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Rhode Island School of Design, Liberal Arts / HPSS-S577-01 Winter Session 2003, Schedule B. Instructor: Peter Hocking Office: Swearer Center for Public Service, 25 George Street Contact: Peter_Hocking@Brown.EDU or 863-1446 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overview: Who am I? Who are you? How do we
know? How did we get this way? Why are we who we are? What sort of life might
we wish to lead? The invention of identity is, perhaps, the only authentic
creative enterprise that one undertakes in life. Through reading,
self-reflection, direct work, and personal investigation, this course will
investigate how individuals invent authentic identities in the context of social,
political, economic and cultural forces that both define contemporary society
and prescribe individual life paths. We will meet and work with local
communities to explore how social forces shape the identities of life-long and
newly arrived Rhode Islanders. Finally, we will look at the ways in which
artists both reinforce and subvert the social forces that impact identity. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Discussion and Class Participation: The course
requires everyone to engage in a conversation that connects personal experience
with the knowledge represented by authors, artists, and other class members.
One unexplained absence will be excused. After that, every unexplained absence
will reduce your grade by 5 points. From time-to-time, we all need to miss
class for an emergency or special circumstance; make arrangements with me prior
to class and such an absence will not count against your grade. Reading: A variety of written materials will form, in
part, the basis of our discussions and the starting point for reflective
writing. Faithful reading of the material is required. The required reading
includes: • Reader of articles available at Alegra Printing, • materials provided by the instructor You are also expected to read on your own and to connect
that reading to your written work and final project. Writing: The two short writing assignments will
utilize the reading and personal experience as reference points. The purpose of
the writing assignments is to develop one's skill as a writer while learning to
construct meaning from experience and collected data. All papers should be
typed, 3-5 pages long (unless otherwise specified) and conform to the MLA's 1999
guidelines (as specified in A Writer's Reference, fourth edition, Diane
Hacker). Students are encouraged to experiment with form and to work in a
variety of written traditions -- prose, poetry, reflective writing,
autobiography, and essay. Community Project: Each student will design and
participate in a community project.
These projects may be undertaken in the Greater Providence community or
on the RISD campus. They should
involve you with a “new” community or one with which you have had
little previous contact. Projects
might include: • working with the RISD /
Pawtucket community studio (about which there will be a presentation in class);
• organizing an intentional weekly dinner discussion group with 5-10 other RISD
students; • working with a
community-based organization such as a homeless shelter, soup kitchen,
community school, or other social service agency; • developing an
artist’s collective, or • establishing an on-line
community via the Internet. A one-page proposal for your community project must be
emailed to the instructor by 8:30 AM on Tuesday, 21 January. All community
projects must be documented for the instructor via photography, writing,
artwork, or other appropriate means.
Each student will provide a 2-4 page written report on the outcomes of
the community project. Resources for the community
project: The Swearer Center’s on-line
database of community agencies: http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Swearer_Center/work/agencydirectory.shtml On-line Journal Communities: Final Projects: Each student will make a final
presentation to the class that exhibits new understanding of the intersection
the individual and society. Final projects may be written or engage other
media. Grading: Class participation 40%; Writing 10%;
Community Project 35%; Final project 15% ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Thursday, 9 January:
Introductions, course goals and the practice of learning. 1st
Writing Assignment: 2-5 pages responding to the questions "Why are you
studying to be an artist / designer? What are your goals for being an artist /
designer? How does being an artist
/ designer ‘fit’ with other goals you have for your life?"
Assignment due 15 January Reading: Review Pierre Hadot, “Philosophy As a Way of Life” -- provided by instructor. •Friday, 10 January: Reading
of Hadot chapter in class. We live in systems that influence, shape, and even constrict
our lives. As participants in an educational system, we all now find ourselves
at RISD. What is this educational system? What are its goals? How has this
prepared us, prevented us from becoming artists and designers -- or, more
provocatively, creative people? What is the role of the arts, the artists and
designer in American education? How is our education related to American
society? Global society? • Wednesday, 15 January,
noon- 1:30: Discussion of community projects. First writing assignment due. • Thursday, 16 January: Lecture on the history of higher
education and discussion of reading. Reading for 16 Jan:
"Deconstructing the System: In the final vol. of his writings, Foucault
explores the nature of power," Edward Said; "Foucault’’s
Counter-history of Ideas," Alec McHoul and Wendy Grace; and "The Self
Under Siege," from The Saturated Self, Kenneth Gergen. • Friday, 17 January: no
class The process of developing an authentic "I" spans
one’s life. Yet this process is bracketed by many social systems and
cultural markers – turning "21" or various moments of
"graduation" -- that declare the conclusion of one’s education
and identity formation. Other social forces mark each of us with labels of identity
– for instance, being male or female, black or white – that may
seem alien of incorrect to our lived experience. This section of the course
will look at various theories of identity formation and self-invention that
contradict static notions of identity while interrogating the labels with which
each of us are marked. • Thursday, 23 January:
Lecture on Rhode Island Identity and discussion in class. Reading for 23-24 January:
“The Queer Politics of Michel Foucault,” David Halprin; “
Reflections on the Idea of ‘Cultivation of the Self’,” Pierre
Hadot; “Theory as a Liberatory Practice,” belle hooks. • Friday, 24 January:
discussion continues in class. 2d Writing Assignment: a
short autobiographical introduction that outlines a "personal
philosophy." Due on 31
January. Issues related to race are deeply inscribed in the fabric of
American society. So-called "color blindness" often betrays a desire
for race-invisibility that re-enforces the foundation of racism. Conversely,
explicit talk about race can incite reaction that is counter-productive to
addressing the root causes of racism. In the nineteenth century, the suffragist
and early women’s movements began a trajectory toward greater human and
civil rights for women. The nineteen- fifties and sixties, with the emergence
of modern feminism and a nascent gay liberation movement re-energized the
articulation of diverse sexual identities based on sex, gender and
transgressions of normative sexual categories. While these identities have
longer and richer histories than is acknowledged in the general society, such
histories are often obscured within the historical record. New historical
projects are beginning to form a clearer picture of sexual diversity and in
this section of the course we will look at the ways that transgressive sexual
identities have been obscured and the impacts of such on society as a whole.
Finally we will begin to uncover the ways that groups oppressed on the basis of
sexual identity have established modes of resistance. This section of the
course will investigate race sex, gender and sexual orientation as identity and
cultural markers while seeking to develop a broader understanding of the ways
that these markers influence our own identity formation. • Thursday, 30 January: Discussion
of reading. Check in about community projects. Readings for 30-31 January:
"Politics of Radical Black Subjectivity," belle hooks; "Building
Gay Neighborhood Enclaves: The Village and Harlem," George Chauncy from
Gay New York; “The Bodies That Were Not Ours,” Coco Fusco. • Friday, 31 January :
Discussion in class continued. Students will share with the class the plan for
their final project. 2d writing assignment due. Throughout the course we have looked at identities that have
been under-represented in American society and the ways that people resist the
dominant power structures that define our society. How do these identities
resist marginalization and oppression? When confronted by injustice we may be
moved to action, but how is change achieved? Can artists be activists? Are
there consequences to art being ‘political?" • Thursday, 6 February:
Discussion in class about the community projects. Reading for 6-7 February:
"The Waning of the Modern Age," and "Beyond the Rectangle, Out
of the Frame," Suzi Gablik; "Speaking to Power" and
Representations of the Intellectual," Edward Said • Friday, 7 February:
Discussion in class. • 13-14 February: Final
Projects will be exhibited in class and (possibly) at a dinner at the
instructors house. In addition, we may use Thursday’s class period to
continue discussions that are unfinished or de-brief on the community projects.
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