You may have already fulfilled the L&S R&C requirement, though most freshmen have not. You should complete the R&C requirement by the end of your sophomore year.
These courses are provisional and may be adjusted based on unforeseen circumstances.
Reading and Composition Part A
English R1A—Reading and Composition (4 units)
Department Abbreviation: XENGLIS R1A
Prerequisite: Completion of the UC Entry-level Writing Requirement
Satisfies: The first-half (Part A) of the Reading and Composition requirement if completed with a C- or better.
Course Description: Training in writing expository prose. Instruction in expository writing in conjunction with reading literature.
Fall 2025 Sections
English R1A—Section 1
The American City - From Segregation to Climate Change
The American city is an incredibly complex and dynamic organism—and the subject of a great body of literature, both fiction and non-fiction. This course will trace and critically engage how American urban development has been written about from the late nineteenth century to today. We will follow how writers have addressed the dramatic changes that American urban spaces underwent from the progressive era, turn-of-the-century segregation, and the experience of the Great Migration to redlining, white flight, and suburbanization in the wake of the New Deal. Studying metropolitan areas across the nation—from New York City to the Bay Area and from Chicago to New Orleans—this course asks students to write critically about urban development from the battles over “urban renewal” and the anti-eviction campaigns of the Civil Rights era to the impact of 1970s neoliberal policies, the “war on drugs” and militarized policing, and the urban uprisings of the early 1990s. We will end this semester by studying how writers address the impact that hyper-gentrification and climate chaos (from disaster capitalism to grassroots organizing) have on American cities today.
English R1A—Section 2
Other Californias
While much of America has held to a myth of California as a place of constant change and innovation, a place to remake one’s life, a canon of California literature has been quite stable until recently. In this course, we read outside this canon to explore various myths and realities of the many peoples who live in this geographic region. We will critically read across genres—fiction, memoir, nonfiction, poetry, films, serial drama—from diverse perspectives and experiences, and we’ll examine how the literary imagination creates and recreates historical consciousness, contemporaneous conflicts, and projected futures.
English R1A—Section 3, Section 4
A Critical History of the Bay Area
We’ll read various authors from around the Bay Area to gain a deeper understanding of the space we all will live and work in members of the UC Berkeley community.
English R1A—Section 5
Writing in the Natural Sciences
“Think like a scientist. Write like a poet.” In this course, we will explore a variety of texts produced by natural science experts (e.g., scholarly articles and popular science essays) and compose a variety of genres, including an annotated bibliography, literature review, 60-second podcast, and popular science article.
English R1A—Section 6, Section 7
China in the Global Imagination
TBA
English R1A—Section 10 *Online*
Voices from the Margins
In this course, we'll explore the importance of hearing from voices that have historically been silenced. For years, we have read about marginalized groups through the voices of authors who do not share the background they're writing about. While analyzing works from authors who themselves are part of the community they write about, we'll explore themes of racism, ableism, poverty, mental health, and gender and sexual identity.
English R1A—Section 14, Section 15
Explorers, Monsters, and Magicians
This class will help you develop sharp writing and thinking skills that you’ll use throughout college and beyond. Discover your voice by writing about texts that ask and answer questions like: What powers or risks go with living as an explorer, an outsider, or even a monster? How far should we go for the dreams and inventions we create?
College Writing R1A—Accelerated Reading and Composition (6 units)
Department Abbreviation: XCOLWRI R1A
Prerequisite: Only for students who have not passed the UC Analytical Writing Placement Exam or have not satisfied the Entry-Level Writing requirement.
Satisfies: Both the UC Entry-Level Writing Requirement and the first-half (Part A) of the Reading and Composition requirement if completed with a C- or better
Course Description: An intensive, accelerated course satisfying concurrently the requirements of the UC Entry Level Writing Requirement and the first half of Reading and Composition. Readings will include imaginative, expository and argumentative texts representative of the range of those encountered in the undergraduate curriculum and will feature authors from diverse social and cultural backgrounds and perspectives. Instruction in writing a range of discourse forms and in the revision of papers.
