When people in academic circles use the term “discipline,” they are often referring to the rhetorical methods, conventions, concerns, and ways of knowing of a specific field. Seminar in Composition: Exploring the Disciplines is an introductory course that offers students the opportunity to explore a particular field while improving as writers.
Students in this course can expect to develop their understanding of how they and others use writing to interpret and share experience, affect behavior, and position themselves in the world. Specific reading and writing assignments may vary from section to section, but student writing will be the primary focus in all sections. The course is designed to help students become more engaged, imaginative, and disciplined composers.
The teachers of SC: Exploring the Disciplines use their own disciplinary lens to select the content and design the composition assignments in this course. By engaging with a particular theme, combined with reading and writing practices that expose students to a particular disciplinary approach, students are invited to explore how practitioners in a range of disciplines use writing to communicate, to think, to express, to make and to articulate discoveries. The sections of Seminar in Composition: Exploring the Disciplines will vary in their subject matter and will reflect the instructor’s disciplinary expertise. Check the notes section in PeopleSoft to see the disciplinary focus of a particular section.
You can browse the topics that are available for Fall 2026 below.
Lived Religion, Brock Bahler, Religious Studies, CRN 33954
This particular seminar will attend to readings and writing activities that explore how religious life is embodied and habituated, including how it intersects with the social & political dimensions of human experience. Readings will also model how writing can be a means of processing personal growth, creating existential meaning, and compelling social change. The field of religious studies is well-known to be interdisciplinary in scope, often drawing from anthropology, history, philosophy, and sociology. So, as we work on our writing this semester you will also be introduced to several models of writing within the humanities. Prof. Bahler says,"Writing is a space to get curious about yourself, the world, and others, and as the result of the writing process you might draw out new creative ideas that you didn't even know you had."
Course Title TBA, Gretchen Bender, History of Art and Architecture, CRN
This course explores the art of storytelling within the field of Natural Sciences (biology, chemistry, physics), examining how to share complex discoveries and ideas. Students will analyze science biographies, podcasts, and other stories to learn how narratives shape audience engagement with science. We will explore techniques to help communicate scientific concepts creatively and clearly through storytelling elements. By framing the natural sciences with these tools, you can make it not just informative but also vibrant, relevant, and memorable. Prof. Kelsey says, "I can’t wait to dive into the intersection of science and storytelling with my students, equipping them with narrative tools to ensure the way we communicate a discovery is as impactful as the research itself."
What is knowledge? How is it acquired and why does it matter? This course will examine how individuals and communities gather information into narratives of knowledge, how and why certain narratives are remembered, and what it means for knowledge to be lost or forgotten. Together, we will reflect on our own ways of knowing and develop the writing skills needed to take part in debates in our scholarly fields and communities, and to advocate for equitable systems of knowledge. Prof. Keown says, "Together, we will reflect on our own ways of knowing, develop the writing skills needed to take part in debates in our fields and communities, and to shape more accurate and equitable narratives."
Every city is a text waiting to be read. In this course, students explore Pittsburgh as a living archive — its neighborhoods, monuments, demolished buildings, and forgotten histories — to develop skills in research, observation, and persuasive writing. Through field visits, archival sources, and writers who model how to read urban landscapes, students compose original, multimodal work that investigates how cities remember, erase, and reimagine their pasts. Prof. Krishna says, "I'm excited to take students out of the classroom and into the city itself — to walk Pittsburgh's streets, dig into its hidden histories, and discover that the best writing starts not at a desk but at the corner of a block you've passed a hundred times without really seeing."
This science-focused SC course is aimed at cultivating students writing skills based on natural science topics across genres. Students will stretch their skills beyond formal lab report writing and explore scientific writing in its various forms and styles. Group discussion, iterative writing, and revision will aid the students in the effectiveness of their writing assignments. Prof. Morgan says, "We are fortunate to have students that are passionate about a wide range of topics; these courses are designed to give students an opportunity to find their voice and build the foundation of relaying the importance of what they have to say."
This seminar in composition will engage students in writing through the exploration of neuroscience in popular media, examining areas such as emotional processing, drug use, neuroscience ethics, and mental health disorders, among others. Students will learn to ask questions, form opinions, and write about how the brain affects our thoughts and behaviors, and challenge potential misconceptions and biases presented to us in the media. Prof. Nygard says, "As a SC Faculty Fellow, I’m excited to help students explore how neuroscience shapes the stories we encounter in everyday media while building the critical thinking and communication skills they can use across disciplines and in the real world."
How can art and culture be mobilized? How much power do art and culture hold to bring about change and how does the status quo push back? In this writing intensive course, we will compose texts of various lengths and genres to explore notions of resistance in cultural production, specifically in German-speaking Europe from World War I to the present. By engaging with literary texts, films, music, visual art, and popular culture in 20th and 21st century Germany and Europe, we will examine the relationship between cultural production, resistance, and centers of power. Prof. Riddle says, "I'm excited to guide students in discovering their own critical voice by engaging with art and culture that may be unfamiliar but expands their understanding of the world around them."
What is nature? While seemingly a straightforward concept, it is anything but. We use it liberally and often interchangeably with concepts like environment and ecology, but it’s a word and an idea with a long, convoluted, and sometimes surprising history—one that frequently reveals more about human society than the nonhuman world it seeks to describe. As one scholar put it, “there’s nothing natural about nature.” In this Seminar in Composition, we will explore key ideas related to nature, including wilderness, environmentalism, and the boundaries we draw between human and nonhuman world. Prof. Sekulić says,"Seminar in Composition is an opportunity to explore topics in depth, practice writing and thinking, and witness your own growth and the power of your ideas in a supportive community."
Literature, Dan Kubis, English, CRN 33865
Literature, Jim Zukowski, English, CRN 33533
Creative Writing, Teacher to be announced, English CRN 33683
SC Exploring the Disciplines: Creative Writing uses the creation, production and inquiry into three genres of creative writing as entry points toward students’ improvement as writers. Students will read, discuss and analyze thematically-aligned works in fiction, nonfiction and poetry, then write both in homage to and in critical analysis of them. Writing in the course will prioritize critical and creative inquiry, attention to language, and the process of revision as students reflect on both the process of writing and the works considered. No prior creative writing experience is required, only an openness to the work ahead.
Creative Writing, Teacher to be announced, English
SC Exploring the Disciplines: Creative Writing uses the creation, production and inquiry into three genres of creative writing as entry points toward students’ improvement as writers. Students will read, discuss and analyze thematically-aligned works in fiction, nonfiction and poetry, then write both in homage to and in critical analysis of them. Writing in the course will prioritize critical and creative inquiry, attention to language, and the process of revision as students reflect on both the process of writing and the works considered. No prior creative writing experience is required, only an openness to the work ahead.