MALAS SPONSORS BURNING MAN DOCUMENTARY!!!! FREE SCREENING ON CAMPUS, NOVEMBER 9, 2018!

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MALAS! Your Favorite West Coast Cultural Studies MA Program is proud to co-sponsor a symposium on Human Rights Abuses & Central American Families on the U.S./Mexico Border

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MALAS! Proud Co-Sponsor of the IBERO-AMERICAN (y LATINX) Film/Cinema Extravaganza @SDSU

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Back Again! Spring 2019: MALAS 600D/RWS 730 RHETORIC OF GENDER with Professor Suzanne Bordelon

MALAS 600D/RWS 730

Seminar

RHETORIC OF GENDER

Professor Suzanne Bordelon
Section 1: M 3:30-6:10 pm

This graduate seminar explores the intersection of gender, rhetoric, and the body.  As Jack Selzer explains, in recent years scholars have noted the “rhetorical turn,” in both the liberal arts and the sciences.  Although this turn has made various fields more reflective about disciplinary practices, particularly in terms of language, “it has consequently deflected scholarly attention from material realities and toward the way those realities are represented in text” (4).  However, scholars, especially those in Rhetoric and Composition, have stressed that the material and the body matter: they contribute to rhetorical action and, thus, deserve our attention. 

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NEW MALAS CLASS! Spring 2019 MALAS-600C SEMINAR ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS with J. GRAUBART | 4pm to 6:40pm on Wednesdays in Nasitir Hall 131

One useful bit of information you have already learned or will learn soon is that there is no consensus view on what is regarded as proper “Political Science” or proper “International Relations,” though you will likely encounter certain academics convinced that their approach is the only acceptable one. Regrettably, there seems to be an unwritten consensus throughout much of the Political Science discipline that political ideas and historical development are of secondary concern. Focusing on the subfield of International Relations, the beginning Ph.D. student is confronted with a series of leading theoretical approaches within the discipline. These typically feature “Classical Realism,” “Structural Realism,” “Liberalism,” “Neoliberal Institutionalism,” “Constructivism,” and perhaps a few weeks at the end on “IR Feminism,” “Post-Structuralism,” “Post-Colonialism,” and some variant of “Marxism.” To be sure, all of these theoretical approaches have their uses, leaving it to individual discernment on which approach or approaches are most valuable. But the problem with immediately immersing oneself into a specialized academic discipline is that most students have not yet adequately reflected on international politics in general. Lacking sustained exposure to the evolution and nature of world politics and to the contentious struggles that have shaped the global order, one is hardly in position to form second-order disciplinary perspectives on how to study global politics. 

The aim of this course is to examine closely global politics. Although we will dabble in a few International Relations theories, our focus will be on important historical developments and broader normative ideas and struggles that have profoundly shaped modern global politics over the past two centuries. To be sure, this course will not, in itself, give you comprehensive expertise on the gamut of historical events, ideas, and struggles in global politics. But the course will acquaint you with several major themes and provide depth on a few pivotal themes, such as the rise and evolution of modern nationalism and the nation-state. You will then be much better equipped to engage theoretical approaches to International Relations and develop your own normative voice. Moreover, you will gain a more sophisticated perspective on what theoretical and empirical issues most interest.

The course is broken up into two sections. The first surveys a range of historically informed arguments on the nature of global politics. Collectively, they present a range of analytical and ideological views with each summoning extensive historical evidence to advance their arguments. The second section takes an in-depth look into the emergence of contemporary nationalism. We will use Hannah Arendt’s magisterial Origins of Totalitarianism to set up the big themes and historical developments. We then delve into the emergence of Zionism and Palestinian nationalism in the 20^th century. The idea is not to gain expertise on the contemporary dividing issues but to gain a historical and normative deep appreciation of the dynamics that have shaped both nationalisms and their contentious interaction over the years.

Here's a preliminary book list:

·       E.H. Carr, The Twenty Year’s Crisis, 1919-1939. Harper Perennial, 1964.

·       Michael Doyle, Liberal Peace: Selected Essays, First Ed., Routledge Press, 2011. 

     Hedley Bull, Anarchical Order: A Study of World Politics

·       Noam Chomsky, The Chomsky Reader (edited by James Peck). Pantheon, 1987.

·        Hannah Arendt, Origins of Totalitarianism. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1973.

·       Edward W. Said, The Question of Palestine. Vintage Books, 1992.

