Program in Writing and Communication

Program in Writing and Communication
https://pwc.rice.edu/
129 Herring Hall
713-348-4932

Jennifer S. Wilson
Program Director
jsw@rice.edu

The mission of the Program in Writing and Communication (PWC) is to integrate the practice of analytical writing and the techniques of both oral and visual communication into the Rice curriculum, with two goals in mind: To enable our students to articulate their ideas as we prepare them for academic and professional life; and to affirm the necessity of communication and its fundamental value to every aspect of their education and across every University department and discipline.

The PWC provides oversight for the First-Year Writing-Intensive Seminars (FWIS). FWIS are content-based, 3-credit hour seminars in which writing and communication pedagogy plays a significant role in assignments and grading. The courses reflect a range of disciplines from across the university. In addition, PWC faculty teach undergraduate communication courses and courses for international graduate students under the COMM designation and subject code.

The PWC also includes the Center for Academic and Professional Communication. Housed in Fondren Library, the Center supports teaching and learning through workshops, consulting, and coaching for undergraduate and graduate students and faculty. Headed by a team of communication professionals, the Center also includes a large staff of writing and communication consultants, both graduate and undergraduate, who are available for individual tutoring appointments. The Center houses facilities for one-on-one consultations and group work on written, oral, and visual projects. Physically accessible whenever Fondren Library is open, the Center is virtually accessible around the clock through the Center's website.

For additional information regarding the Program in Writing and Communication, please see the program's website at: https://pwc.rice.edu/.

To satisfy the writing and communication graduation requirement, all undergraduate students must complete the following items during their first year at Rice:

  1. First-Year Writing Assessment. Students will receive a placement for either one or two semesters of FWIS. Students who receive the two-semester placement must complete the FWIS 100 Introduction to Academic Writing course prior to enrolling in FWIS 101-299.
  2. First-Year Writing-Intensive Seminar. Students must complete a FWIS course numbered 101-299 or be granted transfer credit as outlined in the Graduation Requirements section of the General Announcements. (100-level numbers indicate courses taught in the fall; 200-level numbers indicate courses taught in the spring.)

For courses that satisfy the First-Year Writing-Intensive Seminar University Graduation Requirement, please see Rice's Course Catalog.

The Program in Writing and Communication does not currently offer an academic program at the graduate level.

Program Director

Jennifer S. Wilson

Teaching Faculty

David Messmer

Senior Lecturers

Elizabeth Cummins-Muñoz
Burke Nixon

Lecturers

Vasudha Bharadwaj
Lina Dib
Andrew Klein
Steven Perry
Laura Richardson
Hubert Rast

Teaching Fellows

Brooke Clark
Kelly McKisson
Els Woudstra

For Rice University degree-granting programs:
To view the list of official course offerings, please see Rice’s Course Catalog
To view the most recent semester’s course schedule, please see Rice's Course Schedule

Communication (COMM)

COMM 105 - LEARNING IDENTITIES, WRITING IDENTITIES

Short Title: LEARNING & WRITING IDENTITIES

Department: Program Writing Communication

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: What we learn can change how we see ourselves, and how we see ourselves can influence the way we learn. This course will examine the relationship between identity, writing, and learning, allowing students to reflect on their own identities and the complex forces and factors that can strengthen or challenge our identities as learners and people. Students also will be developing the writing and reading skills needed to engage with college-level readings and to communicate effectively in a number of forms and situations.

COMM 110 - WRITING STUDIO - FOUNDATIONS

Short Title: WRITING STUDIO - FOUNDATIONS

Department: Program Writing Communication

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Studio

Credit Hour: 1

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Corequisite: UNIV 110

Description: In this writing studio, to be taken in conjunction with UNIV 110, students will participate in targeted writing instruction and hands-on workshops designed to build fundamental literacy and self-editing skills and will cultivate collaboration in a writing community.

COMM 120 - FWIS WRITING STUDIO

Short Title: FWIS WRITING STUDIO

Department: Program Writing Communication

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Studio

Credit Hour: 1

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: In this writing studio, to be taken in conjunction with a FWIS (101+) course, students will participate in targeted writing instruction and hands-on workshops designed to build on students’ existing literacy and self-editing skills and cultivate collaboration in a writing community.

COMM 237 - ORAL COMMUNICATION IN PRACTICE AND THEORY

Short Title: THEORIES OF ORAL COMMUNICATION

Department: Program Writing Communication

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This class will aim to provide students with both a practical and theoretical framework for improving their oral presentation skills while fostering a level of self-awareness regarding the social constructions governing traditional “best practices.”

COMM 238 - SPECIAL TOPICS

Short Title: SPECIAL TOPICS

Department: Program Writing Communication

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Independent Study, Internship/Practicum, Laboratory, Lecture, Seminar, Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 1-4

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Topics and credit hours vary each semester. Contact department for current semester's topic(s). Repeatable for Credit.

COMM 239 - A QUESTION OF STYLE, RHETORIC AND POPULAR WRITING

Short Title: RHETORIC AND POPULAR WRITING

Department: Program Writing Communication

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course examines the rhetoric of popular writing in outlets such as National Geographic and Sports Illustrated. Through critical reading and writing workshops, students will acquire a nuanced understanding of available stylistic choices as they build the skills they need to develop their own voice with clarity, confidence, and style.

COMM 300 - COMMUNICATION IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Short Title: COMMUNICATION IN DIGITAL AGE

Department: Program Writing Communication

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Students will develop writing skills by maintaining a blog, generating Webpage content, and using social media. We will also produce video and audio content while remaining aware of how the form of the work impacts its content.

COMM 301 - THEORIES OF WRITING CENTER PRACTICE

Short Title: WRITING CENTER THEORY/PRACTICE

Department: Program Writing Communication

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hour: 1

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Students taking this course will read a wide body of scholarly work concerning writing center theory and practice, while also engaging in discussion with peer colleagues. Topics that will be covered in this course include, but are not limited to defining the writing center, second language acquisition theory, tutoring strategies for specific student populations, social justice in the writing center, and consulting on new media. In addition, students will have a chance to observe and learn from experienced writing center tutors. Graduate/Undergraduate Equivalency: COMM 501. Recommended Prerequisite(s): Completion of FWIS requirement

COMM 314 - CIVIC-ENGAGED DATA COMMUNICATION

Short Title: CIVIC-ENGAGED DATA COMM

Department: Program Writing Communication

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Prerequisite(s): DSCI 304

Description: Data locked away on computers, crammed into indecipherable coefficient tables, or thrown into senseless scatterplots cannot make a meaningful difference in the world around us. In this course, students will collaborate with community partners to create a series of advanced visual tools that showcase data to the outside world. Building on principles of communication and aesthetic design, students will explore how to effectively coalesce complicated and nuanced data into approachable and readily understood visuals.

COMM 415 - MEDICAL COMMUNICATION

Short Title: MEDICAL COMMUNICATION

Department: Program Writing Communication

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment limited to students with a class of Junior or Senior. Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: This course introduces students to key issues, theories, and debates related to medical communication, while also helping students develop and reflect on their own communication strategies, and skills as future health care professionals. Sophomores and Freshmen who have fulfilled Rice's First-year Writing-Intensive Seminar requirement for graduation may register by a Special Registration Form. Recommended Prerequisite(s): Sucessfully completed one course, FWIS 101 to 199, to fulfill the Rice's First-year Writing-Intensive Seminar requirement for graduation.

COMM 501 - THEORIES OF WRITING CENTER PRACTICE

Short Title: WRITING CENTER THEORY/PRACTICE

Department: Program Writing Communication

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hour: 1

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.

Course Level: Graduate

Description: Students taking this course will read a wide body of scholarly work concerning writing center theory and practice, while also engaging in discussion with peer colleagues. Topics that will be covered in this course include, but are not limited to defining the writing center, second language acquisition theory, tutoring strategies for specific student populations, social justice in the writing center, and consulting on new media. In addition, students will have a chance to observe and learn from experienced tutors. Graduate/Undergraduate Equivalency: COMM 301.

COMM 600 - INTRODUCTION TO ACADEMIC READING AND WRITING FOR INTERNATIONAL GRADUATE STUDENTS

Short Title: ACADEMIC READING AND WRITING

Department: Program Writing Communication

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 2

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.

Course Level: Graduate

Description: This course teaches fundamental academic reading and writing skills to international graduate students in the first two years of their studies. Students will learn how scholars construct arguments and use evidence to support claims, and they will practice writing texts that are relevant to their own courses and careers.

COMM 601 - ORAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS FOR INTERNATIONAL GRADUATE STUDENTS

Short Title: ORAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Department: Program Writing Communication

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 2

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.

Course Level: Graduate

Description: This course provides students with strategies to improve oral communication skills necessary for academic and professional success in North American contexts. Students will learn how to overcome common and individual challenges related to pronunciation clarity, small group interactions, and formal presentations. Final projects will be related to students' studies or research. Repeatable for Credit.

COMM 602 - ADVANCED ACADEMIC WRITING FOR INTERNATIONAL GRADUATE STUDENTS

Short Title: ADVANCED ACADEMIC WRITING

Department: Program Writing Communication

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 2

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.

Course Level: Graduate

Description: This course addresses writing at both the macro- and micro- level, engaging students in such academic writing tasks as critiquing, reporting, and interpreting research findings, illustrating and justifying the significance of research, while also attending to mechanical topics. Writing assignments in the course will be linked to students' studies, courses, or research. One-on-one conferences with instructors will be required.

COMM 605 - ADVANCED ENGLISH COMMUNICATION SKILLS FOR INTERNATIONAL GRADUATE STUDENTS

Short Title: ADVANCED ENGLISH COMMUNICATION

Department: Program Writing Communication

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Independent Study

Credit Hour: 1

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.

Course Level: Graduate

Description: This independent study course may be taken on its own or in conjunction with one of the other credit-bearing English communication courses. Students will work on a particular communication skill (reading, writing, speaking, listening) or combination of skills under the guidance of an ESL expert. Instructor Permission Required. Repeatable for Credit.

