I'm slated to teach English 200: Reading Literature next year, in the fall. The course is a kind of overgrown "literature appreciation" class -- not even a survey course, per se. So, I have to figure out something fun to do, that hits a bunch of different things, and that focuses on reading for pleasure and for knowledge about the world. Or some such.
Here's my working course:
English 200: Literatures of the Fantastic
Ursula K. Leguin asks in a now famous speech and essay, “Why are Americans afraid of dragons?” Central to her question and her argument about the reading, enjoyment, understanding, and analysis of literature, particularly fantasy and science fiction, is an engagement with the imagination, with other worlds, with our own world, with recovering the value of these things, and with growing up but not outgrowing our desire for the fantastic. She says, “For fantasy is true, of course. It isn’t factual, but it is true. Children know that. Adults know it too, and that is precisely why many of them are afraid of fantasy. They know that its truth challenges, even threatens, all that is false, all that is phony, unnecessary, and trivial in the life they have let themselves be forced into living. They are afraid of dragons, because they are afraid of freedom.” This class will take up Leguin’s fascinating and provocative question and explore a long yet often dismissed or narrowly defined tradition of “fantastic” literature (and other media) including in whole or in excerpt Homer, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Shakespeare, Mary Shelley, H.P. Lovecraft, J.R.R. Tolkien, Allen Ginsberg, Octavia Butler, William Gibson, Nisi Shawl, and J.K. Rowling.
Required Texts:
Shakespeare, William. A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Tolkien, J.R.R. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
English 200 Course Packet.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Fire!
From http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6297149.stm...
US military unveils heat-ray gun
The gun uses a large dish mounted on a Humvee vehicle The US military has given the first public display of what it says is a revolutionary heat-ray weapon to repel enemies or disperse hostile crowds.
Called the Active Denial System, it projects an invisible high energy beam that produces a sudden burning feeling.
Military officials, who say the gun is harmless, believe it could be used as a non-lethal way of making enemies surrender their weapons.
Officials said there was wide-ranging military interest in the technology.
How the heat-ray gun works
"This is a breakthrough technology that's going to give our forces a capability they don't now have," defence official Theodore Barna told Reuters news agency.
"We expect the services to add it to their tool kit. And that could happen as early as 2010."
'Blast from an oven'
The prototype weapon was demonstrated at the Moody Air Force Base in Georgia.
A beam was fired from a large rectangular dish mounted on a Humvee vehicle.
The beam has a reach of up to 500m (550 yds), much further than existing non-lethal weapons like rubber bullets.
It can penetrate clothes, suddenly heating up the skin of anyone in its path to 50C.
But it penetrates the skin only to a tiny depth - enough to cause discomfort but no lasting harm, according to the military.
A Reuters journalist who volunteered to be shot with the beam described the sensation as similar to a blast from a very hot oven - too painful to bear without diving for cover.
Crowd control
Military officials said the weapon was one of the key technologies of the future.
"Non-lethal weapons are important for the escalation of force, especially in the environments our forces are operating in," said Marine Col Kirk Hymes, director of the development programme.
The weapon could potentially be used for dispersing hostile crowds in conflict zones such as Iraq or Afghanistan.
It would mean that troops could take effective steps to move people along without resorting to measures such as rubber bullets - bridging the gap between "shouting and shooting", Col Hymes said.
A similar "non-lethal" weapon, Silent Guardian, is being developed by US company Raytheon.
HOW HEAT-RAY GUN WORKS
1 360-degree operation for maximum effect
Antenna, linked to transmitter unit, can be mounted on vehicle
Automatic target tracking
2 Antenna sealed against dust and can withstand bullet fire3 Invisible beam of millimetre-wave energy can travel over 500m4 Heat energy up to 54C (130F) penetrates less than 0.5mm of skin
Manufacturers say this avoids injury, although long-term effects are not known
US military unveils heat-ray gun
The gun uses a large dish mounted on a Humvee vehicle The US military has given the first public display of what it says is a revolutionary heat-ray weapon to repel enemies or disperse hostile crowds.
Called the Active Denial System, it projects an invisible high energy beam that produces a sudden burning feeling.
Military officials, who say the gun is harmless, believe it could be used as a non-lethal way of making enemies surrender their weapons.
Officials said there was wide-ranging military interest in the technology.
How the heat-ray gun works
"This is a breakthrough technology that's going to give our forces a capability they don't now have," defence official Theodore Barna told Reuters news agency.
"We expect the services to add it to their tool kit. And that could happen as early as 2010."
'Blast from an oven'
The prototype weapon was demonstrated at the Moody Air Force Base in Georgia.
A beam was fired from a large rectangular dish mounted on a Humvee vehicle.
The beam has a reach of up to 500m (550 yds), much further than existing non-lethal weapons like rubber bullets.
It can penetrate clothes, suddenly heating up the skin of anyone in its path to 50C.
But it penetrates the skin only to a tiny depth - enough to cause discomfort but no lasting harm, according to the military.
A Reuters journalist who volunteered to be shot with the beam described the sensation as similar to a blast from a very hot oven - too painful to bear without diving for cover.
Crowd control
Military officials said the weapon was one of the key technologies of the future.
"Non-lethal weapons are important for the escalation of force, especially in the environments our forces are operating in," said Marine Col Kirk Hymes, director of the development programme.
The weapon could potentially be used for dispersing hostile crowds in conflict zones such as Iraq or Afghanistan.
It would mean that troops could take effective steps to move people along without resorting to measures such as rubber bullets - bridging the gap between "shouting and shooting", Col Hymes said.
A similar "non-lethal" weapon, Silent Guardian, is being developed by US company Raytheon.
HOW HEAT-RAY GUN WORKS
1 360-degree operation for maximum effect
Antenna, linked to transmitter unit, can be mounted on vehicle
Automatic target tracking
2 Antenna sealed against dust and can withstand bullet fire3 Invisible beam of millimetre-wave energy can travel over 500m4 Heat energy up to 54C (130F) penetrates less than 0.5mm of skin
Manufacturers say this avoids injury, although long-term effects are not known
Friday, April 13, 2007
Sharks with Lasers?
From: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Anti_Terror_Dolphins.html?source=mypi
Navy shows off anti-terror dolphins
By THOMAS WATKINSASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
SAN DIEGO -- In a world of high-tech sensors and underwater robotics, Koa the bottlenose dolphin and others like her may still be the Navy's best line of defense against terrorists in scuba gear.
"They are better than anything we have ever made," said Mike Rothe, head of science for the Navy's marine mammal program, which trains dolphins and sea lions to guard military installations.
About 75 dolphins and 25 sea lions are housed at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego Harbor as part of a Navy program to teach them to detect terrorists and mines underwater.
The base briefly opened its doors to the media Thursday for the first time since the start of the war in Iraq. The display came a few weeks after the Navy announced plans to send up to 30 dolphins and sea lions to patrol the waters of Washington state's Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, which is home to nuclear submarines, ships and laboratories.
Both species can find mines and spot swimmers in murky waters. Working in unison, the dolphins can drop a flashing light near a mine or a swimmer. The sea lions carry in their mouths a cable and a handcuff-like device that clamps onto a terrorist's leg. Sailors can then use the cable to reel in the terrorist.
The Navy's sea mammal program started in the late 1950s and grew to comprise 140 animals during the Cold War.
Dolphins helped protect a pier in the Vietnam War. The last time the marine mammals were deployed overseas was in 2003 in the Iraqi harbor of Umm Qasr, where they located underwater mines and cleared a path for Marines to land, officials say.
They also were used in San Diego in 1996, when they patrolled the bay during the Republican National Convention.
Swimmers planting bombs pose a real threat, said Cmdr. Jon Wood, who went to Iraq with the mammals. He said there were several cases of guerrillas laying charges on floating objects in Vietnam.
By the late 1990s, Navy officials began phasing out the program, expecting technology to take over. But that still has not happened, and dolphins and sea lions will be used until at least 2012.
Animal rights activists worry that the dolphins and sea lions sent to Washington state could be harmed by the cold water, and worry that the animals might transmit diseases to the area's killer whales.
Dr. Stephanie Wong, a military veterinarian, said the dolphins are closely monitored for any signs of disease.
---
On the Net:
Navy Marine Mammal Program:
http://www.spawar.navy.mil/sandiego/technology/mammals/
Navy shows off anti-terror dolphins
By THOMAS WATKINSASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
SAN DIEGO -- In a world of high-tech sensors and underwater robotics, Koa the bottlenose dolphin and others like her may still be the Navy's best line of defense against terrorists in scuba gear.
"They are better than anything we have ever made," said Mike Rothe, head of science for the Navy's marine mammal program, which trains dolphins and sea lions to guard military installations.
About 75 dolphins and 25 sea lions are housed at Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego Harbor as part of a Navy program to teach them to detect terrorists and mines underwater.
The base briefly opened its doors to the media Thursday for the first time since the start of the war in Iraq. The display came a few weeks after the Navy announced plans to send up to 30 dolphins and sea lions to patrol the waters of Washington state's Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, which is home to nuclear submarines, ships and laboratories.
Both species can find mines and spot swimmers in murky waters. Working in unison, the dolphins can drop a flashing light near a mine or a swimmer. The sea lions carry in their mouths a cable and a handcuff-like device that clamps onto a terrorist's leg. Sailors can then use the cable to reel in the terrorist.
The Navy's sea mammal program started in the late 1950s and grew to comprise 140 animals during the Cold War.
Dolphins helped protect a pier in the Vietnam War. The last time the marine mammals were deployed overseas was in 2003 in the Iraqi harbor of Umm Qasr, where they located underwater mines and cleared a path for Marines to land, officials say.
They also were used in San Diego in 1996, when they patrolled the bay during the Republican National Convention.
