Teaching experiment

Today my department chair confirmed my teaching a course in the Winter term (January – April) of 2010. Originally he wanted a postcolonial theory course, but after a conversation with our undergraduate coordinator they decided instead on a postcolonial literature class. I will begin to structure the course this summer, and as an exercise I will chart that process here (or in whatever format/site/etc we decide to continue).

These updates will include not only the material itself, but also more basic questions of pedagogy: the syllabus, delivering lectures, handling student responses in papers and exams, and so on. Further, I will continue to discuss these issues and track the effective and ineffective strategies/techniques during the class itself. Are you folks interested in playing along?

Blacks, texts, and the white imagination

Care to help brainstorm elements of my dissertation?

For the past two weeks I have kept an informal mental catalog of the most visible/popular/prevalent examples of blacks and black culture in the contemporary white Western imagination. Where and in what forms does the average white person encounter blacks and/or Africa?

Another update post

Sometimes it seems as if I’m in the middle of a soap opera.  Recently, I’ve felt things developing into one of those times.  I’m sure that if I were a gifted writer, I could spin some of this into some entertaining Sedaris-style work.  Unfortunately, I have just enough skill to break it down into manageable chunks.

NY Times: Lacking Credits, Some Students Learn a Shortcut

April 11, 2007
By ELISSA GOOTMAN and SHARONA COUTTS

Dennis Bunyan showed up for his first-semester senior English class at Wadleigh Secondary School in Harlem so rarely that, as he put it, “I basically didn’t attend.”

But despite his sustained absence, Mr. Bunyan got the credit he needed to graduate last June by completing just three essay assignments, which he said took about 10 hours.

“I’m grateful for it, but it also just seems kind of, you know, outrageous,” Mr. Bunyan said. “There’s no way three essays can possibly cover a semester of work.”

Mr. Bunyan was able to graduate through what is known as credit recovery — letting those who lack credits make them up by means other than retaking a class or attending traditional summer school. Although his principal said the makeup assignments were as rigorous as regular course work, Mr. Bunyan’s English teacher, Charan Morris, was so troubled that she boycotted the graduation ceremony, writing in an e-mail message to students that she believed some were “being pushed through the system regardless of whether they have done the work to earn their diploma.”

Throughout the city, an ad hoc system of helping students like Mr. Bunyan over the hump is taking root in public high schools, sometimes over the protests of teachers, who call credit recovery programs a poor substitute for classroom learning and say they ultimately devalue the diploma. In interviews, teachers or principals at more than a dozen schools said the programs ranged from five-day crunch sessions over school breaks, to interactive computer programs culminating in an online test, to independent study packets — and varied in quality.
more

an update of sorts

I am looking forward to next Thursday.

Ed and I will be attending a BFA show opening exclusive to the transfer students who were recently admitted into SAIC. We will take a look at what current students are doing, discuss art and school, and tour the campus.

That evening, we will attend the student show at Oakton (OakArt). Our dream drawing assignments are on display. My mom has been wanting to meet with us, so I’ve invited her to attend.

Of course the best part of this is that Ed and I have the day off of work.

State of things

I have decided to stop sending e-mails updating my ‘progress’ in Canada. Very few people respond to the messages and the blog affords me the opportunity to perform the same gesture in a more productive way; at least you two will read and (possibly) respond to them, and I know you at least remain interested. This also helps me visualize where I’ve come from and where I am going.

Completed:

I delivered a modified version of the paper I posted below at a conference hosted by the College of the Bahamas and gained some valuable insights regarding my work. I also created an account at Flickr to host pictures of Nassau.

I submitted a twenty-something page essay last week for my doctoral seminar. In it I examine two recent post-Civil War Liberian novels which have not received any critical attention. I argue that each takes the form of a political bildungsroman and features a dominant narrative in which characters from the ruling minority ‘grow up’ and accept their indigenous counterparts, yet the text also reveals a counter-narrative in which, perhaps, the idea of national unity is instead naïve and they ‘grow up’ in a very different way. Regardless, their use of language and behavior suggests they haven’t really embraced the notion that the descendants of black colonists and indigenous Liberians belong to the same national unit. As you might imagine I draw from nationalism studies, particularly the theories of Walker Connor, among others.

Fiona and I have decided to move in together after learning that the English department has accepted her into the PhD program, i.e. she will be in Ottawa for the next several years. Our leases both finish in May and we will look for a two-bedroom apartment in the downtown area, roughly near where I currently live. When we finish with it—especially if one or both of us gets the OGS grant—you will be jealous.

Currently working on:

I have three essays to complete in the next three weeks (in addition to my duties as a TA and other work for my classes). One will focus on rhetorical strategies in the later speeches of William V.S. Tubman, a long-serving Liberian despot. Another concerns the recent work of Liberian poet Patricia Jabbeh-Wesley. I don’t know what I will concentrate on for the third essay, probably either the first Liberian novel or the works of its first truly indigenous writer, a man named B.T. Moore. I haven’t even begun to consider an approach yet. As you can see, I use my classes as an opportunity to delve further into Liberian literature, about which I have become increasingly excited. They say the hardest thing about working on a PhD is maintaining enthusiasm… thankfully I haven’t burned out in the second semester.

