The format of this course is participatory seminar, and therefore carries with it certain opportunities and obligations. Although we will periodically have lectures and guests, the in-class portions of this course are organized primarily around discussion of the readings and the broader themes raised by course materials. Therefore, it is essential that each of you comes to class prepared this means having done the assigned readings before every class session and considered the issues you would like to contribute to discussion. Needless to say, attendance is mandatory at all course activities, and the only excused absences are for family or health emergencies (with proof).
You will be graded on the following:
Discussion Papers. Five times during the semester, you will write a 3-4 page response to any two readings from the last time you turned in a paper that seem to you to be outstanding/intellectually challenging or frustrating/worth further consideration. These will be due at the end of the class sessions listed below, and no late papers will be accepted. I do not expect these to be polished or even especially rigorous; they are meant to provoke you to think through issues in preparation for class discussion. The most effective discussion papers should 1) outline main ideas and arguments of the relevant text or texts, and 2) be followed by questions, commentary, assessments, analysis, protests, opinions, or any combination of these. You will not be graded in terms of their quality, only that you turn them in. The penalty of not turning one in on time is that you will lose a whole grade of your discussion paper grade (i.e., miss one, drop from A to B for overall discussion paper grade; if you miss four, you get an F for that category). In other words, turn them in on time and you have nothing to worry about. When possible, David and I will comment on them.
Website Analysis and Presentation. During the semester, you will work with another student to find and critically analyze two Indigenous-run websites related to the section of the course during which you make your presentation. For example, if your presentation is during the section of the course when we are focusing on issues of media, you should find Indigenous-run websites that directly address issues of Indigenous peoples and media. Important: one of these websites should be a website of a specific Indigenous nation or group, and the second a movement or organization of pan-Indigenous character. The goals of this assignment are: 1) to help us understand the constellation of Indigenous nations and organizations present on the web, and 2) help us understand the information, perspectives, and rhetorical strategies of these organizations and movements as they relate to that section of the course.
The two of you will then provide a 15-minute presentation in class on the two sites, describing their major highlights, and your own analyses of them. In your presentation, you should deal with the following issues: Who are the individuals/who is the body claiming authority? What is the nature and/or origins of their authority? What image of themselves do they project through the website? What are the main themes the website communicates? Is it meant to be unidirectional communication, or does it have any means for interaction? How does the group or organization conceptualize and communicate its relationships with other Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous outsiders? After your presentation, you and your partner will each independently of each other turn in a 6-8 page analysis of both websites. This paper should organically compare and contrast the two websites in terms of the questions outlined above. Where possible and relevant, you should use course readings to help analyze these websites. Your analytical paper will be due one week after your presentation.
Take-Home Midterm. The midterm places you in the (unique, for an undergraduate anyway) position of being a blind-reviewer of a journal article on a theme directly related to the course. This assignment will be due on March 10, and I will provide specific details several weeks before it is due.
Service Brief and Presentation. This is an opportunity for service learning in coordination with Indigenous Tourism Rights International, a Minnesota-based international Indigenous Peoples organization. You will write a 10-12 page brief on a topic of relevance and interest to the organization and its realm of activism. This will depend on what we work out with them, but it could include themes like the global tourism industry and the place of Indigenous Peoples in it, the history of Indigenous rights in international arenas like the Convention on Biological Diversity or the World Tourism Organization, the complex implications of specific sovereignty movements for tourism, the applications of certification to Indigenous tourism, etc.
There will be several steps involved in producing this brief:
We will discuss the requirements and subtleties of each step throughout the semester.
A note on writing assignments:
In these days of computer-mediated writing, there are no excuses for the two following problems: 1) late papers due to 'computer crashes,' and 2) poor spelling. Regarding the former, claiming a 'computer crash' is the basically the same as telling me that your dog ate your homework. This is not a valid excuse if you are backing up your materials on diskettes. If indeed this has happened, I expect you to provide a note from a computer specialist explaining the problem; otherwise your late paper will be evaluated in terms of my late paper policy. Regarding the latter problem, use your spellcheck option and proofread - I will mark you down for poor spelling and grammar.
My policy on late papers is that I do not accept them, although I will make an exception if you are willing to receive a lower grade. For every 24 hour period your paper is late, you drop a full grade from the grade I feel your paper would receive if it were not late. For example, if your 'A' paper is not turned in on time, you will receive a 'B' if it is turned in within the next 24 hours. The next day, your grade drops to a ŒC.¹ The day after that, it is a ŒD.¹ If you turn in a paper late and expect to receive a non-reduced grade, you must provide evidence of an emergency.