Class schedule

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Unit 1: web 2.0 and the digital self

Week 1: hi

1/19

Introduction to the class


1/21

John Scalzi, “Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is” http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/15/straight-white-male-the-lowest-difficulty-setting-there-is/ (please also read the two follow-up posts)

Lisa Nakamura, “Queer Female of Color: The Highest Difficulty Setting There Is?” http://adanewmedia.org/2012/11/issue1-nakamura/

Watch video during class: “The web turns 25” http://www.cnn.com/videos/tech/2014/03/11/orig-natpak-world-wide-web-turns-25-internet-history-flashbacks.cnn

Key terms: privilege, gamer culture, patriarchy


Week 2: a free and open web?

1/25 (Monday)

add/drop deadline


1/26

Alice Marwick, Status Update introduction and Chapter 1, “Web 2.0” (70 pgs.)

Recommended: Women’s stories of web 2.0 and empowerment https://www.worldpulse.com/en/get-involved/take-action/236

Recommended: Teens creating online content (published in 2007, it captures a specific moment of early 2000s) http://www.pewinternet.org/2007/12/19/teens-creating-content/


1/27 (Wednesday)

Jackson Katz presentation, 7pm in the Foley Center


1/28

Biakolo, “Whose Internet Is It Anyway?: A Dialogue On Race, Gender, And The Digital Space” http://thoughtcatalog.com/kovie-biakolo/2014/03/whose-internet-is-it-anyway-a-dialogue-on-race-gender-and-the-digital-space/


Week 3: performing the self

2/2 (Wiki updates: groups 1 and 2)

Marwick Chapter 3, “Micro-celebrities” (50 pgs.)

Key terms: micro-celebrity, authenticity, anti-fan, attention economy


2/4 (Wiki updates: groups 2 and 3)

Marwick Chapter 4, “Self-branding” (40 pgs.)

Rob Cover, “Understanding Identity Online: Social Networking” (25 pgs.) [PDF on Dropbox]

Judith Butler, excerpt from Gender Trouble (9 pgs.) [PDF on Dropbox]

A short video that illustrates Goffman's theory of self-presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M279taSj8cI

Key terms: performativity, self-branding, the edited self, emotional labor, neoliberal subject


Week 4: Wikipedia

2/9

Sarah Sentilles, “Writing Her In: Wikipedia As Feminist Activism” http://msmagazine.com/blog/2014/05/21/writing-her-in-wikipedia-as-feminist-activism/

Michelle Moravec, “If You Care About Women, You Should Edit Wikipedia Differently” http://march.rutgers.edu/2015/02/if-you-care-about-women-you-should-edit-wikipedia-differently/

Intro to Wikipedia editing brochure: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Editing_Wikipedia_brochure_%28Wiki_Education_Foundation%29.pdf

"Your first article" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Your_first_article

Bryce Peake, “Misogynist Infopolitics” http://adanewmedia.org/2015/04/issue7-peake/

Create an account on wikipedia.org by today.


2/11 **** MEET IN BRONSTEIN HALL, SUNROOM, TODAY. BRING A LAPTOP IF YOU HAVE ONE. ****

Response paper #1 due

Wikipedia workshop with Andy Famiglietti

Choose the article(s) you will work on for the Wikipedia project. Type their titles on your Sandbox page. Gather 2-3 potential sources for your Wikipedia articles(s) and type up their citation information in your Sandbox page.


Week 5: feminisms

2/16 (Wiki updates: groups 3 and 1)

bell hooks, “Feminism: a movement to end sexist oppression” [PDF on Dropbox]

Sara Ahmed, “Feminist Consciousness” http://feministkilljoys.com/2015/10/18/feminist-consciousness/

Jessie Daniels, “Rethinking Cyberfeminism(s): Race, Gender, and Embodiment” http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/wsq/v037/37.1-2.daniels.html

Browse everyday sexism project: http://everydaysexism.com/

Key terms: feminism, cyberfeminism, identity tourism, intersectionality


2/18

summer course registration begins (tentative date)

By today, save your Wikipedia article draft in your Sandbox for peer review. If you are expanding an existing article instead of creating a new article, please add the whole article to your Sandbox, including your changes (which should be big, like a new section or two), and have a system for keeping track of what you added and what is original. Also, bring 3 printouts of your article (the entire article(s) you have been working on) to class. Before you publish your contributions, we will edit and discuss them as a group


Week 6: EDIT-A-THON WEEK!!

