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WRTG 105 is taught by faculty across all departments and schools. Browse our various offerings for the Spring 2026 semester below:

WRTG 105-01: The 1619 Project

Instructor: Maria Lima (Department of English & Creative Writing)

Meeting Times: TR 2:30-4:10

Description: This course is a writing seminar designed to give you many opportunities to practice your critical thinking, argumentative and writing skills.  We will read each other's writing, collaborate on presentations, and revise our work to almost perfection.  With this class, I hope, we'll see writing as both work and play, understanding that if language creates reality, whose language prevails makes all the difference in the world.  Yes, we are talking about power--about writing to change the world – or at least the United States.

Our class takes on The New York Times challenge to reframe American history, to consider the possibility that the origin of this country can be traced to 1619, the year that marks the arrival of the first enslaved Africans (from the land that would become Angola) to the land that would become the United States, in all its defining contradictions.  Out of slavery, according to Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, grew nearly everything that has truly made America exceptional. To name only a few: its economic might; its industrial power; its electoral system, diet, and popular music; the inequities of its public health and education; its income inequality; systemic racism; its legal system and the endemic racial fears and biases that continue to plague the nation to this day.  The American Documents set for the world a blueprint for freedom and equality despite the nation’s history of widespread injustice. The seeds for all that were planted long before the country’s official birth date, in 1776, when the men known as our founders formally declared independence from Britain. We’ll spend the semester reading and writing about The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story, focusing on the power of literature to represent alternative (non-hegemonic) versions of history. Once we understand how “we got to be this way,” we’ll work together to change the national imaginary and dismantle white supremacy (or at least try to).
 

WRTG 105-02: Indigenous Wisdom

Instructor: Lisa D'Angelo (Department of English & Creative Writing)

Meeting Times: TR 12:30-2:10

Description: : Using Braiding Sweetgrass as the central text, and recognizing writing as conversation which involves the writer, reader, and additional outside voices, students will examine, respond to, and reflect upon the messaging of Robin Wall Kimmerer. With her use of anecdotes from her life as an Indigenous person, scientist, educator, mother, and child, along with rhetorical techniques she uses to effectively engage her audience and convey her experiences, students will recognize Kimmerer’s writing as a model, both in content and form, that will then guide and encourage them within the context of their own writing.

WRTG 105-03: Grimm Realities

Instructor: Joanna Santos-Smith (Assistant Dean for Strategic Initiatives)

Meeting Times: TR 4:30-6:10

Description: Students will explore the enduring legacy of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales and their transformation across time, genre, and medium. From their folkloric origins to their modern reinterpretations in literature, film, television, and digital media, Grimm stories offer a rich lens through which to examine cultural values, narrative structures, and rhetorical strategies. Students will engage in a variety of writing assignments that emphasize analysis, argumentation, and revision, culminating in a research-based project that connects Grimm tales to broader cultural conversations.

WRTG 105-04: Indigenous Wisdom

Instructor: Lisa D'Angelo (Department of English & Creative Writing)

Meeting Times: TR 10:30-12:10

Description: : Using Braiding Sweetgrass as the central text, and recognizing writing as conversation which involves the writer, reader, and additional outside voices, students will examine, respond to, and reflect upon the messaging of Robin Wall Kimmerer. With her use of anecdotes from her life as an Indigenous person, scientist, educator, mother, and child, along with rhetorical techniques she uses to effectively engage her audience and convey her experiences, students will recognize Kimmerer’s writing as a model, both in content and form, that will then guide and encourage them within the context of their own writing.

WRTG 105-05: Write about Cinema

Instructor: Johannes Bockwoldt (Department of English & Creative Writing)

Meeting Times: MW 12:30-2:10

Description: Write About Cinema introduces students to academic writing through the study of film. Using cinema as a lens, the course emphasizes critical thinking, analysis, and effective composition. Students read essays, reviews, and scholarly texts on film while developing skills in argumentation, research, and revision. Writing assignments range from close analysis of individual films to comparative essays and research-based projects. By engaging with diverse perspectives on cinema, students learn to craft clear, persuasive, and well-structured prose. The class fosters both writing proficiency and cultural literacy, equipping students to communicate ideas effectively across academic and creative contexts.

