Silence To Song

Queers and Theory Final Project: Syllabus

2006-12-15T00:01:00.000-04:00

English 379E - Special Topics in Literature

Section: 0101

From Silence to Song:

Constructing English and Indian Identities from the Colonial British Empire to the Post-Colonial Diaspora

Fall 2007

TuTh 2-3:15pm

1107 Susquehanna

Instructor: Laura -------

Office: 1111 Nomadic Building

Office hours: MW 12-1pm or by appointment

Phone: 301-405-xxxx

E-mail: xxxxxxx@umd.edu (preferred mode of communication)

Course blog: http://www.silence2song.blogspot.com

COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVES

Welcome to English 379E! We have an exciting semester ahead. We’ll be looking at the complicated relationship that developed between England and India from the onset of colonialism through Partition to the contemporary moment, and how that influenced the evolution of English and Indian and English-Indian identities. We will examine this relationship through novels and essays by both English and Indian authors in addition to using critical texts that discuss the strategies of how to create, make, and participate in archives, and how those perpetuate silence, (in)visibility, and lead to the creation of different voices (songs).

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

- demonstrate an understanding of major findings and ideas in colonial and post-colonial theory

- demonstrate an understanding of the methods and skills used in English literature, History, and Cultural Studies

- demonstrate an understanding of how archives are constructed and used in varying disciplinary projects

- demonstrate the ability to critically engage with an argument and evaluate the argument’s main assertions as well as the disciplinary assumptions it is grounded within to access the validity and utility of the evidence provided to support the argument’s assertions

- demonstrate an understanding (as well as articulate) the importance of cultural diversity in the English and Indian contexts as well as to generalize such knowledge to the larger global stage

- communicate effectively regardless of medium (formal papers, discussion in class, posts on blogs, etc.)

RESPONSIBILITIES AND EXPECTATIONS

- regular attendance

- completion of assigned readings

- active participation in class discussions

- post two times on blog over the course of the semester

- commenting on fellow students’ blog posts every week

- one 4-5 page essay

- one 7-8 page essay

- one in-class mid-term

- one final exam

REQUIRED TEXTS

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Penguin Classics Edition.

Butalia, Urvashi. The Other Side of Silence: Voices From the Partition of India.

Gopinath, Gayatri. Impossible Desires: Queer Diasporas and South Asian Public Cultures.

Kosambi, Meera. ed. Pandita Ramabai: Through Her Own Words. [019-564-7548]

Satthianadhan, Krupabai. Kamala: The Story of a Hindu Child-Wife. [019-565830-2]

Syal, Meera. Anita and Me. [1-56584-372-X]

Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. [0-15-662870-8]

*There is also a course packet that contains the various essays we will be reading over the course of the semester. You can purchase it at the print shop that is located in the basement of the Armory. NOTE: CP denotes you can find that particular reading in your course packet.

