Welcome to SPAN405!

The first book we are reading is Fransciso Ayala’s La cabeza del cordero, which is available in the UBC bookstore. A full schedule is available here.

Unfortunately, I will be away this coming Monday, so much of our discussion will be virtual.

To enable this, you will set up a blog. Then each week, in response to the reading, you will write c. 400-500 words on this blog. You will also, on a weekly basis, write comments on at least two of your classmates’ blogs posts.

You can set up a blog on just about any platform (except for Tumblr). I recommend one of the following: UBC Blogs, WordPress, or Blogger. Feel free to customize your blog in any way you fancy: make it pink! Upload cat pictures! It’s all good.

If you want to use a blog that you have already set up earlier (whether for personal reasons or for another class), that’s fine, too, though you will have to talk to me about a couple of technical issues.

By this Friday, September 18, you will have 1) written a first, short, post introducing yourself to the class and 2) sent me (at jon.beasley-murray@ubc.ca) the address of your blog. By some magic of the Internet, I’ll then arrange things so that your blog posts show up on this site.

Then by Sunday night, September 20, you will have done this week’s reading (La cabeza del cordero) and written a blog post about it.

You should write your weekly blog posts, commenting on the reading or viewing, by Sunday night at midnight at the latest. Your aim with these posts is to spark discussion. Tell us about what you noticed, what you found interesting, what you liked, what you disliked what you found puzzling, what you want to talk about in class. Make connections with other weeks’ readings or viewings if you wish, or with other examples or things that you have noticed about Latin America. Ask questions if you wish.

These posts are not graded for quality, or even for grammar or spelling etc. Write them quickly, as soon as you are done with the reading or viewing! The point is to get some first ideas and impressions down, while the texts are still fresh in your mind, and to begin preparing for in-class discussion.

You then should write comments on at least two of your classmates’ blogs posts. These comments should be added by Wednesday night at midnight.