A lecture/seminar satisfying the second half of the Reading & Composition requirement, R4B offers structured and sustained practice in the processes used in reading, critical analysis, and writing. Students engage with thematically-related materials from a range of genres and media. In response, they craft short pieces leading to longer expository and/or argumentative essays. Students develop a research question, draft a research essay, gather, evaluate, and synthesize information from various sources. Elements of the research process--a proposal, an annotated bibliography, an abstract, a works cited list, etc.--are submitted with the final report in a research portfolio. Students write a minimum of 32 pages of prose.

This course will follow the models, invitations, and occasional exhortations of a diverse array of artists, scholars, and activists to assess, critique, and ultimately remake social structures toward more responsive and equitable ends. How can we make our lives better? How can we better shape the situations in which we find ourselves? All of the texts we will study take up these questions to posit an array of startling and compelling responses. Traversing and integrating fields of biology, natural history, economics, politics, art, and autoethnography (just to name many), the academic projects, zines, manifestos and memoirs we study will offer both models and inspiration for your own acts of speculative creation, imagining and realizing new possibilities. You will hone your critical thinking skills through open discussion, collaborative projects and essays as you develop a substantial research project of your own design exploring innovation and possibility in areas which interest and impact you. Course Texts: Two Cheers for Anarchism by James B. Scott The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing The Craft of Research by Wayne Booth (Various other texts in diverse media will be available for free on the bCourses site)

Enrollment is restricted to students who have satisfied the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement. This course satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement.

Requisites

• Previously passed an R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Previously passed an articulated R_A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Score a 4 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Literature and Composition. Score a 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Language and Composition. Score of 5, 6, or 7 on the International Baccalaureate Higher Level Examination in English.

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills