Assignments

Critical Question Presentation and Roundtable (20%) -- You will be a required to sign up in small groups for an oral presentation and roundtable during the course of the semester. For your presentation, you will read the texts assigned for a particular week, summarize and articulate two or three main points from the week's scholarly or critical text (as assigned), generate a critical question connecting the theory to the text, and contribute to in-class and online discussion for the week.

In-Class Quizzes (20%) -- There will be ten or more in-class five-minute quizzes at various times during the semester. These quizzes serve as a review of the week's main ideas, terms, texts, and readings. These quizzes might include identifications, fill-in-the-blanks, definitions, and short answers.

Creative Responses (10%) -- Over the course of the semester, you will write a short-short story, create a drawing, and generate a critical review as an alternative way to explore and demonstrate the ideas and goals of the course. These creative responses will be evaluated on completion and your critical, thoughtful engagement with the prompts.

Critical Reflections (30%) -- You will have four opportunities to complete short, analytical reflections that ask you to respond to the literature, the theoretical texts, and to assess your own work and performance in class. These reflections will be due (tentatively) at the end of Week 4, Week 8, Week 12, and Week 15. You must complete two of the three opportunities, one of which must be in the first half of the term.

Information Sheets

The following are handouts, informational sheets, and readings that will be assigned or used over the course of the quarter. Each student will recieve a copy of each as a handout in class during the appropriate week. If you miss a sheet, feel free to print out a new copy.

Dr. Chang's Top Ten List of "Ways to Survive University"

Dr. Chang's Top Ten Rules of Writing

What is Close Reading?

How to Write a Summary

Claims, Claims, Claims

Introductions & Conclusions

Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

MLA Citation and Bibliographic Format

Revision Check-List

Readings

The course texts are available via a reputable bookseller; the Little Professor Book Center (65 S. Court) can order books for you given enough time. Shorter readings are available via the course Canvas. The required texts for this class are (in order of use):

Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby. Nella Larsen, Passing. J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye. John Okada, No-No Boy. Toni Morrison, Sula. Qui Nguyen, She Kills Monsters. Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults. Percival Everett, James: A Novel.

Consult the course syllabus for the week's required reading. The following is a full bibliographical list of the class readings:

Adams, Rachel, Benjamin Reiss, and David Serlin. "Disability." Keywords for Disability Studies, NYU Press, 29 May 2018, https://keywords.nyupress.org/disability-studies/essay/disability/. Alston, Vermonja R. "Environment." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Edited by Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler, NYU Press, 2007, pp. 104-106. "American Dream,” Wikipedia, 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Dream. Berlant, Lauren. "Citizenship." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Edited by Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler, NYU Press, 2007, pp. 37-42. Bray, John Patrick. "'There's Too Many of Them!': Off-Off-Broadway's Performance of Geek Culture." Theatre Symposium, vol. 22, 2014, pp. 121-133. Burgett, Bruce. "Sex." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Edited by Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler, NYU Press, 2007, pp. 217-221. Cannon, Sarita Nyasha. "Shattering the Binary: Teaching Critical Thinking Through John Okada's No-No Boy," Asian American Literature: Discourses and Pedagogies, no. 4, 2013, pp. 15-29. Cherniavsky, Eva. "Body." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Edited by Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler, NYU Press, 2007, pp. 26-29. Davis, Hugh H. "On Teaching Huckleberry Finn," Mark Twain Journal, vol. 54, no. 2, Fall 2016, pp. 60-70. Enke, Finn. "Cis." Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. Edited by The Keywords Feminist Editorial Collective, NYU Press, 2021, pp. 47-49. Ferguson, Roderick A. "Race." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Edited by Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler, NYU Press, 2007, pp. 191-196. Ferguson, Roderick A. "Something Else to Be: Sula, The Moynihan Report, and the Negations of Black Lesbian Feminism." Abberations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique, University of Minnesota Press, 2004, pp. 110-137. Georgiou, Myria. "Identity." Keywords for Media Studies. Edited by Laurie Ouellette and Jonathan Gray, NYU Press, 2017, pp. 94-98. Ginsberg, Allen. "Howl.” Howl and Other Poems, City Lights Books, 1959, pp. 9-28. Gray, Herman. "Race." Keywords for Media Studies. Edited by Laurie Ouellette and Jonathan Gray, NYU Press, 2017, pp. 61-164. Gruesz, Kirsten Silva. "America." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Edited by Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler, NYU Press, 2007, pp. 16-22. Halberstam, Judith. "Gender." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Edited by Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler, NYU Press, 2007, pp. 116-120. Hekanaho, Pia Livia. "Queering Catcher: Flits, Straights, and Other Morons." J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. Edited by Sarah Graham, Routledge, 2007, pp. 89-97. Henderson, Lisa. "Representation." Keywords for Media Studies. Edited by Laurie Ouellette and Jonathan Gray, NYU Press, 2017, pp. 172-176. Howes, Alexandra J. "'To Be Young, Gifted, and Black': Making The Great Gatsby Relevant to Black, Indigenous, and Students of Color," The F. Scott Fitzgerald Review, vol. 18, no. 1, 2020, pp. 231-245. Justice, Daniel Heath. "Introduction: Stories That Wound, Stories That Heal." Why Indigenous Literatures Matter, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2018, pp. 1-32. Justice, Daniel Heath. "Preface: Notes for the Long Rebellion," Why Indigenous Literatures Matter, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2018, pp. xvii-xxii. Lau, Jacob. "Trans." Keywords for Gender and Sexuality Studies. Edited by The Keywords Feminist Editorial Collective, NYU Press, 2021, pp. 237-241. Moynihan, Sinéad. "Beautiful White Girlhood?: Daisy Buchanan in Nella Larsen's Passing," African American Review, vol. 47, no. 1, Spring 2014, pp. 37-49. Oksman, Tahneer. "Graphic Novel," Keywords for Comic Studies, edited by Ramzi Fawaz, Shelley Streeby, and Deborah Elizabeth Whaley, New York University Press, 2021, pp. 118-122. Prashad, Vijay. "Orientalism." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Edited by Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler, NYU Press, 2007, pp. 174-177. Somerville, Siobhan B. "Queer." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Edited by Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler, NYU Press, 2007, pp. 187-191. Sun, Susu. "'Not Believing in Race': Racial Performativity in Percival Everett's James," Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, April 1, 2026, pp. 1-16. Tchen, John Kuo Wei. "Asian." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Edited by Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler, NYU Press, 2007, pp. 18-21. Thomas, Ebony Elizabeth. "Is Huck Finn Still Relevant? Revisiting 'The Case for Conflict,'" The English Journal, vol. 106, no. 2, November 2016, pp. 85-87.

Media

13th. Directed by Ava Duvernay, Netflix, 2016.

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