EDUC
210-Spring ‘12
Education for Peace and
Non-Violence:
Cells, Confinement, and
Culpability
T/Th 1:20-2:35
305
Lathrop
professor: mark stern
email: mstern@colgate.edu
office: 12 persson
office hours: m, 1:30-2:45; t, 10-11; th,
10-11; and by appointment
Phone: 315.228.6136
description
At a literal level, this course is about the
act of capturing—about who gets captured, how they get captured, where they get
captured and where they go when they do, and, and perhaps most importantly, why
they get captured. We are going to
look at four distinct, yet highly interrelated, iterations of this process:
photographs capturing suffering; capturing “enemy combatants” in the War on
Terror; capturing mostly Black, male, Americans in an era of mass
incarceration; and capturing animals in industrial slaughterhouses. The questions we will ask of each of
these modules will be both ethical and political. How do we make sense of capturing and confinement in a
neoliberal political economy and what, if any, are our ethical responsibilities
to these acts of capture? In what
ways might we (as a class) be
culpable?
In terms of movements towards peace and
non-violence, we will think about the act of learning and education as a first
step in a process towards resistance and struggle. We will be introduced to a litany of interlocutors who
propose various arguments and examples about how to move to a more just
world. Some of these arguments
will resonate with more traditional non-violent movements in the spirit of
human rights and the Civil Rights era.
Others will sound quite opposite, positing that the only way to true
revolution, to true peace, is through violence. We will weigh each argument on its own rhetorical and
material merits.
class environment and cultural politics
Class time will be structured in a seminar format. This means that we will engage texts by
discussing them as a group and bringing up questions and concerns vocally and
publicly. You are expected to show
up to class prepared and having read.
This course will be interactive and collaborative. The better we all
participate, the more we will get out of this class. As content will deal with political issues that (hopefully)
many of us will have differing opinions on, class dialogue will provide a
context to explore these differences through listening and presenting
alternative points of view. Though
we should be comfortable to disagree with each other, we will do so
respectfully and thoughtfully.
I ask that you do not
text message or use computers during this class.
Academic
integrity and the University Honor Code will be respected
in this course. You are expected
to cite work accurately and diligently.
Not doing so will lead to grade reduction or more institutional measures
given the severity of abuse. If
you have any questions about what this means or how it is done correctly, feel
free to contact me. For outside
help with your writing you should contact The Writing Center or see the
Library’s Citation and Style Guides at http://exlibris.colgate.edu/resources/more/citation_guides.html.
Our
community values diversity and seeks to promote meaningful access to
educational opportunities for all students. The University and I are committed to your success. I support section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended and the Americans with Disabilities Act
(1990). This means that in general
no individual shall be excluded from participation in, be denied benefits of,
or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity, solely by
reason of having a disability. If you have concerns about anything related to
your success in this course, please come and speak with me and contact Lynn Waldman, Director of Academic
Program and Disability Services, 105 McGregory Hall, x7225.
grading/assignments
Any late assignment
will be penalized one point per day.
After three days, you will receive a zero.
All written work must be proofread, edited, and cited properly. I will not grade non-proofread work. It will be returned and counted as late. You may use APA, MLA, or Chicago style for citations. All work should be double-spaced, in 12 pt., Times New Roman, font, with one-inch margins unless otherwise noted.
All written work must be proofread, edited, and cited properly. I will not grade non-proofread work. It will be returned and counted as late. You may use APA, MLA, or Chicago style for citations. All work should be double-spaced, in 12 pt., Times New Roman, font, with one-inch margins unless otherwise noted.
1) attendance/participation
Your
grade will be based not only on whether or not you show up for class, but how
you show up for class. As I stated
above, class time will be based on discussion and your participation is
mandatory. We want to try to
cultivate a classroom environment where we are talking with each other and not
at each other. Listening to fellow
students and responding to them in relation to the text will help to create a
healthy intellectual climate.
To
keep everyone accountable for readings, I will make use of two forms of
assessment during the semester. I
will both cold-call on students and there will be unannounced times when I will
ask that you complete a writing assignment based on the readings.
To
help you with both of these forms of assessment, you want to always consider
the following three questions when reading and taking notes:
1)
What is the author’s argument?
What are they getting at?
2)
What is the context for the conversation/argument the author is putting forth?
3)
What do you find interesting about the reading? What are you curious about?
After
two unexcused absences, you will lose one percentage point per absence. For the most part, only absences with
a note from an academic dean are excusable. Should certain circumstance arise that make it impossible to
attend class, please get in touch with me before that class period. =10%
2)
weekly-ish reflections
As opposed to posting to Moodle, which
sometimes feels a bit cold and calculated, we are going to experiment with a
form of journaling this semester.
There will be class journals that each of you has to write in 10 times over the course of the
semester. These entries must be in
conversation with the other entries and will thus form a semester-long
narrative about issues and ideas that are getting brought up over the course of
the semester. =20%
3)
small group/small projects
In small groups, you will complete two small
assignments. These will encompass
short, in-class, presentations. =10%
4)
papers
You’ll write two, seven-ish page papers; one
due around midterm, the other towards the end. =50%
5)
final
There will be one. It will deal with things about peace and non-violence. =10%
texts
There are five
texts for this course. There will
be a copy of each on reserve at Case Library as well.
