Dr. Horton has moved at light speed to put together a new description and reading list for ENGL 546. Here is the new description followed by the new book list:

According to a 2020 article in The Washington Post by Dr. Alicia Sesser Modestino, “one out of four women who reported becoming unemployed during the pandemic said it was because of a lack of child care — twice the rate among men.” In this course, we will turn to American literature to help us understand and dissect this alarming statistic.

The concept of American women in the workforce has seen many transformations from 1865 to the present due to various social and political movements. With the passing of the Emancipation Proclamation and the ending of the Industrial Revolution, the period around 1865 saw an increase of women taking positions outside of the domestic sphere. In 2020, as Modestino’s article demonstrates, we are seeing how social media and working from home adds another complex chapter to the history of working women in the United States. We will discuss the social, economic, and racial factors since 1865 that influenced women’s role in the American workforce. We will take a cultural studies approach to this topic – in addition to reading literature (fiction, short stories, poetry, biographies, and essays), we will examine scholarly and news articles, documentaries, films, television shows, and music to help us deconstruct the definitions of “women,” “working,” and “The United States.” We will interrogate the shifting definitions of the term “gender” and start with gender as a concept, a social construction reflecting differentials of power and opportunity.

The goal of this course is for students to understand the literature, history, and benchmarks of major events in the lives of women, as well as challenge American cultural conceptions of work. Throughout the semester, we will discuss the following questions:

• What is your personal definition of “work”?
• How does American culture privilege some forms of work while marginalizing others, specifically work performed by women of color?
• How has the American definition of work changed from 1865 to the present, specifically with the influx of “work from home” positions?
• What influence did the various waves of feminism have on the American workforce?
• How do stereotypes of womanhood influence the types of careers women choose?
• How does American literature reinforce and/or challenge stereotypes of working women?
• What messages do children and teenagers receive about women’s role in the workforce?

Required Texts:

For students who may not want to buy the physical books, most of these are available for free online or through your local library.

• Wilson, Harriet. Our Nig: Sketches from the Life of a Free Black. ISBN-13: 978-0486445618
• Hurst, Fannie. Imitation of Life: ISBN-13: 978-0822333241
• Martin, Ann M. Kristy’s Great Idea. ISBN-13: 978-1743813294
• Tademy, Lalita. Cane River. ISBN-13: 978-0446615884
• Weisberger, Lauren. The Devil Wears Prada: A Novel. ISBN-13: 978-0767914765
• Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. ISBN: ISBN-13: 978-0679734772
• Ng, Celeste. Little Fires Everywhere. ISBN-13: 978-0735224315

A Netflix account is also required, as we will watch a few documentaries and television shows on this platform. Other texts will be available on Blackboard as PDFs.

Recommended but not required texts:

• Carey, Elaine. Women Drug Traffickers: Mules, Bosses, and Organized Crime. ISBN-13: 978-0826351982
• Ware, Susan. Modern American Women: A Documentary History, Second Edition. ISBN: 978-0072418200.
• Baxandall, Rosalyn Fraad, and Linda Gordon. America’s Working Women: A Documentary History, 1600 to the Present. ISBN: 039303653

There is still one open seat in the course, so anyone who isn’t in the course now and finds this interesting should consider grabbing the last seat. You can add/drop courses from your schedule without issue up until the semester begins on 1/20.

Students in ENGL 546 Working Women in the USA this spring semester please take note: due to an unexpected crisis, the original professor of the course, Dr. Gogol, has just informed us that she is taking leave from all teaching in spring 2021. Fortunately, Dr. Dana Horton stepped up immediately to take over this 546 course, and thereby saved it from being canceled, which is normally the fate of specialty courses like this if something like this happens on the eve of the semester. So I just need to say thank you to Dr. Horton for taking this extraordinary action and rescuing this class. I also want to wish Dr. Gogol the best.

Practically speaking this means that Dr. Gogol’s book order will (almost certainly) no longer be relevant, since no two professors will ever run the same graduate course, not even one by the same title; each professor will assign and teach works that are in their particular area of specialty, while still keeping the theme/title of the course in mind. Right now, at this moment, Dr. Horton is working quickly to put together her own reading list and schedule, and will share that list with me as soon as it is done. I will update this post with Dr. Horton’s book order for 546 as soon as I receive it, which should be by this Friday, possibly sooner.

If anyone has any questions or issues please contact me at cloots@mercy.edu.

The spring semester will begin on Wednesday 1/20. There is no specific time during that day when your classes will or must start and different professors will do it differently. Some will unlock the section first thing in the morning; others will be working to polish the section throughout that day and will open the section on Wednesday evening. In all cases your courses will start at some point on Wednesday 1/20.

In the future you can always see the semester start-day and end-day, along with other such information, by viewing the academic calendars linked about half-way down this page on the Mercy main site. MA English courses always run on what’s called “Term A” which you will see referenced on the academic calendar.

Now although the semester doesn’t begin until 1/20, your Blackboard sections will actually become visible much sooner, on 1/6. This early-reveal drives most faculty crazy because it often results in students seeing parts of the course on which professors are still working and don’t realize are visible to student view. There are ways to hide from view just about anything in Blackboard and faculty tend to hide the majority or entirety of the interior Blackboard section from students until 1/20, since it will all be in development until 1/20. But still, mistakes happen, and so if you’re peeking at your course section on or after 1/6 you might very well see something that your professor is not intending you to see and isn’t aware is visible. Just know that your courses begin on 1/20, and prior to that point, everything in Blackboard is still a work in progress.