The current Covid-19 pandemic has stolen so much from us, most devastatingly, countless loved ones and lives. As we observe who gets to remain healthy and which communities suffer most, this pandemic has highlighted the ongoing and deadly nature of structural inequality: the ways our society unevenly distributes health, wealth, food, housing, and education along embodied axes of difference.
These contemporary conditions shape the two primary objectives of our course. First, this course aims to expand students’ understanding of race, gender, and sexuality, including how these categories shape our reading methods and perceptions of the world. In addition to introducing students to key concepts in and genealogies of feminism, critical race studies, and queer theory, we will test the hypothesis that teaching and learning methods are inseparable from the material itself: that is, any inquiry into these subjects necessitates feminist, antiracist, and queer pedagogies. [V.1 It might be useful, then, to think of this course as an experiment, in which we will attempt to co-design the online course of our dreams.] [Alt: Thus, the second aim of our course is to experiment, as we attempt to co-design the online course of our dreams.] In the first few weeks of the course, students will decide what they want to learn and how they want to learn it. For the remainder of the semester, we will explore creative ways of making this happen.
Students are likely to encounter authors such as Alice Walker, Gloria Anzaldúa, Frantz Fanon, Chinua Achebe, Edward Said, Audre Lorde, Barbara Christian, Toni Morrison, Barbara Smith, Adrienne Rich, Eve Sedgwick, Jose Muñoz, and Sara Ahmed. Note: this course emphasizes creativity, experimentation, and student-centered learning; students are expected to help shape the content, methods, and means by which their learning will be assessed. Together we will work, in Audre Lorde’s words, “to envision what has not been and… make the reality and pursuit of that vision irresistible.”
Learning Goals
- To develop a vocabulary for analyzing race, gender, and sexuality.
- To co-design an online course that we all learn from and look forward to attending.
- To increase our digital literacy by experimenting with a range of digital tools and learning how to select the best platform for a given task or project.
- To compose effectively in a range of genres (blog posts, comments, lesson plans, etc).
- To read critically and creatively and draw connections among a wide variety of texts.
- To develop strategies for teaching complex material to students with different learning styles.
Requirements
- Participation (10%)
- Blog post, class facilitation & comments (30%)
- Lesson plan (10%)
- Student-led lesson (20%)
- Final Project (30%)
Learning Amidst a Global Pandemic
We are currently living through a pandemic that impacts nearly every facet of our lives, from employment to housing, childcare, and both mental and physical health. This semester, we will prioritize community, care, and flexibility above all else as we attempt to learn amidst these unprecedented conditions. You should always feel free to reach out to me if you need anything or if anything impedes your ability to complete the assigned work. More likely than not, others in the class are facing similar situations, and we might need to adjust the course accordingly to accommodate the lived realities and experiences of all students.
Assignments
- Participation (10%)
Class discussions are a vital part of our class and it is essential that all are actively involved. The more effort and energy you put into this course, the more we will all learn. Participation entails coming to class prepared with ideas and questions about the assigned reading. Some examples of in-class participation include attentive listening, thoughtful commentary, synthesizing key points, adding notes to our collaborative class agenda prior to or during class, and asking questions. In addition, we will develop strategies for encouraging participation in our own classrooms, meetings, and other spaces. Note: failure to attend class and submit assignments on time will negatively affect your participation grade.
- Blog post, class facilitation & comments (30%)
Blog post (10%): At the beginning of the semester, you will sign up to write a blog post about the assigned reading and serve as a discussion leader for one of our course sessions. Blog posts must be uploaded to the course blog by NOON on the SUNDAY before class, so other students have ample time to comment. Responses should be well thought out and organized, but do not have to be written as formal papers. Blog posts should be around 800 words (though you are free to write more) and should end with two robust discussion questions.
Your blog post should highlight what you think is most interesting in the reading, given the questions of our course and/or your personal research interests. While a pithy summary may be appropriate, your post should aim for critical engagement with the assigned readings. This can take any number of forms: asking questions about confusing points; placing texts in conversation; bringing in additional examples that might complicate an author’s argument; exploring the implications of a text, etc.
Facilitation (10%): On the day of class for which you are blogging, you will also facilitate a class discussion and/or activity based on your blog post and discussion questions. Similar to the blog posts, the goal of these facilitations is to help deepen our engagement with the readings. You may lead the class in an activity (think-pair-share, a close reading exercise, a writing prompt), design a worksheet, give a presentation, or lead a discussion based on your blog post and students’ comments. For these facilitations, you can elect to work either individually or in pairs if another student is blogging that same day. Facilitations should be at least 20 minutes, though you are welcome to more time. If you need any materials for your facilitation, please let the instructor know at least 24 hours ahead of time.
Blog comments (10%): For classes in which you are not responsible for writing a blog, you are expected to comment on someone else’s post. These comments should demonstrate a respectful and collegial engagement with other students’ ideas and/or questions. Comments should be at least 250 words and will be evaluated collectively at the end of the semester.
- Individual lesson plan (10%)
For this assignment, you will identify a topic you’d like us to explore as a class and create a lesson plan for one 60-90 minute course session. Your lesson plan should clearly identify a topic and guiding question and include homework (at least three proposed readings, viewings, or listenings with annotations explaining why you’d like the class to consider these texts), and activities and prompts for our class discussion. More details to follow.
