To learn more about UWP courses and Writing and Communication (FA1) requirements in the Krieger School, please visit our curriculum page.
Please browse Reintro and advanced courses below as well as on JHU Public Course Search.
For graduate courses in UWP, click here.
This course examines three broad types of writing students will encounter at and beyond Hopkins: narrative writing, analytical writing, and technical writing. Each has its own implications within the walls of JHU, from research papers to creative projects, but each will extend to the opportunities students pursue outside of academia. Above all, this course demystifies the idea that some writers just “have it” by decoding the processes that lead to great writing and building students’ confidence in written expression to carry forward into their studies and professional pursuits.
In this First-Year Seminar, we will examine the roles of love, fear, anger, and hope in our lives. We’ll ask questions about their value, danger, and appropriateness or inappropriateness in our lives at both the individual level and the level of political life. Some examples of questions we’ll consider are these: Should we love those who have wronged us? Is enjoying a horror movie morally problematic? How is fear used in political rhetoric and how should we respond to it? Is anger acceptable, or perhaps even necessary, in protest? Is love necessary for meaningful social change? When and how is hope justifiable and useful? We’ll also draw connections between these emotions and engage with related concepts such as forgiveness and trust. While our engagement with these concepts will be primarily through philosophy, we will also consider works of art and think about the value of portraying and evoking these emotions through various forms of art. Students can expect to read philosophical texts, journalism, occasional fiction and poetry, and to watch at least one horror film, among the sources for the course. Possible authors include Berit Brogaard, Noël Carroll, Myisha Cherry, Raja Halwani, Stephen King, Adrienne Martin, Martha Nussbaum, Edgar Allan Poe, Jason Stanley, and Desmond Tutu. We will take at least one field trip to a location in Baltimore during the semester. Students will emerge from this course with a more nuanced understanding of these powerful and often controversial emotions, and the ability to talk about them in an academic and public context.
Animals have evolved a vast array of sensory systems that support a rich repertoire of natural behaviors. Some animals live in dark environments and use tactile, chemical, electrical and auditory sensors that allow them to operate in the absence of light. Other animals rely heavily on vision and take advantage of colors that humans cannot see. In this First-Year Seminar, we will explore extraordinary adaptations of sensory systems in animals that live on land and under water. Our focus will be on sensory systems that guide navigation and foraging behaviors in species as diverse as star-nosed moles, weakly electric fish, honeybees, and echolocating bats. As we delve into understanding the extraordinary sensory systems of selected species, we will also consider how these animals have inspired literary and visual artists. We aim to introduce students to a rich interdisciplinary experience that opens their eyes to new areas of inquiry as they take advantage of local resources, such as the National Aquarium, Baltimore Zoo, Wyman Park, Peabody Institute, and Baltimore Museum of Art.
Tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world, with almost 7 million tonnes grown, harvested, processed, and packaged annually. Whether you use loose leaf or tea bags, drink green tea or black, add sugar or cream, use it to stay awake or go to sleep, or consume it in solitude or with friends to share gossip, you are participating in the worldwide consumption of tea, which has created economic relations (and wars), new ecosystems for plants and animals (and humans), and is culturally significant in public and private spaces. In short, tea organizes people’s homes, government meetings, economies, investment markets, and landscapes. In this First-Year Seminar, we will examine the history and present-day production of tea and how it creates and recreates social relations and environments. In addition to learning about tea (and tasting different kinds), students will be exposed to research methodologies in the fields of sociology, anthropology, and communication studies. By the end of class, students will have an understanding of the different kinds of teas (and how to prepare them), the role tea plays in society, and how tea functions within ecosystems.
In this First-Year Seminar, we’ll gather high-level hoopheads to study the NBA, the coolest professional sports league in the world. Our key questions will be why and how is the NBA so dope? But also, we’ll use the methods of humanistic, linguistic, and rhetorical analysis to study the culture, language, and iconography of the NBA. No zone defenses here: we’re bringing a full-court press to phenomena and artifacts like dunk contest; the euro-step; why no one likes Rudy Gobert; style from Allen Iverson to Shai-Gilgeous Alexander; uniform, court, and mascot designs; how advanced statistical analytics have changed the game (deep breath), and much, much more. And while my passion is the NBA, students are welcome to bring their expertise and interests in the WNBA, international basketball leagues, and college hoops to the mix. We’ll read texts old and new, traditional and funky (from David Halberstam’s The Breaks of the Game, about the 1978 Portland Trailblazers, to posts from the defunct and very influential FreeDarko blog and Mitchell S. Jackson’s Fly: The Big Book of Basketball Fashion). We’ll watch highlights (of big dunks and, even better, teammates’ sideline reactions) and movies such as Hustle and Hoop Dreams. Oh, and if you’re into experiential learning, we’ll probably check out a Wizards game in D.C. and play a little pick up at the gym. I hope my knees hold up. Meet you at the rim.
In FUTURE_SHOCK, students tackle the tortures of invention in academic writing by analyzing how writers in the past invented entire futures, not out of thin air, but based on what they saw in the present. This course positions writing as a means of using and reusing the texts we encounter around us and the experiences in which we find them as sources of creativity. In class we’ll draw inspiration from future-focused genres like cyberpunk media and industrial music, and we’ll get tips from unlikely sources like mail art, graffiti, computer hacking, and more. In individual semester projects, students will write manifestos, reviews, genre analyses, an argumentative essay, and more as they develop a low-stakes, personal interest into a topic fit for an academic research project. Students will support their individual development by collaborating in small crews to learn rhetorical awareness, genre familiarity, and research techniques by observing and entering online communities like Reddit, Twitch, and Discord. Additionally, three non-academic experts will visit the class to discuss how they excel in the worlds of videography, beat-making/sampling, and web design by using and reusing the same writing and research skills we’ll be working with in class.
In FUTURE_SHOCK, students tackle the tortures of invention in academic writing by analyzing how writers in the past invented entire futures, not out of thin air, but based on what they saw in the present. This course positions writing as a means of using and reusing the texts we encounter around us and the experiences in which we find them as sources of creativity. In class we’ll draw inspiration from future-focused genres like cyberpunk media and industrial music, and we’ll get tips from unlikely sources like mail art, graffiti, computer hacking, and more. In individual semester projects, students will write manifestos, reviews, genre analyses, an argumentative essay, and more as they develop a low-stakes, personal interest into a topic fit for an academic research project. Students will support their individual development by collaborating in small crews to learn rhetorical awareness, genre familiarity, and research techniques by observing and entering online communities like Reddit, Twitch, and Discord. Additionally, three non-academic experts will visit the class to discuss how they excel in the worlds of videography, beat-making/sampling, and web design by using and reusing the same writing and research skills we’ll be working with in class.
From detective stories to procedural television shows and true crime podcasts, forensic description teaches us how to observe and describe ‘objectively’ to produce truth for entertainment. How does forensic thinking enhance our storytelling and inform our engagement with our everyday surroundings? Why are forensic techniques so fascinating and what are the social implications of our fascination with them? By investigating rhetorical uses of forensic description, we will critically reflect on how different kinds of writing can create truth and the assumption that forensic procedures necessarily yield justice. We will examine texts across popular culture, crime fiction, forensic science, criminology, philosophy, literary theory and the history of medicine. Using forensic tools and concepts, we will critically reflect on how fact-making and storytelling work in writing. Ever wanted to be a detective? Over the course of the semester, students will assemble a case file on themselves and try to solve the mystery of themselves as writers. Assignments will include a scholarly essay, personal narrative and a formal presentation that emphasizes visual storytelling. By connecting forensics with different genres and audiences, and through drafting, peer review and revision, students will develop their process and agility as thinkers and writers.
