ENGLISH 484 and 684: SEMINAR IN THEORY AND
CRITICISM:
CRITICAL STUDIES IN
CONTEMPORARY
POPULAR MUSIC
CULTURES
Section 001: MW, 1
to 2:50 p.m., HHH 323
Spring 2008,
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
PROFESSOR BOB NOWLAN
Office: HHH 425,
(715) 836-4369
ranowlan@uwec.edu
http://www.uwec.edu/ranowlan
Office Hours:
T 2:40-4:30 pm, T 9:50-10:30 pm,
W 3-4 pm, and
By Appointment
COURSE EXPLANATION
1.
I conceive this course as an
advanced introduction to: 1.) bringing key concepts from critical
theory to bear in making sense of contemporary popular music and 2.)
approaching popular music from the vantage point of cultural
studies–i.e., making sense of popular music within the context of
particular cultures and subcultures.
In sections two (2) and three (3) of this course
explanation statement immediately below I offer you the virtual
equivalent of a short opening lecture, defining and explaining some key
terms we will be working with over the course of this semester.
2.
According to ethnomusicologist Kay Kaufman Shelemay,
writing at the beginning of her popular textbook introduction to
ethnomusicology, Soundscapes:
Exploring Music in a Changing World (2nd Edition, New York:
Norton, 2006), music can be defined as “the purposeful organization of
the quality, pitch, duration, and intensity of sound” (4) and “as
organized sound that is meaningful within a specific place and time.”
[Along these lines “music” might be defined, even more concisely, as
“willful noise”–another introductory definition that is actually more
useful and neither as simple nor as reductive as it might at first
seem.] After positing these two broad definitions of music,
Shelemay continues, “we must understand what sounds people select and
how they define music.” In other words, music becomes meaningful,
taking on distinct form and exerting distinct impact, within particular
“soundscapes,” and it is situated in this kind of context that music
becomes available as a subject for critical theoretical inquiry.
A “soundscape” refers to the result of a complex intersection among a
broad array of shaping factors in constituting a spatially and
temporarily particular sonic environment. A “musical soundscape,”
therefore, involves an interconnected array of elements that
collectively result in a purposeful organization of the quality, pitch,
duration, and intensity of sound such that this becomes meaningful to a
specific group of people at a specific place and time. The
aforementioned shaping elements operating to form a musical soundscape
include all of the following–and more:
1.) Physical characteristics of sound and of sound instruments
and technologies.
2.) The physiology and psychology of reception and response to
particular articulations of sound.
3.) Conventional (and non-conventional) forms, patterns, textures,
styles, means, and media for organizing, expressing, communicating, and
sharing sound.
4.) Economic, social, political, and historical characteristics
of the locally particular expanse of space and of the locally
particular duration of time in which the ‘musicking’ in question takes
place–as well as the economic, social, political, and historical
characteristics of this specific spatio-temporal location’s
interrelations with other times and other places. [‘Musicking’ refers
to music as activity in multiple senses–e.g., actively making music,
actively responding and relating to music, and actively engaging with
and making use of music.]
5.) Philosophical, including ethical and aesthetic, as well as
religious, spiritual, and other ideological frameworks directing how to
make sense of and respond to particular organizations and articulations
of sound at particular times and in particular spaces.
And
6.) Interconnections between specific articulations of organized sound
and a host of social functions and activities–including, for example,
signification, memory, dance, ritual, securing and re-securing of terms
of identity, structuring and restructuring of everyday life, marking
out the extraordinary or the unusual from the ordinary and the
everyday, and aiding and inspiring work and struggle for change.
In this course, “Critical Studies in Contemporary
Popular Music Cultures,” we seek to make sense of the meaning, value,
and significance of music in specific cultural contexts.
This means we here explore music as a powerful dimension of specific
cultures in two principal directions:
1.) First, as it is formed and constituted by conditions of
possibility and forces of generation operating from within–and
across–these cultures,
And
2.) Second, as it contributes substantially, in turn, a.) not only
toward determining the nature of the lived experience of conditions of
existence prevailing for those who participate within these cultures,
b.) but also toward maintaining, reproducing, reshaping, and
transforming the fundamental structures of these cultures.
In sum, we focus on making sense of what music
means–and does–for people as part of distinct cultures. And given
the inclusion of “popular” in the title of the course we are focusing
even more precisely on what music means when it exercises substantial
appeal–and becomes a highly significant dimension of life-experience,
as well as life-practice–for a broad array of people.
“Popular” directs us away from focus on music made by and for a narrow
caste who maintain highly advanced knowledge and training in elite and
restrictive forms and styles. It also directs us away from a
focus on music involving rigidly fixed divisions between musical
performance on the one hand and musical reception on the other
hand. In addition, “popular” means that we focus on music as
representation, expression and communication of (at least
prospectively) commonly shared interests, concerns, needs, desires,
hopes, and fears. And, following directly from the last point,
“popular” means we focus away from music as representation, expression,
and communication of interests, concerns, needs, desires, hopes, and
fears only shared by–and for that matter often only intelligible to–a
narrow social, intellectual, or artistic elite.
Beyond our focus on the “popular” this course also
focuses on the “contemporary,” and of course this is another difficult
term to pin down in any precise way, as it is even more obviously
elastic in its relativity than “popular.” Yet for those working
within the emerging field of popular music studies, “contemporary”
tends to mean one of three things: 1.) Post-World War II;
2.) From the 1960s onward, or 3.) From the mid-1970s
onward. We will work with all three of these conceptions of
“contemporary” at various points in this course, and especially with
the third. As we proceed you will read, and we will discuss,
different arguments supporting the logic of each of these three ways of
conceiving “the contemporary” in relation to “popular music” and
“popular music studies.”
At the same time, however, as editors Andy Bennett,
Barry Shank, and Jason Toynbee write in their “Introduction” to The Popular Music Studies Reader,
popular music studies itself maintains a long pre-history, dating well
before 1945, and also frequently enough, especially as the field
continues rapidly to grow, engages with popular musics–and
musickings–taking place in many distant times at many different places
across the globe. With the emergence of rock music, and
especially of a generation of scholars who themselves came of age after
rock had clearly established itself as a globally dominant–and indeed
economically, socially, politically, and culturally overwhelming–force,
contemporary popular music studies began to emerge, at least in the UK
and the US, in the mid-1970s, in conjunction with the simultaneous
emergence of cultural studies, popular culture studies, and postmodern
critical theory. Moving forward thirty years later, as Bennett,
Shank, and Toynbee indicate, “popular music studies has now emerged as
a globally established and multi-disciplinary field,” encompassing the
work of scholars from all of the following academic areas and more:
musicology and ethnomusicology, anthropology, sociology, media and
cultural studies, politics, linguistics, history, and English.
