syllabus schedule links assignments class-mail last-words contact |
August 24 |
| First Day of Class: Read the syllabus! Read Raymond Williams "The Analysis of Culture" for Thursday. For Thursday: prepare notecards w/ questions for the class. ALSO: check out this page and make sure your e-mail address is listed correctly on it. |
| August 26 |
| Read Creation Myths of Cooperstown by Stephen Jay Gould. Write down questions on notecards and bring them to class on Tuesday. Also, remember to pick 2 questions from last time (the Raymond Williams article) and come up with 3 questions ABOUT each of those 2 questions. Bring those to class on Tuesday too. |
| August 31 |
 I found this billboard on highway I-10. What strikes you about this image? If you were to write a critical analysis paper on this image, what are some questions you might ask? Make a list of 10 questions and bring it in to class on Thursday. |
| September 2 |
| Presentations are posted! Go read it now. Prepare early so
you won't stress out at the last minute.
For Tuesday, bring in a list of 5 possible topics for a cultural analysis paper. |
| September 7 |
| For Thursday, read Plato's Allegory of the Cave and come up with
at least 5 discussion questions for class. Write them on separate notecards. NOTE: Your first paper assignment has been posted. |
| September 9 |
| NOTE: Your first paper
assignment has been posted. No reading for Tuesday, but for Thursday, read Baudrillard's The Precession of Simulacra and write down 5 discussion questions on notecards |
| September 14 |
| For Thursday, read Baudrillard's The Precession of Simulacra and write down 5 discussion questions on notecards. |
| September 16 |
| For Tuesday, read Walter Benjamin's "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" and write down 5 discussion questions on notecards |
| September 21 |
| Finish your first drafts for Thursday. |
| September 23 |
| IN CLASS: Workshopping Rough Drafts For Tuesday, read Erving Goffman's "The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life" and write down 5 discussion questions on notecards. |
| September 28 |
| For Thursday, read Michel Foucault's "Panopticism" Also, read this supporting material: - Illustrations and Definition of The Panopticon - Foucault: The Subject and Power by Nick Mansfield Write down 5 discussion questions on notecards |
| September 30 |
| For Tuesday, read Langdon Winner's "Do
Artifacts Have Politics?" and write down 5 discussion questions
on notecards. We will also be watching a short clip from the movie "Playtime" by Jacques Tati. |
| October 5 |
| We'll be watching (and discussing) 2 short films in class today (Delusions in Modern Primitivism and Fits & Starts). |
| October 7 |
| For Tuesday, read Naomi Klein's "No Logo" and Williamson's "Meaning and Ideology" and write down 5 discussion questions about EACH article on notecards. |
| October 12 |
| Project #2 has been posted! Please go read it and notice the rough draft deadline! |
| October 14 |
| For next Thursday, read Edward Said's "Orientalizing the Oriental" and write down 5 discussion questions on notecards Also, note that Project #2 has been posted! Please go read it and notice the rough draft deadline! |
| October 19 |
| NO CLASS TODAY. Instead, please go read Project
2 and complete the first part of this paper by visiting 2 public spaces and taking notes/questions of the spaces.
Also, for Thursday, remember to read Edward Said's "Orientalizing the Oriental" and write down 5 questions on notecards. |
| October 21 |
| For Tuesday, read Louis A Sass's "The Apotheosis of the Word" and write down 5 discussion questions on notecards |
| October 26 |
Earlier in the class, Janna shared with the
class her tug and suspension experience. She sent me some pictures
of the experience for me to post on the website. So here they are
(the last one is her roommate doing a Lotus): |
| October 28 |
| For Tuesday, read Sigmund Freud's "The Dissection of the Psychical Personality" and Nick Mansfield's Freud and the Split Subject and write down 5 discussion questions on notecards. |
| November 2 |
| No reading for Thursday, all dates on the syllabus have been moved down by one. Come to class with your final drafts! Remember to do the DETAILED bibliography (that means a short paragraph summary of each source you used). |
| November 4 |
| For Tuesday, read Nick Mansfield's "Deleuze & Guattari: Rhizomatics" and Deleuze & Guattari's Introduction : Rhizome and write down 5 discussion questions on notecards. |
| November 9 |
| Next Tuesday (after Veteran's Day), Todd Fredson's class will join us in a slideshow presentation about his
experience in the Ivory Coast. Please COME TO CLASS ON TIME!
Your paper assignment #3: THE ANTI-PAPER has also been posted. |
| November 11 |
| Veteran's Day - NO SCHOOL!!! |
| November 16 |
| For Thursday, read Paul Virilio's "From Superman to Hyperactive Man" and write down 5 discussion questions on notecards. |
| November 18 |
| For Tuesday read Thomas Kuhn's The Nature and Necessity of Scientific Revolutions and write down 5 discussion questions on notecards. |
| November 23 |
| For next week, read the following short excerpts from Alan Lightman's book "Einstein's Dreams". Note: these
excerpts are all extremely SHORT and EASY TO READ, so don't be intimidated by the fact that there are five.
April 6, 1905 May 3, 1905 June 3, 1905 June 5, 1905 June 10, 1905 In addition:, I want you to write a short (one page, maybe?) description of a world where some physical or social law is different from our own world. Model it after what Alan Lightman has done, but yours doesn't have to be about time. It can be a "what if" about anything. Lightman is just a point of departure (or of inspiration). Start asking yourself "what if..."? Let those initial conditions take you to conclusions you wouldn't necessarily have foreseen before writing it. (For example, in the April 6th excerpt, one likely result of time slowing down in higher regions would be that people would start equating height with class). We'll SHARE THESE IN CLASS so please come prepared. Also, your portfolio assignment has been posted. |
| November 25 |
| Thanksgiving - NO SCHOOL!!! but remember to read Alan Lightman and complete the homework assignment
(see above).
Your portfolio assignment has been posted. |
| November 30 |
| Your portfolio assignment has been posted. |
| December 2 |
| LAST DAY for this class because I'm cancelling
class on Tuesday! Remember to bring your final paper as well as your portfolio assignment! Before you go, please read these last words... |
| December 7 |
| Technically the Last Day of Classes, but NO CLASS TODAY. I'm cancelling because I have to be out of town on this date. |