How does sound shape our experiences and influence our understanding of the world? This course explores the multifaceted impact of sound through storytelling, utilizing sources like the Baltimore Soundscape Project, the industrial echoes of Baltimore's past at the Museum of Industry, and the musical diversity of the Peabody Conservatory. Throughout the course, students will engage in multimodal writing projects to develop iterative writing processes, enhance their critical thinking, and improve their skills in summarization, evidence-based argumentation, synthesis, and citation. Readings will span academic theory on sonic rhetoric, popular sources on social justice and accessibility issues, and scientific writings on sound phenomena, supporting students as they explore topics aligned with their personal and scholarly interests. The analytical and technical approaches to sound explored in this course will be particularly relevant for students in STEM fields, illustrating how strong communication skills can enhance their abilities in research documentation, technical writing, and presenting scientific findings.
In Spring 2015 a young Black man from Baltimore named Freddie Gray died while in police custody. His death sparked days of mass protest, marching, property destruction, and clashes with police. While national media called these events a “riot”, local Baltimoreans still call this an “uprising” against discriminatory policing. Whichever label is used, this was not the first combination of political protest, property destruction, and violence in Baltimore’s history. In fact, such events have been continuous since 1812, as Baltimoreans have attacked politicians, police, and each other all often in the name of defending their “democracy” itself. By thinking about this history on the ten year anniversary of Freddie Gray’s death, students will explore their answers to fundamental questions about the relationship between violence and democracy in Baltimore: what is at stake in defining rioting as different from an uprising? Does the violence of rioting always make it undemocratic? Have white and Black Baltimoreans over time rioted differently or over similar causes? In finding their answers, students will practice through a variety of writing genres summarizing academic sources and joining an academic conversation, analyzing historical and contemporary images of rioting, and finally, produce their own art gallery for the Baltimore public at large to engage with these questions. Students will learn to use writing then not only as a way to make meaning from contentious and complicated events, but also to communicate the many different, competing, and radical ways Baltimore’s past continues to impact its present.
In Spring 2015 a young Black man from Baltimore named Freddie Gray died while in police custody. His death sparked days of mass protest, marching, property destruction, and clashes with police. While national media called these events a “riot”, local Baltimoreans still call this an “uprising” against discriminatory policing. Whichever label is used, this was not the first combination of political protest, property destruction, and violence in Baltimore’s history. In fact, such events have been continuous since 1812, as Baltimoreans have attacked politicians, police, and each other all often in the name of defending their “democracy” itself. By thinking about this history on the ten year anniversary of Freddie Gray’s death, students will explore their answers to fundamental questions about the relationship between violence and democracy in Baltimore: what is at stake in defining rioting as different from an uprising? Does the violence of rioting always make it undemocratic? Have white and Black Baltimoreans over time rioted differently or over similar causes? In finding their answers, students will practice through a variety of writing genres summarizing academic sources and joining an academic conversation, analyzing historical and contemporary images of rioting, and finally, produce their own art gallery for the Baltimore public at large to engage with these questions. Students will learn to use writing then not only as a way to make meaning from contentious and complicated events, but also to communicate the many different, competing, and radical ways Baltimore’s past continues to impact its present.
This is the way the world ends, not with a whimper but with a... killer soundtrack? What music *does* go well with an apocalypse? A song mourning the world that soon won't be? A triumphant song about making it through the world-ending events? Maybe even something whose upbeat, poppy tone sounds remarkably out of step with its occasion? In this course, we'll be listening to and writing about a wide collection of music written about endings and apocalypses. As the semester unfolds, we'll be given opportunities to contribute musical selections to a running playlist of Apocalyptic Music. You'll have the freedom to write about songs of your choosing (with approval) using a series of writing genres over the course of three major projects. In our first project, you'll critically analyze a song whose lyrics, composition, or both, strike you as strange or compelling. Our second project offers the choice of creating a piece of public writing or an original set of lyrics supported by an artist's statement. Finally, we will end the semester with a reflective essay in which you'll be asked to look back on your experiences listening, writing, and thinking in order to reorient them toward future possibilities.
Reintroduction to Writing, JHU’s first-year writing course, steps beyond the writing skills necessary to get to college: our shared project is to help you learn how to write for the rest of your life. We approach writing as an adaptable process of inquiry and action, as deeply informed by reading, and as reflective, embodied, and always emerging practice. In this course, we will rethink writing in ways that will help you throughout college, your professional career, personal life, and civic responsibilities in a democracy. Toward that end, this course teaches you to become an agile, curious, creative, and resilient writer. You will read and write academic texts; rhetorically analyze a wide variety of sources, including for the conventions of diverse genres; and write across genres, developing skill and precision in your writing, as well as fluency across contexts, audiences, and media. Classes often involve discussion, workshops, and conferences. Our courses engage with many topics and disciplines; consider carefully which course will most interest you. Reintroduction to Writing is intended for first-year students, though it is available to others by special permission.
Many of us have (at least) two selves: an analog or “real-life” self and a digital self. These doppelgangers can bear striking resemblance to our embodied selves—or not—and raise many questions around issues of representation, authenticity, and impersonation. So too, we leave digital traces of ourselves in the form of “data doubles,” extracted through clicks, scrolls, and other forms of tracked data. This double is frequently a target for manipulation and persuasion, but also can be a tool to enhance creativity and efficiency in our analog lives. In this course, we will investigate the concept of the digital doppelganger from three distinct perspectives, asking how our capacious digital identities are formed, changed, and controlled in commercial, political, and creative contexts. By crafting auto-ethnographies, policy briefs, and creative computational projects, students will develop critical thinking skills, learn to communicate with agility and precision across different genres, and reflect on how we create and know ourselves in a rapidly changing digital landscape.
This is the way the world ends, not with a whimper but with a... killer soundtrack? What music *does* go well with an apocalypse? A song mourning the world that soon won't be? A triumphant song about making it through the world-ending events? Maybe even something whose upbeat, poppy tone sounds remarkably out of step with its occasion? In this course, we'll be listening to and writing about a wide collection of music written about endings and apocalypses. As the semester unfolds, we'll be given opportunities to contribute musical selections to a running playlist of Apocalyptic Music. You'll have the freedom to write about songs of your choosing (with approval) using a series of writing genres over the course of three major projects. In our first project, you'll critically analyze a song whose lyrics, composition, or both, strike you as strange or compelling. Our second project offers the choice of creating a piece of public writing or an original set of lyrics supported by an artist's statement. Finally, we will end the semester with a reflective essay in which you'll be asked to look back on your experiences listening, writing, and thinking in order to reorient them toward future possibilities.
What is Hollywood’s—and our—fascination with robbery? Challenging assumptions about criminality, justice and injustice, the heist (or ‘caper’) film makes theft into a subversive art form, a creative collaboration between a team of experts trying to pull off something extraordinary. We will study the history of this highly flexible genre to consider: Who are the bad guys? What is robbery? Why do we root for these characters, and why do we find it so enjoyable to watch them fail? These are some of the questions we will explore in “Reintroduction to Writing: The Heist Film,” a first-year writing course that asks us to think about how popular genres like the “caper” function as both escapist fantasy and social commentary. Through writing assignments that include argumentative essays, film reviews, and a creative project, students will also develop skills in critical thinking and communicating in different genres as they examine the history and conventions of the heist film. At the end of the semester, students will use their knowledge of the genre to plan their own heist narrative: a creative research project that uses our university campus as the setting for a daring robbery.
