ENGL1110 · English

First Year Writing Seminar: From Slavery to Mass Incarceration

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

Formerly Titled: First Year Writing Seminar: Power, Race and Inequality in the Criminal Justice System. This section of the First-Year Writing Seminar is centered around a book called Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. The book focuses on Stevenson's work with the criminal justice system and the organization he founded called the Equal Justice Initiative. The book raises questions about power, race, equality, justice, and the common good within the U.S. legal system for which there are no easy answers. Students will identify one of these issues/questions from the book and delve more deeply into that question. Students will start with an oral history/interview of a person who can shed light on their question from a personal or professional perspective. They will then review the academic research literature on the question and research what the media says about the issue. Finally, students will write and present (to a non-academic audience) an informed argument of their own about how to address issues of power and inequality.