Spring UW Course Descriptions

Registration Transaction Forms (RTFs)

Please note that all Fall and Spring UW1020 sections are capped at 17 students and that this cap cannot be exceeded for any reason. UW instructors cannot sign RTF forms to add students to a section. The only way to add a section of UW1020 is through the GWeb system. If a section is full, you should either check GWeb frequently for open seats, select a different section, or plan to take UW the following semester.

Spring 2026

UW 1020 Courses:

Abbas, Nasreen - The Othering of Muslims: Contemporary Diasporic Literature

Can a person be Middle Eastern or is Middle Eastern purely a geographic entity? The texts we will explore together will allow us to investigate these questions and understand the perspectives from this diverse region. You might think that the authors of our assigned texts are "Middle Eastern" because they are (a) Muslim and (b) have their roots in Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. Is that a fact or just an assumption? Using Edward Said's definition of Orientalism, we will learn that the term "Middle East" is just a catch-all phrase to talk about geographical areas or people that some living in the West are unfamiliar with. Through our texts we will explore burning topics such as “what is a migrant?” Is a migrant and an immigrant the same? Is there a difference between a migrant and a refugee? What kind of crises lead to people becoming migrants or refugees? You will also discover the intersectionality between this course and what you learn in your other courses, such as international affairs, comparative politics, psychology, history, economics and more.

Art, Andrew - Writing Through the Self

When is it okay to use “I” in an essay? You’ve no doubt been told at some point to avoid using personal pronouns in your academic writing, but what is the source of this prohibition? In this course, we will examine and unpack the assumptions surrounding “personal writing” both in and out of the classroom. Through readings in both creative and scholarly genres, we will begin the course by thinking about the rhetorical implications of writing from a first-person perspective. We will also examine the history of the essay and explore its significance to the practice of inquiry and discourse.

The writing exercises and projects in this course will ask you to explore dimensions of your lived experiences and cultural identities; this will require a significant amount of self-reflection, analysis, and critical thinking. While we will often be in the realm of the subjective or personal, this does not mean that we will abandon objectivity. The major research project of this course, an autoethnographic essay, will ask you to investigate, critically reflect on, and research aspects of your own personal experiences in order to arrive at new cultural knowledge and contribute to existing conversations with other scholars and professionals. Writing through the self will require working with one’s own ideas and experiences alongside those of others. 

Barlow, Jameta Nicole - Writing Science and Health

This community engaged course meets any student, STEM major or not, at the door of discovery. Recent political moments have attempted to sanitize and malign science in a way that can inhibit such discovery. We, as co-learners, will describe scientific discoveries so our audience could possibly replicate the experience.  This method offers you to consider multiple standpoints, interrogate their philosophy of science and consider alternative ways of knowing—all skills critical to introducing you to university writing and an academic learning environment, while exploring the District of Columbia. You will leave this class appreciating the discovery and application of science (STEM), improving critical thinking skills and communicating through multiple genres. Teaching students how to deconstruct research, as well as think critically about current events in STEM may encourage ongoing practice beyond the end of the course. You will engage in a comprehensive overview of the intricacies between objectivity, moral ethic, science and truth. This process will expand your approach to information—how you receive it and how you understand it—as well as inform your worldview.

Bieda, Casey - Of Margins and Monsters: Writing, Perspective, and Advocacy

Writing always has a job to do.

Historically, science fiction and speculative fiction writing, for example, ask us to contemplate what problems we are facing in our current culture. Many of these stories underscore important “real world” conversations about environmentalism, equity and equality, power, social justice, and technological development. Speculative fiction and research-based writing share the common goal of highlighting the current conflicts in our culture, and facilitating actionable solutions to our most immediate societal issues. This genre of writing highlights what is wrong to us in the hope that we will examine what we believe is right. It is a genre of advocacy, action, and change.

Therefore, this writing course examines, through the lens of science fiction and speculative fiction, the craft of writing as a form of community participation. In this course students will use research to engage with a social or cultural problem of their choosing, and over the course of the semester create both a research paper as well as a multimodal adaptation of their work. Students will learn not only sustainable rhetorical practices for composition, but also learn how to engage with the perspectives of others, how to critically assess the presentation of information, and how we can create the future we want by considering the future we don’t want. 

Carter, Katharine - "I Did my Own Research: Writing Evidence of Systemic Inequity"

From federal and state laws to school rules and codes of conduct, systems have historically placed barriers to people’s freedoms and access to opportunities.

Additionally, these institutionalized drivers of inequity are often embedded in social interaction, where they are far more subtle but equally as unjust.

Scholars have used theories, including critical theory, to explain these occurrences and write solutions to these inequities.