In a 2012 New York Times interview critic Steven Greenblatt referred to literature as “the most astonishing technological means that human beings have created, and now practiced for thousands of years, to capture experience.” In contrast, focusing on his own specific literary practice, W.H. Auden famously said “poetry makes nothing happen.” So which one has it right? In this class we’ll focus on whether poetry serves any purpose in society, and if so what, and why. As a means of helping answer this question we’ll also consider whether there’s such a thing as a poetry community, and who belongs to it, as well as how the enjoyment of poetry through close reading might help us decide whether poetry has any bearing on people’s lives. We’ll attend and review a poetry reading, interview local poets, look at books and magazines where poetry appears, engage with critics, write short essays that help fellow readers appreciate poems we find striking, and in the process gain a deeper and richer understanding of what this art form is all about. Members of the class must be able to attend one local live poetry reading outside of class.
To imagine is to construct something that is not real—to play, create, hypothesize. To do research is to engage in, as Zora Neale Hurston put it, “formalized curiosity.” And to write is to think, learn, discover, and act. This course explores the nature of writing, imagination, and research in situ: here on campus, at the Baltimore Museum of Art next door, and in Sheridan Libraries Special Collections. Throughout, we’ll read closely and write broadly, for different audiences and purposes. Our sources will include visual, aural, and written texts. For example, we’ll study the Antioch mosaics and Simone Leigh’s Meredith at the BMA. We’ll read scholarship and public-facing work by Hopkins faculty in neuroscience, astronomy, sociology, classics, and beyond, and we’ll explore the Hinkes Collection of Scientific Discovery. Students will write reflections, literacy narratives, academic arguments, and op-ed essays, and more. As in all Reintro courses, students will work towards becoming agile writers who understand writing as a social habit, an intellectual practice, and a way to make things happen in the world.
To imagine is to construct something that is not real—to play, create, hypothesize. To do research is to engage in, as Zora Neale Hurston put it, “formalized curiosity.” And to write is to think, learn, discover, and act. This course explores the nature of writing, imagination, and research in situ: here on campus, at the Baltimore Museum of Art next door, and in Sheridan Libraries Special Collections. Throughout, we’ll read closely and write broadly, for different audiences and purposes. Our sources will include visual, aural, and written texts. For example, we’ll study the Antioch mosaics and Simone Leigh’s Meredith at the BMA. We’ll read scholarship and public-facing work by Hopkins faculty in neuroscience, astronomy, sociology, classics, and beyond, and we’ll explore the Hinkes Collection of Scientific Discovery. Students will write reflections, literacy narratives, academic arguments, and op-ed essays, and more. As in all Reintro courses, students will work towards becoming agile writers who understand writing as a social habit, an intellectual practice, and a way to make things happen in the world.
Who (or what) speaks? Humans are increasingly thinking about their relationship with nonhumans, ranging from AI to nonhuman animals to corporations, including whether some nonhumans can or should be said to speak. AI speech can be mistaken for human speech, though it is commonly thought not to have meaning or intention in the same way. Researchers are increasingly turning to AI to try to decode the communications of nonhuman animals and raising the possibility that some nonhuman animals, such as sperm whales, may be said to use language not unlike we do. Corporations in the United States have legal personhood, which includes the right to free speech. This class will query how we should interpret nonhuman “speech.” How do we recognize speakers, and according to what criteria? What is the relationship between speech and rights? And how does nonhuman speech change our understanding of how we create meaning and connection with one another? Writing will be at the heart of our class. Across a series of writing assignments, we will study and write in multiple genres, including scholarly arguments, personal narratives, proposals, and reflections. Throughout the course, we will explore connections between nonhuman speech and our own.
Reintroduction to Writing, JHU’s first-year writing course, steps beyond the writing skills necessary to get to college: our shared project is to help you learn how to write for the rest of your life. We approach writing as an adaptable process of inquiry and action, as deeply informed by reading, and as reflective, embodied, and always emerging practice. In this course, we will rethink writing in ways that will help you throughout college, your professional career, personal life, and civic responsibilities in a democracy. Toward that end, this course teaches you to become an agile, curious, creative, and resilient writer. You will read and write academic texts; rhetorically analyze a wide variety of sources, including for the conventions of diverse genres; and write across genres, developing skill and precision in your writing, as well as fluency across contexts, audiences, and media.
Competing views about the dangers and potential benefits of drugs are ubiquitous. In the context of changing drug laws regarding psychedelic medicines, the legalization of cannabis, and “mandatory minimum” jail sentences, how can we gain insight into the cultural history of drugs in our society? This writing course will provide the opportunity for students to directly engage with recent debates over drug legislation by critically reflecting on the evolution of writing about drugs over the past 250 years. How does the cultural understanding of drugs change with shifts in rhetoric? How can we balance the need to protect society while still respecting individual freedoms and privacy? How can the latest scientific and sociological research help to guide legislative decisions? Our society’s understandings about drugs and their relationship to human consciousness have been—and continue to be—mediated by rhetoric and public discussions. By directly engaging in this evolving rhetoric through written and oral assignments, students will have the opportunity to deepen their understanding of this complex and persistent topic. Students will explore this topic by writing in a variety of genres and persuasive strategies, including op-eds, policy memos, close textual and visual analyses, and reflections.
What is Hollywood’s—and our—fascination with robbery? Challenging assumptions about criminality, justice and injustice, the heist (or ‘caper’) film makes theft into a subversive art form, a creative collaboration between a team of experts trying to pull off something extraordinary. We will study the history of this highly flexible genre to consider: Who are the bad guys? What is robbery? Why do we root for these characters, and why do we find it so enjoyable to watch them fail? These are some of the questions we will explore in “Reintroduction to Writing: The Heist Film,” a first-year writing course that asks us to think about how popular genres like the “caper” function as both escapist fantasy and social commentary. Through writing assignments that include argumentative essays, film reviews, and a creative project, students will also develop skills in critical thinking and communicating in different genres as they examine the history and conventions of the heist film. At the end of the semester, students will use their knowledge of the genre to plan their own heist narrative: a creative research project that uses our university campus as the setting for a daring robbery.
Ever wonder about the choices made in creating the panels, characters, and text bubbles in comics? In this course, you'll study, create, and write about comics as a way to examine audience, text, and message – revealing some of the magic of comics. We'll read The 9/11 Report in two different forms, for example, and discuss translating the 900+ page government report into a comic for popular consumption. We’ll learn about women creators, like Jackie Ormes, the first African-American woman cartoonist. We'll read the now-classic graphic memoir Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi and analyze the advantages of telling the history of the Iranian Revolution from the point of view of a child. And more! In addition to writing in various genres, students will curate an online exhibition of their top comics for display at the end of the semester. This course is for you if: you care about how history is communicated to the public; you wonder about the interplay between text and image; you like to doodle; you want to see your story in comics. No drawing skills necessary. Although we will create comics as part of assignments, you will not be assessed on your art talent or abilities.
The phrase "a seat at the table" is often used to describe an instance where someone is included in an opportunity that has the potential to lead them to some form of success. The symbolism of pulling up a chair to a table represents a sense of belonging and inclusion that wasn’t extended previously for one reason or another. What happens when you get “a seat” that you’ve pursued for a long time? This course asks you to engage with feelings of inclusion/exclusion by drawing from your own experiences of negotiating and fighting for your seat. One way to think about this is to consider how your potential major (or careers relating to your potential major) relate to your body and how you are expected to exist in these spaces. In these moments of expectation, what are you willing to give? What is an acceptable cost (changing how you dress, talk, think, etc.) for your success? How can you fight to protect yourself and be successful? Is it possible to do both? Students can expect to explore these important questions via scaffolded writing activities which support the major assignments: rhetorical analysis essay, literature review, and research-based argument essay.
