WRC 1104-101 INVESTIGATIONS GLOBAL: MAPPING MONSTERS
- Audrey Fessler
- MW 2:00pm-3:15pm & TR 11:00am-1:45pm
- LLR 321
This course will range across many eras and cultures to explore diverse monsters and their psychological and social functions. Andrew J. Hoffman, in his anthology Monsters, posits that "Monsters are not merely entertainment. The study of monsters is the study of what it means to be human in a world that provides much to fear and avoid. Since time immemorial, people have had to deal with fear: fear of the wild, fear of the unknown, even fear of each other. Monsters may be a repository for much that is negative in human experience. In this way, monsters provide us with the opportunity to connect to important issues of society, psychology, science, medicine, art, and religion" (3). Analyses by scholars from many fields—including classical studies, critical studies, cultural anthropology, history, monster theory (yes!), sociology, philosophy, psychology, religion, and urban theory—will inform our responses to primary sources of monster lore. Course work will include frequent reading reflections and quizzes, occasional leadership of portions of class discussion, and two research projects with accompanying research presentations.
WRC 1104-102 INVESTIGATIONS GLOBAL: 1492: A YEAR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
- Marjon Ames
- TR 11:00am-1:45pm & 2:00pm-3:15pm
- LLR 365
Columbus sailing the ocean blue in 1492 is merely one of many watersheds of early modern history. The beginnings of European expansion around the globe, shifts in Islamic Africa, conflict in Italy, Russian and Eastern European emergence, East Asian cultural shifts, and Indian trade developments are some of the major events that historians are now considering as part of a larger series of connected events. This class will explore the year 1492 through a variety of lenses to better understand the transition from the medieval to early modern period. The class structure will incorporate lectures, examination of primary and secondary source readings, multimedia exercises, literary and cinematic narrative fiction, and most of all class discussions that encourage critical thinking.
WRC 1104-103 INVESTIGATIONS GLOBAL: ANCIENT WISDOM FOR MODERN PROBLEMS
- Ralph Lentz
- TR 11:00am-1:45pm & 2:00pm-3:15pm
- LLR 263
What would Krishna say about Hitler? What would Hesiod say about "progress," technology, and global climate change? What would Confucius think of education at ASU? What would would Moses think about capitalism? We will explore these and other questions about the "human condition" in the 21st century by entering into conversation with Ancients from India to Athens, from China to Jerusalem, to see how the wisdom of the ancient world can help solve our modern problems of war, technological disruption, education and economics. This will involve dramatic readings, interactive engagement with the philosophy and practices of Kung-Fu, seminar discussion and contemplative and critical essays.
WRC 1104-104 INVESTIGATIONS GLOBAL: THE SHADOW WARS: VOICES FROM IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN
- Joseph Bathanti
- TR 11:00am-1:45pm & 2:00pm-3:15pm
- LLR 221
The war in Afghanistan, begun in 2001, is now 17 years old. The war in Iraq, begun in 2003, also continues in different forms, and across different Middle East borders. Out of these wars has exploded an extraordinary trove of literature that continues to appear even as the wars rage, and there’s reason to believe that an entire wave of a wholly new genre of literature, borne of our 21st-century wars, is being minted, especially, by this hybrid generation of U.S. combat veteran writers. This course will explore that literature – through poetry, fiction, memoir, essays, plays, and even occasional films – and through a variety of voices and lenses, including those of U.S. men and women soldiers, families left Stateside, as well as Iraqi and Afghan soldiers and noncombatants.
WRC 1104-105 INVESTIGATIONS GLOBAL: THE CITY AND THE COUNTRY
- Julia Callander
- MW 2:00pm-3:15pm & TR 11:00am-1:45pm
- LLA 205
The American West, rural Appalachia, and the (post)modern global city: this course will focus on these three mythological sites in order to explore how the distinction between urban and rural life has structured conversations about nationalism, citizenship, colonialism, industrialization, the environment, and more. We will examine the myths we tell ourselves about these places in order to better understand the cultural values that inform them. Who "belongs" in a place? Whose lives are the most "real" or "authentic"? What can urban-rural disparities tell us about the nature of social inequality more broadly? And how do different communities cope with environmental or social upheaval? Our inquiry will draw on materials and methods from history, sociology, politics, law, philosophy, literature, visual culture, popular music, and film and TV.
