ENGL 200 D: Reading Literary Forms

ENGL 200 D: Reading Literary Forms

Contemporary Narratives of Madness:
On Diagnosis, Confinement, and Resistance

(Winona Ryder in Girl, Interrupted [1999] dir. by James Mangold)

 

Lecturer: Dr. Daniel Xavier Elliot Roberts (he/him)

Office Hours: Virtual, Wednesdays from 11-1

Classroom: Meets on Zoom (link below)

Meets: T/Th 2:30-4:20

Email: derob@uw.edu

Zoom Link and Meeting ID (use for class and office hours):
https://washington.zoom.us/j/2067398399

206 739 8399

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Welcome to English 200 D, Reading Literary Forms! In this course we will be exploring and learning to analyze different forms of literature-–from poetry, to prose, to film-–all collected around our theme: Contemporary Narratives of Madness: On Diagnosis, Confinement, and Resistance. As the title suggests, our course texts this quarter traverse narratives about people who at times (or perpetually) experience nonnormative emotional and psychological events or ways of being. These people sometimes identify as MMIND (mad, mentally ill, or neurodivergent), but madness can also be understood relationally. Engaging with literature as theory and theory as literature, we will trace the political legacies and ethics of mental health diagnosis, confinement, and resistance. Our course will explore contemporary narratives about MMIND where they converge with other forms of cultural identification, including gender, Indigeneity, race, and sexuality.

 

As this is a writing intensive class that fulfills the “W” requirement, you will have two formal essays due this quarter, each with a first and final draft. You will also be asked to complete a series of informal Question/Answer papers over the assigned readings and viewings. Though this is specifically a literature and culture course, our emphasis on composition will help you to build highly adaptable rhetorical skills that you can draw on in future writing situations.

 

REQUIRED MATERIALS

Please note that I will provide you PDFs or epubs of any assigned readings not shown below. These will be posted on the Files page of our Canvas site and in the weekly modules. You will need to purchase or otherwise acquire the materials below. Most of the below are available to purchase as eBooks, though Sympathetic Little Monster is only available in print. Print copies of the books below will be available close to the start of the quarter in the University Bookstore on the Ave. They can also be purchased elsewhere. 

• The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays by Esmé Weijun Wang. ISBN: 978-1555978273
• Girl, Interrupted (film), dir. by James Mangold
• Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy. ISBN: 978-0-449-00094-6
• Madness by sam sax. ISBN: 978-0143131700
• Sympathetic Little Monster by Cameron Awkward-Rich. ISBN: 978-1938900174
• Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson. ISBN: 978-0446675604
• A working webcam and microphone

 

ASSESSMENT

Essay One 1st Draft: 5%

Essay One Final Draft: 20%

Essay Two 1st Draft: 5%

Essay Two Final Draft: 20%

In-Class Participation: 25%

Q/A Papers (8 total due): 25%

 

Please note that the assignments are not weighted on Canvas, therefore you will need to calculate your grade using the above weight distribution. As I input assignment grades, Canvas will automatically compute your course grade according to the following scale.:

 

97% or higher: 4.0

95-96: 3.9

93-94: 3.8

92: 3.7

91: 3.6

90: 3.5

89: 3.4

88: 3.3

87: 3.2

86: 3.1

85: 3.0

84: 2.9

83: 2.8

82: 2.7

81: 2.6

80: 2.5

79: 2.4

78: 2.3

77: 2.2

76: 2.1

75: 2.0

74: 1.9

73: 1.8

72: 1.7

71: 1.6

70: 1.5

69: 1.4

68: 1.3

67: 1.2

66: 1.1

65: 1.0

64% or lower: 0

 

NAVIGATING OUR COURSE CANVAS SITE

You can access our course Canvas site from your MyUW home page. The most important pages to keep up with on our course Canvas site are the Syllabus and the weekly Modules pages. 

