Environmentalists have traditionally relied upon the power of their prose to transform the thoughts and behavior of their contemporaries. In 1963, Rachel Carson, a marine biologist with a penchant for writing, described a world without wildlife in Silent Spring and altered the way Americans understood their impact on the landscape. Like other writers we will encounter this semester, Carson realized that she could alter the perceptions of her contemporaries only if she was able to transmit her knowledge in engaging and accessible language. We will do our best to follow in her footsteps.

This class addresses the craft of writing about science in and for contemporary society, both its pleasures and its challenges. We will read essays, reportage, op-eds, and web-based articles on a variety of topics concerning science, technology, medicine and nature. Readings by contemporary writers such as Elizabeth Kolbert, Atul Gawande, and Michael Pollan will serve as examples of the craft and sources of ideas for our own writing.

Three hundred and eighty years after his death, William Shakespeare remains the central author of the English-speaking world; he is the most quoted poet and the most regularly produced playwright — and now among the most popular screenwriters as well. Why is that, and who “is” he? Why do so many people think his writing is so great? What meanings did his plays have in his own time, and how do we read, speak, or listen to his words now? What should we watch for when viewing his plays in performance? Whose plays are we watching, anyway? We’ll consider these questions as we carefully examine a sampling of Shakespeare’s plays from a variety of critical perspectives.

Filmed Shakespeare began in 1899, with Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree performing the death scene from King John for the camera. Sarah Bernhardt, who had played Hamlet a number of times in her long career, filmed the duel scene for the Paris Exposition of 1900. In the era of silent film (1895-1929) several hundred Shakespeare films were made in England, France Germany and the United States, Even without the spoken word, Shakespeare was popular in the new medium. The first half-century of sound included many of the most highly regarded Shakespeare films, among them – Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet and Henry V, Orson Welles’ Othello and Chimes at Midnight, Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood, Polanski’s Macbeth and Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet. We are now in the midst of an extremely rich and varied period for Shakespeare on film which began with the release of Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V in 1989 and includes such films as Richard Loncraine’s Richard III, Julie Taymor’s Titus, Zeffirelli and Almereyda’s Hamlet films, Baz Luhrmann’s William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, and Shakespeare in Love. The phenomenon of filmed Shakespeare raises many questions for literary and media studies about adaptation, authorship, the status of “classic” texts and their variant forms, the role of Shakespeare in youth and popular culture, and the transition from manuscript, book and stage to the modern medium of film and its recent digitally inflected forms.
Most of our work will involve individual and group analysis of the “film text” – that is, of specific sequences in the films, aided by videotape, DVD, the Shakespeare Electronic Archive, and some of the software tools for video annoatation developed by the MIT Shakespeare Project under the MIT-Microsoft iCampus Initiative.
We will study the films as works of art in their own right, and try to understand the means – literary, dramatic, performative, cinematic – by which they engage audiences and create meaning. With Shakespeare film as example, we will discuss how stories cross time, culture and media, and reflect on the benefits as well as the limitations of such migration.
The class will be conducted as a structured discussion, punctuated by student presentations and “mini-lectures” by the instructor. Students will introduce discussions, prepare clips and examples, and the major “written” work will take the form of presentations to the class and multimedia annotations as well as conventional short essays.
The methodological bias of the class is close “reading” of both text and film. This is a class in which your insights will form a major part of the work and will be the basis of a large fraction of class discussion. You will need to read carefully, to watch and listen to the films carefully, and develop effective ways of conveying your ideas to the class.

Test your ability to identify if a line is from Shakespeare or Taylor Swift in this video from the National Theater. Cast members from Great Performances: Romeo and Juliet are presented with quotes and have to decide whether they are from the bard of today or the past! Support materials ask students to extend the game by coming up with their own version using a different songwriter.

This short fiction unit provides lectures regarding specific texts, discussion assignments, a short writing assignment, and resources for writing a character analysis essay. Unless otherwise noted on the individual pages, the materials in this resource are licensed under CC BY-NC-SA.

TED Video: Leaps and bounds separate that which is ironic and that which many people simply say is ironic. Christopher Warner wants to set the record straight: Something is ironic if and only if it is the exact opposite of what you would expect.