And, not surprisingly therefore, the range of focuses of interest as
well as approaches toward these subjects operating across this field of
scholarship is widely heterogeneous. Popular music studies
engages with all of the following areas of interest–and more: the
economics and politics of the music industry, textual and discourse
analysis, audience and reception studies, studies of forms of musical
production and dissemination, music and performance, music venues and
fora, studies of music scenes, studies of music-making practices, music
and technology/music and technological development and innovation,
music-making practices and the law, music and (specific) subcultures or
(neo)tribes, music and diaspora, music and globalization, music and
hybridization, music in everyday life, music and other forms of media,
music and other forms of art, music and/as politics, music and/as
ideology, music of protest and resistance, music and social change,
music and race, music and ethnicity, music and nationality, music and
gender, music and sexuality, and music and class. In sum, this is
an exciting, still emergent field full of possibilities for you too to
contribute in innovative, influential, and compelling ways.
3.
Next I want to turn to discuss some other key
components of the title–and focus–of this course: “culture” and
“cultural studies”; “theory” and “criticism”; and “critical theory.”
Let’s begin with “culture.” Culture is the
equivalent of the "second nature" that human beings create by acting in
and upon nature itself to transform nature into a new kind of reality:
culture includes, therefore, everything that human beings have created,
built, learned, and conquered in the course of our entire history, in
distinction from what nature has provided, including the natural
history of human beings ourselves as a species of animal. Culture
includes all that human beings create as a result of our deliberate
transformation of both nature itself and the products of prior human
transformations of nature. This dimension of culture I suggest we
refer to, more precisely, as “universal human culture” or “human
culture in general.” From this point, we next start to deal
with specific cultureS. In doing so, let’s begin by considering
physical (or material) culture versus intellectual (or ideal)
culture. “Physical culture” includes all of the physical products
of human invention and creation whereas “intellectual culture” includes
all of the intellectual products of human invention and creation.
After distinguishing material versus ideal culture, we come next to the
cultures of particular societies. These cultures encompass the
sum total of knowledge and of capacity for representation, expression,
communication, and creation distinctive to an entire society, or at the
least–where the latter is overwhelmingly dominant–distinctive to its
ruling class. This culture–the culture of a specific human
society–penetrates all fields of human activity taking place within the
society in question and at the same time plays a key role in giving the
society its coherence–and unity. Moving on, to a further set of
divisions, within any particular society we also find many, additional
smaller-scale cultures–and subcultures. These comprise the sum
total of the particular knowledges, capacities, fields of work (and
fields of play), customs and habits, traditions, values and attitudes,
social roles and identities, and ways of thinking, feeling, acting,
interacting, and behaving that characterize and, more importantly than
merely characterize, that internally unify and externally differentiate
particular regions, classes, and other social groups located within the
larger society as a whole. “Cultures” used in this last sense
often refer to distinct areas of life-practice operating within a
larger society, such as legal culture, government culture, academic
culture, family culture, leisure culture, religious culture, military
culture, workplace culture, bar or pub culture, internet social
networking culture, etc. Turning next to “subcultures,” these are
always also parts of larger-scale and more generally wide-ranging
cultures–and they are not simply parts that differ from or oppose a
larger, more general, or more dominant culture, even when this seems to
be the manifest intention of those who identify with a particular
subculture. Instead, subcultures comprise particular segments of
a general culture where we find a particular rearrangement,
modification, and transformation of elements drawn from this general
culture (as well as a particular rearrangement, modification, and
transformation of elements of universal human culture). This
process (of rearrangement, modification, and transformation of elements
drawn from a larger, general, dominant culture) is itself both the
product–and that which in turn enables the reproduction–of a specific
mode of social relating distinct to the subculture in question.
Subcultures often overlap and interrelate, while they also exist at
considerably different levels of development–and maintain considerably
different degrees of relative autonomy (both versus each other and
vis-a-vis the larger, general, dominant culture within which they are
situated). Finally, particular subcultures may anticipate
possible directions for further development and future reorganization
(or transformation) of the general culture (and this as a whole or in
some of its particular aspects and dimensions)–or they may persist as
remnants of prior levels of development and prior forms of organization
of the general culture (again, as a whole or in some particular aspects
and dimensions). In this course, as previously suggested, we are
inquiring into how music functions within (that is, as a powerfully
inter-determinate constituent of) specific cultures–and specific
subcultures.
Now, let’s turn to “cultural studies.” Working
with just one helpful initial way of making sense of what this field is
about, cultural studies engages the "writing" and "reading" of all
"texts" of culture (and not just conventional "literary"–or print or
verbal–varieties of texts). According to cultural studies, we
"read" whenever we interpret what something "means," and we "write"
whenever we create something which others must interpret so as to
determine what it means. This leads us to approach all products
of culture as "texts" insofar as they are written and read, insofar as
they are understood as possessing or bearing meaning. "Texts"
include everything from the seemingly most "profoundly meaningful" to
the seemingly most "mundanely meaningless" (as, after all, to be
considered insignificant, or of little or no meaning, is to be judged
to mean in a particular way as well). Cultural studies thus
focuses on making sense of "texts" such as films, television shows,
music and video productions and performances, paintings and drawings,
sculpture and architecture, sports teams and games, trends in clothing
and fashion, commercial advertisements, individual dreams and plans,
shopping lists and checkout receipts, buildings and rooms, kinds of
food and drink, roads and vehicles, manners and gestures, ceremonies
and rituals, personalities and personal relationships, and individual
actions and specific incidents. Cultural studies focuses on
making sense of the meaning, value, and significance of specific
cultural products and practices as well as of the social relationships
humans form to facilitate and regulate specific processes of making and
practicing. And cultural studies focuses on the social
relationships humans form, furthermore, to distribute, exchange,
consume, and otherwise receive and respond to specific processes of
making and practicing. Again, what this means, for this course,
is that we are inquiring into the meaning, value, and significance of
specific music products and music practices as well as into the social
relationships humans, working within specific cultures and subcultures,
form to facilitate and regulate processes of making, practicing,
distributing, exchanging, consuming, receiving, and responding to
music.
Up next, “theory,” “criticism,” and
“critique.” “Theory” aims to provide a conceptual explanation of
what forms and constitutes an object (and I mean “object” in a broad
sense here: “objects” of theoretical interest and concern include, for
example, “questions,” “issues,” “problems,” “processes,” and
“relations”). This means that a theory of an object seeks to
explain what, in essence, distinguishes this object, how and for what
this object functions, and what gives rise to and follows from the
object’s inter-determinate interconnections with other objects.
