Course Schedule and Catalog

Long Title: FUNDAMENTALS OF ACADEMIC COMMUNICATION

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Designed to prepare students who need more time and practice in reading and writing to meet the more advanced communication demands of an FWIS, this course will provide an introduction to the expectations of academic readers as well as practice with the rhetorical and linguistic structures common to academic writing. Students will also review grammatical points relevant to the course material and assignments and learn to self-edit their own work. This course does not fulfill the Composition Requirement.

Long Title: THE BIBLE IN POPULAR CULTURE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: We will introduce various ways in which the Bible plays a significant role in contemporary popular culture. By analyzing biblical references found in music, film, art, and the medial, students will discover that even in today's seemingly secular culture, the Bible continues to influence our artistic, social, and political landscapes.

Long Title: READING AND WRITING CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: In this course we will read and write about children's literature. Students will begin with the oral tradition of fairy tales and proceed to picture books and junior novels. Students will analyze children’s literature as a genre and will create and write their own story books.

Long Title: HISTORICAL DEBATES OVER THE CONFEDERATE FLAG

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: The Confederate Flag is one of America's most contentious symbols. This course will study points in time when the flag's meaning has come up for debate. We will read and discuss primary and secondary readings covering certain points in history when the flag became a flashpoint.

Long Title: GLOBAL TEXTS AS INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: When aesthetic texts cross cultural boundaries, they bring with them complex histories, codes, and experiences from their place of origin. This course introduces fiction, non-fiction, and multimedia works from a wide array of global perspectives, as students analyze how authors present the foreign and the unfamiliar.

Long Title: GREEK MYTH IN WORDS: HESIOD AND THE HOMERIC HYMNS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Presents texts fundamental to understanding Greek myth through the regular practice of reading, writing, and oral communication. Emphasizing textual interpretation and writing as process and practice, this course clarifies the purpose and conventions of the academic argumentative essay. Frequent brief writing assignments. Peer review plays an integral role. No exams.

Long Title: MARRIAGE, INC.

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course looks at literary and cultural representations of marriage in the Anglo-American tradition: from Renaissance marriage bed poetry, to marriage plot novels and films, to present-day debates about the status of marriage as an institution. We will also explore cross-cultural and historical conceptions of marriage. This course is eligible for credit toward the major in English.

Long Title: IN THE MATRIX: ON HUMAN BONDAGE AND LIBERATION

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Using the film "The Matrix" as the point of reference, this course presents celebrated explorations of servitude and emancipation - from religious mysticism to Marxism and artistic modernism. Texts by Lao Tzu, Farid ud-Din Attar, Plato, Freud, Marx, Baudelaire, J.S. Mill, Proust, de Beauvior, Malcolm X, Marcuse, Baudrillard.

Long Title: GRAPHIC NOVELS AND THE ART OF COMMUNICATION

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: From their inception, graphic novels have always showed a deep connection to the historical events, anxieties, and struggles that surrounded their creation. In this course, we will examine graphic novels from a variety of perspectives, including the historical, the political, the social, and the literary.

Long Title: CONTEMPORARY ART AND ENVIRONMENT

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course delves into questions of environment, ecology and sustainability through the lens of contemporary art. From earthworks, to performance, to land art, activist art, and community-based practices, participants engage critically and creatively with contemporary practices. This course is eligible for credit toward the Environmental Studies minor.

Long Title: THE BIRTH OF THE GODS AND THE ORIGINS OF JUSTICE: HESIOD'S THEOGONY AND WORKS AND DAYS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Participants draft short papers weekly. Writing and class discussion are based on Hesiod's Theogony (creation myth) and Works and Days (early Greek wisdom literature). Each participant also leads one class discussion of secondary literature. No exams or quizzes. Final paper is a revised and extended version of a previous draft. This course is eligible for credit toward the major in Classical Studies.

Long Title: THE FIRST 200 YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course examines the growth of Christianity from Jesus to the end of the second century. The class will consider the theological, ecclesiological, and social debates of the competing Catholic and Non-Catholic churches and how these different movements connected themselves to Jesus and the disciples.

