EPEC January 2007

Learn Yiddish!
Type of activity: Course

Students will learn the basics of Yiddish grammar and fundamental vocabulary through readings and exercises, supplemented with music, poetry and film. No prior knowledge of Yiddish is necessary.

Meeting Places &amp; Times: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday; Merrill Living Room; 12:30-2:00 PM Start Date: January 4th, 2007 End Date: January 26th, 2007 Number of Meetings: 10

Facilitator: Debra Caplan, Box 231, dlc03@hampshire.edu, Bio: A recent graduate of Hampshire, Debra Caplan (F03) has studied Yiddish language, literature and culture at Yiddish programs around the world, including the Tel Aviv Summer Yiddish Program, KlezKamp Jewish Arts and Culture Festival, the California Institute for Yiddish Culture and Language, the Vilnius Yiddish Institute, and the Steiner Internship Program at the National Yiddish Book Center. For her Division III at Hampshire, Debra translated and directed a production of a previously untranslated 1937 Yiddish play at the Yiddish Book Center.

Glass Etc. Workshop
Type of activity: Janterm Workshop

This course will focus on lampwork- glasswork using an oxy-propane torch set up. Basic safety and torch working techniques will be taught, as well as kiln forming methods. Attention will be given to technical proficiency, then applied in creative applications. Projects can include jewelry (pendants, bracelets, rings), sculptural objects (animals, figures, etc), blown forms (bubbles, jars, goblets), fused plates, ornaments, and works that combine glass with other materials such as metal and wood. Access to the Lemelson Shop will provide the opportunity to work across mediums, while retaining the focus on glass. The workshop will involve experimentation and student input into curriculum and format. All levels are welcome.

There is a lab fee of $50.

Meeting Places &amp; Times: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, 2:00 - 4:00 PM, Lemelson Center Start Date: Wednesday, January 3th, 2007 End Date: Thursdsay, January 25th, 2007 Number of Meetings: 11 Maximum enrollment : 15 *schedule is due to change based on participant schedules and space availability

Facilitator: Katie Richardson, krr02@hampshire.edu, Bio: I am a current Divison 3 student, focusing in art and music. My Div 3 Project, which finishes in December 2006, is an artistic (sculptural and musical) installation exploring migration and borders. Most of my visual artwork for the project is using metal and glass, and based out of Lemelson. I began glassworking around my first year at Hampshire, and have been producing jewelry and functional objects for sale ever since, more recently expanding into sculptural and blown forms. My work is featured in six galleries in western Massachusetts and southeastern Pennsylvania. I have taken workshops with Doug Reimschneider and Bandu Dunham, both renowned lampwork artists, as well as facilitated workshops with local artists Atticus Robbins and Raj Kommineni through the Hampshire Glass Collective, founded in 2003.

Comics Storytelling
Type of activity: Janterm Workshop/Course

This course will focus on techniques for communicating clearly through comics. We will concentrate on page and panel composition, choosing the right moments to represent visually, creating a sense of space and place, conveying emotion through facial expressions and body posture, and the combination of words and images to tell a story. A number of practical exercises will help deveolop these tools, culminating in the production of short-form comics. Group critiques will focus on storytelling rather than on more traditional art production skills. Our primary test will be Scott McCloud's Making Comics; we will also draw from Understanding Comics, Will Eisner's Comics and Sequential Art and Graphic Storytelling.

Meeting Times: Tuesday, Thursday, 12-2PM Meeting Place: Lemelson Classroom Start Date: January 3rd, 2007 End Date: January 25th, 2007 Number of Meetings: 7 Maximum number of Participants: 20

Facilitator: Joshua Truitt, Box 1567, jkt04@hampshire.edu, Bio: Joshua Truitt is a 3rd year Division II student focusing on Sequential Art and Philosophy. He became interested in comics in high school after reading Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, and has been studying and producing them ever since. In January 2005 he attended a seminar in comics production led by McCloud, which gave Joshua a number of useful ideas for telling compelling stories using sequential art. He is also one of the founders of and signers for the Hampshire Comics Collective, an has played an active role in producing the group's 'zine, "Free Food." He considers knowledge of comics storytelling techniques useful for working in this form, even for those, like himself, interested in producing more experimental art.

