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UNIT ONE    PERFORMANCE IN AMERICA

Week 1: August 28-30   |   What is Performance?

 

Readings:

  •  Syllabus

  •  Schechner, Richard. “What is Performance?”

 

Wed     Class Introduction.

Fri       Lecture: What is Performance?

 

This week:

1.0  bCourse Module: Introduction Due on Thursday

 

 

 

Week 2:  Sept 2-6   |   What is America?

 Readings:

  • Taylor, Diana. “Remapping Genre through Performance:
     From ‘American’ to ‘Hemispheric’ Studies.

  • Scolieri, Paul. “On the Areíto,” in Dancing the New World.

 

Mon    No class.

Wed    Lecture: America, América. Contested Lands.

Fri        Lecture: Whose America?

 

 

Recommended Readings:

  • Colón, Cristóbal.  (trans.) “Letter of Christopher Columbus on his first voyage to America 1492.”

  • Martí, José. Nuestra América.

 

Look Ahead for next week: 

1.1  bCourse Module: Stuart Hall Video + Questions Due on Monday

 

 

 

Week 3: Sept 9-13   |   Cultural Practice

 

Readings:

  • Hall, Stuart. “What is Representation?”

  • Hodge, Chinaka. Chasing Mehserle.

 

Mon    Lecture: Do you Think that is Air that you are Breathing? 

Wed    Lecture: Mapping Place and Belonging in Chinaka Hodge’s Chasing Mehserle.

Fri       Quiz/Performance Friday

 

 

 

UNIT TWO    RACE IN AMERICA

 

Week 4: Sept 16-20   |   Racial Formation

 

Readings:

  • Omi, Michael and Howard Winant. “Racial Formation.”

 

Mon     Lecture: Introduction to Race in America.

Wed     Lecture: What is the Relationship between Race and Class?

Fri         Walk Out for Climate Change

 

Look Ahead for next week: 

2.0  bCourse Module: Video (Race: The Power of Illusion, Episode II) + Questions Due on Monday

 

 

 

 

Week 5: Sept 23-27   |   Migration and the American Frontier

 

Readings:

  • Acuña, Rodolfo Occupied America, Chapter 6.

  • Fairbanks, Corine. “Burn Down the Mission.”

  • Huerta, Jorge. Chapter One, “Mythos or Mitos,” Chicano Drama.

  • Zinn, Howard. “We Take Nothing by Conquest, Thank God.”

 

Mon     Lecture: From Sea to Shining Sea.

Wed    Lecture: North American Borderlands

Fri        Performance Friday.

 

Recommended Readings:

  • Clarke, Dan E. “Manifest Destiny and the Pacific.”

  • Gonzales, Rodolfo “Corky.” Poem: I am Joaquín.

 

Look Ahead for next week:

2.1  bCourse Module: Video (Race: The Power of Illusion, Episode III) + Questions Due on Monday

 

 

 

 

Week 6: Sept 30-Oct 4   |   Whiteness in/as America

 

Required Reading:

  • Baldwin, James. “On Being White…and Other Lies.”

  • Dyer, Richard. “Introduction” to White.

  • Huntington, Samuel. “The Hispanic Challenge.”

  • Zangwill, Israel. The Melting Pot.

 

Mon     Lecture: What is Whiteness in America?

Wed    Lecture: Assimilation and Pluralism: Beyond the Melting Pot.

Fri        Performance Friday.

 

 

Look Ahead for next week:

2.2  bCourse Module: Redlining the American Dream + Questions Due on Tuesday

 

 

 

 

 

Week 7: Oct 7-11   |  What is Structural Racism?

 

Required Reading:

  • Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. “Rethinking Racism: Toward a Structural Interpretation.”

  • Deavere Smith, Anna. Twilight, Los Angeles 1992.

 

Mon     Lecture: Rethinking Racism in the Post-War: What is a Structural Interpretation?

Wed    Lecture: Redlining the American Dream.

Fri        Lecture: Twilight from the City of Angels.

 

 

Recommended Readings:

  • Davis, Mike. “Fortress LA” from City of Quartz.

  • Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. excerpts.

 

Midterm Exam  | Due Back in Lecture on Wednesday, October 16.

 

 

Required Viewing: Thurs-Sun Oct 17th-20th, Who Shot Miguelito? at Zellerbach Playhouse, Dir. Sean San José. Ticket information will be provided. See tdps.berkeley.edu.

 

 

 

Week 8: Oct 14-18   |  MIDTERM

 

Mon     No class. Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Wed    Midterm Exam Due/Discussion.

Fri        Final Project Training Session. Bring Laptop.

 

Look Ahead for next week:

3.0  bCourse Module: Site Set-up Due on Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

UNIT THREE      CONTESTED AMERICAS

 

 

Viewing (at Zellerbach Playhouse Oct 17-20):

  • San José, Sean. Who Shot Miguelito?

 

Week 9:  Oct 21-25  |   Who Shot La Miguelito?

 

Mon    Lecture: Critical Race Theory in Who Shot La Miguelito?

Wed   Class Visit: Director Sean San José with Cast and Crew of Who Shot La Miguelito?

Fri       Workshop: Developing Questions and Methods.

 

Look Ahead for next week:

3.1  bCourse Module: Questions and Methods Due on Monday

 

 

 

 

Week 10:  Oct 28-Nov 1  |   Angels in America

 

Reading:

  • Kushner, Tony. Angels in America. Part One: Millennium Approaches.

 

Mon    Lecture: Angels in America: Race and Queerness as the Millennium Approaches.

Wed    Lecture: Angels in America: Scenes of Redemption, Utopianism and Disintegration.

Fri        Workshop: Drafting Ideas from Evidence in Performance.

 

Look Ahead for next week:

3.2. bCourse Module: Performance Description + Gallery Due on Monday

 

 

 

 

Week 11: Nov 4-8 |  Mother Road

 

Reading:

  • Solis, Octavio. Mother Road.

 

Mon    Lecture: From Steinbeck to Solis: Found Families Healing Places

Wed   Lecture: “A southwest wind blow on ye.”

Fri       Workshop: Curating the Visual Essay.

 

Look Ahead for next week:

3.3  bCourse Module: Website Draft is Due on Wednesday

 

 

 

 

 

UNIT FOUR       PROCESS

 

 

Week 12:  Nov 11-15   |   America-América

 

Mon:    No class

Wed:   Lecture: América: Possibilities and Polemics.

Fri:       Lecture/Discussion: New Imagination. Dawn.

 

Look Ahead for next week:

3.4  bCourse Module: Abstract + Cover is Due on Monday

 

 

 

 

Week 13:  Nov 18-22   |   Reflections

 

Mon:    Group Work/Peer Reviews

Wed:    Group Work/Peer Reviews

Fri:        Group Work/Peer Reviews

 

Look Ahead for next week:

3.5  bCourse Module: Process Reflection is Due on Monday

 

 

 

 

Week 14:  Nov 25-29   |   Final Projects

 

Mon     Student Presentations

Wed    Break

Fri        Break

 

 

 

 

Week 15: Dec 2-6   |   Final Projects

 

Mon     Student Presentations

Wed    Student Presentations

Fri        Student Performances

 

 

 

FINAL PROJECT DUE DECEMBER 16TH   |  DIGITAL ESSAY SITES

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