August 28: What Is a Self, Anyway?
Introductions
Workshop on rhetoric, audience, and evidence in video lectures:
Antonio Damasio: “The Quest to Understand Consciousness” (online lecture)
Jill Bolte Taylor, “My Stroke of Insight” (online lecture)
Gordon Harvey, “Elements of the Academic Essay” (handout)

September 4: Mind, Body, Brain & Self
No class

September 11: Mind, Body, Brain & Self
Siri Hustvedt, The Shaking Woman, or a History of My Nerves
Paul John Eakin, “Autobiographical Consciousness: Body, Brain, Self, and Narrative” (Chapter 2, Living Autobiographically)

 September 18: Mind, Body, Brain & Self
Antonio Damasio, Antonio Damasio, The Feeling of What Happens, Chapter 1 + Self Comes to Mind, Chapters 1-4
Susan Blackmore, “The Self Is an Illusion” (online lecture)

September 25: Mind, Body, Brain & Self
Alva Noë, Out of Our Heads, Preface + Chapters 1-4 & 6
Alva Noë, “Why Is Cosnciousness So Baffling?” (online lecture / interview)
Workshop: Evaluating Rhetoric in Writing and Lectures

October 2: Narrative Selves
Dan McAdams, The Stories We Live By, Chapter 1: “The Meaning of Stories” & Chapter 5: “Character and Imago”
János László, The Science of Stories: An Introduction to Narrative Psychology, Chapter 7: “Identity and Narrative”
Mark Gaipa, “8 Strategies for Critically Engaging Sources”
Workshop: Engaging Sources & Establishing Authority

October 9: Narrative Selves
Rita Carter, “Chapter 1: A Brief History of Ourselves” & “Chapter 6: How Multiple Are You?” (from Multiplicity: The New Science of Personality, Identity, and the Self)
Alison Bechdel, Fun Home

October 16: Narrative Selves
John Wray, Lowboy
Simon McCarthy Jones, Hearing Voices, Chapter 5: “The Lived Experience of Hearing Voices in Individuals Diagnosed with a Psychotic Disorder; or, the Journey from Patient to Non-Patient”

October 18
Due: Drafts of research project proposals (via e-mail, to me and to your writing group, by midnight)

October 23: Narrative Selves
Gail Hornstein, Agnes’s Jacket, Chapters 1-5
Eleanor Longden, “The Voices in My Head”
Workshop: Research Project Proposals

October 30: Narrative Selves
Simon McCarthy Jones, “Neuroscience and Hearing Voices: It’s the Brain, Stupid” (from Hearing Voices: The Histories, Causes, and Meanings of Auditory Verbal Hallucinations)
Rufus May, “Living Mindfully with Voices” (online lecture)
Due: Research project proposals (to me, via email, by midnight)
Workshop: Finding and Evaluating Sources

November 6: Technologies, Writing & The Self
Matias Viegener, 2500 Random Things about Me Too
Nancy K. Miller, “But Enough about Me, What Do You Think of My Memoir?” (Chapter 1, But Enough About Me: Why We Read Other People’s Lives)
Workshop: Annotated Bibliographies

November 13: Technologies, Writing & The Self
Emily Singer, “The Measured Life” (The MIT Technology Review)
Gary Wolf, “The Quantified Self” (online lecture)
John J. McCarthy & Peter Wright, Technology as Experience, Chapters 1 & 9
“QS: Quantified Self: Self Knowledge through Numbers” (organization website)
Steven Jonas, “Stressing Out Loud” (online lecture)
Annotated Bibliographies due

November 20: Technologies, Writing & The Self
Chapter 3, “Intimacy” (from Mizuko Ito, Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media)
Sherry Turkle, “Introduction,” Chapter 8 & Chapter 12 (from Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other)
Sherry Turkle: “Connected, but Alone?” (online lecture)

November 27: No class (Friday schedule)

December 4: Technologies, Writing & The Self
Dennis Cooper, God., Jr.
Mitsuko Ito and Matteo Brittani, “Gaming” (from Mizuko Ito, Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media)

Friday, December 6: Performance
Struck, at HERE Theater

Sunday, December 8
Drafts of research projects due (to writing groups via email)

December 11
Research project workshop

December 18
No Class: Revised Research Projects due (on the anthology page of our blog)