In this course students will be introduced to sociology and social justice research through multiple theories by examining social problems within society that are rooted in inequality and maintained through social systems.

Students will develop research questions to explore a chosen topic, and will review existing research on the topic they’ve chosen to address. Research sources will include a combination of scholarly and non-scholarly sources, such as journal articles, social media posts, case studies, narratives, and government agency reports.

Students will then be prepared to use their analysis to create solutions to the inequities related to their research topics, social justice. Students will write research proposals, literature reviews, and a research paper.

Counts, Benjamin - Conflict and Information Literacy

This course covers a wide range of current topics and events—with an emphasis on current. Our initial focus will be on the idea of political conflict as performance art, followed by branching out to cover other forms of conflict, several different styles of writing and public speaking, the dos and don’ts of academic integrity, a dozen or so different databases, and at least three analytical frameworks that will help prepare you for the world beyond the classroom. Through it all, we are going to see how conflicts operate at three levels: What is shown, what is hidden, and what goes unseen.

Major assignments will include two research papers, a policy proposal, a narrative essay, and a portfolio. Minor assignments will include accessing and making use of multiple databases, as well as learning and using structured analytical frameworks. While the course will revolve around comparing and understanding numerous conflicts, students will select their own research topics and materials from outside the assigned readings. Students will be required to take part in interdisciplinary conversation and engage in critical thinking.

Daqqa, Hanan - “Not Another Home Movie”: How Do You Research When the Subject is Yourself?

Be prepared to change what you know about writing, and maybe even what you know about yourself. This course will give you the opportunity to make an impact powerfully and artfully through the telling of that family story, hidden in the attic. Give it the attention it needs, so it can connect you to yourself. As we connect, we gain control.

Telling your story, you will be wearing three hats: the journalist, the researcher, and the filmmaker.

As a journalist, you will learn how to take risks and dig deeper into yourself in order to tell a captivating and impactful story, and you will conduct an important interview.

As a researcher, you will learn how to formulate your own research question and how to let your question drive the journey. Your question focus will be on how to tell your story on film.

Finally, as a filmmaker, you will learn how to use framing, camera movements and sound to tell a story. Your film will be screened during the last week of class. A keepsake for generations to come. 

Erfani, Kylie - "Your Silence Will Not Protect You": Using Rhetoric to Refuse Injustice

Amid global climate crisis, ever-widening social inequality, war, and intensifying forms of exploitation, the democratic imperative to “speak your mind” seems altogether too feeble to stand up to the challenges ahead. Indeed, speaking out--by itself--is not a formula for saving the world; but if we follow the insight of the great poet and feminist philosopher Audre Lorde, we learn that speaking out about what pains and oppresses us is existentially, intellectually, and politically necessary. Yet we don’t give much thought to the forms of effective complaint.  
To be fair, complaint gets dismissed because it’s contra-posed to real action; in other words, some people think that whiners aren’t doers. However, effective complaint is usually the first step to conflict resolution and social transformation; after all, all civil litigation begins with a complaint. As a genre, complaining has a fascinating complex history that we can explore and excavate for contemporary ways of expressing discontent, challenging the status quo, and exploring new horizons of possibility. 

Together we will read some of US history’s most interesting complainers and analyze their rhetorical, logical, and formal appeals for justice, redress and recognition. Close reading and analysis exercises will aid students in identifying the techniques employed in well-crafted complaints, including evidence selection, counterarguments, and persuasive language. Additionally, we will learn to assess different audience types and adapt rhetorical strategies accordingly to enhance the effectiveness of our own complaints. By framing our scholarly projects in terms of developing legitimate complaints, students will be encouraged to think critically about social issues, consumer experiences, and other relevant contexts that spark complaints. This course will foster a deeper understanding of the power of language and scholarship in shaping public opinion. Moreover, students will have their own opportunity to participate in that shaping by crafting their own formal research complaint about a social issue of their choosing.

Fletcher, Wade - An Empirical Approach: Writing in the Social Sciences

Media portrayals of social science research, such as a Time Magazine report on “how laughter can boost one’s attractiveness,” often result in sensational claims made in limited contexts, which some scholars say devalues the important work being done in fields such as sociology, psychology, and education. How is social science research relevant to our daily lives? What ethical implications accompany such research? How do disciplinary conventions function in social science disciplines, and how do these differ from those with which we are more accustomed?

In this course, we will seek to better understand how knowledge is constructed in the social sciences, explore how this knowledge is communicated rhetorically, and consider how tenets of social science research and writing can inform our own work in other areas and disciplines. Assignments will include three papers—an article critique, an Op-Ed, and an argumentative research paper on a current issue in a social science discipline—as well as short projects, an annotated bibliography, and contributions to an online class discussion forum.

