Most important expectation from the students is doing the weekly readings thoroughly, participating in the discussion sessions, and posing relevant questions during the seminars. Every Friday, the entire class will be dedicated to seminar discussions based on the weekly readings, following a brief introduction by the professor.
The chorus:
Starting with Week 3, each week I will ask 4-5 students to volunteer to act as the chorus for the 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. Each chorus member will individually post 2-3 discussion questions on the wiki to be brought up the next day. Students who are outside this inner circle of discussants are also invited to intervene into the discussion and contribute but they are expected to respect the dominating role of the chorus. Following the discussion, members of the chorus are expected write up brief responses in their logbooks, and/or 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 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 thoughts and 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.
Projects and Paper assignments
You will be working on two small projects during the semester and a final research paper (12-15 pages). The deadlines for these projects and papers are on your weekly schedule. The first project (1500-2000 word essay with a visual component, written as a public access web document) will involve a group or individual work on a "place" or "landscape" in New England region and the stories attached to it. The topic(s) of the second assignment will be determined later, based on the interests of the class, but it will broadly look at the relationship between healing and the cultures of place. The final paper will be an 12-15 page individual research paper on a topic that is to be determined between you and the instructor. This final paper can be developed from the first two shorter writing assignments. It will be due in the beginning of the finals period (December 14th).
Grading:
- Attendance and Participation (including Chorus duty) 25%,
- Two Projects 30%
- Final Paper 30%
- Logbook 15%
