Syl

Women’s Studies 488A / Katie King / Spring 2007 / W 3:30-6 pm in WDS 2101R
Katie’s office and tel.: 2101F Woods Hall; 301.405.7294 (voice mail)
Katie’s office hours Weds 10-Noon
Katie’s home tel.: 301.589.2195, call only 10 am-7 pm
Katie’s email: katking@umd.edu
Katie’s home page (messages, syllabi, etc.): http://www.womensstudies.umd.edu/wmstfac/kking/
Class Blog at: http://www.katieclass.wordpress.com
Course Mail at: wmst488a-0101-spr07@coursemail.umd.edu

Senior Seminar:
Feminism and New Knowledge Environments:
Examining Reenactments

In our class we will be using the term reenactments very broadly to discuss a wide variety of ways knowledge is being made today, informally and formally, in popular culture and in academic venues, through entertainment and experiment and games and books and television and museums.
Today, whether we like it or not, we are required to engage this crossing and moving of boundaries between authoritative and alternate forms of knowledge in changing patterns of interaction. Reenactments are a great place to study these interactions. Reenactments are both fantasy practices and realities under globalized transformations of knowledge of which one version might be called today “academic capitalism.”

Reenactments appear to authorize academic capitalism’s fantasy that knowledge can be simultaneously newly produced, transmitted and its use taught in a single commodified form: simple, accessible, and democratized. A very few arresting reenactments can actually do this. And this fantasy of education and knowledge production, shared by politically progressive people as well as by conservatives in the culture wars, by promoters of national competitiveness, by various kinds of intellectual entrepreneurs, is not just an error to easily dismiss.

The longings it represents and sometimes can even realize, are the opposite side of the coin of the increasingly complex divisions of labor involved in knowledge production under globalization, of distributed production processes in what I call “telescoping layers of locals and globals.” These processes and their products require and develop new skills, pleasures and communities, recreating our very subjectivities, including us and being us in their only too metastasizing transformations.
Becoming a member of this class is going to allow and require you to let loose your curiosity and your interests in speculation. The contents, methods and theory used and commented on here span a range of those emergent and settled groups we will call “communities of practice.”

I am assuming that feminist interdisciplinary work requires caring about ways of thinking, arguing and making knowledges some of which are new to you⎯odd but potentially interesting. I will be offering for your use and inspection languages I have found valuable for thinking about feminist knowledge production under globalization and for speculating on why this all matters. I teach this class with the expectation that students are agents interested in working on its meanings with me, folks who have expansive interests, read widely, and relish intellectual activity within and also beyond the academy, people who appreciate both authoritative and alternative knowledges in myriad feminisms.

We will have a class blog and each member of the seminar will also create their own blog, so be sure you have access to internet resources, perhaps in labs across campus. Plan on visiting our blog at the very least twice a week, and then not just a few minutes before class.

Required Readings Ordered:

These are required READINGS. You do have to read them. You do not have to BUY them. I will put them on reserve at McKeldin. Some other students will already have (especially ones we read before). Borrow. Share. Whatever. However, do not wait til the last minute (the night before) to discover one is not available on reserve, etc. Be sure you have secured access LONG before we are going to read it in class.

I have ordered all from Vertigo Books because I want to support the bookstore and help it to survive in College Park! It is on the corner between HW 1 and Knox Rd, across the street from the Cornerstone restaurant: 7346 Baltimore Avenue. The telephone number there is: 301.779.9300. But you need to note that Vertigo is a small independent bookstore and thus cannot issue refunds or accept returns in the same manner as the campus Barnes & Noble. Their small staff and limited resources simply will not allow them to do so. Supporting them, however, works to counter the large economic consolidations of the publishing industry. They do not buy back books or make refunds. Returns will receive store credit. Any returns must be made within 15 days of purchase. Returned books must be in saleable condition with proof of purchase.

Everyone will read these:

•    Bolter, J. D., & Grusin, R. (1999). Remediation: Understanding new media. MIT (We will only read a few chapters of this so I’ve put it on reserve rather than ordering it.)