Swimmers planting bombs pose a real threat, said Cmdr. Jon Wood, who went to Iraq with the mammals. He said there were several cases of guerrillas laying charges on floating objects in Vietnam.
By the late 1990s, Navy officials began phasing out the program, expecting technology to take over. But that still has not happened, and dolphins and sea lions will be used until at least 2012.
Animal rights activists worry that the dolphins and sea lions sent to Washington state could be harmed by the cold water, and worry that the animals might transmit diseases to the area's killer whales.
Dr. Stephanie Wong, a military veterinarian, said the dolphins are closely monitored for any signs of disease.
---
On the Net:
Navy Marine Mammal Program:
http://www.spawar.navy.mil/sandiego/technology/mammals/
Monday, February 19, 2007
Race and World of Warcraft
Here's my abstract for submission for the "Race and Video Games" conference at University of California, Riverside:
"Looking for Ophera Windfury: Imagining Race (and Sexuality) in World of Warcraft"
Given the incredible global popularity of Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft, with a playership now exceeding six million worldwide, there is still a dearth of scholarship on and cultural critique of the game, particularly looking at race and sexuality. This paper attempts to identify and interrogate the "racial logics" of WoW, beyond a close-reading of fantasy race as allusion or allegory for real world race, to begin to theorize how race is visualized, articulated, and cued. In other words, in a game of fantasy race, how and where and why might actual race and racism be deployed, negotiated, disguised, and taken for granted. Lisa Nakamura, author of Cybertypes, argues, "When users go online, race dwells in the mediating spaces between the virtual and the real, the visible and the invisible" (144). How then can we challenge and explore this mediating space? Furthermore, in the imagining (perhaps intrusion) of real world race into the game in ways that fix them or to borrow Nakamura's construction cybertype them, how might other categories, such as sexuality, be left unsettled or open? Looking at character creation, game play, and game narratives, this paper argues for a productive opportunity in the play of, with, and play in race and sexuality to discover "disruptive moments of recognization and misrecognition" (Nakamura 144) that can offer "subversive potential in regard to oppressive notions of racial [and sexual] identity" (146).
"Looking for Ophera Windfury: Imagining Race (and Sexuality) in World of Warcraft"
Given the incredible global popularity of Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft, with a playership now exceeding six million worldwide, there is still a dearth of scholarship on and cultural critique of the game, particularly looking at race and sexuality. This paper attempts to identify and interrogate the "racial logics" of WoW, beyond a close-reading of fantasy race as allusion or allegory for real world race, to begin to theorize how race is visualized, articulated, and cued. In other words, in a game of fantasy race, how and where and why might actual race and racism be deployed, negotiated, disguised, and taken for granted. Lisa Nakamura, author of Cybertypes, argues, "When users go online, race dwells in the mediating spaces between the virtual and the real, the visible and the invisible" (144). How then can we challenge and explore this mediating space? Furthermore, in the imagining (perhaps intrusion) of real world race into the game in ways that fix them or to borrow Nakamura's construction cybertype them, how might other categories, such as sexuality, be left unsettled or open? Looking at character creation, game play, and game narratives, this paper argues for a productive opportunity in the play of, with, and play in race and sexuality to discover "disruptive moments of recognization and misrecognition" (Nakamura 144) that can offer "subversive potential in regard to oppressive notions of racial [and sexual] identity" (146).
Saturday, February 03, 2007
GLMA Urges FDA to Revise Blood Donation Policy
Current FDA Guidelines Banning Donation by Gay Men Called “Dangerous, Outdated,
Unscientific”
SAN FRANCISCO – The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association today called for the
Food and Drug Administration to revise its blood donation policy regarding men
who have sex with men. Within the past year the American Red Cross and other
organizations that collect donated blood, including the American Association of
Blood Banks and America's Blood Centers, have encouraged the FDA to review a
policy in effect since the early 1980s that prohibits men who have sex with men
– regardless of sexual activity, safer-sex practices or HIV status – from
donating blood. The groups say that the likelihood of receiving a unit of
HIV-infected blood is one in two million and that blood banks use nucleic acid
testing, which detects HIV and hepatitis earlier and much more accurately than
older testing methods.
GLMA Executive Director Joel Ginsberg stated, “Two decades ago, when the agent
that causes AIDS was unknown, these guidelines might have made sense based on
the very limited data available at that time. Today, however, all donated units
of blood are tested, not just for antibodies to HIV, but for the presence of the
virus itself. These guidelines, which prohibit any man who has had sex with
another man since 1977, have the effect of excluding all gay men from donating
blood.” Ginsberg continued that the epidemiology of the HIV epidemic has changed
and that heterosexual women are now the fastest-growing demographic group to be
diagnosed with HIV infection.
“Rational blood donation guidelines need to be founded upon the best
evidence-based science and the behavior of individuals, not upon archaic data
and preconceptions about groups of people. The FDA’s current guidelines imply
that gay men are the primary agents for the spread of HIV, while giving
heterosexuals a false sense of security about their sexual behavior and
responsibility. These are two very dangerous messages for the FDA to be
reinforcing,” Ginsberg concluded. “We urge the FDA to revise these outdated
and unscientific blood donation guidelines immediately.”
