Calendar

Questions? Email the class: ENG101B_201602@davidson.edu, or come to Dr. Churchill’s office hours: Mon 2-4 pm, Thu 9:30-11 am, or by appt (CH 3288)
Items in green are recommended but optional.

WEEK 1

Wed, Jan 18 Introductions

Assignment: About Me post. 250 words (max) + 1 image. Qs: Who are you? Why do you do what you do? What is the engine that keeps you up late at night or gets you going in the morning? Where is your happy place? What stands between you and your ultimate dream?

Thu, Jan 19 Meet the Artist

Common Hour: Q & A with Alison Bechdel (900 Room) – invitation only for classes who are reading her work, so be there!
Reynolds Lecture, 7 pm: “Watch out for Alison Bechdel!” (DFPH, tickets free but required)

Fri, Jan 20 WordPress Workshop

Alison Bechdel, Fun Home (Ch.1)
Check your email (including junk) for invitation to join WordPress site.
About Me image & text due in class
WordPress demo: teach a classmate how to post
Assignment: Tracing Project
About Me post due by 5 pm, published on course website (category = about me).

WEEK 2

Unit 1: Family & Community

Mon, Jan 23

Alison Bechdel, Fun Home (Chs. 2-4)
Scott McCloud, from Understanding Comics (PDF)
Qs: What story do the words tell? What story do the images tell? Do they tell the same story? How does Bechdel use the gutter? How do you create closure as you read?
Tracings due in class

Tue, Jan 24 – Create Your Domain

Common Hour: Domain setup & WordPress training (CH 1003)

Wed, Jan 25

Alison Bechdel, Fun Home (Chs. 5-7)
Qs: Whom do you identify with, why, and how? How does the story draw you in? What are you allowed to see and from what point of view? What can’t you see?
Conversation Posts due by midnight: Madeline, Margaret
Comments on About Me posts due before class

Thu, Jan 26 – Create Your Domain

Common Hour: Domain setup & WordPress training (CH 1003)

Fri, Jan 27

Student Run discussion: Helen, Jasmine
Tracing Project post due by class, including a flat, legible, well-cropped image of your tracing (category = tracing).

WEEK 3

Mon, Jan 30 Community Constitution

Listen to podcast: Anthony Appiah, “Sidling up to Difference,” interview with Krista Tippett, On Being (50 mins., online)
Read blog post: Cathy Davidson, “How a Class Becomes a Community” (online)
Read sample contracts:
- Davidson Course By-laws
- Baruch Course Constitution
- THATcamp Ground Rules
Qs: What values are most important to you? What motivates you? How do you learn best? What helps you apply and retain what you learn?

Unit 2: Dystopian Community

Wed, Feb 1

Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games, Part I: The Tributes, 1-130
Qs: Whom do you identify with, why, and how? How does the story draw you in? How does it keep you interested? What are you allowed to see and from what point of view? What can’t you see?
Recommended (optional): Explore Hunger Games Wiki (online resource)
Comments on Tracing Reflections posts due
Conversation Posts due by midnight: Matt, Jon T.

Fri, Feb 3

Collins, Hunger Games, Part II: The Games, 133-244.
Qs: How do the games affect your sense of affinities and allegiances? How do you react to scenes of violence? When do you feel fear? When do you feel relief, pleasure, or satisfaction?
Student Run discussion: Madeline, Jon K.
Recommended (optional): Explore Hunger Games Tumblr (online resource)

WEEK 4

Mon, Feb 6

Collins, Hunger Games, cont.: Part III: The Victor, 247-374.
Qs: What kinds of intimacy are established in this section and how? Whom do you trust? Whom do you distrust? What do you want to see happen?

Mon, Feb 6 2017 Conarroe Lecture: Lorrie Moore

8:00 p.m., Duke Family Performance Hall (tickets free but required)

Wed, Feb 8

Film discussion: The Hunger Games (2007, watch via SWANK)
Qs: How does the film change your POV? With whom do you identify ? How does the film affect your relationships to specific characters & communities? What is gained or lost in translation from book to film?
Impersonation post due before class (category = impersonation)
Conversation Posts due by midnight: Raphael, Jon K.

