Anthropology Department
University of Colorado
Recitation Syllabus (Wed-Fri sections)
ANTH 1115: The Caribbean in Post-Colonial Perspective
TA: Jamie Dubendorf
Sections:
012 3-3:50pm Mon, Atlas 1B31
013 3-3:50pm Wed, Hale 230
015 3:30-4:20pm Thurs, Eckley M203
Meryleen Mena
011 12-12:50pm Mon, Eckley E1B50
014 4-4:50pm Wed, Eckley E1B75
016 11-11:50am Fri, McKenna 204
Office:
Hale 335A
Office Hours: Mon. 12:30-2:30pm
Email:
james.dubendorf@colorado.edu
Hale 335, #15
Tues. 10:30-12:30
meryleen.mena@colorado.edu
Contact and Office Hours: Because office space is very limited for anthropology TAs
this semester, please email your TA to schedule office time. Periodically, or for
emergencies, your TA will also send out class emails. Look for emails beginning
“Anthropology 1115” for class updates. Course policies, assignments, syllabi, and grades
will be available through CU learn in “Course Content” files. Thank you.
Recitation Objectives: Recitations are designed to supplement the main lecture of a
course, and are completely student driven. The teaching assistant’s role is to facilitate
discussion and help clarify the material presented in the main lecture. A lively discussion
depends upon students being well prepared and willing to share their own knowledge,
understanding, and opinions in class. Attendance in recitations is required. Please arrive
on time and ready to discuss the assigned topics.
Special emphasis in the recitations will be placed on relating concepts of post-colonialism
to our everyday lives. Please feel welcome and encouraged to bring in or talk about
examples (newspaper clippings, video clips, conversations overheard at a coffee shop,
etc.) relevant to the topic being studied as it relates to culture and power in our society.
Reading Reflection Assignments: Each week in your recitation, you will be required to
turn in a written reading response paper which will serve as your attendance record.
During a few weeks this semester, a written response may not be necessary; your TA will
tell you so a week in advance. You should be prepared to always bring a response paper
to recitation. You will be asked to write a reflection: a short (Please talk to your TA for
required length) response to the reading. Remember to include your name, section #,
and student # on the assignment!! The reflections can be in the form of one of the
following responses to the reading. For both articles under discussion, you may write
about:
1.
Take a quote of up to 30 words, write it down, and summarize how the quote seems
to sum up the readings under discussion and why - or strikes you in a particularly
emotional way and why.
2.
or compose a brief summary of the material you read and how the reading compares
to other academic readings or theory-based ideas that are important to you that you’ve
absorbed at school.
3.
or write about an issue that you are struggling with in the reading, paraphrase the
issue, one that raises questions (plural) that you don’t have the answers to but that you
feel it important to know.
4.
or use a specific example in the readings, paraphrase the example, then reflect upon
an incident that you can compare with experiences in your own life, and why you think
the topic in the reading recalls this or these incidences in your life.
For each reflection, due at the beginning of recitation in class, you will receive a grade of
“check mark +” (2 points & comprehensive), “check mark” (2 points), or “check mark –
” (1 point). Grading will be based on the thoughtfulness of the response, content, and
context. Late responses are accepted but will be graded down to “check mark – ” or “0”
depending on quality. The sum of these response paper grades will be considered the
major portion of your recitation grade. Your recitation grade will count as 20% of your
final grade.
Recitation Schedule:
Week 1: 1/12-1/16
Introduction.
Discussion/Reflection paper (1): Trouillot, “The Caribbean Region: An Open Frontier in
Anthropological Theory” (pp. 19-42).
Week 2: 1/19-1/23
FILM: Paradise Lost (PoC)
Reflection paper (2): Harry Hoetink, “Race and Color in the Caribbean” (pp. 55-84)
Week 3: 1/26-30
Review for Test #1
Reflection paper (3): Mintz, Intro. (pp. xv-xxx), Chapter 2: “Production” (pp. 32-73)
Week 4: 2/2-6
Test #1 in Lecture on Wed., 2/4
FILM: Out of Africa (PoC)
No reflection paper
Week 5: 2/9-13
FILM: Grand Illusion (PoC)
Reflection paper (4): - Franklin Knight, “Haiti and the Dom. Republic” (pp. 196-221)
- Michel-Rolph Trouillot, “Silencing the Past: Layers of Meaning in the
Haitian Revolution.”
Week 6: 2/16-20
Review for Midterm
Reflection paper (5): - Bridget Brereton, “Society and Culture in the Caribbean” (pp. 85110)
- Gerald F. Murray, “The Phantom Child in Haitian Voodoo” (pp. 4-26)
Week 7: 2/23-27
Midterm in lecture Wednesday 2/25
Discuss Pop Culture Projects (no reflection due)
Week 8: 3/2-6
FILM: Worlds Apart (PoC)
Reflection paper (6): - Deborah A. Thomas, “Modern Blackness” (pp. 335-354)
- Gina Ulysse, “Uptown Ladies and Downtown Women” (pp. 147-172)
- Christine Ho, “Popular Culture and the Aestheticization of Politics” (pp.
3-18)
Week 9: 3/9-13
Bibliography and Outline Due for Pop Culture Project – Wednesday 3/11
Review for Test #2
Reflection paper (7): Barry Chevannes, “Intro. the Native Religions of Jamaica” (1-19)
Week 10: 3/16-20
Test #2 in Lecture Wednesday 3/18
Review for Test #2 / Discuss Pop Culture Projects (no reflection due)
Week 11: NO RECITATION: SPRING BREAK (March 23-27)
Week 12: 3/30-4/3
FILM: Following Fidel (PoC)
Reflection paper (8): - Ninna Sørensen, “There are no Indians in the Dominican
Republic,” (pp. 292-310)
- Mona Rosendahl, Inside the Revolution, pp. 1-77.
Week 13: 4/6-10
Discussion/Reflection paper (9): Rosendahl, pp. 78-182
Week 14: 4/13-17
POPULAR CULTURE PROJECTS DUE in Lecture Wednesday 4/15
FILM: Shades of Freedom (PoC)
Reflection paper? (10): - Rafael L. Ramirez “We the Boricuas” (pp. 43-78)
- Frances R. Aparicio, Listening to Salsa (pp. pp. 121-153)
Week 15: 4/20-24
Discussion/Reflection paper (11): - Alex Dupuy, “The New World Order, Globalization,
and Caribbean Politics” (pp. 521-536).
- Constance Sutton & Susan Makiesky-Barrow, “Migration and West Indian
Racial and Ethnic Consciousness” (pp. 86-107)
Week 16: 4/27-5/1
Review for Final Exam
Reflection paper? (12): Stuart Hall, “Negotiating Caribbean Identities” (pp. 24-39).
FINAL EXAM
Tuesday, May 5th
7:30 pm – 10:00 pm
Disabilities: If you qualify for accommodations because of a disability, please submit a
letter from Disability Services to your TA in a timely manner so that your needs may be
addressed. Disability Services determines accommodations based on documented
disabilities. (303-492-8671, Willard 322, www.Colorado.EDU/disabilityservices)
Honor Code/Plagiarism: If you are caught cheating or plagiarizing in recitation, you will
receive a failing recitation grade and will be punished according to university guidelines.
When requested, students must sign the honor code for any written work: “On my honor,
as a University of Colorado at Boulder student, I have neither given nor received
unauthorized assistance on this test, paper, work or assignment.”