Fall 2023 COURSES

• FWIS 101 The Bible in Popular Culture
• FWIS 103 True Crime and Crime Fiction
• FWIS 107 In the Matrix: On Human Bondage & Liberation
• FWIS 109 Contemporary Art and Environment
• FWIS 110 Jews on Film
• FWIS 114 The Holy Grail
• FWIS 115 Exploring Biological Research Challenges
• FWIS 119 The Beauty of the Beast
• FWIS 122 Conversations with Socrates
• FWIS 126 Animal, Plant, Mineral
• FWIS 128 “Space, Speed, Cinema”: The Automobile in American Film
• FWIS 134 Deep Cuts: Medicine at the Movies
• FWIS 135 What is a Book?
• FWIS 141 Technologies of Taste
• FWIS 142 Water and Cities
• FWIS 151 Making Sense of Ourselves
• FWIS 153 Surveillance, Security, and Society
• FWIS 159 Spirituality of the Internet
• FWIS 165 Mediation, "Fake News," and Democracy
• FWIS 166 What's Race Got to Do With It?
• FWIS 171 The Devil and the World
• FWIS 173 LGBTQ+ Literary Classics
• FWIS 175 Politics & Religion: The Jewish Question
• FWIS 176 Dramatic Pauses
• FWIS 178 Jesus Christ Movie Star
• FWIS 181 African - American Graphic Novel
• FWIS 182 Border Politics: Migrations and the Meanings of the Nation
• FWIS 184 Cultural Imagination of Texas
• FWIS 187 Intro to African Literature and Media in English
• FWIS 188 Eng Design & Communication
• FWIS 193 The Rule of Law and the Pursuit of Justice
• FWIS 195 Beyond the Equations
• FWIS 196 Business in the American Imagination
• FWIS 198 Climate Change & Climate Justice

The Bible in Popular Culture FWIS 101, Brian Ogren, W 1pm - 3:30pm We will introduce various ways in which the Bible plays a significant role in contemporary popular culture. By analyzing biblical references found in music, film, art, and the medial, students will discover that even in today's seemingly secular culture, the Bible continues to influence our artistic, social, and political landscapes.

Whodunit? Investigating True Crime and Crime Fiction FWIS 103, Els Woudstra, TTh 10:50am - 12:05pm It was Colonel Mustard, in the library, with a candlestick! In crime fiction, readers can investigate the crime alongside the fictional detective by following the clues sprinkled throughout the narrative. But while a crime fiction writer like Agatha Christie can plot her murders ahead of time, journalistic and legal investigations of true crimes depend on the careful, ethical examination and interpretation of forensic evidence. When we read or listen to crime stories, how can we know if the story accurately presents the facts? This course investigates the construction of evidence in crime fiction and true crime, by studying several classic crimes, and their adaptations in film, literature, and podcasts. By becoming familiar with the rules of evidence in true crime journalism and crime fiction, we will examine how the presentation of evidence in a crime story influences our understanding of the case, and navigate the distinctions between ‘truth’ and ‘accuracy.’

In the Matrix: On Human Bondage & Liberation FWIS 107, Philip Wood, TTh 4:00pm - 5:15pm Using the film "The Matrix" as the point of reference, this course presents celebrated explorations of servitude and emancipation - from religious mysticism to Marxism and artistic modernism. Texts by Lao Tzu, Farid ud-Din Attar, Plato, Freud, Marx, Baudelaire, J.S. Mill, Proust, de Beauvior, Malcolm X, Marcuse, Baudrillard.

Contemporary Art and Environment FWIS 109, Lina Dib, Section 1: TTh 10:50am-12:05pm / Section 2: TTh 1:00pm-2:15pm This course delves into questions of environment, ecology and sustainability through the lens of contemporary art. From earthworks, to performance, to land art, activist art, and community-based practices, participants engage critically and creatively with various contemporary practices. We discuss works that put art and environment into conversation by using landscapes as raw material and by highlighting our relationship to local and global ecological systems. Throughout the course, we explore how art provides ways to rescript interactions with our environment. Students work to design and create their own projects. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of much of the work we view, discuss, and propose, we read across a wide range of disciplines, including media studies, design, urban planning, humanities, art and anthropology. The course involves excursions to landfills, museums, gardens and other visits led by experts.