Fall 2023 Sections
College Writing R1A—Section 1 *Online*
Berkeley and The Bay (FPF Thread: California)
In our class, we will use personal experience and our fiction and nonfiction readings about the Bay Area to question the role of place in our lives. We will read authors of many different perspectives in order to establish our own confident academic voices, and we will value the process of writing alongside its products.
College Writing R1A—Section 2 *Online*
Consciousness, Self-Understanding, and Belonging: Finding Our Way in the Digital Expanse (FPF Thread: Citizenship)
This course will examine how successive waves of technological change have influenced how people construct their identities. We will consider how historically recent developments have led to the daily use of technologies that increasingly mediate how we achieve self-understanding and find affiliation with others. What are the implications for belonging and consciousness? The means of creating personal meaning and belonging as we await the emergence of artificial general intelligence will be regularly discussed.
College Writing R1A—Section 3, Section 4 *Online*
Poetic Justice in Popular Music (FPF Thread: Social Justice)
Using the Allen Ginsberg method of social engagement: positivity, inclusivity, and empathy, students will explore social justice themes in popular music. We'll look at and discuss music for social change through the lens of resistance to power structures, as well as the role of musicians in social justice movements. As Western music has welcomed global perspectives in contemporary composition, the door has opened to new and ever-changing forms. With that in mind, we will redefine what “poetic justice” means in popular music today, and what the term says, politically, artistically, socially, and psychologically. We’ll think critically, analyzing music as well as what writers are saying about music and musicians.
Comparative Literature R1A—English Composition in Connection With the Reading of World Literature (4 units)
Department Abbreviation: XCOMLIT R1A
Prerequisite: Completion of the UC Entry Level Writing Requirement or UC Analytical Writing Placement Exam
Satisfies: The first-half (Part A) of the Reading and Composition requirement if completed with a C- or better.
Course Description: Expository writing based on analysis of selected masterpieces of ancient and modern literature. You will come to understand the readings through class discussion and writing and revising papers that analyze the readings in academic argument form. Learn to read and write at the analytical and critical levels required at Berkeley.
Fall 2025 Sections
Comparative Literature R1A—Section 1, Section 2
Lost & Found in the American City
As cultural, political, and economic centers, cities can foster connection, creativity, and belonging. What is lost or pushed into possible oblivion in and by the city? We’ll explore the landscapes of four of America’s most iconic cities—New York, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and Los Angeles—and consider the ways in which urban spaces are experienced, constructed, and imagined as spaces where some get lost, others found.
Comparative Literature R1A—Section 3
An Exploration of Classic Literature
When we say that a work of literature is a “classic,” we mean that it has a special status in a culture: it is widely recognized as excellent or important, and its power to interest and delight endures. In this writing-intensive course, we will strengthen your language skills and powers of analysis while exploring classics of different periods, cultures, and genres. Authors may include Elizabeth Bishop, James Joyce, Yasunari Kawabata, Katherine Mansfield, and Leo Tolstoy.
South and Southeast Asian Studies R5A—Self, Representation, and Nation (4 units)
Department Abbreviation: XSEASIA R5A
Prerequisite: Completion of the UC Entry-Level Writing Requirement or UC Analytical Writing Placement Exam
Satisfies: The first-half (Part A) of the Reading and Composition requirement if completed with a C- or better
Course Description: This course is devoted to a study of selected literary texts set in various regions of Southeast Asia. The readings will include works by foreign authors who lived and traveled in Southeast Asia and translations of works by Southeast Asian writers. These texts will be used to make comparisons and observations with which to characterize coloniality, nationalism, and postcoloniality.
Fall 2023 Section
South and Southeast Asian Studies R5A—Section 1
Environmental justice in South Asian literature (FPF Thread: Social Justice)
This course approaches the core question of environmental justice through close reading and discussion of diverse literary and cinematic texts from South Asia. In the current crisis of climate change and rising awareness of many intersecting forms of social injustice, how can we begin to listen and learn from diverse perspectives on environmental justice? We will read works written in English and translated from Mundari, Hindi, Bangla, and other languages.
