WittSem
Globalization with a Human Face?
Office: Hollenbeck 301
Phone: 937 327 7847
e-mail: mmartinezsaenz@wittenberg.edu
Required Texts:
bell hooks Teaching to Transgress
Dinesh D’Souza Letters to a Young Conservative
Richard Rorty Achieving Our Country
A Writer’s Reference (optional: if you are enrolled in ENG 101 you already have it; if you are not enrolled in ENG 101 this semester, you will need to buy it next semester.)
Songs from itunes. See schedule below. Check video.google.com for live performances.
There will be material placed on electronic reserve and online materials.
See my webpage: http://userpages.wittenberg.edu/mmartinezsaenz/
Course Description
There seems to be widespread agreement that globalization is affecting economic institutions, political institutions, the environment and cultures all across the globe. The (apparent) integration of world markets, world political systems, and world cultures is being praised by some and denounced by others. In this class, we will consider a variety of perspectives related to globalization and its wide-reaching implications. In order to gain a greater appreciation of the impact of globalization our reading and viewing selections will address a wide range of topics including but not limited to the following: Is poverty expanding or diminishing? Are women being harmed or helped? Is the environment in danger? Are corporations undermining democracy? How are cultures being affected? What does “humanity” have to do with any of this? Students will be expected to write four short critical essays, take a midterm exam and a final exam. There will also be short answer quizzes given weekly on the reading assignments. In this class students will be expected to engage in dialogue with me and with each other.
Goals and
Objectives:
By taking this class, students should 1) gain a basic understanding of some of the issues related to globalization 2) gain a greater understanding of the competing ideas and the context in which those ideas developed 3) gain a greater appreciation of the diverse world around them and a greater understanding of the extent to which ideas shape our understanding of ourselves and the world we inhabit 4) improve their written and oral communication skills, and hone their critical and analytical skills (such as the ability to distinguish between fact and interpretation) and finally 5) nurture intellectual curiosity and skepticism and enjoy having a supportive audience with which to share ideas.
Course Requirements
1. Attendance/Participation and Quizzes 10%: This class will not be exclusively a lecture class. While I will lecture, at least half of the class will be devoted to discussion. This means that students ought to be prepared to discuss the readings, the films or the general topics assigned for the day. Since participation is an integral part of this class, attendance is required. Unannounced quizzes will be given periodically to determine if and what students are reading. These quizzes will require a very short answer to a question related specifically to the text. If you have not read the assignment for the day please do not try to make up some nonsense. It will serve you better in the long run to acknowledge your mistake and perform better the next time. IF YOU MISS MORE THAN 5 SCHEDULED CLASS MEETINGS YOU WILL BE GIVEN AN “F” FOR THE SEMESTER. Keep in mind having a legitimate excuse for your 6th absence does not excuse all previous absences. Be sure to miss class only when necessary.
Participation Breakdown:
a) Participated in Class Discussions
b) Showed interest; Listened attentively
c) Added quality comments to the class
d) Came to class having done the reading
e) Thought about and discussed the ideas and issues outside the classroom
f) Went beyond the required assignments
2. Completion of Wittpath Program 5%: More information forthcoming.
3. Presentations 10%: Throughout the course of the semester each student will be responsible for leading one class discussion. Students will be expected to come prepared to set up the conversation and ask their fellow students some leading questions. Also, students will be asked to provide a brief handout that includes the following:
a) Name of Song, Poem, Video or…
b) Name of the artist, poet or…
c) Main point
d) Brief explanation that tells us whether the point was worth making and whether the medium chosen was effective—need an argument.
4. Heritage Center/Tour of Springfield (2-3 pages) 10%: On the dates below, we will gather as a group (2:00) in the Student Center and walk to downtown Springfield to the Heritage Center to take a tour of Springfield’s Historic Museum. We should be back on campus by 4:30 pm. You will have to write a short reflection paper that tells the reader what you learned about Springfield and what you learned about yourself. If you have class conflict, let me know so I can supply you with a letter of permission for the specific faculty member or coach. We will have two opportunities to take the tour:
a) September 18, 2007
b) September 19, 2007
c)
PAPERS DUE:
September 24, 2007
5.
Meet Your Professor 10%: Here’s
my main motivation for this assignment: everyone should get in the habit of
developing good professional relationships. In your line of work as a student,
the most crucial relationships are between you and your profs.