Francois, Emma - Fashioning Thought

“Fashion has to do with ideas,” Coco Chanel said, “the way we live, what is happening.” This course explores the fundamentals of writing by considering fashion. What can the principles of design teach us about our own writing and the writing we love? How can we fashion our writerly identities to produce meaningful texts engaging the world we live, dress, and write in?

We’ll start the semester exploring fashion writing across genres by translating a scholarly essay into an article for a popular media platform. As we write, we’ll experiment with skills from the designer’s toolkit (like social brainstorming, vision boards, and sketches) to disrupt and examine our own writing processes. Other major assignments include a “collage annotated bibliography” and a class field trip to the GW Textile Museum to explore how writing, in conjunction with other mediums, exists beyond the page. Drawing on this experience and research conducted throughout the semester, we’ll write a 8-10 page object essay to discern—and communicate—how one sartorial text can change and reflect the world.

Gamber, Cayo - Legacies of the Holocaust 

Every UW 1020 course requires ‘finished’ writing, developed in a rigorous composition process often consisting of pre-draft preparation, drafts, and revisions based on instructor’s advice and classmates’ comments. In this course, the series of tasks you will perform — including writing a research paper that integrates both primary and secondary sources — are designed both to help you become familiar with an array of research efforts as well as familiar with writing an authoritative study of your chosen topic. In this course, we analyze primary documents from the Shoah — photographs and oral histories, in particular. I ask that we engage with these materials because such research encourages us to value the research findings of others; to acquire research skills; to recognize the ways in which primary materials are central to both the research process and the conclusions one draws; and, perhaps most importantly, to realize our analysis allows us to make meaningful additions to the academic conversation about a given topic. The range of research topics is wide, from the role art played in the Holocaust to the workings of a particular concentration camp; or from the role liberators played (or failed to play) to what is known about the "bearers of secrets," the Sonderkommando, who were eyewitnesses to the Final Solution. While we may not be able to make amends for the Holocaust, I believe that through the careful study of the lives of those who perished and the words of those who survived, we become witnesses for the eyewitnesses, witnesses who are willing to be bearers of the stories and history of the Shoah.

Grace, Emily - Life, Reviewed

Course Description: In his 2021The Anthropocene Reviewed, John Green frames the book with the idea that "everyone had become a reviewer, and everything had become a subject for reviews." This section of UW1020 will take that statement as its frame as well and consider the prevalence of reviews in our day-to-day lives (the Mount Vernon Campus, for example, gets 4.2 out of 5 stars on Google!), and how these reviews influence where and how we spend our money and time. In the course, students will both analyze and write reviews, considering tone, voice, and purpose in genres that range from academic book reviews to popular movie reviews. This work will be undergirded by considerations of the ethos of both the individual reviewer (Who do we trust to tell us if something is worth our time? How do they earn—and keep—that trust?) and the aggregate reviewing body (Are aggregate reviews democratic? Can it be influenced by things other than the artefact being reviewed?). The course will culminate in a research project that considers the influence of reviews in the reception of a piece of media over time, and how those reviews may align with or contradict the student's own perception of the work.

Gretes, Andrew - Absurdity, Anxiety and Authenticity (oh my!): Exploring Writing Through Philosophy

In this class, we’ll use philosophy to approach critical thinking and composition. More specifically, we’ll dive into one particularly moody (“emo”?) movement in philosophy called existentialism. After sampling a variety of dramatic and angsty concepts—absurdity, freedom, “hell is other people,” mass-man (aka, “sheeple”), and authenticity—we’ll use our newfound philosophical understanding to think through some issues and dilemmas in our own culture. Boldly put, one of the goals of this class is to shift your relationship to writing. Writing is a visual-form of thinking. Writing is not just a dictation-device; it’s also a discovery-device. To remix an old philosophical truism: I write, therefore I think. Throughout the semester, we’ll interact with a variety of genres: e.g., biographies, plays, self-help books, manifestos, YouTube videos (existential influencers, anyone?), and aphorisms. Students will engage in a variety of writing projects, including a research-based essay that will take a specific concept from existentialism and use this concept as a tool to explore and re-think an issue in our own culture.

Hayes, Carol - “How Writing Works”

To write is to convey your thoughts on paper in a traceable form that others can then respond to. Writing is thus both a challenge (are you able to put what you mean into words on the screen or page?) and an act of vulnerability (you are opening yourself to response from your readers, whatever those responses might be). Very, very few people find writing “easy” (I am not among them). Your past experiences with writing and language, whether good or bad, will have shaped your emotions, your writing process, and your view of your own writing identity.

