Fall 2026 Sections WRI 101 [A]: According to Science MW 8:05 - 9:20 Rosemond Research suggests…”, “Scientists say…” We often see and hear these phrases across news and social media platforms to get the public to buy the latest skincare must-have or to warn of the dangers of a “dangerous” chemical. But when do we ask the question “Who are “scientists?” or “Why, when, or which scientists should be trusted?” In this course we will explore these questions and more as we endeavor to understand the relationship between “science” and “the public” with a focus on how science is communicated within and between these communities. We will discuss and make connections between various science communication forms ranging from primary research articles to TikToks as students develop information literacy, data analysis, and communication skills through reading primary literature and writing assignments. In addition to smaller writing assignments, there will be three major writing projects that may engage students in 1) a reflective essay on their experience with science, 2) producing a popular science article, and 3) analyzing potential sources of distrust between the “scientific community” and “the public. WRI 101 [AA]: Representations of Social Activism in Latin American Film TR 1:40 - 2:55 Willis This course examines representations of activism in reaction to social struggles in contemporary Latin American film. Though the course primarily centers on Latin American cinema, it also explores fictional and non-fictional texts, in addition to other forms of art, alongside the socio-historical circumstances that inspired their creation. Students will compare various case studies, reflecting on how expressions of social activism, resistance, and dissidence manifest in the arts. While featuring these films of social criticism as a point of reflection, the course concurrently guides students to further develop and polish existing writing skills. Students will engage in both low and high stakes writing exercises by: maintaining a notebook diary of informal reactions to the works being studied and composing three academic essays/projects of increasing lengths. Editing (with feedback from both peers and professor) and revising multiple drafts are important components of the course. WRI 101 [B]: Abolitionist Futures MW 8:05 - 9:20 Wooten This course examines abolition not only as a critique of carceral power but as a speculative and world-building project oriented toward futures beyond prisons, policing, and punishment. We begin by tracing the historical development of carceral systems in the United States, including the afterlives of slavery, the 13th Amendment, convict leasing, and the expansion of policing and imprisonment, in order to understand how punishment has been made to appear necessary to social life. We then turn to abolitionist thought as a framework that refuses reformist solutions and instead asks what it would mean to organize safety, accountability, and collective life otherwise. Alongside foundational texts by Angela Y. Davis, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Mariame Kaba, and Dylan Rodríguez, we will engage speculative, literary, and activist texts that imagine abolitionist futures, asking what kinds of social relations, infrastructures, and political commitments would need to be built in their place. Throughout the course, we will ask: What conditions sustain the carceral state? Why does reform so often reproduce it? What would it take to make abolition livable and durable? Assignments will include a close analytical essay on an abolitionist text, a collaborative project that maps an existing abolitionist intervention, and a final project in which students design and produce an abolitionist zine that articulates a future-oriented approach to a contemporary social issue. WRI 101 [C]: Politics of Love TR 8:15 - 9:30 Gasparowicz Artists, thinkers, writers, prophets, and theologians have long asked the simple yet deeply profound question: What is love? Is it marriage? Pleasure? Romance? Community? The idea of ‘romantic love’ and- its central place in marriage- is a surprisingly recent invention. In this course, we will explore how people in the 20th and 21st centuries have imagined, debated, and lived love in all its iterations. Course content will emphasize interdisciplinary thinking, ranging from philosophies about love (written by thinkers such as bell hooks and Catholic theologians), to fictional and lived accounts of love affairs (such as Frida Kahlo’s), to expressions in visual culture. We will complete three major writing assignments over the course of the semester. Along the way, we will emphasize close reading of primary sources, building and anticipating arguments, and developing research and critical digital literacy skills. We will also workshop our writing, practicing how to give and receive constructive feedback. WRI 101 [D]: Justice and Piety MWF 8:30- 9:20 Shaw The course offers students a chance to investigate a venerable question of political life: What is the relationship between political justice and religious faith? While most of us in twenty-first century liberal democracies assume that politics and religion have nothing in common-and that they should have nothing in common-political philosophers have long acknowledged their intimate and mutually implicative relationship. We’ll explore this relationship by reading and discussing writings that span several genres (philosophy, epic poetry, historical narrative, rhetoric, and dramatic dialogue) by four ancient Greek authors: Homer, Thucydides, Sophocles, and Plato. We’ll attempt this task as well by writing often and in a variety of formats. In all assignments students will be encouraged to articulate and defend their own interpretations and points of view. WRI 101 [E]: Critical Reading and Critical Writing MWF 8:30 - 9:20 Gay During this semester, students and the course instructor will work as a team to answer one complex question: What is critical thinking? In this quest, we will read a series of non-fiction texts intended to develop critical reading skills and