We've thought about, discussed, investigated, and read about dominant social practices around prom. In particular there has been some analysis of the aspects of conspicuous consumption, prom as a child's version of an aspirational rite of passage into adulthood (staying up all night!), and the relatively scripted sequence of activities. How do our explorations relate to prom as actually experienced by SOF students May 26, 2011?
If you participate in prom this week, please write up a 2-4 paragraph analysis of how the experience you and others shared relates to what we've learned. Which ideas or observations from the course resonate with what you noticed in real life? Which ideas or observations seemed off-base in light of Thursday night? What insights seem more available to you as a direct-participant rather than just a student of the ritual? What costs and benefits did you notice from having thought about the topic in a scholarly way before experiencing it for yourself? Did prom feel magic & transformative or did those expectations strike you as hype?
If you don't participate in prom this week, please complete the assignment based on your experience of NOT participating, your plans for future (non)participation, and based on interviews and digital artifacts of people who went to the dance and/or after-party.
Good luck to everyone going. You can have carnival and still look out for each other in terms of safety and feelings.
Due Friday, May 27 at 9pm.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
HW 58 - Prom Interviews
Please interview the following categories of people regarding their insights and experiences around prom.
1. 1-2 people your age who haven't been to prom about what they expect the experience to include, some reasons they want to participate or not participate, their thoughts on the dominant social practices (DSP) of prom, etc.
2. 1-2 people a little older than you who have been to prom about what they experienced and insights about their experience and the DSP of prom.
3. 1-2 people significantly older than you, ideally parents/relatives/guardians, about what they understand of DSP of prom and their own experiences & insights around this ritual.
Please record the interviews (notebook, audio, or video), type up highlights in a couple paragraphs, and write at least one paragraph of analysis of popular understandings of prom. Pay especial attention to considerations of significance, implications, and powerful interpretations of prom. Try to pull particularly insightful analyses or beautiful and thought-provoking language from your interview experience.
Please post by Tuesday, May 24 at 8pm.
1. 1-2 people your age who haven't been to prom about what they expect the experience to include, some reasons they want to participate or not participate, their thoughts on the dominant social practices (DSP) of prom, etc.
2. 1-2 people a little older than you who have been to prom about what they experienced and insights about their experience and the DSP of prom.
3. 1-2 people significantly older than you, ideally parents/relatives/guardians, about what they understand of DSP of prom and their own experiences & insights around this ritual.
Please record the interviews (notebook, audio, or video), type up highlights in a couple paragraphs, and write at least one paragraph of analysis of popular understandings of prom. Pay especial attention to considerations of significance, implications, and powerful interpretations of prom. Try to pull particularly insightful analyses or beautiful and thought-provoking language from your interview experience.
Please post by Tuesday, May 24 at 8pm.
Friday, May 20, 2011
HW 57 - Initial Thoughts on Prom
Please write your initial thoughts on prom in 2-3 paragraphs. Explore your own experience, theories, and thought-provoking descriptions thoughtfully - not just a bunch of bubbles.
Also please provide a list of 3-5 really interesting questions that you hope to explore in the next week.
Due Monday, May 23, at 7pm.
Also please provide a list of 3-5 really interesting questions that you hope to explore in the next week.
Due Monday, May 23, at 7pm.
Monday, May 16, 2011
HW 56 - Culminating Project Comments
Please notify your mentor and protege of this assignment now. Ask them each for a specific piece of feedback about an aspect of your culminating project (you decide - idea, execution, description, contradictions, evidence, etc).
Tuesday, May 17 you made your 1-2 minute elevator speech soliciting interest in your culminating project for the Care of the Dead Unit. For this assignment you should post comments on 2-4 other peoples' HW 55. Copy and paste the comments (including a link back to their post) on your own blog as HW 56 by Wednesday, May 18 at 1pm. By Wednesday 9pm please add a dotted line underneath your comments on others blogs and copy and paste other peoples' comments on your culminating project, including those of your mentor and protege.