COURSE SCHEDULE

Day/Date	In Class	Readings Due	Assignments Due
Thurs. 8/30	Introduction to the class – a brief lecture on England’s colonial history and relationship to India, in particular.	------	------
Tues. 9/4	Discuss Said’s article in relation to the information provided during last week’s lecture.	CP: “Jane Austen and Empire” by Edward Said & Pride and Prejudice (ch. 1-10)	Blog and comment.
Thurs. 9/6	Continue to discuss Said while starting to discuss Pride and Prejudice.	Pride and Prejudice (ch. 11-20)	-----
Tues. 9/11	Discuss Pride and Prejudice and pass out prompts for Paper #1.	Pride and Prejudice (ch. 21-40)	Blog and comment.
Thurs. 9/13 (Rosh Hashanah)	Discuss the “silence” in Pride and Prejudice concerning colonialism and Burton’s notion of the archive and how that works to record Indian women’s colonial experience.	Pride and Prejudice (ch. 41-50) & CP: “Memory Becomes Her” by Antoinette Burton	-----
Tues. 9/18	Finish discussions of Pride and Prejudice.	Pride and Prejudice (ch. 51-61)	Blog and comment.
Thurs. 9/20	Compare and contrast Burton and Halberstam’s definitions and conceptions of archives in their projects. What use do they have for colonial and post-colonial studies?	CP: “The Brandon Archive” by Judith Halberstam & Pandita Ramabai: Through Her Own Words (Introduction)	-----
Tues. 9/25	Discuss the writings of Pandita Ramabai particularly how her sense of identity shifts in regards to going to England and the USA.	Pandita Ramabai: Through Her Own Words (Part II & Part III) & CP: “You Can Have My Brown Body and Eat It, Too!” by Hiram Perez	Paper #1
Thurs. 9/27	Discuss Louis Althusser’s concept of Ideologies and which ones are at work within Pandita Ramabai versus Kamala.	CP: “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses” by Louis Althusser & Kamala (Introduction and ch. 1-5)	-----
Tues. 10/2	Continue discussion of Kamala and its ideological moorings.	Kamala (ch. 6-20)	Blog and comment.
Thurs. 10/4	Watch film: Vanity Fair.	-----	-----
Tues. 10/9	Watch film: Vanity Fair and discuss politics of project via lens of visibility & silence.	-----	Blog and comment.
Thurs. 10/11	MID-TERM	-----	-----
Tues. 10/16	Compare and contrast how Ann Cvetkovich’s conception of an archive varies from Burton’s and Halberstam’s ideas. We will discuss the implications for Pandita Ramabai, Kamala, and Vanity Fair.	CP: Introduction from An Archive of Feelings & CP: “Transnational Trauma and Queer Diasporic Publics” by Cvetkovich	Blog and comment.
Thurs. 10/18	Discuss Mrs. Dalloway and the project of modernism in English literature.	Mrs. Dalloway (p. 1-56)	-----
Tues. 10/23	Consider how Mrs. Dalloway deals with issues of trauma in relation to the crumbling British Empire.	Mrs. Dalloway (p. 57-151)	-----
Thurs. 10/25	Discuss Mrs. Dalloway’s relationship to colonialism via Peter Walsh and Walsh's absent Indian wife.	Mrs. Dalloway (p. 152-94)	-----
Tues. 10/30	What does Butalia do to de-stabilize our conception of ‘Facts’ and History?	The Other Side of Silence by Butalia (ch. 1-3)	Blog and comment.
Thurs. 11/1	Looking at “Women,” how does Butalia’s schema relate to others we have seen in the semester, such as Pandita and Kamala?	The Other Side of Silence by Butalia (ch. 4)	-----
Tues. 11/6	Consider how ‘Honour’ and Children plays a role in identity formation for Indian women & discuss Paper #2 guidelines.	The Other Side of Silence by Butalia (ch. 5-6)	Blog and comment.
Thurs. 11/8	How do we account for the persons at the ‘Margins’ of memory? How do we create an archive for them?	The Other Side of Silence by Butalia (ch. 7-8)	-----
Tues. 11/13	Consider Gopinath’s assertion of Indian lesbian invisibility. How does that relate to other froms of invisibility and silence we have discussed?	Impossible Desires (ch. 1-2)	Blog and comment.
Thurs. 11/15	How does film render things invisible through visibility? How does film work as an archiving device?	Impossible Desires (ch. 3-5)	-----
Tues. 11/20	How does being in Diaspora influence silence and visibility? What ways do artists mobilize the ideas of archiving we’ve discussed?	Impossible Desires (ch. 6-7)	Paper #2
Thurs. 11/22	Thanksgiving Holiday - NO CLASS	-----	-----
Tues. 11/27	Watch film, Bride and Prejudice.	-----	Blog and comment.
Thurs. 11/29	Consider Syal’s preface and the ideological stance it takes. How does it differ/relate to Pandita? Kamala?	Anita and Me (preface–ch. 3)	-----
Tues. 12/4	Discuss Meena’s identity as Indian and English. How does she reconcile (or not) these competing subjectivities?	Anita and Me (ch. 4 - 7)	Blog and comment.
Thurs. 12/6	Consider the headlines that Meena fantasizes about. How do these “sensation” articles define her identity and create an archive of self?	Anita and Me (ch. 8)	-----
Tues. 12/11	Finish discussions of Anita and Me. Class Wrap Up and Evaluations.	Anita and Me (ch. 9-13)	Blog and comment.
TBA	FINAL EXAM	-----	-----