2/23

Marwick Chapter 5, “Lifestreaming” (40pgs.) and Chapter 6, “Designed in California” (27 pgs.)

"Final" article complete and “live” on Wikipedia


2/25

No class meeting -- please attend the edit-a-thon instead


Saturday 2/27

Michelle Moravec speaking in Bronstein Hall in the morning 9:30 - 10:45 followed by Wikipedia edit-a-thon from 11am-1pm. Location and more details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Meetup/Philadelphia/ArtAndFeminism_2016/Saint_Joseph%27s_University


By Sunday 2/28: Wikipedia reflection essay due via email to Rachael


Week 7: social media and gender

3/1 (Wiki updates: groups 1 and 2)

Marwick -- Chapter 6, “Designed in California” (27 pgs.) -- We didn't really have time to talk about this in the last class so let's try to wrap up Marwick today.

Katie DeLuca, “‘Can we block these political thingys? I just want to get f*cking recipes’: Women, Rhetoric, and Politics on Pinterest” http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/19.3/topoi/deluca/index.html

Guest speaker: Katie DeLuca (via Google Hangouts)

Key terms: rhetorical activities/practices/spaces, gendered affinities, digital civic engagement, digital citizenship, identity construction, cyberfeminism (add to the existing page about this term)


3/3 (Wiki updates: groups 2 and 3)

Response paper #2 due (focusing on any reading we've discussed in class since the previous deadline, Feb. 11)

Henry Jenkins interviews Beth Coleman, http://henryjenkins.org/2012/04/our_avatars_our_selves_an_inte.html

Sarah Liao, “My Metamorphic Avatar Journey” http://vcg.emitto.net/3vol/liao.pdf

Recommended: Jacquelyn Allen-Collinson, “Autoethnography as engagement” [PDF on Dropbox]

Key terms: avatar, autoethnography, gender ambiguity, X-reality


3/7 – 3/11, Spring break week

Week 8: selfies

3/15 (Wiki updates: groups 3 and 1)

Excerpt from Joseph Reagle, Reading the Comments pgs. 121-134 [PDF on Dropbox]

Rachel Syme, “SELFIE” https://medium.com/matter/selfie-fe945dcba6b0#.66t98nbsm

Chainsmokers, "#SELFIE" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdemFfbS5H0

This is another song about selfies that I thought was pretty funny and relevant for the class! -Sam L https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXh8B4yWVKk

Key terms: selfie, narcissism, self-esteem


3/17

Mid-term course grades due

Case studies:

Essena O’Neill

Mindi Jensen

Should we also talk about the nude Kim K. selfie that caused quite a stir recently?

Unit 2: online communities, trolls, and feminist futures

Week 9: trolling part I

3/22 (Wiki updates: groups 1 and 2)

NOTE: Major trigger warning, as well as adult language warning for all of this.

First, read Karla Mantilla's 2013 essay, "Gendertrolling: Misogyny Adapts to New Media PDF on Dropbox. It is just 7 pages. Second, read about #GamerGate on pages 83-91 from Mantilla’s 2015 book Gendertrolling: How Misogyny Went Viral PDF on Dropbox. Third, please read an additional section of your choice from Mantilla's book excerpt. Each chapter is divided up into smaller sections, so just choose one that interests you, from any chapter.

Last, browse examples of actual online harassment leveled against women (reminder: trigger warning, adult language):

- https://storify.com/adriarichards/telling-my-troll-story-because-kathy-sierra-left-t

- https://storify.com/a_man_in_black/gamergate-harassment

- https://storify.com/EOM/misogyny-death-threats-rape-threats-and-gamergate

- http://femfreq.tumblr.com/post/109319269825/one-week-of-harassment-on-twitter

Recommended further reading: Ellen Pao, “The trolls are winning” https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/we-cannot-let-the-internet-trolls-win/2015/07/16/91b1a2d2-2b17-11e5-bd33-395c05608059_story.html

Recommended further reading: Ryan Milner, “Hacking the Social: Internet Memes, Identity Antagonism, and the Logic of Lulz” http://twentytwo.fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-156-hacking-the-social-internet-memes-identity-antagonism-and-the-logic-of-lulz/


3/24

Avatar photo essay due (assignment sheet)

Video in class: Noah https://vimeo.com/65935223 (Note: this film has explicit language and male nudity, the latter of which we will skip in class, but just FYI if you watch it on your own.)