Jews on Film FWIS 110, Ofra Amihay, MWF 11:00am - 11:50am This course will explore the modern history and culture of Jews in America, Europe, Israel, and elsewhere through the medium of film. Students will be exposed to a diversity of Jewish communities around the globe while at the same time examining the way those communities are represented on film. The course will be organized around various themes and ideas that have shaped the Jewish experience in modernity, including secularization, immigration, assimilation, nationalism, race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, and religious practice. By situating the films in their historical, cultural, and political contexts, students will learn about the varied and changing forms of modern Jewish identity.

The Holy Grail: Religion, Quest, and Transformation FWIS 114, Claire Fanger, T 1pm-3:30pm This course explores the grail as an object, moving from its fictional roots in medieval romance through the subsequent literary-historical developments by which it emerges as a reality. We start by noting that the grail does not appear in the Bible. It is mentioned for the first time in a twelfth-century quest-romance by the French author Chrétien de Troyes. The word “grail” itself has a French origin. Why is it that the most famous sacred object in Christianity originates not with the bible, but with a romantic fiction about knights in armor? What is the social context of these stories? And how did people come so firmly to believe the Grail was tied to the Bible? We start with the medieval origins of the grail, explore associations of the grail within medieval Christianity, and move to grail motifs in modern occultism, fiction and film.

Exploring Biological Research FWIS 115, Beth Beason-Abmayr, MW 10:00am-11:30am This writing-intensive course introduces students to biological research and scientific communication. Student teams work on investigative projects with opportunities to ask questions, perform experiments, collect and analyze data, and share their findings. Recommended for students interested in the Biosciences major who have limited laboratory experience. Because of the collaborative, lab-based nature of this course, attendance at all class meetings is essential.

The Beauty of the Beast FWIS 119, Nina Cook, MWF 9:00am-9:50am There’s a reason “Beauty and the Beast” is called the Tale as Old as Time. It is a story that we, as a culture, keep telling and retelling: we are obsessed with the beauty of the beast. This course takes “Beauty and the Beast” as an object of study, examining its various adaptations in film and literature. We will engage with traditional adaptations, from Disney’s 1991 classic to the 2017 revision, and ask whether films such as Pride and Prejudice (2005), Jane Eyre (2011), and Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) can be read as interpretations of the tale. Close attention to form and content opens a space to discuss its propagandistic appeal and archetypal power. Using feminist and Marxist methods, we will think critically about how the story changes in response to cultural shifts, including ideas surrounding gender roles, toxic masculinity, and the tenuous fairy-tale conflation of goodness and beauty.

Conversations with Socrates FWIS 122, Hilary Mackie, TTh 1:00pm-2:15pm In this course we will read four Platonic dialogues that form a narrative about the last days of the Athenian philosopher Socrates, who was Plato's teacher and friend. We will explore the human concerns that Socrates and his friends discuss—piety, justice, wisdom, life, death, and the soul—and analyze the arguments they make about them. We will also consider character, setting, and other literary aspects, and how they relate to the philosophical material. And we will use the form and content of the dialogues—in particular, their conversational form and Socrates' emphasis on the importance of self-knowledge—as bases for reflecting on the value and appropriate use of reading, writing, and speaking, and how to practice them effectively. The writing assignments will include journaling, freewriting, and setting out arguments in standard form as well as academic essays. All students will also give one oral presentation.

Animal, Plant, Mineral FWIS 126, Kelly McKisson, MWF 3:00pm - 3:50pm In the talking game, “Animal, Plant, Mineral?,” players ask questions in order to identify a secret object. This game becomes tricky when an object evades our systems of categorization: is a virus an animal? Microplastics have been found in our human blood: are humans synthetic? This seminar investigates how and to what effect human knowledge systems make distinctions between forms of life, and students will analyze the unstable, often porous, boundaries between categories. Animal engages the academic discourse of animal studies by taking a nuanced stance on an issue of debate. Plant introduces critical plant studies and asks students to analyze the cultural and social significances of human-plant relations. Mineral introduces students to the critical conversations of object studies and new materialism. Students will investigate an object of their own choosing and write a “Secret Life of” Essay exploring the broader cultural, environmental, and political life of that object.

