This first assignment gives you an opportunity to engage in a critical discussion of key concepts and theoretical frameworks. Choose two questions from the list below and examine concepts and themes that we take up in Unit 1 and two references for each essay. Please check the file section for more instruction and supplementary materials.

Short Answer Essays

Weight: 15 % of your final grade

Due: After you have completed Unit 2 (according to the schedule, in Week 7)

Length: 2,000 to 2,500 words in total (2 questions)

This first assignment gives you an opportunity to engage in a critical discussion of key concepts and theoretical frameworks. Choose two questions from the list below and examine concepts and themes that we take up in Unit 1. Your short essays should incorporate course materials to provide a grounded analysis. They will be evaluated on both clarity and complexity, and should include a brief thesis, several points in the body of your mini-essay supporting your position with reference to course materials, and a conclusion.  Each mini-essay should be approximately 1,000 to 1,250 words long.  See “Assignment Grading Criteria” in the Course Information Moodle book for more information, and the “Essay Research and Writing” links provided on the home page for help in crafting your thesis.

Short Answer Essay Questions 

1. “The challenges of excavating the invisible and unheard” (Pérez, 2003, p. 122). Please discuss the cultural meaning and political significance of this phrase drawing from our readings by Pérez and Razack.
2. According to Pérez, what is the meaning and significance of the notions of the heteroimaginary and white heteronormative ways of seeing and knowing? How do Million and Pérez advance our understanding of the issue of gendered colonialism and heteronormative nationalism?
3. DeLuca, and Giroux and Searls Giroux discuss how globalization and capitalism structure the conditions under which people make sense of, and respond to, their daily lives. What do these authors have to say about the issues of accountability, ethics, and responsibility? Why do we need a new language for politics and for mobilizing diverse groups?
4. According to Million and Wemigwa, how can Indigenous scholars’ experience, insights, and activism advance our understanding of the processes through which current discourses, relations, and structures of power are organized and sustained?
5. What are some of the changing cultural/geographical/political/economic conditions and “crises” that currently confront cultural studies and cultural studies practitioners? Please use three of our course readings in your discussion.
6. A number of our readings identify the need to pursue new avenues of research and critical inquiry, and the potential contributions of cultural studies. Please consider the promise and possibility of the cultural studies project for furthering resistance, social justice struggles, and the democratic project more broadly. Please use three of our course readings in your discussion.
7. Describe the meaning and significance of the concept of brown as a metaphor at this sociohistorical moment. As well, discuss why it is important to “reinvigorate the approach to identity within the ‘field’ of cultural studies” (Silva, 2010, p. 172). In your discussion, please use Silva and at least one other course reading.
8. How does James’s discussion of the “purple mandate” underscore the importance of finding common ground? How is this discussion linked to Razack’s discussion of empathy and humanity?
9. What do James and Razack reveal about the continuing significance of race and the politics of racism at present?
10. Giroux and Searls Giroux discuss what is at stake in working towards a “sustainable future” (p. 21) and maintaining “hope in dark times” (p. 31). Please discuss these two objectives/desires drawing on two of the course readings (excluding Giroux and Searls Giroux).

Unless otherwise specified, you are to use at least two of the required readings for each question and answer.

Section 1.1
Cultural Signs of the Times: Intellectual Positions: New Directions and Timely Questions

Reading

DeLuca, Kevin Michael. (2011, June). Interrupting the world as it is: Thinking amidst the corporatocracy and in the wake of Tunisia, Egypt, and Wisconsin. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 28(2), 86–93.

http://0-www.tandfonline.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/doi/pdf/10.1080/15295036.2011.572680

 

 

Giroux, Henry A., & Searls Giroux, Susan. (2006, February). Challenging neoliberalism’s new world order: The promise of critical pedagogy. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 6(1), 21–32.

http://0-csc.sagepub.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/content/6/1/21.full.pdf+html

 

 

Million, Dian. (2008, June). Felt theory. American Quarterly, 60(2), 267–272.

 

http://0-muse.jhu.edu.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/journals/american_quarterly/v060/60.2.million.pdf

 

 

Pérez, Emma. (2003). Queering the borderlands. Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies, 24(2/3), 122–131.

http://0-ehis.ebscohost.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=30134530-c9e5-4577-a4b2-d294ac17310a%40sessionmgr12&vid=2&hid=4

 

 

Wemigwa, Jennifer. (2008). Indigenous worldviews: Cultural expression on the World Wide Web. Canadian Woman Studies, 26(3–4), 31–38.

http://0-go.galegroup.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/ps/i.do?action=interpret&id=GALE%7CA198994030&v=2.1&u=atha49011&it=r&p=EAIM&sw=w&authCount=1

Section 1.2
Race, Gender, and New Cultural Codes

Reading

Reading

James, Stanlie M. (2009, January–March). Barack Obama: Coalitions of a purple mandate. Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture and Society, 11(1), 51–59.

http://0-www.tandfonline.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/doi/pdf/10.1080/10999940902734895

 

Razack, Sherene H. (2007, September). Stealing the pain of others: Reflections on Canadian humanitarian responses. Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies, 29(4), 375–394.

http://0-www.tandfonline.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/doi/pdf/10.1080/10714410701454198

 

Silva, Kumarini. (2010, March). Brown: From identity to identification. Cultural Studies, 24(2), 167–182.

http://0-ehis.ebscohost.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=8834afe7-4777-488c-9a08-e9195fd846e7%40sessionmgr4&vid=2&hid=4

 

Section 1.3
Cultural Studies and New Sites of Instruction

Reading

Reading

Distiller, Natasha. (2008, March). “Surviving the future”: Towards a South African cultural studies. Cultural Studies, 22(2), 273–283.

http://0-ehis.ebscohost.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=8e9a277a-9f6b-490e-ab33-6ae09731c044%40sessionmgr12&vid=2&hid=4

 

Sparks, Tabitha. (2005, July). Aids in Africa, cultural studies in Georgia. Cultural Studies, 19(4), 481–490.

http://0-ehis.ebscohost.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=d3168f8f-d4c5-4a96-8523-9d9cf90b39de%40sessionmgr4&vid=2&hid=4

 

Whitelaw, Anne. (2007, April–August). Theorizing in the bush. Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies, 29(2), 187–209.

http://0-www.tandfonline.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/doi/pdf/10.1080/10714410701198944

Section 2.1
Critical Pedagogy: Theory and Praxis

Reading

Sunseri, Lina. (2007, December). Indigenous voice matters: Claiming our space through decolonising research. Junctures: The Journal for Thematic Dialogue, 9, 93–107.

http://0-go.galegroup.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA176129668&v=2.1&u=atha49011&it=r&p=EAIM&sw=w

 

Weiner, Eric J. (2003, January). Beyond doing cultural studies: Toward a cultural studies of critical pedagogy. Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies, 25(1), 55–73.

http://0-www.tandfonline.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/doi/pdf/10.1080/10714410309614

Section 2.2
Critical Pedagogy in Uncertain Times

Reading

Reading

Darder, Antonia, & Mirón, Luis F. (2006, February). Critical pedagogy in a time of uncertainty: A call to action. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 6(1), 5–20.

http://0-csc.sagepub.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/content/6/1/5.full.pdf+html

 

King, Richard, C. (2009, February). Some academics try to push back: Ward Churchill, the war on truth, and the improbabilities of interruption. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 9(1), 31–40.

http://0-csc.sagepub.com.aupac.lib.athabascau.ca/content/9/1/31.full.pdf+html

 

 

 

 

 

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