ATTENDANCE POLICY

Attendance is required. Participating in discussion is an essential part of class that cannot be made up and students should always come prepared to class to discuss that day’s assigned readings. However, since life is unpredictable (flat tires, faulty alarm clocks, visiting relatives, etc., do occur), you are allowed three “personal” or “mental health” days. Any absences beyond those three must be documented and deemed excused by the university. If not, I will consider them unexcused and you will be penalized via the loss of attendance and participation points. For each unexcused absence after three, your final grade will be lowered by one full letter grade.

Excused Absences: The University’s policy deems absences due to illness, religious observances, and participation in university activities at the request of university authorities excused as long as I am provided with appropriate documentation within one week of the absence.

Extended Absences: If you will need to take an extended leave of absence from class due to severe medical problems, death of a parent, etc., please notify me as soon as possible so we can discuss how best to handle the situation.

Official University Closures: We will not have class if the University closes due to inclement weather, campus emergencies, national disasters, etc. To check on the university’s closure status, you can look on the university’s website (http://www.umd.edu/) or call the snow phone line (301-405-SNOW) as well as listen to local radio and television stations.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

The University’s honor code prohibits cheating on exams, plagiarizing, turning in the same paper for credit in two different courses without permission from instructors, purchasing papers, turning in fraudulent documents, and forgery.

Before turning in either of your papers or exams, you will be required to write the University’s Honor Pledge on said papers or exams. Should any evidence come to light that you have broken any part of the University honor code, I will report you to the proper University authorities.

University’s Honor Pledge: “I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this examination (or assignment).”

GRADING

Attendance/Class Participation will account for 10% of your grade.

BLOGGING & COMMENTING – Every week, 2-3 people will post an entry to the class blog before Monday at noon. The rest of the people in the class will be responsible to comment on the posts before class on Tuesday afternoon. The posts should engage with the themes, topics, texts, ideas, etc., that we will be discussing that week. The blog posts are a jump off point for our class discussions. I will pass around a sign-up sheet during the first day class so we can organize who will post when. Everyone is expected to post twice during the course of the semester, and to comment on your fellow classmates’ posts every week. Blog posts need to be a minimum of 500 words. Comments need to be a minimum of 100 words. Blogging and commenting will account for 10% of your grade.

PAPER #1 – The first paper will need to be 4-5 pages. It should make an argument using one of the theoretical approaches we have discussed in class in conjunction with one of the texts we have already studied by this point. The paper must be written using the MLA style of documentation and citation. Further directions and clarification will be given in class along with specific prompts. Paper #1 will account for 15% of your grade.

PAPER #2- The second paper will need to be 7-8 pages. It should apply one of the theoretical approaches we have discussed in class in conjunction with two texts we have already studied by this point. The paper must be written using the MLA style of documentation and citation. Further directions and clarification will be given in class, but no prompts will be given. Students will need to develop their own topic using the materials we have learned in class. Paper #2 will account for 20% of your grade.

Late Paper Policy: Papers are due at the beginning of class. A paper becomes late 10 minutes after class starts. For every class day a paper is late, it drops one letter grade. (Thus, if you come to class 15 minutes late on September 25^th, the highest grade you can get on the first paper is a B. If you do not come to class at all on the 25^th and hand in your paper on the 27^th, the highest grade you can receive is a C.)

MID-TERM – The mid-term will focus on the main theoretical concepts and texts that we have discussed in class up to that point. There will be ten true/false questions, ten multiple choice questions, and two short essays which will account for 20 % of your grade.

FINAL EXAM – The final exam will be comprehensive which means that you will be expected to know and discuss materials from the beginning as well as the end of the semester. There will be twenty true/false questions, twenty multiple choice questions, and three short essays which will account for 25% of your grade.

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

If you are a student with a disability, please inform me within the first week of class so that I can assist you with obtaining the proper accommodations. If you have questions or are uncertain of your status, you can contact Disability Support Services at 314-7682.