Thu, Feb 9 Art Opening & Reception: Mella Jaarsma, Aliansyah Caniago, and Restu Ratnaningtyas

7 – 8:30pm, Van Every Gallery

Fri, Feb 10 The Politics of Community

Benedict Anderson, “Imagined Communities” (PDF)
Student Run discussion: Spencer, Cullen

WEEK 5

Unit 3: Media Literacy

Mon, Feb 13 Real Students & Fake News

Camila Domonoske (Davidson English major, class of 2011), “Students Have ‘Dismaying’ Inability To Tell Fake News From Real, Study Finds”
“Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning” (executive summary of Stanford study, PDF)
Craig Silverman, “This Analysis Shows How Fake Election News Stories Outperformed Real News On Facebook” (BuzzFeed)
Charlie Spiering, “Donald Trump Blasts ‘Fake News’—‘I have nothing to do with Russia’” (Breitbart)
Scott Shane, “From Headline to Photograph, a Fake News Masterpiece” (New York Times)
Special Guest: John-Michael Murphy, Digital Learning & Innovation Fellow (Davidson Environmental Studies major 2016)
Recommended (optional):
- Fake News and the Spread of Misinformation: annotated bibliography of scholarship on the subject
- Harry G. Frankfurt, Professor Emeritus, Princeton University, “On Bullshit“

Wed, Feb 15 Same Story, Different Perspectives

Olivia Daniels and AJ Naddaff, “Fist raised, he faced off with police. Here’s why this Davidson grad protests.” (Charlotte Observer)
David Dennis, Jr. (Davidson English/ethnic studies major, class of 2008), “The Autumn of Charlotte’s Discontent” (The Undefeated)
This American Life, “If You See Racism, Say Racism” (podcast, 18 mins)
Special Guest: Dr. Fuji Lozada, Professor of Anthropology & Environmental Studies
Comments on impersonation posts due
Conversation Posts due by midnight: Cullen, Alex C.

Fri, Feb 17 Getting Up Close & Personal

Bryan Stevenson, “Higher Ground” (introduction to Just Mercy, PDF)
Clint Smith (Davidson English major, class of 2010), “The Meaning of Life without Parole”
Terrance Hayes, “Carp Poem”
Eula Biss, “White Debt”
Student run discussion: Malaika, Mary

WEEK 6

Unit 4: Poetry & Intimate Community

Mon, Feb 20 You, Me & Democracy: “The United States are essentially the greatest poem.”

Edward Hirsch, from How To Read a Poem: “Heartland,” “To the Reader Setting Out”
John Doherty, from “Song of Myself,” Favorite Poem Project (video, 5:37 mins., online)
Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself” (long poem, online)
Last day to submit revised Tracing Posts (please email me if you’ve posted a revision)

Tue, Feb 21 Dr. Annette Debo, “Poets as Lyric Historians: Contemporary African American Poets and History”

4:30 pm, 900 Room

Wed, Feb 22 The Lyric “I” and its Others

Hirsch, from How To Read a Poem: “In the Beginning is the Relation,” “Stored Magic,” “The Immense Intimacy, the Intimate Immensity”
T. S. Eliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
Julian Peters, comics version of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
Langston Hughes, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” “I, Too”
Gertrude Stein, “A Carafe, that is a Blind Glass,” “Susie Asado”
Conversation Posts due by midnight: Spencer, Will

Fri, Feb 24 Poetry Café

Favorite Poem post due: Browse the Poetry Foundation and Favorite Poem Project websites (and elsewhere) and find a poem that speaks to you. Post the poem to our website and write a 250 word post about what it says, how it says it, and why it speaks to you, making sure to link to the poem and quote a minimum 4-line chunk. Or if you prefer, create a short video or podcast about the poem and post it to our website. Category: favorite poem
Student run discussion: Kyla, Will

