First week of school
First official week of school started this week (Sept. 25)!
I have already described the Core class and precept group so I will only go on to describe the two electives.
The "Nuevas Formas..." course, as you may have deduced for the title, is taught in Spanish and by a guest lecturer from who happens to be from Argentina. Professor Kamenszain is a small, older woman with short blond hair who is a poet and critic. Not surprising then, we will be reading a lot of poetry but also on the syllabus are plays, novels, etc. The title translates more or less to: new forms of intimacy in contemporary writings of Latin America. We'll be focusing on the "I" of the writer and use of first person.
I have already had to read a few articles and poems for this class which has been fun but time consuming as I am not a quick reader, yet, in Spanish.
We will have to write a midterm and a final (7-10 pages) and give a presentation (15 - 30 min) on a topic.
There are about 20 of us in this class, I think maybe 3 or 4 are grad students and the rest are undergrad.
Tropical Commodities in Latin America is a little more self-explanatory but I'll copy and paste the course description: This colloquium explores selected aspects of the social, economic, and cultural history of tropical export commodities from Latin America e.g., coffee, bananas, sugar, tobacco, henequen, rubber, vanilla, and cocaine. Topics include land, labor, capital, markets, transport, geopolitics, power, taste, and consumption.
Professor Kourà is a tall, older man with a full head of lightly graying, black hair. He hails from somewhere where bananas grow, but didn't specify which country that might be.
30% of my grade is based on in-class participation in discussions and other assignments and 70% on the final (20 pages). I also have to give a presentation in this class and write two pages each week about the topic so he can see what we might be interested in discussing. I'll be reading a book a week.
There are about 40 of us so having whole group discussions is going to be interesting and challenging I'm sure.
For everything there has already been a great deal of reading. At the end of these past few days it has felt like my brain ran a marathon and it wakes up a little sore as it stumbles up to the starting line to start reading again. As I mentioned, I'm reading a book a week for the Tropical Commodities class, and since I don't want to spend the money on seven books (even used) and he has made them available at the library reserve, I will be spending a lot of time at the library! You get to check the books out four hours at a time so I plan on using the gaps on Tuesdays and Thursday and go in before or after class as well. The first book we're reading is Sweetness and Power: the Place of Sugar in Modern History. I actually signed up to do my presentation on this one, why not get the presentation over with right? Well, I forgot I'm also scheduled to do a presentation in my precept group next week on that week's reading. Guess I'm getting two out of the way immediately! For the Nuevas Formas course there are 3-4 readings for each class and they vary in length from 13 page academic articles to 5 page poems. In the Core class we have 1-2 readings a week, also vary in length and can be mind numbingly dense (f@*#cking philosophers). For Core I will also have 2-3 page papers due every week or two and a discussion board I have to contribute to each week.
On top of this I am trying to get a job, sort of. Included in my financial aid package was work-study (where you work for the university and the federal government foots most of your paycheck and university covers the rest, like what Krissy does). It turns out I can work for an organization/non-profit and this can be my work-study job (the organization pays me, the school pays the organization). I already had intentions of volunteering while here so, why not combine those two! I have applied to a tutoring job because it pays really well but the other two I'm really excited about because they would be so different from teaching. One would take me downtown and I would be a research assistant to a non-profit dealing with urban planning and issues of race and poverty. Another is right here in Hyde Park and has many projects aimed at community involvement. The job description has something to do with working in their museum space, setting up exhibits, etc. I told these last two in my cover letter that while I have no background in these things, I still think I could figure it out and contribute to their organization. Either one would be a great resume builder and good experience, I think, and the tutoring would just be an easy fall back. So far I have heard back from the tutoring gig and Hyde Park/museum one. Looking to set up interviews next week.
I am going to do my best to post something at least once a week and I honestly like this space to digest what I've done and write without a prompt so, don't worry, it doesn't feel like a burden. That being said, I can see myself only getting increasingly busy from here on so, we'll see if I can keep up with it!
