Schedule Social Justice for the Fall 2019 Semester

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Posted in Labor Studies Uncategorized | Tagged Joseph McCartin, Labor Studies, Raymond Kemp, Sherry Linkon, Working-Class Studies

Georgetown offers an array of courses delving into issues of social justice taught by brilliant professors with expertise and real-life experiences in their field. We’ve highlighted some of these courses to help with preregistration – or to persuade you to enroll if you’re not yet a Hoya!

Know of a course we missed on this list? Let us know at kilwp@georgetown.edu.

African-American Studies

AFAM 270 – Blackness and Digital Life
Instructor TBA | TR 11:00 am – 12:15 pm

Our lives online, just like our lives “IRL,” are racialized. This course explores how blackness traffics and is trafficked in the digital sphere, including social media in particular and the Internet more generally, with attention to the implication of memes, hashtag memorials, cancel culture, and more for Black communities and questions of racial equity in the U.S. and beyond.

AFAM 325 – The “Black” in Black Popular Culture
Instructor TBA | TR 12:30 pm – 1:45 pm

Beginning with Stuart Hall’s canonical essay, this course surveys Black popular culture as Black social theory and an archive of Black life, navigating the ever-present tensions between essentialist and diffuse ideas about blackness that undergird theoretical debates about Black popular culture.

American Studies

Cutting Class: Turn of the Century – 34399 – AMST 344 – 01
Prof. Hall R Howard | MW 9:30 am – 10:45 am

AMST-344 explores changes in cultural and intellectual life in America after the Civil War through the early 20th Century, with special attention to higher education as a reflection of those changes. We’ll reach for a feeling of the time period from a number of perspectives, but zeroing in on class and cultural stratification of the time, and the hardening boundaries between elite and popular, between high and low. With new outlets for leisure, consumption, and education, individuals and groups increasingly identified with particular slices of culture, including an increasingly prevalent “middlebrow” median. We will work through the lens of curriculum, what colleges (and then universities) were doing in the areas of teaching and learning, to understand the broader cultural history better. This course privileges and analysis of higher education as one way to read cultural history; students will work toward developing their own lens as well, exploring expressions of class and culture through many other means. Texts may include works by Sinclair Lewis, Mark Twain, George Santayana, Irving Babbitt, WEB Dubois, HL Mencken, Matthew Arnold, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and others.

Crisis: American Disasters: Film & Fiction – 32131 – AMST 333 – 01
Prof. Seth Perlow | TR 3:30 pm – 4:45 pm

AMST 333: Crisis: American Disasters in Film and Fiction This course explores the place of crisis narratives in American culture. As a nation founded upon revolution, the United States has organized key political debates and historical narratives around the structure of crisis. Representations of crisis reflect our most common anxieties and our most powerful coping mechanisms. A crisis can be global in scope or highly personal, inevitable or easily avoided, ongoing or sudden. We will explore a variety of crisis narratives—from terrorist attacks to global pandemics to financial collapses—and ask what these portrayals of crisis and its aftermath tell us about our national identities, our political values, and our hopes for humanity’s future. Certain forms of destruction, such as forest fires, clear the way for new growth, so perhaps crisis can be a good thing. We will explore diverse crisis narratives in fiction, film, poetry, historical narrative, and other genres. Secondary readings in American studies and related fields will provide historical context and model key methods for interpreting crisis narratives. Student responses will include essays and a new media composition about the politics of crisis and the variety of strategies for representing it.

Anthropology

Crisis & Creativity/Arab World – 35881 – ANTH 175 – 01
Prof. Laurie King-Irani | TR 2:00 pm – 3:15 pm

Beginning with an overview of anthropological and journalistic approaches to the Arab world over the last half century, this course will employ a cultural framework in order to understand the political, socioeconomic, media, and technological developments since just before the Arab Spring protests of 2011. We will then trace the repercussions of these developments locally, regionally, and globally. The course will focus on the multifaceted crises that have recently enveloped Iraq, Syria, and Yemen, resulting in the largest refugee crisis of the last 60 years.

Love & Hate in the Digital Age – 35882 – ANTH 207 – 01
Prof. Amrita Ibrahim | TR 11:00 am – 12:15 pm

“Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” These sensational headlines are just an example of recent popular discussions in the media about how digital technology is affecting humans and our social and intellectual skills. How have anthropologists, whose bread and butter is the study of communication and social life, studied the rise of the digital age? In this course we will explore the complex and nuanced terrain that is human-technology encounters, focusing on the intersections of race, class, and gender with digital technology.