WRTG 105-06: Intro to Philosophy

Instructor: David Levy (Department of Philosophy)

Meeting Times: MW 12:30-2:10

Description: An introduction to the discipline and practice of Philosophy-its main areas, problems, and methodology. You will build skills in reading philosophical texts, identifying and responding to arguments, and writing and revising argumentative and reflective essays as you develop an understanding of fundamental and enduring problems concerning knowledge, existence, and value.

WRTG 105-07: The Just Society: Introduction to Political Theory

Title: Aaron Herold (Department of Political Science & International Relations)

Meeting Times: MW 12:30-2:10

Description: What is a just society? In this course, we will consider this question through an introduction to ancient, modern, and American political thought. We will analyze the competing visions of justice and morality that have been articulated by some of the greatest minds of the past. In so doing, we will also reflect on the alternatives embodied in the lives of some exemplary human beings, including Socrates, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Frederick Douglass. Some of the questions we will consider include: What is the best form of government, and is it possible to bring it into existence? Are human beings equal? If so, in what way? Do we possess rights? If so, what is their source, and how far do they extend? What obligations do we have to our community? Are the demands of good citizenship the same as the requirements for being a good person? Are there any fixed moral limits to human action? What is the true meaning, and the true worth, of human freedom? What is the place of reason or philosophy within a political community? What is the appropriate place of religion in politics, and in human life more generally? What is the best way of life for a human being? Students who complete this section of WRTG 105 can receive a waiver for PLSC 130 (Political Theory). Students who have already taken that class should not enroll in this section.

WRTG 105-08: The Witch

Instructor: George Goga (Department of English & Creative Writing)

Meeting Times: MW 4:30-6:10

Description: What is a witch? Today, witches evoke images of the Halloween industry-on page, screen, and in costume-but as an identity, the witch is much more complex. Historically, this question involved the European witch hunts of the early modern period. This course introduces students to the witch as an identity that can be created, traded, discarded, and destroyed to suit a variety of needs. Together, we will chart the evolution of this identity from its historical birth until today and predict its future as a potentially lasting feminist icon.

WRTG 105-10: Academic Ableism

Instructor: Gillian Paku (Department of English & Creative Writing)

Meeting Times: TR 2:30-4:10

Description: The phrase “academic ableism” is part of the title of a book about disability and higher education in which Jay Timothy Dolmage contends that the category of the “normal” is maintained through higher education. In this section of the writing seminar, we will think about the writing habits and norms that form in the secondary school system (looking at you, College essays, quotation sandwiches, and hamburger paragraphs); ��ɫ����’s origins as a normal school and its commitments to accessibility; neurodivergence and disability; meritocracy and AI; excellent sheep, and calm cattle. We’ll read Mark Haddon’s novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and various non-fiction articles and essays about the intersection of disabilities with higher education. Writing is what we’ll be doing and also what we’ll be thinking about, so there will be plenty of drafting, conferencing, peer-editing, revising, and reflecting. In all those ventures, we’ll be looking to include accessibility at the point of design and to innovate in how we communicate.

WRTG 105-11: Supply Chain

Instructor: Jordan Kleiman (Department of History)

Meeting Times: TR 12:30-2:10

Description: The material standard of living in modern industrial societies depends on long, illegible supply chains. This course will explore examples of this phenomenon in several sectors of the American economy, including food, energy, and plastics. This will allow us to "pull back the curtain" on supply chains and examine their hidden environmental and social costs. In exploring this topic, we will grapple with several questions. How did industrial supply chains emerge? What are their guiding principles? What arguments are offered in their defense? What practices have they allowed? Who has borne the burdens and reaped the benefits of those practices? What strategies have corporations used to keep their practices hidden? How have consumer, environmental, and labor activists fought back?