•    Chauncey, G. (2004). Why marriage? The history shaping today’s debate over gay equality. Basic

•    Handler, R., & Gable, E. (1997). The new history in an old museum: Creating the past at colonial Williamsburg. Duke

•    Haraway, D. (2003). The companion species manifesto: Dogs, people, and significant otherness. Prickly Paradigm

•    Johnson, S. (2005). Everything bad is good for you: How’s today’s popular culture is actually making us smarter. Riverhead

•    Roth, S. F. (1998). Past into present: Effective techniques for first-person historical interpretation. North Carolina

You can choose one or the other of these books to read: (although you might want both for fun):

•    Bechdel, A. (2006). Fun home : A family tragicomic. Houghton Mifflin.

•    King, L. R. (2006). The art of detection. Bantam Dell

And everyone will watch these DVDs and videos (on reserve at non-print media):

•    Buckner, N., Whittlesey, R., & Lithgow, J. (2004). Dogs and more dogs [video], NOVA: WGBH Boston

•    Gates, H. L., Judd, G., & Farrell, L. D. (2006). African American lives [DVD]. PBS Paramount

•    Wells, S., & Maltby, C. (2003). Journey of man [DVD]. Corporation for Public Broadcasting

Summary of Assignments

Since this class meets only once a week, the assumption is that you will spend MORE time than usual reading, writing and preparing for class. Ordinarily you should budget 3 hrs of prep time for each hour of class time, so think approximately 9 hrs prep time each week. (Some of which goes into graded assignments. The more you work on these consistently each week too the better you’ll be able to budget your time conveniently.)

Each assignment is created to provide a specific learning experience. Grades necessarily matter but not as much as the experience does, and won’t be emphasized. But you may come to office hours at any time to discuss grades, papers and how you are doing in the class in detail. Also note that you don’t get credit for any assignment until it has been posted on your blog and connected to the class blog.

There are three kinds of learning experiences that you will participate in this semester.

(1) Your blog. You will create a blog at either blogger.com or wordpress.com and write in it every week for one third of your grade for the class. The first post should be “Reflections on reenactments.” Print out what you posted and bring it to class on Feb. 14. Talk about googling class terms, finding a local reenactment group, visiting a local museum site, and watching a TV reenactment, all the first tasks for the class. Before you post, write your little essay out in a word processer, drafting it at least twice. Be prepared to show these drafts if asked for them. Don’t just post “off the cuff.” These are “real” essays! You will get a handout to guide your writings. Called “How to Read” if you want you can access it online before at:
http://www.macalester.edu/internationalstudies/HowToRead.pdf

You will connect your personal blog to our class blog as the class gets going. Our class blog will be at: http://www.katieclass.wordpress.com but won’t really be put together properly until the 14th.
FIRST ONE DUE: 14 February

(2) Major paper on reenactments as alternative knowledges. We will discuss the content and form of this paper in class. To be edited by your partner. Hand in a hard copy to Katie in class, and post it on your blog by the due date. To get full points for this assignment you must present your work in class, pass out handouts to everyone, and discuss web sites. /15-20 pgs. [1/3 of your grade.]
DUE: 28 March

(3) Learning Analysis. A synthetic assignment similar to a take home exam. It requires you to describe the argument of the course, report your experience of the course week by week within that argument, compare this class to other women’s studies courses, and to analyze the materials of the course that mattered most to you. The assignment also allows you to give feedback about how well the course worked for you and ways it didn’t. Hand in a hard copy to Katie in class, and post it on your blog by the due date. /8-10 pgs. [1/3 of your grade.]
DUE: 9 May on the last day of class.

Wondering how grades are determined? What they mean on your paper?

•    A work is excellent, unusually creative and/or analytically striking
•    B is fine work of high quality, though not as skilled, ambitious, or carefully edited as A
•    C is average work fulfilling the assignment; may be hasty, drafted once, showing difficulties with grammar, spelling, word choice
•    D work is below average or incomplete; shows many difficulties or can’t follow instructions
•    F work is not sufficient to pass; unwillingness to do the work, or so many difficulties unable to complete

See http://www.womensstudies.umd.edu/wmstfac/kking/teaching/250/grades.html
for more discussion of each grade.

Reading and Project Assignments

Wednesday, 24 January—Introduction to the course: What counts as a reenactment?
* We will take our first look today at Steven Johnson’s Everything Bad is Good for You.
We will think about his thesis and what it has to do with our class. We will look at the syllabus and consider how broadly we can use this term “reenactment.”

Wednesday, 31 January—Finding reenactments everywhere I
*google terms, visit museums, discover reenactment groups; begin Johnson
*read the Wikipedia on Sensorium and Senses: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensorium
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senses
Print these out and bring them to class for discussion. We will talk about reenactments as appeals to sensoria, affect, embodiments.

