Spring 2002

This information effective for Spring 2002.
Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.

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American Studies

[AMST105A] [AMST157]

105A. ORAL HISTORY

Spring 2002
Instructor: J. Yung
TTh 4:00–5:45 p.m.
Oakes 102

This course is intended for students interested in learning about the art and practice of oral history (spoken testimony of a living person’s recollections about the past). We will study the theories, methods, and ethical issues involved in the practice, critique a variety of oral histories, and apply what we learn through a series of written exercises that will culminate in a 20-page oral history project.

This course involves heavy reading, writing, and discussion. American Studies 1 is recommended as preparation and students must have satisfied the Subject A requirement. Students will be expected to attend class, participate in class discussions, and complete four 2-page response papers to the readings, a series of writing exercises, and a final oral history project to be shared with the rest of the class at the end of the quarter. The final project may be used to satisfy the senior thesis requirement in the major.

Required Texts

Valerie Yow, Recording Oral History
Reader of essays on electronic reserves at McHenry Library

Media Equipment

Cassette tape recorders, camcorders, transcribers, and phone recorders may be checked out for a maximum of three days from Media Services at 165 Kerr Hall during open hours, 8:00 to 12:00 noon and 1:00 to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Reservations and renewals may be made by phoning: 459-2117. Be sure to say that you are enrolled in this class.

Editing equipment (2 VCRs for cutting and pasting video clips) may be reserved for a block of 3 hours at the Media Center, McHenry Library.

Writing Assignments

One of the purposes of this course is to help you develop good writing skills. To this end, all of the response papers and writing assignments you turn in should be typewritten, double-spaced, grammatically correct, proof-read, and on time. Be sure to utilize the services of our writing assistant as needed. All writing assignments will be evaluated on the basis of the following criteria:

Content: This includes fulfilling the assignment, developing an argument, drawing specific examples and evidence to support your argument, giving thoughtful commentary and criticism, and relating the paper to the themes of the course.

Writing Style: This includes grammar, clarity, organization, persuasiveness, and creativity.

Reading and Assignment Schedule
(Please do reading before the class meets that day and come prepared with a thoughtful question that will spark discussion.)

Jan 3 INTRODUCTION TO COURSE

Jan 8–10 ORAL HISTORY METHODS AND ETHICS

Jan 8 Read: Yow, Preface and Chapter 1.
Film: “An Oral Historian’s Work”

Jan 10 Read: Yow, Chapter 4 and Appendix; and Katherine Borland, “‘That’s Not What I Said’: Interpretive Conflict in Oral Narrative Research,” in Gluck & Patei, Women’s Words, pp. 63–75.

Jan 17–24 INTERVIEWING TECHNIQUES

Jan 17 Read: Yow, Chapters 2 and 3.
Assignment 1 (Chronology and self-interview) due.

Jan 22 Read: Alex Haley, “George Lincoln Rockwell,” in The Playboy Interviews, pp. vii–xx, 168–211.
Response paper #1 due.

Jan 24 Read: Yow, Chapter 5; and Ruth Frankenberg, “White on White: The Interviewees and the Method,” in White Women, Race Matters, pp. 23–42.

Jan 29–31 FILMMING ORAL HISTORY

Jan 29 Read: Donald Ritchie, “Videotaping Oral History,” in Doing Oral History, pp. 109–129; and Michael Rabiger, “Interviewing,” Directing the Documentary, pp. 139–153.
Guest speaker: Peter McGettigan

Jan 31 Read: Him Mark Lai, Genny Lim, & Judy Yung, Island, pp. 8–29, 52–57, and 72–81.
Film: “Carved in Silence”
Assignment 2 (Interview classmate) due.

Feb 5–7 BIOGRAPHY

Feb 5 Read: Yow, Chapter 7.
Assignment 3 (Project description, bibliography, and questions) due.
Conduct interview by Feb. 12.

Feb 7 Read: Theodore Rosengarten, All God’s Dangers, pp. xv–xxvii, 285–319, 559–561; and Theodore Rosengarten, “Stepping Over Cocklebur Conversations with Ned Cobb”, in Leon Edel, Telling Lives, pp. 104–131.
Response paper #2 due.

Feb 12 WORKSHOP ON INDEXING, TRANSCRIBING, AND EDITING

Read: Yow, Chapter 9; and hand-out.

Feb 14–21 WOMEN’S HISTORY

Feb 14 Read: Sherna Gluck, “What’s So Special About Women? Women’s Oral History,” in Frontiers (2/2, Summer,1977): 3–13; and Judy Yung, Unbound Voices, pp. 511–526; 113–123.

Feb 21 Read: Sherrie Tucker, “Telling Performances: Jazz History Remembered and Remade by the Women in the Band,” Oral History Review (26/1, Winter/Spring 1999), pp. 67–84.
Response paper #3 due.

Feb 26–28 FAMILY HISTORY

Feb 26 Read: Yow, Chapter 8; and Alex Hailey, “Black History, Oral History, and Genealogy.”
Assignment 4 (Index summary) due.

Feb 28 Read: Steven Zeitlin, A Celebration of American Family Folklore, pp. 4–20, 62–82.
Response paper #4 due.

Mar 5–7 COMMUNITY STUDIES

Mar 5 Read: Yow, Chapter 6.
Assignment 5 (Draft of oral history paper) due.

Mar 7 Read: Kenneth Kann, “Reconstructing the History of a Community” in International Journal of Oral History (2/1, February, 1981): 4–12.

