Assignments

Presentations

Graduate students will sign up to present for 2 to 3 of the weeks, and will partner with others to frame the discussion. These presentations should be brief, and are not intended to replace participation by other students—they should contextualize the author, his / her discipline and generation, and offer a few questions to get us started.

Undergraduates will only present once. Presentations should be collaborative and based on one week's readings.

Weekly Reading Reports

(for Sessions 3–10)

In lieu of a final paper undergraduates will prepare weekly reading reports on the shared readings. These will consist of one or two paragraphs summarizing the thesis argument of the selected text.

These reports should comment on each assigned reading and its author: What is the thesis argument? What evidence does the author adduce? Are you convinced?

Research Paper

Graduate students are expected to produce a final seminar research paper for this subject. It is understood that you will bring research interests of your own to this seminar, and you are encouraged to develop these towards a proposed final project. MIT students met with the instructor to discuss plans, obtain suggestions in the bibliography, revise theses, and identify archives.

Research papers should be about 7 double-spaced pages long and include around 10 images to support arguments. A 15-minute presentation is also required.