Indigenous Authenticity – 36206 – ANTH 253 – 01
Prof. Nell Haynes | TR 3:30 pm – 4:45 pm

Indigenous peoples face pressures to conform to a variety of social and institutional expectations, ranging from state recognition to media representations. They must often balance the necessity of embodying external stereotypes and racial expectations, while forging individual and collective identities that go beyond these expectations. This seminar engages with recent scholarship in Native American and Indigenous Studies that addresses indigeneity as a political status, a supposed biological category, a social experience, and a point of departure for political involvement and activism. Our readings will also engage feminist and queer perspectives on the problem of authenticity and we will devote attention to the appropriation of Indigenous culture by non-Indigenous people. Geographic focus includes North and South America, Oceania, and some examples from Europe and Asia.

Memory/Monuments/Amnesia – 35884 – ANTH 254 – 01
Prof. Mubbashir Abbas Rizvi | MW 2:00 pm – 3:15 pm

This course will focus on the politics of remembering and forgetting. We will examine the role of power in shaping certain historical narratives and silencing other stories. This course looks at the role of public memory as a contested site by looking at the debate over museum artifacts, colonial nostalgia and debates over heritage.

Soldiers/Citizens/War/State – 35886 – ANTH 275 – 01
Prof. Andrew Bickford | TR 9:30 am – 10:45 am

Starting from the viewpoint that war is not a natural, biological “necessity” or inevitability, this course explores the diverse connections between war and culture, how both shape and construct the other. War and militarization play key roles in the modern nation-state, and much of what we view as “normal,” “everyday,” “common sense,” or “taken for granted” is related to the military and war. Throughout the class, we will focus on militarization, warfare, gender, sexuality, the family, language, technology, torture, trauma, and resistance, to name but a few of the ways war and culture are related in everyday life and experience. We will focus on the modern nation-state, the role of the military in the state, how states create soldiers, and what states do with soldiers and civilians in the pursuit of policy objectives. Who are the victims? Who are the perpetrators? What does it mean to wage war for a nation-state and its citizens, and what does it mean to the object of war and violence? How do people resist war, militarization, violence, torture, and terror?

Community Based Learning

CBL: Spanish in the Community – 34449 – SPAN 380 – 01
Prof. Victor Fernandez | MW 11:00 am – 12:15 pm

This is a community-based learning (CBL) course conducted in Spanish that focuses on the dynamic interaction between language, society and identity among the Latinx communities in the U.S. This 4-credit course requires 20+ hours of community-based work with a local, community-based partner organization in addition to preparation for and attendance to two weekly class sessions. Community work contributes to course credit with the Registrar’s Office, but students will schedule their own time with their partner organizations, according to their needs. Topics include: migration, labor and U.S. national identity; access to education; bilingualism, language ideologies, language contact and language shift in the United States.

CBL: Social Action – 29811 – UNXD 130 – 01
Prof. Kerry Blair Danner-McDonald | M 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

UNXD 130 CBL: Social Action is a 1-credit, community-based, experiential course offered through Georgetown University’s Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching, and Service (CSJ): csj.georgetown.edu. UNXD 130 students integrate their academic studies with direct or indirect community engagement work of their choice in Washington, DC. Community work must enhance and deepen the classroom learning of a 3-credit course in which the student is currently enrolled. While most of the learning takes place in the community, UNXD 130 participants meet four times for reflective dialogue sessions, read pertinent scholarly work on critical social activism, compose three reflective activities and contribute to discussion board reflections over the course of the semester.

English

Postcolonial Novel – 36010 – ENGL 197 – 01
Prof. Coilin Parsons | T 10:00 am – 12:30 pm

The Postcolonial Novel of the Indian Ocean National literatures (American, Tanzanian, English, French, Indian) are becoming increasingly less coherent in a world of forced and voluntary migration, travel and global trade—our experiences are less and less confined to the boundaries of nations. But none of this is new—for centuries the Indian Ocean has seen slave transports, movements of migrant workers, trade between East Africa and West Asia, mostly driven by European and Muslim empires. In many ways, the regional economy and culture of the Indian Ocean was a precursor to latter-day globalization. In this class we will read a series of novels that emerge from and represent Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Egypt, Indonesia, India, and the waters that lie between them. Our focus will be on connections between the novels of the cosmopolitan world of the Indian Ocean and the legacies of global empires. This course is a bi-local course run through the Global Classroom (RPX) with students in both Qatar and in DC. The professor will be in DC. Classes on main campus will start at 10:00am all semester. Classes in Qatar will start at 5:00pm and end at 7:30pm, and then from Sunday 3 November will start at 6:00pm and end at 8:30pm.

