Assignments & Readings | CHID 250 C Autumn Quarter 2012-13 | University of Washington

Download the course policies and syllabus (PDF).

Assignments

Critical Response Papers (Extra Participation Credit): Critical Response (CR) papers are single-spaced, one-page writings that serve as reactions to, close readings of, analyses of, and articulations of the texts and connections you see, read, and talk about in class. These responses are more than just summaries or personal reactions and will be graded on clarity, focus, coherence, critique, and your ability to concisely formulate arguments. ~~You will be required to generate a response paper approximately every other week for a total of 5 (at least two in weeks 1-5 and two in weeks 6-10)~~. CRs will be submitted each week online via CollectIt: https://catalyst.uw.edu/collectit/dropbox/changed/23331. To get extra participation credit, you must turn in your paper on time, it must satisfy the prompt for the week, and it must earn at least a 2.0 evaluation.

Identity Log: Over the course of the quarter, you will keep and maintain a weekly "identity log" or "iLog," recording, detailing, and thinking about your own identities and identifications, particularly those mediated by and through technologies. Your "iLog" will function as a kind of identity workbook, an analytical and metacognitive journal, and reading notes, connecting your observations and experiences to the texts, theories, and ideas of the class. Periodically, you will be given specific log prompts, provocations, and experiments, and you will share your logs in class, on the class blog, or via the class's social media. These logs are more than just summaries or personal reactions and will be evaluated on completion, clarity, focus, coherence, critique, and your ability to concisely formulate arguments. Each log will earn a check, check plus, check minus, or zero, and in total, will constitute 30% of your final grade.

iLog #1: Pictures of You -- In the class Facebook group, post two (2) photos or images of yourself, side-by-side, to the iLog #1 album. These "self portraits" can represent two different eras of your life or different identities. Under each photo, comment on the photo, tell us what the photo is about, reveals about you, and think about how these photos (as a pair) comment on your sense of identity. Connect your comments, if possible, to the readings, our discussions so far. Think about how the technology itself -- photography, drawing, or whatever, even Facebook -- contributes to your understanding of identity. Then, take a look at each other's photos and iLogs and respond thoughtfully, respectfully, and analytically.

iLog #2: Fashion(ing) Theory: For your second iLog, it's all about fashion and theory, theory and fashion, even fashionable theory? Please head over to the CHID 480 F tumblr and post an image, drawing, photograph, even video that best exemplifies or complicates a quote from one of this week's readings. Use the tumblr to post your artifact and include the quote. Please title your post something along the lines of "ED's iLog #2: Presentation of Self as Bad Teacher" -- an example has been posted. Then provide a brief commentary on how the artifact and the quote connects for you and why that connection is important. Tag your post with appropriate keywords and the tag "iLog 2." The artifacts do not need to be personal but they should relate to fashion, to self presentation, and to the week's central questions an ideas. Then, take a look at each other's photos and iLogs and respond thoughtfully, respectfully, and analytically.

iLog #3: Cyberspatiagraph: For this exercise, draw or create a one-page visual representation (8.5" x 11") of what you imagine "cyberspace" to be. What does it "look" like? How do you represent or convey its features, scale, dimensions, complexity? You can hand draw, use mixed media (but keep it flat), use digital tools. Be creative and think critically. Your visual representation should be more than just a collage of images or simple abstraction. Consider how the week's readings imagine and describe cyberspace. Think about how your visualization, your "graph of cyberspace" argues, defines, and articulates a concrete, specific idea, issue, or problem with or about cyberspace. We will collect your representations and scan them for the class Tumblr.

iLog #4: Online Presence: For this Identity Log, in response to this thread in the Facebook group, please list ALL of the online applications, services, social media, websites, and any other technology that requires you to create a login, a digital identity, or profile. Take more than just a few minutes to think about this list. Try to be exhaustive, if possible. List things that you don't regularly use but still have an account or active login. If you wish to keep certain things private, just note them generally (e.g. "dating site" or "shopping app" or "entertainment service"). There will be a follow-up to this iLog, once everyone's lists are compiled.

