About
Table of contents
About
“I think the syllabus is a sort of instigation. It instigates and provokes a particular sort of behavior and encourages a particular sort of person.”
“The most precise thing I can say about the making of syllabi is this: a syllabus should in essence be a manifesto. It is a tattered flag that you wave. When a few sad souls have been drawn to you, then you begin the lessons.”
In the essay (of which the above quotes originate), “On the Creation of Syllabi”, Jesse Ball doesn’t provide a simple definition of a syllabus or describe the general function of syllabi. Ball lays out the feelings that syllabi should evoke, if created well. In creating this syllabus, I thought back to the syllabi that I’ve encountered over the years as a curious formal and informal learner. Syllabi from classes I was taking, syllabi of courses that exist far from where I called home that I may never have the chance to take, and syllabi created by others who were just as curious and passionate about something. The syllabus created by my undergrad Philosophy instructor that used film to help students gain “understanding of the major approaches to ethics.” I wish I still had a copy, there were some amazing films on there. The “Lemonade” Syllabus, created by Candice Benbow and a host of others based on the themes in Beyoncé’s visual album of the same name. Dr. Alexander G. Weheliye’s Afrofuturism (2014) syllabus and others like it that include canonized creators/thinkers – Octavia Butler, Nalo Hopkinson, Sun Ra, Samuel Delaney, and George Clinton (as well as members under the Parliament-Funkadelic umbrella) – and also those who have inspired this philosophy. I could go on and on about the power or maybe the satisfaction of expanding my way of thinking via syllabi. I don’t see a syllabus as simply an outline of the subjects in a course of study or teaching but a map that helps me navigate new worlds. This syllabus isn’t grounded in specific objectives or learning outcomes or does not include the various policies for which the student must abide by (I’m a non-faculty librarian without formal instruction responsibilities), but I hope that it helps with navigating the landscape of data, mainly research data, in a way that is communal, transparent, ethical, and inclusive, or at least, expands your view of the status quo of research data and the lifecycle.
This syllabus structure was inspired by Ashley Brewer’s Halt and Catch Fire Syllabus found in Shannon Mattern’s “The Syllabus” Are.na channel. The syllabus was created as a submission to the Project on Open and Evolving Metaliteracies (POEM).
Acknowledgements
In crafting this section and even this syllabus, I wanted to be intentional about acknowledging the work that was created and done in order for me to fill in the words that make up this website and PDF. In this process, I arrived at Dr. Max Liboiron’s “Acknowledgements” and Legacy Russell’s On Footnotes (video lecture). Both made available in 2021, each talk about the importance and even sacredness of the footnote.
“Many are acknowledged here and throughout the text in footnotes so readers can see whose shoulders I stand on. I see these footnotes enacting an ethic of gratitude, acknowledgement, and reciprocity for their work.” (Liboiron, 2021)
“Celebrating ourselves always through and beyond our gorgeous footnotes, it is possible if we keep making this space together for one another.” (Russell, 2021)
While the listed resources aren’t footnotes, I share the sentiment of gratitude as well as highlighting contributions that are just as important in the larger conversation of research data management and the data lifecycle. Also, if you have the capacity, take a moment to read through the references of the resources provided and see what other insights there may be that can serve you in learning more about this topic.
Both big and small, thank you.