Course Website

All reading and listening assignments will be posted on the course website.This is the site you should be checking frequently.
password: changes
Moodle will be used exclusively to post grades.

Performance Trio Projects

You will form a jazz trio with fellow class members and perform the following in class:

• Rhythm Band Project (Week 3)
• Melodic Improvisation Project (Week 5)
• 12-Bar Blues Project (Week 9)
• American Songbook Standard project (Week 10)

I will describe each of these in detail over the coming weeks, but in brief: Your composition projects must include improvisation by each partner and utilize several of the jazz techniques discussed in class. (E.g., call & response, pitch bends, timbral variation, scat singing, stop-time, double-time, solo breaks, trading twos, fours, eights, etc. More to follow.)

• Due at Final Exam time a two-page Reflection Summary of your performance projects detailing the learning experience/process. This is not graded, however, failure to submit this assignment will automatically lower your final grade by ½ letter grade

Required Music Streaming Service

This semester, we will primarily be using Spotify and Youtube as our music portals, supplemented by online databases accessed through your Kalamazoo login, as well as a variety of online resources. All students should sign up for a (free) Spotify account.

A note about studying for a listening-intensive course

There will be extensive listening portions on both the midterm and the final. Please keep in mind that it is impossible to cram aural information the way you cram visual information. No matter how hard you might be studying, it still takes over an hour to listen to Duke Ellington’s Far East Suite from beginning to end. Don’t wait until the last minute to try to familiarize yourself with the listening.

Class Participation

Participation will be evaluated on the following criteria:

A: You contribute to class frequently (almost every session, though I don’t expect everyone to be “on” every day). Your comments reflect excellent preparation, build from the comments of others and/or offer direction for the discussion. If you were not in the class, the quality of discussion would be diminished markedly.

B: You contribute to class sometimes. Your comments reflect good preparation, sometimes build from the comments of others and/or sometimes offer direction for the discussion. If you were not in the class, the quality of discussion would be diminished.

C: You contribute to class rarely. Your comments reflect adequate preparation, occasionally build from the comments of others and/or occasionally offer direction for the discussion. If you were not in the class, the quality of discussion would be diminished somewhat.

D: You contribute to class very rarely or not at all. As a result, there is little or no basis for evaluation. If you were not in the class, the discussion would not be changed.

Also D: You contribute to class but your contributions reflect inadequate preparation and offer no direction for the discussion. If you were not in the class, the discussion would be improved

Attendance Policy

Students are expected to attend every class session. In the event that you must miss a class due to religious observance, illness, family emergency, etc…, please provide notification as soon as possible, preferably in advance of the absence. After two unexcused absences, each subsequent absence will result in a 4% reduction in total course grade.

Statement on Academic Integrity

Acts of academic dishonesty are prohibited. Cheating includes, but is not limited to: (1) use of any unauthorized assistance in taking quizzes, tests, or examinations; (2) use of sources beyond those authorized by the instructor in writing papers, preparing reports, solving problems; or carrying out other assignments; (3) the acquisition, without permission, of tests or other academic material belonging to a member of the College community; (4) engaging in any behavior specifically prohibited by a faculty member in the course syllabus or class discussion. If you have any questions about these policies, please ask, and refer to the guidelines here.

St. Louis Cluster Information

In January of 2022, Kalamazoo College received a three-year Mellon grant (For information about the grant, see Humanities Grant Boosts Experiential Learning Project.) Entitled Humanities Integrated Locational Learning (HILL), this initiative examines how many problems of our time can be analyzed through the lens of location and dislocation. To develop a deeper knowledge of these disruptions (physical, psychological, social, linguistic, and more) with the aim of generating the potential for change, HILL supports the formation of class clusters linked to specific places within and beyond Kalamazoo. Our course contributes to a “Beyond Kalamazoo” Cluster focused on St. Louis, comprised of the following winter courses: ENGL230 – U.S. Ethnic Literature (Dr. McDade); JAPN301 – High Intermediate Japanese (Dr. Sugimori); HIST215 – Victorianizing America (Dr. Boyer Lewis); SEMN201 Beauty Across Cultures (Dr. Zhang); MUSC165 – Jazz Explorations (Dr. Bothwell.)