iLog #5: Facebook Experiment G&S: This Identity Log asks you to (voluntarily) experiment with your own Facebook profile. According to Facebook's own page, its mission is to "give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected" and to "keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet." But what does this mean? What does it mean to "share" or to be more "open and connected?" How do we "learn" about the people we "meet" online? For this iLog, you will make a substantive update to your Facebook page that directly impacts how people perceive, understand, and relate to your gender and/or sexuality. In other words, a simple change would be to change your Sex to its binary opposite (which is the only other choice) or change your Relationship Status. Or you can change your profile picture to something that mediates your gender and/or sexuality. Or you can write a status update that requires people to think about your gender and/or sexuality. Be creative, be daring, but be safe. Given that whenever you add something to your page, change any of your information, or share a status update, Facebook alerts your friends, acquaintances, and depending on your "privacy" setting, the general Facebook public. Make this change for 24 hours and keep track of all of the comments, reactions, responses made to the change. Then post a critical response to the iLog #5 thread on the class's Facebook group document. The most successful responses will connect the iLog to the week's readings.

iLog #6: Facebook Experiment R: Like the previous iLog, this Identity Log asks you to (voluntarily) experiment with your own Facebook profile--this time we will focus on race and ethnicity. For this iLog, you will make a substantive update to your Facebook page that directly impacts how people perceive, understand, and relate to your race, ethnicity, even nationality. Interestingly enough, Facebook's "Basic Info" does not have a field for race or ethnicity. How might we think about that decision? However, you can change secondary fields like Languages or Hometown or your own description, perhaps, to include racial identifiers. Be creative, be daring, be respectful, and be safe. Given that whenever you add something to your page, change any of your information, or share a status update, Facebook alerts your friends, acquaintances, and depending on your "privacy" setting, the general Facebook public. Make this change for 24 hours and keep track of all of the comments, reactions, responses made to the change. Then post a critical response to the iLog #6 thread on the class's Facebook group document. The most successful responses will connect the iLog to the week's readings.

iLog #7: Imagining the Oankali: For this exercise, draw or create a one-page visual representation (8.5" x 11") of what you imagine Octavia Butler's Dawn's "Oankali" to look like, be like, act like, live like. How do you represent or convey something conveyed only through words, inferences, and expectations? Consider the initial descriptions of Jdahya: "His tentacles seemed to solifiy into a second skin--dark patches on his face and neck, a dark, smooth-looking mass on his head...He looked remarkably human now. Was it only the tentacles that gave him that sea-slug appearance? His coloring hadn't changed. The fact that he has no eyes, nose, or ears still disturbed...His skin was cool and almost too smooth to be real flesh..." (23). You can hand draw, use mixed media (but keep it flat), use digital tools. Be creative and think critically. Given that one of the central tensions in Dawn is a decentering of the "human," consider what it means to try to represent something alien, monstrous, different, nonhuman, posthuman, even inhuman. We will collect your representations and scan them for the class Tumblr.

iLog #8: What Does a Technological Identity Look Like?: Looking back at the first day of class, the course description opens,

Carla Kaplan, in Keywords for American Cultural Studies, frames the difficulty of defining "identity," saying, "One of our most common terms, 'identity' is rarely defined" (123). Rather, in everyday language, we have a "personal identity" and have, depending on situation, multiple "social identities." Kaplan continues, "Personal identity is often assumed to mediate between social identities and make sense of them. Whereas our social identities shift throughout the day, what allows us to move coherently from one to another is often imagined to be our personal identity, or 'who we are'--our constant" (123). Outlined by the above definitions of identity is a tension, even contradiction: one the one hand, identity is seemingly fixed, intelligible, innate to an individual, or on the other, something that is performed, constructed, contextual, and perhaps changeable. Our class will take up this unsettledness of identity and investigate its intersections with and co-constitution by technology. In other words, in a world of increasing technological ubiquity, how might we imagine and define a "technological identity?" What are the relationships between identity and technology? How does technology shape our identity or identities and vice versa?

