Radical Belonging

SEMN 132 Radical Belonging

Instructor: Jennifer Mills, Ph.D., LPC
Email: Jennifer.mills@kzoo.edu
School Address:
Psychology Department
Kalamazoo College
1200 Academy Street
Olds Upton, Psychology Suite
Kalamazoo, MI 49006
Office Hours: M,W,F 1:15-2:15; T 11-2 via Teams, by appointment.

Department: Psychology
Course Number: SEMN 132
Section #: 01
Semester: Fall 2022
Course Title: Radical Belonging
Meeting Time: M, W, F 11:55-1:10

HILL (Humanities Integrated Locational Learning) Class Clusters

In January of this year, Kalamazoo College received a three-year Mellon grant as part of a Humanities for All Times Initiative. This grant—entitled Humanities Integrated Locational Learning (HILL)—will consider how many of the major problems of our time can be analyzed through the lens of location and dislocation. From climate change to global migrations to mass incarceration, we face the challenge of developing a deeper understanding and hope that might come from addressing disruptions (physical, psychological, social, linguistic, spiritual, and more). To carry out the grant, HILL supports the formation of class clusters linked to specific places within and beyond Kalamazoo.

Our class is part of the Kalamazoo cluster that will consider home and belonging. In the spirit of the grant, courses will partner with Kalamazoo community organizations/members and with each other. The collaboration includes SEMN 132 – Radical Belonging, SEMN 163 – About Us: Disability Stories/Disability Rights, SEMN 182 – Wheels of Change, ENGL 155 – Identities: Home and Belonging, CES 240 (Critical Ethnic Studies) – Language: The Colonial and Imperial Difference, and SEMN 495 – Finding a Home in the World. Instructors for each course will
communicate how and when they will collaborate throughout the term.

When considering the effects of location and dislocation, we understand that these concepts impact students who, for any number of reasons, may feel displaced or out of place on a college campus. The project, then, aims to help construct a space of home on and off campus. By erasing the distinction between the classroom space and “real world,” we seek to embrace how ways of learning within the humanities can facilitate a space to think about and create collective futures.

Course Description

Belonging is a core human need that shapes well-being, enables flourishing, positive development and health. Currently, there is a crisis of belonging in the United States. National Surveys of youth and adults in the U.S. have found record setting levels of loneliness, low levels of social cohesion, and a decreased sense of belonging. reveals Belonging is shaped by cultural factors including race, sexual identity, disability, gender, place, neurodivergence, and age.

To better understand the habitats that generate belonging, the communal and cultural forces that enhance or constrain the experience of belonging we will interrogate what it means to belong to yourself, to community and to the larger world.

We will conduct interviews with community groups in Kalamazoo to better understand how these groups think about and generate belonging. Finally, using interviews with community groups, students will work with The Center for New Media (Kalamazoo College) and The Center for Public Media (Downtown Kalamazoo) to develop a podcast on belonging. This year we will interview the following groups:

Urban Alliance: Group Violence Intervention (GVI)
This is a group made up of past perpetrators of gun violence who now work with people who are, or are at risk, to commit acts of gun violence. They will tell you that trauma and belonging have a lot to do with their work.
Group Violence Intervention
Mike Wilder
269-861-8319
Unlikely relationships forge in battle to end gun violence in Kalamazoo – mlive.com

Kalamazoo Collective Housing
This housing co-op group has group houses with specific themes. I know they have one that is for Queer individuals. I think they recently opened another house with a theme too, though I can’t remember what it is. It could be cool to talk about belonging with people who live in a house surrounded by people with the same values.

International students at WMU

Artbor Community Connections Center
Shawntell Lindsey: Community Leader. She started a small org called “The Arbor” which is there to help meet the needs of individuals in the Northside of Kalamazoo. Community is a big part of what she does.
Contact Shawntell Lindsey
269-443-2074
What is the Artbor Community Connections Center?


Assigned Reading

All readings are posted on Moodle and listed in the course planning document.

Learning Objectives

The learner will be able to:

  1. Identify the core psychological and sociological principles that establish a person’s sense of belonging or not belonging.
  2. Will understand the conditions that lead to a sense of inner home.
  3. Will be able to explain the role of identity in community and how this shapes belonging.
  4. Will be able to identify the features of neighborhoods and social spaces that generate belonging.
  5. Will be able to clearly identify the intersection of the personal, scientific and real-world understanding belonging.
  6. Will be able to critique dominant ways of being that currently inform our ideas aboutbelonging.
  7. Will be able to discuss how oppression intersects with belonging.
  8. Can use 3-4 new technology tools to present ideas (podcasting, infographics)
  9. Collaborates on a Team of individuals to produce a podcast.
  10. Cultivates professionalism in both online and in person spaces.

Professional Competencies

  1. Communicates professionally via email and in person.
  2. Contributes and enhances collaborative environments.
  3. Demonstrates professionalism during interviews and presentations.
  4. Demonstrates facility with using and collaborating in online environments
    including Moodle, OneDrive, Excel, Word, Google Docs.

Please review the following rules on conducting yourself professionally online: Netiquette.

Inclusive Learning Environment

I strive to make the classroom a place where everyone can learn. Oppression and privilege shape the learning environment and I will do my best to make reduce the impact of these structural forces on our learning environment. If there is ANYTHING that I am doing that reproduces the harm PLEASE let me know. This classroom is also a place where I strive to attend to what we now call neurodivergence. If there is anything that I could do that would make your learning experience better let’s have a conversation.

Accessibility and Accommodations

Students with Disabilities

I strive to accommodate all learning needs in this class. This includes students with documented learning differences as well as those who might be without official documentation. It is helpful to officially register your documented learning difference or mental health need with the office of disability services which is located here.

If you think you might benefit from accommodations but have not yet received official documentation you can talk to me about what might help or talk with the appropriate provider. Our counseling office is available to help with these types of issues and they can be contacted here.

Kalamazoo College provides reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities. It is the student’s responsibility to contact the office of the Dean of Students [337-7209] in a timely manner to arrange for appropriate accommodations.

Cultural/Religious Holidays

Kalamazoo College provides reasonable accommodations for observing religious or cultural holidays. Students can be excused from class to participate in these religious/cultural activities, but they will be responsible for getting all assignments and turning in course work. It is the student’s responsibility to contact the faculty member in a timely manner to arrange for appropriate accommodations.

Student Athletes

Student athletes who have university permission to miss classes or tests need to inform the instructor before they miss the assignment.

Honor System

This course will operate in accordance with the Kalamazoo College Honor System: a responsibility for personal behavior, independent thought, respect for others, and environmental responsibility. Students who are caught cheating or plagiarizing will receive a zero for that assignment, will be referred to Student Services, and may fail the class. Students who download papers or any information from the Internet without citing the source may receive an F in this course.

Attendance

70% of life is showing up and engaging. The course has been designed to give you credit for attending class. If you miss more than two classes you will receive ½ letter grade deduction. If you miss four or more classes you should consider withdrawing. If you are in the middle of a family, medical or mental health crisis please let me know so that we can find a compassionate solution.

Assignments Overview

Individual Assignments

AssignmentPointsDue
Pecha Kucha Presentation10 points9/16
Paper #1: Belonging to Self35 points9/26
Paper #2: Community and Belonging35 points10/12
Paper #3: Research on Belonging35 points10/24
Weekly Worksheet for reading70 points (10 per week/7 weeks)
Weekly Check your knowledge Quiz #135 points (5 points per week/7wks)Weeks 2-8
Group work participation80 points/10 per weekTakes place on Fridays
Peer Evaluation for group work25 pointsWeek 10

Group Assignments

AssignmentPointsDue
How to create a Podcast
Group Pecha Kucha
20 points9/30
Conducting Academic Research50 points10/21
Consensus Paper100 points11/4
Podcast Script/Storyboard40 points10/31
Podcast100 points11/7
Group Presentation50 pointsWeek 9 and 10

Grading

It is possible to earn a total of 685 points this term. The scale below is slightly different from typical scales so please note the difference. This course is weighted more heavily toward the final group projects. This has been constructed intentionally so that you can get more credit for learning as you go. The quizzes are designed to give you an opportunity to test your knowledge on the weekly topic.

Letter GradePointsPercentage
A651-68595-100%
A-617-65090-94%
B+582-61685-89%
B548-58180-84%
B-514-54775-79%
C480-51370-74%
F<479<70%

Pecha Kucha/Individual (10 points 2% of final grade)

Using the Pecha Kucha format create a brief presentation on how and when you have felt a sense of belonging.

Individual Paper Format (35 points per paper/ 105 points total) 15% of final grade

  1. 3 pages double spaced, 12pt font, Times New Roman Font, 1-inch margins.
  2. Header with first and last name, paper #, and date
  3. Footer with page numbers
  4. Include APA cited references on fourth page.
  5. Submitted on Moodle assignments tab by 11:59pm on due date.

Consensus Paper (100 points 15% of final grade)

For this consensus paper you will work with your group to create a 3-4 page paper that synthesizes the ideas you found most interesting or salient from your previous papers.

  1. 3 pages double spaces, 12 pt. font, Times New Roman Font, 1-inch margins.
  2. Header with Group #, names of everyone in the group that contributed, consensus
    paper #, and date.
  3. Footer with page numbers
  4. APA references on fourth page
  5. Submitted on Moodle assignments tab by 11:59 pm on due date

Pecha Kucha /Group (20 points 3% of final grade)

Create a Pecha Kucha on how to create a podcast with your group.

Conducting Research (50 points 7% of final grade)

Requirements:
You will use what you learned in Beyond google to find one academic paper on belonging. You will, create a reference list for each paper your group found with an annotated bibliography for each article. Submit as one document for the group (each group will have four people so you will turn in an annotated bibliography for four articles). Articles should meet the standards covered in the Beyond google workshop and follow APA style for annotated bibliographies.

Podcast Script (40 points. 6% of final grade)

Podcast (100 points 15% of final grade)

Group Presentation (50 points 7% of final grade)

Using any format you wish deliver a 30 minute presentation on what you learned about belonging this term.

Peer Evaluation (25 points 4% of final grade)

You will be doing a considerable amount of group work this term. Ongoing participation in your group is an important part of you grade this term. Your classmates will be asked to evaluate your contributions and will assign you a score based on your participation in the group work. Peer Evaluation (80 points) of your group will take place in week 10. In addition, you will evaluate one other groups podcast and ask them questions about their presentation. This will take place in weeks 9 and 10. I will give you an evaluation rubric for the podcast you listen to (another groups podcast, not your own) to use and submit (10 points).

How We Roll

Experience, reflect, connect, apply

Learning Theory Principles: Activate retrieval!

Use the table below to write down your group # and group members name and contact info.

Group #

#NameContactRole
1
2
3
4
5

Wheels of Change: Environmental and Social Justice by Bike Syllabus

SEMN 182: Wheels of Change: Environmental and Social Justice by Bike

MWF 11:55-1:10; Fall 2022

Image: Cyclists demonstrate at a Black Lives Matter Protest in Brooklyn on Jun 5, 2020. Photo by Shawn Pridgen in Bicycling magazine

Who Leads this Course

Faculty Instructor: Dr. Amelia Katanski, Professor of English and Critical Ethnic Studies

Office: Humphrey House 207

Contact me by: Email (Amelia.Katanski@kzoo.edu) or Teams chat; Please note that I will not be checking email or Teams messages between 5PM on Fridays and 9AM on Mondays. If you message me over the weekend, I’ll return your message on Monday.

Office Hours: Mondays 10-11AM; Wednesdays 1:30-2:30.
These are times I’m always in my office—no appointment needed. If these times don’t work for you, just send me a message and we’ll figure out another time to meet.

Teaching Assistant: Egan Vieira

Contact me by:
Email: egan.vieira19@kzoo.edu or Teams chat

Community Partners:

City of Kalamazoo, Open Roads, and Kalamazoo College Outdoor Programs

Contact them at:
Christina Anderson, City Planner, City of Kalamazoo andersonc@kalamazoocity.org
Isaac Green, Executive Director, Open Roads director@openroadsbike.org
Jory Horner (Director) and Jess Port (Assistant Director), Outdoor Programs, Kalamazoo College Jory.Horner@kzoo.edu; Jess.Port@kzoo.edu

Where to find course materials:

You will find our readings and assignments—and the most updated weekly schedule—on our class Teams site. You will also turn in your assignments and receive grades on Teams.

Where We Study Together

We gather on the land of the Council of the Three Fires—the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Bodewadmi. Indigenous nations of the Great Lakes are also known as Anishinaabe, or First People, and their language is Anishinaabemowin. We acknowledge the enduring relationship that exists between the People of the Three Fires and this land. We begin with this acknowledgement in recognition that it is a starting point that is meaningful in the context of the development and nurturing of ongoing relationship, reconciliation, and reparation.

Course Description

This community-engaged course explores cycling through the lenses of social and environmental justice. We will study the way bicycles—as vehicles of freedom and mobility–empowered women and people of color during the late 19th century “cycling craze,” and we will learn about policies based in racism and sexism that limited who could easily experience the liberating movement cycling offered. Understanding that history, we’ll focus on how, today, the bicycle offers hope for sustainable transportation that supports individual, community, and environmental health in ways that redress racism, and gender- and ability-based discrimination.

Working closely with community partners, including the City of Kalamazoo, Open Roads, and K College Outdoor Programs, we will explore how communities can build cycling infrastructure using an equity lens, developing a comparative international perspective by investigating how urban cycling thrives in Copenhagen, Denmark. We will work closely with partners on and off campus on projects that will help to provide equitable, sustainable cycling infrastructure for people of all races, genders, income levels, and ages. As we do this, we will come to know our community by bike, riding together regularly.

