Rhetoric majors are trained in the history of rhetorical theory and practice, grounded in argumentation and in the analysis of the symbolic and institutional dimensions of discourse. The department offers both a pragmatic understanding of the elements of rhetorical analysis, with special attention to logic, style, tropes, figures, and images, and a thorough grounding in the historical development of these elements in rhetorical theory. The combination allows students to make a disciplined grasp of the contemporary character of rhetoric and language. Through its emphasis on the history and theory of rhetoric, the department provides an understanding of the format of contemporary theories of interpretation as well as an opportunity, within this framework, to explore the role of persuasion in pragmatic and aesthetic contexts.
The major is not intended to provide skills-based training in oral argument or communication.
Major Concentrations
Students in the Rhetoric major choose one area of concentration: history and theory of rhetoric, public discourse, or narrative and image.
History and Theory of Rhetoric
This area of concentration focuses on understanding the development of rhetorical theory and practice from its genesis in the classical period to its situation in the present. Students will consider how the discipline of rhetoric has both shaped and itself been shaped by social, political, technological, and intellectual developments over the course of two millennia. Individual courses will enable close study of the process of rhetoric's influence and adaptation, both in theory and in practice, in specific contexts throughout its history.
Public Discourse
This area of concentration focuses on understanding rhetoric in its symbolic and institutional dimensions, with special emphasis on legal and political forums. Students consider the discourse of law, politics, and society both in theory and in practice, in an attempt to understand the rhetorical nature of political judgment, action, justice, and legitimacy. Individual courses will enable close study of specific problems, concerns, vocabularies, modes of interpretation, and strategies of argumentation arising in public forums of the past and present.
Narrative and Image
This area of concentration focuses on understanding the function of rhetoric in literary, cinematic, and visual texts, with emphasis on the role of figure and image in the representation of reality. Students consider the production and reception of narrative literature—oral, epic, folktale, lyric poem, novel, and film—in an attempt to understand the boundaries of the aesthetic text as a rhetorical analysis of particular literary and visual genres arising in a variety of cultures and historical epochs.
Seniors must complete RHETOR 10, RHETOR 20, RHETOR 103A, and RHETOR 103B and maintain a minimum 3.7 grade-point average (GPA) in rhetoric and a 3.5 overall Berkeley GPA to undertake the two-semester honors thesis series, RHETOR H190A-RHETOR H190B. Students work under the supervision of a selected rhetoric faculty member. Four units of credit (2 units each semester) for the RHETOR H190A to RHETOR H190B sequence may be applied toward graduation as upper division units and fulfillment of one major upper division course. Honors candidates who complete the 4-unit course with a letter grade of A- or better and maintain the required GPAs will receive a BA with honors in the major.
Seniors eligible to enroll in the honors program must begin arrangements with the faculty member who is willing to direct their honors thesis in the semester before they enroll in RHETOR H190A. See the undergraduate assistant for honors information and an application. Warning: Graduating honors candidates who complete the major requirements but take an incomplete in the RHETOR H190A-RHETOR H190B series must drop themselves from the degree list or honors will not appear on their official transcripts or diplomas.
Minor Program
The goal of the minor program in rhetoric is to introduce students to the methodological procedures and interdisciplinary approach of a field that examines all disciplines from the outside and poses questions such as the following: how is philosophy (or law, politics, etc.) constituted as a field? What kinds of discourses are considered legitimate within this field? And what kinds of knowledge are produced and institutionalized as a result?
Students should declare at least one semester prior to graduation. For details on how to declare, please contact our department directly. The Minor Completion petition should be presented to the undergraduate adviser with a recent Bear Facts (available through summer 2016) or CalCentral (starting fall 2016) printout of the student's grades (unofficial transcript).
In addition to the University, campus, and college requirements, listed on the College Requirements tab, students must fulfill the below requirements specific to their major program.
General Guidelines
All courses taken to fulfill the major requirements below must be taken for graded credit, other than courses listed which are offered on a Pass/No Pass basis only. Other exceptions to this requirement are noted as applicable.
No more than one upper division course may be used to simultaneously fulfill requirements for a student's major and minor programs, with the exception of minors offered outside of the College of Letters & Science.
A minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 must be maintained in both upper and lower division courses used to fulfill the major requirements.
For information regarding residence requirements and unit requirements, please see the College Requirements tab.
Approaches and Paradigms in the History of Rhetorical Theory II
4
Select three upper division courses in the specified area of concentration (History and Theory of Rhetoric, Public Discourse, or Narrative and Image): see below for course lists
Select two upper division electives from outside the area of concentration, one course from each of the other areas
Select one upper division course (at least 4 units) related to the chosen area of concentration, from another department
Students who have a strong interest in an area of study outside their major often decide to complete a minor program. These programs have set requirements.
General Guidelines
All minors must be declared before the first day of classes in your Expected Graduation Term (EGT). For summer graduates, minors must be declared prior to the first day of Summer Session A.
All upper-division courses must be taken for a letter grade.
A minimum of three of the upper-division courses taken to fulfill the minor requirements must be completed at UC Berkeley.
A minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 is required in the upper-division courses to fulfill the minor requirements.
Courses used to fulfill the minor requirements may be applied toward the Seven-Course Breadth requirement, for Letters & Science students.
No more than one upper division course may be used to simultaneously fulfill requirements for a student's major and minor programs.
All minor requirements must be completed prior to the last day of finals during the semester in which the student plans to graduate. If students cannot finish all courses required for the minor by that time, they should see a College of Letters & Science adviser.
All minor requirements must be completed within the unit ceiling. (For further information regarding the unit ceiling, please see the College Requirements tab.)
Undergraduate students must fulfill the following requirements in addition to those required by their major program.
For a detailed lists of L&S requirements, please see Overview tab to the right in this guide or visit the L&S Degree Requirements webpage. For College advising appointments, please visit the L&S Advising Pages.
All students who will enter the University of California as freshmen must demonstrate their command of the English language by fulfilling the Entry Level Writing requirement. Fulfillment of this requirement is also a prerequisite to enrollment in all reading and composition courses at UC Berkeley and must be taken for a letter grade.
The American History and American Institutions requirements are based on the principle that all U.S. residents who have graduated from an American university should have an understanding of the history and governmental institutions of the United States.
All undergraduate students at Cal need to take and pass this campus requirement course in order to graduate. The requirement offers an exciting intellectual environment centered on the study of race, ethnicity and culture of the United States. AC courses are plentiful and offer students opportunities to be part of research-led, highly accomplished teaching environments, grappling with the complexity of American Culture.
College of Letters & Science Essential Skills Requirements
The Quantitative Reasoning requirement is designed to ensure that students graduate with basic understanding and competency in math, statistics, or computer/data science. The requirement may be satisfied by exam or by taking an approved course taken for a letter grade.
The Foreign Language requirement may be satisfied by demonstrating proficiency in reading comprehension, writing, and conversation in a foreign language equivalent to the second semester college level, either by passing an exam or by completing approved course work taken for a letter grade.
In order to provide a solid foundation in reading, writing, and critical thinking the College of Letters and Science requires two semesters of lower division work in composition in sequence. Students must complete parts A & B reading and composition courses in sequential order by the end of their fourth semester for a letter grade.
College of Letters & Science 7 Course Breadth Requirements
The undergraduate breadth requirements provide Berkeley students with a rich and varied educational experience outside of their major program. As the foundation of a liberal arts education, breadth courses give students a view into the intellectual life of the University while introducing them to a multitude of perspectives and approaches to research and scholarship. Engaging students in new disciplines and with peers from other majors, the breadth experience strengthens interdisciplinary connections and context that prepares Berkeley graduates to understand and solve the complex issues of their day.
Unit Requirements
120 total units
Of the 120 units, 36 must be upper division units
Of the 36 upper division units, 6 must be taken in courses offered outside your major department
Residence Requirements
For units to be considered in "residence," you must be registered in courses on the Berkeley campus as a student in the College of Letters & Science. Most students automatically fulfill the residence requirement by attending classes at Cal for four years, or two years for transfer students. In general, there is no need to be concerned about this requirement, unless you graduate early, go abroad for a semester or year, or want to take courses at another institution or through UC Extension during your senior year. In these cases, you should make an appointment to meet an L&S College adviser to determine how you can meet the Senior Residence Requirement.
Note: Courses taken through UC Extension do not count toward residence.
Senior Residence Requirement
After you become a senior (with 90 semester units earned toward your B.A. degree), you must complete at least 24 of the remaining 30 units in residence in at least two semesters. To count as residence, a semester must consist of at least 6 passed units. Intercampus Visitor, EAP, and UC Berkeley-Washington Program (UCDC) units are excluded.
You may use a Berkeley Summer Session to satisfy one semester of the Senior Residence requirement, provided that you successfully complete 6 units of course work in the Summer Session and that you have been enrolled previously in the college.
Modified Senior Residence Requirement
Participants in the UC Education Abroad Program (EAP), Berkeley Summer Abroad, or the UC Berkeley Washington Program (UCDC) may meet a Modified Senior Residence requirement by completing 24 (excluding EAP) of their final 60 semester units in residence. At least 12 of these 24 units must be completed after you have completed 90 units.
Upper Division Residence Requirement
You must complete in residence a minimum of 18 units of upper division courses (excluding UCEAP units), 12 of which must satisfy the requirements for your major.
Student Learning Goals
Mission
Students learn about different kinds of representation (and critiques thereof), how different genres shape and offer material for interpretation, and how different media forms produce a sense of reality. They learn to reflect on how various modes of presentation work (film, literary and philosophical texts, legal cases, political tracts, performances, archival materials), what kinds of meanings they have, and what kinds of effects they produce. They consider works of both high and low culture and bring various kinds of approaches to both. As they advance, students compare and bring genres together for analysis, working for instance with legal trials in film, philosophical uses of literary works, oral interpretation of texts, the textual and archival basis for the transition from orality to literacy, the political presuppositions of law, the aesthetic dimensions of political theory, and the influence of law on non-legal rhetorical practice.