Tuesday, May 17 you made your 1-2 minute elevator speech soliciting interest in your culminating project for the Care of the Dead Unit. For this assignment you should post comments on 2-4 other peoples' HW 55. Copy and paste the comments (including a link back to their post) on your own blog as HW 56 by Wednesday, May 18 at 1pm. By Wednesday 9pm please add a dotted line underneath your comments on others blogs and copy and paste other peoples' comments on your culminating project, including those of your mentor and protege.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
HW 55 - Culminating Project - Care of the Dead
Transform your understanding from interviews, speakers, class discussion, books, independent research, and film into an active project that meaningfully contributes to our collective social practices.
Choice 1: Organize a personal experience around this topic and write a narrative/make a film of your experience. Post it on your blog - ideally with uploads of photos and/or video. If you make a film it needs to be less than 5 minutes long and well-edited and include at least a paragraph or two of written analysis. Possibilities - attend a funeral, be present for an embalming, write up your family members' death plans, etc.
Choice 2: Create an advocacy campaign, either alone or working with an existing group (or one you form), that creates change in dominant social practices around the care of the dead.
Choice 3: Write a 2-5 page essay that assembles powerful evidence to analyze a particular aspect of the dominant social practices around the care of the dead. Post it on your blog with an MLA works cited section. Some possibilities - Natural Burial around NYC, Relevant State & Local Regulations around Home Funerals in NYC, Pricing Death Care in NYC, Theological Perspectives on Resurrection versus Spirits in the Sky, Are Dead Bodies Dangerous?, etc.
Due Monday May 16 at 7pm.
Choice 1: Organize a personal experience around this topic and write a narrative/make a film of your experience. Post it on your blog - ideally with uploads of photos and/or video. If you make a film it needs to be less than 5 minutes long and well-edited and include at least a paragraph or two of written analysis. Possibilities - attend a funeral, be present for an embalming, write up your family members' death plans, etc.
Choice 2: Create an advocacy campaign, either alone or working with an existing group (or one you form), that creates change in dominant social practices around the care of the dead.
- Identify your desired change
- stakeholders in that issue
- means of communicating persuasive ideas/stories/information
- do the change effort
- and evaluate using at least 2 follow-up surveys or interviews
Choice 3: Write a 2-5 page essay that assembles powerful evidence to analyze a particular aspect of the dominant social practices around the care of the dead. Post it on your blog with an MLA works cited section. Some possibilities - Natural Burial around NYC, Relevant State & Local Regulations around Home Funerals in NYC, Pricing Death Care in NYC, Theological Perspectives on Resurrection versus Spirits in the Sky, Are Dead Bodies Dangerous?, etc.
Due Monday May 16 at 7pm.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Extra Credit Opportunities - COTD
Several people have asked for extra credit opportunities. While I feel a little embarrassed about offering extra credit (it diminishes the "college-ready" reliability of my grading system) I decided that, given the various situations I'm aware of, extra credit can be justified.
Each assignment worth up to 10 points and due before May 18 at 9pm.
xc - COTD1. Spend at least a half hour each walking around two or more cemeteries. Post 3-5 paragraphs of your reactions and thoughts and include a small photo with you in each cemetery.
xc - COTD2. Watch "Harold & Maude" and write up 3-5 paragraphs analyzing the significance of the theme of funerals and death in the lives, practices, and beliefs of the three main characters.
xc - COTD3. Go to the "Bodies Exhibit" and read a little about the controversies over it and record your experience, reactions, and questions in a 3-5 paragraph post and include a photo of you at the exhibit.
xc - COTD4. Post an annotated bibliography with links to 15 poems that address the care of the dead. No more than 5 of your poems may be the same as those listed by people who posted before you. Each annotation should include a MLA-correct citation, a two sentence summary of the poem, and a two sentence evaluation of how useful it might be to people trying to better understand various orientations to the care of the dead. Then write a 2-3 paragraph analysis of how your favorite of these poems consolidate, challenge, and/or conceptualize dominant social practices around the care of the dead.
A model citation:
Dickinson, Emily. "Because I could not stop for death". Poets.Org. Academy of American Poets. http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15395. Accessed 5/6/2011.
