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Summer Course Descriptions

 

All students with more than 90 cumulative units (completed + enrolled) need preauthorization. Preauthorizations for Summer will be added to your VAC record when the schedule becomes available. Check your VAC contact record for your preauthorization. If it's not there, send a message through the VAC choosing "Muir Writing" as the reason for your query.

  • IMPORTANT NOTE: Students on the waitlist who miss any 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 dropped. Responsibility for dropping the class from the Registrar’s records belongs solely to the student.

TOPICS MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE

The reading and writing requirements are the same for all sections. 

Textbooks can be purchased through the UC San Diego Bookstore!

The Craft of Research, Fourth Edition

by Booth, Colomb, Williams, Bizup, and Fitzgerald

A Writer's Reference, Ninth Edition

Writers-Reference-Ninth-Edition.jpg

by Diana Hacker and Nancy Sommers

Please purchase the 9th edition of the Writer's Reference from the bookstore, as we have a version that is specific for UC San Diego's Writing Programs (Muir and Warren colleges).

Photocopied Reader

Each class will have its own required reader that can be purchased through UCSD bookstore.

Summer 2022

 

MCWP 50R: (Special Summer Session: June 27 2022 - August 20 2022)

Art and Politics

The political sphere includes and regulates many things that have a direct effect on our livelihoods and communities: minimum wage, access to healthcare, immigration, infrastructure, the regulation of our bodies, whom we can marry, and so much more. This topic explores art in politics and politics in art, ranging from antiwar arts activism in the 1960s, the social politics of representing BIPOC histories and individuals, boycott and divestment, and various case studies of both artists and notorious controversies that highlight the tensions between artists/makers, artworks, audiences, local communities, and the museum as mediating institution. Assigned readings draw on art history and museum studies, but the subject matter of the course will also touch on various social histories. How do the arts intersect with and/or represent political issues, movements, themes, and identities? What roles does politics play in the arts, and vice versa? What are some of the past and recent controversies in the arts, and what kinds of art have been considered transgressive? Possible research topics include (but are not limited to) the connections between the arts and politics pertaining to climate change, social justice movements, activism, globalization, labor practices, funding structures, war, museums and/or stakeholders, and more. Students will identify a scholarly debate, or research conversation (in relation to the course topic), propose a project that will participate in that conversation, engage with and analyze sources from the research process in the form of an annotated bibliography, and construct an academic research-based argument.

 

SECTION ID

SECTION

DAY/TIME

ROOM

INSTRUCTOR

094067

F00

TTH 11:00-1:50

REMOTE

Elizabeth Miller

Disability and Popular Culture

Upwards of 43 million Americans are currently experiencing some kind of physical, cognitive, or sensory impairment, and that number is on the rise. And yet despite the pervasiveness of these kinds of disabilities among the U.S. population, and despite the fact that disabled people comprise one of the largest U.S. minority groups, disabled figures are often stereotyped in movies, comic books, commercials, novels, and on television shows, as being deserving of the viewer’s pity, or as being excessively courageous because of their ability to overcome what is often portrayed as a troubled or difficult existence. These stereotypes mark disabled people as ‘other’, thus marginalizing an already marginalized population. In this course, we will examine popular representations of disability to uncover assumptions about the normal or ideal body. We will look at the way disability intersects with issues of race, gender, sexuality, and the environment to better understand the ways disability is constructed (and reconstructed) through social practices and spaces. We will read scholarship from a variety of perspectives that consider impairments in relation to history, nationality, race, gender, and sexuality. In the process, students will apply this scholarship—and their own independent research—to a popular cultural form with the objective of making and defending an argument about disability in a research paper.

 

SECTION ID

SECTION

DAY/TIME

ROOM

INSTRUCTOR

085464

B00

MW 11:00-1:50

REMOTE

Jennifer Marchisotto

How to Make a Monster

Through time and across cultures, humanity has invented monsters as a way of conceptualizing, understanding, and even “exorcising” that which it fears. The difference of the Other is certainly a fear all societies have had, and continue to have. Fear of the queer, fear of the immigrant, fear of the disabled, fear of the woman—each of these (and more) have been made monstrous in the arts and in public discourse since time immemorial. Through an engagement with texts engaging with Monster Theory, we can gain unique and urgent insight into how marginalized peoples are relegated to the margins in the first place.

