Course Description

This class will ponder occasions when everydayness gives way to oddity, strangeness, and unfamiliarity.  Travel will be central to our conversation, insofar as movement through space can serve as a paradigm for leaving behind the familiar, but we will also be discussing how the creative process itself can serve as a model for “making one's home strange,” that is, a means of doffing habit and newly, freshly perceiving the world.  Finally we will be exploring the interpersonal dimension of these voyages into the unknown:  what kinds of relationship––of trust, of fear, of rivalry, of welcome, of longing ––characterize interchange between “strangers”? Can one truly learn to see (or see oneself) through another's eyes?

Course Materials

A required course reader is available from Ave Copy [(206) 633-1837], located at 4141 University Way NE, Suite 103.  Other assigned readings (and assigned visual art) will be available online via the World Wide Web.  A few musical pieces will be available via streaming audio from e-reserves; details on how to access these pieces will be made available later in quarter.  Movies can be found on reserve at the Odegaard Media Center.

Course Organization

The class is organized into four sequential narrative parts, or arcs.  Taken together, they will lead to a deeper understanding of “becoming strangers”:

1. Embodiment and Perception
2. Travel, Part I
3. Posthuman Subjectivity
4. Travel, Part II

You will be required to complete an assignment at the end of each arc.  Additionally, each arc will end with a general class discussion of central course themes.

Course Requirements

Overview of Assignments and Their Relative Weighting

• Section Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .            25%
• Paper #1 (2-3pp) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .            10%
• Paper #2 (4-5pp) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .            20%
• Bibliography and Abstract of Final Project . . . 5%           
• Final Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .             40%

Sections

Course lectures will be introducing a great deal of diverse material at a fast pace.  Twice-weekly conversation sections will therefore be supplementing the course lectures throughout the quarter in order to provide opportunities for covering ideas, readings, and other materials in greater depth.  Active involvement in these discussions will be an important aspect of your learning in this course, and for that reason it will constitute a portion of your final grade.  For part of your participation grade, you will be required to turn in at least one questionpertaining to course themesat every section meeting beginning the second week of the course.

Papers

There will be two assigned essays on course themes, the first 2-3 pages in length (due on Friday 14 October) and the second 4-5 pages in length (due Friday 31 October).  Further, specific details will be handed out well in advance of the deadline. 

Bibliography and Abstract of Final Project

At the end of the course’s third arc, you will be asked to turn in a short (less than 250 word) description of a proposed final project as well as an accompanying bibliography of relevant primary and secondary works that you have consulted (or plan to).  Further details about our expectations concerning the final projects will be made available later in the quarter, but be aware that you will not be limited to writing a conventional expository essay.  If you wish, you can pursue a creative project, employ audiovisuals, construct a web site––or pursue any direction that your ideas dictate.

Final Project

Everyone will be exhibiting her or his final project (as a printed paper on a poster––or in any other appropriate format) on Wednesday 14 December in a location yet to be determined.  Be prepared to provide a copy in a portable form for your section leader, as well as whatever documentary, bibliographic, or other supporting materials that she has judged to be appropriate, based on your earlier abstract.

Course Policies

Disability Accommodation

To request academic accommodations due to a disability, please contact Disabled Student Services, 448 Schmitz, 543-8924 (voice / TTY).  If you have a letter from Disabled Student Services indicating that you have a disability which requires academic accommodations, please present the letter to the instructors and to your conversation section leader so we can discuss together the accommodations you might need.

Deadlines

For all written assignments deadlines fall at the beginning of class on the assigned day.  Assignments turned in after the deadline will receive an automatic two tenths deduction (on a 4.0 scale).  They will lose a further two tenths off for each additional day late and will not be accepted more than a week overdue.  Any extensions must be cleared in advance to avoid a penalty. 

Incompletes

Incompletes will only be granted in truly exceptional cases, and only if you’ve been making substantial progress up until the last two weeks of the quarter. 

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a very serious kind of academic misconduct.  You should know what plagiarism is, and how to avoid it.  If you haven’t done so already, please read “Academic Honesty:  Cheating and Plagiarism,” a statement prepared by the Committee on Academic Conduct in the College of Arts and Sciences that can be found at http://depts.washington.edu/grading/issue1/honesty.htm.  If after consulting this statement you still have any questions on the subject, please ask. 

Maintaining a Positive Learning Environment

Out of respect for other students please exhibit mature behavior while in class.  All cell phones should be turned off or put on vibrate during class time.  Pagers too should be placed on an inaudible setting.  If you receive an urgent page or call, please leave the room quietly without drawing undue attention to yourself.  Other wireless devices should be kept out of sight.  Audiotape, digital, or video recording of the seminar is generally prohibited unless first cleared with the instructors. 

Overview of Lecture Topics and Assignments

Overview of Lecture Topics and Assignments, Cont’d

Overview of Lecture Topics and Assignments, Cont’d