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Monday
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Tuesday
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Wednesday
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Thursday
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Friday
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9:30-10:50 Nuevas formas de la intimidad en las escrituras latinoamericanas actuales
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9:30-10:50 Nuevas formas de la intimidad en las escrituras latinoamericanas actuales
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12:30 – 1:50 Core Lecture
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12:30 – 1:50 Core Lecture
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3:00 – 5:50 Tropical Commodities in Latin America
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2:30 - 3:50 Precept group
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I have already described the Core class and precept group so I will only go on to describe the two electives.
The "Nuevas Formas..." course, as you may have deduced for the title, is taught in Spanish and by a guest lecturer from who happens to be from Argentina. Professor Kamenszain is a small, older woman with short blond hair who is a poet and critic. Not surprising then, we will be reading a lot of poetry but also on the syllabus are plays, novels, etc. The title translates more or less to: new forms of intimacy in contemporary writings of Latin America. We'll be focusing on the "I" of the writer and use of first person.
I have already had to read a few articles and poems for this class which has been fun but time consuming as I am not a quick reader, yet, in Spanish.
We will have to write a midterm and a final (7-10 pages) and give a presentation (15 - 30 min) on a topic.
There are about 20 of us in this class, I think maybe 3 or 4 are grad students and the rest are undergrad.
Tropical Commodities in Latin America is a little more self-explanatory but I'll copy and paste the course description: This colloquium explores selected aspects of the social, economic, and cultural history of tropical export commodities from Latin America e.g., coffee, bananas, sugar, tobacco, henequen, rubber, vanilla, and cocaine. Topics include land, labor, capital, markets, transport, geopolitics, power, taste, and consumption.
Professor Kourà is a tall, older man with a full head of lightly graying, black hair. He hails from somewhere where bananas grow, but didn't specify which country that might be.
30% of my grade is based on in-class participation in discussions and other assignments and 70% on the final (20 pages). I also have to give a presentation in this class and write two pages each week about the topic so he can see what we might be interested in discussing. I'll be reading a book a week.
There are about 40 of us so having whole group discussions is going to be interesting and challenging I'm sure.
For everything there has already been a great deal of reading. At the end of these past few days it has felt like my brain ran a marathon and it wakes up a little sore as it stumbles up to the starting line to start reading again. As I mentioned, I'm reading a book a week for the Tropical Commodities class, and since I don't want to spend the money on seven books (even used) and he has made them available at the library reserve, I will be spending a lot of time at the library! You get to check the books out four hours at a time so I plan on using the gaps on Tuesdays and Thursday and go in before or after class as well. The first book we're reading is Sweetness and Power: the Place of Sugar in Modern History. I actually signed up to do my presentation on this one, why not get the presentation over with right? Well, I forgot I'm also scheduled to do a presentation in my precept group next week on that week's reading. Guess I'm getting two out of the way immediately! For the Nuevas Formas course there are 3-4 readings for each class and they vary in length from 13 page academic articles to 5 page poems. In the Core class we have 1-2 readings a week, also vary in length and can be mind numbingly dense (f@*#cking philosophers). For Core I will also have 2-3 page papers due every week or two and a discussion board I have to contribute to each week.
On top of this I am trying to get a job, sort of. Included in my financial aid package was work-study (where you work for the university and the federal government foots most of your paycheck and university covers the rest, like what Krissy does). It turns out I can work for an organization/non-profit and this can be my work-study job (the organization pays me, the school pays the organization). I already had intentions of volunteering while here so, why not combine those two! I have applied to a tutoring job because it pays really well but the other two I'm really excited about because they would be so different from teaching. One would take me downtown and I would be a research assistant to a non-profit dealing with urban planning and issues of race and poverty. Another is right here in Hyde Park and has many projects aimed at community involvement. The job description has something to do with working in their museum space, setting up exhibits, etc. I told these last two in my cover letter that while I have no background in these things, I still think I could figure it out and contribute to their organization. Either one would be a great resume builder and good experience, I think, and the tutoring would just be an easy fall back. So far I have heard back from the tutoring gig and Hyde Park/museum one. Looking to set up interviews next week.
I am going to do my best to post something at least once a week and I honestly like this space to digest what I've done and write without a prompt so, don't worry, it doesn't feel like a burden. That being said, I can see myself only getting increasingly busy from here on so, we'll see if I can keep up with it!
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