Announcements

With your discussions going forward, please remember to: 1) include technology as part of your discussion and 2) clearly cite sources for any information external to the book.

Agenda

Discussion

Planning for the 2250-word Midterm, due October 26.
If you would like written feedback, please submit your midterm paper by October 23.

1. Requirements
   • Requirement: Focus on one of the topic areas and its required fiction/essays
     • The data-driven texts aren’t required for the midterm.
     • If you choose Beloved, please read more of the book.
     • If you pick Dawn or The Left Hand of Darkness, you’ll need to read ahead!
   • Requirement: Two or more of the additional assigned reading/watching/listening
   • Requirement: Use of a critical theory(s) to guide your research (see #4, “Recommended Method,” below)
   • Requirement: Discuss one or more identities protected by NYC Human Rights Law
   • Requirement: Discuss one or more disruptive technologies in the context of the major Industrial Revolutions.
     • Don’t pick something that doesn’t involve hard science (e.g. the ghost of Beloved; non-communication between Sonny and his brother). This includes tech in the sci-fi novels we’ll read. Don’t make this harder than it has to be!
     • If you discuss multiple fiction authors (e.g. Morrison and Baldwin), pick a tech category that is present in both eras (e.g. transport tech, manufacturing tech)
   • Requirement: Discuss your positionality (NYU login required; see also APA Inclusive Language Guidelines)
2. Timed Exercises: you can use previous exercise writing to start your draft.
3. Positionality: building on your background, engineering major & interests
   • Personal manifesto
   • Speak Your Truth, Check Your Privilege
   • Related scholarly techniques: Reflexivity (thematic analysis), Subjectivity Statement, Autoethnography
4. Recommended Method: Critical Literary Theory
   • Why use the critical literary theoretical approach?
     • Flexible, unstructured, can include other methodologies, doesn’t require additional data collection or structured analysis
   • I like the broadness of the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature (NYU login required); it draws on fields outside of English lit and American lit. Please use this resource to explore and choose at least one
     • Specific theories
     • Theoretical areas
     • Note that intersectionality is discussed in other Oxford Research Encyclopedias as well.
   • For tips on literature (as opposed to literary) review, see Research Competencies on the Project Resources page
   • Other methods: Sage Methods Map (NYU login required)
     • Qualitative Analysis (NYU login required)

Exercise: Planning/Synthesis Clouds. Prof’s example cloud is here. Start mapping out the midterm you want to write.

Timed Exercise: due tonight so you have more time to work on your Synthesis Cloud.

Wednesday: We will discuss templates and grading rubric.

Assignments

Read/listen/watch, take notes, and be ready for in-class timed exercises & discussions on: 

• Class Book: “take me to the water,” the first essay from James Baldwin’s No Name in the Street.
  • In the audio, this is Parts 1 and 2.
• Feng, Kim: A New Theory of Race in America (Chronicle of Higher Education, NYU login required)
• APA Inclusive Language Guidelines
• Who Killed Vincent Chin? (watch this film by next Monday, 10/9. NYU login required)

Which current technology issues come to mind from your reading? Please find a news item about a relevant technology to the newest tab in D&T News Items 2023.

Optional but Recommended

• Crenshaw: Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Policies. If you discuss intersectionality in your projects this semester, be sure to read this article, which first introduced the social concept of “intersectionality.” It’s a dense article, but worth reading!
• Zia: “Detroit Blues: ‘Because of You Motherfuckers.'” Zia is prominently featured in Who Killed Vincent Chin? If you focus on automotive technology, this is a must-read!