1. Whenever we have a reading or a site visit, you should have the answers to three questions by the time you’ve finished doing the reading or by the next time we meet after a site visit:
- What values, identities, ideas, policies are evoked?
- What are some opposing or conflicting positions on these values, identities, ideas, policies?
- What ideas does the reading or site visit give you about possible interventions you might propose and possible arguments you might need to make or counter?
2. Introduce an Appointment: Each student will provide a brief oral presentation (no more than 10 minutes) on an imminent site visit or meeting. Your report should include an overview of the organization/site/individual’s history, role, and significance. You should also generate two questions that you would be willing to ask during the site visit or meeting.
3. Pre-Flection Blog Post: At our public course blog, pages.stolaf.edu/datadc, you’ll write at least four posts (but more are welcome!). Your first post is a 250-750 word “pre-flection” in which you’ll introduce yourself, explain why you’re taking the course, discuss what excites you and/or what makes you most nervous about the course, and present some particular skills, experiences, areas of expertise, or vocational interests that you bring to the course and to D.C. The full blogging assignment is available here.
4. Mid-Course Blog Posts: Your next two posts on the course blog will include 1) a follow-up report on the site visit or meeting you signed up for in the “Introduce an Appointment” assignment; and 2) a “floating” report that you can use to reflect on any site visit, meeting, performance, or other experience you like.
5. End-of-Course Reflection Blog Posts: While both your report and your other blog post(s) are intended to be process-oriented, giving you a space to write through your experiences more or less as they happen, the final blog post is a summative opportunity to reflect on the course as a whole from the vantage point of the last few days. This post should be longer, more polished, and more of a birds’-eye-view synthesis of your experiences than the previous two posts. Again, see the blogging assignment for details.
6. Final Policy Proposal/White Paper: We aren’t just going to DC to learn. We’re also going to contribute to the country’s ongoing debates about democracy and the arts. To that end, your final project for the course is a policy proposal or white paper that you’ll write with a specific audience in mind, whether a legislator, a congressional committee, a state or local government entity, a non-profit, a community group, or an artist’s organization. You’ll draw on what you’ve learned throughout the month, as well as additional research, to make an argument about how your audience and their constituents should engage with the arts. See the assignment here.