– 30 –
The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA) is the world's largest
association of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) healthcare
professionals. For 25 years, GLMA has been working to ensure equality in health
care for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals and healthcare
professionals through advocacy, education, research and referrals.
Unscientific”
SAN FRANCISCO – The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association today called for the
Food and Drug Administration to revise its blood donation policy regarding men
who have sex with men. Within the past year the American Red Cross and other
organizations that collect donated blood, including the American Association of
Blood Banks and America's Blood Centers, have encouraged the FDA to review a
policy in effect since the early 1980s that prohibits men who have sex with men
– regardless of sexual activity, safer-sex practices or HIV status – from
donating blood. The groups say that the likelihood of receiving a unit of
HIV-infected blood is one in two million and that blood banks use nucleic acid
testing, which detects HIV and hepatitis earlier and much more accurately than
older testing methods.
GLMA Executive Director Joel Ginsberg stated, “Two decades ago, when the agent
that causes AIDS was unknown, these guidelines might have made sense based on
the very limited data available at that time. Today, however, all donated units
of blood are tested, not just for antibodies to HIV, but for the presence of the
virus itself. These guidelines, which prohibit any man who has had sex with
another man since 1977, have the effect of excluding all gay men from donating
blood.” Ginsberg continued that the epidemiology of the HIV epidemic has changed
and that heterosexual women are now the fastest-growing demographic group to be
diagnosed with HIV infection.
“Rational blood donation guidelines need to be founded upon the best
evidence-based science and the behavior of individuals, not upon archaic data
and preconceptions about groups of people. The FDA’s current guidelines imply
that gay men are the primary agents for the spread of HIV, while giving
heterosexuals a false sense of security about their sexual behavior and
responsibility. These are two very dangerous messages for the FDA to be
reinforcing,” Ginsberg concluded. “We urge the FDA to revise these outdated
and unscientific blood donation guidelines immediately.”
– 30 –
The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA) is the world's largest
association of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) healthcare
professionals. For 25 years, GLMA has been working to ensure equality in health
care for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals and healthcare
professionals through advocacy, education, research and referrals.
CFP: INTIMATE VISIONS:SEXUALITY, REPRESENTATION AND VISUAL CULTURE
INTIMATE VISIONS:SEXUALITY, REPRESENTATION AND VISUAL CULTURE
Edited by Giovanni Porfido (Durham) and Róisín Ryan-Flood (Uni of Essex)Special issue call for papersPapers are invited for a special issue of the journal Sexualities on thetopic 'Intimate Visions: Sexuality, Representation and Visual Culture'.Recent decades have witnessed an increase in images of lesbian, gay,bisexual and transgendered people in popular culture. Groundbreakingshows such as Ellen and Queer as Folk led the way for the mainstreamingof hitherto excluded identities and intimacies. This special issue seeksto explore the implications of this expansion of visual regimes.Questions are raised regarding the politics of this cultural visibility.For example, what kinds of intimacies are created, assumed and curtailed?How do these images influence the formation of subjectivities? Do theyaffect heteronormative notions of the public and the private? Whatspatial dynamics do they suggest? Do such images reconfigure prevailingunderstandings of intimacy? What erasures do they signify? Finally, whatchallenges, achievements and dilemmas do they represent? Contributionsthat address the following topics are particularly welcome:'race'/ethnicity, butch lesbians, commodification, parenting, queerteens.
Papers should be submitted in the standard Sexualities format[http://sexualities.sagepub.com/] by March 31st 2007 to:
Dr. Róisín Ryan-Flood
Department of Sociology
University of Essex
Wivenhoe Park
Colchester C04 3SQ
Tel.: +44-(0)1206 873551
Email: rflood @ essex.ac.uk
Edited by Giovanni Porfido (Durham) and Róisín Ryan-Flood (Uni of Essex)Special issue call for papersPapers are invited for a special issue of the journal Sexualities on thetopic 'Intimate Visions: Sexuality, Representation and Visual Culture'.Recent decades have witnessed an increase in images of lesbian, gay,bisexual and transgendered people in popular culture. Groundbreakingshows such as Ellen and Queer as Folk led the way for the mainstreamingof hitherto excluded identities and intimacies. This special issue seeksto explore the implications of this expansion of visual regimes.Questions are raised regarding the politics of this cultural visibility.For example, what kinds of intimacies are created, assumed and curtailed?How do these images influence the formation of subjectivities? Do theyaffect heteronormative notions of the public and the private? Whatspatial dynamics do they suggest? Do such images reconfigure prevailingunderstandings of intimacy? What erasures do they signify? Finally, whatchallenges, achievements and dilemmas do they represent? Contributionsthat address the following topics are particularly welcome:'race'/ethnicity, butch lesbians, commodification, parenting, queerteens.
