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GENS 176: Making Powerful Arguments teaches students to write and speak persuasively, with the support of rigorous, research-based evidence. You get to choose a course that interests you, and participate in thought-provoking debates guided by our expert faculty.

About registration: Students will register for their spring seminar before registering for the rest of their spring courses. On Friday, October 17, students will be emailed a survey asking for their top 5 ranked choices. The survey will remain open for one week before the registrar starts placing students in sections on Friday, October 24.

Monsters and Monstrosity

Aarón G. Aguilar-Ramírez
Section X: T, Th 1–2:20 p.m.

The study of monsters, what they are and what they mean, dates back thousands of years. Asa Mittman proposes that a monster is just that which “should not be but is,” something that challenges the sense of normal or quotidian. The Latin word “monstere,” itself derived from “monstrare” and “monere,” also suggests that monstrous figures arise to show, warn, or foretell against an array of potential ills or evils. In this class, we will examine popular monsters or ideas of monstrosity, and reflect collectively on the myriad forces – economic, social, ethnoracial, historical, ecological—monsters represent, challenge, subvert, or forewarn. We will advance powerful arguments about how monstrous figures stress or reinforce a society’s norms and values, its views of self in relation to the “other,” and its perceptions of significant historical events. Our exploration of monstrous figures will take us around the globe, across the cultural geographies of England, Japan, South Korea, Nigeria, the United States, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic. We will analyze diverse media forms, including short stories, novels, films, television, graphic novels, newspapers, television newscasts, video essays, and academic articles.

Note: Some of the texts we will read in this class contain elements of horror or adjacent genres, and contain strong depictions of violence, including sexual violence. We will engage these subjects responsibly, but I encourage you to contact me (aguilaa2@whitman.edu) with any questions about whether the class is the right fit for you.

Not Just About Us: Humans and More

Sally Bormann
Section ZC: T, Th 10–11:20 a.m. 

What does it mean for humans to radically replace themselves, rather than taking center stage? Does it open up possibilities for human agency and change? For agency of a “more than human” world? Humans have frequently turned to fables and allegories to speak to and about power, a topic in our first unit. It is dangerous to talk about limiting the king’s power but not to tell a story about putting a bell on a cat so prey can escape. Unit two includes how humans have looked outside their everyday experience to the supernatural and the super powered. In the Chinese text Journey to the West, a human-like divine is transformed into Pigsy but super-powered Monkey King glories in his eternal monkey nature. In unit three we will consider the concept of a “more-than-human world” in which plants and animals are subjects with agency and engage in communities of their own, as well as in community with humans. Robin Wall Kimmerer describes a world in which being mentored by plants and belonging to a nation under trees is part of a way forward to biodiversity and ecological hope for the planet.

Other Places, Other Gazes

Chetna Chopra
Section M: M, W 1–2:20 p.m.

This course will study how different people experience places differently. The main question it will ask is the following: What dynamics shape divergent registrations of the same place? Foregrounding this question, we will examine various depictions of places, including intimate spaces such as the home in Alfonso Cuarón’s film Roma, nationally and culturally defined spaces in Rudyard Kipling’s novel Kim, and an “alien” planet in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. Primarily exploring the role of race in these works, the class will also address linked issues of class and gender as it examines the disparities among such experiences in texts from a wide geographical and cultural range.

To Hell and Back: Condemnation and Social Change

Ralph H. Craig, III
Section K: T, Th 1–2:20 p.m.

This course explores ideas about hell, suffering, and social change across religious cultures. We will examine how conceptions of hell have often shaped competing visions of justice, punishment, and social transformation. Who deserves condemnation? Why? What does it mean to be accountable for one’s actions? Is redemption possible? What does this reveal about society and the possibility for social change? It turns out that a given conception of hell is often as much an argument about the present social context of the author as about a future afterlife. Readings will include religious texts, philosophy, literature, and political tracts, ranging from first century India to present day America. Through these readings we will trace shifting uses of hell across religious cultures; analyze its deployment in arguments for and against social change; and critically reflect on how hell is invoked to describe oppression, resistance, and new horizons of possibility. By the end of the course, students will understand how conceptions of hell both reflect and contest struggles over power, ethics, and the possibility of change.