Disability Studies – 36657 – ENGL 270 – 01
Prof. Sara D Schotland | MW 3:30 pm – 4:45 pm

This course explores disability from an interdisciplinary perspective: fiction, first-person accounts, public policy advocacy, and the basic legal framework. Texts include short stories, personal narratives by individuals with disabilities or their family members, and articles by disability rights activists. We will examine documentaries as well as relevant popular film portrayals such as clips from “House,” “Glee” or Disney films. We begin the course with a cluster of related topics: What is disability? How is disability socially constructed? What are some key intersections between gender, race, and ethnicity? We consider how Hollywood and other media portrayals affect stereotyping and popular (mis)conceptions. We next explore from a policy perspective specific functional differences such as blindness, Deaf Culture, intellectual disability, autism spectrum, mental illness, PTSD, and Alzheimer’s. We examine advocacy efforts by parents of children with disabilities as they seek access to access resources to meet their children’s needs. We review policy issues arising under the Americans with Disabilities Act, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and family medical leave statutes. We also explore some cutting edge issues including ethical issues associated with caregiving and parenting, the effects of the opioid crisis, shortcomings in federal disability programs, and treatment of individuals with disabilities in prison.

Class Fictions in the Cont. US – 36155 – ENGL 675 – 01
Prof. Pamela A Fox | R 12:30 pm – 3:00 pm

“Economic inequality” has become a familiar term adopted by media pundits, academics, politicians, and activists to encompass the devastating consequences of the most recent U.S. economic recession as well as unions’ loss of power, crumbling public school systems, and the proliferation of hungry, homeless families (to name but a few). We rarely hear directly from those with the least power; more typically, we encounter a kaleidoscope of images, voices, stories—and ideologies to match—circulated by a wide variety of popular cultural as well as ‘elite’ texts hoping to make that population visible. This interdisciplinary course provides critical/ theoretical tools for navigating such representations but also expands the terrain by featuring writers/musical artists/filmmakers who claim membership in “low” classes and cultures: working-class/poverty class/’underclass.’ It provides a recent historical context—from the 1990s to the present—to demonstrate how class differences and conflicts have helped shape our current U.S. economic, legal, and social structures as well as to emphasize that “class” itself is a complex and shifting identity category experienced in tandem with other identity markers and positionalities such as race, gender, and sexuality. We’ll focus on exploring how particular cultural forms and genres, such as fiction, cinema, popular music, and memoir, may limit or expand an audience’s grasp of, engagement with, and resistance to, class categories. We’ll also take up a broad spectrum of issues, including theories of working-class identity, social/cultural resistance, and the notion of representation itself.

Global Business

Trade & Worker Rights – 30173 – GBUS 464 – 01
Prof. Jeffrey Wheeler | R 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm

The evolving world of work is central to trade and foreign policy. Labor standards have become deeply integrated into trade agreements and preference programs, often triggering epic battles about whether they favor American workers and business, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). They have also served as pillars in foreign policy and foreign assistance aiming at promoting human rights, good governance and economic growth through the labor sector, sometimes effectively and sometimes with unintended consequences. In the private sector, labor rights principles are being more deeply integrated into supply chain management and applied for responsible business practices and impact investment in private equity. The class will also explore the growth of joint private and public sector initiatives, including the incorporation of corporate social responsibility (labor, OSH and conflict minerals) into environmental electronics procurement requirements. It will take an interdisciplinary approach, focusing primarily on developing countries but there will be latitude to address countries, regions and subtopics in the students’ interest. Guest speakers will be invited to address key topics.

History

History Focus: US working lives – 35848 – HIST 099 – 17
Prof. Joseph A. McCartin | MW 5:00 pm – 5:50 pm
No course description available.