Reintroduction to Writing, JHU’s first-year writing course, steps beyond the writing skills necessary to get to college: our shared project is to help you learn how to write for the rest of your life. We approach writing as an adaptable process of inquiry and action, as deeply informed by reading, and as reflective, embodied, and always emerging practice. In this course, we will rethink writing in ways that will help you throughout college, your professional career, personal life, and civic responsibilities in a democracy. Toward that end, this course teaches you to become an agile, curious, creative, and resilient writer. You will read and write academic texts; rhetorically analyze a wide variety of sources, including for the conventions of diverse genres; and write across genres, developing skill and precision in your writing, as well as fluency across contexts, audiences, and media.
How do we visualize and analyze a city? This course explores Baltimore’s spaces, histories, and communities through digital mapping, media analysis, and multimodal composition. Students will investigate how the built environment, cultural narratives, and historical forces shape urban life, using writing and digital media as tools for inquiry. Working in small teams, students will research and produce a short documentary-style video featuring a Baltimore community or nonprofit. Their work will contribute to a collaborative digital map, creating a shared representation of the city’s cultural and historical assets. Throughout the semester, students will develop skills in video production, interactive mapping, and data visualization, experimenting with different media forms to examine Baltimore’s complexities. They will use spatial mapping, sound recording, and digital research to uncover patterns, frame inquiries, and translate findings into compelling projects. By semester’s end, students will have produced a team-based, research-driven video and contributed to a shared digital map, gaining experience in multimodal composition, ethical representation, and digital media.
There’s no question that much of our public discourse contains speech that can be regarded as false, worthless, and hateful. In these ways speech can produce real harm to individuals and society. Why then do we intuitively feel that it is important to protect speech to the maximum extent? That’s the large question we will address through a series of writing projects. We begin by reading John Stuart Mill’s canonical justification of free speech in his nineteenth century treatise On Liberty. You write a short piece that engages with Mill’s view that speech is essential to the pursuit of truth. We then shift focus to the law, to get a sense of how the law defines the pivotal difference between speech and action. You’ll write an argumentative essay that enters a conversation about how we should respond to hateful speech. For the final assignment you are invited to research a contemporary free speech issue that interests you. Using online resources like the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), you will map a particular controversy and produce a written report of your findings, including the option to publicly intervene in the controversy by writing a letter or an opinion piece.
Reintroduction to Writing, JHU’s first-year writing course, steps beyond the writing skills necessary to get to college: our shared project is to help you learn how to write for the rest of your life. We approach writing as an adaptable process of inquiry and action, as deeply informed by reading, and as reflective, embodied, and always emerging practice. In this course, we will rethink writing in ways that will help you throughout college, your professional career, personal life, and civic responsibilities in a democracy. Toward that end, this course teaches you to become an agile, curious, creative, and resilient writer. You will read and write academic texts; rhetorically analyze a wide variety of sources, including for the conventions of diverse genres; and write across genres, developing skill and precision in your writing, as well as fluency across contexts, audiences, and media.
Undergraduates at Hopkins often bemoan what they call the “Hopkins Bubble”—an invisible boundary that separates life on campus from the “real” world. Such sentiments, however, run counter to Hopkins’ mission to produce “knowledge for the world” and its appeals for students to think of Baltimore as an “extension of campus.” Through critical reading and personal reflection, students will probe their experiences of campus life and Baltimore. We’ll craft orientation guides that map new ways of thinking about the relationship between Hopkins and Baltimore. We’ll collaborate with the University Archives and write an academic essay exploring themes such as: how have past students fought for inclusion in the Hopkins community, how have student activists encouraged Hopkins to be more fully engaged in the larger community, and how have the boundaries between Hopkins and Baltimore shifted over time? We’ll share what we’ve learned with public audiences by writing a call-to-action that probes the divisions between Hopkins and the city. Throughout the semester, we will also consider the ways that practice of writing itself asks us to think critically about how we imagine, enact, and engage with community, and therefore informs our work to trouble the Hopkins Bubble.
Reintroduction to Writing, JHU’s first-year writing course, steps beyond the writing skills necessary to get to college: our shared project is to help you learn how to write for the rest of your life. We approach writing as an adaptable process of inquiry and action, as deeply informed by reading, and as reflective, embodied, and always emerging practice. In this course, we will rethink writing in ways that will help you throughout college, your professional career, personal life, and civic responsibilities in a democracy. Toward that end, this course teaches you to become an agile, curious, creative, and resilient writer. You will read and write academic texts; rhetorically analyze a wide variety of sources, including for the conventions of diverse genres; and write across genres, developing skill and precision in your writing, as well as fluency across contexts, audiences, and media.
How do we visualize and analyze a city? This course explores Baltimore’s spaces, histories, and communities through digital mapping, media analysis, and multimodal composition. Students will investigate how the built environment, cultural narratives, and historical forces shape urban life, using writing and digital media as tools for inquiry. Working in small teams, students will research and produce a short documentary-style video featuring a Baltimore community or nonprofit. Their work will contribute to a collaborative digital map, creating a shared representation of the city’s cultural and historical assets. Throughout the semester, students will develop skills in video production, interactive mapping, and data visualization, experimenting with different media forms to examine Baltimore’s complexities. They will use spatial mapping, sound recording, and digital research to uncover patterns, frame inquiries, and translate findings into compelling projects. By semester’s end, students will have produced a team-based, research-driven video and contributed to a shared digital map, gaining experience in multimodal composition, ethical representation, and digital media.
Reintroduction to Writing, JHU’s first-year writing course, steps beyond the writing skills necessary to get to college: our shared project is to help you learn how to write for the rest of your life. We approach writing as an adaptable process of inquiry and action, as deeply informed by reading, and as reflective, embodied, and always emerging practice. In this course, we will rethink writing in ways that will help you throughout college, your professional career, personal life, and civic responsibilities in a democracy. Toward that end, this course teaches you to become an agile, curious, creative, and resilient writer. You will read and write academic texts; rhetorically analyze a wide variety of sources, including for the conventions of diverse genres; and write across genres, developing skill and precision in your writing, as well as fluency across contexts, audiences, and media.
Reintroduction to Writing, JHU’s first-year writing course, steps beyond the writing skills necessary to get to college: our shared project is to help you learn how to write for the rest of your life. We approach writing as an adaptable process of inquiry and action, as deeply informed by reading, and as reflective, embodied, and always emerging practice. In this course, we will rethink writing in ways that will help you throughout college, your professional career, personal life, and civic responsibilities in a democracy. Toward that end, this course teaches you to become an agile, curious, creative, and resilient writer. You will read and write academic texts; rhetorically analyze a wide variety of sources, including for the conventions of diverse genres; and write across genres, developing skill and precision in your writing, as well as fluency across contexts, audiences, and media.
Reintroduction to Writing, JHU’s first-year writing course, steps beyond the writing skills necessary to get to college: our shared project is to help you learn how to write for the rest of your life. We approach writing as an adaptable process of inquiry and action, as deeply informed by reading, and as reflective, embodied, and always emerging practice. In this course, we will rethink writing in ways that will help you throughout college, your professional career, personal life, and civic responsibilities in a democracy. Toward that end, this course teaches you to become an agile, curious, creative, and resilient writer. You will read and write academic texts; rhetorically analyze a wide variety of sources, including for the conventions of diverse genres; and write across genres, developing skill and precision in your writing, as well as fluency across contexts, audiences, and media.
This course invites art-curious students to rewrite the material histories of art objects and museums. We will explore hidden narratives and overlooked traditions in art history, non-visual senses and experiences of art making, and the role of reinvention in art museums. Over the semester, we will examine and respond to a range of objects, performances, and writings that think through the public “matter” of art. Course discussion and writing projects will pay special attention to questions of what it means to make and practice a socially engaged art. We will approach writing as both a personal and a social project. We will concentrate on the personal aspects of writing--including expression, habit, transfer--as well as the social aspects of writing—including exploration, persuasion, and convention. This course is site specific. The Baltimore Museum of Art will serve as our archive and object of study.