Rebelliously De-Classical: (Un)Silencing ‘Antiquity’

Sarah H. Davies
Section J: M, W 2:30–3:50 p.m.

This course unravels and confronts the many linkages – and ongoing entanglements – associated with construct(ion)s of a “classical tradition.” In doing so, this course pays particular attention to the many voices and experiences from ancient Mediterranean contexts, writ-large, who have been hitherto elided, seemingly (and with multiple-degrees of violence) ‘erased,’ and/or otherwise ‘silenced.’ By rebelliously reading through and against the grain of ‘the received,’ this course seeks a reparational path, whereby a confrontation with painful pasts (plural) involves the present. At the same time, it offers an invitation for liberational alternatives to “standard narratives” regarding ‘antiquity.’ As such, mirages encrusted into formulations of “the classical” can become their own interruptions and endings, not only via inherent hypocrisies, but also via the subsequent antidotes to their across-millennia co-dependencies, forged into the structurations that shaped it: ‘modernity.’

In the words of Michel-Rolph Trouillot: “History is the fruit of power, but power is never so transparent that its analysis becomes superfluous. The ultimate mark of power may be its invisibility; the ultimate challenge, the exposition of its roots.”

Exploring the Science of Environmental Crises: Creative Inquiry and Collective Action

Heidi Dobson
Section C: M, W, F 9–9:50 a.m.

In our moment of global crises, the issues we face can feel overwhelming. This course will allow us to explore together the science behind some of the environmental crises, understand how they are being addressed, and develop problem-solving strategies. Students will broaden their awareness of the multiple facets of everyday crises and extend their thinking to consider who is affected globally, how, and why. Most importantly, we will consider the ways that each and all of us, as part of humanity, are part of the problem and, critically, part of the solution! Class discussions, while centered on the scientific aspects, will extend to other deeply interconnected realms (e.g., social, historical, economic, political). Analysis, open discussion, deep reflection, and coming to grips with the issues at hand will hopefully inspire students to enact change and find solutions. It is only by understanding a problem and grappling with its different facets that pathways forward can be envisioned and put into action.

The Second Sense: Music, Listening, and Criticism

Amy N. Dodds
Section R: T, Th 10–11:20 a.m. 

Listening plays a profound role in how we interact with and understand the world around us. How we listen to music and how others tell us we should listen to music shapes how we understand/interpret that music and the culture(s) that generated it. This course will explore close listening in a variety of contexts. While the primary focus of the course will be on music, both live and recorded, we will also work to become better listeners of nature and artificial daily soundscapes. We will engage with composers, performers, music critics, and broader audience/cultural response. As part of this process, we will pay close attention to the dynamics of power in music criticism and reception, and explore how marginalization both excludes and contributes to new forms of listening.

Imagining Plato's Cities

Tim Doyle
Section ZB: M, W, F 10–10:50 a.m.

In order to relate his philosophical ideas, Plato sketches portraits of his city, its people, and of Socrates, and invites readers to think with him about a succession of mythical and imagined cities. In this course we will read selections from Plato’s dialogues and other contemporary accounts of Athens and its people, and interpret these ancient accounts alongside more modern attempts to reimagine Plato’s cities. This course is rooted in philosophical and literary examination of platonic dialogues, but also ventures into history, literature, drama, politics, and queer theory. While the focus of the class might seem relatively narrow, the historical Athens of around 400BCE and Plato’s various imagined cities are contested territories. They are claimed on behalf of conservative political thought, but also, for example, by many early activists in the struggle for LGBTQ rights. The story of the decline of Athenian democracy, and Plato’s critique of democracy, inform the foundations of modern democracies throughout the world. Both feminism and traditionalist anti-feminism find inspiration in this moment and these texts. 20th century nonviolent resistance movements across the globe, but also many forms of 20th—and now 21st—century violent political nationalism look equally to these texts and moments to find intellectual ground. So while our focus is narrow in one sense, the broad and conflicted deployment of the intellectual capital associated with Plato’s real and imagined cities will allow us to peer from strange, new angles at topics of contemporary cultural, political, and intellectual significance. 