First Year Seminar: Socialism – 35863 – HIST 186 – 01
Prof. Michael Kazin | T 2:00 pm – 4:30 pm

This seminar course is designed for first-year students with advanced placement in history who have an interest in pursuing the study of history at the upper level. This is a course about the history of one of the most significant and most contentious philosophies, movements, and governing ideologies in the history of the modern world. From its visionary beginnings in the early 19th century to the collapse of the USSR near the end of the 20th century, socialism has given rise both to grand dreams of equality and freedom and to great fears – and the reality — of totalitarian tyranny. Fierce debates and battles between socialists and their adversaries did much to shape the major political changes of the past 200 years, including both world wars. Given the vast scope of the subject, a one-semester course can only offer an introduction. We will read about and discuss the key ideas, events, and transitions, and personalities in the evolution and devolution of socialism. The focus is mostly on Europe, with some attention to China, Cuba, Africa, and the United States.

Revolutions in the Modern World – 35907 – HIST 304 – 02
Prof. Abigail A Holekamp | MW 11:00 am – 12:15 pm

France, 1789… Europe, 1848… Mexico, 1910… Russia, 1917… China, 1949… Revolutions challenge old values and ideas. In doing so, they can increase freedoms and equality, propose solutions to social issues like poverty, and create new, dynamic political and cultural forms. At the same time, revolutions often entail mass violence, war and destruction, class conflict, and ultimately, the distortion or complete rejection of revolutionary aims in favor of the previous status quo. But are all of these characteristics true for all of these revolutions? What can we learn as historians by comparing revolutions that happened in very different places at very different times? In this course, we will explore several different modern revolutions and specific ways of bringing them into conversation with one another, in order to deepen our understanding of what it means to talk about “revolution” as a historical concept more broadly. Using a variety of primary and secondary sources, we will examine individual revolutions with the goal of moving to a deeper, more global understanding of the connectivity among these distinct events that shaped the modern world.

Consumer Society: A History – 35870 – HIST 338 – 01
Prof. Susan K Pinkard | TR 2:00 pm – 3:15 pm

This course will explore the emergence of modern patterns of consumption and the ideas that both legitimated and challenged them from the era of Jane Austen to the age of Mad Men. Although this is officially a course in European history, American material will be incorporated, too, especially towards the end of the semester. Our sources will include classics of social thought and works of fiction, a wide selection of other primary documents, and recent scholarly literature as well as images and objects from the period under study.

Revolutions in the Modern World – 35907 – HIST 304 – 02
Prof. Abigail A Holekamp | MW 11:00 am – 12:15 pm

International Affairs

Democracy & Inequality: Insights from India – 33036 – INAF 212 – 01
Prof. Milan Vaishnav | MW 5:00 pm – 7:30 pm

For the past seven decades, India has defied the predictions of skeptics who predicted its democratic form of government would not withstand the pressures imposed by poverty, illiteracy, ethnic diversity, and its sprawling geography. This course will explore the conceptual underpinnings of democracy and India’s supposed outlier status. It will also critically analyze the performance of India’s democracy in executing the sovereign functions of government, from law and order to justice and basic public services. Special attention will be paid to the country’s management of elections and what, if anything, the democratic world can learn from India’s successes and failures.

Immigration & Conflict – 28759 – INAF 314 – 01
Prof. Gregory Brown | T 5:00 pm – 7:30 pm

Migration is variously characterized as an important determinant of violent conflict and political instability, national power, imperial expansion, ethnic conflict, radicalism, terrorism, environmental degradation, and economic growth or stagnation. In high immigration receiving states such as Australia and the United States-among the world’s most inclusive migrant incorporation regimes-immigration increasingly complicates foreign policymaking choices, and may present challenges to each host nation’s internal cohesion. Issues such as dual nationality, social exclusion, multiculturalism, and fear of international terrorism-especially ina post-9/11 context-generate considerable political heat and public debate. This course will examine the migration-security nexus and the policy choices that Australia and the United States confront. Some of the fundamental questions that will be addressed include: What causes people to migrate across national borders and settle in foreign countries? How do Australia and the United States weigh the benefits and costs of migration? How do migrants in Australia and the United States maintain social and political relationships with those back in their home countries, and does this affect their sense of national allegiance and social integration into their host societies? To what extent do migrants and their descendants alter foreign policy considerations or affect international relations? And how do Australians and Americans cope with conflicts between ethnic or migrant communities when those conflicts originate, or are strongly fueled by, homeland conflicts?