I have finalized my panel for the 2008 MLA Convention in San Francisco and decided that rather read a paper, I will simply contextualize the proceedings and introduce the speakers. This gives them more time to speak and frees me from having to work on something at the last minute.

Future projects:

The chair of my department has asked me to organize a graduate conference for next year, and I have tentatively accepted. I have thought about organizing it around late-February and will need to form a committee and discuss it further. If this happens, we will need posters and fliers. Perhaps some future work for you two? I’d need to work it out with a committee, of course, but I have you both in mind.

Once I complete my papers, I will begin working on polishing a few of them for publication. I have two in mind specifically, one for Research in African Literatures and another for Comparative Literature Studies. I will keep you informed.

SAIC

So, I’ve been meaning to summarize my SAIC admissions experience so far.  At first I was concerned about jumping the gun as well as publicly posting some sensitive items.
I met with the head of undergrad admissions (Scott) on Feb. 21.  Ed went along with me to the meeting.  We were in for around an hour.  It really felt like we both “clicked” with Scott.  I rarely get that feeling.  I certainly didn’t expect to click in this situation.  I’ve read that it’s important to walk into this kind of meeting ready for criticism.  It’s stressed that the best impression you can leave is to take it well.  Not only did he not criticize my work, he complimented it.  He said it’s once of the better transfer portfolios he’d seen in his time at the school.  He told me that he was approving my portfolio on the spot, he’d expect me to see merit money of some kind, and I belong there.  After talking about art, conversation moved on to the chans, viral marketing, and Cloverfield.

I had until March 3rd to be accepted into the school (with all of my requirements in, etc) in order to be tossed into the merit pool.  Somehow I made it.  I tried to get as much to the school in electronic form as I could.  I promised that hard copies would follow by mail.  I’ve been assured that I’m in the merit pool.

I’ve gotten my official acceptance letter.  To seal the deal of attending the school, I need to make a non-refundable tuition down payment of $300 by May 1.  Since the amount of money offered to me is the final key to my decision, I am waiting this out as long as I can.  Novy called once of his contacts at the school who assured him that award letters would go out by the end of March.  So, until then, I wait.

Ed has given me permission to feel excited about this.  Really, I’m still pretty apprehensive.  The more I look at the school, the more I think about our meeting with Scott, the more I really want to go.  I like what the school is doing.  It’s still an admired school.  SAIC is trying to keep up with the changing world by embracing technology.  The school isn’t afraid of pissing people off.  I won’t be forced to decide if I’m a painter or a print-maker.  I can make my own path.  I will be trusted to make the appropriate connections between genres and enhance my portfolio.  Ed and I have been following some of the west coast art movement, and I can get an education in Chicago that won’t be afraid of that.

What will I do with all of this (supposing I can make money and school work out)?
I keep thinking about my old dream of illustrating.  My goal was never to be a gallery artist, but I think at this point, with this education, I should be able to expect a few things of myself (shallow, practical, & impractical):

• I will work in series (like a musician working in CDs).
• I will find the amount of commercialism that I feel comfortable with
• I will show my work in galleries, but won’t rely on that (I think that galleries as we know them are a dying idea and there won’t be enough bang for my buck.  I’m more interested in shooting for coverage in High Fructose or Juxtapose magazines)
• I will teach at the university level (This is a very important part of my plan.  I want to work with you both on this.)
• I will work on projects with other people (you guys and other contemporaries)
• I will stay involved with other contemporaries across fields
• I will find a physical home that I feel comfortable with and contribute to the community (even if home is an idea and I’m physically moving often)

This list is only what I can think of now and mostly about career stuff.  More to come.  I would like goals for all of us to touch, overlap, intertwine.  I understand that things change.  It is, however, kind of important that Ed’s goals, my goals, and our goals can coexist.

A personal extracurricular syllabus

This syllabus is meant to express a convergence of the networks of personal interest I maintain. In a broad sense the syllabus represents what I think I need to know in order to accomplish what it is I want to accomplish – but more on that later. I have all of the books that I reference except for Polya’s Solve It! and Ray Jackendoff’s Languages of the Mind: Essays on Mental Representation which are on my list of “someday books.” The books are in order as well as I can figure it now, though I am sure that all of this will change shape and shift as I go.

