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| ANTH |
204 |
Studying the Supernatural |
4 Credits |
| An introduction to the study of new religious movements and non-ecclesiastical religions
from an anthropological perspective. Sometimes religion is specific to certain groups
and reflects an integrated system of meanings and behaviors to reflect broader cultural
features in a specific social environment. But often when viewed cross-culturally,
religions also exhibit some interesting common characteristics with religions from
other social environments. (WCore: WCSBS and WE)
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| ENGL |
104 |
Books That Changed the World |
4 Credits |
| Literature can be a powerful tool for social change. This course examines the international
tradition of literary activism in which writers expose injustice, demand change, and
inspire solidarity and struggle. (WCore: WCFAH, WE)
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| ENGL |
105 |
Communicating Through Writing |
4 Credits |
| This course immerses students into the process of becoming college writers. The workshop
oriented class provides an opportunity for students to learn about the following:
how rhetorical context shapes writing, how to write about readings, how to understand
the information literacy needs and approaches to research, and how to synthesize research
into a student’s own writing. By the end of the course, students will have confidence
to read, write, research, and communicate in a college context. (WCore: WCFAH, WE)
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| ENGL |
115 |
The Bible and Literature |
4 Credits |
| We will examine the ongoing cultural dialogue between literature and the Christian
Bible, focusing on themes such as creation, temptation, fall, revelation, exodus,
testing, persecution, conversion, apocalypse, and the problem of evil. Works by by
authors such as Shakespeare, Milton, William Blake, C.S.Lewis, Kafka, and Dostoevsky
will be read in the context of relevant passages from the Bible. What light do the
Bible and literature throw on perennial human issues? Our basic approach to these
texts will be anthropological. (WCore: WCFAH, WE)
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| ENGL |
116 |
The Serious Art of Humor |
4 Credits |
| This writing emphasis (WE) Exploration course focuses on humor as a pivotal human
experience in the twenty-first century. Students will explore how humor is tied to
social contexts, and gain a deep understanding of ways in which humor entertains,
instructs, and illuminates political issues. We will read comedy as a cultural text
and explore a myriad of subgenres that span geographical contexts (including works
by social activist Wanda Sykes, contemporary satirist George Saunders, Indian joke
master Kushwant Singh, and cultural critic Barry Sanders), as well as examine styles
of comic performances from Ali G’s shock-comedy to Margaret Cho’s political satire.
In the process, we will investigate the meanings and effects of humor that have proliferated
through social and digital media in the backdrop of such historical events as 9/11
and the Asian Tsunami. Throughout the course, students will reevaluate the concept
of humor and ask “what’s funny and why?” (WCore: WCFAH, WE)
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| ENGL |
117 |
Writing Time |
4 Credits |
| Both writing and drawing use time. That is a problem. This LC considers this problem
by exploring how writing and drawing use time formally or conceptually, paying particular
attention to the composition of our works or the assembly of many individual components
into a unified whole. We will analyze sequential images, using ideas found in films,
graphic novels, photographic experiments, and animation in order to better understand
how time can be used as a medium, as well as an idea. We will work to connect our
writing and drawing practices in form and content and reflect on the inherent similarities
and dissonances we find in each. (WCore: WCFAH, WE)
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| ENGL |
121 |
How Literature Matters Now |
4 Credits |
| This course considers how literature continues to be a vital element of human experience
in the 21st century. It may focus on how literary tropes and ideas manifest themselves
in other media (in adaptations, allusions, or mashups), on how digital tools have
opened up new ways of understanding literary texts, or on how the techniques of literary
analysis can help us to understand political narratives. (WCore: WCFAH, WE)
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| ENGL |
131 |
Shakespeare, Culture, and Society |
4 Credits |
| Shakespeare's plays and poems are important cultural artifacts of English society,
its customs, traditions, structures, and institutions. We will investigate how the
performance of Shakespeare's works function in 17th-century England and global modernity, drawing on theorists such as Stephen Greenblatt,
Clifford Geertz, and René Girard. We will consider the role of Shakespeare's art in
relation to issues of social order and of social change. (WCore: WCSBS, WE)
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| ENGL |
133 |
Walking |
4 Credits |
| In this arts and humanities course, we will explore the cultural history of walking
in the United States, we will walk with intention, and we will write and make art
about walking. Some people walk only out of necessity. Others walk to improve their
well-being, to see the world, or to save the earth. Depending on who is walking where,
when, why, and how, this seemingly simple and ordinary activity can become an adventure,
a sport, a crime, an artistic performance, a spiritual practice, a political protest,
and more. By studying and practicing the art of walking, we will ask important questions
and uncover sometimes uncomfortable truths about ourselves and our world. This course
