Class meets in person in HH 306 on Tuesday and Thursday from 3:30 pm - 4:45 pm and live on Google Meet on Wednesday from 4:00 - 4:50 pm unless otherwise indicated. Assigned readings should be completed before class the day they are listed since most class periods will be devoted to discussion. Please make sure you understand and follow our Community Agreement for Classroom Discussions.

Note that UMD defines 1 credit hour as being equal to 3 hours of work. This is a 4 credit hour class, so in total you should expect to spend (at most!) 12 hours a week on this class. 4 hours are devoted to attending class, leaving 8 hours per week for reading, writing, etc. Please let me know if you find that you are spending more time on this class than that. 

Week 1

• Tue Sept 1:  [HH 306] First Day of Class. What is our Community Agreement for Classroom Discussions? What's In A Name? 

• Wed Sept 2 : [Google Meet] Read the Introduction of So You Want To Talk About Race (aka Talk About Race). Discuss. 

• Thur Sept 3 : [HH 306] Read Chapter 1 and 2 of Talk About Race. Discuss. What is a Personal Essay? 

  • Note that the Introduction and Chapters 1 and 2 are approximately 30 pages.

Week 2

• Tue Sept 8 : [HH 306] Read Chapter 3 of Talk About Race. Discuss. 

• Wed Sept 9 : [Google Meet] Read Chapter 4 of Talk about Race. Discuss.

• Thu Sept 10 : [HH 306] Read Chapter 5 and 6 of Talk About Race. Discuss. 

  • Note that Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6 are approximately 60 pages.

• Sun Sept 13 : Personal Essay #1 due by 11:59 pm. 

  • Details : Please make sure to read and understand the guidelines for Personal Essays before you start this assignment. When you submit this assignment make sure your document is shared so that anyone with the link is an editor. If you aren't sure how to do that you can watch the following 2 minute video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q6h1fYuYM4)  

• • NOTES : Reflect back on your life and make detailed notes about experiences you remember where your race or that of someone close to you (family or friend) was central to that experience. Your notes should contain specific details about people, places, dates, etc. which will help make these experiences uniquely yours. What details you include will depend on the type of experience, but you should include enough information to tell the story of that experience in a personal way. You should have one experience from each of these periods in your life : Early Childhood (ages 0 - 10), Middle School (ages 11 - 13), High School (ages 14 - 18), and College (ages 18+). Note that these experiences do not have to be from school itself they should just be from that "era" in your life. You should complete your notes before moving on to your outline. Remember that your notes should be made up of relatively brief bullet points and not paragraphs or a rough draft.

  • OUTLINE : Once your notes are finished, create an outline for your essay. Your experiences will serve as the foundation of your essay. Your outline should include all the specific details you need in order to tell the story of your experiences. In addition, you should add what each experience reveals about your understanding of race at that time and why that experience was significant to you. You should complete your outline before moving on to your essay. Remember that your outline should be in a traditional itemized format.

  • ESSAY : Using the four experiences described in your outline, write an essay exploring how race has been a part of your life and how your understanding of race has developed over time. Your four experiences should form the foundation of your essay. Your goal in this essay is to create a very personal history of how your understanding of race has evolved over time. How exactly you do this depends a lot on the kind of experiences you've had and your own personal background, so make sure to include details that are unique to you and your experiences.

  • Privacy Notice : I will not share your submission with anyone else, nor will I upload it to AI. It will remain private with me. I am the only entity who will read or grade your submission.

Week 3

• Tue Sept 15 : Read Chapter 7 of Talk About Race. Discuss. 

• Wed Sept 16 : [Google Meet] Read Chapter 8 of Talk About Race. Discuss.

• Thur Sept 17 : Read Chapter 9, 10, and 11 of Talk About Race. Discuss.

  • Note that Chapters 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 are approximately 65 pages.

Week 4

• Tue Sept 22 : Read Chapter 12 and 13 of Talk About Race. Discuss.

• Wed Sept 23 : [Google Meet] Read Chapter 14 of Talk About Race. Discuss

• Thur Sept 24 : Read Chapter 15 of Talk About Race. Discuss.

  • Note that Chapters 12, 13, 14, and 15 are approximately 50 pages.

• Sun Sept 27 : Personal Essay #2 due by 11:59 pm.

