presentation links

Here are links to two student presentations:

from Sal's Parkour presentation:

Parkour from Japan

Sebastien Foucan and David Belle first commercials featuring parkour

from Justin's Adult Lego forum presentation:

Eurobricks - main cultural study

Audio Interview with Eurobricks creator

Lego Fan hubs

http://www.legofan.org/

http://www.mocpages.com/

http://www.brickshelf.com/

http://www.bricklink.com/

http://www.lugnet.com/

http://www.brickwiki.org/

http://www.brickset.com/

http://www.peeron.com/

Bromance, pages 4-7

Bromance, pages 1-3

example ethnographies

Dear Students,

After trying to no avail on Friday, and then remembering that the techies were updating Oasis, etc., I was able to upload three example ethnographies to Oasis. If you click on our course after you sign in to Oasis, you will be able to download the three examples under the Handouts section.

Hope all of you had a good break,

Chris

Week 13 announcements and homework for 12/1

Today in class you will be given a Strategies Worksheet. The three strategies are nothing

as inventive as the wheel, but they are basic strategies used in drafting and revising:

1) Homework for December 1st: 

- Write me a 1-page (minimum) Dear Christopher letter, which includes:

1. One (1) paragraph response to Peer Review of draft.

-name of review; how they helped

2. 2-3 paragraphs discussing your ethnography:

- Name your working thesis

- Name the cultural norms and behavior your developing

  from your thesis -->

- discuss organization/ structure:

- provide the specific section names, and/or

- provide the smaller claims you're discussing in ethnography

-Name 2-3 secondary sources that you know you are using

-give a brief explanation for each, answering: 

1. why/how you are using

- historical perspective?

- foundation for theory on behavior

- similar study?

- ??? 

3. Anything else you want to include in terms of discussing your project 

    that may be addressed before the final draft is due.

2) December 1st: We will continue discussing drafting, revising, and other aspects of the ethnography, as we gear towards presentations. Our main classroom focus, now, is on maximizing the integration of our research, especially secondary sources, into our ethnography papers.

Final Note for post: I will be posting some example student ethnographies within the next day. These examples may be posted here and/or on Oasis.

- please note: the aspect most often lacking in final ethnographies in past semesters has been the incorporation of secondary sources (library-found research).  Don't make our two trips to the library go to waste; those trips are meant to emphasize the importance of secondary sources.

cancellations - announcement of moved assignments

Dear Class,

I have already sent e-mails, notifying the cancellation of Monday, November 17's classes.
In that e-mail I have attached two worksheets. Below was the post that was to originally be posted once class began Monday, but is now going up a little earlier.

First: Some Homework / Assignment Announcements

1) Expanded Field Notes 2, originally due on Wednesday, November 19th at p.m. are now due five days late, to give both you and I extra time. I hope, though these are your only Expanded Field Notes, that you have made multiple visits to your culture. This is a trust issue. I trust you will have made at least 5 visits/observations on your own, in the last month and weeks to come.
Expanded Field Notes 2 is now due a week from today, after our last class before Turkey Day - Monday, November 24th.

2) Homework for Nov. 19th: Bring in 4-5 pages of your ethnography, typed, to be taken home for Peer Review by a coursemate.
Also, bring in 1 page of a your essay that uses a good amount of textual evidence from secondary sources that we can Workshop within the class time. Our goal is to get as many eyes on our drafts, and to get as much work on them before break!

Second: Worksheets attached to e-mails this morning:

1) In-text Citation Helpline: “!@#%@#$%” (stressed student).

Your final ethnography paper should include a very healthy dose of secondary source material used as textual evidence – as support – to help develop your own ideas found while doing fieldwork.

When providing such support – whether in summary, use of direct quotes, or in paraphrasing another author’s ideas – there are a couple of rules to follow in proper in-text citation. Those are as follows:

1) Acknowledge secondary source material using a couple of methods:
a. Within your writing you can introduce the author(s) and possibly their text,
before quoting, etc. If you choose this route, proper citation demands acknowledging page numbers. Example:

Jerry Angelo, author of Big Trucks are Manly, states that, “The idea that men must own the biggest, most powerful automobile is reinforced by a majority of American mass media” (14).

b. If you choose only to pull idea from source, you put author’s last name in parentheses:

“The idea that men must own the biggest, most powerful automobile is reinforced by a majority of American mass media,” and a stereotype of masculinity enacted by the brothers of Delta Upsilon (Angelo).