While these courses will function independently, they are united by their engagement with St. Louis as a historical and contemporary site, as well as the way they draw from humanistic inquiry to construct justice-based notions of land, place, and belonging in response to humanistic concerns and social inequities (i.e., systemic racism, body and border policing, economic inequity, global warming, etc.)

After the conclusion of the quarter, cluster faculty and selected students will extend the classroom to St. Louis for a 7-day, fully-funded study away experience (includes travel, housing, and meals). During this partial-unit experiential social justice research seminar in St. Louis (June 5-12, 2023), 2-5 students from each cluster course will undertake individual and collaborative research within and across the disciplinary knowledges acquired in their respective courses in order to produce a supradisciplinary research project. The trip will prioritize place-based learning, humanities-based inquiry, and social justice problem-solving via relevant site visits, partnerships with local community organizations, and student-led discussion and reflection. At the end of the trip, students will publish their research on a digital humanities website.

Note: The partial unit will be credited in the summer, appearing on the Fall 2023 transcript.

Application process: Interested students will need to submit an application and a research proposal to the HILL site by Tuesday of 9th Week Feb. 28th. In the application, students will be asked to submit a <1000-word proposal that addresses the following questions:

1. What are your general areas of research interest? Feel free to highlight subject matters, themes, texts, etc. from your cluster course for support.
2. How does St. Louis’ “placeness” (history, geography/landscape, culture, etc.) pertain to your research interest? How do you see the theme of “location and dislocation” at work?
3. How do your research interests connect to relevant social justice concerns?
4. Have you had any experiences that may have prepared you for this experiential research seminar? Please detail any past research (individual or collaborative), service-learning courses, and/or experiential learning engagement you identify as relevant.

Applications will be reviewed by cluster faculty in conjunction with the Center for International Programs. Participants will be chosen based on potential collaborative research intersections across cluster courses and the importance of St. Louis as a site. Those selected for the experiential research seminar in St. Louis will be notified no later than 10th Week Friday (10 March 2023.)

Selection for the St. Louis Cluster Seminar will require the following mandatory commitments:

• Additional preparatory work throughout weeks 5-10 of the Spring term to prepare you for site engagements in St. Louis. You will be provided with a seminar syllabus in the Spring after cohort selection is finalized.
• Weekly meetings with your research group (held weeks 5-10 in the Spring on Mondays during common time, Hicks Banquet Hall West)

1. Attend information sessions with community partners
2. Meetings with the HILL Digital Humanities Coordinator, Bruce Mills
3. Submission of pre-departure materials, week 10 Spring
4. Write and submit a group project research proposal

• Individual or group seminar experiential reflection blog, video, interview due (TBA following St. Louis seminar.)
• Research project, due (DATES TBD, Summer) , with revision and approval in consultation with cluster faculty and DH Coordinator finalized (DATES TBA, Summer)

Additionally, a $4,500 summer research stipend for June-August 2024 is open to all students, with priority given to students who want to return to St. Louis after the cluster trip or students who participated in one of the St. Louis cluster courses in 2023. More information is available on our website.

Required Assignments

Brief Assignment Descriptions

• Attendance & Participation: Attendance and participation are important in any college classroom. Your learning depends on your presence as well as your contributions to discussions and activities. But it is even more important in our class. Over the course of the term, we will have a series of visitors talking to us about [il]literacy. We will also be assisting the Kalamazoo Public Library in recruiting K College students to sign up for a public library card here on campus. These components of our course are priceless to our understanding and engagement with local [il]literacies and your attendance and participation is crucial to your own learning and the overall success of the course.
• Literacy Narrative: The first major assignment requires that you reflect on your own literacy journey. You will write a three-page critical literacy narrative that will be posted in a public forum.
• Local Literacies Research Paper: After writing your own literacy narrative, you will then spend a few weeks collecting literacy accounts from others. Once you have collected these narratives, you will write a five-page research paper on the topic of local [il]literacies.
• Group Writing Project: Our final project in this course is a group and class initiative. This project will build upon your individual research papers and the literacy narratives you collected for that paper will once again be useful for you here. As a class, we will use Wix to create a class website intended to inform our local community about [il]literacies and the resources available to combat illiteracy. Each group will be responsible for a specific topic. We will also create a receptacle to display and share our own literacy narratives and the literacy narratives we collected from the research paper.
• Reflection Paper: Lastly, each student will write their own reflection paper to cap the course. This is an opportunity for you to critically engage with what you learned—what were your misconceptions about [il]literacy? What did you take for granted? What did you gain from the various components of the course. This assignment is to be more than just a diary or journal entry, but a critical essay in and of itself. You will utilize course readings and reflect on specific experiences you had in the course.

