WEEK 06: Synthesis Essays

profe — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:37:42 +0000

We’ve reached the point in our class where we now take “collective pause” and engage the literature in a more focused, analytical, and provocative way. Next week (Monday, February 27th) you will each turn in your first Synthesis Essay.

The “assignment sheet” for this essay can be downloaded here or by visiting the Assignments page. As we discussed in class, this is a chance for you to use the readings, your previous CE essays, and our class discussions to craft an organized paper on some topic, theme, theory, or other analytical purpose we’ve addressed in some way thus far. There is no prompt, but you should be mindful of our intended outcome and the criteria used to assess it. You should also be mindful of audience. During the week of March 5th you will work in small tutorial groups reading and discussing each others’ essays.

These essays are due NO LATER than Monday, February 27th at 1:15PM. You should email your paper to me as an attachment, in accordance with the directions on the assignment sheet.

IN CLASS we will watch a film, have a discussion, and have some snacks. We will also discuss our tutorial format for the following week, both what is expected of us and with whom we will work.

Have a great week! If you have any questions related to the assignment, feel free to ask them as a “Comment” to this post.

WEEK 05

profe — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:43:45 +0000

This week will be a change of pace for us. Rather than read the next half of the book by Ruiz, or begin a new one, we’ll take a pause and read a series of shorter pieces by an array of historians studying Puerto Rican women. The goal here is twofold: 1) to go deeper into some of the themes presented to us by Vicki Ruiz in the first half of her book From Out of the Shadows (in particular to look at migration and labor with greater complexity); and 2) to broaden our discussion of Latinas by including some focused study on the lives and historical experiences of Puerto Rican women, or puertoriqueñas.

There are four individual readings for this week. Each is a chapter from a larger collection on the above themes and topics. They can be accessed and downloaded from our password-protected page, under the heading “Digital Readings for Monday, February 20th.”

When writing your Critical Evaluation Essay don’t feel the pressure to talk about her piece equally. The more important goal is to frame some kind of analysis and “take away” from having done the reading, which may entail discussion one, two, or three of them as you require to make your analytical points.

See you Monday!

Chicana/Latina Feminist Histories

WEEK 06: Synthesis Essays

WEEK 05