Reintroduction to Writing, JHU’s first-year writing course, steps beyond the writing skills necessary to get to college: our shared project is to help you learn how to write for the rest of your life. We approach writing as an adaptable process of inquiry and action, as deeply informed by reading, and as reflective, embodied, and always emerging practice. In this course, we will rethink writing in ways that will help you throughout college, your professional career, personal life, and civic responsibilities in a democracy. Toward that end, this course teaches you to become an agile, curious, creative, and resilient writer. You will read and write academic texts; rhetorically analyze a wide variety of sources, including for the conventions of diverse genres; and write across genres, developing skill and precision in your writing, as well as fluency across contexts, audiences, and media.
Reintroduction to Writing, JHU’s first-year writing course, steps beyond the writing skills necessary to get to college: our shared project is to help you learn how to write for the rest of your life. We approach writing as an adaptable process of inquiry and action, as deeply informed by reading, and as reflective, embodied, and always emerging practice. In this course, we will rethink writing in ways that will help you throughout college, your professional career, personal life, and civic responsibilities in a democracy. Toward that end, this course teaches you to become an agile, curious, creative, and resilient writer. You will read and write academic texts; rhetorically analyze a wide variety of sources, including for the conventions of diverse genres; and write across genres, developing skill and precision in your writing, as well as fluency across contexts, audiences, and media.
Reintroduction to Writing, JHU’s first-year writing course, steps beyond the writing skills necessary to get to college: our shared project is to help you learn how to write for the rest of your life. We approach writing as an adaptable process of inquiry and action, as deeply informed by reading, and as reflective, embodied, and always emerging practice. In this course, we will rethink writing in ways that will help you throughout college, your professional career, personal life, and civic responsibilities in a democracy. Toward that end, this course teaches you to become an agile, curious, creative, and resilient writer. You will read and write academic texts; rhetorically analyze a wide variety of sources, including for the conventions of diverse genres; and write across genres, developing skill and precision in your writing, as well as fluency across contexts, audiences, and media.
Reintroduction to Writing, JHU’s first-year writing course, steps beyond the writing skills necessary to get to college: our shared project is to help you learn how to write for the rest of your life. We approach writing as an adaptable process of inquiry and action, as deeply informed by reading, and as reflective, embodied, and always emerging practice. In this course, we will rethink writing in ways that will help you throughout college, your professional career, personal life, and civic responsibilities in a democracy. Toward that end, this course teaches you to become an agile, curious, creative, and resilient writer. You will read and write academic texts; rhetorically analyze a wide variety of sources, including for the conventions of diverse genres; and write across genres, developing skill and precision in your writing, as well as fluency across contexts, audiences, and media.
The idea of the gene existed before we figured out the structure of DNA and its role in cells. So, what happens when you take an old idea and put it on something new? This is what we will be exploring in this section of Reintroduction to Writing. In addition to reading about the rhetorical and chemical composition of genes and DNA, we will explore the question of genetically modified organisms, investigate the origins and materiality of diseases, and explore our contemporary notion of identity. In addition to researching the genealogy of a gene, students will also have the opportunity to conduct genetic experiments in a lab and hunt for new genes in the world around us. Students will be required to produce writing that is appropriate to their field of study, as well as texts that are public facing. By the end of the class, students will understand how our discourses on genetics shape our relationship to DNA and ourselves.
Current CDC data states, that Black women are “three to four times more likely to die during or after delivery than are white women.” In this first-year writing course, we will explore Black women’s historical and contemporary birth narratives to question how their history of enslavement, and medical racism continues to inform their birthing realities. Through course readings, discussions, and workshops we will question the varied ways the delegitimization of Black midwives, Black women’s community practices, and contemporary advocates for reproductive and birthing justice, have impacted Black women’s care within and outside of medical institutions. Students will write in a range of genres including fact sheets, personal narratives, and profile essays, which will allow students to follow a course of inquiry that will lead them to a point of interest to compose a traditional academic paper or a multimodal composition as their final project. Students will support their research questions by using credible sources such as narratives, scholarly articles, and reputed journalism. Potential texts include excerpts by Harriet Jacobs, Margaret Charles Smith, Assata Shakur, Tressie Cottom, Nikky Finney, Beyonce, and reproductive justice advocate, Loretta Ross.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, professional is defined as “a person engaged or qualified in a profession.” In this advanced speaking and writing course, students will engage in a semester-long research project to examine definitions of professionalism across a variety of disciplines and contexts. Students will research to question, what goes into creating standards, and what-and who -- do they serve? For instance, when a 17-year-old at Banana Republic is asked to remove her box braids to avoid “looking urban;” or a trans employee is fired for violating a nebulous dress code; are these examples of larger issues of dominant cultural biases concerning the concept of “professionalism” in the workplace? Through course readings, library sources, and primary research, this course questions if employers and institutions establish specific standards that draw a line between those who are a “good fit” and those who are not. Students will compose a research proposal/presentation, creative genre modes assignment, and final presentation with visual aids to interrogate questions like: How does the dominant culture define professionalism? How do those definitions change depending on discipline and context? How do concepts of professionalism influence/affect intersectionality? All first-year students who have taken Reintro and all students at the sophomore level or above are welcome.
For survivors of the worst atrocities in recent history, remembering is seen as both a moral and political duty. The command to “never forget” has become a popular refrain in the aftermath of these traumatic events. But how should the memory of these mass traumas be carried forward in the public sphere? What forms of commemoration are the most effective, accurate, or enduring? And how might new technologies impact how we remember collective traumas in the future? Using the Holocaust as our central case study, we’ll examine the remembering of trauma in a range of public “memory sites,” including oral testimonies, memoirs, photographs, monuments, and museums. And we’ll discuss how new technologies, including virtual reality and holographic technology, will impact Holocaust memory going forward. At the heart of the course will be a series of writing assignments designed to help students reflect on the future of Holocaust memory. Students will be asked to write in a variety of styles and genres, from op-eds to scholarly arguments, and from video essays to rhetorical analyses. These writing assignments will help students reconsider what writing is, how to do it effectively and ethically, and how to become better at it. The class will include field trips to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC. All first-year students who have taken Reintro and all students at the sophomore level or above are welcome.
Rhetoric, or the art of persuasion, is the beating heart of political life. In this election year, we will listen to rational arguments presented in good faith, but we will also be exposed to deceptive forms of persuasion that attempt to mislead us through misinformation and other techniques of propaganda. Democratic citizens today need to utilize persuasive techniques to advance their political goals. But they also need to be alert to the perils of certain forms of persuasion that may even threaten democracy itself. This course will help you develop the civic capacity to meet these demands. We begin by studying some classic and contemporary political speeches and being attentive to the rhetorical techniques they utilize. You will then write and present your own short political speech. Next, we turn to the way in which persuasion is deployed on social media today. Is it possible for a consensus to emerge from all the competing voices, or does social media pose a genuine threat to democracy? You write an argumentative essay that addresses this question. Finally, you will design and produce a persuasive piece of political writing – which may incorporate visual components -- targeted to a specific audience on a topic of your choice. All first-year students who have taken Reintro and all students at the sophomore level or above are welcome.
A one credit course orienting potential writing center tutors to the history, theory, and practice of tutoring writing. This course is for undergraduates who have applied to work as Writing Center tutors. Permission required.