Papers should be submitted in the standard Sexualities format[http://sexualities.sagepub.com/] by March 31st 2007 to:
Dr. Róisín Ryan-Flood
Department of Sociology
University of Essex
Wivenhoe Park
Colchester C04 3SQ
Tel.: +44-(0)1206 873551
Email: rflood @ essex.ac.uk
Thursday, February 01, 2007
CFP: Race and Video Games (2/16/07; (dis)junctions, 4/6/07-4/7/07)
Race and Video Games
This call for papers is for a proposed panel to be held at =
(dis)junctions 2007: Malappropriation Nation, the University of =
California Riverside's 14th Annual Humanities Graduate Conference on =
April 6-7, 2007.=20
This panel will explore race and video games with the intention of =
mapping out some of the more pressing critical issues surrounding the =
inclusion or exclusion of race in games. The game industry and game =
studies are both interesting and exciting, but the discourse on race has =
been sparse and focused primarily on forms of reductive representation. =
Therefore, this panel is dedicated to critical works that push beyond a =
focus on representation. Panelists are sought that attempt to describe =
and analyze the visualization and political implications of race in =
games and game cultures.
Potential contributions may involve, but are not limited to, some of the =
following concepts:
1. Excessiveness
2. Invisibility/Visibility=20
3. Minstrelsy
4. Political economy of games
5. Racial performance/passing
6. Logics of race at the interface and beyond
7. Default whiteness
8. Token representation
9. Blackness, Asianness, etc.
10. Masculinity and race
11. Race and gender
12. Orientalism
13. Character creation
14. Race in game design
15. Language issues
16. Cultural borrowing
17. Commodification
Submissions are encouraged that deal with any game, platform, genre, =
theme, or era, as well as any aspect of game culture itself (fan =
networks, review sites, manuals, peripherals, and so on).
Additionally, submissions that deal with race from different global =
perspectives are of great interest.
Abstracts of 250-300 words should be e-mailed to Tanner Higgin at =
thigg001@ucr.edu by February 16, 2007 (text in the body of the message; =
please no attachments).=20
This call for papers is for a proposed panel to be held at =
(dis)junctions 2007: Malappropriation Nation, the University of =
California Riverside's 14th Annual Humanities Graduate Conference on =
April 6-7, 2007.=20
This panel will explore race and video games with the intention of =
mapping out some of the more pressing critical issues surrounding the =
inclusion or exclusion of race in games. The game industry and game =
studies are both interesting and exciting, but the discourse on race has =
been sparse and focused primarily on forms of reductive representation. =
Therefore, this panel is dedicated to critical works that push beyond a =
focus on representation. Panelists are sought that attempt to describe =
and analyze the visualization and political implications of race in =
games and game cultures.
Potential contributions may involve, but are not limited to, some of the =
following concepts:
1. Excessiveness
2. Invisibility/Visibility=20
3. Minstrelsy
4. Political economy of games
5. Racial performance/passing
6. Logics of race at the interface and beyond
7. Default whiteness
8. Token representation
9. Blackness, Asianness, etc.
10. Masculinity and race
11. Race and gender
12. Orientalism
13. Character creation
14. Race in game design
15. Language issues
16. Cultural borrowing
17. Commodification
Submissions are encouraged that deal with any game, platform, genre, =
theme, or era, as well as any aspect of game culture itself (fan =
networks, review sites, manuals, peripherals, and so on).
Additionally, submissions that deal with race from different global =
perspectives are of great interest.
Abstracts of 250-300 words should be e-mailed to Tanner Higgin at =
thigg001@ucr.edu by February 16, 2007 (text in the body of the message; =
please no attachments).=20
Friday, December 29, 2006
New quarter's composition class...
Against my better judgment, I have reinvented my composition class for this upcoming winter quarter. Well, to be fair, it's not a total reinvention of the wheel. I have cobbled together a bunch of things from various courses I've taught in the past. I have to write new assignments, but the rest is lifted from my comp classes at the University of Maryland and the classes I taught last year at UW.
I've changed up a few things: added more short assignments, cut one of the major papers, and scaled back the readings. I want to get back to a slew of 2-page response papers (claim precis type stuff) that help the students practice the one skill they always have trouble with: generating complex arguments. Then lead up to a slightly longer major paper (6-8 pages rather than 5-7) that requires a bit more outside research. It should be a rolling class, and I get to use many more examples from stories, advertising, television, websites, and film.
