First-Year Writing Seminar Course Descriptions

This course introduces students to the critical links between food and health, disease, and socioeconomic development. Through critical reading, writing, and research, students will explore global food trends and their relationship with communicable and noncommunicable diseases, maternal and child health, health disparities, and social determinants of health for select countries. Topics will also address food access, food security, and global health interventions addressing nutrition and nutrition-associated diseases. Students will integrate content from HIST 145 to gain a thorough understanding of historic and contemporary influences on how we view and approach food today.

Professor: Tanu Altomare 

LinC 101 A is an Integrated Learning Community Course. As such, all students in LinC 101 A will also be taking HIST 145: Nutrition and Race in the Americas. Both courses will focus on culture and identity formation of Latinos in the US, by asking students not only to become aware of the contributions of the Latino population to the US but also to reflect on students’ experiences across cultures to assess their attitudes, feelings, perceptions, and reactions. 

HIST 145: Nutrition and Race in the Americas (LinC M4) 

This course explores food by focusing on the role science of nutrition and public health policies have had in the Americas since the nineteenth century. Food and nutrition policies became the cornerstone of a healthy and productive workforce, and therefore central to the process of nation-state formation and modernization. Health and nutrition experts targeted women and the poor in their campaigns to transform daily habits. Throughout the semester, we study basic the meaning of food for different societies and what cooking and eating practices can tell us about race, class, gender, power, colonialism, and identity. Due to the relevance of food in our lives, this class will also ask students to reflect upon their own eating habits and looking at their family history from the perspective of food.  

Professor: Sandra Aguilar Rodriguez   

The practice of healing has taken many forms over history and, in many cultures, its separation from religion and magic is rather blurry. Through critical reading, writing, and research, this course explores the role of experts in healing and ritual across various cultures and time periods,with close attention to the ways that healing and religious expertise have been drawn together or distinguished in various forms of practice. We will consider healers such as the attendants of the sanctuary of the Greek healing god Asclepius, where remedies were dispensed through dreams, and herbalists who served women’s health needs who were deemed witches. We will pay close attention to how expertise and titles are conferred, noting who are called healers, saints, and miracle workers, and who are called charlatans, witches, and quacks, and ask: how have societies assessed healers and forms of healing, deeming some legitimate and therefore mainstream, and others fringe? 

Professor: Brigidda Bell

LinC 101 B is an Integrated Learning Community Course. As such, all students in LinC 101 B will also be taking HLTR 185: Introduction to Health Professions. Both courses will engage with the concept of expertise of healing professionals, but each in a different context and with a different disciplinary framework. 

HLTR 185: Introduction to Health Professions 

Students are introduced to various health professions and the knowledge base, skills, and abilities necessary for success in healthcare. This course examines healthcare from multiple perspectives including healthcare ethics, cultural competence, and social disparities in healthcare access. Students are asked to reflect on their roles as future healthcare providers in addressing current issues facing national healthcare. The course reflects key introductory themes in health professions education which will be developed in more depth in subsequent courses within the Health Sciences program. 

Professor: Colin Tomes  

In this course, students will explore the history of Black protest in modern US history. We will begin by taking a close look at the various issues Black Lives Matter activists raise today. Students will then select one contemporary issue and research its history. What are the historical causes of the problem activists currently protest? How have Black people attempted to address this issue in the past? What obstacles have they faced? Students will author essays in which they present their research findings. They will also produce videos that present the historical research they have conducted.

Professor: Jane Berger

LinC 101 C is an Integrated Learning Community Course. As such, all students in LinC 101 C will also be taking ENGL 121: African American Literature. Both courses help students to consider multiple ways that meanings of race, and also gender, sexuality, class, etc., are produced and challenged over time in different realms of political and cultural life.

ENGL 121: African American Literature (LinC M2)
The objective of this course is to introduce students to African American Literature, and by extension, African American Studies, through various depictions of the lived experiences of African Americans, paying close attention to those that emerge in historical discourses, art, language, literature, cultural studies, film, music, poetry, and drama. To this end, this course outlines the various subjects of African American Literature through the historical, literary, aural, and oral texts that reflect the culture of Black folk in the United States.