  • Details : Please make sure to read and understand the guidelines for Personal Essays before you start this assignment. When you submit this assignment make sure your document is shared so that anyone with the link is an editor. If you aren't sure how to do that you can watch the following 2 minute video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q6h1fYuYM4)  

  • NOTES : Pick six chapters from So You Want To Talk About Race that made an impression on you in some way (either positive or negative). For each chapter please give the chapter number and the question being asked in the title of the chapter. Briefly describe the answer to this question in your own words (based on the content of the chapter). Then, pick out one fact, definition, or statistic from each chapter and include that, as well as a brief explanation of what makes that stand out to you in some way. Finally, for each chapter pick out one piece of advice that stood out to you. Briefly explain it and why it stood out.

  • OUTLINE : Once your notes are finished, make an outline by describing each element from the prompt below that you will need to address in your essay. Each item in your outline should be followed by the specific points you will make to address them. You should complete both your notes and outline before writing your essay. Please start  your essay after your notes and outline so that all are immediately visible in your submission. Please do not use tabs to separate them. 

  • ESSAY : Which three chapters from the six in your notes made the biggest impressions on you? These can be positive or negative impressions. A positive impression could be based on it having some connection with your life or if it gives you new ways of handling situations that you may have faced.  A negative impression could be based on a chapter which somehow contradicts your life experiences or that you simply disagree with. In your essay talk about each of these three chapters and explain why they made the impression they did. Please make sure to connect your views about each chapter to specific experiences in your own life that you describe in some detail. Each chapter should be supported with at least one experience from your life. Make sure to identify the chapters both by the number and the question it asks. Since our essays are relatively brief (minimum 500 words) you do should not have an introductory or concluding paragraph. 

  • Privacy Notice : I will not share your submission with anyone else, nor will I upload it to AI. It will remain private with me. I am the only entity who will read or grade your submission.

Week 5

• Tue Sept 29 : Read Chapter 16 and 17 of Talk About Race. Discuss. Wrap up Talk About Race.

• Wed Sept 30 : [Google Meet] Midterm 1 take home exam questions introduced.

• Thur Oct 1 :  [no class] work on Midterm 1.

Week 6

• Tue Oct 6 :  [no class] Midterm 1 due by 11:59 pm.

• Wed Oct 7 : [Google Meet] Introduce The 1619 Podcast.

  • We will be discussing The 1619 Podcast over five class periods. Please download the mp3 files from Canvas. If you get these files from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, etc. you will be asked to subscribe (which you should not do). Please make sure you listen to the episodes before the class period for which they are assigned. Make sure to fill out a Notes sheet as you are listening to each episode and bring that with you to the class where we are discussing that episode.

    • UMN now offers a free subscription to the New York Times which will give you access to The 1619 Podcast if you activate your account.

• Thur Oct 8 : Listen to Ep 1 of The 1619 Podcast (42 minutes). Discuss.

Week 7

• Tue Oct 13 : Listen to Ep 2 of The 1619 Podcast (31 minutes). Discuss. 

• Wed Oct 14 : [Google Meet] Listen to Ep 3 of The 1619 Podcast (34 minutes). Discuss.

• Thur Oct 15 :  Listen to Ep 4 of The 1619 Podcast (39 minutes). Discuss.

Week 8

• Tue Oct 20 : Listen to Ep 5 Part 1 and Ep 5 Part 2 of The 1619 Podcast (65 minutes). Discuss. 

• Wed Oct 21 : [Google Meet] Introduction to Algorithms.

• Thur Oct 22 : Read Chapter 1 (10 pages, Introduction) of More Than a Glitch (MTAG). Discuss. 

• Sun Oct 25 : Personal Essay #3 due by 11:59 pm. Details : 

  • NOTES : For each of the five episodes in the 1619 Podcast, make notes on two stories that stood out to you. By story I mean a series of events that are described in the podcast that have an impact on an individual or group of individuals. Note the key characters (by name) in the story and the main events that make up the story. Who was impacted and how? Why did this stand out to you? Your notes should be in bullet points form and not written out as paragraphs, etc. as they are just your notes. Make sure your notes are clearly organized where each episode is identified by both its number and title (eg. Episode 1 - The Fight for a True Democracy, etc). There are five episodes so you should describe a total of 10 stories in your notes.

