February 8, 2010 at 1:58 pm (wsw)
Tags: race, civil rights, new media
While preparing for Wednesday’s class, I visited Du Bois Central, UMass Amherst’s wonderful website dedicated to all things Du Bois, and stumbled on a fascinating new project with a funny name — DuBoisopedia. It’s like Wikipedia, except its scope is limited to content related to the life and work of W.E.B. Du Bois. According to the site, it was “created as a collaborative project that offers a forum to students and researchers who wish to share knowledge acquired either from their interactions with the Du Bois Papers, held at the Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) at UMass Amherst, or from their interactions with the published writings of Du Bois and Du Bois criticism.” Although the amount of content is limited at this point, there is already some great stuff, such as The Brownies’ Book, a children’s magazine that Du Bois founded in the early 1920s that featured materials written by black authors for black children. Relevant to our discussion this week, there is also an entry on Souls of Black Folk, which contains a scan of a page from the original handwritten manuscript.
[Since it is a wiki, anyone can add content. In that spirit, I'm offering extra credit to anyone in the class who adds substantive content (either a new entry or a significant revision of an existing entry) to the website. In addition to getting extra credit, your contribution will count for two Class Reflection Posts. Please let me know either this week or next if you plan to take this option.]
W.E.B. Du Bois (1918), Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
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February 3, 2010 at 10:12 am (wsw)
Tags: class, gender, race
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January 18, 2010 at 10:22 am (wsw)
Tags: civil rights, Jr., Martin Luther King
As we are gearing up for a semester’s worth of explorations into issues of class, race, and gender in twentieth- and twenty-first-century America, I thought it would be appropriate on this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to point out one of the ways in which CGP — specifically our own Professor Gretchen Sullivan Sorin — has contributed to preserving the legacy of this civil rights icon. In 2002, Gretchen served as principal curator for In the Spirit of Martin: The Living Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which toured the country with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES). According to the exhibition’s website, it was “the first major exhibition of visual arts dedicated to celebrating this American hero.” For more information about the show, see the exhibition’s website and catalogue.
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December 22, 2009 at 11:28 am (wsw)
CRG@CGP is back, starting January 2010.
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May 14, 2009 at 10:20 pm (class reflection, csb)
Tags: web 2.0
Throughout the course of this semester, I have enjoyed learning how to use the blogosphere to bring issues regarding race, class, and gender to the web. I am excited to see how the blog will grow and change next year. It is important to consider that the course is the main unifying factor for the blog and one students’ views may not be shared by all. This will likely bring a new element to RCG@CGP, making it more dynamic. Some suggestions for getting a wider following may be to advertise the blog on the CGP Alumni List Serve or the CGP LinkedIn group. Another possibility could be to link it to other courses being offered at CGP, such as Paul’s Folk Art course.
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May 14, 2009 at 8:41 pm (EJA, class reflection)
After class today, I wanted to learn more about Jhumpa Lahiri to see how her personal experiences may have played a role in her fiction. In particular, the third paragraph of this biography relates pretty well to our discussions today.
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May 14, 2009 at 10:14 am (class reflection, csb)
Tags: identity, Immigration, literature, orientalism
During last week’s class, we discussed the common literary theme of cultural encounters with identity. These coming of age tales are often centered around a character’s life as an immigrant in the United States and their struggle to assimilate to American culture. One of my favorite books in this vain is Jessica Hagedorn’s The Gangster of Love. The novel details the life of a young Filipino girl coming of age in the United States. It is a classic American tale detailing the struggles of assimilating into the American cultural way of life. The popular questions of “What is American?” or “What is the deal with the English language?” are constantly raised by Rocky and her fellow characters.
As Rocky journeys through a myriad of complex questions, an apparent presentation of Orientalism is detected. Edward Said’s theory on Orientalism is described as “a manner of regularized (or Orientalized) writing, vision, and study, dominated by imperatives, perspectives, and ideological biases ostensibly suited to the Orient” (Sered 1). This theory represents the idea of the Orient as created in opposition to the West. It is seen as something to be dominated by the West, appearing inferior and complex. Men are represented as weak, effeminate, and sensual. Women are displayed as hyper-sexual, exotic, and mysterious. It is important to take these ideas into mind when reading through Hagedorn’s novel.
Elvis Chang is a complex character representing the ideas of Orientalism. He is tall and slender, appealing to many women. A level of relaxation and defiance is detected through his character. His name adds an interesting element, as it represents the influence of American culture on “the Orient”. This is an interesting point to consider, revealing a hybrid of both “the Orient” and America.
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May 14, 2009 at 9:56 am (class reflection, csb)
Tags: art, class, gender, labor
"Dress Shop" by Ralph Fasanella (1972) owned by the Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY.
This piece reveals the ability art has to address important political and social issues. It depicts a garment factory symbolizing the factory that Fasanella worked in as a young man with his mother and sister. Fasanella, his mother, and his sister are all painted in the scene, highlighting the import role the factory played in his family life. There is a sign towards the bottom left of the factory which says “In Memory of Triangle Workers”. This sign and the painting as a whole, is paying homage to the 146 young immigrant workers who perished in the Triangle Waist Factory Fire of 1911. This fire was significant to labor history, as it revealed the poor working conditions of industrial workers.
The windows of the factory display historical newspaper headlines and the paintings of the events they describe. Amongst the historical events are the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. This component continues with the theme of paying homage to important historical events and those who have perished. Fasanella kept newspaper clippings he found important in his studio in New York City as inspiration for his work.
To the left of the factory are 1920s New York City tenements and to the right of the factory are 1970s New York City apartment buildings. This allows the viewer to compare and contrast living conditions in New York City in these two important decades of political and social change.
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May 13, 2009 at 9:43 am (EJA, class reflection)
Tags: Immigration
Tuesday marked the one year anniversary of the immigration raid in Postville, Iowa where 389 workers were arrested. A very small town, Postville had a population of around 3,000 before the raid, but now is only home to about 1,800 people. On Tuesday, approximately 650 people attended a vigil marking the event. An article on these events was posted by the Associated Press.
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May 7, 2009 at 2:02 pm (EJA, class reflection)
Tags: gender, religion, sexuality
After reading and viewing Brokeback Mountain in class, I was curious to see the types of reactions floating around on the web. Here’s what Christianity Today had to say. Harry Forbes includes as part of his review: “Looked at from the point of view of the need for love which everyone feels but few people can articulate, the plight of these guys is easy to understand while their way of dealing with it is likely to surprise and shock an audience. … While the actions taken by Ennis and Jack cannot be endorsed, the universal themes of love and loss ring true.”
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