-Michelle
Alexander, The New Jim Crown: Mass
Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness. New York: The New Press, 2010.
-George
Jackson, Blood In My Eye. Baltimore: Black Classic Press,
1972/1990.
-Joshua
E.S. Phillips, None Of Us Were Like This
Before: American Soldiers and
Torture. New York: Verso, 2010.
-Timothy
Picharat, Every Twelve Seconds:
Industrialized Slaughter and the
Politics
of Sight.
New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 2011.
-Susan
Sontag, Regarding the Pain of
Others. New York: Picador,
2003.
In
addition to these books, there will be articles listed in the schedule
below. All of these articles, if
not followed by a hyperlink in this syllabus, can be found on Moodle. Full citations for these articles are
written on the first page of each.
schedule
(Please
note that this is a working syllabus.
The professor reserves the right to revise and amend as necessary.)
M, Jan 23 Intros
Celluloid
T, Jan 24 Sontag,
chs. 1-2
Th, Jan 26 Sontag
ch. 3
Linfield,
“Photojournalism and Human Rights”
T, Jan 31 Sontag
, chs. 4-5
Stern,
“Enjoying the Absences: Embedded Photographs and the
Truthiness
of Censorship”
Th, Feb 2 Sontag,
ch. 6
Butler, “Violence, Mourning, Politics”
T, Feb 7 Berger—excerpts
from Ways of Seeing
Lutz
and Collins, “The Photograph as an Intersection of Gazes”
Th, Feb 9 Sontag,
chs. 7-9
Viewing: War Photographer or La Jette or Pictures From a Revolution or Disintegration
Loops
Viewing: War Photographer or La Jette or Pictures From a Revolution or Disintegration
Loops
Torture Cells
T, Feb 14 Phillips,
Intro; ch. 1
Brody,
“The Road To Abu Ghraib: Torture and Impunity in U.S. Detention”
Sontag,
“Regarding the Torture of Others”
Listen: This
American Life 429
Th, Feb 16 Phillips,
ch. 2
Pease, “The Global Homeland State”
Torture
Memos
Listen: This
American Life 331
T, Feb 21 Phillips,
chs. 3-4
Puar,
“On Torture”
Th, Feb 23 Phillips,
chs. 5-6
Luban,
“Liberalism, Torture, and the Ticking Time Bomb”
Meyer,
“Whatever It Takes”
T, Feb 28 Phillips,
chs. 8-9
Finnegan,
“The Last Tour”
Listen: This
American Life 359, Act II
Th, Mar 1 Sherman,
excerpts from The Untold War
T, Mar 6 In-class Viewings: The Marlboro Marine; Stop Loss
Th, Mar 8 TBD; Paper 1 Due
SPRING
RECESS
Prison
Cells
T, Mar 20 Kafka,
“Before The Law”
Alexander,
Intro; ch. 1
Gawande,
“Hellhole”
Th, Mar 22 Alexander,
ch. 2
Parenti,
“Big Bucks From the Big House”
T, Mar 27 Alexander,
ch. 3
Brown,
“Evil In The City”
Abu-Jamal,
excerpts from Live From Death Row
Th, Mar 29 Alexander,
ch. 5
Chesney-Lind,
“Imprisoning Women: The Unintended Victims of Mass
Imprisonment”
Listen: This American Life 119
T, Apr 3 Alexander,
ch. 5
Jackson,
pgs. 3-40
Newton,
“Prison, Where Is Thy Victory?”
Th, Apr 5 Jackson,
pgs. 97-113; 181-217
Davis,
“Political Prisoners, Prisons, and Black Liberation”
Listen: This American Life 218
In-class Viewing: Child of Resistance
Slaughter
Cells
T, Apr 10 J.M
. Coetzee, excerpt from The Lives of
Animals
Optional (but highly recommended):
Wallace,
“Consider the Lobster”
Th, Apr 12 Bauman,
“Sociology After The Holocaust”
Pachirat,
ch. 1
Listen: Radiolab 7:1
T, Apr 17 Pachirat,
chs. 2-3
Torres,
exerpts from Making a Killing
Th, Apr 19 Pichirat,
ch. 6
Adams, excerpt from The Pornography of Meat
Adams, excerpt from The Pornography of Meat
T, Apr 24 Pachirat,
ch. 9
Goodyear,
“Grub”
Szasz,
excerpt from Shopping Our Way to Safety
Th, Apr 26 Bauman,
“From Work Ethic to Aesthetic of Consumption”
Park
and Pellow, excerpt from The Slums of
Aspen
T, May 1 Viewing: Mississippi Chicken
Paper
2 Due
Th, May 3 Thinking
about Peace and Non-Violence as Violence/Last Day/Review
Final
Exam: Thursday, May 10, 9 a.m. (sharp)
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