Reminder: for Thursday, Happy October!

Your Cultural Inquiry Research Proposal is due tomorrow, 10/1.

Also, here is the link to the cigarettes and heart attacks article I mentioned in class.

AND, perhaps this will intrigue and be of use to some of your projects. If nothing else, it is a fantastic read about how a society (culture) is affected by one of its parts. There is so much about social norms and mass ideology in Jamaican society that allows one to see how an idea (in this case, homophobia) is a catalyst in a culture for so much of what happens...

Schedule Edited:

1) In an effort to shift focus to individual student projects, Source Report 1's due date is being moved from Thursday to a week from today. Today's sole focus at the library today will be finding sources that may be useful to our project, through direct or inspiring your ideas.

2) On Thursday, 9/24: we will discuss our proposals and the kinds of texts we found on Library Day 1.

3) On Tuesday, 9/29: Source Report 1 will be due, and we will discuss Engaging Communities Ch 4: Framing Ethical Research and Beginning Fieldwork. (Which means we will NOT be reading "In the Realm of the Censors" at this time.)

Also, here was an e-mail you may have gotten...that could help you in your research project:

SYMPOSIUM THIS WEEKEND: Gender, Identity, and the Crossing of Cultures in Contemporary Chinese Art and Media

Presented by: Department of Humanities, History and Social Sciences; Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media; Museum of Contemporary Photography; Columbia College Chicago

Ø FRIDAY 9/25, 6-8pm: Artist Presentations by several artists participating in MoCP’s and Hyde Park Art Center’s concurrent exhibitions, followed by a discussion with curators and gallerists.

Ø SATURDAY 9/26, 9am-12:30pm: Academic panels featuring presentations by prominent scholars examining gender, identity and cultural exchange in contemporary China.

Ø SATURDAY 9/26, 2-4pm: Film Screenings, beginning with “My Dear” which provides a vivid commentary on the Beijing contemporary art world (82 mins). The second film is “Wasted Feelings” a short experimental video of passersby in Tiananmen Square in October 1995 (17 mins).

ALL PROGRAMS TAKE PLACE IN FILM ROW CINEMA, 1104 S. WABASH, 8TH FLOOR.
ALL PROGRAMS ARE FREE AND REFRESHMENTS WILL BE PROVIDED.

Please see the attached COMPLETE SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE.

Reminder for Tues., 9/22: Library Day 1

Dear Students,

I just wanted to remind everyone that we are meeting at the Columbia Library for Tuesday's class. I hope each of you comes with a "Word Bank" and thoughts on your project. As you search for texts, I hope to be able to discuss individual projects.

bests,

C.

Using Read Texts in Research

What we can get towards research: “Manners Maketh the City…”

Annotated Terms / Words: (define words in dictionary, academic websites, personal understanding of term, etc.)

- Urban Sociability: (define here)

- Moral Relativism: (ditto!)

- Social differentiation:(ditto, ditto!)

- temperance society: ...

- the “urban left”: ...personally, seems to be a generalization that those in urban spaces tend to be more liberal.

Questions from reading (again, we will all come up with our own!):

- What is Montgomery’s definition of a “good person” and “good intentions”?

- Is American society afraid of punishment for crimes? Is there a segment of American culture where idea of punishment is seen as wrong? (from last page)

- Is language the culprit for the failure of a culture’s interaction? )(from page 2)

-Do manners really reflect a society’s worldview, and how can this be studied? Is there a correlation between polite language and a thriving society?

- Does a society mark civility by its peoples’ manners?

- Is lewdness connected to time of day? A correlation between behavior and time of day?

- What can we learn from study of historical periods of politeness being regulated?

Evaluation of Author’s main idea:

- Interesting reflections on social behavior and business, but much to be defined and explored more …

- Imbalance between studies and firsthand observation and expanded definitions

- Don’t feel he really clarifies or develops his own ideas

Word Bank of Search Terms:

- create from annotations done on reading, and from questions from reading…

Other Routes for Research: Cited Authors/ Texts?

- Who’s theories are used by author?

- How are theories explained, and then used?

-What outside texts are explicitly referred to?

- Record from both In-text citation, & from Endnotes/ References section (index in a larger text like a book, etc.)

Self-created starter questions...

For Thursday, here's what was the mentioned homework we didn't have time to go over since your professor likes his students so much he forgets about the time...

- Read Engaging Communities, Chapter 3 on Research Proposals (link in last post, and whole text on sidebar)

- One question that asks a behavioral question about your possible subject-culture

- One question that involves a question about the “structure” of the subject-culture

- One question that includes a “demographic” of subject-culture

Thursday's Reading Link

The link for the Engaging Communities on-line text is in the sidebar of important links.

That said, the specific link to a .pdf download of Thursday's (9/17) reading can be found directly by clicking this sentence.

See you Thursday,

C.

Gender and Society article

First, it was nice to meet everyone. Second, this is not a required reading, but I thought the author implicitly echoed cultural assumptions of gender and gender roles. So, perhaps some of you are interested in these underlying issues of athletics and gender role expectations? Caster.

Welcome!

Hello students,

This will be a resource material where I intend to make reminder announcements, as well as post links to relevant articles that in the least we will read for class discussion, but that also could help one or more of you in your individual Cultural Inquiry research.

This blog is a good excuse-busting tool for any "confusion" caused by those annoying absences and forgetfulness syndromes. More importantly, it's a place to come if Oasis is down or if there is a change in the schedule. If due dates or homework assignments change, this is the first place I intend to publish those changes.

That said, this blog in no way replaces coming to class. Those who try to replace face time with this blog will miss 98% of what we're doing. Yes, that's an arbitrary percentage, but I cannot stress enough the importance of being responsible and contributing to the class.

bests,

C.