WRC 2001-101 28607: DAYS IN THE LIFE
- Audrey Fessler
- TR 3:30pm-4:45pm
- LLR 321
- Serves as Sophomore Writing
Writing is about making choices. We will read texts from a variety of academic disciplines, including analyses of disciplinary writing per se, in order to identify other writers’ rhetorical choices and discipline-specific writing strategies and conventions. Several writing projects, some of which will entail independent research, will provide students opportunities to make effective choices in their own writing for specific purposes and academic communities, and in various media. Learning to assess different writing situations and make effective context-specific rhetorical choices should prepare students to meet all kinds of writing challenges in the future, whether it be for another college course, on the job, or for civic or personal reasons.
WRC 2001-102 28607: DAYS IN THE LIFE
- Damiana Pyle
- MWF 10:00am-10:50am
- LLR 221
- Serves as Sophomore Writing
WRC 2001 is designed to hone the research and analytical skills that you learned in WRC 1000 while introducing you to writing and reading across academic disciplines. Our particular section of WRC 2001 will take a rhetorical approach to reading and writing across the curriculum. If you work hard in WRC 2001, you will be superbly prepared for the third- and fourth-year writing courses in your major field of study. Writing is about making choices. We will read texts from a variety of academic disciplines, including analyses of disciplinary writing per se, in order to identify other writers’ rhetorical choices and discipline-specific writing strategies and conventions. Our writing projects, some of which will entail independent research, will provide you opportunities to make effective choices in your own writing for specific purposes and academic communities, and in various media. Learning to assess different writing situations and make effective context-specific rhetorical choices should prepare you to meet all kinds of writing challenges in the future, whether it be for another college course, on the job, or for civic or personal reasons.
WRC 2100/HON 2515-101 THE LIVES OF ANIMALS
- Michael Dale
- MW 2:00pm-3:15pm
- LLR 221
- NOTE: saving 6 seats for Honors
As Martha Nussbaum reminds us, we homo sapiens do not live alone on the planet. We share the world and its resources with a wonderful variety of flora and fauna, including other intelligent and emotional creatures. The nature of communal living requires that we be attentive to the moral questions and issues that relationships between living beings demands. What should be the nature of our human relationships with the non-human animals with which we share this world? Should non-human animals be seen as part of the community of human beings? What, if any, are the moral demands that non-human animals make upon us if they are seen as a part of our community? What does it mean to be a human being in a moral relationship with other living, non-human beings?
WRC 2201-101 HEARING VOICES: SCIENCE AND NATURE IN LITERATURE
- Michael Dale
- TR 2:00pm-3:15pm
- LLR 321
Living in relationships with the natural world (land, oceans, and the larger universe of galaxies and star systems) and reaching for an understanding of nature provides fertile ground for novelists, short-story writers, and writers of narrative non-fiction. In this seminar we will explore and examine the intellectual and emotional landscape of fictional and non-fiction beings as they are immersed in and navigate the world of science and nature. What happens when the sciences and humanities meet? What do we learn about science and the all-too-human human beings who pursue scientific knowledge and understanding when both are brought together on the landscapes of novels, short stories, poems, and essays? Our narrative journey will also include selections of poetry.