ENGL111M: Everyday Media: Reading, Writing, and Critiquing
A central requirement for this class is a well-developed curiosity about the world, about the culture we live in, and about the cultural productions we imagine, produce, and consume. Here the definition of literature is expanded to include more than just written texts. In addition to writing, photographs, advertising, television, websites, and film will be our artifacts, our texts of study and meditation and analysis. We are surrounded by, bombarded with, and often uncritical participants in “everyday media” and their concomitant technologies. This class, in broad strokes, will investigate and interrogate and make visible the ideological, material, and cultural manifestations of “everyday media,” primarily in the US, through the lenses of cultural studies, visual literacy, and writing. Lister and Wells, authors of “Seeing Beyond Belief,” argue for a curiosity, a methodology for unpacking cultural productions; they say, “Cultural Studies allows the analyst to attend to the many moments within the cycle of production, circulation and consumption of [a text] through which meanings accumulate, slip and shift.” They argue that our understandings of identities, meanings, and power, as well as the intersections of cultural and social locations like race, gender, class, and sexuality, can be excavated through the analysis of the texts we create and consume. This class will spend the quarter reading, thinking, writing about “everyday media” and how and what these texts argue, reveal, narrate, hide, perpetuate, and complicate the world we live in.
I've changed up a few things: added more short assignments, cut one of the major papers, and scaled back the readings. I want to get back to a slew of 2-page response papers (claim precis type stuff) that help the students practice the one skill they always have trouble with: generating complex arguments. Then lead up to a slightly longer major paper (6-8 pages rather than 5-7) that requires a bit more outside research. It should be a rolling class, and I get to use many more examples from stories, advertising, television, websites, and film.
ENGL111M: Everyday Media: Reading, Writing, and Critiquing
A central requirement for this class is a well-developed curiosity about the world, about the culture we live in, and about the cultural productions we imagine, produce, and consume. Here the definition of literature is expanded to include more than just written texts. In addition to writing, photographs, advertising, television, websites, and film will be our artifacts, our texts of study and meditation and analysis. We are surrounded by, bombarded with, and often uncritical participants in “everyday media” and their concomitant technologies. This class, in broad strokes, will investigate and interrogate and make visible the ideological, material, and cultural manifestations of “everyday media,” primarily in the US, through the lenses of cultural studies, visual literacy, and writing. Lister and Wells, authors of “Seeing Beyond Belief,” argue for a curiosity, a methodology for unpacking cultural productions; they say, “Cultural Studies allows the analyst to attend to the many moments within the cycle of production, circulation and consumption of [a text] through which meanings accumulate, slip and shift.” They argue that our understandings of identities, meanings, and power, as well as the intersections of cultural and social locations like race, gender, class, and sexuality, can be excavated through the analysis of the texts we create and consume. This class will spend the quarter reading, thinking, writing about “everyday media” and how and what these texts argue, reveal, narrate, hide, perpetuate, and complicate the world we live in.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Friday, October 20, 2006
www.darkjustgotfun.com
This is really fun: M&M'S 50 DarkMovies Hidden in a Painting! To play, you'll navigate through the masterpiece and search for clues to 50 dark movie titles. It's as much fun as a bag of New M&M'S Dark Chocolate Candies! Play it now and see if you can find them all! Go to: www.darkjustgotfun.com
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Monday, September 25, 2006
My new composition course debuts...
ENGL111: Imagining Cyberspace: Representations of Cyberspace in Literature, Film, and Culture
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU HEAR THE WORD CYBERSPACE? WHAT DO YOU SEE? WHAT DO YOU KNOW? Since the inception of the Internet and the World Wide Web and the discipline of ‘digital studies’, the notion and imagining of cyberspace has been deeply celebrated, contested, and colonized. Long before Keanu Reaves donned sunglasses and leather trenchcoat, William Gibson in the early 1980s coined the term ‘cyberspace’ and jacked the culture into the (many-layered) world of cyberpunk. From Burning Chrome, Gibson describes cyberspace, describes the matrix as “an abstract representation of the relationships between data system...bright geometries...Towers and fields of it ranged in the colorless nonspace...the electronic consensus-hallucination...” So what is cyberspace? Is it a place? Is it a space? Is it thought or body or machine or all of the above? Cyberspace has been touted as the ultimate frontier, the promise land where all ground is level for all people, the time and place where you can be anything you want. Cyberspace has been criticized for its lack of definition, its commercialization, its slipperiness when it comes to identity, community, and access. Cyberspace has even been demonized as the shadowy lair of thieves, perverts, sexual predators, terrorists, and subversives. Is cyberspace any of these things? All of these things and more?
This class, in broad strokes, will investigate and interrogate the idea, the material, and the manifestations of cyberspace, primarily in the US, through the lenses of literature and writing. This class will look at, explore, and tease apart what we believe to be a monolithic, all-powerful (and now completely naturalized) construction and convention and take into consideration historical context, commodification, technology, and the intersection of race, gender, class, and identity on- and off-line. We will spend the quarter reading, thinking, writing about (and surfing, mining, and clicking) cyberspace in literature, in film, in theory, and in everyday use. In other words, we will look at texts about cyberspace and cyberspace itself as text.
(The course is really ambitious. It's still a composition class with a literature component. I'm going to have my students reading a lot. It'll be a challenge for them and for me. This will be the first time I've taught a "digital studies" class. The course website is up as well: http://staff.washington.edu/changed -- it lists all the readings.)