COMM 677 - SPECIAL TOPICS

Short Title: SPECIAL TOPICS

Department: Program Writing Communication

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar, Independent Study, Internship/Practicum, Laboratory, Lecture, Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 1-4

Course Level: Graduate

Description: Topics and credit hours vary each semester. Contact department for current semester's topic(s). Repeatable for Credit.

First-Yr Writing Intensive Sem (FWIS)

FWIS 100 - INTRODUCTION TO ACADEMIC WRITING

Short Title: INTRO TO ACADEMIC WRITING

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This topic-based course prepares students who need more time and practice in reading and writing to meet the more advanced communication demands of a FWIS. Through the study of one of several academic topics, this course will provide an introduction to the expectations of academic readers as well as practice with the rhetorical and linguistic structures common to academic writing. Students will also review grammatical points relevant to coursework and learn to self-edit their own work. This course does not fulfill the Composition Requirement.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/programs/first-year-writing-intensive-seminars/fwis-100-overview

FWIS 101 - THE BIBLE IN POPULAR CULTURE

Short Title: THE BIBLE IN POPULAR CULTURE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: We will introduce various ways in which the Bible plays a significant role in contemporary popular culture. By analyzing biblical references found in music, film, art, and the medial, students will discover that even in today's seemingly secular culture, the Bible continues to influence our artistic, social, and political landscapes.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 102 - BLIND SPOTS: CRITICAL APPROACHES TO VISUAL CULTURE

Short Title: BLIND SPOTS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: The blind spot of "the act of seeing" is its social construction, its ideological nature. This seminar unveils the various historical, political, economic, and social “filters” that condition our decoding of visual information. This writing seminar aims at developing skills to de-naturalize the "act of seeing."

FWIS 103 - WHODUNIT? INVESTIGATING TRUE CRIME AND CRIME FICTION

Short Title: TRUE CRIME AND CRIME FICTION

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: It was Colonel Mustard, in the library, with a candlestick! Crime fiction and true crime presents forensic evidence as a clue to find out: whodunit? This course examines the construction and adaptation of stories of crime, and investigates how the presentation of evidence influences our understanding of the crime.

FWIS 104 - WHAT WE OWE TO EACH OTHER: THE ETHICS OF WRITING AND RESEARCH

Short Title: WHAT WE OWE TO EACH OTHER

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: In this course, students will watch episodes of The Good Place paired with readings on the theories featured to explore “what we owe to each other” across a range of contexts, from every day communication to equity and access in writing and research in the students’ chosen field of study.

FWIS 105 - GREEK MYTH IN WORDS: HESIOD AND THE HOMERIC HYMNS

Short Title: GREEK MYTH IN WORDS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Presents texts fundamental to understanding Greek myth through the regular practice of reading, writing, and oral communication. Emphasizing textual interpretation and writing as process and practice, this course clarifies the purpose and conventions of the academic argumentative essay. Frequent brief writing assignments. Peer review plays an integral role. No exams.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 106 - WRITING THE SENSES

Short Title: WRITING THE SENSES

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course investigates the ways different disciplines develop theories of and tools for touching, tasting, smelling, hearing, and seeing. We experiment with the distinctions we draw between our senses as well as other ways we process information including our sense of balance, sense of pain, sense of time, and synaesthesia.

FWIS 107 - IN THE MATRIX: ON HUMAN BONDAGE AND LIBERATION

Short Title: IN THE MATRIX

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Using the film "The Matrix" as the point of reference, this course presents celebrated explorations of servitude and emancipation - from religious mysticism to Marxism and artistic modernism. Texts by Lao Tzu, Farid ud-Din Attar, Plato, Freud, Marx, Baudelaire, J.S. Mill, Proust, de Beauvior, Malcolm X, Marcuse, Baudrillard.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 108 - WANDERLUST: WHERE AND WHY WE TRAVEL

Short Title: WANDERLUST:WHERE/WHY WE TRAVEL

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This inquiry-based course will focus on travel from multiple perspectives: your own, including places you have visited or want to visit; that of other people; sustainability; accessibility; and the impact on communities, economies, and environments. Some topics include your bucket list, why travel, travel and its effects, and travel literature.

FWIS 109 - CONTEMPORARY ART AND ENVIRONMENT

Short Title: ART AND ENVIRONMENT

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course delves into questions of environment, ecology and sustainability through the lens of contemporary art. From earthworks, to performance, to land art, activist art, and community-based practices, participants engage critically and creatively with contemporary practices. This course is eligible for credit toward the Environmental Studies minor.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 110 - JEWS ON FILM: CINEMATIC REPRESENTATIONS OF JEWISH LIFE

Short Title: JEWS ON FILM

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course will explore the modern Jewish life around the world through the medium of film. Students will be exposed to diverse Jewish communities and their cinematic representations. The course will consider modern Jewish identity through the lens of various themes including race, gender, religion, nationalism, assimilation and secularization.

FWIS 112 - FICTION, HISTORY, TEJAS: TEXIANS AND TEJANOS IN LITERATURE AND FILM

Short Title: FICTION, HISTORY, TEJAS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Examines the battle for authority over foundational stories about Texas independence, as it plays out in fiction on the page and on the screen. Introduces key concepts related to Chicano studies, the genre of historical fiction, and the relationship of marginalized groups to national and regional histories.

FWIS 113 - RACE, PUBLIC POLICY, AND RACIAL CHANGE IN AMERICA

Short Title: RACE, POLICY, & RACIAL CHANGE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course examines conceptual and historical features of race and representation in the U.S., how race has shaped public policy development in the 20th century, and how American political institutions have affected outcomes for different racial groups. It also examines the causes and consequences of political mobilization for racial minorities.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 114 - THE HOLY GRAIL: RELIGION, QUEST, AND TRANSFORMATION

Short Title: THE HOLY GRAIL

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course explores the grail as object, moving from its roots in medieval romance through the literary-historical developments by which it emerges as a reality. Starting with the Arthurian legends, we explore developing associations of the grail within Christianity, and move to grail motifs in modern occultism, fiction and film.

FWIS 115 - EXPLORING BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH CHALLENGES

Short Title: EXPLORING BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This writing-intensive course introduces students to biological research and scientific communication. Student teams work on investigative projects with opportunities to ask questions, perform experiments, collect and analyze data, and share their findings. Recommended for students interested in the Biosciences major who have limited laboratory experience. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for FWIS 115 if student has credit for BIOS 150.

FWIS 116 - AMERICAN JOURNEYS

Short Title: AMERICAN JOURNEYS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: The narratives of travelers in the US are a window into history. Drawing on authors like Crevecoeur, Tocqueville, Trollope, and Kerouac, the class will discuss and write about themes such as Indian life and territorial expansion, democracy, slavery, civil war, western settlement, and 20th-cent. social movements. This course is eligible for credit toward the major in History.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 117 - CULTURAL DIPLOMACY IN THE AMERICAN CENTURY: "THE AMERICANIZATION OF THE WORLD" IN THE TWENTIETH CENT

Short Title: CULTURAL DIPLOMACY IN THE AMER

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This FWIS course seeks to introduce Rice freshmen to the hidden layers of the story of the Americanization of the world in the twentieth century. The topics to be explored include the role played by private philanthropy in shaping and transmitting American cultural forms, the impact of the Cold War on the diffusion of American culture in such diverse arenas as literature, visual and performing arts, movies, TV programming and science and technology.

FWIS 119 - THE BEAUTY OF THE BEAST: TELLING AND RE-TELLING THE TALE AS OLD AS TIME

Short Title: THE BEAUTY OF THE BEAST

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course examines filmic and literary adaptations of “Beauty and the Beast” from the “original” 1740 French version to the present day. It asks how the tale reflects cultural anxieties and fears and reinforces problematic representations of gender roles, toxic masculinity, and the tenuous fairy-tale conflation of goodness and beauty.

FWIS 120 - FICTION AND EMPATHY

Short Title: FICTION AND EMPATHY

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This writing-intensive course explores the possible link between reading literary fiction and empathizing with others. We'll read short stories, novel excerpts, and literary criticism in an effort to scrutinize and more deeply understand the specific elements of fiction that might provoke empathy.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 121 - TIME TRAVEL NARRATIVES: FICTION, FILM, SCIENCE

Short Title: TIME TRAVEL NARRATIVES

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: From an aesthetic perspective, time travel has existed as long as there have been stories. Narrative introduces alien temporalities, transporting listeners and readers into different temporal landscapes. This writing-intensive course investigates the historical, aesthetic, and scientific connections between the authorial and scientific co-creation of time travel.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 122 - CONVERSATIONS WITH SOCRATES

Short Title: CONVERSATIONS WITH SOCRATES

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: We will read four Platonic dialogues about the last days of Socrates. We will explore the human concerns that Socrates and his friends discuss, and analyze their arguments. We will also consider literary features, and how the dialogues can inform our understanding of reading, writing, and speaking and their value.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 123 - STAR WARS AND THE WRITING OF POPULAR CULTURE

Short Title: STAR WARS & WRITING CULTURE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course will unpack the cultural legacy of the Star Wars films through traditional literary analysis and close reading, by situating the films historically, and by considering the ways that the films reflect attitudes towards a variety of social issues, such as spirituality/religion, philosophy, race, gender, class, nationality, and imperialism.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 124 - WITNESSING THE HOLOCAUST

Short Title: WITNESSING THE HOLOCAUST

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course will examine selected testimony given by Holocaust survivors. Their testimony varies according to time and the circumstance in which it was given and also according to the genre (film, memoir, drama) in which it is presented.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 125 - YOUR ARABIAN NIGHTS

Short Title: YOUR ARABIAN NIGHTS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: The Arabian Nights is one of the best known yet poorly understood literary masterpieces. It has been passed down orally in wiring, in performance and film; in multiple languages, and with different collections of stories. What is your Arabian Nights? We will consider stories of the Nights through both a literary and historical lens, and we will consider stories, films, and works of art that were inspired by the Nights in different cultures.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 126 - ANIMAL, PLANT, MINERAL: INVESTIGATING FORMS OF LIFE

Short Title: ANIMAL, PLANT, MINERAL

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This seminar investigates the distinctions humans make between forms of life: for example, animal vs. plant vs. mineral. Students will engage critical and scholarly readings and produce a range of writing as the class interrogates these categories, the relations between them, and the porous boundaries that don’t always hold up.

