GWS END-TERM PROJECT

Here are the instructions for the project and use less formal language like before: This project is meant to give you a chance to produce some form of creative communication to pull together concepts introduced in the course and to use them to imagine a way to upset, even in modest ways, the smooth functioning of settler colonialism in the united states and then communicate it to a specific audience, imagined or real. Your final project has three parts: (1) a concept map; (2) a creative presentation; (3) a reflection. This endterm assignment (which will be a culmination of the course for many of you) is inspired by the writing of Tiya Miles, who begins and ends her book, Wild Girls, with personal stories about outdoor places that carry significance for her. She writes in the beginning, for example, about an experience she had with the Ohio River and connected that experience to important African American histories such as to stories of Harriet Tubman as an outdoorswoman. She ends the book by writing about her large yard (outdoor space as property) and the respite it provided to her family and her neighbors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, she is thinking about the importance of access to outdoor spaces and the ways in which this matters for creating a just society. In both cases, Miles’s personal stories are informed by her knowledge and research of historical women (of various “races,” genders, sexual identities, class statuses) who have documentable relationships to the outdoors. In effect, she is telling personal stories that are informed by, and that inform, academic concepts and research. Your project will similarly be a form of creative or personal work that is informed by, and that communicates, central class concepts. It should also clearly communicate your connection to a specific place and ideas for how you, or how any of us, might engage with this place in such a way that could interfere with the smooth operation of settler colonial structures, or the continued telling and acceptance of settler stories and their logics. This is the purpose of the assignment. Keep it in mind as you move through the steps of the project. The concept map: Now that you have a little bit of experience producing a concept map, you will be able to put that experience to use creating a concept map in much the same way as you did for the final Short Assignment. (You may or may not have feedback from your concept map assignment before you have to submit this one; regardless, you can use what you learned from the process.) For this concept map, you will choose three concepts from the course that work together to enable settler colonialism or settler colonial structures. I have listed several you could choose from below. Please choose at least two concepts that are not property, Aki, or dualism. For this map, you will begin with setter colonialism and then show how THREE of the concepts from the list below (or you can choose different concepts if they are more relevant for your project) work together to produce or support settler colonial structures. ablism aki dualism eugenics the frontier gender intimacies of empire it matters what stories tell stories kin nature property race/racism/racialization wilderness whiteness as property Complete this concept map similarly to the way you completed sort assignment #5: Choose three concepts that are central to creating settler colonial structures in American Cultures You can choose almost any mixture of concepts we have studied this semester and since you get to choose, you can choose concepts you feel you understand, that were introduced in readings with which you feel comfortable, and that you feel you can state something interesting about, when you bring them together. This concept map should show how there concepts connect to support settler colonial logics. You thus need to choose three concepts that are not settler colonialism itself, even while settler colonialism should be included in the map. The only mixture you cannot use on the final assignment is the mixture from Short Assignment #5: Aki, dualism, property. If you use a concept you used on the previous concept map, please aim to deepen your definition and make it directly relevant to the connections you are drawing on this map. Define the three concepts you chose. Do this using the same method you used on Short Assignment #5: Choose readings that introduce and define your chosen concepts. You will need to choose these readings. You can choose a reading that introduces more than one of the concepts, so you can use 1-3 readings (or more, if you need another). Choose a quote from the reading(s) that defines the concept(s). Explain the quote. Ideally, your explanation should directly reference, and explain, what is said in the quote. Draw a concept map representing how the concepts work together to support settler colonial structures or logics. Write a short explanation of the conceptual connections your concept map represents AND explain how the connections you are representing support settler colonial structures. The best explanations will identify how these settler colonial structures operate, or how they appear as "common sense" in a specific place in the U.S. Creative presentation: For this part of the project, you will want to imagine, and find a creative way to communicate, a way to counter settler colonial logics. Your way of undermining settler colonial logic can be small or large (and what might seem like something small can actually be large, and vise versa). But try to consider how a particular logic of settler colonialism (the logic you represented with your concept map) operates in the specific place that matters to you, and in the creative part of this project, try to imagine some way to do things -- any things -- otherwise. You can use any way of form of communication in language or images that you feel comfortable with, or that you want to try out. For example: visual art (e.g., drawing, painting) A zine (there are a lot of online guides to zine making, including this one Links to an external site..):https://thecreativeindependent(dot)com/guides/how-to-make-a-zine/ A personal essay (for example, about a specific place -- think of the Tiya Miles's personal essays in the introduction and epilogue of Wild Girls). Here is a website Links to an external site:https://www(dot)masterclass(dot)com/articles/how-to-write-a-personal-essay. explaining an approach to a personal essay. A short story (fiction) A short video (2-5 mins). Here are some instructions for uploading a video to bcourses. Submitting your media using the Rich Content Editor Please see How do I submit a Kaltura video assignment in bCourses using the Rich Content Editor? Links to an external site. for instructions. Please note that depending on your instructor's settings, instructor approval may be required before your content shows up in the Media Gallery. For most of you, you will not have the time to learn a whole new skill, so try to choose a format for your project that you are at least a little bit familiar with. This part of the final project will not be evaluated on artistic skill! Rather, we will be looking for creative thinking in response to the logics you communicate on your concept map, and interesting ways to communicate your response. You will thus want to spend your time thinking about the best way you can communicate interesting anti-colonial responses informed by your engagement with the course materials and concepts. For most of you, you will not have the time to learn a whole new skill, so try to choose a format for your project that you are at least a little bit familiar with. This part of the final project will not be evaluated on artistic skill! Rather, we will be looking for creative thinking in response to the logics you communicate on your concept map, and interesting ways to communicate your response. You will thus want to spend your time thinking about the best way you can communicate interesting anti-colonial responses informed by your engagement with the course materials and concepts. Reflection: For this part of the project, you will REFLECT on the process of creating this project. Please produce a reflection of about 1 page reflecting on the process of producing both of the other two parts of the project. Although this reflection is short, it should be substantive. It could address parts of the process such as (it does not need to address all of these): What specific place did you have in mind and how did you decide on it? How did you decide which concepts to use in your concept map, and how did you decide which readings to use? What was the process of creating the concept map like? How much time did you spend on it, once you really started to focus on it? What was surprising about the process of producing this project? (e.g., did you gain deeper understanding of something in particular? what specific, unexpected challenges did you encounter? did any part of it come more easily than expected? etc.) If you were to do this project again, are there any specific approaches you would you do differently? If you had more time and space to work on any part of this project, would you continue with any specific research questions or creative work? A good way to complete this reflection, is to keep track of how you are making decisions and the overall process as you work on it. Reflecting on a process of producing academic or creative work is a great way to get better at doing it.