 

SECTION ID

SECTION

DAY/TIME

ROOM

INSTRUCTOR

085463

A00

TTH 8:00-10:50

REMOTE

Jennifer Carter

085467

E00

TTH 11:00-1:50

REMOTE

Erik Homenick

Silent Crisis: Mental Health in the Pandemic

Mental health conditions have increased along with the pandemic but very little about this crisis has made its way into everyday conversation. The CDC has reported that among those experiencing more mental health problems are racial and ethnic minorities and young people. It is important to acknowledge the mental health impacts brought about by the stress, grief, and loss of the pandemic. There is also the work of finding help to deal with mental health conditions and their impacts. The pandemic has brought to light the deep need for connection and community while recent discoveries in neuroscience have brought new therapeutic possibilities. In keeping with the goals and requirements of MCWP 50, in this course students will propose, research and write their own informed research-based argument about an issue relevant to this important course topic.

 

SECTION ID

SECTION

DAY/TIME

ROOM

INSTRUCTOR

TBD

TBD

TBD

REMOTE

Andrea Carter

Storytelling and Its Uses

There are universal elements that stories share no matter the culture they come from. Experts see this as evidence of how embedded stories are in the human experience. Stories have the power to persuade us, reinforce social norms, entertain us, pass knowledge, even influence our biology. In the course, students will research and write about the practice of storytelling while using the LMS Canvas (available to enrolled students) and its tools, including Zoom, Video, Peer Review, Chat, Assignments, Quizzes or Worksheets, and Turnitin.com.

 

SECTION ID

SECTION

DAY/TIME

ROOM

INSTRUCTOR

085465

C00

MW 2:00-4:50

REMOTE

Vince Pham

085466

D00

MW 5:00-7:50

REMOTE

Mike Morshed

MCWP 125R: (Special Summer Session: June 27 2022 - August 20 2022)

Youth Movements, Countercultures, and The Status Quo

Youth-led movements are driving forces in American history, social progress, and consumer culture. Yet, their crucial contributions are frequently dismissed in mainstream outlets as fleeting or uninformed and are too often reduced to arbitrary generational divides. From student activism in the Civil Rights era to figures such as Emma Gonzaléz, Malala Yousafzai, and Greta Thunberg; art movements; music genres like punk rock and hip hop; streetwear fashion; hacktivists and social media influencers – young people continue to shape society in diverse and meaningful ways.  

This course will interrogate the many influences of youth movements and what happens when subversive groups with counter-cultural messages challenge or disrupt the status quo. We will discuss the history and impact of student activism in American universities and when radical actions go mainstream such as Earth Day. We will also explore sub- and counter-cultural groups including drag queens, K-pop fans, young chonga women, and more. Research projects will address how crucial and undervalued student organizing and/or youth culture are in today’s social, political, and economic landscape.

Assigned readings draw upon interdisciplinary fields in the humanities and social sciences including communication and media studies, art history, ethnic studies, cultural criticism, sociology, and gender studies. In this course, students will select a movement or countercultural group; develop a research question; identify a scholarly debate or research conversation; propose a research project that will participate in the identified conversation; research and analyze scholarly sources in the form of an annotated bibliography and construct an original academic research-based argument. 

 

SECTION ID

SECTION

DAY/TIME

ROOM

INSTRUCTOR

093169

A00

TTH 11:00-1:50

REMOTE

Melinda Guillen

Summer 2021

 

MCWP 40: (Summer Session 1: June 28 2021 - July 31 2021)

MCWP 40

SECTION ID

SECTION

DAY/TIME

ROOM

INSTRUCTOR

 056852

A00

MW 8:00-10:50am RCLAS R116

Erik Homenick

 056853

B00

TTH 8:00-10:50am RCLAS R123

Jennifer Carter

MCWP 50R: (Special Summer Session: June 28 2021 - August 21 2021)

 

Note: MCWP 50 and MCWP 50R are the same courses, the only difference is that MCWP 50R is 8-weeks long and only offered during summer. Both MCWP 50 and MCWP 50R will fulfill the writing requirement.