      Edward Said, Orientalism

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TOXIC MASCULINITY | Cool Spring Class From the Department of Philosophy | Professor S.A. Wawrytko | Phil 620

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A MALAS Co-Sponsored Event Featuring Adam Brookes and Jeffrey Wasserstrom | "Big Brother States in Fact and Fiction: Thoughts on China and Other Places"

Please join us for a special event sponsored by the Center for Asian & Pacific Studies, the School of Journalism and Media Studies, MALAS, and the Departments of History and Political Science.  At 4pm on Wednesday October 17th spy novelist and former BBC foreign correspondent Adam Brookes, and China Historian Jeffrey Wasserstrom from UC Irvine will give a joint talk titled "Big Brother States in Fact and Fiction: Thoughts on China and Other Places."  This presentation will take the form of a public conversation in which the speakers will focus on issues of surveillance and control in not just China, but also other parts of the world where elements of the future George Orwell conjured up in Nineteen Eighty-Four may be found. Please let your students know about this timely event.  You'll find the details below, and on the attached flyer.  

                            Thanks and best regards, 

                             Kate Edgerton-Tarpley 

                             Department of History 

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PUBLIC TALK:  4:00pm on Wednesday October 17th, in International Student Center 

"Big Brother States in Fact and Fiction: Thoughts on China and Other Places"

This presentation will take the form of a public conversation in which the speakers will focus on issues of surveillance and control in not just China but also other parts of the world where some commentators claim that elements of the dark future George Orwell conjured up in Nineteen Eighty-Four can be found.  How can concepts like that of the "Big Brother State" help or hinder efforts to make sense of the current era, when new technologies of communication have become so powerful in both efforts to challenge and efforts to assert authoritarian control?  Are there other dystopian visions that are equally or more useful for thinking about authoritarian states and authoritarian trends in democracy societies?  Do new technologies of surveillance make old genres, such as the Cold War era spy novel, obsolete or open new possibilities for their reinvention?  These are the kinds of questions that the speakers will pose to one another before opening the discussion to for questions from the audience.    

Adam Brookes studied Chinese at the University of London, then worked as a foreign correspondent for the BBC (based in Indonesia, China and the United States), before switching gears to write a trio of acclaimed novels of international intrigue: Night Heron, Spy Games, and The Spy's Daughter.  NPR selected his first book as its "must-read thriller of the year"; the Washington Post called it 'outstanding'; Kirkus Reviews said of his second that "a smarter or more exciting mystery likely won't be released this year"; while The Sun said of his third that it cemented his "reputation as a superb spy novelist" who draws comparisons to "espionage heavyweights including John le Carré."  

                                 

Jeffrey Wasserstrom spent much of the first part of his teaching career at Indiana University but is now Chancellor's Professor of History at UC Irvine, where he also serves as the Historical Writing Mentor for the Literary Journalism Program.  He is the author or co-author of five books, including most recently the third edition of China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford, 2018).  He edited the The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern China (Oxford, 2016), often writes for newspapers, magazines, and online publications, such as the Los Angeles Review of Books and its associated "China Channel," and has been interviewed by both NPR and the BBC.

New Class with MALAS and @SDSU: SPATIAL HUMANITIES | Professor Angel David Nieves | History 680 & MALAS 600A

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HIST 680 (cross-listed w/MALAS-600A)
Spatial Humanities 
Dr. Angel David Nieves  
Department of History AoE in Digital Humanities and Global Diversity 
San Diego State University (SDSU) 
M, 4:00-6:40pm, AL-566 

Description 

Spatial humanities relies upon powerful geospatial technologies and methods to explore new questions about the relationship of space (physical, imagined, manmade or otherwise) to human behavior. It represents a bridging across disciplines, with history, archaeology, literary studies, women’s studies, queer studies, ethnic studies, and cultural studies, to name a few. This seminar course introduces graduate students to the theory and methods of the spatial humanities, while examining the tools, theories, and methodologies of social justice. Engaging with spatial theory and learning technical methodologies students will learn to develop an understanding of the research questions and tools available in this new field of scholarly and applied inquiry while grappling with issues of social justice. Students will work throughout the semester in project-based learning grounded in spatial, intersectional, and critical race theories. 

Rationale 

Spatial humanities has transformed the work of researchers, enabling profound considerations of space in relationship to human behavior and culture across time and place. Art history, literature, history, philosophy, and religion – all notable fields from across the humanities – have benefited from scientific and quantitatively oriented technologies and tools to better understand the intersections between space and the human condition. It is particularly timely now to question space in relation to African & LatinX descended people’s ability to traverse and negotiate spaces in western societies. The history of Black and Brown bodies and American public and private space is particularly problematical as the presence of POC (People of Color) has been largely unwanted during long stretches of American history. Indeed, both geographical and social spatial differentiation in the United States and the larger western world has largely been predicated on racial difference, exclusion, segregation, and genocide. 