Math
1.
A. Technical Calculus with Analytic Geometry
B. Understanding Infinity
C. A Vector Space Approach to Geometry
D. Introduction to Partial Differential Equations with Applications
E. Differential Geometry
F. Complex Analysis with Applications

2a.
A. Differential Games
B. Evolutionary Games an Equilibrium Selection
C. Combinatorial Algorithms
D. Information Theory

2b.
A. Matrices and Linear Algebra
B. Modern Algebra

Philosophy

1. 1000 Plateaus
2. Difference and Repetition

Systems/Heuristics

1. Code Complete
2. The Mathematical Approach to Physiological Problems
3. An Experience with Populations and Communities
4. Solve It!
5. Spiral Dynamics

Brain Stuff

1. Accelerated Learning for the 21st Centrury
2. Mind Performance Hacks
3. Flow
4. Lifehacker
5. Speed Math
6. Photoreading

NLP/Linguistics/Semiotics

1. Patterns 2
2. NLP vol 1
3. Changing Belief Systems with NLP
4. Modeling with NLP
5. The Spirit of NLP
6. Semantic Structures
7. Languages of the Mind: Essays on Mental Representation

Whew- well that should be easy. Also, then there are “assignments” which I ought to be adhering to; writing based on what it is that I am studying at the moment, for instance, as well as writing for writing’s sake, that is to say organizing and collecting the various ideas that i get from time to time that I think are work remembering. Not to mention the school work I get from actual school and maintaining a healthy marriage/social life.

And then there are the long-term projects which I would like to complete: My as-yet unnamed prime number inquiry, analyzing a city block both ecologically and semiotically, priming essays and works of fiction to communicate deliberately with both the conscious and unconscious mind.

What I suppose I should start with is a project that integrates what it is that I am currently learning at any given moment and can be easily scaled to match the resources I am able to commit at any given moment. And I am totally willing to take suggestions as that goes. Currently it seems to me that the most easy project is to try an post an entry here as often as possible.

What I Do: Conference Paper

My parents know I work as a student of course, but they didn’t become familiar with the specifics of my doctoral research until a phone call immediately before coming to Ottawa for my master’s graduation, in which I told them, “We should go out to dinner with my thesis advisor. Oh, do you know what I study?” You two are probably in the same boat: I study Liberian literature… and that may be the extent of your knowledge on the matter. You know I write papers, attend conferences, etc. You also know that I really love speaking in public, but unfortunately other than a hastily unprepared ’speech’ a half-decade ago at Bughouse Square I can’t remember whether you’ve ever seen me in my element. Maybe that will change: in November the African Studies Association will host it’s fiftieth anniversary conference in Chicago and I will try my best to get on the proceedings and deliver a paper. If that happens I will sneak you both into the event for sure. But until then, maybe you’d find a paper I just completed for the upcoming Bahamas conference interesting? It will not read the same as a normal paper, nor can it approximate the experience of a paper delivered, but if nothing else I’d like to share with you two what I do lately.

Some general rules about conference papers: organizers usually give you fifteen minutes on a panel with two or three other presenters; that equals seven or eight double-spaced pages. You should expect that: a) no one has read the books you analyze or know their author/s; b) no one knows the relevant historical or social context; and c) in a conference like this, where most people will present on history or sociology, very few know anything about literary theory. As such the content of my conference papers tends to read more general in nature and also a little more colloquial than in a formal essay (the paper below still reads too formally in my opinion, but I will make changes on the plane). Other than in direct quotes, I allow myself a couple of uses of the verb “to be” in conference papers and formal essays. You’ll note that I have e-primed this paper as I do normally, and that I qualify most of my uses of the verb “to be” to eliminate it’s troublesome implications. Tell me what you two think.

The subject of the conference is “Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: Telling the Story”.

Incidentally, though I don’t expect it, should someone other than Angeli or Ed read the following presentation, I should remind them that it remains my intellectual property and that any use of my words or ideas requires the necessary citation, which you can find at a web site like The OWL at Purdue.

Photoshop Portfolio

This is a selection of images from our Photoshop class final.

Ed and I enjoyed Photoshop. As soon as we got into class and learned where a few things were, I think we understood the logic of the program. We then knew how to apply our PSP and general program knowledge to the confines of this program. The same thing happened for us in Access, Illustrator, Quark, and InDesign. The teacher knew that we were moving ahead and were fairly disinterested in what she was doing. It was also pretty obvious that she knew nothing about computers and believed in computer magic. Basically, she asked us to work together on a project.

I’ll start off by saying that I’m pretty happy with these. They have a theme, but there is no higher message or secret code. I expect there to be continuity in a final portfolio. I was looking for a formula that would still allow the images some individual personality in a limited set. Obviously, if I continued with this theme for much longer, it would be too easy and worn out. I think for a limited set, this works. The abstract of the theme centers around unsettling images. The positioning of everything was very intentional. The images were cut off abruptly. Each image starts to focus more and more on the wallpaper pattern (the negative space). There is repetition of wallpaper, a person, mundane objects, and ornate objects/frames. The story theme is loosely strung together from the ideas of a Grimm fairytale or Mother Goose (think of the pre-cleaned versions) or a haunted house full of self-reference and repeating moments (psychic imprints).