ENC 4404 Graban Spring 2021

What is “citizen science” in the digital age? Known alternatively as “ecospeak,” “popular science,” and “science-based CSR,” the phenomenon of moving scientific facts into the public sphere is one that deserves our critical, rhetorical, and editorial attention. In this course, we will grapple with concepts of neutrality, objectivity, accessibility, velocity, and difference in public-sphere rhetorics, paying particular attention to how various communities get written into (or out of) particular conversations, and bearing witness to how conversations move differently across mediated platforms.

Assignments may include some of the following: (1) a scientific and technical blog; (2) a Wikipedia article revision; (3) a scripted video documentary, with analytic reflection; (4) the creation of a weblog that hosts occasional posts and serves as a digital portfolio for your work; and (5) a reflective analytical essay that synthesizes course readings to explain (for an outside audience) what you have learned.