Writing the Human Experience

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This writing course is an elective that fulfills the HALC requirement (Humanities: Art, Literature, and Culture). While WRIT 1165 is intended for first year students who could benefit from more practice in writing in the various genres assigned across GU-Q’s curriculum, second year students are also welcome to enroll if seats are available. Some instructors of WRIT 1145 and 1155 may recommend a student take another semester of writing, so WRIT 1165 was created to meet this need with the goal of increasing students’ chances for success in their future writing courses. WRIT 1165 aims to create a community of inquiry in the classroom that begins by posing the following questions: What does it mean to be human—in the past, present, or future? In what ways have writers, artists, thinkers, and theorists from various cultures, traditions, and disciplines imagined or critiqued the human experience? Is there even such a thing as a universal human experience—or does it vary depending on time and place, circumstance and status? What are the enduring or “wicked” problems facing humanity? How might we develop our understanding of difference and our approaches to conflict across culture and contexts? What has been our experience of “othering” and being “othered”? How do we recognize and respond to the “politics of unpeace”? This course will teach the use of writing as an effective tool for creating case studies and interdisciplinary research projects whose methods include gathering primary data (interviews, surveys, field notes) as well as integrating secondary sources. As students develop their interdisciplinary research topics, they will be encouraged to incorporate and build on readings and sources they have previously encountered in their academic courses. In addition to a few texts chosen by the instructor, students will also contribute to the curriculum by suggesting texts to include in this course.