Spring 2021 Class Schedule
Spring 2021 class Schedule
| Course | Title | Instructor | Day/Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| English 105-0-20 | Expository Writing | Tyler Talbott | MWF 11AM-11:50AM |
| English 105-0-21 | Expository Writing | Adam Syvertsen | MWF 12-12:50PM |
| English 105-0-22 | Expository Writing | Anna Zalokostas | TTH 11AM-12:20PM |
| English 105-6-01 | First-Year Seminar | Michele Zugnoni | TTH 11AM-12:20PM |
| English 105-6-20 | First-Year Seminar | Lisa Del Torto | TTH 5-6:20PM |
| English 105-6-21 | First-Year Seminar | Robert Ward | TTH 2-3:20PM |
| English 205-0-1 | Intermediate Composition | Charles Yarnoff | TTH 12:30-1:50PM |
| English 282-0-1 | Writing and Speaking in Business | Megan Geigner | TTH 9:30-10:50AM |
| English 282-0-2 | Writing and Speaking in Business | Laura Pigozzi | MW 9:30-10:50AM |
| English 282-0-3 | Writing and Speaking in Business | Charles Yarnoff | TTH 11AM-12:20PM |
| English 282-0-4 | Writing and Speaking in Business | Barbara Shwom | MWF 2-2:50PM |
| English 282-0-5 | Writing and Speaking in Business | Meaghan Fritz | MWF 10-10:50AM |
Spring 2021 course descriptions
ENGLISH 105-0-20: Expository Writing
That the U.S became the epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic during an election year highlights a stark opposition: on the one hand, Americans are sharing in the universal experience of a virus that has touched every corner of the planet, while at the same time national and nationalist politics have strongly shaped U.S. perceptions and responses to that virus. On top of this, the world is two decades into a century that many predicted would usher in the decline of nation-states and emergence of more transnational forms of identification and exchange, while we are instead witnessing a resurgent tide of nationalist movements across the globe. This class examines cosmopolitanism, as both an ideal of global consciousness and a description of global phenomena, and how it is thought of and written about in an age of nationalisms. Approaching the topic as pivotal to understanding modern debates about identity, culture, and world politics, we will interrogate the definitional slipperiness of cosmopolitanism, the affects and ethics associated with the term, and its frequently antithetical, but occasionally symbiotic relationship to the ideal of patriotism. We will do this by reading widely across critics and scholars of cosmopolitanism like Kwame Anthony Appiah and Martha Nussbaum, historical essays by George Eliot and Karl Marx, and speeches across the political spectrum by Theresa May, Josh Hawley, and Bernie Sanders, as well as by watching and analyzing films such as "Arrival" (2016) and television episodes of "Sense8" (2015-2018).ENGLISH 105-0-21: Expository Writing
The two central goals of this course are 1) to collectively establish provisional definitions of "good writing" 2) to develop and practice strategies for improving our own writing based on these definitions. To do so, we will read critically works from a wide variety of authors and genres, always asking ourselves questions like: how is this piece of writing organized? how is this writing style like or dislike other things I have read? what is the relationship between the form and content of writing? what makes this argument effective or ineffective? We will also highlight that good writing is, in fact, made. That is to say, good writing is a process that requires reflection and revision in order to develop skills of argumentation, organization, clarity, and style. This course will take the creation of utopia as its central topic, consulting utopias and utopian criticism from a historically broad cast of writers including Ursula K. Le Guin, N.K. Jemisin, Plato, Charles Fourier, Samuel R. Delaney, and Karl Marx. These will span a wide variety of genres such as fiction, manifesto, essay, sermon, and treatise. As a class, we will think through both the imaginative creation of utopia—what is utopia? who is utopia for? what is the purpose (if any) of imagining the ideal society? how have utopian imaginings (or lack thereof) shaped our present society?—as well as modes of representing utopia in writing.
ENGLISH 105-0-22: Expository Writing
Much of our lives revolve around work. For many of us, work will account for at least—if not more than—50% of our waking lives, estimating 8 hours of work per day (though this number is rising). Because work takes up so much of our time, it is, as sociologist Judy Aulette puts, "a (perhaps the) key place where we strive to be human, express ourselves, our talents, and our values." Following this insight, this course examines the lived experiences and political textures of work: where we work, what we do, how work impacts and is shaped by other parts of our lives (i.e., family, gender, race, class), and what problems we face at work. Collaborating on an archive of stories that moves across genres, from investigative journalism to short fiction, from television commercials to film, we will examine how work has been represented, experienced, and critiqued. Focusing primarily on the 21st century workplace, we will ask: Why are some workers or areas of work more socially or economically valued than others? Why are some individuals unable to obtain work or forced into precarious forms of employment? What does work actually mean to us as individuals and our identity in the social world?
ENGLISH 105-6-01: First-Year Seminar: LGBTQ in Popular Culture
In this class, we'll explore the influence that popular culture exerts on our societal understanding of what it means to be queer. We'll study queer identities across time and locale, coupling our study with relics of popular culture (stories, TV shows, and films) in an effort to situate the reality of queerness with the underlying current of popular culture. We'll also take some time to explore the impact of queer representation in popular culture created in the 21st Century. Assignments will include a research paper focused on what it means to be queer in a different time and place; a multimedia Prezi presentation focused on the impact of queer representation in the 21st Century; and a creative primary-research-based piece which gives us the opportunity to add our voices and the voices of others to the relics of queer popular culture.
ENGLISH 105-6-20: First-Year Seminar: Sustaining Sociolinguistic Diversity
Scholars of language and writing argue that language and its varieties, genres, modes, and rhetorical strategies are always shifting, flexible, and contested. Thus, sociolinguistic diversity—differences across and within languages and dialects—is inevitable. This seminar will explore how language difference is situated in current US and global discourses, considering language in written, spoken, and signed forms. We will disrupt monolingual ideologies that infiltrate those discourses, focusing on language diversity as an asset to individuals, cultures, and institutions. The course will consider college as one of those institutions and will explore language diversity and linguistic social justice as part of your first-year experience at Northwestern. Using scholarly readings from sociolinguistics and writing pedagogy along with popular non-fiction, the course will consider how we can sustain sociolinguistic diversity, how we can foster equity, access, and inclusion around language difference, and how our sociolinguistic diversity sustains us. You will formulate and explore your own questions about sociolinguistic diversity and linguistic social justice in papers, presentations, and class discussions. Students of all sociolinguistic backgrounds are welcome in this seminar, and our course design will provide direct benefits to students who identify as international, multilingual, and/or native speakers of non-mainstream Englishes.
ENGLISH 105-6-01: First-Year Seminar: Writing Race: Exploring Narratives of Race in America
Writing race is a critical discussion interrogating the narratives surrounding our evolving understandings of race in U.S society. The course analyzes existing racial narratives in print and popular culture through the lenses of history, sociology, and empirical research. It also focuses on how we develop and write our own narratives. This course will introduce students to the concepts of race, racialization and how these processes impact and shape our social institutions as well as everyday lived experiences.
ENGLISH 205-0-1: Intermediate Composition
The goal of this course is to develop your ability to write clearly, persuasively, and interestingly for a variety of audiences. Students will learn techniques for writing effective informative, reflective, persuasive, and research essays. These techniques include the effective use of specific details; methods of organizing ideas clearly; strategies for editing sentences for clarity and conciseness; and ways to give your writing a distinctive voice. Students will submit drafts and revisions of essays.