WRITING CENTER

The Writing Center at 0125 Taliaferro Hall, x5-3785 is an excellent resource on campus. Trained tutors can assist you with any stage of the writing process from assisting you with brainstorming ideas to giving feedback on complete drafts. The center’s hours as well as other information is are available at: http://www.english.umd.edu/programs/WritingCenterWebsite/. However, please note that this service is only by appointment during the day, and that the evening walk-in hours are limited, so please, remember to call ahead!

Syllabus Rationale

2006-12-14T23:59:00.000-04:00

“Jane Austen and Empire” by Edward Said

I chose this selection from Said’s book Culture and Imperialism (1993) that is fairly often anthologized to begin the class for many reasons. First, it introduces the students to the ideas and concepts that arise in post-colonial criticism in a fairly comprehensive manner. While many of the students will have heard of Jane Austen and at least seen a movie adaptation of one of her novels, if not read one or two, they may not have been exposed to post-colonial theory before this class. Second, Said is very careful in his analyses to avoid what he refers to as “the rhetoric of blame” which “so often now [is] employed by subaltern, minority, or disadvantaged voices, attacks her [Jane Austen], and others like her, retrospectively, for being white, privileged, insensitive, complicit”.[1] The natural tendency once one starts becoming aware of injustice is to rally against it, however, I want my students to develop a more nuanced understanding of the power dynamics involved in colonialism and not to simply point figures at certain people, like Jane Austen, and discount them for living in a society where slavery existed. Therefore, Said’s discussion of this tendency will, hopefully, allow my students to work through this tendency fairly early in the class or at least be aware of it. Finally, Said fits in beautifully as a bookend to my class because the issues of silence and voice in the construction of English and Indian subjectivities and identities. Said’s essay explicitly deals with issues of silence surrounding slavery in colonialism that is brought, for a moment, out of silence and hiding by Austen’s heroine of Mansfield Park, Fanny Price, who discloses to her cousin that when she asked a slave holder about the slave trade, “There was such a dead silence.”[2] The self-reflexivity concerning speaking about silence troubles our conceptions of Austen’s agenda and opens up a space for discussion about the making an unmaking of silence which will eventually turn into song by the end of my course.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Besides Pride and Prejudice complementing Edward Said’s article “Jane Austen and Empire” which will allow my students to apply the analysis and concepts they learned in Said’s text, Pride and Prejudice is important because later on in the semester I will show an updated version of the novel, the film Bride and Prejudice. Pride and Prejudice is useful because of the overt silence in relation to colonialism even though the ever present soldiers consistently point at what is not being discussed, the British Empire’s need for many soldiers available to deploy to its various colonies. Thus, we will be able to discuss the limits of silence and invisibility.

“Memory Becomes Her: Women, Feminist History, and the Archive” by Antoinette Burton

This is the first chapter in Burton’s book Dwelling in the Archive. I chose it because it details colonialism from the late nineteenth-century up to Partition. It specifically questions how one creates an archive, investigates an archive, and participates in an archive where its subjects (women) have largely been ignored by History. Burton lays out how she used the National Archives of England and India as well as acquaintances to find evidence of Indian women’s subjectivities (specifically in the genres of personally family history, memoir, and fiction) and she analyzes women’s experience within the context of home, religions, silence, invisibility, and visibility.

“The Brandon Archive” by Judith Halberstam

This is the second chapter in Halberstam’s book In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives. Halberstam is discussing the archive that has grown around the death of Brandon Teena. I am using this for the course because I think that the students would benefit from extrapolating Halberstam’s notion of an archive and how it is made via different mediums and people’s memories in addition to what Burton uses (written records). I think that having the students compare and contrast these different versions of archive-making from different disciplines (Burton is a historian and Halberstam is a cultural theorist) will assist in getting them to think more critically about the construction of archives, what we think of as history, and thus what we do when we construct histories and people’s identities.

