ArtH 8520: Reading Portfolios

The Reading Portfolio requirement of this course is designed, first, to make sure you come to each
seminar meeting prepared, and, second, to maximize your engagement with the readings and
discussions. It is my philosophy that we dont properly understand or learn from a text until weve had a
conversation with it in writing: clarifying its main points, pushing back on things that seem muddled or
even unethical, and experimenting with our own ideas. Writing is a crucial exercise for scholars: not just
in the exercise of public communication (which we know we have to do), but in the constant, daily
labors of private thinking and creating (which we often forget we have to do).

You will turn your Portfolios in three times in the semester (see schedule for due dates). The Portfolios
will include all Reading Notes to-date, along with a Seminar Summary.

Reading Notes:
Everyone engages with written texts differently. Each one of you has different learning needs in terms of
highlighting, marginal annotation, typed notes, indexing, etc. Some of you must read manually, with pen
in hand; others have to read through the whole text first before making notes. You should continue to
use whatever methods work best for you. For the purposes of the ongoing Reading Portfolios, however,
please prepare Reading Notes for each assigned text in the manner outlined here.

Reading Notes should be one-page for each assigned text (certainly no more than two), and should be
on loose-leaf paper (either typed or hand-written). For each text, you should note the following:
1. Summary and/or List of Main Points, with associated Page Numbers

2. One especially Good Thing about the text
(e.g., specific quotation, idea, political implication, etc.)

3. One especially Bad Thing about the text
(e.g., specific quotation, idea, political implication, etc.)

4. One possibly Useful Thing about the text
(e.g., anything that helps you develop something in your own work, or might be relevant to
scholarly debates or artistic practice in general)
Having these completed and on-hand for each seminar meeting will allow us to work through discussion
points more efficiently. These are your cheat sheets for discussion and correspond more or less
exactly to our goals for each seminar meeting.
Seminar Summary:
Each time you turn in your Reading Portfolio, you will include a brief, macro-level Seminar Summary.
These will be one-page, single-spaced and somewhat casually written, but they will allow you to reflect
broadly on some of the major issues (both inspirational and irritating) that the readings and seminar
discussions have covered to-date.