Day Three: Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity

Cut-Up Reading

• What was the reaction to the first cut-up story that Burroughs tells in the reading? Why do you think the audience reacted in this way?
• What are the virtues of doing a cut-up? 
• How is all writing a cut-up, as Burroughs asserts?

Alternative apps/platforms/programs for cut-up assignment:  http://www.lazaruscorporation.co.uk/cutup/links

• Perhaps use more than one? Run a cut-up through one program and then run the output through a different program

Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity

• What is subjectivity? How do we differentiate it from its counterpart, objectivity?
• Relationship of subjectivity to capital-T Truth
• What does it mean to do academic research in an objective manner versus a subjective manner?
• "In its earliest form, the foundations for today’s social justice research involved the work of scholars who wrote traditional academic studies analyzing the communicative habits of groups who fought for justice. These were not works of advocacy but of analysis, meaning that they were neither arguing for a political position nor engaging in collaborations with the groups in question; rather, these works employed traditional notions of academic objectivity, personal remove, and political neutrality to diagnose the communicative habits of others." (Hartnet, 2010)
• "Thus any characteristics you share with the subjects and objects of research must be sterilized, because these biases contaminate the purity of the research process and undermine objectivity" (Guishard, 2008)
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• "One of the most significant differences is found in the subjectivity-objectivity dialectic....objectivity is paradoxically incorporated as a form of subjective experience of equal value to (not privileged above) all others. This is accomplished through the conscious acknowledgement of the functional, yet arbitrary, boundaries, which result in a variety of standpoints. In a sense, boundaries and bracketing of those boundaries (Becker, 1992), are a manifestation of the illusion of objectivity which is necessary to operate within constructed realities." (Gonzalez, 2000).
• "This approach to looking at members of `other' cultures has much to offer those who have been overly affected by the notions of scientific objectivity and the myth of possible separation of parts. Everything is related, and therefore what we do in our work with others will inevitably be done to us." (Gonzalez, 2000).
• What does this have to do with today's debate?
• One team in each debate must inevitably argue that their side's lived experience is more valid than an objective, scientific point of view that uses objective facts to verify claims. The burden of this team is to not only argue that your side's subjective experience counts as true, but you must also argue that an intersubjective process of coming to consensus is more just/true than scientific objectivity
• Intersubjectivity: In its weakest sense, intersubjectivity refers to agreement. There is intersubjectivity between people if they agree on a given set of meanings or a definition of the situation. Similarly, Thomas Scheff defines intersubjectivity as "the sharing of subjective states by two or more individuals."(Scheff, 2006)

Debate

• Topic #1 -- This house believes: the experiences described by the Hmong people in "Yellow Rain" are true
• Topic #2 -- This house believes: the hosts of RadioLab acted ethically in the "Yellow Rain" episode

Timeline:

• 20 min - Planning for first round argument, potential second-round rebuttals 
• 4 min - First round: Central spokesperson from each side lays out central argument 
• 2 min - Planning for second-round rebuttals 
• 2 min - Second round: Both sides counter the argument of their opponent. All members can participate. 
• 2 min - Third round: ALL OUT WAR. Anyone can comment
• There are no rules EXCEPT no interrupting someone mid-sentence.
• 5-10 min - Judges' deliberation (debaters of topic #1 will judge debate #2 and vice versa)
• *The winning teams of this debate will receive 10 extra credit points

Follow up/debrief: The shifting relationship between Truth and Fact

• Storytelling, myth and legend: not only shape communities but are shaped by communities 
• Is there a difference between Truth and Fact?
  
  
  
  From Kelly Oliver, "Witnessing Subjectivity" (2000)