You’re paying a lot of money to study at Witt, so you might as well take
advantage of the opportunity. That definitely doesn’t mean that the profs are your employees, that you pay their salaries and
hence that you “own” them, or that they should do everything you ask and do
your bidding. Rather, you’re paying for the opportunity to enter into
professional relationships with highly trained and experienced workers with
great expertise in their fields. You’re more like a client who pays to work
with a skilled consultant. Ultimately in your career here at Witt you hopefully
will develop relationships with one or more profs in
your major field through which you’ll learn how to be a professional in that
discipline yourself. For now, though, because you’re new at being a college
student, it will be enough to work on making the general student/teacher
relationship more interactive and productive. Report on your visit. In particular, here’s
what I want you to write up for me (in a word-processed document, not
hand-written), to be delivered in class by October
1, 2007. Assignment contributed by Dr. Doug Andrew, Department of
Mathematics and Computer Science
For each of
your professors other than me (3 professors) gather
the following information:
a) Cite
the professor’s name
b) List
the department, course number and title of course
c) Describe
the professor’s specialty within the department
d) Tell
me a few things you learned about the professor you might not have known
e) Assess
how you are doing in the course
f) Record
how much time you spent with your professor
6. Program Papers (2-3 pages) 10%: You will have to write two short papers on each of the following programs that tells the reader 1) the goal of the program, 2) whether the facilitator met your expectations and 3) what you learned about yourself.
a) “Can I Kiss You” October 22nd 4:00 pm, 6:30pm, or 7:00 pm “Can I Kiss You” Location will be announced.
PAPERS DUE: October 29
b) Any WittSeries Event
PAPERS DUE: December 7
7. Critical Reflection Papers (2-3 pages) 10%: grade: Following Adam Smith one of the implicit ideas being thought about this semester, is the role that sympathetic awareness might play in our lives as we try to make sense of the world we inhabit. As Adam Smith reminded us in Theory of Moral Sentiments that “Sympathy originates in the imagination, which alone can make us enter into the sensations of others. … It is only by imagining ourselves in his position, by changing places with him in fancy, by thinking what our own sensations would be in the same plight, that we come to feel what he endures, and to shudder at the mere thought of the agonies be feels…..” With this in mind you will have to write two short papers on the following assignments that tell the reader 1) what you learned about the world, 2) what you learned about others, and 3) what you learned about yourself. Pick two of the following:
a) Bus Route for a day: You can pick up bus route information at Springfield City Area Transit (SCAT) 100 Jefferson Street OR the Public Library
b) South Fountain Tour of Homes http://www.springfieldlive.com/events/heritage-architecture/620.html CHECK DATES
c) Religious Service (not your own) for a day. You can find the different “Houses of Worship” at http://www4.wittenberg.edu/administration/chapel/worshiphouses.html
d) PAPER DUE DATES: Only one paper can be turned it on each of the given dates. In other words, you cannot turn both paper in on December 3, 2007.
i. September 17, 2007
ii. November 5, 2007
iii. December 3, 2007
8. Take-home Mid-term exam 15%: The exam will be a take-home exam. I will pass out exam questions on Friday and all students will be expected to turn in the completed exam by Friday of the following week.
9. Final Paper and Presentation (Theme: HOPE) 20%: The final is a larger percentage of your grade because I expect most students to perform better towards the end of the semester especially after you have experienced my method for grading. The final will consist of a book review or a film review. You will be required to write a critical review of a book or film. Keep in mind you will have to give us substantive reasons for reading or viewing your selection. “It was cool” will not suffice. Your presentation should be in the form of a brief “plug.” I will give you more details during the 1st week of class.
Meeting the “L” Requirement: Focusing on the question “Is globalization making the
world a better place?” I engage students in issues that cross a wide range of
disciplines. Most conspicuously we will
be using literary texts, economic analysis, memoirs, film and philosophical
works to understand more fully how the issues that are being discussed relate
to our lives. Students will be asked to
engage with philosophical issues related to higher education by reading bell
hooks’ Teaching to Transgress and Martha Nussbaum’s essay “Liberal Education and
Global Community.” Liberal Education, Winter 2004. When
considering problems related to domestic poverty, students will be using statistical (economic)
analysis as provided by the United States Census Bureau to determine trends and
will engage with local members of the community who work in the social service
sector. Their engagement with social service agencies and their employees will
enable students to reflect deliberately on the way statistics tell only part of
the story. As they use empirical analysis to evaluate issues related to
educational inequity, they will also read excerpts from Barbara Einreich’s Nickel and Dimed. Furthermore, students will be
asked to consider problems related to poverty using statistical (economic)
analysis as provided by the United Nations, World Bank and economist Jagdish Bhagwati. .
Meeting the Diversity
Requirement: In order
to gain a greater appreciation of difference our reading selections will
address a wide range of questions including but not limited to the following:
Is poverty expanding or diminishing? Are women being harmed or helped? Is the
environment in danger? Are corporations undermining democracy? How are (indigenous) cultures being affected?
What does “our common humanity” have to do with any of this?
