DEEP DIVES
Deep dive #1
For the first of these assignments, we’re going to actually go deeper, analytically, than what we usually do in our weekly exercises (largely by virtue of word counts). The function of this exercise is to recognize our own capacities to focus, expand, and connect our ideas, delving deeper into their complexities and nuance as well as their significance to larger systems and frameworks.
To practice this most directly, we’re going to look at two different texts that we’ve read so far and identify a shared point of relation or association. This is not a compare and contrast situation, but rather an opportunity to meaningfully engage with multiple ideas and see how they might connect to one another or support each other. So, your responsibility here is to use one text to support, prove, or even disprove the ideas of another.*
And given where we are in the semester, these are the texts you have at your disposal.
- Paolo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed
- Jonathan Malesic’s “My College Students Are Not OK” (and any of the comments)
- Jacques Derrida’s “The Principle of Reason: The University in the Eyes of Its Pupils”
- Judith Bulter’s contribution to the Center for Humanities Research, UWC’s panel discussion, “The University and its Worlds“
You’re also welcome to bring in any of our in-class readings (check out the #readings channel on Discord).
As you develop an argument that connects and engages two (2) of the texts above, you’ll also want to consider who your audience might be, how you want to approach them, and what strategies, style, form, and medium makes the most sense for you and your purpose. And don’t forget to cite your sources (page numbers, author names, etc.)!
What you develop should be 1,250 to 1,500 words (roughly 4-6 pages, double-spaced) and it’s due by class time (12:15 pm) on Tuesday, March 21st (we’ll be workshopping what you have in class that day). Please submit it via the link below or DM on Discord.
*Try not think of this assignment as separate or disconnected from your weekly work (because it’s not!). You’re ~highly encouraged~ to expand on something you addressed in a weekly exercise or even borrow or include sentences, passages, etc. from them. This isn’t cheating or plagiarism––this is evolving your own thinking and diving deeper!
Deep dive #2
For the last of these assignments, we’ll again go deeper, analytically, than what we usually do in our weekly exercises (largely by virtue of word counts). Just like the first one, this exercise asks you to dig deeper and expand ideas you may have only just touched on. This is a skill, and one that we often avoid because it is more labor intensive, but the reality is that big ideas and nuanced thinking often require a bit more than a few paragraphs to communicate their significance.
So, for this go-around, we’re going to reflect on the series of texts that attempt to identifying means of liberation from the constrains and violences of the modern university. This is not a compare and contrast situation, but instead an occasion to make decisions about which texts feel most relevant to an argument that you develop.
And while you can technically include any text from the class, the texts you should primarily consider are the following.
- Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang’s “Refusing Research”
- Fred Moten and Stefano Harney’s The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study
- la paperson’s A Third University is Possible
- Toni Cade Bambara’s “Realizing the Dream of a Black University“
You’re also welcome to bring in any of our in-class readings or Twitter threads (check out the #readings channel on Discord).
Here, you’ll need to develop and structure an argument that addresses the question: what do we do about the university? Now, you can respond to this question however you see fit, but you will need to engage two (2) of the texts above to support your position. As always, you’ll want to consider who your audience might be, how you want to approach them, and what strategies makes the most sense for you and your purpose. And don’t forget to cite your sources (page numbers, author names, etc.)!
What you develop should be 1,000 to 1,250 words (roughly 3.5-5 pages, double-spaced) and it’s due by class time (12:15 pm) on our last official day, Thursday, May 11th (we’ll be workshopping what you have in class that day). Please submit it via the link below or DM on Discord.
*Try not think of this assignment as separate or disconnected from your weekly work (because it’s not!). You’re ~highly encouraged~ to expand on something you addressed in a weekly exercise or even borrow or include sentences, passages, etc. from them. This isn’t cheating or plagiarism––this is evolving your own thinking and diving deeper!
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