This UW class is designed to give you a space to explore your experiences and challenges with writing, with the goal of increasing your writing knowledge in ways that will support your transitions to writing in other contexts, such as other GW courses, internships, and beyond. Drawing upon writing studies research (yes, scholars research writing!) and research in educational psychology, you’ll use that research to help prepare you to write in new contexts. 

Hijazi, Nabila - Contested Bodies: Beyond a Standard Refugee Narrative 

This is a service learning course. Learn more about service learning courses.

Mainstream migration and refugee discourses often depict refugees as living in limbo, with women framed through narratives of fragility, passivity, or even violence. This course challenges such representations by reexamining refugee women as historical actors, resilient individuals, and agents of change. Rather than reinforcing the dominant narrative of refugees as victims or objects of rescue, we will explore their lived experiences, agency, and strategies for survival and economic mobility. Engaging with a range of texts, ranging from scholarly articles and personal narratives to TED Talks, guest lectures, and documentaries, students will critically analyze the social and cultural positioning of refugee women. As a community-engaged course, this class moves beyond theoretical inquiry, providing students with the opportunity to collaborate with nonprofit organizations working directly with refugee communities. These partnerships offer hands-on experience in public scholarship, advocacy, and ethical engagement. Throughout the semester, students will develop essential rhetorical skills, including summarizing, analyzing, researching, inquiring, reflecting, and arguing, necessary for rigorous academic scholarship, ethical public engagement, and professional practice. By integrating classroom learning with direct community involvement, this course challenges students to question assumptions, engage deeply with the complexities of migration, and recognize writing as a powerful tool for social change.

Hijazi, Nabila - Feeding Hope: Writing, Food, and Refugee Agency in the DC Community

Aligned with the policy, innovation, and humanity pillars of the Global Food Institute (GFI), this course encourages students to consider the broader social, political, and humanitarian implications of food systems in a globalized world. This course examines the intersections of food, culture, and refugee empowerment, focusing on refugees resettled in Washington, DC. Through traditional culinary practices, students explore how food preserves cultural identity, fosters resilience, and supports economic sustainability amid displacement. Students will develop critical thinking and research skills by analyzing food literacy’s role in storytelling, adaptation, and empowerment. Writing assignments will emphasize summarizing, analyzing, researching, and constructing well-supported arguments, key skills for ethical public engagement, academic scholarship, and professional practice.

Experiential learning is central to this course, with community-based projects involving local organizations that support refugee communities. Students will conduct ethnographic research, participate in cultural events, and engage directly with refugees to understand how food shapes identity and community. Through inquiry, reflection, and hands-on engagement, students will gain a deeper understanding of food’s transformative role in fostering sustainable and inclusive communities.

Janzen, Kristi - “Beyond the Numbers: Economics, Business, Money & Markets”

This course aims to deepen students’ understanding of economics and business, while introducing them to university-level research and scholarly/academic writing. By examining writings on economics, business and finance (e.g., inflation, the cost of higher education, corporate earnings, interest rates, mortgages, antitrust laws, wages, taxes, economic growth), students will both broaden their practical understanding of these topics and hone their ability to write about them. Students will read about the discipline of writing and examine different styles and genres. We will discuss research techniques, context, information sources, and methods of evaluation, while analyzing why and how particular choices are made about what data or information to include or exclude. The class includes numerous smaller writing assignments, an OpEd, and a scholarly article following the format of a typical economics journal article. The students’ scholarly articles must incorporate peer-reviewed journal articles and other appropriate scholarly sources and data. Students will choose article subjects within the realm of business, finance or economics. Over the course of the semester, students will share and discuss their writing in class, not only to improve their writing, but also to enrich everyone’s understanding of the topics. They will also edit their peers’ work. 

Malone-France, Derek - Peace and Conflict in Colombia

Colombia has endured the longest ongoing civil armed conflict in modern world history. The signing of one of the world’s most innovative and morally substantial peace accords in 2016 brought real positive change to the country. But the terrible economic and social toll of the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia reversed much of this progress, and the security situation there is now, once again, extremely precarious. Historically, stark economic and social inequalities have played a fundamental role in shaping the conflict dynamics in Colombia. In the late 20th century, the emergence of multiple armed insurgent groups fighting against the Colombian government, as well as the development of a massive shadow-economy and extreme criminal violence associated with narcotrafficking further complicated these dynamics. We will research, analyze, and write about this complex reality.