Reading and Composition Part B
English R1B—Reading and Composition (4 units)
Department Abbreviation: XENGLIS R1B
Prerequisite: Completion of both the UC Entry-Level Writing Requirement and the first-half (Part A) of the Reading and Composition requirement
Satisfies: The second-half (Part B) of the reading and composition requirement if completed with a C- or better
Course Description: Training in writing expository prose. Further instruction in expository writing in conjunction with reading literature.
Fall 2025 Sections
English R1B—Section 1, Section 6
Exploring Social Justice through Literature
This will be a reading- and writing-intensive course where we will read three literary texts to examine how literature can be a vehicle for social justice. How are ideas of justice influenced by specific historical moments? What visions of a just life does literature provide? How might the different emotions that literature evokes in its readers help to promote social justice?
English R1B—Section 2
Narrative and Medicine
In this course, we will investigate social justice issues related to healthcare in the United States by reading and analyzing autobiographies about birth, cancer, and the practice of medicine. Additionally, students will learn how to effectively gather research materials and incorporate secondary sources in their writing to strengthen their argumentative positions.
English R1B—Section 3
Things Fall Apart
We will read and discuss three novels about historical conditions that cause cultures to collapse and individuals to experience personal crisis. The settings include a traditional Nigerian village, a racially segregated Midwestern town, and a loose community of Native Americans living in contemporary Oakland. We will focus on learning how to analyze literary texts attentively and how to write persuasively.
English R1B—Section 4, Section 5
Dystopian/Utopian Fictions
What can literature teach us about utopian and dystopian elements in our own contemporary moment? How does literature help us identify the qualities, values, and skills we may use to help our families, communities, and planet survive and flourish in difficult times?
English R1B—Section 7 *Online*
Crisis and Catharsis
Humans need stories almost as much as we need food, especially when we’re growing up. Stories can be fun or romantic. But many memorable works of fiction capture tragedies, personal or historical, better than nonfiction can. This class will explore how writers imaginatively transform personal crises into stories that inspire us, even if they disturb us.
English R1B—Section 8 *Online*
Life on the Hyphen
In this course, we read texts by Toni Morrison, Kiran Desai and Chang-rae Lee to better understand the complexities of life in the Americas as we balance our lives on the hyphen as “-American.” This course develops your critical thinking and writing skills along with research techniques.
Asian American Studies R2B—Reading and Composition (4 units)
Department Abbreviation: XASAMST R2B
Prerequisite: Completion of both the UC Entry-Level Writing Requirement and the first-half (Part A) of the Reading and Composition requirement
Satisfies: The second-half (Part B) of the reading and composition requirement if completed with a C- or better
Course Description: This course examines literary works by Asian American, African American, Chicano, and Native American writers in their political and social contexts, focusing on similarities and differences between the experiences of ethnic minorities in the U.S. Emphasis is on literary interpretation and sustained analytical writing.
Fall 2023 Section
Asian American Studies R2B—Section 1 *Online*
Literature of Settler Colonialism, from Hawai'i to Palestine (FPF Thread: Social Justice)
This writing-intensive course explores the history and legacies of settler colonialism through a comparative study of Palestinian and Hawaiian literature. We will examine the connections between the regions—similarities and distinctions between the histories and experiences of those under occupation—and address questions of land, indigeneity, law, displacement, diaspora, community and kinship, art, and the environment. We will read primarily poetry, but also memoir and fiction, and discuss visual and performance as well as film.
Film R1B—The Craft of Writing: Film Focus (4 units)
Department Abbreviation: XFILM R1B
Prerequisite: Completion of both the UC Entry-Level Writing Requirement and the first-half (Part A) of the Reading and Composition requirement
Satisfies: The second-half (Part B) of the reading and composition requirement if completed with a C- or better
Course Description: Intensive argumentative writing stimulated through selected readings, films, and class discussion.
Fall 2023 Section
Film R1B—Section 1
Stardom, Spectatorship, and Difference
This class interrogates the relationships between stars and their social contexts. What does it mean to present an “image” of oneself? How can that “image” be read onscreen? The class will engage a wide range of critical texts that focus on the history of the “art of personality” with a particular emphasis on the history of film stardom, including how stars circulate in society, how spectators respond to representations of stardom, how forms of social difference inform this spectatorship, and how the phenomenon of stardom has changed from the 19th century to the digital era.