Assigned Readings

Thread One—All about race, ethnicity, and culture:
As we enter this first section of our class, I want my students to consider what role race, ethnicity, and culture play in social stratification and engagement. The following readings, primarily from the third edition of Emerging: Contemporary Readings for Writers, all have to do with our concepts and understandings of the role our ethnicity plays in who we are.

Week One:

• "The Near Certainty of Anti-Police Violence", Ta-Nehisi Coates
• "There Is No Post-Racial America", Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Also, the students are reading through a sampling of essays following the This I Believe prompt, for their first essay assignment.

Week Two:

• For Tuesday: "The End of Race: Hawaii and the Mixing of Peoples", Steve Olson (class reader)
• For Thursday: 
• "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack", Peggy McIntosh
• "Race & Ethnicity", The Critical Media Project
• "Where Bias Begins: The Truth About Stereotypes", Annie Murphy Paul

Week Three:

• "Paper Tigers", Wesley Yang (class reader)

Week Four:

• For Tuesday: I asked the students to bring in current articles relating to race/ethnicity/culture to share and discuss
• For Thursday: "Race, Ethnicity, Surgery", Maureen O'Connor

Week Five:

• "Preface and the New Civil Rights", Ken Yoshino

This reading assignment was a bit different. Please see post here.

Week Six:
Starting to transition from race/ethnicity/culture to gender

• For Tuesday: Group presentations of "Preface and the New Civil Rights", Ken Yoshino
• For Thursday: "Why Nice Guys Finish Last", Julia Serano

Week Seven:

•  For Tuesday:
• "Candidate Competence: Is There A Double Standard?", Tessa Ditanto
• "Gender As Non-Fiction: Q&A with Julia Serano", Noah Berlatsky
• "Gender Roles in Media", Allison Lantagne

Week Eight:

• For Tuesday: "Bad Feminist", Roxane Gay
• For Thursday, I brought in various articles relating to gender and double standards that we read and discussed in class

Week Nine:

• For Tuesday: "Female Chauvinist Pigs", Ariel Levy
• For Thursday: "Sisterhood is Complicated", Ruth Padawer

Week Ten:
This week marks a transition from gender to online presence

• For Tuesday: "It Gets Better and Action Makes It Better", Dan Savage and Urvashi Vaid 

Week Eleven:

• For Tuesday:  "Why Kids Sext", Hanna Rosin

Week Twelve:

• For Thursday:  "What Is It About 20-Somethings?", Robin Marantz Henig

Week Thirteen:

• For Tuesday:
• Visit the galleries at http://dearworld.me/galleries/, taking note of any messages that really stand out to you
• "The Limits of Friendship", Maria Konnikova
• For Thursday: Watch this video BEFORE coming to class: http://projects.dearworld.me/collegetour AND visit the galleries at http://dearworld.me/galleries/, taking note of any messages that really stand out to you

Week Fourteen:

•  For Tuesday: "My Crowd Experience: The Mob Project", Bill Wasik

Week Fifteen:

• For Tuesday: "Visible Man: Ethics in a World without Secrets", Peter Singer
• For Thursday:
• "The Pros and Cons of a Surveillance Society", Nick Bilton
• Locate and review the privacy policy at Facebook or another site you frequently use. Make notes on anything that stands out to you.

Week Sixteen:

• For Tuesday: "We Are a Camera", Nick Paumgarten