Syllabus for 2022-23
Term 1
note: If there is a link to an Amazon, then please purchase the text! If there is a link to a video, watch it. If there is link to a file, download it!
Week 1. Introduction
C21 US writing and culture
Week 2. Neoliberalism
watch: “Fuck You, BuddyLink opens in a new window” from The Trap (2007), dir. Adam Curtis
Read:
1. Mark Fisher, selections from Capitalist Realism: Is There No AlternativeLink opens in a new window? (Zero Books, 2009).
2. Ivor Southwood, selections from Non-Stop InertiaLink opens in a new window (Zero Books, 2011). Read pages 1-30.
3. Dale Beran, “4chan: The Skeleton Key to the Rise of TrumpLink opens in a new window”
4. Philip Mirowski, "A Short Course in Neoliberal Economic DoctrineLink opens in a new window"
Week 3. Ways of looking at Time and Cultures of Solidarity.
1. Gerard Duménil and Dominique Lévy, from The Crisis of NeoliberalismLink opens in a new window (Harvard UP, 2011): 7-32, 45-54.
2. Michael Denning, selections from The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth CenturyLink opens in a new window, 3-50.
Week 4. Zombie life
Ling Ma, SeveranceLink opens in a new window (2019)
2. Watch curated videos from Occupy Wall Street, click hereLink opens in a new window
3. selections from Matthew Soules, Icebergs, Zombies, and the Ultra Thin: Architecture and Capitalism in the Twenty-First CenturyLink opens in a new window (2021)
Week 5. Microaggressions
1. Claudia Rankine, Citizen, An American LyricLink opens in a new window (Graywolf, 2014), parts I-V, pages 5-79.
2. microagressionLink opens in a new window - wikipedia
2. Sofia Samatar, “Skin FeelingLink opens in a new window"
3. #blacklivesmatter videosLink opens in a new window please watch
4. articles from Race TraitorLink opens in a new window
5. "How the Italians Became WhiteLink opens in a new window"
Optional
6. The 1619 projectLink opens in a new window
Week 6. Reading Week
Week 7. Intersectionality
Kiley Reid, Such a Fun AgeLink opens in a new window (2021)
Week 8. Apocalypse
Rumaan Alam, Leave the World BehindLink opens in a new window (2020)
Week 9. Monsters
1. Scott McCloud, selection from Understanding ComicsLink opens in a new window
2. Emil Ferris, My Favorite Thing is MonstersLink opens in a new window (2017)
Week 10 History of the Megamachine
Fabian Scheidler, The End of the Megamachine: A Brief History of a Failing CivilizationLink opens in a new window (2021)
Term 2
Week 1. Learning how to make Comics Even if you don't know how to draw
1. Lynda Barry, Making ComicsLink opens in a new window (2019) pages 1-80; 89-90; 94-102; 112-113; 140-142 (key!); AND ten other pages of your choice
2. Lynda Barry, watch: Drawing Together With Lynda Barry!Link opens in a new window
Week 2. Mass Prison Industrial Complex videos
Watch
1. segment 1Link opens in a new window
"Mass Incarceration, Visualized”; "Jim Crow Juvenile Justice”; "Slavery in Effect: A History Design Studio Briefling”
2. segment 2Link opens in a new window
"Alliance for Safety and Justice”; "Rethinking Incarceration”; Angela Davis interview
3. Read:
a) Angela Davis et al, pages from Abolition.Feminism.NowLink opens in a new window
b) Ruth Gilmore Wilson, pages from Abolition GeographyLink opens in a new window
c) Pages from Stay Woke A Peoples Guide to Making All Black Lives MatterLink opens in a new window
Week 3. Prison Narratives I
1. Listen to Martin Luther King, Jr. "Martin Luther King at Zion HillLink opens in a new window"
2. Listen to Martin Luther King, Jr., "MLK speaks to his daughter about Racism: Fun TownLink opens in a new window"
3. Watch How a Sit-In Movement Started by Black Students Changed Activism ForeverLink opens in a new window
4. Read all of (including the acknowledgement at the end)
Colson Whitehead, The Nickel BoysLink opens in a new window (2020)
OPTIONAL: Eyes on the Prize(1987) first 6 episodes of documentary on Black Civil Rights Movement
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts10IVzUDVw
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D5xwC6M_Gk
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neDpuJVc4Ko
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hkNqIQWfFs
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP2A6_2b6g8
6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej2BCUIdUI4
Week 4. Prison Narrative II
Rachel Kushner, The Mars RoomLink opens in a new window (2019)
Week 5. Digital Life
1. Charles Duhigg, “How Companies Learn Your SecretsLink opens in a new window”
2. Kai-Fu Lee and Chen Qiufan, AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future WeekLink opens in a new window
read chapters 1, 2, 4, 8, 10
3. pages from Nick Couldry, The Costs of ConnectionLink opens in a new window
Week 6. Reading week
Week 7. How we think, how we feel
Lisa Feldman Barrett, How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the BrainLink opens in a new window (2018)
Read pages ix (Introduction)-199 and Appendix A, pps. 304-308.
Week 8. Design Questions
1. Ellen Lupton et al., Extra Bold: A Feminist, Inclusive, Anti-racist, Nonbinary Field Guide for Graphic DesignersLink opens in a new window (2021).
read pages 8-113; and 10 other pages of your choice;
2. selection from Douglas Thomas, Never Use FuturaLink opens in a new window (2017).
Week 9. Witches
Emily St. John Mandel, The Sea of TranquilityLink opens in a new window (2022)
Week 10. Retrospective
video group discussion