WRTG 105-12: Monarchy

Instructor: Timothy Carapella (Department of History)

Meeting Times: MW 4:30-6:10

Description: What comes to mind when you hear the word monarchy? Perhaps it's the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland screaming "off with her head!" or Thomas Jefferson maligning King George III as a tyrant in the Declaration of Independence. Maybe it's Henry VIII executing two of his six wives or Louis XIV strolling through the gilded halls of Versailles—or Marie Antoinette being carted to the guillotine. Do you think monarchy is a “bad thing” that belongs in the dustbin of history, or does it still belong in the world of the twenty-first century? Thomas Paine certainly thought it was outmoded in 1776 when he wrote Common Sense. But why? This writing seminar will start there before we turn, perhaps with more sympathy than Paine, to the lives of three European monarchs: “Bloody” Mary Tudor, Marie Antoinette, and George V. 

WRTG 105-13: Monarchy

Instructor: Timothy Carapella (Department of History)

Meeting Times: MW 2:30-4:10

Description: What comes to mind when you hear the word monarchy? Perhaps it's the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland screaming "off with her head!" or Thomas Jefferson maligning King George III as a tyrant in the Declaration of Independence. Maybe it's Henry VIII executing two of his six wives or Louis XIV strolling through the gilded halls of Versailles—or Marie Antoinette being carted to the guillotine. Do you think monarchy is a “bad thing” that belongs in the dustbin of history, or does it still belong in the world of the twenty-first century? Thomas Paine certainly thought it was outmoded in 1776 when he wrote Common Sense. But why? This writing seminar will start there before we turn, perhaps with more sympathy than Paine, to the lives of three European monarchs: “Bloody” Mary Tudor, Marie Antoinette, and George V. 

WRTG 105-14: Conspiracy Theories & Skepticism

Instructor: David Hahn (Department of Philosophy)

Meeting Times: MW 10:30-12:10

Description: This course is an introductory writing course. The focus is to teach the student the ability to write essays at the college level. This course will focus on the ability to create, develop, and sustain arguments using the tools of both writing and critical thinking. The course uses examples from the world of conspiracy theories, misinformation, and pseudoscience in order to provide these tools by expressing to the students where and how these have seemingly grabbed our current culture.

WRTG 105-15: American Partisan Politics: 1790s and Today

Instructor: Thomas Barden (Department of History)

Meeting Times: TR 6:30-8:10

Description: This course examines how the rise of American partisan politics began in the 1790s with its viciousness and turmoil and how it compares with the partisanship and polarization of today’s current politics.  This introductory writing course teaches students to read and research academic level texts and write and revise argumentative and reflective essays.

WRTG 105-16: Secrets & Secret Codes

Instructor: Doug Baldwin (Department of Mathematics)

Meeting Times: TR 8:30-10:10

Description: The title "Writing Seminar: ...." perhaps suggests you’ll get nothing out of this course if you already write well. Fortunately, I have another interpretation in mind. Although this course is centered on writing, it’s more about what and why people write than it is about how to write. So while we might spend some time on things like how to state a thesis, the real purpose of the course is to change the way you think about writing: to think of, and practice, it as a tool for refining ideas, whether those ideas are ultimately meant for others or just for yourself. And this view isn’t just about writing, it works for language in any form. Thus, I also hope that we’ll have a lot of conversations in this course, as places to explore both other people’s ideas and your own — maybe before writing, maybe afterwards, during, or even without writing at all.

Of course, it’s hard to have ideas without them being about something. We will therefore use secret codes as a context for thinking, writing and discussing. Much of this activity will actually deal with issues surrounding the codes in our readings rather than with the codes themselves, although we’ll also look at some of the history, mathematics, and technology of secret codes.
 

WRTG 105-17: Biodiversity and Our Changing Planet

Instructor: Mackenzie Gerringer (Department of Biology)

Meeting Times: MW 12:30-2:10

Description: In this course, we will build skills in finding scientific information, writing, revising, and communicating across audiences. This section will explore the incredible biodiversity of life on our planet, the power that diverse perspectives bring to the sciences, and the need to meet some of the biggest challenges we face with critical thinking, collaboration, and communication. Course readings will support our discussions of topics including climate change, sex and gender diversity, traditional ecological knowledge, and identity and belonging in the sciences. Learners will develop skills in storytelling, editing, critical information literacy, and communication that will serve across academic majors and beyond. 

