semesterproject

Women’s Studies 203 Semester Project “What Would X Say?” Analysis Project This semester, for this course, most of your intellectual energy and weekly workload will be concentrated on doing the assigned readings, preparing to discuss those readings and apply them to new texts each week, and applying the ideas, concepts, and frameworks from those readings to a new “artifact” (any item of popular culture) of your choosing. Your semester project will be an ongoing and continually developing analysis of that same, self-selected artifact using at least 10 of the 15 assigned scholarly articles in the course. We will be talking more about this project each week, but will begin working on it in earnest in week 3, at the point you select the pop culture artifact that you want to use for your semester project. Project Goals: ·  To demonstrate your understanding of course readings ·  To demonstrate your command of the course objectives, skills, and learning goals ·  To apply all course knowledge to a new pop culture artifact of your choice Project Platform: Wikispaces. A wiki is a website that you and others can edit. You will join our class wiki, create an account, and use the page to produce your semester project, a document you can edit throughout the semester (including previous entries) before “submitting” (finalizing) your polished version for a grade at the end of the semester. The wiki text will serve both to help you document your understanding of the readings we do each week (though there will be some flexibility in your ability to choose which of the readings you want to make part of your semester project), and show your ability to apply those ideas based on our week’s discussion and your interpretation of the essay or article to a new artifact. · Step 1: Sign up for your wiki account at our class wiki page: http://wom203.wikispaces.com/. You should not only create an “account” at wikispaces, but visit the specific link above, click on “join this space” in the left-hand navigation menu, and confirm your registration via email (you will receive a confirmation). I will set up a page for each student on this webpage: http://wom203.wikispaces.com/studentpages. This is the place you will type your analysis each week. · Step 2:  Think //carefully// about the pop culture artifact that you would like to use as the subject of your semester project. Remember, the key task you will engage in is //applying// the ideas and concepts from 10 of the 15 readings (so 2/3 of the week each semester, you will need to post an entry to your semester project by that Sunday night at 11:59 p.m.). You will want to be sure you have picked an item that lends itself to multiple, rich interpretations, and one that you will not be tired of by the end of the semester. · Step 3: Think each week about the readings, being sure you are prepared for class discussion with questions, comments, and interpretations. Once you are sure you have a clear understanding of the reading and you decide you want to write about the ideas in that text, carefully prepare your response and post it to your wiki page before Sunday night at 11:59 p.m. ·  Step 4: Make smart choices about routinely determining whether you want to write in a given week about the particular article we have read. If there’s a particularly appropriate and relevant piece that might shed interesting light on your artifact, then it would behoove you to make it a priority to work on your entry that week. If the reading that week challenges, illuminates, or relates in an interesting way to your artifact, make sure to post your entry by Sunday night. If it’s not at all relevant, don’t write about it. If it’s tangentially relevant or irrelevant in an interesting way, then by all means write about that! · Step 5:  Feel free to return to earlier entries throughout the semester to edit, change, or update them based on new learning and thinking you do. I fully expect you to come to new understandings the further we get into the course material and would encourage you to reflect that changing understanding in your final, polished document. Other Logistics: ·  A wiki has a function called “monitor this page.” You can access this by clicking on the left-hand navigation menu link “Manage Wiki.” Click on “Tools” and then on “Notifications.” You will receive an email every time someone edits the site. I will have this feature engaged so that each week when students post their entry, I will receive an email with a copy of the changes/additions. This will give me an opportunity to send you a quick note, indicating I have seen it and give you credit for your submission, and/or to respond with suggestions, ideas, or questions that arise as the semester progresses. · What your analysis should look like: o  On weeks that you decide to write an entry for your semester project, you will need to post it to your wiki page by Sunday at 11:59 p.m. The focus of your entry should be applying the ideas, concepts, arguments, or frameworks from the week’s article to the pop culture artifact you have selected for your project. This could look a lot of different ways---but the easiest way might be simply to think to yourself “What would X [“X” being the author of the week’s article(s)] say about my pop culture artifact?” This will require some considerable skills in the area of imagination, empathy, analysis, and inquiry, so I will be looking at your development over the course of the semester in those areas. o  Each entry should be approximately 400-500 words. It should demonstrate your understanding of the reading, your ability to