Long Title: RACE, PUBLIC POLICY, AND RACIAL CHANGE IN AMERICA

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course examines conceptual and historical features of race and representation in the U.S., how race has shaped public policy development in the 20th century, and how American political institutions have affected outcomes for different racial groups. It also examines the causes and consequences of political mobilization for racial minorities.

Long Title: LITERARY PROVOCATIONS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: In section 001 of this course, we will examine representative works of drama, poetry and fiction, ranging from ancient Greece to modern times. Students will write - four essays - about some of these important works. They will also keep journals in which they will write for ten minutes about every reading assignment. Section 002 of this course is designed to introduce first-year students from a wide variety of academic backgrounds to the major literary genres of fiction, poetry, and drama. Students will learn and practice the skills of close reading, interpretation, and literary analysis through discussion and critical writing about literature and language. This course is eligible for credit toward the major in English.

Long Title: WELLBEING

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: How to live a good life? This course critically evaluates different conceptions of wellbeing proposed by philosophers and encourages students to form their own conception of wellbeing with persuasive arguments.

Long Title: AMERICAN JOURNEYS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: The narratives of travelers in the US are a window into history. Drawing on authors like Crevecoeur, Tocqueville, Trollope, and Kerouac, the class will discuss and write about themes such as Indian life and territorial expansion, democracy, slavery, civil war, western settlement, and 20th-cent. social movements. This course is eligible for credit toward the major in History.

Long Title: ART IN PLACE AND PLACES FOR ART

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Students will look closely at a curated selection of influential, Houston-based works of art, installations, and architecture from the past century to understand the context and ideas behind the emergence of modern and contemporary art and design. They will observe, analyze, and describe these primary sources using both words and images.

Long Title: MUSIC, MYTH AND MADNESS: STUDIES IN MUSICAL BIOGRAPHY

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: A study of biographical narratives about musicians, including Bach, Bob Dylan, Thelonius Monk, Mozart, and Schumann. Considers the nature of creativity and inspiration. Examines the extent to which biography borrows from mythology and literary fiction. Material includes memoirs, letters, novels and films.

Long Title: BEYOND THE BURQINI: MUSLIM WOMEN, FEMINISM, AND GLOBAL POLITICS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Traces history of Western interest in Muslim women, paying particular attention to how the figure of the Muslim women has been used by western feminist to make their own case for gender equality. Readings include writings by different English and American feminists and by Muslim authors from around the world.

Long Title: FICTION AND EMPATHY

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This writing-intensive course explores the possible link between reading literary fiction and empathizing with others. We'll read short stories, novel excerpts, and literary criticism in an effort to scrutinize and more deeply understand the specific elements of fiction that might provoke empathy.

Long Title: TIME TRAVEL NARRATIVES: FICTION, FILM, SCIENCE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: From an aesthetic perspective, time travel has existed as long as there have been stories. Narrative introduces alien temporalities, transporting listeners and readers into different temporal landscapes. This writing-intensive course investigates the historical, aesthetic, and scientific connections between the authorial and scientific co-creation of time travel.

Long Title: LEADERS AND LEADERSHIP: WHAT WE KNOW, WHAT WE BELIEVE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: For over a hundred years social scientists have studied leaders and leadership. The popular press and media pundits continue to expound on the topic with conflicting views. Students will explore what they believe and what science informs us about leaders and leadership and share their analyses through discussions, writing, and oral presentations.

Long Title: STAR WARS AND THE WRITING OF POPULAR CULTURE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course will unpack the cultural legacy of the Star Wars films through traditional literary analysis and close reading, by situating the films historically, and by considering the ways that the films reflect attitudes towards a variety of social issues, such as spirituality/religion, philosophy, race, gender, class, nationality, and imperialism.

Long Title: WITNESSING THE HOLOCAUST

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course will examine selected testimony given by Holocaust survivors. Their testimony varies according to time and the circumstance in which it was given and also according to the genre (film, memoir, drama) in which it is presented.

