Future Course Offerings
Spring 2009
English 270: Introduction to FolkloreInstructor: Ray Cashman
M W 11:30 AM-1:18 PM
#08813-4
This class explores forms of traditional, vernacular culture--including verbal art, custom, and material culture--shared by men and women from a number of regional, ethnic, religious, and occupational groups. At the same time, we will consider various interpretive, theoretical approaches to examples of folklore and folklife discussed, and we will investigate the history of folklore studies and the cultural contexts in which this field has flourished. Recurring central issues will include the dynamics of tradition, the nature of creativity and artistic expression, and the construction of personal and group identities.
East Asian Languages and Literatures 357: East Asian Folklore
Instructor: Mark Bender
M W 1:30-3:18 PM
#02597-1
This course introduces the traditional folklore of various cultures in East Asia. Considering folklore as a dynamic process, the course will examine specific items of folk activity in the cultures of China, Korea, and Japan, giving due to local, majority, and minority ethnic cultures. In the first two weeks of the course, discussions will center on key terms such as "folklore," "tradition," "context," "performance," and "genre." In ensuing weeks, the themes of folk song, narrative, dance, material culture, epic, rituals, and ethnic tourism will be explored. This quarter, there will be an especially heavy focus on certain ethnic minority cultures in southwest China (Yi, Miao (Hmong), Tibetan, and others).
English 367.05: The US Folk Experience
Instructor: Instructor: Sheila Bock
#08866-1
M W 9:30-11:18 AM
In this course, we will use the core concepts and methods of the field of folklore as the basis for reading assignments and writing projects. Because the theme of this course is "The U.S. Folk Experience," we will begin with a brief introduction to basic concepts of American folklore and ethnography, including folk groups, tradition, and fieldwork methodology, focusing on how these concepts and methodologies contribute to the development of critical reading, writing, and thinking skills. Students will also learn fieldwork techniques and use them in the study of local practices and groups. These practices will provide you the "raw data" students will use for ethnographic writing assignments. 367.05 fulfills the GEC "Social Diversity in the US" requirement and the second composition course you need to graduate.
International Studies 501: Living Jerusalem: Ethnography and Blogbridging in Disputed Territory
Instructor: Amy Horowitz
M W 9:30-11:18 AM
#12201-8
Living Jerusalem is a pilot course that combines an ethnographic, historical, political and cultural overview of Jerusalem and examines the impact of weblogs (blogs) and video conferences as dialogue points for individuals living as adversarial neighbors in this disputed urban context.
Throughout the quarter we will explore multiple histories; contemporary political issues; intersections of cultural practices, cultural borrowing, transmission and appropriation; disputed claims to cultural legacies. Students will have access to the Jerusalem project archive, which includes data collected by Israeli and Palestinian ethnographers in the early 1990s.
One of our goals is to better understand blogging as a tool in our study of Jerusalem. Students will build weblogs through which they will offer responses to course readings and other forms of media as well as dialogue with one another and share new materials. Students will be responsible for creating and maintaining their weblog by posting reading responses and journal entries throughout the term. The creation and continued use of the weblog will account for 1/2 of student grades. The final project for the course will emerge from the weblog itself. We will also explore the use of video conferencing as vehicle for discussion with Israeli and Palestinian faculty members and students from Jerusalem.
During our final exam period, we will evaluate the course structure, readings, and discussions with aim of further developing the course.
International Studies 501.4: On the Move: Travel, tourism, pilgrimage and other itineraries
Instructor: Elana Chipman
T R 9:30-11:18 AM
#12204-4
Mass tourism and the leisure industry originated in the nineteenth century, yet pilgrimage and other forms of travel have existed for much longer. This cross-cultural course will explore travelling not only as an important cultural and social activity and economic industry (the world's largest), but also as a way of achieving a better understanding of the complex relationship between contemporary globalization and culture. We will use perspectives from anthropology and other humanistic sciences to analyze pilgrimage, tourism and travel as cultural practices from the perspectives of both hosts and guests. For example, what cultural beliefs and values have historically encouraged travel, exploration, trade, colonialism, and ultimately, modern tourism? What is tourism's relationship with economy, social class, and leisure? How does tourism impact indigenous peoples, and ideas of cultural identity and authenticity? In what way are the experiences of tourists different from those of a pilgrim Assignments will include two take-home essay exams a short research paper, and occasional response papers to class readings.
English 577.01: Studies in Folklore: Ethnicity and Migration
Instructor: Amy Shuman
M W 1:30-3:18 PM
#08901-2
We will study a great variety of cultural practices, including food, music, dance, festival, storytelling, and more to better understand immigration, ethnicity, and cultural heritage. Our central topic is the movement of people, ideas, things, and cultural practices as they circulate across borders. More specific topics include how people perform their ethnicity with food, dance and music, at weddings and other occasions, the emergence of genres of ethnic music, stereotyping and legends about particular groups or events, forms of pan-ethnicity and ethnic fusion (such as Native American pow-wows and ethnic restaurants), the creation of cultural heritage in festivals and museums, sites of contested identities, and the dissemination of knowledge through martial arts, ethnic restaurants, and other cultural sites. Requirements: Mid-term Exam, Final exam, Class Project/Term Paper.