Required Texts

• Richard Wright, Black Boy
• John Corcoran, The Teacher Who Couldn’t Read
• Seventeen Syllables, Hisaye Yamamoto
• Flying Kites
• Our Bodies, Ourselves
• Arlie Russel Hochschild, Strangers in Their Own Land
• You will need access to Netflix
• Additional materials provided via Moodle

**This class also incorporates visits with local organizations involved in literacy projects. Some of these visitors will come to us and for others we will go to them. “Field trips” will typically happen after 4:00 and will have complimentary and mandatory assignments attached.**

COURSE Schedule

Requirements

Class Participation (20%)
Class participation consists of regular, prompt attendance; reading and other preparation for class; and, most importantly and primarily, significant contributions to daily class discussions. On book discussion days, if you do not come to class prepared and ready to talk, DO NOT come to class at all.

Godey’s Lady’s Book Short Paper (10%; due Jan. 20)
We have online access to one of the most popular magazines of the nineteenth century and you will write a short paper of at least 1,000 words based on your readings of three issues in the magazine. Further details will be provided in class.

Discussion Leader (10%)
Three or four of you will lead discussion for each one of the assigned books. You will have some choice in which book you want to discuss. Your group will meet before the discussion to go over questions and main points. Further details will be provided in class.

Midterm Exam (15%; on Feb. 8)
The midterm exam tests for comprehension of assigned reading and lecture material to date. The exam will include both short-answer (usually identification) and essay questions.

Primary Source Research Paper (20%; due March 10; I will be happy to accept early papers)
This paper will examine some aspect of Victorian American history and will be based on primary source web sites and printed materials. The paper should be at least 9-10 typed, double-spaced pages. Further details will be provided in class. Your research topic statement and a short annotated bibliography will be due Feb. 17.

Final Exam (25%; March 14, 7:30-9:00 PM )
The final exam tests for comprehension of assigned reading and lecture material over the entire semester. It will consist of a second midterm and a cumulative section. The cumulative part will be a take-home exam and will be 10% of your final grade. The second midterm section of the final will be done in class and will include both short-answer (usually identification) and essay questions; it is 15% of your total grade. The cumulative will be strictly essay and will be due at the final exam time.

Course Policies

You are expected to take the exams, participate in discussion, and turn in the papers on the scheduled days. Make-up exams will be given ONLY for officially excused reasons. Unexcused late papers are penalized a full letter grade (10%) for the first day and half a letter grade (5%) for each subsequent day. For example, a B paper handed in a day late would be recorded as a C; two days late recorded as a C-. There is no way for you to make up a missed discussion. If you do not turn in all of the required papers and exams, you will receive a failing grade (a F) in this course.

I expect you to attend class every day. I reserve the right to lower grades due to more than three missed classes or frequent tardiness. Of course if you are ill or have an emergency, we will work out a plan. Obviously, whether you are in class or not (even in cases with valid excuses), you are responsible for all of the material presented. This means both procedural material–the unlikely, but not unprecedented, changing of an exam date, for example–and substantive material–the ideas, events, and themes covered in each lecture.

If the campus is closed because of inclement weather, we will have our class on Teams at our usual time (yep–no more snow days!).

I am committed to everyone having what they need to do well in this course. If you have any learning accommodation, I’m happy to make it. I will need a note from the College to do so.

There will be no coming and going during class. Take care of your needs before class begins.

Turn off (don’t leave on vibrate) ALL cell phones, your fancy fitbits/watches that get texts, and other electronic devices during class AND PUT THEM AWAY. I do not want ever to see you checking your phone or texting; I will lower your grade substantially for paying more attention to your electronics than to class. I strongly discourage the use of laptops. If you believe you must use one, you will need to discuss this with me. If you need to use a laptop, you must sit in the front of class. Think seriously about whether you want to use a laptop–study after study has shown that you do not learn as well as taking notes by hand and students who use laptops regularly receive poorer grades.