Wednesday, 7 February—Finding reenactments everywhere II
CLASS WILL ATTEND TALK INSTEAD; PLACE TO BE ANNOUNCED
*check websites, television shows, reenactor groups; finish Johnson
An LGBT talk is scheduled today at 3:30. Jeffrey McCune will talk about Black Masculinity and the Politics of Sexual Passing. He is a candidate for our first position in LGBT Studies at UMD. We’ll need to know this material for our collective class projects toward the end of the semester.

Wednesday, 14 February— Is Everything Bad Good for You? How would you know?
* first blog entry due
* You should have finished reading it Johnson’s Everything Bad by now.
We will use his book as a toolbox for our class. We will look more closely at the syllabus, talk about your blogs, and share thoughts and experiences over these beginning weeks.

Wednesday, 21 February—Insider, Outsider Perspectives and Violated Assumptions
* Examine Handler & Roth and read the first chapter of each.
What can you tell about how different the approaches are in these two books? Why does this matter? Who are the insiders, who are the outsiders? How do you know? What does this mean?

Wednesday, 28 February—Creating a Reality, craft histories and technique
* Read Roth, Parts I & II, Approaches and Foundations. Review Intro and Conclusion. Look at the PBS web site on “Frontier House”: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/frontierhouse/project/index.html
* Read Bolter and Grusin, Remediation, Chaps. 2 & 3 (On reserve). Vocabularies from Johnson handed out in class.
How does beginning with Johnson, Roth and Handler and Gable change your ideas about knowledge, making it, using it, sharing it? Pick out two or three such changing ideas that you would love to share with someone outside the class. Who would you want to share them with and why? What do Bolter and Grusin contribute to this discussion?
REMINDER: WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO YOUR BIG PAPER ABOUT? brainstorm with a partner and blog your ideas. We’ll talk about how to do this project. Sensorium handouts.

Wednesday, 7 March—What is at Stake? Political epistemologies at Williamsburg
* Read Handler, Chaps. 2, 3, 4. Google “Colonial Williamsburg” and see if you can come up with reviews for Handler’s book. Use Research Port to look for: Zoidis, Marilyn, review of New History. Journal of Social History v. 33 no1 (Fall 1999) p. 196-7.
How do Handler and Gable understand their responsibilities here as researchers, as politically progressive people, as cultural critics, as ethical scholars? Keep these questions in mind as you read the rest of Handler. What political and intellectual debates preoccupy them? How would you locate yourself in these debates?
REMINDER: YOUR BIG PAPER IS DUE AFTER SPRING BREAK ON 28 MARCH

Wednesday, 14 March—Creating the Past into the Present
* Finish up Roth and Handler. Read Bolter and Grusin, Chaps. 10, 11, 12.
How do you put these books into dialogue? Why might this matter? What are some of the boundary objects connecting the two? What are the most important divergences? How do these books exemplify authoritative and alternative knowledges? Where does such a boundary slip?

Wednesday, 21 March—spring break

Wednesday, 28 March—Reenactments as Alternative Knowledges
* Class report and your semester project Due.
In addition to your paper, you will present a 5 min. oral report in class. Should include discussion of web sites. Xerox your favorite pages written to handout to everyone for folks to discuss in class.

Wednesday, 4 April—Dogs and More Dogs
* Read Haraway, The Companion Species Manifesto (on reserve) and watch video Dogs and More Dogs (on reserve non-print media); you might make a video party with friends!
Feminists study the social construction of nature. Some divide nature and culture carefully apart. Haraway does not, yet she is not a biological essentialist. What is she doing instead? How does the video on dogs help us understand why nature and nurture don’t have to be opposed?

Wednesday, 11 April—Genealogies, DNA, and African American Remediations
* Watch the four episodes of African American Lives DVD on reserve at non-print media. Examine PBS’s companion website at: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives/ Read on the Web “Genealogical DNA” at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogical_DNA_test
What sort of reenactments are created in this TV series? Why might feminists care about this series? What is going on politically and culturally? Who are its audiences? What cultural interventions does it intend? How do the web materials add to our experience, remediating it? What sort of remediations are going on here?