apply it to a new text, and your ability to write in a clear, engaging, academically formal style. You should use lots of specific examples from the reading, documenting them in MLA Style (including using quotation marks around direct quotes and parenthetical citations with page numbers). This is a //formal, academic assignment and your tone, style, diction, and content should reflect that formality//. o  Your final, polished project will demonstrate your command of the course objectives listed in the syllabus, particularly your familiarity with the key debates and approaches in pop culture studies and your ability to critically analyze new and familiar forms of popular culture. //__ You must choose to write an analysis using at least TEN of the following texts that we will read for the semester:   __// // 1. // Allan Johnson, “Where Are We?” from //The Gender Knot: Unraveling our Patriarchal Legacy//  2. “Producing Girls: Rethinking the Study of Female Youth Culture,” Mary Celeste Kearney, from //Delinquents and Debutantes: Twentieth Century American Girl Cultures//  3. Parsons, Linda. “Ella Evolving: Cinderella Stories and the Construction of Gender-Appropriate Behavior”  4. Do Rozario, Rebecca-Anne. “The Princess and the Magic Kingdom: Beyond Nostalgia, the Function of the Disney Princess” from //Women’s Studies in Communication//  5. Hassel, Holly. “Susan Murphy, Ginormica, and Gloria Steinem: Feminist Consciousness-Raising as Science Fiction in //Monsters vs. Aliens”// forthcoming in //To Infinity and Beyond: To Infinity and Beyond: Science Fiction in Children's Film and Television.// <span style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; msobidifontfamily: Calibri; msobidifontweight: bold; msobidithemefont: minor-latin; msolist: Ignore;"> 6. Hager, Lisa, “Saving the World Before Bedtime”: The Powerpuff Girls, Citizenship, and the Little Girl Superhero, (from //Children’s Literature Association// journal) <span style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; msobidifontfamily: Calibri; msobidifontweight: bold; msobidithemefont: minor-latin; msolist: Ignore;"> 7. Schrum, Kelly. “Teena Means Business: Teenage Girls’ Culture and //Seventeen Magazine//,” from //Delinquents and Debutantes: Twentieth Century American Girl Cultures// 8.  Brumberg, Joan. “Sanitizing Puberty: The American Way to Menstruate.” Chapter Two of //The Body Project: an Intimate History of American Girls//.” <span style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; msobidifontfamily: Calibri; msobidifontweight: bold; msobidithemefont: minor-latin; msolist: Ignore;"> 9. Elizabeth Heilman and Trevor Donaldson, “From Sexist to (Sort of) Feminist: representations of Gender in the Harry Potter Series,” in //Critical Perspectives on Harry Potter// <span style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; msobidifontfamily: Calibri; msobidifontweight: bold; msobidithemefont: minor-latin; msolist: Ignore;"> 10. Jack Zipes, “The Phenomenon of Harry Potter, or Why All the Talk?” from //Sticks and Stones// <span style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; msobidifontfamily: Calibri; msobidithemefont: minor-latin; msolist: Ignore;"> 11. Beavis, Catherine and Claire Charles, “Challenging Notions of Gendered Game Play: Teenagers Playing The Sims” <span style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; msobidifontfamily: Calibri; msobidithemefont: minor-latin; msolist: Ignore;"> 12. Inness, Sherrie “Anti-Barbies: The American Girls collection and Political Ideologies” from //Delinquents and Debutantes// <span style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; msobidifontfamily: Calibri; msobidithemefont: minor-latin; msolist: Ignore;"> 13. Inness, Sherrie. “It’s a Girl Thing: Tough Female Action figures in the Toy Store,” from //Action Chicks// //<span style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; msobidifontfamily: Calibri; msobidithemefont: minor-latin; msolist: Ignore;"> 14. // Gaunt, Kyra. “Introduction” and “Chapter 7: Let a Woman Jump” from //The Games Black Girls Play// //<span style="font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; msobidifontfamily: Calibri; msobidithemefont: minor-latin; msolist: Ignore;"> 15. // Lamb, Sharon and Lyn Mikel Brown, “Ch. 1: Pretty in Pink: What Girls Wear,” from //Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing our Daughters from Marketers’ Schemes.// Project Grade Breakdown: This project is an ongoing one that requires your attention and effort throughout the semester but also allows you some autonomy in determining how/when you complete it (as far as which of the 10 readings you select). · 20%:  Submissions in a timely fashion, responses to feedback from instructor: Part of the project grade is based on your submitting your entry on your wiki page by Sunday night the week we discuss the reading. Entries submitted after Sunday night will not receive credit for this part of the grade (for example, if you wait until the end of the semester to go back and write about an essay we read during week 6). <span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; msobidifontfamily: Symbol; msofareastfontfamily: Symbol; msolist: Ignore;">· 20%: self-assessment and peer assessment; at the end of the semester, once your project has been completed, I will provide an additional assignment asking you to assess the quality of your final product using a rubric with criteria. · 35%:  quality of final project, assessed at the end of the semester; see the project rubric/assessment handout for a description of the criteria I will use to evaluate your work.