Reading Guidelines
- Read strategically: we’ve given you the ideal, in-depth list that really covers an individual issue.
- Don’t start on page 1 and read through page by page. Look through the books and find what’s interesting to you, what you can connect to other things that you’re reading.
- Make sure you’re on top of the reading in terms of knowing contours and have really dug down and focused on a couple of places in the reading assignment.
- Come to class prepared to discuss the readings.
Discussion Leaders
- Figure out the trajectory you’d think would work well for class.
- Write out questions.
- When you come to class, you want to be able to give everyone a sense of the background, how the readings fit together.
- Take notes to get a full sense of what happens during the discussion.
- Email a brief paper to the rest of the class summarizing what happened.
- If we read your summary paper two days before class as well as doing homework one day before class, we should come to class with a very strong sense of where we are and where we’re going.
- Use whatever style works well for you and can get others interested in discussing the readings.
- For example, specify pages in books.
- Use bullet points and ask questions.
- Your questions just can’t be rhetorical; they should be about something you find interesting or strange.
- Do not write a long paper to read in class—that doesn’t spark discussion.
- One of the professors is associated with each reading; ask them if you have questions.
Final Paper
Students are required to write thirty pages on a chosen topic, adhering to discipline appropriate scholarly conventions. The paper is due at the end of term. Sample student papers are provided below; they appear here courtesy of the authors and are used with permission.
Student Papers
Lakomski, Allison. “Postmodern Love and Traditional Marriage in Todd Solondz’s Happiness.” (PDF)
Sisson, Gretchen. “Contemporary Creations of the Family Name.” (PDF)