Science in Situ introduces students to the art of science writing via an exploration of the sites where science is happening in Baltimore. Effective science communicators have a deep understanding of their subject matter and are skilled at conveying complex ideas in accessible ways. However, explaining the facts is not enough; science writers also need to make meaning out of information by placing it in social and narrative contexts that are relevant to their audience. This course encourages students to write creatively, with humor, and in multimedia formats to communicate scientific content to a wide range of audiences. Students will learn about key techniques as well as challenges in science journalism and gain practice communicating technical subject matter in a variety of modalities. Through field trips to local museums and forensic labs, and interviews with researchers and editors of science magazines, students will identify opportunities to share their ideas and knowledge in engaging ways, and to reflect on why science matters to broader audiences. This course is aimed at junior and senior undergraduate students who are STEM majors. All first-year students who have taken Reintro and all students at the sophomore level or above are welcome.
This is an interdisciplinary course blending the study of visual and textual narrative, history, ethics, medicine, and war studies. We will explore various genres as we survey how care – medical, psychiatric, and nursing – has changed during wartime over the course of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, with an emphasis on the narratives written by and about nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists, field medics, orderlies, chaplains, ambulance drivers, and doctors in the conflicts. Though this is a survey, nurses will be our primary focus. We will examine how politics infiltrates the war hospital and affects care; the changing dynamic of women and men in the medical (and battle) field throughout the twentieth century; the innovations that emerged from battle surgery; humanitarian concerns on the front line where friend and foe are blurred; and more. Texts will include but not be limited to film, sitcom, novels, memoirs, letters, diary entries, posters, and poetry. We will use the critical lenses of gender, race, empire, colonialism, and disability to interrogate how medicine and care support – or destabilize! – these concepts in war. Students should expect to write and revise frequently and in a variety of genres throughout the course. All first-year students who have taken Reintro and all students at the sophomore level or above are welcome.
How are American publishers responding to the use of AI? What's with all of the book banning? Why did “Cat Person” go viral? What’s an earnout bonus? In this class, we’ll look at the world of book publishing, taking a particularly close look at literary controversies, publishing best practices, and the rhetoric of the industry. We’ll read literary work, essays, and journalism related to the book business alongside legislation, school board meeting minutes, and court records to understand what the publishing industry is, how it works, and where it may be headed. In addition to performing and writing research, we’ll meet industry professionals and examine publishing documents like profit and loss requisitions, book contracts, and press releases to familiarize ourselves with the genres used in-house at American publishing houses. Finally, we’ll look at the local publishing ecosystem, which includes academic presses, independent publishers, literary journals and zines, book reviewers, bookstores, reading series, and more. Undergraduates at the sophomore level and above are welcome.
In this class, we will collaborate with the Peale Museum— Baltimore’s community museum—to plan, curate, and host an exhibition. In this partnership we will engage with many modes of writing, including analyzing audience and user experiences; using social media to increase engagement; and creating proposals for immersive events that might connect the past neighborhood struggles to present day community concerns. This course will build on the work of students who participated in Reintro to Writing: Lost Baltimore in Spring-Fall 2024, who researched and wrote about life in a West Baltimore neighborhood that was demolished between 1930s and 1970s. All first-year students who have taken Reintro and all students at the sophomore level or above are welcome. The class is open to all students who have taken any Reintro, but previous participants in the Lost Baltimore Reintro are especially encouraged to enroll.
This course departs from Patricia Hill Collins' term “motherwork,” which is reproductive labor that blurs the lines between private and public, family and work to ensure the survival of one’s family and collective community. You are invited to reimagine how maternal health, reproductive justice, and birthing justice frameworks intersect with motherwork. February 2023 data from the National Vital Statistics System states that maternal mortality rates decreased significantly per 100,000 births for White (14.5) and Hispanic women (12.4). However, the mortality rate for Black mothers (50.3) in the United States has not improved. How can this data help shift and reshape your imagination around the possibilities of recreating, restructuring, and rebuilding maternal health and reproductive health(care) networks? How can we define and practice maternal health when divisions between communities and institutions are dismantled? Alongside opportunities for community engagement, this space offers future maternal health (care) workers time to center joy through writing projects that follow Angela Davis’ guidance to “act as if it were possible to radically transform the world.” Student writing may include digital projects, policy proposals, autoethnography, films, and podcasts. Potential authors include Hortense Spillers, Saidiya Hartman, Christina Sharpe, Alice Walker, Audre Lorde, Jennifer Nash, and Moya Bailey. All first-year students who have taken Reintro and all students at the sophomore level or above are welcome.
In recent years, media coverage of psychedelic research has fueled widespread enthusiasm, sometimes outpacing the current scientific evidence. While early studies suggest promising therapeutic potential, psychedelics remain an evolving field of research with many unanswered questions about safety, efficacy, and long-term effects. This course explores how to communicate about psychedelic science with clarity, accuracy, and nuance, which involves balancing positive potentials with critical inquiry. In particular, students will analyze how narratives around psychedelics are shaped in journalism, academic literature, and public discourse. We will examine the challenges of writing about emerging science, including the risks of overstating findings, the influences of historical stigma, and the ethical responsibilities of science communicators. Discussions will consider the media's role in shaping public perception, health policy, and the emerging psychedelic industry. By writing across multiple genres including public essays and case studies, students will develop the skills to craft compelling, well-informed pieces tailored to diverse audiences, from general readers to academic and policy communities. Whether you are interested in journalism, science writing, or public health communication, this course provides tools for ethically engaging with complex topics in contemporary science and medicine. All first-year students who have taken Reintro and all students at the sophomore level or above are welcome.
The Commons is Hopkins’ newest arts and culture magazine, responding to Hopkins’ annual Common Question. Our course will collaboratively design and produce an issue of The Commons over the course of the semester. Composing The Commons takes a hands-on, lab-based approach to writing technologies, media archeology, and accessibility studies. This Humanities Research Lab will examine print and digital media, explore physical and digital archives, and experiment with methods of intermedia composition and translation. Students will write a peer-reviewed article and create photo essays, short stories, poems, games, and print and digital ephemera. Our aim is to publish and translate a well-researched, well-considered magazine in both print and digital formats, for many publics. All first-year students who have taken Reintro and all students at the sophomore level or above are welcome.