• On the syllabus page you will find a course description, course policies, assignment descriptions, and our reading and assignment schedule (posted at the very end of the syllabus). This is where you should look to see what readings/viewings have been assigned and when assignments are due.
• On the modules page you can find everything you need for the week: file uploads of and/or links to required and suggested readings/viewings (those that you aren’t required to purchase or rent on your own) as well as assignment dropboxes.
• The announcements page is where I will send out important information about our course. If I am ever sick and have to cancel class, this is where I will post the notice. Make sure to sign up for email notifications from Canvas, and to check your email regularly.
• The files page is where you can find files of some of the required and suggested readings and viewings. Some readings and viewings will not be posted to the files page, but can instead can be found as links in the weekly modules. The files page is also where I will post assignment prompts, and copies of lecture slides and handouts distributed in class. 
• The assignments page is another place for you to access the assignment dropboxes where you will turn in assignments. All assignment dropboxes will also be posted in their corresponding weekly modules.

 

EXPECTATIONS FOR VIRTUAL LEARNING
As we will be meeting online this quarter, I want to communicate my expectations for virtual learning. You will need access to a laptop or tablet that will allow you to access our class via Zoom, a working microphone and webcam, and a place to Zoom in from, from which you feel comfortable participating in verbal discussions. I ask that everyone keeps their webcams on during class to help us to feel connected to each other as a community of learners, and to help keep everyone on task and accountable. If you are uncomfortable with having your camera on, you may be able to secure an off-camera accommodation through DRS. Our Zoom class will have many of the same features of in-person classes, but will primarily be a discussion-based class, so it is important that you work to find a way to feel comfortable sharing your ideas, insights, and questions with the class. Please do what you can to minimize distractions around you during our class time.

ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTIONS 

Q/A Papers (250-350 words): Due to Canvas by 11:59 pm the night before we discuss the reading or viewing in class. Throughout the quarter you are required to submit 8 weekly Q/A papers (which means you can miss two weeks). You may select which weeks/days to contribute, but you must submit your paper by 11:59 pm the night before we discuss that reading or viewing in class. Each Q/A paper must engage with the film or reading we will be discussing in class the following day. Your Q/A paper should cite directly from this film or the assigned reading, and include timestamps or page numbers where the passages appear whenever possible. You can only submit one Q/A paper per week. 

Your Q/A papers should open with a critical question you have about the assigned reading for the day. Some possible models of questions include:

• What is the relationship between A and B (according to the reading and to me)?
• How does this text invite us to think about X and why is this significant?
• What are the stakes of Z? 
• How can we use this text to help us understand X [current event]?

These are only a few examples--you can shape your questions however you see fit. In responding to your question (or seeking to "answer" it) you should turn to, and incorporate, evidence from the reading or viewing while responding to them with your own perspective. You do not need to arrive at a thesis by the end of your paper--the purpose of these papers is to help prepare you for class discussion, and provide you low-stakes opportunities to practice cultural analysis, and test your ideas out on paper. You may revise and extend the questions you pursue in these papers in your formal essays and projects, but you do not have to. 

Q/A papers will receive a completion grade. If your paper does not meet the required word count, does not engage with direct quotations from the text, or is not primarily focused on the assigned film or reading for that day, you will lose points. You will not receive written feedback from me on these posts. If you plan to extend an analysis from one of your Q/A papers into one of your Major Essays, please come to my office hours for verbal feedback.

 

Major Essays:

This quarter you will write two 5-7 (full) page essays that analyze and make an argument about one of the books (or films) we will be reading/viewing this quarter. Because this is a “W” course, each essay will have a first (rough) draft and a final draft. You will receive feedback from me and ideally a peer on your rough drafts. I will also give you written feedback on your final drafts. Your rough drafts will be given a completion grade, while your final drafts will receive a formal grade from me (on the GPA scale). 

 

Participation: 

Because this is a discussion-based literature class, your participation is vital. You will receive participation points for participating in large class discussions, small group discussions, completing peer review for both essays, and completing informal assignments. If there is anything I can do to make you feel more comfortable participating in our class discussions, please communicate this to me in your Get to Know You/Accessibility Survey. Regular absences will affect your participation grade, as you will not be there to contribute to class discussions. If you miss class due to health issues or other personal emergencies, please get in touch with me so we can discuss alternate ways for you to make up lost participation points. That said, there is no good substitute for class discussion.

