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PWR 91EP: Intermediate Writing: Communicating Climate Change: Navigating the Stories from the Frontlines

In the next two decades floods, droughts and famine caused by climate change will displace more than 250 million people around the world. In this course students will develop an increased understanding of how different stakeholders including scientists, aid organizations, locals, policy makers, activists, and media professionals communicate the climate change crisis. They will select a site experiencing the devastating effects and research the voices telling the stories of those sites and the audiences who are (or are not) listening. Students might want to investigate drought-ridden areas such as the Central Valley of California or Darfur, Sudan; Alpine glaciers melting in the Alps or in Alaska; the increasingly flooded Pacific islands; the hurricane ravaged Gulf Coast, among many others. Data from various stakeholders will be analyzed and synthesized for a magazine length article designed to bring attention to a region and/or issue that has previously been neglected. Students will wri more »

In the next two decades floods, droughts and famine caused by climate change will displace more than 250 million people around the world. In this course students will develop an increased understanding of how different stakeholders including scientists, aid organizations, locals, policy makers, activists, and media professionals communicate the climate change crisis. They will select a site experiencing the devastating effects and research the voices telling the stories of those sites and the audiences who are (or are not) listening. Students might want to investigate drought-ridden areas such as the Central Valley of California or Darfur, Sudan; Alpine glaciers melting in the Alps or in Alaska; the increasingly flooded Pacific islands; the hurricane ravaged Gulf Coast, among many others. Data from various stakeholders will be analyzed and synthesized for a magazine length article designed to bring attention to a region and/or issue that has previously been neglected. Students will write and submit their article for publication.For students who have completed the first two levels of the writing requirement and want further work in developing writing abilities, especially within discipline-specific contexts and nonfiction genres. Individual conferences with instructor and peer workshops. Prerequisite: first two levels of the writing requirement or equivalent transfer credit. For more information, see https://undergrad.stanford.edu/programs/pwr/explore/notation-science-writing.

Last offered: Spring 2016 | UG Reqs: WAY-CE, WAY-SI

PWR 91HK: Farmer, Scientist, Activist, Chef: Communicating for Food Security and Food Justice

How can you contribute to efforts to foster a healthy and equitable food system? In this project-based course, you will be matched with a Bay Area community partner working on sustainability or food justice. You will develop public-facing communications to support their mission. Multiple genres are possible: you might create a podcast, a policy brief, video explainer, or a social media campaign. During this process, you will develop a range of writing and oral communication skills. You will practice project management, collaborative group work, and expressing yourself through new genres. Cardinal Course certified by the Haas Center. For a full course description visit https://pwrcourses.stanford.edu/advancedpwr/pwr91hk This course does not fulfill the Write 1 or the Write 2 writing requirement.

Terms: Spr | Units: 3 | UG Reqs: WAY-SI

Instructors: Kantor, H. (PI)

PWR 91KT: Intermediate Writing: Game Set Match: Shaping Publics to Shape Movements

The success of a movement is never the work of one individual. In this course, students will investigate the specific case of Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee and the media advocacy that aided in his release from solitary confinement after being accused of spying for China. Students will then analyze the role the public and news media frequently must play in the success of a cause, ultimately developing a website that publishes resources and interventions including students own digital media that moves a civil rights issue of their choice. For course video and full description, visit https://undergrad.stanford.edu/courses/additional-elective-courses/game-set-match-shaping-publics-shape-movements.

Last offered: Spring 2018 | UG Reqs: WAY-SI

PWR 194DH: Topics in Writing and Rhetoric: Empathy, Ethics, and Compassion Meditation (CSRE 94)

Does not fulfill NSC requirement. In this course, we'll extend this discussion by expanding our thinking about rhetoric as a means of persuasion to consider its relation to empathy-as a mode of listening to and understanding audiences and communities we identify with as well as those whose beliefs and actions can be lethal. We'll also practice compassion medication and empathetic rhetoric to see how these ethical stances affect us individually and investigate the ways they may and may not be scaled to address social justice more broadly. Finally, with the course readings and discussions in mind, you will explore a social justice issue and create an essay, a workshop, campaign or movement strategy, podcast, vlog, infographic, Facebook group, syllabus, etc. to help move us closer to positive change. Prerequisite: first two levels of the writing requirement or equivalent transfer credit. For topics, see https://undergrad.stanford.edu/programs/pwr/courses/advanced-pwr-courses.

