1/15/13 Notes

The first class meeting included an overview of the syllabus and an autobiographical narrative of the professor's academic and personal life. Professor Banner was active in the Second Wave women's movement of the 1960's when she lived in New York City, knew Betty Friedan, helped found women's history as an area of study within the discipline of history, and has published nearly a dozen books, mainly on women's history and popular culture (two on Marilyn Monroe). The class will use her textbook, Women in Modern America, as its main text, supplemented by two novels and a course reader that includes an excerpt from one of Prof. Banner's Marilyn Monroe books. Students can also choose to write their term paper on her new research (Greta Garbo) or her autobiography (about her discovery of Islam).

The course itself moves chronologically, beginning with 19th century Victorianism and Progressivism and ending with mid-20th century Second Wave feminism. The Crisis in Masculinity, a history of sexuality and a discussion of sexual orientation, and a history of the 1950's/60's will also be covered. The professor will be defining terms such as feminism, methodology, disciplines, and interdisciplinarity at the next class session. She also said she would reveal her theoretical framework and the framework for the course next time. Basically she wants students to understand that each academic discipline has its own methodology, or approach to study and research, and that these methodologies differ. However programs such as Gender Studies (she teaches Gender Studies as  well as history courses) and Thematic Option are interdisciplinary—scholars from various disciplines are part of these programs. I'm assuming she will talk about the ways these interdisciplinary methodologies differ from, or borrow from, methodologies that are strictly disciplinary. Because many of her books are about popular culture, I am hoping she will talk about cultural studies as an interdisicplinary methodology or at least discuss writing about popular culture; students will watch several films and read novels in the class, so having that understanding will be important to their success in writing about film and pop culture if they choose these as term paper topics. It also seems as though the professor's newest work has shifted into a more visual studies type of analysis, as she is writing about images of Greta Garbo. Again, I am hopeful we will hear about the different methodologies she has used or currently uses, which would be useful to Writing 140 students. The professor did stress her identity as a professional writer, researcher, and a publisher of many books, so that may be something we can reference in the writing classroom or ask her to talk more about.