Dr. Diana Blaine
(909) 720-2059 cell
SWMS 499
Maymester 2018
Death and Gender in New York
“Behold and see as you pass by/As you are now so once was I/As I am now, you soon will be/Prepare for death and follow me.” -1639 epitaph, New York City
This Puritan memento moriin the graveyard at Trinity Church in lower Manhattan was miraculously spared, as was the church building itself, when the twin towers of the World Trade Center collapsed around this building 232 years later. Soon this church became a center for the desperate and grieving. Now, much of lower Manhattan has become its own memorial to those who died in 2001, adding to the palimpsest of death that makes up part of the history and culture of New York City. This class takes students to the museums, cemeteries, catacombs, and monuments of Manhattan and the outer boroughs to explore first-hand how death has shaped the citizens of this urban mecca, and how, in turn, death itself has been shaped by cultural ritual, theology, politics, race, class, and gender. Activities will include private tours of cemeteries, catacombs, and museums led by local experts and academics, attendance at a Broadway play about 9/11, and a special session facilitated by Christina Staudt, Chair of Columbia University’s Seminar on Death.
Learning Outcomes: Through touring significant sites and reading interdisciplinary secondary source material, students will achieve cultural literacyregarding the history and culture of death in New York, one of the world’s major cities. Students will analyze relationships between ideology and material culture, practice critical thinking and writing skills, become familiar with the complexity of issues and possible solutions related to burial practices, and develop a sophisticated understanding of the politics involved in production of memorials. Students will also engage with experts and scholars, learning how to produce new knowledge related to our oldest certainty: mortality. Finally, students will explore how all these themes connect to larger shifting cultural dynamics, including those related to gender, race, economics, tourism, religion, and environmental concerns.
Course costs (in addition to Spring tuition):
Roundtrip airfare lax-nyc:$350-390
Lodging at NYU student housing: $349 per week plus 3 days @$49=$1197
Metro card for all transportation: unlimited month ride card, $120
Food: meals at approx. $35 per day, $840*
*affordable weekly meal plans available at NYU student housing (see scroll down to meals)
Total: $2547
Course logistics: all activities will depart from the lobby of NYU student housing dormitory unless otherwise indicated. Transportation will be by subway and bus.
Course Requirements: Regular attendance at all activities. Preparation of readings prior to assigned dates. Regular reading responses posted to Blackboard. Two short essays on thematic components of course. Review of a film, play, memorial, or museum installation related to course topic. Final project, consisting of a class presentation, multimedia, and written component. Topic to be cleared with instructor by June 4. All assignments are to be uploaded on Blackboard by assigned deadline under Assignments tab.
Reading Responses:20%
Review (600 words):10%
Essay 1 (1000 words):20%
Essay 2: (1000 words)20%
Project:30%
Evaluation Criteria
Grades: Students will earn grades based on the following assignments. Specific instructions for each assignment will be provided in class. Final course grades are assigned on the following scale
90-93 % = A- / 77-79 % = C+ / 64-66 % = D
87-89 % = B+ / 74-76 % = C / 60-63 % = D-
84-86 % = B / 70-73 % = C- / 59 % and below = F
Statement for Students with Disabilities:
Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me as early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The phone number for DSP is 213.740.0776.
Statement on Academic Integrity:
USC seeks to maintain an optimal learning environment. General principles of academic honesty include the concept of respect for the intellectual property of others, the expectation that individual work will be submitted unless otherwise allowed by an instructor, and the obligations both to protect one’s own academic work from misuse by others as well as to avoid using another’s work as one’s own. All students are expected to understand and abide by these principles. Scampus, the Student Guidebook, contains the Student Conduct Code in Section 11.00, while the recommended sanctions are located in Appendix A: Students will be referred to the Office of Student Judicial Affairs and Community Standards for further review, should there be any suspicion of academic dishonesty. The Review process can be found at:
Course Readings and Activity Schedule (all readings available on Blackboard under Course Readings tab):
Topic One: Historical Practices of Burial and Disposal
Readings:
“Death in the Western Tradition,” from The Puritan Way of Death, David Stannard
“Death and Burial,” from The Puritan Way of Death, David Stannard
“Planning Before Planners: Constructing a Public Nuisance in Nineteenth-Century New York City,” from L.A. Platina: USC School of Urban and Regional Planning, 1994. David Sloane
The Last Great Necessity, pps. 1-43, David Sloane
“The Corpse as an Object of Grief,” from The Corpse: A History, Christine Quigley
“A Century and One-Half of American Epitaphs (1600-1813): Toward the Study of Collective Attitudes About Death.” Comprehensive Studies in Society and History 22 (1980): 543-547, Michel Vovelle
“Simplicity Lost: The Urban Model of Death,” from The Sacred Remains, Gary Laderman
Class Schedule:
May 20: leave lax for nyc: Move-in day, student housing NYU, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
May 21: class meeting 2-5 p.m. (Kimmel Center for University Life, 60 Washington Square South); reading responses due
May 22: touring historical cemeteries in lower Manhattan, 10-3 p.m.
