Course Syllabus: COMP LIT 210/CHID 220/GLITS 315
Literature and Science: Telling Tales of Science
Winter 2025 Professor Gary Handwerk
Tu/Thur 11:30-1:20; CMU 120 Office: A-402 Padelford
E-mail: handwerk@uw.edu GH Office Hours: by appt. (generally
Canvas Site: https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1716528 available for a bit after classes)
TA: Erin Gilbert, eringil@uw.edu EG Office Hours: M/W 1:30-2:30 and by appt.
About the course:
Modern science is typically understood as a research enterprise, one with practical applications to be sure, but at its basis as a process of investigation into or discovery of facts about the natural world. It is that, to be sure. But science is in equally fundamental ways a social, civic, cultural and political enterprise, deeply intertwined with the ways in which human beings define themselves and organize their activities. This holds true, indeed is especially true, for non-scientists and non-researchers, those of us who are “mere” citizens. Our topic in this course will be the latter: how the scientific enterprise reaches into social life, shaping the intellectual frameworks through which we understand our world (and ourselves), affecting public processes of social and political decision-making, and influencing our daily interactions with people and with the natural world in ways that can be obvious or unobtrusive.
Our core material will be a set of what one might term either natural history or public science texts. Each deals with one or more scientific issues of wide social concern in its era; each was widely reviewed and broadly read; each had significant impact upon how the project of science has come to be socially construed and practiced. These texts range from Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859; selections only!), the seminal text for modern evolutionary theory, through Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962), which helped launch modern environmental movements, to a trio of more recent texts dealing with climate change, ecology, epidemiology and public health. Although different in substance and in style, all of them share one key feature: unusual rhetorical skill. All are works carefully crafted to achieve wide readerships and to have a significant impact upon public debate and political decision-making—not only informing or educating the public about environmental issues, but also shaping the deep base of beliefs and values that frames social and political debates about public policies related to those issues. This element—rhetorical effectiveness—will be our primary analytical focus. Why, and even more centrally, how did these works succeed in having the impact that they did?
In school, we often learn science primarily as a matter of facts, information and theories, plowing through textbooks, generally one discipline at a time. But the influence of the sciences upon us permeates our lives in myriad other ways as well. To approach this topic from the angle of the humanities will mean foregrounding one particular mode through which science has an impact: the power of stories and story-telling. Some of you may read scientific journals, at least occasionally, dipping into Nature or the New England Journal of Medicine or Transactions of the American Geophysical Union to read an article of particular relevance or interest for you. For most of us (indeed, even for many scientists outside of their own disciplinary specialties), however, science comes to us framed by narrative, embedded in anecdotes or reporting or personal memoir, couched in terms of the ethical or political implications a particular theory or discovery is presumed to have, or set into a broader historical perspective (hi-story, itself a form of story). As these options suggest, narrative is not a single thing; it has various forms (termed genres) that function more or less appropriately in varied settings. So another part of what we will be doing in this class is to hone your awareness of genres—how different ones are constructed with an eye to specific reader expectations, what devices particular genres tend to employ, and why.
Learning to read these kinds of texts from an alert “literary” perspective is a skill that we can also bring to bear on non-literary texts. Most kinds of discourse make extensive use of “literary” sorts of strategies, deploying not just narrative structures, but features such as imagery, allegory, analogy, tone and other elements typical of literary texts to help them achieve their rhetorical purposes. Indeed, it is rare that scientific expertise proves to be the sole determining factor even for decision-making about what one might see as scientific issues—the reality of global warming, for instance, or the decision to protect or not protect an endangered species, or the choice to approve (or not) a specific chemical or medication for wide-spread use. It is even rarer for politicians or bureaucrats or activists to refrain from the slanting of perspective that rhetoric can provide (thus the not-so-distant renaming of global warming as “climate change”). So the analysis we will practice in this class is in an important way transferable to the reading and the writing you may do in very different contexts.