welcomes all people. For our purposes, walking is defined as slow movement across
the land. (WCore: WCFAH, WE)
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| ENGL |
204 |
Epistolarity: Letters to and From |
4 Credits |
| This writing emphasis (WE) W seminar focuses on letters as both reading and writing
texts. Students will read letters both real and imagined (for example Heloise and
Abelard, Frederick Douglass, Roland Barthes’ A Lover’s Discourse, Sojourner Truth,
Madame de Stael, M.L.King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Rilke’s Letters to a Young
Poet, McSweeney’s Letters to People or Entities Unlikely to Respond) across a variety
of genres. Students will also write their own letters (love letters, rejection letters,
condolence letters, complaint letters, etc.) to themselves, their loved ones, the
instructor and classmates, the editors of newspapers or magazines, their communities,
etc. The course seeks to combine a deep understanding of rhetoric (awareness of audience,
purpose, and information literacy) with literary modes across a broad spectrum of
relevance. Letters might include emails, texts, and tweets. The seminar aims to teach
students the importance of establishing ethos in conjunction with educating one’s
audience. Workshop format, with at least 20 pages of writing, including multiple drafts
of each assignment. The course addresses three college-wide learning goals (writing/critical
thinking/creative-reflective), plus diversity, because understanding issues of power,
subordination, and privilege are inextricable from creating a standpoint from which
to speak. (WCore: WCFAH, WE)
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| ENGL |
207 |
Global Food Movements: Farms to Social Media |
4 Credits |
| This course is a study of social movements around food and agriculture in the Global
South. From farm worker movements in India to the indigenous fight for environmental
justice in Ecuador, this course will investigate how global "food systems" intersect
with issues of land, hunger, environment, and the economy. The focus will be on the
phenomenon of food crises and the social movements in response to them. (WCore: WCFAH,
WE)
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| ENGL |
208 |
Wording Your Eats: Food Writing Across Genres |
4 Credits |
| Students read, research, and write about food. In addition to reading the work of
classic (MFK Fisher, Brillat-Savarin, Jane Grigson) and contemporary (Ruth Reichel,
Michael Pollan, Samrin Nosrat) writers, students will produce more than 20 pages of
writing themselves, revising each piece multiple times. Topics include agribusiness,
terroir, the chemistry of flavor, the development of taste, the intersection of eating
and health, wild versus cultivated or hybridized, cooking, table manners, molecular
cuisine, and national and international customs. Writing assignments may include blog
posts about personal cooking or eating discoveries, product and restaurant reviews,
experiential accounts, abstracts and syntheses of scholarly research, and research
articles. (WCore: WCSBS, WE)
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| ENGL |
210 |
Digital Narratives |
4 Credits |
| In this course we will learn how to create stories using digital media such as video
narratives and podcasts. Alongside exploring creative elements, we will also reflect
critically on how new media shape our understanding of narrative and audiences. The
online forum will allow us to be fully immersed in a digital experience. We will create
what Anne Burdick calls, "imaginative techno-texts" and critique each other's works
online. To develop a common vocabulary, we will read critical texts about narrative
and media. In the process, we will analyze the relationship between creator and audience,
between form and medium, by asking questions like, "how do the intersections between
technology and storytelling affect the ways in which we explore and express our stories?"
Students don't need technical proficiency. We'll spend some time going over basic
technical and production guidelines. (WCore: WCFAH, WE)
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| ENGL |
215 |
Vampire Literature |
4 Credits |
| This course proceeds from the assumption that reading literature bears certain uncanny
similarities with vampirism, and that these similarities partly account for the success
of the vampire subgenre in popular literature and cinema (the reception of which we
will regard as a kind of reading). In particular, literary texts put their readers
in a state of passivity that is at once often nerve-wracking and intensely pleasurable.
Meanwhile, we will regard writing as a form of vampiric seduction, luring the reading
into a receptive state only to strike at the decisive moment and thus achieve its
aims (which we will assume are somewhat less violent than the aims of a vampire).
(WCore: WCFAH, WE)
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| HIST |
102 |
Alien Encounters in History |
4 Credits |
| People often make the judgment that since the past has influenced our own world, the
people of the past must somehow be “like us” in fundamental ways. This course will
seek to undermine that judgment by arguing that we are fundamentally different from
people in the past and that in understanding these differences, we can more freely
choose our futures. Our field of inquiry will be European History in the centuries
that include the Ancient World through the Renaissance. In particular, we will examine
the ways in which Europeans (a definition that evolves over time) define themselves
through encountering and interacting with “alien” cultures. Examples: What’s the difference
between civilized people and barbarians? How do the people on both sides of the Crusades
misunderstand each other? How do the Khan and the Pope try to negotiate their communication?