Long Title: YOUR ARABIAN NIGHTS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: The Arabian Nights is one of the best known yet poorly understood literary masterpieces. It has been passed down orally in wiring, in performance and film; in multiple languages, and with different collections of stories. What is your Arabian Nights? We will consider stories of the Nights through both a literary and historical lens, and we will consider stories, films, and works of art that were inspired by the Nights in different cultures.

Long Title: THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course will interrogate the five most recent winners of the Nobel Prize in Literature. We will see what patterns we notice in the Swedish Academy's selections while paying attention to both aesthetic merit and the roles that social justice and cultural diversity might play in the awards process. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for FWIS 126 if student has credit for PHYS 143.

Long Title: PERSONALITY TRAITS AND TYPES OF INTELLIGENCE THROUGH THEIR LINGUISTIC MANIFESTATION

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Exploring theories on personality traits and types of intelligence, students will learn more about themselves and others. We will discuss how our verbal behavior reflects our personality.

Long Title: CHINGIS KHAN AND THE EMPIRE OF THE MONGOLS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: In the thirteenth century, the Mongols conquered China, Eastern Europe and Middle East. This class explores empire building, warfare, government and steppe culture, through reading the letters and memoirs of Mongols, merchants, travelers and adventurers. The students will work closely with primary sources to develop analytical writing skills.

Long Title: WRITING EVERYDAY LIFE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course is dedicated to the poetics of everyday life. It draws from the forms and colors of what surrounds us day-to-day, from landscapes, to bodies and objects. Students develop research and writing skills through creative fieldwork assignments and workshops. This course is eligible for credit toward the major in Anthropology.

Long Title: WOMEN AND THE HOLOCAUST: VICTIMS AND PERPETRATORS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course will examine the Third Reich and the Holocaust from the perspective of women as perpetrators and as victims.

Long Title: COLLECTING ART: PERSPECTIVES OF ARTISTS, PATRONS, AND MUSEUMS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course explores the interconnected roles of artists, the individuals who buy artwork, and the institutions charged with preserving and displaying it. The history of art collecting and patronage will be discussed as students explore the function of museums, the art market, and public and private collections.

Long Title: CHILDHOOD ON FILM

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This seminar examines the filmic representation of childhood across diverse historical periods and places. Of concern will be issues including children’s relations to nature, language and sexuality; modern systems of education; children’s perception of race; and childhood as a cinematic metaphor. Meetings will be based in discussion of films and critical texts.

Long Title: THE WORLD ACCORDING TO PIXAR

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: In this course, we will be investigating films from the Pixar studio, which critics have hailed for their strong writing and powerful commentary, through a variety of writing assignments. We will pay attention both to the films' narratives and to their technical elements as we explore the meanings they create.

Long Title: POP MUSIC AND AMERICAN CULTURE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Recent cultural movements encourage a more serious exploration of popular music. This course will participate by taking a critical look at what songs mean, what songs/albums/genres express, what our interest in music expresses, and how writing about music can lead us to great insights.

Long Title: FROM LEO TOLSTOY TO CORNEL WEST, ART CRITICISM IN CONTEXT

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: You will develop a rich understanding of art criticism as a genre and learn to write your own concise and insightful analysis of art. The class will think through challenges of visual interpretation through close looking at art in galleries, museums, artist studios, and on Rice campus.

Long Title: BEYOND POCAHONTAS: NATIVES IN 19TH CENTURY AMERICA

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course examines the dramatic change and upheaval experienced by American Indian nations during the nineteenth century.: the removal of Southeastern tribes to Indian Territory; the American Civil War, in which several Indian nations experienced their own civil wars as a result of their divided loyalties; and American expansion.

Long Title: BRAZIL MODERN: ART AND ARCHITECTURE BETWEEN THE NATION AND THE METROPOLE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Distribution Group: Distribution Group I

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This FWIS course introduces students to the artistic and architectural theories and practices of modernism in Brazil. This interdisciplinary course offers an exploration of the complex political, social and cultural histories that shaped the built environment of modern Brazil. This is a seminar on Brazilian modernism and its discontents.