English 571: The Sociolinguistics of Talk (Special Topics in English Language Study)
Instructor: Galey Modan
T R 1:30-3:18 PM
#08896-6
This course is an introduction to the empirical analysis of spoken language, with a focus on ordinary, everyday conversation. This course will not help you to become a better public speaker. Instead, you will learn about the mechanics of conversation: how do we start and end conversations, accomplish turntaking on AIM, show politeness or interest, create identities for ourselves and others through our talk? With a focus on face-to-face interaction, we'll examine how speakers utilize social context in talk and exploit language in order to achieve social and political effects in everyday settings. Topics covered include turn-taking and interruption, politeness, discourse markers such as 'like' and 'y'know', cross-cultural communication, and language and power.
Required texts: Deborah Cameron, Working with Spoken Discourse; reading packet.
Requirements: Recording and transcribing conversations; 2 short papers; midterm; final group project.
Comparative Studies 677.03: Cultures of Waste and Recycling
Instructor: Dorothy Noyes
M W 3:30-5:18 PM
#21499-8
This course explores the notion of the residual: what is leftover, useless, unclassifiable. Starting off from Agnès Varda's film The Gleaners and I (2000), we will explore the customary management of communal resources, both human and material. We'll examine the creation of waste (and its converse, deprivation) with the codification of custom in modernity, and look at strategies by which waste is recuperated as a matter of necessity, aesthetics, or ideology. We'll look at how different kinds of leftovers move in and out of systems of value: for example, the labeling of things as "junk" or "antiques," people as "trash," or ideas as "folklore." Finally, we'll think about the status of residues in social and cultural theory. Readings will be eclectic, including classic selections from symbolic anthropology (Douglas, Leach, Lévi-Strauss, Thompson) and sociology (Weber, Veblen), folktales, the Book of Ruth, Benjamin Franklin, and ethnographic articles on stereotyping, outlaws and outsiders, collecting, folk art, and popular protest. Students will write a few short response papers and a research paper.
English 694: American Regional Cultures and Global Transition: Appalachia, Louisiana, and the Texas Border Country (Issues in the Contemporary World)
Instructor: Dorothy Noyes
T R 1:30-3:18 PM
#09002-9
This course fulfills the capstone GEC requirement by introducing you to the folklore of three American regions. Imagined as different from a supposed American norm, each region is both attractive to outsiders and stigmatized by them. In each region, a dynamic vernacular culture has emerged out of complex race and class relations. In each region, both government policy and economic forces have powerfully transformed local lifeways and the physical environment, and vernacular political expression has been subject to violent repression. Each region has also been strongly marked by in- and out-migration.
We'll look at historical change through the prism of celebrated folklore forms such as Louisiana Mardi Gras, Appalachian fairy tales, and the Tex-Mex corrido. We'll also explore the impact of recent events: Hurricane Katrina and the reconstruction of the Gulf Coast, mountaintop-removal mining in Kentucky, West Virginia, and Tennessee, and the proposed border fence across the US-Mexican border to halt undocumented migration.
Readings will be drawn from several disciplines. Students will write three short essay exams and a Web-based research paper.
Note: This course will satisfy the GEC capstone requirement as the equivalent of English 597. For clarification/confirmation, please contact Debra Lowry in the Department of English at lowry.40@osu.edu
English 770.03: Introduction to Graduate Study in Folklore 3: Ethnography of Communication
Instructor: Galey Modan
T R 5:30-7:18 PM
#09090-1
Ethnographic approaches to interaction and performance; the speech community; the communicative economy.
Comparative Studies 792W: Ethnography and Native Americans
Instructor: Daniel Reff
M 5:30-8:18 PM
#05859-1
The birth of American anthropology, including modern ethnography, is in many respects "the study of the American Indian." Throughout the twentieth century, and even today, Native America has been a focal point for ethnography, including post-colonial attempts to empower native peoples to tell their own "story." In this seminar we will examine the relationship between ethnography and Native Americans. Although the seminar will focus on prominent twentieth-century and more recent examples of ethnographic writing, we will begin by considering the antecedents of modern ethnography, including works of historical fiction such as Bandelier's The Delightmakers, and still earlier "proto-ethnographies" compiled by European explorers and Spanish missionaries. We will also engage the Native American response to the non-native and "scientific" presentation/construction of Indian identity.
Anthropology 810.21: Study Design & Data Analysis in Ethnographic Research
Instructor: Mark Moritz
R 2:30-5:18
# 01527-8
The focus of this course is research design and ethnographic methods. We cover a wide range of formal and informal methods of data collection and quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis. This course is highly recommended for all graduate students who are considering doing ethnographic research.
An earlier version of the syllabus is available online.
English 870: The Folk: Theories of High and Low Culture
Instructor: Amy Shuman
M W 9:30-11:18 AM
#09097-0
The concept of the folk is an invention of modernity and nationalism. The classification as "folk" can be used negatively, to exoticize others, to demean particular practices, or positively, to reclaim identity, or as a strategy of empowerment, among other alternatives. This course explores many of the modern binary oppositions that rely on or include the concept of folk, such as belief/superstition, high/low, oral/literary, modern/traditional. In addition to these academic classifications, we will observe how groups use the category of folk in their understandings of themselves, whether in terms of heritage culture, ethnic customs, or subcultures. Readings will include academic discussions of issues, popular ethnographies in which groups represent themselves, and representations used in museums, festivals or other public events. No prior familiarity with folklore is necessary. Requirements: oral presentation on one of the readings; written responses to readings; term paper.
