Welcome to ENGL 1101!  "Let’s Talk about Sex: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Sexuality"

Instructor: Andrea Wood

Fall 2008

Course Description

This first-year composition course will focus on different critical approaches to the study of sexuality from disciplines such as history, science, psychology, women’s and gender studies, medical anthropology, gay and lesbian studies, etc.  We will read a number of scholarly articles from these fields and analyze the ways in which they approach and investigate sexuality from varied interdisciplinary critical contexts.  In particular, we will consider how epistemologies of sex have taken shape over time and in relation to cultural changes and developments in science, technology, and education.  Our scope will be both interdisciplinary and transnational as we examine some of the racial, economic, gender, and class politics of sex from the past to the present.  In addition to the required scholarly articles we will be reading, students will also view several short documentaries including The Celluloid Closet, The Education of Shelby Knox, Live Nude Girls Unite, For the Bible Tells Me So, Before Stonewall, After Stonewall, and Voices from the Front.  Throughout the semester, students will be expanding their material knowledge about issues covered in the course by working in small groups on service-learning projects with several different non-profit organizations in Atlanta, including Project Open Hand, Positive Impact, PFLAG, Planned Parenthood, and the AIDS Quilt/Names Project.

Service-Learning Project

Throughout the semester, students will be working on a service-learning project with several different local community partners. Students will be assigned to work in groups of 4-5 early in the second week of school.  They will then choose a project with one of the non-profit organizations to work on throughout the term (starting in week 3).  They will need to complete 15-20 hours of service throughout the term (roughly 1-1 ½ hours a week or 2 ½ -3 hours bi-weekly).  Students will be required to compose blog reports about their service involvement roughly every two-three weeks for an individual grade.  At the end of the semester, each group will work together to develop a 20-30 minute multimedia presentation about their experience.  This presentation will explain: 1) the origins of the organization they worked with and its purpose in the community, 2) how students worked with and assisted the organization in a meaningful way, 3) what students learned from the experience, 4) how students came to understand connections between academic course material and their civic engagement, 5) what benefit their work provided for the organization and in turn the community.  Students will also be expected to display in this presentation images, video clips, or other evidence of some of the work they did with their organization during the semester as well as any materials they produced for their respective projects (i.e. a brochure, a social networking site, a promotional video, etc.).

Internal Links

Assignments

Final Group Presentation Schedule *NEW*

In-Class Tasks

Material Related to Readings

Picture Archive for AIDS Walk Atlanta 2008 *NEW*

Resources

Schedule for Group Conferences

Service-Learning Project Proposals

Vocab Presentation Dates

Vocab Presentation Schedule

Syllabus

 ENGL1101Syllabus2008.doc

 Schedule.doc *Updates to course schedule* (10/26/08)