Learning Goals for the Major
Understand and make arguments
Acquire basic knowledge and vocabulary of formal argumentation and its relation to informal spoken and written arguments.
Analyze texts in terms of their arguments.
Use arguments in the major’s own writing.
Develop more sophisticated knowledge of argument and apply it.
Interpret written and non-written texts
Recognize rhetorical figures and identify stylistic issues.
Relate textual interpretations to media (oral, print, and digital/visual).
Acquire an introduction to theories and methods of interpretation.
Progress to more advanced exposure to interpretation.
Display knowledge and articulate themes concerned with the history and theory of rhetoric
Read and understand ancient texts out of which rhetorical traditions come (to see how, for instance, the history of the notion of rhetoric and its opposition to philosophy from Plato on is implicated in our conversations about truth, sincerity, democracy, and ethics).
Read and understand texts about rhetoric between ancient and modern periods.
Read and understand texts that show how rhetoric is used or conceived in particular periods or cultures.
Read and understand texts important to contemporary theory.
Engage in rhetorical issues involving media, writing, reading, speech, and authorship.
Grasp specific forms of knowledge and their modes of reasoning
Engage critically in analysis and interpretation of such public discourses as law, politics, science, and religion.
Understand elements of narrative in novel and other fictive discourses.
Read visual and other productions that are beyond (or other than) the written word.
Recognize what is common and what is different in the self-conception of various discourses (e.g., literature, philosophy, law, and history).
Integrate the reading, writing, analytical, and critical skills and knowledges above
Carry out close readings with a consciousness of the relevance of context.
Specialize in a particular area or theme through the concentrations.
Understand, reflect on, and evaluate the ways in which persuasive forces (broadly understood) are at work in the contemporary world.
Major Map
Major maps are experience maps that help undergraduates plan their Berkeley journey based on intended major or field of interest. Featuring student opportunities and resources from your college and department as well as across campus, each map includes curated suggestions for planning your studies, engaging outside the classroom, and pursuing your career goals in a timeline format.
Use the major map below to explore potential paths and design your own unique undergraduate experience:
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Rhetorical approach to reading and writing argumentative discourse. Close reading of selected texts; written themes developed from class discussion and analysis of rhetorical strategies. Satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement. The Craft of Writing: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Satisfaction of the Entry Level Writing Requirement
Requirements this course satisfies: Satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2024
Intensive argumentative writing drawn from controversy stimulated through selected readings and class discussion. Satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement. The Craft of Writing: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Previously passed an R1A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Previously passed an articulated R1A course with a letter grade of C- or better. Score a 4 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Literature and Composition. Score a 4 or 5 on the Advanced Placement Exam in English Language and Composition. Score of 5, 6, or 7 on the International Baccalaureate Higher Level Examination in English
Requirements this course satisfies: Satisfies the second half of the Reading and Composition requirement
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Summer 2022 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2020 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2019 Second 6 Week Session
Basic principles of rhetoric as applied to the criticism and practice of public speaking. Fundamentals of Public Speaking: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2023, Spring 2022
An introduction to practical reasoning and the critical analysis of argument. Topics treated will include: definition, the syllogism, the enthymeme, fallacies, as well as various non-logical appeals. Also, the course will treat in introductory fashion some ancient and modern attempts to relate rhetoric and logic. Introduction to Practical Reasoning and Critical Analysis of Argument: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5-9 hours of lecture and 1-1 hours of discussion per week 8 weeks - 5.5 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Fall 2022
Introduction to the study of rhetorical interpretation, examining how language and performance generate and communicate meaning, from literature, art, film and politics to visual and material culture. Rhetorical Interpretation: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture and 2.5 hours of discussion per week 8 weeks - 5.5 hours of lecture and 2 hours of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Summer 1996 10 Week Session
This class examines the way in which a distinctively rhetorical concern with persuasion, tropes, topicality, and modes of appeal can be engaged in readings of Shakespearean texts. Using written documents from the period along with contemporary rhetorical criticism and theory, the class analyzes the importance of rhetoric in the production and performance of Shakespeare's plays, in their particular rendering of verbal conflict and the scene of persuasion, and in the analysis of their participation in larger cultural contests over the legitimacy of the prevailing political, legal, moral, or natural order. Rhetoric of Shakespearean Drama: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2019, Spring 2019, Fall 2018
The Berkeley Seminar Program has been designed to provide new students with the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member in a small-seminar setting. Berkeley Seminars are offered in all campus departments, and topics vary from department to department and semester to semester. Freshman Seminars: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1 hour of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: The grading option will be decided by the instructor when the class is offered. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021
Theoretical and practical instruction prepare students to vocally address diverse audiences in a variety of situations across multiple media. Theory and Practice of Public Speech: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Course Objectives: To recognize differences across social and media presentation contexts and skillfully compose and adapt presentations to suit these different situations. To recognize differences across social and media presentation contexts and skillfully compose and adapt presentations to suit these different situations.
