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PAUL db WATKINS

PAUL db WATKINS

  • TEACHING
    • Courses
      • Spring 2026
        • FILM 201: Film Studies (Genre)
        • ENGL 394 (S26N01): Twin Peaks: Its Influence & Quality TV
        • ENGL 396: Adapting and Being Human in an Inhuman World
      • Fall 2025
        • ENGL 115 (F25N13): Navigating a Storied World
        • FILM 101: Introduction to Film Studies (Fall 25)
      • Fall 2024
        • FILM 101: Introduction to Film Studies
        • ENGL 390: GRAPHIC MEMOIR
      • Spring 2024
        • FILM 201: Film Studies
        • ENGL 392: Sound & Remix
      • Fall 2023
        • Film 101: Introduction to Film Studies
      • Spring 2023
        • FILM 220 (S23N01): “Pure Cinema,” Voyeurism, and Cinematic Influence
        • ENGL 330: Possible futures: Resistance & Reimagining in Speculative Fiction
      • 2018-2022
        • Spring 2022
          • ENGL 125 (S22W03) AT THE CROSSROADS: MUSIC, LITERATURE, & POPULAR CULTURE
          • ENGL 125 (S22N05) AT THE CROSSROADS: MUSIC, LITERATURE, & POPULAR CULTURE
          • ENGL 398 (S22N01): “Pure Cinema,” Voyeurism, and Cinematic Influence
          • ENGL 332: Topics in Indigenous Literatures (S22N01)
        • Fall 2021
          • ENGL 115 (F21N06): THE IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE AND STORIES IN OUR LIVES
          • ENGL 115 (F21N17): THE IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE AND STORIES IN OUR LIVES
        • Spring 2021
          • FILM 220 (S21N01): “Pure Cinema,” Voyeurism, and Cinematic Influence
          • ENGL 332: Topics in Indigenous Literatures (S21N01)
        • Fall 2020
          • ENGL 115 (F20D02): THE IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE AND STORIES IN OUR LIVES
          • ENGL 115 (F20N29): THE IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE AND STORIES IN OUR LIVES
          • ENGL 125 AT THE CROSSROADS: MUSIC, LITERATURE, & POPULAR CULTURE
        • Spring 2020
          • ENGL 115 (S20D01): The Importance of Language and Stories in Our Lives
          • ENGL 280 (S20N01): Literature on Trial: Banned or Challenged Books
        • Fall 2019
          • Film 101: Introduction to Film Studies
          • ENGL 394 (F19N01): Twin Peaks: Its Influence & Quality TV
        • Spring 2019
          • ENGL 115 (S19D01): The Importance of Language and Stories in Our Lives
          • ENGL 220 (S19N01): CanLit Now!
          • ENGL 398 (S19N01): Film Studies: Voyeurism, Representation, and Cinematic Influence
        • Fall 2018
          • Film 101: Introduction to Film Studies
          • ENGL 231: Possible futures: Resistance & Reimagining in Speculative Fiction
        • Spring 2018
          • ENGL 115 (S18D01): Language and Stories
          • ENGL 135 (S18N02): Literature and Criticism: Graphic Novels
          • ENGL 396: Literature and Film
      • 2013-2017
        • Spring 2017
          • ENGL 332: Topics in Indigenous Literatures
          • ENGL 115 (S17D50): After Eden
        • Fall 2017
          • ENGL 115 (F17N13): Language and Stories
          • ENGL 125 (F17N05): (Un)Settling BC: Robinson, Compton, and Kogawa
          • ENGL 390 (TOPICS IN WORD & IMAGE): GRAPHIC MEMOIR
        • Fall 2016
          • ENGL 115 (F16N02): AFTER EDEN
          • ENGL 125 (F16N04): Other Canadas / Canada’s Others: King, Edugyan, and Kogawa
          • ENGL 125 (F16N08): Other Canadas / Canada’s Others: King, Edugyan, and Kogawa
        • Summer 2016
          • ENGL 125 (F16N04): Other Canadas / Canada’s Others: King, Edugyan, and Kogawa
        • Spring 2016
          • ENGL 115 (S16D50): After Eden
          • ENGL 390 (Topics in Word & Image): Transformations
        • Fall 2015
          • ENGL 115 (F15N17/ N20): THE MYTH OF PROGRESS
          • ENGL 115 (F15N31): THE MYTH OF PROGRESS
          • ENGL 135 (F15N01): Jazz and Social Change
        • Summer 2015
          • ENGL 115 (M15N73): THE MYTH OF PROGRESS
          • ENGL 125 (J15N70): Voice in Text: “Interfusional” Writing, Myth, and Culture
          • ENGL 125 (J15N71): Voice in Text: “Interfusional” Writing, Myth, and Culture
        • Spring 2015
          • ENGL 115 (S15D50): STORIES, IDENTITY, AND PROGRESS
          • ENGL 115 (S15D01): STORIES, IDENTITY, AND PROGRESS
          • ENGL 125 (S15D02): Voice in Text: “Interfusional” Writing, Myth, and Culture
        • Fall 2014
          • ENGL 115 (F14N08): WRITING AND REMIXING A LIFE
          • ENGL 115 (F14N09): THE MIX: HIP-HOP PEDAGOGY, TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS, AND UNIVERSITY WRITING
          • ENGL 135 (F14N02): SONIC AFRO-MODERNITY AND SOCIAL CHANGE
        • ENGL 2130: Literature and Social Change
    • Pedagogy
  • Soundin’ Canaan
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      • Film
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    • Poetry
      • Dissonant Harmonies
      • (re)vision & the abstract truth
        • (Re)Vision & the Abstract Truth Video
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      • the multiplicity of everyday life
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Spring 2021

