First-Year Writing Seminar (101-8-21)

Topic

Living in Apocalyptic Times

Instructors

Robert Orsi
847 4675175
Crowe Hall, 1860 Campus Drive, 4-141
Office Hours: Fridays 9:00-11:30 (Winter 2027)

Meeting Info

Shepard Hall Classroom B05: Mon, Wed 11:00AM - 12:20PM

Overview of class

References to the end of time—to the end of the times we live in and to the end of time itself—have become so ubiquitous nowadays and so casual as to be almost banal. Yet they point towards something real. Suddenly, we are living in the subjunctive. Allusions to the future are hedged with contingency and uncertainty.

The question for this course is not how ought people live in this time, but how are they living. How are humans in their relations with each other and with non-humans making their way through a such a deeply disturbing and dangerous period in human history, when the horizon of the future itself seems to be vanishing? How does living in this time shape decisions? What becomes of memory and hope? How are humans to live responsibly and lovingly in this context?

We ask these questions in relation to the climate crisis; the development of AI; the decline of democracies and rise of religious authoritarianism around the globe, and other challenges. At the very end of the course, we will think critically and deeply about the possibilities for hope.

As a course in the humanities, we will be concerned with the questions traditionally taken up by the disciplines organized under this heading. How do we read in this time? How do we create? What becomes of the human imagination when the horizon of the future is so clouded?

Learning Objectives

Critical reading and thinking, discussion skills, writing.

Teaching Method

Class Attributes

WCAS Writing Seminar

Enrollment Requirements

Enrollment Requirements: Weinberg First Year Seminars are only available to first-year students.
Add Consent: Department Consent Required