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First-Year Writing Seminar (101-8-1)

Topic

Race Terror: Sociolegal Readings of Race Horror Fi

Instructors

Jesse Yeh
620 Lincoln Street
Jesse Yeh (he /they) I am an Assistant Professor of Instruction at the Center for Legal Studies. I am a political sociologist with a focus on race and immigration, law and crime, gender and sexuality, and movements and politics. My current book project Crime Is Other People: Punitive Consciousness and the Racial Politics of Law-and-Order explores how liberal and conservative activists make sense of law-and-order politics. I teach courses on research methods, immigration, and race, law, and politics.

Meeting Info

Annenberg Hall G28: Mon, Wed 9:30AM - 10:50AM

Overview of class

Monsters, boogeymen, zombies, and ghosts. Horror films are often spaces for us as a culture to work through what terrifies us in the real world. In the US, this can rarely be separated from race. From the monstrous racial other to the racial violence inflicted upon Americans of color, this First-Year Writing Seminar explores race in American society through the lens of horror films. In this class, we will read legal and social scientific writings on the construction and maintenance of race and racial subordination; we will analyze how films engage with racial meanings through dialogues, images, and plots; and we will develop our ability to produce evidence-based academic writings.

Learning Objectives

The primary objectives for this First-Year Writing Seminar are for you to develop your ability to:
1) Pose your own questions about the legal and social significance of race in the United States that are relevant and appropriately-scoped;
2) locate and evaluate the relevance and reliability of different type of sources in answering your own questions;
3) utilize and integrate evidence to support your claims;
4) construct well-structured arguments; and
5) deploy language in ways that are appropriate and persuasive for your intended audience.

Teaching Method

Seminar Discussion with some lecture.

Evaluation Method

Active Participation, Short Assignments, and Term Papers.

Class Materials (Required)

Readings for this course will be posted on Canvas.

Class Attributes

WCAS Writing Seminar