Student Learning Outcomes: Mastery of contemporary issues of public presentation and refinements to personal public presentation skills.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5-9 hours of lecture and 1-1 hours of discussion per week 8 weeks - 5.5 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2018
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester. Freshman/Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Priority given to freshmen and sophomores
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: The grading option will be decided by the instructor when the class is offered. Final Exam To be decided by the instructor when the class is offered.
Terms offered: Spring 2014, Spring 2012
Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting. These seminars are offered in all campus departments; topics vary from department to department and from semester to semester. Freshman/Sophomore Seminar: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Priority given to freshmen and sophomores
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1.5-4 hours of seminar per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: The grading option will be decided by the instructor when the class is offered. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Prior to 2007
What is everyone talking about when they talk politics? Do you wish you had an entry point into the conversation? Or a guide to its ABC’s? Do you wonder why everyone else seems to have such strong opinions? Or why your own opinions seem too strong–or not strong enough to go anywhere? Do you like to think about words and meanings and where they come from and how they change? Each week, students will read a selection involving one particular word and also a contemporary instance of it in discussion or debate. By the end of the course, students will understand that the words used in political and legal discourse have a history and philosophy that is worthy of further humanistic (or rhetorical) study. Big Words in Politics: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week 15 weeks - 4 hours of lecture and 0 hours of discussion per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture and 0 hours of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2021
What is everyone talking about when they talk politics? Do you wish you had an entry point into the conversation? Or a guide to its ABC’s? Do you wonder why everyone else seems to have such strong opinions? Or why your own opinions seem too strong–or not strong enough to go anywhere? Do you like to think about words and meanings and where they come from and how they change? Each week, students will read a selection involving one particular word and also a contemporary instance of it in discussion or debate. By the end of the course, students will understand that the words used in political and legal discourse have a history and philosophy that is worthy of further humanistic (or rhetorical) study. Big Words in Politics: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Prior to 2007
In this class we will consider big words in law that are key to our present, understood as plural and global. Each semester, the course will focus on twelve timely words that demand our attention and critical reflection. We will choose words that are often mobilized in political battles, approaching them not as fixed units of speech but as sites for arguments and visions for the planet we co-inhabit. The objective is not to secure a definition for the word; it is rather to open it up and to gain appreciation for its different layers, operations, and sometimes unrealized meanings. Because law and legal words are themselves contested, we will also consider the differing commitments that people display toward what counts as law for them. Big Words in Law: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week 15 weeks - 4 hours of lecture and 0 hours of discussion per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture and 0 hours of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Spring 2022
In this class we will consider big words in law that are key to our present, understood as plural and global. Each semester, the course will focus on twelve timely words that demand our attention and critical reflection. We will choose words that are often mobilized in political battles, approaching them not as fixed units of speech but as sites for arguments and visions for the planet we co-inhabit. The objective is not to secure a definition for the word; it is rather to open it up and to gain appreciation for its different layers, operations, and sometimes unrealized meanings. Because law and legal words are themselves contested, we will also consider the differing commitments that people display toward what counts as law for them. Big Words in Law: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternate method of final assessment during regularly scheduled final exam group (e.g., presentation, final project, etc.).
Terms offered: Fall 2023, Spring 2020, Fall 2018
Instruction for a small group of students on a topic initiated by those students. Supervised Group Study: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Consent of adviser
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-3 hours of directed group study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Offered for pass/not pass grade only. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 Second 6 Week Session
This course teaches skills necessary to succeed in major-specific research and writing tasks at UC Berkeley. Students read and discuss scholarship in writing studies and rhetoric to develop a framework for understanding the conventions of academic writing and complete a series of research tasks to determine what it means to write successfully in their major. The course culminates in an essay identifying challenges and opportunities specific to writing in a specific academic discipline. Writing at the University: A Writing Seminar for Transfer Students: Read More [+]
Objectives & Outcomes
Course Objectives: Analyze the generic conventions for writing in their discipline to produce an essay explicating the challenges and opportunities specific to research and writing in their major. Identify exemplary writing and writers in their discipline to learn what it means to write successfully in their major. Read and discuss scholarship in writing studies and rhetoric to develop a framework for understanding conventions of writing (North American Academic English).
Student Learning Outcomes: Deepen awareness with the conventions and purposes of academic writing.
Develop knowledge of best practices for research and writing in a specific major.
Refine academic writing skills to better academic goals.