Everyday Economics

Ruoning Han
Section P: T, Th 2:30–3:50 p.m.

Is foie gras (fatty duck or goose liver) valued for its taste, or for what it represents such as luxury and exclusivity? What do your sneakers and your morning latte have to do with the lives of people half a world away? Will artificial intelligence free us, or trap us in new forms of inequality? Should billionaires exist? Who bears responsibility for global warming, and who should be helped first in a crisis?

Economics is not only about markets and numbers; it is about the choices we make every day and the consequences those choices carry for society. This seminar dives into the hidden economics of daily life and explores how seemingly ordinary decisions about what we eat, what we buy, how we work, and how we vote are connected to larger themes of inequality, technology, power, and globalization. We will explore how economics often hides in plain sight, shaping not only our personal lives but also the world we live in.

Who is the Animal?

Rebecca R. Hanrahan
Section D: M, W, F 11–11:50 a.m.
Alzada Tipton
Section F: M, W, F 11–11:50 a.m.

This class explores the relationship between people and animals by addressing three questions: How have we conceived animals throughout human history? How should we understand animals on their own terms? What do we as humans owe to animals? We will be exploring these questions by looking at texts across many academic disciplines, including anthropology, philosophy, sociology, history, ethology, and literature. The primary skill we will be working on is your writing, but, rather than seeing writing as a single, separate skill, we will be approaching writing as a fundamental way of developing your abilities to think, create, and communicate.  For these reasons, we are staging several debates in the class on controversial topics, such as hunting, meat eating, and scientific research on animals, and where your independent research and writing will inform your public, oral defense of a particular position.   

Large Language Models and Society

Douglas R. Hundley
Section V: T, Th 10–11:20 a.m. 

Large language models are currently being used to replace human beings in many decision-making positions. But should we trust decisions that claim to be based on data? This class will explore the use and misuse of mathematics, statistics, and in particular large language models. We will explore how these models are built, what are their strengths and weaknesses, and how we can live and prosper with these algorithms. Finally, students will study how their own experience and preconceptions shape their arguments, and how to best address issues of difference and equity in algorithm-driven outcomes.

A National Mosaic: Canadian Multiculturalism

Jack Iverson
Section E: M, W, F 11–11:50 a.m.

The melting pot and the mosaic are images that have frequently been used to characterize attitudes toward the blending of populations in, respectively, the United States and Canada. While neither notion adequately expresses the complex realities of either country, the difference between these images reflects the existence in Canada of an official multicultural policy recognizing the right of all members of Canadian society to affirm their distinctive cultural traditions. Our task in this course will be to explore this policy and its impacts in Canada, as reflected in a variety of works, ranging from philosophical essays and historical case studies, to literary texts and creative works. Has this official policy been successful in encouraging greater appreciation for and acceptance of diversity in Canada? Has it empowered marginalized populations to affirm their rights? What work remains to be done? And what alternative models have been born of the successes and failings of multiculturalism? Starting from the Ukrainian-Canadian experience and early articulations of multiculturalist policy, we will grapple with texts by Jesse Wendt, Tomson Highway, Will Kymlicka, and Neil Bissoondath, as well as a recent feature film and the hit comedy series, Kim’s Convenience. We will also consider recent events in Canada, including the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada to address the traumatic legacy of the residential school system and continued efforts by French-speaking Canadians to protect their linguistic heritage. 

