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Technology & Selfhood

College Writing, CWP 1508

Theme Overview

Writing is a technology that allows one to read the thoughts of others across space and time. Our course’s theme, Technology, is the subject-matter we will be reading to hone skills such as analysis, argumentation, and critical thinking. This does not mean that you must be a budding technologist to succeed in this course, nor will this course seek to transform you into one. Rather, this course treats “technology” in its broadest sense; from its root in the Greek techne which means “craftsmanship,” “craft,” “art,” or “rhetoric,” to its contemporary definition as the realm of knowledge that deals with the mechanical arts and applied sciences. In writing about technology we will consider perspectives across the university curriculum in order to better comprehend our relationship with our tools and to scrutinize the dynamic interaction, communication, and interdependence of different kinds of tools for various means of communication and representation. We will strive to think critically about ourselves as part of larger communities and systems by attending closely to the ways we communicate with and about others through technologies such as writing, film, and social media. In writing creative, analytical, argumentative, and researched essays we will address responsible uses of technology, the effects that technologies have on different communities and individuals, and try to answer questions like: How does technology affect us when we use it? How do technologies intersect and affect one another? What roles does technology play in our everyday lives? And what roles do we want it to play in our future?

 

"I like teaching in Tech & Selfhood because it's really fun to explore how the tools we use end up shaping us, on both an individual level and a societal one. I also love how our explorations often lead us to realize that we often change our tools to shape our needs--that technologies aren't just something we need to passively accept. We can really make them our own."

--Aileen Waters, MA, Senior Lecturer in College Writing

 

Key Questions that Students May Grapple with in the Course:

  • How do different technologies shape and impact one's sense of self?
  • What role does technology play in daily life? 
  • What roles should technology play in our lives in the future?

Sample Course Topics:

  • Drones
  • Medical Prostheses 
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Algorithms
  • Smartphones
  • Social Media

Examples of Research Projects Pursued by Students in this Theme:

Students have conducted research projects on video games and violence; social media and body image; and, as seen in the examples below, the legacy of racism in digital mapping technologies, and the role of artificial intelligence in self-help.

 

Faculty