(Nde' Peoples, aka 'Apaches', as an Indigenous People, have one of the longest histories of internal persecution and militarization by an occupying state/nation in the Americas. The U.S. Border wall construction claimed significant tribal lands of more than 12 Indigenous nations from 2006-2009.)
Mid-Term Objectives:
The Mid-Term is envisioned as an "installment" of the final project. All students will work towards a polished 'draft' of two components which comprise a completed Mid-Term. Students build upon the Mid-Term project, as a scaffolding for the continuing development of a Final Project. The Mid-Term serves, therefore, as a launching for an intensive, personal engagement with a theme of the student's choosing. The student will sustain the focus on the selected theme until completion of the Final Project. The Mid-Term and the Final Project are conceptualized as an ongoing critique and dialogue between the student, her/his sources/resources, and the completion of the final 'product.'
GOALS:
1.To lend your personal voice to an analysis building upon forms, mediums, definitions, theories, methods and practices which inform your current understanding of critical intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality in historical and contemporary contexts. Goal: Defining your topic/subject/thesis (argument).
2.To move from untethered supposition and opinion to articulate, informed and cited evidences which ground your claims, positions and arguments. Goal: rejecting simplistic assumptions as an acceptable form of college writing; moving toward deepened critical engagement and interrogation of all sides of a theme, subject and issue. Moving towards complex thinking and communication.
3.To engage in critical analysis practices; not judging the literatures and methods examined. Rather engaging with the narratives, however different from yours, of differently situated groups and communities relative to systemic structural violence and structured social stratifications, through the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexuality, in industrialized societies.
4. To develop new methods of articulating personal understandings of numerous processes which shape, form, and at times overdetermine identity formation of individuals and groups, and the consequences which arise.
5.To lay a foundation, and "installment" for the final project, while producing a 'draft' thesis, abstract, argument and claims.
GETTING STARTED
Part I—Images and the Power of the Message
Identify (and load to your Content folder titled "My Media") four images which ‘voice' and 'speak' an important narrative/ story of race, class, gender and power at the intersection of a lense which you choose. For example, race, class, gender and sexuality--intersecting--at the crossroad of 'nation.'
In the images above, the pictures 'talk about' the intersection of race (Indigenous Peoples), class (third-class; non-personhood; U.S. and Mexico war prisoners; invisible laborers), gender (binary systems imposed by Christian and Patriarchal stratification systems, i.e. male/female; masculine/feminine; man/woman; manly/womanly), sexuality (stereotyped as hyper sexual bodies/rapable and violable bodies; "squaw" and "buck"; demonized sexuality, i.e. "savages", "heathens").... At the intersection of imperialism, colonization, armed invasion, development, prison-structures warehousing Indigenous Peoples, authoritarianism.
You may use web and other media sources--however--remember to copy and paste the original url/http where you find that image, and copy and paste all the relevant information you can find about the article, such as title, author, date (if there is one). This will help you, later, when you are writing your "Works Cited" and/or "References" page.
Provide an analysis that shows you are learning and using the critical theories and methods which you have had access to thus far in this course (texts, films, web links, etc.)
Turn in your media 'texts' (samples) with your final project. See syllabus for Mid-Term due date.
TIP: Feel free to launch independent discussions with the class about your media, or to integrate them into your daily work, as a way of gaining facility with them, interacting with them, engaging others in their literacy and meanings.
Part II: Abstract--Articulating the Message
Draft a topic/thesis statement, identify an argument ("What I am essentially arguing is...that..."), and a a minimum of 3 strong authorities/‘cites’, meaning, sources which you will build upon as “references, citations, theoretical supports” for your final project. See syllabus for due date in Drop Box.
Draft a well-written and proofed abstract (no more than 200 words). See syllabus for due date in Drop Box.
Here is a sample of an abstract that went through 2 early drafts, 2 peer reviews, and 3 (30 minute) polishing sessions.
Here is an abstract form & guide.
Questions? Contact me.
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