Fall 202552 |
Summer 20251 |
| Course # (Section) | Title | Day/Times | Instructor | Location | Term | Course Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AS.001.158 (01) | FYS: Love, Anger, Fear, and Hope | F 1:30PM - 4:00PM | Koullas, Sandy Gillian | Gilman 134 | Fall 2025 | In this First-Year Seminar, we will examine the roles of love, fear, anger, and hope in our lives. We’ll ask questions about their value, danger, and appropriateness or inappropriateness in our lives at both the individual level and the level of political life. Some examples of questions we’ll consider are these: Should we love those who have wronged us? Is enjoying a horror movie morally problematic? How is fear used in political rhetoric and how should we respond to it? Is anger acceptable, or perhaps even necessary, in protest? Is love necessary for meaningful social change? When and how is hope justifiable and useful? We’ll also draw connections between these emotions and engage with related concepts such as forgiveness and trust. While our engagement with these concepts will be primarily through philosophy, we will also consider works of art and think about the value of portraying and evoking these emotions through various forms of art. Students can expect to read philosophical texts, journalism, occasional fiction and poetry, and to watch at least one horror film, among the sources for the course. Possible authors include Berit Brogaard, Noël Carroll, Myisha Cherry, Raja Halwani, Stephen King, Adrienne Martin, Martha Nussbaum, Edgar Allan Poe, Jason Stanley, and Desmond Tutu. We will take at least one field trip to a location in Baltimore during the semester. Students will emerge from this course with a more nuanced understanding of these powerful and often controversial emotions, and the ability to talk about them in an academic and public context. |
| AS.001.200 (01) | FYS: Great Adaptations in the Animal Kingdom | F 1:30PM - 4:00PM | Moss, Cynthia F. | Ames 217 | Fall 2025 | Animals have evolved a vast array of sensory systems that support a rich repertoire of natural behaviors. Some animals live in dark environments and use tactile, chemical, electrical and auditory sensors that allow them to operate in the absence of light. Other animals rely heavily on vision and take advantage of colors that humans cannot see. In this First-Year Seminar, we will explore extraordinary adaptations of sensory systems in animals that live on land and under water. Our focus will be on sensory systems that guide navigation and foraging behaviors in species as diverse as star-nosed moles, weakly electric fish, honeybees, and echolocating bats. As we delve into understanding the extraordinary sensory systems of selected species, we will also consider how these animals have inspired literary and visual artists. We aim to introduce students to a rich interdisciplinary experience that opens their eyes to new areas of inquiry as they take advantage of local resources, such as the National Aquarium, Baltimore Zoo, Wyman Park, Peabody Institute, and Baltimore Museum of Art. |
| AS.001.280 (01) | FYS: Spilling the Tea: The Political Economy & Ecology of Tea | W 12:00PM - 2:30PM | Kuo, Huei-Ying; Ludden, Jason | Greenhouse 113 | Fall 2025 | Tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world, with almost 7 million tonnes grown, harvested, processed, and packaged annually. Whether you use loose leaf or tea bags, drink green tea or black, add sugar or cream, use it to stay awake or go to sleep, or consume it in solitude or with friends to share gossip, you are participating in the worldwide consumption of tea, which has created economic relations (and wars), new ecosystems for plants and animals (and humans), and is culturally significant in public and private spaces. In short, tea organizes people’s homes, government meetings, economies, investment markets, and landscapes. In this First-Year Seminar, we will examine the history and present-day production of tea and how it creates and recreates social relations and environments. In addition to learning about tea (and tasting different kinds), students will be exposed to research methodologies in the fields of sociology, anthropology, and communication studies. By the end of class, students will have an understanding of the different kinds of teas (and how to prepare them), the role tea plays in society, and how tea functions within ecosystems. |
| AS.001.283 (01) | FYS: Hoop Style: The Culture, Language, and Iconography of the NBA | MW 3:00PM - 4:15PM | Pavesich, Matthew | Gilman 4 | Fall 2025 | In this First-Year Seminar, we’ll gather high-level hoopheads to study the NBA, the coolest professional sports league in the world. Our key questions will be why and how is the NBA so dope? But also, we’ll use the methods of humanistic, linguistic, and rhetorical analysis to study the culture, language, and iconography of the NBA. No zone defenses here: we’re bringing a full-court press to phenomena and artifacts like dunk contest; the euro-step; why no one likes Rudy Gobert; style from Allen Iverson to Shai-Gilgeous Alexander; uniform, court, and mascot designs; how advanced statistical analytics have changed the game (deep breath), and much, much more. And while my passion is the NBA, students are welcome to bring their expertise and interests in the WNBA, international basketball leagues, and college hoops to the mix. We’ll read texts old and new, traditional and funky (from David Halberstam’s The Breaks of the Game, about the 1978 Portland Trailblazers, to posts from the defunct and very influential FreeDarko blog and Mitchell S. Jackson’s Fly: The Big Book of Basketball Fashion). We’ll watch highlights (of big dunks and, even better, teammates’ sideline reactions) and movies such as Hustle and Hoop Dreams. Oh, and if you’re into experiential learning, we’ll probably check out a Wizards game in D.C. and play a little pick up at the gym. I hope my knees hold up. Meet you at the rim. |
| AS.004.101 (01) | Reintroduction to Writing: Future Shock | MW 1:30PM - 2:45PM | Benson, Schuler | Fall 2025 | In FUTURE_SHOCK, students tackle the tortures of invention in academic writing by analyzing how writers in the past invented entire futures, not out of thin air, but based on what they saw in the present. This course positions writing as a means of using and reusing the texts we encounter around us and the experiences in which we find them as sources of creativity. In class we’ll draw inspiration from future-focused genres like cyberpunk media and industrial music, and we’ll get tips from unlikely sources like mail art, graffiti, computer hacking, and more. In individual semester projects, students will write manifestos, reviews, genre analyses, an argumentative essay, and more as they develop a low-stakes, personal interest into a topic fit for an academic research project. Students will support their individual development by collaborating in small crews to learn rhetorical awareness, genre familiarity, and research techniques by observing and entering online communities like Reddit, Twitch, and Discord. Additionally, three non-academic experts will visit the class to discuss how they excel in the worlds of videography, beat-making/sampling, and web design by using and reusing the same writing and research skills we’ll be working with in class. | |
| AS.004.101 (02) | Reintroduction to Writing: Future Shock | MW 12:00PM - 1:15PM | Benson, Schuler | Fall 2025 | In FUTURE_SHOCK, students tackle the tortures of invention in academic writing by analyzing how writers in the past invented entire futures, not out of thin air, but based on what they saw in the present. This course positions writing as a means of using and reusing the texts we encounter around us and the experiences in which we find them as sources of creativity. In class we’ll draw inspiration from future-focused genres like cyberpunk media and industrial music, and we’ll get tips from unlikely sources like mail art, graffiti, computer hacking, and more. In individual semester projects, students will write manifestos, reviews, genre analyses, an argumentative essay, and more as they develop a low-stakes, personal interest into a topic fit for an academic research project. Students will support their individual development by collaborating in small crews to learn rhetorical awareness, genre familiarity, and research techniques by observing and entering online communities like Reddit, Twitch, and Discord. Additionally, three non-academic experts will visit the class to discuss how they excel in the worlds of videography, beat-making/sampling, and web design by using and reusing the same writing and research skills we’ll be working with in class. | |
| AS.004.101 (03) | Reintroduction to Writing: Forensics Between Fact & Fiction | TTh 9:00AM - 10:15AM | Grousdanidou, Antonia | Fall 2025 | From detective stories to procedural television shows and true crime podcasts, forensic description teaches us how to observe and describe ‘objectively’ to produce truth for entertainment. How does forensic thinking enhance our storytelling and inform our engagement with our everyday surroundings? Why are forensic techniques so fascinating and what are the social implications of our fascination with them? By investigating rhetorical uses of forensic description, we will critically reflect on how different kinds of writing can create truth and the assumption that forensic procedures necessarily yield justice. We will examine texts across popular culture, crime fiction, forensic science, criminology, philosophy, literary theory and the history of medicine. Using forensic tools and concepts, we will critically reflect on how fact-making and storytelling work in writing. Ever wanted to be a detective? Over the course of the semester, students will assemble a case file on themselves and try to solve the mystery of themselves as writers. Assignments will include a scholarly essay, personal narrative and a formal presentation that emphasizes visual storytelling. By connecting forensics with different genres and audiences, and through drafting, peer review and revision, students will develop their process and agility as thinkers and writers. | |
