Author: Sujit Shrestha

Readings and Assignment for October 3 & 4

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Update for Wednesday Section: We will be hosting Estrella Sanchez (please read NTY articles mentioned below under supplementary readings) as a guest speaker for our Wednesday, October 3 class

Update for Thursday Section: We will be hosting Manisha Lance (please refer to listed website: https://www.raksha.org/) as a guest speaker for our Thursday, October 4 class

 

Required Readings:

Please revisit the following article that was assigned towards the beginning of the semester

Mosse, David. 2004. Is Good Policy Unimplementable? Reflections on the Ethnography of Aid Policy and Practice. Development and Change 35 (4):639-671.

 

Supplementary readings for Wednesday’s class:

 

 

Supplementary readings for Thursday’s class:

Please read through Raksha’s website and familiarize yourself with the goals and work of the organization. 

Home

 

Assignment:

PART I

Working with Constituencies Beyond the University.

Over the last several weeks we been exposed to the ideas of a range of speakers whose concerns are not strictly academic.  One of the central goals of our seminar is to learn how to work with such groups.  Toward that end, for next week we would like you to choose one of our guest speakers and sketch out your preliminary ideas about how you would do a field/research/engaged project that is based on the concerns expressed by that speaker, and that takes the concerns of the speaker seriously.  Please note that this does not mean that you need to agree with everything that the speaker said.  It also does not mean that you should try to choose a speaker whose views are “correct.”  The challenge is to develop strategies that take seriously the concerns of the speaker while recognizing the limitations of the views expressed and learning to go beyond those limitations.  To take but one example, you do not need to agree with everything our guests from Refuse Fascism said to recognize that there may be valuable elements to what they are trying to do.  The challenge is to help them do what they seek to do while helping them overcome the limitations of what they are trying to do. 

In assessing the limitations of the views of the speaker you select you should feel free to draw upon concepts and theories based upon your disciplinary or program background.  Each discipline or program is likely to have different ideas about what is and is not a limitation and how to deal with such limitations.  From the perspective of our seminar that is a good thing.  The point is not for everyone to agree.  Rather, we want to initiate discussions in which everyone in the seminar has the opportunity to hear from and hopefully be challenged by one another.   

For next week please prepare a page of bullet points (single-spaced) that reflect your ideas about how to work on the concerns expressed by one of our guests.  Students in Wednesday’s class should post their responses by next Tuesday at 8 pm.  Students in Thursday’s class should post their responses by next Wednesday at 8 pm.

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO POST YOUR RESPONSES.

 

PART II

Draft of response to RefuseFascism

Working in the same groups that you were assigned to earlier, please bring a working draft of your group’s response to RefuseFascism. By now, you should have a strong draft that is almost ready to be shared with our guests. Please bring printed copies of these drafts with you to class.

Assignment for intercampus seminar session – please post by noon on Monday, September 24

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Dear all,

Please skim through the report by Georgia Detention Watch and prepare at least 3 questions to share by noon on Monday (September 24). We will share these questions with Azadeh from Project South, who has kindly agreed to take on the role of moderator for our event. Please post your questions here as comments to this post.

Best,
Sujit. 

Intercampus seminar event: September 26, Wednesday

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Event: Seventh session of the inter-campus seminar series on ‘the practice of democracy’
Session Topic: “Immigrants and Criminal Justice Reform”
Where: Emory University, White Hall 101
When: September 26, Wednesday, 5:00 – 7:00 pm

Panelists:
Yussif Abubakar, Impacted Community Advocate and Member of Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Immigrant Detention
Priyanka Bhatt, Esq., Staff Attorney, Project South
Kevin Caron, Steering Committee Member, Georgia Detention Watch
Marilynn Winn, Executive Director, Women on the Rise Moderator: 
Azadeh Shahshahani, Legal & Advocacy Director, Project South

Please find the poster for this event here.

REQUIRED READING:
Assignment:
Please skim through the report and prepare at least 3 questions to share by Monday afternoon. Please post your questions following this link here.

September 19 & 20

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SEPTEMBER 19 & 20

In-class Film Screening: “I am not your negro”, 2017

Some guiding questions for in-class film screening:

“What does the film suggest about the importance of identifying new kinds knowledge that scholars can focus on to help us be of use to under-served populations?

For example, in your responses to our guest speaker last week, several of you noted how certain affective elements in our guest’s presentation(s) resonated strongly with you. Several of you also suggested that our guest’s ‘positionality’ (in relation to her own background, and familial and social context, as well as in relation to us) had important analytical and performative significance. Furthermore, many of you also suggested that particular narrative techniques can yield desired outcomes more effectively. Each of you also pointed out the importance of ‘history’ and context, and the need to contest claims to knowledge from different perspectives. Finally, there were important critical questions about the ethics of knowing – what do we do with what we know? 

How does the film speak to any (or all) of these issues that have been raised by our class thus far? What are some of the ways in which the film helps us resolve some of these issues? What are some of the ways in which the film complicates these issues?”

 

REQUIRED READING:

Prologue and Chapter 1

Anderson, Carol
2016     White rage: The unspoken truth of our racial divide. New York: Bloomsbury Press.

 

SUPPLEMENTAL READING:

Americans Want to Believe Jobs Are the Solution to Poverty. They’re Not.

Response/ reaction notes for classes on September 12 and 13

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Please write a short response/ reaction paper covering the participation of our guests this week (Keisha and William). Your response paper could include points about what you thought was effective or ineffective about our guest presentations. What were the things you agreed with and what were the things you did not agree with and why? Please feel free to also share any other relevant thoughts or remarks about our class discussions and/or assigned readings. Please be sure to post your comments by Tuesday night (for Wednesday class) or Wednesday night (for Thursday class).

Video for Keisha Braswell’s guest presentation can be accessed here.

Video for William Marshall’s guest presentation can be accessed here.

 

September 12 and 13: histories, voices, and social justice

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SEPTEMBER 12 & 13

Guests: Keisha G. Braswell (Wednesday) & William Marshall (Thursday)

Both Keisha Braswell and William Marshall have been at the forefront of political activism in Atlanta. They have both been involved with the Alliance for Black Lives movement. 

REQUIRED READINGS:

Coates, Ta-Nehisi

            2014    The Case for Reparations. The Atlantic, June. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/, accessed July 19, 2018.

         2017    The First White President. The Atlantic, June. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/10/the-first-white-president-ta-nehisi-coates/537909/accessed July 19, 2018.

Smith, Linda Tuhiwai
         1999     “Imperialism, History, Writing and Theory” in Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. New York: St. Martin’s Press [pages 19-41].