These questions will inform our work over the breadth of the course:

 • How do the spatial humanities and American/Ethnic Studies work together to posit and practice a different way of knowing and imagining the world?
 • How do racial identities impose a certain framework on our understanding of space?
 • How can the spatial humanities help us experience the lived realities of Black/Brown bodies?
 • How do maps/mapping technologies reflect and/or counter the realities and dynamism of Black & Brown life?
 • How can spatial technologies provide us with a way of understanding the forms of inhumanity attributed to or placed upon Black/Brown people? 

 Course Texts & Readings (only some listed below): 

1. Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad (Random House, 2016). 
2. Andrew Wiseman, “When Maps Lie,” City Lab. 
3. David J. Bodenhamer, “The Potential of Spatial Humanities.” 
4. Richard White, “What is Spatial History?” 
5. Tiffany Earley-Spadoni, "Spatial History, Deep Mapping and Digital Storytelling.” 
6. Dana McLeod, Jasmine Rault, and T.L. Cowan, “Speculative Praxis Towards a Queer Feminist Digital Archive.”

*Ingrid Hernández + Pieter Wisse, Nada Que Declarar, Tijuana 2016. Photo rights Ingrid Hernández and Pieter Wisse (see, https://openspace.sfmoma.org/2017/02/el-bordo-conversations-with-tijuanas-border-artists-in-the-trump-era/) 

Originally from New York City, Angel Nieves holds a PhD in the History of Architecture and Urban Studies from Cornell University (2001). He comes to SDSU from Hamilton College, where he was the director of American Studies and Cinema and Media Studies and co-director of the Digital Humanities Initiative. Nieves' scholarship focuses on the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and technology in the U.S. and South Africa. He is the author of two historical monographs, including "An Architecture of Education: African American Women Design the New South" (U Rochester, 2018), plus a range of cutting edge digital history publications and platforms. These include Soweto’76 3D, which developed a digital archive and virtual reality site depicting politically charged locations such as the Winnie Mandela home in Soweto. He is working on a range of exciting digital collaborations as well as a digital book project entitled, "Apartheid Heritages: A Spatial History of South Africa’s Township’s." Professor Nieves has received support for his work from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Mellon Foundation. Angel Nieves is also an award winning teacher and mentor. He teaches courses in digital history, urban history and the histories of race, gender, sexuality and space in the U.S. and the global South, including Apartheid-era South Africa. Professor Nieves joins us as one of two new faculty affiliated with the Digital Humanities Area of Excellence!

New Fall 2018 MALAS Class! WMNST 580/MALAS 600B Woman, Development, and the Global Economy with Dr. Doreen Mattingly

WMNST 580/MALAS 600B

Woman, Development, and the Global Economy

Dr. Doreen Mattingly

Wednesday 4:00-6:40, Adams Humanities 3110

                                                                              

Although women’s paid and unpaid labor is invisible in many theories and descriptions of politics, economics, and geography, women are, in fact, central actors in economic development and political change.  In this course we will examine the connection between women’s lives and economic change.  To do so, we will look at theory, descriptions, and the “real world.”  From the vantage point of women’s lives, we will also question what is meant by “economic development” and “globalization.”  We will analyze the effect of these processes on women’s lives, as well as the ways women have shaped and challenged national and international economic processes. 

 

Learning outcomes:

·      Demonstrate an understanding of conflicting ideas of development and globalization.

·      Explain how economic and legal structures affect women’s opportunities

·      Contrast the position of women in different countries

·      Articulate a way of looking at the world from the standpoint of diverse women internationally

·      Analyze feminist debates about development and empowerment

Dr. Doreen Mattingly is Professor and Chair of Women’s Studies. Since coming to SDSU in 1995, she has taught a total of sixteen different courses, including her popular classes on women and politics, women’s movements and activism, and globalization and development.  In 2016 she was the recipient of the College of Arts and Letters Excellence in Teaching Award. Her most recent book, A Feminist in the White House: Midge Costanza, the Carter Years, and America’s Culture Wars (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), chronicles the political career of a feminist who served as assistant to the president for public liaison under President Jimmy Carter. Dr. Mattingly’s current research investigates the California feminist movement of the 1970s, especially in its engagement with political institutions. Behind the scenes, Dr. Mattingly serves the university as the Vice President of the SDSU chapter of the California Faculty Association. She has been on the board of the Bread and Roses Center for Feminist Research and Activism at SDSU since 2014. 

