PLEASE READ Presentations/Facilitated Discussions

Hi all

have been thinking a bit about your reading discussions. Try not to do a summary of the reading. One of the things we do as academics/researchers is "critical reflection" ie we read something and then ask questions about the ideas presented...(study smarter critical thinking). There are all sorts of questions you can ask and these vary depending on disciplines etc.

What i would like you to do is start to think critically about the reading that you are doing and particularly the reading you are presenting on. So assume that we have read the article and can summarise for ourselves. For your presentation I would like you to choose one idea you think the author is presenting and question it. Some questions you could ask are:

• do you agree with the idea? why? do you disagree with it? why?
• how are gender/race/sexuality/age represented? does the author assume a gender/race/sexuality/age of the reader? are there other identities which are assumed/excluded? who is not referred to?
• how does the author describe our relationships with technology? does the author assume/describe technology as exploitative and oppressive or as liberatory and subversive or as something else? how does the author examine power dynamics inherent in access to technologies, in technology/knowledge production?
• Who is the author? what is their gender/race/sexuality/age and does this influence their assumptions/argument? When/where was the article written and does this influence the authors assumptions/argument?
• be self-reflexive...what is your response to the idea? What assumptions are you making that influence your reading?
  

These are just suggestions and there are heaps more you could ask. You dont have to ask all of them and I am happy for you to ask others of the reading and of us.

For example: Shalmalee suggested that in "M. Butterfly" Renee did not know that Song was "male-bodied" despite having a 20 year sexual relationship. How was this possible? what assumptions about race, gender and/or race-gender did Renee make that made this possible? what physical/sexual behaviours did they engage in that made this possible? how did these behaviours intersect with the race-gender assumptions that Renee made? What assumptions do we make about physical/sexual encounters between men & women, between men & men and between women & women that make it difficult for us to understand how Renee did not know that Song was "male-bodied"?

Looking forward to your discussions - also have fun!