Mar 19 Assignment 6 (Term project) due in Oakes 229 by 4 pm.

Note: Anthologies of oral history papers from previous classes are available in the American Studies office (Oakes 231).

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157. Sexual Identities and Communities

Spring 2002
Instructor: Katie Gilmartin

Course Description

Required Texts:

Course Reader
Audre Lorde, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name
Leslie Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues

Course Requirements

1. You are expected to attend class regularly, to read and think about each of the assigned texts, and to participate actively in class discussions. If you are forced to miss a class due to illness, you are responsible for getting notes, assignments, handouts, etc., from that day's class.
2. There is a required assignment due at five of our class meetings: in your own words, summarize the main argument of each article or chapter that we read for that day; then provide one discussion question based upon the readings. These summaries should be very concise; each should be just two or, at most, three sentences in length. I want you to get at the heart of the author's thesis (argument), and state it as briefly and simply as you can. Please note that there is an asterisk (*) in front of every reading for which you must write an argument summary. The discussion question should be one that you find compelling! This question may focus on one or more of the readings, or may be an attempt to synthesize the readings. Please make two copies of this assignment: one to hand in at the beginning of class, and the second for you to refer to during class. Argument summaries/questions should be typed, with your name and the class date at the top of the page. These assignments are intended, in part, to encourage your active and thoughtful participation in class discussions; therefore, a complete set of argument summaries and a question is due at the beginning of class on the day the reading is due and will not be accepted after that time. (Okay, I know, stuff happens: each student will be permitted one, and only one, late submission.) While these assignments are brief, they are very important and will, of course, be reflected in your grade/narrative.
3. There will be one short paper, topic to be announced. A complete draft of this paper will be due on October 11, and you will exchange papers with one or two classmates, give each other feedback on the papers, and then revise your paper to produce a final draft.
4. There will be a small group project due on the last day of class. A handout will describe this project in detail.

Class Schedule:

Part I: Introductions

Class 1
Course Introduction

Class 2
Gayle Rubin, "Thinking Sex"

Part II: Some Terms: Sexuality, Gender, Culture, Communities, Politics

Class 3
Harriet Whitehead, "The Bow and the Burden Strap"
Will Roscoe, "Was We-wha a Homosexual? Native American Survivance and the Two-Spirit Tradition"

Class 4:
Tomas Almaguer, "Chicano Men: A Cartography of Homosexual Identity and Behavior"
George Chauncey, "Christian Brotherhood or Sexual Perversion"

Class 5
Gayle Rubin: "Of Catamites and Kings: Reflections on Butch, Gender, and Boundaries"
Jee Yeun Lee, "Why Suzie Wong is Not a Lesbian: Asian and Asian American Lesbian and Bisexual Women and Femme/Butch/Gender Identities"

Class 6
Kate Bornstein, selections from Gender Outlaw
Susan Stryker and Loren Cameron, "Portrait of a New Man"
Susan Stryker, "My Words to Victor Frankenstein...: Performing Transgender Rage"

Class 7
Amanda Udis-Kessler, "Present Tense: Biphobia as a Crisis of Meaning"
Rebecca Kaplan, "Your Fence is Sitting On Me: The Hazards of Binary Thinking"
Lani Ka'ahumanu, "It Aint's Over 'Til the Bisexual Speaks"

Class 8
Carole Queen, "The Queer in Me"
Pat Califia, "Gay Men, Lesbians, and Sex: Doing it Together"
Gayle Rubin, "The Leather Menace: Comments on Politics and S/M"

Class 9
Combahee River Collective, "The Combahee River Collective Statement"
Martin F. Manalansan IV, "In the Shadows of Stonewall: Examining Gay/Lesbian Transnational Politics and the Diasporic Dilemma"
Charles Fernandez, "Undocumented Aliens in the Queer Nation"

Part III: Queer Visions

Class 10
Essex Hemphill, "Introduction" to Brother to Brother: New Writings by Black Gay Men
Ron Simmons, "Tongues Untied: An Intreview with Marlon Riggs"
Marlon Riggs, "Tongues Untied"
Film: Tongues Untied

Class 11
Minnie Bruce Prate: Identity: Skin, Blood, Heart
Audre Lorde, "Age, Race, Class and Sex: Women Redefining Difference"

Class 12
Cherrie Moraga, "La Guera"
Ana Castill, "La Macha: Toward a Beautiful Whole Self"

Class 13
Katie Gilmartin, "'We Weren't Bar People: Class in Lesbian Communities"
Carla Trujillo, "Confessions of a Chicana Ph.D."
Dorothy Allison, "A Question of Class"

Class 14
Frances Negron Muntaner, "Drama Queens: Latino Gay and Lesbian Independent Film/Video"
Walt Odets, "Being Together: The Relations of Positives and Negatives"
Video: Viva 16

Class 15
Nayan Shah, "Sexuality, Identity, and the Uses of History"
Trinity Ordona et al., "In Our Own Way"
Richard Fung, "Looking for My Penis: The Eroticized Asian in Gay Video Porn"

Class 16
Sarah Zoftig, "Coming Out"
John Preston, "What Happened?"
Carol Queen, "Bisexual Perverts Among the Leather Lesbians: Some Thoughts on Border-Crossing"

Class 17 and 18
Audre Lorde, Zami: A New Spelling of My Name

Class 19 and 20
Leslie Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues

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