Assignment 2: Midterm oral exam

Due: Sign up for slot between Nov 9–17. Booking link TBD.

This midterm oral exam is intended to be a collegial conversation between the instructor and student about the course themes and readings. At least 24 hours before the exam, you will submit a 1 page handout online (please also bring a hard copy to the exam). This handout should include:

1. A verbatim short passage (<500 words) from one of the class readings that you found confusing, ambiguous, provocative, or otherwise questionable (be prepared to articulate why) with 2 sentences linking this passage to another reading from the class.
2. A list of 5 class readings ranked by some axis of your choosing (not publication date, authors in alphabetical order, etc). Write one sentence per reading justifying its position relative to the others. In one sentence, identify one adjacent-ranking pair that you might expect me to ask about and preview your reasoning.

This is an open-book, analog exam: you can bring hard copies of your class notes, readings, previous assignments, etc. and refer to them at any time.