“Space, Speed, Cinema”: The Automobile in American Film FWIS 128, Paul Burch, TTh 4:00pm-5:15pm Be it the Joad’s first glimpse of Californian farmland in The Grapes of Wrath (1940), the gruesome deaths of the classic antiheroes in Bonnie and Clyde (1967), or Frances McDormand’s heartbreaking pilgrimage to her former home in Nomadland (2020), some of the most iconic moments of American cinema have taken place in the shadow of the motorcar. This class asks students to think critically about what it means to depict the automobile through film and to consider how these depictions, and their meanings, might change in accordance with different historical, artistic, and political contexts. As a field with a rich cultural and critical history, studying the automobile in American Cinema provides the ideal opportunity to think broadly about a wide variety of academic questions while gaining a depth of writing and oral communication experience in both academic and popular genres.

Deep Cuts: Medicine at the Movies FWIS 134, Brooke Clark, MWF 1:00pm - 1:50pm From the viral spread of “pod people” in Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), the medical mystery of a housewife’s environmental or psychological illness in Safe (1995), to the horrific extremes of immortality and the myth of post-racial America in Get Out (2017), films portray medicine and health through a variety of stories and forms. With a focus on mainstream and experimental cinematic treatments of medicine, this course asks: how do films depict the intersections of science and culture? We will take on this question by analyzing film’s representations of the body, clinical practices, and healthcare institutions. By fostering written and oral communication skills, we will read the visual narratives of film critically and attentively in their content and composition, while also attending to their historical, aesthetic, and political contexts. Together, we will question how cinema informs the way we see medicine and the way medicine sees us.

What is a Book? FWIS 135, Philip Mogen, MWF 10:00am - 10:50am This course will explore the history of books and the material (both intellectual and physical) from which they are created. Drawing on a wide range of historians, literary scholars, sociologists, and others, we will study the history of books from the development of writing systems in antiquity through the development of the internet. We will consider how the physical form of books has shaped their content and meaning over time and think about what a book is today. Together, we will imagine what it might look like in the future. Above all, the course is designed to help students think critically about how contemporary physical and digital media shape our reading, writing, and thought. It aims to help students better understand the deep and complex history behind the creation of our contemporary media landscape and, ultimately, more effectively parse its many complexities and complications.

Technologies of Taste FWIS 141, Els Woudstra, Section 1: TTh 2:30pm-3:45pm / Section 2: TTh 4:00pm-5:15pm Does pineapple belong on pizza? Does red Gatorade taste better than blue? Many of our favorite flavors are produced and marketed by food science and the food industry, through technologies of taste ranging from taste tests that quantify the subjective experience of flavor and smell into objective measures, to food advertisements that appeal to our tastebuds. This course investigates how technologies of taste shape our palates and the ways we think and write about what we eat. Through case studies and in-class tasting sessions of tea, chocolate, and other flavors, students will learn to analyze the sensory experience of foods, and examine the ways in which presentation, packaging, and advertisement of food appeals to our tastebuds. With assignments that include a flavor journal, academic essays, and creative projects, this course invites students to examine how their sensory perceptions influence the language they use, and how language can shape their perception.

Water and Cities FWIS 142, Alida Metcalf, TTh 9:25am - 10:40am Investigates ancient, historical, and modern cities and how their residents received water. Questions include: how cities developed water resources, how water shaped city life, and how the environment was engineered to produce water. Students will be able to choose a city and a water topic for their final seminar project.

Making Sense Of Ourselves FWIS 151, Burke Nixon, Section 1: MWF 2:00pm-2:50pm / Section 2: TTh 3:00pm-3:50pm Before “essay” became synonymous with school assignments and college applications, it meant something very different. When Michel de Montaigne popularized the form in the 16th century, his "Essais" were an attempt to better understand himself and the world. His version of the essay wasn’t boring or formulaic; it was a vehicle for discovery, critical thinking, and self-scrutiny. Inspired by Montaigne’s example, this course will explore and examine the essay form in all its variety and flexibility. We’ll read the work of great essayists past and present, from Montaigne to 21st century writers like Kiese Laymon, Leslie Jamison, and Zadie Smith. And, of course, we’ll write our own essays, attempting to make some sense of ourselves and the world around us, while also investigating the key differences and surprising similarities between personal and academic essays, using this knowledge to become more thoughtful and engaging writers in any genre.

Surveillance, Security, and Society FWIS 153, Jessica Bray, Section 1: TTh 1:00pm-2:15pm / Section 2: TTh 10:50am-12:05am In the course, students will read, write, and explore the nature of surveillance, security, and society by asking: What is surveillance? Why does it happen and who does it happen to? Government surveillance is widely regarded as a system of control and classification. Yet, surveillance seems to indicate a weakness in the security state. Against this backdrop, we will analyze how examples of surveillance shape and reshape cultures across the world. In particular, we will explore surveillance in the context of contemporary examples of the post-9/11 security state, colonial settings where the tools of surveillance were birthed, the ways gender, race, and other social identities become imbricated within surveillance, and resistance movements against surveillance. Overall, students will be better at closely analyzing surveillance as a concept, theory, and action by applying the tools from the course to an ethnographic example in written, oral, and visual assignments.