Long Title: WRITING ABOUT GREEK DRAMA

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course introduces texts that are integral to ancient Greek culture, and core texts in the Western literary tradition. Students receive frequent regular practice at close reading, writing, and oral communication. The assigned primary texts are Aristotle's Poetics and tragedies by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides (all read in English translation).

Long Title: AMERICA THROUGH FRENCH EYES

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: The United States has always been a source of fascination -- both attraction and repulsion -- for the French. This studies American culture and identity as revealed by transatlantic encounters with the French. We will study French intellectuals' observations (de Tocqueville, de Beauvoir) as well as images of America in French popular culture (comic strips, films).

Long Title: SOCRATES

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: The course will consider the life and though of Socrates and will be based strictly on primary sources. Course readings will be taken from Plato, Xenophon, and Aristophanes. We will examine Socrates in his Athenian context, especially in regard to his trial, conviction, and execution on a charge of impiety.

Long Title: THE WORLD OF MEDIEVAL MEDICINE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: How did medieval Christians understand and treat mental and bodily illness? How did their experiences of pain, sex, childbirth, and death interact with larger concepts of God, nature, and the heavens? What role did angels and demons play? This seminar will explore these issues through close reading of medieval texts. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for FWIS 150 if student has credit for FSEM 171/MDEM 171/RELI 171.

Long Title: MODERN CASTAWAYS: ISOLATION, ALIENATION, SURVIVAL

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course challenges us to think about isolation, alienation, and survival in a global age. What happens to those left behind, those cast out, and those seemingly misplaced? Topics such as colonialism, immigration, feminist history, and the anthropocene guide our discussion of the moral and political dimensions of "castaways."

Long Title: NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS: REAL REMEDIES OR SHADY SCIENCE?

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This writing-intensive seminar examines evidence for the use of nutritional supplements in promoting health. Topics include the role of vitamins, herbs and food-based supplements in medicine; the biology of illnesses such as cancer and depression; and the molecular mechanisms of supplements in disease prevention and management.

Long Title: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE BORDER

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course will explore portrayals of morality in film, literature and music produced in the US-Mexico borderlands. As we examine conflicting and converging moral codes in these cultural texts, students will use writing as a tool for exploring ideas and refining understanding.

Long Title: FAKES, FORGERIES, AND STOLEN ART

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: In 1990, two men stole 13 paintings worth an estimated $300 million dollars from the Gardner Museum. The crime remains unsolved, and an estimated 40% of artwork on the market today is either faked or forged. This course will analyze these and other high-profile issues through essays, literature, and film.

Long Title: FOOD AND CULTURE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Food and Culture asks students to investigate the cultural meaning of food practices as an important part of the human experience. This involves questions primarily aimed at archaeological cultures, but we will also consider relevant issues in our society and others in our world today. Through this topic, our primary goal is to identify ways to become better communicators and improve writing skills by building compelling and well-supported arguments appropriate for the social sciences.

Long Title: LIFE NARRATIVE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course will explore the historical and contemporary significance of personal narrative, from its origins in the 16th century to the current popularity of digital programs such as This American Life and The Moth Podcast. Students will analyze the genre's evolution, as well as compose their own creative essays.

Long Title: CRITICAL THINKING IN DEMOCRACY

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Critical thinking runs counter to inherent tendencies toward confirmation bias in decision making. In the political realm, this conflict is often exploited by governmental leaders and media to control specific outcomes. Students in this class will learn to develop their critical thinking and analytical skills in the context of a democratic society.

Long Title: MEDICAL HUMANITIES: LITERATURE, MEDICINE, AND THE PRACTICE OF EMPATHY

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course provides an introduction to the medical humanities, focusing particularly on narrative medicine and the role narrative can play in illness and the clinical encounter. Readings will include formative theoretical texts in the field, as well as medical-themed short stories by writers such as Chekhov, Hemingway, and Garcia Marquez.