For this final iLog (in preparation for your final exam), post to the class Tumblr an image (either one you found or create) that represents what a "technological identity" looks like. Write a brief paragraph explaining why you chose the image. Consider all of the readings and discussions we have engaged over the last ten weeks. What would be the most salient features of your definition? How would it change, alter, or extend the definitions of identity we have talked about? How might you foreground technology in your definition of identity? Please title your post "[Your Name]'s iLog #8: What Does a Technological Identity Look Like?" -- if you've noticed, I have been posting examples every week. Tag your post with appropriate keywords and the tag "iLog 7" and "technological identity". Then, take a look at each other's images and iLogs and respond thoughtfully, respectfully, and analytically.

Mediating Identities Collaboratory: As a class project, you will contribute to and collectively curate an online collaboratory via the social media platform Tumblr. The Tumblr is a collaborative space, a collection of identity artifacts, and is for continued class discussion. The Tumblr will be for public archiving and curating of materials related to our class, to the readings, and to your own intellectual and analytical discoveries. You will be invited to be a contributor. Once invited, start posting things relevant to the class and the week's main ideas. Comment on the artifacts other people post. Participating on the Tumblr counts toward overall class participation and the Tumblr may be used for iLog assignments as well. Be thoughtful, make connections, stay relevant, maintain respect. Happy collecting!

CHID 250 C Midterm Exam: The form and shape of your midterm exam is as follows (make sure to follow the directions carefully, see the full midterm prompt): You will write three short critical response papers. Each critical response paper is a maximum of 2-3 pages. Essay #1 must address Neuromancer and the theories, critical interventions, and readings of Week 1 or 2. Essay #2 must address Neuromancer and any other of the first weeks' theories, interventions, and readings. Essay #3 must develop, expand, and revise one of your Identity Logs, drawing more fully and specifically on relevant readings. Each essay should follow MLA manuscript format, citation. Turn in as one document with a combined bibliography.

CHID 250 C Final Exam: The form and shape of your midterm exam is as follows (make sure to follow the directions carefully, see the full final exam prompt): You will write three short critical response papers. Each critical response paper is a maximum of 2-3 pages. Essay #1 must address Dawn and the theories, critical interventions, and readings of a week of your choosing from the second half of the quarter (week five through week ten). Essay #2 must address Dawn or Bioshock and any other of the last weeks� theories, interventions, and readings. Essay #3 must address and define "technological identity," substantively revising iLog #8 and drawing on the whole of the class. Your definition should extend, reconfigure, or challenge any of the definitions of "identity" we have covered in the course. Each essay should follow MLA manuscript format, citation. Turn in as one document with a combined bibliography.

Critical Review: a 500-750 word analytical review of a video game you would think could be or should be included in our class. Critical Reviews will be posted to the class Tumblr.

Information Sheets

The following are handouts, informational sheets, and readings that will be assigned or used over the course of the quarter. Each student will recieve a copy of each as a handout in class during the appropriate week. If you miss a sheet, feel free to print out a new copy.

CHID 250 Student Info Sheet & Release Form

Ed's Top Ten List of "Ways to Survive University"

Ed's Top Ten Rules of Writing

Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

MLA Citation and Bibliographic Format

Readings

All of the readings for class are available via the Course Reader (for sale at Ave Copy, 4141 Univ. Way @ 42nd), or through the university�s online course reserves, or directly from the web. There are two other required texts and 2 recommended texts, which are available at the UW Bookstore (or through any reputable bookstore, many of which can be found at used bookstores). Consult the course syllabus for the week each reading will be covered in class. There are three touchstone texts for the class:

Butler, Octavia. Dawn. New York: Aspect, 1987.

Gibson, William. Neuromancer. New York: Ace Books, 1984.

Moreover, the following is a full list of the class readings by week:

Week One: What is Identity?

Foucault, Michel. �Technologies of the Self.� Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault. Eds. Luther H. Martin, Huck Gutman, and Patrick H. Hutton. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 1988. 16-49.

Kaplan, Carla. �Identity.� Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Eds. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler. New York: NYU Press, 2007. 123-127.

Williams, Raymond. "Technology." Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983. 315-316.