Music and Expressive Intent in Japanese and American Cinema

Paul G. Luongo
Section U: T, Th 11:30 a.m. to 12:50 p.m.

Music plays an important role in the expressive intent of most films. Even without deliberate consideration from its audience, music shapes the expressive meaning behind a film’s scenes. Through its presence or absence, its deployment within the story’s soundscape or outside of it, and its use of pre-existing works loaded with cultural meaning—to name just a few techniques—music often clarifies and augments the expressive intent of films. 

This course will explore the ways in which the film industries in Japan and America have deployed music to their expressive ends throughout their history. Following a chronological path through the history of both traditions, we will explore a range of themes and techniques to better understand their independent manifestation in each tradition. We will engage with the composers and directors of these films through their own writings as we weigh their conceptions of their work against our own analysis. As we hone these skills, we will learn to analyze these expressive techniques and provide evidence that supports our interpretation of the film's meaning. After learning the varied techniques available to modern film composers, students will pick their own films for analysis, identifying the expressive techniques in the music that inform and enhance the film.

Predator and Prey 

Maria C. Lux
Section G: M, W 1–2:20 p.m.

What happens when humans are figuratively and literally no longer the “top of the food chain?” This course looks to the animal to destabilize Western views of human superiority over the non-human world, and in turn, illuminate hierarchies within human cultures that are justified through attitudes towards animals. Using podcasts about animal crime, true stories like Val Plumwood’s account of surviving a crocodile attack, or a novel about animals getting revenge against poachers, the texts in this course connect with a wide range of scholarly disciplines from ecology and anthropology, to storytelling and art, to investigate a new perception of ourselves.  

Learning in the Age of Algorithms

Stephen W. Michael
Section H: M, W 1–2:20 p.m.

Many bold claims have been made about the role and effects of AI in education. This course is an opportunity for you to step back from the debate to form your own vision for what role, if any, AI should play in your education at Whitman. We will explore questions such as: What is gained and lost when machines are used in this context? What does it mean to “learn” or “write” when AI can generate essays, solve problems, and teach content? How should institutions and individuals adapt, and what human elements of education must we preserve? In what ways is AI in education reducing or exacerbating disparities? What are the environmental and labor costs of widespread AI deployment? What are the ethical responsibilities of students and educators using these tools? Through case studies, expert insights, and our own experiences, we'll examine the evidence and develop our own informed conclusions. This course welcomes anyone, from strong skeptics to enthusiastic users of AI. The only requirement is a curiosity about your education.

The Social Gaze

Alvaro Santana-Acuña
Section L: T, Th 11:30 a.m. to 12:50 p.m.

What is the “social gaze”? How can it help you to better understand the world around you? This course introduces you to themes and concepts that are key to understanding and writing about major social issues. Merging scholarly readings of important thinkers with a selection of classic and contemporary films, documentaries, and TV series, this course encourages you to view real-world situations, such as inequality, mass incarceration, collective movements, the digital revolution, and climate change, through a social gaze, bridging a strong connection between what the scholarly texts tell us about social and cultural issues, and what film, television, and visual media reveal. Thus, visual materials will familiarize you with key features of the social gaze about current social and cultural issues and help you to develop and use your own social gaze. So, you will not only be reading and discussing texts about, for instance, what social deviance is, how social ties are established, or the different types of stigma, but also you will simultaneously “see” how these phenomena occur in the selected visual materials. Throughout the semester, along with class discussions, there will be a series of workshops in which you will work on your analytical and writing skills, from topic selection to argument formulation to writing and editing of a final paper on a social problem of your choice.

Creative Influence

Rob Schlegel
Section Y: T, Th 11:30 a.m. to 12:50 p.m.