Mantler, Gordon - From Abolition to Home Rule: Writing D.C. Movement Histories

What do historical social justice movements in Washington, D.C., tell us about not just the nation’s capital but the nation itself? Whether it was the movement to abolish slavery, activism to establish women’s right to vote, or the District’s own struggle for home rule, social movements have a storied history in Washington, D.C., despite – or perhaps because – the capital has never enjoyed full-fledged democratic rights in its nearly 250-year existence. In this class, you will begin to think like historians by analyzing the activism that shaped the city and region you live in today. In the process, you will visit parts of the city with which you may be unfamiliar, including communities and archives not in Foggy Bottom. And you will begin to – or continue to – develop university-level research and writing skills, including understanding disciplinary differences in writing genres, audiences, and conventions, exploring GW’s vast library resources, recognizing the clear limitations of generative artificial intelligence, and seeing writing as inherently a social act.

Mullen, Mark - The Grateful and the Dead

In the US especially we have a conflicted relationship with the idea of death.  On the one hand, our entertainment media serve up regular doses of the most spectacular and inventive forms of death imaginable.  Our news offers a steady drumbeat of stories that testify to a peculiarly US tolerance for large numbers of mostly preventable citizen deaths: gun violence, automobile fatalities, and of course, the national scandal of the highest COVID-19 death toll in the world. But while our culture has—until recently—hesitatingly moved toward a greater openness when talking about issues like sexuality and mental illness, we remain curiously reluctant to talk about what is, after all, the one certainty in all our lives.

Part of the problem, of course, is the cultural belief that death is a grim and depressing topic.

This course, however, takes its lead from a counter-intuitive set of research findings from the field of positive psychology.  Researchers were surprised to discover that one thing positively correlated with long-term human happiness was in fact regular contemplation of death. Not a morbid obsession with death, but rather regular brief reminders of mortality, both our own and that of others.

This course will challenge students to engage imaginatively with death by exploring an array of writing and research styles while investigating different approaches to the contemplation of death. A major component of this course will be to explore locations associated with death in DC, particularly lesser-known cemeteries, memorials and historical sites.

Myers, Danika - Poetry + Research

“There is no telling this story; it must be told” – NourbeSe Philip, Zong!
“Poems and poets of the first rank remain mysterious” - Susan Howe, My Emily Dickenson

Are poetry and research opposing forms? Is poetry always subjective, while research is strictly objective? How does poetry seek truth? How can poetry become the medium for research and exploration? In this class, we will analyze books of poetry obsessed with communicating truth and documenting evidence.

NourbeSe Philip’s Zong! dwells on the events of a 1781 massacre, when 132 of the 470 enslaved Africans held captive on the British ship Zong were thrown overboard. By drawing legal language into fractured poetics Philip subverts it to convey horror and grief. Layli Long Soldier’s book Whereas is a response to the 2009 Congressional resolution of apology to Native Americans that draws on historical documents to critique the contemporary legacies of settler-colonialism. C.D. Wright's One With Others is a poetry collection that uses interview and historical research to revisit the role of her mentor, V, in the March Against Fear in Arkansas in 1969. By using poetic forms as an analytical method for understanding evidence compiled through meticulous research, works like these challenge dominant narratives and offer new ways of understanding history and identity.

This section of UW1020 invites you to use texts that combine research + poetry as a starting point to explore research, writing, documentation, and the production of knowledge. It seeks to support you in developing a new understanding of the infinite ways sources can be engaged or critiqued, subverted or celebrated, and see how it feels to adopt such techniques in your own writing. We will also consider what these texts reveal about how other, more familiar, forms of research-based and academic writing operate. How might traditional academic research –supposedly an objective form–silence particular voices or perpetuate systems of power? How can poetry transform our understanding of research and what research values? Assignments will include a documentary poem, a group presentation, and a research-based poetry chapbook. Homework will frequently require you to attempt archaic or byzantine poetic forms or ask you to render the conventions of academic genres in verse.

Pollack, Rachel - The Greek Ideal in Art

This course examines the greatest surviving masterpieces of Greco-Roman sculpture and explores their enduring significance in western art from antiquity to the present day. From this essential canon of ancient sculpture, which includes the Doryphoros (Spear Bearer), the Laocoon, the Aphrodite of Knidos, the Spinario, and the Weary Hercules, we will analyze why these works have both inspired artists and stirred scholarly debate amongst ancient writers, art historians, archaeologists, Renaissance humanists, and Enlightenment philosophers.

During the first half and the semester, the class will study various artworks on view at the National Gallery of Art as well has masterpieces in major art collections (i.e. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Walters Gallery, The Vatican Museums, The Capitoline Museum). Each student will first select a sculpture from one of these collections and write a catalogue entry on the subject (~2-3 pages). Mid-semester, you will also write a short research paper (~6-8 pages) on a selected sculpture you find to be worth further exploration. 

Presser, Pamela - Writing Lives: Composing Consciousness and Community Engagement 

This is a service learning course. Learn more about service learning courses.

NOTE: This course will be taught via remote instruction.