Comparative Literature 210/CHID 220/GLITS 315 will be a writing-intensive course, but in a class as large as this one, much of the writing will necessarily be informal, low-stakes, ungraded writing. You will be writing in your e-journal on a regular basis both before, after, and during almost every class. That writing will provide me with one key measure of your engagement in the course and your active reading of the texts we will be covering. For this informal writing, PLEASE CREATE A WORD DOCUMENT AS YOUR VIRTUAL JOURNAL, TITLED WITH A FILE NAME LIKE THIS: Your name.your course number (thus: handwerk.cl210, gilbert.glits315), which you will be asked to submit via e-mail, NOT on Canvas, on a regular basis throughout the quarter. Although you will be doing your response writing both inside and outside of class at varied times, you MUST cut-and-paste every entry into your e-journal. You will also be doing: 1) a series of three longer, graded analytical essays, and 2) a culminating response essay on Refuge, and 3) a final ungraded self-reflective essay about your experience in the course. You have the option to revise and resubmit one of your graded essays.
Course Texts (be cautious with e-books, which may not contain all the material in the printed text):
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring Spencer Weart, The Discovery of Global Warming
Devra Davis, When Smoke Ran Like Water Terry Tempest Williams, Refuge
Additional Course Readings available on Canvas Web site (in the Files section, organized by folders according to author name)
Graded Work:
Analytical essays (3): single-spaced, minimal margins 20% each; 60% of final grade
Refuge response essay 15% of final grade
Attendance, participation, in-class writing 10% of final grade
Journal/Self-reflective essay 15% of final grade
Journals: The writing journals will include two kinds of informal, ungraded writing. Pre-class e-posts will primarily be responses to question prompts on the reading we will be covering for the next class, or involve modest on-line research on a related topic. The in-class writing will sometimes be more personal in nature, reflective about your own experiences with science and science education, your understanding of and experience with nature, or about texts and topics from that specific day’s class.
Analytical essays will be graded on a 10-point scale, with 9 = 4.0, 8 = 3.5, 7 = 3.0, etc. Late papers will have 1 point deducted per day that they are late. You will be writing four of these, each a one-page, single-spaced, no-margin paper (1200-1500 words), on topics circulated a week before the papers are due. You will have a chance to revise one of them before the end of the quarter.
Course Learning Objectives:
- Practice of and metacognitive reflection upon active reading processes, with special attention to rhetorical strategies and purposiveness
- Responsive, interrogative analytical writing, based on careful reading of texts and assignments
- Increased understanding of how science enters into public, civic discourse
- Awareness of the role played by stories and by narrative structures in shaping public interpretation of scientific issues, as well as other elements of persuasive writing
- Familiarity with key issues in and debates about several environmental topics: pollution, climate change, evolution, epidemiology and sustainability
- Comprehension of the Principles of Narrative Analysis and ability to apply them effectively both in reading and in writing
Other Essential Information:
- The amount and the different kinds of writing you will be doing may make this a challenging course for you. In addition, the active close reading that I expect may be something that you have not had much occasion to practice. Please contact me or Erin if you want further help. It is your responsibility to come to us with issues you feel are getting in the way of your effective learning.
- The median grade for the course is likely to be close to the norm for classes in the humanities at UW, somewhere around 3.3. That isn’t the bottom grade; it’s the median. This means that it is possible to get a grade below 3.3 even though you have been doing all of the assigned work and submitting everything on time.
