English 2610 Syllabus

Instructor Course Overview

A. M. Jeffers
This course interrogates historical, political, and cultural ideas of diversity suggested,
explored, made more complex, and sustained within American literary and cultural
Phone texts. As a community of learners, we will use our study of literary and cultural texts
(801)699-8107 to explore a major concern of modern American literature: how we understand,
accommodate, and celebrate human difference. We will engage with various and
sometimes conflicting definitions of nationality, race, class, gender, sexuality,
Email religion, ability, and language. We will also examine the various ways U.S. writers
a.m.jeffers96@gmail.com have responded to racism, sexism, ableism, cultural imperialism, historical and
cultural erasure, etc. in order to build or define unique identities and negotiate
between the powered and the disempowered. Our goals here are to make difference,
Office Location diversity, and our individual and collective humanity visible by studying what
remains invisible and to find ways to make the invisible visible well beyond the
Redwood Campus, AAB
borders of this class. 
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Required Text
Office Hours
Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng
10-2 Monday-Thursday

Course Materials

The thing you will use the most is your computer, Microsoft office, and the internet.

 Computer Access
 Microsoft Office Access
 Internet Access

Course Schedule

Week Module
Weeks 1-2 Beyond The Grand Narrative
Weeks 2-4 Haunted By The Past & Making Monsters
Weeks 4-6 Course Novel & Cultural Borderlands
Weeks 6-8 Unerasure & Cancel Culture

Module Breakdown
  Beyond The Grand Narrative
o Read
 Paula Rothenberg – Complicating Questions of Identity
 Vincent Than Nguyen – Black Eyed Women
o Watch
 Fruitvale Station
o Listen
 CodeSwitch: When Coronavirus Becomes Xenophobia & Racism
 Vietnamese Boat People Podcast
 Haunted By The Past & Making Monsters
o Read
 J. J. Cohen – Monster Theses
o Watch
 Crash Course – Monsters
 The Last Of Us – On The Humanities
 George A. Romero – TIFF Originals
o Listen
 Skillet – Monster
 Stuff Mom Never Told You – Destroyer, Mother
 Course Novel & Cultural Borderlands
o Read
 Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
o Watch
 At least one episode of the hulu adaptation of Little Fires Everywhere
 CBS Sunday Morning Interview of Celeste Ng
o Listen
 The Pride and Power of Representation on Film – Jon M. Chu
 Unerasure
o Read
 Julie Hakim Azzam - How To Erase An Arab?
o Watch
 Can Hip Hop Combat Radical Extremism?
o Listen
 Hidden Brain – Is He Muslim?
 Cancel Culture
o Read
 What Does Contrapoints Controversy Say About The Way We Criticize?
o Watch
 ContraPoints – Cancel Culture
 Joe Rogan – Andrew Doyle
o Listen
 Amanda Seales – Side Effects of Cancel Culture
 Unladlylike – How To Get Canceled With Natalie Wynn

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 Project Schedule

Week Project
Week 2 Challenge The Grand Narrative
Week 4 Make A Monster
Week 6 Novel Project
Week 8 Unerasure

Homework Policy

I don’t expect you to be perfect, I expect you to do your best. Many of these assignments will ask you to write in a
way that you’ve likely never written before. This course is about trying new things and seeing things from
unfamiliar perspectives. That being said, I allow and encourage you to revise your work post submission. So long
as all assignments are submitted before 11:59pm on the last day of the semester, I will accept it.

Additional Information

This course will challenge you. It will challenge your writing yes but more than that it will challenge your beliefs,
perspectives, and previous arguments for or against certain topics. You will likely find much of the course content
hard to get through and even triggering. I want you to open yourself up to be challenged. More than that I want
you to challenge back. If you disagree with something, then write about it and convince me otherwise. Know that
I am here to help you and that it’s ok to take issue with certain topics. What is not ok however, is not doing an
assignment because you disagree with it or not revising your work after I give you a zero for poor quality. Grades
don’t matter. What matters is that you do your best and strive to be better.

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