Pandita Ramabai: Through Her Own Words edited by Meera Kosambi

I assigned the Introduction, Part II (Ramabai’s essays on her experiences in England), and Part III (Ramabai’s essays on her experiences in the USA) to complicate student’s assumptions and notions of Indian identity. The Introduction does a lot of work analyzing the photograph on the cover of the book discussing how Ramabai is presenting a combination of English and Indian markers which Ramabai does through out the text as well. She was born in India and traveled to England (and converted to Christianity while there) and the USA to request money to build a school in India. Ramabai was an advocate for educational reform and often walked the line of reformer and spectacle.

“You Can Have My Brown Body and Eat It, Too!” by Hiram Perez

This essay appeared in a special issue of Social Text, What’s Queer About Queer Studies Now? Perez’s discussion of the spectacle-ization of brown bodies complements the ideas of spectacle, racism, and tolerance of diversity that occurs in Pandita Ramabai’s experience. I think the essay will allow the students to be able to see the history and complications of colonialism and the aftermath that still exists today, even within academia.

“Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses” by Louis Althusser

Althusser has been put on the syllabus because of the importance of the notion of ideologies (and competing ideologies) that exist within a society. I am using this in discussion with Kamala (one of the first novels in English to have an Indian woman protagonist) because the politics of the book are better understood when one looks at the competing ideologies that are attempting to “hail” the reader, namely, sympathy for Indian women due to the conditions of child-wives, which in turn is supposed to excite the reader’s sympathy to endorse the English colonial cause. However, a more implicit ideology in rendering Indian women in English is to present them as human; however, the call to humanity is often lost in the response to protecting women from their own country.

Kamala by Krupabai Satthianadhan

The novel is written by an Indian woman, in English, and participating in a particular reoccurring construction of the innocent child-wife being forced to marry and the many hardships she must endure. While the use of this reoccurring trope can be problematic, I believe that having it in class is important because of the common use of the child-wife situation as a rationalization for the need of England’s “civilizing” influence on India, especially since we are not discussing the other main objections English society had against Indian society, namely, sati and the treatment of widows.

Vanity Fair (2004) directed by Mira Nair

Vanity Fair is on the syllabus because it is a re-write of a canonical British novel written during the Colonial Era by a Diaspora Indian director, Mira Nair, and thus illustrates the complexities of English and Indian identities and how they overlap and inform each other due to their shared colonial history. Mira Nair’s project in Vanity Fair is to bring what was eclipsed or ignored in the novel to the forefront literally of the screen while still keeping the overall plot structure of Becky Sharp’s social climbing relatively the same. Nair succeeds both at making India and “Indianness” visible in many little ways throughout the film, such as, Reese Whiterspoon who portrays Becky Sharp is often wrapped in saris and many servants in the background are marked as Indian through their dress, as well as confronting the colonial discourse directly and illustrating its many ironies, particularly in a early meal scene and in the dance sequence towards the conclusion of the film which demonstrate how Englishness was defined by incorporating Indiannness into the self (but still, paradoxically, maintaining a distance from Indianness).

An Archive of Feelings (Introduction and Chapter 4 “Transnational Trauma and Queer Diasporic Publics”) by Ann Cvetkovich

Cvetkovich is on the syllabus because of the way she discusses archives in relation to trauma. I will want my students to be able to compare and contrast how Cvetkovich’s conception of an archive complements and disrupts Burton’s and Halberstam’s definitions of archive. I am also interested in how Cvetkovich presents and questions how people deal with trauma because, later on in the semester, we will be discussing the Partition and how that disrupted, traumatized many lives. Thus, how one archives the Partition can be discussed in how Cvetkovich frames the archiving of traumatic feelings.

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

However, before we discuss Partition, I want my students to discuss how the British Empire is slowly crumbling due to the political and psychological climate of England post-WWI. Mrs. Dalloway provides an excellent way to view how the once confident sense of English identity is being undermined and questioned by the damage caused by the first World War. The disillusionment of the English public with themselves and their unraveling Empire is embodied in the character of Peter Walsh (who returns from many years in India where he worked for the British government). Walsh’s disenchantment with life is thematized with the “romance” plot discussed. Walsh was once a suitor of Clarissa Dalloway who turned him down which was one reason why Walsh went to India where he married an Indian woman. Walsh’s romantic discontent can be read as the nation’s discontent or apathy with Colonialism in this particular historical moment. In addition, Clarissa’s queer attraction to a female friend brings up question of silence, invisibility, and visibility of queer identities as well as colonial ones.