“Criticism” applies theory to support and sustain an evaluation of an
object. In other words, criticism judges an object, assessing its
significance, value, usefulness, and/or effectivity while
simultaneously justifying its judgement by drawing upon the support of
theory to do so. “Critique” is a particular mode of
criticism. Critique refers to the mobilization of theory to
support an effort at intervention in relation to an object. In
other words, critique deploys theory to affect either 1.) a change in
an object or 2.) a change in the ways people find it conceivable,
desirable, and possible to value and use this object. Theory
always develops through critique of preexisting theory as well as by
means of intellectual processes that include analysis and synthesis,
deduction and induction, abstraction and concretization, and testing
and modeling. In relation to this course, what all this means is
we are seeking to develop and apply concepts that can enable us to
understand, and especially to explain, music as cultural text, product,
practice, and complex site/stake of social exchange–and
interchange. It also means we seek to assess the meaning, value,
significance, and effectivity of specific instances of musicking in
accord with what the aforementioned concepts enable us to do, and
according to criteria for interpretation and evaluation that logically
follow from what these concepts suggest. And, finally, it means
we work, as we can, to contribute toward the ongoing development of
(new) knowledge about how (best) to make sense of and to respond to
specific music cultures.
One more key term I want to introduce in this
section: “critical theory.” Critical theory begins by questioning
and challenging the seeming obviousness, naturalness, immediacy, and
simplicity of the world around us, and, in particular, of what we are
able to perceive through our senses and understand through the
application of our powers of reason. Critical theory is therefore
concerned with discovering and uncovering, and with describing and
explaining "mediations"–environmental, ecological, physical,
physiological, psychological, intellectual, emotional, historical,
social, cultural, economic, political, ideological, linguistic,
semiotic, aesthetic, religious, ethical, etc.– between "object" and
"subject," "event" and "impression," "impression" and "perception,"
"perception" and "cognition," "cognition" and "reflection,"
"reflection" and "response," "response" and "reaction," "reaction" and
"action," and "action" and "practice." Critical theory proceeds
from this point to question and challenge the passive acceptance that
"the way things are"–or "the way things seem"–simply "is" the "natural"
way they necessarily "should" or "must" be. In other words,
in relation to the last point, critical theory questions and challenges
the conviction that what is, or what is in the process of becoming, or
what appears to be, or what is most commonly understood to be, or what
is dominantly conveyed to be, is also at the same time right and true,
good and just, and necessary and inevitable; critical theory does not,
at least not automatically, accept any of this. Critical theory
is always, in sum, particularly concerned with inquiring into the
problems and limitations, the blindnesses and mistakes, the
contradictions and incoherences, and the injustices and inequities in
how we as human beings, operating within particular kinds of structures
and hierarchies of relations with each other, facilitated and regulated
by particular kinds of institutions, engaged in particular kinds of
processes and practices, have formed, reformed, and transformed
ourselves, each other, and the communities, cultures, societies, and
worlds in which we live. What all this means, in sum, for what we
will be doing together this semester, in this course, is we seek to
defamiliarize the familiar–both within music cultures and, especially,
by means of, with, and through what specific practices of musicking
offer us to do this work of defamiliarization. It also means we
examine the “place” of specific music cultures within larger social
series, relations, processes, structures, and systems. And it
means, finally, that, as we theorize about and critique specific music
culture productions and practices, we aim to be self-consciously
self-reflexive–and self-critical– concerning our own assumptions, our
own predispositions, our own values, our own principles, our own
objectives, our own cultural affiliations, our own social positionings,
our own political outlooks, our own philosophical (and/or spiritual
and/or religious) commitments and identifications, and our own
ideological biases.
4.
We will begin the course, after an initial period of
introduction and orientation, by first reading and discussing some
selections from The Popular Music
Studies Reader that will introduce us to some concepts,
positions, methods, and approaches we can take up, argue with and/or
against, and apply–perhaps, as we find useful, critically–to help us
make sense of diverse issues that we will proceed to engage over the
course of the semester. After that, we will next tackle Jacques
Attali’s Noise: The Political
Economy of Music–which posits a challenging theorization of what
its title indicates, as well as of a good number of related
issues. Attali’s book has proven highly influential within
popular music studies–at the least as a work of provocation, and even
when subsequent critics and theorists have sharply disagreed with
him. I expect that Attali’s theories will likewise stimulate and
provoke us, in our thinking about the issues he addresses, and we will
likewise make use of these theories over the course of the semester by
continuing to argue with and/or against them. From this point we
will next focus on writings in three concentrated areas in which to
investigate the workings of contemporary popular music cultures, as
well as positions, concepts, approaches, and methods for making sense
of these workings: 1.) Punk and Postpunk; 2.) Hip-Hop; and 3.)
DJ/Club/Dance/Electronica. I have selected these areas
because they represent principal sites of some of the most extensive
and substantial work in popular music studies scholarship, especially
recently, and as they have all emerged and developed simultaneous with
the field of popular music studies itself. As we read about the
workings of music cultures in these areas, we will learn more about
punk, postpunk, hip-hop, dj and club culture, electronica and
electronic dance, yes, but also, once more, we will seek to extrapolate
concepts, positions, methods, and approaches that we can apply more
broadly, including–as we find it compelling to do so–critically.
I expect that we will ultimately approach these writings yet again as
sources of stimulus and provocation–encouraging us not simply to accept
without question or challenge, and not simply to reiterate or
replicate, these writers’ own takes, but rather to develop concepts,
positions, methods, and approaches of our own, so that we too can
theorize and critique, rather than demonstrating merely that we are
able to paraphrase and summarize others’ theories and critiques.
After this point in the semester, approximately two-thirds of the way
through, you will then present your term papers (or term projects),
which you will have a chance to present in process–in multiple stages
of development–so you can gain the benefit of constructive critique
from your classmates, me, and, at the English Festival, an even wider
audience, before you submit a final version for a grade.
5.
As I expect has been the case for most if not all of
you as well, music has long occupied a central place in my life.
I experience music as exercising immense power:
1.) The power not only to express and communicate but also, and
ultimately much more than this, to literally embody our aspirations for
a better world and for a better relationship with the larger world,
with each other, and with ourselves.
2.) The power to reflect, to remember, to witness, to testify, to
recreate, to imagine, to fantasize, to question, to challenge, to
critique, to protest, to incite, and to inspire.
3.) The power to constitute a preeminent mode of collective knowing,
feeling, believing, and understanding.
4.) The power to serve as indispensable means and medium of experience
and engagement with life’s vitality.
5.) The power to help us grasp the essence of our being–in motion and
interconnection.
What’s more, as I experience it, music may not be capable, in and of
itself, of changing the world for the better (and then again it may be
so capable), but it certainly seems eminently capable of encouraging
us, inspiring us, and provoking us to work and struggle to do
so.
