Just in case you need a dose of Kenny Loggins and the World to liven up your weekend:

Thanks for your contributions to class today, everyone. And thank you, Ainsley, for being the class Word jockey and annotating Alcoff’s article. I especially enjoyed tracing the discursive functions of “putting words into the mouths of others” — in whole and in part — through conceptions of intersectionality (e.g., of gender, race, sexuality, and ethnicity), responsibility, authorship, expertise, epistemology, context, history, and — perhaps my favorite, per Aitza’s comment — the “uninvited imposition.”

Of course, we may not have solved any great dilemmas today. So be it. We’ll just let Pluto be Pluto.

But, honestly, here are some questions to consider for the balance of the quarter — questions that particularly map Alcoff onto the course material:

• How does “immersion” or “first-hand experience” generate different forms of knowledge-making than “critical distance” or similar forms of “objective,” academic knowledge? In short, how is expertise defined, when it is defined?
• How is voice-over narration a form of a narrator speaking for a subject? Is a voice-over narrator who speaks with her subjects even possible, and, if so, how?
• How is “service” defined through speaking for others? How is it defined through speaking with them?
• In future writing, how will we write about and for Boys and Girls Clubs? Or write with them? How is “responsibility” and “authorship” understood in these contexts?
• How do we work through the problems of speaking for others when we collaborate?
• Finally, how do we compose media with others? About others? For others? How do differences between the these three emerge?

With these questions in mind, let’s move toward next week, your 1.4, and your first conference. For next week:

• Please note that we DO NOT have class on Tuesday, February 5th.
• Although we do not have class on Tuesday the 5th, before Tuesday’s end, Response Paper 1.4 — which is crucial for your first conference — is due in the course drop box.
• Blog #4: Conference Thought Piece is due on Thursday the 7th. It is required for your first conference. Aside from a skeleton for your first major paper, it also asks you to comment on two of your peers’ entries.
• For Thursday’s class, please be prepared to return to the “Speak Again Twice” workshop that we began today. Today, you began with three questions that would help you speak for/about your peer’s “stance” on a social issue. On Thursday, you’ll begin generating questions that help you speak with your peer on that issue. We will then explore the knowledge that emerges from “about/for” and “with.”
• Finally, for your first conference, aside from your Blog #4: Conference Thought Piece, I suggest — but do not require — that you revise at least one of your response papers from the first sequence. That way, you will have the opportunity during the first conference to ask me about revision and preparing your final e-portfolio. Cool?

Be in touch with questions, people, and enjoy your weekend. Of note, next weekend will be a weekend off from 121. So keep that break in your horizon.

I’ll have your Response Papers 1.3 to you soon. In the meantime, thanks for being rad.

Yours,

Jentery