The Other Side of Silence by Urvashi Butalia

This is the book I mentioned above that discusses the trauma of Partition. Besides, discussing Partition, the book also engages in a meta discussion of how Partition has been recorded, discussed, and historicized in the past, and how this particular project through its use of interviewing subjects who were present for the events that would be considered marginalized person in society is very different from the accepted “facts” and “history” of the event, especially, since no one else has been invested in telling their stories. The marginalized persons include women, children, and the Harijans (Untouchables).

Impossible Desires: Queer Diasporas and South Asian Public Cultures by Gayatri Gopinath

Gopinath’s book is on the syllabus because it synthesizes a lot of the concepts and themes of the course. She addresses the history and framework of India and colonization that Burton addresses. She interrogates ideas of silence, invisibility, visibility, and voice via gay and lesbian Indian subjects of the Diaspora. She also interacts with how Bollywood and directors of the Indian Diaspora, as well as other artistic mediums (like music, photographs, etc.), archive and express the particular feelings and embodiments of silence, voice, and (in)visibility.

Bride and Prejudice (2005) directed by Gurinder Chadha

I will show the current film as the course winds down to an end because it recalls the earlier discussion of Edward Said and Jane Austen from the beginning of the class while reinterpreting and re-writing the text to make visible the presence and connections that exist between India, Britain, and the USA which was touched on by Pandita Ramabai a hundred years before. As well as giving voice, through song (here we come to the second part of the course title) to the previously silenced and invisible colonial subjects within Jane Austen’s version of Pride and Prejudice (wherein Indian or any other colonial subjectivity had to be read between the lines), Bride and Prejudice places the female Indian woman front and center along with the still felt ramifications of colonialism.

Anita and Me by Meera Syal

The course ends with Meera Syal’s semi-autobiographical novel (even the genre blurs the lines of the discipline). Syal’s coming of age story about Meena a Punjabi girl growing up in a working class English town in the 1960s brings together ideas and themes of identity construction, how a girl grows up Indian in England, or does she grow up Indian? Does she grow up English-Indian or some amalgamation? Besides demonstrating the conflicts of identity formation and subjectivity through Meena’s queer obsession and fascination with Anita, Meena’s equal obsession of documenting her stories (sometimes described as lies) via “sensational” tabloid reports in her raises and addresses issues surrounding documentation and archiving of the post-colonial subject’s experience. How one constructs one’s own past and archives it into some narrative, though its accuracy is questionable like all history), to create a sense of self.

[1] Said, Edward. “Jane Austen and Empire.” Literary Theory: An Anthology. 2^nd ed. Eds. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. London: Blackwell, 2004. 1124.

[2] Said, Edward. “Jane Austen and Empire.” 1124.

Administrative Form 1: One-Term CORE Approval

2006-12-14T23:51:00.000-04:00

CORE Liberal Arts and Sciences Studies Program

Proposal Form for Expedited, One-Term CORE Approval

For further information about this form or the proposal process, contact Laura Slavin, 301-405-9359 or lslavin@umd.edu.

Department chairs and program directors may use this form to propose
courses for expedited, one-term CORE approval, with the understanding
that a regular CORE proposal must be submitted and approved if
ongoing CORE approval is desired.

Instructions: Please submit the following items electronically as
MSWord E-mail attachments to Laura Slavin, lslavin@umd.edu.

1. this completed form (Please see signature instructions at bottom of form.);

2. a syllabus, and

3. other materials (i.e. reading lists, sample exams, assignments) you wish to include.