NOTES ON CONTENT/TRIGGER WARNINGS
Many of our course texts contain disturbing material that relates to systemic and interpersonal violence of different kinds (ableist, racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, and more). Depending on your own proximity to systemic violence and whatever other factors, you will likely find some of this material difficult to cover. I have created a “Content Warning” guide for our readings and viewings this quarter that can be found in Canvas>Files>Assigned Readings. Keep in mind that this document will include some spoilers for the texts we will be engaging with. However, sometimes spoilers are worth knowing when a trigger might be coming. 

I will remind you repeatedly throughout the quarter to do what you need to take care of your needs as they arise. This might mean leaving class in the middle of a difficult discussion, closing the book you’re reading and turning your attention to something that brings you pleasure--generally using whatever coping and self care mechanisms you find useful. This may mean you will opt not to come to class on a given day. I trust you all to be in touch with your needs the best you can, and be compassionate to yourselves as we work through the difficulties of these texts and social problems together, as well as the richly generative alternatives to existing social structures they offer. If you find it too difficult to work with one of our course texts, please let me know so I can arrange an alternative assignment for you.

 

LATE WORK POLICY

If you feel that you may not be able to get an assignment in on time, please contact me immediately, preferably no less than 24 hours before the deadline. If you have a legitimate reason for submitting work late, I am happy to work with you to arrange a new deadline. Keep in mind that if you submit your essays late, peer review will be affected. You may not be assigned an essay to peer review (in which case you will lose those participation points), and you may not receive peer feedback on your essay. This is true whether or not we work out an alternate deadline for the assignment. All work submitted late without my approval will be subject to a point deduction of 5% for each day that it is late. Additionally, after you submit a late assignment you must notify me via email so I know to give you feedback on the assignment, assign you an essay to peer review, and someone to peer review your essay if possible,

CONTACTING ME
The best way to get in touch with me is to send me an email at derob@uw.edu. I aim to respond to emails within 24 hours of receiving them during the week, and within 48 hours on the weekend. Often I will reply more quickly. If I have not responded to your email in that time frame, please email me again—it is likely your email was buried in a host of others, and I did not see it. Just as I check my email several times a day, I expect you to check your email at least once a day, as this is how I will get in touch with you to communicate important information and announcements. Please make sure that you are also signed up to receive email notifications from Canvas.

 

ACCESSIBILITY CLAUSE
If you need accommodation of any sort please let me know so that I can work with the UW Disability Resources for Students Office (DRS) to provide what you require. The syllabus is available in large print as are other course materials. More information about accommodation may be found at http://www.washington.edu/students/drs Links to an external site.. Outside of documented needs for accommodation, I expect that we can and do all think, communicate, and process information differently. For this reason, I recognize that any class activity or course structure will accommodate each student differently. For example, you might best learn when you are given visual aids like powerpoints, graphs and/or handouts, and you might find class discussion tedious and difficult to focus on. Please begin thinking about your individual learning needs and communicate with me as soon as possible about how best this course can accommodate them.

 

RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATIONS

“Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at the Registrar’s website: https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy

Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form found here: https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/

 

STATEMENT ON SEX- AND GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE, HARASSMENT, AND DISCRIMINATION 

The UW, through numerous policies, prohibits sex- and gender-based violence, harassment, and discrimination and expects students, faculty, and staff to act professionally and respectfully in all work, learning, and research environments.

For support, resources, and reporting options related to sex- and gender-based violence, harassment, or discrimination, refer to the UW Title IX’s website, specifically the Know Your Rights & Resources guide. Should you wish to make the Office of the Office of the Title IX Coordinator aware of a Title IX concern, visit the Make a Title IX Report webpage. 

Please know that if you choose to disclose information to me about sex- or gender-based violence, harassment, or discrimination, I will connect you (or the person who experienced the conduct) with resources and individuals who can best provide support and options. You can also access additional resources directly:

You can request anonymous support, from SafeCampus 

You can request confidential support from a confidential advocate.

If you know you want to submit a formal complaint, contact the Civil Rights Investigation Office.

Please note that some senior leaders and other specified employees have been identified as Officials Required to Report. If an Official Required to Report learns of possible sex- or gender-based violence, harassment, or discrimination they are required to contact the Office of the Title IX Coordinator and report all the details they have in order to ensure that the person who experienced harm is offered support and reporting options.  