Long Title: WAYS OF WALKING IN LITERATURE AND CULTURE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course explores the act of walking, in theory and in practice. Through readings, discussions, writing assignments, and group and individual walks, it examines questions about the body and its movements; the construction and navigation of space; the tradition of travel writing; and the relationship between walking and thinking.

Long Title: SCIENCE FICTION AND WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course will explore the intersection between William Shakespeare's works and science fiction. By reading graphic novels and short stories and watching film and television adaptations, this course will examine what this fascination reveals about Shakespeare's plays and the pursuits of science fiction.

Long Title: BEYOND THE MELTING POT: U.S. MIGRATION HISTORY

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: In this course, students will analyze the experience of different migrant groups in the United States over the past two centuries. The course traces the evolution of immigration policy alongside changing perceptions of citizenship, nationalism, race, and ethnicity.

Long Title: CASE STUDIES OF BUILDING DESIGN PROBLEMS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: We will analyze buildings that ended up in legal battles. Problems include structural failures, design blunders and near disasters. You will write about what went wrong and why, who saved that day and who should have acted differently. You will learn to write critically and present a convincing argument.

Long Title: WHAT ARE HUMAN RIGHTS?

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: We hear and talk about "human rights" frequently, but few of us have an easy time defining ideas so inherently contested and pitted against one another. This class will read, discuss, and write about the history and future of human rights in the United States and elsewhere in the world.

Long Title: PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE FICTION

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Read classic and contemporary philosophy texts alongside those science fiction novels and films that explore the same philosophical themes, such as the nature of consciousness, reality vs. virtual reality, the ethics of cyborg enhancement, and other questions involving what it means to be human in a technologically advanced future.

Long Title: WORD MAGIC

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: People use language to create inner models of the world to represent their experience and guide their behavior. Students will be introduced to a sensitive interdependence of language, thought, emotion, and behavior in personal and social contexts.

Long Title: LEGENDARY AMERICANS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Exploration of popular myths surrounding larger-than-life figures like Davy Crockett and Harriet Tubman. Specific figures vary. Though scholarly readings and analysis of cultural artifacts like songs and films, we will consider why and how such figures become iconic and explore the relations between history, biography, and memory. This course is eligible for credit toward the major in History. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for FWIS 173 if student has credit for FSEM 159/HIST 159.

Long Title: SCIENCE/FICTION AND THE FUTURE OF MEDICINE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: The possibilities we imagine for the future of medicine tell us much about our present culture's priorities, as well as its pitfalls. Paying close attention to the rhetoric that masks - or does not - the social commentary embedded in contemporary science fiction novels and films, this course places a strong focus on close reading and purposeful writing.

Long Title: BIZARRE BIBLICAL STORIES

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course will examine some of the more bizarre stories of the Hebrew Bible, which deal with such ideas as fratricide, incest, seduction and magic. We will see how such stories have been interpreted, and been afforded meaning, throughout the ages. All texts will be read in English translation.

Long Title: GLOBALIZING MUSEUM HISTORY

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course traces a number of themes in world history through museums and collections from 1800s to the present. More specifically, the course examines how museums are shaped by local and global influences and participate in historical processes related to identity formation, colonialism, and resistance.

Long Title: LOVE AND DEATH IN FILM AND FICTION: THE ART OF READING CLOSELY

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course will explore film and stories about marriage and affection, prejudice and obsession, alienation and loss. As students write and revise, share work and present ideas, we will create a field of writerly expression scholarly and personal, analytical and reflective - a source of confidence rather than trepidation.

Long Title: INTERSECTIONS IN ART AND SCIENCE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course explores frictions and affinities between Art and Science. It examines at how these different ways of engaging with the world have crossed paths - from World Fairs, to cinema, as well as current exhibits in Houston galleries. This course is eligible for credit toward the major in anthropology.