write three major writing projects, each with drafting, critique, and revision, intended to develop critical writing skills. WRI 101 [F]: Atheism MWF 9:30 - 10:20 Blum Atheism may begin with the denial of God’s existence, but it need not end there. Various thinkers worked to expand and deepen atheism, seeking to develop it into a functional worldview-an understanding of the self and its place in the world that could be meaningful, moral, and intellectually coherent. The task of this course is to assess that attempt: to determine whether and to what degree atheism can be elaborated into a satisfying and livable understanding of the self in the world. Class assignments include three major papers and a number of shorter, lower-stakes writing assignments throughout the semester. WRI-101 [G]: Voice, Identity, Self MWF 9:30 - 10:20 He Writing involves the intricate interplay of one’s voice, identity, and self-formation, crucial elements distinguishing humans from chatbots. This course delves into various topics, such as the role of language in shaping identity and how culture and society influence individual voices. It will also discuss ethical concerns regarding generative AI, authenticity, and self-representation in writing. Through lively discussions and insightful readings, you’ll gain a nuanced understanding of how language molds our voices and shapes our perceptions of self. Additionally, you’ll have the opportunity to develop your own voice through writing assignments. Major assignments include a literacy narrative, a critical analysis, and a collaborative research report, which will comprise the final project, the digital portfolio. By the end of the course, you’ll gain a deeper appreciation for the transformative influence of language, the complexities of identity, and the dynamic nature of voice. WRI-10 [H]: The Linguists’ Dilemma TR 9:40 - 10:55 Fernandez Since Aristotle, philosophers, theologians, and scientists alike have assumed that language is a uniquely human trait. When Descartes famously declared je pense, don je suis (I think, therefore I am), he suggested that only humans applied, as only they were believed to possess the tool through which humans demonstrate their ability to think-language. Centuries later, in the 1960s, the father of modern linguistics, Noam Chomsky, advanced this assumption by centering his research on the notion of Universal Grammar (UG), which holds that only humans are genetically endowed with the cognitive capacity for language. Animals, in contrast, were thought to possess neither the physiological nor the cognitive capacity for language. In recent decades, this linguistic orthodoxy has been challenged by the bourgeoning field of animal studies. Research on creatures as different as bees to whales have offered evidence of rich communicative repertoires, complicating assumptions about the nature of language and prompting some not only to reconsider what it means to be human but also to consider new ways of engaging with non-human species. As it considers this central problem of contemporary linguistics-the nature of language, its evolution, and whether it is unique to humans-this first-year writing course will give students an opportunity to hone their skills as intellectual writers: to become yet more practiced at close and critical reading of others’ public and scholarly arguments, to fashion independent positions in response to those arguments, and to craft prose that both evokes their own signature style and reaches powerfully to interested readers. WRI-101 [I]: The Politics of Love TR 9:40 - 10:55 Gasparowicz Artists, thinkers, writers, prophets, and theologians have long asked the simple yet deeply profound question: What is love? Is it marriage? Pleasure? Romance? Community? The idea of ‘romantic love’ and- its central place in marriage- is a surprisingly recent invention. In this course, we will explore how people in the 20th and 21st centuries have imagined, debated, and lived love in all its iterations. Course content will emphasize interdisciplinary thinking, ranging from philosophies about love (written by thinkers such as bell hooks and Catholic theologians), to fictional and lived accounts of love affairs (such as Frida Kahlo’s), to expressions in visual culture. We will complete three major writing assignments over the course of the semester. Along the way, we will emphasize close reading of primary sources, building and anticipating arguments, and developing research and critical digital literacy skills. We will also workshop our writing, practicing how to give and receive constructive feedback. WRI-10 [J]: Being Human MWF 10:30 - 11:20 Wertheimer Being Human: For millennia, people have asked: What does it mean to be human? This course excavates this bottomless question using tools borrowed from a wide variety of disciplines: Classics, religious studies, anthropology, biology, psychology, economics, Africana studies, comparative literature, history, and more. Essays written by members of the Davidson College faculty dominate the reading list. Authors of several of these essays will visit the class. WRI-101 [K]: Atheism MWF 10:30 - 11:20 Blum Atheism may begin with the denial of God’s existence, but it need not end there. Various thinkers worked to expand and deepen atheism, seeking to develop it into a functional worldview-an understanding of the self and its place in the world that could be meaningful, moral, and intellectually coherent. The task of this course is to assess that attempt: to determine whether and to what degree atheism can be elaborated into a satisfying and livable understanding of the self in the world. Class assignments include three major papers and a number of shorter, lower-stakes writing assignments throughout the semester. WRI-101 [L]: Bad Art MWF 11:30 - 12:20 Rippeon This writing course examines “bad art”: cultural productions that raise questions about censorship and freedom of expression, the ethics of representation, kitsch and camp, and good art made by bad people. We will consider a variety of cultural forms, including literary texts (poems, fiction); music, television