The ongoing global pandemic and elections have revived conversations on race and the marginalization of the Black Diaspora. In this course, we will engage with the various ways in which black people practice politics in Africa and elsewhere in the diaspora. We will pay special attention to the ongoing impact of national politics on the global pandemic. Scholars taking the course will each week respond to a reading by writing public facing work such as blogs, editorials and/or opinion pieces, and other forms of public writing. A primary goal in this course is to learn how to bring academic arguments to the general public.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 12
Prerequisites: At least one Africana Studies or Political Science course.
Instructor: Dendere
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing
Typical Periods Offered: Fall and Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
To what extent do contemporary streaming services include queer people and people of color? How do contemporary children's books accommodate progressive ideas in the face of conservative backlash? How have networks like HBO, Netflix, or Amazon promoted or undercut LGBTQ civil rights or racial justice? American Studies often focuses on the appraisal, interpretation, and critique of historical and contemporary popular culture. Designed for juniors and seniors, this seminar will explore how American Studies multidisciplinary perspectives can be adapted to reviews, critiques, opinion pieces, and other forms of journalistic, literary, and public writing. Students will consider a variety of historical and contemporary American cultural products, including television, film, books, literature, websites, exhibitions, performances, and consumer products, in order to enter the public conversation about the cultural meanings, political implications, and social content of such culture.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 12
Prerequisites: AMST 101 or another AMST 100- or 200-level course.
Instructor: P. Fisher
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
One of the thorniest issues facing artists, art historians, curators, critics, theorists, city planners, and others who have to negotiate art in public places is the question of competing perceptions and meanings. As soon as a work of art is proposed for or installed in a site in which numerous publics intersect, or a work is destroyed, the question arises of “whose public” is being addressed. This seminar will bring to the table historical and contemporary case studies in public art, in part selected by students, as the subjects of several genres of public writing, among them reviews and Op. Ed. pieces. Students in all areas of art history will have already confronted, and will confront in the future, the question of who has the right to make the art, install the art, or destroy the art, in any geography at any time.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: Any 200 or 300 level course in Art History. Open to Senior Art History majors only.
Instructor: Berman
Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video
Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
Communicate your art-historical knowledge to the broadest possible public. While focusing on public writing, we will study the history and politics of fashion. Topics will include gender and class performance, cultural appropriation, medicine and the body; technology; and law and society. Weekly meetings will include collaborative editing workshops, guest speakers, and a field trip. Students will build a writing portfolio including a book review, film review, Smarthistory essay, museum labels, and a one-minute radio text, among other projects. The Calderwood seminar model demands firm weekly deadlines, allowing classmates time to reflect and comment on each other’s work. We build a scholarly community that shows the larger world how the history of art intersects with fashion.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 12
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Berman
Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video
Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes: Intended for Seniors majoring or minoring in Art History Intended for Seniors majoring or minoring in Art History
Art and anthropology museums tell stories about the past and its relevance to the present, but what stories they tell, who gets to tell them, and which objects should—or should not—be considered are not always self-evident. In this writing-intensive seminar, you will learn how texts—wall labels, press releases, exhibition reviews—engage audiences within and beyond the museum’s walls. The course consists of writing assignments related to artworks made in the Americas before Independence, from the ancient Maya to colonial Peru, many on exhibit at the Davis Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Through these case studies, we will learn how to convert visual images and academic arguments into appealing, jargon-free prose. In keeping with the structure of the Calderwood seminar, weekly deadlines in this class are firm so as to allow classmates time to reflect on such arguments and comment on each other’s ideas. Take on the role of museum curator and learn how texts help us navigate controversies over the acquisition, provenance, and display of artworks from distant cultures and places.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 12
Crosslisted Courses: LAST 378
Prerequisites: At least two 100- or 200-level courses in Art History or Anthropology.
