SOPHOMORE SEMINAR

Course Description

The Writing & Literature Colloquium Seminar offers students an opportunity to discuss the presentations from the Writing & Literature Colloquium. The seminar provides a space for students to engage in reflective learning. Students will be invited to consider what it means to practice and/or study writing and/or literature. Students will explore the questions: How are writing and literature represented on UCSB campus? What kind of work is done in the broader disciplines of writing and literature? How do my own interests in writing and/or literature fit into the campus environment? How might my own work benefit from the resources in writing and/or literature available on campus? What new ideas or opportunities in writing and/or literature does the campus offer that I might explore?

Students will also prepare their Portfolios for the Mid-Residency Review, which takes place during the Winter Quarter of their Sophomore Year. The Mid-Residency Review includes a review of the student’s overall work towards their degree, a review of their Writing & Literature portfolio, and a review of their Senior Portfolio Proposal, in which they pitch their vision of the work they would like to undertake for their Senior Portfolio. In the Sophomore Seminar, students will refine their Writing & Literature portfolio and draft the Senior Portfolio Proposal.

In order to make our discussion of texts engaging, while also largely asynchronous, we are going to use Perusall. It is a group book/pdf annotation software that I have used in the past to enhance online class discussion of our texts. Instead of doing a GauchoSpace post about a book and having a student or two reply to it, the whole class engages in conversations about the text by directly commenting on the text. Also, the digital books are affordable, only $10 per book (and only two books). Everything else about Perusall is free for you to use, including downloading it. Instructions for using Perusall will be on the course GauchoSpace.

Required Text

Tracy K Smith, The Body’s Question Macmillan Trade
Leslie Jamison, The Empathy Exams Macmillan Trade

Get these from Perusall.