Wednesday, 18 April—Genodeconstruction
* Watch the National Geographic Society’s genographic project’s Journey of Man with Spencer Wells. Examine the website at: https://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/index.html
and find other websites to help you critically engage what is going on here. Start with: http://www.gihyo.co.jp/magazine/SD/pacific/SD_0509.html and go on to find more yourself.
Why might feminists critique this documentary even while caring about naturecultures and about deconstructing race? How does this documentary help feminist and multicultural projects and how might it miss the point?

Wednesday, 25 April—Reading Reenactments: historical mystery?
* Those who chose it read Laurie R. King. Those who didn’t read Chauncey. Or do both if you like!
We will have those who read King tell the class about it. Those who read Chauncey will explain what it has to do with King. The novel WILL BE SPOILED! If you hate that, you’d better read it!

Wednesday, 2 May—Reading Reenactments: graphic novel?
* Those who chose it read Bechdel. Those who didn’t read Chauncey. Or do both if you like!
We will have those who read Bechdel tell the class about it. Those who read Chauncey will explain why it works with Bechdel. Why does a graphic novel do a regular novel could not? What does that have to do with reenactments?

Wednesday, 9 May—Last Day, Reenact the class!
*your Learning Analysis is DUE!
* Everything should be posted on your blog. Analyze syllabus, examine your own and others’ blogs, reflect on materials and events. To receive full credit for this assignment you must discuss it in class with everyone else. Sharing these analyses in the last class is a required element of the assignment. What is the argument of this course? Where were you at each point in which the argument unfolded in the class? How did others affect your positions/feelings/insights/resistances/synthesizings as the argument of the class opened out? How did you, your work and writing, your interventions and communications, affect the argument of the class? Which materials meant the most to you and why? Which materials take you new places? Which materials will you continue to use? What will you want to share with others, and how will you do this?

LEARNING ANALYSIS

a synthetic evaluation of the course and your place in it; similar to a take-home final exam.
DUE Wednesday, 9 May (drafted at least twice, be prepared to show drafts if asked.) / 8-10 pgs; compact is good! Hand in a hard copy to Katie in class, and post it on your blog. Credit given once posted.

The learning analysis gives you an opportunity to talk about what the course has meant to you.  It includes:

(1) your description of the argument or story of the course.
Examine the syllabus (course descriptions and requirements, the reading and writing assignments), WWW sites and WebCT spaces, notes from class, any freewrites, lists and preps for class, imagining this information as elements in an argument about Why Reenactments matter today. What is the argument of the course?  What are the parts of this argument, and how do they connect together?  You will be trying to imagine how the course was constructed, and why it was put together in this particular way.  Pay special attention to titles for days in the Reading and Writing Assignment outline. Imagine them as titles in a Table of Contents to parts of a book and try to understand the argument of the “book” of the course.

(2) put yourself into this story.
How are you a part of the argument of the course?  What was happening with you at different points in this argument?  What kind of knowledge did you make yourself in your analysis of readings, in your responses to others’ work, in your investigations on the Web and your blogging, and how do the insights you developed connect?  Use the lists you did for class, blogs you wrote and read and your class notes to remember your thoughts, questions, ideas.  How did these change?  What changed them?  What were your contributions to the class?  What effects did you have on the course, on your partners?  How did your responses to other people’s work include you in the argument of the class?  What worked for you?  What didn’t work for you?  What could have been better? Be sure to account for your absences from class, and talk about what you did to keep up and how you know that you got the stuff you missed.

(3) put the class into the context of a WMST curriculum.
How does this course connect with work from other women’s studies courses? What are some similarities and differences? How does it allow you to look back over these kinds of courses, and what kind of sense does it help you make of them? Did you get tools from this class that will help you continue your feminist education/politics/life? How, why? What are ideas for your own future this class has helped you envision?

(4) discuss 4 readings and 1 or 2 web sites from the course connecting you to the class.
Choose readings which meant a lot to you, and web sites of substance that helped you think and connect.  Demonstrate that you’ve kept up with the reading by showing how widely you’ve read in the course materials.  How do these readings connect to the argument of the class?  How did they affect you?  What was meaningful and important about them?  What did you learn from them?  How did they change your relationship to the course, to ideas, issues, politics, feelings?  You can talk about how your life was connected to these ideas and feelings.  You can suggest relationships with other readings, other courses, other experiences.

This is an exercise in synthesizing–putting things together in new relationships, making a whole shape.  It requires imagination.  Have fun with it.  Good luck!