ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Attendance reminder on medical documentation after 2 absences: Class policy follows Tandon Policy. Please also see Student Advocacy guidance.
• NEW in this site in the Diversity menu: Midterm grade sheet template and Informed Consent Form.
• Open House New York is this weekend:
  • Historic Hunterfly Road Houses at Weeksville Heritage Center
  • NYC Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS) (though you can visit on most weekdays as well). DORIS homepage and library catalog

AGENDA

• Device time
  • News item
  • Announcements 
  • Primary research check-in + tips updates.
    • Reminder on having a backup plan:
      • What happens if your inquiries go unanswered?
      • What happens if a correspondent refuses or cannot help? 
    • Reminders about using AI for primary research prep
  • Midterm template
    • 1500 words (about 6 pages) due on October 23 at 5pm
      • For full credit, you must have booked your primary research interview and/or archival visit by this date. Don’t forget to copy me on all correspondence, since this is your proof of work.
    • I shared a Midterm Google Doc with each of you. Please prepare your midterm in this doc. I’ll download these docs on 10/23 at 5pm.
    • Midterm grade sheet template here.
• Device-free time
  • Timed exercise
  • Discussion with audio excerpt

ASSIGNMENT

You can use AI, but you must verify any information you find. I may ask you about it.

1. NEWS: Please share a relevant news item and be prepared to explain it.
2. READ and be prepared to discuss:
   • Coaston: Intersectionality Explainer (Vox 2019)
   • Crenshaw: Why Intersectionality Can’t Wait (Washington Post, 2015)
   • Architectural and Mapping work of Prof Karen Lewis:
     • MODELS: read the three links under “Underground Railroad.”
     • CROSSINGS: read about the journey of William Wells Brown and watch the animation.
   • All URLs linked in the Midterm Grade Sheet. I won’t ask you to write on these links, but you probably want to be aware of the concepts and references I’m using for grading.
3. REVIEW and be prepared to discuss:
   • Beloved up until “Hi Man assumed because he alone knew what was enough, what was too much, when things were over, when the time had come.” (The entirety of Beloved-Part04.mp3)
   • Any/all previous assignments
4. EMAILS (now overdue): See the Session 9 assignment for details.
5. FOR DISCUSSION FACILITATORS leading the next session: email me the following by 1:30pm ET before the next class, as part of your discussion grade.
   • your audio excerpt
   • a simple discussion question on the Beloved and additional technology reading assignments
   • a more challenging discussion question on the same assignment

OPTIONAL Reading on Intersectionality

• Bond: Global Intersectionality and Contemporary Human Rights (OUP, 2021). See Chapter 1 for a brief historical survey of intersectionality theory.

Primary Reading on Intersectionality

• Crenshaw, 1989: Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Policies. This article cites three cases involving technology companies:
  • DeGraffenreid v. General Motors
  • Moore v. Hughes Helicopter, Inc.
  • Payne v. Travenol
• Matsuda, 1993: Beside My Sister, Facing the Enemy: Legal Theory Out of Coalition. Focus on the concepts of multicultural coalition, anti-subordination, and the introduction of intersectionality. 

Announcements

• Attendance update from Student Advocacy: “even if a student reaches out to our office that we are only advocating on their behalf and any absences not handled in alignment with the course syllabus may be counted as unexcused.”
  • If you’re concerned about this, I advise planning to conduct extra primary research for extra credit. I’ll determine grading rubrics for this by next week.
• Ethical Data Collection – further reading
• A brief note on Beloved and intersectionality. More on intersectionality later this semester.
• Discussion reminders:
  • Technology reading now an explicit part of the assignment
  • Please focus on facilitating the class’s responses, not stating your own opinion
  • Keep an eye on the entire class to make sure everyone has a chance to speak.
  • Consider backup questions in case there’s no repsonse to the question(s) you’ve shared