Robopsychology and the Spirituality of the Internet FWIS 159, Christopher Senn, MW 4:00pm - 5:15pm From TikTok to Instagram, Google and ChatGPT, artificial intelligence is an inescapable aspect of everyone’s daily life. This course explores how the internet platforms they engage with in their daily lives, and the dreams of the technologists who create them, are also embedded in the history of philosophy and religion.

Mediation, "Fake News," and Democracy FWIS 165, Jacob Herrmann, TTh 9:25am - 10:40am How do we discern truth in public media? Since the 2016 presidential election, trust in traditional media sources has reached an all-time low, dividing the nation socially and politically. This writing-intensive seminar examines how and why the spread of disinformation has become increasingly more prevalent in our 21st century society and what impact it has on our democratic processes. We will take an interdisciplinary approach to discussing fake news, drawing from history, philosophy, journalism, media studies, and political science. Beginning with Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and Barry Levinson’s Wag the Dog (1997), we will discuss issues of mediated experiences, fabricated realities, and civic responsibility. Throughout the semester, we will explore topics surrounding pseudoscientific research methods (e.g., flat earth, fake moon landing), racialized disinformation (e.g., Obama citizenship conspiracy, great replacement theory), and the rise of authoritarianism and far-right white nationalism. Students will produce three formal written papers and an oral presentation. In addition, students will also write research summaries and produce low stakes reading responses that will serve as scaffolding for larger assignments and class discussion.

What's Race Got to Do with It? FWIS 166, Carolyn Van Wingerden, TTh 10:50am - 12:05pm This course will help first-year Rice undergraduates to develop their academic writing and oral presentation skills by introducing them to writing about images of difference. We will consider whether Black lives did matter in the medieval and early modern era and how the imagery of difference was both potentially similar to and different from that in the modern day. We will closely study medieval and early modern images of Black and African figures, Indigenous peoples, Asian and Pacific Islanders, and the Romani people. In regard to studying religious difference, we will consider medieval and early modern imagery that portrays Muslims, Jews, Christians, Pagans, Hindus, and Buddhists, among others. Our class will further investigate gender differences by considering medieval and early modern images of women, men, and transgender people. Class visits to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) and the Menil Collection will be a significant component of the course.

The Devil and the World FWIS 171, Arina Zaytseva, MWF 1:00pm-1:50pm Throughout the history of Western culture, the figure of the Devil has exerted a massive influence comparable to Jesus Christ and His divine father. The Devil has been with us for over two millennia and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere any time soon. He has inspired some of the greatest works of art and literature: from the Book of Job to Milton’s Paradise Lost, and even modern works of cinema like William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist.” In this class we will track the historical development of the figure of the Devil in Western thought. We will look at various representations of the Devil in ancient and modern literature and other media. The class will cover topics such as possession and exorcism, demonic pacts and witchcraft, satanic panic, and more.

Contemporary LGBTQ+ Literary Classics FWIS 173, Brooke Clark, Section 1: MWF 10:00am-10:50am / Section 2: MWF 11:00am-11:50am At first glance, the terms “LGBTQ+”—as an underrepresented population shaped by an array of sexes, genders, and sexualities—and “literary classics”—as a set of traditional, timeless, and widely read novels—may not seem to mesh well together. However, novels written by and featuring gay, lesbian, queer, and trans individuals have become more visible along with the increasing public and political presence of the LGBTQ+ community. In this course, we will read American, African American, and Asian American novels from the 1950s to the present day that have had transformative impacts on art, public thought, and political activism. We will learn how to read and write critically about these novels' contents and styles as well as question how artistic portrayals of LGBTQ+ experiences and the idea of the classic can work together to create not only new stories to tell but new ways to tell these stories.