FWIS 127 - KING ARTHUR IN POPULAR CULTURE: TIME TRAVEL, SPACE ALIENS, AND HOLY HAND GRENADES

Short Title: KING ARTHUR IN POPULAR CULTURE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This writing-intensive seminar examines how medieval Arthurian literature has been re-imagined within 19th, 20th, and 21st century contexts. Beginning with foundational readings from Malory’s Le Morte Darthur, we will examine and discuss how the Arthurian tradition has been translated into various mediums, including the novel, comic books, art, and film.

FWIS 128 - SPACE, SPEED, CINEMA: THE AUTOMOBILE IN AMERICAN FILM

Short Title: THE AUTOMOBILE IN U.S. FILM

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Covering movies ranging from the early 20th Century to the present day, this class asks students to think critically about what it means to depict the automobile through film and to consider how these depictions, and their meanings, might change in accordance with different historical, artistic, and political contexts.

FWIS 129 - CHINGIS KHAN AND THE EMPIRE OF THE MONGOLS

Short Title: THE EMPIRE OF THE MONGOLS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: In the thirteenth century, the Mongols conquered China, Eastern Europe and Middle East. This class explores empire building, warfare, government and steppe culture, through reading the letters and memoirs of Mongols, merchants, travelers and adventurers. The students will work closely with primary sources to develop analytical writing skills.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 130 - WRITING EVERYDAY LIFE

Short Title: WRITING EVERYDAY LIFE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course is dedicated to the poetics of everyday life. It draws from the forms and colors of what surrounds us day-to-day, from landscapes, to bodies and objects. Students develop research and writing skills through creative fieldwork assignments and workshops. This course is eligible for credit toward the major in Anthropology.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 131 - THE WAR ON DRUGS

Short Title: THE WAR ON DRUGS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course examines the rhetoric and implications of the “War on Drugs” in the U.S. and Latin America. Students analyze from different perspectives key texts that are related to policies enacted in the last fifty years to suppress illicit drug use and that have affected civil liberties and national security.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 132 - SLAVERY ON FILM

Short Title: SLAVERY ON FILM

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course will look at the ways major Hollywood (or equivalent) films have dealt with chattel slavery in the United States. We will explore the general question of how feature films deal with controversial historical issues by analyzing more specifically how Hollywood has dealt with American slavery.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 133 - WOMEN AND THE HOLOCAUST: VICTIMS AND PERPETRATORS

Short Title: WOMEN AND THE HOLOCAUST

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course will examine the Third Reich and the Holocaust from the perspective of women as perpetrators and as victims.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 134 - DEEP CUTS: MEDICINE AT THE MOVIES

Short Title: MEDICINE AT THE MOVIES

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: With a focus on mainstream and experimental cinematic treatments of medicine produced in the United States, France, and Spain, this writing-intensive seminar explores how films depict medicine’s and culture’s intersections through representations of the body, clinical practices, and healthcare institutions.

FWIS 135 - WHAT IS A BOOK? THE MATERIAL FOUNDATIONS OF READING AND WRITING

Short Title: WHAT IS A BOOK?

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course will explore the history of books and the material (both intellectual and physical) from which they are created. We will consider how the physical form of books has shaped their content and meaning and think critically about how contemporary media shape our reading, writing, and thought.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 136 - TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE IN AMERICAN HISTORY

Short Title: TECH AND CULTURE IN US HISTORY

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course examines the relationship between technology and society throughout the history of the United States. We will analyze the roles and impacts of major technological innovations within their cultural and historical contexts, while seeking to understand how these contexts shaped and were shaped by the technologies.

FWIS 137 - POP MUSIC AND AMERICAN CULTURE

Short Title: POP MUSIC & AMERICAN CULTURE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Recent cultural movements encourage a more serious exploration of popular music. This course will participate by taking a critical look at what songs mean, what songs/albums/genres express, what our interest in music expresses, and how writing about music can lead us to great insights.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 138 - WHAT IS WRITING? AN EXPLORATION OF WHEN, WHERE, WHAT, AND WHY WE WRITE

Short Title: WHAT IS WRITING?

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: What is writing? Using both fictional and non-fictional texts, this course will examine the ways in which humans convey stories to elucidate questions such as What makes writing effective? How do we convey our stories? How do we interact with the stories of others? and more.

FWIS 139 - PHOTOGRAPHY AND FILM IN MEDICINE

Short Title: PHOTOGRAPHY & FILM IN MEDICINE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Medical photographs and films are not only visual pieces of scientific documentation but also pieces of historical, social, and aesthetic significance and interpretation. The crucial tension between science and aesthetics is the focus of this writing-intensive course that explores medical images used in clinical settings and popular culture.

FWIS 140 - IMAGINING THE PAST: FILM, FICTION, AND HISTORY

Short Title: FILM, FICTION, AND HISTORY

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: In the twentieth century and beyond, movies and television serve as an important source of mythologized national narratives (or somewhat “faked news”) from war movies, to westerns, to “biopics” of figures such as Kenneth Turing. Are their patterns of distortion at work, we can identify? How do we correct them?

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 141 - TECHNOLOGIES OF TASTE

Short Title: TECHNOLOGIES OF TASTE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Does pineapple belong on pizza? Does red Gatorade taste better than blue? Many of our favorite flavors are produced and marketed by food science and the food industry. This writing-intensive seminar investigates how technologies of taste shape our palates and the ways we think and write about what we eat.

FWIS 142 - WATER AND CITIES

Short Title: WATER AND CITIES

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Investigates ancient, historical, and modern cities and how their residents received water. Questions include: how cities developed water resources, how water shaped city life, and how the environment was engineered to produce water. Students will be able to choose a city and a water topic for their final seminar project.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 143 - LEARNING TO OBSERVE THROUGH A TOUR OF THE NATURAL HISTORY OF TEXAS

Short Title: NATURAL HISTORY OF TEXAS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: In this course, students will hone their skills of observation through careful study of nature, from the geology to the birds and plants of Texas. Students will learn how to interpret and communicate these observations through writing and illustration. This course will involve several local field trips to explore the natural history of the upper Texas coast.

FWIS 144 - WRITING ABOUT GREEK DRAMA

Short Title: WRITING ABOUT GREEK DRAMA

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course introduces texts that are integral to ancient Greek culture, and core texts in the Western literary tradition. Students receive frequent regular practice at close reading, writing, and oral communication. The assigned primary texts are Aristotle's Poetics and tragedies by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides (all read in English translation).

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 145 - MUSEUMS IN WORLD HISTORY

Short Title: MUSEUMS IN WORLD HISTORY

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: What is a museum? What role do they play in the modern world? This course fosters critical thinking about how and why museums were important institutions. They emerged as sites of identity within and between local, regional, national, imperial and global networks. Globally, a diverse number of museums are at once beloved and controversial, commanding and irrelevant. These contradictions aren’t new. To address the future of museums we must understand the evolution of these institutions in their global pasts.

FWIS 146 - YOUTH ACTIVISM AND SOCIAL CHANGE

Short Title: YOUTH ACTIVISM & SOCIAL CHANGE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Young people are leading their communities, influencing policy, and shaping discourse on some of the most pressing social issues of our time. This course explores how youth become mobilized to take political action and what kind of personal and public narratives inform their efforts to bring about social change.

FWIS 147 - AMERICA THROUGH FOREIGN EYES

Short Title: AMERICA THROUGH FOREIGN EYES

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: The United States has always been a source of fascination – both attraction and repulsion – for many people around the world. The course covers the perceptions and interactions of five regions – Africa, China, France, Mexico, and Russia – with America. It offers ways to approach cross-cultural study and concludes with a segment that “reverses the gaze” by analyzing American opinions of other cultures. "America through Foreign Eyes" addresses four overarching themes: 1) democracy and modernity; 2) globalization and capitalism; 3) racism and immigration; and 4) intellectual and cultural life.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 148 - THE ART OF SPORTSWRITING

Short Title: THE ART OF SPORTSWRITING

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This class is designed to introduce students to sports writing as a vehicle for conveying complex ideas and stories, and investigating difficult issues. It is not a sports journalism course, but rather one focused on story-telling through and about sports. We will read a variety of fictional and non-fictional writing about sports as a means to learning about how to look deeply into the world and the people around us.

FWIS 149 - GRAPHIC MEDICINE

Short Title: GRAPHIC MEDICINE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Do graphic novels reflect perceptions of medicine? Can comics orient our notion of care? Formally dependent on interruption, graphic novels demonstrate the complexity of reading—reading texts, reading bodies, reading trauma. Thus, our class will grapple with disruption and healing in comics and will consider these implications for medical practice. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for FWIS 149 if student has credit for CLAS 303.

FWIS 150 - THE WORLD OF MEDIEVAL MEDICINE

Short Title: THE WORLD OF MEDIEVAL MEDICINE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: How did medieval Christians understand and treat mental and bodily illness? How did their experiences of pain, sex, childbirth, and death interact with larger concepts of God, nature, and the heavens? What role did angels and demons play? This seminar will explore these issues through close reading of medieval texts. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for FWIS 150 if student has credit for FSEM 171/MDEM 171/RELI 171.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 151 - MAKING SENSE OF OURSELVES: THE ART OF THE PERSONAL ESSAY

Short Title: MAKING SENSE OF OURSELVES

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course explores and examines the personal essay as a vehicle for discovery, critical thinking, and self-scrutiny. Students will read great essays from the past and present, write a variety of essays themselves, and analyze the form to draw larger conclusions about thoughtful and engaging writing in any genre.

FWIS 152 - NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS: REAL REMEDIES OR SHADY SCIENCE?

