topic reconsidered

Like my students, I've been tweaking my own inquiry thesis. I had started with an interest in stigmata and "worn" religion. After a few of my students picked up self harm and suicide questions, I started thinking that wearing religion doesn't need to be so "seen." Like my students, I got a little "cloudy" and struggled to say what I wanted to say. I found myself writing around ideas instead of into ideas.

I moved into an interest in doppelganger in mythology and started seeing that this was an extension of my interest in "self as other." Again, it doesn't have to be outside of the self or seen, I wanted this to be more about interiority. I was looking at and discussing, at the same time, Atwoods' Edible Woman. I haven't read the book yet, but I am basing my idea around the concept of a woman's body being consumed.

I am studying the social conditioning of the kitchen and its permeation in American dialogue regarding women's bodies. I will be looking at my own experiences to position the observations of women in the kitchen, women as "food objects." Then, I will ask other people for experiences and descriptions of women being described as "tasty" or food equivalents. I will look for literary examples and study the psychology of kitchens and the social norms of kitchen culture. I am hoping to get into the physiology of taste and consider why taste is equated with sexuality as a larger, more reaching question.

speed of the class

I've noticed that all of us have mentioned the speed of the class. As you both know, I am fast paced. This semester, I have totally gotten off the syllabus in an effort to let them manage their own paces. I can't pretend that I'm not upset about this because my research and readings were awesome and, to me, the class feels "dull." However, all the students have mentioned really enjoying this pace because it is letting them practice mental revision of their topics and small tweaks that, to them, make all the difference and seem to make them almost giddy.

I am wondering, when we are writing the paper, how will we keep this desire and joy with revision. It seems like "the topic" gets so much revision, but the attention to discussion of the topic doesn't maintain the same levity when they are revising writing.

I have started using language to emphasis immersion within the subject and the pace of immersion. I've noticed that this language (water metaphors about dipping toes, drowning, etc. and words like languish and luxury--deep l and vowel sounds) seem to be pushing them into the research and the pleasure of sitting with something. "Egypt" really helped. Really helped. They saw that Butor doesn't even begin discussing his topic until page 4 because he is so busy developing pathos and relating and positioning himself to and with the subject.

To work at their pace, I have considered revisiting my thesis and, like the majority of them, changing it. I want to see how this need for change and constant perfection will impact my own study and develop more empathy between their position as learners.

I'll let you know, later today, what my new topic is.

Topics and the Research Begins

Here are the topics that my students will research this semester:

Maya: Buddhism (she will be narrowing this down once she begins her research)

Matthew: Religion and Sex Laws, particularly age of sexual consent

Darnell: Church and the Economy (looking at what money people give to churches)

Drew: Jewish Traditions/Ceremonies (he will narrow down as he researches)

Mike: Why do people lose their faith?

Rachel: Color and Religion, particularly red and white (she will narrow down to see how these two colors are used in a few religions)

Wilson: "What Goes Around Comes Around:" How this phrase is observed in various religions

Sarah: Death Masks: Artistic and Religious Purposes in select religions/cultures

Cory: Interpretations of "Messiah"

Jennifer: Who has the right to pass judgment?

Alex: What are the responsibilities of the Creator/Parent? He will look at Buddhism in particular

Elle: Neuroscience, Brain and Faith

Fran: Gay Marriage and Proposition 8

Greg: Commercialism of Holidays (he has not yet narrowed it down to a holiday, possibly St. Patrick's Day)

Matthew 2: Scientology (he has not yet narrowed down but will when he begins research)

Qapre: Does truth affect faith?


I have reviewed and returned all their research proposals. Quite a few still had not narrowed down their topic enough for this paper (i.e. a whole religion vs. one practice/tradition). They will be going to the library today to begin their research. They will turn in a review of one source in two weeks, another the week after.

I have had mixed reactions from students about the Fact & Faith topics for this class. Many are excited to be starting with religion and a few are quite put of by it. However, I continue to reiterate to them that they do not need to do a religion for their research. Some, as you can see by the list above, have branched out. On the first day of class we made a list of possible Fact & Faith topics, and students could see how large this umbrella is.

Our showing and analysis of Contact proved to be as rewarding as it was last semester. Students were surprised by it (and not just by Matthew McConaughey) and the various messages throughout. I also have seen students reference this film in their Oasis postings and their research proposals.

Due to the speed of the class, we have not had much time to discuss our readings in class. However, their Oasis postings on the readings and their responses to each other have been excellent. I'm much more impressed with their engagement with each other's ideas than I have been in past semesters.

catching up to my own syllabus

Jeff: Are documentary films capable of objectivity?
Yusef: He has missed several classes and has no proposal at this point.
Tanya: How is birth control addressed by religion (specifically Catholic traditions), the law, and science? Is there any place where these three meet?
Jen: How does a person's personality limit or assist progress?
Allison: When does a body become "cuttable"? (her own term)
Betsy: What are the ethics and considerations of self harm?
Mary: How does silence acquire its own discourse?
Nick: What is the cult of personality and how does it relate to celebrity worship and, possibly, celebrity martyrdom?
Steve: Is religious music more or less "marketable"?
Ally: What are the values of homeopathic medicine? Why do we "trust" medicine?
Jake: Does chaos beget order?
Mike: What is the origin of the "virgin cure" and how does it fit into models of human reasoning?
Brittney Porter: What are practices of mourning and how do mourning practices reveal a culture's consideration of the afterlife?
Lily: Is Milwaukee fundamentally racist?
Brittany Tyus: Is questioning religion necessary to religion? (considering that questioning religion is "modeled" by religious leaders and stories)
Theodore: What does C.S. Lewis' trilemma tell the contemporary Christian thinker?
Meghan: How does fashion uphold religious thought?