***Use this same kind of formatting and end of sentence citation when using summary or paraphrasing of a source, too.***

ONE MORE HUGE part of writing that will determine how well a writer incorporates secondary sources into their research papers is how one works to make the cited material their own; how much effort the writer puts in taking the quotes and explaining in the writing their relevance to their own essay.

1. Lead in to quotes/summary/paraphrasing by discussing your own ideas and projects
2. Lead out of citations before moving on to a new subject or a new point.
3. Never leave found material placed in your essay to speak for itself. Re-analyze and /or explain how the found quote/summary/paraphrasing is relevant to your ideas. Don’t end a paragraph on someone else’s idea!

4. Use “tags” to incorporate sources with a clear transition and understanding of how they’re to be used. Think of “tags” as the kind of clarification used by novelist when writing dialogue, where they write “Susie said with anger, “How dare you, Clarence. How dare you!”
A clearer example in terms of a scholarly tag, highlighted below:

The males of the fraternity exhibit a behavior of one-upmanship and uber-masculinty, “…reinforced by a majority of American mass media” (Angelo).

***Pay attention to where the end punctuation occurs in ALL citations. At the end of a citation, AFTER the parenthetical ( Ankney).  

2) Final Ethnography

             & presentation

The Final Essay is to be 15-20 (12-15 for Enhanced Sections) pages in length, double spaced, and should exhibit a thorough discussion of your chosen culture of study, using both the field work you’ve been doing the last month, prior knowledge and experience, and also secondary source material gathered during the entire process. Your essay should show an ability to discuss your culture in a well-rounded way, where various related issues on your culture are discussed – all painting a wider-but-focused picture of the culture.

The essay should also exhibit a clear organization of thought, with the audience able to easily follow along and comprehend the direction. Development of ideas and the essay’s structure will be intensely scrutinized by your final audience (the professor!).

Here is a list of things to be considered:
1) An overarching thematic viewpoint of the culture – “general thesis statement”
2) Reflective, analytical, detailed prose.
3) An objective and consistent point of view (1st person or 3rd person or ?)
4) Creative language that engages culture using good sensory details and as many
specifics as possible.
5) Use* of 7-10 secondary sources (books, articles, data analyzed by other authors)
- must cite at least three book sources within project
- may not use more than two Internet sites in counting towards minimum
- must use at least two published articles (those found on-line but from a
printed journal are considered print, not Internet sources!)

*Not only use, but proper citation of secondary sources within text and in Work Cited page, and inclusion of an appropriate amount of secondary source knowledge within essay. Lastly, explanation of secondary source material within essay . . .

6) Focused writing that thoroughly explores the ethnographer’s main points

Presentation:
Each of you is expected to give a 10-minute presentation on your culture, where you explain your main claims, give some support, and provide some kind of visual and/or audio proof. You are also expected to answer student questions, and will be graded both on your preparedness, ability to answer questions, and on the clarity and development of your discussion. Practice the length of your presentation, as rambling on past or stumbling short of the 10 minutes will affect grading of final ethnography.

Here are some possible routes to venture into for presentations:
- Videos: interviews and/or general example of culture
- Use of Internet – forums, community spaces, YouTube
- Powerpoint presentation
- Collage of photographs from culture
- Audio – music, interviews, etc.
- Props from culture – including people!
- Pamphlets from culture

*Those in need of media equipment should discuss their needs with professor in the classes PRIOR to the day of their presentation. Even if the equipment is backup.

for Mon. 11/17

Read pages 120-142 in DPC (3 articles in Chapter 4: Race and Ethnicity). Answer questions 1-3 on pages 129, 135 and 142

for Mon. 11/10 and extra

Read the first two articles in Chapter 2 of DPC: pages 45-63. Answer questions 1-3 on both pages 55 and 63.

Also, for anyone interested in taking Introduction to Literature, I am scheduled to teach a section on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30-1:50. I just found out today, but I still thought I'd spread the word. Tell your friends!

Lastly, next Wednesday (11/12) we will be workshopping an introduction (1-2 pages) of your ethnography final paper, in small groups. Use today's readings as a guide, as we discussed in class.

bests,

C.

for Wed. 11/5

Read the following articles, considering the language. Pay attention to how quickly the authors get into description of the place and the people. What kind of detail is being used to set the scene ASAP? How is each neighborhood defined within the larger city that surrounds each?