Whether you experience the power of music in any way
similar to what I do or not, I hope that you too will approach this
course as I do, as offering one opportunity to enrich our understanding
and appreciation for whatever we conceive this power to accomplish–and,
especially, for what music means and does for people as participants
within particular communities, societies, cultures, and subcultures,
past and present, across the globe.
TEXTS
The following required texts are available for
purchase at the UWEC Bookstore in Davies Center:
1. Bennett, Andy, Barry Shank, and Jason Toynbee,
eds. The Popular Music Studies
Reader. London: Routledge, 2006. ISBN#:
0-415-30710-4.
2. Attali, Jacques. 1977. Noise: The Political Economy of Music.
Brian Massumi, trans. Theory and History of Literature, Volume
16. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1985.
ISBN#: 0-8166-1287-0.
3. Thompson, Stacy. Punk Productions: Unfinished Business.
Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004. ISBN#:
0-7914-6188-2.
4. Reynolds, Simon. Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk,
1978-1984. New York: Penguin, 2005. ISBN#:
0-14-303672-6.
5. Forman, Murray and Marc Anthony Neal, eds. That’s the Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies
Reader. New York: Routledge, 2004. ISBN#:
0-415-96919-0.
6. Brewster, Bill and Frank Broughton.
1999. Last Night a DJ Saved My
Life: the History of the Disc Jockey. Revised
Edition. New York: Grove, 2000. ISBN#: 0-8021-3688-5.
7. Miller, Paul D aka DJ Spooky That Subliminal
Kid. Rhythm Science.
Mediawork Pamphlet Series. Cambridge, MA: The Massachusetts
Institute of Technology Press, 2004. ISBN#: 0-262-623287-X.
* Please note well that in the case of all but #7 we
will be reading selections from these books, and not the whole books;
in a number of cases–specifically #1, #4, #5, and #6–we will be reading
only half or less of the book for class. *
The following optional, supplementary text students
may work with on their own as they find useful:
Harp, David. Music Theory Made Easy. Third
Revised Edition. Montpelier, VT: Musical I Press, 2004.
ISBN#: 0-918321-59-X.
Also, this text I initially planned to order as a
further supplementary contribution to the course, but because it is not
available through a conventional distributor the UWEC Bookstore I could
not order it:
Negativland. No Business (Eight Tracks of Audio
on a CD, a Short Video, a Long Essay, and Some Additional ‘Fun’
Items). ISBN#: 53762-00252. Available through http://www.negativland.com/
You may feel free to purchase any of the
aforementioned texts, required or optional, from any other bookstore or
book outlet, including by means of on-line ordering outlets (such as http://www.amazon.com or http://www.barnesandnoble.com),
as you wish, as long as you acquire them in time to use in and for
class.
Frequently I will bring music–primarily in the form
of CDs, MP3s, etc.–to class, related to our readings, for us to listen
to and discuss in class. I will also invite you to do so from
time to time, as you are able (as you can gain access). In
addition, I will also periodically post MP3 copies of music related to
readings you are doing for class on Desire2Learn so that you can listen
to these prior to and beyond class.
SCHEDULE
1/23: Introduction and Orientation.
1/28: Discussion, Readings from The
Popular Music Studies Reader and Related Issues.
Read for Class: Philip Tagg, “Subjectivity and
Soundscape, Motorbikes and Music,” 44-49; Sarah Thornton,
“Understanding Hipness: ‘Subcultural Capital’ as Feminist Tool,”
99-105; Andy Bennett, “Subcultures or Neotribes?: Rethinking the
Relationship Between Youth, Style and Musical Taste,” 106-113;
and Tia DeNora, “Music and Self-Identity,” 141-147.
1/30: Discussion, Readings from The
Popular Music Studies Reader and Related Issues.
Read for Class: Philip Auslander, “Liveness:
Performance and the Anxiety of Simulation,” 85-91; Rick Altman, “The
Material Heterogeneity of Recorded Sound,” 269-275; Andrew Goodwin,
“Rationalization and Democratization in the New Technologies of Popular
Music,” 276-282; and Paul Théberge, “Music/Technology/Practice:
Musical Knowledge in Action.”
* Initial Short
Paper Assigned. *
2/4: Discussion, Readings from The
Popular Music Studies Reader and Related Issues.
Read for Class: Tricia Rose, “Voices from the
Margins: Rap Music and Contemporary Cultural Production,” 216-223;
Simon Frith, “The Industrialization of Sound,” 231-238; David
Hesmondhalgh, “The British Dance Music Industry: A Case Study Of
Independent Cultural Production,” 246-252; Joanne Gottlieb and Gayle
Wald, “Smells Like Teen Spirit: Riot Grrrls, Revolution, and Women in
Independent Media,” 355-361.
2/6: Discussion, Readings from Noise:
the Political Economy of Music and Related Issues.
Read for Class: Jacques Attali, Noise, Chapter One, “Listening,”
3-20, and From Chapter Two, “Sacrificing,” 21-36.
2/11: Discussion, Readings from Noise:
the Political Economy of Music and Related Issues.
Read for Class: Jacques Attali, Noise, From Chapter Two,
“Sacrificing,” 36-45 and Chapter Three, “Representing,” 46-86.
2/13: Discussion, Readings from Noise:
the Political Economy of Music and Related Issues.
Read for Class: Jacques Attali, Noise, Chapter Four, “Repeating,”
87-132, and Chapter Five, “Composing,” 133-148.
* Initial Short Paper Due by 12 noon Friday February 15 (in my English
Department mailbox, HHH 405, or as an e-mail attachment [not Microsoft Works, Microsoft
Publisher, or Microsoft Word docx formats]). *
2/18: Discussion, Readings from Punk
Productions: Unfinished Business and Related Issues.
Read for Class: Stacy Thompson, Punk Productions, “Introduction:
You Are Not What You Own,” 1-7, and Chapter 1, “Let’s Make a Scene,”
9-79.
* Term
Paper/Project Prospectus Assignment Distributed. *
2/20: Discussion, Readings from Punk
Productions: Unfinished Business and Related Issues.
Read for Class: Stacy Thompson, Punk Productions, Chapter 2, “Punk
Aesthetics and the Poverty of the Commodity,” 81-117.
2/25: Discussion, Readings from Punk
Productions: Unfinished Business and Related Issues.
Read for Class: Stacy Thompson, Punk Productions: Chapter 3, “Punk
Economics and the Shame of Exchangeability,” 119-137; Chapter 4,
“Market Failure: Punk Economics, Early and Late,” 139-157; and
“Epilogue–Beyond Punk–Punk’s Not Dead,” 177-180.