A New MALAS Class! Contemporary Legacies of Colonialism, in the 20th and 21st-Century Brazilian and Portuguese Novel | Professor Ricardo Vasconcelos

Portuguese 540 — Luso-Brazilian Literature | MALAS 600A

Contemporary Legacies of Colonialism,

in the 20^th and 21^st-Century Brazilian and Portuguese Novel

Fall 2018 | Wednesdays, 4 p.m. to 6:40 p.m.

Prof. Ricardo Vasconcelos

rvasconcelos@mail.sdsu.edu | https://sdsu.academia.edu/RicardoVasconcelos

 

This course studies different lingering legacies of the colonial past in the Portuguese and Brazilian societies, as described by contemporary novels from those countries.

            In Brazil, these include namely the economic inequalities and racial asymmetries that continue to plague the country, in a relation that in many ways is still reminiscent of the historic dialectic of the Casa Grande (the big house) and the Sanzala (the slave quarters), even when set in contexts of modern, cosmopolitan spaces, such as São Paulo or Brasília. We will discuss Luiz Ruffato’s* Eles Eram Muitos Cavalos (2007), which portrays a day in the life of a broad range of inhabitants of the city of São Paulo — an unofficial capital of South America, with its 21 million dwellers — and depicts side by side both the experience of the resident of the periphery and that of the member of the upper classes. The course also studies João Almino’s Entre Facas, Algodão (2018), a subtle x-ray of the current state of affairs in Brazil, with regard to the emancipation of disenfranchised social classes in recent decades. The novel displays several contrasts between utopia and reality, the rural Northeast and the idealized avant-garde capital of Brasília; ultimately questioning whether the subaltern will ever see recognized their claim to the legacy of the privileged in contemporary Brazil.

With regard to Portugal, the course will study novels that address the process of gaining awareness about the country’s colonial and imperial rule, as this came to an end, as well as discuss the subsequent implications for the nation. We will study Lídia Jorge’s* A Costa dos Murmúrios (1988), in its portrayal of the Portuguese loss of innocence with regard to the colonial war waged in Africa (namely Mozambique), to preserve an imperial vision; and focus on the perspective of women with regard to the conflict, and the consequences of the war upon those women. We will likewise study Dulce Maria Cardoso’s O Retorno (2012), a coming-of-age novel that represents the traumatic and highly symbolic repatriation to the mainland of Portuguese citizens, in 1975, upon the independence of Angola. The novel focuses both on the conditions of life in pre-independence, colonial Luanda, and on the perception of the Portuguese retornado, the repatriated, as a symbol of the nation’s colonial past, one Portugal was eager to eschew, in its path to join the European Union.

All readings in Portuguese. Portuguese undergraduates will complete all class work in Portuguese. Graduate students will develop their class work in their language of specialization (typically Portuguese, Spanish, or English). This course meets the Spanish MA requirement of “Knowledge of Portuguese.”

*Award-winning authors Luiz Ruffato and Lídia Jorge are expected to visit SDSU during the semester, for public lectures and class workshops.

MALAS Fall 2018 Course Description: RWS 543/MALAS 600D: Rhetoric of Visual Composing with Professor Jennie Sheppard

RWS 543/MALAS 600D
Rhetoric of Visual Composing

Visual messages are a powerful way to inform, persuade and educate. Within professional settings, the ability to communicate effectively with supervisors, co-workers, clients, and public audiences through combinations of visual, textual, and technological elements is an invaluable skill. This course takes a rhetorical and professionally-oriented approach to analyzing, organizing, and communicating ideas, educational content, complex data, and specialized information through visual and multimodal means. 

The course readings will introduce students to research on visual communication, basic design and layout strategies for print, presentational, and online contexts, and the use of images and data visualization to convey and support specialized content.

Research and practitioner materials will be used as a basis for evaluating the rhetorical choices in the visual communication work of others and for learning how to apply these concepts to visual composing projects common to the workplace (e.g. a proposal and an infographic/visual data display). The focus throughout the course will be on learning to evaluate and craft texts that integrate effective visual and written strategies to create user-friendly, informative, and persuasive texts for professional audiences. 

Jennifer Sheppard, Ph.D. (Michigan Technological University 2003) is a scholar of multimodal rhetorics and literacies, digital communication, and writing/professional communication. She is interested in how emerging communication technologies can be used to help students and professionals develop critical, rhetorical, and technological literacy practices necessary for success in the 21st Century. Among other publications, she is co-author of Writer/Designer: A Guide to Making Multimodal Projects, (2nd ed.) published by Bedford/St. Martin’s in 2018. She is currently beginning a new project examining tactical communication practices in social media medical support groups that help users to assert greater agency in navigating their treatment.