Instructor: Oles
Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video
Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing
Typical Periods Offered: Fall; Every three years
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
Researchers increasingly attempt to harness biochemical approaches as a way to address pressing societal problems. For example, recent work has focused on topics including the effective production of biofuels, remediation of environmental pollutants and developing new treatments for antibiotic resistant pathogens. In this course, juniors and seniors will explore contemporary research aimed at solving these problems through readings in the primary literature, invited lectures, interviewing researchers and developing independent research proposals. Students will analyze and interpret research findings through weekly writing assignments targeted towards broad audiences, such as research summaries for the scientific press, textbook sections, executive summaries and proposals accessible to non-specialists. Class sessions will be structured as workshops to analyze core chemical and biological concepts and provide structured critiques of writing assignments.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 12
Crosslisted Courses: BIOC 324
Prerequisites: BIOC/CHEM 223 or BIOC/CHEM 227 or BIOC/BISC 220 or (CHEM 205 and CHEM 211 and (BISC 110 or BISC 112 or BISC 116)), or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Elmore
Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences
Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing
Typical Periods Offered: Every three years
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
Scientists have made great progress revealing intricate details of many biological processes. They understand the importance of their work like the back of their hands. The scientific literacy of the general public, however, has not kept pace. This seminar aims to equip students with the writing skills necessary to communicate important ideas from a breadth of biological disciplines in an exciting, clear and relevant manner to a range of audiences. The body of work created in this class will include short pieces on articles from the primary literature, reviews of presentations and magazine articles by experts, as well as op-eds on scientific issues of interest and a profile of a scientist of choice. Peer editing and writing workshops play a large part, aiding students as they write multiple drafts of each assignment.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 12
Prerequisites: Any two BISC 200-level courses or permission of the instructor. Open to Juniors and Seniors only.
Instructor: Königer
Distribution Requirements: NPS - Natural and Physical Sciences
Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
This course will explore a wide range of writing on current film and television, thinking about the forms of contemporary discourse on the moving image and ways our own writing can join the conversation. We will read and write reviews, trend pieces, and star studies, bringing our specialized knowledge as moving image enthusiasts to bear on pieces intended to speak to and engage a broad reading public. Students will develop and present their writing in workshop discussions, and serve as editors to their peers. Readings from classic and contemporary writers on film and television will help us refine our sense of what makes writing on media illuminating, accessible, and compelling.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 12
Prerequisites: CAMS 202 or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Shetley
Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video
Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
When we talk about food, we think about personal passions, individual diets and eating behaviors, but we might also think about cultural traditions, consumption disparities and food insecurities, about public health and sustainability, animal rights, deforestation, and genome edited crops. Clearly, the topic challenges us to address difficult questions of intersectionality (of the personal and the political, the local and the global, the human and the non-human). In this seminar we will learn to translate academic discourses into public writing formats that might include op-eds, social media posts, (cook) book reviews, Wikipedia entries, restaurant reviews, and portraits of food activists.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 12
Crosslisted Courses: ES 362
Prerequisites: Open to Juniors and Seniors, or by permission of the instructor. Not open to students who have taken GER 362.
Instructor: Nolden
Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature
Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes: This course meets with GER 362.
Students will combine their knowledge of economics, including macro, micro, and econometrics, with their skills at exposition, in order to address current economic issues in a journalistic format. Students will conduct independent research to produce bi-weekly articles. Assignments may include coverage of economic lectures by well-known economists, book reviews, economic data releases, and recent journal articles. Students also may write an op-ed and a blog post. Class sessions will be organized as workshops devoted to critiquing the economic content of student work.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 12
Prerequisites: All of the following - ECON 201, ECON 202, ECON 203.
Instructor: Sichel
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
Thoughtful communication about adolescents’ sexual health is a complex and often fraught issue. Many people have strong feelings and deeply held beliefs about what is right and wrong, what should be taught, and why. In this Calderwood Seminar, we will utilize small groups and collaborative editing to tackle how to communicate effectively with a wide range of audiences. We will explore ways to translate evidence-based research for a general population. All course assignments will consist of writing for public audiences, such as an op-ed, newspaper article, a blog for a teen or parent magazine, and an interview profile of a professional in the field. Students will learn about psychological research and evidence-based practice in health-promoting and developmentally appropriate communication with adolescents about sex and relationships.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 12
Crosslisted Courses: EDUC 324
Prerequisites: This course is limited to juniors and seniors. Students must have completed at least two 200-level courses in Psychology, Education, or Women's and Gender Studies.
Instructor: Grossman
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
Adolescents are developing socially, cognitively, and civically in their online and offline worlds, transforming how formal and informal learning takes place. Students in this course will digest research findings and reflect on their own experiences about how social technologies (e.g., Instagram, gaming, mobile phones) can influence wellbeing during the tween and teen years. Harnessing personal narratives that appeal to different stakeholders, we will develop timely and accessible strategies to inform adolescents, educators, families, youth workers, and policymakers about the implications of these findings. This interdisciplinary course spanning education, psychology, media studies, and health communication fields involves transforming research into digestible, brief, non-academic pieces intended for the general public and provides opportunities for students to explore their own interests. Sample assignments include a policy brief, op-ed, e-newsletter, 2 minute podcast, social media messaging campaign, and strategic writing for UX design. Each week, fellow classmates critique each other’s work in a friendly, constructive environment while guest writing coaches and industry professionals provide useful tips to hone each piece to its creative potential.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 12
Crosslisted Courses: PSYC 322,PSYC 322
Prerequisites: Open to Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors.