AGENDA

• Device time
  • News item
  • Announcements
  • Discussion reminders
    • Technology reading is now an explicit part of the assignment
    • Please focus on facilitating the class’s responses, not stating your own opinion
    • Keep an eye on the entire class to make sure everyone has a chance to speak
    • Consider backup questions in case there’s no repsonse to the question(s) you’ve shared
  • Primary research check-in + tips updates.
    • Reminder on having a backup plan:
      • What happens if your inquiries go unanswered?
      • What happens if a correspondent refuses or cannot help?
  • Midterm template
    • 1500 words (about 6 pages) due on October 23 at 5pm
      • For full credit, you must have booked your primary research interview and/or archival visit by this date. Don’t forget to copy me on all correspondence, since this is your proof of work.
    • I will finalize this template before Monday and copy the template into individual Google Doc for each of you. Please build your midterm report in this Google Doc.
    • The template is from APA Sample Papers on the APA Style site. I downloaded the student paper and student paper with annotations — please use these for formatting guidance.
    • Grade sheet template forthcoming next week.
• Device-free time
  • Timed exercise
  • Discussion circle with audio excerpt

ASSIGNMENT

You can use AI, but you must verify any information you find. I may ask you about it.

1. NEWS: Please share a relevant news item and be prepared to explain it.
2. READ and be prepared to discuss:
   • Beloved up until “Hi Man assumed because he alone knew what was enough, what was too much, when things were over, when the time had come.” (The entirety of Beloved-Part04.mp3)
   • Additional reading:
     • PBS: How The West Got Rich and Modern Capitalism Was Born.
     • Headrick, D. R. (2009). Power over peoples : Technology, environments, and western imperialism, 1400 to the present. Please read two sections of Chapter 7:
       • Chapter 7: The Gun Revolution
       • Chapter 7: North America
     • Please review the APA Style Guidelines on Racial and Ethnic Identity and NPS Language of Slavery (linked from your earlier NPS Reading on the Underground Railroad). Adherence to these guidelines will be part of your midterm report’s cultural competence grade.
3. REVIEW and be prepared to discuss:
   • Any/all previous assignments
4. EMAILS (now overdue): See the Session 9 assignment for details.
5. FOR DISCUSSION FACILITATORS leading the next session: email me the following by 1:30pm ET before the next class, as part of your discussion grade.
   • your audio excerpt
   • a simple discussion question on the Beloved and additional technology reading assignments
   • a more challenging discussion question on the same assignment

Announcements

• Primary research emails are now overdue, but still required for your midterm report.
• Reminder on the Discussion grading rubric. Don’t forget to ask about technology.
• Thanks for all your contributions so far!

AGENDA

• Device time
  • News item
• Device-free time
  • Timed exercise
  • Discussion circle with audio excerpt
• End Notes
  • Primary research check-in + tips. If your emails go unanswered, what’s your backup plan?
  • Midterm report of 6+ pages due on October 23 at 5pm
    • For full credit, you must have booked your primary research interview and/or archival visit by this date. Don’t forget to copy me on all correspondence, since this is your proof of work.

ASSIGNMENT

You can use AI, but you must verify any information you find. I may ask you about it.

1. NEWS: Please share a relevant news item and be prepared to explain it.
2. READ and be prepared to discuss:
   • PBS Newshour: Before cotton, sugar established American reliance on slave labor (7:45)
   • Related NY Times reading (Muhammad 2019): The sugar that saturates the American diet has a barbaric history as the ‘white gold’ that fueled slavery.
   • National Geographic: Industrial Revolution and Technology
3. REVIEW and be prepared to discuss:
   • Beloved up until “Let’s see you walk on em.”
     (The entirety of Beloved-Part03.mp3)
   • Any/all previous assignments
4. PRIMARY RESEARCH EMAILS
   • Follow-up Email:
     • If you sent your initial email more than a week ago, it’s time to follow up or move on to Plan B. Remember to copy me and relevant colleagues.
   • Overdue Initial Emails:
     • If you haven’t sent me your draft email messages for primary research, do this ASAP!!
     • If I’ve responded to your draft messages with approval, please send your emails in accordance with the General Notes for D&T Email Drafts.
     • If you’re confused or have questions, let me know.
5. FOR DISCUSSION FACILITATORS: If you’re leading the next session discussion, email me the following by 1:30pm ET before class, as part of your discussion grade:
   • your audio excerpt
   • a simple discussion question on the Beloved reading assignment
   • a more challenging discussion question on the same assignment

Optional Reading

• Dickinson, Harry W. A Short History of the Steam Engine. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2019, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429423123. From the book description: “First published in 1938, this volume details steam engine as the most dynamic factor in the Industrial Revolution, freeing humanity from their age-long dependence upon the power of water, wind, and animals, or of their own muscles.”
  

