Tuesday, 6:30 - 9:20

The course will offer students the chance to explore issues relating to the body, representation, re-creation, and technology. Each seminar will focus on current topics, such as avatar development and multi-user virtual environments, critical analyses of technology, social meaning of technological tools, technology and the body. The course will also explore women's relationship to technological fields, and educational uses of computers. The course will draw from many media forms and will include screenings of films, videos, multimedia presentations, internet sites, and CDROM. We will read theorists like Berger, Stone, Haraway and others. Multimedia programs will be taught for the first hour of most classes.

Each week a small group of students will lead the discussion, and a one page written summary of the reading will be required from each student. In addition, there will be three group projects, two in-class essays on the readings, and a final project.

In Class Discussions.

The goal of the presentation is to summarize the main points of the reading and to discuss questions it raises. Where could it have gone further? What questions does it raise? What is its greatest strength? Its greatest vulnerability? The group will then lead a class discussion of the reading. A one page typed summary describing the readings will be required weekly from each student

Group Projects.

There will be three group projects situated in the first half of the semester. These projects should provide students with a fun and comfortable way to address issues raised in class with technology.

Mid Term Projects.

Participants will actively observe, analyze, and construct new technology artifacts--manifestations of the theory--for the final project. These manifestations are your chance to work through ideas. The manifestations could take the form of a research paper about an aspect of girls using computers, a web page designed for expressing the relationship between gender and technology, an educational or entertaining website or CD ROM prototype for girls or mature women. A paper version of this midterm project should be 7-10 pages. An electronic form will be judged on time spent, effort, and skill of design.

Final Paper.

A final paper is due at noon on May 6. Papers should be 10-12 pages for undergraduates, and should examine some aspect of the course is greater detail. For example, the paper could examine some aspect of gender on the Internet (in MUDs, on IRC, on newsgroups); experiences of women in the world of computing; the rhetoric of computer science (including artificial intelligence and artificial life) seen from a gendered perspective; gender and science fiction; Women's political action on the Internet and Web, etc.

There will be a few opportunities for some students to focus on creative work for the final project. As a manifestation, students could opt to make projects targeting girls or women. How is the content for a female audience developed? Another type of manifestation might be an interactive website expressing women's thoughts on technology in an expressive context. The decision as to whether a student may create an artistic piece will be solely up to the discretion of the instructor and will be based on the quality of the project proposal and how it relates to the coursework. Graduate Student Requirements: The final paper for graduate students should be a seminar style paper approximately 20 - 30 pages.

Grades.

The grade will be based on class participation, readings and reading summaries, attendance, the group projects, the mid term project/paper, and the quality of the final paper. Attendance is mandatory. All take home written exercises must be typed. Late assignments drop one letter grade per day late, with failure at five days.