Declaration of the Occuptation on New York City

A plain-text edition of the Declaration of the Occupation of New York City can be found here. The original document that was distributed around the city can be located here as PDF.

Importantly, know that this text can be used as a primary source for your final research paper.

Preliminary Topics for the Thesis Proposal

Yesterday in class we generated the following list of preliminary, potential topics for your final research papers. This list is by no means complete; therefore, new ideas should be added as replies below. Please submit new entries over the next few weeks as your topics and theses develop!


-- social norms, taboos, cultural changes/manipulations w/o consideration of bettering social norms
-- gender equality, female double-standard(s), patriarchy v. matriarchy
-- marriage traditions, LGBT marriage
-- appropriation of master text(s), censorship of information
-- social conditioning, meaning making, value systems, morals, ethics, etc.
-- 99% v. 1%, people v. the profit machine, corporate greed v. scientific data
-- video game violence
-- social affections, acceptance of emotion
-- protest en masse, the power of the boycott, civil disobedience, the General Strike
-- the atypical political protest of OWS
-- politics that don't look like politics
-- violence vs. nonviolence
-- police brutality (esp. involving protesters)
-- lack of hierarchy/leadership in OWS (esp. as exemplified by the General Assembly)
-- Arab Spring, European Summer
-- the use and importance of social media in cultural resistance
-- counterculture/assimilation into mass culture, culture "trading"
-- downturn in economy, corporate and bank bailouts,
-- TAZs (temporary autonomous zones), pirate utopias, and space
-- (dis)inclusion of marginalized voices (esp. via POCCUPY)
-- food supply corporatization, monoagriculture, organic/co-op push
-- greenscaping, alternative energy, electric vehicles

New Rubrics Posted

The guidelines for Paper Two and the Thesis Proposal have been posted on the Schedule, Readings, & Rubrics page. Please refer to these rubrics when composing the two formal writing assignments, each due next Thursday 6/28.

Writing Assignment for Monday 6/18

Hello Everyone,

Here is the writing assignment for Monday. Please print the following PDF and bring it to class. You are to complete this assignment in-class, so be sure to bring paper and a writing implement. Once finished, you may take your answers to the English Department office in AC-2A16. Here you will give your writing assignment to one of the department secretaries, who will stamp your document thereby giving you both credit for your writing and your attendance in class.

See you Tuesday!
s.

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Hill
1. Identify the four archetypal characteristics of cultural resistance according to Duncombe.
 2. Of the four archetypal characteristics named above, choose one and explain how this characteristic is illustrated and/or embodied by the acts of the Diggers. Use specific references from Hill’s text in your answer.
3. Examine the quotations from Winstanley presented on pages twenty-four, twenty-five, and twenty-nine. Using direct evidence, explain Winstanley’s central arguments. What has caused humanity’s present lack of freedom? How can humans be restored to a more natural, “common” harmony?

Bey
4. Define what a “pirate utopia” is according to Bey. Define the TAZ. Explain how such a “pirate” space can be considered a TAZ.
5. Explain the fleeting, almost mystical nature of a TAZ. What aspects of the TAZ constitute it’s “greatest strength” in resisting culture?
6. Examine the selection included in the margins of Bey’s work. How is this an example of a TAZ? Then, consider the event described in Duncombe’s Introduction to the Cultural Resistance Reader. Explain how this event can be an example of a living TAZ.
7. Provide a description of your personal reaction to these two readings of Hill & Bey.