Long Title: WRITING CULTURES

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: The class will introduce the concept of culture, the theoretical approaches anthropologist use to study and represent groups of people, the field of ethnographic research and the methods ethnographers use, and the ethical issues involved in studying and representing populations.

Long Title: GODS OF THE DIAMOND, THE GRIDIRON, AND THE HARDWOOD: RELIGION AND SPORTS IN AMERICA

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: From the origins of athletic competition in America through contemporary sport there has been a curious intersection between sport and religion. Using case studies from baseball, football and basketball this course will answer two questions: How do religion and sport work together coexist?; and Can sport be considered a religion?

Long Title: CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN POETRY

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This class will delve into contemporary American poetry by exploring outstanding poetry books of the previous year. Students will study American poetry in literary and historical contexts, develop ability to analyze how poems "work," develop ability to create clear, effective prose, and build framework for exploring other types of poetry.

Long Title: EXPLORING THE SCIENCE AND HISTORY OF HOUSTON'S BAYOUS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This discussion- and field-based class will explore Houston's watersheds from the perspective of biogeochemistry, working to understand the roles of our bayous in our 21st century community.

Long Title: INTRODUCTION TO ENGINEERING DESIGN AND COMMUNICATION

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Students learn the engineering design process to solve real-world problems by evaluating design requirements and constructing innovative solutions in the OEDK. Several communication assignments will be completed by individuals rather than teams. Fall limited to ENGI and NSCI students; spring open for engineering and architecture students. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for FWIS 188 if student has credit for ENGI 120.

Long Title: POST-APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE AND FILM

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Our culture is fascinated with its own destruction. From zombies to nuclear war, ecological disasters, aliens, disease and killer machines, Armageddon takes many forms. Structured around ways in which we have imagined the world ending, this course charts the cultural consciousness of apocalypse.

Long Title: YOUTH REBELLION: SIXTIES MUSIC AND THE MAKING OF A COUNTER-CULTURE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: In fundamental ways the sixties were about youth culture. Popular music, probably more than any other cultural form, served as this culture's mode of self-expression. Sixties popular music, both US and British, will be at the center of a multi-media course that also makes use of materials in television, visual art, fiction, and film.

Long Title: THE ROARING TWENTIES

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: The 1920s were about new possibilities, aesthetic experimentation, and frenzied expression. We'll examine iconic '20s literature by Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Woolf, and others, as well as the linchpins of '20s culture: jazz, Prohibition, the Harlem Renaissance, and modern art. Highlights include lessons on the Charleston and a Roaring Twenties soiree.

Long Title: BANNED BOOKS AND OTHER DANGERS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: In this class, we will read, discuss, and write about literary works made infamous by their appearance on the American banned books list. Central to our examination of these texts will be the overarching question of the role of censorship in public education, and American culture at large.

Long Title: EMPIRES

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: Is the United States of America an empire? This course will examine civilizations from Ancient Rome and Han Dynasty China to the superpowers of the twentieth century in order to identify the nature and mechanisms of imperial power. It will investigate imperial literature, architecture art, dress, rituals and technology.

Long Title: UNDERSTANDING HEALTH DISPARITIES: THE SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH AND MORALITY IN THE U.S.

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course explores patterns and explanations of unequal health outcomes in the U.S. across five characteristics: socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, nativity, gender identity and sexual orientation.

Long Title: FAMILY IN FICTION AND FILM

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This writing-intensive course examines the ways that various writers and filmmakers explore the subject of family. Students will read fiction by Kafka, Baldwin, and Munro, among others, and view films such as Boyhood and Tokyo Story. Writing tasks will include analytical essays and arguments that join scholarly or cultural debates.

Long Title: JEWS ON FILM: CINEMATIC REPRESENTATIONS OF JEWISH LIFE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Language of Instruction: Taught in English

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Description: This course will explore the modern Jewish life around the world through the medium of film. Students will be exposed to diverse Jewish communities and their cinematic representations. The course will consider modern Jewish identity through the lens of various themes including race, gender, religion, nationalism, assimilation and secularization.