* First Learning
and Contribution Reflection Paper Assigned. *
2/27: Discussion, Readings from Rip
It Up and Start Again: Postpunk, 1978-1984 and Related Issues.
Read for Class: Simon Reynolds, Rip It Up and Start Again:
“Prologue: the Unfinished Revolution,” 1-11; Chapter 1, “Public Image
Belongs to Me: John Lydon and PiL,” 15-25; Chapter 2, “Autonomy in the
UK: DIY and the British Independent-Label Movement,” 26-40; Chapter 3,
“Tribal Revival: the Pop Group and the Slits,” 41-53; and Chapter 4,
“Militant Entertainment: Gang of Four, the Mekons, and the Leeds
Scene,” 54-69.
* Term
Paper/Project Prospectus Due. *
3/3: Discussion, Readings from Rip
It Up and Start Again: Postpunk, 1978-1984 and Related Issues.
Read for Class: Simon Reynolds, Rip It Up and Start Again: Chapter
5, “Uncontrollable Urge: the Industrial Grotesquerie of Pere Ubu and
Devo,” 70-84; Chapter 7, “Just Step Sideways: The Fall, Joy Division,
and the Manchester Scene,” 103-123; Chapter 11, “Messthetics: the
London Vanguard,” 180-196; Chapter 12, “Freak Scene: Cabaret Noir and
Theater of Cruelty in Postpunk San Francisco,“ 197-211; and “Chapter
13: Careering: PiL and Postpunk’s Peak and Fall,” 212-223.
3/5: Discussion, Readings from Rip
It Up and Start Again: Postpunk, 1978-1984 and Related Issues.
Read for Class: Simon Reynolds, Rip It Up and Start
Again: Chapter 14, “Ghost Dance: 2-Tone and the Ska Resurrection,”
227-245; Chapter 18, “Electric Dreams: Synthpop,” 296-314; Chapter 20,
“New Gold Dreams 81-82-83-84: New Pop’s Peak, the Second British
Invasion of America, and the Rise of MTV,” 332-351; Chapter 22,
“Raiding the Twentieth Century: ZTT, the Art of Noise, and Frankie Goes
to Hollywood,” 370-388; and “Afterword,” 389-399.
3/10: Discussion, Readings from That’s
the Joint!: the Hip-Hop Studies Reader and Related Issues.
Read for Class: Sally Banes, “Breaking,” 13-20;
Craig Castelman, “The Politics of Graffiti,” 21-29; Nelson George,
“Hip-Hop’s Founding Fathers Speak the Truth,” 45-55; and Dick Hebdige,
“Rap and Hip-Hop: the New York Connection,” 223-232.
3/12: Discussion, Readings from That’s
the Joint!: the Hip-Hop Studies Reader and Related Issues.
Read for Class: Michael Dyson, “The Culture of
Hip-Hop,” 61-68; Murray Forman, “‘Represent’: Race, Space, and Place in
Rap Music,” 201-222; Cheryl L. Keyes, “Empowering Self, Making Choices,
Creating Spaces: Black Female Identity via Rap Music Performance,”
265-276; and Richard Shusterman, “Challenging Conventions in the Fine
Art of Rap,” 459-479.
* First Learning and Contribution
Reflection Paper Due by 12 noon Friday March 14 (in my English Department
mailbox, HHH 405, or as an e-mail attachment [not Microsoft Works, Microsoft Publisher, or
Microsoft Word docx formats]). *
3/24: Discussion, Readings from That’s
the Joint!: the Hip-Hop Studies Reader and Related Issues.
Read for Class: Nelson George, “Sample This,”
437-441; Thomas G. Schumacher, “‘This Is a Sampling Sport’: Digital
Sampling, Rap Music, and the Law in Cultural Production,” 443-458;
Keith Negus, “The Business of Rap: Between the Street and the Executive
Suite,” 525-540; and Tricia Rose, “Contracting Rap: an Interview with
Carmen Ashhurst-Watson,” 541-556.
3/26: Discussion, Readings from That’s
the Joint!: the Hip-Hop Studies Reader and Related Issues.
Read for Class: Alan Light, “About a Salary or
Reality?–Rap’s Recurrent Conflict,” 137-145; Gwendolyn D. Pough, “Seeds
and Legacies: Tapping the Potential in Hip-Hop,” 283-289; Angela Ards,
“Organizing the Hip-Hop Generation,” 311-323; and S. Craig Watkins,
“Black Youth and the Ironies of Capitalism,” 557-578.
3/31: Discussion, Readings from Last
Night a DJ Saved My Life: the History of the Disc-Jockey and
Related Issues.
Read for Class: Chapter 4, “Northern Soul: After
Tonight Is All Over,” 73-105; and Chapter 5, “Reggae: Wreck Up a
Version,” 107-122.
4/2: Discussion, Readings from
Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: the History of the Disc-Jockey
and Related Issues.
Read for Class: Chapter 6, “Disco: Love is The
Message,” 123-164, and Chapter 7, “Disco 2: She Works Hard for the
Money,” 165-202.
4/7: Discussion, Readings from Last
Night a DJ Saved My Life: the History of the Disc-Jockey and
Related Issues.
Read for Class: Chapter 8, “Hip Hop: Adventures on
the Wheels of Steel,” 203-230, and Chapter 9, “Hip Hop 2: Planet Rock,”
231-265.
4/9: Discussion, Readings from Last
Night a DJ Saved My Life: the History of the Disc-Jockey and
Related Issues.
Read for Class: Chapter 10, “Garage: I’ll Take You
to Paradise,” 267-289; Chapter 11, “House: Can You Feel It?,” 291-317;
and Chapter 12, “Techno: the Sound,” 319-336.
* Second Learning
and Contribution Reflection Paper Assigned. *
4/14: Discussion, Readings from Rhythm
Science and Related Issues.
Read for Class: Rhythm
Science, 1-59.
4/16: Discussion, Readings from Rhythm
Science and Related Issues.
Read for Class: Rhythm
Science, 60-125.
4/21, 4/23, 4/28: Term Paper/Project Presentations, Part One.
* Second Learning and Contribution
Reflection Paper Due by 5 pm Friday
April 25 (in my English Department mailbox, HHH 405, or as an e-mail
attachment [not Microsoft
Works, Microsoft Publisher, or Microsoft Word docx formats]). *
4/30 and 5/1 (English Fest): Term Paper/Project Presentations, Part Two.
5/5, 5/7, and 5/14 (Final Examination Session): Term Paper/Project
Presentations, Part Three.