This form is intended for use with courses that have not been

offered previously. Such courses may not have permanent
course numbers. Please mark (X) applicable item:

___ New and one‑time honors courses (HONR);

___ One‑time offerings of visiting scholars/lecturers, or

_X_ Other new or one-time courses

___ Special situation, please describe:

Course Number and Title: English 379E Special Topics in Literature:
From Silence to Song: Constructing English and Indian Identities from the
Colonial British Empire to the Post-Colonial Diaspora

Semester/Year offered: Fall 2007

Please mark (X) the appropriate CORE Distributive

Studies Category (one only):

___Literature (HL)

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Please check (X) if proposing course for

CORE Human Cultural Diversity (D): _X__

Departmental acknowledgement of this proposal submission

is required and may be submitted in one of two ways:

1) You may print a copy of this form, obtain the appropriate signature,
and mail the printed form to: The CORE Program, c/o: Laura Slavin,
2130 Mitchell Building, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20842, or

2) Submit the completed form unsigned and have the Department
Chair/Program Director send an E-mail to lslavin@umd.edu acknowledging
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Please also see instructions, for electronic submission of proposal
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Department Chair/Program Director (Please print): _Professor Theresa -------

Signature: _________________ Date: ______

Administrative Form 2: CORE Human Cultural Diversity (D) Proposal

2006-12-14T23:46:00.000-04:00

Course Number and Title: __English 379E Special Topics in Literature – From Silence to Song: Constructing English and Indian Identities from the Colonial British Empire to the Post-Colonial Diaspora_

Dept./Program Contact: __English Department – Professor Theresa -------

Phone: __301-405-xxxx

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Date submitted to Academic Unit Head: __December 14, 2006__________

Faculty responsible for this course at time of submission:__Laura -------_

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E-mail/s: __xxxxxxx@umd.edu

Faculty Questions for CORE Diversity Courses

1) CORE Human Cultural Diversity courses focus primarily on one or more of the following areas:

· The history, status, treatment, or accomplishments of women or minority groups and subcultures

· Non-Western culture

· Concepts and implications of diversity

Please describe or give examples of the ways in which your course covers major content areas, themes, or principles in the study of the status, treatment, or accomplishments of at least one of the groups identified under the human cultural diversity requirement.

First, and foremost, my course is concerned with the construction of English and Indian Identities from the Colonial British Empire to the Post-Colonial Diaspora, thus, my course is inherently about the history, status, treatment, and accomplishments of English and Indian persons, particularly women and persons belonging to queer subcultures. Second,since half of the course is invested in discussing Indian identity (and over half of the texts are authored by Indian women), my course could definitely be described as dealing with Non-western culture, although (and this deals with the third component of “concepts and implications of diversity”) it desires to complicate those distinctions of West and Non-West which is why the other half of the course is tracing English identities in relation to Indian ones and how they simultaneously inform each other.

On October 6, 2005, the University Senate CORE Committee approved Learning Outcome Goals for the CORE program. No one CORE course will address all of the broad CORE program goals or the learning outcome goals listed for its category. The goals are intended to serve as guidelines or examples.

This checklist is provided to help the CORE Committee understand which learning outcomes are significant to your course.

Broad CORE Program Goals [Approved October 6, 2005, by the University Senate CORE Committee]
Please check the goals that are most significant to your course.

After completion of CORE Program requirements students should be able to:

_X_ demonstrate understanding of major findings and ideas in a variety of disciplines beyond the major;

_X_ demonstrate understanding of methods, skills, tools and systems used in and historical, theoretical, scientific, technological, philosophical, and ethical bases in a variety of disciplines;

_X_ use appropriate technologies to conduct research on and communicate about topics and questions and to access, evaluate and manage information to prepare and present their work effectively to meet academic, personal, and professional needs;

_X_ demonstrate critical analysis of arguments, and evaluation of an argument’s major assertions, its background assumptions, the evidence used to support its assertions, and its explanatory utility;

_X_ understand and articulate the importance and influence of diversity within and among cultures and societies;

___ understand and apply mathematical concepts and models, and

_X_ communicate effectively, through written and oral communication and through other forms as appropriate.

Human Cultural Diversity (D) Goals [Approved October 6, 2005, by the University Senate CORE Committee]
Please check the goals that are most significant to your course.