Cultures of Crime

SECTION ID

SECTION

DAY/TIME

ROOM

INSTRUCTOR

057411

D00

TTH 11:00-1:00pm RCLAS R130

Michael Morshed

057412

E00

TTH 9:00-11:00am RCLAS R124

Melinda Guillen

Everyone says we need to stop crime, but crime seems to happen whether we want it to or not. Some even make a living from it. How we treat those who have broken rules has changed over time as our morals and definitions of crimes have evolved. In this course, we will consider how modern society identifies and reacts to criminals and how punishment is determined by examining a variety of scholarly arguments that cross crime with subjects such as the US Justice System, terrorism, revenge, class, gender, and pop culture.

Disability and Popular Culture

SECTION ID

SECTION

DAY/TIME

ROOM

INSTRUCTOR

 057410

C00

TTH 12:00-2:00pm RCLAS R129

Ayden Grout

Upwards of 43 million Americans are currently experiencing some kind of physical, cognitive, or sensory impairment, and that number is on the rise. And yet despite the pervasiveness of these kinds of disabilities among the U.S. population, and despite the fact that disabled people comprise one of the largest U.S. minority groups, disabled figures are often stereotyped in movies, comic books, commercials, novels, and on television shows, as being deserving of the viewer’s pity, or as being excessively courageous because of their ability to overcome what is often portrayed as a troubled or difficult existence. These stereotypes mark disabled people as ‘other’, thus marginalizing an already marginalized population. In this course, we will examine popular representations of disability to uncover assumptions about the normal or ideal body. We will read scholarship from a variety of perspectives that consider impairments in relation to history, nationality, race, gender, and sexuality. In the process, students will apply this scholarship—and their own independent research—to a popular cultural form with the objective of making and defending an argument about disability in a research paper.

"Let's Get in Formation": Race, Gender, & Intersectionality in Popular Culture

SECTION ID

SECTION

DAY/TIME

ROOM

INSTRUCTOR

 057408

A00

MW 3:00-5:00pm RCLAS R116

Haydee Smith

With movements such as #OscarsSoWhite, Popular Culture institutions like Hollywood are increasingly critiqued for their nefarious lack of diversity, inclusion, and equity. This course questions the historical legacies, and contemporary violences, of ideological and economic practices that have often marginalized and exploited people of color, LGBTQIA+ communities, and people with disabilities. Focusing on media that blend narratives with visuals--film, television, commercials, public speeches, concerts, and music videos--students in this course will interrogate how Popular Culture has been, or can be, leveraged in the building or dismantling of systemic oppressions. Our class will examine the arguments and performances of scholars and public figures in our investigation of how Popular Culture renews, revises, and resists institutional and individual investments in white, wealthy, patriarchal, heteronormative, able-bodied privileges. In keeping with the goals and requirements of MCWP 50, we will work to understand the arguments’ structures while introducing and supporting your own informed research-based argument about an issue relevant to this course topic.

Pre-Existing Conditions: Anti-Blackness in the Medical Industrial Complex

SECTION ID

SECTION

DAY/TIME

ROOM

INSTRUCTOR

 057409

B00

MW 8:00-10:00am RCLAS R105

Michael Berman

According to the CDC, Black individuals are approximately five times more likely to be hospitalized by—and twice as likely to die—from COVID-19 than their white counterparts. While these statistics are the most pressing to our current moment, similar ratios exist throughout the healthcare system, showing Black Americans to be dying from treatable illnesses at disproportionate rates. Access to healthcare in America is an economic privilege. As a result, BIPOC are far less likely to receive quality care. Moreover, healthcare professionals consistently dismiss or discredit complaints by marginalized communities, a habit intricately tied to the anti-Black, misogynist, and xenophobic roots of the American Medical Industrial Complex (MIC). In this course, we will examine how race, gender, and sexuality affect access to care in the MIC. We will read scholarship from a variety of perspectives that consider both the historical foundation for and contemporary perpetuation of these disparities. Students will apply this scholarship—and their own independent research—with the objective of making and defending an original focused argument about Anti-Blackness in the MIC in a research paper.