Dickinson imagines a personified death who politely stops to bring her to her eternal resting place. She imagines centuries speeding by while living in a sort of a cold house dressed in just a shawl (actually a shroud).
Dickinson's poem articulates a bemused acceptance of the inevitability of death. Her comparison of the "daily life" of a corpse with our living condition illustrates an anthropomorphic approach to a future existence as a ghostly cadaver that seems to contradict Christian doctrine and theories of annihilation.
xc-COTD5. Watch 3 episodes of "Six Feet Under". Write up a short annotation for each episode - MLA-citation, 2 sentence plot synopsis, 2 sentence evaluation of interest (see the above example regarding Dickinson's poem). Then write a 2-3 paragraph interpretation of how the episodes consolidate, challenge, and/or reconceptualize dominant social practices around the care of the dead.
Again, each assignment worth up to 10 points and due before May 18 at 9pm, and yes, you can do more than one of the five.
Each assignment worth up to 10 points and due before May 18 at 9pm.
xc - COTD1. Spend at least a half hour each walking around two or more cemeteries. Post 3-5 paragraphs of your reactions and thoughts and include a small photo with you in each cemetery.
xc - COTD2. Watch "Harold & Maude" and write up 3-5 paragraphs analyzing the significance of the theme of funerals and death in the lives, practices, and beliefs of the three main characters.
xc - COTD3. Go to the "Bodies Exhibit" and read a little about the controversies over it and record your experience, reactions, and questions in a 3-5 paragraph post and include a photo of you at the exhibit.
xc - COTD4. Post an annotated bibliography with links to 15 poems that address the care of the dead. No more than 5 of your poems may be the same as those listed by people who posted before you. Each annotation should include a MLA-correct citation, a two sentence summary of the poem, and a two sentence evaluation of how useful it might be to people trying to better understand various orientations to the care of the dead. Then write a 2-3 paragraph analysis of how your favorite of these poems consolidate, challenge, and/or conceptualize dominant social practices around the care of the dead.
A model citation:
Dickinson, Emily. "Because I could not stop for death". Poets.Org. Academy of American Poets. http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15395. Accessed 5/6/2011.
Dickinson imagines a personified death who politely stops to bring her to her eternal resting place. She imagines centuries speeding by while living in a sort of a cold house dressed in just a shawl (actually a shroud).
Dickinson's poem articulates a bemused acceptance of the inevitability of death. Her comparison of the "daily life" of a corpse with our living condition illustrates an anthropomorphic approach to a future existence as a ghostly cadaver that seems to contradict Christian doctrine and theories of annihilation.
xc-COTD5. Watch 3 episodes of "Six Feet Under". Write up a short annotation for each episode - MLA-citation, 2 sentence plot synopsis, 2 sentence evaluation of interest (see the above example regarding Dickinson's poem). Then write a 2-3 paragraph interpretation of how the episodes consolidate, challenge, and/or reconceptualize dominant social practices around the care of the dead.
Again, each assignment worth up to 10 points and due before May 18 at 9pm, and yes, you can do more than one of the five.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
HW 54 - Independent Research B
1. Consult key philosophical &/or theological texts in either the tradition you grew up in, or the tradition you feel closest to now (or a third tradition that you find fascinating, if you really want to). For instance, if you grew up in a Christian tradition (or now feel close to that tradition, or just feel particularly fascinated by that discourse) you could compare and contrast what the gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John suggest about "heaven" and "eternal life".
2. Interview someone in the theology/philosophy field who has spent significant time thinking about, reading about, and discussing the concepts of death, afterlife, annihilation, Heaven, eternal return, reincarnation, etc. It would be preferable, probably, to interview someone with a belief system similar to your own but more clearly developed.
Ideally, you would do some independent reading, speak to the expert, ask the expert about further reading, do the further reading, and then have a follow-up conversation or email exchange with the expert.
Please post your 3-7 paragraph analysis of theories of death from the tradition you studied, extensively quoting both primary sources and personal communication with an expert. Use proper citations, which "look like this" (Andy 10).
Due Wednesday, 11th of May at 9pm.