Short Title: THE SCIENCE OF SUPPLEMENTS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This writing-intensive seminar examines evidence for the use of nutritional supplements in promoting health. Topics include the role of vitamins, herbs and food-based supplements in medicine; the biology of illnesses such as cancer and depression; and the molecular mechanisms of supplements in disease prevention and management.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 153 - SURVEILLANCE, SECURITY, AND SOCIETY

Short Title: SURVEILLANCE, SECURITY, AND SO

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Government surveillance is widely regarded as a system of control and classification. Yet, surveillance seems to indicate a weakness in the security state. Against this backdrop, we will analyze how examples of surveillance shape and reshape cultures across the world through oral and written assignments.

FWIS 154 - THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE BORDER

Short Title: THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE BORDER

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course will explore portrayals of morality in film, literature and music produced in the US-Mexico borderlands. As we examine conflicting and converging moral codes in these cultural texts, students will use writing as a tool for exploring ideas and refining understanding.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 155 - WRITING ASIAN FOOD IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION

Short Title: WRITING ASIAN FOOD

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course exposes students to the exercise of writing about Asian food. Students engage in the activity of "converting" multi-sensory experience, i.e. eating food, into writing on the one hand and think about transnational Asian food in the context of globalizing world. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for FWIS 155 if student has credit for ASIA 205.

FWIS 156 - SPEECH AND COMMUNICATION IN HOMER

Short Title: SPEECH AND COMM IN HOMER

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Introduces students to oral tradition, oral performance, oral poetics, and the Homeric poems. We will read the Iliad and Odyssey closely, focusing on the speeches, songs, and stories performed by characters, and considering what those performances suggest about the constructive and destructive use of speech in human relationships and societies.

FWIS 157 - TRAVEL AND MODERN ASIA: LIVED EXPERIENCES ACROSS TIME AND SPACE

Short Title: TRAVEL AND MODERN ASIA

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: In this class, we will read and write about people who traveled across and beyond Asia from the fourteenth century to the twentieth century, focusing on core topics such as intercultural interactions, globalization, and modernity. In doing so, we will also challenge the common misconception that Asian societies were isolated from one another and from the rest of the world before the arrival of the Westerners in Asia in the nineteenth century.

FWIS 158 - THE HOLOCAUST IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Short Title: THE HOLOCAUST IN HISTORY

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course will examine the history of the Holocaust from early accounts to recent reconstructions of the origins, implementation, and aftermath of the “Final Solution.” We will also analyze documents, testimonies, memoirs, trial records, and various forms of representations and commemoration of the Shoah.

FWIS 159 - ROBOPSYCHOLOGY AND THE SPIRITUALITY OF THE INTERNET

Short Title: SPIRITUALITY OF THE INTERNET

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: From TikTok to Instagram, Google and ChatGPT, artificial intelligence is an inescapable aspect of everyone’s daily life. This course explores how the internet platforms they engage with in their daily lives, and the dreams of the technologists who create them, are also embedded in the history of philosophy and religion.

FWIS 160 - GLOBAL ENGLISH: DIVERSITY, DEMAND, AND DOMINANCE

Short Title: GLOBAL ENGLISH

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: In this course, students will consider how sociocultural, political, and economic factors have historically influenced decisions about language use in the context of English. In doing so, they will practice different forms of academic communication and refine skills fundamental to their success as critical thinkers, readers, and writers.

FWIS 161 - DETECTIVES & DETECTIONS

Short Title: DETECTIVES & DETECTIONS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course reads representations of struggle between detectives and those evading detection. Throughout, we will continually ask: What can “detection” teach us about the boundaries of national belonging? And how can we appropriate the lens of detection to improve our skills as academic readers and writers?

FWIS 162 - CRITICAL THINKING IN DEMOCRACY

Short Title: CRITICAL THINKING IN DEMOCRACY

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Critical thinking runs counter to inherent tendencies toward confirmation bias in decision making. In the political realm, this conflict is often exploited by governmental leaders and media to control specific outcomes. Students in this class will learn to develop their critical thinking and analytical skills in the context of a democratic society.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 163 - LOVE SICK

Short Title: LOVE SICK

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: We will explore depictions of love and sexuality as a pathology in literature, medical discourses, and popular culture. As we read about lovesick medieval knights, vampiric love affairs, pandemic love, and more, we will evaluate our contemporary assumptions about love and how concepts around love and sexuality shift over time.

FWIS 164 - WAYS OF WALKING IN LITERATURE AND CULTURE

Short Title: WAYS OF WALKING

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course explores the act of walking, in theory and in practice. Through readings, discussions, writing assignments, and group and individual walks, it examines questions about the body and its movements; the construction and navigation of space; the tradition of travel writing; and the relationship between walking and thinking.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 165 - MEDIATION, "FAKE NEWS," AND DEMOCRACY

Short Title: FAKE NEWS AND DEMOCRACY

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This writing-intensive seminar examines how and why the spread of disinformation has become increasingly more prevalent in our 21st century society and what impact it has on our democratic processes. We will take an interdisciplinary approach to discussing fake news, drawing from history, philosophy, journalism, media studies, and political science.

FWIS 166 - WHAT'S RACE GOT TO DO WITH IT?: WRITING ON IMAGES OF DIFFERENCE FROM THE MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN W

Short Title: WHAT'S RACE GOT TO DO WITH IT?

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: We will consider whether Black lives did matter in the medieval and early modern eras and how the imagery of difference was both similar to and different from that in the modern day. We will closely study medieval and early modern images of Black and African figures, among several other groups.

FWIS 167 - BOOKS YOU CAN'T PUT DOWN: AN EXPLORATION OF THE READING EXPERIENCE

Short Title: BOOKS YOU CAN'T PUT DOWN

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: What is it about certain books that draws us in and keeps us turning the page? To answer this question, this class examines selected works of fiction and creative nonfiction with a focus on literary form, the psycho-social functions of narrative, and the physical and emotional experience of reading.

FWIS 168 - CASE STUDIES OF BUILDING DESIGN PROBLEMS

Short Title: BUILDING DESIGN PROBLEMS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: We will analyze buildings that ended up in legal battles. Problems include structural failures, design blunders and near disasters. You will write about what went wrong and why, who saved that day and who should have acted differently. You will learn to write critically and present a convincing argument.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 169 - WHAT ARE HUMAN RIGHTS?

Short Title: WHAT ARE HUMAN RIGHTS?

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: We hear and talk about "human rights" frequently, but few of us have an easy time defining ideas so inherently contested and pitted against one another. This class will read, discuss, and write about the history and future of human rights in the United States and elsewhere in the world.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 170 - "WHAT IS CITIZENSHIP?"

Short Title: "WHAT IS CITIZENSHIP?"

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Paying special attention to the experiences of immigrant, indigenous, and (formerly) enslaved peoples of the United States, this seminar takes a broad approach to the examination of “citizenship,” its global contexts, and its material domains, including education, identity, labor, language, sovereignty, and suffrage.

FWIS 171 - THE DEVIL AND THE WORLD: THE IMAGE OF THE DEVIL IN WESTERN CULTURE

Short Title: THE DEVIL AND THE WORLD

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: What are the reasons for the Devil's sustained popularity in Western culture? And what are the consequences of this "popularity"? How and why did the Devil, the embodiment of pure evil, become a romantic and tragic hero? This class will tackle these and other questions regarding the image of the Devil.

FWIS 172 - SITES, SOUNDS, & STORIES: THE RHETORIC OF PUBLIC MEMORY

Short Title: RHETORIC OF PUBLIC MEMORY

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course invites students to consider whose stories we remember, and how/when/where. How does the framing of historical events bolster or disrupt dominant narratives of public memory? Students will examine scholarship on public memory and conduct analyses of the sites, sounds, and stories of national and local histories.

FWIS 173 - CONTEMPORARY LGBTQ+ LITERARY CLASSICS

Short Title: LGBTQ+ LITERARY CLASSICS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This writing-intensive course explores the new and ever-growing category of LGBTQ+ classics by reading a diverse array of novels from the 1950s to the present day that represent gay, lesbian, queer, and trans experiences, while exemplifying and challenging the idea of the literary classic. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for FWIS 173 if student has credit for FSEM 159/HIST 159.

FWIS 174 - SOUNDING THE CITY

Short Title: SOUNDING THE CITY

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Sound surrounds us. And yet we often put little thought into what role it plays in our lives and the lives of our public spaces. This course aims to correct this oversight by offering an introduction to the field of sound studies focused on Houston’s audio environment, past and present.

FWIS 175 - POLITICS AND RELIGION: THE JEWISH QUESTION

Short Title: POLITICS AND RELIGION

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Though the separation of church and state is a tenet of modern democracies, the relationship between religion and politics is more complicated than it appears. In this course, we will focus our attention on the Jewish Question as a case study for thinking about the relationship between religion and politics.

FWIS 176 - DRAMATIC PAUSES: INTRODUCTION TO EAST ASIAN PERFORMANCE STUDIES

Short Title: EAST ASIAN PERFORMANCE STUDIES

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Introduces performing arts of China, Japan, and Korea, like Noh, P'ansori, and Beijing opera, focusing on psychological and multimedia aspects. Introduces performance studies--how to think, write, and present ideas about singing, dancing, storytelling, and drama from perspectives like ritual, gender, music, choreography, costume, stage design, and literary criticism.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 177 - STORYTELLING IN BUDDHISM

Short Title: STORYTELLING IN BUDDHISM

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course explores the forms and contexts of storytelling in Buddhism, with a broad eye toward literature, visual arts, and performance. Students engage in both creative and academic writing to understand the importance of narrative in Buddhist cultures and different approaches to writing in the modern day. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for FWIS 177 if student has credit for FSEM 109.

FWIS 178 - JESUS CHRIST MOVIE STAR

Short Title: JESUS CHRIST MOVIE STAR

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This class presents a film-by-film look at several "Jesus" films as recreations and revisions of sacred texts, as reflections of religious and social history, and as responses to biblical scholarship on the subject of the historical Jesus. Writing workshops are interspersed with essential readings and film discussions. Films viewed outside class period. Student film festival outside class period. Evaluation: film journal, 4 papers, creative film short.