New MALAS Class, Fall 2018: MALAS 600C: Modern Technology and the Ancient World, 4pm to 6:40pm -- Mondays, AL104 Dr. Danielle Smotherman Bennett

MALAS 600C: Modern Technology and the Ancient World 
Fall 2018, Seminar 1600-1840
Mondays, AL104

In the contemporary world, digital re-creations of sites and objects from the ancient world often appear in movies and tv, such as Ben-Hur and Game of Thrones, and even in video games, such as Assassin's Creed Origins.  Modern technology provides tantalizing prospects for a deeper engagement with the material culture in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

As technology changes and improves, we can explore the ancient world in entirely new ways, such as scanning for structure walls underground, analyzing the contents that a vessel once held, and creating immersive recreations of the ancient world. In this course, we will explore the emerging scholarship concerning digital humanities for the study of the Mediterranean world in a broad sense.

Even if you are not very familiar with the ancient cultures of the Mediterranean, this course will allow you to engage with the cultures, the materials, and the technology as long as you are willing to participate. This course is a seminar that will include weekly discussions that are led by topic and of the readings, lectures, and workshops for hands-on experience with some of these digital approaches. We will explore geography and mapping, digital dissemination of texts, and visual reconstructions of both sites and objects, including 3-D modeling through photogrammetry.

As part of the course, each student will create their own topic-focused project that incorporates each of these aspects, which will be presented on a webpage. Choose to explore the world of Ramesses II, Alexander the Great, or Cleopatra, among others, through interdisciplinary methods and learn how to integrate these different approaches into a deeper understanding of the ancient world. In this course, we will learn about the material culture of the ancient Mediterranean while also becoming critical consumers of the digital tools for the study the ancient world.

Dr. Danielle Smotherman Bennett completed her PhD in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology at Bryn Mawr College and has taught at Villanova University, Rutgers University, and La Salle University. Dr. Danielle Smotherman Bennett dcbennett@sdsu.edu Fall 2018 Office Hours: Mondays, 2-3 pm and by appointment

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New MALAS Cultural Studies Seminar, Fall 2018 | MALAS 601: Culture, Desire, Power, & Ideology: An Introduction to Interdisplinary/Cultural Studies

MALAS 601 
Culture, Desire, Power, & Ideology
An Introduction to Interdisciplinary 
Studies/Cultural Studies
MALAS-601
Schedule# 22198
CULTR DESIRE PWR IDEOLGY
3.0 units; Seminar 1530-1810 THURSDAYS
ARTN-300B

How do cultural objects, ideas, practices, and values come into being, gain meaning and significance, get reproduced, and undergo transformations? How do certain cultural ideas and practices both reflect and reinforce the social structures of which they form a part? Who produces culture and who consumes it – and on what basis? Is there a difference between ‘mass’ and ‘high’ culture? Is culture a serious or a playful area of study? Is there room for resistance against oppressive forms of culture? Do forms of culture themselves work to subvert taken-for-granted ways of life? What is the relationship between forms of culture and the intersecting social locations of class, race, gender, and sexuality? What methods or means of exploring are best suited to questions raised in the broad interdisciplinary area that is cultural studies? What is cultural studies? These are some of the questions that our introduction to cultural studies seminar will consider. 

In considering these questions, this seminar has as its master theme the question of culture in relation to ideology, power, and desire. We will consider the significance of how different forms and sources of power – political, epistemological, physical, and psychological – inform culture, and we will reflect on whether and to what extent the role of conscious or unconscious desires are bound up with expressions of power and culture. Simply put, are cultural forms reflecting or expressing something that we need or want? The answers to such questions will then lead us to finally consider if and how cultural ideas, practices, and objects might be transformed in the service of particular political, practical, ethical, and aesthetic aims. Our overall objective is to explore analyses and critiques of culture from a number of theoretical perspectives in order to approach our cultural worlds from both a more critical and a more curious fashion. The topics and viewpoints covered in our seminar provide continuous opportunities for thoughtful reflection and conversation. I look forward to exploring cultural studies together! 

Dr. Christine Payne completed her PhD in Sociology at USCD and has lectured on Cultural Studies and Sociology at SDSU and UCSD. 

Dr. Christine Payne
christine.payne@sdsu.edu
Fall 2018 Office Hours: 2:00-4:00