Incarceration: Breaking the Silence
Type of activity: Janterm Course

The United States' over-reliance on incarceration serves as the most institutionalized, and sadly normalized, form of oppression in our society. Through increased sentencing for drug violations, police and judicial discretion, as well as hostile public perceptions, the most marginalized populations are being isolated and segregated at unsustainable rates. This discussion-based class will use analytical readings and personal narratives to explore how incarceration is affecting individuals and communities across the country. This course will serve as an arena in which students can question, challenge, and support one another in the discussion of these complex and multi-layered issues.

Beginning with the theory of punishment and incarceration, the first week of this course will examine the birth of our current system of imprisonment, challenging students to question theories of rehabilitation, deterrence, and security and their practical applications. Additionally, we will look at how the criminal justice system is structured, explaining the sequencing of arrests, bargaining, trials, detention, and release.

During the second week, we will read personal narratives in order to assemble a vision of the incarcerated experience today. Narratives include excerpts from Couldn't Keep it to Myself: Testimonials From Our Imprisoned Sisters, Prison Writing in 20th Century America , and the Journal of Prisoners on Prisons. These pieces will present a realistic vision of who is being targeted by incarceration, including the experiences of women of color, LGBTQ individuals, and drug users.

As a conclusion to the course, the third week will focus on alternatives to incarceration, looking at past and present initiatives, as well as possibilities for the future. We will also assess anti-prison activism as a movement in the United States, locating its successes, constraints, and positions within the larger movement for social justice.

Guest speakers and films will supplement class discussions and writing assignments. Texts include: Angela Davis' Are Prisons Obsolete? , Michael Foucalt's Discipline and Punish, Marc Mauer's Race to Incarcerate , Elihu Rosenblatt's Criminal Injustice , and Jeffrey Reiman's The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison. Students from all backgrounds are encouraged to participate in this course as these issues affect us all.

You may visit the SDCL to view some of this course's materials.

Meeting Times: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 3-5PM Meeting Place: Start Date: January 3rd, 2007 End Date: January 25th, 2007 Number of Meetings: 13 Maximum number of Participants: 30

Facilitator: Alicia Jay, Box 0616, asj03@hampshire.edu

Beyond Barriers: Power, Risk, and HIV Prevention
Type of activity: Janterm Workshop

Aim: To educate about lowering HIV infection rates through critically examining power structures and how they put people at risk and impact our conceptions of risk.

People determine their "at risk" levels through a variety of criteria such as race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and geographic location. Depending on where on falls within one or many of those criterion determines, for many, their risk level. It becomes problematic, however, when self-identified low-risk groups begin to locate risk externally and do not acknowledge the presence that HIV has within their communities. The problem is twofold. First, by relegating risk outside of their selves and communities there becomes an ignorance of risk and thus safer sexual practice. Second, associating risk with certain qualities and identities promotes the stratification of our society. tis important for each individual to connect with HIV on a level that propels them into making responsible decisions, regardless of that person's risk level. HIV needs to be everyone's issue, not just the concern of affected groups. Rates of transmission are only growing and if we stay on the same trajectory it is going to become everyone's concern. I aim for a collective ideological shift in which we acknowledge risk's (HIV's) presence in our lives and take responsibility for our actions. Through looking at power, privilege, risk, responsibility, and accountability I hope to convey the gravity and scale of the pandemic we are up against and instill a sense of urgency and necessity within safer sex. The second to last day and the last day will be dedicated to the creation of something that works to connect people to HIV in order to mobilize towards prevention. It is up to the discretion of the class whether it will be a group project, in small groupings, or individualized.

Activities: Hand's on, capacity building will culminate in the production of some sort of project (creation of a zine, psa, workshop, game, poster, etc.).

You may visit the SDCL to view a tentative syllabus.

Meeting Times: Tuesday, January 16th through Friday, 2-5PM Meeting Place: Kiva, Library 3rd Floor Start Date: January 16th, 2007 End Date: January 19th, 2007 Number of Meetings: 4 Maximum number of Participants: 15

Facilitator: Jillian Fishman, Box 0385, jaf03@hampshire.edu, Bio: Jillian studies race, sex, and society. She is a signer for the Women's Health Collective. She strives for all sexual activity to be safe, consensual, and communicative.