Our experiential learning culminates in traveling together to Copenhagen for a week after the end of the quarter (November 27-December 4, 2022) to experience this iconic cycling city by riding it and by meeting with and learning from city planners, other cycling movement leaders, and regular folks who ride. There will be opportunities to report back to the City of Kalamazoo and our other partners in the winter quarter (an optional partial unit course), and to continue your work by applying for internships later in the year with some of our community partners.

Course Goals and Learning Outcomes

  • Create a structured, yet responsive and engaged environment in which we can read, write, talk, and think about: the history of cycling, and the potential of the bicycle to serve as an agent of mobility, environmental sustainability, freedom and community-building; city planning issues that arise when considering the needs of cyclists–everything from infrastructure development to safety to equity (safe access across race, class, gender, and age); and health benefits—to individuals, communities, and the earth—of cycling.
  • Apply this knowledge to engage responsibly and respectfully with our community partners, to work on project designed to increase equitable, sustainable cycling infrastructure, policy, and programming within the City of Kalamazoo and on campus.
  • Come to know the City of Kalamazoo by bike and develop authentic relationships with community partners, thinking through the ways that cycling speaks to the possibilities for and barriers to our own mobility (individually and as part of the K College community) within the city.
  • Learn about maintaining and repairing a bicycle.
  • Improve the most important skills for success in college: reading actively and critically, writing clearly and expressively (and meeting the specific Tier 1 College writing requirement), discussing texts and ideas productively and with engagement, working collaboratively, and respecting our differences.
  • Develop a cooperative learning community in which all seminar members learn from and teach each other and take responsibility for the success and quality of the seminar learning experience.
  • Work toward developing some of the College’s “Indicators of Intercultural and International Competence,” through our academic work, engagement with the Kalamazoo community, and travel to Copenhagen.
  • Become familiar with the college library resources while learning to evaluate sources critically and use them to enhance your own ideas and opinions.
  • Be attentive to the process of writing, and develop individualized, effective writing processes.
  • See the connection between our coursework and other ways to participate in the Cities Pathway, including coursework, co-curricular activities, study abroad/study away, career development opportunities, and ongoing civic engagement.

Weekly Schedule

We will meet to discuss reading and complete in-class learning activities on Mondays and Wednesdays. Most Fridays will be set aside for project work, writing workshops, hands-on learning, or guided bike rides (so please keep this time clear in your schedule each week).

Assignments and Activities

Short Responses

You will write 3 short responses over the course of the quarter. Two of these will focus on readings. One will reflect on what you have learned about writing over the quarter. There will be multiple opportunities for responses, and you will sign up for 2. You will also be responsible for starting our class discussion (working individually or as teams) on the days your responses are due.

Research assignment/Policy Paper

You will research a topic of your interest/choice related to our course theme. You will start this research as part of your Beyond Google session, and will develop your research into a 5-page policy paper. You will peer workshop a draft of this essay and will also meet with me
individually to discuss your drafts before the final version is due.

Beyond Google Information Literacy Workshop

Our Seminar will participate in a workshop intended to help you develop and improve your research and information literacy skills, supporting your development as an independent scholar. Your work will be part of the research you do for your policy paper and will be led by one of our reference librarians and me. The steps in the Beyond Google process will be graded P/F

HILL Cluster Activities

Our class is one of a cluster of courses focusing on questions of location and dislocation in Kalamazoo. We will have three required cluster activities during the quarter: a lunch or dinner at a time of your choosing during 2nd week with a member of the “Finding a Home in the World”
Senior Seminar; a lunch and meeting with all of the courses in the cluster (Common Time/11-11:45AM 3rd Week Monday); and a critical reflection discussion with the “Finding a Home in the World” Senior Seminar (Common Time/11-11:45, 5th Week Monday). There are other, optional, cluster activities you may choose to take part in throughout the quarter.

Photo (and video?) Essay

Throughout the quarter, keep an eye open for people riding bikes on campus and around town. Take photos of as many different kinds of riding (types of bikes, purpose in riding, rider demographics, etc.) you come across. We want to represent the diversity of riding in Kalamazoo. Each student is required to contribute at least two photographs (or possibly short videos—we’ll discuss this early in the quarter!) to the overall photo essay. When we go to Copenhagen, you’ll be asked to create a parallel photo essay about Copenhagen cyclists.

Community-based Project/Structured Reflection

Students will work in 3 teams to complete community-based projects, working alongside community partners. One group will work with the City of Kalamazoo (and City Planner/K Alum Christina Anderson) on a project related to cycling infrastructure in Kalamazoo; a second group will work with Open Roads (and Executive Director Isaac Green) on a project focused on developing and implementing safe cycling routes for Kalamazoo-area children; and a third group will work with the Kalamazoo College Outdoor Programs office (and Director Jory Horner and Assistant Director Jess Port), investigating ways to make college-owned bikes more accessible to students, to promote and support cycling among students, and to develop a cycling culture on campus.—This might lead to work on campus (and maybe in collaboration with WMU and/or the City) on a bike share program. Teams will be assigned early in the quarter and will work on these projects throughout the quarter. You will need to work on your projects with your teams and your community partners outside of class time, and this workload is accounted for in your reading/writing load for the course. Individually, you will complete 2 structured-reflection assignments that ask you to connect your readings and other in-class work with your experiential work.

Project Reports and Presentations

At the end of the quarter, project teams will collaboratively write project reports, which gather together research, raw data, analysis, implementation/project sustainability plans, and reflections on their community-based project experiences. Teams will present their key
findings to one another, our community partners and other members of the College and Kalamazoo communities.

First-Year Forum Requirement

First-Year Forums are programs (usually 1-2 hours in length) offered throughout the fall term on topics important for first-year students (time management, study abroad/away, personal safety, civic engagement in Kalamazoo, career planning, and more!). These engaging programs are facilitated by faculty, staff, and sometimes even upper-class students. First-year students are required to attend one program in each of five different categories:

  • Social Justice and Civic Engagement
  • Intercultural Understanding
  • Personal Decision Making and Habits
  • Career and Professional Development
  • Academic Success and Independent Scholarship

Multiple unique programs are offered throughout the quarter in each of the five categories, so students can pick and choose what programs to attend based on their interest and schedule. Forum attendance is logged as part of the First-Year Seminar grade. If students do not attend at least one Forum in each group, two percentage points for each Forum missed will be deducted from the final Seminar grade. You can check your First-Year Forum attendance records.

Participation

There are many ways to participate in our course—completing the readings; taking part inclass discussion; showing up for team meetings and other project-related work; giving good feedback during workshops; attending office hours; etc. You may have your preferences, but you really can’t ignore any of these things and expect to receive an A for participation. A student earning an A in participation will, for example, come to class having read their assigned texts and thought through the reading, will make at least two contributions to most (if not all) class discussions, will provide thoughtful workshop feedback, and will meet their obligations to their team.

Grading

Not every written assignment will receive a grade. We’ll start the term with lots of feedback and less grading, then move to more graded work. I’ll be clear about how this works with each assignment.

AssignmentPercentage
Responses15%
Research project/Policy Paper20% (includes completion of Beyond Google Library Assignment)
Structured Reflection15%
Project Report and Presentation30%
Photo Essay5%
Participation15%


Required Activities

P/F—You must attend these activities (or complete an alternative assignment if you have an unavoidable conflict) to pass the class.

Attendance

Your attendance is expected and required, except for cases of illness. In this time of Covid, it’s difficult to provide an unchangeable, one-size-fits-all attendance policy, but you should use the following as a guideline: If you miss more than 3 classes over the course of the quarter, you might expect your grade in the course to go down. The more absences, the lower the grade. Why? Because your presence in our class—to take part in discussions of reading and in-class work—does more than just give you a chance to go over concepts. Our work together actually creates meaning—and what we create as a class will necessarily be different (and poorer) without everyone’s presence and contribution.

Beyond the end of the quarter

Travel to Copenhagen will be a required part of the course. Our coursework will prepare us to engage fully with our experiences in Copenhagen. Our activities in Copenhagen will be designed to inform and deepen our learning/knowledge around our project topics, and we will focus on how to translate Copenhagen experiences back to Kalamazoo needs/opportunities as we travel. I will offer a partial-unit course in the winter of 2023 (optional, but open to students in “Wheels of Change”), where students can earn up to .5 units of credit for reflecting on the Copenhagen trip and use the knowledge and materials we’ve compiled while traveling to revise and deepen project reports from the fall. In addition to revised written reports, students completing the .5 unit winter course will also give two presentations about their work: one to the campus community and one to our community partners/others in the wider Kalamazoo community. There may also be opportunities to continue project work through internships with one or more of our partners either later in the academic year or in the summer, although this is not a guarantee.

HILL (Humanities Integrated Locational Learning)

In January, Kalamazoo College received a three-year Mellon grant. (For more information, see the grant announcement.) Known as 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 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 class is part of the Kalamazoo cluster that explores dimensions of home and belonging. In the spirit of the grant, courses partner with Kalamazoo community organizations/members and with each other. The collaboration includes SEMN 132 – Radical Belonging, SEMN 163 – About Us: Disability Stories/Disability Rights, SEMN 182 – Wheels of Change, ENGL 155 – Identities: Home and Belonging, CES 240 (Critical Ethnic Studies) – Language: The Colonial and Imperial Difference, and SEMN 495 – Finding a Home in the World. Instructors for each course will communicate how and when they will collaborate throughout the term.

When considering the effects of location and dislocation, we understand that these concepts impact students who, for any number of reasons, may feel displaced or out of place on a college campus. The project, then, seeks to construct a sense of home on and off campus. By erasing the distinction between the classroom and “real world,” we seek to embrace how ways of learning within the humanities can facilitate a space to think about and create collective futures.

Learning Commons and Academic Support

I strongly encourage you to become familiar with and make use of the Learning Commons, which includes the Writing Center; ESL support; New Media Design; peer instruction and support in Chemistry, Biology, Math, Physics, and Economics and Business; Learning Support Coaching; and more. See the Learning Commons site for more information.

Academic Integrity

This course operates under the College Honor System.  That means: we treat each other with respect, we nurture independent thought, we take responsibility for personal behavior, and we accept environmental responsibility. Academic honesty is a critical part of our value system at K.  When you borrow an idea, express the idea in your own words, thus thinking it through and making it your own, and acknowledge the source of the idea in a citation, or, in certain situations, use the exact words of the source in quotation marks and acknowledge with a citation. If you have any questions about citing sources, the acceptable use of secondary materials, or issues regarding collaborative vs. individual work, PLEASE ASK ME. I will send any cases of academic dishonesty to the Dean of Students’ office to be addressed according to College policy. For the full policy, see the academic dishonesty page.

Accommodations

If you are a student with a disability who seeks accommodation or other assistance in this course, please let me know as soon as possible. Kalamazoo College is committed to making every effort to providing reasonable accommodations. If you want to discuss your overall needs for accommodation at the College, and receive formal accommodations, please direct questions to Dana Jansma, Senior Associate Dean of Students, at (269) 337-7209 or through email at Dana.Jansma@kzoo.edu . For more information, please see the disability services page. This website also contains resources for assistive technologies and neurodivergent students.

Writing Competencies

The First-Year Seminar faculty has established the following goals for fostering writing competencies that will help prepare students for writing in discipline-specific courses in the major and, eventually, for writing the SIP. We hope that every first-year student will develop greater competency in these areas:

Achieving clarity through revision

  • stating and developing a thesis
  • writing coherent sentences and well-developed paragraphs
  • using correct grammar and mechanics
  • being conscious of overall structure and impact
  • becoming proficient at editing and proof reading
  • writing frequently to gain fluency
  • expressing ideas directly and economically

Constructing an argument using evidence

  • understanding the difference between opinion, argument, and evidence, and becoming aware of which of the three serves the writing project at hand
  • synthesizing others’ ideas with one’s own
  • using sources to support ideas and positions
  • using quoted materials effectively and correctly

Gaining experience in research strategies

  • understanding why doing research is important
  • learning how to do research, beginning with the earliest stages
  • putting newly gained knowledge and skills into practice
  • working as independent scholars and contributing to scholarly discourse throughout college and beyond

Cultivating an authentic and versatile style of written communication

  • discovering one’s own way into material
  • making deliberate choices about structure, style, and voice, with a distinct awareness of audience, context and impact
  • writing in a natural, straightforward style
  • demonstrating or developing authenticity and ownership of the work

Schedule Weeks 1-5

Please note that this schedule is always subject to change. You’ll find the most up-to-date version of our
class schedule on our class Teams site.

Week 1: Why We Ride

Week 1 Items Due

Response 1 by class time (11:55AM), Friday: “Why I Ride” (See Teams for the prompt)

Hornet Passport Portal Information must be completed

Topics of discussion (and questions to consider while reading):
What brings our authors—and each of us—to cycling? What have been the barriers to our cycling? What has encouraged or fostered it? Why does cycling matter to individuals and communities? How do we (and our authors) think and talk and write about the concrete physical and practical aspects of cycling? How and why does the bicycle evoke emotion and imagination? How can cycling function as a metaphor?

M: Complete the following readings (all available as .pdf files on Teams) before Monday’s class:
Rosen, “Bicycle Planet” from Two Wheels Good: The History and Mystery of the Bicycle; Jennifer Weiner, “First I Cried. Then, I Rode My Bike.” (NY Times); Colville-Anderson, “The Bicycle’s Role in Urban Life,” from Copenhagenize.

Tuesday, 9/13: 7-8PM on campus at the Arcus Center: Christina Anderson presents information about Kalamazoo cycling infrastructure to Kalamazoo Bicycle Club. Attendance required.

W: Reading: Rosen, “Personal History” from Two Wheels Good. Nepenthes, “Per Rotas Ad Astra” from Trans-Galactic Bike Ride.