and film; and the visual arts. We will work to develop criteria for engaging with these forms; to develop these criteria, we will read critical theory, popular journalism, and literary and art criticism. We will also occasionally make use of the College’s art collection, and our own practices of cultural consumption. Student writing will include shorter, low-stakes assignments, informal presentations, and a series of essays (four) executed through a sequence of individual and group-oriented activities (e.g. conferences, peer-review, drafting and revision). WRI-101 [M]: Humanizing Monsters MWF 11:30 - 12:20 Allison Smith Greek and Roman mythology includes some of the greatest heroes of all time, yet ancient people were not always convinced that every hero should be venerated blindly. In a similar vein, monsters and villains at times were cast in more sympathetic lights. Even the gods were not beyond criticism! In this writing course, we will compare traditional and subversive versions of mythological narratives, including those of Medusa, the Minotaur, Medea, and more. Ancient authors, including Ovid, Euripides, Pseudo-Apollodorus, and ancient art will act as our primary source material, while modern scholarship will aid in our understanding of how ancient people viewed and were surrounded by mythological narratives. In our three major writing projects, which will be drafted, peer critiqued, and revised, you will be tasked with exploring several questions. How are certain heroes cast as antagonists of their own narratives? How do different versions of well-known villains and monsters aid in questioning the status quo of ancient societies? How can Greco-Roman art evoke alternate emotions towards certain mythological characters that we do (and do not) find in ancient literature? Like Theseus, come journey through the intriguing and often contradictory labyrinth of Classical Myth. WRI-1:01 [N]: #MeToo TR 12:15-1:30 Horowitz This course examines the rhetoric of #MeToo, the most recent iteration of the movement against gender-based violence, in the context of earlier representations of sexual harassment and assault. We will begin by studying recent historical flashpoints in the national dialogue about sexual abuse, including the Anita Hill hearings (1991); President Bill Clinton’s impeachment (1998); and the Boston Globe ’s exposé on the Catholic Church (2002). Approaching #MeToo as a genre of storytelling still taking shape , we will uncover emerging tropes and patterns in the narration of experiences of sexual abuse, in media portrayals thereof, and in the critical backlash. Based on our investigations, we will attempt to answer the questions, “Whose and what kinds of stories of sexual violence are likeliest to capture a national audience? Whose and what kinds are likeliest to be silenced or ignored, and why” Our rhetorical analyses will follow the method advanced in David Rosenwasser’s and Jill Stephens’ Writing Analytically . The first assignment asks students to analyze the organizing themes and contrasts of a popularly circulated #MeToo story of their own choosing. In the second, we will uncover assumptions about who and what constitutes an “ideal victim” in our class readings. For their final project, students will perform close textual analysis of interviews with women faculty about their experiences of workplace sexual harassment and situate them with respect to the narrative priorities, possibilities, and limitations we have identified as shaping the broader movement. WRI-101 [O]: Black Feminist Art Practices R 1:40 - 4:20 Villarroel Lamoza The recent onslaughts of reproductive rights, and the rights of trans and gender non-conforming people, have irrevocably crushed our illusions of a taken-for-granted sovereignty over our own bodies. In this class, we will examine contemporary art practices from Africa and the African diaspora that explore a radical feminist self-possession, which cannot be reduced to claims of ownership, domination, and control. Interrogating how Black feminist artists have responded to the refused recognition of institutions as museum and art galleries, we will trace the ever-expanding significance of immaterial, performative, and ephemeral artworks through the twenty first century. Students will learn the basic skills to write a brief academic essay, a performance art review drawing from the screening of Wura Ogunji’s Will I still carry water when I am a dead woman? , and an exhibition concept/wall text from an online collection. WRI-101 [P]: TBD MWF 12:30 - 1:20 Cho This course examines the history of archives, approaching the archive as a site where knowledge and political power are constructed and negotiated. We will begin by studying the emergence of archives in the Late Middle Ages through the Early Modern Period as a tool of governance and power by reading The Birth of the Archive: A History of Knowledge by Markus Friedrich (translated by John Dillon). To examine the intersection of power and knowledge, we will study how archives construct, manipulate, and silence knowledge by reading Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History by Michel-Rolph Trouillot and Archive Stories: Facts, Fictions, and the Writing of History edited by Antoinette Burton. By engaging with these works, we will attempt to answer the questions, “Why is knowledge central to power and how do archives reinforce or challenge existing power structures?” The assignments will ask students to analyze the structure and organizing mechanisms of Davidson College’s archives and uncover the narrative threads of an archival material of their choosing. For the final project, students will write an argumentative essay regarding how the digital age has transformed the authority of archives and their relationship with the public. WRI-101 [Q]: Genius MWF 1:30 - 2:20 Robak In this course, we will explore the idea of “genius” from its origins in the 1700s to its impact on our thinking today. We will interrogate assumptions about genius vis-à-vis intelligence, originality, giftedness, effort, achievement, and gender. Through engagement with a