These are a few of the “alien” encounters that we will study. (WCore: WCFAH and WE)
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| HIST |
111 |
Patterns of Global Immigration |
4 Credits |
| This course looks at the recent history of global immigration patterns in the context
of modern world history, paying particular attention to the last century, or so, of
migration. The course focuses on immigrant experiences in the US and Europe but it
also closely examines global circumstances that affect who becomes an immigrant and
why. Students will explore immigration through a variety of writing assignments that
focus on the historical and contemporary influences shaping the immigration experience
in many parts of the world. (WCore:, WCFAH, WE)
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| HIST |
123 |
Citizenship & Voting in Europe |
4 Credits |
| This course examines the struggle for citizenship and its attendant benefits in European
History. The course will follow this focus by selectively looking at European history
from the Renaissance through WWII. Approximately two weeks of the course will be developed
to a service learning project related to individuals seeking citizenship and/or voter
registration here in Salt Lake City. We will look at how the current local issues
relating to obtaining citizen rights affect our understanding of the issues that have
aided and impeded citizenship in history. (WCore: WCFAH, WE)
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| HIST |
202 |
America’s Best Idea |
4 Credits |
| In 1872 the U.S. Congress declared the Yellowstone region the world’s first “national
park.” In 1916 Congress created the National Park Service, “which purpose is to conserve
the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to
provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave
them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” Today the Park Service manages
407 “units” with 28 different designations – including national parks, monuments,
historical parks, military parks, preserves, recreation areas, seashores, parkways,
lakeshores, and reserves – and nations around the world have created their own versions
of “national parks.” This course will investigate the “national park” idea and its
implications for natural and human history. Why has this been called “America’s best
idea?” What have been the implications of national park designation for Native Americans?
For wildlife? For American history and culture? How do historians answer such questions?
(WCore: WCFAH, WE)
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| PHIL |
134 |
Philosophy, Identity, and the Self |
4 Credits |
| When we begin to look at the world philosophically, we begin to question the basic
assumptions in our lives that we used to ignore. This forces us to start to live in
our world with shakier scaffolding than before. However, while this can be uncomfortable
and often downright annoying, it also allows us to reflect on what we truly find valuable
and encourages to build more meaningful relationships with ourselves, our loved ones,
and our world. Throughout this course, we will read philosophical reflections on five
core questions in philosophy. Moreover, we will write about and discuss how these
questions enter into our own lives and how the ideas of fellow philosophers shake
or stabilize our own scaffolding. (WCore: WCFAH, WE)
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| PHIL |
208 |
Philosophy of Love & Sex |
4 Credits |
| Love and sexuality are two of the most crucial and complex aspects of our identities.
Moreover, these concepts are often intertwined and sometimes pitted against one another.
In this class, we will examine different approaches to this topic from a wide selection
of philosophical traditions. Furthermore, we will supplement traditional philosophical
readings with analyses of artifacts from popular culture, such as music, movies, and
television. All of this will prepare us to ask and respond to various questions, such
as “what is love, what is sex, and how are they related?” “In what ways does who and
how we love make us who we are?” “How is sexuality a personally and politically important
construct?” and “How can love change the world?” (WCore:, WCFAH, WE)
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| PLSC |
106 |
Explorations in Politics |
4 Credits |
| This course explores contemporary political issues in the context of a diverse and
globalized world. Issue areas explored may vary depending on political events at the
time. (WCore: WCSBS, WE)
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| WCFAH |
213 |
Revisioning (Dis)ability |
4 Credits |
| This course has been designed to provide an in-depth exploration of social justice
issues for people with disabilities. Through a series of visual images, including
documentaries and digital photographs, students will examine the disturbing history
of cruel treatment through ‘tyranny of the majority’ toward those with disabilities.
Topics include the Eugenics Movement, forced institutionalization, and continued restraint
and seclusion. Students will also delve into the social changes brought about by the
Disability Rights Movement as well as the barriers to full inclusion that exist today.
(WCore: WCFAH, WE)
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| WCSBS |
206 |
Social Entrepreneurship |
4 Credits |
| Are you interested in contributing to the greater good through the career you choose?
Do you want to do 'good' for others without sacrificing your own economic well being?
Well, now you can. In this course you will learn about the growing phenomenon known
as social entrepreneurship. In this class you will learn the theory behind social
entrepreneurship and you will immerse yourself in the local economy of mission driven
startups in the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. (WCore: WCSBS, WE)
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| WCSBS |
212 |
Piss on Pity |
4 Credits |
| This course has been designed to provide an in-depth exploration of how pejorative
words and actions lead to oppression for individuals with disabilities. Course topics
cover a disturbing history of exclusionary and subjugating political platforms and
educational practices that ensure segregation and subordination. Through a series
of stories written and produced by people with disabilities, students will examine
the history of the Disability Rights Movement and coordinated rallying cries that
include "Piss on Pity" and "Nothing About Us, Without Us."The purpose of this W-Seminar
course is to go beyond a survey of history, in order to reflect on the potentials
of isms, bias, bigotry, power, privilege, and oppression in human interactions. Students
will explore controversial issues of morality, ethics, and values, while learning
how to put problems into broader historical and cultural contexts and develop an expanded
view of self that includes one's relationship to others in diverse communities. (WCore:
WCSBS, WE)
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| WRIT |
123 |
Writing and Language Diversity |
4 Credits |
| In this writing-intensive class, we will read, write, and discuss the intersection
of writing and language. As college students, we are asked to write "academically."
But what does academic writing mean? And how does it relate to language? Academic
writing will be a subject of study as well as a skill we will develop. Language, though
it seems neutral, is provocative because of social attitudes toward language standards,
diversity, and change. In a sense, we judge - and are judged - on how we use language,
both in speech and writing. As we explore this intersection, we will become stronger
readers, writers, and researchers who are aware of linguistic diversity and language
in various rhetorical contexts. (WCore: WCSBS, WE)
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