WRIT 049: HISTORY

Spring 2022 Courses

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WRIT 049 301

TR 1:45 PM - 3:15 PM

Byala

How Coke Explains the World

Fulfills the Writing Requirement

This course uses Coca-Cola, the world's most ubiquitous consumer product, as a window onto processes central to our contemporary world, such as globalization, commercialism, and sustainability. Coca-Cola was invented in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1886. Today, Coke red - and the other 500 beverages produced - are sold all over the world at about 19,400 products a second. Since it is always bottled locally, Coke is both a global and a local company. Its unique position, coupled with its ubiquity, make Coke something of a lens onto the world through which we see not only business innovation and adaptation, but also ecological strain, fights around empowerment, and more. Indeed, there is little that Coca-Cola does not have a hand in. Working with a history of the product, students will choose a single thread of its vast, complex story to investigate, along the way learning a number of strategies for successful research, analysis, synthesis, and writing that they can use at Penn and beyond.

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