Hours & Format
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2023, Fall 2022
A broad consideration of the historical relationships between philosophy, literature, and rhetoric, with special emphasis on selected themes of the classical and medieval periods. Approaches and Paradigms in the History of Rhetorical Theory: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 10 or consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week 10 weeks - 4.5 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2024, Spring 2023
A broad consideration of the historical relationship between philosophy, literature, and rhetoric, with special emphasis on selected themes within the early modern and modern periods. Approaches and Paradigms in the History of Rhetorical Theory II: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 10 or consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture and 1 hour of discussion per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
An examination of the relations between rhetoric, discourse, and knowledge in selected historical eras, for example the European Renaissance, the Atlantic Enlightenment, or Victorian Britain. Rhetorical Theory and Practice in Historical Eras: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit with instructor consent.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture per week 10 weeks - 4.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2015, Spring 2013
Consideration of the rhetoric of hermeneutics or biblical interpretation with special emphasis on the mythical, symbolic, and allegorical language as the bearer of persuasive intention. Rhetoric of Religious Discourse: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2017
A study of how historical knowledge is produced and interpreted. Topics might include narrative and representation, the uses of evidence, forms of historical argumentation, and historical controversies in the public realm. Rhetoric of Historical Discourse: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2018, Spring 2017
Examination of the characteristic functions of discourse in and about the natural sciences; with particular examination of the ways in which scientific language both guarantees, and at the same time, obscures the expression of social norms in scientific facts. Rhetoric of Scientific Discourse: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2023, Fall 2020
Introduction to theoretical issues involved in applying rhetorical analysis to philosophical discourse; intensive analysis of selected philosophical works. Rhetoric of Philosophical Discourse: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2023, Fall 2019
Study of the terms and means by which we make and defend judgments involving the exercise of aesthetic sensitivity or perceptiveness. Consideration of the relationship between aesthetic qualities and aesthetic value. Discussion of aesthetic criticism as the means by which the capacities and salience of works of art are called to our attention and brought into focus. Topics include questions of taste, expression, and affect. Aesthetics and Rhetoric: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Any 1A-1B sequence, upper division standing, and consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Summer 2019 Second 6 Week Session, Fall 2014, Summer 2014 Second 6 Week Session
Study and practice of advanced techniques of argumentation for students with well-developed writing skills. Ethical, logical and pathetic appeals; control of register and tone; assessment of a wide variety of real audiences; genre studies. Advanced Argumentative Writing: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Any 1A-1B sequence or upper division standing
Credit Restrictions: This course is equivalent to 110M.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 5.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Prior to 2007
Participants in this course can expect to accomplish two goals: they will become familiar with a fair amount of the two epics attributed to Homer; and they will learn how classical texts are received by later generations, with Homer as the centerpiece example. That is, we will look at the way in which classical texts are transmitted from the past and how they have survived (or have failed to survive) from antiquity into the present; how readers have sought to make sense of them and to locate them in reality; and how Homer’s originally sung texts were changed while still remaining identifiably “Homeric,” and in this way came to constitute a Homeric tradition that continues to flourish today. Reception of Antiquity: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Fall 2014, Spring 2013, Spring 2012
Investigation of the rhetorical and cultural principles common to various genres of narrative, both prose and poetic, in nonliterate societies. Mythic, epic and folk narratives considered as well as written works from cultures in transition. Rhetoric of Narrative Genres in Nonliterate Societies: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit with instructor consent.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2025
Can you live ethically without following moral norms, that is, norms as these are given institutionally and reinforced by culture and/or convention? The question, which is at least as old as the Cynics, gathered steam again in the nineteenth century starting with Nietzsche, and it remains a vital problem today. Paradoxical though it may seem, some of the staunchest critics of moral systems and moral norms are at the same time powerful advocates of non-normative ethical reflection and action. This course will examine this phenomenon through close study. Rhetoric of Ethics: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Fall 2023, Summer 2020 Second 6 Week Session, Fall 2018
This course examines a range of digital media practices including hypertext, interactive drama, videogames, literary interactive fiction, and socially constructed narratives in multi-user spaces. Through a mixture of readings, discussion, and project work, we will explore the theoretical positions, debates, and design issues arising from these different practices. Topics will include the rhetorical, ludic, theatrical, narrative political, and legal dimensions of digital media. Rhetoric of New Media: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: R1A-R1B, 10 or 20, consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2020, Spring 2018
This course will examine the place and meaning of technology in culture, emphasizing the ways in which technologies shape and inflect social and political interactions. The primary focus will be on the wider reception and perception of technological and cultural shifts as represented in imaginative scientific and cultural works, endeavors and ambitions. This course will then question the conditions for the production and sustainability of these technologies and technological dreams. Technology and Culture: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Summer 2022 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2021 Second 6 Week Session
Analysis of rhetorical practice in the context of social and cultural change with particular reference to the historical transition from pre-industrial to industrial society in the west. Rhetoric, Culture and Society: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 103A; upper division standing
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 5.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2020, Fall 2017, Spring 2016
Examination of philosophical dialogues from Plato to Heidegger. Focus on the interaction within the dialogue, the participation required of the reader/listener, and the relation of such interaction and participation to thinking, speaking and knowing. Language, Truth and Dialogue: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2020, Spring 2018, Fall 2014