Justice and Peace Studies

Nonviolence Theory & Practice – 11831 – JUPS 202 – 01
Prof. Mark N Lance | MW 3:30 pm – 4:45 pm

This course is designed to introduce students to a perspective on nonviolence that integrates theory and practice, drawing upon a wide range of literature and examples. A central aim of the course is to develop a holistic view of nonviolence as a set of practices that range from the personal and local to the national and global. The course seeks to foster an experiential engagement with the tenets of nonviolence, through participation in workshops, activities, and projects in the community and region. The overarching objective is to develop a systematic analysis of nonviolence in order to cultivate effective approaches to addressing contemporary challenges in society through nonviolent means, as well as envisioning and animating a world built on the tenets of nonviolence. JUPS Majors/Minors only.

Gender, Immigration, & Social Justice – 35085 – JUPS 290 – 01
Prof. Kimberly A Huisman Lubreski | W 2:00 pm – 4:30 pm

Over the past few decades, there has been a substantial growth in the literature on gender and immigration. Contained within this vast body of literature are real stories of immigrant women and men that capture the diversity of experiences among immigrants and raise many questions about social justice. In this course, students will explore the intersections between gender, migration, and social justice by engaging with a variety of texts across a range of disciplines and methodologies. Readings will be drawn from disciplines include women’s and gender studies, history, sociology, justice and peace studies, theater and performance studies, and ethnic studies. Methodologies will include ethnographies, oral histories, film, narrative storytelling, and memoirs. Students will engage in a semester-long project that will require them to engage with this topic in a variety of contexts.

Health, Equity, and Justice – 36666 – JUPS 252 – 01
Prof. Kelly Jones | W 5:00 pm – 7:30 pm

The life expectancy of a child born today depends on her race, place of birth, parents’ education, and numerous other factors. In this seminar, we will explore the myriad of ways that disparities or inequities in health arise, how they are propagated, how they are measured, and programs and policies designed to promote health equity. This course will take a “Health in All Policies” approach, examining how policy decisions and tradeoffs in the health sector as well as sectors not normally associated with health have far-reaching and enduring consequences. We will pay particular attention to communities that have historically been marginalized or underrepresented. While looking closely at the United States, we will also broaden our understanding of the role of social, political, and economic norms and systems by considering historical and international examples.

Restorative Justice – 32493 – JUPS 244 – 01
Prof. Tarek F Maassarani | SU 10am – 6pm (1 credit)

Restorative Justice is a community-based philosophy and approach to preventing and responding to harm with roots in indigenous traditions. It involves facilitated group processes that emphasize accountability through shared understanding and repairing the harm done. It has been used successfully in many contexts, including school and juvenile justice systems. This course is intended to introduce participants to the restorative justice movement, as well as to support participants in learning and integrating key concepts, tools, and skills related to restorative justice through an experiential, interactive, and self-reflective approach. Participants will be asked to think about the role of Restorative Justice in the modern US social context, as well as in their own personal lives.

Mindfulness & Social Action – 35087 – JUPS 241 – 01
Prof. Asoka Bandarage | S 10am – 6pm (1 credit)

The defining values of human evolution, altruism and cooperation, have been undermined in the process of capitalist development and the adulation of individualism and competition. How do we move beyond isolation, powerlessness and resignation in the face of political and economic extremism and ecological and social destruction? How do we move beyond the current individualist focus of mindfulness training towards ethical social action and a balanced path of environmental sustainability and human well-being? Grounded in mindfulness exercises, this course will include experiential and interactive components allowing students deep inner engagement with themselves and others. It will challenge students to explore the unique personal and professional contributions they can make to addressing intertwined social and environmental crises. In addition to lectures and individual written assignments, the course will include group projects integrating mindfulness practice and social action. Students will be provided with resources and tools for ongoing collaborative connections to local and global environmental and social justice movements.

Special Topics: Peace is Possible – 28739 – JUPS 215 – 01
Prof. Colman McCarthy | T 2:00 pm – 4:30 pm

‘Yeah, right’, say the skeptics: dream on, all you pacifists. But are the pacifists dreaming? This course, taught by longtime peace educator and former Washington Post columnist Colman McCarthy, examines a wide range of the time-tested alternatives to violence—from military and governmental violence to domestic, sexual, and environmental violence. The course will be largely discussion-based, with all viewpoints welcomed and appreciated. Course texts include “Strength Through Peace” and –skeptics take note — “Peace Is Possible.”