August
17: Rage Against the Machine: Chiapas, the Zapatistas and “People of the
Sun”
AND “Jaywalkingwith
Senator Dole”
Week 1 Globalization: A Brief Introduction
August 20: Assignment Due in Class
More Selections from Rage
Against the Machine
August
22: Political Debate-Right, Left, Right,
Left
“Jon Stewart on Crossfire”
video.google.com
August
24: World Geography/History Exercise:
Dr. Tammy Proctor, Associate Professor of History
Week 2 and 3: What is an education anyway?
August
27: bell
hooks Teaching to Transgress Intro and chapter 1
bell hooks Pt 1 Cultural Criticism and
Transformation video.google.com
(Student:
__________________) (Student: __________________)
August 29: What do you expect to get out of college?
Should I do it? Value
question
Do I want to do it?
Motivational question
Can I do it? Competency question
Poem: Mayou Angelou “Still I Rise” see my webpage.(Student: __________________) (Student: __________________)
August 31: Wittenberg’s
Mission and Values Statement
Martha
Nussbaum “Liberal Education and the Global Community” Liberal Education
Winter 2004
http://www.aacu.org/liberaleducation/le-wi04/le-wi04index.cfm
September
3: NO CLASS
September 5: WittPath: Career Center
September 7: bell hooks Teaching to Transgress chapter 4
Week 4: Leftist Thought in
Twentieth Century America
September 10: Cornel West “Being a Leftist in the 21st
Century” (10 min video) video.google.com
(Student: __________________) (Student: __________________)
September 12: Barack Obama at DNC '04 (Part 1) (Student: __________________) (Student: __________________)
Barack Obama at DNC '04 (Part 2) (Student: __________________)
September 14: Richard Rorty Achieving Our Country
Week 5: Conservative
Thought in Twentieth Century America
Song: (Student:
__________________) (Student: __________________)
Critical
Reflection Papers DUE
September 19: Zel Miller at Republican National Convention (17 minutes) video.google.com
Song: (Student:
__________________) (Student: __________________)
September
21: Dinesh D’Souza Letters to
a Young Conservative
Week 6: Economic
Globalization
September 24: Jagdish Bhagwati In Defense of
Globalization Part 1 E-RESERVE
Song: Bad Religion
“Modern Man” itunes.com (Student:
__________________) (Student: __________________)
Heritage
Center/Tour of Springfield Paper DUE
September 26: UNDP Exercise HDI, GDP … Meet in the library
September 28: UNDP continued Meet in the library
Week 7: Why College?
October 1: WittPath:
Career Center
October 3: Time-Management Exercise
Meet Your Professors Assignment DUE
October 5: bell hooks Teaching to Transgress
chapter 10
Week 8: Class Consciousness in America
October 8: Guest Speaker: Marlo Fox
Reading: “"Using the Hidden
Rules of Class to Create Sustainable Communities”
http://www.ahaprocess.com/Downloads.html
October 10: Barbara Ehrenreich Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America E-Reserve
October 12: Minimum Wage
Exercise
Midterm
Exam distributed
Week 9: Why College
Revisited
October
15: NO CLASS (Fall Break)
October
17: General Education at Wittenberg (Student:
__________________)
October
19: Time-Management Log Due (Class Discussion)
Week 10 and 11:
Debating Difference
October 22: MIDTERM EXAM DUE
Song: Bob
Marley Redemption Song itunes
(Student: __________________) (Student:
__________________)
October 24: bell hooks Pt 2
Cultural Criticism and Transformation video.google.com
Recommended: “byronn bain's reel” video.google.com
October 26: Lani Guinier and Gerald Torress The Miner’s Canary: Enlisting Race, Resisting Power, Transforming Democracy E-Reserve
Song: Bob
Marley War itunes
(Student: __________________)
LAST
DAY TO DROP A COURSE WITH A “W”
October
29: Gay Marriage Amendment
Constitutional Amendment State of Ohio Article XV Section 11
“Ann
Coulter on the Today Show” video.google.com (Student: __________________)
(Student: __________________)
“TBA”
“Can I kiss you”
Program Paper DUE
October
31: TBA
Song: Bob
Marley Ambush in the Night itunes
(Student: __________________) (Student:
__________________)
November 2: Michael Eric Dyson Race Rules E-Reserve
Week
12and 13: Clash of Civilizations?
November
5: Born
into Brothels MEET IN THE LIBRARY
November
7: Born
into Brothels
November
9: Discussion
Born into Brothels
November 12: Samuel
Huntington The clash of civilizations. Foreign Affairs, 72(3):22-49.
Critical
Reflection Papers DUE
November 14: Benjamin Barber
Jihad and McWorld E-Reserve
November 16: REVIEW
November
19: TBA
November
21: Thanksgiving
November
23: Thanksgiving
November
26: Student Presentations
November
28: Student Presentations
November
30: Student Presentations
December
3: Student Presentations
Critical
Reflection Papers DUE
December
5: Student Presentations
December
7: Student Presentations
WittSeries Program Paper DUE
Final Papers Due December 14, 2007 by 5:00 PM.