Assignments

Critical Essay & Episode Discussion Curation -- You will be a required to sign up in small groups to curate an online discussion during the course of the term. For your discussion, you will watch the episodes assigned for a particular week, particularly your assigned episode, articulate two or three main points from the week's scholarly text (as assigned), generate two or three critical questions connecting the texts, and facilitate an online discussion for the week.

Weekly Synthesis Essays -- You will be required to write two to three formal papers, each 4-6 pages in length, that engage and connect the week's episodes and the theoretical and scholarly texts of the class. Papers will be collected at the end of each week. You must complete a minimum of two papers to a maximum of three. Weekly Synthesis Essays will be submitted via Canvas.

Critical Approaches to Buffy Critical Review -- a 500-600 word analytical review of a text you would think could be or should be included in our class. You must have your text approved by the instructor before completing the assignment. Critical Reviews are due by the last day of instruction and will be posted to the class blog.

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 receive 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.

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

What is Close Reading?

Readings & Episodes

Course readings (in PDF format) are available via the course Canvas. The following is a bibliographical list of each week's episodes and readings:

Week 1 Read: Aultman, B. "Cisgender." Postposttranssexual: Key Concepts for a 21st Century Transgender Studies. Spec. issue of TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 1.1-2 (2014) 61-62. Halberstam, Judith. "Gender." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Eds. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler. New York: NYU Press, 2007. 116-120. Jenkins, Henry. "Introduction: Confessions of an Aca/Fan." Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture. New York: New York University Press, 2006. 1-8. Jenkins, Henry. "Excerpts from 'Matt Hills Interviews Henry Jenkins.'" Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture. New York: New York University Press, 2006. 9-36. Jowett, Lorna. "Introduction." Sex and the Slayer: A Gender Studies Primer for the Buffy Fan. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2005. 1-17. Lipsitz, George. "The Case for Studying Popular Culture." Major Problems in American Popular Culture. Eds. Kathleen Franz and Susan Smulyan. Boston: Wadsworth, Cenage Learning, 2012. 3-9. Whedon, Joss. "On Strong Women Characters." Genius. 2006. 26 Sep. 2015. http://genius.com/Joss-whedon-on-strong-women-characters-annotated. Wilcox, “Much Ado About Joss Whedon” & “Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Reading Joss Whedon. Eds. Rhonda V. Wilcox, Tanya R. Cochran, Cynthea Masson, and David Lavery. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2014. 1-21. Williams, Cristan. "Transgender." Postposttranssexual: Key Concepts for a 21st Century Transgender Studies. Spec. issue of TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 1.1-2 (2014) 232-234. Print. Watch: "Welcome to the Hellmouth." Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Season 1, Episode 1. FOX, 1997. "Teacher's Pet." Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Season 1, Episode 4. FOX, 1997. "Lie to Me." Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Season 2, Episode 7. FOX, 1997. "Passion." Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Season 2, Episode 17. FOX, 1998. Week 2 Read: Jowett, Lorna. "Buffy, Dark Romance, and Female Horror Fans." Fan Phenomena: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Ed. Jennifer K. Stuller. Chicago: Intellect Books, 2013. 90-100. Jowett, Lorna. "Tough Guys" & "New Men." Sex and the Slayer: A Gender Studies Primer for the Buffy Fan. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2005. 95-143. McCracken, Allison. "At Stake: Angel's Body, Fantasy Masculinity, and Queer Desire in Teen Television." Undead TV: Essays on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.Eds. Elana Levine and Lisa Parks. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007. 116-144. Mendlesohn, Farah. "Surpassing the Love of Vampires; or, Why (and How) a Queer Reading of the Buffy/Willow Relationship Is Denied." Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Eds. Rhonda V. Wilcox and David Lavery. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002. 45-60. Mukherjea, Ananya. "'It's Like Some Primal, Some Animal Force...That Used to be Us': Animality, Humanity, and Moral Careers in the Buffyverse." Reading Joss Whedon. Eds. Rhonda V. Wilcox, Tanya R. Cochran, Cynthea Masson, and David Lavery. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2014. 53-69. Pender, Patricia. "'I'm Buffy, and You're...History': The Postmodern Politics of Buffy." Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Eds. Rhonda V. Wilcox and David Lavery. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002. 35-44. Somerville, Siobhan B. "Queer." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Eds. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler. New York: NYU Press, 2007. 187-191. Watch: "Band Candy." Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Season 3, Episode 6. FOX, 1998. "The Wish." Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Season 3, Episode 9. FOX, 1998. "Gingerbread." Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Season 3, Episode 11. FOX, 1999. "The Zeppo." Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Season 3, Episode 13. FOX, 1999. Week 3 Read: Ferguson, Robert A. "Race." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Eds. Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler. New York: NYU Press, 2007. 191-196. Fuchs, Cynthia. "'Did Anyone Ever Explain to You What 'Secret Identity' Means?' Race and Displacement in Buffy and Dark Angel." Undead TV: Essays on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Eds. Elana Levine and Lisa Parks. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007. 96-115. McAvan, Em. "'I Think I’m Kinda Gay’: Willow Rosenberg and the Absent/Present Bisexual in Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Salvage 6.4 (Summer 2007). http://www.whedonstudies.tv/uploads/2/6/2/8/26288593/mcavan_slayage_6.4.pdf. Web. Ono, Kent A. "To Be a Vampire on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Race and ("Other") Socially Marginalizing Positions on Horror TV." Fantasy Girls: Gender in the New Universe of Science Fiction and Fantasy Television. Ed. Elyce Rae Helford. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000. 163-186. Overbey, Karen Eileen and Lahney Preston-Matto. "Staking in Tongues: Speech Act as Weapon in Buffy." Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Eds. Rhonda V. Wilcox and David Lavery. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002. 73-84. Spaise, Terry L. “Necrophilia and SM: The Deviant Side of Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Journal of Popular Culture. 38.4 (May 2005): 744-762. Watch: "Dopplegangland." Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Season 3, Episode 16. FOX, 1999. "Hush." Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Season 4, Episode 10. FOX, 1999. "Restless." Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Season 4, Episode 22. FOX, 2000. "Fool for Love." Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Season 5, Episode 7. FOX, 2000. Week 4 Read: Berlatsky, Noah. "What Joss Whedon Gets Wrong About the Word 'Feminist,'" 8 Nov. 2013. 26 Sep. 2015. http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/11/what-joss-whedon-gets-wrong-about-the-word-feminist/281305/ Dries, Kate. "Watch Joss Whedon Make a Perfect Speech About the Word Feminist." 7 Nov. 2013. 26 Sep. 2015. http://jezebel.com/watch-joss-whedon-make-the-perfect-speech-about-the-wor-1460080685. Early, Frances H. "Staking Her Claim: Buffy the Vampire Slayer as Transgressive Woman Warrior." Journal of Popular Culture. 35.3 (Winter 2001): 11-27. Schultz, Lauren. "'Hot Chicks with Superpowers: The Contested Feminism of Joss Whedon." Reading Joss Whedon. Eds. Rhonda V. Wilcox, Tanya R. Cochran, Cynthea Masson, and David Lavery. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2014. 356-370. Watch: "The Body." Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Season 5, Episode 16. FOX, 2001. "Once More With Feeling." Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Season 6, Episode 7. FOX, 2001. "Conversations with Dead People." Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Season 7, Episode 7. FOX, 2002. "Chosen." Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Season 7, Episode 22. FOX, 2003. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Dir. Joss Whedon. Perf. Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, Felicia Day. Time Science Blood Club, 2008.

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