There are three main components to this course: reading, composition, research. Readings focused on issues related to ‘difference’ and higher education, and the composing students did for this class included in-class writing, reading responses, and essays that build toward a research project of students’ choosing. This course drew upon students’ expertise as current U of I students and provided a space for them to ‘inquire into’--to ask questions about—spaces they encounter on a daily basis. Throughout this course, we considered what the university ‘is’ and regarded ‘difference’ as an area of inquiry within the university’s narratives. Another area of concentration was “ethnography,” and students gained practice in the basic skills of ethnographic research—i.e., observation, interviewing, artifact analysis. Such practice was built into various assignments/students’ own research project.
The university offers an extraordinary opportunity to study and document student communities, life, and culture. This collection includes research on the activities, clubs, and durable social networks that comprise sometimes the greater portion of the university experience for students.
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