Students are expected to do the weekly readings thoroughly, to participate in the discussion sessions, and to ask relevant questions following the lectures. Every Tuesday, there will be a 50-minute lecture on the weekly theme, followed by questions and discussion. Every Thursday the entire class will be dedicated to seminar discussion on the weekly readings.
The chorus: Starting with Week 3, we will ask 7-8 students to volunteer to act as the chorus for the Thursday discussion. The chorus will constitute the inner circle of discussants who will be responsible to do the weekly readings more carefully than others and be prepared to be very active during that week's discussion. The chorus will be in touch with the TA the day before the discussion and prepare important the questions to be brought up the next day and post them on the course wiki. Students who are outside this inner circle of discussants are also invited to intervene to the discussion and contribute but they are expected to respect the dominating role of the chorus. Members of the chorus will write up 1-2 page responses after the discussion and post them on the wiki. It is advisable that you start looking at the weekly topics soon to choose your preferred theme for acting in the chorus.
Logbook: an intimate record: You will be asked to keep a logbook throughout the semester to keep a consistent and rich documentation of your ideas, thoughts, projects, visual imagery that this class had provoked in your mind. You will use your logbook as a fieldbook and the exercise is intended to provide you the skills to keep a thorough and detailed record of your observations. Hard bound plain notebooks are recommended and are available at the bookstore. However you are free (and indeed encouraged to try different formats, or produce the logbook yourself. The logbook will be an accumulated product of the whole semester’s work of note-taking, writing, sketching, drawing, cutting-pasting etc, using any kind of media. It will be your own design, your own work of art. It will be reviewed by Ömür and Katherine twice during the semester. Expected minimum for the content of the logbooks will be the core concepts to be covered in seminar discussions. Please remember the logbook can not simply be composed of the notes that you keep in class. It is a written record of your personal memories. Students who prefer to keep a digital notebook or those who’d like to create a blog instead of a logbook are welcome to do so.
Paper assignments: You will be asked to write two short (4-6 pages) papers during the semester and a final paper (8-10 pages). The deadlines for these papers are on your weekly schedule. The first paper will involve a group or individual work on a "place", or a "monument" in Providence and the memories attached to it. The topic(s) of the second assignment will be determined later, based on the interests of the class. The final paper will be an 8-10 page individual research paper on a topic that is to be determined between you and the instructor. It will be due in the beginning of the finals period (December 13).
Grading:
- Attendance and Participation (including Chorus duty) 25%,
- Two Short Paper Assignments/Projects 30%
- Final Paper 25%
- Logbook 20%