Creative Writing Workshop
Type of activity: Janterm Workshop

This workshop will focus on all facets of creative writing (fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, scripts, some blur of two or more). It will be an open environment; participants can share work from authors they enjoy, and we can study these texts as examples of what we would like to accomplish in our own writings. Ideally, this workshop would incorporate other art forms (photography, film, music, etc.) but the direction will be decided by the group. The main point is if you like to write and would like to become a better writer or just try something different, this workshop will blow your mind.

Meeting Times: 6:30-8PM Meeting Place: Kiva, Library 3rd Floor Start Date: January 4th, 2007 End Date: January 26th, 2007 Number of Meetings: ~7 Maximum number of Participants: 15

Facilitator: Rachel Roché, Box 1330, rcr05@hampshire.edu Bio: Rachel is currently a Div II student at Hampshire College. Her academic interests include creative writing, cultural anthropology, and photography. She is particularly intrigued by how these three areas of study interact.

Artsplosion
Type of activity: Janterm Workshop

Have you been waiting for your artsplosion? What is this class, artsplosion? Artsplosion will be a space for artists of all levels to come together and produce. Artsplosion is meant to be a space for self-directed artistic creation. This class came of the notion that many Hampshire students have strong artistic urges yet do not actively engage in the creation of art because it does not always fit into the course of our academic studies. Artsplosion is meant to challenge the classical conceptions of what art is and who artists can be. We are suggesting that every student with a passion to create ought to do it. This class will be guided by the intentions and interests of the participating students with the overall goal to produce art and other expressions of creativity at every class.

Artsplosion will meet Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays throughout Jan term. Monday sessions will be spent first by discussing the work produced and the direction and intentions of the artists and secondly as studio time to create. Mondays will also be a space for student artists in the community to discuss their work with the class and lead short workshops in various mediums. (Please contact the facilitators if you would be interested in doing this. You do not have to be a registered member of the class.) Wednesday will be used as a creation space for the registered Artsplosion students. Fridays will be a space for open creation, including both the artists in the class and inviting any members of the larger community who would like to engage in creation.

There will probably be a small class fee (somewhere between $15 and $30) so that we can provide some materials for the students in the class, and we ask that all interested students begin collecting found objects and supplies to share. This class will create an interested community space through which artists of all types can experiment, change and grow.

Are you an artsplosion?

Meeting Times: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 5-9PM Meeting Place: Lemelson Classroom Start Date: January 3rd, 2007 End Date: January 29th, 2007 Number of Meetings: 20

Facilitator: Nora Harrington, Box 517, nmh03@hampshire.edu Bio: Nora is a 3.5 year who studies cultural anthropology and medicine.

Facilitator: Ellen Bainer, Box 0057, ecb03@hampshire.edu Bio: Ellen is a fourth year Hampshire student studying religion, architecture and sculpture. Ellen went to Halloween as a toothbrush this year.

Introduction to Rhizomatics: Transdisciplinary Learning
Type of activity: Janterm Workshop

This project aims to craft a productive space, a workshop for experimenting with new forms of collective reading, writing, and learning. A space to tinker, as artists and inventors. The aim is to become playful in the processes and products of learning, to ask new questions, find new problems, create new approaches as we read, discuss, and write. We do not want to confine ourselves to reading and writing about the same things, but wish to invent new ways of reading and writing together.

The program will be loosely based on a few works of the philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Feliz Guattari, with potential readings from Foucault, Butler, Agamben, Lyotard, and others, but only as points of departure – places to build, draw connections, create something new and different. The actual reading list, which is certainly not limited to philosophy, will be compiled and selected collectively. Experience with philosophy or post-structural theory will be helpful but is not necessary. Collaborators should come with a mind to employ the reserves of knowledge they have accumulated, to create new relations in which to assemble them, and to draw consistency between their own field and their desires and those of a heterogeneous body of others.

Members will decide their own rhythm and intensity of involvement. If you are going to be on campus during January Term and are interested in observing and/or participating in this experiment to whatever degree, please contact facilitators.