Trinity Church, lower Manhattan; First Shearith; African Burial Ground Monument
May 23: private tour of Green Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, 10-2 p.m.
May 24: Wood Lawn Cemetery, Bronx, 10-4 p.m.
May 25: Old St. Patrick’s Catacombs, St Patrick’s Cathedral, 10-12
Essay #1 due to Blackboard by 5 p.m.
Topic Two: Aesthetics and Politics of Memorials
Readings:
“Terrorism Memorials and Security Narratives,” from Memorial Mania: Public Feeling in America, Erika Doss
“Contesting American Identity in Contemporary Memorial Culture,” from Memorial Mania.
“Monuments, Memorials, and the Politics of Memory,” Urban Geography 25: 5 (2003) Katharyne Mitchell
“Oh Did You See the Ashes Come Thickly Falling Down? Poems Posted in the Wake of September 11,” from Spontaneous Shrines and the Public Memorialization of Death, Jack Santino
“Ground Zero,” from Deleuze and Memorial Culture, Adrian Parr
Class Schedule:
May 28: Memorial Day (attend memorial day event of your choosing)
May 29: 9/11 memorial and museum, private tour, 10-4 p.m.
May 30: Come From Away, Broadway play about 9/11, Gerald Shoenfeld Theater, meet first for dinner, 5 p.m.
May 31: Central Park Memorials, 10-4 p.m.Strawberry Fields, John Lennon Memorial Central Park; J Marion Sims Memorial, Grant’s Tomb
June 1: class meeting12-2 p.m. (Kimmel Center for University Life, 60 Washington Square South); review due on Blackboard by 5 p.m.
Topic Three: Cultural Meanings of Dark Tourism
Readings:
“Teddy Bear Patriarchy: Taxidermy in the Garden of Eden, New York City, 1908-36,” from Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science, Donna Haraway
“Shedding Light on Dark Tourism: An Introduction,” from The Darker Side of Travel: The Theory and Practice of Dark Tourism, eds. Sharpley and Stone
“’Genocide Tourism,” from The Darker Side of Travel: The Theory and Practice of Dark Tourism, eds. Sharpley and Stone
“(Re)Presenting the Macabre: Interpretation, Kitschification, and Authenticity,” from The Darker Side of Travel: The Theory and Practice of Dark Tourism, eds. Sharpley and Stone
“An Exceedingly Dry Company: Exhibiting Egytptian Mummies in Nineteenth-Century America,” from Mummies in Nineteenth Century America: Ancient Egyptians as Artifacts, S. J. Wolfe
“Ghosts, Apparitions, and Occult Phenomena,” from Beyond the Body: Death and Social Identity, Hallam, Hockey, and Howarth.
Class schedule:
June 4: class meeting 2-5 p.m. (Kimmel Center for University Life, 60 Washington Square South); Blackboard responses due; project topic due
June 5: tour Natural History Museum, 10-2 p.m.
June 6: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 10-2 p.m.
June 7: private session, Haunted Tour of Lower Manhattan, time tba
June 8: Museum of Jewish Heritage, 10-12
Essay #2 due to Blackboard by 5 p.m.
Topic Four: Contemporary Practices of Burial and Disposal
Reading: Post Mortem: Sustainable Disposition and Spaces of Remembrance inthe 21stCentury Metropolis, Christina Staudt
Class schedule:
June 11: Special session with Professor Christina Staudt, Chair, Columbia University Seminar on Death, Columbia University, 11-4 p.m.
June 12: project presentations 10-2 p.m. (Kimmel Center for University Life, 60 Washington Square South)
June 13: move-out day
June 15: final projects due to Blackboard by 5 p.m.
Statement on Academic Conduct and Support Systems
Academic Conduct:
Plagiarism – presenting someone else’s ideas as your own, either verbatim or recast in your own words – is a serious academic offense with serious consequences. Please familiarize yourself with the discussion of plagiarism inSCampusin Part B, Section 11, “Behavior Violating University Standards” Other forms of academic dishonesty are equally unacceptable. See additional information inSCampusand university policies on scientific misconduct,
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