Feminist scholar Carolyn Heilbrun wrote “Out of old tales we must make new lives.”

Can we repurpose the texts which surround us, and utilize writing to create a more just, more inclusive world? Could reading Mary Shelley’s 19th century novel Frankenstein help us understand 21st century climate change? Does an evaluation system which requires grading need an overhaul? How can we responsibly interact with our communities?

In this class, we will ponder these questions, drawing on theorists such as Inoue, Freud and Marx. Students will be expected to complete several short assignments each week. Major assignments will include developing an annotated critical bibliography and an accompanying research paper, and students will also engage in an intensive peer review process.

The class includes a community engagement component which will require students to work with a local non-profit organization. 

Quave, Kylie - Dining on the Past: Writing about archaeology and food

How did the ingredients in your meal get to your plate? How do meals connect you to a culture or distinguish you from others? At what cost do we achieve abundance and who pays the price in scarce times? What we eat says much about us in the present and in the past. This course focuses on archaeology, a humanistic science, to reconstruct the past as relevant to the present. Researching and writing about the archaeology of foodways offers opportunities to reflect on how food production and consumption relates to urgent issues today: 1) “exotic” ingredients are marketed in ways that paint some peoples’ foods as primitive, 2) influencers misinform followers about past hunter-gatherer lifeways to persuade people to spend lavishly on purportedly “primal” and “healthier” yet dangerous supplements, 3) people are shamed for their cuisines that were born out of past resistance to colonization and domination, and 4) sustainable food production and collection can be achieved by looking at the long-term archaeological record of human ingenuity amid scarcity.

In this course you will develop research skills to analyze what is currently known about these and why it matters to humans now. By assessing how social values and norms shape how we know what we “know” about the past, you can find transferable lessons about claims and evidence: how are misunderstandings, essentializations, and falsehoods perpetuated, due to biases or otherwise? By engaging with examples of slow science, in which archaeologists may eschew feigned certainty to allow for ambiguity and vagueness, you will see the worthiness of scholarly humility and its impact on society. Using the archaeology of food as an example, you will critically examine claims and evidence, use sources responsibly, and convey lessons from complex scientific research to diverse audiences as civic engagement. Major assignments include a paper reviewing how archaeology informs social wellbeing in the present and various genres of multimodal writing for nonexpert publics. 

Richter, Jacob - Writing for Social Media

Do you think you could write an Instagram post for Starbucks or Dunkin? How would you make it feel authentic? What choices related to image selection, tone, color, formality, personality, celebrity endorsements, hashtags, links, and captions would you make in this scenario? If you enjoy asking and answering questions like these, University Writing 1020: “Writing for Social Media” might be for you. We’ll also ask (and answer) other questions like: What is the value of writing in an era characterized by the near ubiquity of social media, generative AI, and digital culture? How do texts on social media use writing, media, evidence, visual design, and other rhetorical elements to make meaning? How does rhetoric uniquely help us learn about the social media environments we interact in every day? Platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Twitter/X, and TikTok are full of writing and media that shape our world in increasingly vital but often poorly understood forms. Writing is a technology that enables us to share ideas, express ourselves, connect with others, and build momentum for the causes that we care about, but it also is rapidly evolving in a digital age in ways that are not always positive. In this endeavor, writing’s capacity to generate consequences in the world is helped along by seemingly free digital platforms, by algorithms that reward emotion and sensationalism, and by a digital ecosystem that is geared toward profit far more than it is toward transparency, the emotional health of its users, or even democracy.

In this course, you’ll research the convergence of traditional academic pursuits, like rhetoric, writing, and argumentation, alongside near-ubiquitous digital technologies. We’ll discuss academic writing, but also how writing and rhetoric on social media impact varied topics like democratic elections, corporate responsibility, the emotional health of teenagers, and the forms of communication that emerging professionals (& thus college students) need expertise in. We’ll conduct extensive academic research to probe important questions about ubiquitous data collection online, social media’s impact on mental health, how political campaigns leverage influencers to win elections, and how platforms enable misinformation, authoritarianism, social movements, and both political polarization and revolution. Along the way, you’ll have a chance to write about, but also on and for, social media.  

Russ, Ebony - Anti-Racist STEM Writing in the 21st  Century

Understanding the importance of amplifying the voices of underrepresented groups in academia, publications, private industry, media as well as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is key to contributing to anti-racist STEM writing. Our writing skills and style are informed by the subject matter of which we partake. Intentional  approaches to anti-racist STEM writing can be pivotal to your success as a well-informed scholar. Exercising inclusivity can be superficial  and deceptive if one does not possess the foundational knowledge of the interplay of race, racism, and scholarship in academia. Anti-racist STEM writing is a function of scholar activism which is a component of social justice which can contribute to overall equality.