An introduction to contemporary modes of reading and interpretation in the humanities, from structuralism through psychoanalysis, with an emphasis on theories of the sign (semiotics). Examples drawn from such fields as contemporary literature, architecture, history, painting, film, and popular culture. Undergraduate Seminar on the Theory and Practice of Reading and Interpretation: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Any 1A-1B sequence and consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2024, Spring 2014
Studies in the history and theory of the rhetorics of place, space, and sites. Rhetorical Places: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Summer 2024 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2024, Summer 2023 First 6 Week Session
This course investigates discourses of the self, both contemporary and historical, in a variety of genres, including philosophy, theory, literature, visual media, and new media, depending on the instructor and year. Topics to be covered may include any of the following: problems of the self, identity (racial, ethnic, gendered), self-expression, self-fashioning, self-destitution, and the limits of the self as an experience or a category. No prerequisites. Rhetoric of the Self: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for RHETOR 120 after completing RHETOR 120. A deficient grade in RHETOR 120 may be removed by taking RHETOR 120.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Summer 2024 First 6 Week Session, Spring 2024
Study of the form and content of fictional narratives. Definition and techniques including voice, point of view, and time orders. Attention to cultural and historical contexts of selected narratives to consider interplay of works, authors, and readerships. Rhetoric of Fiction: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2012, Fall 2004
Examination of the way character is created in drama by repetitive rhetorical patterns and the ways themes are defined by manipulation of such patterns. Rhetoric of Drama: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2023, Spring 2022
This course introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of performance studies. While themes may vary, the course considers disciplinary genealogies from the performing arts, the social sciences, and speech act theory to investigate the many ways that humans constitute themselves and their world through performance. Rhetoric of Performance: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Any 1A-1B sequence, upper divison standing, and consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2016, Fall 2014
Consideration of the relationship between the texture of poetic discourse largely defined by figures of speech and overall poetic structures. Rhetoric of Poetry: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: R1A-R1B sequence, upper division standing, and consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Fall 2012, Spring 2001, Fall 1999
Studies in the relationships between poetic theory and poetic practice from Aristotle's Poetics to the present day. Poetics and Poetry: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Upper division standing
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2019, Fall 2018
This course examines the complex links between novelistic discourse, society, and politics. Topics to be studied may include the social and political vocation of the and the realist novel; autobiography and the rise of liberal individualism; political censorship; and the role of the novel in imagining the nation. Novel, Society, and Politics: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit with instructor consent.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2013
As a common form of interacting, documenting, and informing, the interview plays a central role in the process of social and cultural inquiry. The interview is here not only studied in its popularized use as a form of oral witnessing and of privileged access to personalities. It is also explored in its critical and potentially creative dimensions as part of a mise en scene or a setting in which interviewer and interviewees function as social actors. The Rhetoric and Politics of Interviews: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 1A-1B sequence or 10, or 20, or consent of instructor
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2019, Spring 2017, Fall 2013
Rhetorical analysis of autobiographical discourse, with specific attention to the evolution of the genre in relation to changing modes of human subjectivity. Rhetoric of Autobiography: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Upper division standing
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2019, Spring 2018
Rhetorical analysis of autobiographical discourse in American cultures, with special attention to the ideology of individualism. Autobiography and American Individualism: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Upper division standing
Requirements this course satisfies: Satisfies the American Cultures requirement
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture per week 10 weeks - 4.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2018, Fall 2017, Spring 2016
Close examination of the adaptation of written fiction to the cinema. Focus on the problems arising from the transformation of five novels, which will be read, into their filmed versions. Novel into Film: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 2 hours of laboratory per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture and 2 hours of laboratory per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2023, Spring 2019, Spring 2018
Study of a particular genre (e.g., detective/mystery, horror/thriller, melodrama) with attention to theories of genre in popular culture. Genre in Film and Literature: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture and 3 hours of laboratory per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2016, Fall 2015
The study of films from the perspective of directorial style, theme, or filmmaking career. This course may focus on a single or several directors. Auteur in Film: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Upper division standing
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2014, Spring 2013, Fall 2010
Classical theories of film by Eisenstein, Arnheim, Kracauer, Bazin, Metz, and others. Only one or two films will be analyzed in great depth to test the power of various theories. Theories of Film: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: One UC film course
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2015
A study of a film topic not covered by the other film categories. This course might focus on a particular cinematic "theme," or a nonhistoric and nongeneric category. Examples: Feminist Film Practice, Gay and Lesbian Cinema, Race and Cinematic Representation. Selected Topics in Film: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Upper division standing
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Fall 2018, Fall 2014
Study of narratives and visual cultures of art and its authors, including questions of what is art, who authors it, the boundaries of works and artistic personae, and how aesthetic, economic, and legal regimes of artistic authorship are historicized. Art and Authorship: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Fall 2020, Spring 2019
This course surveys methods and theories of visual culture, including the rhetorics and discourses of images (still and moving), media (old and new), display, circulation, value, and interpretation. Topics explored will include: spectacle, reproduction, materiality, time, style, genre, archive, truth-value, and affectivity. Students will learn multi- and interdisciplinary uses of visual materials as objects of analysis, evidence, exchange, and argumentation. Rhetoric of the Image: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Fall 2013
