If you wrote one of the first responses to Mellix, read through the comments on your post. Post a comment replying to what one or more of your readers have had to say.
If you wrote comments, pick a response that you didn’t get a chance to comment on, read through what your classmates have had to say about it, and continue the conversation.
In either case, find a passage in Mellix’s essay that you’d like us to talk some more about (whether you write about this passage in your comment or not).
To Do
Wed, 9/11, 4:00 pm: Group B posts responses to Lu’s “From Silence to Words”.
Thurs, 9/12, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group B’s responses and posts comments on at least two.
Fri, 9/13, class: We will use those responses and comments to structure our class discussion of Lu.
Mon, 9/16, class: Read James Paul Gee’s “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics”. I will lead our discussion.
I’m interested in thinking about Hochschild’s piece in relation to Pratt’s, especially since where Pratt talks about “contact zones”, Hochschild talks about “empathy zones”. What’s at stake in this difference? Or might “mapping empathy” possibly be considered another one of the “arts of the contact zone”?
Please try to locate a particular point or passage in Hochschild’s piece that you’d like to relate to a passage from Pratt.
Asymmetry is a keyword for both Lambeth and Pratt. Please spend a few minutes thinking and talking about how their uses of this term/concept align and how they differ.
Contact Zones, and their Arts
Fastwrite
According to Pratt, what distinguishes a contact zone from other social spaces? And what distinguishes its “arts” from other those of other social spaces?
Groups, Responses, and Comments
To Do
Mon, 9/09, class: Please read Arlie Hochschild’s “Empathy Maps”. I’m interested in thinking about her work in relation to Pratt’s, especially since where Pratt talks about “contact zones”, Hochschild talks about “empathy zones”. What’s at stake in this difference? Or might “empathy” and “mapping” somehow also be considered “arts of the contact zone”?
Mon, 9/09, 4:00 pm: Group A posts responses to Mellix’s “Outside, In”.
Tues, 9/10, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group A’s responses (along with Mellix, of course) and posts comments on at least two.
Wed, 9/11, class: We will use those responses and comments to structure our class discussion of Mellix.
Wed, 9/11, 4:00 pm: Group B posts responses to Lu’s “From Silence to Words”.
Thurs, 9/12, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group B’s responses and posts comments on at least two.
Fri, 9/13, class: We will use those responses and comments to structure our class discussion of Lu.
Please create a free account on WordPress.com. I suggest you use your first name and last initial (e.g., “Joe H”) as your “Public Display Name”.
I will send an invitation to contribute to this site to your Udel email. (The sender of the email will probably be listed as WordPress.) Please accept this invitation immediately. Stay logged in to WordPress.
Responding to Lambeth
Fastwrite
Please write a ¶ about a memory or object that holds beauty for you because of its “asymmetry and imperfection”. Then write another ¶ in which you relate your thoughts to Lambeth’s. Try to quote at least once from Lambeth’s piece. Copy and save your text.
Laurie Clements Lambeth, with Patou. Photo by Ian Lambeth.
Posting Your Response
Go to this site (https://e367fall2019.home.blog/). If you have accepted my invitation to contribute, you should see a button on the upper righthand corner that says +Write. (If you don’t see this, click on the My Sites button on the upper lefthand corner, and then click on Posts.) A text box should appear.
Paste your response into the text box. Check formatting (headings, italics, spacing, etc.).
Think of a good title for your piece. Type that into the Title Bar.
Choose Responses as your Category. Uncheck any other boxes.
Think of two or three Tags that will help identify your piece from the others posted. (You’ll thus want something more specific in addition to “Wabi Sabi” and “Lambeth”.)
Hit Publish. If there’s something you don’t like about your post, you can click on Edit, make changes, and Update.
This will be the process you’ll want to follow in posting your responses to readings for this course. Don’t worry. The steps quickly become routine.
Fri, 9/06, class: Read “Arts of the Contact Zone” by Mary Louise Pratt. This is a challenging but also rewarding piece. I’ll want to discuss what Pratt means by contact zone, autoethnography, and asymmetrical relations of power. I’ll also be interested in hearing your thoughts about Pratt’s attempts to connect the experiences of Guaman Poma with those of her young son.
Mon, 9/09, class: Read Arlie Hochschild’s “Empathy Maps”. I will lead our discussion.
Mon, 9/09, 4:00 pm: Group A posts responses to Babara Mellix’s “From Outside, In”.
Tues, 9/10, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group A’s responses (along with Mellix, of course) and posts comments on at least two.
Wed, 9/11, class: We will use those responses and comments to structure our class discussion of Mellix.
I’d like us to begin today by considering how difference plays out closer to home. Please read the excerpt from Caitlin Larracey’s “On the Path to Fitting In?: Listening to First Gen Campus Students”. Caitlin is a graduate student at UD; her piece will appear next year in a collection of scholarly essays published by the MLA. Spoiler Alert: MU is UD; Main is this campus; City is the Associate in Arts Campus in Wilmington.
How accurately does Hannah point to differences and divisions that you’ve observed, or felt, here at UD? Do you agree that the experiences of First Gen students at Delaware are significantly different from those of the “Tylers” and “Sarahs” that Hannah and Scott observe? If so, what might be done to connect the two groups more?
Readings, and Other Info
To Do
Wed, 9/04, class: Please read “The Three-Legged Dog” by Laurie Clements Lambeth. Bring your laptop with you to class. I’d like to walk you through setting up an account on WordPress and posting a response to this site. (We’ll use your responses to Lambeth as an example.)
Friday, 9/06, class: Read “Arts of the Contact Zone” by Mary Louise Pratt. This is a challenging but also rewarding piece. I’ll want to discuss what Pratt means by contact zone, autoethnography, and asymmetrical relations of power. I’d also be interested in hearing your thoughts about Pratt’s attempts to connect the experiences of Guaman Poma and with those of her young son.
My aim in this course is to investigate how writers can negotiate situations of conflict and disagreement in civil ways, striving more towards conversation than simple debate. So I thought it might be interesting and fun to begin by looking at this quiz designed by Dr Karin Temerius, the founder of Smart Politics, that appeared last November in the New York Times.
Thomas Nast, Uncle Sam’s Thanksgiving Dinner, 1869
Fastwrite
What do you find compelling or useful about this approach to dealing with political disagreement? What might this approach soft-pedal, downplay, or gloss over?
(General) Plan of This Course
To Do
Fri, 8/30, class: Show up! I’ll have the rest of the course website set up by then, and we’ll talk about the particulars of the semester.
E367: Writing and Diversity 