| AS.004.101 (04) | Reintroduction to Writing: Forensics Between Fact & Fiction | TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM | Grousdanidou, Antonia | Fall 2025 | How does sound shape our experiences and influence our understanding of the world? This course explores the multifaceted impact of sound through storytelling, utilizing sources like the Baltimore Soundscape Project, the industrial echoes of Baltimore's past at the Museum of Industry, and the musical diversity of the Peabody Conservatory. Throughout the course, students will engage in multimodal writing projects to develop iterative writing processes, enhance their critical thinking, and improve their skills in summarization, evidence-based argumentation, synthesis, and citation. Readings will span academic theory on sonic rhetoric, popular sources on social justice and accessibility issues, and scientific writings on sound phenomena, supporting students as they explore topics aligned with their personal and scholarly interests. The analytical and technical approaches to sound explored in this course will be particularly relevant for students in STEM fields, illustrating how strong communication skills can enhance their abilities in research documentation, technical writing, and presenting scientific findings. | |
| AS.004.101 (05) | Reintroduction to Writing: Riot/Uprising/Democracy | TTh 3:00PM - 4:15PM | Lester, Quinn A | Fall 2025 | In Spring 2015 a young Black man from Baltimore named Freddie Gray died while in police custody. His death sparked days of mass protest, marching, property destruction, and clashes with police. While national media called these events a “riot”, local Baltimoreans still call this an “uprising” against discriminatory policing. Whichever label is used, this was not the first combination of political protest, property destruction, and violence in Baltimore’s history. In fact, such events have been continuous since 1812, as Baltimoreans have attacked politicians, police, and each other all often in the name of defending their “democracy” itself. By thinking about this history on the ten year anniversary of Freddie Gray’s death, students will explore their answers to fundamental questions about the relationship between violence and democracy in Baltimore: what is at stake in defining rioting as different from an uprising? Does the violence of rioting always make it undemocratic? Have white and Black Baltimoreans over time rioted differently or over similar causes? In finding their answers, students will practice through a variety of writing genres summarizing academic sources and joining an academic conversation, analyzing historical and contemporary images of rioting, and finally, produce their own art gallery for the Baltimore public at large to engage with these questions. Students will learn to use writing then not only as a way to make meaning from contentious and complicated events, but also to communicate the many different, competing, and radical ways Baltimore’s past continues to impact its present. | |
| AS.004.101 (06) | Reintroduction to Writing: Riot/Uprising/Democracy | TTh 4:30PM - 5:45PM | Lester, Quinn A | Fall 2025 | In Spring 2015 a young Black man from Baltimore named Freddie Gray died while in police custody. His death sparked days of mass protest, marching, property destruction, and clashes with police. While national media called these events a “riot”, local Baltimoreans still call this an “uprising” against discriminatory policing. Whichever label is used, this was not the first combination of political protest, property destruction, and violence in Baltimore’s history. In fact, such events have been continuous since 1812, as Baltimoreans have attacked politicians, police, and each other all often in the name of defending their “democracy” itself. By thinking about this history on the ten year anniversary of Freddie Gray’s death, students will explore their answers to fundamental questions about the relationship between violence and democracy in Baltimore: what is at stake in defining rioting as different from an uprising? Does the violence of rioting always make it undemocratic? Have white and Black Baltimoreans over time rioted differently or over similar causes? In finding their answers, students will practice through a variety of writing genres summarizing academic sources and joining an academic conversation, analyzing historical and contemporary images of rioting, and finally, produce their own art gallery for the Baltimore public at large to engage with these questions. Students will learn to use writing then not only as a way to make meaning from contentious and complicated events, but also to communicate the many different, competing, and radical ways Baltimore’s past continues to impact its present. | |
| AS.004.101 (07) | Reintroduction to Writing: Apocalypses in Music and Composition | MW 3:00PM - 4:15PM | Oliver, Xavier A | Fall 2025 | This is the way the world ends, not with a whimper but with a... killer soundtrack? What music *does* go well with an apocalypse? A song mourning the world that soon won't be? A triumphant song about making it through the world-ending events? Maybe even something whose upbeat, poppy tone sounds remarkably out of step with its occasion? In this course, we'll be listening to and writing about a wide collection of music written about endings and apocalypses. As the semester unfolds, we'll be given opportunities to contribute musical selections to a running playlist of Apocalyptic Music. You'll have the freedom to write about songs of your choosing (with approval) using a series of writing genres over the course of three major projects. In our first project, you'll critically analyze a song whose lyrics, composition, or both, strike you as strange or compelling. Our second project offers the choice of creating a piece of public writing or an original set of lyrics supported by an artist's statement. Finally, we will end the semester with a reflective essay in which you'll be asked to look back on your experiences listening, writing, and thinking in order to reorient them toward future possibilities. | |
| AS.004.101 (08) | Reintroduction to Writing | TTh 1:30PM - 2:45PM | Staff | Fall 2025 | Reintroduction to Writing, JHU’s first-year writing course, steps beyond the writing skills necessary to get to college: our shared project is to help you learn how to write for the rest of your life. We approach writing as an adaptable process of inquiry and action, as deeply informed by reading, and as reflective, embodied, and always emerging practice. In this course, we will rethink writing in ways that will help you throughout college, your professional career, personal life, and civic responsibilities in a democracy. Toward that end, this course teaches you to become an agile, curious, creative, and resilient writer. You will read and write academic texts; rhetorically analyze a wide variety of sources, including for the conventions of diverse genres; and write across genres, developing skill and precision in your writing, as well as fluency across contexts, audiences, and media. Classes often involve discussion, workshops, and conferences. Our courses engage with many topics and disciplines; consider carefully which course will most interest you. Reintroduction to Writing is intended for first-year students, though it is available to others by special permission. | |
| AS.004.101 (09) | Reintroduction to Writing: Digital Doppelgangers | TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM | Schnitzler, Carly Elisabeth | Fall 2025 | Many of us have (at least) two selves: an analog or “real-life” self and a digital self. These doppelgangers can bear striking resemblance to our embodied selves—or not—and raise many questions around issues of representation, authenticity, and impersonation. So too, we leave digital traces of ourselves in the form of “data doubles,” extracted through clicks, scrolls, and other forms of tracked data. This double is frequently a target for manipulation and persuasion, but also can be a tool to enhance creativity and efficiency in our analog lives. In this course, we will investigate the concept of the digital doppelganger from three distinct perspectives, asking how our capacious digital identities are formed, changed, and controlled in commercial, political, and creative contexts. By crafting auto-ethnographies, policy briefs, and creative computational projects, students will develop critical thinking skills, learn to communicate with agility and precision across different genres, and reflect on how we create and know ourselves in a rapidly changing digital landscape. | |
| AS.004.101 (10) | Reintroduction to Writing: Apocalypses in Music and Composition | MW 4:30PM - 5:45PM | Oliver, Xavier A | Fall 2025 | This is the way the world ends, not with a whimper but with a... killer soundtrack? What music *does* go well with an apocalypse? A song mourning the world that soon won't be? A triumphant song about making it through the world-ending events? Maybe even something whose upbeat, poppy tone sounds remarkably out of step with its occasion? In this course, we'll be listening to and writing about a wide collection of music written about endings and apocalypses. As the semester unfolds, we'll be given opportunities to contribute musical selections to a running playlist of Apocalyptic Music. You'll have the freedom to write about songs of your choosing (with approval) using a series of writing genres over the course of three major projects. In our first project, you'll critically analyze a song whose lyrics, composition, or both, strike you as strange or compelling. Our second project offers the choice of creating a piece of public writing or an original set of lyrics supported by an artist's statement. Finally, we will end the semester with a reflective essay in which you'll be asked to look back on your experiences listening, writing, and thinking in order to reorient them toward future possibilities. | |
| AS.004.101 (11) | Reintroduction to Writing: The Heist Film | MW 1:30PM - 2:45PM | Cram, Mitchell Allan | Fall 2025 | What is Hollywood’s—and our—fascination with robbery? Challenging assumptions about criminality, justice and injustice, the heist (or ‘caper’) film makes theft into a subversive art form, a creative collaboration between a team of experts trying to pull off something extraordinary. We will study the history of this highly flexible genre to consider: Who are the bad guys? What is robbery? Why do we root for these characters, and why do we find it so enjoyable to watch them fail? These are some of the questions we will explore in “Reintroduction to Writing: The Heist Film,” a first-year writing course that asks us to think about how popular genres like the “caper” function as both escapist fantasy and social commentary. Through writing assignments that include argumentative essays, film reviews, and a creative project, students will also develop skills in critical thinking and communicating in different genres as they examine the history and conventions of the heist film. At the end of the semester, students will use their knowledge of the genre to plan their own heist narrative: a creative research project that uses our university campus as the setting for a daring robbery. |
