Students will undertake group research projects throughout the semester, providing an online report of key contexts necessary for deep understanding of The Wire. Groups of 3-4 students will be responsible for creating a “page” on this blog dedicated to one of the topics listed at the bottom of this page. The goal of the page is to provide a detailed understanding of the issues that The Wire touches on, and how historical and sociological depth can strengthen our understanding of the show.
For each of the topics, the key question that your page should answer is “what more should I know about this topic to flesh out this aspect of The Wire?” While each topic is broad enough to warrant a full book (or more), you should focus on creating a collaboratively-written document that provides a good introduction to the topic, points to interesting examples and details that deepens our understanding, and provides link for further reading and study. Authors should take advantage of the multimedia nature of the web to incorporate images and multimedia when relevant. Length will depend on the scope of the topic, although a minimum of 2,500 words seems appropriate.
The context pages are designed to be collaboratively written. You should use a platform like GoogleDocs that allows collaborative authorship to create your document. Each group must have a meeting with Prof. Mittell (lunch works well) to discuss plans at least a week before the due date. Once you have a completed draft, one member of the group should Create a Page to copy the document and publish it. Prof. Mittell will work with students to help format and troubleshoot the technology.
Context pages must be published on this site by 6 pm on the day before we discuss them in class. All students will be expected to read the page prior to the next day’s meeting as part of their assigned work. Students should also email Prof. Mittell privately with a self-assessment of the group dynamic, with the goal of assessing the balance of workload within the group and evaluating your own contributions. Prof. Mittell will provide a grade on the project based on the self-assessments and the success of the document. Students may revise the page throughout the semester to improve it for a final assessment on May 15.
Here is the list of contexts and due dates. Please comment on this page offering your ranked choice of 3 potential topics/dates. The sooner you comment, the more likely you will get your choices.
Television, 2/11: authored by Jason Mittell
Baltimore, 2/25: Brett Dollar, Sam Lazurus, Jamie Thorndike
Post-Industrial American Economy, 3/2: Ernest Russell, Eamon Duffy, Jason Gutierrez, Matt Leonard
The Drug War, 3/11: David Ellis, Ioana Literat, Charlie Dube, Peter Murphy
Urban Government & Politics, 3/30: Peter Prial, Nick Bestor, Julia Szabo, Stefan Claypool
Urban Education, 4/13: Geoff Edwards, Tim Edwards, Alex White, Josie Keller
American Racial Politics, 4/22: Antoinette Rangel, Jared Rosenberg, Ben Rudin, Evan Griswold
The State of Contemporary Journalism, 4/27: Tom Brant, Ben Ehrlich, Lily Hughes, Kyle Dudley
Being a Marylander I would love to do Baltimore if anyone wanted to join in.
Since I am a Secondary Education minor I would like to do Urban Education as my topic. I am also currently taking Education Psychology and Sociology of Education courses, and the reading from those courses will be valuable in giving a description and analysis of this context.
I’d be interested in doing Baltimore, The Drug War, or Post-Industrial America, in that order of preference.
I would like to do the Drug War, Urban Politics and Urban Education in that order of preference.
I would most like to most research the city of Baltimore, followed by Urban Education, and Urban Politics.
I’d be interested in doing the Drug War, American Racial Politics, and Urban Politics. Any one of those I’d be more than happy to do, though I am a political science major so that might help my research for the project if I were to be assigned that area.
I’d like to do the State of Contemporary Journalism; second choice Baltimore.
I would be most interested in the Drug War, Baltimore, or Urban Education.
I would be interested in doing Urban Education, The Drug War or American Racial Politics.
I really really want to do The Drug War, because that is something I’ve always been interested in and read a lot about. If not, American Racial Politics or Urban Education would be okay as well. Thank you.
I’d like to do Contemporary Journalism. If not that, then the Drug War.
I would love to do either Urban Politics, American Racial Politics, or the Drug War.
I would be interested in doing Urban Education, Urban Government and Politics, or American Racial Politics.
I would love to do Contemporary Journalism, but otherwise either Urban Education or Drug War would be fine.
I would like to do Urban Government and Politics, and if that isn’t an option then Post-Industrial American Economy, then Drug War.
I would love to do Urban Education, then American Racial Politics or Urban Government and Politics.
I would be very interested in studying the Post-Industrial American Economy.
I’d like to do the state of contemporary journalism, post-industrial American economy, or urban government and politics
I would be interested in doing the drug war, american racial politics, and urban education,
i would love to do post-industrial American economy or the drug war….I’m assuming there’s going to be groups of 4 on some of these?
I’d like American Racial Politics, Urban Government and Politics, or Urban Education.
I would like either the Drug War or Urban Education, please.
I would like 1) urban Education, 2) the drug war, 3) urban gov’t and politics. Thanks.
I would like Post-Industrial America (1) or Urban Politics. (2)