Some scholars suggest that because Homer had few literary precursors he looked to the stars for inspiration and influence. More recently, poet Fred Moten cites the composer Cole Porter as a source for his poetry collection The Feel Trio. According to Greil Marcus, even the Sex Pistols did not escape the grasp of influence, as he traces the British punk band's influences back to the Knights of the Round Table. Does this suggest there are no authentically original works of art? What does “original” even mean? How do these concerns shape our ideas about creative influence, identity and inheritance? We will use the study of influence as a lens through which to read and discuss poems, music, paintings and film. In the first part of this seminar, we will identify themes and stylistic patterns between works by a variety of writers, musicians and artists. In the second half, students will be invited to create their own self-directed reading list in order to trace thematic, stylistic, and formal influences of one of their favorite texts from outside of class. 

Extractivism, Anti-Extractivism, Post-Extractivism

Andrea Sempértegui Barreiros
Section S: T, Th 10–11:20 a.m.

“Extractivism” broadly refers to the removal of great quantities of natural resources (hydrocarbons, minerals, or agricultural products) which are then exported and processed abroad. The purpose of this course is to expand this descriptive definition of extractivism by tracing the work of critical scholars and social movements on extractivism as a colonial project of accumulation, where minerals, labor, knowledge and cultures can be “extracted.” To shed light on the conceptual broadening of this term, we will draw upon different approaches coming from Latin America, a region characterized by the looting of its resources since colonial times. With these regional focus, we will answer the following questions: What are similarities and differences between the recent expansion of extractive projects and previous (colonial) extractive practices? Why do so many peasant, Indigenous and rural communities organize against extractive projects nowadays? What are the different post-extractive alternatives developed by Indigenous, environmental and feminist movements to confront the negative socio-ecological impacts of extraction? By reading a variety of texts (including academic articles, book chapters, public-facing writing and manifestos) and engaging in different writing assignments and discussion-based exercises, we will not only approach extractivism as a situated and global phenomenon, but learn how Latin American social movements and activists have contributed to the intellectual elaborations of this term.  

From Jerusalem to Rome: Mapping a History of Ancient Christians

Daniel C. Smith
Section N: T, Th 1–2:20 p.m.

In the early first century CE, the Jewish prophet Jesus of Nazareth was crucified in Jerusalem for sedition by a Roman provincial governor. Three centuries later, a Roman emperor would look up from the battlefield, glimpse a cross (the very instrument of Jesus’s execution) in the clouds, and interpret the vision as a divine endorsement of Rome’s imperial power.

Histories that seek to explain the move from the crucified Christ to Christianity’s imperial conquest—often called the question of Christian Origins—typically focus on the textual archive of orthodox Ancient Christianity: the New Testament gospels and epistles, the theological treatises of the Church Fathers, and the first “History of the Church” authored by the fourth century imperial court historian Eusebius. But what happens to our image of Ancient Christianity if we disrupt this heady narrative of canons and councils with stories of the everyday experiences, political entanglements, and material remains of those who comprised the movement? This class analyzes a wide range of sources—from coins to city remains, from the secret library of “Gnostics” to public inscriptions and frescos—to map a material history of Ancient Christians.

The Fairy Tale: Enchantment and Change

Johanna Stoberock
Section Z: M, W, F 11–11:50 a.m.

The term “fairy tale” gets thrown around in all sorts of contexts, usually to describe something that is so perfect that most of us can hardly dream of experiencing it. But the worlds of actual fairy tales are rarely places we’d want to end up: violence is literal; the vulnerable are targeted; and gaps in logic make it difficult to understand how to navigate life safely. And yet, within the dangerous spaces of these enchanted worlds, those who are most vulnerable resist oppression, finding ways to use magic as a vehicle for social change. We will begin the semester by focusing on the work of the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault in order to consider how the fantastical functions as both enforcer and disrupter of cultural norms. We will then look at contemporary and near contemporary retellings of classic tales and the ways in which adjustments in focus and style allow the tales to become containers for questions that resonate within our current time. Writers will include the Brothers Grimm, Charles Perrault, Angela Carter, Jeanette Winterson, Kate Bernheimer, Maria Tatar, and others. Assignments will include essays, a class presentation, and a final writing portfolio.