Also, pay attention to the structures of each article; how the authors decided to organize how to show you each city, and in what order they provided info. 

These articles are meant as some inspiration in your own ethnography writing. As you begin to draft the first pages of that final paper, look at how these published travel writers deal with writing of other cultures.

The first is  article is "36 Hours in Paris."

The second is "Newly Chic in Istanbul."

Myth and Spirituality

Dear Students: Below are some poems that invoke or respond to mythical characters and/or spirituality in their connection to our physical world. I'd like you to read them, and come up with one original question on myth, spirituality, religion; a question you could use in your own research of your specific cultures. Put this question in your Ethnography Journals.

In addition, I'd like you to write what we'll call a Halloween Cultural Encounter in your journals. This is to be short narrative where you write on something that happens to you in the next few days that involves Halloween in some way! This is kind of vague, so within each of our classes we will discuss it more. The last explanation: after telling your true story, you are to then give some brief analysis to what you learned about a culture, or American culture, or what was reinforced about either, from this encounter. Think of our topic of myth and spirituality and how that plays a role in the encounter . . . .

A REMINDER: We will meet on the THIRD FLOOR of the library on Monday for class. BRING YOUR JOURNALS so that I can grade them. 

The poems

Jack Gilbert's "Failing and Flying"

Yusef Kumonyakaa's "Instructions for Building Straw Huts"

Mary Karr's "Field of Skulls"

Michael Collier's "All Souls"

Sylvia Plath's "Edge"

Eamon Grennan's "The Cave Painters"

Percy Bysshe Shelly's "Hymn of Pan"

John Keat's "Hyperion"

Letters to the Editor - The Crescent News

Dear Students,

Below are two Letters to the Editor from my hometown's daily newspaper, The Crescent News. I am sharing them as they exhibit two different political view points (but not the only ones for either party, mind you), but also because we are in the midst of discussing our own projects this week and I thought there is some discussable behavior. As we discuss religion, spirituality and myth and where it appears in culture . . . and in what forms . . . below are two fine examples of 1) myth and 2) religion  and how they enter into the political forum. 

Also, I was looking on the website after hearing that John McCain is giving a rally Thursday morning on the steps of the Junior High auditorium in my hometown of Defiance, Ohio! 

First Letter:

We all need each other

I love my country and I believe this is one of the most important elections that we will have in my lifetime. Our country faces huge challenges which will affect each one of us of voting age, as well as our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

My concern is what comes after the election. Recently, I received a robotic call from the RNC telling me that Sen. Obama is a terrorist. It's one thing to draw differences between policies and maybe even stretch the truth a bit. But to accuse a United States senator, a presidential candidate of being a terrorist -- knowing full well that it's not true -- and also knowing that a small minority may believe it, that's not only irresponsible, but it could be dangerous for him personally.

Why is John McCain willing to say that when he knows it isn't true? Sen. McCain has said quite frequently "country first." It seems to me that he's more than willing to continue the slash and burn politics that divide us and ultimately sacrifice the strength of our great country which is its people -- Republican and Democrat, Independent and Green Party. How will that help us go forward? How will that help us work together and do what we need to do to get us out of the mess we're in?

These types of personal and false attacks that we've seen recently are how we ended up with George Bush. Our country is more divided today than ever. Remember when George Bush said, "I'm a uniter, not a divider." Well, Sen. McCain is not bringing us up together either. He's going down that same old path.

We will need to be together to face our future, but instead he's saying anything -- some quite outrageous things in fact -- to get elected. I plead with the citizens of Defiance: Think country first. Don't let the fear mongering and lies continue to divide us. We all need each other in the years to come.

Barbara LaForce

Defiance


Second Letter:

Who do Christians want to be president?

Who shall we vote for? What is the most important issue on the ballot? Where does the candidate stand on biblical scripture?

Why vote for the candidate who professes to be a Christian but does not take action against abortion nor stand up for the institution of marriage between one man and one woman? Voting for the candidate who takes no action against these two issues, supports abortion and homosexuality.

If you are a Christian read Proverbs 6:16-17, Romans 1:27, Leviticus 20:13 and then think before you act. Who do you want to be the leader of country?

Emma Brandt

for Monday 10/27 Cultural Vocab 2

Here are this weeks list of words to work with in your ethnography

journals, and be prepared to discuss.