F: Class meets at our regular time
Class visit to Open Roads [4-6PM; travel by bike if possible]

Mobility and Exclusion in the History of Cycling

Topics of discussion:
The “cycling craze” of the 1890s; women and cycling in the late 19th/early 20th centuries; Race, mobility, and cycling in the late 19th/early 20th centuries in the US.

Week 2: Gender

M: Reading: from the American 1890s: A Cultural Studies Reader: Marguerite Merington, “Woman and the Bicycle: (1895); Edna Jackson, “A Fin de Cycle Incident” (1896);

W: Reading: excerpts from Hannah Ross, Revolutions: How Women Changed the World on Two Wheels.

F: Group Ride (start at 11?)

**Sometime during Week 2: HILL Cluster Activity—A meal with a member of the “Finding a Home in the World” Senior Seminar. (You will take one of the seniors to lunch or dinner in the caf.)

Week 3: Race

Week 3 Items Due

Response 2 Due in class (11:55AM), Wednesday: Freedom and Suppression (See prompt on Teams)

HILL Cluster Activity: 11:00-11:45 AM on Monday: Meet, Connect, Reflect (Please watch short video “course introductions” on Teams before we meet). Location TBA.

M: Class Meets after the Cluster Activity. Reading: Nathan Cardon, “Cycling on the Color Line: Race, Technology, and Bicycle Mobilities in the Early Jim Crow South, 1887-1905.” (Technology and Culture Oct, 2021)

W: Tamika L Butler, “Why We Must Talk About Race When We Talk About Bikes” (Bicycling, Aug., 2020)

F: Project Work

City Planning, Bike Infrastructure, and Equity

Topics of discussion:
Bicycle urbanism; City planning perspectives on cycling; cycling as community-building; bringing an equity lens to non-motorized transportation/cycling infrastructure

Week 4

Week 4 Items Due

Response 3 Due in class (11:55AM), Monday

Tuesday by 11:55AM: Complete Beyond Google Assignment

M: Sadik-Khan, “How to Read the Street” from Street Fight and Montgomery, “Mobilicities I: how moving feels, and why it does not feel better; and Mobilicities II: freedom” from Happy City

W: Beyond Google Workshop—Class Meets in the Library

F: Group Ride (Start at 11?)

Week 5

Week 5 Items Due

Structured Reflection 1 Due in class (11:55AM), Wednesday

HILL Cluster Activity: 11:00-11:45 AM on Monday Structured Reflection with “Finding a Home in the World” Senior Seminar. Location TBA.

M: Class meets after Cluster activity. Reading: excerpts from Hoffman, Bike Lanes are White Lanes: Bicycle Advocacy and Urban Planning; Cycling for Sustainable Cities; and Colville-Anderson, Copenhagenize

W: Reading: Furth, “Bicycling Infrastructure for All” from Cycling for Sustainable Cities.

F: Fall Break. No classes today.

Overview of topics/assignments for the second half of the quarter
(details to come . . .)

Week 6: The Economics of Cycling

Topics of discussion: Transportation costs (individual and infrastructure); triple bottom line and “the good life”; Class and cycling; the cost of cycling; Bike shares

Readings: excerpts from Elly Blue, Bikenomics: How Bicycling Can Save the Economy; Elliot Fishman and Susan Shaheen, “Bikesharing’s Ongoing Evolution and Expansion” (in Cycling for Sustainable Cities);

Assignments: Policy Paper Draft Due; Peer Workshop and individual meetings

Homecoming Pathways Event

Week 7: Cycling for a Healthy Earth—the carbon footprint of cycling

Week 7 Items Due

Policy Paper Due

Topics of discussion: Environmental impact of cycling (on an individual and community level)

Readings: excerpts from: Peter Walker, How Cycling Can Save the World; “Can Portland be a Climate Leader without Reducing Driving?”; “The climate change mitigation impacts of active travel: Evidence from a longitudinal panel study in seven European cities”, Global Environmental Change (2021)

Week 8: Cycling for Healthy Humans—Health Impacts of Cycling; and Safety and Access Issues

Week 8 Items Due

Response 4 Due

Topics of discussion: How cycling impacts human physical and mental health; Bike safety education; Planning/infrastructure approaches to safer cycling; Safety and access for populations with specific concerns/needs including children, the elderly, and people with disabilities.

Readings: (Students will select from these readings based on community-based projects): Garrard, Rissel, and Bauman, “Health Benefits of Cycling” (in Cycling for Sustainable Cities); Kay Inckle, “Disability, Cycling, and Health: Impacts and (Missed) Opportunities in Public Health”; Lenton and Finlay, “Public Health Approaches to Safer Cycling for Children based on Developmental and Physiological Readiness: Implications for Practice”; Pucher and Buehler, “Safer Cycling Through Improved Infrastructure”; and additional selections from Cycling for Sustainable Cities

Week 9: Cycling and Resistance

Week 10 Items Due

Structured Reflection 2 Due

Topics of discussion: Return to considerations of cycling as instrument of social justice

Readings: Brett Simpson,”Why Cars Don’t Deserve the Right of Way: The simplest way to make roads safer and reduce police violence at the same time” (The Atlantic 10/15/21); Jody Rosen, “The Bicycle as a Vehicle of Protest” (New Yorker 6/10/20); Martens, Golub, and Hamre, “Social Justice and Cycling” (in Cycling for Sustainable Cities)

Week 10: Presentations, Connections, Conclusions and Preparations

Week 10 Important Note

Project Reports, Photo Essay Contributions, and Presentations Due

Reading: from Copenhagenize; Koglin, Brömmelstroet, and van Wee, “Cycling in Copenhagen and Amsterdam” (in Cycling for Sustainable Cities)

Exam Week

Exam Week Items Due

Response 5 (writing reflection)

Giant Bikes at Col d’Aubisque in the French Pyrenees, representing the overall leader (yellow), King of the Mountains/climbing leader (polka dot) and sprint leader (green) in the Tour de France.
Photo: A Katanski, July 2022

Finding a Home in the World: Lessons in Sustainability from the Ancient Mediterranean Syllabus

Seminar 495: Finding a Home in the World: Lessons in Sustainability from the Ancient Mediterranean

Fall 2022
T/Th 2:10-4:00 pm
Upjohn Library Commons 311

Hello, I’m: Professor Elizabeth Manwell
My Office: Humphrey House 106

My Office Hours:
Wednesday 9:00-11:00 a.m., 12:00-2:00 p.m.
If these times don’t work for you, please e-mail or message me to make an appointment. I’m happy to find a time that works for you!

Best ways to contact me:
via e-mail: Elizabeth.Manwell@kzoo.edu
via chat: in Microsoft Teams (look for our class Team in your list of Teams)
(Please allow up to 24 hours for a response)

Where We Study Together

We gather on the land of the Council of the Three Fires – the Ojibwe, the Odawa, and the Potawatomi. Indigenous nations of the Great Lakes region are also known as the Anishinaabe (Ah-nish-nah-bay), or original people, and their language is Anishinaabemowin (Ah-nish-nah-bay-mow-in). We acknowledge the enduring relationship that exists between the People of the Three Fires and this land.

Course Description and Goals

We may think of sustainability and environmental studies as disciplines arising from the ecology movement of the 1960s or from contemporary concerns about the climate crisis. Yet, people have been harming and modifying the environment at least since humans began farming. Since that time, we have existed in a struggle with the world we occupy for resources to sustain us and to fulfill our desires, and yet there have always been those who have found a harmonious balance within it. This class will be an exploration of how to become part of that latter group.

This class starts WAY back…at the point where people started living in community together to work the land. And we start at a particular place, the Mediterranean basin, in part because we have so much evidence from that part of the world. In our first five weeks we explore five topics critical to thinking about how to find a home in the natural world: Defining Nature, Climate Changes, Using Animals, Working the Land, Consumption and Damage. This is not an all-encompassing review, but will give us enough context so that we can move forward—into the present and engaged with individual interests.

Students will spend the last five weeks engaged in individual projects (either choosing from a list of possible topics or developing their own). We will also be working all quarter with the City of Kalamazoo’s Community Sustainability Plan to explore how our collective action can support local and global efforts to build a sustainable future.

As a Senior Capstone, this course is designed to:

  • Draw students from various majors together through collaborative engagement with critical issues facing the world today.
  • Encourage cross-disciplinary thinking and problem solving.
  • Encourage student input on content, process, and knowledge generation for the course.
  • Encourage students to explore connections (and disconnections) among components of their K-Plan.
  • Invite students to articulate a narrative of their education in anticipation of their lives after graduation.


Specific goals for the course include:

  • Acquiring a basic knowledge of the history of core issues that affect our ability to live in harmony with the earth.
  • Gaining a deeper understanding of interventions that have been employed and may be of use in this current moment.
  • Reflecting on our own commitments and how we can choose to be practitioners of sustainability in our beliefs and actions, our careers and hobbies, our local, regional and global communities to create a home in the world.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the course students will be able to:

  • describe and discuss basic environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability
  • compare and contrast the ideas and impacts of ancient and contemporary peoples on the environment
  • present with confidence their own research on a topic related to environment or sustainability

HILL Class Cluster

In January, Kalamazoo College received a three-year Mellon grant. (For more information, see the grant announcement.) Entitled Humanities Integrated Locational Learning (HILL), this initiative examines how many problems of our time—such as climate change, global migrations, and mass incarceration—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 class is part of the Kalamazoo cluster that explores dimensions of home and belonging. In the spirit of the grant, courses partner with Kalamazoo community organizations/members and with each other. The collaboration includes SEMN 132 – Radical Belonging, SEMN 163 – About Us: Disability Stories/ Disability Rights, SEMN 182 – Wheels of Change, ENGL 155 – Identities: Home and Belonging, CES 240 (Critical Ethnic Studies) – Language: The Colonial and Imperial Difference, and SEMN 495 – Finding a Home in the World. Instructors for each course will communicate how and when they will collaborate throughout the term.

When considering the effects of location and dislocation, we understand that these concepts impact students who, for any number of reasons, may feel displaced or out of place on a college campus. The project, then, seeks to construct a sense of home on and off campus. By erasing the distinction between the classroom and “real world,” we seek to embrace how ways of learning within the humanities can facilitate a space to think about and create collective futures.

Course Materials

All readings, videos and other content will be available on our course Moodle site.

We will also be using a Course Research Guide on Environment and Sustainability curated by our reference librarians.

Course Methods

As a senior capstone experience, I hope to work in partnership with you, so that you have opportunities every class to share your gifts and expertise, partner in building the class, and find it a time and space for deep reflection on and engagement with what your K Plan means to you and how you can use it in the future.

Weeks 1-5

I’ve tried to structure the course so that we have some time at the beginning to build knowledge, learn the history of earth-human interactions in the Mediterranean, and think about lessons we might take from a different time and place. We will also build a common vocabulary for discussing these issues. In addition, we will engage in a number of activities, talk to visitors, bring in other materials, and look for ways to try on these ideas.

Tuesdays: Discussion of readings, vocabulary building, sharing from reflections
Thursdays: Visitors, projects, experiments, making connections to the modern world

Weeks 6-10

In these weeks you take over! On Tuesdays you will share a topic that you have been thinking about and researching, and will lead us in our exploration of it. You will assign our readings for the day, give us questions to use to reflect on the topic and help us develop a better understanding. Students will meet with me at least two weeks in advance to ensure that they have the resources they need and feel confident to shepherd us through the topic.

We may retain the same structure as weeks 1-5, but it depends on the number of students and student interests. If you want to keep the same structure, I will work with you to secure speakers for our Thursday sessions, projects or experiments that could inform our work, or help plan field trips to enhance our understanding.

Course Requirements:

This class is built on our work together—with each other, and our community partners—and so your grade will be based on how well you analyze the texts we read, both in class and in your written work.

A substantial portion of your grade depends upon class participation. This does not mean that you have to have something “brilliant” to contribute to each class. It does mean that I want to see that you are thoughtful, engaged and eager to dig into our topic that day. For each text we read you should come to class prepared with:

  • one passage that you liked, found interesting, or spoke to you in some way.
  • one question or problem.

The breakdown of your grade will be as follows:

ElementPercentage
Weekly Reflective Journal Entries 20% (2% each)
Facilitating a Class Session 20%
Participation and Engagement in Class30% (3% per week)
Active Engagement and Effort in Community Work 20%
Final Reflection 10%

I grade on a pretty standard scale:

PointsLetter Grade
93-100A
90-92A-
88-89B+
83-87B
80-82B-
78-79C+
73-77C
70-72C-
68-69D+
65-67D
64-0F

Weekly Journal:

Each week you will be asked to bring our readings, discussions and your own experience into conversation with each other. There will be a prompt for each week to guide your writing, and to bring our course readings and discussions into conversation with current problems. But it is also a place where you can explore your own ideas. You can also use it as a place to record passages from the readings that interested you (that you want to make sure you bring up in class) or an experience that you have and want to reflect on. Really, anything course-related can go there. Weekly Journals should be updated every week by Tuesday at 9am. You should plan to write about two paragraphs in your response, in order to receive full credit (about 300 words). These will be graded using the Journal Rubric.

Facilitating Class:

We will work together early in the quarter to identify a topic that you would like to explore. In collaboration with me, you will select readings for the class, craft discussion questions for your classmates, then lead them through them in class. This will be graded using a rubric that reflects your seriousness of engagement, effort, and interest.

Participation:

Participation is an important part of your grade. This part of your grade reflects both your participation AND your presence in the work we do. Active participation in this class means:

  • coming to class on time,
  • completing assigned readings and exercises,
  • listening to others (in ALL kinds of discussions),
  • contributing ideas of your own, and
  • asking questions as they come up.

