This writing seminar satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement. The course is designed to offer students structured, sustained, and highly articulated practice in the recursive processes entailed in reading, critical analysis, and composing. Students will read five thematically related book-length texts, or the equivalent, drawn from a range of genres, in addition to various non-print sources. In response to these materials, they will craft several short pieces leading up to three longer essays--works of exposition and argumentation.

We’ll delve into a new course theme – “Living on the Edge of Life & Death” as we learn about people pushed to the brink and how they have responded across the past 100 years–from members of the Osage Nation in the 1920s facing murder to disability rights advocates in the 1970s fighting for their own civil rights legislation. You’ll view films and read books--and write about both. We’ll view UC Berkeley’s On the Same Page documentary film: Newnham & LeBrecht’s 2020 Crip Camp during the Thursday, September 14th campus-wide screening and conversation with the filmmakers from 4-7pm. Then, after reading Grann’s 2017 history-laden true crime book by the same name, we’ll go as a class to a movie theater to view the Hollywood debut of Martin Scorseses’ 2023 Killers of the Flower Moon starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, Rose Marie Cardinal, & Robert De Niro. You’ll analyze other indigenous-focused films (Frozen River, Smoke Signals, and 100 Years) and diverse written texts (Anzaldua, Gardner, Hogan, Jordan, Zinn, and more) as you work toward creating and publishing your own multimodal capstone project.

Requisites

• Enrollment is limited to students who have satisfied the UC Entry Level Writing Requirement.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills