Course Assignments
You will be expected to have completed the assigned reading on the day it is to be discussed in class. Short, informal in-class writing assignments will help you stay disciplined about getting the reading done.
First assignment details (PDF)
Portfolio guidelines (PDF)
Workshop guidelines (PDF)
Student Work
The student essays are presented as oral essays narrated by the students themselves:
iTunes U (MP3 - 11 MB)
Internet Archive (MP3 - 11 MB)
Audio index
Audio index.
| SEG # | TITLES | SPEAKERS | STARTS AT (MIN:SEC) |
| 1 |
Race in Amercia introduction | Dr. Rebecca Blevins Faery | 00:20 |
| 2 | Guilt by racial association | Waciuma Maina | 01:53 |
| 3 | The Duke damage in Durham | Zachary Brewer | 05:13 |
| 4 | When white meets color; transracial adoption | anonymous student | 09:36 |
| 5 | Leaving an island behind | Gabriel Torres | 13:46 |
| 6 | Racial sensitivity | anonymous student | 18:19 |
| 7 | Me and my African accent | José Luis Naranjo Montoya | 22:14 |
| 8 | Society's emphasis on race and gender | Kaitlin Kamrowski | 27:03 |
| 9 | Korean comfort women | Minhee Sung | 31:14 |
| 10 | The asian pressure cooker | anonymous student | 35:10 |
| 11 | Virtues of wearing a hjab | Tayyba R Anwar | 39:01 |
| 12 | Racist fear and Katrina | anonymous student | 42:41 |
| 13 |
Race in America closing | Dr. Rebecca Blevins Faery | 47:05 |
Writing
The major writing for the course will be three essays of about 7-8 pages each, along with a few shorter writing assignments. One of the essays will be a response to one or more of the texts we read, in a form of your choice—imitation, reflection, critical analysis. The other two assignments will be essays related to the material of the course—personal memoir, autobiography, investigation, or other nonfiction narrative or persuasive essay. Because this course is cross-listed with Women's Studies and our reading so persistently explores the ways race and gender connect, cooperate, and conflict, I particularly welcome writing that investigates the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality. You are welcome, indeed encouraged, to investigate some issue or topic on your own on which to write—persistent disparities in education, interracial dating and relationships, housing segregation, race in advertising or film, or other topics you are interested in pursuing. With my permission, one of your assignments may be a work of fiction, accompanied by a critical commentary addressing the ways your story engages the issues we have read about and discussed in the course. For each essay, you will write a proposal, draft the piece, and then get feedback on your writing from a workshop group in class (once, online) as well as from me. The responses from other readers in the class and from me will help you revise your paper before submitting the revision. There will also be occasions for you to make one substantial oral presentation to the class and to be responsible for leading class discussions of the reading and films.
I also ask that you keep a Reader's Notebook—a place where you will respond informally to the reading as we go along. The notebook is the place for you read critically, to explore connections between the reading and class discussion and your own past and present experience, to record and test insights, to react as you feel moved to do, to draw connections among the various texts we will investigate as well as with other things you have read, films you have seen, places you've been, experiences you've had; to raise questions, record observations, and test and challenge assumptions. For additional information on my expectations for your notebook writing, see the handout I will give you on the Reader's Notebook.
In addition to the class responsibilities outlined above, I ask that you attend at least one reading or other relevant event on campus or in Cambridge and write a response/review of it in your Reader's Notebook. I'll announce events that I think are appropriate; you are encouraged to do the same. If there is an event you would like to attend and you aren't sure whether it will be appropriate for this purpose, ask me.