In this course, we will examine components of anti-racist STEM writing in the 21st century while comparing the similarities and differences  in social justice from past centuries. Our examination of anti-racism will be guided by exploring race and racism in scholarly writings. This will involve critically reading and writing about scholarly and popular text authored by African American authors as well as many other Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). Assignments include identifying scientific evidence, original research writing, responses to readings and peer writing, collaborative and independent revision, and graphical display of information (tables, charts, and infographics), and critiquing Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI).  Students will rhetorically evaluate scientific arguments and respond to them in socially relevant ways for both expert and broader public audiences. 

Ryder, Phyllis - Writing for Social Change

This is a service learning course. Learn more about service learning courses.

In “Writing for Social Change,” you will get to know the city of DC beyond the National Mall and Capitol Hill. You’ll explore DC neighborhoods and history. You’ll also explore your own “big questions” about how to create social change in this city at this time.

This is a “community-enaged” writing class, which means you will work with local DC nonprofits to study writing in concrete and urgent contexts.  How do community leaders convince everyday people that we can make a difference? How do they guide us to join them in a spirit of reciprocity?  By combining your experience with DC nonprofits with a careful analysis of related academic theories, you will shape deep and critical answers to your “big questions.”

Over the semester, you will build on the writing strategies you learned in high school to become stronger, more deliberate writers. I will challenge you to reflect on your own values and identity, so that you can connect with your readers. I will push you to think more fully about the sources you draw on, so that your essays are complex and compelling.The assignments are divided into manageable pieces and you will receive a lot of feedback along the way. I have high expectations, and you will have a great deal of support. 

Sauer, Beverly - Risk Communication

The Shuttle Challenger and Columbia disasters, the submersible Titan, the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the Maui fire, Boeing accidents, and heat domes over much of the US demonstrate that communication plays an important role in risk management. Since the beginning of 2020, we ourselves have struggled to make sense of risk information about COVID as we consider whether to travel, see our families, party with friends, or mask (or not) in public spaces.

Risk demands action. But facts alone may not persuade stakeholders to act. What kinds of evidence can we draw upon to persuade people to act in what we perceive to be their best interests? Who can we trust? What does science tell us—or fail to tell us—about how to act in the face of uncertain and contradictory data? Can effective communication make a difference?

Writing assignments in this class are designed to help you construct persuasive fact-based ethical and logical risk communication messages for particular audiences. Although the disasters presented in the class are interesting from a technical point of view, you will focus on communication strategies (visual, verbal, graphical, and written) that influence the outcomes of the disaster.

In this class, you will summarize and critique previous communication failures; construct a research-based assessment of a risk of you own choice; learn to construct a ‘mental model’ of what audiences know or believe (audience analysis) about a particular risk; explore the challenges of cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary risk communication; and produce a short research paper in which you apply the skills you have learned to persuade specific audiences to act to reduce risk.

Ultimately, you will develop critical thinking skills that enable you to identify and mitigate communication failures before, during, and after a crisis. No technical experience is required.

Schell, Heather - Data Driven

We inhabit a data-driven world. While people may disagree on what constitutes data—or even if data is plural or singular—"showing someone the numbers" is now our most valued method of proving something is true. It's "hard evidence," which could explain why it “crunches” when we "crunch the numbers." Personal experience—our most direct source of knowledge about our world—is sometimes rejected as "anecdata." In this class, we'll learn to be more critical data consumers and resist the common assumption that numbers speak for themselves.  Are data-driven arguments the best approach to every question?  Can data even exist without humans?  What does it mean for each of us to have so much data about our “private” lives—our educational record, our health, our politics, our phone calls, our driving record, even our food preferences—so easily accessible for data brokers and AI tools?  

We’ll explore these topics through three main projects: an analysis of polling data, a critical bibliography of data-based research on a social problem; and a research paper that asks you to collect new data.  This class will help you write about data ethically and effectively, while leaving you in the driver’s seat.  

Svoboda, Michael - The Political Brain

We like to believe we can be perfectly rational. Consequently, when others disagree with us when we think we are being rational, we also like to believe our opponents are being completely irrational. Sadly, both beliefs are almost certainly false–especially when it comes to politics. Our political convictions have psychological underpinnings. But, we must hasten to add, our psychological analyses of politics can also be prompted by political motivations.

In “The Political Brain,” we will examine models of cognitive psychology, media biases and effects, moral psychology, neuro-politics, and popular culture to see what they can tell us about contemporary American politics.

In this section of UW 1020, you can join the ever-increasing number of media analysts, political scientists, psychologists, sociologists, and, yes, voters, who are trying to understand the dysfunctional state of American politics. Through a carefully selected set of readings, you will participate in a broad interdisciplinary conversation. And through the critical thinking, creative research, and reflective writing you will practice in the assignments for this course, you will be able to make an original contribution to this ongoing discussion.

