"I've seen America with no clothes on..."

1. Re-watch the "Cheerleader" video carefully by St. Vincent. Link below.
2. Read the lyrics carefully. Link below.
3. Post a 100-word interpretation of the video here.
4. Try to tie your interpretation into our discussions in class about the short stories, gender, and body consciousness.
5. video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEY9GJAm8bA&x-yt-ts=1422579428&x-yt-cl=85114404
6. lyrics: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/s/st_vincent/cheerleader.html#!
7. If you enjoy interpreting music videos or other short popular texts (visual or language), let me know and we can do it some more.

Tell us a story...

In 100 words, tell us a story, something funny or scary or sad, something that happened to you personally or that you just heard or read, something that happened recently or long, long ago. Use your best language to make the narrative clear and simple.

My Paper #1

In 100 words, tell us the basics about your paper: thesis statement, examples, conclusions, etc.

I am (not)

Rank the following identity categories from most important to least important in relation to how you self-identify. In other words, which categories do you most fit yourself in when you think of yourself as an individual? Explain your ranking. [100 words]

• Age
• Race
• Gender
• Nationality
• Sexual Orientation
• Religion
• Species

What it DOES to You

What is literature? What is art? You may refer to your textbook, to online sources -- or to your imaginative and rational faculties. [100 words]

Social Mobility

1. Go to the page linked here: www.brookings.edu/blogs/social-mobility-memos
2. Select ONE of the Social Memos listed; note that you can "show more" memos at the bottom of the page.
3. Click on the chosen memo to read the entire selection.
4. Note any links in the memo that lead to additional information.
5. Write a 150-word response here on what you read.
6. Remember to summarize the memo in a few sentences before responding to the ideas.
7. Proofread for careless errors.
8. Review some of your classmates postings.

The Wonderful Millennials

What reasons might be behind this radical drop in overall crime? See link below. [I know that you're not a criminologist or sociologist; this is a thinking exercise.]

with-crime-down-us-faces-legacy-of-a-violent-age

Who are you? Why are you here?

Obviously, I am paid to teach this class -- in addition to having a personal commitment to teaching and career goals that mesh with our semester together. Mark W. Shealy is a teacher and a student, an individual (some of the time) and a member of the local cultural community (most of the time) and a node in the larger national sociopolitical body USA (all of the time). Who am I as a global citizen? Not sure right now. As a spiritual being? Ask me after class. I can tell you that we all -- in the wealthiest countries -- are in the process of transforming our technologies into something human-like, simultaneous with transforming ourselves into something trans-human. This semester we are going to look at these two broad concepts (identity and technology) together using fiction, nonfiction, and visual media: 1. How we identify and 2. How our extensive techno-bodies alter the ways we see ourselves and the ways we speak of ourselves as being "human."