2. Interview someone in the theology/philosophy field who has spent significant time thinking about, reading about, and discussing the concepts of death, afterlife, annihilation, Heaven, eternal return, reincarnation, etc. It would be preferable, probably, to interview someone with a belief system similar to your own but more clearly developed.
Ideally, you would do some independent reading, speak to the expert, ask the expert about further reading, do the further reading, and then have a follow-up conversation or email exchange with the expert.
Please post your 3-7 paragraph analysis of theories of death from the tradition you studied, extensively quoting both primary sources and personal communication with an expert. Use proper citations, which "look like this" (Andy 10).
Due Wednesday, 11th of May at 9pm.
HW 53 - Independent Research A
To better inform our work please conduct the following independent research;
1. Find 2-3 articles from the NYT or other dominant discourse purveyors that discuss interesting aspects of the care of the dead. You could look for articles that relate to history, sociology, anthropology, and/or psychology, etc. Read and take notes on the articles and make a succinct precis for each. Also post an analytical paragraph or two that compares the perspectives the texts you worked with.
2. Interview someone in the death care industry - funeral home director, hearse driver, gravedigger, pre-need sales counselor, coffin-maker, etc. You will find some in your own neighborhood if you look around and you could also use the phone book or Google Maps to locate possible interview subjects. The interview should cover topics you find particularly interesting and important and you should record it using either video, audio, or writing. Please post a paragraph of highlights from the interview and a paragraph of analysis and further questions.
Due Monday, 9th of May at 9pm.
1. Find 2-3 articles from the NYT or other dominant discourse purveyors that discuss interesting aspects of the care of the dead. You could look for articles that relate to history, sociology, anthropology, and/or psychology, etc. Read and take notes on the articles and make a succinct precis for each. Also post an analytical paragraph or two that compares the perspectives the texts you worked with.
2. Interview someone in the death care industry - funeral home director, hearse driver, gravedigger, pre-need sales counselor, coffin-maker, etc. You will find some in your own neighborhood if you look around and you could also use the phone book or Google Maps to locate possible interview subjects. The interview should cover topics you find particularly interesting and important and you should record it using either video, audio, or writing. Please post a paragraph of highlights from the interview and a paragraph of analysis and further questions.
Due Monday, 9th of May at 9pm.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
HW 52 - Third Third of the COTD Book
Please read the third third of your book, taking notes as you go along.
Write up a succinct precis of the third third of the book in a paragraph. Please remember that to write a precis you miniaturize the text, proportionally, in the author's voice, without quotes.
Then please list a handful of short quotes that you particularly enjoyed.
Finally, please write an analytical paragraph that BOTH connects the revelations of the book to another of the NiW major units AND demonstrates that you really read it and thought about it.
Must be posted by Sunday, May 7, at 10am.
Write up a succinct precis of the third third of the book in a paragraph. Please remember that to write a precis you miniaturize the text, proportionally, in the author's voice, without quotes.
Then please list a handful of short quotes that you particularly enjoyed.
Finally, please write an analytical paragraph that BOTH connects the revelations of the book to another of the NiW major units AND demonstrates that you really read it and thought about it.
Must be posted by Sunday, May 7, at 10am.
HW 51 - Second Third of COTD Book
Please read the second third of your book, taking notes as you go along.
Write up a succinct precis of the second third of the book in a paragraph. Please remember that to write a precis you miniaturize the text, proportionally, in the author's voice, without quotes.
Then please list a handful of short quotes that you particularly enjoyed.
Finally, please write an analytical paragraph that BOTH says something either funny or sad about the text AND demonstrates that you really read it and thought about it.
Must be posted by Wednesday, May 3, at 8:30am.
Write up a succinct precis of the second third of the book in a paragraph. Please remember that to write a precis you miniaturize the text, proportionally, in the author's voice, without quotes.
Then please list a handful of short quotes that you particularly enjoyed.
Finally, please write an analytical paragraph that BOTH says something either funny or sad about the text AND demonstrates that you really read it and thought about it.
Must be posted by Wednesday, May 3, at 8:30am.
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