announcements

• Primary research emails – due today
• Attendance reminder: if you’re not sure that you’ll be absent, email me anyway by 11am.
• Reminder about device-free time

AGENDA

• Device time
  • News item
  • Primary research check-in
    • Note my tips. I’ll add notes for your tech topics as I encounter them in my research for Beloved. I am prioritizing tech topics more directly relevant to the novel.
    • If your emails go unanswered, what’s your backup plan?
• Device-free time
  • Timed exercise
  • Discussion circle with audio excerpt
  • Final notes on recent reading/watching/listening

ASSIGNMENT

You can use AI, but you must verify any information you find.

1. NEWS: Please share and be prepared to explain a relevant news item.
2. READ and be prepared to discuss:
   • Beloved up until “Let’s see you walk on em.”
     (The entirety of Beloved-Part03.mp3)
   • Short readings on the formalization of medical gynecology during the 1800s. Note: some of their terminology is no longer in keeping with MLA and APA guidelines on inclusive language.
     • The first few paragraphs of Medical Apartheid’s Introduction, until “…one benign, one malevolent — of American medical research.”
     • Please also have a look at the painting described in Medical Apartheid’s Introduction.
     • The first 2.5 pages of Medical Bondage’s Introduction, until “history evidences how race, class, and gender influenced seemingly value-neutral fields like medicine.”
3. EMAIL due now:
   • If you haven’t sent me your draft email messages for primary research, do this ASAP!!
   • If I’ve responded to your draft messages with approval, please send your emails in accordance with the General Notes for D&T Email Drafts.
4. FOR DISCUSSION FACILITATORS: If you’re leading the next session discussion, email me the following by 1:30pm before class, as part of your discussion grade:
   • your audio excerpt
   • a simple discussion question on the Beloved reading assignment
   • a more challenging discussion question on the same assignment
5. REVIEW and be prepared to discuss:
   • Any/all previous assignments

Optional Reading

On the rise of formalized gynecology and obstetrics in the 1800s. Some of their terminology, particularly related to enslavement, is no longer in keeping with MLA and APA guidelines on inclusive language.

1. Medical Apartheid, Chapter 2: on antebellum medical experimentation on enslaved people. There’s also a chapter on comparative medical apartheids across the globe. The entire book is also available on audio, see the “Bodily Autonomy” section of the class reading/watching/listening page.
2. All of Medical bondage : race, gender, and the origins of American gynecology (2017) by Deirdre Cooper Owens. I also have an audio version of this book; let me know if you’re interested.
3. A review in the journal Science of the recent book Saying Anarcha.
4. Another well-known instance of medical apartheid in the United States: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Skloot 2010). Also made into a film starring Oprah Winfrey.

Announcements

• Discussion sign-ups are complete. If you didn’t sign up on your own, I signed up for you.

AGENDA

• Device time
  • News item
  • A closer look at NPS’s Underground Railroad page
  • Primary research check-in. Note my tips and start sending emails out this week (see assignment).
• Device-free time
  • Timed exercise
  • Discussion circle with audio excerpt. Popcorn or go around room?
  • Final notes on Session 6 readings

ASSIGNMENT

You can use AI, but you must verify any information you find. I may ask you about it.

1. EMAIL:
   • As of this writing, four people haven’t sent me draft email messages for your primary research. Please do this ASAP!!
   • If I’ve responded to your draft messages with approval, please send your emails in accordance with the General Notes for D&T Email Drafts.
2. NEWS: Please share a relevant news item and be prepared to explain it.
3. READ and be prepared to discuss these very short readings/watchings:
   • WGBH (PBS Boston): Who Made America: Eli Whitney
   • PBS Georgia: King Cotton & the Cotton Gin (5:35)
   • WNET (PBS New York): The Cotton Economy & Slavery (3:03) 
   • Connecting Cotton to the Northeast
     • NYC Garment District history: read the parts about the 1800s
     • Charles River Museum exhibit on The Boston Associates: “venture capitalists of the past”
     • NPS.gov page on Lowell’s Southern Connection: Lowell was a textile manufacturing town financed by the Boston Associates. This chapter is from an NPS guide to Lowell National Historical Park.
4. REVIEW and be prepared to discuss:
   • Beloved up until “She’s not sick!” said Denver, and the passion in her voice made them smile.” (The entirety of Beloved-Part02.mp3)
   • Any/all previous assignments
5. FOR DISCUSSION FACILITATORS: If you’re leading the next session discussion, email me the following by 1:30pm ET on 9/30, as part of your discussion grade:
   • your audio excerpt
   • a simple discussion question on the Beloved reading assignment
   • a more challenging discussion question on the same assignment

