FIRST-YEAR EXPERIENCE SUSTAINABILY

2016 CULTURE JAM (

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the
world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. --Margaret Mead
It is the people coming out of the worlds best colleges and universities that are
leading us down the current unhealthy, inequitable, and unsustainable path.
--Anthony Cortese
Premise:
So far this year we have focused on learning the contexts of a variety of envirosocial challenges and building your skills as a researcher, leader, and community
member. This project requires that you draw upon all of those experiences to create
something unique.
To solve these enviro-social challenges, to become sustainable, we have to create
solutions and adaptations that think beyond the present problems and systems to
create systems that work well for the planet and all who live here. However, it is
easy to take the social systems that create the problems for granted, or to be
overwhelmed by the complexity of those problems, and perpetuate ineffective
solutions and toxic systems. To think differently, to put bold dreams into action, we
need to accept and expose our own systemic culpability and privileges: We need to
identify places to intervene in our own system.
As small groups (3-4) and as a class, we will create research-informed and
community-based projects that expose, challenge, and perhaps momentarily disrupt
(jam) our own status quo.
Learning Outcomes:

Connect and extend knowledge (facts, theories) from class texts to civic
engagement and to your participation in civic life.
Demonstrate your ability and commitment to collaboratively work across and
within community contexts and structures to achieve a civic aim.
Provide evidence of your experience in civic-engagement activities and
describe what you learned about yourself as it relates to a reinforced and
clarified sense of civic identity and continued commitment to public action.
Demonstrate initiative in team leadership of innovative/creative civic
engagement activities, accompanied by reflective insights/analysis about the
aims and accomplishments of your actions.
Actively seek out untested or risky directions/approaches while developing a
logical, consistent plan to solve problems, recognize consequences of
solution, and articulating reason for choices.

Details:
For this project you will be assigned to a small group but we will also be working as
a class to support each groups project. For this process to work, everyone,
everyone, needs to bring a game-day attitude and communicate regularly in and
outside of class. We might make mistakes in this process, but we will recognize and
learn from them.
Step 1: Research and brainstorm:

On April 20, each person will come to mentor session with a list of at
least five, and no more than seven, specific potential jam project ideas.
For example, climate change isnt good enough. You need to
develop activities that can be done here in Portland to make a
significant impact on a community or an audience.
We will process these lists as groups and as a class so that the projects
complement each other.
We will focus on creating projects that in some way jam our ideas
(social, political, economic) about that topic and identifying the
purpose of your jam (educate? entertain? provoke?).

Step 2: As you noticed about the Yes Men, a good jam takes considerable
forethought and planning. As a group, write a proposal (3 pages) that explains your
project. Include the following information:
An explanation of its purpose and how you will accomplish it. Justify
why you think it will be effective.
Who is your audience?
What research/theories support your project?
What do you expect the impact to be?
What are the possible speed bumps or unintended consequences and
how you will address them? Think through the consequences of your
actions..
Identify potential collaborators and saboteurs.
When and where will your jam take place?
A list of tasks that need to be done and assign who is responsible for
each.
A project timeline.
How will you document and record your jam?
Sign up for a Jam Critique with Roz on April 25 or 26.
Incorporate the feedback into your proposal.
Turn the typed proposal into me by May 2. I will hand them back with
additional feedback on May 4.
Step 3: Conduct and record your culture jam.
DO NOT wait until the last minute. (You may have to try it more than
once!)
Sign up to meet with Roz again for a second Jam Critique on May 16
or 17.
Step 4: On May 23, each group member will turn in a minimum 4-page critical
reflection of the project in which you will describe your groups process from
your perspective. Including:
What challenges/problems you ran into. How were they handled or
solved?
How did you work together as a group (were you a good/bad apple?).
Did everyone do an equal amount of work? Assign a letter grade to
yourself and each group member.
How did you utilize your skills and talents?
How did you incorporate Rozs feedback?
Explain IN-DEPTH (multiple quotes and examples from the texts) how
your jam connects to a reading from each term this year (3 total).
Describe what you learned through doing this type of activity and
relate it to the assignment learning outcomes.

Step 5: In-class presentations on May 23. Your groups presentation will be ~7

minutes long, well-rehearsed, and do the following:
Show evidence of the project (~3-4 minutes; prezi, film, etc.).
Explain if your jam was successful or not, and why you think so.
Use Scotts concept of the anarchist squint (p. xii) to explain what
you learned as a group by conducting the jam.
In grading this assignment, I am interested in how you engage with the entire
process more than any single outcome. Meaning, this type of activity requires
everyones creativity, heart, and intellectno slackers, jerks, or depressedpessimists. Each step must be completed fully to earn a grade for the assignment.