Histories of Knowledges

Spring 2013. IDS 3000-101
LLA 223, TR 2:00-3:15

Parmenides

Paolo Freiri

Ludwig Wittgenstein

Gloria Anzaldúa

Jacques Derrida

Trinh Minh-ha

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Derek Stanovsky | Class Blog

Office: LLA 125 Office Phone: 262-2441
E-mail: stanovskydj@appstate.edu
Home page: www.appstate.edu/~stanovskydj

"I am not erudite enough to be interdisciplinary, but I can break rules." – Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, A Critique of Postcolonial Reason

Course Description:
This course will introduce central concerns of interdisciplinary studies through analyses of histories of knowledge production, definition, and categorization, cultural derivations and influences on what we know, the significance of paradigms and media, and the importance of perspective and situation in shaping what we define as knowledge. The aim is provoke you to reflect on the connections between your various studies and classes as well as on the specific challenges and difficulties faced when combining and synthesizing different fields of study. W/MC/CD

Textbooks:
All of our class readings will be available online or on library reserve.

Course Requirements:
The most important requirements for this course are regular class attendance, preparation, and participation. You should complete all of the assigned readings each day and come to class prepared to ask and answer questions. Keeping this in mind, the formal grading requirements are:

Class Participation 20%
Wittgenstein Exam 20%
Two Papers  20% each
Final Alternative Media Assignment 20%
The class participation portion of your grade will be based on regular class attendance and participation as well as on periodic homeworks, blog posts, and in-class individual and small group assignments. 

Two absences are allowed during the semester. Each additional absence will lower your class participation grade by one letter grade. More than six absences and/or failure to complete any of the graded assignments detailed below are grounds for failing the course.

There will be an in-class exam on Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations.

There will be two 3-5 page papers. Late papers will be docked one-third of a letter grade for each day late. Because this is a "W" designator writing course, close attention to writing mechanics and style, as well as content, is expected.

One of your papers may be rewritten and translated into an alternative media (e.g. video, photography, cartoon, painting, theatre, web site, music, dance, performance art, sculpture, etc.) and presented to the class during our regularly scheduled final exam period. Other possible final projects will be discussed.

More information on all of these assignments will be handed out later in the semester. 

Students should be aware of the ASU policies on academic integrity, disability services, religious obervances, and student engagement.

Course Schedule:

T 1/15 Introductions. Check your campus email for an invitation to join our class blog.
TH 1/17 Hesiod, Theogony, lines 104-232.
T 1/22 Parmenides, On Nature.
TH 1/24 Parmenides continued / Socrates and Plato introduced. Read this brief section on Pyrrho and Pyrrhonism and this brief overview of Plato and Socrates.
T 1/29 Plato's Apology.
TH 1/31 The Examined Life. Video.
T 2/5 Examined Life concluded. Discussion.
TH 2/7 Freire, Chapter 2, Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
T 2/12 Borges, "The Analytical Language of John Wilkins." Browse this article on Wilkins and this page on books Borges never wrote.
TH 2/14 Foucault, "Preface" and "Las Meninas" from The Order of Things.
T 2/19 First Assignment Due. "Changing Education Paradigms." Video.
TH 2/21 Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, Preface and Part I, §1.
T 2/26 Part I, §2-43.
TH 2/28 Part I, §65-123.
T 3/5 Jarman, Wittgenstein. Video.
TH 3/7 Jarman video concluded.
Spring Break
T 3/19 Part I, §143-155.
TH 3/21 Part I, §243-341.
T 3/26 Discussion and Review.
TH 3/28 Wittgenstein Exam.
Easter Break
TH 4/4 Whorf, "The Relation of Habitual Thought and Behavior to Language."
T 4/9 Anzaldúa, "How To Tame a Wild Tongue."
TH 4/11 Haraway, "Situated Knowledges."
T 4/16 Derrida, "Différance." Begin Derrida video in class.
TH 4/18 Derrida. Video concluded.
T 4/23 Second Assignment Due. Discussion of final project topics.
TH 4/25 Trinh, "The Totalizing Quest of Meaning."
T 4/30 Trinh, Reassemblage.
TH 5/2 Conclusions.
Final Exam Period Monday, May 6, Noon - 2:30 PM: Final alternative media projects presented to the class for discussion.