What's WRI 260/261 about?

“In the hand are combined an organ of manipulation, an organ of knowledge and an organ of communication,” asserts Raymond Tallis, “a three-in-one, it acts, knows and speaks.” Hands-on engagement with the process of making anything— like assembling a meal or sewing on a button—produces a different type of knowledge than that gained via other methods, such as reading about a topic in a book or making logical deductions about a corpus. Unsurprisingly, hands thus feature prominently in many humanistic fields, from architecture, where drawing constitutes a foundational skill, to art history, which often analyzes ‘the hand’ of the artist, to music, where hands help translate written forms to sonic expression. But how do students and scholars in the humanities transform tactile experience into meaningful academic insight? 

This sophomore research seminar recenters the embodied human in the humanities, inviting students to make the body (all the way down to their own hands!) central to inquiry and discovery. In the fall, students try their hand at a variety of campus maker spaces by throwing pottery, manipulating textile fibers, or woodworking with a lathe and CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machine, to name just a few examples. As they then learn how to approach their creative practices with rigorous analytical methods from across the humanities, students will craft their own project plan for the rest of the year. In the spring, we take our bodies around campus from the art museum to the Center for Digital Humanities to explore multidisciplinary installation of public-facing humanities research projects and determine how students might make their own projects legible and accessible to scholars in their field and the public at large.

Some projects will feature objects newly created by students with their own hands. A student with an interest in fashion and finance, for instance, might analyze consumer culture and industry data while constructing a garment by hand to uncover a more humane business model for garment production. Other projects will bridge embodied making with digital outreach. A student committed to inclusive design could survey the accessibility of Ivy League student residences, then bring together insights from disability activism with architectural design tools to imagine new ways to accommodate diverse student bodies. A visual arts minor might use analog film techniques to preserve and reframe the latest K-pop dance movements, all the while foregrounding the role of digital distribution in the Korean Wave. An aspiring indigenous studies scholar could read deeply in theories of the body and Lenape oral histories while cultivating medicinal plants native to Central New Jersey. All students interested in putting their hands to work are welcome!

How do the schedule and assignments work?

“The Invisible Hand” operates on a year-long, half-time schedule. The course meets for one 80-minute block each week (instead of the standard two) and holds six 50-minute precepts each semester (instead of the standard twelve). For Fall 2025 and Spring 2026, WRI 260/261 will hold regular seminar meetings on Wednesdays from 9:00 - 10:20 a.m., and precepts will be organized around student availability at the start of the fall term.  

Short, weekly assignments comprise 50% of each student’s final course grade and are organized around research skills relevant to their individual project and intellectual goals. Those smaller assignments are also the building blocks of each semester’s summative assignment (each contributing 15% to each student’s final grade) and the inspiration for each semester’s concluding exercise (each contributing 5%)—about how their research experiences and learning might transfer to other courses and contexts. 

What else should I know?

Like all sophomore research seminars housed in the Writing Program, this course will include sessions on obtaining undergraduate research funding, building a research network at Princeton (and beyond!), balancing professional ambition with personal wellbeing, cultivating a supportive peer writing community, and sharing research findings effectively in public-facing genres. 

For more information, review the Registrar’s listing for WRI 260/261 (coming soon).