Politics and Religion: The Jewish Question FWIS 175, Mendel Kranz, TTh 2:30pm - 3:45pm Though the separation of church and state is a tenet of modern democracies, the relationship between religion and politics is a more complicated affair than it initially seems. Many of our fundamental ideas about law, sovereignty, power, and authority are derived from religious concepts and are still suffused by a religious inheritance. Can we easily separate between what is religious and what is secular without understanding their entangled history? One primary place where the question of religion and politics has been intertwined is the place of Jews in modern nationalist, Enlightenment, and political thought. After briefly considering the early modern period, we will focus our attention on the Jewish Question in Europe as a case study for thinking about the relationship between religion and politics. We will conclude the course by considering several other sites where these questions have been central, such as conversations about race and religion, and secularism.

Dramatic Pauses: Intro to East Asian Performance Studies FWIS 176, Schoenberger, Casey, MWF 1:00pm - 1:50pm This course introduces students to performing arts of China, Japan, and Korea, like Noh, P’ansori, Beijing opera, and Butoh, with a focus on their psychological and multimedia aspects. We will introduce the field of performance studies, including how to think and write about singing, dancing, storytelling, and drama from perspectives like ritual, gender, musicology, choreography, costume, stage design, and literary criticism. Readings/viewings will be in translation/subtitled, and no background in East Asian languages is required, but interested students may request help with locating and analyzing original-language material.

Jesus Christ Movie Star FWIS 178, April DeConick, MWF 1:00pm - 1:50pm This class presents a film-by-film look at “Jesus” movies as recreations of sacred texts, reflections of religious and social history, and responses to biblical scholarship on the subject of the historical Jesus. Films to be viewed include (but are not limited to) Demille’s King of King’s, Pasolino’s The Gospel According to Matthew, Jewison's Jesus Christ, Superstar, Arcand's Jesus of Montreal, and Scorese’s The Last Temptation of Christ. Writing workshops will be interspersed with essential readings and discussions. You will learn to keep a critical film journal, summarize readings, discussions, and viewings, make and support persuasive arguments, and synthesize complex evidence into coherent expository essays. You will work with primary sources and scholarly literature, read film as “text,” conduct basic research, and create your own film short for an end-of-the-semester student film festival scheduled outside of class time. Students will be responsible for viewing one film per week outside of class time.

African-American Graphic Novel FWIS 181, David Messmer, TTh 10:50am-12:05pm This course examines the struggle for black representation in comics and graphic novels. We will discuss the unique opportunities that sequential narratives present to creators as they represent race on the page and we will examine the history of black artists working in the comic book industry.

Border Politics: Migrations and the Meanings of the Nation FWIS 182, Hubert Rast, MWF 11:00am-11:50am In the midst of a global climate and migration crisis, the safeguarding of borders has become an increasingly contentious issue worldwide. Borders demarcate territories, establish differences, and constitute sites of division and violence that are linked to the existence of states. In this course we will explore the perilousness of the human condition, as experienced in the crossing of real and imaginary borders, and in the traumatic loss of homeland and self. We will examine the ways in which environmental crises have uprooted people and probe how climate change and migration pressures may redefine existing borders and boundaries of states. Borders also arise within major cities, through the building of highways, the politics of zoning and real estate investment, creating urban borderlands along economic or racial lines, which this course will also explore. The city of Berlin offers a contrasting example of urban borders: divided into East and West sectors by the Berlin wall (1961-89), the city became the frontline of the Cold War. Finally, we will delve into the changing meaning of the border between the US and Mexico through a range of testimonies, stories and films.

Cultural Imagination of Texas FWIS 184, Chaney Hill, MWF 1:00pm - 1:50pm This course takes up the following questions: What do we mean by Texas? How has Texas been figured in the American imagination? And, how are ideas of place both meaningful and limiting? In our approach to these questions, we’ll explore Texas in its relation to other regions—specifically, how it shapes and is shaped by the American West, the American South, and the nation. Texas’ shared history with Mexico, its large metropolitan cities, and the job-creating oil industry have changed the landscape—literally and figuratively—of Texas. This course hopes not just to look at how Texas has historically been portrayed in the American imagination, it also aims to uncover the lesser told histories of Texas that have largely been ignored. We will examine these juxtaposing and sometimes overlapping visions of Texas through various critical, fictional, and historical texts.

Intro to African Literature and Media in English FWIS 187, Rowan Morar, MWF 1:00pm - 1:50pm In 2005, the late Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina published “How to write about Africa.” Wainaina’s essay satirically counseled writers on how to reproduce the misguided media stereotypes about Africa in over-simplistic terms, “as if it were one country.” This course introduces students to literature and media by Africans that dispel these monolithic images of Africa, with a particular focus on topics in the study of gender and sexuality. Through small group discussions, in-class writing exercises, three short-writing assignments, and an oral presentation, students will learn to use and critique the rhetorical strategies deployed by a variety of media. By the end of the course, students will have a working knowledge of how representations of Africa by Africans replicate, resist, and undo monolithic narratives about such a diverse continent. The range of intellectual, cultural and artistic productions in the course reflects that Africa is not a country after all.