  • OUTLINE : Once your notes are finished, make an outline by describing each element from the prompt below that you will need to address in your essay. Each item in your outline should be followed by the specific points you will make to address them. You should complete both your notes and outline before writing your essay. Please start  your essay after your notes and outline so that all are immediately visible in your submission. Please do not use tabs to separate them. 

  • ESSAY : Which three stories (from your 10 in your notes) stood out to you the most and why? Each of your stories should come from a different episode. Tell each of these three stories in your own words and clearly enough so someone who has not listened to the podcast can understand. Who was involved in each story, what events make up the story, what was the impact of the events, and who was impacted (and how)? Why did it stand out to you? For each story you select, please connect it to a chapter in So You Want To Talk About Race. Explain the connection and clearly indicate the chapter from Talk About Race from which it comes by using both the chapter number and title. You should not have an introductory paragraph or summarizing conclusion in these essays given their relatively brief length (minimum 500 words). 

  • Privacy Notice : I will not share your submission with anyone else, nor will I upload it to AI. It will remain private with me. I am the only entity who will read or grade your submission.

Week 9

• Tue Oct 27 : Read Chapter 2 (18 pages, Machine Bias) of MTAG. Discuss. 

• Wed Oct 28 : [no class] There is an exercise to complete and submit today instead of attending class. You will create a Machine Learning model with Google's tool called Teachable Machine. 

• First, watch the following videos that explain how to use it  : 

  • Introduction (2 minutes)

  • Tutorial 1 : Gather (2 minutes)

  • Tutorial 2 : Train (1 minute)

  • Tutorial 3 : Export (1 minute) 

• Second, create a 3 class model with Teachable Machines that distinguishes between a phone, a book, and a pen/pencil. This will be an Image Project so your training data will be photos of you holding these different objects. Make sure to give your classes descriptive names so I can try out your algorithm. Upload your model and get a shareable link. Test the link to make sure it is working and then submit that shareable link to Canvas by 11:59 pm tonight. This will count as your attendance for class today. If you don't submit a working link today will be marked as an absence. 

• Thur Oct 29 : [no class] Fall Break 

Week 10

• Tue Nov 3 : Continue to discuss Chapter 2 of MTAG.

• Wed Nov 4 : [Google Meet] Read Chapter 3 (15 pages, Facial Recognition) of MTAG. Discuss.

• Thur Nov 5 :  Read Chapter 4 (20 pages, Justice System) of MTAG. Discuss.

Week 11

• Tue Nov 10 : Read Chapter 5 (13 pages, Education) of MTAG. Discuss.

• Wed Nov 11: [Google Meet] Midterm 2 take home exam questions introduced. 

• Thur Nov 12 : [no class] Work on Midterm 2.

Week 12

• Tue Nov 17 : [no class] Midterm 2 due by 11:59 pm.

• Wed Nov 18 : [Google Meet] Disability Bias aka Ableism.

• Thur Nov 19 : Read Chapter 6 (22 pages, Ability and Technology) of MTAG. Discuss.

• Sun Nov 22 : Podcast due by 11:59 pm. 

Week 13

• Tue Nov 24 :  Read Chapter 7 (14 pages, Gender Rights and Databases) of MTAG. Discuss.

• Wed Nov 25 : [no class] Thanksgiving Eve

• Thur Nov 26 : [no class] Thanksgiving

Week 14

• Mon Nov 30 : 

• Tue Dec 1 :  Read Chapter 8 (16 pages, Diagnosing Racism) of MTAG. Discuss.

• Wed Dec 2 : [Google Meet]  

• Thur Dec 3 : 

• Fri Dec 4 : Personal Essay #4 due. Details TBA. This will be our last Personal Essay assignment. The schedule just got too cluttered (I felt) if we included #5. However, since I had promised you 5 essays and you may have been planning on that I will still assign a score to an Essay 5 assignment that you will not submit. This score will be the maximum of your essay scores for Essays 1 - 4. For example if you got 3, 4, 3, and 5 on your first four essays, your Essay 5 score will be 5.

Week 15

• Tue Dec 8 :

• Wed Dec 9 : [Google Meet] Introduce Final Exam take home questions.   

• Thur Dec 10 : 

Final Exam (take home exam)

• Thur Dec 17 : Final exam due by 11:59 pm. This is the due date since this is the day our final exam is scheduled.