This is intended to provide primary and secondary sources to educators as they teach the history of slavery and famous abolitionists. This is an additional resource to help students understand the humanity of slaves as smart, creative, and talented individuals. This includes primary and secondary resources inclusing examples of architecture, artwork, music, and literature. 

A third-year intermediate course designed to improve speaking and writing, with opportunities for vocabulary acquisition, listening comprehension and reading practice as well. Uses literary and cultural readings, films, and group activities. Students give oral reports and participate in discussions and group projects.

Course Sequences
Spanish IV aims at developing and improving student’s oral and written communication through the continued study of the language, literature and culture of Spain, Latin America and Hispanic communities in the United States. It also seeks to improve students’ ability to read and appreciate literary and non-literary texts in Spanish, deepening this way students’ awareness and understanding of the cultural diversity of the Spanish-speaking world. The course is organized by themes based on contemporary social, political and cultural issues of Spanish-speaking societies such as: cultural identity, the changing roles of women and family, economic development and its effects on cultural heritage and environment, and the individual’s rights in the political system.

Spanish for Bilingual Students is an intermediate course designed principally for heritage learners, but which includes other students interested  in specific content areas, such as US Latino immigration, identity, ethnicity, education and representation in the media. Linguistic goals include vocabulary acquisition, improvement in writing, and enhancement of formal communicative skills.

In this 3-unit class, we will read Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost. The goal of the class is for students to come away feeling comfortable with its language and argument; meeting in a small group will also allow us to talk about the key questions and issues raised by the poem. This course is offered during the Independent Activities Period (IAP), which is a special 4-week term at MIT that runs from the first week of January until the end of the month.

Explores how sports are and have been represented and expressed in media and literature, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and plays. Investigates the ways in which narrative representation engages changing cultural and historical contexts. Focus is on analysis of gender, race, and socioeconomics, along with philosophy, ethics, psychology, and politics in sports literature and media.

Since the publication of Dashiell Hammett's 'The Maltese Falcon' in 1930, San Francisco has been recognized as the birthplace of modern crime fiction. Join a distinctive panel as they examine the Bay Area as a popular setting for mystery and detective novels. Panelist are Bay Area authors Lucha Corpi, Eddie Muller, and Kelli Stanley and is moderated by Janet Rudolph. This panel was held in conjunction with an exhibit in Doe Library, highlighting the richness of UC Berkeley's collections for the study of genre fiction. (59 minutes)

Ben Bac Sierra's story is one of transformation. Raised in San Francisco's Mission District he lived a harsh existence until the United States Marine Corps set him on a path to becoming a Gulf War veteran, professor, and author of Barrio Bushido. After an honorable discharge, he received a BA at UC Berkeley, a teaching credential and an MA. at San Francisco State University, and a JD at UC Hastings College of the Law. He is a professor at City College of San Francisco and he regularly presents at high schools, colleges, conferences, and writing workshops throughout the country. (52 minutes)

Born in 1940 in Calcutta, Bharati Mukherjee spent her childhood in India and Britain before moving to the United States. Her celebrated titles include 'Days and Nights in Calcutta' and 'The Middleman and Other Stories.' Clark Blaise has published numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, including 'If I Were Me' and 'Lunar Attractions.' Both serve as faculty in Berkeley's English department, and they have been married to each other for 45 years. (54 minutes)

Carol Edgarian is an author, editor, and publisher. Her novels include the New York Times bestseller 'Three Stages of Amazement' and the international bestseller 'Rise the Euphrates.' Edgarian and her husband, editor and writer Tom Jenks, founded the non-profit magazine Narrative which publishes more than three hundred artists each year. She speaks to an audience at UC Berkeley. (43 minutes)

in 2010, author Chris Adrian was named to The New Yorker's "20 under 40" list of fiction writers worth watching. He is currently a Fellow in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at the University of California San Francisco. He is also the author of several novels and a collection of short stories. (58 minutes)

Cornelia Nixon is the author of two novels, 'Now You See It' and Angels Go Naked,' as well as a study of D. H. Lawrence. She won first prize in the 1995 O. Henry Awards. She teaches in the M.F.A. program at Mills College, near San Francisco. (56 minutes)

Cristina Garcia is the author of five novels, a collection of poetry, and three works for young readers including her newest release 'Dreams of Significant Girls' about three wealthy and adventurous ninth-grade girls from different worlds who converge upon a Swiss boarding school for a summer of discovery. (44 minutes)