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WRLIT-2030-5: Writing 2: Seeing Women of Color

Fall 2021

Subject: Writing and Literature
Type: Workshop
Delivery Mode: Online
Level: Undergraduate

Course Dates: September 01, 2021 — December 14, 2021
Meetings: Thu 8:00-08:55PM
Instructor: Julie Thi Underhill

Units: 3.0
Enrolled: 17/18 Waitlist

Description:

Writing 2 continues the work begun in Writing 1 on strengthening students' ability to write, read and discuss at the college level, with emphasis on literary and visual analysis, and research and argumentation skills. The course will revolve around a specific theme selected by the instructor.SECTION DESCRIPTIONAfter 500 years of European settler colonialism in North America, this country's demographics are changing, according to US Census records. By 2060 women of color will again be the majority of all women in this nation, after having long populated (for 10,000+ years) the land now occupied by the United States (US). Women of color are also known, in the US, as ethnic minority and indigenous women. And US cultural productions often misrepresent or exclude women of color, even as they constitute a large segment of the population. Women of color often appear in the margins rather than in the center of artworks such as novels, films, and plays. These women are generally hidden, silenced, or stereotyped within dominant (or mainstream) narratives, due to entrenched racial and gender hierarchies. As a result, women of color are rarely given center stage or complex identities, which can lead to their erasure from cultural texts, political discourse, and public spheres. To correct this oversight, our class moves women of color "from margin to center,” in the words of bell hooks. You'll attend a class centered on writing and composition, and you'll complete assignments designed to strengthen your abilities as a writer and scholar, but with Women of Color as a major framework to guide our conversations and inquiries. To "see" what's often made invisible, we will consider the personal, political, and historical experiences of women of color, as we study intersectional forms of oppression within hierarchies of power and privilege. Although the course includes nonfiction texts and topics, students will appreciate the interdisciplinary nuances of fiction, poetry, film, spoken word, performance, photography, protest, and visual art. In this workshop, we also fix our collective lens on the interrelated concepts of remembering and forgetting, not only in our course materials on women of color but also as you write autobiographical and analytical responses to course materials.

Pre-Requisites and Co-Requisites:

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