Analyzing Propaganda
This semester, we will explore the nature of propaganda and how it differs from other forms of persuasive or political communication. We’ll consider some visual media (film and art), and texts of varying sorts. We will focus on identifying, defining and comparatively analyzing propaganda, mostly from the 20th century to the present day (but with examples from previous centuries), and we will ask questions including: Can we agree on what makes a work of propaganda? How do moral or ethical concerns shape our perception of propaganda, and its effectiveness?
In this course, students will hone their reasoning skills through engagement with the concept of propaganda, and sharpen their writing skills through multiple drafts of papers with substantial feedback from their peers and instructor.
Law and Literature
Although we may not realize it, the law permeates our everyday lives in tangible and significant ways. The same premise holds true with regards to works of literature. Although the work itself is fictitious, there still exists within it some social construct of law and order, even if it radically departs from our conceptual understanding of the same. In other words, a literary work can possess significant legal issues even when the author fails to create a single lawyer, judge, or police officer as a character in the entire story.
This course will look at potential legal issues in certain literary texts – texts that are not ostensibly about the law (such as Presumed Innocent and The Firm would be) but that nevertheless do involve legal issues. The focus of the course will entail analyzing these legal issues, taking a position on them, and writing persuasive essays in support of these positions. Students will perform virtual mock trials, hearings, and depositions at the end of each unit and will present the arguments made in the essays before a live virtual jury. Texts for the class will include: Miss Julie (August Strindberg), Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Robert Louis Stevenson), A Doll’s House (Henrik Ibsen), and Dirty Work (Larry Brown).
The Post-Human Condition
This course explores whether we are evolving into a posthuman state, and what that actually means. Transhumanist philosophers, science fiction writers, physicians, and religious leaders all have stakes in the conversation of whether we are transforming into cyborgs—but so do you, of course. In exploring this wide-ranging topic, we’ll read and watch a diverse array of interdisciplinary texts (from Black Mirror episodes to works of philosophy to theories of evolution). You will write a Definition Paper, Analysis Paper, and Research Paper. The last assignment asks you to select a subtopic that interests you most and apply it to a contemporary issue.
- Rhetoric of Health and Medicine
- There’s No Place Like “Home”
- The Culture of Gaming