Professor: Robert LaRue

Personal histories are connected to larger cultural histories beyond us. In this course, we will research and produce academic work that contextualizes students’ family stories using academic sources responsibly (within the considerations of copyright and Creative Commons materials). Students will practice writing in different genres, including writing press releases, critiquing others’ work and developing a supportive community around creative production. We will regularly discuss the ethics of telling others’ stories and considerations of cultural and linguistic contexts. We will work collaboratively to improve our writing and build community, while we explore our shifting identities.

Professor: Liz Gray

LinC 101 D is an Integrated Learning Community Course. As such, all students in LinC 101 D will also be taking IDIS 120: Filming Family Histories. Both courses explore how personal histories are connected to larger cultural histories beyond us.

IDIS 120: Filming Family Histories 
This course examines the connection between personal experiences and collective histories and trains students to develop historical arguments on video. Using primary sources and audio recordings from oral history interviews conducted by students, we will produce short videos framing family stories in larger historical contexts. By creating narratives that move between local and national/global scales, and individual and collective scales, students will learn how their family history has been shaped by the wider customs and beliefs of their national, ethnic, or religious culture. Through an examination of family histories, students will also investigate the ways in which cultural contexts have shaped their own values and perspectives. Finally, through peer review of video drafts and oral presentations in which two students compare family histories, the class will analyze how social and historical forces create points of commonality and difference between their lives.
Professor: Richard Anderson

Nearly five decades have passed since the publication of Ecotopia, Ernest Callenbach's futuristic novel about an ecological utopia in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. In this course, we work to update the '70's cult classic for our own time. Using its literary imagining as a starting point, we review recent developments in sustainable urban design, food production, and energy, among others, and then see how those strategies have been tried and adopted in real places in the U.S. and elsewhere. Through rhetorical analysis, writing, research, and field trips, we create a blueprint for a viable ecotopia of the 21st century.

Professor: Mark Harris

LinC 101 E is an Integrated Learning Community Course. As such, all students in LinC 101 E will also be taking ENVR 113: Changes in the Land: Lessons in Sustainability From Early American History. Both courses ask students to consider the many choices that communities make when they create and organize their spaces, as well as when they determine their relationship to the built and natural environment. These choices expose them to ideas from a range of disciplines, including philosophy, psychology, and ecology.

ENVR 113: Changes in the Land: Lessons in Sustainability From Early American History (LinC M4) 

This course examines the more nature-sensitive practices of early America including a

tendency toward minimalist consumption practices, thoughtful repurposing and recycling of

materials, and more land-centered ways of life. Students will explore the complexities of

sustainable human uses of environments by examining and comparing, as case studies,

Moravian University’s own sustainability practices as compared to sustainability practices

throughout local history (including that of the Moravians and throughout the period of

Lehigh Valley industrialization). Topics include: environmental effects of human occupation,

past and modern-day agriculture, colonial practices, changes to people's relationship to land

over time, diverse perceptions of nature, and evolving concepts of sustainability.

Professor: Catherine Brandes 

Does your town have a local legend? Have you ever heard the song of a selkie or a siren? Or, perhaps, the Jersey Devil has spoiled your milk before? In this course, students will read & explore the many ways legends involving mythical creatures and monsters influence belief, culture, and morality within communities. We will examine written and oral recounts of legends across Northern American/Europe and analyze the variations in these narratives as they are communicated across cultures. We will also seek to discover the unique rhetoric surrounding legends and mythology in particular by examining the persuasive language used to communicate such stories. Students will research and write about legends, lore, and cryptozoology through a variety of creative and academic genres.

Professor: Kailey Tedesco

LinC 101 F is an Integrated Learning Community Course. As such, all students in LinC 101 F will also be taking FORL 129: Monsters in Modern Asian Cultures. In LinC 101, students will explore American folktales, legends, creepypasta, cryptids, myths, and fairy tales.We will also examine larger societal ideas like cultural appropriation, contemporary propagation, literary revisionism, and historical contexts that have inspired  story evolution. In FORL 129, through exploring the origins, adaptations, and representations of monsters, the course provides 1) an overview of modern Asian histories, societies, cinemas, and media cultures, 2) basic knowledge and skills of film and cultural analysis, as well as media literacy. Writing project(s) are shared between the two courses. 