If you are concerned about your participation grade or want to improve it, just ask!

Community Partner Work:

The work we do on our class project is one way we begin to practice the application of our knowledge to problems in the world, and the acquisition of new skills and knowledge to apply to the challenges of living. Thus, engagement and commitment to the project is critical for success in the class. Attendance is part of it—but open and enthusiastic engagement, curiosity and humility are essential.

Final Reflection:

Your final assignment will be a reflective essay, asking you to do many of the things we practice every week in our journals (integrating readings, experiences, work, and our own interests and expertise) but on a larger scale. Specific guidelines will be provided.

A FAQ about Class Policies

Is attendance important for this class?

Yes! You really make the class. I keep track of who is here every day and your regular participation and engagement counts for a significant part of your grade. Plus, we make the class together, and you are an important part of that!

What if I can’t meet a deadline for an assignment?

I try to make deadlines sensible, but everyone can get behind. You can still get credit for late journal (though you will lose some credit), but the goal is to prepare us for class discussion. So, making the deadline matters, because it makes our time together richer and more learning can happen. For your presentation or final reflection—well, that is something we should talk about. There is almost always a solution to any problem like that, as long as we communicate with each other.

What happens if I get sick or have to quarantine?

All the resources that you will need for the class will be available on Moodle. If you have to quarantine, I will make sure that I record class or provide you with content in other ways. Rest assured, you will not be left behind if this happens—you will be able to keep up with the course AND still be a part of it.

The structure of this class feels very loose. Should I be nervous?

What should I have with me in class?

Please always bring a copy of whatever we are reading for that class period with you. I don’t like having electronic devices open in class (for a variety of reasons). If you don’t want to print out copies of the articles, you can always bring notes on the reading. And your journal and discussion writings will often form the starting point for our conversations.

A Few Other Pieces—Campus Policies:

Honor Code:

This course operates under the College Honor System. That means: we treat each other with respect, we nurture independent thought, we take responsibility for personal behavior, and we accept environmental responsibility. Academic honesty is a critical part of our value system at K. When you borrow an idea, express the idea in your own words, thus thinking it through and making it your own, and acknowledge the source of the idea in a note, or, in certain situations, use the exact words of the source in quotation marks and acknowledge with a note. Ideas raised in class are part of the public domain and, therefore, sources of the ideas need not be acknowledged. If you are ever in doubt about this, you must ask. Here’s the full policy.

Accessibility:

The Americans with Disabilities Act requires me to offer reasonable accommodations for students with physical, sensory, cognitive, systemic, learning and psychiatric challenges. Please contact me during the first week of the quarter if you need or believe you may need accommodations so that you can be successful in this course. If you need more information, you can learn more about specific resources by visiting the student life website or calling the Dana Jansma, Senior Associate Dean of Students Office at (269) 337-7209.

College Resources

Student Mental Health

The Kalamazoo College Counseling Center is available to all students. If you are struggling—or know someone else who is—you should definitely contact them for a visit (their hours are Mon-Fri 8-5). E-mail Patricia Jorgenson, who can assist you in getting the support you need. They are a great place to turn to if you are anxious or depressed—and they are also a great place to visit if you are struggling with workload, feeling overwhelmed, or a little worried that things are harder than they used to be. In addition, for issues that won’t wait, there are lots of people that can 24/7:

  • Campus Safety: 269.337.7321 (to be connected to an on-call counselor)
  • Gryphon Place: 269.381.HELP (Kalamazoo)
  • National Suicide Hotline: 1.800.273.8255
  • Steve Fund Crisis Text Line (for young people of color): Text STEVE to 741741
  • Call 911

Policy on Sexual Harassment, Discrimination, and Gender-Based Violence

While I want you to feel comfortable coming to me with issues with which you may be struggling, please be aware that I have reporting requirements in my role as a professor.

For example, if you inform me of an issue of sexual harassment, assault, or discrimination, or other misconduct, I will keep the information as private as I can, but I am required to bring it to the attention of the Title IX Coordinator. In the event that I must share such information with the Coordinator, you may respond to their outreach in any way you wish, or not respond at all.

If you would like to talk to the Office of Gender Equity directly, you can reach out to Tanya Jachimiak (tanya.jachimiak@kzoo.edu) or make a report through the Title IX website. You can also report incidents to anyone in Student Development or Campus Safety (located in Hicks 138, 269-337-5739). If you would like to speak with a confidential individual who is not required to report to the Title IX Coordinator, please reach out to the Counseling Center, our College Chaplain, or
K’s Victim Advocate from the YWCA.

Finally, any form of discrimination or harassment based on your real or perceived race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, height, weight, marital status, familial status, disability as protected by law, sexual orientation, or gender expression or identity is prohibited by K’s Nondiscrimination Policy. If you feel you have experienced any type of bias-related discrimination, please reach out to me and I can help connect you to the appropriate resources.


Class Schedule and Readings

Please prepare the assignments that are due for that class. This class, perhaps more than many you have taken, will rely on you to form it and sustain it.

Week 1: Defining Nature

This week we will try to define what we mean by some basic terms: nature, sustainability, environment, and ecology. We will consider how ancient definitions of these terms may differ from our own, and think about how other definitions might influence our attitudes and behavior toward the natural world.

  • This week will be a little unusual, since there is no assignment for Tuesday! Writing is due on Thursday morning at 9 a.m.

Read:

Usher, “Debts to Nature”
Leopold, “The Land Ethic” in Sand County Almanac
Hughes, “The Environment: Life, Land and Sea in the Mediterranean” (optional) and “Concepts of the Natural World” (optional) in Environmental Problems of the Greeks and Romans

Do: Complete and review your “gifts list”

Write: Start your journal. We’ve explored already how there are perspectives that emphasize our connectedness to nature, and others that highlight our separation from it. What makes you feel connected to or disconnected from nature? How might your gifts help you and the class in our journey to better understand our relationship to the Earth?

Week 2: Climate Changes

This week we consider various periods of climate change throughout history, focusing on the impact of climate in the fall of the Roman Empire and how Western Christian beliefs have shaped our responses to it. We look at how these changes have had unforeseen impacts and also how they have been managed.

Sometime this Week: You will be meeting with a partner student from Dr. Katanski’s First-Year Seminar to have lunch or dinner and get to know each other a little bit!

Read:

For Tuesday:
Harper, “Judgement Day” in The Fate of Rome
Chakrabarty, “The Climate of History: Four Theses” (optional)
White, “The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis” (optional)

For Thursday:
Guest: community partner (or member of K Climate Action Committee)
Prepare for conversation about doing community-based work (Kalamazoo’s Community
Sustainability Plan
and film on Cultural Humility)

Do: Explore NASA’s Effects of Climate Change site. At the bottom of the page you’ll see three interactive features (“Images of Change,” “Climate Time Machine,” and “Eyes on the Earth.” Try out at least two of these features.

Write: Choose one of the interactive features that you played with and think about what you learned from it in light of our conversations and readings. Does what we read and discussed raise questions for you about the website? vice versa? Does the information presented to you visually or graphically change your understanding of climate events? Does this give you any insights on how to talk to others about climate change?

Week 3: Using Animals

Monday at Common Time (10:55-11:55 a.m.): We will be meeting with all the classes in our cluster to have lunch and get to know each other a little bit! SAVE THIS DATE!

This week we look at human use, exploitation and cohabitation with animal species. Obviously, animal labor and animals as food represent a big part of our use of the animal world, but we will also think about how some ancient peoples thought about animals as our companion species.

Read:

For Tuesday:
Hesiod, Works and Days
Usher, “A City for Pigs”
Sorabji, “Did the Greeks Have the Idea of Human or Animal Rights?” (optional)

For Thursday:
Guest: community partner or member of K Climate Action Committee

Do: This news article links to a UN resolution about animal welfare and environmental sustainability. Set a timer for 15 minutes. Read the article, then click a hyperlink, and keep going until your timer goes off. See where it takes you. Feel free to repeat with another link to see where a different path might go.

Write: Where did you end up? What aspect of animal welfare did you choose to follow? Did you end up far from animals or still reading about animals? What is your sense from this experiment about the kinds of ancillary issues that related to animals and sustainability?

Week 4: Working the Land

This week we look at agriculture, both the ways that agriculture has harmed the land, and how farmers have found ways to nourish the land and work together with it.

Read:

For Tuesday:
Usher, “Roman Revolutions”
Purcell, “The Way We Used to Eat”
Garnsey, “Food Crisis” and Malnutrition” (optional)

Short film in class, The Greening of Cuba

For Thursday:
Field trip to Tillers International (and popcorn harvest!)

Do: Watch Good Things Await


Write: You can see from this film that the food system touches on all kinds of issues, from the personal (how we are going to feed ourselves) to the political (who gets to decide who can farm and how). Choose an issue that you saw come up in the film and write about how that same issue comes up in your own life (as a young person, a member of a family, a worker, a supervisor, a capitalist, an urban dweller, etc.). Where are the problems in the food system for you? What would you need to make it better?

Week 5: Consumption and Damage

This week we look at the damage that we have done to the world in multiple ways. We also examine the resilience of nature and the places where our positive intervention can do the most good.

Monday at Common Time (10:55-11:55 a.m.): We will be meeting with Dr. Katanski’s First-Year Seminar to discuss Sadik-Khan and Solomon’s “How to Read the Street.” SAVE THIS DATE!

Read:

For Tuesday:
Hughes, “Case Study B: Ecology and the Decline of the Roman Empire” in The Mediterranean, an Environmental History
Wallace-Hadrill, “Pliny the Elder and Man’s Unnatural History”
Walsh, “Environmental Change: Degradation and Resilience” (optional)

And an optional hopeful reading on resilience: Usher, “Community Rule”

For Thursday:
Discussion about your presentations and how we want to move forward
Time for project groups and check-ins

Do: Watch “No Impact Man” (available through the library here and here)

Write: One of the things that always impresses me is Colin Bevan’s commitment—he gave up a lot of things that we take for granted. What are your commitments? Where are the areas in your life where you stand firm? Where are you willing to give a little? Are there commitments that you are interested in making after watching the film?

Possible Topics for Your Class Sessions

Water and Waterworks (including oceans, rivers, lakes, reservoirs)
Flooding
Pastoralism
Arts and the Environment
Health and the Environment
Progress and Regression
Philosophies of Nature and the Environment
Ecological Systems: Resilience and Vulnerability
Managing Climate Anxiety
Models for Sustainable Shelter
Gender and Sustainability
Queering the natural world
Disability and Difference in Nature
Sustainability and Transportation
Animal Rights
Extinction
A World without Humans
Climate Science for Dummies
Learning from Other Cultures and Societies
Economics of Climate Change
Food Preservation and Production
Deconsumerism
Implementing Kalamazoo College’s Climate Action Plan

About Us: Disability Stories, Disability Rights Syllabus

SEMN 162 About Us: Disability Stories, Disability Rights

Mural that reads, nothing about us without us is for us.

Dr. Bruce Mills
Office Hours (208 Humphrey House)
1:15-2:15 M, TTH 3-4, and by Appointment
Phone: 337-7037 (Office)
Email: bmills@kzoo.edu

Office Hours
Mondays – 1:00-3:00
Wednesdays – 9:30-11:00
And by appointment

About Us: Disability Stories, Disability Rights

We entertain through story. We teach through story. And, through stories, we can become advocates for ourselves and others. In the disability community, this truth about the power of storytelling has emerged in the slogan, “Nothing about us without us.” In other words, any understanding of disability and any policies related to addressing disability calls for the creativity, insight, and urgency that comes from lived knowledge.

For this class, we will engage in the rich source material written and produced by those with physical disabilities, developmental disabilities, and mental health issues. We will explore how individuals within disability communities wish to be named and the politics associated with names and media representations. We will read selected pieces from About Us: Essays from the Disability Series of the New York Times as well as other essays and stories on the history of disability rights. In addition to these readings, we will view and discuss Crip Camp (2020), Vision Portraits (2019), and other films. Finally, we will learn from advocates and storytellers in the Kalamazoo community who work for organizations that serve those with various types of disabilities and mental health issues and who can speak from their own experiences.

Ultimately, we will be exploring how a community might develop spaces and places that create a more welcoming, expansive, and inclusive sense of home and belonging.

Course Goals

Our discussion, reading, and writing goals will be centered on materials related to disability. Our class work is designed to help us:

  • Practice skills that enable us to think critically, speak with distinctness, and write clearly and correctly,
  • Develop listening and interpersonal abilities that invite storytelling and foster collaboration with people of diverse experiences, voices, and ways of knowing,
  • Learn about the history of disability, disability rights, and the language and concepts associated with disability studies,
  • Provide the opportunity for written and verbal reflection in order to deepen an understanding of how to work across difference and how to develop effective strategies for building interpersonal and community relationships.

Program Goals: Tier One Writing Expectations

First-year seminars serve as the writing course for incoming students. K-College has established the following goals for fostering writing competencies that prepare students for writing in discipline-specific courses and, eventually, for the SIP (Senior Individualized Project). We hope that every first-year student will develop greater competency in these areas:

  • Achieving clarity through revision,
  • Constructing an argument using evidence,
  • Gaining experience in research strategies, and
  • Cultivating an authentic and versatile style of written communication.

Required Text

About Us: Essays from the Disability Series of the New York Times, ed. Peter Catapano and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson
(One copy of book on reserve at the library; I also have three shareable copies available.)

Handouts throughout the term.

Requirements and Grading

The development of writing, speaking, and collaborative skills calls for practice in a variety of forms. The following requirements offer a range of ways to enhance these abilities.