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU HEAR THE WORD CYBERSPACE? WHAT DO YOU SEE? WHAT DO YOU KNOW? Since the inception of the Internet and the World Wide Web and the discipline of ‘digital studies’, the notion and imagining of cyberspace has been deeply celebrated, contested, and colonized. Long before Keanu Reaves donned sunglasses and leather trenchcoat, William Gibson in the early 1980s coined the term ‘cyberspace’ and jacked the culture into the (many-layered) world of cyberpunk. From Burning Chrome, Gibson describes cyberspace, describes the matrix as “an abstract representation of the relationships between data system...bright geometries...Towers and fields of it ranged in the colorless nonspace...the electronic consensus-hallucination...” So what is cyberspace? Is it a place? Is it a space? Is it thought or body or machine or all of the above? Cyberspace has been touted as the ultimate frontier, the promise land where all ground is level for all people, the time and place where you can be anything you want. Cyberspace has been criticized for its lack of definition, its commercialization, its slipperiness when it comes to identity, community, and access. Cyberspace has even been demonized as the shadowy lair of thieves, perverts, sexual predators, terrorists, and subversives. Is cyberspace any of these things? All of these things and more?
This class, in broad strokes, will investigate and interrogate the idea, the material, and the manifestations of cyberspace, primarily in the US, through the lenses of literature and writing. This class will look at, explore, and tease apart what we believe to be a monolithic, all-powerful (and now completely naturalized) construction and convention and take into consideration historical context, commodification, technology, and the intersection of race, gender, class, and identity on- and off-line. We will spend the quarter reading, thinking, writing about (and surfing, mining, and clicking) cyberspace in literature, in film, in theory, and in everyday use. In other words, we will look at texts about cyberspace and cyberspace itself as text.
(The course is really ambitious. It's still a composition class with a literature component. I'm going to have my students reading a lot. It'll be a challenge for them and for me. This will be the first time I've taught a "digital studies" class. The course website is up as well: http://staff.washington.edu/changed -- it lists all the readings.)
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Awesome..."Designer creates floating bed"
Mon Aug 7, 8:31 AM ET
A young Dutch architect has created a floating bed which hovers above the ground through magnetic force and comes with a price tag of 1.2 million euros ($1.54 million).
Janjaap Ruijssenaars took inspiration for the bed -- a sleek black platform, which took six years to develop and can double as a dining table or a plinth -- from the mysterious monolith in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 cult film "2001: A Space Odyssey."
"No matter where you live all architecture is dictated by gravity. I wondered whether you could make an object, a building or a piece of furniture where this is not the case -- where another power actually dictates the image," Ruijssenaars said.
Magnets built into the floor and into the bed itself repel each other, pushing the bed up into the air. Thin steel cables tether the bed in place.
"It is not comfortable at the moment," admits Ruijssenaars, adding it needs cushions and bedclothes before use.
Although people with piercings should have no problem sleeping on the bed, Ruijssenaars advises them against entering the magnetic field between the bed and the floor.
They could find their piercing suddenly tugged toward one of the magnets.
Friday, April 28, 2006
THE LOS ANGELES QUEER STUDIES CONFERENCE 2006 CALL FOR PAPERS
The 2006 conference will be held Friday and Saturday, October 20-21, 2006 at UCLA's Royce Hall.
Participants will include:
Janet Jakobsen
David Roman
Jennifer Terry
Michelle Matlock will present the first westcoast performance of the “Mammy Project.”
The Williams Institute at UCLA Law School will sponsor a panel on recent sexual orientation law and public policy scholarship.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Since one of the principal goals of the conference is to encourage the exchange of ideas across academic generations, we invite participation of graduate students and faculty scholars. Please send your proposal (not more than 850 words) for a 20-minute presentation on any topic relating to the study of sexuality and gender and a cv (not more than 2 pages) to one of the addresses below. If you would like to organize a panel of three speakers, please feel free to do so.
DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: June 30, 2006
Submissions by US Postal Service:
UCLA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Program 1101 Hershey Hall Box 951384 Los Angeles, CA 90095-1384
Email submissions: lgbs@humnet.ucla.edu
For further information, please contact the UCLA LGBTS office at 310 206-0516 or lgbs@humnet.ucla.edu or www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/lgbts/
Organized by the UCLA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Program
Stacy Macias
LGBTS Program Assistant
********************
UCLA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies
Office: 1101 Hershey Hall
Email: lgbs@humnet.ucla.edu
Phone: (310) 206-0516
Web: www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/lgbts/
The 2006 conference will be held Friday and Saturday, October 20-21, 2006 at UCLA's Royce Hall.
Participants will include:
Janet Jakobsen
David Roman
Jennifer Terry
Michelle Matlock will present the first westcoast performance of the “Mammy Project.”
