Learning goals for the week. By the end of the week I hope you will have learned the following:
1) Some understanding of the interplay of race, class and higher education in the US
2) A closer personal connection between your time at UWB and histories of struggle in higher education
3) A greater ability to be self-reflective about why you do what you do, and how you can use your influence for good
Mon 11/1 Class, Race, and HBCUs
hooks, b. (not dated).bell hooks on Freire (Links to an external site.)
. Andrea Lira. A 2:38 min video interview of hooks describing her relationship to Freire.
hooks, b. (1994). Confronting class in the classroom. In Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom (pp. 177-189 (Links to an external site.)). New York: Routledge.
Williams, Marco, and Nelson, Stanley (2017). Tell them we are rising (Links to an external site.). An 82 min documentary about HBCUs in the US.
Life Hack:
Gene Demby, Jess Kung, Leah Donnella (September 1, 2021). The Folk Devil Made Me Do It (Links to an external site.). Code Switch from NPR. A 37 min podcast about the conflict around critical race theory in schools.
Wed 11/3 Freedom Schools
(June 24, 2014). Freedom Summer (Links to an external site.), from PBS. 120 min documentary.
Life Hack:
(Feb 24, 2020). The Influence You Have: Why we fail to see our power over others (Links to an external site.) from Hidden Brain. A 51 min podcast on the power we have to influence others, and how we struggle to say no.
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To do well in this assignment, first do the listening, viewing and reading. Use note taking strategies for identifying interesting and/or useful claims the sources make. Refer back to the learning goals for the week as you do. Next, sit down and sketch out an outline for what your focus will be and how you will write a paper that can get at that. This weeks paper should have the following elements:
- This week you will connect your reading of student organizing in social movements historically to your own efforts to engage in student organizing at UW Bothell. You are welcome to team up around shared interests, but the work you submit needs to be your own. There are two parts to this:
- First, read and watch hooks and get to know the argument that she is making about education and power. Listen to the podcasts from CodeSwitch and the Hidden Brain and think about connections. Then, watch the films about HBCUs and Freedom Summer. Are there examples you can draw on for comparison to your current experience?
- Second, identify one student club, group, or collective organizing interest on campus. Not sure where to start? UWB Student Engagement and Activities (Links to an external site.)might be a good place to look around. If you are unable to find examples from our campus that you can relate to, you can also think about broader national or international movements in which students have had a role. Then you can work your way back down to our campus to see where people might be interested in working on that issue. What connections can you draw to the materials from this week?
- When it comes time to write, structure your writing in two parts:
- A diagnosis of the existing problem – who it effects and how it effects them. No need to do a ton of new research here. In fact, the materials may help you frame the problem itself, or how to think about the underlying structures that cause the problem. This can be short and direct, but should connect with the next section in clear ways.
- A prognosis for how to solve the problem. Again, no need to do a lot of outside research, here. Instead draw on the materials from class to explore what the theories and examples we have already can teach us about organizing in the represent moment. Remember that principles and practices are not the same thing as a rigid blueprint.