Meeting Times: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, 10:30-12, 1-3:00 Meeting Place: Start Date: January 3rd, 2007 End Date: January 25th, 2007 Number of Meetings: 13

Facilitator: Reid Kotlas, Box 0912, rkk04@hampshire.edu Bio: Reid is a third year Division II student, studying political economy and post structural theory.

Facilitator: Anderson Mackenzie, Box 1213, arm01@hampshire.edu Bio: Anderson is a third year student at Hampshire, currently halfway across the river of Div II. His focus in his time at Hampshire has moved from political theory and history of anarchism and Marxism to post-structural theory. He remains committed to engagements of radical thought and action.

Sexual Revolution and the Erotic Novel
Type of activity: Janterm Course

In this course, we hope to explore the role of erotic literature in mediating changes in attitudes about sexual practices. Possible readings include Stephanie Czatos, the Marquis de Sade, and contemporary lesbian erotica. In addition to outside readings, this course will focus primarily on work-shopping our own erotic writings, with a focus on pushing the boundaries of current sexual mores. This course will meet twice weekly for one hour and will include discussion and sharing of writing.

Meeting Times: Monday, Wednesday 7:30-8:30PM Meeting Place: Kiva, Library 3rd Floor Start Date: January 3rd, 2007 End Date: January 24th, 2007 Number of Meetings: 8

Facilitator: Kale Edmiston, Box 0444, eee05@hampshire.edu Bio: Kale is a division three student studying mental illness, trauma, and women's experience. She is a huge fan of erotic writing and thought. A course where she could express her passion for outrageous sexual situations would be an amazing way to spend Janterm.

Facilitator: Ansel Ploog, Box 0980, aep03@hampshire.edu Bio: Ansel is a Div III writing student studying female anatomy and creative writing.

Slim to None
Type of activity: Janterm Play

This January term I would like to teach an EPEC course about eating disorders for the cast and crew of Slim to None. Slim to None is a play I wrote for my div III about eating disorders. I have spent the past three years educating myself about disordered eating from cognitive science, social, creative, and physiological points of view. I wrote Slim to None for middle school students as a preventative measure. The play will be rehearsed this January and performed in February along with a forum or discussion. This discussion will be led by cast and crew. In order to prepare the students who will be leading discussion after the play I would like to provide an EPEC course. I would like to only admit students who will be working with the students in February. The main goals of this course are to educate these Hampshire students about the cultural, psychological, and biological (including neuroscience) aspects of disordered eating, as well as to train them to lead the forum with middle school students. I have acquired many primary articles about disordered eating that I will be able to choose from for students to read and will be able to train them based on the training and experience I gain from giving talks about eating disorders for MEDA (Mass. Eating Disorder Association). I enjoy teaching immensely and am looking forward to this endeavor.

Meeting Times: TBA Meeting Place: TBA Start Date: January 3rd, 2007 End Date: January 24th, 2007 Number of Meetings: ?

Facilitator: Katie Spero, Box 1196, kas03@hampshire.edu

Systemic Analysis of One Philosophic Text: Phenomenology of Spirit
Type of activity: Janterm Course

This course will be focused on a close reading of portions of George W. F. Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, possibly one of the most complex and influential texts in recent western philosophy. Classes will consist of close exegetical readings of decided portions of the work with an emphasis on understanding rather than trying to "develop our own theories." Secondary texts may be referred to throughout the course but are not essential. Participation is open to whoever is interested in joining. Drop-ins are welcome. The reading for the course will be relatively light but intense, and will therefore allow for varying degrees of participation. No written work is required. Evaluations may be negotiated

Meeting Times: Monday, Wednesday 12-2PM Meeting Place: Goodread Library (Donut 1) Start Date: January 3rd, 2007 End Date: January 24th, 2007

Facilitator: Jay Rosenberg, jhr03@hampshire.edu Bio: Jay is a Division III student who is writing a thesis evaluating the claims of a contemporary Italian political theorist.

Facilitator: Ben Hueftle, bhh04@hampshire.edu Bio: Ben is a second semester student studying social theory and practice with a concentration in "Latin America from below."