- Collaborative student-led lesson (20%)
For this assignment, you will work in small groups of two or three to plan one session of our course. This will include identifying a topic, assigning readings or other homework, and planning and executing activities for one 60-90 minute class period. You might choose for us to dive deeper into a subject or set of readings from this semester, or take the course in a different direction entirely. Keep in mind that we do not have to continue with the same seminar format: you might decide you want to devote class time to reading each other’s work (excerpts of MA theses?), peer review, virtual field trips, etc. Sample topics include Black feminism, queer of color critique, abolition, antiracist pedagogy, etc. — the sky’s the limit! More details to follow.
- Final Project: Public Contribution to Knowledge (30%)
For the final project, you will use what you’ve learned this semester to make a public contribution to knowledge. You will select a medium (blog post, podcast, website, short video or podcast, syllabus, lesson plan, timeline, map, etc.) and an audience with which to share your work (HASTAC.org, a specific publication, your colleagues, our campus community, etc.). Alternatively, you may propose to organize a virtual event, performance, or workshop. The primary criteria for this project is that it be useful: to you and, especially, to a specific audience, group, or community. This assignment has several components: 1) a proposal & annotated bibliography (10%), 2) a rough draft (10%), and 3) a final draft (10%). You may work individually or in small groups, provided you have a good reason for doing so. More details to follow.
A note on organization: I’ve tried to pair classic theoretical texts with a) exciting contemporary texts (blogs, podcasts, interviews) that return to foundational ideas within a discourse and/or b) scholarship that applies key theoretical ideas to pedagogical contexts. As we proceed, we might adopt a similar model or change it according to the needs and desires of students in the course.
SCHEDULE
| Week | Date | Topic | Readings & Work |
| 1 | Mon 8/31 | Introductions | Roy, “The Pandemic is a Portal” Griffin, “Teaching African American Literature During Covid-19” Robertson & Gebeloff, “How Millions of Women Became the Most Essential Workers in America” Post a blog introducing yourself to the class (passions, hobbies, professional goals, etc.) and identifying two topics or questions you’d like to learn more about. Read all other introductions and comment on at least one (more, if you have time). |
| 2 | Mon 9/7 | Introduction to feminist theory | Combahee River Collective Statement Crenshaw, “The Urgency of Intersectionality” Smith, “Towards a Black Feminist Criticism” Taylor, “Until Black Women Are Free, None of Us Will Be Free” Ahmed, ”Feminist Killjoys (And Other Willful Subjects)” Blog posts and comments |
| 3 | Mon 9/14 | Feminist perspectives on reading and writing | Woolf, A Room of One’s Own (excerpt) Walker, “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens” Anzaldua, “Speaking in Tongues: A Letter to Third World Women Writers” Lorde, “Poetry is not a Luxury” Christian, “The Race for Theory” Schalk, “Reimagining Ourselves: Race, Gender, and Disability in Black Panther and A Wrinkle in Time” Blog posts and comments |
| 4 | Mon 9/21 | Introduction to critical race theory | Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (excerpt) Achebe, “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness” Said, Orientalism (excerpt) Delgado et al., “Critical Race Studies” Benjamin, “Black Skin, White Masks: Racism, Vulnerability & Refuting Black Pathology” Thomas, “Why I don’t feel safe wearing a face mask” Adichie, “The Danger of a Single Story” Gates, “The Problem With ‘Anti-Racist’ Movie Lists” Blog posts and comments |
| 5 | Mon 9/28 | Introduction to queer theory | Sedgwick, “Queer and Now,” Tendencies Sedgwick, “How to Bring Your Kids up Gay” Cohen, “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens” Zaborskis, “Dancing Queer Children” Blog posts and comments |
| 6 | Mon 10/5 | Feminist and antiracist pedagogies | Omolade, “A Black Feminist Pedagogy” Joseph, “Black Feminist Pedagogy and Schooling in Capitalist Schooling in White America” hooks, Teaching to Transgress (excerpt) Crabtree et al., Feminist Pedagogy: Looking Back to Move Forward (introduction) Shrewsbury, “What is Feminist Pedagogy?” Blog posts and comments |
| 7 | Mon 10/12 | Planning for the rest of the semester | Love, We Want to Do More than Survive (introduction) Individual lesson plan due by 4:20 on Fri 10/9. Read all and comment on at least one. Come to class prepared to discuss how we might organize into groups for the remainder of the semester. |
| 8 | Mon 10/19 | GROUP 1 TOPIC | All readings and homework assigned by students |
| 9 | Mon 10/26 | GROUP 2 TOPIC | All readings and homework assigned by students |
| 10 | Mon 11/2 | GROUP 3 TOPIC | All readings and homework assigned by students |
| 11 | Mon 11/9 | GROUP 4 TOPIC | All readings and homework assigned by students |
| 12 | Mon 11/16 | Final project | Final project proposals due by 4:20 on Fri 11/13. Read all and comment on at least one. Come prepared to discuss possibilities for collaboration. —– In class: present proposals, get feedback, organize into groups, small group meetings with prof. to discuss, begin working |
| NO CLASSES 11/21-11/29 THANKSGIVING BREAK | |||
| 13 | Mon 11/30 | Complete rough drafts due for peer review by 4:20. Instead of synchronous class, complete peer review by 4:20 on Tues, Dec. 1. Small group meetings to debrief the peer-review process and feedback. Revised draft due to prof. for feedback by 4:20 on Wed. Dec. 2. Individual or small group meetings to discuss projects. | |
| 14 | Mon 12/7 | Final projects due – present, feedback, reflections |
