What's this class about?This is a class designed to help you recognize and create "stories that think."
I use this term for projects that mix everyday observations about the world with theoretical material from academic sources. As you'll notice while reading examples I provide throughout class, "stories that think" can cover all sorts of topics and be generated from all sorts of vantage points. Sometimes these stories are written in the first person; sometimes not. Sometimes the stories stem from on-the ground observations, sometimes not. Sometimes these stories are textual; sometimes not. I've titled this course "Telling the story that thinks: GLS from Classroom to Street " to reflect where we are in this moment: In New York City, at NYU, enrolled in the Global Liberal Studies program. As writers and scholars, we'll be considering these environments in our narratives.However, to write stories that "think GLS," we need to do a few more things. First, we are going to need to get familiar with some concepts in cultural and global studies. We are going to do that using a "keyword approach," focusing on these keywords: subject; place; space; time; market. We then move into global studies keywords, where students are encouraged to focus on terminology appropriate to their personal interests. The next thing we are going to do is learn how to combine our own narratives with key words to communicate our own personal interests as scholarly ones. It's natural to get flustered when asked to talk about one's choice of concentration, future research plans, and so forth. In this class you'll learn to identify your scholarly interests, map those to keywords, and frame it all through a narrative that reminds the reader how unique you are. The final thing you'll do in this class is learn to use university resources to conduct independent research that connects your personal passions to your academic orientations. You'll use this research to undergird a project (traditional or creative) about global urban culture--one that shows the world something about who you are as a scholar, a writer, and (for some) a creative. A note about the phrase "global urban culture” : to me, this means anything that transpires in city space, including (but not limited to) the buildings we navigate, the sounds we hear, the fashions worn, the advertisements we are exposed to, the trash we encounter, the camera phones we use to communicate, the politics playing out on our streets, and so forth. I am also interested in what Calvino called “invisible cities”: the elements of urban space that are overlooked, neglected or rejected. |
How is this class structured?This class is a one-semester condensation of Writing I and II .
Writing I uses workshop techniques to develop students' self-confidence and fluency as writers. Prior to each class, students are asked to undertake targeted reading and writing exercises designed to strengthen their observational, critical, analytical and creative capacities. During class, writing is shared in peer review sessions, where connecting with one another's ideas and challenges is emphasized. Writing II continues the workshop format, training students need to engage in scholarly research and long-form writing at the university level. All substantial papers go through multiple drafts, and students have opportunities for multiple rewrites of their work throughout the semester. |
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