Kansas State University

Herren, Christopher David

Note: The social distance capacity of the room assigned to this section is 11. The number of students in this classroom at any time cannot exceed the social distance capacity of 11.

Contact the office of Pre-law Advising, 215 Fairchild Hall for permission to enroll.

*Course has been cancelled for the Spring 2021 semester.

When you see the word “text” you may think of a book and handwritten notes or a printed handout. You probably don’t think about tattoos and the ways in which the body through various forms of inscriptions, can and has been turned into a legible vehicle of reward and punishment, an object of science, a site of race and gender identity or as a vessel of the divine and the unsayable. Chances are, neither will Native American belts made of shell beads or code talkers come to mind, nor stitched samplers, fashion, hypertext, oral storytelling or the haptic knobs of Braille. In this class we will put pressure on often narrow definitions of what we define as a text, including the assumption that writing and complex recording systems exist only in a Western context. Central to our study of stunning and alternative systems of record keeping and how matter meets meaning will be excursions into new digital media, where we will trace how the computer and smartphone have reshaped our understanding of both texts and ourselves who write, read, and interpret them. Throughout the semester, we will make hands-on experiences with textual technologies, new and old, through zoom-labs, in which we will practice transcription and calligraphy, papermaking, printing, data analysis, and the construction of an online archive. Course requirements: active participation, writing workshops, several shorter assignments, a collaborative project, and curiosity for quirky, fun, and ingenious mnemonic practices (no prior expertise required): Cn u rd ths?

All seats in Section S are reserved for CS Scholars Group.

Siefers, Mary Kay

Gragg, Sara

Siefers, Mary Kay

Long, Kait