As discussion leader, your responsibilities are to come prepared with thoughts, questions, and ideas for the class to discuss related to the readings for that day. Discussions are tricky things–its hard to predict what will cause a lively discussion. What I’m expecting, though, is that you will have spent some extra time thinking about the readings for that day and that you will have a handful of questions/ideas to facilitate the discussion. You should plan for discussion to be about 30-45 minutes long, (and although I’m happy to chime in, ideally I’d like to speak very little during this time.) In general, the goal for each discussion, and the entire course, is to have a better understanding of how writing and migration work together. How can you help us do that?
Here are some specific things you could do to lead class discussion. (You don’t have to do all or any of them. This is just a guide. Feel free to think outside the box):
Share–Tell us about your own response to the reading. What surprised you, intrigued you, or disturbed you about the topic, the writing, or the author? Why?
Teach–Were there any terms, concepts, ideas, or strategies in the reading that stood out to you? What were they and why are they important to understanding our course’s larger questions?
Interact–Ask the class to write in their blogs about a particular topic, share an experience, or do an activity related to the day’s readings.
Show and Tell–Did this reading make you think of another piece of writing or artifact that you’ve come across in your life? How does the reading help you understand it better. Show us and tell us about it.
Debate–What opinions about the author, the essay, or the concepts did you form as a result of the reading. Would others agree?
Question–What do you still want to know more about? What confuses you? What would you like your classmates’ take on?
SCHEDULE
Week 2: Rhetoric and Economics: Monday 1/27: Read: Syllabus; “Lanham: Stuff and Fluff”
Jakob
Kara
Week 3: what is money?: Monday 2/3: Read: Zelizer, “Payments and Social Ties”
Matthew
Julia
Week 4: economics and education: Monday 2/10: Read: Bourdieu, “The Forms of Capital”
Sam Eberhardt
Melissa
Week 5: economics and education (cont’d): Monday 2/17: Read: Mc Millan Cottom, “Introduction: The Education Gospel”
Maria
Aileen
Week 6: Labor in the information Economy: Monday 2/24: Read: Gregg, “On Friday Night Drinks: Workplace Affects in the Age of the Cubicle”
Sean
Olive
Week 7: Writing as Labor: Monday 3/2: Read: Brandt, “Writing for a Living”
Kyri
Nina
Week 8: Hidden Labor: Monday 3/9: Read: Read Nakamura, “The Unwanted Labor of Social Media: Women of Color Call out Culture as Venture Community Management” AND Gregg, “Working from Home: The Mobile Office and the Seduction of Convenience”
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Christian
Week 11: Peer Networks and Publics, Monday 3/30: Read: Benkler, “Introduction: An Opportunity of Opportunity and Challenge”
Alexis
Ian
Week 12: Intellectual Property, Monday 4/6: Read: Lanquintano, “Manufacturing Scarcity: Online Poker, Digital Writing, and the Flow of Intellectual Property” OR Read Hess, “Was Foucault a Plagiarist? Hip-hop Sampling and Academic Citation”
Stephen
Sam Keller
Week 13: Digital Circulation
Monday 4/13; Read: Laquintano and Vee, “How Automated Writing Systems Affect the Circulation of Political Information Online”
Adrienne
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ENGL 245: Writing and Money 