TTh 4:00-5:50 PM – Ondine 220
Jeff Conn connjc@pdx.edu (no telephone available) Sixth Ave. Bldg. 212
Office Hours: W 11:30-1:30 & by appt. Website: http://web.pdx.edu/~connjc/
Evaluation. Grades will be decided on the following basis:
Undergrad 25% Grad 20% Written assignments
Undergrad 25% Grad 20% Mini-experiments
Undergrad 25% Grad 20% Gender
Journals
Grad
20% Class presentation/Debate
Undergrad 25% Grad 20% Article/Chapter
Critique
Written Assignments – Undergrads are required to do 2 of these. Grad students must complete 3. All of the assignments will have a similar format: provide a synopsis of the events/discussion/information. Then analyze the various data that you collect (could be your reactions or experiences). Try to summarize what happened and then discuss how that relates to our class discussions and readings. Some will be hard to relate to language, but do your best to at least think of 1 language connection. Also, provide some of your personal reactions/criticisms, but try to present the data, then analyze it objectively, and THEN critique it from your point of view. The options for the written assignments are as follows and you need to do at least 2 different assignments (they can’t all be the same thing):
Chapter Presentations includes summarizing the chapter/article and leading a short (10 mins) discussion (I will still help by adding my 2 cents of course). These are informal presentations that include restating the main points of the chapter/article by summarizing the data and methodology, as well as what the author(s) suggests these findings mean. In addition, tell us at least 1 thing you liked about the chapter and 1 thing that raised a question. Also, please bring 3 questions that you will turn in designed to elicit a discussion with the rest of the class. Remember, we want to be appreciative as well as critical of the work we are reading about. Each student will lead 1 discussion, either alone or in pairs. This is to bring other work in the field to the class’s attention that you find interesting. I can offer you some advice of where to look based on your interests.
Radio show compare/contrast – Compare the radios shows Your Time with Kim Iverson (http://yourtimewithkim.everyzing.com/ these are listenable online) and Loveline. Kim’s show is on 105.1FM (http://www.1051thebuzz.com/) from 7pm to Midnight M-F). Loveline is on 94.7 FM (http://www.947.fm/) and I believe it goes 10pm-midnight M-Th. I can’t find free ways to hear this show other than listening to the radio at that time.
Drag Field trip – Attend a drag show
and pontificate gender and language.
There is a free drag show (mostly drag queens) at C.C. Slaughters Sunday
nights from 8PM-midnight (http://www.ccslaughterspdx.com/). There are also drag king shows from time to
time at The Egyptian Club (http://www.eroompdx.com/). Just remember that these are gay and lesbian
bars (respectively but not exclusively) so be respectful.
Magazine/media expose – Compare/contrast magazines designed for a specific gender and discuss how they differ in what they talk about as much as HOW they talk about it. You could also focus on TV commercials or print advertisements and discuss the gender and language involved with mass marketing (like, are there women’s vs. men’s exercises? Foods? Products?). You could also include gay and lesbian magazines and discuss how this fits in with the whole gender and language issues raised in the above.
Another chapter/article critique – It may be boring, but it works. You can do an additional critique for this assignment.
Your own mini-experiment – Devise your own mini-experiment and write up the findings following the format for mini-experiment write-ups (distributed soon). Please discuss with me ideas first so I can help with this.
Mini-Experiments will be conducted throughout the course (at least 2). These will be data collection (mostly attitudes) regarding specific topics in the literature and reporting back to the class. They may or may not be announced before class, so regular attendance is expected in order to fulfill this aspect of the coursework. We will discuss the format of how these should be written up.
Gender Journals are simply your personal thoughts and reactions
to the readings or life in general relating to the course (either language
and/or gender issues). There are a total of 6 journals due by the end of the term.
These are not graded for content, but you are graded just for doing them. They
should be anywhere from ¾ of a single-spaced typed page to 2 pages (try not to
make them too long). Please only submit one journal a week in class Thursdays
or by email. Any journal received after midnight Thursday night will count for
the next week. Please do not wait for the last 6 weeks of the term to do these.
Feel free to be creative and conduct your own mini-experiments if you
like. There will also be 1
supplemental gender journal (for a total of 7) that can be turned in anytime
and with other journals if you like. The
assignment is to listen to Your Time with Kim Iverson on 105.5 FM (will post
online option) and contrast that with Love Line on 94.7FM. You only have to listen to about 15-30 mins of each program, but be sure you can retell some of
the major content about the program.
Article/Chapter Critiques. Since there is so much literature that we will not get to, this assignment will hopefully encourage you to look at other articles or chapters in other texts, or chapters in our text that we will not get to. I will be happy to recommend articles or chapters with specific interests if you ask or need direction on where to look. For undergraduate credit, only one critique is due. For those pesky graduate degrees, please do 3. More details about the content of this assignment will be distributed a little later in the term.
Class presentation/Debate (grad only). This project/debate will be developed as the term progresses and the presentations will be part of the last class. We may examine a very small data set using 2 different frameworks from the literature (dominance vs. cultural difference). Each group will be assigned an article discussing the different frameworks from the supplemental text, and will analyze the data using that framework. They will then make a small presentation to the rest of the class discussing how the data can be analyzed with their particular lens. More details about this project will also be distributed.