THE BIG DEAL: Archival Ethnography of Bridgewater State
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LEE TORDA 310 Tillinghast Hall Bridgewater State University 508.531.2436 [email protected] www.leetorda.com On Zoom: https://bridgew.zoom.us/j/3806648927 |
Fall 2021 Open Hours for students (office hours):
MW (in-person or Zoom) 1:30 to 2:30 T (Zoom only) 10:00 to 11:00 R 1:45 to 2:45 (in-person or Zoom) And by appointment Make an appointment, either face to face or on zoom, during office hours or at another time: Let me know you want to meet by adding yourself to my google.doc appointment calendar here: https://goo.gl/3CqLf. If you are meeting me on zoom, I will send you a zoom link for the time you sign up for. |
Overview: What should becoming clear to you is that this class is meant to help you be a better reader and writer, and, maybe more importantly, how to be the kind of college student who lasts, who graduates, who becomes the excellent adult human you are capable of being.
And one way I hope to help you to do this is to help you understand a little bit more about the university you will all one day be an alumni of. Maybe those two things don’t seem connected to you, but I want to make the argument that, whatever the reason you came to BSU for college, now that you are here, you are part of something with a long and important history in the Commonwealth, and what you do while you are here and once you leave reflects on the institution.
Your perhaps don’t know this, but BSU is the third oldest normal school in the country—and the oldest one still in its original location. It was founded by the very famous (if not to you) Horace Mann. The school has been around for over 175 years, with a 175 years of remarkable graduates. You will one day be one of them. And you should know something about this place before you go.
This project is what I am calling an “archival ethnography.”
What is an archive?
An archive, is a collection of artifacts—photos, documents, diaries, art work, music, all kinds of stuff—that represent an historical time period or a place or both. Bridgewater has an archive that documents its history.
What is an ethnography?
The word “ethnography” comes from anthropology. Traditionally, anthropologists would travel to and live with a different culture. There is a lot that goes into an ethnography, but, essentially, the idea is to pay attention to everything that you can observe about people—the sights, sounds, language, dress, food, beliefs, ethics, rituals that make a particular group of people unique. It does not try to tell a “nice” story necessarily. An ethnography looks at what can be observed about a culture and then attempts to analyze what those observations mean. In that way, this paper is like all the other pieces you will read, write, watch, or listen to: you will find a thesis and you will find evidence to prove it.
For this paper you are going use the historical record of our university, the archive, to figure out what makes this institution it’s own culture, unique: what is the historical legacy of a place like BSU? How do you fit in to it (or not)? What is the story of BSU, good and bad, and what is/will be your connection to it?
Details
We will workshop this paper in class. See the syllabus for that date. And you will also have the chance to meet with me, one-on-one, to have a conference about this paper during the midterm portfolio conferences. You can, of course, continue to work with your writing fellow on the paper as well.
For the workshop, you need to make your draft available to a classmate by creating a shareable link that says "can be edited by anyone with this link." If you don't know how to do that, tell me and I'll show you. That google.doc is the google.doc you'll use for this entire assignment. Read below for all the things that you'll include as part of this assignment. And pay attention to the order in which you'll put all that stuff.
This paper will be due to me in your midterm portfolio. See the syllabus for that date.
Other things
Stuff that will help you to do this paper:
Here is the collection of photographs and the creed that we've used in class :
And one way I hope to help you to do this is to help you understand a little bit more about the university you will all one day be an alumni of. Maybe those two things don’t seem connected to you, but I want to make the argument that, whatever the reason you came to BSU for college, now that you are here, you are part of something with a long and important history in the Commonwealth, and what you do while you are here and once you leave reflects on the institution.
Your perhaps don’t know this, but BSU is the third oldest normal school in the country—and the oldest one still in its original location. It was founded by the very famous (if not to you) Horace Mann. The school has been around for over 175 years, with a 175 years of remarkable graduates. You will one day be one of them. And you should know something about this place before you go.
This project is what I am calling an “archival ethnography.”
What is an archive?
An archive, is a collection of artifacts—photos, documents, diaries, art work, music, all kinds of stuff—that represent an historical time period or a place or both. Bridgewater has an archive that documents its history.
What is an ethnography?
The word “ethnography” comes from anthropology. Traditionally, anthropologists would travel to and live with a different culture. There is a lot that goes into an ethnography, but, essentially, the idea is to pay attention to everything that you can observe about people—the sights, sounds, language, dress, food, beliefs, ethics, rituals that make a particular group of people unique. It does not try to tell a “nice” story necessarily. An ethnography looks at what can be observed about a culture and then attempts to analyze what those observations mean. In that way, this paper is like all the other pieces you will read, write, watch, or listen to: you will find a thesis and you will find evidence to prove it.