- Attendance and participation (in groups and in-class writing) are required. Moreover, they presuppose engaged and timely completion of writing assignments. We will take attendance periodically and keep track of participation in on-line discussion groups, as well as using your Canvas discussion posts and your e-journal to help us assess your performance
Academic Integrity:
We assume that students will complete all assignments and other course components in good faith and by doing original work. The Student Conduct Code outlines various forms of academic misconduct, including (but not limited to):
- Plagiarism
- Submission of someone else’s work or electronically generated work as your own
- Multiple submissions of the same work in different courses without instructor permission
- Engaging in behavior prohibited by an instructor
- Unauthorized recording, and/or subsequent dissemination of instructional content
Failure to adhere to this code of ethics will result in referral for possible disciplinary action as described in the Student Conduct Code. You are ALWAYS expected to properly credit the ideas and words of others in your papers. Remember that plagiarism can involve using someone else’s words without proper citation, using someone else’s words with citation but without quotation marks, and paraphrasing
Artificial Intelligence
In this class, the use of AI applications such as ChatGPT or Dolly to produce a draft of any assignment will be considered plagiarism. Using an AI tool to produce draft text and then altering that text with slightly different wording (paraphrasing without attribution) is still plagiarism.
Disability Accommodations:
It is our goal to insure that our learning environment is accessible to everyone. If you have a disability and need special accommodations for note-taking, deadlines or any other aspect of coursework, you should contact Disability Resources for Students, (206) 543-8924 (V/TTY), wdss@u.washington.edu. If you have a documented disability, we will receive an e-mail from DRS that outlines necessary accommodations. We are happy to work with you in all ways to facilitate your learning in this class!
Religious Accommodations:
Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy (https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy/). Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of the quarter using the Religious Accommodations Request form (https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/).
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:
The University of Washington supports an inclusive learning environment where diverse perspectives are recognized, respected, and seen as a source of strength. In this course, we will strive to create welcoming spaces where everyone feels included and engaged regardless of their backgrounds, experiences and perspectives.
Mental Health Care:
UW Seattle students have access to a range of mental health and counseling support, including individual counseling, group therapy, workshops and crisis services. Need urgent help? Call 1-866-775-0608 to connect with Husky Help Line: link below). In an emergency, always call 911. For a list of services, visit the URL below: https://wellbeing.uw.edu/topic/mental-health/
**********************************************************************************************************
Course Calendar: COMP LIT 210/CHID 220/GLITS 315 (subject to revision)
Literature & Science: Telling Tales of Science
January 7 -- Course Introduction, Background to Darwin
Readings for Weeks 1 & 2 are all on the course Canvas Web site
- Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species (some required, some optional)
- Zimmer, Evolution (optional)
- Aldo Leopold, “The Land Ethic” (required)
- Phelan, “How We Evolve” (required)
January 9 -- Background to Darwin
January 14 -- Darwin, selections from The Origin of Species
January 16 -- Leopold, “The Land Ethic”
January 21 -- Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
January 23 -- Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
January 28 -- Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
January 30 -- Rachel Carson, Silent Spring
FEBRUARY 1 -- ANALYTICAL ESSAY #1 DUE (by midnight, on Canvas)
February 4 -- The Weight of Numbers: Environmental Epidemiology (Devra Davis)
February 6 -- Devra Davis, When Smoke Ran like Water
February 11 -- Devra Davis, When Smoke Ran like Water
February 13 -- Devra Davis, When Smoke Ran like Water
FEBRUARY 15 -- ANALYTICAL ESSAY #2 DUE (by midnight, on Canvas)
February 18 -- Global Warming/Climate Change: Changing the Narrative
February 20 -- Spencer Weart, The Discovery of Global Warming (Frierson?)
February 25 -- Spencer Weart, The Discovery of Global Warming
February 27 -- Spencer Weart, The Discovery of Global Warming; Elizabeth Kolbert,
“The Siege of Miami” (Canvas File)
MARCH 1 -- ANALYTICAL ESSAY #3 DUE (by midnight, on Canvas)
March 4 -- Composing Integrity, Re-Composing Ourselves: (Terry Tempest Williams)
March 6 -- Terry Tempest Williams, Refuge
March 11 -- Terry Tempest Williams, Refuge
March 13 -- Terry Tempest Williams, Refuge
MARCH 14 -- JOURNALS DUE (by midnight, via e-mail)
MARCH 21 -- ESSAY #4 on REFUGE DUE (by midnight, on Canvas)