Week 10: trolling part II

3/29 (Wiki updates: groups 2 and 3)

Fall course registration begins (tentative date)

Adrienne Massanari, “#Gamergate and The Fappening: How Reddit’s algorithm, governance, and culture support toxic technocultures” PDF on Dropbox

Guest speaker: Adrienne Massanari (via Skype)

Key terms: toxic technocultures, geek masculinity, platform politics,

Recommended further reading: Ellen Pao, “The trolls are winning” https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/we-cannot-let-the-internet-trolls-win/2015/07/16/91b1a2d2-2b17-11e5-bd33-395c05608059_story.html

Recommended further reading: Ryan Milner, “Hacking the Social: Internet Memes, Identity Antagonism, and the Logic of Lulz” http://twentytwo.fibreculturejournal.org/fcj-156-hacking-the-social-internet-memes-identity-antagonism-and-the-logic-of-lulz/


3/29 is the last day to withdraw from courses.


3/31 (Wiki updates: groups 3 and 1)

Michelle Goldberg, “Feminism’s Toxic Twitter Wars” http://www.thenation.com/article/feminisms-toxic-twitter-wars/

Caitlin Gunn, “Hashtagging from the margins: women of color engaged in feminist consciousness-raising on Twitter” [PDF on Dropbox]

Key terms: hashtag activism, Black Twitter, feminist consciousness-raising

Recommended: “How black people may or may not use Twitter” http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2010/08/16/129235517/how-black-people-may-or-may-not-use-twitter


Week 11: feminist online community

4/5

Laurie Ouellette and Jacquelyn Arcy, “‘Live through this’: feminist care of the self 2.0” [PDF on Dropbox]

Michel Foucault, Technologies of the Self - Chapter 2, Part I only (7 pgs.) http://monoskop.org/images/0/03/Technologies_of_the_Self_A_Seminar_with_Michel_Foucault.pdf

Recommended: Michel Foucault, “Self Writing” http://foucault.info/documents/foucault.hypomnemata.en.html


4/7

Response paper #3 due

The response paper should focus on one of the following: Reagle, Syme, Mantilla, Massanari, Goldberg, Gunn, Ouellette/Arcy, Foucault. You may apply these texts to a side-item like the Essena Oneill case study or the Selfie videos, but the response should deal with one of the major essays assigned and show that you have been keeping up with the reading.

No class today (Rachael out of town)


Week 12: final project proposals

4/12

Shaowen Bardzell, "Feminist HCI"

Read the short mission statement of "Take Back the Archive"

TENTATIVE: Guest speaker via Skype, Jeremy Boggs from Take Back the Archive project


4/14

Proposals due for final project

Week 13

4/19

Fembot Toolkit: anonymity and d0xxxing

Whitney Phillips, “We’re the reason we can’t have nice things online” http://qz.com/582113/were-the-reason-we-cant-have-nice-things-online/

Work on final projects in class


4/21

Work on final projects in class

Week 14

4/26

Response paper #4 due (the final response paper can focus on any of the readings we discussed throughout the semester)

Work on final projects in class


4/28

Social network prototype projects (version 1.0) due

Exam period, important dates

5/3: Reading day


5/10:

Feminist design projects FINAL VERSION due on Blackboard. Refer to assignment guidelines for instructions: https://www.dropbox.com/s/t00r628wej1ac77/feminist%20design%20project.pdf?dl=0

Participation essay due. Refer to the syllabus for instructions. It should be 250-200 words. Submit this to Blackboard.

(There is no formal final exam in this class.)


5/14: Commencement


5/16: Deadline for instructors to post final course grades on The Nest

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