumentative essays, and must include the research paper. It is a policy of the department that at least one essay be a research paper which may involve searching for sources in a library or online, learning to make citations, and preparing an annotated bibliography. A significant amount of time is devoted to the craft of writing, and more sophisticated methods of argumentation and use of evidence and developing independent claims and ideas are explored. Students should expect to write 20-25 pages of formal, revisable writing across the course of the semester. A significant amount of time may be devoted to re-writing essays, so as to develop first drafts into final versions. In-class writing, short homework exercises, and workshopping of student work may be included. Individual meetings to discuss each student's papers should be expected.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1337

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 919

Description

When the first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was created in 1942 in Chicago, human society was destined to tackle with an unsolvable conundrum. How could our society possibly justify the augmentation of this enormous power that could destroy our own existence? This course investigates discourses around two major uses of nuclear power in society ¿ nuclear weapons and nuclear energy ¿ and examines them through social justice lenses. Key points of inquiry include: what risks are associated with nuclear weapons and energy and how they have been evaluated in contrast to their benefits, how the damages that were caused by nuclear weapons and energy have been addressed and mended, and whether the harms that were made by nuclear weapons and energy equally impact all groups of people. Building on the basic reading and writing skills introduced in FYS I, FYS II will further students¿ academic skills in writing an independent research paper. Therefore, in this course, students are expected to read primary and secondary sources to collect evidence to develop their critical arguments on nuclear problems.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1315

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1427

Description

First-Year Seminars can be thought of as writing studios: their purpose is to help you develop your academic writing skills by practicing writing, revision, and critique. Each FYS course is organized around a topic that orients students¿ writing practice; the topic of this course is the interpretation of dreams. Dreams have fascinated human beings for a long time. Whether understood as a source of inspiration, a cause for amusement, a glimpse into the soul, a pool of diagnostic information, or an everyday process of cognitive housekeeping, dreams have been regarded by some of history¿s most penetrating thinkers as essential to the project of making sense of ourselves and our place in the world. In this course we will investigate the writings of some eminent interpreters of dreams, and through the writing process we will develop our own interpretations in response to their ideas. Our readings will draw upon ancient and medieval philosophy (Aristotle, Zhuangzi, Augustine), early psychoanalysis (Freud, Jung), and contemporary dream science. In addition to short homework assignments, students will complete two major papers¿a Texts-in-Conversation Essay and a Research Paper¿which will go through multiple rounds of review and revision. Throughout the course, we will focus on strategies and techniques for effective writing, including idea-generation, composition, revision, and argument-construction.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1316

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1427

Description

Food is one of life¿s great pleasures and the pursuit of flavor and nutrition has shaped the global map as we know it today. Every culture has food rituals around both its preparation and consumption, while the academic study of food intersects with almost every other topic of study, from economics and biology, to history and art. This course will focus on texts that span a variety of nations, languages, genres, and mediums, all of which explore the collective human experience of food. What do we eat¿and when and why? How did our most beloved foods come to be and how do they reach us today? In response to these questions, we¿ll read texts by famous food-writers such as Michael Pollan and Samir Nosrat, alongside horror and fantasy stories by Cassandra Khaw and Seanan McGuire. We¿ll examine medieval recipes alongside viral TikTok recipes; view Dutch and Flemish still lifes and Warhol paintings; and watch the Hulu show The Bear and Stanley Tucci¿s movie Big Night. In their research and writing students can expect to explore the topic of food that most inspires their curiosity, FYS II builds upon the foundational writing skills students began learning in FYS I, with the introduction of more rigorous argumentation and research. Eventually, writing and revision will be more self-directed in this FYS II class, which provides guided experience in writing college-level essays of various kinds. Students should expect to write 20-25 pages of formal, revisable writing as well as homework exercises and in-class writing. This writing will take the form of two essays and a final project, an in-depth revision based on instructor and peer workshop feedback.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1347

