[blank] Studies

[Ensign Steve]

I mentioned in the Lounge that I'm taking GLBT Studies in the fall. Although the topic is relevant to my interests, it is totally out of my comfort zone for the following reason. I am a math and science person, and I have never taken a [something] Studies class, be it women or African American or whatever. I don't even know what you call that. Minority Studies? What discipline is it under? Is it like humanities or anthropology or something? In my university, it's in the Women's Studies department, which sounds like a paper topic in and of itself.

So in an effort to talk myself down from the ledge and prepare myself for this new and different thing (upon which my GPA hinges, but no pressure), I ask my studious pals at :ff: this series of questions:

- All the questions I already asked in the first paragraph.
- Have you ever taken a [whatever] Studies class before? How was it?
- What's the format? Are we talking mostly lecture, socratic, other?
- Is there a lot of reading? Writing? Speaking? Watching films? other?
- Are there tests, projects, presentations?
- What does the grade come from? Tests and written stuff, participation, other?
- Is my inherent pro-gay bias enough to land me an easy A, or am I still going to have to do a bunch of work?

:biter:

[ChuckF]

- Have you ever taken a [whatever] Studies class before? How was it?
Yes! I got a BA and an MA in [whatever] Studies.
- What's the format? Are we talking mostly lecture, socratic, other?
Mostly lecture. Seminar at upper levels.
Is there a lot of reading? Writing? Speaking? Watching films? other?
Lots of reading and writing.
- Are there tests?
Not so much in my experience. A few final exams at undergraduate level, but they didn't count for much.
- What does the grade come from? Tests and written stuff, participation, other?
All three, usually mostly papers with some from final exam and participation.
- Is my inherent pro-gay bias enough to land me an easy A, or am I still going to have to do a bunch of work?
The inherent bullshit nature of all [whatever] studies will earn you an easy A. (I guess I had an easy A because I was actually really intensely interested in my field. Still useless bullshit, but very interesting useless bullshit.)

[livius drusus]

I've taken Women's Studies, African American Studies and GLBT Studies classes, but since I went to a small libarts college, they didn't each have their own department. All of the [blank] Studies were an interdisciplinary melange. You could get a concentration in them, iirc, but your major would be in an umbrella department. They have a Women and Gender Studies major now, but I don't remember them having one when I was there. The women and the black classes I took were in the English and French departments, the GLBT in History.

I loved them all. They were big revelation classes for me, and they've stayed with me all these years. The format of all them was discussion -- again, this was a college with 2000 students, so almost all the classes were small groups shooting the shit -- and there was a lot of reading and writing (mostly reading), and a lot of talking, obviously.

There were tests but they were all essay tests. The grade came from papers, exams and class participation. Your inherent pro-gay bias will doubtless give you a boost when it comes to talking in class, but you're probably going to have to write and read to get an A. I dunno, though. Universities are different from my school experience. They tend to have bigger classes, lots of TAs, multiple choice tests, and generally more places to hide.

[Ymir's blood]

:blank: :larrow: Pay close attention to this guy and you should be fine.

[SharonDee]

Okay, so who's going to start the obligatory [thanks] Studies thread?

[Qingdai]

Not I.

I was going to say that [studies] are usually taught by a professor with a specialization in one or another [studies] field, such as anthropology (cultural), English literature, sociology, history, philosophy or (if you're lucky) a class on the ethics of science taught by a geneticist who got tired of dissecting baby chicks. If you find out the department of the professor teaching the class, you'll probably get a feel for the direction the class may take.

Just paying attention to the culture you live in will probably give you a boost. You'd be surprised how insular most people's thoughts are, or not. See the thread where everyone comments on what you're eating, now pretend they're all commenting on your choice of partner.

[lisarea]

Just paying attention to the culture you live in will probably give you a boost. You'd be surprised how insular most people's thoughts are, or not. See the thread where everyone comments on what you're eating, now pretend they're all commenting on your choice of partner.

And on that note, it might be difficult if you interpret every criticism of your culture as a personal insult and get defensive about it.

[Ensign Steve]

Was I being defensive? I thought we were having a spirited debate.

[lisarea]

No, I did too, until the passive aggressive characterization of that as "the thread where everyone comments on what you're eating" and the analogy to bigotry.

And I'm not lying, either, about people taking personal offense to cultural criticisms. I only took one sociologyish course in college because I CLEPed out of most of the core requirements, and it was just a very gentle introduction course for math and science majors, mostly, but people walked out of that, and the class was regularly disrupted with defensive apologetics.

Even in other courses. People walked out of intro linguistics classes, and one woman had a fit in a literature course because she was wearing a green shirt the day the professor mentioned in passing that the color green symbolized fertility.

So some people really do have a hard time learning because they are too attached to their extant cultural perspectives.

[livius drusus]

I thought Q was was analogizing the way people comment on what you're eating as described in the thread, not as practiced in the thread, to how people comment on who you're fucking.

eta which, if I'm right, would make pea the one who took a cultural criticism as an insult and thus I just ironyburned the shit out of her.

[lisarea]

Oh, man. That would be awesome!

:crossfingers:

[livius drusus]

I know, right? I'm already preparing several devastating victory burns once Q confirms. I'ma be all "who's wearing the green shirt now, WHORE?"! :yahoo:

[lisarea]

Please also say a part about having two thumbs, so I can do that snazzy "THIS GUY" thing.

[Ymir's blood]

Why can I never start quality flamewars through my comments? Am I trying too hard? :think:

[Demimonde]

I can't either, Ymir, try as I might.