1. diffusion
2. symbiosis
3. reciprocity
4. altruism
5. paralanguage
6. proxemics

Also, here is the Critical Encounters guidelines for those interested in submitting their creative non-fiction pieces to the Columbia Chronicle:

“Natural Tendencies”: Personal Narratives on Human|Nature

Throughout the 2008-09 school year, Critical Encounters, in partnership with the Columbia Chronicle, will present a weekly column titled “Natural Tendencies: Personal Narratives of Human|Nature.” These will be concise, personal narratives drawn from within our community, from a cross-section of faculty, staff, and students who represent the diverse population on our campus. These voices will provide us with perspectives that cut across ethnicity, class, region, gender, generation, and nationality. Each contributor will present a personal narrative that will highlight ways in which he/she is inspired by the natural world or reflections on a personal relationship with nature. The narrative might offer personal opinions on environmental issues and concerns, or specific social causes or actions undertaken to positively impact the planet.

The “Natural Tendencies” column will bring Critical Encounters to our community in a way that is immediate and personal. The narratives will forge connections with readers who will appreciate and hopefully be inspired by the efforts and ideas of other Columbia College citizens.

Contribute a Narrative.

We look forward to fresh stories and personal revelations that will emerge from these diverse voices.
- Write about any aspect of your life that you feel comfortable sharing.
- Make it personal and thoughtful.
- Submissions should be approximately 600 words.
- Please include your major and your classification (student, staff, faculty, and administrator)
- If you are a student, please indicate your level (freshman, sophomore, etc.)
- Include contact information (name, email address, phone number.)

Send narratives via email to: Kevin Fuller at kgfuller@colum.edu or criticalencounters@colum.edu

These narratives will be edited for inclusion either in The Columbia Chronicle or on the Critical Encounters website. We hope to send edited drafts to each contributor before final print.

field notes example jottings

for Wed. 10/22

As we begin to discuss more and more the HOW and WHY of cultural interaction, as we try to make sense of what each of our culture's value most . . . 

Read the following linked article from the NY Times. 

Answer in your journals: “What kind of place and space has the author painted of the country?” 

Explain your answer with textual evidence.

Also, come to next class having five questions for your ethnography research, based on what you’ve learned and are considering after discussion of the our first Cultural Vocabulary terms. What kinds of questions on your own culture do you have that involve the concepts discussed in the terms?

for Monday 10/20

Cultural Vocabulary

We all know words, and we all know we don’t know every word. Furthermore! We don’t always know the right word to use.

Since we are writing the scary-word papers called “ethnographies” it is important that we begin to accumulate a vocabulary which would be useful when writing said paper. We all want to sound brilliant, but we also want to understand what we’re writing. We want music, and we want meaning.

The words you will be asked to define should enable you to think of your own projects more intellectually. You will be defining cultural concepts and the like. Words to label some of the behavior and stratigraphy of the culture you end up actively observing and participating in, to a degree.

And?

So, in your journals that I asked you to have solely for this class, I would like you to seek out the definitions of anthropologically-relevant terms from time to time. You may find these terms in a dictionary, but more than likely the fuller definitions will come from encyclopedias or anthropological reference material (ATH school websites, etc.).

Once you find these words and their definitions, do the following in your journals:

1) Define the word and give credence to the source. Rather than just quote the definition verbatim (word for word), try summarizing and paraphrasing, instead.

2) Write a short paragraph where you reflect on the meaning of the word. How familiar are
you with the word, its concepts? Unfamiliar? How can you make the word relevant to “the real world” beyond it being a concept; a definition? You are being asked for an example that shows you understand the word and its relevance to our course.

Be ready to share and discuss these with the class each time you are given new words to add to your Cultural Vocabulary.


First?
1. etymology
2. ethnocentrism
3. acculturation
4. adaptive mechanism
5. cultural relativism
6. locus

Due: Monday, October 20, 2008 in your journals for class discussion

another good read

Here's a college-student relevant article for those who worry about our current economic crisis in America. It's called "Undergrads on the Bread Line". Yikes! Consumerism is a big theme of our readings in Discovering Popular Culture, so this one fits into our discussions of America's overall culture very nicely.

fun read

Students,

Here is a Critical Encounters essay that, if you want to continue to pursue your non-fiction piece, or start a new one, is an interesting piece that could fit our guidelines. The piece, "Tree branches without borders,"  is from The Christian Science Monitor.