WEEK 7

Mon, Feb 27

Claudia Rankine, Citizen (1-80)
Suzanne Churchill, “Micro-aggressions and the Need to Know More” [blog post]
Recommended articles to help you understand Citizen:
- Dan Chiasson, “Color Codes”
- Jonathan Farmer, “Blackness Visible”

Tue, Feb 28, 2017 Shakespeare in Song: Broadus Hamilton, Cynthia Lawing, & Randy Ingram

Tyler-Tallman Recital Hall, 7:30 pm

Wed, Mar 1

Claudia Rankine, Citizen (81-168)
Situation videos: http://claudiarankine.com/
In class activity: What do you need to know more about to understand Citizen?
Comments on favorite poem posts due
Conversation Posts due by midnight: Kyla, Alex D.

Fri, Mar 3 [Student choice]

Jose Antonio Vargas, MTV, White People (documentary, 41 mins)
Vargas spoke at Davidson last spring about the absence or “flatness” of media representations of undocumented immigrants, something he is trying to change with these media projects:
- #emergingUS
- Define American
Kimberlé Crenshaw, “Why Intersectionality Can’t Wait” (Washington Post)
Student run discussion: Niara, Matt

SPRING BREAK FRI, Mar 3 (4:30 P.M.) – MON, MAR 13 (8:30 A.M.)

Unit 5: Media Remixing

WEEK 8

Mon, Mar 13

Warsan Shire, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth
Katie Reid, “Q&A: Poet, writer and educator Warsan Shire” (Africa in Words)
Alexis Okeowo, “The Writing Life of Warsan Shire, a Young, Prolific Poet” (The New Yorker)
Recommended: listen to Shire read

Tue, Mar 14 Poetry Reading, R. Windley Hall and Charles E. Lloyd Awards in Writing: Dr. Cynthia Hogue

7 p.m., C. Shaw Smith 900 Room, Alvarez College Union

Wed, Mar 15

Beyoncé, Lemonade (a visual album)
Rafia Zakaria, “Warsan Shire: the Somali-British Poet Quoted by Beyoncé in Lemonade” (The Guardian)
Amanda Hess, “Warsan Shire, the Woman Who Gave Poetry to Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’” (The New York Times)
Conversation Posts due by midnight: Malaika, Mary

Fri, Mar 17

bell hooks, “Moving Beyond Pain” (bell hooks Institute)
Lori Adelman, “A Black Feminist Roundtable on bell hooks, Beyoncé, and ‘Moving Beyond Pain’” (Feministing)
Student run discussion: Margaret, Alex D.

Unit 6: New Media

WEEK 9

Sun, Mar 19 “Reading the Verses Backward: Poetry for the Digital Age”: Inaugural Abbott Lecture, Dr. Marjorie Perloff

7 p.m., Lilly Gallery

Mon, Mar 20

No class meeting
Davidson Feminist Roundtable post due. (Category = roundtable)

Mon, Mar 20 Symposium on Berlin and Cabaret culture in the 1920

evening, TBA, 900 Room

Tue, Feb 21 Dr. Annette Debo, “Poets as Lyric Historians: Contemporary African American Poets and History”

4:30 pm, 900 Room

Wed, Mar 22 New Genres: Memes & Tumblrs

Gretchen McCullock. “A Linguist Explains the Grammar of Doge. Wow.” (The Toast)
Elspeth Reeve. “The Secret Lives of Tumblr Teens” (New Republic)
In class activity: Make your own meme
Conversation Posts due by midnight: Helen, Niara

Fri, Mar 24 Digital Poems/Games [Student choice – you may elect poems or game]

“Digital Poetry”
Ingrid Ankerson and Megan Sapnar, “While Chopping Red Peppers” (click on links to get to poem)
Alan Bigelow, This is Not a Poem
Nick Montfort and Stephanie Strickland, Sea and Spar Between (2010)
Lello Masucci, “I Love You” (make sure you click on the color image)
Jason Nelson, “Nothing You Have Done Deserves Such Praise“
Poem Generator (make at least 3 different poems)
**or** Gone Home: a story exploration video game
Student Run discussion: Raphael, Jon T.
Comments on roundtable posts due

Mar 24–26: Cabaret, DFPH. Get your ticket. Attendance required.

