Instructor: Raquel Scherr, University Writing Program, College of Letters and Science
Description: The class will explore the importance of political and civic engagement. Students will be asked to critically read selected articles, opinion pieces, and news stories in at least 3 newspapers or on line sources from different countries; to view one T.V. news source; and to read, listen to, or watch an alternative news source, such as Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now” that explores current issues in depth. Students who speak or know a foreign language will be encouraged to read one newspaper in that foreign language. The class will compare news coverage, opinion pieces, and editorials on domestic and global issues [these will largely depend on what is in the news in a given week] and analyze these news items, paying close attention to the structure, voice, and slant of the news stories and the newspaper in which the stories are found. Students will be asked to read the news in a critical way so that they expand their civic literacy and become actively engaged in issues that affect them. During the second half of the quarter each student will be asked to follow one story in depth. This will include doing historical and geopolitical research on a news event of global or national importance.
Format: The seminar will meet for two hours each week for ten weeks. Students and instructor will select news items they deem important and discuss both the selected news items and their reasons for choosing them. Students will be asked to read, discuss, and write about domestic and global issues that affect them as global citizens. Each week students will be asked to give brief oral presentations on a news item of interest and to initiate that week’s discussion. In the final two weeks, students will give presentations on the subjects of their short feature articles. Students will be required to prepare a short opinion piece and a 5-page feature article to be chosen in consultation with the instructor. Grading: The course grade will be based on the quality of their class participation/discussion (30%), oral presentation (30%), and written work (10% for opinion piece; 20% for feature article). Pass/No Pass.
About the Instructor: Raquel Scherr is a Lecturer at UC Davis and recipient of the AF Teaching Award. She has taught legal writing, journalism, business writing, and courses on ethnic voice for the University Writing Program. She also teaches “Americans in Paris,” in Paris, and “Reversing the Conquest,” in Mexico, for Summer Studies Abroad. She has written on the politics of beauty, and mixed race theory. Her last publication, “Mis-cegnarrations,” deals with the rhetoric of mixed race theorists. She is currently working on a book on the rhetoric of resistance, which she will co-author.