Instructor: Charmaraman
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis; SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing; CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Fall
Notes:
This Calderwood seminar in public writing will show that there is no such thing as dead poetry. In a series of weekly writing and editing exercises ranging from movie reviews to op-eds, we will explore the many ways that the great poetry of centuries past speaks directly to modern experience. We will be taught both by the poets themselves (whose eloquence will rub off on us) and each other, as each student will pick a poet whose writing she will become expert at relaying to a lay audience. By the end of the semester, not only will you be able to persuade a newspaper reader that blank verse matters as much as Twitter; you will also learn how to articulate the value of your English major to a prospective employer--and how to transmit your excitement about the latest discoveries in your field to friends and parents.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 12
Prerequisites: Open to all students who have taken at least two literature courses in the department, at least one of which must be 200 level, or by permission of the instructor to other qualified students.
Instructor: Lynch
Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature
Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
While literary criticism might seem like an esoteric or unworldly pursuit, it has relevance and consequence beyond the narrow world of academic journals. It shapes reading lists at the high school, college, and graduate level and contributes to cultural conversations about expanding the canon. It also has the potential to create connections between academic scholarship and the larger world it inhabits. In this Calderwood seminar, we will read selected works of contemporary literary criticism (and a few short stories) and consider the place of published criticism in the wider culture. Over the course of the semester, students will produce several short pieces exploring criticism’s significance and present their work to the class as part of our weekly writing workshops. Assignments -- including op-eds, reviews of public talks, memoranda, podcasts, and blog posts -- will target a non-specialist reading audience. This course will give students the opportunity to build on their own experiences as readers of literature and writers of literary criticism as they engage with the questions and controversies that criticism raises.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 12
Prerequisites: Open to all students who have taken two literature courses in the department, at least one of which must be 200 level, or by permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Rodensky
Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature
Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
Tax carbon? Label genetically modified crops? Ban endocrine disruptors? In this course, an interdisciplinary capstone experience for the ES major, we will engage with such questions and related environmental sustainability issues as public writers. Students will choose one environmental issue, which will be the focus of their environmental “beat” during the semester. They will draw on an interdisciplinary toolset from environmental studies to analyze and communicate the scientific, economic, political, and ethical dimensions of pressing policy issues. Students will conduct independent research to produce weekly articles, such as op-eds, blog posts, press releases, book reviews, policy memos, and interviews with environmental professionals. Class sessions will be organized as writing workshops focused on the interdisciplinary analysis and content of student work.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 12
Prerequisites: A declared major in environmental studies and completion of six courses that count toward the ES major, or permission of the instructor. Open to Juniors and Seniors only.
Instructor: Turner
Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
From Hollywood’s casting couches, to the Copenhagen City Hall and the highest echelons of the French media establishment, to the feminists in Mexico and Argentina and the demands of those in Japan, Iran, and Egypt, the #MeToo movement has raised a global wave of protests against sexual abuse. The expression of women’s voices has been undeniably transformed since the hashtag's emergence, but the aims and results of the movement, and the consequences faced by those accused, have varied from place to place. Students will consider #MeToo from a comparative and multilingual perspective, analyzing texts and media from around the globe, in a collective effort to grasp how culture, language, and nation condition the international struggle for women’s rights.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 12
Crosslisted Courses: WGST 336
Prerequisites: At least one Language & Literature course at the 200-level in any modern language department or by permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Bilis
Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature
Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing
Typical Periods Offered: Every three years
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
In this course, students will leverage their prior mathematical knowledge to communicate complex mathematical ideas to audiences ranging from the general public to other mathematicians. Each week, students will research a new topic and produce a piece of writing explaining this topic in a specific context. Assignments may include research abstracts, book reviews, interviews with mathematicians, newspaper articles, and technical documentation. Class time will be devoted to discussing the mathematical content behind each assignment as well as workshopping students' writing. This course will give students the opportunity to ground (and expand on) the mathematics they have learned and make connections across the discipline. Moreover, this course's unique format will help students develop their research and independent learning skills.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 12
Prerequisites: MATH 302 and MATH 305, or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Lange
Distribution Requirements: MM - Mathematical Modeling and Problem Solving
Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
This course challenges students to think critically about music, and writing about music, in the public sphere. Students explore the relationship between their specialized academic knowledge and their experiences as day-to-day consumers of music. The core material of the course consists of a series of writing and editing exercises for an imagined audience of non-specialists—including reviews of recordings and lectures, program notes for concerts, an interview with a prominent musician—and discussions of controversial issues in academic music. This course addresses a variety of issues, such as how to write about the experience of live performance or how to assess music as a kind of social activism. By translating the technical vocabulary of academic music into a language accessible to the public, students find that they listen and think musically in new and unanticipated ways.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 12
Prerequisites: MUS 100. Open to Juniors and Seniors.
