• All students with more than 90 cumulative units need to obtain departmental authorization from the Muir Writing office before enrolling in MCWP courses.
• IMPORTANT NOTE: Students on the waitlist who do not attend the first class meeting of Muir Writing will be considered NOT ELIGIBLE TO ENROLL in the course. Enrolled students who miss the first two class sessions will be asked to drop the course. Responsibility for dropping the class from the Registrar’s records belongs solely to the student.
  
  The reading and writing requirements are the same for all sections. Books for each section will be available at Groundwork Books (858-452-9625) in the Old Student Center. Course readers will be sold at the UCSD Bookstore, located in the Price Center.
  
  CHANGES TO TIMES OR SECTION ID WILL BE NOTED IN BOLD AND WITH AN ASTERISK*.

 

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Summer 2013

Cultural & Historical Memory: Influences of Technology and Environment

SECTION ID	SECTION	DAY/TIME	ROOM	INSTRUCTOR
779626	A00	MW   11:00-1:50	2346A	Courtney Kilian

 

Our memories give us access to the past, teach us how to interpret the present, and help us make choices for the future. Memory is frighteningly malleable, and the act of remembering is in itself an act of rewriting. In this course we will analyze how memory is constructed and manipulated to develop collective memory, both cultural and historical. We will look at how media functions in creating memory, and examine technology’s increasing role in cultural memory. We will also dissect essays that address the role of memory in shaping our perception of and interaction with our environment. The course will be strongly oriented around argument and analysis, as you conduct original research and construct your own argument on a topic relevant to the cours`e.

 

Required Texts: MCWP 125/A Reader and The Craft of Research

 

Medical Controversies, Panics, and Hysterias

 

Probably ever since human beings became human beings, they have wondered why they become physically or mentally ill. They have blamed all sorts of things, from spirits to animals to neighbors to rival tribes, towns, or states. This blame has led to confusion, panic, and hysteria. In ancient times, lepers were ostracized into abject poverty, and fear of trichinosis led pork to become immoral. In the Middle Ages, Jews were blamed for the Black Death, and women accused of being witches were rounded up whenever an unexplained malady struck a community. Even after modern science helped us to understand much more specifically the causes of illnesses, the panics and controversy have continued to erupt: Hysterical women at the turn of the 20th century, Reefer Madness in the 1930s, lobotomies in the 1940s, AIDS in the 1980s, and fear of a flu pandemic in 2000s. Just two years ago, lack of vaccinations for pertussis caused a whooping cough epidemic in California that killed ten infants; over the last 15 years, millions have come to believe, falsely, that vaccines cause autism. In this class, through readings, discussions, and particularly in students’ research projects, we will examine medical controversies, moral panics, hysteria and somatic disorders, and the social effects of biological situations.

Required Texts: MCWP 125/B Reader and The Craft of Research

 

From Dr. Noh to Margaret Cho: Asian Americans and Popular Culture

 

This course introduces students to the rhetorical constructions of Asian and Asian American identities in popular culture, from narrative dramas, documentaries, commercials, and news media.  What can the contextualization process connecting the social, historical, and cultural conditions reveal about these stereotypes?  All of the countries in what is designated as Asia have a large diversity of different cultures and histories. Yet, Asians in film are often depicted as the villain, the nerd, the martial arts master, the liquor storeowner, and so on. An analysis of the power imbalance between the viewers to reinterpret meanings and the discursive power of centralized media institutions yields a loss of critical energy in questioning the macro-structures of media and society.  Therefore, the broad aim of this course focuses on cultural consumption and relations of cultural production. Some of the topics that will be covered include: stereotypes of Asians in Hollywood; the re/creation of history and memory; the intersection of race, class, gender, and sexuality; and the interpenetration of U.S. foreign policy.

 

Required Texts: MCWP 125/C Reader and The Craft of Research

 

 

Spring 2013

Borders, Journeys, and Home

 

SECTION ID	SECTION	DAY /TIME	ROOM	INSTRUCTOR
769459	A00	MW   11:00-12:20	2346A	Amy Forrest

We live a stone’s throw away from the most frequently crossed international border in the world.  How does this border—and the countless reasons why it is crossed every day—contribute to our idea of home?  In this course we will examine theories about displacement, migration and diaspora, and how these theories challenge or support cultural constructions of home.  In addition we will explore the ways in which home becomes mythologized for refugees, those in exile and economic migrants and consider how personal, social, national, ethnic or feminist identity is formed during journeys that take us far away from home or return us there. 

 

Cultural & Historical Memory: Influences of Technology & Environment

 

SECTION ID	SECTION	DAY /TIME	ROOM	INSTRUCTOR
769461	B00	TTh   9:30-10:50	2305A	Courtney Kilian

Our memories give us access to the past, teach us how to interpret the present, and help us make choices for the future. What are the influences of technology and our environment on cultural and historical memory? Memory is frighteningly malleable, and the act of remembering is in itself an act of rewriting. In this course we will analyze how memory is constructed and manipulated to develop collective memory. We will look at how media function in creating memory, and examine technology's increasing role in cultural memory. We will also examine essays that address the role of memory in shaping our perception of and interaction with our environment.
 

Military Matters

 

SECTION ID	SECTION	DAY /TIME	ROOM	INSTRUCTOR
778032	C00	TTH   11:00-12:20	2346A	Marion E. Wilson

 

 

 

Texts: A photocopied reader; The Craft of Research, Third Edition by Booth, Colomb, and Williams

 

 

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