Week Two: Identity and the Everyday

Davis, Fred. "Chapter One: Do Clothes Speak?� Fashion, Culture, and Identity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. 1-18.

Davis, Fred. "Chapter Two: Identity, Ambivalence, Fashion�s Fuel.� Fashion, Culture, and Identity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. 19-30.

Goffman, Erving. �Introduction.� The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books, 1959. 1-16.

Gunn, Tim. "Introduction.� A Guide to Quality, Taste and Style. New York: Abrams, 2007. 11-31.

Hebdige, Dick. �Introduction: Subculture and Style.� Subculture: The Meaning of Style. London: Routledge, 1979. 1-4.

Hebdige, Dick. �Chapter One: From Culture to Hegemony.� Subculture: The Meaning of Style. London: Routledge, 1979. 5-19.

Hebdige, Dick. �Chapter 7: Style as Intentional Communication.� Subculture: The Meaning of Style. London: Routledge, 1979. 100-112.

Week Three: Cyberspace+Identity

Barlow, John Perry. �A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace.� Electronic Frontier Foundation. 8 Feb. 1996. 26 Mar. 2010. https://projects.eff.org/~barlow/Declaration-Final.html.

McHugh, Maureen. �A Coney Island of the Mind.� Isaac Asimov's Cyberdreams. Eds. Gardner Dozois and Shiela Williams. New YOrk, Ace Books, 1994. 83-90.

McHugh, Maureen. �Virtual Love.� Nebula Awards 30. Eds. Pamela Sargent. New YOrk, Harcourt Brace, 1996. 99-110.

The Mentor. �The Hacker Manifesto." Phrack. 8 Jan. 1986. 23 Mar. 2012. http://www.phrack.org/issues.html?issue=7&id=3&mode=txt.

Rheingold, Howard. �Introduction.� The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1993. 1-16.

Rheingold, Howard. �Chapter Five: Multi-User Dungeons and Alternate Identities.� The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1993. 145-1756

Turkle, Sherry. �Introduction: Identity in the Age of the Internet." Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995. 9-26.

Turkle, Sherry. �Chapter Seven: Aspects of the Self." Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995. 177-209.

Week Four: Cyberspace+Gender+Sexuality

Butler, Judith. �The Heterosexual Matrix in 'Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire.'" Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge, 1990. 42-44.

Dibbell, Julian. �A Rape in Cyberspace.� My Tiny Life: Crime and Passion in a Virtual World. New York: Owl Books, 1998. 11-30.

Halberstam, Judith. "Gender." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Eds. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler. New York: NYU Press, 2007. 116-120.

Somerville, Siobhan B. "Queer." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Eds. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler. New York: NYU Press, 2007. 187-191.

Stone, Allucquere Rosanne. �Introduction: Sex, Death, and Machinery, or How I Fell in Love with My Prosthesis.� The War of Desire and Technology at the End of the Mechanical Age. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995. 1-32.

Turing, Alan. �The Imitation Game in 'Computing Machinery and Intelligence.'� Mind. 65:236 (Oct. 1950): 433-435.

Week Five: Cyberspace+Race

Ferguson, Robert A. "Race." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Eds. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler. New York: NYU Press, 2007. 191-196.

Higgin, Tanner. "How I Use Leeroy Jenkins to Teach Race in Videogames." Gaming the System. 17 Sep. 2009. http://www.tannerhiggin.com/how-i-use-leeroy-jenkins-to-teach-race-in-videogames/.

Jenkins, Henry. �Cyberspace and Race.� Technology Review. Apr. 2002. 23 Sep. 2006. http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=12797.

Nakamura, Lisa. "Chapter Three: Race in the Construct." Cybertypes: Race, Ethnicity, and Identity on the Internet. New York: Routledge, 2002. 61-85.

Week Six: Posthumanism+Identity

Doctorow, Cory. �0wnz0red.� A Place So Foreign and 8 More. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 2003. 208-243.

Foster, Thomas. �Introduction: Cyberpunk's Posthuman Afterlife.� The Souls of Cyberfolk: Posthumanism as Vernacular Theory. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2005. xi-xxix.