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 816

Description

Fernando Pessoa in Lisbon, Virginia Woolf in London, Frank O¿Hara in New York City; writers, philosophers and artists of all kinds have long created, expanded, and contracted the self through the act and practice of walking. We will spend this semester reading and writing texts structured around the movement of the self in the city and country, at home and away, considering both content and representations of the body in space. We will look at authors, filmmakers and conceptual artists from a range of linguistic and cultural backgrounds to ask: What kind of literary devices does the author use? How does the tone/style contribute to the work as a whole? How does the text build, sentence by sentence or scene by scene? Are specific images repeated and/or used differently throughout the work? Students should expect to write 20-25 pages of formal, revisable writing, including a researched essay.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1317

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 202

Description

This intense writing course fosters college-level writing skills at a level suitable for upper level Liberal Arts courses. Various types of essays will be executed (e.g., analysis, comparison and contrast) over a number of drafts. As for content, the course targets two aesthetic and philosophical phenomena: the critical and the fine. These phenomena can appear apart (e.g., critical thinking apart from the fine can lead to cynicism and even misology), but they can, in synthesis, produce both philosophy and art of the highest order. M. Gelven's text, The Quest for the Fine, and J. Lynch's The English Language, provide examples from philosophy, art, and language that illustrate paradigmatic syntheses of the critical and the fine. We'll consider, for example, the following distinction: The active voice lends crispness to your writing...but the passive voice works well when the action is more relevant than the person or thing doing the action. By reviewing such instances of grammatical and syntactical precision, across different topics, we will develop our internal sense of the fine. As for the critical, consider the following line by Emily Dickinson: 'Because I could not stop for death...he kindly stopped for me....' It takes the critical touch of a master poet to insert kindly; why, after all, kindly? Do not humans tend to flee death? Is not death a topic to be avoided? Do not many of us rather wish, sometimes idly and sometimes fervently, that we could live forever, or at least longer than we do? Or, has the poet revealed an ambiguity in how one might really feel, and think, about one's mortality? In this seminar, we will learn to make and appreciate such examples in writing, and indeed in writing that displays a heightened criticality and a heightened sense of the fine. Fine and critical writing is expected each week in weekly seminar reports, and over the entire semester in four essays, resulting in 20-25 pages of formal, revised writing.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1318

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 205

Description

What is the meaning of life? How does life translate to the page and canvas? In this course, we will practice the art of writing by representing its relations to life. FYS II develops college-level writing skills, preparing students for upper-level Liberal Arts courses. We¿ll focus on still lifes¿among the most enduring, versatile, and overlooked art forms¿which illuminate new perspectives on the lives of artists and the lives of objects we represent. Authors including Lisa Knopp and Norman Bryson will provide critical context for the course, while artists including Alice Neel, Georges Braque, Fernand Léger, Juan Sánchez Cotán, Jonas Wood, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso will set the table with examples of the genre. However, students will develop writing projects around still life artists of their choice. We will experiment with ekphrasis, the detailed written description of visual art. We¿ll write about art that portrays the interplay of life, death, and (in)animacy, as we consider the history of ideas represented through still lifes including: the limits and possibilities of genre, vanitas, memento mori, and subject/object relations. Students will create 20-25 pages of formal, revisable, and (if they choose) publishable writing across three short essays and two in-depth revisions. Students will also learn to write a research paper, using scholarly constraints to enhance creativity.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1338