Mar 24: Opening of Cabaret exhibition (details TBA)

Unit 7: Come to the Cabaret

WEEK 10

Mon, Mar 27

Christopher Isherwood, “A Berlin Diary,” “Sally Bowles,” “On Reugen Island,” Goodbye to Berlin (3-101)
Special Guests: Dr. Scott Denham, Professor of German Studies, & students from Berlin: A Cultural History

Thu, Apr 20 2016-2017 McGee Professor of Writing Sue Miller

Carolina Inn, 4:30 p.m.

Wed, Mar 29

Christopher Isherwood, “The Nowaks,” “The Landauers,” Goodbye to Berlin (101-184)
Special Guest: Dr. Roman Utkin, Assistant Professor of Russian Studies
Conversation Posts due by midnight: [extra token opportunity]

Thu, Mar 30, 2017 Poetry Reading, Wayne Miller

Carolina Inn, 5 pm

Fri, Mar 31

Christopher Isherwood, “A Berlin Diary” Goodbye to Berlin (185-225)
Student run discussion: Alex C., Jon K.

Mar 3–Apr 2: last chance to see Cabaret, DFPH. Get your ticket. Attendance required.

WEEK 11

Mon, Apr 3

Cabaret (musical)
Qs: How does the musical adapt Isherwood’s stories to the stage? How does the medium and venue change your relationship to the characters and their stories? How does the experience watching the show in an audience (rather than reading alone) change your sense of community?

Unit 8: TV Cult Communities

Wed, Apr 5 [Student choice – you may elect to substitute a more current series]

NBC’s Community: Season 1, Episode 1 (pilot); 1:23 (Modern Warfare)
Ethan Thompson and Jason Mittell, “Introduction” to How to Watch TV (pdf)
Conversation Posts due by midnight: Jasmine, [extra token opportunity]

Thu, Apr 6

Prototype 1 of multi-mediation post due by 5 pm

Wed, Apr 5 Wearn Lecture: “Where Science Meets Human Rights: Behind the Fight to Leave Fossil Fuels in the Ground,” Sandra Steingraber

Tyler-Tallman Recital Hall, 7pm

Thu, Apr 6 Poetry Reading, 2017 Vereen Bell Memorial Awards in Creative Writing: Kazim Ali

Tyler-Tallman Recital Hall, 7:30 p.m.

Fri, Apr 7

NBC’s Community: 2:7 (Aerodynamics of Gender); 2:9 (Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design); 2:23 (A Fistful of Paintballs, Part 1); 2:24 (For a Few Paintballs More, Part 2)
Troy Campbell, “NBC’s Community and Cancellation: It’s Personal” (online)
Farhad Manjoo, “How Netflix is Deepening Our Cultural Echo Chambers” (NYTimes)
Student run discussion: [extra token opportunity]

WEEK 12

Mon, Apr 10 Writing & Design Workshop

from They Say/I Say (pdf)
Steve Krug, from (pdf)Don’t Make Me Think
Comments/UX feedback on multi-mediation posts due

Wed, Apr 12 Writing & Design Workshop

Zinsser, from On Writing Well (cut the clutter and find your voice): excerpts 1 and excerpts 2 (pdfs).
Run the Writer’s Diet test on your post.

Fri, Apr 14 – no class meeting

Prototype 2 of multi-mediation posts due

EASTER BREAK FRI, APR 14 (4:30 P.M.)-WED, APR 19 (8:30 A.M.)

Unit 9: Storytelling & Community

WEEK 13

Wed, Apr 19 Illustrated Books

Melissa Sweet, Some Writer!: The Story of E. B. White
Assignment: Make a book. Whose story will you tell? What text and images will you use?