Students must practice academic honesty. Remember that all of you signed the College’s Honor Code when you started here. Plagiarism (whether from the Internet, a published source, or someone else’s work) or cheating of any kind will result in a failing grade in the course. I will also turn over every suspected case to the Student Development Office and will use any resources for finding plagiarism. Ignorance is no excuse for plagiarism. Make sure you fully understand how to cite and quote sources BEFORE you turn in your papers.

A good history paper–or any paper–should be a well-conceived and well-developed work. Use primary and secondary sources to create an argument of YOUR OWN. Do not claim the ideas or words of someone else as your own (that’s plagiarism). Do use the ideas and words of others to help you develop your own arguments. Feel free to have friends read and comment on your drafts of your papers–but not write them. ALWAYS give explicit credit (footnotes or endnotes) when you use anyone’s exact thoughts or language, whether paraphrasing or quoting them. A good rule of thumb: three or more words or an unusual phrase MUST be in quotes. Intellectual work is about developing and sharing your ideas, and it’s about taking note of and praising other people who have shared good ones with you.

When you cite sources, you are to use Chicago Style for Notes and Bibliography for your citation style, as all historians do. Check out the Library’s web site about citing sources in this style if you need more information. The reference librarians are also happy to help you. Make sure you know the difference between endnote/footnote citations and bibliographic citations. NEVER use in-text citations.

General Schedule

(subject to later revisions)

Required Assignments

Brief Assignment Descriptions

• Exams: There are two exams in this course. Both exams will be open-book short essays that, while designed to be completed in class, are also able to be completed ahead of time and turned in on exam day. Here’s how it will work: two weeks ahead of the scheduled exam day, I will provide you with the exam prompts and instructions. Over those two weeks you can either create notes and prep materials to bring into class to write the exam in our allotted class time or you can pre-write the entire exam and turn it in on exam day. The goal is that you choose the one that best suits your study habits and exam style. The only rule is that all students must show up in person to the start of exam day even if it is to turn in the exam and leave.
• Mapping Project: This project is a term-long project with various parts or checkpoints due throughout the quarter. Each student will be responsible for mapping in Google Earth the pathways our authors or their characters took to arrive West (or to leave the West). Students should map each text as they read it. By the end of the term, students will write a theoretically supported paper that argues what their maps reveal about the American West and westward expansion. *You will receive a more detailed project sheet in Week 2 that will detail the requirements and prompts you will need to address. *
• Attendance & Participation: The humanities are about community. The discipline is interested in and cares about different and complex points of view. For this reason, student participation is foundational to the structure of the course. You may have heard the age-old adage: “you get what you put into it,” and that is true. But it is also true that your peers only get what you put into it as well. We want to hear your voice. We want to understand your particular approach to a text. Those are valid things for us to discuss. As such, attendance and participation is a graded category. See the attendance and participation policy below.

Required Texts

• 1883, episode 1: 1883
• The Life and Adventures of Nat Love, Nat Love
• All I Asking For is My Body, Milton Murayama:
• When We Were Colored: A Mother’s Story, Eva Rutland
• Who Would Have Thought It?, María Amparo Ruiz de Burton
• “Leaves From the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian,” Sui Sin Far & other short texts
• Barrio Boy, Ernesto Galarza
• The Saloon Keeper’s Daughter, Drude Krog Janson
• China Men, Maxine Hong Kingston
• The Autobiography and Reminiscences of S. Pollak, St. Louis, MO, Simon Pollak
• Additional materials provided in class or via Moodle

Class Requirements and Grading

• Active class participation and preparation (20% of final grade). This means showing up in class on time and actively participating in class discussions and raising questions. You are expected to have read the assigned texts and done the homework before each class session. Only one unexcused absence is allowed. For any additional absences (only one additional absence is allowed, except for documented emergencies), please notify the instructor in advance and make up for them by writing a three-page reflection essay on any of the class readings. More than one unexcused absence will negatively affect your grade.