Last offered: Autumn 2017 | UG Reqs: WAY-ER, WAY-SI

PWR 194KTA: Topics in Writing & Rhetoric: Racism, Misogyny, and the Law (CSRE 194KTA, FEMGEN 194, HISTORY 261C)

The gutting of the Voting Rights Act in 2013 by the Supreme Court of the United States led to the consequent disenfranchisement of many voters of color. For many citizens who desire a truly representative government, SCOTUS's decision predicted the collapse of democracy and endorsed White supremacy. In this course, through an examination of jurisprudential racism and misogyny, students will learn to dissect the rhetoric of the U.S. judicial branch and the barriers it constructs to equity and inclusion through caselaw and appellate Opinions. The United States of America long deprived the right to vote to men of color and women of every race, and equal access to justice including at the intersections has been an enduring fight. The history of employment law, criminal justice, access to healthcare, and more includes jurisprudence enforcing racist and misogynist U.S. policies and social dynamics. Students will learn how to read a case, scrutinize court briefings, and contextualize bias as a foundation to erect a more just, equitable, and inclusionary legal system.

Last offered: Spring 2023 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

PWR 194MF: Topics in Writing & Rhetoric: In the Margins: Race, Gender and the Rhetoric of Science (FEMGEN 123)

Every day a new headline alerts us to the lack of race and gender diversity in the tech sector in Silicon Valley. At the same time, science and technology are often lauded as objective systems capable of producing color- and gender-blind truths and social good for all of us. This course pushes beyond the headlines and the hashtags to think about the complex relationship between gender, race and science. Together we will research chronically understudied voices and contributions in the history of science and technology and have the opportunity to read and participate in some of the efforts to highlight their stories through a Wikipedia edit-a-thon and final research project. We will also rigorously think through why the historical and current under-representation of women and people of color matters for the questions that are asked, methodologies that are used, and science and technology that is eventually produced. This course fulfills the advanced PWR requirement for the Notation in Science Communication (NSC). Prerequisite: first two levels of the writing requirement or equivalent transfer credit. For topics, see https://undergrad.stanford.edu/programs/pwr/courses/advanced-pwr-courses.

Last offered: Winter 2022 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

REES 85B: Jews in the Contemporary World: Culture, Pop Culture, and Representation (HISTORY 85B, JEWISHST 85B)

( HISTORY 85B is 3 units; HISTORY 185B is 5 units.) From Barbra Streisand to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, from The Dybbuk to Broad City, and from Moscow to LA, this course applies a multicultural perspective on different experiences of Jewishness in the 20th and 21st centuries. The discussion is centered on the ways in which these experiences are represented in various types of media: in literature or on TikTok, in poetry or on Instagram, in film and on television. The themes of the course include (but are not limited to) the interplay of national, religious, ethnic, linguistic, and political identities, intersectionality, the definitions and boundaries of Jewish cultures, Queer and variously gendered experiences of Jewishness, as well as antisemitism and stereotyped representations of Jewishness. The course introduces students to the analysis of a diverse array of media as cultural texts and historical sources. Students are encouraged to apply their new skills to media of their choice.

Last offered: Spring 2023 | UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

REES 185B: Jews in the Contemporary World: Culture, Pop Culture, and Representation (CSRE 185B, HISTORY 185B, JEWISHST 185B, SLAVIC 183)

( HISTORY 185B is 5 units; HISTORY 85B is 3 units.) From Barbra Streisand to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, from The Dybbuk to Broad City, and from Moscow to LA, this course applies a multicultural perspective on different experiences of Jewishness in the 20th and 21st centuries. The discussion is centered on the ways in which these experiences are represented in various types of media: in literature or on TikTok, in poetry or on Instagram, in film and on television. The themes of the course include (but are not limited to) the interplay of national, religious, ethnic, linguistic, and political identities, intersectionality, the definitions and boundaries of Jewish cultures, Queer and variously gendered experiences of Jewishness, as well as antisemitism and stereotyped representations of Jewishness. The course introduces students to the analysis of a diverse array of media as cultural texts and historical sources. Students are encouraged to apply their new skills to media of their choice.

Last offered: Spring 2023 | UG Reqs: GER:DB-Hum, GER:EC-GlobalCom, WAY-EDP, WAY-SI

REES 205: The Business of Socialism: Economic Life in Cold War Eastern Europe (HISTORY 227B)

This colloquium investigates the processes of buying, making, and selling goods and services in Cold War Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. We will familiarize ourselves with a variety of approaches to writing the history of economic life and discuss to what extent they are applicable to state socialist systems. Our focus will not be on theories of socialism but on empirically grounded studies that allow for insights into how the system operated in practice and interacted with capitalism. We will, among others, explore the following questions: What was the role of the state in the economies east and west of the Iron Curtain? Are socialism and capitalism two incompatible systems? How did women experience and shape economic life after the Second World War? What had a greater impact on the economies of the region: Cold War politics or globalization?

Last offered: Autumn 2020 | UG Reqs: WAY-SI

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