Relevant Websites

Title IX: uw.edu/titleix/

Survivor resources: uw.edu/titleix/survivor-resources/

Confidential advocates: uw.edu/sexualassault/support/advocacy/

SafeCampus: uw.edu/safecampus/

Officials Required to Report: uw.edu/titleix/employee-reporting-expectations/

Policies: uw.edu/titleix/policies/

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

The University of Washington Student Conduct Code (WAC 478-121) defines prohibited academic and behavioral conduct and describes how the University holds students accountable as they pursue their academic goals. Allegations of misconduct by students may be referred to the appropriate campus office for investigation and resolution. More information can be found online at https://www.washington.edu/studentconduct

Here's what you can do to cover yourself against plagiarism or collusion:

• At any stage of your writing, keep your drafts, notes, papers, and research materials. If a question of plagiarism arises, you'll have a paper trail ( paper trails protect you in a variety of academic, public, and work-related contexts)
• Don't use editing services or AI composition services like ChatGPT. Don't ask anyone, even family or friends, to edit your essays or help you write them. You need to do that work yourself.
• If you need additional help with your writing, contact the Odegaard Writing and Research Center, or the CLUE Writing Center, where trained professionals are there to help you without colluding in plagiarism.
• Last but not least, ask me if you have any questions about honesty.

 

DEPARTMENTAL COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND JUSTICE

The UW English Department aims to help students become more incisive thinkers, effective communicators, and imaginative writers by acknowledging that language and its use are powerful and hold the potential to empower individuals and communities; to provide the means to engage in meaningful conversation and collaboration across differences and with those with whom we disagree; and to offer methods for exploring, understanding, problem solving, and responding to the many pressing collective issues we face in our world--skills that align with and support the University of Washington’s mission to educate “a diverse student body to become responsible global citizens and future leaders through a challenging learning environment informed by cutting-edge scholarship.”

As a department, we begin with the conviction that language and texts play crucial roles in the constitution of cultures and communities, past, present, and future.  Our disciplinary commitments to the study of English (its history, multiplicity, and development; its literary and artistic uses; and its global role in shaping and changing cultures) require of us a willingness to engage openly and critically with questions of power and difference. As such, in our teaching, service, and scholarship we frequently initiate and encourage conversations about topics such as race and racism, immigration, gender, sexuality, class, indigeneity, and colonialisms. These topics are fundamental to the inquiry we pursue.  We are proud of this fact, and we are committed to creating an environment in which our faculty and students can do so confidently and securely, knowing that they have the backing of the department.

Towards that aim, we value the inherent dignity and uniqueness of individuals and communities. We acknowledge that our university is located on the shared lands and waters of the Coast Salish peoples. We aspire to be a place where human rights are respected and where any of us can seek support. This includes people of all ethnicities, faiths, gender identities, national and indigenous origins, political views, and citizenship status; nontheists; LGBQTIA+; those with disabilities; veterans; and anyone who has been targeted, abused, or disenfranchised.

 

STATEMENT ON NON-VERBALIZATION OF RACIAL SLURS AND THE N-WORD: CULTIVATING ANTIRACIST AND ANTICOLONIAL CLASSROOM COMMUNITIES

Over the past few months, students have written to the department chair, program directors, and more publicly about several incidents in which a white or non-Black English department instructor has verbalized the N-word as part of reading from or quoting a course text. BIPOC students in particular have shared their experience hearing the N-word read aloud in class and the alienation, harm, and lasting pain this has caused. As a department committed to antiracism and anticolonialism, we strive to cultivate supportive and productive classroom environments, and the verbalization of the N-word by white and non-Black faculty and students is harmful and pedagogically damaging. 

This is not a question of censorship or academic freedom. While our work requires at times that we engage with texts that use this language, either for historical, aesthetic, or political reasons, it also requires that we do so in a manner that does not harm our students. Thus, how we engage with such texts raises a question of power and what is given life and voice to, by whom, and when. It also raises a question of the kinds of emotional, intellectual, and welcoming spaces we create in our courses, and whether these spaces enable all of our students to learn. In the context of race and power, the verbalizing of the N-word and other racialized terms becomes experienced as slurs that not only harms students, especially students who disproportionately bear the weight and violence of the N-word's and other racist language’s history; it also significantly interrupts learning. BIPOC students repeatedly report that the verbalizing of racial slurs by white faculty and students harms them and their ability to learn in our classes. As importantly, the verbalizing of racial slurs keeps requiring of our students the exhausting need to speak up about and to explain to a predominantly white institution racist language’s harm, violence, and continued trauma. We cannot keep forcing our students to have to do this. 