Eng Design & Communication FWIS 188, Deirdre Hunter, Section 1 TTh 10:50am-12:05pm / Kevin Holmes, Section 2 TTh 10:50pm-12:05 pm / Heather Bisesti, Section 3 TTh 1:00pm-2:15pm First-year students learn the engineering design process and use it to solve meaningful problems drawn from clients such as local hospitals and medical facilities, other local and international companies and organizations, and the Rice University community. Students work collaboratively on a team to design an engineering solution to meet the client’s need, and they use the resources of the OEDK to construct innovative solutions. Documentation is an essential element in the engineering design process. Engineers must be able to communicate the need for a novel design, numerical design objectives, ideas for solutions, and the success or failure of a project. During the engineering design process, students interact and communicate with teammates, the project client, instructors, and potential users. This course covers the same technical content as ENGI 120, Introduction to Engineering Design. This course places additional emphasis on an individual’s development of the written and oral technical communication skills necessary for professional practice, especially results-oriented technical memos and oral presentations.

The Rule of Law and the Pursuit of Justice FWIS 193, Hubert Rast, MWF 1:00pm-1:50pm Democratic societies claim to be based on the rule of law. This course examines what is required of a society that treats every individual equally regardless of a person´s status or influence. Presently, concerns arise that the courts, which are supposedly independent in their adjudication of the law, increasingly rely on ad-hoc “rule-making” to accommodate powerful individuals or interest groups. We will analyze the relationship of politics and the law in the distinct historical and national contexts of the contemporary US and post-war Germany. We will consider instances in which the judiciary has been politicized in the United States and its repercussions for the rule of law. Furthermore, we will explore the topics of crimes, guilt, punishment and vigilante justice in selected literary texts and films (Schirach´s Crime/Guilt and The Collini Case, as well as Franz Kafka´s The Judgment). We will also scrutinize the sordid judicial history of Germany in the aftermath of the Third Reich drawing on Bernhard Schlink´s The Reader.

Beyond the Equations FWIS 195, Andrew Torma, MWF 1:00pm - 1:50pm We will take an interdisciplinary approach to understand the physical world by building off a physics concepts across classical mechanics, electromagnetism, and quantum mechanics. We will dive into basic physics concepts through the biographical and historical context that resulted in their discoveries, with further exploration through current examples. For each module, we will start with current scientists and dissect their work: defining the hypothesis, tools, and implications of their findings. What is the problem being tested? How do the results change our understanding of the natural world? We will connect their work to general physical concepts, explore the history, and apply it across different aspects of life. Where else do we experience this? Does this go against our instincts? Has this created socioeconomic or racial effects? The goal is to gain an understanding from where these concepts emerged, their use, and the resulting effects beyond the numbers and equations.

Business in the American Imagination FWIS 196, Scott Pett, MWF 9am-9:50am Because the world of business is so full of glass ceilings, corporate ladders, backroom deals, black markets, and human resources, it has always been a culturally rich site for national and self-reflection. In our analyses of literature and film, we will continually ask: what can these texts teach us about the ethics of pursuing happiness and success? How have such types and tropes as the working class, the self-made man, the con artist, and “the art of the deal” shaped our notions of the so-called American Dream? How do work-life and work-place narratives address and shape issues of opportunity, especially in terms of class, education, gender, immigration, and race? On the road to discussing such questions and improving our written and verbal communication skills, we will consider an array of allegories, motifs, and plots about the profits and pitfalls of American commerce culture.

From Climate Change to Climate Justice FWIS 198, Kelly McKisson, MWF 10:00am-10:50am For the so-called “climate generation” the need to take action and address dire outcomes projected by climate science is clear, especially given environmental effects we are already facing. What makes climate change so difficult to act on, however, is that it is not only an environmental problem but also a social, economic, and political one. In this seminar, students will learn about these elements of climate change, ask how environmental issues intersect with ideas of justice, and investigate various appearances, contexts, and critical uses of the term “climate justice.” Varied examples of climate communication will help us to see the climate crisis as a moment for action and will provide us with models of actionable strategies to join in the discussion.