Teaching Assistant Application Each teaching assistant will be assigned to one Exploring Transfer class. Teaching assistants are required to attend class each day, complete the readings and keep up with the assignments, hold office hours each weekday and Sunday afternoons, and facilitate communication between the instructors and students. Teaching assistants are also required to attend a weekly faculty and staff meeting and are encouraged to participate in social events.QualificationsTeaching Assistants (TA's) are graduates of the Exploring Transfer program or students/graduates of Vassar College. Teaching Assistants must possess the following: Evidence of academic excellence Marked proficiency in writing analytic essays Ability to work collaboratively with students, faculty and staff Strong communication and organizational skills Commitment to the philosophy and mission of the Exploring Transfer Program This application will reset if you close it without hitting the submit button. All *asterisked questions are required. Applications are due by April 25th. Application InformationName* First Last Address* Street Address Address Line 2 City AlabamaAlaskaAmerican SamoaArizonaArkansasCaliforniaColoradoConnecticutDelawareDistrict of ColumbiaFloridaGeorgiaGuamHawaiiIdahoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriMontanaNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaNorthern Mariana IslandsOhioOklahomaOregonPennsylvaniaPuerto RicoRhode IslandSouth CarolinaSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasUtahU.S. Virgin IslandsVermontVirginiaWashingtonWest VirginiaWisconsinWyomingArmed Forces AmericasArmed Forces EuropeArmed Forces Pacific State ZIP Code PhoneEmail* Do you currently attend Vassar College?* Yes No List all 2- and 4- year colleges that you have attended.*Name of SchoolMajor(s) or Concentration(s)Class Year Application Statements and ResumePlease upload the following: Educational Justice Statement: Please submit a 1-2 page argument about what you perceive to be the greatest obstacle to gaining access to higher education; Rationale Statement: Please submit a 2-3 page statement describing why you want to be a teaching assistant in the Exploring Transfer Program this summer and why you would be a good fit for this program (this should include both your strengths and areas needing improvement); If there is a course you are especially interested in or one that you do not feel comfortable with, please include this information in your statement; andYour most recent resume.Please be sure to use Times New Roman, 12pt. font, 1-inch margins, and double-space your document. Educational Justice Statement*Accepted file types: jpeg, jpg, pdf, doc, docx, Max. file size: 10 MB.Rationale Statement*Accepted file types: jpeg, jpg, pdf, doc, docx, Max. file size: 10 MB.Resume*Accepted file types: jpeg, jpg, pdf, doc, docx, Max. file size: 10 MB.College TranscriptIf you are not a Vassar Student we will need an unofficial transcript from any and all colleges you have attended. Transcript*Max. file size: 10 MB.ReferencePlease provide the name and email contact information of one reference who has taught you. Once you submit your application, a request for reference will automatically be sent to your reference. Please tell your reference that the reference request form was sent (your reference should check the spam folder if a request is not received). We will contact you if we do not receive a response from your reference.Reference Name* First Last Reference Email Address* Exploring Transfer 2021 CoursesPlease indicate course preference by ranking the choices below (1-4); if applying for Quantitative Methods in Public Health, you need to have taken a basic statistics course:Introduction to Racial Literacy in Contemporary American Literature* Jordan Bell, English Instructor, Dutchess Community CollegeThis course examines the relationships through which racial knowledge is constructed and communicated in contemporary American literature and historical texts. It approaches racial literacy, and its development, as constructed through sets of relationships between different racial and ethnic groups mediated by culture, history, social media, and assumptions about knowledge (and what is worthy of being deemed as knowledge) and ignorance. Students will study the textual history of racial literacy to segue into how racial literacy and illiteracy manifest in contemporary texts, such as Colson Whitehead’s, The Intuitionist. Moreover, students will be introduced to critical discourse analysis and de-centering Whiteness. Students’ ethnographic experiences (real-world experiences) will be included and studied to help frame contemporary issues with racial literacy in contemporary American literature. Quantitative Methods in Public Health* Leroy Cooper, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology and Program in Science, Technology, and Society, Vassar CollegeThe major focus of public health is to prevent disease and promote health. Utilizing a wide range of subjects, public health is inherently multidisciplinary. This course will incorporate aspects of epidemiology, biostatistics, and biology (i.e., the natural history of disease) through lectures, discussion, and laboratory sessions. This course focuses on the principles of quantitative approaches to clinical and public health problems. Study design and validity of public health research, quantitative measures of frequency and association, and methods of data analysis are discussed and applied in the biostatistical laboratory. Critical interpretation of quantitative evidence and public health literature are emphasized throughout the course. Discussion of case studies and primary literature will incorporate aspects of health services, ethics, and policy while also providing students with rigorous experience in quantitative reasoning and evidence-based decision making. Heroism and Individuality in Greek Mythology: The Trojan War in Homer’s Iliad and Euripides* Barbara Olsen, Associate Professor of Greek and Roman Studies, Vassar CollegeThroughout their myths, the Ancient Greeks grappled with questions about their own humanity. By presenting stories of heroic men and women engaged in epic deeds, the Greeks explored questions of identity, heroism, and, in their accounts of the Trojan War cycle especially, the impact of war and struggle on human beings. The Trojan War served as the concluding event in Greek mythology, and the actions and fates of many of its main heroes (Achilles, Agamemnon, Odysseus, Paris, Hector, and Helen) influenced not only the Greek world of 2500 years ago but many of the ways we think about heroism, individuality, glory, family, and ethics even today. Homer’s great epic poem, the Iliad, presents its