Michael R. Paradiso-Michau

FYS 1 provides guided experience in college-level writing, thereby forming the necessary foundation for FYS II and upper level Liberal Arts classes. This section of FYS 1 will take a deep dive into the minds of both Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein (1818) and Victor Frankenstein, the infamous scientist who reanimated body parts into his infamous Monster. We will read, write, think, watch, discuss, and critically reflect on one novel and its continuing legacies into the twenty-first century. Readings and screenings will include the Frankenstein novel by Mary Shelley, secondary scholarship on her novel, films that adapt and rework Frankensteinian themes, and one graphic novel updating of the classic myth. 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, two presentations, and in-class writing.

All FYS 2 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 learn to collaborate and to take their work, and the work of their peers seriously, thereby establishing best practices of critique. This FYS 2 course will explore the interconnected meanings of race, horror, and monstrosity. In particular, we will focus on the presentations and representations of racial difference in the Americas. From Birth of a Nation (1915) to Get Out (2017), and from the transatlantic slave trade to contemporary #BlackLivesMatter movements, African-American struggles for dignity and inclusion have produced ¿philosophies born of struggle,¿ i.e. avenues of critical thought and activism with an eye toward social liberation and freedom from daily fear.

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.