FWIS 179 - TRACKING DRAGONS THROUGH THE PAGES OF SHORT FICTION: THE ART OF READING CLOSELY

Short Title: SHORT FICTION

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This will be a course on expressive writing and the art of reading; on great short fiction from Kafka to O’Conner; and on those obstacles—dragons that breathe fire across our paths—that stand in the way of our content in just those ways they derail the characters we read.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 180 - INNOVATIONS IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

Short Title: INNOVATIONS IN ED TECH

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: The course will examine the role of innovative technology in students’ own education and prepare them to make informed decisions as consumers of these technologies. Topics include mobile learning, virtual and augmented reality, gamification, and artificial intelligence. By the end of this course, in addition to improved writing skills, students will have a better understanding of the latest trends in educational technology and how they are transforming education.

FWIS 181 - GRAPHIC BLACKNESS: THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMIC BOOK TRADITION

Short Title: AFRICAN AMERICAN GRAPHIC NOVEL

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course examines the struggle for black representation in comics and graphic novels. We will discuss the unique opportunities that sequential narratives present to creators as they represent race on the page and we will examine the history of black artists working in the comic book industry.

FWIS 182 - BORDER POLITICS: MIGRATIONS AND THE MEANING OF THE NATION

Short Title: BORDER POLITICS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: In the midst of a global climate and migration crisis, the safeguarding of borders has become an increasingly contentious issue worldwide. In this course we will explore the perilousness of the human condition, as experienced in the crossing of real and imaginary borders, and in the traumatic loss of homeland and self.

FWIS 183 - VIRTUAL VICTORIANS AND STEAMPUNK CULTURE

Short Title: VIRTUAL VICTORIANS & STEAMPUNK

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Replete with gears and gadgets, Steampunk comments as much on the past as on our contemporary technological moment and asks us to critically consider the human-machine relationship. This FWIS will grapple with the rise of the techno-human as we engage with 19th century and Steampunk texts and various digital projects.

FWIS 184 - THE CULTURAL IMAGINATION OF TEXAS

Short Title: CULTURAL IMAGINATION OF TEXAS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: What do we mean by Texas? How has Texas been figured in the American imagination? How are ideas of place both meaningful and limiting? In this course will look at how Texas has been portrayed in the American imagination while uncovering lesser told histories of the state.

FWIS 185 - CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN POETRY

Short Title: CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN POETRY

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This class will delve into contemporary American poetry by exploring outstanding poetry books of the previous year. Students will study American poetry in literary and historical contexts, develop ability to analyze how poems "work," develop ability to create clear, effective prose, and build framework for exploring other types of poetry.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 187 - INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN LITERATURE AND MEDIA IN ENGLISH

Short Title: INTRO TO AFRICAN LIT & MEDIA

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Intro to African Literature and Media in English explores a variety of cultural and artistic work emerging out of Africa after 1945. In this course, students will learn verbal and written communication skills, especially how to revise and edit their own academic writing. No prior knowledge of African literature is required.

FWIS 188 - INTRODUCTION TO ENGINEERING DESIGN AND COMMUNICATION

Short Title: ENG DESIGN & COMMUNICATION

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students. Enrollment limited to students in the School of Architecture or School of Engineering colleges.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Students learn the engineering design process to solve real-world problems by evaluating design requirements and constructing innovative solutions in the OEDK. Several communication assignments will be completed by individuals rather than teams. Fall limited to ENGI and NSCI students; spring open for engineering and architecture students. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for FWIS 188 if student has credit for ENGI 120.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 189 - POST-APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE AND FILM

Short Title: POST-APOCALYPTIC LIT AND FILM

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Our culture is fascinated with its own destruction. From zombies to nuclear war, ecological disasters, aliens, disease and killer machines, Armageddon takes many forms. Structured around ways in which we have imagined the world ending, this course charts the cultural consciousness of apocalypse.

FWIS 191 - THE ART OF THE SHORT STORY

Short Title: THE ART OF THE SHORT STORY

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: How exactly does the length of a piece of writing connect to its expression as a work of art and our interpretation of it? In this course, we’ll consider “shortness” as a challenge authors undertake, investigating the ways they weave complex tales into brief, often pithy, masterpieces.

FWIS 192 - THE ROARING TWENTIES

Short Title: THE ROARING TWENTIES

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: The 1920s were about new possibilities, aesthetic experimentation, and frenzied expression. We'll examine iconic '20s literature by Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Woolf, and others, as well as the linchpins of '20s culture: jazz, Prohibition, the Harlem Renaissance, and modern art. Highlights include lessons on the Charleston and a Roaring Twenties soiree.

FWIS 193 - THE RULE OF LAW AND THE PURSUIT OF JUSTICE

Short Title: LAW AND JUSTICE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Democratic societies claim to be based on the rule of law. This course examines what is required of a society that treats every individual equally regardless of a person´s status or influence. We will analyze the relationship of politics and the law in the distinct historical and national contexts of the contemporary US and post-war Germany, as well as exploring the topics of crimes, guilt, punishment and vigilante justice in selected literary texts and films.

FWIS 194 - EMPIRES

Short Title: EMPIRES

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Is the United States of America an empire? This course will examine civilizations from Ancient Rome and Han Dynasty China to the superpowers of the twentieth century in order to identify the nature and mechanisms of imperial power. It will investigate imperial literature, architecture art, dress, rituals and technology.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 195 - BEYOND THE EQUATIONS: EXPLORING PHYSICS THROUGH THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE & AFFECTED

Short Title: BEYOND THE EQUATIONS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course will dive into basic physics concepts through the biographical and historical context that resulted in their discoveries, with further exploration through current examples. The goal is to gain an understanding of where these concepts emerged, their use, and the resulting effects beyond the numbers and equations.

FWIS 196 - BUSINESS IN THE AMERICAN IMAGINATION

Short Title: BUSINESS IN LITERATURE & FILM

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: The world of business has long been a culturally rich site for national and self-reflection. As we read representations of business in literature and film, we will consider an array of allegories, motifs, and plots about the profits and pitfalls of American commerce culture.

FWIS 197 - SCIENCE, PSEUDOSCIENCE AND SKEPTICISM: HOW TO TELL GOOD SCIENCE FROM JUNK SCIENCE

Short Title: SCIENCE OR PSEUDOSCIENCE?

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This class focuses on scientific skepticism and critical thinking, and how they can be utilized to distinguish science from pseudoscience. Core topics include the fallibility of perception; mechanisms of self-deception; as well as metacognition, cognitive biases and logical fallacies. These topics will be illustrated through examples of good and bad science.

FWIS 198 - FROM CLIMATE CHANGE TO CLIMATE JUSTICE

Short Title: CLIMATE CHANGE CLIMATE JUSTICE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Climate change is not only an environmental problem but also a social, economic, and political one. In this seminar, students will learn about these elements of climate change, ask how environmental issues intersect with ideas of justice, and investigate various appearances, contexts, and critical uses of the term “climate justice.”

FWIS 199 - THE SOCIAL LIFE OF DATA

Short Title: THE SOCIAL LIFE OF DATA

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: The Social Life of Data is an introduction to the discipline of social-cultural anthropology and its engagements with data as both a topic of study and key figure animating contemporary human life. More specifically, the course interrogates how recent investments in data inform long-standing structures of social inequality.

FWIS 200 - TRANSFER CREDIT – FIRST-YEAR WRITING (FWIS)

Short Title: TRANSFER CREDIT-FWIS WRITING

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Transfer Courses

Course Type: Transfer

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: For transfer of an approved first-year writing intensive seminar. This course may not have been taken pass-fail at the transferring institution and must meet Rice University’s transfer credit requirements. Credit for this placeholder course will count towards the total credit hours required for graduation, and will be eligible to satisfy the university’s Writing and Communication Requirement. Transfer students must contact the FWIS transfer credit advisor to determine if their course will transfer. Instructor Permission Required.

FWIS 203 - WHODUNIT? INVESTIGATING TRUE CRIME AND CRIME FICTION

Short Title: TRUE CRIME AND CRIME FICTION

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: It was Colonel Mustard, in the library, with a candlestick! Crime fiction and true crime presents forensic evidence as a clue to find out: whodunit? This course examines the construction and adaptation of stories of crime, and investigates how the presentation of evidence influences our understanding of the crime.

FWIS 209 - CONTEMPORARY ART AND ENVIRONMENT

Short Title: ART AND ENVIRONMENT

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course delves into questions of environment, ecology and sustainability through the lens of contemporary art. From earthworks, to performance, to land art, activist art, and community-based practices, participants engage critically and creatively with contemporary practices. This course is eligible for credit toward the Environmental Studies minor.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 210 - JEWS ON FILM: CINEMATIC REPRESENTATIONS OF JEWISH LIFE

Short Title: JEWS ON FILM

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course will explore the modern Jewish life around the world through the medium of film. Students will be exposed to diverse Jewish communities and their cinematic representations. The course will consider modern Jewish identity through the lens of various themes including race, gender, religion, nationalism, assimilation and secularization.

FWIS 211 - THE MEANING AND IMPACT OF QUANTUM MECHANICS

Short Title: MEANING AND IMPACT OF QUANTUM

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: We will discuss many ongoing debates over the content and meaning of quantum theory. This will reveal how theories are formed, how science is done, how these impact our day-to-day culture, and the surprisingly significant role that humans play in objective science.

FWIS 215 - EXPLORING BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH CHALLENGES

Short Title: EXPLORING BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This writing-intensive course introduces students to biological research and scientific communication. Student teams work on investigative projects with opportunities to ask questions, perform experiments, collect and analyze data, and share their findings. Recommended for students interested in the Biosciences major who have limited laboratory experience.