OPTIONAL: More reading on Textile innovation & Slavery

• WGBH: The Cotton Gin & Slavery 
• Eli Whitney Museum: The Cotton Gin and its Legacies
• 11-minute video on The Boston Associates
• NYC’s Garment History: A Bibliography

Announcements

• News item is a point (for URL), 2 points (for verbal presentation
• Additional written assignments are up to 3 points for full completion

AGENDA

• Device time
  • News item
  • Primary research check-in
  • Discussion sign-up check-in
    • audio clips
    • sitting in a circle only if class is smaller than 14 people
• Device-free time
  • Timed exercise
  • Discussion circle with this audio excerpt

ASSIGNMENT

You can use AI, but you must verify any information you find. I may ask you about it.

1. NEWS: Please share a relevant news item and be prepared to explain it.
2. READ and be prepared to discuss:
   • Beloved up until “She’s not sick!” said Denver, and the passion in her voice made them smile.” (The entirety of Beloved-Part02.mp3)
   • Short readings/listenings on wrought iron and railroads:
     • The Guardian: Industrial Revolution iron method ‘was taken from Jamaica by Briton’
     • Wikipedia: Modern-edge rails
3. REVIEW and be prepared to discuss:
   • Any/all previous assignments
4. FOR DISCUSSION FACILITATORS: If you’re leading the next session discussion, email me the following by 1:30pm ET on 9/28, as part of your discussion grade:
   • your audio excerpt
   • a simple discussion question on the Beloved reading assignment
   • a more challenging discussion question on the same assignment

OPTIONAL: More reading on Railroads and Wrought Iron

• Black metallurgists and the making of the industrial revolution (covered in the Guardian article above)
  • UCL’s “Full and unreserved support” for the article above, after blowback to the article
• The Coming of the Railway : a new global history, 1750-1850
  • Chapter 6: ‘Geometrical precision’: Wrought-iron rails 1808–1834
• NPR: How the Underground Railroad Got Its Name (with transcript)

Announcements

• Primary research spreadsheet: To check your assignment due today, I will temporarily lock the sheet after class, then review the revision history.
• A primary research informed consent form has been drafted based on your notes from last week.

Agenda

• Device time
  • News item. Reminder: this is a required assignment now!
  • Discussion facilitator sign-up. Discussions should be modeled on homework review circles and follow the discussion grading rubric. Please sign up this week, or I’ll assign you a date. Leading a discussion sooner might be easier than later!
• Device-free time
  • Timed exercise
  • Homework review circle – with this audio excerpt
  • Timed exercise review circle

Assignment

You can use AI, but you must verify any information you find. I may ask you about it.

1. NEWS: Please share a relevant news item and be prepared to explain it.
2. IN BRIGHTSPACE: Please draft an email to each of the contacts listed in your primary research plan that was due today, September 21. Please also share any feedback on the informed consent form.
3. READ and be prepared to discuss (in writing and speech):
   • 1619 podcast, Episode 2, “The Economy That Slavery Built.” Also available at Apple and Spotify. Listen until the end of Matthew Desmond’s interview at 25:40. Here’s an auto-generated transcript.
   • “America’s First Big Business: Not the Railroads, but Slavery.”
   • “What is the Underground Railroad?”
4. REVIEW and be prepared to discuss:
   • Beloved up until “How loose the silk. How fine and loose and free.” (The entirety of Beloved-Part01.mp3)
   • Any/all previous assignments.

Announcement

Grading and attendance begins today!