FORL 129: Monsters in Modern Asian Cultures (LinC M2)
Godzilla, Pokémon, vengeful ghosts, serpentine seductresses...: monsters in modern and contemporary Asian cultures have frightened and fascinated audiences across time and borders. The monstrous, the supernatural, and the uncanny are that which transgress, transform, and destabilize existing cultural norms, providing nuanced insights into the collective psyche of a society. This course explores the many ways monsters symbolize and personify issues, problems, fears and hopes that have shaped modern East Asian societies. We will also discuss the global popularity of monster movies, manga, and video games, how they shape the world’s perception of Asia, and through which, how Asian societies remake their own cultural images.
Professor: Dorothee Hou

What makes fictional worlds so captivating and what can we learn from them? This course focuses on the ways in which our engagement with fictional worlds can help us practically navigate our everyday lives. Through a series of reading and writing projects we will both explore and create fictional worlds in horror, science fiction, fantasy, and other subgenres of speculative fiction. In addition we will use rhetorical criticism to explore how fictional worlds can call into question serious elements of society. Ultimately this process will introduce students to various academic and creative writing strategies; critical reading practices; and the fundamentals of academic research at the college level.

Professor: Chris Hassay

Mathematicians often seek to answer questions by gathering data, looking for patterns, trying to identify and remove extraneous information, and then making a claim. No claim is brought forward without clear explanations, logical reasoning, and examples. This type of mathematical thinking helps to produce clear, succinct, well supported arguments. In this class, we will read stories related to mathematicians and mathematical thinking and try to apply what we learn to our argumentation in writing.

Professor: Shannon Talbott

Learning to understand one another involves the strategic use of effective questions. This course will examine how to use questions as part of our inquiry toolkit. Through our engagement with activities that are part of our everyday lives, we will consider how clear questioning of our ideas and the ideas of others can impact both our discussions and our writing in our everyday lives. Examples of real-life questioning that will be explored include how to get directions, how we best learn, different ways to teach each other, and how to best defend a court case. We will investigate how to craft effective questions, use questions in sequence as scaffolds to support understanding, engage people in meaningful discussions through questioning, and provide feedback to each other’s responses. One of the goals will be to learn how to use questions to benefit both ourselves and those with whom we communicate. We will write persuasive essays and use questioning in small groups to revise the essays to improve their persuasiveness. We will explore how questions can engage people with varied backgrounds and experiences to create inclusive environments using class activities (including role playing), information from articles, and video analysis. We will “run through” multiple scenarios of the same event to explore how different questions create different environments for the participants. By the end of our course, participants will know how to leverage questions as a powerful tool for creating and revising thoughts and ideas.

Professor: Ed Nolan

There is no doubt that social media has an influence on society and how consumers behave. This course will delve deeper into the intentions of social media communications, particularly, how they develop credibility (ethos), play on our emotions (pathos), and engage critical reasoning (logos). Through a series of writing projects, the art of persuasion will be explored while assessing multiple messaging platforms. Students will have the opportunity to analyze various social media communications and create responses that connect with the end users’ ethos, pathos and logos. These practices have several practical applications. For example, marketers need to understand how to communicate with customers and create meaningful, relevant content to connect with them. Best practices from well-known brands will be part of the analysis.

Professor: Heather Kuhns

We work with numbers and math every day - and in ways we may not even realize! From sports, to baking, to gaming and more, numbers permeate our lives and help us make sense of the world around us. In this course, we'll reflect on some of the practical applications of numbers in our lives through readings, reflections, and hands-on exercises, making technically sound arguments both written and verbal. No particular mathematics background is needed and examples of technical writing in other fields will also be discussed.