FWIS 218 - BAD MOMS: THE RHETORIC AND REALITY OF AMERICAN MOTHERHOOD

Short Title: BAD MOMS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course examines the experiences of mothering parents who do not fit cultural and social ideals of “good motherhood” – working mothers, immigrant mothers, mothers who are single, young, absent, sick. Students will analyze cultural texts and read essays from different scholarly fields, including sociology, history, philosophy, and others.

FWIS 219 - THE BEAUTY OF THE BEAST: TELLING AND RE-TELLING THE TALE AS OLD AS TIME

Short Title: THE BEAUTY OF THE BEAST

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course examines filmic and literary adaptations of “Beauty and the Beast” from the “original” 1740 French version to the present day. It asks how the tale reflects cultural anxieties and fears and reinforces problematic representations of gender roles, toxic masculinity, and the tenuous fairy-tale conflation of goodness and beauty.

FWIS 220 - FICTION AND EMPATHY

Short Title: FICTION AND EMPATHY

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This writing-intensive course explores the possible link between reading literary fiction and empathizing with others. We'll read short stories, novel excerpts, and literary criticism in an effort to scrutinize and more deeply understand the specific elements of fiction that might provoke empathy.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 221 - TIME TRAVEL NARRATIVES: FICTION, FILM, SCIENCE

Short Title: TIME TRAVEL NARRATIVES

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: From an aesthetic perspective, time travel has existed as long as there have been stories. Narrative introduces alien temporalities, transporting listeners and readers into different temporal landscapes. This writing-intensive course investigates the historical, aesthetic, and scientific connections between the authorial and scientific co-creation of time travel.

FWIS 226 - ANIMAL, PLANT, MINERAL: INVESTIGATING FORMS OF LIFE

Short Title: ANIMAL, PLANT, MINERAL

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This seminar investigates the distinctions humans make between forms of life: for example, animal vs. plant vs. mineral. Students will engage critical and scholarly readings and produce a range of writing as the class interrogates these categories, the relations between them, and the porous boundaries that don’t always hold up.

FWIS 230 - WRITING EVERYDAY LIFE

Short Title: WRITING EVERYDAY LIFE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course is dedicated to the poetics of everyday life. It draws from the forms and colors of what surrounds us day-to-day, from landscapes, to bodies and objects. Students develop research and writing skills through creative fieldwork assignments and workshops. This course is eligible for credit toward the major in Anthropology.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 234 - DEEP CUTS: MEDICINE AT THE MOVIES

Short Title: MEDICINE AT THE MOVIES

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: With a focus on mainstream and experimental cinematic treatments of medicine produced in the United States, France, and Spain, this writing-intensive seminar explores how films depict medicine’s and culture’s intersections through representations of the body, clinical practices, and healthcare institutions.

FWIS 237 - POP MUSIC AND AMERICAN CULTURE

Short Title: POP MUSIC & AMERICAN CULTURE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Recent cultural movements encourage a more serious exploration of popular music. This course will participate by taking a critical look at what songs mean, what songs/albums/genres express, what our interest in music expresses, and how writing about music can lead us to great insights.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 240 - IMAGINING THE PAST: FILM, FICTION, AND HISTORY

Short Title: FILM, FICTION, AND HISTORY

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: In the twentieth century and beyond, movies and television serve as an important source of mythologized national narratives (or somewhat “faked news”) from war movies, to westerns, to “biopics” of figures such as Kenneth Turing. Are their patterns of distortion at work, we can identify? How do we correct them?

FWIS 241 - TECHNOLOGIES OF TASTE

Short Title: TECHNOLOGIES OF TASTE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Does pineapple belong on pizza? Does red Gatorade taste better than blue? Many of our favorite flavors are produced and marketed by food science and the food industry. This writing-intensive seminar investigates how technologies of taste shape our palates and the ways we think and write about what we eat.

FWIS 243 - LEARNING TO OBSERVE THROUGH A TOUR OF THE NATURAL HISTORY OF TEXAS

Short Title: NATURAL HISTORY OF TEXAS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: In this course, students will hone their skills of observation through careful study of nature, from the geology to the birds and plants of Texas. Students will learn how to interpret and communicate these observations through writing and illustration. This course will involve several local field trips to explore the natural history of the upper Texas coast.

FWIS 248 - THE ART OF SPORTSWRITING

Short Title: THE ART OF SPORTSWRITING

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This class is designed to introduce students to sports writing as a vehicle for conveying complex ideas and stories, and investigating difficult issues. It is not a sports journalism course, but rather one focused on story-telling through and about sports. We will read a variety of fictional and non-fictional writing about sports as a means to learning about how to look deeply into the world and the people around us.

FWIS 251 - MAKING SENSE OF OURSELVES: THE ART OF THE PERSONAL ESSAY

Short Title: MAKING SENSE OF OURSELVES

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course explores and examines the personal essay as a vehicle for discovery, critical thinking, and self-scrutiny. Students will read great essays from the past and present, write a variety of essays themselves, and analyze the form to draw larger conclusions about thoughtful and engaging writing in any genre.

FWIS 252 - NUTRITIONAL SUPPLEMENTS: REAL REMEDIES OR SHADY SCIENCE?

Short Title: THE SCIENCE OF SUPPLEMENTS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This writing-intensive seminar examines evidence for the use of nutritional supplements in promoting health. Topics include the role of vitamins, herbs and food-based supplements in medicine; the biology of illnesses such as cancer and depression; and the molecular mechanisms of supplements in disease prevention and management.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 253 - SURVEILLANCE, SECURITY, AND SOCIETY

Short Title: SURVEILLANCE, SECURITY, AND SO

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Government surveillance is widely regarded as a system of control and classification. Yet, surveillance seems to indicate a weakness in the security state. Against this backdrop, we will analyze how examples of surveillance shape and reshape cultures across the world through oral and written assignments.

FWIS 254 - THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE BORDER

Short Title: THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE BORDER

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course will explore portrayals of morality in film, literature and music produced in the US-Mexico borderlands. As we examine conflicting and converging moral codes in these cultural texts, students will use writing as a tool for exploring ideas and refining understanding.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 255 - WRITING ASIAN FOOD IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION

Short Title: WRITING ASIAN FOOD

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course exposes students to the exercise of writing about Asian food. Students engage in the activity of "converting" multi-sensory experience, i.e. eating food, into writing on the one hand and think about transnational Asian food in the context of globalizing world. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for FWIS 255 if student has credit for ASIA 205.

FWIS 257 - TRAVEL AND MODERN ASIA: LIVED EXPERIENCES ACROSS TIME AND SPACE

Short Title: TRAVEL AND MODERN ASIA

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: In this class, we will read and write about people who traveled across and beyond Asia from the fourteenth century to the twentieth century, focusing on core topics such as intercultural interactions, globalization, and modernity. In doing so, we will also challenge the common misconception that Asian societies were isolated from one another and from the rest of the world before the arrival of the Westerners in Asia in the nineteenth century.

FWIS 260 - GLOBAL ENGLISH: DIVERSITY, DEMAND, AND DOMINANCE

Short Title: GLOBAL ENGLISH

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: In this course, students will consider how sociocultural, political, and economic factors have historically influenced decisions about language use in the context of English. In doing so, they will practice different forms of academic communication and refine skills fundamental to their success as critical thinkers, readers, and writers.

FWIS 263 - SEX, DEATH, AND SPIRITUAL WRITING

Short Title: SEX, DEATH, & SPIRITUAL WRITIN

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: In this course we will look at the ways in which a variety of historical and contemporary “spiritual but not religious” texts grapple with sexuality, mortality, race, gender, class, and politics. This course will foreground discussion and reflection, and students will write weekly discussion posts on canvas, in addition to the three major papers and a group presentation.

FWIS 267 - BOOKS YOU CAN'T PUT DOWN: AN EXPLORATION OF THE READING EXPERIENCE

Short Title: BOOKS YOU CAN'T PUT DOWN

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: What is it about certain books that draws us in and keeps us turning the page? To answer this question, this class examines selected works of fiction and creative nonfiction with a focus on literary form, the psycho-social functions of narrative, and the physical and emotional experience of reading.

FWIS 273 - CONTEMPORARY LGBTQ+ LITERARY CLASSICS

Short Title: LGBTQ+ LITERARY CLASSICS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This writing-intensive course explores the new and ever-growing category of LGBTQ+ classics by reading a diverse array of novels from the 1950s to the present day that represent gay, lesbian, queer, and trans experiences, while exemplifying and challenging the idea of the literary classic.

FWIS 274 - SOUNDING THE CITY

Short Title: SOUNDING THE CITY

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Sound surrounds us. And yet we often put little thought into what role it plays in our lives and the lives of our public spaces. This course aims to correct this oversight by offering an introduction to the field of sound studies focused on Houston’s audio environment, past and present.

FWIS 277 - STORYTELLING IN BUDDHISM

Short Title: STORYTELLING IN BUDDHISM

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course explores the forms and contexts of storytelling in Buddhism, with a broad eye toward literature, visual arts, and performance. Students engage in both creative and academic writing to understand the importance of narrative in Buddhist cultures and different approaches to writing in the modern day.

FWIS 280 - INNOVATIONS IN EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

Short Title: INNOVATIONS IN ED TECH

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: The course will examine the role of innovative technology in students’ own education and prepare them to make informed decisions as consumers of these technologies. Topics include mobile learning, virtual and augmented reality, gamification, and artificial intelligence. By the end of this course, in addition to improved writing skills, students will have a better understanding of the latest trends in educational technology and how they are transforming education.

FWIS 281 - GRAPHIC BLACKNESS: THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMIC BOOK TRADITION

Short Title: AFRICAN AMERICAN GRAPHIC NOVEL

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course examines the struggle for black representation in comics and graphic novels. We will discuss the unique opportunities that sequential narratives present to creators as they represent race on the page and we will examine the history of black artists working in the comic book industry.

FWIS 282 - BORDER POLITICS: MIGRATIONS AND THE MEANING OF THE NATION

Short Title: BORDER POLITICS

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: In the midst of a global climate and migration crisis, the safeguarding of borders has become an increasingly contentious issue worldwide. In this course we will explore the perilousness of the human condition, as experienced in the crossing of real and imaginary borders, and in the traumatic loss of homeland and self.

