Teaching Team

Everett Harper, Dr. Joanne Hershfield, Dr. Steve May

Curriculum

UNC's -ISM (N.) course was offered through the Communication Studies department and was titled, "Cultural Diversity and Media Production".

The course explored the contested terrain of cultural theory and practice in terms of power, knowledge and identity. More specifically, it examined the cultural differences among/between "self" and "other" as they relate to questions of race, gender, class, ethnicity, and sexuality. More and more frequently, "difference" has become the site of significant social, political and economic struggles as persons attempt to produce a meaningful sense of identity in a diverse culture.

The course addressed how cultural theories enable us to critically engage and problematize categories of difference. The course also focused on the ways that these differences are constituted in and through our day-to-day lives, particularly our communicative practices. As such, the class not only addressed complex theoretical arguments, but also considered the ways those theories have been--and may be used--in cultural practice. The goal of the course, then, was for students to reflexively reconsider the various ways that we reproduce ourselves and others and the effects these actions have upon our present and future.

The integration of theory, video production and group facilitation are crucial to an intellectual, aesthetic and personal understanding of questions of diversity. Although the class focused on one of the three components during a particular class period, students explore the interdependent relationship between all of them.

Students in the course met with students from North Carolina Central University, who also participated in the -ISM (N.) project, for an opportunity to exchange ideas and examine the similarities and differences between the two universities.

Community Educational Activity

Currently, UNC does not have plans for a CEA.

Resources Used In Course

Anzaldua, Gloria. (1987). Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. San Francisco: Spinsters/Aunt Lute. (UNC)

Berger, John. (1977). Ways of Seeing. New York: Penguin Books. (UNC)

Ferguson, Russell; Gever, Martha; Minh-ha, Trinh T.; and West, Cornel. (1990). Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (UNC)

West, Cornel. (1993). Race Matters. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. (UNC)

Allen, Paula Gunn. "Who is Your Mother: Red Roots of White Feminism", Graywolf Annual Five: Multicultural Literacy. Eds. Rick Simonson and Scott Walker. Saint Paul, MN: Graywolf Press, 1988. (UNC)

Appiah, Kwame Anthony. "Racisms", Anatomy of Racism. Ed. David Theo Goldberg. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1990. (UNC)

Clifford, James. "On Collecting Art and Culture", Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures. New York: New Museum of Contemporary Art, MIT Press, 1990. (UNC)

de Beauvoir, Simone. "Women as Other", Second Sex. trans. H.M. Parshley. New York: Vintage Books, 1989. (UNC)

Gates, Jr., Henry Louis. "Race as the Trope of the World", "Race", Writing and Difference. Ed. Henry Louis Gates. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986. (UNC)

hooks, bell "Representions of Whiteness", Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press, 1992. (UNC) (SWT)

hooks, bell "Talking Back", Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black. Boston: South End Press, 1989. (UNC)

Lorde, Audre. "The Master's Tools will Never Dismantle the Master's House", Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. New York: The Crossing Press, 1984. (SWT) (UNC)

Lutz, Catherine. "The Photograph as an Intersection of Gazes", Reading National Geographic. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993. (UNC)

Marx, Karl. "Labour-Power and Capital", The Marx-Engels Reader (Second Edition). Ed. Robert C. Tucker. New York:Norton, 1978. (UNC)

Marx, Karl and Engels. "Class Struggle", The Marx-Engels Reader (Second Edition). Ed. Robert C. Tucker. New York:Norton, 1978. (UNC)

Mercer, Kobema. "Black Hair/Style Politics", Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures. New York: New Museum of Contemporary Art, MIT Press, 1990. (UNC)

Minh-ha, Trinh. "Cotton and Iron", Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures. New York: New Museum of Contemporary Art, MIT Press, 1990. (UNC)

Morrison, Toni. "The Site of Memory", Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures. New York: New Museum of Contemporary Art, MIT Press, 1990. (UNC)

Rodriguez, Richard, "Complexion", Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures. New York: New Museum of Contemporary Art, MIT Press, 1990. (UNC)

Weeks, Jeffrey "Sexual Identification is a Strange Thing", The Cultural Construction of Sexuality. Ed. Pat Caplan. New York: Tavistock Publications, 1987. (UNC)

West, Cornel. "The New Cultural Politics of Difference", Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures. New York: New Museum of Contemporary Art, MIT Press, 1990. (UNC)

Wittig, Monique. "The Straight Mind", Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures. New York: New Museum of Contemporary Art, MIT Press, 1990. (UNC)

Riggs, Marlon. (1995). Black Is/Black Ain't: A Personal Journey through Black Identity. San Francisco, CA: California Newsreel. (Pitzer) (UNC)

Student Video Topics

homosexuality on campus ... female body image ... comparison of white and black Greek organizations ... first experiences with difference and the "other" ... media stereotypes of black males ... self-segregation ... regional identity ... the importance of diversity ... rejection of parents' and community values ...