Philosophy

Gender and Feminism – 36064 – PHIL 112 – 01
Prof. Alisa L Carse | TR 3:30 pm – 4:45 pm

Few facts about us are as significant for our identities and life prospects as our gender. Yet what sort of “fact” is the fact of one’s gender? Are there only two genders? Are gender differences biological, social, or cultural in origin? Are they all three? How does the significance of gender intersect with other facts about us, such as our ethnicity, level of education, age, socioeconomic status, cultural context, and sexual orientation? This course will bring a philosophic lens to questions about gender and its significance. We will examine aspects of the social and political significance of gender through the study of a range of texts, focusing throughout on analyzing and articulating the moral challenges introduced by the topics we study – e.g., concerning justice, fairness, expressive liberty, courage, and the demands of compassion and respect. Among the topics we will address are the following: taking moral responsibility for gender oppression; the difference between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’; images, myths, and norms of masculinity and femininity; sexual orientation and gender orientation; competing explanations of gender differences; androcentrism and the dynamics of privilege; psychological oppression and self-respect; shame and gender; sexuality, domination, and violence; gender and ‘discursive injustice’; gender and the politics of appearance; and conceptions of liberation.

Oppression & Justice – 34597 – PHIL 115 – 01
Prof. Melayna H Schiff| MW 3:30 pm – 4:45 pm

This course explores philosophical conceptions of oppression, as it occurs explicitly and implicitly in policies, practices, and behaviors. The course may cover: oppression based on race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, and/or mental illness, and it may address questions such as: the meaning of oppression, forms of oppression, bystander responsibility, and possibilities for liberation from oppression. Specific topics and readings will vary by semester and instructor. Consult the relevant semester’s syllabus for more information.

Philosophy of Reparations – 34968 – PHIL 174 – 01
Prof. Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò| MW 12:30 pm – 1:45 pm

In this course, we will discuss the topic of reparations, especially (though not exclusively) in dialogue with the specific case for reparations for trans-Atlantic slavery and the associated colonialism on the African continent and throughout the African diaspora. Reparations, and moral repair generally construed, are a kind of act that aims to respond to historical harms or injustices. They are a particularly interesting subject from the standpoint of ethical and political philosophy, in that they complicate, challenge, and (hopefully, ultimately) clarify central concepts in these aspects of philosophy, including responsibility, harm, restitution, and welfare. Our philosophical aim will be to clarify what political and moral relationships are at stake in issues like these, how they can be damaged and what it takes to repair them. These aims, with any luck, will support each other.

Sociology

Social Inequality – 36326 – SOCI 140 – 01
Prof. Peter W Cookson | MW 8:00 am – 9:15 am

The goals of this course are to critically examine the answers given to the following questions: Why do some people have more of the good things in life than others? Why are the poor poor? How did inequality in society begin? What does inequality look like in America? Are we a classless society? How do you recognize social class? How differently do people of different social classes experience and react to the world? What are your chances of moving up or down in the class order? Is there a ruling class in America? Is there a new class war underway in America? Do the Soviets have more or less inequality than we have? How does the international economic order affect inequality in the third world?

Political Sociology – 34465 – SOCI 158 – 01
Prof. Elif Andaç-Jones |TR 3:30 pm – 4:45 pm

The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with a range of concepts, theories, and issues in the sociological area commonly referred to as “political sociology.” In fact, the questions, “Who has power?” and, “How is power exercised and/or maintained?” are the central points of this discipline. Further, political sociologists are interested in exploring in whose interests is power applied; is the power of the ruling groups a product of the popular will, or is it created/maintained by the powerful themselves through a combination of “force” and their manipulation of public opinion? All in all, political sociology explores the relationship between society and politics: the fundamental ways in which political structures, processes, and decisions are linked to the social structure. Students should become more aware of the nature and consequences of politics and realize how politics is present in all aspects of social life. Our approach is historical, global, theoretical, critical, as well as comparative. In addition to the US, we wish to understand the nature of politics in less developed societies, particularly in the Middle East. Therefore, some of the readings will focus authoritarian political systems and what is known as “the dynamics of democratization.” Finally, we will explore the impact of globalization on the world and, in particular, on the role of Islamic societies. The emergence of some democratic movements in the Islamic world will be highlighted.