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 205

Description

In this course we will work to develop our capacities as critical writers and readers by engaging the question: ¿what is a voice?¿ To do this, we will move across the domains of politics (¿voice of the people¿), linguistics (¿spoken voice¿), psychology (¿individual voice¿), creativity (¿find your voice¿), sound (¿tone of voice¿), the body (¿vocal chords and voice box¿), technology (¿the recorded voice¿), and the sacred (¿voice of God¿). Ultimately, we will cultivate through writing and discussion a semester- long call and response via the diverse meanings and identities attributed to the voice across a range of cultural and historical locations. How do these diverse formulations resonate and speak with one another, and what might their connections reveal about how we understand ourselves and our world? Our course materials will include works by linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, composer Pauline Oliveros, the poet Ovid, sociologist W.E.B Du Bois, novelist Tommy Orange, philosopher Maladan Dolar, folk tales collected by the Brothers Grim, the spiritual texts of Hazrat Inayat Kahn, the blues music of Ma Rainey, among many others. Thematically, we will frequently consider the ways that the voice transgress the borders of metaphor and material fact, shaping our sense of both the individual and the collective. Throughout this course students will develop techniques for critical reading, writing, and listening, as we discuss materials which present and theorize the identity and meaning of the voice, including examples from music, religious studies, poetry, and philosophy. Students will analyze, synthesize, and compare these multiple perspectives in weekly writing assignments and class discussions and develop strategies for mobilizing diverse forms of evidence in support of their original arguments.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1319

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 818

Description

FYS II are theme-based writing courses designed for first-year students, with an emphasis on further developing the foundational writing skills students learned in FYS I. Students will continue to hone the intellectual skills of reading critically, and writing responsively, which forms the basis of each student's career at the School. While faculty have autonomy in determining course theme, the theme is an accessory to the writing; the balance in these classes is weighed toward explicit writing instruction and workshopping of student writing, not content. This course provides guided experience in writing college-level essays of various kinds, which may include critical, analytical and argumentative essays, and must include the research paper. It is a policy of the department that at least one essay be a research paper which may involve searching for sources in a library or online, learning to make citations, and preparing an annotated bibliography. A significant amount of time is devoted to the craft of writing, and more sophisticated methods of argumentation and use of evidence and developing independent claims and ideas are explored. Students should expect to write 20-25 pages of formal, revisable writing across the course of the semester. A significant amount of time may be devoted to re-writing essays, so as to develop first drafts into final versions. In-class writing, short homework exercises, and workshopping of student work may be included. Individual meetings to discuss each student's papers should be expected.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1339

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 919

Description

In this course, we learn to inquire according to the most basic question available to us: to ask what something is. For this purpose, we'll read a handful of Platonic Dialogues, which are as comprehensive as they are artistic. Each dialogue asks a question about something fundamental to human life: What is love? What is art? What is friendship? What is power? What is god? What is courage? What is justice? Throughout the course, we'll write a couple of shorter assignments in preparation for a final paper. Building on FYS I, we now further learn how to write for specific readers. Far from merely demonstrating that you the author understand something, your writing will have to explain something to someone who doesn't understand, someone who may be resistant to understanding. In order to do so, we rely on regular, structured sessions of peer feedback, which involve specific, suggested revisions, rather than mere indications of like and dislike. And though we'll learn select principles of writing, such as those of argument, or of introductions, or of conclusions, the course utterly depends on your involvement: If we cannot be readers for one another, in all our idiosyncrasies and specific feedback, then we can't learn how to write for this or that discourse community. Students can expect to write at least two pages per week, culminating in a final research paper or project. Over the semester, students produce 20-25 pages of formal, revisable writing.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1320

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 501

Description

Nearly three years into the Covid pandemic and we are still in the midst of a prolonged state of grief. As we consider the ways in which we have found - or struggled to find - help with our grief, the questions must be asked: What mechanisms were in place for communal grief? What mechanisms were in place for individual grief? Moreover, in times of tragedy and trauma, who or what can we turn towards to help us with this incredibly complex and human process? In this second semester course, each student will build off the academic writing and critical reading skills of FYS1 and work to construct a formal research essay that examines the role of art in grief. While our individual work will be specific and focused, our combined efforts will represent a broad exploration into the psychology of grief in the context of art. As a class community, we will examine the behavioral science behind grief, the various cultural practices and traditions around grief, and the ways in which both visual and written art are often our best tools for understanding grief. Sources may vary, but expect to read and analyze a diverse collection of authors and artists, including: Jhumpa Lahiri, James Joyce, Pema Chodron, Pauline Boss, Ada Limon, Roger Robinson, Carrie Mae Weems, and Chimamanda Adichie. Students will learn how to formulate a meaningful research question, vett and synthesize a variety of sources, and produce a polished academic research paper. We will utilize writing workshops, peer review, and process-oriented feedback to help us each produce 20-25 pages of formal and revisable writing.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1340

