Active learning and the Web

“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” – Confucius

This is an active learning course meaning that you will be engaged with activities such as class and group discussion, participating in and designing class exercises, collaborative note-taking, and peer assessment.

I also make much use of the Web. For instance, this syllabus is a Web page that I update; I expect you to bookmark it and to follow links. (If you find a broken link or typo, let me know!) You can easily find things on this page with ⌘+f. You can open links in new tabs with control-click. We will also make use of Google Docs. In emails I often use markdown conventions and respond below your quoted (‘>’) text.

Academic policies

In short, come to class on time and with the readings and assignments completed; be respectful and willing to collaborate. There are no provisions for missed exams or late assignments.

In general, if you have an issue, such as needing an accommodation for a religious obligation or disability, speak with me before it affects your performance. Do not plead afterwards. Instead, beforehand, offer proposals that show initiative and a willingness to work.

Academic Integrity is of utmost importance: “The promotion of independent and original scholarship ensures that students derive the most from their educational experience and their pursuit of knowledge.” Violations include cheating, plagiarism, and participating in or encouraging dishonesty. If you cheat on an exam, you will receive zero credit and be referred to the Office of Student Conduct. If you plagiarize seven or more words in a row, the same will follow.

We sometimes use devices in class as part of an activity, but the default policy is for gadgets to be silenced and put away. If you want to use a device throughout the course, email me a device proposal with your intended usage. Device users might also be called upon you to perform tasks such as looking things up or taking collaborative notes. Deviations from classroom professionalism and respect may result in dismissal from class and demerits against your grade. See full course policies for more detail.

Writing requirements

Assignments must be double-spaced, 12 point font, 1-inch margins. (One page contains approximately 250 words.) Pages must be numbered and stapled together. Citations must be in the APA style. No APA cover page is required. Include your name.

Your work should be reviewed by two peers relative to the writing rubric. Make use of Hacker’s Pocket Manual and my writing tips handout. On the due date, assignments are due at start of class (and the digital version must be submitted via Canvas/TurnItIn.) If you have permission to revise a written assignment for re-assessment, please see these revision instructions.

Sep 11 Fri - Introduction

Welcome! We introduce ourselves, cover class logistics, and begin our semester of discussion. Specifically, why is Goop so popular?

• Olga Khazan, 2017, “Why Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop is still so Popular?”

Also, bring a mnemonic that connects your name with a memorable image: “Imagine me …” I could say: “Imagine Prof. Reagle being chased by beagles.”

Sep 15 Tue - Self-help: History and ideology

We’ll continue our discussion of why self-help is popular and ask what ideological assumptions underly the advice given?

• Heidi Marie Rimke, 2017, “Self-Help Ideology”
• Boris Kachka, 2013, “The Power of Positive Publishing: How Self-help Publishing Ate America”
• Kate Burt, 2009, Messing with Your Head: Does the Man Behind Neuro-linguistic Programming Want to Change Your Life – or Control Your Mind?

Sep 18 Fri - Popular communication and culture

Self-help is a object of study within the subfield of popular communication and culture. What is culture, and what does it mean to speak of popular culture? The two classic works below are a bit difficult, so make note of concepts or claims you don’t understand, as well as those that you think are relevant to self-help (e.g., are readers of self-help “cultural dopes” of a dominating power?)

• Stuart Hall, 1981, “Notes on Deconstructing ‘The Popular’,” Popular Culture: A Reader, ch=6, pp=66–71

  In this trimmed version of a classic essay, Hall considers three different definitions of popular and their strengths and weaknesses. (Focus on pages 66–71.)

• John Fiske, 1989, “Understanding Popular,” Reading the Popular, ch=1.

  This is the introduction chapter to a book full of 1980s popular culture case studies. This serves as a nice summary of Fiske’s complementary book Understanding Popular Culture and of thinking about this field.

Sep 22 Tue - SHAM

Salerno is a harsh critic of self-help. Absent a specific prompt, summarize and engage.

• Salerno (2005), “Hopelessly Hooked on Help,” SHAM, ch=0
  
• Salerno (2005), “How We Got Here-Wherever Here Is,” SHAM, ch=1
  
• Salerno (2005), “Tony Robbins: Leaps (and Bounds) of Faith,” SHAM, ch=4
  

Sep 25 Fri - A self-help classic and a classic critique

In 1984, Janice Radway published Reading the Romance, an important piece of pop-culture criticism that investigated the romance genre (and its readers). This type of work came to be known as “audience reception” research, and in 1991 Debra Grodin did the same for self-help; she asked self-help readers about their motivations and thoughts about the genre. Norman Vincent Peale’s The Power of Positive Thinking is mentioned and is a classic biblical-based instance of self-help. I include a link to some Peale quotes and an article describing his book.

When you read Grodin, ask yourself if contemporary self-help works fulfill a similar role and do today’s readers have similar motivations? (Ask your friends!)

• Debra Grodin, 1991 “The Interpreting Audience: The Therapeutics of Self-Help Book Reading”
• Goodreads, 2018, “The Power of Positive Thinking Quotes”
• Wikipedia, 2018, “The Power of Positive Thinking”

Sep 29 Tue - Quackery vs science-based medicine

What is quackery and how do we distinguish it from science-based medicine?