We are working towards making these inquiry questions "statements."

So far, we have read Li Tsung-Yuan's "Is there a God" to address that a question need not be answered. We have modeled lists from "The List of Ziusudra" and "The Pillowbook" to see that language can generate thinking, admit biases, and offer a new way of saying what seemed unsayable.

We have worked in small groups with "diary entries" (drafts of the proposal) to see where personal connections could be made (we used Mary Shelley's diaries as models) and we have peer edited proposals so that students who were in class that day received a letter from a peer looking at peer connections and suggestions for development.

We have looked at Piss Christ to discuss the fact and faith of art and how we can see "art" as similar to "religion" since they are both caught up in symbolism, schools of thoughts, and other parallels. We also deconstructed flood myths to see cultures that shared the same belief, how things change overtime to accommodate time, culture, and needs. They've had the extra credit option of reformatting their own myths.

We are now off the syllabus quite a bit. We are still discussing Michel Butor's "Egypt" today to discuss how writing can appeal to pathos and how to keep "observations" and a priori and a posteriori knowledge. We will, this week, read Anne Carson's "Mythoplokos" and they will do an experiment with definitions based on the model so they can start to see how caught up language is in the process of inquiry.

Today, they are discussing "Egypt," receiving Clarification 1 (and a model from last semester), and refining thesis statements. We are going backwards a bit to re-address GOALS and MOVEMENT of the course (also to address being off the syllabus). Clarification 1 is due 3/1.

Wednesday, they will receive Carson's "Mythoplokos" and the assignment corresponding to it and we will go over how to use the OED (hysteria will be the example of a word whose meaning matters and questions "fact and faith"), and how to reserve library books through interlibrary loan. I imagine we will need some time to discuss surveys and work they are doing to get other people's opinions regarding inquiry subjects.

Kate Dougherty: my students' inquiries

Shalynn: Should the fight for gay rights be compared to African Americans' fight for civil rights?

Coop: Why are light-skinned blacks treated better than dark-skinned blacks?

Bobby: Why did the human species evolve to have emotions?

Anna: Are the media to blame when it comes to violence, or are people just weak-minded and easily influenced?

Alyssa: Why do some teenagers believe in cutting?

Serenity: Does your life control you, or do you control your life?

Vanessa: Is depression really an illness? If so, how do we know, and if not, why is that? Looking onward, why do anti-depressants not have a middle ground? Are they really considered a quick fix? Why are people for and against them?

Jazz: Why do we believe what we believe?

Victor: How can we question religion without being stigmatized?

La'Quan: Why is the hardest part of life making a decision? (How do we make decisions? What makes some decisions easier than others?)

Xochitl: Why do we believe in justice?

My students completed the same brainstorming assignment twice. With this assignment they list questions, select one or two, and explore what they already know or suspect about this question, who they could interview about the question, what questions they would ask, and what sources might provide insight into this question.

The first version was due at the beginning of Week 2. Professor and Critical Encounters Fellow Eric Scholl visited our class that day. They wrote their questions on the board. They were concerned that their questions didn't fall under the umbrella of Fact & Faith, but Professor Scholl discussed the questions with them and encouraged the students to pursue their questions with Fact & Faith in mind.

They read "The Falling Man" by Tom Junod (Esquire) and completed the same brainstorming assignment from Junod's point of view -- the process he'd undergone before and while writing this essay. (This is also an example of an essay that begins with a clear question that isn't perfectly answered at the end of the piece. "Who is the falling man? Well, turns out, he might be this guy.")

Then they completed the brainstorming assignment a second time, due at the beginning of Week 3.

They discussed both brainstorming assignments in small groups and wrote response letters to a classmate's assignments, responding to the 2-4 questions their classmate had written about thus far.

They've also read texts that have to do with my sample question, Why do we believe in race?: "Relations" by Eula Biss (from Notes from No Man's Land), the prologue to I'm Down by Mishna Wolff, and "Why Genes Don't Count (for Racial Differences in Health)" by Alan H. Goodman, PhD ( American Journal of Public Health). They've written in response to these texts, compared how they approach the question from different points of view, discussed where they fall on the spectrum from popular to scholarly, and how one might use these texts as sources in an essay that responds to this question. (more or less)

At this point, the beginning of Week 5, they've pretty well settled on the question I've typed above with their names, though some are working on how to phrase, narrow, or broaden their questions.

We've visited the library (information session with April Levy), and they are beginning their research logs and writing to understand and make plans for how to use their sources.