I am taking a Gender & Queer Theory class over the summer. Is this for the summer or fall? Because we can totally be like study budies and swap articles, books, sources and friendship bracelets and stuff. :eager:

Also, it makes sense to me that LGBT studies would be in Woman's Studies department. In Lit Crit anyway, Queer Theory totally developed out of Feminist Theory and had many of the same critics working on both. Same with the African-American+Feminist=Womanist thing. It sounds like your class will be more of a socio-political cultural grab bag rather than theory. At my school anyway they are referred to as Diversity Studies. Though who teaches it has more to do with the department more so than the subject. It can be under Philosophy or History or English or any number of the lib arts umbrella.

[Goliath]

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/impostor.png

[Demimonde]

Yeah, I know and post graduation I will be living under a bridge working at Barnes & Noble until I am eaten by my army of feral cats.

One must have goals.

[Qingdai]

What? Heh? I wasn't clear?

OK. It was as described, not so much the conversation in the thread.

Flame on!

[livius drusus]

WHO'S GOT TWO THUMBS AND IS WEARING THE GREEN SHIRT NOW, WHORE?!

[Qingdai]

Me?

[lisarea]

NO! It's ME! :sisfight:

I mean, THIS GUY! :thumbsup:

[Clutch Munny]

What Drusus said.

Uh, not the whore thing. The interdisciplinary thing. Unless it's a good-sized Antarctic Studies Dept, chances are good you will be taught Antarctic Studies by profs in other departments, so the methods will be those of the other disciplines: read stuff, discuss stuff, write stuff.

[livius drusus]

Oh please. Also the whore thing. Don't front.

[Ymir's blood]

So if livius was teaching this, she'd hand out printouts with links and a short bit of commentary on the subject? :chin:

[Clutch Munny]

Oh please. Also the whore thing. Don't front.

Is this our flamewar? Because, like, burn thing!

[livius drusus]

Yes, that is correct. I am going to engage in a vehement flamewar with you but only to secretly enrage Ymir's blood who is trying his damndest to get me to flame him. It will be glorious.

[Ymir's blood]

I am not trying to get you to flame me. I am reminding people about your blog. (http://www.thehistoryblog.com/)

[Watser?]

Hey! Middle Eastern Studies! :glare:

The fun part was where we were defining the Middle East.

I'm still not sure what's in or out. Iran is a maybe. Afghanistan is not in, don't let them tell you otherwise.

[Clutch Munny]

Whoa, Drusus, YB totally blogburned you. Ha! While you were talking about flaming, he flamed you to a crisp.

Watser?, what about Turkey? Crispy, flame-crisped Turkey?

[Demimonde]

Crispy flame-crisped Turkey
:homdrool:

[erimir]

Even in other courses. People walked out of intro linguistics classes,lol I'm guessing because the professor challenged the notion that black people talk like idiots and that double negatives and singular-they are illogical?

Also yeah, I took several women's studies classes.

One was a literature class, one was a philosophy class, one was a sociology class, and the other two were specifically women's studies, which basically meant an interdisciplinary blend of history, sociology and philosophy (heavier on the history in the 101 class, heavier on the philosophy in the intro to feminist thought class).

They all involved reading essays or books and writing about them, and discussion.

[Ensign Steve]

printouts with links

That would be quite a feat! Not that I haven't seen teachers try it.

Thanks to everyone for your insight! I'm totally excited to learn on the topic, but as always I'm ascared to be out of my comfort zone. It's a 4000-level class (senior year type thing) but like, you know, whatever!

[mickthinks]

Like ES, I am mathsy/sciency, but one of the learning experiences I most value was a step away from that background and into a sociology course. It was a revelation largely because it was far away from my then stock-in-trade.

I would hazard a guess that a pro-gay bias will not remove the need to do some serious work, but it will make the work engaging and you'll have no problems with motivation.

[Ensign Steve]

I am taking a Gender & Queer Theory class over the summer. Is this for the summer or fall? Because we can totally be like study budies and swap articles, books, sources and friendship bracelets and stuff. :eager:


Mine is in fall, so can I just have all your papers and stuff when you're done? :muahaha:

I'll still exchange friendship bracelets if you want, though.

[Adam]

Yeah, I know and post graduation I will be living under a bridge working at Barnes & Noble until I am eaten by my army of feral cats.

One must have goals.

:lol: Silly Demi. Barnes & Noble will be out of business by then! On the plus side, you can live in one of their abandoned stores instead of under that bridge.

[Demimonde]

Yay! Bracelets!

Oh and Adem just so long as the troops and General Fluffybottom can come that's cool.

[Nullifidian]

I am taking a Gender & Queer Theory class over the summer. Is this for the summer or fall? Because we can totally be like study budies and swap articles, books, sources and friendship bracelets and stuff. :eager:

You should still talk about your class here at :ff: anyway.

I remember livius talking enthusiastically about Foucault's The History of Sexuality, though I can't remember the context, and I'd also be interested in discussing anything you happened to be reading. :yup:

[Ensign Steve]

- Is my inherent pro-gay bias enough to land me an easy A, or am I still going to have to do a bunch of work?
The inherent bullshit nature of all [whatever] studies will earn you an easy A.

AND HOW! :happy:

Take home "midterm" due today. I had a week to do it, I banged it out in a hour this morning. I'm reading over it (for typoes or whateves) and all I can think is "I can't believe I get college credit for this". Seriously, it's like getting credit for my forum posts here. My forum posts. laaaaaaaaaaaaawl!

[Qingdai]

Only with less or more emoticons?

[Kael]

If I had any money right now, I would seriously pay you to submit it with :ff: format smiley text in it...

[Doctor X]

I have always regretted that I did not have the time to audit the course titled "Barbarian Law." :cry:

--J.D.