Writing on U.S. Religion and Politics

Public Writing: US War in Iraq

Why public writing matters to the world

Daniel Bessner, associate professor of international studies and Joff Hanauer Honors Associate Professor in Western Civilization, is the director of the Calderwood Seminars in Public Writing program at the Jackson

Global Cities

Public writing, collaboration, Seattle, global cities: four keywords that characterize this seminar designed to involve students in working in concert with one another to produce distinctive compositions for the general

Writing about Indigeneity for a General Public

To help build a deeper and more nuanced understanding of Indigeneity among the general public, students will pick Indigenous related themes – boarding schools, dam removal, pipelines, immigration, salmon recovery,

Border Stories: Migration, Mexico and the US

For decades, debates over immigration, border walls, and asylum have generated more heat than light. Why do passions run high even when migration rates are low? Despite often contrasting wildly

Beyond the Cartels: Communicating Casualties of the War on Drugs

The U.S.-led War on Drugs and Latin American drug “cartels” have captivated the popular imagination since the 1970s. However films, television series, and news articles that center these topics do

Rethinking US Foreign Policy

In the last twenty years, the United States has lurched from foreign policy disaster to foreign policy disaster. This class is devoted to changing that. In “Rethinking U.S. Foreign Policy,”

Writing on Religion and Politics

American religion and politics are in crisis. At some points in our history, American civil religion brought stability and equity to American lives – but now it often brings dissension

Misinformation and Democracy

This course trains students to write for public audiences. Students will engage with contemporary debates about misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories, and practice writing about those debates for various non-academic readerships.