Some of the readings below (where noted) have must be accessed off-campus with login authentication from the Brooklyn College Library. Here are Library remote access instructions. You will also need to activate your CUNY New York Times account with these instructions.
Week 1
Tuesday, August 26, 2025
Introduction to English 1012
Thursday, August 28, 2025
Diagnostic essay
Week 2
Tuesday, September 2, 2025
Morton, Brian. “A Modest Exercise in Freedom.” Dissent Magazine. July 12, 2021.
Thursday, September 4, 2025
Malik, Nesrine. “The Myth of the Free Speech Crisis.” The Guardian. September 3, 2019.
Week 3
Tuesday, September 9, 2025
Veliz, Carissa. “If AI is Predicting Your Future, are You Still Free?” Wired. December 27, 2021.
Thursday, September 11, 2025
Cunningham, Vinson. “What do Commercials About AI Really Promise?” The New Yorker. July 12, 2025.
Argument response due
Week 4
Tuesday, September 16, 2025
Weil, Elizabeth “You Are Not a Parrot (library off-campus login link).” Intelligencer. March 1, 2023.
Thursday, September 18, 2025
Roose, Kevin, Casey Newton, Rachel Cohn, Whitney Jones, Jen Poyant, Katie McMurran, Dan Powell, Elisheba Ittoop, Marion Lozano, and Rowan Niemisto. 2025. “Hard Fork Live, Part 1: Sam Altman and Brad Lightcap of OpenAI.” The New York Times, June 27, 2025.
Week 5
Tuesday, September 23, 2025
No class
Thursday, September 25, 2025
Congressional Apology to Native Peoples
Long Soldier, Layli. “Whereas.” Poetry Foundation. 2025.
Topic proposal due
Week 6
Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Thubron, Colin. (2024, October 17). The Artificiality of Nations (library off-campus login link). The New York Review of Books, 43.
Thursday, October 2, 2025
No class
Week 7
Tuesday, October 7, 2025
So, Anthony Veasna. “Three Women of Chuck’s Donuts” (library off-campus login link). New Yorker, vol. 95, no. 48, Feb. 2020, pp. 54–62.
Thursday, October 9, 2025
Lalami, Laila. (2020, September 20). I’m a Muslim and Arab American. Will I Ever Be an Equal Citizen? (library off-campus login link). The New York Times Magazine, 53(L).
Week 8
Tuesday, October 14, 2025
No class
Thursday, October 16, 2025
Wells, David Wallace. “The Uninhabitable Earth (library off-campus login link).” New York Magazine. July 9, 2017.
Annotated bibliography due
Week 9
Tuesday, October 21, 2025
Valliant, John. “We Built Our World With Fire.” The Guardian. January 11, 2025.
Thursday, October 23, 2025
Gelles, David and Maxine Joselow. “Inside the “Radical Transformation” of America’s Environmental Role.” The New York Times, August 3, 2025.
Week 10
Tuesday, October 28, 2025
Pelly, Liz ” “The Problem with Muzak (library off-campus login link).” The Baffler. December 4, 2017.
Thursday, October 30, 2025
Morris, Wesley. “Why is Everyone Always Stealing Black Music?” New York Times, August 14, 2019.
Thesis statement due
Week 11
Tuesday, November 4, 2025
Cole, Teju. (2023, May 25). Seeing Beyond the Beauty of a Vermeer (library off-campus login link). New York Times [Digital Edition].
Thursday, November 6, 2025
Srinivasan, Amia. “The Right to Sex.” London Review of Books. March 22, 2018.
Week 12
Tuesday, November 11, 2025
Desmond, Matthew. (2023, March 12). Why is poverty in America so intractable? (library off-campus login link). The New York Times Magazine, 28(L).
Thursday, November 13, 2025
Greif, Mark. “Gut-Level Legislation.” N+1. May 1, 2006.
Week 13
Tuesday, November 18, 2025
Graeber, David. “Bullshit Jobs.” STRIKE! Magazine. August 2013.
Thursday, November 20, 2025
Strawson, Galen. “Just Live.” Dublin Review of Books. 2024.
Week 14
Tuesday, November 25, 2025
Research paper workshop- first draft due in class
Thursday, November 27, 2025
No class
Week 15
Tuesday, December 2, 2025
Jenny Odell, Dear Future
Odell, Jenny. 2023. “Dear Future, Here’s the One Lesson I Want to Pass on to You.” The Sydney Morning Herald. May 16, 2023.
Thursday, December 4, 2025
Presentations
Week 16
Tuesday, December 9, 2025
Presentations
Thursday, December 11, 2025
Presentations
Final drafts of research papers due