Professor: Jeffrey McClelland

Some may think scientists don’t use rhetoric, associating that practice with politicians and con artists. A more positive notion of rhetoric defines it as the power of discovering the available means of persuasion and using them effectively. Science found in textbooks today is mostly exposition, i.e., explanations of what is now known about the natural world. However, before that information became knowledge, there were arguments about how the natural world actually worked. Using a variety of readings from various genres, this course will examine winning and losing arguments about such big questions as the structure of the atom, the origin and shape of the universe, the descent of humans from earlier beings, and the impact humans are having on the planet by critically reading and responding to influential science texts from ancient times to today. Students will be exposed to a mixture of stimulating academic assignments grounded in research, information and digital literacies to produce analyses and multimodal compositions designed to evaluate the arguments for and against key scientific models.

Professor: Tim McGee

First-Year Writing Seminar (FYWS) introduces students to academic literacy practices central to success in any discipline at Moravian University. The course is designed to help students transition to college expectations, generate research questions, find and evaluate sources, and make informed decisions about how best to achieve their purposes in various writing situations. The subject area focus of each section of First-Year Writing Seminar varies, but all sections are similar in their approach: students develop the skills of critical reading, research, argumentation, revision, and reflection; and students work collaboratively with classmates, the professor, and the Writing Fellow to improve writing, build community, and explore available campus resources to achieve academic and personal success during their time at Moravian.

Professor: Staff

In many forms of media, our favorite protagonists are often not those who are born extraordinary, but rather those who learn to be extraordinary through recognizing and emphasizing their strengths. Katniss Everdeen was a young, impoverished girl from District 12. Vincent Van Gogh failed at a career in the church and didn't pick up a paintbrush until he was 27 years old. Nelson Mandela spent over 27 years in prison before becoming the first democratically elected president in South Africa. Over and over, we find ourselves drawn to main characters who grow into their greatness. In other words, Main Character Energy isn’t something you’re born with, it is something you create. In this course we will examine how our individual identities serve as strengths and sites of study through deep reflection and experimentation with various modes and styles. Students can expect to interrogate their own writer identity and learn to be intentional in their writing processes. With an emphasis on creative nonfiction writing, critical self-analysis, and collaboration with peers, students will leave this course with an enriched understanding of their individuality and how they contribute unique strengths in rhetorical spaces.

Professor: Gabrielle Stanley

What makes a "monster"? Is it claws and fangs? Green skin and scales? Or is it something more than skin deep? In this course, we will discuss what defines a "monster," how our fears and desires change over time and become embodied by monsters, why we create monsters, how we cope with monsters around us, and how monsters function (or not) in a good/evil binary. We'll analyze monstrosity in a series of multimodal texts, including zines, blogs, social media, film, television, music, visual artwork, and journal articles through the lenses of disability and capacity, race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, health and illness, religion and spirituality, age, and class. Through a series of writing projects, you'll have the opportunity to do research on and make claims about the ways that monstrosity in pop culture impacts our broader communities, shared environments, and daily lives. Course Content Warning: Because we will be working with the horror genre, some course content may contain heavy material. More specific content and trigger warnings will be given in advance of assigned texts.

Professor: Camaryn Wheeler

First-Year Writing Seminar (FYWS) introduces students to academic literacy practices central to success in any discipline at Moravian University. The course is designed to help students transition to college expectations, generate research questions, find and evaluate sources, and make informed decisions about how best to achieve their purposes in various writing situations. The subject area focus of each section of First-Year Writing Seminar varies, but all sections are similar in their approach: students develop the skills of critical reading, research, argumentation, revision, and reflection; and students work collaboratively with classmates, the professor, and the Writing Fellow to improve writing, build community, and explore available campus resources to achieve academic and personal success during their time at Moravian.

Professor: Staff

The medical scientific community has been dedicated to mastering illness and disease, fixing whatever we collectively deem wrong with the human body, intervening when the organism is injured or invaded. In the process of fighting disease, we have created numerous physical and pharmaceutical enhancement techniques in the name of beauty, symmetry, mental stability and productivity. We are now at the crossroads of the next frontier—the creation of cyborgs, combined organic and mechanical organisms. Whether we talk about the implantation of computer chips in humans or the substitution of amputated limbs with robotic replacements, we have begun the process of integrating men and machines. Through a series of writing projects, we will explore the use of a variety of enhancement procedures—pharmaceutical, genetic and mechanical—and reflect on what the future of human enhancement will mean for our understanding of the human experience.