* Finished Version of Term
Paper/Project Due by 5 pm Thursday May 15 (in my English Department mailbox, HHH 405,
or as an e-mail attachment [not Microsoft Works, Microsoft Publisher, or
Microsoft Word docx formats]). *
*** THIS SCHEDULE
IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE ***
GENERAL EXPECTATIONS OF STUDENTS
I expect students in this course to strive to become
sincerely interested in learning about the subject matter of this
course, and to be consistently intellectually serious as well as
academically diligent in their pursuit of this learning. I expect
students to strive to bring actively to bear insights you gain through
your engagement with the texts and topics addressed as part of this
course–including through listening carefully and thoughtfully to a
range of musical recordings (audio texts)–and I expect students to
strive at the same time to relate these texts and topics as closely as
possible to subjects of genuine interest and concern in your own
lives. Finally, I expect students to let me know right away when
and if you have any questions or problems about any aspect of how you
are doing in and with the course, so that I can do whatever I possibly
can to help answer these questions and solve these problems.
As this is a
400/600 level seminar, I also expect students will be prepared
to take greater initiative than would be the case with a lower-level
and non-seminar format class to actively share the responsibility,
consistently, for presenting, explaining, and indeed teaching the rest
of the class (and that certainly includes teaching me–I look forward to
learning from, and with, you). As students participating in an
advanced level seminar I also expect that you will engage in extensive
dialogue, exchange, and other forms of collaborative–indeed
collective–work as a member of this class. And this next point is
especially important: you will need to be ready to work together with
me, and with your classmates, in a
consistently helpful and respectful manner at all times, and to
make sure that you always are able clearly to distinguish critique of
positions represented by fellow members of the class (and, for that
matter, by various theorists, critics, journalists, historians, and
musicians we will engage) from criticism
of persons. You may, from time to time, disagree with
takes on various issues represented by your fellow classmates, by me,
by writers we will read, and by musicians we will listen to and study,
but you should aim to do so in a serious, thoughtful, and respectful
manner, trying as best possible always first to understand where the
other is coming from, how so and why so, in advancing this take, and to
grasp what this other’s position indeed means in his or her own terms,
as he or she understands it, in order effectively actually to argue
versus and critique this position, rather than simply to reject,
denounce, or oppose it.
ON INTELLECTUAL RESPONSIBILITY,
ACADEMIC FREEDOM, AND CURRICULAR INTEGRITY
The English Department aims to provide you with an
intellectually challenging education. This means we will often include
texts and introduce topics in our courses that candidly explore adult
issues, including ones offering representations that may, on occasion,
prove unsettling, disturbing, and even offensive to some of you.
The higher educational academy is not a "safe space"
separate from the rest of the "real world" where you can expect to be
sheltered from encountering anything you might find disagreeable or
objectionable. On the contrary, we expect you to take up the
challenge to confront these kinds of texts and topics in a mature,
responsible way, and that means bringing directly to bear your negative
reactions–including your reactions of shock, dismay, and discontent–in
class discussions and in your writings and presentations for
class. If you find a position or practice represented in a text
or topic included in the assigned reading (or listening) for class to
be objectionable, it is therefore of crucial importance that you raise
your objections openly and honestly, not simply claim personal
exemption from having to see, hear, or talk, read, and write about
these kinds of matters. After all, disturbing positions and
practices exist extensively outside of the classroom as well as in what
we read, see, hear, and otherwise confront in and for class; what we
confront in class exists in this institutional space as symptomatic of
positions and practices that operate beyond the confines of the
classroom, the course, and the university. If and when you find
any text or topic genuinely appalling, you maintain the ethical
responsibility, as a mature adult and as a responsible citizen, not
simply to try to hide from these positions and practices but rather to
work to critique and change them.
Students should expect therefore that you may well
on occasion encounter representations that you will find troubling, in
this UWEC course and in many others as well; within this Department you
will receive no right of exemption from engaging with these and
absolutely no welcome for simply complaining (especially to a higher
administrative authority) about their inclusion. Instead you
should bring your objections forthrightly to bear in your contributions
to class discussion.
Finally, to conclude this particular point of
discussion, a professor differs from a high school teacher in many
respects, but one key difference is that we maintain a principal
professional, ethical responsibility forthrightly to represent the most
advanced knowledges in our fields of expertise and to proceed from
there to work toward their further development and dissemination.
In short, we must create, advocate for, and profess these knowledges;
you should expect that your professors may from time to time take
strong and indeed controversial positions on difficult and challenging
issues, eschewing the pretense of disinterested neutrality. To do
anything less than assume this responsibility, and to do so with
alacrity, would be to shirk our professorial responsibility and to
render ourselves unworthy of maintaining our professorial
position.
THE GOALS OF THE UWEC BACCALAUREATE
Education in the liberal arts represents the
historic and central commitment of what we do together on this UW
campus–not vocational training and pre-professional development.
The university administration and faculty support this commitment so
strongly that they have asked that all syllabi include the official
goals of the baccalaureate, which all our courses aim to help you achieve. Here they
are (in their newly revised, updated, and streamlined form):
1. Knowledge of Human Culture and the Natural World
2. Creative and Critical Thinking
3. Effective Communication
4. Individual and Social Responsibility
5. Respect for Diversity Among People
These goals require your striving
to meet them. Striving means learning actively, completing
assignments in a thorough and timely fashion, participating in class
discussion, and making connections between what we do while meeting in
class and what you do when engaged outside of the classroom.
SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE GRADE
General Criteria: Evaluation of Student
Performance
In evaluating all work done for this course, I will
take account of how carefully, seriously, intelligently,
enthusiastically, and imaginatively students engage with the concepts,
issues, positions, and arguments addressed in the course and
represented by the texts we read and listen to, by me, and by each
other.
Attendance
As an advanced-level seminar class this one depends
upon the active, consistent contribution of everyone involved. It
is not simply my class; it is your class as much if not more
than it is mine. Best put, however, it is our class. From time to time
you may need to miss class for one reason or another. Please let
me know ahead of time if at all possible. Also please try not to
miss except for a genuinely serious problem or difficulty. If you
miss often your grade will suffer–and rightly so as you will be
depriving everyone else of the value of your prospective contribution
to our collective work, and our collective achievement. And
I also do expect students to arrive on time, and to stay through the
end of class, as well as to be attentively focused throughout our class
meetings entirely on what we are doing together as a class–not on
matters having to do with other classes or other areas of your
life. Please turn off cell phones throughout class, and please do
not use laptop computers in class for anything other than the work of
this class.