FWIS 286 - MINORITIES AND SUBCULTURES IN EAST ASIA

Short Title: MINORITIES AND SUBCULTURES

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course challenges the myth of homogeneity in the understanding of East Asian societies by examining the experience of a variety of minority groups in terms of ethnicity, gender, religion, class, occupation, as well as physical and mental conditions.

FWIS 288 - INTRODUCTION TO ENGINEERING DESIGN AND COMMUNICATION

Short Title: ENG DESIGN & COMMUNICATION

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students. Enrollment limited to students in the School of Architecture or School of Engineering colleges.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Students learn the engineering design process to solve real-world problems by evaluating design requirements and constructing innovative solutions in the OEDK. Several communication assignments will be completed by individuals rather than teams. Fall limited to ENGI and NSCI students; spring open for engineering and architecture students.

Course URL: pwc.rice.edu/

FWIS 290 - BLACK CONTEMPORARY ART

Short Title: BLACK CONTEMPORARY ART

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course introduces students to the field black contemporary art. How is a new generation of black art making shaping the way we think about race, gender, sexuality, and disability? How have expressions of self-representation changed over the decades and how do we begin to understand the political stakes of who is seen, who is overseen, and who is made invisible?

FWIS 291 - THE ART OF THE SHORT STORY

Short Title: THE ART OF THE SHORT STORY

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: How exactly does the length of a piece of writing connect to its expression as a work of art and our interpretation of it? In this course, we’ll consider “shortness” as a challenge authors undertake, investigating the ways they weave complex tales into brief, often pithy, masterpieces.

FWIS 292 - THE ROARING TWENTIES

Short Title: THE ROARING TWENTIES

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: The 1920s were about new possibilities, aesthetic experimentation, and frenzied expression. We'll examine iconic '20s literature by Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Woolf, and others, as well as the linchpins of '20s culture: jazz, Prohibition, the Harlem Renaissance, and modern art. Highlights include lessons on the Charleston and a Roaring Twenties soiree.

FWIS 293 - THE RULE OF LAW AND THE PURSUIT OF JUSTICE

Short Title: LAW AND JUSTICE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Democratic societies claim to be based on the rule of law. This course examines what is required of a society that treats every individual equally regardless of a person´s status or influence. We will analyze the relationship of politics and the law in the distinct historical and national contexts of the contemporary US and post-war Germany, as well as exploring the topics of crimes, guilt, punishment and vigilante justice in selected literary texts and films.

FWIS 296 - BUSINESS IN THE AMERICAN IMAGINATION

Short Title: BUSINESS IN LITERATURE & FILM

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: The world of business has long been a culturally rich site for national and self-reflection. As we read representations of business in literature and film, we will consider an array of allegories, motifs, and plots about the profits and pitfalls of American commerce culture.

FWIS 297 - SCIENCE, PSEUDOSCIENCE AND SKEPTICISM: HOW TO TELL GOOD SCIENCE FROM JUNK SCIENCE

Short Title: SCIENCE OR PSEUDOSCIENCE?

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This class focuses on scientific skepticism and critical thinking, and how they can be utilized to distinguish science from pseudoscience. Core topics include the fallibility of perception; mechanisms of self-deception; as well as metacognition, cognitive biases and logical fallacies. These topics will be illustrated through examples of good and bad science.

FWIS 298 - FROM CLIMATE CHANGE TO CLIMATE JUSTICE

Short Title: CLIMATE CHANGE CLIMATE JUSTICE

Department: First-Year Writing Intensive

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Climate change is not only an environmental problem but also a social, economic, and political one. In this seminar, students will learn about these elements of climate change, ask how environmental issues intersect with ideas of justice, and investigate various appearances, contexts, and critical uses of the term “climate justice.”

University Courses (UNIV)

UNIV 105 - SCHOLARLY APPROACHES TO SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

Short Title: SCHOLARLY APPROACHES TO S&E

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Intensive Learning Experience

Credit Hours: 2

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: A six-week, academically intensive, pre-college program for pre-matriculating students who intend to major in science or engineering. The program includes coursework in Calculus, Chemistry, and Physics, with a focus on the most challenging topics from the freshman curricula; daily homework and group-work; and complementary seminars on design, bioscience research, and discrete math. Department Permission Required.

UNIV 106 - RISE

Short Title: RISE

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 0

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Designed for incoming students with expressed interests in the Humanities, Social Sciences, this course uses scholarship on Houston to explore particular issues of race, place, and power in the city, and the relationship between university life and urban life.

UNIV 110 - FOUNDATIONS FOR SELF-DISCOVERY AND LIFELONG LEARNING

Short Title: FIRST YEAR FOUNDATIONS

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 2

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course is designed to provide new students with the knowledge and tools to succeed at Rice. Combining classroom discussion, information from campus departments, self-assessments and reflections, and other interactive activities, this class will focus on key issues new students will encounter when transitioning to college. This course is limited to first-year students only.

UNIV 180 - INTRODUCTION TO RICE FOR NEW INTERNATIONAL UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

Short Title: INTRO TO RICE - INTERNATIONALS

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hour: 1

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Survey course of themes geared for new undergraduate international students to the USA and Rice. Adjustment and acculturation topics include Rice culture, US culture and academic success.

UNIV 181 - ACADEMIC ENGLISH SKILLS FOR VISITING STUDENTS

Short Title: ENGLISH FOR VISITING STUDENTS

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course reviews the written and oral English skills needed by visiting international students to succeed in upper-division courses at Rice. Students will learn to express ideas effectively in individual and group conversations; to give academic presentations; to critique, report, and interpret research findings in writing; and to become better self-editors of their writing. Instructor Permission Required.

UNIV 194 - CTIS WORKSHOP

Short Title: CTIS WORKSHOP

Department: Dean of Undergraduates

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 0

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: CTIS Workshop will draw from a public health model of violence prevention to teach Freshman and transfer students the dynamics of domestic and sexual violence, consent and bystander intervention. Students will understand the impacts of healthy relationships and consent, as well as successful models shown to increase gender equality, healthy sexual communication and empathy. This course is only available to first time matriculants.

UNIV 195 - CRITICAL DIALOGUES ON DIVERSITY

Short Title: CDOD WORKSHOP

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 0

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: The university’s remarkable diversity enlivens and enriches all of its core missions. Such gains, though, are not all to be gotten passively. This five-week, discussion-based orientation course explores critical approaches to culture, identity, and dialogue fundamental to living and working at the university, and essential for taking full advantage of a Rice education.

UNIV 201 - RESEARCH READINESS: INTRODUCTION TO UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH

Short Title: RESEARCH READINESS

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hour: 1

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course is designed for students who have not been exposed to research and would like to learn about how to explore research at the university and beyond. Learn about academic research in all disciplines, prepare for research opportunities, and improve your eligibility for undergraduate research awards. This course is a prerequisite for two Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry programs for students from under-resourced backgrounds without prior research experience: Sustaining Excellence in Research (SER) Scholars and Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF).

UNIV 212 - PROFESSIONOWL PROGRAM - CAREER AND LIFE OPTIONS

Short Title: PROFESSIONOWL PROGRAM

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hour: 1

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: The ProfessionOwlProgram (POP) is designed to help you learn more about yourself, careers, professional communication skills and more. This class is intended for students who are exploring careers and academic majors. Students will learn about career options that match their interests, personality, and values; become more familiar with the world of work and various career options; understand the connections between careers and major choice; learn about services that will enhance their marketability and academic experiences (internships, study abroad programs, scholarships/grants); and develop an action plan to reach their goals. This course welcomes students who aren’t sure what they want to do after graduation, as well as students who have already identified potential career interests. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for UNIV 212 if student has credit for HUMA 212. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for UNIV 212 if student has credit for HUMA 212.

UNIV 220 - PEER ACADEMIC ADVISING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Short Title: PAA PROF DEVELOPMENT

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hour: 1

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Designed for members of the Peer Academic Advising (PAA) program. Students in this course will learn about best practices in advising and see that being a peer advisor is more than just recommending classes to fellow students. The course is meant to help PAAs think differently and more critically about their roles as peer advisors, as well as to discuss the power PAAs have in helping create positive change on campus and in the experiences of individual students. Instructor Permission Required.

UNIV 235 - APPLIED LEADERSHIP AND ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Short Title: APPLIED LEADERSHIP

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hour: 1

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Designed with an emphasis on critical thinking, this class will assist O-Week Coordinators in the critique, design, development and execution of a comprehensive orientation and new student transition program for freshmen and transfer students. Due to Rice’s unique orientation structure, special attention will be placed on the importance of providing leadership to teams, as well as working successfully in a team environment to allow students to best function in their role as O-Week Coordinator this semester. Instructor Permission Required. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for UNIV 235 if student has credit for COLL 199.

UNIV 238 - SPECIAL TOPICS

Short Title: SPECIAL TOPICS

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Internship/Practicum, Laboratory, Lecture, Seminar, Independent Study

Credit Hours: 1-4

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Topics and credit hours may vary each semester. Contact department for current semester’s topic(s). Repeatable for Credit.

UNIV 250 - RICE HEALTH ADVISORS

Short Title: RICE HEALTH ADVISORS

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: This course is designed to introduce students to the principles of peer health education. Students will assess their own personal health status as well as major health risks among their peers. They will learn effective strategies for reducing these risks and promoting healthy lifestyles to college students. Enrollment is restricted, students must be in good academic and judicial standing and complete an application. This course is a pre-requisite to becoming a Rice Health Advisor. Instructor Permission Required.

UNIV 295 - EXPLORING CAREERS THROUGH AN INTERNSHIP

Short Title: CAREERS THRU INTERNSHIP

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Internship/Practicum

Credit Hour: 1

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Designed for currently enrolled undergraduate students from all areas of study to gain experience in a work place setting, earn course credit, and further develop professional skills. Students meet individually with a CCD team member to process their experience and complete an action plan to market their qualifications to potential employers and graduate schools. Students arrange internship and receive approval from the course instructor(s). Instructor Permission Required. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for UNIV 295 if student has credit for HUMA 295. Repeatable for Credit.