An introduction to the close analysis and evaluation of television texts. Consideration of a range of examples drawn from classical television series, sitcoms, dramas, news programming, and contemporary reality television. Students learn the narrative, aesthetic, and stylistic aspects of television's story-telling modes and strategies through readings, screenings, short exercises, and a final project consisting of a substantial work of criticism and an oral presentation. Television Criticism: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Rhetoric 10 or Rhetoric 20
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Spring 2018
Studies of the theory and practice of the rhetoric of visual evidence relating to catastrophe. Themes may include witnessing, testimony, the photographic record, news media, and archival knowledge around such subjects as genocide and crimes against humanity, war and other forms of political violence, the AIDS epidemic, natural disaster. Rhetoric of Visual Witnessing: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Fall 2023, Spring 2019, Fall 2017
What is the role of narrative in science and conversely? How do images supplement or displace these narratives? How have scientific conceptions impacted narrative forms and theories of narrative? How important are images to the rhetoric of scientific persuasion? Finally, how can science itself be narrated or visually represented? This course will examine critical discussions of these questions. Science, Narrative, and Image: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Summer 2021 First 6 Week Session, Fall 2020, Summer 2020 Second 6 Week Session
Examination of the characteristic rhetoric of a variety of manifestations of modern politics. Emphasis on building a theoretical foundation for critically observing and participating in the contemporary political process. Rhetoric of Contemporary Politics: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2017, Fall 2012, Fall 2010
This course charts the discovery and conquest of the New World; it treats the ways in which New World peoples were understood--and exploited--by Europeans. It explores not only questions relating to the origins of New World peoples, but also climate and zonal theories of race, and racial ideas of degeneration and corruption. In examining Europe's multivalent relationship with the "other," the course investigates the legal, moral, and spiritual status of New World peoples. Rhetoric of Contact and Conquest: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 10 or 20 and R1A-R1B sequence
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2019, Spring 2011, Spring 2002
The rhetorical context of . Examines the tradition of Anglo-American constitutional argumentation in the eighteenth century, its sources, and its implications. Readings include Locke, Hume, Montesquieu, pamphlets of the American Revolution, and Anti-Federalist writings. Rhetoric of Constitutional Discourse: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2023, Fall 2020, Fall 2019
This course will explore how the social issue of race in the new American republic shaped the political founding of the United States in 1787. We will investigate perceptions of race at the time of the founding, and try to understand the origins of those perceptions. We will examine how those same perceptions affected the founding and establishment of a new nation and how they have affected our contemporary social and political discourse. Race and Order in the New Republic: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 4 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 10 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Summer 2024 First 6 Week Session, Summer 2023 First 6 Week Session, Fall 2020
A survey of the ways in which Americans have discussed their existence as a distinct nation their rights and obligations, and the legitimate modes of political action open to them. Readings cover the 17th through the 20th centuries and may include discussion of sermons, novels, philosophy, social and political theory, autobiographies, declassified government planning documents, Congressional testimony, and films. American Political Rhetoric: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Fall 2019, Spring 2015
This course critically explores key concepts and figures used in the public discourse of European colonialism to justify territorial expansion in the 19th century such as "race," "culture," "civility," and "the Orient" and their disturbing legacies for the knowledges, practical projects, and problems of contemporary postcolonial societies in a globalizing world. Discourses of Colonialism and Postcoloniality: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2018, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session, Spring 2013
Investigation of major 19th and 20th century works of fiction in which political stances are exploited as dominant themes; close reading of authorial viewpoints and rhetorical strategies. Rhetoric of the Political Novel: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2019, Fall 2012, Spring 2012
Study of the textual strategies of important works of modern European and American political theory from the 17th through the 19th centuries. Rhetoric of Modern Political Theory: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2023, Spring 2019, Spring 2018
Close study of selected works of modern political theory, including debates over the nature and interpretation of political theory and the role of the political theorist. Specific themes and readings vary from year to year. Advanced Problems in the Rhetoric of Political Theory: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 8 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Prior to 2007
Through close readings of and about law and literature, the course explores the role of language in both law and literature and the relations between law, language, and literature. Focus may be on particular historical periods, authors, or law-related themes. Law, Language, and Literature: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2014, Fall 2009
Rhetorical methodology applied to close analysis of the argumentative framework of important works in modern legal theory. Rhetoric of Legal Theory: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 5.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2013, Spring 2012
Consideration of basic philosophical issues related to the political and moral foundations of the law. Rhetoric of Legal Philosophy: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Summer 2022 8 Week Session
Examination of the role of rhetoric in the legal and political thought of a particular era or culture. Course may compare societies or periods. All foreign texts will be studied in English translation. Rhetoric in Law and Politics: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 160 or consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit with instructor consent.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 6 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2017, Fall 2012, Fall 2011
Thorough consideration of particular rhetorical themes in the fields of contemporary law and legal discourse. Sample topics include entertainment law, First Amendment law, copyright law. Advanced Topics in Contemporary Law and Legal Discourse: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 160, consent of instructor
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2023, Spring 2016, Spring 2012