For this paper you are going use the historical record of our university, the archive, to figure out what makes this institution it’s own culture, unique: what is the historical legacy of a place like BSU? How do you fit in to it (or not)? What is the story of BSU, good and bad, and what is/will be your connection to it?
Details
- We won't be able to physically go to the archive as a class, though, if you want to, you can go individually (talk to me if you are interested in this) Instead, I'll be making some parts of the archives available to you online. And I will also be giving you a virtual tour of the archives in short videos that you'll be able to access from our syllabus.
- In-class, we will do some writing and thinking about what these archives say to us about BSU. We’ll look at a few samples as a whole class, and you will then have time to do the same with some of the material I make available to you. Additionally, we will read some examples of people using archives to tell their story. We’ll talk about how they do that and how you can do that too.
- You will write a 1500 word essay that attempts to answer this question: What is the legacy of BSU, good and bad, and how do you now or hope to fit in to it? Your answer to that questions will be your thesis. The material you collect from the BSU archive will make up the bulk of your evidence.
We will workshop this paper in class. See the syllabus for that date. And you will also have the chance to meet with me, one-on-one, to have a conference about this paper during the midterm portfolio conferences. You can, of course, continue to work with your writing fellow on the paper as well.
For the workshop, you need to make your draft available to a classmate by creating a shareable link that says "can be edited by anyone with this link." If you don't know how to do that, tell me and I'll show you. That google.doc is the google.doc you'll use for this entire assignment. Read below for all the things that you'll include as part of this assignment. And pay attention to the order in which you'll put all that stuff.
This paper will be due to me in your midterm portfolio. See the syllabus for that date.
Other things
- Papers should be 1500 words, double-spaced, in 10 or 12 point fonts, preferably garamond or times new roman, with one inch margins all the way around.
- Make sure you have a hard copy of your draft for the class workshop, your meeting with me (two copies), and meetings with your Writing Fellow.
- Always, always, always have a title. A good one.
- You should include images in this paper.
- See syllabus for specific dates regarding the workshop for the draft of this paper and due date when you will turn it in to me (in the midterm portfolio).
Stuff that will help you to do this paper:
Here is the collection of photographs and the creed that we've used in class :
| bsu.now.then.pptx |
Here is the link to the Campus Comment article that we used in class: You can access other articles/issues of the Comment here.
HOW I WILL EVALUATE THIS PAPER
This paper is worth 15% of your grade. In order to earn a "B" on this paper, you need to turn in/show up for the following:
In order to earn an "A" on this paper, you need to complete all of the requirements for earning a "B" and
In order to earn a "C" on this paper, you must turn in/show up for the following:
If you don't meet any one of the requirements for a "C" paper, you will fail the paper for that 15% of your grade.
This paper is worth 15% of your grade. In order to earn a "B" on this paper, you need to turn in/show up for the following:
- Include at least one image in your paper.
- Show up for your writing fellow meeting to discuss draft at least once.
- Show up for your one-on-one conference with me.
- Show up for the workshop in class (see the syllabus for when that is) with a complete draft of your paper in hard copy.
- Turn in the workshop worksheet your reader filled out during the workshop.
- Turn in your revision plan reflection that you completed in response to your reader's workshop comments.
- Turn in a 1500 word draft to me in the midterm portfolio (see the syllabus for when that is) with reflection on what you feel is successful about the paper and what you want help with (NOTE: increased length will not make up for late or incomplete work).
In order to earn an "A" on this paper, you need to complete all of the requirements for earning a "B" and
- Write thoughtfully about how you used your revision suggestions in your paper as part of your reflection on what you feel is successful about the paper and what you want help with.
- Turn in a 1500 word draft to me that reflects the ideas we discuss in class about writing using archival materials as evidence: honesty and thoroughness of description, some depth of thinking about what it means, a strong connection between your thesis and your evidence.
In order to earn a "C" on this paper, you must turn in/show up for the following:
- Show up for the workshop in class (see the syllabus for when that is) with a complete draft of your paper.
- Turn in a 1500 word draft to me as part of your midterm portfolio (see the syllabus for when that is) with reflection on what you feel is successful about the paper and what you want help with.
If you don't meet any one of the requirements for a "C" paper, you will fail the paper for that 15% of your grade.