Open Educational Resources
Document Type
Assignment
Publication Date
Fall 11-20-2025
Abstract
I am developing a module for ENGL 371: Twentieth- and Twenty-first Century Drama and Performance. In this course for majors, I have the latitude to choose different topics in my syllabus design. One of the versions I previously developed was organized around “Visions of Home.” In that first attempt I did not successfully connect the material to Queens at any point; in part because none of the plays I selected were based in Queens, I had not figured out how to implement a place-based mode of inquiry of the kind that this workshop explored. The class is organized chronologically (1950s-2000s) and topically (“domesticity and tragedy,” “spatial segregation and realism,” “the politics of neighborhood,” “suburban landscapes”). To create this module I removed one of the Arthur Miller plays and substituted a different Miller play, A View from The Bridge, and removed a contemporary play set in Los Angeles (Culture Clash’s Chavez Ravine) to make room for a contemporary play set in Queens. With these two texts, I built a module that replaced the final paper with a “Living Photo” assignment prompting students to connect the material directly to the local environs of Queens, while still fulfilling the learning outcomes (comparing structural aspects of dramatic literature, practicing close readings of play texts). This project engages Queens and place in a few ways: it tasks students to consider the ways that two different playwrights represent place in their work, and then to take inspiration from the urban environment to consider more deeply the lives and perspectives of characters.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
CUNY OER Funding
CUNY OER Initiative