Initial Short Paper
To give you an early chance to try out some initial
ideas about some of the issues we will engage this semester, as well as
to give me an early sense of where you are coming from in terms of the
kind and level of your preparation to deal with these issues, and to
give you the chance to get some initial feedback from me, including on
how you are doing grade-wise, I’m including an early assignment asking
you to write a short critical analysis of a contemporary popular song
of your choice. I will give you a more precise explanation of
what I would like you to do with the specific assignment itself, but
you should note well that I will ask you to reflect on the music as
well as–and in fact beyond–the lyrics with this assignment, and to do
so as you are best able. This is not meant as a particularly
difficult assignment, by any means, and I hope that you will find it
enjoyable as well as otherwise rewarding to pursue. Your grade on
this initial short paper will be worth 10% of the
overall course grade. And although I will not mandate a
page or word target or limit, as a very rough guide you may think of
this as a 5-8 page (or 1250 to 2000 word) paper.
Short Presentations in Class
Fitting with the fact that this is a seminar and you
will be working actively and consistently to share the responsibility
for initially explaining course material, I will ask each of you
throughout the course of the semester to come to class prepared to
explain–and often as part of explaining, illustrate–very specific
points related to what we will be reading–and listening–for
class. For example, and this is not necessarily an example of an
actual specific assignment–a student might explain what rhythm,
harmony, melody, or a particular kind of each of these means. Or
you might report on a specific chord structure, riff, or groove.
Or you might report on some aspect of the capacities of a particular
instrument or instrumental combination. Or you might explain what
a specific writer we are reading means by a critical concept she or he
uses to make sense of the aesthetic/artistic or social/political
significance of a specific group of punk, or hip-hop, or electronic
musicians. Or, if a writer refers to a specific musician’s
repertoire, or to a specific musical genre or style, you may be asked
to find and bring in a (single) recorded example of this to play for
us. Or you may be asked to do some research to give us more
background about a particular place or time that seems to be formative
of a particular musician’s–or musical movement’s–form, content, and/or
style of expression. Those are just a few possible
examples. Again these will be short, and they will not be unduly
challenging assignments–not by any means. Each member of the
class will likely do this two to four times over the course of the
semester–and as far as possible you will have the opportunity to
volunteer for specific topics as they come up, and also to suggest ones
yourselves to investigate and share with the class. I expect
these presentations will generally be no more than 10 minutes long
maximum in each case. Your total grade for these short
presentations will be worth 10% of the
overall course grade.
Learning and Contribution/Learning and
Contribution Reflection Papers
What
This is and Why it is Important
My foremost aim in teaching this course is to help
you learn something of significance and value. I will judge you
to a significant degree on what you learn, how–and how hard–you strive
to learn, and on how–as well as how well–you contribute to learning for
the rest of the class.
You cannot learn or help others learn if you do not
contribute. If you don't contribute to the work of this class not
only will you fail to derive as much gain from it as would be the case
if you did contribute, but also you will deprive everyone else of the
benefit of your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, values, knowledge, and
experience. In fact, to remain entirely passively silent
throughout class, week after week, exploits the work of others who do
actively engage.
Class Participation
Although class participation is not identical with
contribution to learning, the former is an important component of the
latter. Class participation represents a place to learn, not just
a place in which to demonstrate what you have learned. By raising
questions, testing and trying out ideas, taking risks and making
mistakes, you learn a great deal–and help others learn a great deal as
well. You learn through talking, not just talk to show what you
have learned. Don't hesitate to speak forth in class if you
have anything at all to throw into the mix.
At the same time, just talking a great deal does not
necessarily mean that you are making a quality contribution to the
class by aiding the learning that we aim to accomplish. Quality
of participation is much more important than quantity, although a
sufficient quantity is necessary to insure quality. Still, I want
to emphasize here that I perceive talking for talking’s sake,
especially talking which pulls us off on far-fetched tangents, which
remains disconnected from and disengaged with the reading, the
listening, and the rest of the class, or which effectively silences
others, to be negative participation.
Quality class participation does not, moreover,
involve merely asking questions of me and responding to my questions;
quality class participation requires you to work as assiduously as you
can to advance a serious and substantial discussion with your peers as
well as with me about the texts and topics subject to discussion.
Students should, therefore, be prepared to engage with and respond to
each other in class discussion, and I will take note of how well you do
so.
As for evaluating class participation, I offer you
the following as a rough guide: Excellent = Regular responses,
with consistently useful, insightful comments and questions; Good =
Regular responses, with relevant and generally helpful comments and
questions; OK = Less frequent responses, including occasional–and
generally relevant as well as otherwise generally
helpful–questions and comments; Poor = Virtually entirely quiet and/or
with a persistent tendency toward clearly irrelevant or otherwise
clearly unhelpful questions and comments; and Failing = Engaging in
behavior that shows lack of respect–and disrupts the learning
process–for the class, for you and your fellow students, such as
engaging in conversations while others are speaking, or attending to
matters besides what we are focusing on as a class.
Alternative Forms of Contribution
Contribution to the class certainly can extend far
beyond mere speaking in class: it may include a variety of ways in
which you can bring to bear your insights to help yourself as well as
the rest of us gain from the experience of this course. At the
same time, listening carefully, respectfully, and thoughtfully in class
discussions is an important contribution to class as well. I do
recognize that quality contribution extends considerably beyond
speaking frequently in class. And I also certainly recognize that
talking just for the sake of talking is not quality contribution.
Learning and Contribution Reflection
Papers/Learning and Contribution Reflection Grades
Learning and contribution will constitute a
substantial proportion of your overall course grade. A
significant component of this will involve you writing two learning and
contribution reflection papers.
These papers provide you a useful opportunity to
demonstrate how you are doing with the course. Not only will you
engage with texts, issues, positions, concepts, and arguments you will
have read for–and we will have discussed in–class, along with the same
in relation to a range of musical recordings (audio texts), but also
you will thoughtfully reflect on your own individual learning and
contribution. As you are assessing your own learning and
contribution, you may include thoughts in reaction to issues raised in
class discussion that you did not have the opportunity or did not feel
comfortable enough to share in class; these additional reflections will
help me get a better sense of what you have been thinking about and how
you have been responding to class discussions, as well as to the course
readings. I will take into account what you write in determining
your learning and contribution grade for the preceding semester period;
performance on these papers in fact represents the major component of
your learning and contribution grade.
I will provide you specific directions in the
assignments I give you for each of these papers; please note well that
the questions I ask you to address will change from reflection paper to
reflection paper.
The first learning and contribution grade (including
the first learning and contribution reflection paper) will be worth 20% of the
overall course grade, and the second learning and contribution
grade (including the second learning and contribution reflection paper)
will be worth 20%
of the overall course grade. Once again, although I
will not mandate a page or word target or limit, as a very rough guide
you may think of these as 8-12 page (or 2000 to 3000 word) papers.
Term Papers/Projects
Your major task this semester will be to prepare–and
present–a term paper, or project, which you can do either individually
or as a member of a group of your fellow classmates (the latter choice
is up to you).