AssignmentPoints
Structured Reflection Journal20
Focus Papers (3-4 pages each; 2 @ 15 pts)30
Collaborative Presentation  15
Annotated Bibliography5
Final Research Project20
Participation/Informal In-Class Writing10
Total Points100
Letter GradeNumerical Grade
A93-100
A-90-92.75
B+88-89.75
B83-87.75
B-80-82.75
C+78-79.75
C73-77.75
C-70-72.75 and so forth

First-Year Forums

First-Year Forums are intended to help entering K students continue their academic and personal growth. They are interactive, intentionally developmental, focused on learning, and built on aspects of the K-Plan. The Forums fall into five groups:

  • Group 1:  Social Justice and Civic Engagement
  • Group 2:  Intercultural Understanding
  • Group 3:  Personal Decision-Making and Habits
  • Group 4:  Career and Professional Development
  • Group 5:  Academic Success and Independent Scholarship

All first-year students are required to attend one Forum in each group. Many attend more. If you do not attend at least one Forum in each group, two points for each Forum group missed will be deducted from the final Seminar grade.

Beyond Google: College Research Workshop

Our Seminar will participate in a workshop intended to help you develop and improve your research skills that enhance your growth as an independent scholar. Your work will be part of a focused class project. We will be doing our Beyond Google workshop on Friday, October 28 (Friday of week 7). If you are interested in what this workshop will entail, see the Beyond Google: College Research Strategies page.

Class Policies

Attendance and Participation

This is a discussion class. Your willingness to speak up, listen closely to each other, provide thoughtful responses, and raise constructive questions fosters the type of learning that is ideal in a seminar. This is a way of saying that we jointly create a knowledge from shared readings and experiences—even as I play an important role in guiding our work together. If you are going to be absent and know ahead of time (e.g., athletics, a student conference off campus or class trip, religious observance, etc.), please let me know in advance. If you consistently begin to miss class and/or arrive late, I will contact you (first through email) to check in to see how you are doing. While I will reach out and seek ways to provide support, it is important to understand that, at a certain point, excessive absences (five or more) will jeopardize your ability to pass the seminar.   

Due Dates

Unless I have revised due dates from our initial schedule or you have been in touch to request an extension, I will expect written work to be turned in electronically (email attachment in PDF or MS Word form) by midnight on the dates assigned. If you wish to request an extension, please do so two days in advance of the deadline. Note: Though I set up these guidelines, I still wish to offer greater flexibility when specific circumstances warrant more adjustment to due dates. So, if you face unexpected (and unsettling) obstacles to meeting deadlines, please let me know, and we will work out another turn-in schedule. (You need not disclose private/confidential information.) Like you, by the way, I will be dealing with a range of personal and academic commitments, so please avoid ghosting me.

Academic Honesty

This course operates under the College Honor System. That means: we treat each other with respect, we nurture independent thought, we take responsibility for personal behavior, and we accept environmental responsibility. Academic honesty is a critical part of our value system at K. When you borrow an idea, express the idea in your own words, thus thinking it through and making it your own, you should acknowledge the source in a note, or, in certain situations, put the exact words of the source in quotation marks and also provide an endnote. Ideas raised in class are part of the public domain and, therefore, sources need not be acknowledged. If you are ever in doubt about what to do, however, you should ask. For the full policy, see the Academic Dishonesty page. Improper use of another source (or plagiarism) may result in failure for the particular assignment or, if especially egregious, failure for the course. More than one instance of plagiarism may also result in suspension from the College. I will notify the Office of Student Development concerning instances of plagiarism.

Cell Phones, Lap Tops, and Tablets

This is a complicated topic, especially given how devices in class can both support learning and distract from it. I would like for us to reflect together on the following issues and questions rather than offer a “device policy” on the syllabus at this time. So… what are your expectations and needs? Things to consider:

Accessibility:

Some of us benefit from digital support. Only making accommodations for certain students may force them to disclose their disability.

Distraction:

Research suggests that most of us overestimate our ability to multitask (listen / stay engaged while on our phone, for example). We can also distract others.

Listening:

In a discussion-based class, what role might laptops/phones/tablets play?

Through our discussion, let’s come to some agreements and mutual expectations that work for us all—as informed by these considerations. (Note: thanks goes to Josh Moon, a colleague at K, for this advice, language, and questions.)

Accommodations

If you are a student with a disability who seeks accommodation or other assistance in this course, please let me know as soon as possible. I am committed to making every effort to providing reasonable accommodations. If you want to discuss your overall needs for accommodation at the College, and receive formal accommodations, please direct questions to Dana Jansma, Senior Associate Dean of Students, at (269) 337-7209 or through email at Dana.Jansma@kzoo.edu . For more information, see the Disability Services page. This website also contains resources for assistive technologies and neurodivergent students. 

Learning Commons

The Learning Commons is a network of peer support available to help you with a variety of skills and disciplines. The Writing Center, Research Consultant Center, and Center for New Media Design are on the first floor of Upjohn Library. Our English as a Second Language and Learning Specialist support programs are located there as well. The Math-Physics Center is in Olds Upton Hall. I encourage you to use their resources and peer consultants. The Peer Writing Consultants in the Writing Center, for instance, can provide another audience with whom you can think through your choices in relation to an assignment. You can find more information about each of these centers at the Learning Commons site.

Humanities Integrated Locational Learning (HILL) Grant

In January, Kalamazoo College received a three-year Mellon grant. (For information, see the HILL grant announcement.) Entitled Humanities Integrated Locational Learning (HILL), this initiative examines how many problems of our time—such as climate change, global migrations, and mass incarceration—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 class is part of the Kalamazoo cluster that explores dimensions of home and belonging. In the spirit of the grant, courses partner with Kalamazoo community organizations/members and with each other. The collaboration includes SEMN 132 – Radical Belonging, SEMN 163 – About Us: Disability Stories/ Disability Rights, SEMN 182 – Wheels of Change, ENGL 155 – Identities: Home and Belonging, CES 240 (Critical Ethnic Studies) – Language: The Colonial and Imperial Difference, and SEMN 495 – Finding a Home in the World. Instructors for each course will communicate how and when they will collaborate throughout the term.

When considering the effects of location and dislocation, we understand that these concepts impact students who, for any number of reasons, may feel displaced or out of place on a college campus. The project, then, seeks to construct a sense of home on and off campus. By erasing the distinction between the classroom and “real world,” we seek to embrace how ways of learning within the humanities can facilitate a space to think about and create collective futures. 

Tier-One Writing Expectations:
Writing Competencies (extended description)

The First-Year Seminar faculty has established the following goals for fostering writing competencies that will help prepare students for writing in discipline-specific courses in the major and, eventually, for writing the SIP.  We hope that every first-year student will develop greater competency in these areas:

ACHEIVING CLARITY THROUGH REVISION

  • stating and developing a thesis
  • writing coherent sentences and well-developed paragraphs
  • using correct grammar and mechanics
  • being conscious of overall structure and impact
  • becoming proficient at editing and proof reading
  • writing frequently to gain fluency
  • expressing ideas directly and economically

CONSTRUCTING AN ARGUMENT USING EVIDENCE

  • understanding the difference between opinion, argument, and evidence, and becoming aware of which of the three serves the writing project at hand
  • synthesizing others’ ideas with one’s own
  • using sources to support ideas and positions
  • using quoted materials effectively and correctly

GAINING EXPERIENCE IN RESEARCH STRATEGIES

  • understanding why doing research is important
  • learning how to do research, beginning with the earliest stages
  • putting newly gained knowledge and skills into practice
  • working as independent scholars and contributing to scholarly discourse throughout college and beyond

CULTIVATING AN AUTHENTIC AND VERSATILE STYLE OF WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

  • discovering one’s own way into material
  • making deliberate choices about structure, style, and voice, with a distinct awareness of audience, context and impact
  • writing in a natural, straightforward style
  • demonstrating or developing authenticity and ownership of the work

COURSE OUTLINE

Introductions

Orientation Week

9/8

Welcome: Nothing about Us Without Us

Telling Stories

Week 1: Belonging and Storytelling

Week 1 Items Due

Focus Paper #1, midnight, 9/16

9/12

Syllabus: Introductions, Expectations, Questions Creating Community / Home and Belonging 

Brené Brown, “The Power of Vulnerability”

9/14

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “The Danger of a Single Story”

9/16

Rachel Kolb, “The Deaf Body in a Public Space” (About Us 46-49)

Brad Snyder, “How to Really See a Blind Person” (64-67)

Abby Wilkerson, “Should I Tell Students I Have Depression?” (113-117)

Elizabeth Jameson and Catherine Monahon, “Intimacy Without Touch” (206-11)

Week 2: Naming as Story / Story as Naming 

Week 2 items Due

Interview 1, Wednesday, 9/21

Journal #1, midnight, Thursday, 9/22

9/19

Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, “Introduction: Living Well in a World Not Made for Us” (About Us xxiii-xxxiii) and “Becoming Disabled” (3-8)

NPR Life Kit: How to Talk about Disability”

9/21

Jonathan Mooney, “You Are Special! Now Stop Being Different” (31-34)

John Altman, “I Don’t Want to Be ‘Inspiring’” (45-49)

Cyndi Jones, “What It Means to Be Healed” (76-78)

Emily Rapp Black, “My Paralympics Blues” (172-175)

9/23

Jennifer Bartlett, “Longing for the Male Gaze” (203-206)

Alice Sheppard, “I Dance Because I Can” (266-270)

Structured Reflection Journal Discussion: Issues from Journals

Week 3: Histories: Then and Now

Week 3 Items Due

Focus Paper #2, midnight, 9/30

9/26

Andrew Solomon, “Foreword” (ix-xvii)

Kenny Fries, “The Nazis’ First Victims Were the Disabled” (9-12)

Film: Crip Camp (2020) 106 minutes

9/28

Guest Speakers: McKenzi Baker K’22 and Kelli Rexroad K’22

Elizabeth Guffey, “A Symbol for ‘Nobody’ That’s Really for Everybody” (133-135)

9/29

Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution (6-6:30 Pizza / 6:30-8:20 Film Viewing)

9/30

Discussion: Crip Camp

Luticha Dougette, “If You’re in a Wheelchair, Segregation Lives” (22-26) Alice Wong, “My Medicaid, My Life” (27-30)

Week 4: Disability Right I

Week 4 Items Due

Interview 2, Friday, 10/7

10/3

Guest Speaker: Dr. Petra Watzke

“Out of Order: A Personal Perspective on Academic Ableism” (Handout)

10/5

Fred Pelka, “Introduction” (1-29) from What We Have Done: An Oral History of the Disability Rights Movement (handout)

10/7

Pelka (continued)

STRUCTURED REFLECTION JOURNAL WORKSHOP

Week 5: Disability Rights II

Week 5 Items Due

Journal #2, midnight, Monday, 10/10

10/10

Structured Reflection Journal Discussion: Issues from Journals

10/12

TBD

10/14

MIDTERM BREAK

Week 6: Disability and Mental Health

10/17

STRUCTURED REFLECTION DISCUSSION: Issues form Journals

10/19

Zack McDermott, “The ‘Madman’ Is Back in the Building” (98-103)

JoAnna Novak, “My $1000 Anxiety Attack” (159-162)

Gila Lyons, “When Life Gave Me Lemons, I Had a Panic Attack” (163-167)

Week 7: Family and Disability

10/24

Dan Simpson, “Space Travel: A Vision” (255-258)

Bruce Mills, “Croyden Avenue School” (Handout)

10/26

Preparation for Beyond Google Day

10/28

BEYOND GOOGLE DAY

Week 8: “Getting Over the Hump” Week (Tentative Schedule)

10/31

Interviews: Paul Eklund, Disability Services of Southwest Michigan (videos)

11/2

Discussion: Vision Portraits

Film: Vision Portraits (TBD)

11/4

Work Day: Preparation/Practice for Presentations

Presentations and Reflections

Week 9: Class Presentation

11/7

Presentations

11/9

Presentations

11/11

Presentations

Week 10: Conclusions: Home, Belonging, and Disability

Week 10 Items Due

Journal #4, class time, Wednesday, 11/16


11/14

TBD

11/16

Course Evaluations

Final Reflections

11/18

NO CLASS

Finals Week

Week 10 Items Due

FINAL RESEARCH PROJECT, MONDAY, NOV. 21 BY MIDNIGHT

Language: The Colonial and Imperial Difference Syllabus

Critical Ethnic Studies 240
Language: The Colonial and Imperial Difference
Kalamazoo College
Course Syllabus
Fall 2022

With recognition and respect, I live and work in the Council of the Three Fires – the Ojibwe, the Odawa, and the
Potawatomi traditional and unceded territories.

Lecture:
MWF 2:45 PM- 4:00PM
Dewing Hall, 200 Lecture

Professor:
Cyndy Margarita García-Weyandt, Ph.D. (Gender Pronouns: She/Her/Hers/Ella)
Email: Cyndy.Garcia-Weyandt@kzoo.edu
Office Hours: By appointment only
https://calendly.com/cyndy-garcia-weyandt/office-hours
Humphrey Hall Room 206 or Teams

Invited Language Instructor:
Holden Day (Pronouns: He/Him/His)
Email: holdenwday@gmail.com
Office/Consultation Hours: TBD

Teaching Assistance:
Email: andrew.puckett18@kzoo.edu
Office Hours: By Appointment (Online or in-person)

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is an interdisciplinary survey course designed to introduce students to the study of language and power. Our primary objective will be to assert linguistic rights and interrogate language politics considering colonization, imperialism, and the transit of empire. We will consider ideas and practices of literacy, language revitalization, translation, and identity. These explorations will serve to counter monoculture and monolingualism often invoked in nationalist projects. Additionally, we will learn about the efforts of communities and the right to speak heritage languages around the globe. Students will investigate the myriad of tools utilized to revitalize languages. We will learn from Indigenous speakers about their efforts for language revitalization and preservation of language. Finally, students will develop proposals for innovative tools for language revitalization.