Education and Society – 34468 – SOCI 163 – 01
Prof. Peter W Cookson | MW 9:30 am – 10:45 am

The primary goal of this course is to understand the relationship between education and society. In order to achieve this goal, students will develop the tools necessary to analyze educational processes and practices through the sociological lens, an approach that incorporates individuals, groups, and institutions within its analytical frame. Using both theoretical and empirical texts, we will investigate questions about the role of schooling, the social structure of schools, stratification processes within and between schools, and the outcomes of education.
Among the many questions we will explore to this end this semester are: 1) How do schools help to maintain and perpetuate social inequality?; 2) How do factors of race, class, and gender affect the educational experiences of students both within and across schools?; 3) And what is the ultimate purpose of education and how can we as a society best achieve this purpose?

Toni Morrison as Intellectual – 36485 – SOCI 189 – 01
Prof. Michael Dyson | M 11:00 am – 1:30 pm
No course description available.

Theology

Justice & Consumer Culture – 36037 – THEO 060 – 01
Prof. Kerry Blair Danner-McDonald | TR 12:30 pm – 1:45 pm

Material goods surround us; they are necessary for our well-being and express identity and status. In today’s global economic market, we are all entangled in webs of consumption, production, and the disposal of goods that often harm the environment and others. How do we ethically navigate this shifting terrain when the environment and human person are increasingly subject to commodification? In this course we seek to understand inequality and identity in consumer culture, particularly in light of Christian economic ethics. Practices of religious and secular resistance will be covered and special attention will be given to how both religion and dissent are also commodified. While there is an emphasis on Christian theology, readings and discussion are not limited to Christian approaches. This course has been previously offered as JUPS380: Justice and Consumer Culture.

Religion, Politics, Common Good – 36056 – THEO 197 – 01
Prof. Shaun Casey | TR 2:00 pm – 3:15 pm
No course description available.

Human Rights – 36123 – THEO 274 – 01
Prof. Diane Yeager | TR 11:00 am – 12:15 pm

“Religion and human rights need each other. On the one hand, human rights norms need the norms, narratives, and practices of the world’s religions. . . . Conversely, religious narratives need human rights norms both to protect them and to challenge them” (Preface to Religion and Human Rights). Neither of these claims is uncontested, but the “boundary discourse” they inspire—where secular rights arguments meet, contend with, and overlap with religious arguments—is both lively and instructive. In this seminar, we will investigate (1) the origin and justification of claims about human rights (and the duties correlative to such rights), (2) critiques (some religious, some not) of the human rights movement, (3) concrete examples of (alleged) violations of the human right to freedom of religion or belief, and (4) theoretical issues raised by the notion of religious human rights (is there a universal right to religious liberty? what counts as a religion? what counts as liberty? what happens when religious human rights conflict with other human rights?).

Human Rights, Pluralism & Equality – 36053 – THEO 520 – 01
Prof. David Hollenbach | W 3:30 pm – 6:00 pm

Meaning, historical roots, basis, and practical significance of human rights; universality of human rights in context of religious and cultural pluralism and economic inequality; relation between human rights and diverse religious traditions, especially Christianity.

Iris Murdoch: God & the Good – 36048 – THEO 115 – 01
Prof. Drew Christiansen | TR 3:30 pm – 4:45 pm

The late Iris Murdoch was a distinguished moral philosopher who regarded religious living as emblematic of the moral life and regarded Jesus as embodying the moral ideal. Yet she did not believe in God. Instead, she found Plato’s Idea of the Good as the focal point of moral attention, but did not believe in an all-good God as the source or object of morality. This seminar will examine Murdoch’s paradoxical ethics and philosophical theology in light of the Christian tradition of the ascent of love
that begins with Plato, moves through Augustine and Dante and extends to Whitehead and Nussbaum in modern times. Readings will include Plato’s Symposium, Murdoch’s Acastos, The Sovereignty of Good, and The Fire and the Sun; Martha Nussbaum’s Upheavals of Thought, and selections from Alfred North Whitehead’s Adventures of Ideas and Essays in Science and Philosophy. This course in philosophical theology will be conducted in seminar fashion with reflection papers each class by all students and a student-led class presentation and discussion each class.