Instructor: Fontijn
Distribution Requirements: ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video
Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
Philosophical writing is often thought to be impersonal and abstract, focused on rigorous argument and high theory to the exclusion of personal narrative, voice, humor, and literary style. But not all philosophy takes that form. This seminar explores the alternative mode of more personal philosophical writing, as it appears in contemporary personal essays on philosophical themes and pieces of public philosophy with a personal slant philosophy (in, e.g., The New York Times, The Point, Aeon, and The New Yorker.) The course is structured as a writing workshop, and centrally aims to develop students’ confidence and skill in writing their own pieces of autobiographical philosophy. Students will create a portfolio of writing and workshop it closely with their peers and professor throughout the semester.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 12
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor required. Intended for Philosophy majors and minors, but students with at least two courses in Philosophy will be considered.
Instructor: de Bres
Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature; REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
This course will teach students to effectively communicate to the public political science research on American politics. This will require students to step back from the details of their coursework to examine how political science has shaped their understandings of political phenomena. How are the perspectives of political scientists different from those of practitioners and the public? How can these perspectives contribute to public debates on politics? Through a series of writing assignments--for example Op/eds, book reviews and interviews--students will learn how to translate expert knowledge and perspectives into everyday language, but perhaps even more importantly, how to draw on that knowledge to address the concerns of citizens about the political world.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 12
Prerequisites: At least one POL1 course or by permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Burke
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
Take a step back from your psychology major and learn how to transfer your expertise to the public. This Calderwood Seminar challenges upper-class students in an intimate workshop setting to grow as psychologists and writers. Throughout the semester, students will build a writing portfolio that might include op-eds, book reviews, journal article reviews, coverage of public talks, Wikipedia entries, articles for middle school STEM magazines, and interviews with research psychologists. Classes will include collaborative editing workshops, guest lectures from experts, and activities to build a strong writing foundation. In keeping with the structure of the Calderwood seminar, students choose areas of psychology to study in depth, and weekly deadlines are firm so as to allow classmates time to reflect and comment on each others' work. You have learned how to write for college, now learn how to write for life.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 12
Prerequisites: Open to Junior and Senior Psychology majors who have taken two 200-level courses, excluding PSYC 205, PSYC 250, and PSYC 299, or permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Gleason
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
The growing field of data humanism recognizes data as foundational to our economic, political, and social systems, while also seeking to recenter people in the process of its curation. In this course, we will explore the use of data through a humanistic lens, not only to better understand the critical role data plays in our lives, but also to discover how we can use data to become more humane. We will ask: if the word data comes from the Latin root for “the thing given,” by and to whom is it given? When exactly did data get “big”? What do we mean when we identify projects as “data-driven”? How can data intersect with social justice activism? And with art and storytelling? Students will engage these questions by drawing on the work of historians, cultural critics, journalists, social scientists, data analysts and designers, performing their own data tracking, and using their research to craft opinion pieces, reviews, reports, and other forms of public writing.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 12
Prerequisites: Open to juniors and seniors, or by permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Brubaker
Distribution Requirements: SBA - Social and Behavioral Analysis
Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
Margaret Atwood professes that, “A word after a word after a word is power.” Propelled by the #MeToo movement, LeanIn, and the women’s march, women are baring their truths, beliefs, and experiences in an explosion of public words. In this seminar students will become immersed in the dynamic contemporary landscape of women’s writing, spanning memoir, poetry, journalism, and political commentary. Within an intimate workshop setting, students will develop their own voices through assignments that will include book reviews, op-eds, social media analyses, and interviews. By taking turns as writers and editors, students will become skilled in evaluating and fostering their own writing as well as the writing of others. This course takes as its premise the intensive Calderwood format of having students regularly produce, critique, and revise their and their peers' writing by alternating being writers and editors throughout the semester.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 12
Prerequisites: This course is open only to juniors and seniors; all students must have taken at least one 200-level course in the study of literature.
Instructor: H. Bryant
Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature
Other Categories: CSPW - Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes: