CoursesRhetorics of Place
WRIT 0021

Rhetorics of Place

The question “Where are you from?” evokes a myriad of responses which can vary along socio-political, cultural, and economic fault-lines. We conceptualize our identities through the meanings we attach to place; conversely, we conceptualize place, geographically speaking, through the lens of our identities. For example, residents who live on the north side of a city may perceive themselves as different from residents who live on the south side of a city, and vice versa. This phenomenon of differentiated identity mediated through place occurs at a variety of geographical and regional scales, from the local to the transnational.

Instructor(s)
TBD
Semester

Fall 2024

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Using Yi-Fu Tuan’s Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience, this course examines how space, place, and identity rhetorically interconnect as we navigate conceptual differences to arrive at shared understandings.

This is an SNF Paideia-designated writing seminar, designed to examine and encourage dialogue across differences. Students and faculty participating in the Paideia writing seminar cluster will have an opportunity to meet once a month for dinner, dialogue, and a keynote speaker or facilitator, as well as engage in other cross seminar community building activities. SNF Paideia-designated courses are noted on student transcripts. This seminar fulfills the writing requirement, follows the same curriculum, and has the same workload, assessment process, and standards as all other critical writing seminars at Penn. Seminar topics vary in academic discipline but each relates back to the SNF Paideia program’s core values of informed civil discourse and deliberation. Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in SNF Paideia-designated writing seminars.

 

Instructor: Fayyaz Vellani

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