ENGL 680: Assignments

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1. Regular Attendance and Participation in Group Conversation

2. Seminar Presentation: Contexts for Reading and Interpretation (25% of Grade)

Each student will prepare a 20-25 minute oral presentation, using whatever techniques seem most appropriate (interactive lecture/discussion, slides, video clips, PowerPoint, web-based presentation, or a combination of techniques). It is important that these presentations stay within the time limit. Presentations may cover a wide range of topics, including: some aspect of the history of sexuality; cross-cultural differences regarding sexual orientation; contemporary political or legal issue related to the rights of sexual minorities; a person who was/is important in the formation of the Gay Rights Movement or in the continuing struggle for the rights of sexual minorities; a lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered artist, writer, or activist; OR some other pertinent topic of your choosing (subject to my approval). These presentations will allow you to research, and then teach the rest of the class about, a topic related to LGBT Studies. You may choose from a number of formats: PowerPoint presentation, web-based presentation, lecture/discussion format that presents information AND gets the class involved in some kind of activity, video clips and discussion, combination of any of these or other approaches. I strongly urge you to choose a seminar presentation subject that will help you with your research for your scholarly essay.

Once you have chosen topic in which you are interested, I will assign a due dates for your presentations so that I can coordinate them with the assigned readings for the course.

Possible Topics for Seminar Presentations:

Attitudes toward same-sex relationships and practices in non-Western cultures (e.g., the berdache in some Native American cultures; shamans in some Native American cultures; male same-sex relationships in Latin America; male same-sex initiation rites in non-Western cultures, etc.)

Hate crimes against sexual minorities (types of crimes, incidence, prevalence, statistics, personal stories, etc.);

Bowers v. Hardwick (the Supreme Court case that ruled consenting gay male and lesbian adults do NOT have a right to privacy in their own homes when engaging in same-sex relations);

Roemer v. Evans (the Supreme Court case that struck down Colorado’s Proposition 2 and ruled that gay males and lesbians CANNOT be singled out as a group which is denied equal protection from discrimination);

The surgical mutilation of intersexed individuals in an attempt to “make” them either male or female;

Sex-Reassignment Surgery for Transsexuals;

Harry Hay and the beginnings of the Gay Rights Movement in America;

The Mattachine Society and the beginnings of the modern U. S. Gay Rights Movement;

The Daughters of Bilitis and the beginnings of the modern U. S. Gay Rights Movement;

Bayard Rustin (openly gay male and chief non-violent resistance strategist for the Civil Rights Movement under Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.);

Gay males and lesbians in the African-American Harlem Renaissance;

Christopher Marlowe and same-sex relationships in the English Renaissance;

Willa Cather (American lesbian writer and partner in a Boston Marriage);

Sarah Orne Jewett (American lesbian writer and partner in a Boston Marriage);

The Boston Marriage (lesbian longtime companionships in nineteenth- and twentieth-century America);

Butch/Femme Roles in Lesbian Relationships;

Cole Porter (openly gay male and one of the great song composers of the early Twentieth Century);

Leonard Bernstein (composer and conductor);

Tennessee Williams (gay male playwright);

Edward Albee (gay male playwright);

Lorraine Hansberry (African-American bisexual playwright);

The 1950s assault upon sexual minorities: psychoanalytic “cures” for homosexuality, the McCarthy hearings and F.B.I. repression under (the closeted and homophobic) J. Edgar Hoover;

Anita Bryant and the “Save our Children” Campaign--a renewal of cultural and political homophobia in the 1970s;

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and the new assault upon sexual minorities in the 1990’s U. S. military;

Robert Mapplethorpe, Jessie Helms, and the censorship of gay and lesbian art in the 1990s;

Harvey Milk, pioneer and martyr of “out” gay politics;

The Ex-Gay Movement, the Religious Right, and renewed cultural homophobia starting in the 1980s (Exodus International and other faith-based “cures” of homosexuality including Christian “reparative therapy”;

The Ex-Ex-Gay Movement (Christian gay male and lesbian activists working against the “curing” of homosexuals);

Popular media representations of sexual minorities (television): “Will and Grace,” “Ellen,” “Sex in the City,” “In the Life,” “ER,” “Roseanne,” “Law and Order,” etc.

Popular media representations of sexual minorities in films (you choose);

The films of Patricia Rozema (lesbian filmmaker);

The films of Marlene Gorris (lesbian filmmaker);

The films of Donna Deitch (lesbian filmmaker);

The films of Marlon Riggs (African-American gay filmmaker);

The films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder (gay filmmaker);

The films of Pietro Passolini (gay filmmaker);

The films of Derek Jarman (gay filmmaker);

“Out” Gay and Lesbian Politicians: Barney Frank, Steve Gunderson, Harvey Milk, etc.