The Williams Institute at UCLA Law School will sponsor a panel on recent sexual orientation law and public policy scholarship.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Since one of the principal goals of the conference is to encourage the exchange of ideas across academic generations, we invite participation of graduate students and faculty scholars. Please send your proposal (not more than 850 words) for a 20-minute presentation on any topic relating to the study of sexuality and gender and a cv (not more than 2 pages) to one of the addresses below. If you would like to organize a panel of three speakers, please feel free to do so.
DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: June 30, 2006
Submissions by US Postal Service:
UCLA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Program 1101 Hershey Hall Box 951384 Los Angeles, CA 90095-1384
Email submissions: lgbs@humnet.ucla.edu
For further information, please contact the UCLA LGBTS office at 310 206-0516 or lgbs@humnet.ucla.edu or www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/lgbts/
Organized by the UCLA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Program
Stacy Macias
LGBTS Program Assistant
********************
UCLA Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies
Office: 1101 Hershey Hall
Email: lgbs@humnet.ucla.edu
Phone: (310) 206-0516
Web: www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/lgbts/
Monday, February 27, 2006
Octavia Butler, 1947-2006
Octavia Butler, one of the country's leading science fiction authors, died Friday after a fall outside her home in Lake Forest Park, Seattle, WA. The African American was the first science fiction author to receive a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant.
Read the full article at: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/books/260959_butlerobit26ww.html
Read the full article at: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/books/260959_butlerobit26ww.html
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Oh, to be tagged...
LISTS OF 3
Three books I can read over and over:
1) The Lord of the Rings (Tolkien)
2) Harry Potter books (Rowling)
3) Shakespeare's plays
Three places I've lived:
1) Silver Spring, MD (hometown)
2) Mission District, San Francisco (my second hometown)
3) Capitol Hill, Seattle (my third and current home)
Three TV shows I love:
1) Buffy the Vampire Slayer
2) Smallville
3) Supernatural
Three highly regarded and recommended TV shows that I've never watched a single minute of:
1) Gray's Anatomy
2) Lost
3) Oz
Three places I've vacationed:
1) Taipei, Taiwan
2) Grand Junction, Colorado, US
3) Jacksonville, NC, US
Three of my favorite dishes:
1) most kinds of sushi
2) my mother's (and now my) world famous chinese dumplings
3) sauteed mussels and garlic
Three sites I visit daily:
1) myuw.washington.edu
2) www.livejournal.com/users/writerpunk
3) www.sluggy.com
Three places I would rather be right now:
1) San Francisco, CA
2) with my friends in Maryland
3) at home playing WoW
Three bloggers I am tagging:
1) Things As They Are (Marc Ruppel)
2) Sweet Machine (Laura P.)
3) High Yella (Sydney L.)
Three books I can read over and over:
1) The Lord of the Rings (Tolkien)
2) Harry Potter books (Rowling)
3) Shakespeare's plays
Three places I've lived:
1) Silver Spring, MD (hometown)
2) Mission District, San Francisco (my second hometown)
3) Capitol Hill, Seattle (my third and current home)
Three TV shows I love:
1) Buffy the Vampire Slayer
2) Smallville
3) Supernatural
Three highly regarded and recommended TV shows that I've never watched a single minute of:
1) Gray's Anatomy
2) Lost
3) Oz
Three places I've vacationed:
1) Taipei, Taiwan
2) Grand Junction, Colorado, US
3) Jacksonville, NC, US
Three of my favorite dishes:
1) most kinds of sushi
2) my mother's (and now my) world famous chinese dumplings
3) sauteed mussels and garlic
Three sites I visit daily:
1) myuw.washington.edu
2) www.livejournal.com/users/writerpunk
3) www.sluggy.com
Three places I would rather be right now:
1) San Francisco, CA
2) with my friends in Maryland
3) at home playing WoW
Three bloggers I am tagging:
1) Things As They Are (Marc Ruppel)
2) Sweet Machine (Laura P.)
3) High Yella (Sydney L.)
Uncyclopedia
Given the recent critique and defense of www.wikipedia.org, I thought this was an amusing site: http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_%28Books%29. I know I use wikipedia all of the time (and do my students) with a grain of salt (which my students don't seem to take).
I-10 Witness Project (Digital Stories)
A friend of mine, Patrick Strange, a New Orleanian, passed this project on to me months back in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He writes, "For the last couple of moths, a few of friends and I have been recording the stories of people affected by Hurricane Katrina. We are recording audio in mp3 format and releasing it into the public domain. The project, called I-10 Witness Project, is a non-profit funded by donations and the particular generosity of the Center for Digital Story Telling in Berkeley: http://www.storycenter.org/. Basically, we feel as if the personal stories of the people who were in New Orleans before, during, and after the storm are not being told through conventional media and news sources. Like anyone who loves New Orleans, we believe that not only do these personal accounts deserve a platform, but that they are perhaps the most telling history of the storm and its effects. We are compiling audio clips, photographs, reports, and in-depth stories on the web. Once the recording process is completed, we will then deliver the audio files along with photographs to public archives so people will be able to access them for years to come."
Check it out: http://www.i10witness.com/
Check it out: http://www.i10witness.com/
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