Suzanne Scanlon

This class will read texts that explore civil disobedience, protest, the role of the individual in society; the role of government in the lives of individuals; and the intersection of community, government and individuals. We will read from different historical periods, and explore how individual participation is essential for a functioning democracy. Readings will discuss different forms that participation takes, with special attention paid to various types of civil disobedience (Thoreau, Tolstoy, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, and others). Students in FYS I should expect to write 15 to 20 pages of formal, revisable writing (i.e. two essays and one in-depth revision) in addition to homework exercises and in-class writing.

FYS II are theme-based writing courses designed for first-year students, with an emphasis on further developing the foundational writing skills students learned in FYS I. Students will continue to hone the intellectual skills of reading critically, and writing responsively, which forms the basis of each student's career at the School. While faculty have autonomy in determining course theme, the theme is an accessory to the writing; the balance in these classes is weighed toward explicit writing instruction and workshopping of student writing, not content. This course provides guided experience in writing college-level essays of various kinds, which may include critical, analytical and argumentative essays, and must include the research paper. It is a policy of the department that at least one essay be a research paper which may involve searching for sources in a library or online, learning to make citations, and preparing an annotated bibliography. A significant amount of time is devoted to the craft of writing, and more sophisticated methods of argumentation and use of evidence and developing independent claims and ideas are explored. Students should expect to write 20-25 pages of formal, revisable writing across the course of the semester. A significant amount of time may be devoted to re-writing essays, so as to develop first drafts into final versions. In-class writing, short homework exercises, and workshopping of student work may be included. Individual meetings to discuss each student's papers should be expected.

Fernando Pessoa in Lisbon, Virginia Woolf in London, Frank O’Hara in New York City; writers, philosophers and artists of all kinds have long created, expanded, and contracted the self through the act and practice of walking. We will spend this semester reading and writing texts structured around the movement of the self in the city and country, at home and away, considering both content and representations of the body in space. We will look at authors, filmmakers and conceptual artists from a range of linguistic and cultural backgrounds to ask: What kind of literary devices does the author use? How does the tone/style contribute to the work as a whole? How does the text build, sentence by sentence or scene by scene? Are specific images repeated and/or used differently throughout the work? Students should expect to write 20-25 pages of formal, revisable writing, including a researched essay.