Agenda

• Device time
  • News item
  • Primary research planning
    • Your primary research should examine technology developed in the 1800s.
    • In your final article, you’ll connect it to the diasporic communities described in Beloved and other class readings.
    • Please also discuss: if you were being interviewed for this class, what kinds of informed consent would you want from your interviewer? Take notes in the Primary research spreadsheet.
  • Note-taking exercise with BELOVED movie. This can and should be applied when you start reading Beloved the novel!
• Device-free time
  • Homework review circle
  • Timed exercise review circle. Let’s discuss the exercises so far!
    • Underline of your text: illegible
    • Underline of question text: not addressed
    • Check: addressed
    • Plus or Star: extra point
    • Wavy line: incorrect or at least highly questionable
  • Timed exercise
    • Please leave a 1-inch margin at the top of every page! This will help me use binder clips to obscure your name while I grade.

Assignment

You can use AI, but you must verify any information you find. I may ask you about it.

1. How is the class material so far relevant to news items you’re encountering beyond this class? Please share a relevant news item in this spreadsheet and be prepared to explain to the class.
2. Fill out for your primary research plan so far in the Primary research spreadsheet.
3. Read and/or listen to the novel Beloved up until “How loose the silk. How fine and loose and free.” (This is the entirety of Beloved-Part01.mp3.)
   • If the timed exercises have been a challenge, and/or if reading this novel is a challenge, consider reading and listening at the same time, a.k.a. “immersive reading.”
4. Be prepared on to discuss and/or write about any/all previous assignments.

Announcement

Tomorrow is the last day of Add/Drop. Grading and attendance will begin on Wednesday!

Agenda

• device time
  • news item
  • APA Bias-Free Language Guidelines (See the full chapter here)
  • primary research ideas + bathroom time
• device-free time
  • homework review circle
  • handwritten timed exercise (practice). Please stay in the room!
    • Please use characters’ names!
    • If you’re not sure about a definition or a question, you can ask. 
    • If you finish early, make sure you answered all parts of the question.
    • Finishing early -> device time? 
  • 9/9 Practice Exercise Evaluation Key
    • Underline of your text: illegible
    • Underline of question text: not addressed
    • Check: addressed
    • Plus or Star: extra point
    • Wavy line: incorrect or at least highly questionable.
  • BELOVED movie

Assignment

You can use AI, but you must verify any information you find.

1. How is the class material so far relevant to news items you’re encountering beyond this class? Please share relevant news item in this spreadsheet.
2. I will use APA Inclusive Language Guidelines, along with the Bias-Free Language Guidelines linked above, to evaluate your midterm and final papers. Please read them and be ready to discuss some new things you learned and/or have questions about. Have you noticed any “terms to avoid” being used in class so far?
3. Start planning the who/what/where/why for your primary research. Your primary research plan will need my approval before you can carry it out, so we’re getting started early.
4. Watch the film BELOVED up until 01:54:34 (“So long, Paul D.”)

FOR MONDAY 9/21:

• We will switch from watching the film of BELOVED to reading the novel. Read and/or listen to Beloved up until “How loose the silk. How fine and loose and free.” (This is the entirety of Beloved-Part01.mp3.)

Agenda

• device time
  • internalized oppression
    • brief definition from U of Wisconsin
    • Internalized Racism and Mental Health: The Moderating Role of Collective Racial Self-Esteem (Behavioral Psychology, 2024)
    • The legacies of systemic and internalized oppression: Experiences of microaggressions, imposter phenomenon, and stereotype threat on historically marginalized groups (New Ideas in Psychology, 2021)
• device free time – in any order
  • oldest invention installed on this floor/building
  • homework review
  • handwritten timed exercise (practice)
  • BELOVED movie

Assignment

For all weekly assignments, you can use AI, but you must verify any information you find. I may ask about your sources.
FOR DISCUSSION ON MONDAY:

1. How is the class material so far relevant to news items you’re encountering beyond this class? Please share relevant news item in this spreadsheet.
2. Do you have a favorite book about the 1800s? If not, find one that you’re curious about! Please make a printout of the cover and bring it to next class.
3. Of the following civil & human rights laws/policies for NYU, New York City, New York State, and the United States, which is the most different from the others? Why?

ALSO:

• Make sure you’re familiar with BELOVED film up until the point we stopped in class, about 53:00 minutes.
  Continue looking through the novel Beloved. You won’t be asked about it until after Add/Drop, but it doesn’t hurt to start getting familiar!