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 (10%) -- 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 Response Papers (20%) -- You will complete a number short, critical, analytical response papers. These single-spaced, one-page writings serve as close readings of, analyses of, and articulations of the texts and connections you see, read, and talk about in the tutorial. You will be required to generate a response paper approximately every other week for a total of 6.

Final Reflection (10%) -- At the end of the semester, you will complete a 3-5 page analytical reflection paper that ask you to synthesize, analyze, and metacognitively respond to the readings, the theoretical texts, and to assess your own work and performance in class. The final reflection is cumulative and based on the class readings, other media, quizzes, Critical Response Papers, and in-class and Canvas discussions.

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):

Forman Brown, Better Angel. James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room. Rita Mae Brown, Rubyfruit Jungle. Willyce Kim, Dancer Dawkins and the California Kid. Qui Nguyen, She Kills Monsters. Joshua Whitehead, Jonny Appleseed. Akwaeke Emezi, Pet. Rivera, Juliet Takes a Breath (Graphic 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. Armengol, Josep M. "In the Dark Room: Homosexuality and/as Blackness in James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room," Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, vol. 37, no. 3, 2012, pp. 671-693. 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. Cherniavsky, Eva. "Body." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Edited by Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler, NYU Press, 2007, pp. 26-29. Cooper, Lydia R. "A Future Perfect: Queer Digital Sovereignty in Joshua Whitehead's Jonny Appleseed and full-metal indigiqueer," Contemporary Literature, vol. 60, no. 4, 2020, pp. 491-514. 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. Georgiou, Myria. "Identity." Keywords for Media Studies. Edited by Laurie Ouellette and Jonathan Gray, NYU Press, 2017, pp. 94-98. Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. "If I Were a Man," Library of Short Stories, 2026, https://www.libraryofshortstories.com/onlinereader/if-i-were-a-man. Ginsberg, Allen. "Howl." Howl and Other Poems, City Lights Books, 1959, pp. 9-28. Ginsberg, Allen, Jason Shinder, Vivian Gornick, Mark Doty, and Amiri Baraka, "From The Poem That Changed America: ‘Howl' Fifty Years Later," The American Poetry Review, March/April, vol. 35, no. 2, 2026, pp. 3-10. 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. Henderson, Lisa. "Representation." Keywords for Media Studies. Edited by Laurie Ouellette and Jonathan Gray, NYU Press, 2017, pp. 172-176. 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. Lorig, Josette. "'Just a Couple of Queer Fish': The Queer Possibilities of Rita Mae Brown's Rubyfruit Jungle," Contemporary Women's Writing, vol. 14, no. 2-3, July-November 2020, pp. 315-332. Muñoz, Jose Esteban. "Introduction: Performing Disidentifications," Disidentifications: Queer of Color and the Performance of Politics, University of Minnesota Press, 1999, pp. 1-34. Nam, Rosa, Arianna Banack, Kristian Lenderman, and Abbey Bachmannam, "What Does Representation Look Like? Race, Sexuality, and Intersectionality in YA Graphic Novels," The ALAN Review, Fall 2024, pp. 60-71. Nielsen, Elly-Jean. "Lesbian Camp: An Unearthing," Journal of Lesbian Studies, vol. 20, no. 1, 2016, pp. 116-135. 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. Sansonetti, Annie. "Black Trans Girlhood, Healing, and Transformative Justice in Akwaeke Emezi's PET," QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking, vol. 9, no. 3, Fall 2022, pp. 35-52. Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. "Paranoid Reading and Reparative Reading," Novel Gazing: Queer Readings in Fiction, Duke University Press, 1997, pp. 1-37. Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. "Queer and Now," Tendencies, Duke University Press, 1993, pp. 1-20. Somerville, Siobhan B. "Queer." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Edited by Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler, NYU Press, 2007, pp. 187-191. Tchen, John Kuo Wei. "Asian." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Edited by Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler, NYU Press, 2007, pp. 18-21. Wright, JJ and Casey Burkholder, "Introduction to the Special Issue ‘Mobilizing Queer Joy': Establishing Queer Joy Studies," Sexualities, vol. 28, no. 3, 2025, pp. 757–766. Warrior, Robert. "Indian." Keywords for American Cultural Studies. Edited by Bruce Burgett and Glenn Hendler, NYU Press, 2007, https://keywords.nyupress.org/american-cultural-studies/essay/indian/. Wu, Judy Tzu-chun. "Gender." Keywords for Asian American Studies, edited by Cathy J. Schlund-Vials, Linda Trinh Vo, and K. Scott Wong, NYU Press, 2015, https://keywords.nyupress.org/asian-american-studies/essay/gender/.

Media

Disclosure. Directed by Sam Feder, Netflix, 2020. Paris is Burning. Directed by Jennie Livingston, Netflix, 1991.

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