• Salerno (2005), “Patient, Heal Thyself,” SHAM, ch=11
  
• Paul Ingraham (2014), Why “science”-based instead of “evidence”-based?
• Stephen Barrett (2018), “Twenty-Eight Ways to Spot Quacks and Vitamin Pushers”

Oct 02 Fri - Self-help as “thin culture”

We continue with our second “audience reception” study of self-help. Now that we’ve read Salerno’s harsh critique, note how Lichterman claims such critiques are missing the point. Also, what did Lichterman find that differed with Grodin? What interpretive communities exist today? Again, I provide a description of and quotes from a self-help book mentioned by Lichterman.

• Paul Lichterman, 1992, “Self-Help Reading as a Thin Culture”
• Goodreads, 2018, “The Road Less Traveled Quotes”
• Wikipedia, 2018, “The Road Less Traveled”

Oct 06 Tue - Film discussion

• Berlinger, 2016, Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru (Netflix.)
• Jane Bradley, Katie J.M. Baker, 2019, “Leaked records reveal Tony Robbins berated abuse victims, and former followers accuse him of sexual advances”

Oct 09 Fri - Hacking life

• Reagle, 2019, “Introduction” & “The Life Hackers,” Hacking Life, ch=1,2

Oct 13 Tue - Time management

• Erlend Hamberg (2017), “GTD in 15 Minutes – A Pragmatic Guide to Getting Things Done,” hamberg.no
• Melissa Gregg, 2015, “Getting Things Done: Productivity, Self-Management, and the Order of Things,” Networked Effect.

Oct 16 Fri - Hacking time

• Reagle (2019), “Hacking Time,” Hacking Life, ch=3

Oct 20 Tue - Body language and p-hacking

A popular TED talk about the “life hack” of good posture exposed the frailties of social science.

• Amy Cuddy, 2012, “Your body language shapes who you are”
• Susan Dominus, 2017, “When the revolution came for Amy Cuddy”
• Christie Aschwanden, 2019, “We’re all ‘P-Hacking’ now: An insiders’ term for scientific malpractice has worked its way into pop culture. Is that a good thing?”

Oct 23 Fri - Hacking motivation

• Reagle (2019), “Hacking Motivation,” Hacking Life, ch=4

Oct 27 Tue - Stuff

In this eclectic group of short readings, we’ll encounter the gendering of our relationship to stuff, past and present, as well as a short-story about one man’s obsession.

• Youyou Zhou, 2017, “Who reads self-help books? Goodreads data show women are reading books written by men”
• Rose C. Feld, 1926, “Vassar girls to study home-making as career new course in Euthenics, the science of human betterment, will adjust women to the needs of today and act as a check on spread of divorce”
• Alexei Sayle, 2001, “Barcelona chairs”
• Barry Yourgrau, 2015, “The origin story of Marie Kondo’s decluttering empire”

Oct 30 Fri - Hacking stuff

• Reagle (2019), “Hacking Stuff,” Hacking Life, ch=5

Nov 03 Tue - Aspirational work

We’ve seen how the hacker ethos is well suited to the authorpreneurs of the creative class. We’ve also seen it associated with masculine culture. Duffy speaks to a different set of entrepreneurs trying to make it online. What similarities and differences do you see between her subjects and life hackers?

• Duffy, 2017, (Not) Getting Paid To Do What You Love: Gender, Social Media, and Aspirational Work, ch=1,2

Nov 06 Fri - Film discussion

• Vikram Gandhi, 2011, Kumaré. (Prime, Youtube, iTunes, Google Play, and Northeastern’s Kanopy)
• Ilona Hongisto, Toni Pape, 2015, “Unexpected artivism: The fabulatory function in Kumaré”

Nov 10 Tue - Health & self in modernity

• Giddens, 1997, “The Trajectory of Self”, Modernity and Self-Identity, pp=70-108 (If you find it personally difficult, you can skip the final section on “anorexia”.)
• Appleyard, 1994, “Healthism is a Vile Habit: It is no Longer Enough Simply to be Well; We are Exhorted to Pursue an Impossible and Illiberal Cult of Perfection”.
• Rhinehart, 2013, “How I Stopped Eating Food”.

Nov 13 Fri - Hacking health

• Reagle (2019), “Hacking Health,” Hacking Life, ch=6

Nov 17 Tue - Relationships

• John Danaher, Sven Nyholm, Brian D. Earp, 2018, “The Quantified Relationship,” The American Journal of Bioethics.
• Tynan, 2015, Superhuman Social Skills: A Guide to Being Likeable, Winning Friends, and Building Your Social Circle, pp=1-16
• jnucci, 2015, “Agile Parenting”

Nov 20 Fri - Hacking relationships

• Reagle (2019), “Hacking Relationships,” Hacking Life, ch=7

Nov 24 Tue - Meaning

• William Irvine, 2009, “Introduction” & “The Dichotomy of Control,” A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy, ch=0,5
• Chiara Sulprizio, 2015, “Why is Stoicism Having a Cultural Moment?”

Nov 27 Fri - NO CLASS

Dec 01 Tue - Hacking meaning

• Reagle (2019), “Hacking Meaning,” Hacking Life, ch=8

Dec 04 Fri - Presentations

Dec 08 Tue - Conclusion

• Holly Theisen-Jones, 2017, “My Fully Optimized Life Allows Me Ample Time to Optimize Yours”
• Reagle (2019), “Conclusion,” Hacking Life, ch=9