Canvas site for course: https://ucsb.instructure.com/courses/5174

This honors section for English 25 is designed for a small group of motivated students in UCSB’s Honors program to meet together with Professor Liu once a week (in addition to activities for their regular sections in the main English 25 course).

Students will have a chance to delve more deeply into specific topics in the course as well as range widely to other topics of their choice that are conceptually, historically, socially, or otherwise related.

Each student will have a chance to serve as the intellectual leader of one or more classes in the quarter by drawing the seminar’s attention to textual passages, digital material, online sites, images, or other material and setting the direction of discussion about them. (See description of “exhibit” assignments below.)

Students will also be asked to be creative by “remaking” one of the materials they thus exhibit as an inventively transformed artifact for a final assignment at the end of the quarter.

• The first meeting of this honors section will be Monday, April 10th (at beginning of second week of the quarter).

“Exhibit Assignments” for One or More Classes (by rotation among students)

After the initial introductory class, each class will start with a brief, unstructured discussion of recent readings and lectures in English 25. This is a chance for Professor Liu to touch bases with students about what interests or puzzles them.

Then each class will center one or more “exhibits” created by students (with students assigned to one or more classes in  the quarter, depending on the number of students in the honors section). An “exhibit” consists of the following parts, which the student must post as a reply to this discussion in Canvas by the end of the Saturday (by 11:59 pm) before their turn on a Monday class.

Submit the exhibit as a discussion reply that includes the three required exhibit parts (described below) and any necessary citations, links, images, or other media. Alternatively, you can put everything into a single document and add it as an attachment to a reply post. (Include citations if possible for at least your two main “artifacts.” You can use ZoteroBib. in your browser as an easy way to create citations according to MLA or other styles.)

Required Parts of an “Exhibit” —

Title — Create a title for your exhibit at the top of your reply post.

1. One artifact from the course readings — An “artifact” is a passage, image, or other material from the course readings that you would like the honors section to discuss together. (Identify, quote, link to, or reproduce the material in your exhibit, depending on its nature.)

2. A second artifact from outside the course — The secondary “artifact” is a passage, image, or other material from outside the course readings that you find interesting because it relates to the first artifact above in some way — whether to confirm, deepen, expand, complicate, or challenge it. (Identify, quote, link to, or reproduce the material in your exhibit, depending on its nature.)

3. A thought about the above — In two or three paragraphs, write a thought in which you reflect on the artifacts you have chosen and their relation, connect them to a larger issue or set of issues, point to a contradiction or problem, or in some other way unpack the richness, complexity, or importance of what your exhibit opens to view. (Your “thought” should be written as a connected line of thought in full sentences, not as fragmented notes or points.)

End-of-quarter “Remaking Assignment” (by all students)

The last honors section class of the quarter will be devoted to a show-and-tell by everyone of their “remaking” of one artifact from their earlier “exhibit.” Students must choose one of the artifacts they previously exhibited (whether one from the English 25 course readings or from outside the readings) and “remake” it in a way that is motivated by a thesis or line of thought (in other words, by some reason for making changes in the original). For example:

• Rewrite or remediate a passage, an image, Web page, etc. (You can transform images in a low-tech style if you wish, e.g., by drawing over a print-out)
• Hybridize one artifact with another; collage together images and text; or “link” from words or parts of a Web site to other online sites (you can just underline where you want to put links on a print-out if you wish, with URLs identified for each link)
• Make a physical model or sculpture representing an idea, a passage or scene in a work, etc.
• Revise a passage from a different perspective (as if taking a different “role” in a role playing game). For instance, rewrite a passage from the point of view of someone living in a different historical epoch; someone who is of a different gender, nation, race, ethnicity, class, or age. Or, another example: take the imaginary viewpoint of someone who has never before seen a particular form of media, information, or communication technology or anything like it–for instance, someone who has never seen a book, listened to a recording, or been online. How would that person describe what they are seeing or hearing in their terms?
• “Deform” or “glitch” an artifact, taking your inspiration from the readings for Lecture 27. in the English 25 course (especially the essay by Lisa Samuels and Jerome McGann on “Deformance and Interpretation”).

In addition to “remaking” your artifact of choice, add a short 1-2 page commentary laying out the rationale for your remaking.

The “remade” artifact and commentary must be uploaded by the end of Saturday June 3rd (11:59 pm) by posting it, including any attachments, as a reply to this discussion forum in Canvas.