Professor: Virginia Adams O’Connell

All people should have the right to regular access to safe, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food. However, poverty remains a barrier to food access. This leaves us with more questions than answers. Why are Cheetos cheaper than Cherries? This course explores who does and doesn’t have regular food access in the area, and why. Students will be challenged to explore these questions and more through walking field trips and/or volunteering at a local food pantry or soup kitchen, required readings, films/Ted Talks, and discussions. We will question why children are vulnerable to food insecurity. Students will explore topics like food deserts, food insecurity, hunger stereotypes, and community engagement through presentations and writing. Through a series of writing projects, students will examine local and national innovations to address these challenges, completing this course with a better understanding of food and poverty challenges and opportunities. 

Professor: Jacqueline Gannon

Everyone needs to eat, and to eat well. But how should we define “well” when we take into account not just our individual needs but also those of the planet and everything that lives upon it? In “Eating for the Planet: Food and Environmental Sustainability," we consider how the production, packaging, consumption, and disposal of food contributes to a global environment that is increasingly at risk, and how the human population must make changes to its diet if we hope to mitigate the quickly escalating effects of climate change. Students will consider the connections between sustainable food practices and “food justice”, and through readings, discussions, and writing assignments will explore how a variety of practices help to create sustainability and equity with regard to food. This seminar introduces first-year college students to a liberal arts education that emphasizes critical thinking, effective writing, and civic engagement.

Professor: Theresa Dougal

What is it about your favorite song lyrics or poem that make it so meaningful to you? Can you remember someone’s words—a friend, family member, coach, or teacher—that strongly influenced you? Did their words inspire you to navigate a challenging situation, make you particularly proud of an accomplishment, or help you understand something that you were struggling with? For most of us, words hold a lot of power. In this course, we will engage in critical reading of sources in the psychology of language (or psycholinguistics) to better understand how language impacts us. Topics will include how different aspects of language (sounds, visuals, movements, and meaning) come together, both in spoken and sign language, and how language is represented in the brain, including language problems that come from brain damage. We will explore theories about the representation of language in memory, reflecting on our everyday experiences of language, including real-life conversations, movie/television/book dialog, music with lyrics, poetry, and public speeches. We will write about these experiences to reinforce our understanding. While we consider how a writer’s choice of words can convey a particular meaning, we will think about the impact of the words we choose ourselves in our own communication, both formal and informal.

Professor: Sarah Johnson

Eighteenth-century Pennsylvania can seem like a distant and inaccessible world, but in many ways it resembles the conflicts and opportunities that characterize our communities today. It was an incredibly diverse colony with people of many races, ethnicities, and religious preferences all hoping to carve out a unique and potentially expansive space for themselves. To capture this energy more tangibly, this course will often be conducted at historic sites. We will prepare for these visits by reading scholarly articles, and we will aim to apply the same critical eye that we bring to texts to reading historical architecture and landscapes. Having honed our critical reading skills, we will also devote significant attention to translating the information and interpretations that we have studied into clear and effective writing. We will focus on writing as a process of thinking and communicating, taking particular care to understand how our writing strategies change with our audience. 

In addition to our regularly scheduled class time, we will take three Saturday field trips. There is an $80 course fee to cover the price of admission and travel expenses. 

Professor: Sharon Muhfeld

This First-Year Writing Seminar investigates the body. We think we know bodies because we have one. We think we know how they move, run, walk, jump, and get tired. We think we know how they consume food and drink, how they shiver and sweat, how they desire rest, and how they get sick. Yet, over the course of history, the body has changed. Knowledge of bodies has changed. The spaces bodies occupy have changed. In this course I invite you to explore how and why these changes happened. We explore sports. We look into medicine and human health. We investigate sex and sexuality. We discuss the ways people dressed, followed or ignored fashion. We engage these themes through readings, discussions, analysis of images, films, and writing.

Professor: Heikki Lempa