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 112

Description

As we enter a post-pandemic world, the impact of loneliness and importance of community is clearer than ever. But at the same time, the picture of the American family is changing: the nuclear model of the 1940s and 1950s has shifted to one that is less culturally defined and more dynamic, and this constantly shifting structure calls for new definitions and careful exploration. In this course, we will dig into the standard narratives around relationship structures, and the ways in which writers and thinkers have been exploding these structures for centuries. We'll read about sacred non-romantic relationships in Plato's texts, romantic friendships of the Victorian era, queer family history from the 1960s and 1970s, and 20th century ideas of radical friendship and the queering of friendship. Authors we'll study in this course will include Plato, Tennyson, Charlotte Bronte, Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Eileen Myles, Michelle Tea, Kristen Radtke, dean spade, and others. We'll also explore and discuss themes off the beaten path (but well within the forest) of queerness ¿ like asexuality, ethical nonmonagmy, polyamory, chosen family, intentional community, and more. This course will build on academic essay writing skills from FYSI to synthesize ideas and information in an effort to analyze how writers and thinkers have defined and redefined family. Students can expect to produce 20-25 pages of formal, revisable writing, including a final research project.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

2215

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1428

Description

This writing intensive First Year Seminar introduces students to the anthropological study of the senses and how to communicate sensory experience through ethnographic writing. By close examination of ethnographic texts, films, podcasts, and other multimedia, students will explore how cultures 'make sense' of the everyday and increasingly globalized world. With emphasis on written assignments, we approach the notion of perception as more than a purely physical act, and through structured participation and deliberate observation, students will learn how sensory experiences are deeply related to our own histories and cultural identities. Course activities center around developing analytic skills in the genre of ethnographic writing, and critically engaging with cross-cultural examples of sensual mediations of reality. Topics range from how the senses shape the aesthetics of daily life through color, odor, and flavor, to the significance of communication and information of technologies in the era of virtual reality, slime videos, and the online autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) community.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

2216

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 111

Description

How have artists in literature, theater, music, and other sound-based media represented or incorporated the human voice into their work? This FYS II course builds on the writing and thinking skills students began to develop in FYS I by introducing more advanced argumentation and research methods. To guide our inquiry, we might consider questions such as: How do we understand 'authentic' or 'common' speech, what accounts for its claim on our attention, and what are the politics around it? How does its apparent spontaneity relate to formal aspects of a work of art? Why do diverse folk traditions put human speech in the mouths of animals? How do we experience, on the one hand, divine or oracular voices understood to come from beyond humankind, and on the other, AI-generated simulacra? What does it mean to appropriate another's voice, and why is spoken language such a significant marker of individual and collective identity? How have new technologies of amplification, reproduction, and distribution changed how we hear ourselves? Sources we may consider include: Wordsworth, European opera, Brecht / Weill, Lotte Lenya, Cathy Berberian, Derek Walcott, Kamau Braithwaite, Linda Rosenkrantz, Meredith Monk, Bernadette Mayer, Pere Gimferrer, Nathaniel Mackey, American hip hop. Students can expect to produce 20-25 pages of formal, revisable writing, as well as regular in- and out-of-class assignments. The course builds toward a self-directed research paper on a topic of the student's choosing.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

2217

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 112

Description

Cyber Feminisms explores the intersections of feminism, technology, and digital culture through a research-driven lens. Students will critically engage with a range of topics, including the influence of digital spaces on gender identities, the consequences of algorithmic bias, and the ways marginalized communities use technology for resistance and self-expression. This course will analyze the role of the internet in shaping feminist discourse while developing digital literacies essential for academic writing in the 21st century. Students should expect to write 20 to 25 pages of formal, revisable writing (i.e. a semester-long research-based essay with multiple drafts) as well as homework exercises and in-class writing. Much in-class writing will be included, as emphasis is on development of the intellectual skills of reading and responding critically, which forms the basis of each student's career at SAIC. Furthermore, peer review of student papers, and individual meetings to discuss each student¿s writing should be expected.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