For Monday 10/13

First: I apologize for not putting this up earlier; I was fighting some food poisoning the past couple of days. 

But on with the work: 

Monday's reading for all three sections of WAR II is the same: pages 162-181 of DPC. The only question that you should be considering, and responding to in your journal, is the following: "What are your personal definitions of a scholarly pursuit and a scholarly insight, and define/explain what makes a text worthy enough to pull meaning from?"

On the Critical Encounters "Human Interaction" creative non-fiction piece:

The copy I will grade/respond to is due at the beginning of class on Monday.

To remind you on the prompt: "Write about a personal interaction you've had with either "an environment" or with a person/group of people; an interaction that then lead to some personal knowledge on human nature."  

These pieces are allowed to be super-creative. Write them with the intention of both engaging the experience, but also try to make the read enjoyable for your audience.

- use your own metaphors

-write from specific personal experiences. Replay what happened, not just the meaning, but the action.

- use stronger verbs / get rid of stale language

- just write about experience; try to rid language of preface material. 

- in other words, don't write it like a science report . . . unless you want to structure it as such for entertainment value!

- take a risk in your viewpoint or language, or both. I've already heard some beautiful responses. 

for Wednesday, October 1st !!!

Read the following article: "The couple who live in the mall" from Salon.com. You might have to click on the TOP RIGHT corner where it says "Enter Salon." Any problems, e-mail me and I can send you the article in another format.

You are to do two things in your ethnography: 1. Practice citation by citing this article found on a website, and 2. Summarize the article, naming who the subject of the text is, why are they doing what they're doing, and what points about American culture do the subjects or the author of article discuss (or what ideas do you infer in your reading)?'

*We will practice annotation Wednesday using this article, the two articles read for Monday's class. And hopefully we will have time practicing our own annotations of the sources found during our initial Library Research.

homework for Monday, September 29th

1) Bring in one of your secondary sources for your ethnography. We will discuss proper citation and also annotation next week.

2) Read the two essays in DPC on pages 102-118, and then respond to the following question in your ethnography journal:

"To what extent do you think The Simpsons and/or the (shopping) mall reflect American ideology?"

- reflect on the two essays, and consider in your response what they say about America or the American mindset. Also,consider why the authors feel their examples do or don't represent American Culture.

***reminder: the Research Proposal & Annotated Bib. are due a week from this coming Monday, October 6, 2008. Read that closely. Look at today's date. 

Web Trolls

Class, for Wednesday, September 17th you are to read the following article from The New York Times: "The Trolls Among Us."*  The article is pretty long, so don't wait until Tuesday night! 

If the link doesn't work, make sure to e-mail me and I can attach the article as a .pdf file for you to read. 

*Find article by clicking on the colored/ high-lighted font, for those not familiar with blogging techniques!

As you begin to think about your own culture you are to study, and what it is about the culture you are most interested in, here is an example of a larger on-line culture with an interesting role call, so to speak.

weeks Reading Questions and brief description of Ethnography Project

Reading ?s:

Page 5: 1-3, 5

Page 9: 1-3

Page 11: 1-3

Page 32: 1-3, (#5 would be interesting if you had time to watch one of the movies!, but very optional)

Ethnography Paper/Project:

Choose a local culture (people/place) to do participant observation on throughout the rest of the semester. This culture will be one that is both easy for you to access, and one that you are familiar with/ comfortable participating within to some degree.

You will do research in two ways. First, your participant observation involves you going to the culture and being part of it (to various extents), while also taking Field Notes that will help you write about the culture for your final paper. While doing observations, you are expect to write down what you see, hear, feel, smell and taste! Yes, you are working on recording the culture to the best of your ability. After this, you will be asked to reflect upon, and analyze the culture.

The second aspect of an ethnography, of any good, thorough research, is going to the library to find written textual sources. But, rather than look solely for material DIRECTLY related to your culture, you are GOING TO HAVE TO FIND SOURCES THAT MAY NOT DIRECTLY CORRELATE to your culture. 

This second aspect of research can be "hard." Remember: you are not doing a book report. Remember: you are stretching your active thinking skills, your analytical skills. Remember: your culture is not boxed into a neat and tidy, measurable square. Your culture is a culture within a larger American culture. Therefore, when looking for textual support, do not narrow the kinds of sources that may be "right" for your project.