WRTG 105-18: Global Sports

Instructor: Amanda Lewis-Nang'ea (Department of History)

Meeting Times: MW 10:30-12:10

Description: Students will explore how sports shape—and are shaped by—cultures around the world. From soccer in Nigeria to baseball in Japan, we will look at how games reflect nationalism, social change, and global connections. Through reading, discussion, and writing, students will examine topics like race and gender in sports, the role of athletes as activists, and how politics impacts the games we watch and play. This writing-focused class will engage students through various forms of reading and writing skills designed to help students develop their voice and strengthen their writing skills. No sports knowledge required—just curiosity and a willingness to think critically about the world through the lens of sport.  

WRTG 105-19: The Witch

Instructor: George Goga (Department of English & Creative Writing)

Meeting Times: T 4:30-7:40

Description: What is a witch? Today, witches evoke images of the Halloween industry-on page, screen, and in costume-but as an identity, the witch is much more complex. Historically, this question involved the European witch hunts of the early modern period. This course introduces students to the witch as an identity that can be created, traded, discarded, and destroyed to suit a variety of needs. Together, we will chart the evolution of this identity from its historical birth until today and predict its future as a potentially lasting feminist icon.

WRTG 105-22: Access & Opportunity in Business

Instructor: Jesse Redlo (School of Business)

Meeting Times: TR 3:30-4:45 (note: this section is hybrid and will require some additional work online)

Description: This section will explore the topics of access and opportunity, concentrating on how they affect business. Students will engage in intrapersonal, reflective activities to build self-awareness around topics, such as privilege, social justice, and equity forming a foundational understanding of what it means to ethically facilitate access and opportunity in business. Based upon this new self- awareness, students will practice effective interpersonal communication skills by engaging with peers to have respectful and insightful dialogues about differing viewpoints. Simultaneously, students will practice academic research and writing skills by actively reviewing existing best practices in making business more accessible. The class will culminate in an academic paper delivering recommendations on how to increase access and opportunity in business through the lenses of evidence-based practice and individual reflection on growth.

WRTG 105-23: Questioning Playfulness

Instructor: Sharon Peck (School of Education)

Meeting Times: MW 12:30-2:10

Description: This course will take on an exploration of the intersectionality of playfulness and life. Looking at play and playfulness across the life span, students will reflect on their play histories, explore key theories of play and playful mindsets. They will explore how play came to be seen pejoratively in schools and society. And they will play with words and ideas as they look at methods of interweaving playfulness into their lives and their studies. Students will read from a variety of sources, learn to evaluate sources, develop clearly crafted essays, develop convincing arguments, and learn how to play with revision. Students in this section should be prepared to be actively engaged in class discussions, simulations, explorations and phases of the writer's workshop.

WRTG 105-24: Geography

Instructor: Sohrob Aslamy (Department of Geography & Sustainability Studies)

Meeting Times: MW 10:30-12:10

Description: "Nature," the cultural theorist Raymond Williams once observed, is among the most complex words in the English language. Our course will begin here--with the idea that writing about nature means writing about a world that is never simply given. For geographers, this complexity is an invitation to recognize that spaces, landscapes, and environments are never neutral backdrops but bound up and entangled with the social worlds that produce and interpret them. Geography, therefore, takes "nature" not as scenery, but as something made and remade through human history, relations of power, and imagination. To write about nature is to write about society. This course treats writing as a way of thinking geographically about nature. Through a close study of key texts in science fiction, film, nonfiction, and scholarship, we will move from the personal to the planetary. From the detail of a single encounter to the scale of global environmental change. Along the way, we will consider how "nature" has been imagined as "sanctuary," "resource," "frontier," and "ruin," and what it might mean to write toward a different kind of imagination altogether. We will learn and practice the mechanics of good prose, like clarity, flow, and structure. And through regular reflections and workshops, you'll learn to craft essays that join observation with analysis and argument with story. By the end of the semester, you will have developed a portfolio of written work that applies these skills to make the world, and our imprint upon it, more legible, and perhaps, more open to change.