Note: Fairy tales often ask readers to engage with narratives that hinge on violence, including sexual violence. I encourage you to contact me (stoberj@whitman.edu) should you have questions about this aspect of the tales as you consider choosing the course. 

How to Launch Your Space Telescope 

Jessica S. Sutter
Section A: M, W, F 9–9:50 a.m.

Science funding in the USA is currently facing some of the greatest challenges it has seen for decades.  In this course, we will grapple with the ideas of if we should be funding science, how we argue for science funding, and who decides what projects get funding, primarily using the lens of astrophysics and launching space telescopes.  We will consider the history of who has been allowed to do science and what implications that has on what types of science questions are left unanswered.  We will also discuss the ethical implications of how scientific advancements, especially in physics and astronomy, have often led to new developments in military technology.  With all these thoughts in mind, we will work together to write compelling cases for future scientific discovery, aimed at a wide range of audiences (including the US government!)

Project-ing a Self

Jenna Terry
Section O: T, Th 1–2:20 p.m.

What’s your project? Call it a pursuit, a mission, a vocation – what is it you’re doing, and for what purpose? What’s the relationship between your project and your identity, public and private? What might a project have to do with desire, creativity, agency, and freedom – for yourself and those around you? What if your project, or the freedom to create projects, is thwarted? What does a project reveal about the person behind it, and what does it not? Can we distinguish between appreciation for a project and approval of its creator? Should we? Drawing upon Simone de Beauvoir’s sense of “projects”, Audre Lorde’s “work”, and Langston Hughes’s “dream”, this course looks at the challenges, necessities, risks, and satisfactions of finding and pursuing projects, even through difficulty and failure. Course texts offer scholarly frameworks and applications for these ideas, as well as narrate awakening desire, constructions of identity, and projects depicted in literature and film. This class is NOT about your career plans, your work history, or those many impressive bullet points on your resume – though it’s possible those disparate experiences are held together by a project with bounds you haven’t fully explored. Rather, this course is an opportunity to consider the complex dynamics of “project”. In doing so, you’ll complete a class-culminating project that might cohere into a larger project of your own.

Content warning: course material includes reference to and depictions of factual and fictional oppression, abuse, misogyny, ableism, and racism; class discussion will directly address the function of confronting this difficult material. Please feel welcome and encouraged to contact me (terryj@whitman.edu) with questions about this material as you consider your GenS 176 choices.

Ancient Marvels and Storytelling 

Sathia Veeramoothoo
Section B: M, W, F 9–9:50 a.m.

This seminar uses the Ancient Aliens television series as a case study in evaluating evidence and constructing persuasive arguments. Students will examine selected episodes to identify central hypotheses and analyze the claims presented. Guided discussions will situate these claims alongside peer-reviewed archaeological, historical, and scientific scholarship, training students to assess the credibility of sources and arguments. Role-playing debates will provide structured opportunities to test competing interpretations, while in-class writing and peer-feedback workshops will support the development and polishing of argumentative essays. For each essay, each student will select one hypothesis, either supported by empirical evidence or notable for its narrative appeal, and produce a polished paper defending that position. By the end of the course, students will have strengthened their critical thinking, gained experience navigating academic research, and practiced persuasive writing, preparing them to evaluate complex or contested ideas with clarity and rigor.

The Problem of the Museum

Jacqueline Woodfork
Section W: M, W 1–2:20 p.m.

Museums are often envisioned as well-established and funded entities that share particularly art and history in ways that inform and educate the public, but underneath this surface, questions of purpose and legitimacy rightly percolate such as how did the museum get this piece or does the museum know what this object truly is? This course will ask questions about and problematize a long-established institution. We will explore the origins and purposes of museums as community institutions, thinking about who is truly served and why.