• Two literary analysis papers (30% total). Submission of two reading reflections (4-6 pages each, double-spaced) of your own choice based on the weekly reading schedule. The essays should be distributed evenly between the first five weeks and the second five weeks of the quarter. The essays should be based on at least 3 different readings from two different weeks (i.e. you cannot select three readings from the same week). In these short reflections, you should synthesize the thematic and/or stylistic elements of the different readings and compare and contrast the different readings. You can write about the language, style, theme, social context, cultural implications, and your personal interpretation of the texts. You should feel free to cross-reference from different readings of the week and throughout the semester. No outside research is required for the short essays. We will workshop the first drafts of these papers in peer review sessions in class and you are required to submit ONE revised paper after the workshop.

• Team oral presentation (15%). With one or two other members of the class, you will present during one class session by engaging with the literary and scholarly works assigned for that session. Presenters should introduce the author and his or her body of work, the historical and cultural background of the literary texts and their main themes and concerns. Presenters should also use the assigned scholarly/historical readings of the week to interpret the literary texts presented. Presentations should last between 25-40 minutes (including discussion and Q & A). You are encouraged to work with your teammates after class and come up with creative ways, such as posters, handouts, Powerpoint slideshows and short performances, to help the class understand and interpret the texts assigned for your session. You should also engage the whole class by asking questions and initiating discussions. A sign-up sheet for presentations will be distributed during the second week.

• Final research paper (35% total; 10% first draft, 25% final draft, including smaller assignments within the final research paper requirement, such as posting of topics and annotated bibliography and a final brief presentation of your project). One final paper of 8-12 double-spaced pages is required. You should address a theme, a problem or a topic that interests you based on class content and use outside sources (do research) to support your point. You can focus on one major text or compare a few texts we read during the semester. You are encouraged to consult the instructor with the selection of topic and use outside materials when necessary. We will visit the library and invite a reference librarian to speak to the class about how to conduct independent research. After you finish your first draft, you will exchange the first draft with members of the class and help critique each other’s work during a workshop session toward the end of the term. You will also receive the instructor’s feedback on your first draft. After the workshop, you should reflect on the feedback and critique you will have received from your classmates and the instructor and incorporate their insights into your revision. The final revised draft will be due one week after the workshop. Grading for the final draft will be based on how well you incorporate the comments you receive and how much your paper improves from its first draft.

• Extra credit: You can earn up to 2% of your final grade by writing blog articles about any Chinese-culture related events you participate during the quarter. Post a short blog article of 500 words under the Discussions section on Moodle. You can also write blog articles about any other aspects of Chinese literature and culture, including reviews of Chinese films and performances, as well as events and books you have read in relation to Chinese culture. If you write about materials not covered in class, it is preferred that you draw some connections or comparisons between these materials and our class discussions and readings. Others are welcome to join the discussion by posting responses to the initial blog. Each completed post that meets the requirement is worth 0.5% of your total grade. You are allowed to post a max. of 4 posts.

• Accommodations. Dr. Zhang strives to create an equal and inclusive learning environment for all. If you need to arrange any special accommodations, please visit the Resources for Students with Disabilities page. You are also encouraged to share your concerns and/or needs with Dr. Zhang to the degree that you feel comfortable.

Weekly Schedule

(This weekly schedule is subject to change per the instructor’s notice.)

Class Requirements and Grading

• Consistent Presence and Active Class Participation (20% of final grade). This means showing up in class on time and actively participating in class discussions and raising questions in a consistent manner, completing all readings and assignments on time. You are expected to have read the assigned texts, watched assigned films and reviewed artworks before each class session. Unless you have a COVID-related situation or other emergencies, in which case you should notify the instructor immediately, more than one unexcused absence will negatively affect your grade (you will receive 0 points of your for the days of unexcused absences.) Excused absences include: health related situations; athletic situations; other unavoidable and emergency situations.

• Writing Workshop (20%). For the Writing Workshop, you need to review your classmates’ writings in small-group settings and provide them with written feedback. The Writing Workshop will build your critical skills as writers and readers for academic papers. The instructor will provide you will a separate sheet of feedback so you can write out your feedback and share it with your partner. If you have an excused situation for the in which

• Two Cross-Week Critical Question Papers (10% each; 20% of final grade; you need to choose one of these two papers to do a thorough revision on after the peer review sessions in class). These short papers are not conventional reading summaries or reflection papers; rather, they encourage you to ask a critical question and integrate readings from different weeks to address that question. For each paper, you should identify one critical problem/issue/topic and examine how 3 different readings or course materials from at least two different weeks respond to that question. For example, you could write about how beauty is experienced and expressed differently based on communities with differing gender and sexuality identities; you could also write about how feminine beauty is articulated differently in diverse cultural communities. The goal of this assignment is to cultivate your critical abilities to engage with and articulate ideas from interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspectives. Each paper should be about 4 double-spaced pages, 12 font Times New Roman in Word documents.

