AMST 585: Topics in Cultural Theory
Th, 5-7:50 PM, KAP 460 (Spring 2018); Office hours: Th, 4-5; by appointment
John Carlos Rowe
Texts Ordered:
ÉdouardGlissant, Caribbean Discourse: Selected Essays. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1989. ISBN: 0-8139-1373-X-9000
Henry Reynolds, Why Weren’t We Told: A Personal Search for the Truth about Our History. Penguin Books Australia, 2000. ISBN: 0-14-027842-7-90501.
EpeliHau’ofa, We Are the Ocean: Selected Works. Manoa: University of Hawaii Press, 2008. ISBN: 978-0-8248-3173-8
Dylan Rodriguez, Suspended Apocalypse: White Supremacy, Genocide, and the Filipino Condition. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009. ISBN: 978-08166-5350-8.
Cynthia Enloe, Globalization and Militarism: Feminists Make the Link. 2nd. Edition. Rowman and Littlefield, 2016. ISBN: 1442265442.
Craig Santos Perez, From Unincorporated Territory [Lukao]. Oakland, CA: Omnidawn Publishing, 2017. ISBN: 978-1-63243-041-0-51795
Seminar Description:
How does cultural theory help us understand the colonized body/ subject and articulate the project of decolonization in political, social, cultural, and psychological terms? These questions will be our abiding concerns. Unlike most university courses, undergraduate and graduate, that are designed by a “leader,” this seminar will be modeled after postdoctoral/ research seminars in which participants create the reading list, in part out of their own research interests. In the past, the rationalizations for the professor selecting all of the texts have been “expertise” and “textbook orders.” Neither criterion applies any longer. Expertise today should be tied to the specific research project, and each of us should have one in this seminar. “Books” no longer need to be “ordered,” because most substantial scholarly texts are available online.
In our first seminar, we will talk about how we all would like to organize the readings and discussions around the questions posed above. We will divide our subsequent seminars into working sessions, each tied to a specific research project and relevant readings. Ideally, participants will have scholarly essays/ conference papers they hope to turn into publications/dissertation chapters. Depending on enrollment, the seminar will enable each participant to have an entire seminar or at least half of a three-hour seminar. Participants agree to read that participant’s work and whatever (within reason – there will be a page limit) the participant suggests we read in published work.
There will be a “core” of readings that revolve around my own research in a new book, entitled: “Sailing Lessons: Writing across the Pacific.” This book focuses on the new field of Transpacific Studies, sometimes considered a subset of American Studies. There is a research cluster in ASE working on Transpacific Studies, and members of this group might find this core of the seminar of particular interest. They are welcome to enroll in the seminar OR attend particular seminars, once the syllabus is completed in the second week of the S18 semester (following our initial planning meeting). I am also focusing on Transpacific Studies, because our colleague Viet Nguyen often teaches this material but is on fellowship for 2017-18. My core readings will include work by: ÉdouardGlissant, Craig Santos Perez, EpeliHau’ofa, Cynthia Enloe, Dylan Rodriguez, Henry Reynolds, and myself.
Each participant’s assignment for credit in the seminar will be to complete a project relevant to that participant’s professional goals: an essay for publication; a chapter of the dissertation; a draft of the prospectus for the dissertation. Because together we will be “building” this seminar, we will all gain valuable experience in the course design – experience we should talk about as we do it.
Requirement(s):
A Project: In this profession you are always working on something. At conferences, social events, hallway conversations, you are asked: “What are you working on?” A project usually means something bigger than a conference paper, scholarly essay, or book chapter. Traditionally, it has meant your next book, and the anxiety for lots of us spikes when asked this otherwise routine question. “I just defended my dissertation!” “I just got tenure!” “I don’t know what to do next!” Some people interested in the seminar told me that the seminar may be too “advanced,” because they don’t yet have a “project.” But you don’t need a fully developed dissertation prospectus to have a real project; all you need is a reasonably good understanding of your own interests. Then frame the project with theories that are helpful and begin to focus on a case study, object of analysis, etc.
(1) Theorize the project by identifying some theorists who are crucial for this project. In our seminar, you will want to identify one such theorist, gather a reasonable sample of his/her/their writing (30-50 pages is about right, but it’s negotiable with the rest of us), and be ready to present this work to us for discussion in relation to your project.
(2) Write a draft of the project in whatever format will be useful to you in the near future: conference paper, grant proposal, dissertation prospectus, essay. What you write for the seminar in which you present your “theorist(s)” will be the core of this work. In most cases, it will be like a “class preparation” – notes to explain the materials you’ve asked the rest of us to read. In some cases, you may want us to read work you have already written either along with another scholar/ theorist or just as your own work. You’ll revise that draft as your final submission at the end of the seminar. Length? 15-25 pages are guidelines only.
(3) Teach your project and its theoretical/ methodological material in part of a seminar. As of this date, we have ten people enrolled. It would be ideal to devote an entire seminar to each person’s project, but we may have to devote only half of a seminar to each person’s project. We can decide how we want to do this when we meet for our first seminar on Thursday, January 11.
That’s it, then. There are no other requirements. It’s like what you’ll be doing for the rest of your life: theorize, write, teach. Because open seminars like this one can also fall apart without some basic guidelines, here are a few:
1. You have to tell us how to get the materials you want us to read and do so one week in advance of the seminar you will be teaching.
2. You have to be a good participant with your colleagues, preparing in advance and offering good comments on their projects, even written comments after the seminar.
3. You have to attend all of the seminars, even those whose topics may not be central to your own interests. Illness and family emergencies are the only good excuses.
4. You have to submit your project at the end of the semester, specifically on Friday, May 11, so I can read/ evaluate the project and submit a grade on time.
Syllabus (Tentative):
January 11: Planning session. Come prepared to talk about yourself, your interests, and your “project,” including work you might want us to read and why.
January 18: Glissant, Caribbean Discourse: Selected Essays.
January 25:______
______
February 1: Henry Reynolds, Why Weren’t We Told: A Personal Search for the Truth about Our History
February 8: ______
______
February 15: EpeliHau’ofa, We Are the Ocean: Selected Works.
February 22: ______
______
March 1: Dylan Rodriguez, Suspended Apocalypse: White Supremacy, Genocide, and the Filipino Condition.
March 8: ______
______
March 11-18: Spring Recess
March 22:Cynthia Enloe, Globalization and Militarism: Feminists Make the Link.
March 29: ______
______
April 5: Craig Santos Perez, From Unincorporated Territory [Lukao].
April 12:______
______
April 19:No seminar this week.
April 26: Final Seminar; general discussion of projects and next steps.
May 11 (F): Project due as an attached file to: .