FILM 220 S21N01
ENGL 332 S21N01

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One of my favourite singers—the great Miss Jill Scott—returns after an 11-year hiatus with a stunner of an album. It moves between genres with ease, including R&B, hip-hop, neo-soul, and jazz, and speaks truths with unapologetic verve. It’s my “new obsession” and my choice for today’s #WHMVinylChallenge, hosted by @vinylettes and @discogs. Master of Puppets turns 40 today! ✞ Do you have this one on wax, and what’s your favourite track? Lately, I’ve bookended my days with poetry: usually more politically minded work in the morning, and then before bed I alternate between Mary Oliver and Leonard Cohen. It helps to set these intentions: activated and then contemplative. Those pulses aren’t always so neatly demarcated, but it helps to have a general rhythm, especially in how I start and end my day (and away from my phone). I’ve read Cohen before, although hardly all his work, and, of course, I’ve listened to his music a fair amount. His first three albums—Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967), Songs from a Room (1969), and Songs of Love and Hate (1971)—are cornerstones of folk, bending poetry into song and song into poetry. Perfect for a Sunday. “Most of my heroes don’t appear on no stamps.” “All music is Black music” originates with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture and its associated podcast series. The phrase argues against the historical “whitewashing” of music history, in which Black artistic contributions were often ignored, minimized, or repackaged. The 33 records selected here attest to that legacy—and yet so much is still missing. This is really only a small sampling of key artists and innovators across numerous genres of Black music (or what Amiri Baraka calls American classical music). ‘Tis the Season. Do you have a favourite Christmas album? Did you know that August 11 is Hip Hop day to celebrate the birth of hip hop culture and that the month of November is Hip Hop month? I think this is cool, although I’d rather see material conditions changed for aggrieved and Black communities, but, I also think it’s important to acknowledge the architects and people of a culture that forever changed the landscape of popular music and contemporary culture, especially around creativity and social change. In that spirit, I give you 10 albums that I think belong in every hip hop fans vinyl collection. This is hardly a complete list and I’m not going to rank them because value judgements aren’t always useful but these are just some, and in chronological order, that come to mind and that offer a good starting place. There are so many missing here (no De La or OutKast feels downright sinful) and it leans ‘90s bombap, but this is hardly definitive. It’s just 10 hip hop albums I think everyone should own. That said, what are some of your favourites—either included here or not? Sunday morning ritual with some Thievery Corporation. While I really do dig 𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝕄𝕚𝕣𝕣𝕠𝕣 ℂ𝕠𝕟𝕤𝕡𝕚𝕣𝕒𝕔𝕪 (2000), their follow-up, 𝕋𝕙𝕖 ℝ𝕚𝕔𝕙𝕖𝕤𝕥 𝕄𝕒𝕟 𝕚𝕟 𝔹𝕒𝕓𝕪𝕝𝕠𝕟 (2002), is nearly as good. I don’t think you could walk into a trendy restaurant in the early 2000s without hearing one of these playing. Do you know or own this one? I love trains, so travelling through Japan by rail was delightful. The Shinkansen trains are incredibly fast and smooth, and I even rode one of the world’s few magnetic levitation trains to get to Studio Ghibli Park. Japan in motion: an unforgettable ride through speed, precision, and beauty.

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