Hayles, N. Katherine. �Chapter One: Toward Embodied Virtuality.� How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. 1-24.

�The Transhumanist Declaration.� World Transhumanist Association. 23 Mar. 2012. http://transhumanism.org/resources/TenQuestions.pdf.

"Transhumanist FAQ." Extropy Institute. 23 Mar. 2012. http://www.extropy.org/faq.htm.

Wolfe, Cary. �Introduction: What is Posthumanism?� What is Posthumanism?. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2010. xi-xxxiv.

Week Seven: Posthumanism+Gender+Sexuality

Haraway, Donna. �A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century.� Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge, 1991. 149-182.

Stone, Sandy. �The Empire Strikes Back.� The Transgender Studies Reader Eds. Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle. New York: Routledge, 2006. 221-235.

Stryker, Susan. �(De)Subjugated Knowledges: An Introduction to Transgender Studies.� The Transgender Studies Reader Eds. Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle. New York: Routledge, 2006. 1-18.

Week Eight: Posthumanism+Race

DuBois, W.E.B. �Of Our Spiritual Strivings.� The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Dover, 1994. 1-8.

Foster, Thomas. �Chapter Five: The Souls of Cyberfolk: Performativity, Virtual Embodiment, and Racial Histories.� The Souls of Cyberfolk: Posthumanism as Vernacular Theory. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2005. 137-170.

Gibson, William. �Johnny Mnemonic." Burning Chrome. New York: Ace Books, 1987. 1-22.

Gilroy, Paul. �Introduction." Against Race: Imagining Political Culture Beyond the Color Line. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press, 2000. 1-8.

Gilroy, Paul. �Chapter One: The Crisis of �Race� and Raciology.� Against Race: Imagining Political Culture Beyond the Color Line. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press, 2000. 11-53.

Week Nine: Identity+Politics

Alcoff, Linda Mart�n. �The Political Critique of Identity.� Articles. Linda Mart�n Alcoff's Website. 22 Mar. 2012. http://www.alcoff.com/content/chap2polcri.html.

Alcoff, Linda Mart�n. �Who�s Afraid of Identity Politics?� Articles. Linda Mart�n Alcoff's Website. 22 Mar. 2012. http://www.alcoff.com/content/afraidid.html.

Althusser, Louis. "Ideology Interpellates Individuals as Subjects in 'Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses.'" Marxists Internet Archive. April 1970. 22 Mar. 2012. http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/1970/ideology.htm.

Clifford, James. �Taking Identity Politics Seriously.� Without Guarantees: Essays in Honour of Stuart Hall. Eds. Paul Gilroy, Lawrence Grossberg, and Angela McRobbie. London: Verso, 2000: 94-112.

Munoz, Jose Esteban. �Introduction: Performing Disidentifications.� Disidentifications: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1999. 1-34.

Week Ten: Identity+Games

Galloway, Alexander. �Chapter Three: Social Realism.� Gamer: Essays on Algorithmic Culture. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2006. 70-84.

McGonigal, Jane. �Growing Up Gamer." AvantGame. Sep. 2008. 22 Mar. 2012. http://www.avantgame.com/growing_up_gamer_mcgonigal_sept2008.pdf.

Nardi, Bonnie. �Chapter Eight: Gender.� My Life as a Night Elf Priest: An Anthropological Account of World of Warcraft. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2010. 152-175.

Waggoner, Zach. �Chapter One: Videogames, Avatars, and Identity: A Brief History.� My Avatar, My Self: Identity in Video Role-Playing Games. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009. 3-20.

Week Eleven: Identity+Gamification

Bogost, Ian. "Exploitationware." Gamasutra. 3 May 2011. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6366/persuasive_games_exploitationware.php.

Bogost, Ian. "Gamification is Bullshit." 8 Aug. 2011. http://www.bogost.com/blog/gamification_is_bullshit.shtml.

Gamification Wiki. 15 Jun. 2012. http://gamification.org/.

McGonigal, Jane. "Introduction." Reality is Broken: How Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. New York: The Penguin Press, 2011. 1-15.

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