LGBT Campus Activism: Research into what support various universities provide for sexual minority students

Corporate Non-Discrimination Policies that Include Sexual Orientation

Assessment Criteria: The seminar presentations will be assessed according to the following criteria: the substantiveness of the information, its relevance to the course, the clarity of the presentation, the organization or the material, the presentation techniques or strategies, and the observing of the time limit. I will distribute a peer assessment sheet so that the rest of the class may participate in the assessment of this activity, and the assessment statements of the class will weigh heavily in my assessment.

3. Weekly "Probes and Insights": 2 substantive discussion questions and 1 insight for each set of assigned texts (25% of Grade)

Because the reading for this course is quite heavy, I want to grant credit and assign a grade for completing that work. My assumption is that each of you intends to read all the texts thoughtfully, striving to grasp as much as you can and asking fruitful questions. Therefore, I would like to assign the letter grade of "A" to this course activity from the outset of our work together.

Assessment Criteria: To receive the grade of A on this activity, your Probes and Insights should meet the following criteria: 1) they should be typed and submitted on each due date; 2) they should be well developed questions and ideas about the texts (not just brief, helter-skelter or random thoughts); 3) they should make specific references to the assigned texts; 4) they should demonstrate that you have read the texts and that you have some sophisticated, analytic ideas about them. Late work or missing "probes and insights" will necessarily lower the grade on this activity.

By "probes" I mean essential, critical questions that get at what you feel are the central issues of the pieces we read. These should be substantive questions, dealing with fundamental concerns. When we have more than one assigned text, your "probes" should deal with as many of them as possible; you may wish to create questions that "probe" the issues of a couple of the assigned texts. By "insights" I mean just that--ideas that have come to you after careful reflection upon each piece. Make your "insight" be the one idea you would most like to contribute to our conversation about one or more of the assigned readings each week; again, you may create an "insight" that deals with a couple of the assigned texts. I would like at least two "probes" and one "insight" each week. Come to class prepared to share these with others and to explain them more fully. Our conversations each week will be rooted in your own concerns as articulated in your questions and ideas. I will collect these each week and use them to plan for future class meetings.

4. Scholarly Essay (50% of Grade)

Each student will complete a fully researched scholarly essay that grows out of our work in the course. The essay should be narrowly focused so that you can demonstrate your idea convincingly in about 10-12 pages of text with 3 or so additional pages of content endnotes and works cited. The essay should be addressed to a specific audience and should pursue a clear purpose. Those of you who are writing theses about sexuality or gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered authors may complete one of your chapters to fulfill this activity. Those of you who are studying for the Masters Degree in other departments may integrate your own discipline into this activity; for example by writing a more personal reflection on the content of the course and how it comes to bear on your discipline, your own education or your professional work.

Possible Options for the Scholarly Essay:

For each of these options, I encourage you to consult the sources provided on the "Links to Resources" web page.

Conference Paper: Target a specific conference and direct your piece to its audience. When you submit your essay, indicate your target conference. Most conferences allow a twenty-minute presentation. Text should be no more than 10 pages. You should, however, provide additional elaboration, references, and materials in at least a couple of pages of content endnotes. Text, content endnotes and works cited pages should total about 12-15 pages. Conference papers should be no less substantive than scholarly articles; the only difference is that they compress their scholarship much more, and offer adequate evidence to be convincing but not exhaustive proof; they often rely on explanatory endnotes for the elaboration that must be omitted from the text. Try to integrate about 20 sources into your argument, using content notes when necessary to incorporate some of your scholarship. Proper MLA documentation is required.

Personal/Scholarly Reflection: The purpose and audience for this essay will vary depending upon the writer, but it should offer a personal/scholarly reflection on the content of the course. The paper should be about 12-15 pages, counting content endnotes and works cited pages. This type of essay should synthesize your reflection upon as many of the required and recommended readings as possible, integrating them into a well-focused, overarching thesis idea about any of the central concerns of the course. By personal/scholarly, I mean that the piece may, indeed, explore your intimate responses to the materials but will do so in a way that uses scholarly documentation, that affords a scholarly context derived from research provided by any of the required and recommended readings, and that demonstrates its ideas using evidence from the texts upon which it reflects. Like any piece of scholarly writing, this type of essay uses full and accurate documentation of sources, including content endnotes and work cited pages. Proper MLA documentation is required. Strive for a richly imagined and generous integration of the course materials and some additional research; try to use about 20 sources in the text and content endnotes.