Tomlinson, Niles B. - Fake News and Ironic Views: Satire as Social Critique

While satire has a long history of exposing social/political excess and human folly, never has it been so prevalent as in our current cultural moment. From The Daily Show and Last Week Tonight to the Netflix series Bojack Horseman to the mockumentaries of Sasha Baron Cohen to the films Don’t Look Up and They Cloned Tyrone, satire is a potent and sometimes dangerous rhetorical tool for illuminating the absurdities of extremist views and partisan propaganda. This course starts with the question of why satire has become such a pervasive phenomenon and then moves towards an exploration of the value of, and potential problems with, satire as a lens for social criticism. 

This course will include assignments like a self-written and performed satire that critiques a relevant current issue, a rhetorical analysis of a scholarly article on satire, a critical reading of a satirical film or novel, and a capstone research project which will give students a chance to explore in depth a particular example of satire in contemporary culture. In all, this course will make the larger points that the language of satire and irony is our language, and that laughter and seriousness are not mutually exclusive.

Troutman, Phillip - TBA

TBA

Wolfe, Zachary - Law as a force for social change

This course uses the theme of law and its role in progressive social movements to introduce students to university-level research and writing. Understanding that law is an important means by which we structure social relations consistent with shared values, this course will examine historical and contemporary social movements that have used the language of rights and turned to legal systems for solutions. We will explore how advocates for social change — in the streets, in courtrooms, and in academic journals — have challenged and redefined foundational concepts, invoking history and law in order to challenge the status quo. Throughout all of this, we consider how to evaluate arguments, what makes for effective advocacy, and the ways in which thoughtful analysis contributes to our understanding of contentious social issues.

Each student’s own research and reflection will form a major part of this course, particularly in the final weeks. This course culminates in a research paper on a subject for which advocates today employ law to advance their cause. Within those general parameters, the specific topic is selected by each student, so this course will reflect intense research on a variety of subjects. While finalizing the research paper, each student will contribute to the others’ understanding of their respective topics through participation in an in-class conference.

Upper-Level UW Courses:

Wolfe, Zachary - UW2031 Equality & the Law: Introduction to legal research and writing

This course offers an introduction to how lawyers and legal scholars research and write about specific disputes that arise in the context of complex social issues. It is one of the required courses for the minor in law and society and satisfies a WID requirement.

Legal writing, like all forms of scholarly writing, is best understood in context and in practice. In this course, we have the opportunity to explore an ongoing challenge to our society in general and the legal system in particular: the promise of equality, and how government relates to it. We do so by examining judicial decisions, statutes, regulations, and law review articles concerning matters related to race, sexual orientation and gender, disability, and others issues that continue to advance major challenges to the system’s ability to realize legal and civil equality. That examination requires an understanding of legal audience expectations as well as the ability to use specialized research techniques and craft written analysis in particular forms, so students will learn about the nuances of argument in the interdisciplinary field of law and the unique requirements of legal research and writing.
 

Zink, Christy - Preparation for Peer Tutors in Writing/UW2112 Pedagogy and Praxis for Writing Consultants

Enrollment in UW 2111W and UW 2112 is by permission, after application and selection in the preceding fall. UW211W meets a WID requirement.

Writing invokes both science and art, and the study of writing, in turn, calls on all the disciplines in between. This course invites you to engage with interdisciplinary knowledge, with multiple genres of writing, and with questions of audience, purpose, and possibility to unlock deeper, more varied understandings of “good writing.”  What happens when we disturb insistence on a single, stable notion of English, as linguists and cultural studies scholars do, to revel in the reality of multiple Englishes? Playing with rich meanings and matterings of language, as do anthropologists, sociologists, and psychologists, among others, reveals what new expressions of individual identity, community, and communication? These questions are foundational to Writing Studies and are typical of the ones we’ll explore in this course.

UW2111W (three credits) and 2112 (one credit) are taken together, meeting pedagogy--how and why we teach—with praxis--the active application of the tools and techniques of peer writing consulting. Course readings and projects purposefully engage with research methodologies rooted in Writing Studies alongside models in parallel academic fields, providing a grounding in disciplinary writing that consultants encounter every day in a university’s writing center. The practicum sets that new expertise into motion as you observe and practice consulting in GW’s Writing Center, gaining interpersonal skills essential to teaching writing -- connecting, listening, and staying attentive to the full, complex humanity of writers (including yourselves).

UW2111W meets a WID requirement. Together, the courses are prerequisites for students applying to work as consultants in the GW Writing Center.