2222

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 818

Description

When scientists conduct research involving human subjects, they are required to seek permission from Institutional Review Boards to ensure that their research is safe and ethical. Artists, however, have no such obligation. When working with human subjects ¿ whether they be muses, models, collaborators, participants, or viewers ¿ artists often must decide for themselves what is right or wrong. For example, should street photographers get consent from the people they photograph? Is it okay for performance artists to make their audiences physically or psychologically uncomfortable? Should some art come with a trigger warning? Is it appropriate for a painter or fashion designer to ask a model to endure pain or danger for the sake of art? What do artists owe their subjects (financially, emotionally, morally, etc.)? In this research and writing-intensive course, we¿ll explore these types of questions through artworks, installations, and performance pieces by artists including Sophie Calle, Clifford Owens, Paul McCarthy, Arne Svenson, Vanessa Beecroft, Santiago Sierra, Marina Abramovic, Song Ta, and others. Writing assignments ¿ totaling 20-25 pages over the course of the semester ¿ will emphasize summary, analysis, argument, research, revision, and other academic writing skills.

Prerequisites

Prerequisite: ENGLISH 1001.

Class Number

1307

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1428

Description

The Foundations Writing Workshop is a process-based writing course that serves as students' initiation to the foundations of academic writing in a school of art and design. Students engage in the writing process, learn strategies for exploring topics, and develop their knowledge of the concepts and terminology of art and design through the practice of various kinds of written compositions. Analysis of essays and active participation in writing-critiques are integral components of the Workshop.

Class Number

1002

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 816

Description

This is the first of two English language fluency courses for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students improve their academic English skills by reading and responding to art appreciation and art history texts. Texts are analyzed for formal as well as contextual information. Students learn how to integrate their own observations and knowledge with information gained from reading and lecture. Students also build competence and confidence in college-level writing. Topics include formal analyses and/or critical responses to works of art. Presentations and class discussions also give students practice communicating their knowledge through speaking.

Class Number

1280

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 501

Description

This is the first of two English language fluency courses for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students improve their academic English skills by reading and responding to art appreciation and art history texts. Texts are analyzed for formal as well as contextual information. Students learn how to integrate their own observations and knowledge with information gained from reading and lecture. Students also build competence and confidence in college-level writing. Topics include formal analyses and/or critical responses to works of art. Presentations and class discussions also give students practice communicating their knowledge through speaking.

Class Number

1288

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 818

Description

This critique course is offered for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students build competence in giving critiques, participating in class discussions, and giving presentations. Students make artwork to present to the class. They learn and practice the vocabulary of visual and design elements and use these to analyze and critique their own and their classmates' works. Students practice a variety of critique formats by using formal, social-cultural, and expressive theories of art criticism. They discuss and critique works both verbally and in writing.

Class Number

1289

Credits

3

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 111

Description

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

Class Number

1281

Credits

1.5

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1011

Description

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

Class Number

1282

Credits

1.5

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

MacLean 818

Description

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

Class Number

1292

Credits

1.5

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1011

Description

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

Class Number

1283

Credits

1.5

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1004

Description

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

Class Number

1293

Credits

1.5

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1011

Description

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

Class Number

1284

Credits

1.5

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1011

Description

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

Class Number

1294

Credits

1.5

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1011

Description

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

Class Number

1285

Credits

1.5

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1011

Description

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

Class Number

1286

Credits

1.5

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Lakeview - 1004

Description

This class offers small group tutoring for students who do not speak English as their first language. Students meet with an EIS instructor in groups of three for 1 1/2 hours each week. Students receive assistance with their class assignments for Art History, Liberal Arts and Studio classes. Activities may include discussing class concepts, checking comprehension, exploring ideas for papers or projects, revising papers, or practicing pronunciation and presentations.

Class Number

1296

Credits

1.5

Department

Liberal Arts

Location

Online