We will discuss this more and more, beginning Wednesday, but flowing into Week 3.

For now, I will leave you with the laundry list of tangible requirements:  

1) The essay must be 15-20 pages in length for regular WAR 2  (12-15 min. for those in my Enhanced sections), double-spaced, MLA format.

2) You are required to have 8-10 secondary sources, outside of your own Field Notes, observations, your own interviews, your own data analysis. 

3) You must cite your sources within your final paper, giving credit to those authors whose ideas and research you've used in your own.

4) You will be required to give a 10-15 minute presentation to the class in the last two weeks of the course. You will be expected to provide a visual presentation of your culture, and you may use audio as well. 

5) Rather than simply try to outline and summarize the culture, I'd like you to pick something within your culture that interests you from the get-go and, along with illuminating on your overall culture, analyze and describe in your final paper how that "something" represents or fits within the culture. 

In the past, some students have struggled in writing the final paper because they don't know what angle to take. Choosing a specific aspect or action (or whatever you want to call "it") of the culture to really research and pay attention to gives you an angle to go from.

My own caution/wisdom towards this requirement: make your choice an inquiry, not a proof. You after inquiring WHY, not trying to prove yourself correct. Again, this is an idea that we will discuss throughout the semester.

F.A.Q. (frequently asked questions)

As e-mails come to me, I will try to put my common answers up here to frequently asked questions, and I will label each post so they can be easily searched as the blog grows!

Question #1: Citing Outside Sources 

Would you like sources for my facts or do you trust that
I'm not plagiarizing?

Answer /Explanation:

Yes, you should be (get?) in the habit of citing sources every time you include facts or knowledge from an outside, published source.

To be clear, if the facts are not from a study you've done yourself but from something you've read, and you don't cite those sources as coming from such and such person/place, then it would be plagiarism.

Plus, anybody who isn't naive and reading your work would look at your "facts"
and say, "Where they hell did these stats come from?"

Even if you're not sure of proper citation, it's better to attempt to credit sources
rather than leave readers in mystery.

Unless it is "common knowledge" and you are generalizing on common knowledge . . . but this is perhaps something to discuss in class earlier in the semester than usual. 

Two good rules I follow when considering citation of source material:

1) If I have to ask I probably have to do it! 

2) If I know where the fact/idea came from, I should give credit to that source.

Also: in defining "facts" let's put ideas, theories, concepts, etc. under the same rule. 

Monday, Week 2

Remember to come with your typed "What is your nature?" introductory statement, along with having done the reading ("Preface" and pages 1-32 of Discovering Popular Culture). And be prepared to share your writing with the class. Here are the questions, for those those who may have lost the prompt!:

What is your nature? (100 points)

Pick one of the questions below to answer, using your choice as a way to introduce a bit about who you are to the class:

1) What do you, as an individual, do to reduce your impact (carbon footprint?) on the planet?

2) How have emerging technologies changed your relationship with other people, and with nature?

3) What role have religious/spiritual traditions and texts played in determining your relationship with the natural world?

4) What role does the natural world play in your own artistic ambitions/projects?

*Feel free to, with this assignment, interpret and “play” with the question you choose to answer. The goal for all of us to learn about ourselves and about others by reflecting on these questions.
Please, go beyond simple answers. Make us interested.
Length requirement: 1-page, double-spaced, CREATIVE TITLE,
header (top left: name/date/prompt name)

Greetings, students! Welcome to my diabolical plan for our semester together. This blog is intended to do a handful of things to help you become better scholars, including: 

1) It will be a virtual hub to help guide you through our Ethnography adventure together, out of class. I will (irregularly) update the links and lists on the side-bar for those interested in investigating more than we can touch on within the classroom. 

2) I will post reminders for due dates.

3) I may (may) post readings, or at least create links to readings.

4) I will invite all students to be a contributor to the blog, but will maintain an administrative role.  You can create posts, send ideas/links to class-related material you think would be of interest.

5) Exemplary student work will be published on the blog for other students to read (with the permission (and hopefully pride) of the student, of course). We are a community of scholars, and this will be a way for students in each of the three sections of WARII to . . . communicate, and build on their own knowledge.

This is a knowledge bank, and I expect you to treat it as such. It will, I hope, continue to build, as the semester chugs towards winter. And, polite suggestions are welcome.

To a great semester for all of us,

Christopher