variety of historical and contemporary thinkers and artists, we will begin to understand how this idea continues to impact fields such as education, the performing arts, and science. Along the way, you’ll have the opportunity to refine your writing skills through three major projects, covering research strategies, attribution, thesis development, argument structuring, drafting, and revision. WRI-101 [R]: War and Memory MWF 1:30 - 2:20 Jensen Over the last decade, conversations about what to do with Confederate monuments and memorials have grown in scale, importance, and intensity. In the aftermath of such acts of violence as the massacre of Black worshipers in a South Carolina church in 2015, a white supremacist rally in Virginia in 2017, and the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd in 2020, statues have been removed, schools have been renamed, and street names have been changed across the United States. Now, we see some of those names returning. The question of how to remember the American Civil War is not a new one, and the collective memory of that war–and other American wars–has been contentious for well over a century. What does it mean to remember war? What is the importance of individual memory and collective memory? How does war memory shape culture, history, politics, art, and society in America in 2025? How do rhetoric, writing, and communication impact the ways in which we remember war? What issues pertaining to war and memory do we see in conversations today? In this course, we will examine the relationship between war, memory, writing, and rhetoric, exploring the ways war has been represented, discussed, and commemorated in America from the Civil War to the present. We will analyze memoirs, memorials, literature, art, film, and other media supplemented with scholarly material. In studying representations of war, we will familiarize ourselves with issues of war and memory, including the intersections of war and history, popular culture, politics and policy, and identity. Students will draft, peer-review, and revise three major writing assignments. Students will also engage in frequent, low-stakes writing to practice skills, think through ideas, and respond to sources. WRI-101 [S]: Pop Culture and Health Communication TR 1:40 - 2:55 Martinez This course centers health communication to engage questions about how, why, and to what extent health topics, issues, ailments, wellness, and actions permeate popular culture. The class will pay particular attention to mass and social media with emphasis on how masspersonal communication gains momentum in our social and intrapersonal routines partly attributed to the affordances provided by our media-saturated lives. We go beyond the typical medical professional and scientific authorities and focus on factual, technical information alongside communicative complexities such as persuasion, personal narratives, implicit and explicit biases, framing, lifestyle and agency factors, and the structural, systemic, cultural and equity issues underlying reality and the foundational roots of messages’ evolution. Through our primary anchoring text, the first of its kind, The Routledge Handbook of Health Communication and Popular Culture (2025), the course follows this specific structure: framing of health-related issues in popular culture; exploring popular culture influences on health behaviors and beliefs; considering pro-social public health interventions in popular culture; understanding health issues in popular culture from diverse perspectives; and looking to the future. Examples of specific topics include COVID-19 and adverse health consequences based on social stigma particularly for U.S. Asian/American communities, the Black-White racial skew of cognitive bias measures used in assessing long-term impact from concussions among NFL players, the white thinness inherent to body image and beauty ideals in the fitspiration Instagram phenomenon, the discourse surrounding mental health among Gen Z TikTok influencers, and the portrayals of emergency health situations as vicarious learning opportunities in long-running drama TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy. Students are encouraged to write creatively in an analytical style that amplifies their own authorial voice while infusing research and others’ arguments -scholarly, popular culture, and mainstream media conversations-to unpack messages about health. We seek to ask ourselves the “so what?” question constantly to unveil human communication and meaning that may inform our own health attitudes, actions, ways of knowing, and thinking about health and healthiness. WRI-101 [T]: Monsters and Misfits MW 2:30 - 3:45 Gonzalez This section of WRI 101 develops essential academic writing skills through an examination of analytical writing and reading applied to literary, cinematic, and artistic texts featuring monsters and misfits. We will analyze representations of figures such as Medusa, Frankenstein’s monster, zombies, aliens, and robots and strive to understand what they ask and reveal about being human, as well as the shared anxieties that constitute our humanity. Through sustained engagement with these topics, students will learn how knowledge claims about bodies and identities are shaped, shared, and contested through texts within both academic and public communities. We will practice close and critical reading, effective integration of sources, argument construction and revision, and strategic use of library resources. Assignments, completed through multiple steps and drafts, will include a close analytical essay on a text about monsters or monstrous bodies, a collaborative project that maps an existing scholarly argument related to our topic, and a final project in which students design and produce a zine that articulates a specific argument about the role of a monstrous figure within popular culture. WRI-101 [U]: The Trial of Jesus MWF 11:30 - 12:20 Krentz WRI-101 [V]: Medicine and Otherness MWF 2:30 - 3:20 Vaz
- Subject
- WRI
- Type
- course
- Edition
- 2026-2027
- Catalog
- 2026-2027 Catalog
- Source
- catalog.davidson.edu