This quarter we will be learning from Native speakers and scholars about their experiences in language revitalization. Our two areas of study will include speakers in the Algonquian language family (Potawatomi language “Bodéwadmi Zheshmowen”) and the Uto-Aztecan family (Naáyeri, Yoeme, Wixárika, and Mexikan).

Additionally, this class is part of the Fall 2022 cluster focused in collaboration with SEMN 132- Radical Belongings, SEMN 163- About US: Disability Stories/Disability Rights, SEMN 182- Wheels of Change, ENGL 155- Identities Home and Belonging, and SEMN 495- Finding a Home in the World. We will collaborate with the cluster to understand the topics of “Land, Home, and Homemaking” emphasizing the themes of “Location and Dislocation,” “home and belonging.” Our primary focus will be learning about the Potawatomi language “Bodéwadmi Zheshmowen” speakers, language revitalization efforts, and how language connects us to our identities, belonging, and homelands.

We will examine the role of language and language reclamations efforts in making sense of belonging to this place, Kalamazoo. We will grapple with the challenges of belonging, communal spaces, and occupying Native land as migrant communities and non-Indigenous of this land. The main goal is to understand in a practical way how we become part of this community through community-based work rooted in social justice and social change. Specifically, we will explore the themes through language practices and language workshops. Alongside our community partners, students will learn how Native speakers challenge colonial structures of power to maintain language alive. For this, students learn how Language reclamation efforts play a crucial role in belonging and homeland outside colonial notions of homemaking. Through students’ participation in Potawatomi language “Bodéwadmi Zheshmowen” languages workshops, volunteer work, and community events (Día de Los Muertos Festival @ El Concilio and the Harvest Festival @ The Hoop House), we will learn how our verbal practices, bodily practices, activism in language reclamation projects, and allyship help us remake “motherland” (“Madre Tierra”) belong to this space and time though remembering our ancestrxs. Additionally, students will volunteer at El Concilio in the different programs to understand how migrant communities organize and provide services for Spanish-speaking families here in Kalamazoo.

Using the literature from class and outside sources, students produce 1) a file for our language revitalization archive, 2) language revitalization tools for a language revitalization program, 3) a report regarding a community’s effort in language revitalization projects, and 4) a reflection on how language frames our understanding of belonging.

*This quarter we will focus on the Potawatomi language “Bodéwadmi Zheshmowen” ONLY.

Many of our conversations in class will challenge ideas we have about ourselves and our place in the world. Please practice respect and patience towards each other. We are collectively creating knowledge. This course will cover various topics and issues that may bring up strong feelings. Be mindful of how you communicate your feelings. Your preparation and active participation will determine the quality of our sections. Together we will work to make our class a non-violent shared space by avoiding comments that are racist, sexist, misogynist, ableist, classist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic (anti-migrant), Islamophobic, fatphobic, or discriminatory/disrespectful in any other way including in terms of languages and language practices of any community.

In our class, we will discuss the text and analyze the different themes and theories. Using the text, specific quotes, and examples from the text we will enthusiastically engage in a discussion to unpack the material. I encourage you to be critical of the readings and not criticize the authors. In other words, critique the ideas, not the person. Be mindful that scholars also have different layers of identities, and one single author cannot do research on EVERYTHING. We will participate in different activities to critically engage in the course readings. The student is responsible to prepare notes and come to class with all the readings completed before each session. You are responsible for the preparation and completion of all assignments before the due dates. Each student will be responsible for guiding the discussion of the day however ALL students should prepare the same way to discuss the readings.

** Each class will require approximately two to three hours of careful and systematic preparation and studying (6-9 hours per week). Without sufficient time and solid study skills/habits, you will struggle to pass this class. Please be mindful of the time you spend preparing for this class without reading the course material students will struggle with the themes. Additionally, preparation and studying mean you engage in meaningful conversation inside and outside the classroom to fully grasp the material.

*** Please let me know if you go by a different name and/or pronoun(s) than what is on your Kalamazoo College record, so I can address you by the name/pronoun of your choice.

This quarter, we will create our CES 240 community. This means that we are learning with and from each other including your instructors and TA. Be respectful of everyone even if they do not belong to your own community. This is a CES course, and the main goal is to be in conversation to learn about co-existence, allyship, and community. Aim to be in the community. Show up for your community!

Course Materials

Readings: Some readings are available as PDFs on Teams or Moodle. Please consult the syllabus for the schedule of reading assignments. Readings are due before our Monday lecture. You must bring your notes, questions, and comments every Monday class to follow our lecture and discussion. Without reading you will struggle to pass the course. Be active and learn as much as possible from the readings.

Required Text:

Lakoff and Johnson, The Metaphors We Live By
Teresa L. McCarty, Language Planning and Policy in Native America: History, Theory, Praxis

Potawatomi language dictionary:

Potawatomi Dictionary.

Online Dictionary:

Online Potawatomi Language Dictionary.

Assignment Point Values

AssignmentPoints
Archive of Language Revitalization and Language Revitalization Tool (Due 2/6)20 points
Reading Responses (5 entries 2pts each)10 points
Community-based Language Workshops Journal Entries/Reflections (5 Journal Entries for 2 points each one)10 points
Final Report/Proposal (Due 3/15)30 points
Attendance/Participation/Preparation/Volunteer Work (Due Week 10)30 Points
Total:100 Points

Course Grade Schema

PercentageLetter Grade
96-100%A
90-95%A-
87-89%B+
84-86%B
80-83%B-
77-79%C+
74-76%C
70-73%C-
67-69%D+
64-66%D
59% or belowF

Course Expectations

Archive of Language Revitalization and Language Revitalization Tool:
Total points: 20 points (five for choosing an endangered language; fifteen for content; five for applicability of language revitalization; five for formatting)

Every week students will meet in class to discuss the different efforts of language revitalization around the globe. From the different in-class examples, visit any language search engine such as ethnologue.com or the Linguistic Atlas Project, 7000.org, Where Are Your Keys or any others. You can also explore past archives of Endangered Language Resources.

Do a search for a language, specifically an endangered language of the world. In the archive add sections to 1) Describe the language (specific characteristics), 2) Describe the speakers (culture, location, and/or geography), 3) Other contact languages, 4) Language revitalization efforts (if any), 5) Any other important aspect of the language and the speakers, and 6) Discuss topics of “Land, Home, and Homemaking,” “Location and Dislocation,” and “home and belonging” through the eyes of the community of study.

Students should pay note that this assignment reflects research completed outside of the course readings. Please visit the Kalamazoo College Library Research Guides for more research tools. Finally, write a report with the information on the language. Organize reports by themes or categories.

Learning Goals

Students are encouraged to learn as much as possible about the language to think in a greater context about: 1) the difference between Indo-European languages and other languages (e.g., Uto-Aztecan languages), 2) The politics behind the language of choice, culture/identity, and the personal connections with language if any, and 3) different language projects and the efforts of language revitalization. The main goal is to become familiar with one endangered language and understand why people are not speaking, teaching, or producing speech in this language.

Language Revitalization Tool Proposal

After doing research on an endangered language, do a search on the different tools for language revitalization. Using the readings and online search as samples, we will create/develop or improve a tool for language revitalization for your language of choice. For the development of this tool, you can consider the difficulties of learning a language, the challenges, the accessibility to technology to its speakers, and other relevant aspects/factors. Be creative and use all the resources available online and research tools online. This is just a proposal of a tool, and you should include the type of funding available for the development of the tool. Search for some grants and/or potential grants on campus to complete this language tool.

Additionally, each student will contribute to the recompilation of tools for the Wixárika language to develop a Wiki for Indigenous languages. Review the current sources and add some entries for the Proyecto Taniuki (“Our Language Project”) a Wixárika collective. For more details visit Proyecto Taniuki or @taniukizitakua


Reading Responses

Total points: 10 points: Five Entries two points for entry (Reading Response #1 Due 9/18, Reading Response #2 Due 10/2, Reading Response #3 Due 10/16, Reading Response #4 Due 10/30, Reading Response #5 Due 11/13).

Provide a Reading Response on one or more pieces from the class. Each entry must consist of a minimum of three paragraphs, each containing five-six sentences (500 words minimum). The Journal Entries must include three-five sentences summarizing the article, two-three sentences relating the article to course material, and two-three sentences providing your opinion of/reaction to the reading. Students must submit their responses on the class website every Sunday no later than midnight. These Journal Entries are designed to expand your knowledge of the literature and deepen your summarizing and analytical skills. They also encourage you to make connections between a reading and your own ideas. These reports are informal: conceptualize them as “rough drafts” or “non-polished” pieces of writing.

Some questions to consider while writing the online response:

  • What are the relevant issues surrounding the class themes?
  • Why do you agree (or disagree) with the ideas you have read?
  • In what ways have you witnessed the ideas in the article “in action?”
  • How are the ideas in the article congruent with or contradictory to other articles?
  • What practical application does the article have for your life?

Community-based Language Workshops Journal Entries

(Due Sunday before Midnight Reflection #1 Week 5; Reflection #2 Week 6; Reflection #3 Week 7; Reflection #4 Week 8; Reflection #5 Week 9)
Each Journal Entry must consist of a minimum of three paragraphs, each containing five-six sentences (500 words minimum). The Journal Entries must include three-five sentences summarizing the workshop or guest speaker presentation, two-three sentences relating the article to course material, and two-three sentences providing your opinion of/reaction to the workshop and/or presentation (Please see Moodle for specific guiding questions to approach this
assignment) Students must post their reflections on the class website every Sunday no later than midnight. These Journal Entries are designed to expand your knowledge of the topics, and the literature, and deepen your summarizing and analytical skills. They also encourage you to make connections between a reading and your own ideas. These reports are informal: conceptualize them as “rough drafts” or “non-polished” pieces of writing.

After posting, each student is required to engage in an online discussion by responding to one other Online Post. Some questions to consider while writing the online response:

  • What are the relevant issues surrounding the class themes?
  • Why do you agree (or disagree) with the ideas you have read?
  • In what ways have you witnessed the ideas in the workshop/presentation “in action?”
  • How are the ideas in the workshop/presentation congruent with or contradictory to otherarticles?
  • What practical application does the workshop/presentation have for your life?

Final Report/Proposal (Due 11/18)

Total points: 30 points (twenty-five for content and five for formatting)

All students must work during the quarter toward the completion of a paper that: (1) thoroughly examines course themes; (2) analyzes course materials; (3) three outside scholarly sources; (4) includes Chicago Style endnotes and bibliography; (5) includes a section on the interconnection between the student and their language of choice. This paper is a reflection on the experiences in class, workshops, and important information each of you will collect from the readings, language archive, language revitalization tool proposal, and grant writing. Please make sure you understand the assignment. All the assignments in class build into this final report.

These final papers will be no less than ten pages (meaning that the paper extends to the final line of the twelfth page). The maximum paper length is twelve pages. In other words, you are responsible for editing a paper to be between ten to twelve pages long. The results of your research must be in written form. Students must follow the formatting guide available on the class website (Moodle). Students should also expect to discuss in section meetings not only the content of the course readings but also how to write as a means of critical thinking, rather than an outcome of critical thinking. In other words, students will be asked to discuss their writing process and offer examples of writing drafts to the class on a regular basis.

Attendance/Participation/Volunteer work

Total Points: 30 points; Due Week 10

These 30 points are earned as follows:
1) Please be on time for our meetings! Check the attendance box in Teams or the signing sheet in each session. Classroom attendance helps to monitor active participation. We have 29 required days of class and out of the 29 possible signatures/checkmarks, all students are allowed to miss two classes without any impact on their final grade.
2) Be active in class! Your active participation counts as part of your attendance. Speak up, share your thoughts, ask questions, and participate in our class activities. You earn one point every day you are in class and actively participate. Each student must present in class one of the assigned readings/articles. Sign up for presentations during Week 1. Additionally, during certain sections, I will have a question, a quote, a song, a poem, a picture, or a news article for you to make a connection with the week’s readings and key concepts. You need to write your thoughts and ideas in a 1/2 page to 1 full page handwritten and turned in during class after the exercise. This will also count towards your participation grade for the day. Later you will write on the board relevant quotes, ideas, page numbers, or keywords to discuss as a class.
3) Show up for your community! To get full points for Attendance/Participation/Volunteer Work you must visit your site once per week. We will begin placing students on sites during week 2. We will go together to the site (K College will provide transportation), and we will collaborate with our partners in their different activities. Please also share your availability for the volunteer schedule with TA.

Communication & Email Etiquette

If you feel yourself falling behind, or are stressing out, please email your instructor. Let me know what is going on. On the other hand, if you want to know my office hours or the due dates for class assignments, check the course website (Moodle) or the syllabus before messaging me. Please allow 24 hours during business days (Monday-Friday) for me to respond to your questions and/or concerns. If you email over the weekend, please anticipate a delayed response. In the heading, please note the course name and the general topic of your email (Examples: CES 240 Question).

Classroom Etiquette

Some of us are shy and some are more talkative, so please be mindful of the ways you are taking up space during the discussion: are you dominating the conversation? Have you been completely silent? Try to make meaningful contributions to enrich your and everyone else’s experience. Here are some ways you can participate: ask/answer questions, participate in group work, write down your thoughts in class, and come to office hours to discuss ideas with me. There will be several in-class exercises including games, group work, presentations, etc. You will receive full credit for your active participation throughout the entire quarter.
*Please Note: For online courses, you can raise your hand using the tools in Teams or simply unmute your microfine to ask a question.

