Course Details

Course offered Winter 2020

HONORS 398 B: Calderwood Seminar in Public Writing: Shift Happens: Moving the Humanistic Conversation in the Classics from the Classroom to the Public Arena (A&H)

James Clauss (Classics)
Email: jjc@uw.edu

Credits: 3
Limit: 12 students

Note: this is a 3 credit course so will only count towards UW general education requirements, not Honors core curriculum.

Modern science and technology have so overwhelmed contemporary society that lost among terabytes and google searches is a sense of our shared humanity, a humanity that has struggled to make itself know from the beginning of recorded history only to be beaten back by the powers-that-be: wealthy oligarchs, powerful autocrats, brutal dictators, nationalistic institutions from whom the weak and the marginalized have no protection. Ancient Greek and Roman writers and thinkers observed first-hand the near impossibility of speaking to power. Their voices have largely been silenced, but their observations, demonstrating that nothing has changed except for technology, could help moderns see that, unless we learn from the past, we will continue to repeat mistakes but those which have even greater potential for death and destruction given technological advances. During the seminar, students will examine ancient texts—literary, historical and cinematic—with the goal of communicating the lessons learned in various forms of public writing with the following objectives:

To develop an ability to write with greater clarity, concision, engagement and effectiveness and to acquire editorial skills that will help you achieve this goal.
To reflect on what constitutes effective public writing and how such writing influences our perspectives.
To gain a greater insight into what the humanities, in particular Classical antiquity, have to contribute to contemporary discussions of the difficulty of preserving our humanity in the face of political and technological power structures.

Before the class begins, everyone should read a synopsis of the “Melian Dialogue” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Melos) and write a 200 word “letter to the editor” in MS Word demonstrating how the situation and mode of thinking favored by the Athenians and their violent take over of the island is worth reading as a reflection of how extreme power corrupts. Feel free to cite modern examples. Please bring a laptop or tablet to each class for editing in Word.