Your aim here will be to research, critically
analyze, and critically reflect on the meaning, value, and significance
of a specific music culture (or subculture), making use of concepts
drawn from readings for this course–and, potentially as well, of other
concepts from critical theory, cultural studies, and further readings
in popular music studies scholarship. This specific (sub)culture
can be past or present, nearby or distant, locally concentrated or
operating across local spatial–and temporal–boundaries. It may
also be a (sub)culture suggested by readings in any of the books I have
ordered for you this semester (especially readings not assigned for
class). Whatever you choose, try to make it as narrow, precise,
concrete, and specific as possible; try to make it something you
genuinely are highly interested in–and perhaps already highly
knowledgeable about; and try to make it something you think you can do
a compelling job making sense of in intellectually serious terms, in
particular ones akin to those you will encounter in the required
readings for this course. I will be happy to work with you
throughout the process of working on this term paper (or project), and
in fact I encourage you to seek my assistance as you proceed.
Relatively early in the semester I will ask you to turn in a prospectus
for your term paper or project describing what specific music culture
you propose to focus on, how, and why, so that I can give you
suggestions and recommendations for how best to proceed with this
focus.
By identifying this as a term paper or a term project I am inviting you
to incorporate audio, visual, audio-visual, and/or performative
components into this work as you are able and interested–and as you
think would help make it all the more effective and compelling.
Finally, as I previously mentioned, in the course
explanation statement, you will have the opportunity to present this
paper, or project, in process, at three successive stages of
development, before turning in a final version for a grade. This
way you will be able to receive constructive criticism from your
classmates, from me, and, when you present a piece of your work as part
of the English Festival, from a potentially wider audience as
well. In addition, as you are interested, I will invite you to
make a portion of the presentation of your work a segment of one of my
weekly radio shows on WHYS Community Radio (Insurgence, Thursdays from
10 pm to midnight) where you will be able to play a set or two short
sets of your music as I talk with you (interview you) on the air about
this music–and about your research, analysis, and reflection concerning
it.
I will distribute further information, instructions,
suggestions, and recommendations as the semester proceeds–first for the
term paper or project prospectus, and second for the term paper or
project itself.
Your grade on this term paper or project will be worth 40% of the
overall course grade. And yet once more, although I will
not mandate a page or word target or limit, as a very rough guide you
may think of this as a 15-20 page (or 3750 to 5000 word) paper.
Graduate Students
Any graduate students enrolled in this course will
be expected to take on a greater role in helping direct the course of
discussion, facilitate the logistics of getting course materials
available to the class, set up sessions for presentations of term
papers, and prepare a more ambitious, higher-level, individual term paper or project
than expected of undergraduate students. Graduate students should
consult with me early on so we can work together to decide on the
precise details of what you will be doing as graduate student
participants in this class.
Undergraduate Capstone Students
Any undergraduate student doing her or his capstone
project as part of this course will prepare a more ambitious,
higher-level, individual term
paper or project than expected of the rest of the undergraduate
students enrolled in the class. Capstone students should consult
with me early on so we can work together to decide on the precise
details of what you will need to do with your term–and capstone–paper
or project.
Late Papers
Late papers will receive a reduction of 1/3 of a
letter grade per day late unless you have made previous arrangements to
turn your paper in to me late due to a serious problem or emergency.
Plagiarism
Do not use anyone else's words without giving the
author credit. If I find out that you've plagiarized even part of
a paper, you will have to re-write it, and you may even be dismissed
from UWEC if the violation is serious–and extensive–enough. If
you echo any thoughts mentioned in class discussion add the letters CD
in parenthetical citation after the sentence, viz: (Nowlan CD 9/25//07).
FIELD TRIP/EXTRA CREDIT
I’d like to work with you to arrange a field trip
relevant to the focus of this course for some point during the
semester. I’ve decided that I’d like to offer you the chance to
help decide and arrange where this might be–and what we might
do. I’ll maintain the ultimate right to approve or
disapprove of what you propose, but I’ll also be willing to spend the
bulk of the cost–within reason–to make it possible for us to go
wherever we go, and to do whatever we decide to do. Usually field
trips in my classes are one-day-long events, where we travel to
Minneapolis and where I pay for the cost of the bus as well as help
make any other additional arrangements that it is best someone in my
position make. And friends of students are always welcome to come
along and join us in all that we do. That’s just to give you an
idea of what you might propose for a field trip. But we could go
elsewhere, other than Minneapolis, including right here in Eau Claire,
if we can come up with an event or series of events on a single day
that would seem to offer us a useful, interesting, and enjoyable way to
enhance the experience of what we are studying together in this
class. If we do a field trip, students who contribute
significantly toward organizing and arranging it will receive 5% extra credit for
doing so, and everyone who attends–and participates–will receive
5% extra credit
for doing that. Consult with me as you come up with ideas,
and we’ll aim to make something happen.
CONFERENCES/EXTRA HELP
I encourage you to meet with me in conference during
office hours or at another mutually convenient time to discuss any
issue of interest or concern that you develop as a student in this
course and as a member of this class. I recognize the value of
learning that takes place in conferences; I know this can at times be
equally as important, and in fact occasionally even more important,
than what takes place in class. It also provides you an
opportunity to contribute beyond what you say in class and write for
class. So please do not hesitate to meet with me at any time you
think this might be helpful to you–or whenever you’d just like to talk
further with me. I want to help you in your understanding
of issues addressed in texts (including audio texts in the form of
diverse musical recordings) and discussions, as well as in your writing
and participation. And you may certainly also feel free to
contact me by e-mail or by (my campus office) phone as well.
I really do like to get to know my students;
students at this university continually demonstrate impressive ability,
talent, knowledge, experience, insight, vitality, and good
character. I am lucky to get to know you; it enriches me.
*
Any student who has a disability and is in need of classroom
accommodations, please contact the instructor and the Services for
Students with Disabilities Office. *
CONCLUSION
In the interest of accountability–me to you–I am
here providing you links: 1.) to my statement of philosophy as a
college teacher: http://www.uwec.edu/ranowlan/philosophy.htm;
2.) to my autobiographical profile: http://www.uwec.edu/ranowlan/PROFILE_.htm
and http://www.myspace.com/insurgentseanmurphy
(if you too are on myspace feel free to contact me to become myspace
friends); and 3.) to my professional vita (the academic equivalent of a
resume): http://www.uwec.edu/ranowlan/VITA.htm.
I encourage you to check these sites out; it is useful for you to know
who your teacher is, what he’s about, and where he’s coming from–and I
like to be very open, honest, and forthright with you about all of
that. I look forward to a great semester working together with
you!