Possible Books:
Andrea Barrett, Ship Fever
Alan Lightman, Einstein's Dreams
Annie Dillard, For The Time Being
J.M. Ledgard, Submergence
Richard Powers, The Echo Maker
Anthony Doerr, The Shell Collector
WRC 2202-101 WHAT IF? ASKING HISTORICAL QUESTIONS: "WAIT, WHAT HAPPENED?!" EXPLORING EARLY MODERN ENGLAND THROUGH NARRATIVE HISTORY AND HISTORICAL FICTION
- Marjon Ames
- MWF 11:00am-11:50am
- LLR 263
How do we know what we think we know? What informs our understanding of the past? This course examines both historical nonfiction and fictionalized accounts of Tudor-Stuart England to help us shape the ways we think about this seminal period in history. Students read a variety of historical works in order to form a foundation of techniques and theories on which to build. Students read fiction in conjunction with nonfiction, and consider what makes for successful storytelling and why it has fascinated people throughout history. Students examine different storytelling techniques employed, question the quality of the portrayal of the historical backdrop, and observe how different approaches in narrative can result in different stories. The course's main foci are the stories told by the students themselves. By the end of the semester, each student is expected to produce a substantial piece of historical fiction. The class is structured around a series of workshops in which students lead the discussions and critique each other's work.
WRC 3000-101 INTERROGATING POPULAR CULTURE: SHERLOCK THROUGH SUPERMAN TO BUFFY AND BEYOND
- Linda Jencson
- MW 3:30pm-4:45pm
- LLR 263
This course investigates the social contexts and meanings of popular culture grounded in various times and places around the globe. It does so by utilizing a social science approach informed by a variety of other arts and sciences disciplines. Students will read, view, listen to, and share scholarly analyses as well as the products of popular culture themselves. Various ways of knowing a pop culture production or franchise will be explored, including fandom, artistic values, scholar-fandom, social science content analyses and participant observation in fan subcultures. Students will learn that nothing is “just a story,” “only a song,” “merely a game,” but will instead explore the products of popular culture as reflecting and influencing human relations in the spheres of gender, family, ethnicity, nation, international relations, and socio-economic class. Projects include: mutual interviews to enhance awareness of personal engagement with favorite pop culture products, a web and scholarly journal-based exploration of the social values and societal impact of chosen pop culture narratives, and a group participant / observation project in which students will “infiltrate,” establish rapport, and write an ethnographic of their direct engagement with a local or on-line fandom.
WRC 3203-101 WHY ART: WAYS OF RESPONDING TO THE WORLD AROUND US
- Mel Falck
- W 5:00pm-7:30pm
- LLA 205
"Why Art? Ways of Responding to the World Around Us" is an interdisciplinary exploration of creative responses to the natural world and constructed environments. Artistic forms studied may include visual art, dance, drama, poetry, music, puppetry, or film. This course will provide students with the opportunity to become familiar with the arts as a viable mode of knowing and interacting with the world. Through work in this course, students will develop a sense for Expressive Arts (EXA) based practices and will establish a working knowledge of similarities and differences between the Expressive Arts and Fine Arts oriented approaches to the creative process. Participants will be given an opportunity to grow in an understanding of how the arts can help to foster community and authentic engagement with self and other. Students will also engage with an understanding of the premises behind Arts Based Research (ABR) and its increasing adoption as a legitimate research tool.
WRC 3402-101 THE ART OF WORK: REPRESENTATIONS OF WORK IN LITERATURE AND FILM
- Joseph Bathanti
- TR 3:30pm-4:45pm
- LLR 221
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” This quote, from Gandalf, comes from The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkein, during a conversation between Gandalf and Frodo. When Frodo expresses his great regret over the seemingly apocalyptic turmoil in Middle Earth, Gandalf’s response, above, suggests that we are perhaps duty-bound to accept our destinies, and the fact that we often have very little control over our lives. This course will explore the notion and practice of work in its many incarnations, practices, definitions, and representations in literature and film: what constitutes it, how individuals construe, value, are influenced, controlled, conditioned and liberated by it. Students will read and discuss a variety of texts that will include fiction, poetry, memoir, essays, and film. This course will have a decidedly autobiographical slant, as you’ll be asked to write creatively – in your own poems, stories, and memoirs – about your personal experiences with work and the chain of associations that word has for you – however you choose to spin it – personally, culturally, conceptually.