Students should be able to:

_X_ investigate major issues and scholarly approaches related to diversity;

_X_ analyze concepts and implications of diversity;

_X_ demonstrate understanding of historical, cultural, social, or political conditions and the ways in which they influence the status, treatment, or accomplishments of at least one of the groups identified under the human cultural diversity requirement;

_X_ articulate how diversity helps shape the role of the individual and the interconnections and relationships within and among groups across societies and cultures; and

_X_ use appropriate technologies to conduct research on and communicate about diversity and to access, evaluate, and manage information to prepare and present their work effectively.

2) If general education goals listed on the previous page do not mesh well with your course, you may write different goals below, if you wish.

Not applicable.

3) Please describe how the course helps students achieve the Human Cultural Diversity category goals checked or the course goals you entered.

The course assists students in achieving the Human Cultural Diversity category goals by exposing them to the complicated relationship that developed between the English and Indian cultures from the onset of colonialism through Partition to the contemporary moment. The course is interested in tracing how English and Indian identities evolved in relation to each other over the course of the Colonial Era into the Post-colonial time period we are now occupying via the study of novels and essays by both English and Indian authors, in addition to using critical texts that discuss the strategies of how to create, make, and participate in archives, and how those perpetuate silence, (in)visibility, and lead to the creation of different voices (songs). Said critical texts are drawn from a variety of disciplines, such as History, Cultural Studies, and English Literature. The students will also be required to use current technologies, such as the designated class blog, where students will be required to blog and to comment on others’ posts. In addition to the blogging requirements, students will also need to write two papers which will assist in developing their writing and communicating skills, as well as take two exams (one in the middle of the semester and one at its conclusion).

4) Please provide any additional information or materials that you deem important for understanding the nature of the course, its structure, and/or its goals.

Administrative Form 3: VPAC

2006-12-14T22:40:00.000-04:00

Vice President's Advisory Committee (VPAC)
Proposal to Add a Course form:

The University of Maryland, College Park Course Proposal

Action Add Course

College

Department -- Contact us if your department acronym is not listed

Course Prefix and Number Example: AASP100 (no spaces)

Proposed Effective Term

Formal Course Title

Transcript Title (maximum of 24 characters, including spaces)

CORE: (for undergraduate courses)
Yes N/A

CORE Proposal Form Request Page: http://www.ugst.umd.edu/core/ProposalRequestForm.htm
Can AP be attributed to this course? Yes No

Minimum Credits:		Maximum Credits:

Click here for Grading Method Explanations and Guidelines

RPA Reg (only) S/F RA RP

Description
Weekly Time Commitments
Lecture: hrs. Lab: hrs. Discussion: hrs. Seminar: hrs.

Proposed Delivery Method

Minimum Class Standing

Restrictions

Prerequisites (Course numbers are preferred)

Corequisites

Recommended

Minimum Semester Hours Required

Major Code Requirement
(Which majors require this course if any?
Will appear in catalog as "For ____ majors only".)

Use Acronym

Formerly offered as (including special topic courses)

Also offered as (crosslisted)

Maximum Repeatable Credits hrs. Not open to students who have completed .

Credit will be granted for only one of the following courses:

Catalog Description
Provide a concise and appropriately edited course description.

All proposals not meeting this requirement will be returned.

A study of how English and Indian identities have evolved in relation to each other from the Colonial Era to the current Post-Colonial time period. The project of archiving these transformations will be traced via novels, essays, and critical texts.

Reason for Proposal/Comments

This course is interested in examining the interrelations between the evolving English and Indian cultural identities via the use of traditional English discipline materials, such as novels and essays, as well as incorporating other materials from outside the discipline, such as theoretical History and Cultural Studies texts.

Resources Needed

A classroom for use twice a week and access to a dvd player and television set.

Syllabus (Please attach a paper copy of syllabus to signed course proposal)

Submitter's Name:

Phone:

Final Project for Queers and Theory

2006-12-13T23:23:00.000-04:00

This blog was created to display my final project for Queers and Theory. I decided to design a new class for my final project, thus, this site will display the syllabus as well as other related documents one needs when one designs a new course for the University of Maryland at College Park.