Sophomore Seminar

The Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities at Berkeley is an internationally renowned venue for arts, culture, and intellectual and scholarly life. Founded in 1987,The Townsend Center has, since its inception, been the center of the humanities on campus. Undergraduates rarely have the chance (or time) to attend the many exciting lectures, screening, readings, performances and events hosted at 220 Stephens Hall.

This Sophmore seminar offers students the occasion to not only attend Townsend Center events, but also to write about them. Throughout the semester, we will attend various scheduled happenings such as​: Book Chats with Berkeley professors; the Avenali Lecture "Art in a State of Siege" with Harvard University art historian Joseph Koerner (whose film "The Burning Child" will also be screened); "Thinking and Writing in Two Languages" by Edouard Louis (author of the acclaimed The Trouble with Eddy) and his translator, Professor Michael Lucey of Berkeley’s French Department; ​and"A Book is Born," a conversation between Hey Day publisher Steve Wasserman and music critic Greil Marcus.

​Each student will be responsible for attending 3 events during the course of the semester.​After each event, students will write a 250-500 word essay, which we will post on the Art of Writing website. When appropriate, we will read selections of works by the guests invited to the Townsend Center. We will also examine various, contemporary essays on writing practices, on outlines and drafts, and on the art of writing, rewriting, and editing.