Academic Honesty

In this course, we will collaborate with each other following the College Honor System. For this, we will treat each other with respect, we will nurture independent ideas, we will take responsibility for personal behavior, and we will accept environmental responsibilities. Academic honesty is a crucial aspect of our values system at Kalamazoo College. If you want to utilize ideas from an author acknowledge the source. For full policy, feel free to visit the Student Development site.

Late Policy

Any assignment that is turned in after the due day/time will receive a 1.5-point deduction per twenty-four-hour period late. The final paper, however, will receive a 2-point deduction per twenty-four-hour period late.

Accommodations

Students needing academic accommodations based should contact the Dean of Students Office. Please visit: Student Development or call the Associate Dean of Students Office (269) 337-7209.

Kalamazoo College Counseling Center

Kalamazoo College recognizes that there may be times, as a college student, when personal stressors interfere with your academic performance and your daily life. The K College Counseling Center supports students by addressing mental and emotional well-being and provides FREE and confidential short-term individual and group counseling, crisis intervention, outreach, and referral services. To schedule an appointment, please visit the Counseling Center and complete an intake form on one of the iPads in the lobby or email kenlana.ferguson@kzoo.edu. Our Counseling Center is located on the 1st floor of Hicks West next to the Health Center. Visit the Counseling Center site to learn more about our services and to access online resources.

Learning Commons

The Learning Commons is a network of peer support available to help you with a variety of skills and disciplines. The Writing Center, Research Consultant Center, and Center for New Media Design are on the first floor of Upjohn Library. Our English as a Second Language and Learning Specialist support programs are located there as well. The Math-Physics Center is in Olds Upton Hall. It is my observation that students who frequent these centers generally learn more and receive higher grades, so I encourage you to use them early and often. You can find more information about each of these centers at the Learning Commons site.

Other Resources

The Intercultural Student Life: Mission Statement “Through advocacy, education, and relationship-building, the Office of Intercultural Student Life (ISL) at Kalamazoo College strives to cultivate an inclusive campus culture that celebrates our community’s many differences while affirming our shared interconnections. ISL organizes programs, initiatives, and dialogues that center on the lived experiences and voices of minoritized students. Recognizing the value that our pluralistic and globally representative campus provides, the Office of Intercultural Student Life works with a range of stakeholders to foster a network of support that ensures all of our students can grow (academically, socially, and personally) through meaningful engagement across difference.” Learn more at the Intercultural Student Life site.

New Orleans Research Project

The objective of the project is to develop an original interpretation of the relationship of memory to some aspects of African diasporic history and culture in New Orleans. Students can choose their projects, but projects must be designed with the assistance and approval of the professor. The research paper should be no less than 20 pages in length. I suggest you use this assignment to start thinking about the project you will be working on during the December experiential experience in New Orleans. I suggest reviewing the websites of our New Orleans community partners as a source of inspiration for ideas and topics for your papers.

Your paper will be evaluated on the following criteria:

  • Understanding of the concept, idea, or issue that you have chosen to investigate; and
  • Ability to draw upon, analyze and use the knowledge gained from the research in making an argument;
  • Clarity of writing (punctuation, grammar, sentence construction, spelling);
  • Formatting and style (use of standard in-text citation and referencing system).

Paper Proposal and Bibliography

To facilitate the task of the final project, you will complete two preliminary assignments geared toward developing the final research question and kick-starting the research process.

The first part of the preliminary assignment is a 2-page paper proposal. The proposal will describe the research topic and formulate the research question the paper intends to pursue. When writing the research proposal, imagine the audience as scholars interested in the subject but unfamiliar with it. The goal is to give a good overview of the topic and get the audience excited about the project. Please schedule a meeting to discuss your paper proposal as soon as possible.

Annotated Bibliography

The second part of the goal of the bibliography will help you start the research process and begin thinking critically about the different writings on your topic. You will prepare an annotated bibliography of no less than 10 peer-reviewed journal articles on the subject.

You may use class readings as part of your bibliography.

Final paper presentation

During 9th and 10th week, students present the results of their research to the class

reading and course assignment schedule

Week 1: Linguistic Diversity

Week 1 Items Due

Due: Send availability to TA & Instructor for volunteer work @ El Concilio and Reading response #1 before Sunday, Sep 18th

Readings:

Benjamin Lee Whorf, “An American Indian Model of the Universe,” in the Philosophy of Time. Ed. Richard M. Gale, London: MacMillan, 1968: 378-86.

Whorf, Benjamin Lee. “THE RELATION OF HABITUAL THOUGHT AND BEHAVIOR TO LANGUAGE.” Etc., vol. 74, no. 1-2, Institute of General Semantics, 2017, p. 35–.

(For Friday) Maria Morava, “Losing languages, losing worlds”.

Discussion: We experience what we can express. Is reality relative? What is the power of language? How do we belong to a community? Is language important to belong? Can we share multiple realities based on the language we speak? What about cross-cultural communication? How do we aim for a more inclusive linguistic landscape in the US?

Guest Speaker: Meet our community partner Irving Daniel Quintero Gervacio from El Concilio and Holden Day Potawatomi language instructor

Friday Language Workshop: Introduction and overview of the Potawatomi language, grammar, alphabet, and culture.

Week 2: Language, Power, and Reality

Week 2 Items Due

Due: Reading response #2 before Sunday, Oct 2nd

Readings:

Lakoff and Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chapter 1-17)

Lakoff and Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chapter 18-30)

Discussion: If changing languages means changing realities: What does this idea mean to monolingual and bilingual societies? What are the nationalist projects in terms of language? How do we make sense of belonging in monolingual societies? What is the case of Kalamazoo? How linguistically diverse is Kalamazoo? What are the purposes of language reclamation efforts in a place like Kalamazoo? What is the purpose of metaphors and metonymy in our language?

Friday Language Workshop: Four Potawatomi verb types and VAI verbs we will work with.

Week 3: Politics of Language

Week 3 items Due

Due: Reading Response #3 before Sunday 10/16

Readings:

Teresa McCarty, Language Planning and Policy in Native America: History, Theory, Praxis, Chapters 1 and 2

Basso, Keith H. “‘Speaking with Names’: Language and Landscape Among the Western Apache.” Cultural Anthropology, vol. 3, no. 2, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 1988, pp. 99–130, https://doi.org/10.1525/can.1988.3.2.02a00010.

Discussion: National languages. Language and colonization, imperialism, and the transit of empire. What has been the colonial project in terms of language? How is language constantly “dislocating” communities? What is the Native experience? What is the role of language in belonging? What about making a “motherland”? What is “motherland”? Think about mother languages or Native languages. Why is important to understand the role of mother languages in the process of belonging and dismantling national and imperialism projects?

Friday Language Workshop: Nin and gin (I and you) verb forms.

Week 4: Language Ideologies

Readings:

Christopher Loether, “Language Revitalization and the Manipulation of Language Ideologies: A Shoshoni Case Study,” Native American Language Ideologies: Beliefs, Practices, and Struggles in Indian Country, edited by Paul V. Kroskrity and Margaret C. Field 238-254. The University of Arizona Press, 2009

Meek, Barbara “Respecting the Language of Elders: Ideological Shift and Linguistic Discontinuity in a Northern Athapascan Community”

Discussion: Reflect on your own language ideologies. What are some of your own notions regarding national and minority languages? Indigenous languages? What is the difference between dialects and languages? How do we belong through language?

Language Workshop: Potawatomi family terms, traditional kinship structure, and negation.

Week 5: Language and Identity

Week 5 Items Due

Due: File for Language Revitalization Archive, Reading Response #4 and Community-based Language Workshops Journal Entries/Reflections #1 before midnight Sunday, Oct 16th,

Reading:

Teresa McCarty, Language Planning and Policy in Native America: History, Theory, Praxis, Chapters 3 and 4

Basso, Keith H, “Speaking with Names”: Language and Landscape among the Western Apache”

Borderlands La Frontera (Chapter 5 “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”)

Discussion: How are language and identity interconnected? What is the role of language in belonging to your community? How do we foster cross-cultural communication? What is the importance of cross-cultural communication? What about intercultural communication? Outline some examples of cross-cultural communication and intercultural communication

Language Workshop: Past and future tense

Friday 10/14 No class Mid-Term Break

Week 6: Literacy and Orality and Language Revitalization Debates and Community-based Language workshops

Week 6 Items Due

Due: Community-based Language Workshops Journal Entries/Reflections #2 10/23

Readings:

Teresa McCarty, Language Planning and Policy in Native America: History, Theory, Praxis, Chapter 6, and Chapter 7

Hill, Jane “What is Lost When Names Are Forgotten?”

Discussion: What are the challenges of literacy and orality? What are the challenges of language revitalization? What are the challenges of learning a second language? What is Language and Traditional Ecological Knowledge? How is TEK important in language revitalization efforts? What is a linguistic landscape? What about the ethnolinguistic landscape? How is land interconnected with language?

Language Workshop: Plan Harvest Festival

Week 7: Language Revitalization Tools

Week 7 Important Note

Due: Community-based Language Workshops Journal Entries/Reflections #3 10/30th

Readings:

Teresa McCarty, Language Planning and Policy in Native America: History, Theory, Praxis, Chapter 4

Back from the (Nearly) Dead: Reviving Indigenous Languages across North America Author(s): Bruce E. Johansen

Optional Reading:

Garcia-Weyandt, Cyndy M. and López de la Rosa, Odalys M. (2022) “Proyecto Taniuki (“Nuestra Lengua”): Los desafíos de la revitalización de la lengua wixárika en el contexto urbano”

Discussion: What are the challenges of learning a second language? What are the challenges of bilingualism in terms of belonging?

Language Workshop: Día de Los Muertos Festival @ El Concilio and Harvest Festival @ Hoop House

Week 8: Future of Endangered Languages

Week 8 Important Note

Due: Language Revitalization Tools and Community-based Language Workshops Journal Entries/Reflections #4 11/6

Readings:

Teresa McCarty, Language Planning and Policy in Native America: History, Theory, Praxis, Chapter 5

Discussion: Using the language files and the readings from class: What can we predict?

Language Workshop: Language tools inside the community of Zitakua and the future of the project

Language Workshop: Plurals, animacy, and numbers

Week 9: Proposal writing for language tool

Week 10 Important Note

Due: Reading Response #5, and Community-based Language Workshops Journal Entries/Reflections #5 before midnight Sunday, Nov 13th

Language Workshop: Imperatives and pre-verbs.

Week 10: Student Presentations

Week 10 Important Note

Final Paper Due 11/18

Language Workshop: Days and questions.

Email Exchange-Peer Editors

We will be constantly writing in our class. I recommend you make one or two friends from the section on your first day of class. This is a great exercise to find a Peer Editor for your assignments
*Also, if you need to contact your peers for support. Collaborating with colleagues is part of learning. This is not a competition!
New friend: __________________New friend’s email: ____________________
New friend: ___________________New friend’s email: __________________

Placement Descriptions:

Niñas del Corazón at El Concilio

The after-school program, Niñas del Corazón, has the mission to help Latinx girls (8-15 years old) and families heal from acculturation, language barriers, environmental high-risk factors, and disparities. El Concilio and The Community Healing Center joined forces to design a program to benefit Latinx girls; through a four-stage program, adolescent girls will have the opportunity to get in deep conversations about social-emotional skills, life skills, and good choices as well as engage in community volunteer work. Parents will also be included since they’re key to healthy youth development.

  • Mondays- Thursdays from 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm. (At least one hour per day for at least two days)
  • 1-3 K students will be chosen for this placement (female-identified students, tutoring math and science)

Tutoring Program at El Concilio

The Tutoring Program is an after-school program designed to help children in the Latino community with their homework or any other academic assistance they might need. Tutors can help with Math, Reading, English, Spelling, Science, History, and many other subjects as well. Talking about events in South and Central America, as well as Hispanic leaders and cultures around the world is encouraged.

  • Monday and Thursday from 5 pm – 6 pm with the Elementary School group
  • Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5 pm – 6 pm with Middle and High School group
  • No limit – Default placement (Sep 26th-Nov 18th)

Danza folklórica at El Concilio

Danza Folklórica is a space for youth to connect and explore their Hispanic roots; It started ayear ago as an initiative of two young college sisters who are passionate about teaching traditional Mexican dances. Currently, a mom who is a leader in the community is running this group, teaching Mexican dances to about 17 boys and girls between 4 to 15 years old. Their goal is to perform these dances at different community events to share the Hispanic traditions with
new people. Another goal of the Folkloric Dance group is to strengthen their goal-directed behavior as well as their self-management skills.

  • Friday 5-7 PM
  • 1-2 K students will be chosen for this placement

ESL (English as a second language) for adults

In partnership with the Kalamazoo Literacy Council and Kalamazoo Public Schools Adult Education, El Concilio is hosting ESL classes at our building

  • Mondays and Wednesdays from 6:30 pm – 8 pm (At least one day
  • 1-2 K students will be chosen for this placement


Proposal for an alternative site or project

Discuss with Cyndy and TA if you currently do volunteer work with an org.

If you, for any reason, cannot volunteer at any site please talk to Cyndy and TA about alternative projects before Friday of Week 1 for approval.

Flier for Beginners Potawatomi Language Class

Reading The World (RTW): Identities Syllabus

Engl 155 Reading The World (RTW): Identities
Home and Belonging

Dr. Bruce Mills
Office: 208 Humphrey House
Office Hours (in-person or virtual):
1:15-2:15 M, 3-4 TTh, and by appointment
Email: bmills@kzoo.edu

Reading The World (RTW): Identities
Home and Belonging

In How Our Lives Become Stories, Paul John Eakin calls out the fact that autobiographical acts are the unending process of making a self. “Self and self-experience,” he asserts, “are not given, monolithic, and invariant, but dynamic, changing, and plural.” For writers, then, individual and collective identity is not a given, a set of memories to be recorded, but experiences to be shaped into a story. Though negotiating cultural scripts regarding the self, the communal, and the nonhuman, the act of life writing can be read as a naming of the self as well as a re-imagining of place, home, and belonging.