There is a significant and consequential difference between reading slurs in a text and having the slurs verbalized aloud. In a text, they can be read and processed in one’s own voice. When verbalized, the slur is given life and voice, is energized, heard, embodied, and experienced in a public way that creates palpable harm. Especially if the slur is verbalized by a white instructor, its relation to power and violence is re-asserted, no matter how it might be framed. Also, and crucially, when verbalized rather than individually read, the slur is experienced in a public way. We have heard from BIPOC students about the feeling of alienation, exposure, and vulnerability this creates for them in predominantly white classrooms. 

A commitment to racial equity, to antiracist and anticolonial pedagogy, and to making our community one in which all students feel safe, welcome, supported, and can thrive starts by being attentive to the experiences of BIPOC students. It also requires attending to issues of power, racism, and whiteness embodied in the language we use and sanction. Attending to these issues should allow us to recognize the differences between our racial constitution through language and the ways that signifying practices can have liberating effects for BIPOC faculty and students, as Professor Vershawn Ashanti Young in “Banning the N-word on Campus Ain’t the Answer: It Censors Black Professors Like Me” explains. We call for an understanding of the complexity of Black language use by Black students and faculty, as Young and other scholars of Black language have articulated. We support Indigenous, Black, and students and faculty of color and will follow their lead in terms of what language they would like to use to speak of themselves, their experiences, and communities. 

Additionally and along with Professor Koritha Mitchell in “The N-Word in the Classroom: Just Say NO,” we acknowledge that giving embodied voice and life to the N-word and other racial slurs by white faculty and students directly undermines efforts to create a safe and broadly supportive learning environment. While we’re not advocating for a blanket prohibiting of the N-word as Mitchell suggests, we do oppose white and non-Black faculty and students’ use of the N-word, and agree that finding alternatives to verbalizing racial slurs (for example, saying “N” or “Ns” or simply pausing for students to read silently before reading on) does not diminish our and our students’ ability to engage in literary and cultural analysis of texts that include this language. Nor does it prevent us from addressing the historical contexts of racial and settler colonial violence, acknowledging their past and persistence. By finding alternatives, we affirm the necessity of cultivating supportive and productive classroom environments that are aligned with our antiracist and anticolonialist commitments.

 

CAMPUS RESOURCES

wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ – Intellectual House

Intellectual House is a longhouse-style facility on the UW Seattle campus. It provides a multi-service learning and gathering space for American Indian and Alaska Native students, faculty, and staff, as well as others from various cultures and communities to come together in a welcoming environment to share knowledge. https://www.washington.edu/diversity/tribal-relations/intellectual-house/

 

D Center

The D Center is the Disability and d/Deaf Cultural Center at the UW. The D Center is a space where students can study, organize, rest, and attend events and programs focusing on supporting and celebrating disability and D/deaf communities at the UW and beyond! It is located in the Husky Union Building--Room 327. https://depts.washington.edu/dcenter

 

Q Center

The University of Washington Q Center builds and facilitates queer (gay, lesbian, bisexual, two-spirit, trans, intersex, questioning, same-gender-loving, asexual, aromantic) academic and social community through education, advocacy, and support services to achieve a socially-just campus in which all people are valued. For more information, visit http://depts.washington.edu/qcenterLinks to an external site.

 

Odegaard Writing & Research Center

The Odegaard Writing and Research Center (OWRC) offers free, one-to-one, 45-minute tutoring sessions for undergraduate, graduate, and professional writers in all fields at the UW. We will work with writers on any writing or research project, as well as personal projects such as applications or personal statements. Our tutors and librarians collaborate with writers at any stage of the writing and research process, from brainstorming and identifying sources to drafting and making final revisions. For more information or to schedule an appointment, please see our website (http://depts.washington.edu/owrc) or come visit us in person on the first floor of Odegaard Undergraduate Library.

 

CLUE Writing Center

The CLUE is a drop-in writing and tutoring center open from 7pm-midnight all days except Friday and Saturday throughout the quarter. For more info, check out their website: http://depts.washington.edu/aspuw/clue/writing-center/

 

UW Counseling Center

The UW Counseling Center offers multiple options for students seeking help coping with stress and mental health concerns. Students who are currently enrolled in degree-seeking programs at the Seattle campus are eligible for our counseling services.

https://www.washington.edu/counseling

 

The UW Food Pantry

The UW Food Pantry provides food to students, staff, and faculty who are having a hard time putting food on their plate.  It could be the result of a short-term disruption in finances, a food desert in the local community, or a lack of access to other financial assistance. 

If you are making a choice between the food you need for a healthy life and other pressing priorities we call this experience food insecurity. We are here to relieve some of the stress of that experience.

https://www.washington.edu/anyhungryhusky/the-uw-food-pantry

 

Please note that there are food banks and food pantries located across the city of Seattle and surrounding areas. If you need access to food and are having trouble finding a food bank or pantry, please email me and I will connect you with a list.

 

READING AND ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE

Note: Readings and viewings should be completed by class time on the days they are posted. (ex. Read “Introducing Mad Studies” and “Roots of the Medical Industrial Complex” before class on 9/30). Readings that you are not required to purchase on your own will be posted to Canvas>Files>Readings. You are not required to complete suggested readings or viewings, but I will try to touch on them during lectures. The suggested sources are housed with the required readings for folks who want to learn more about a specific topic or do research for one of the major essays.

 

WEEK 0

Th 9/25

• Introductions

 

Sat 9/27

• Get to Know You / Accessibility Survey due to Canvas by 11:59 pm

 

WEEK 1

Week 1 Q/A Papers over Menzies et al and/or Page due 9/29 by 11:59 pm

T 9/30

• Menzies et al, “Introducing Mad Studies” from Mad Matters
• Page, “Roots of the Medical Industrial Complex” from Healing Justice Lineages
• Suggested: “Friends Make the Best Medicine” (zine) by the Icarus Project 

Week 1 Q/A Papers over Chapman et al and/or Dellar due 10/1 by 11:59 pm (remember you can only submit 1 Q/A paper per week)

Th 10/2

• Chapman et al, “Reconsidering Confinement: Interlocking Locations and Logics of Incarceration” from Disability Incarcerated. Access here
• Dellar, “Turning the Asylum into a Playground” from Mad Pride
• Suggested, Ben-Moshe, Decarcerating Disability: Deinstitutionalization and Prison Abolition. Access here

 

WEEK 2

Week 2 Q/A Papers over Wang due 10/6 by 11:59 pm

T 10/7

• Wang, selections from The Collected Schizophrenias: “Diagnosis,” “Toward a Pathology of the Possessed,” and “On the Ward”
• Corrgian, “Film Terms and Topics” from A Short Guide to Writing About Film

 

Week 2 Q/A Papers over Girl, Interrupted due 10/8 by 11:59 pm

Th 10/9

• Girl, Interrupted (1999) dir. by James Mangold
• Suggested: Kaysen, Girl, Interrupted (the memoir the film adapts)
• Suggested: Donaldson, “Revisiting the Corpus of the Madwoman”
• Suggested: Nicki, “The Abused Mind: Feminist Theory, Psychiatric Disability, and Trauma”
• Suggested: Mommy (2014) dir. by Xavier Dolan
• Suggested: Manic (2001) dir. by Jordan Melamed. Access here

WEEK 3

Week 3 Q/A Papers over Butler and/or Talty due 10/13 by 11:59 pm

T 10/14

• Butler, “The Evening and the Morning and the Night”
• Talty, “The Prepper” from Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology
• Suggested: Price, "Assaults on the Ivory Tower: Representations of Madness in the Discourse of U.S. School Shootings" from Mad at School: Rhetorics of Mental Disability and Academic Life

 

Week 3 Q/A Papers over Piercy (chpt 1-5) due 10/15 by 11:59 pm

Th 10/16

• Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time (chpt 1 thru 5)

 

Sat 10/18

• Close Reading Exercise due to Canvas by 11:59 pm
  
  

 