UNIV 299 - SCIENTIA: LECTURES IN SCIENCE AND CULTURE

Short Title: SCIENTIA SCIENCE & CULTURE

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hour: 1

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Lower-Level

Description: Annual lecture series, panel discussions and discussion talks on topics bridging science, culture and art. 4 lectures plus 2 discussion talks. Lectures are on specified dates, usually Tuesdays. Discussion talks scheduled at semester beginning. Topics vary year to year. Repeatable for Credit.

UNIV 301 - UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH

Short Title: UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Research

Credit Hours: 0

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: This zero credit course enables students to have supervised research experience on and off campus recorded on their transcript. Students must register the name and contact of their PI in the UNIV 301 OWL-Space site by the end of the second week of classes or drop the class. Repeatable for Credit.

UNIV 304 - RESEARCH ETHICS IN THE COMMUNITY

Short Title: RESEARCH ETHICS

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hour: 1

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: This class introduces students to a range of ethical issues that arise in community-based participatory research. Drawing on literature review and case studies, the class brings together students who will carry out CBR projects abroad on a Loewenstern Fellowship. We will also focus on cultural communication and how the international landscape influences the role of the researcher.

UNIV 310 - RICE LEGAL LAB

Short Title: RICE LEGAL LAB

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 2

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: This course provides hands-on exposure to the practical legal environment, including legal research, legal writing, and Texas court processes, with optional work placing the Texas legal environment into an international comparative context. Instructor Permission Required. Repeatable for Credit.

UNIV 311 - JUDICIAL INTERNSHIP - RICE LEGAL LAB

Short Title: RICE LEGAL LAB

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Internship/Practicum

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Students will serve judicial internships with Texas state or federal judges; required travel component over spring break, with associated costs and lab fee. Instructor Permission Required. Repeatable for Credit.

UNIV 313 - INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH ABROAD

Short Title: INTRO TO RESEARCH ABROAD

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hour: 1

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: This course is designed to help undergraduate students develop skills to design, refine, and carry out an individual research project in an international context. This is a preparatory course for students who plan to apply for international scholarships such as Fulbright, Thinkswiss, Wagoner, DAAD or for students who will design an international research project as part of their study abroad program or their honors thesis.

UNIV 320 - ADVANCED ACADEMIC ADVISING PRACTICUM

Short Title: ADVANCED ADVISING PRACTICUM

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Internship/Practicum

Credit Hour: 1

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Designed for current members of the PAA program. This course will focus on individually designed and faculty guided action plans. Students will design plans that enhance the role, effectiveness, and/or educational breadth and depth of academic advising at the individual, college, or university level. Instructor Permission Required. Repeatable for Credit.

UNIV 321 - ADVANCED ACADEMIC FELLOWS/MENTORS PRACTICUM

Short Title: ADV FELLOWS/MENTORS PRACTICUM

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Internship/Practicum

Credit Hour: 1

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Designed for current members of the Academic Fellows/Mentors program. This course will focus on individually designed and faculty guided action plans. Students will design plans that enhance the role and effectiveness of the academic support provided by Fellow/Mentors at the individual, college, or university level. Instructor Permission Required. Repeatable for Credit.

UNIV 330 - MEDICAL EXPLORATION AND OBSERVERSHIP

Short Title: MEDICAL EXPLORATION

Department: Dean of Undergraduates

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory

Credit Hours: 2

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Please do not register for this course if you have not been approved to take UNIV 330. To be considered for UNIV 330, register for the placeholder course, UNIV 003 Preregistration for UNIV 330. The UNIV 330 course is designed for currently enrolled undergraduate students to gain exposure to the medical setting and develop professional skills, while earning course credit. The purpose is to allow you to explore careers in the health professions through exposure to medical shadowing and the healthcare industry. To be considered for UNIV 330, students must register for UNIV 003 and fill out the UNIV 330 course application by 10:00am on Friday, November 17th. Here is the course application: https://forms.gle/Vn1VghGUaKsJFbvD9. Instructor Permission Required.

UNIV 395 - RICE SCHOLARS ABROAD PREDEPARTURE

Short Title: RICE SCHOLARS ABROAD PREDEPART

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hour: 1

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: This class is for students completing a Rice Scholars Abroad research project. It requires acceptance into that program and permission of the instructor. Instructor Permission Required. Repeatable for Credit.

UNIV 399 - RICE SCHOLARS ABROAD DIRECTED RESEARCH

Short Title: RICE SCHLARS ABROAD DIR RES

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Research

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: This class is for students participating in the Rice Scholars Abroad program and is to be completed before the student goes abroad. Acceptance into that program and permission of the instructor are required. Instructor Permission Required. Repeatable for Credit.

UNIV 400 - STUDENT AFFAIRS INTERNSHIP

Short Title: STUDENT AFFAIRS INTERNSHIP

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Internship/Practicum

Credit Hours: 1-6

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Repeatable for Credit.

UNIV 401 - INDEPENDENT STUDY: INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION SURVEY

Short Title: IND STUDY: INTERNATIONAL ED

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Independent Study

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: The independent study is intended for upper classmen who are considering working in the field of international education. Individualized meetings with the instructor and personalized coursework investigate ways to bridge current theoretical research in the field of international education with real-life practicalities in international education offices. Instructor Permission Required. Repeatable for Credit.

UNIV 420 - PRE-DEPARTURE STUDY ABROAD SEMINAR

Short Title: PRE-DEPARTURE STUDY ABR SEM

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hour: 1

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: This seminar provides a cultural introduction to study abroad students to help them maximize their international experience and engagement with host cultures. Students will acquire an introductory understanding of the prominent concepts in global citizenship, ethics, and responsibilities while abroad. The course will also introduce students to international research opportunities. Students may additional times outside the original posted time listed during the 2nd Half of Full Semester.

UNIV 477 - SPECIAL TOPICS

Short Title: SPECIAL TOPICS

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory, Internship/Practicum, Laboratory, Lecture, Seminar, Independent Study

Credit Hours: 1-4

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Undergraduate, Undergraduate Professional or Visiting Undergraduate level students.

Course Level: Undergraduate Upper-Level

Description: Topics and credit hours may vary each semester. Contact department for current semester's topic(s). Repeatable for Credit.

UNIV 500 - PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE COLLEGE TEACHING

Short Title: PRINCIPLES EFFECTIVE TEACHING

Department: Center for Teaching Excellence

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.

Course Level: Graduate

Description: This course provides an overview of essential, research-based methods used by college instructors to enhance the quality of student learning. Topics will include course and syllabus design, student engagement, classroom management, and more. This course will culminate with the development of a syllabus and a statement of teaching philosophy.

UNIV 501 - RESEARCH ON TEACHING AND LEARNING

Short Title: RESEARCH TEACHING & LEARNING

Department: Center for Teaching Excellence

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Research

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.

Course Level: Graduate

Description: This course explores scholarship on teaching and learning in detail with special attention to the breadth of approaches and methodologies. The culminating project will be a literature review in an area of interest.

UNIV 502 - PRACTICUM IN COLLEGE TEACHING

Short Title: PRACTICUM IN COLLEGE TEACHING

Department: Center for Teaching Excellence

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Internship/Practicum

Credit Hours: 3

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.

Course Level: Graduate

Prerequisite(s): UNIV 500 and UNIV 501

Description: This practicum allows students to design and deliver teaching demonstrations and to receive feedback on their work. The course will also focus on the place of teaching in the broader landscapes of higher education and the academic job market. Because of the highly practical and interactive nature of the course, students will be asked attend all classes. In order to develop a schedule of teaching demonstrations, we ask that students register for UNIV 502 two weeks before the start of the semester.

UNIV 555 - INTER-INSTITUTIONAL TRANSFER COURSE

Short Title: INTER-INSTITUTIONAL TRANSFER

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Transfer Courses

Course Type: Transfer

Credit Hours: 1-6

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.

Course Level: Graduate

Description: This course is used when a Rice student transfers coursework taken through the inter-institutional program at UH, BCM, UTHSC, TAMHSC, UTMB-Galveston. The transfer course will carry the title of the course at the respective university. Department Permission Required. Repeatable for Credit.

UNIV 594 - RESPONSIBLE CONDUCT OF RESEARCH

Short Title: RESPONSIBLE CONDUCT - RESEARCH

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory

Course Type: Seminar

Credit Hour: 1

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.

Course Level: Graduate

Description: Responsible conduct of research (RCR) is defined as the practice of scientific investigation with integrity. It involves the awareness and application of established professional norms and ethical principles in the performance of all activities related to scientific research. (Formerly BIOC/BIOE 594)

UNIV 599 - TEACHING PORTFOLIO

Short Title: TEACHING PORTFOLIO

Department: Center for Teaching Excellence

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Independent Study

Credit Hours: 2

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Graduate level students.

Course Level: Graduate

Prerequisite(s): UNIV 500 and UNIV 501 and UNIV 502 (may be taken concurrently)

Description: This independent study serves as a capstone to the UNIV sequence on teaching and learning. Students will meet individually with the instructor to plan and complete a teaching portfolio.

UNIV 677 - SPECIAL TOPICS

Short Title: SPECIAL TOPICS

Department: University Courses

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Internship/Practicum, Laboratory, Lecture, Seminar, Independent Study

Credit Hours: 1-4

Restrictions: Enrollment is limited to Graduate or Visiting Graduate level students.

Course Level: Graduate

Description: Topics and credit hours vary each semester. Contact department for current semester's topic(s). Repeatable for Credit.

Description and Code Legend

Note: Internally the university uses the following descriptions, codes, and abbreviations for this academic program. The following is a quick reference:

Course Catalog/Schedule 

  • Course offerings/subject codes: COMM, FWIS, UNIV