dualism

Assignment #2: Challenge a Dualism

This assignment is a challenge to dualism. Your job will be to detect a dualism that is

organizing some aspect of your personal practice, to devise a strategy to refine, unseat, or

otherwise challenge that dualism in practice (note: for the rest of this document, we’ll refer to

these attempts as disruptions). Then, thoughtfully document what you learn from the effort.

What is a dualism? Here is a working definition:

• The practice of conceptually splitting some aspect of the world into two opposing

entities or objects

• Sometimes called a dichotomy

If you’re having trouble coming up with a dualism to challenge, consider the following

examples (also see lecture slides from Week 7):

Present-Future Success-Failure Humanities-Sciences

East-West Emotional-Rational Body-Mind

Life-Death Peaceful-Aggressive Nature-Culture

Happiness-Grief Beginning-Ending Anthropologist-Tourist

Us-Them Mother-Father Strong-Weak

Known-Unknown Civilian-Military Fast-Slow

Armed-Unarmed Big-Small Sick-Well

Female-Male Empathy-Observation Organized-Disorganized

Mother-Father Son-Daughter Alien-Local

Ally-Enemy High culture-Low culture Manager-Worker

School-Real Life Reality-Fiction Truth-Lie

This assignment is meant for us to explore ways that dualisms function to influence situated

practice in terms of our attention, intention, (non)participation, and (in)action and how they

operate in relation to organizing dualisms. Questions we can ask include but are not limited to

the following:

• What is rendered invisible?

• What are the situated practices for maintaining this dualism and how is that labor distributed?

• What kinds of actions begin to make logical sense? What kinds of actions become illogical or misaligned with the situation?

• How can we trace the history or cultural-history of a present dualism?

• What makes dualisms so resilient?

The Task

Identify a dualism that you can “encounter” in your daily lived experience. Complete each of

the following tasks:

a. Describe the dualism by naming it and attempting to define its meaning and scope (e.g.

Where and when does it matter? How do you know?).

b. Generate a list of contexts in which you are likely to encounter this dualism.

c. Go in search of opportunities to document this dualism at work in real time.

d. Devise a strategy and attempt to disrupt the dualism at least 3 times. Minor attempts to

disrupt will do the job. Notice where your selected activity begins, how it resolves, and what maneuvers are made (or not made) to restore the dualism in play.

e. WHAT TO TURN IN: Document the result of your efforts and include your reflection on

the experience in a memo. This can include visual aids and written text. Your memo

should not exceed 3 double-spaced pages.

a. Your memo should include the following:

i. Your selected dualism defined and your sense of its scope of influence

ii. A description of your planned disruption and why you think it may be

effective.

iii. A reflection on what you see as situated practices relevant to the dualism

and what you’ve learned in the process of observing and attempting to

disrupt the dualism in practice. Draw on course themes to enhance your

discussion.

On Writing

A strong assignment will have a memo that clearly explains the situated practices to a reader

who wasn’t there. Your planned disruption will reflect a nuanced analysis of situated practices

that sustain the dualism. You will describe your disruptive attempts carefully and descriptively.

If you perceive your disruptive strategy to be “unsuccessful,” your memo will address why that

might have been the case. A strong assignment will connect your claims to evidence &

support, both through observations and the course texts.