WEEK 4

Week 4 Q/A Papers over Piercy (chpt 6-9) due 10/20 by 11:59 pm

T 10/21

• Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time (chpt 6 thru 9)

 

Week 4 Q/A Papers over Piercy (chpt 10-14) due 10/22 by 11:59 pm

Th 10/23

• Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time (chpt 10 thru 14)

 

Sat 10/25

• Essay One 1st Draft due to Canvas by 11:59 pm
  
  

 

WEEK 5

Week 5 Q/A Papers over Piercy (chpt 15-end) due 10/27 by 11:59 pm

T 10/28

• Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time (chpt 15 thru end)
• Suggested: Kafer, “Debating Feminist Futures: Slippery Slopes, Cultural Anxiety, and the Case of Deaf Lesbians” from Feminist Queer Crip. Access here

• Peer Review of Essay One due to Canvas by 11:59 pm

 

Week 5 Q/A Papers over Ben-Moshe, Page and Woodland, and/or Woodland due 10/29 by 11:59 pm

Th 10/30

• Ben-Moshe, “Alternatives to (Disability) Incarceration” from Disability Incarcerated. Access here
• Page and Woodland “Healing Justice: Movements and Political Frameworks” from Healing Justice Lineages
• Woodland, “Building the World We Want and Deserve: Sites of Practice in California” from Healing Justice Lineages
• Suggested: Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement. Access here

 

WEEK 6

Week 6 Q/A Papers over Clare due 11/3 by 11:59 pm

T 11/4

• Clare, selections from Brilliant Imperfection: "Intro," "Violence of Cure," and "Nuances of Cure." Access here
• Suggested: Washington, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present. Access here 
• Suggested: Metzl, The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease. Access here

 

Week 6 Q/A Papers over Tom and/or Robertson due 11/5 by 11:59 pm

Th 11/6

• Class canceled due to technical issues

Sun 11/9

Essay One Final Draft due by 11:59 pm

 

WEEK 7

T 11/11

• CLASS CANCELED FOR HOLIDAY

 

Week 7 Q/A Papers over sax due 11/12 by 11:59 pm

Th 11/13

• Tom, "Nameless" from Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction
• Robertson, “Eloise” from Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction
• Suggested: Tam, “Whither Indigenizing the Mad Movement?: Theorizing the Social Relations of Race and Madness through Conviviality” from Mad Matters
• Suggested: Strength of Our Roots: Indigenous Approaches to Mental Health: Access here
• Suggested: Elliott, A Mind Spread Out on the Ground. Access here 
• Suggested: Mailhot, Heart Berries
  

WEEK 8

Week 8 Q/A Papers over Madness due 11/17 by 11:59 pm

T 11/18

• sax, Madness

 

Week 8 Q/A Papers over Sympathetic Little Monster due 11/19 by 11:59 pm

Th 11/20

• Awkward-Rich, Sympathetic Little Monster 
• Suggested: Pickens, “Introduction: What’s Good?” from Black Madness :: Mad Blackness
• Suggested: Awkward-Rich, The Terrible We: Thinking With Trans Maladjustment 
• Suggested: Malatino, Side Affects: On Being Trans and Feeling Bad. Access here
• Suggested: Gorton, “Transgender as Mental Illness: Nosology, Social Justice, and the Tarnished Golden Mean” from The Transgender Studies Reader 2

 

Sat 11/22

• Essay Two 1st Draft due by 11:59 pm

WEEK 9

Week 9 Q/A Papers over Hopkinson due 11/24 by 11:59 pm

T 11/25

• Hopkinson, Midnight Robber
• Peer Review of Essay Two due to Canvas by 11:59 pm

 

Th 11/27

• CLASS CANCELED FOR HOLIDAY

 

WEEK 10

Week 10 Q/A Papers over Hopkinson due 12/1 by 11:59 pm

T 12/2

• Hopkinson, Midnight Robber

 

Week 10 Q/A Papers over Hopkinson due 12/3 by 11:59 pm

Th 12/4

• Hopkinson, Midnight Robber
• Suggested: Pickens, “Conversation 2: A Mad Black Thang” from Black Madness :: Mad Blackness

 

FINALS WEEK

Mon 12/8

• Essay Two Final Draft due by 11:59 pm