central hero struggling with the choice to pursue immortal glory or the ordinary pleasures of a peaceful but obscure life outside of the world of fame. After reading several books of the Iliad, produced hundreds of years before the foundation of democracy in Ancient Greece, the class concludes with the reading The Trojan Women, a tragedy by the Athenian Euripides, generally considered the most radical of the three great playwrights of the era of the Athenian democracy. In this play, Euripides further complicates narratives of ancient and present glory, challenging the Athenians to think about the ways war – real or mythological – impacts both warriors and civilians. Throughout the class, we will join Homer and Euripides in asking: What does it mean to be human – and what does it mean to live of life of meaning and satisfaction? Reaching for a New Language: Reading and Writing Poetry* Heather Ostman, Professor of English, Westchester Community CollegeThis course will introduce students to the major poetic forms, through reading, analysis, and writing creative and critical work. The purpose of this course will be to enable students to “see” as poets have seen the world through the creative lens, to think and reflect on those visions, and to create their own, in response to their own worlds—and possibly with the hope of reshaping them. While the course will focus on the major poetic forms, students will be reading for the vision of the poet, to see how the writer envisions the world and where the potential for transformation and social change may be. Therefore, in addition to reading major poetic works, students will also watch performance videos of poets who articulate a new world and reject the perceptions and at times the constraints of an outdated era. Importantly, students will be writing their own poetry, trying out the different forms, as well as writing critically about the published poetry they will be reading, and peer-reviewing each others’ poems in safe, open workshops. Finally, the course’s lessons, discussions, and workshops will engage reflective practice, so students will have daily opportunities to write and reflect on how what they are reading and writing as tools for deepening their understanding of the ways poetry enables us to “reach for new language and new ways with language . . . to give voice.” HiddenSex and Gender as Biological and Social Constructs Katia Perea CUNY-Kingsborough and Kelli Duncan Vassar CollegeWhat do Bob's Burgers, My Little Pony, and Avatar: The Last Airbender have in common? Cartoons can playfully challenge traditional gender norms commonly portrayed on television. They do this by displaying systems of gender behavior that are both intentionally overt and naturally transgressive to the traditional constructs of masculine and feminine traits. This course will first focus on the biological basis of sex and how this may or may not influence gender, and then will examine how gender constructs are reproduced, as well as challenged, in media presentations, with a focus on cartoons.Students will be asked to think and write critically about the interactions of sex and gender as both birth determinants and social constructs that influence our behavior and our experiences as human beings. In addition to cartoons, select readings will help to further identify a range of persistent stereotypes as power structures, and how they can be used to either promote or deviate from normative gender roles. Among the cartoons chosen for critical examination are Bee and Puppycat (Frederator), Bob's Burgers (FOX), Adventure Time (Cartoon Network), My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (HUB- Hasbro Studios), Avatar: The Last Airbender (Nickelodeon) and Star vs. the Forces of Evil (Disney). HiddenGrowing Up in War and Peace Bojana Blagojevic (LaGuardia Community College) and Nicholas de Leeuw (Department of Psychology, Vassar College) The current refugee crisis has focused the world’s attention on the youngest victims of the wars and conflicts that force families to leave their homes and seek protection in a new land. In fact, this is nothing new. Armed conflicts often involve children, and inevitably change the lives of children growing up in the context of war. The basic human rights of children are trampled, and the course of their development, and the development of the broader society is altered. This course will take a multi-level approach to the causes and effects of war and pathways to peace, employing psychological, evolutionary, political and human rights perspectives. For example, we will consider how our notions of human rights are related to the basic needs of developing children, which in turn are grounded in our evolutionary history. We will look at the psychology of aggression, obedience, and attachment to help understand authoritarianism, liberalism, and resistance. Our readings will include formal academic studies and essays, as well as case studies and personal narratives of people whose lives were shaped by experiences of human rights violations. In addition to readings, personal and shared human experiences will be used as resources in our learning process. Finally, we will reflect on ways of building peace and on our own responsibilities in a diverse and complex global society. HiddenThe Body Politic: Disciplining Bodies, Disciplining Behaviors Michelle Ronda, CUNY-Borough of Manhattan Community College Eric Trump, Vassar College This interdisciplinary course explores the ways in which power structures our behavior and determines what we can and cannot do with our bodies. The difference between the normal and the pathological (or deviant) is not naturally given, but shaped by, for example, tests, laws, custom, wealth, gender, and ethnicity. Depending on time and place, the normal might be deviant and vice versa. This course introduces you to ethical theories and sociological perspectives related to how our bodies and our selves are shaped by the ways we succumb to and resist coercive practices of power. Through readings of key philosophical, bioethical, literary, and legal texts, in-class debates, and exposure to guest speakers, we will explore how medicine and medical research, law, the criminal justice system, and social norms shape and sometimes transform the political, cultural, and social meanings of the human body and the way it inhabits the world. You will learn to examine and discuss complex topics, and to assemble and present research to your professors and peers. The only prerequisite is a willingness to read complex arguments carefully, to be comfortable with ambivalence, and to be open to views other than your own. HiddenOLD Journey StatementAccepted file types: jpeg, jpg, pdf, doc, docx, Max. file size: 10 MB. Δ