• One Team-Presentation on Course Readings/Contents (10%) You will sign up to do a team oral presentation with one or two other people from the class on a given day’s readings/contents. The presentation itself should last between 30 to 45 minutes, and you should also lead a Q & A session at the end of the presentation. You and your teammates should take up the entire class period on your presentation day.

• Final Research Project (30%)

This final project helps you summarize your learning for the whole quarter and requires a outside/library/internet research to find 3-5 sources related to beauty. This is a multiple-step project and requires your consistent participation spreading out through different weeks.

• A. Around Week 5 Week 6, you will post a short project proposal (2-3 paragraphs) on Moodle, detailing the topic you want to cover and the materials you imagine would be helpful for your project. You will also provide comments to at least one other person’s proposal posted on Moodle. We will go over potential topics in class together. (5% of final grade)

• B. Around Week 7 and Week 8, you will post a preliminary Annotated Bibliography on Moodle, listing and explaining 5-8 sources you plan to use for your project. We will work with the librarian to familiarize you with library research. At least 3 of your sources should be from outside of our class readings. These sources can be either Primary Sources (images, cinema, literature, interviews, documentary films, scientific data, etc. and other creative expressions and or scientific data about beauty) or Secondary Sources (conceptual/theoretical/historical/academic writing). You will also comment on one other person’s post. (5% of final grade).

• C. Orally present the major findings and discoveries and surprises of your project, including how it grew from your peers’ comments, library research, and your own research (6-8 minutes). These presentations are semi-formal, meaning you don’t need to present the full scope of your project, but just need to focus on 1-2 aspects that are particularly memorable to you. Be sure to showcase your findings, be them a new theory you discovered, a set of artistic works that are illuminating, or a surprising convergence of experience of two seemingly unrelated minority groups, or other discoveries (5% of final grade).

• D. Submission of a final paper (7-10 pages) toward the end of the quarter that includes a full argument and discussion of the materials you used. More guidelines will be provided later this quarter (15%)

For every assignment and your final grade, I will adopt the following grading scale:

Note: Any late submissions (submitted the day after due date) will receive a grade deduction of 5% per day, unless there is a documented emergency or you receive prior approval from the instructor. If you need help reaching the deadlines or think you might need more time to finish your drafts for any legitimate reason, please notify me ASAP.

Any incomplete submission that does not meet the length or content requirement of the assignment will receive a grade no greater than C-.

Required Texts

Most of the readings for this class are available on Moodle. Apart from them, there are a few books that you need to purchase from the Book Store. If you can find e-books for these, they are acceptable.

Women in the Picture: What Culture Does with Female Bodies by Catherine McCormack

A Beautiful Question: Finding Nature’s Deep Design by Frank Wilczek

Thick and Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom

Tech Policies and Sensitive Topics

In the spirit of making the class a safe and welcoming community that maximizes the learning experience for all, I would like to invite everyone to observe the following policies on the use of technology and the discussion of sensitive topics to ensure that we learn effectively and respectfully together:

• Please silence or turn off your cellphones and put them away during class time.
• If you like to take notes and do in-class writing exercises on your laptop, please strictly restrict your use of your laptop to in-class activities. No web-browsing, email-checking, and Facebook is allowed in class unless instructed by me. When we do all-class analysis and discussions, I may ask you to close your laptops to focus on class discussions.
• Some texts and topics in our class touch upon deeply personal issues, such as gender identities, cultural practices, and sexual orientations. When discussing such issues in class and in writing, please be aware of the personal effect of such topics and make comments respectfully. We strive to create a community that respects diverse identities and values. Making comments mindfully and learning from the diverse backgrounds of your classmates are important components of your education. If you feel vulnerable around certain topics, please communicate with me privately. Let us all take responsibility in creating a safe and welcoming community of learners where we exchange ideas respectfully and ethically.

Class Schedule