Assignments

  • Semi-Weekly Reading Notes: Informal notes analyzing/exploring key issues in the readings and posted to our discussion board.  Discussion leaders will be responsible for writing the opening posts for each reading, to which others will respond. Opening posts, which should draw out significant insights or issues in the piece, are due on the discussion board by the Sunday before the class in which we discuss the text. Substantial responses will be due by Tuesday at 11 a.m. Whether you’re responding to a classmate’s post or offering your own reading, these “substantial responses” should offer a real engagement with the material that takes us into the text, using quotes and page numbers, and posing questions and/or offering reflections on passages or ideas.
  • One Artifact Paper, one single spaced page in length, that explicates the “cultural artifact” (a text, a theory, a philosophy, an architectural style, etc.) you have chosen for the semester–to be read aloud and submitted to Canvas. (Should include an annotated bibliography of at least 5 sources.)
  • Three Summary/Response Papers: Formal, one-page, single spaced, beautifully polished, and terribly insightful papers that summarize the assigned reading and then respond to it by “reading” it across your cultural artifact (or vice versa)—to be read aloud in class and submitted to Canvas.
  • A Conference Paper, 8-10 pages in length and suitable for delivery at a conference, that builds on one or more of your S/R papers–to be submitted to Canvas. Obviously, a good deal of your literature review and discussion will need to be buried in footnotes to keep it to 8-10 pages, but it’s a good idea to do the work, as if this were going to be published in the conference proceedings.

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