Summer 2020

MCWP 50R - Climate Change Today

Special Summer Session: 8 weeks starting July 13

SECTION ID

SECTION

DAY/TIME

ROOM

INSTRUCTOR

 025730

B00

W 1:00-4:45pm REMOTE

Michael Morshed

Climate change is a problem that will not solve itself. Human habits have sped up the dangerous disruptions, but humans also have the wherewithal to identify key problems and innovate solutions. The course’s text and student projects will be focused on building understanding of the complex task ahead of us and will approach the issue through a range of lenses. The course uses the LMS Canvas (available to enrolled students) and its tools, including Zoom, Video, Peer Review, Chat, Assignments, Quizzes or Worksheets, and Turnitin.com.

MCWP 40 

Summer Session 2

SECTION ID

SECTION

DAY/TIME

ROOM

INSTRUCTOR

 019656

A00

TTH 11:00-1:50pm REMOTE

Kelly Silva

Thank U, Next: Cultural Imperialism and Politically Enchanting Plots

Summer Session 2

SECTION ID

SECTION

DAY/TIME

ROOM

INSTRUCTOR

 019663

A00

MW 11:00-1:50pm

REMOTE

Nur Duru

How do sensationalized tales of pop stars, superheroes, princesses, and villains shape our understandings of majority and minority communities? Just as Ariana Grande “breaks free” from “7 rings” of systemic oppression—sex, gender, race, class, sexuality, nationality, dis/ability—students in this class will unpack the overlapping layers of popular culture, ideology, representation, oppression, and privilege. In this course students will analyze arguments about how stories function to replicate, resist, and rewrite the dominant narratives that shape our educational, legal, medical, and social institutions while researching and writing a research-based argument about an issue relevant to the course topic.

Disability and Popular Culture

Summer Session 2

SECTION ID

SECTION

DAY/TIME

ROOM

INSTRUCTOR

 019664

B00

MW 8:00-10:50am REMOTE

Laurie Nies

 025729

F00

TR 2:00-4:50pm REMOTE

Ayden LeRoux

Upwards of 43 million Americans are currently experiencing some kind of physical, cognitive, or sensory impairment, and that number is on the rise. And yet despite the pervasiveness of these kinds of disabilities among the U.S. population, and despite the fact that disabled people comprise one of the largest U.S. minority groups, disabled figures are often stereotyped in movies, comic books, commercials, novels, and on television shows, as being deserving of the viewer’s pity, or as being excessively courageous because of their ability to overcome what is often portrayed as a troubled or difficult existence. These stereotypes mark disabled people as ‘other’, thus marginalizing an already marginalized population. In this course, we will examine popular representations of disability to uncover assumptions about the normal or ideal body. We will read scholarship from a variety of perspectives that consider impairments in relation to history, nationality, race, gender, and sexuality. In the process, students will apply this scholarship—and their own independent research—to a popular cultural form with the objective of making and defending an argument about disability in a research paper.

Cultures of Crime

Summer Session 2

SECTION ID

SECTION

DAY/TIME

ROOM

INSTRUCTOR

 019666

C00

MW 2:00-4:50pm

REMOTE

Melinda Guillen

Everyone says we need to stop crime, but crime seems to happen whether we want it to or not. Some even make a living from it. How we treat those who have broken rules has changed over time as our morals and definitions of crimes have evolved. In this course, we will consider how modern society identifies and reacts to criminals and how punishment is determined by examining a variety of scholarly arguments that cross crime with subjects such as the US Justice System, terrorism, revenge, class, gender, and pop culture.

Bioethical Quandaries

Summer Session 2

SECTION ID

SECTION

DAY/TIME

ROOM

INSTRUCTOR

 019667

D00 

TTH 8:00-10:50am

REMOTE

Sophie Staschus

The interdisciplinary field of bioethics grapples with conflicts that arise in medical practice, such as patients’ refusal of life-saving treatment or how to allocate scarce resources such as organs. It also considers dilemmas that emerge in response to new biotechnologies, such as stem-cell research, human genetic engineering, and prenatal diagnostics. In this course, we will explore some of the ethical and legal questions that arise in healthcare, medical research, and the use of biotechnology and bioengineering. In keeping with the goals and requirements of MCWP 50, you will examine arguments about this topic in an effort to understand their structures while introducing and supporting your own informed research-based argument about an issue relevant to the course topic.