Instructor: Pamela Klassen
Tuesday, 12:00-2:00pm | Location: Barker 269
Enrollment: Limited to 15 students
This seminar focuses on the public memory of settler colonialism and Indigenous dispossession in North America and Turtle Island, with a focus on stories told within museums. We will be oriented by remediation in two senses: telling a story in a new medium and efforts of remedy and repair. In addition to readings and class discussions, we will have multiple class visits with curators and staff at three Harvard museums: the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, the Harvard Art Museum, and the Harvard Natural History Museum. Students will have the opportunity to engage directly with museum collections for their assignments, which will include reading reflections, cultural item biographies and labels, and a summative project in the form of a reflexive podcast, digital project, essay, or another genre of remediation.
Registration information: This course has no prerequisites—I welcome students from any concentration. We will be discussing narratives and systems of colonialism that shape all of us, and various disciplinary perspectives will enrich our conversation. To gain access to the course, you will need to submit a petition via my.harvard.edu. One or two sentences telling me about your interests is enough.
If you have questions about the seminar, you can email me anytime or come to Zoom office hours on January 17, 12-2. Here's my email and Zoom room:
https://harvard.zoom.us/my/pamelaklassen
This course satisfies the English Concentration "Diversity in Literature" requirement for students on the “Common Ground” curriculum.
This course satisfies the “1900-2000 Guided Elective" requirement for English concentrators and Secondary Field students.