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Week 1: Welcome! (Aug 29)
Slides (password: pratt)
In Class Activity
Reading
Watch Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and be prepared to discuss it in class.
Assignment
Due: Next week
This week is all about Figuring out what you want to explore in your thesis!
You do not need to have a thesis topic, argument, or solution yet. Instead, use this assignment to notice what you are already curious about, where that curiosity comes from, and what questions begin to emerge when you look at it more closely.
- What is a question, topic, or thing you are curious about, drawn to, or unable to stop thinking about right now?
- Where might this interest have come from? What experiences, stories, histories, or references feel connected to it?
- Who do you think about when you think about this topic? What identities, communities, histories, or systems might intersect with it?
- Why does this topic matter to you personally?
- What questions are becoming more complicated as you learn more?
- Has anything already changed the way you think about the topic?
- Who could you talk to, learn from, or observe to understand it differently?
- How might this project connect to the kind of designer, artist, researcher, or practitioner you want to become?
- If this project could open one conversation or shift one way of thinking, what would you want that to be?
The goal is not to arrive at a finished thesis statement. The goal is to discover a direction worth following and begin building a set of questions, references, relationships, and possibilities that can grow through the semester.
We will discuss these next week.