During the term, we will consider the themes of home and belonging as one way to center our reflections on literary self-construction. Doing so will open up a range of questions. What stories do the authors tell about home and belonging? For those immigrating to a new place, for instance, how might their stories reflect efforts to navigate a past home with a present one, perhaps forming a kind of “in-between” perspective and a hybrid sense of self? For some, how might home speak of a collective character, one rooted in a shared land and a history of human and nonhuman presence upon it? And there are other questions. In what ways might stories address not belonging, i.e., the dislocations (outward and inward) that come of striving to understand multiple identities (racial, ethnic, gender, sexual, neurodiverse, and/or disabled)? And, in trying to write this life, what if you can find no literary models for your experience? Finally, as embodied selves, memoir may encompass efforts to narrate a sense of self, home, and belonging amid disability (physical and cognitive). How might physical spaces (or assumptions regarding mind and mental health) impact the potential to find a home, be at home, and thus feel a sense of belonging?

While these questions call us to use the tools of literary analysis, they remind us of another truth of self-naming: authorship is also a political act. It is representation and argument. It is an invitation to imagine new possibilities. We might call this authorship, then, the politics of home space. Writers shape who they are amid difference—in how they understand self, community, history, and of the relationship between the human and nonhuman world of which they are a part (and not apart from). As readers, how might we leave the course with tools to create a more expansive sense of home and belonging?

Texts (In order of Discussion)

Bich Minh Nguyen, Stealing Buddha’s Dinner (2007)

James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son (1955)

Gretel Ehrlich, The Solace of Open Spaces (1985)

N. Scott Momaday, The Way to Rainy Mountain (1969)

J. Drew Lanham, The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature (2016)

Alison Bechdel, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (2006)

Carmen Maria Machado, In the Dream House (2019)

About Us: Essays from the Disability Series of the New York Times, ed. Peter Catapano and  Rosemarie Garland-Thomson (2019)

Goals (RTW)

In the English Department, the 100-level “Reading the World” courses introduce students to the study of literature. They aim to improve the following skills central to the English major and to a liberal education:

  • Critical reading: the ability to read for pattern, connections, structure, subtext, theme, image, metaphor.
  • Critical discussion: the ability to take part in a thoughtful, provocative discussion of a text through pertinent questions/comments and thus help enlarge a collective understanding.
  • Critical writing: the ability to construct an argument with a thesis, to build that argument from textual evidence, and to write clearly and persuasively.
  • Critical thinking:  the ability to apply these skills to the world itself, approaching it as a text (hence “Reading the World”) open to interpretation by the informed “reader”; the habit of exploring links between text and context—that is, between course material and the historical, social, political, cultural, and material worlds that produced it.

Learning outcomes (Identities)

This particular course has important goals of its own.  The class aims to:

  • Learn to read life writing as more than an unmediated retelling of remembered experiences,
  • Explore the concepts of home and belonging in relation to memoir,
  • Consider how notions of self are shaped within historical and cultural contexts, 
  • Examine how life writing may reinforce and/or contest dominant cultural stories, and
  • Explore a range of life narratives through the lens of our own mediated identities.

Course Work and Grading

PointsAssignmentDescription
45Focus Papers
(3 @ 15 pts each)
These papers will call for an analysis of specific patterns in one of the assigned texts. Papers should be 3-4 pages in length. Due dates: by midnight on Monday, September 26 (third week); Friday, October 14 (fifth week); and Monday, October 31 (eighth week).
20Final EssayThis essay will ask you to consider a theme or concept in relation to two books (or essays from different authors). Due by midnight on Friday, November 18 (tenth week).
25Moodle ForumsDuring the term, you will need to respond to weekly forum prompts. These writings will set up and inform discussion when we meet in class. After week 5, I will offer feedback and a midterm grade (5 forum posts=A, 4 = B, 3 = C, 2 = D). At the end of the term, I will offer a final score based on number and quality of posts: 9-10 = A/A- (22.5-25 pts), 7-8 = B+/B/B- (20-22.75 pts), 5-6 = C+/C/C- (17.5-19.75), 3-4 = D (16.25), below 3 = F.
10ParticipationAt the end of the quarter, I will also assess your contributions to small and large group discussion.
Letter GradeNumerical Grade
A93-100
A-90-92.75
B+88-89.75
B83-87.75
B-80-82.75
C+78-79.75
C73-77.75
C-70-72.75 and so forth

I reserve the right to raise grades one third for any combination of the following: consistently constructive participation, consistently high level of preparation, and constructive leadership in group activities. 

Policies

Participation and Attendance

Though I will offer lecture material, this is primarily a discussion class. Your willingness to speak up, listen closely to each other, provide thoughtful responses, and raise constructive questions fosters the type of learning community that is ideal for this course. This is a way of saying that we jointly create a knowledge from shared readings and experiences. If you are going to be absent and know ahead of time (athletics, religious observance, etc.), please let me know in advance. If you begin to consistently miss class and/or arrive late, I will contact you (through email) to check in to see how you are doing. While I will reach out and seek ways to provide support, it is important to understand that, at a certain point, excessive absences (five or more) will jeopardize your ability to pass this class.

Moodle Forums

In addition to your contribution to small and large group discussion, your participation in Moodle forums will further represent an engagement with the readings and each other. In short, these responses will generate a deeper (and shared) knowledge. Keep in mind that for these reflections to help you prepare for (and set up) our discussions they need to be submitted on time, i.e., before not after the class session when we will be considering the reading. 

Deadlines

Unless I have revised due dates during the term or you have been in touch to request an extension, written work should be turned in electronically (email attachment) by midnight (EST) on the dates assigned. You may request an extension as long as you do so two days in advance of the deadline. Note: Though I set up these guidelines, I still wish to offer some flexibility when specific circumstances warrant more adjustment to due dates. So, if you face unexpected (and unsettling) obstacles to meeting deadlines, please let me know, and we will work out another turn-in schedule. (You need not disclose private/confidential information.) Like you, by the way, I will be dealing with a range of personal and academic commitments, so please avoid ghosting me (J). All work must be completed to pass the class.

Technology

If you need to use a laptop or smart phone to access class readings and/or to take notes, let me know at the beginning of the course (and/or class). Otherwise, all computers and phones should be left in your backpack. So, though it may be difficult, our classroom space will be a “no phone zone”–unless you use a smart phone to access assigned readings or have other family or medical reasons to have it with you.

Academic Dishonesty

This course operates under the College Honor System. That means: we treat each other with respect, we nurture independent thought, we take responsibility for personal behavior, and we accept environmental responsibility. Academic honesty is a critical part of the Honor System. When you borrow an idea, you should acknowledge the source in a note, or, depending on the needs of the essay and research, put the exact words of the source in quotation marks and also provide an endnote. If you are ever in doubt about what to do, please talk with me. For more information, see K’s policy. Improper use of another source (or plagiarism) may result in failure for the particular assignment or, if especially egregious, failure for the course. More than one instance of plagiarism may also result in suspension from the College. I will notify the Office of Student Development concerning instances of plagiarism. For a useful source, see the Purdue OWL plagiarism overview.

Accommodations

If you are a student with a disability who seeks accommodation or other assistance in this course, please let me know as soon as possible. I am committed to making every effort to providing reasonable accommodations. If you want to discuss your overall needs for accommodation at the College and receive formal accommodations, please direct questions to Dana Jansma, Senior Associate Dean of Students, at (269) 337-7209 or through email at Dana.Jansma@kzoo.edu. For more information, see K’s disability services. This website also contains resources for assistive technologies and neurodivergent students. 

Learning Commons

Center, and Center for New Media Design are on the first floor of Upjohn Library. Our English as a Second Language and Learning Specialist support programs are located there as well. The Math-Physics Center is in Olds Upton Hall. I encourage you to use their resources and peer consultants. The Peer Writing Consultants in the Writing Center, for instance, can provide another audience with whom you can think through your choices in relation to an assignment. You can find more information about each of these centers at the Learning Commons site.

Humanities Integrated Locational Learning (HILL) Grant

In January, Kalamazoo College received a three-year Mellon grant. (For information about the grant, see the HILL project announcement.) Entitled Humanities Integrated Locational Learning (HILL), this initiative examines how many problems of our time—such as climate change, global migrations, and mass incarceration—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 class is part of the Kalamazoo cluster that explores dimensions of home and belonging. In the spirit of the grant, courses partner with Kalamazoo community organizations/members and with each other. The collaboration includes SEMN 132 – Radical Belonging, SEMN 163 – About Us: Disability Stories/ Disability Rights, SEMN 182 – Wheels of Change, CES 240 (Critical Ethnic Studies) – Language: The Colonial and Imperial Difference, and SEMN 495 – Finding a Home in the World. Instructors for each course will communicate how and when they will collaborate throughout the term.

When considering the effects of location and dislocation, we understand that these concepts impact students who, for any number of reasons, may feel displaced or out of place on a college campus. The project, then, seeks to construct a sense of home on and off campus. By erasing the distinction between the classroom and “real world,” we seek to embrace how ways of learning within the humanities can facilitate a space to think about and create collective futures. 

Reading Schedule

You should read the selections and be prepared to discuss them on the assigned dates.  If you have missed a class, it is your responsibility to contact a classmate or me to see if you need to pick up any handouts.

Introductions

Week 1: Introductions

9/12

Introduction

Discussion: Home and Belonging

9/14

Brené Brown, “The Power of Vulnerability” (View prior to class)

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “The Danger of a Single Story” (View prior to class)

9/16     

Bich Minh Nguyen, “Pringles,” Stealing Buddha’s Dinner (1-15)

James Baldwin, “Autobiographical Notes,” Notes of a Native Son (3-9)

N. Scott Momaday, “Preface” (ix-x) and “Prologue” (1-2)

In America: Family, Heritage, and History

Week 2: Bich Minh Nguyen, Stealing Buddha’s Dinner

9/19     

Chaps. 2-7 (17-93)

9/21     

Chaps. 8-13 (95-196)

9/23     

Chaps. 14-Author’s Note (197-256)

Week 3: James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son (Assignment Due)

Week 3 Items Due

Focus Paper 1 Due 9/26 by Midnight

9/26     

From Part I

“Everyone’s Protest Novel” (13-23)

“Many Thousand Gone” (25-45)

9/28     

From Part II

“Notes of a Native Son” (87-115)

9/30     

From Part III

“Equal in Paris” (141-161)

“Stranger in the Village” (163-179)

On Home Land

Week 4: Gretel Ehrlich, The Solace of Open Spaces and…

10/3     

Preface-“Other Lives” (ix-48)

10/5     

“About Men”-“Just Married” (49-90)

10/7     

“Rules of the Game: Rodeo”-“A Storm, the Cornfield, and Elk” (91-131)

N. Scott Momaday, “Introduction,” The Way to Rainy Mountain (3-11)

Week 5: N. Scott Momaday, The Way to rainy Mountain (Assignment Due)

Week 5 Items Due

Focus Paper 2 Due 10/14 by Midnight

10/10   

“The Setting Out,” “The Going On” (3-63)

10/12   

“The Closing In-Epilogue” (65-89)

10/14   

MIDTERM BREAK

Week 6: J. Drew Lanham, The Home Place

10/17   

“Me: An Introduction” and Section One “Flock” (3-96)

10/19   

Section Two: “Fledgling” (97-132)

10/21   

Section Three: “Flight” (133-212)

On Writing toward a New Home

Week 7: Alison Bechdel, Fun Home (Assignment Due)

Week 7 Items Due

Revision of Focus Paper 1 or 2 Due 10/28 (Optional)

10/24   

Chaps. 1-3 (3-86)

10/26   

Chaps. 4-5 (87-150)

10/28   

Chaps. 6-7 (151-232)

Week 8 Carmen Maria Machado, In the Dream House (Assignment Due)

Week 8 Items Due

Focus Paper 3 Due 10/31 by Midnight

10/31   

Dream House as Overture” – “Dream House as Appetite” (3-81)

11/2     

Dream House as Inner Sanctum” – “Dream House as Mystical Pregnancy” (82-161)

11/4     

Dream House as Choose Your Own Adventure®” – ““Dream House as Epilogue” (162-242)

On Body, Mind, and Belonging

Week 9: About US: Essays from the Disability Series of the New York Times

11/7     

Andrew Solomon, “Foreword” (ix-xvii)

Peter Catapano, “Preface” (xix-xxii)

Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, “Introduction” (xxiii-xxxiii) and “Becoming Disabled” (3-8)

11/9     

Jonathan Mooney, “You Are Special! Now Stop Being Different” (31-34)

John Altman, “I Don’t Want to Be ‘Inspiring’” (45-49)

Rachel Kolb, “The Deaf Body in a Public Space” (About Us 46-49)

Brad Snyder, “How to Really See a Blind Person” (64-67)

Cyndi Jones, “What It Means to Be Healed” (76-78)

11/11   

Film Discussion: Crip Camp

Week 10: About US: Essays from the Disability Series of the New York Times (Assignment Due)

Week 10 Items Due

Final Essay Due 11/18 by Midnight

11/14   

TBD

11/16   

Abby Wilkerson, “Should I Tell Students I Have Depression?” (113-117)

Emily Rapp Black, “My Paralympics Blues” (172-175)

Elizabeth Jameson and Catherine Monahon, “Intimacy Without Touch” (206-11)

Alice Sheppard, “I Dance Because I Can” (266-270)

11/18   

Conclusions

Course Evaluations