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AMERST 5850: Class and Culture
AMER5850: Class and Culture
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Dr. Sherry Linkon sllinkon@ysu.edu |
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Course Description
This course is designed to help you achieve the following learning goals:
· Understand the complexity of class as a social and analytical category
· Develop your ability to critically analyze representations of the working-class
· Understand how popular culture shapes working-class consciousness and activism
· Understand how class culture is complicated by the intersection of multiple cultural identities – race, gender, sexuality, place, ethnicity
To help you achieve these goals, we will use a combination of class discussions, individual research, presentations of your research, and one-on-one conversations.
Required Texts
Nan Enstad, Ladies of Labor, Girls of Adventure
Richard Sennett and Jonathan Cobb, The Hidden Injuries of Class
A significant number of additional readings will be posted in WebCT in PDF format, or you may borrow a CD from me to print out copies of the PDFs.
WebCT
About half of this course will be conducted online, using the discussion board feature of WebCT. Whenever the course schedule lists an online discussion, we will meet virtually instead of face-to-face. You may participate in the online discussion at whatever time of day or night you prefer, though I will always set a deadline by which you need to make an initial and concluding post to the discussion. You’ll find guidelines for effective online discussion in WebCT.
In WebCT, I will also post PDFs of all of the course readings other than the two books. You may download and print this directly from WebCT, though please be advised that this takes up a lot of bandwidth; I recommend that you do this on a computer with a very fast internet connection. I also have a CD with these PDF files, which you may borrow to print from.
Assignments and Grading
Everyone will write one short paper and complete a multiple-piece “inquiry” project. Graduate students will also write a culminating paper, drawn from the research involved in the inquiry project. Grades will be calculated as follows:
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Project |
Due dates |
Percentage for Undergraduates |
Percentage for Graduate Students |
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Class autobiography |
September 16 |
20% |
20% |
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Inquiry project |
Multiple dates |
70% |
50% |
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Critical paper |
December 7 |
n/a |
20% |
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Participation in discussions |
All semester |
10% |
10% |
Specific grading criteria for each assignment will be distributed as part of the assignment sheets.
Course Schedule
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Theme |
Date |
Preparation |
Activities |
Assignments Due |
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Theories of class |
8/26 |
Complete class questionnaire |
Class meeting: your “starting point” class theories
WebCT orientation |
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8/31 |
View People Like Us, video available in library of the CWCS |
Class meeting: discuss film |
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9/2 |
Read Zweig excerpt |
Online discussion of reading |
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9/7 |
Read Sennet & Cobb |
Online discussion of reading |
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9/9 |
Read Metzgar excerpt |
Online discussion of reading |
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9/14 |
E-mail Sherry w/ questions about the theoretical readings |
Class meeting: map common ground and differences among the theories |
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9/16 |
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Online discussion of theories |
Class autobiography |
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Representations of the working class |
9/21 |
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Class meeting: discuss sample representations |
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9/23 |
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Class meeting: discuss sample representations |
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9/28 |
Read Rubin & Butsch essays |
Online discussion of readings |
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9/30 |
Read Lipsitz essay |
Online discussion of Lipsitz |
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10/5 |
E-mail Sherry w/ questions about the readings |
Class meeting: mapping theories of pop culture |
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10/7 |
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Work on your presentations |
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10/12 |
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Class meeting: presentations of individual text sets |
Text analyses |
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How representations shape class consciousness |
10/14 |
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Class meeting: theorizing about how representations affect consciousness |
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10/16 |
Read Enstad, Introduction |
Online discussion of Enstad |
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10/21 |
Read Enstad Chs. 1 & 2 |
Lab session: work with sample representations from circa 1910 |
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10/23 |
Read Enstad |
Class meeting: discuss Enstad & related representations |
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10/28 |
Read essay from Bringing Class Back In
Read Fiske essay |
Online discussion of reading |
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10/30 |
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Individual meetings with Sherry, work on projects |
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11/2 |
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Class meeting: presentations |
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11/4 |
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Class meeting: presentations |
Analysis of the relationship between your texts and audience response |
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Class, race, gender, sexuality |
11/9 |
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Online discussion: intersections in Enstad |
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11/11 |
No class – University closed for Veteran’s Day |
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11/16 |
Read Lott, Introduction and chapter three |
Online discussion: unpacking Lott |
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11/18 |
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Class meeting: More work w/ Lott |
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11/23 |
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Individual meetings with Sherry, work on projects |
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11/25 |
No class – Happy Thanksgiving! |
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11/30 |
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Class meeting: presentations |
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12/2 |
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Class meeting: presentations |
Analysis of how intersections play out in your text set |
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12/7 |
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Graduate papers due |
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318 Fifth Ave :: Youngstown, Ohio 44555
PH: 330.941.2978