Analysis of the ways in which political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, economists and psychologists establish the authoritativeness of their claims. Focus is on the presentation of data as fact, the use of quantitative methods, and other "strategies" through which social knowledge is transformed into objective information. Rhetoric of Social Science: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2019, Fall 2011
Rhetorical analysis of theorists from Durkheim and Weber, as well as Marx, Ricardo and Bentham, to contemporary representatives of social and economic thought. Rhetoric of Social Theory: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2010, Fall 2007
Science in public takes different shapes. It is defended as universal knowledge essential to human thriving. It is critiqued as a particular form of knowledge that does not take stock of the historical and social conditions imposing on its claims. It is dismissed or vilified as false or fake. How then does modern science relate to social and political values? Can and should scientific facts be independent of these values? In what ways are the sciences constitutive of modern publics and republics? Should publics decide not only on the value of scientific projects, but on the truth of scientific claims? Through historical and contemporary case-studies and analyses, this course seeks to approach, investigate and refine these questions. Science and Public: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Credit Restrictions: Students will receive no credit for RHETOR 173 after completing RHETOR 173. A deficient grade in RHETOR 173 may be removed by taking RHETOR 173.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2014, Fall 2010
Where did the first collections originate? Why did people begin to collect? How did--and do--museums and museum collections contribute to the definition of the cultural values/power of elite groups? How do we define ourselves--as citizens, as members of a discipline or tribe, as nations--with reference to collections? What values/ideologies structure the debates and conflicts over definition, meaning, and ownership of collections? These are questions we will try to answer in the class. Rhetoric of Material Culture: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 10 or 20 and R1A-R1B sequence
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2025, Fall 2020, Spring 2016
This course examines the centrality of sexual difference and sexual exchange to the structuring of societies, cultures, and political life. Possible topics include theories of desire and corporeality; the figure of woman as object of exchange in historical and contemporary contexts such as Sati, prostitution, surrogacy and IVF, and the global traffic in female labor; and an examination of how sexual difference functions as a blind-spot in theories of culture, society, and economy. Rhetorics of Sexual Exchange and Sexual Difference: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week 8 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2019, Spring 2018
How does one become more aware of oneself as mover, doer, learner, knower? How does one learn? Does one learn to do things with language - to read, to write, even to think - in the same ways as one learns to move? In this class, we will consider these sorts of questions through experiences with and responses to very basic movement lessons and to academic readings, as well as through writing and discussion. The primary aim is for you to become more aware of the way you move and the way you use language and, through this awareness, to become more skilled at what you want to say and do.
Class meets 2 hours studio and 2 hours seminar per week. Language and Movement: Read More [+]
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2 hours of seminar and 2 hours of studio per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Alternative to final exam.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Summer 2022 Second 6 Week Session, Summer 2021 Second 6 Week Session
Group instruction and investigation of topics not accommodated in regular course offerings. Special Topics: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 7.5 hours of lecture per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required.
Terms offered: Spring 2024, Spring 2022, Spring 2020
Independent study under guidance of a faculty director culminating in a written thesis. Required of all rhetoric majors desiring to earn the A.B. degree with honors. Honors Thesis: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Senior standing with a 3.7 GPA in rhetoric and 3.5 GPA overall
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 0 hours of independent study per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 5 hours of independent study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. This is part one of a year long series course. A provisional grade of IP (in progress) will be applied and later replaced with the final grade after completing part two of the series. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Spring 2019, Fall 2018, Spring 2018
Independent study under guidance of a faculty director culminating in a written thesis. Required of all rhetoric majors desiring to earn the A.B. degree with honors. Honors Thesis: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Senior standing with a 3.7 GPA in Rhetoric and 3.5 GPA overall
Credit Restrictions: Students must take 2 units of H190A and 2 units of H190B.
Hours & Format
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. This is part two of a year long series course. Upon completion, the final grade will be applied to both parts of the series. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Summer 2021, Spring 2020, Spring 2019
Supervised field work in an off-campus organization or business. Field work should be relevant to themes or topics covered in the undergraduate curriculum studied in the department. Additional meetings with faculty sponsor required. Weekly journals and a final paper also required. Field Studies: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 2-6 hours of fieldwork per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 6-18 hours of fieldwork per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Offered for pass/not pass grade only. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Fall 2024, Spring 2024, Fall 2023
Instruction for a small group of students on a topic initiated by those students. Supervised Group Study: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: Junior standing and approval of adviser
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 1-3 hours of directed group study per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 1-3 hours of directed group study per week 8 weeks - 1-3 hours of directed group study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Offered for pass/not pass grade only. Final exam not required.
Terms offered: Fall 2022, Summer 2019 8 Week Session, Summer 2019 First 6 Week Session
For special projects that cannot be otherwise accommodated. Supervised Independent Study: Read More [+]
Rules & Requirements
Prerequisites: 3.0 GPA
Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction.
Hours & Format
Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 0 hours of independent study per week
Summer: 6 weeks - 1-3 hours of independent study per week 8 weeks - 1-3 hours of independent study per week
Additional Details
Subject/Course Level: Rhetoric/Undergraduate
Grading/Final exam status: Offered for pass/not pass grade only. Final exam not required.
When you print this page, you are actually printing everything within the tabs on the page you are on: this may include all the Related Courses and Faculty, in addition to the Requirements or Overview. If you just want to print information on specific tabs, you're better off downloading a PDF of the page, opening it, and then selecting the pages you really want to print.