Women’s and Gender Studies

Relationship Violence & Sexual Assault – 25208 – WGST 222 – 01
Prof. Laura J Kovach & Prof. Jennifer L Schweer | T 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm

This course will examine intimate partner violence, sexual assault and stalking. We will examine theories about intimate partner violence, frequency and prevalence of rape, and social and cultural contributors to domestic violence, rape, and sexual assault on college campuses. We will also evaluate current systems and policies that exist to support survivors and hold perpetrators accountable. We will then discuss what we can do individually and collectively as a community to end gender violence.

Inequality, Gender & Prison – 34986 – WGST 226 – 01
Prof. Nicole C Mason | MW 12:30 pm – 1:45 pm

Explores inequality and gender issues in the US prison system.

Gender & Sexuality in the Middle East – 36373 – WGST 231 – 01
Prof. Michelle Ohnona | MW 9:30 am – 10:45 am

The aim of this course is to explore the ways in which the social and cultural construction of sexual difference shapes the politics of gender and sexuality in the Middle East and North Africa. Using interdisciplinary feminist theories, we will explore key issues and debates including the interaction of religion and sexuality, women’s movements, gender-based violence, queerness and gay/straight identities. Looking at the ways in which the Arab Spring galvanized what some have called a “gender revolution”, we will examine women’s roles in the various revolutions across the Arab World, and explore the varied and shifting gender dynamics in the region.

African Sexualities & Cultures – 36629 – WGST 242 – 01
Prof. April Sizemore-Barb | MW 12:30 pm – 1:45 pm

This class looks at discourses of gender and sexual diversity on the African continent from a variety of perspectives. The course centers the narratives and cultural production of those who identify (or dis-identify) as LGBTQ+ in circumstances where such an identity is frequently considered “UnAfrican.” It explores: 1) the sexual and gendered legacies of European colonialism (and its ongoing manifestations); 2) the possibilities and limitations of inherited “queer” terminology from the west (frequently employed by the non-profit industry), and 3) the methods that gender and sexually diverse Africans have employed to made sense and space for themselves across a variety of national and cultural contexts. Our discussions operate with the understanding that “Africa” is, following philosopher V.Y. Mudimbe, as much a rhetorical invention as a geographical location. While the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ Africans are very real, the popular depiction of the continent as socially “backwards” and uniformly homophobic is arguably the latest iteration of a far older script. Drawing on recent scholarship in the field of Queer African Studies, African Cultures and Sexualities seeks out alternative narratives and non-normative presence in contemporary literature, art, film, performance, and in digital space.

Women in American Politics – 34439 – WGST 266 – 10
Prof. Donna Brazile | MW 12:30 pm – 1:45 pm

The focus of this course is to examine the role of women in American politics and the participation of women in the electoral process as voters, elected and appointed officials, strategists and party leaders. Topics of discussion will include early pioneers in American politics; Making waves: Running for President; 1922: The Year of the Woman; women’s issues in national and statewide campaigns; the women’s vote; race, class and gender; women activists and women voters; women as candidates, women as campaign officials: limited seats at the table; the future of American women in politics; and women and media coverage. Throughout this course, the professor will bring in guest speakers and leaders from the world of politics, journalism, and non-profit organizations.

Writing and English

Writing and Culture – 26878 – WRIT 015 – 12
Prof. Lisbeth S. Fuisz | TR 12:30 pm – 1:45 pm

“Banned and Challenged Books” In 2010, Arizona legislators banned ethnic studies programming from public schools along with a group of well-regarded histories, textbooks, novels, plays, and poetry. In 2013, the Tucson Unified School District voted to reintroduce seven of these banned books. The controversies in Arizona represent some recent episodes in a long history of censorship in U.S. schools and libraries. Hundreds of challenges are made yearly to texts for containing sexually explicit material, violence, homosexuality, anti-family sentiment, offensive language and Satanic themes, amongst others. This class will explore what is at stake in these arguments over appropriate reading materials for students. As we grapple with these controversies, we will learn skills and strategies to be more effective writers. To put many of these practices into action, students will write for a public audience, editing and creating content in Wikipedia. Students will learn the conventions of Wikipedia as a discourse community and share their growing knowledge about censorship with a wider audience through their contributions to Wikipedia. This course is intended to equip students with resources to help navigate the various writing situations they encounter during their academic careers and beyond. Thus, assignments in this course center on the writing process (prewriting, drafting, revising, responding, editing, and publication) to develop critical communication skills.