Franklin & Marshall College Department of Government
Dr. Susan Dicklitch
Goethean Hall, Rm. 204
Telephone: 291-4185
Email: susan.dicklitch {at} fandm(.)edu
Office Hours: Mon. 1:00-3:00pm (or by appointment)
Class: T/Th: STA 110

Course Overview

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and
conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood" (Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, Article 1)

This course explores the trial of humanity and human rights. Focusing on the global, national and local aspects of human rights, this course will also integrate a service-learning component at the local level. Basic human rights will be examined at the international, national, and local level, including; freedom from fear (physical security, minority rights) and freedom from want (poverty, hunger, right to shelter, education). In focusing on these basic human rights, students will examine homelessness, poverty, mental health issues, women's rights, gay rights, refugee rights and inequalities in education at the local, national and international level.

In the spirit of foundations inquiry, students will examine several "big questions" about humanity and human rights. What are human rights? Are they necessary? Do certain people have or deserve more rights than others? What causes human rights abuses? How do we rectify human rights abuses? What is the relationship between hatred and human rights abuses'?

Students will work in groups of four on a major human rights issue integrating the international, national and local level, culminating in a written project and a class presentation.

Required Reading

Brown, Seyom, Human Rights in World Politics (Addison Wesley Longman)

Dozier, Jr., Rush W. (2002) Why We Hate: Understanding, Curbing, and Eliminating Hate in Ourselves and Our World (New York: Contemporary Books).

Ehrenreich. Barbara (2001) Nickel and Dimed (Henry Holt & Company)

Gourevitch, Philip (2000) We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families (New York: Picador USA)

*Reserve readings available from SF library or via the web.

Course Requirements

Participation & Quizzes 15%
Response Papers 20%
Service learning project 20%
Service learning presentation 10%
Reflection journal 20%
Final Exam 15%

For those with community based service learning placements:
Reflection journal 15% Due Date: April 29th
Final exam 15% TBA

Participation & Attendance:

Because this is a foundations course, completing assigned readings before class as well as participating in class discussion is essential. Unannounced quizzes on the reading material will be held periodically. Students will be allowed two excused or non-excused absences. Any absences thereafter will result in a 2% grade point drop for each absence on your final grade. (Medical leaves of absence and short term documented leaves must be discussed with the instructor).

Response Papers

In order to help ensure that students actually complete the required readings, response papers will be assigned throughout the semester. The average length will be 1 2 typewritten pages.

Due Dates:
Response Paper 1: January 13th
Response Paper 2: February 1st
Response Paper 3: March 13th
Response Paper 4: April 15th

Service Learning / Group Projects

Students will be divided into six (6) groups of four (4). Each group will work on one human rights issue, focusing on the international, national, and local level. The local level will involve a service learning component. Each student in the group will be responsible for researching their assigned human rights issue at the international, national, or local level. Each individual student report should be a minimum of five (5) pages to a maximum of ten (10) pages in length. An executive summary of all four student reports must be provided at the beginning of the report with a table of contents and bibliography of sources consulted and included at the end of the report. Recommendations, based on the findings at the international, national, and local levels, must also be included at the end of the final report.

The final report will consist of a well polished, professional report on the state of human rights, (internationally, nationally, and locally), focusing on the group's specific topic. For example, one report could focus on the state of women's rights (internationally, nationally, and locally).

Although students will be graded individually for their specific reports, the project is a group effort and will require all members of the group to participate throughout the entire process. The executive summary and recommendations will draw on all four student reports, and must be cohesive, flowing and logical. A portion of the student's overall project grade will be based on the group effort.

A separate handout detailing requirements and placements will be handed out during the second week of classes.

Class Presentations

The culmination of the course will be student presentations of their findings. These presentations must be cohesive and inclusive of all four student reports, and not simply individual presentations. Students are encouraged to be CREATIVE. PowerPoint presentations are welcome, guest speakers, etc. The presentation should be substantial, professional, and sophisticated. Each group will be allotted 1/2 hour for their presentations with time for questions from the audience. Community partners will be invited to attend these presentations. The class presentation will be a group effort; consequently, the group will share the same grade.

Reflection Journal

Students are required to keep a daily journal documenting their activities as well as their perceptions, experiences and concerns regarding their experience with service learning and their introduction to human rights. Students should be consistent with writing in their journals on a weekly basis. Reflection journals will be due the last day of class. They must be typewritten and double spaced.

Some suggestions on how to keep a great journal, from Mark Cooper, Coordinator, The VAC, "Reflection: Getting Learning Out of Serving", http://www.fiu.edu/ time4chcl/Library/reflect.html. Journals should be snapshots filled with sights, sounds, smells, concerns, insights, doubts, fears, and critical questions about issues, people, and most importantly, about yourself Honesty is the most important ingredient to Successful journals A journal is not a work log of tasks, events, times and dates Write freely. Grammar/spelling should not be stressed in your writing until the final draft Write an entry after each visit. If you can't write a full entry, jot down random thoughts, images, etc. which you can come back to a day or two later and expand into a colorful verbal picture.

Final Exam

The final exam will be cumulative and will focus on the bigger questions addressed throughout the semester on human rights

Dr. Monica Cowart
monica.cowart {at} merrimack(.)edu
Fall 2002

"The real point of ethics is to offer tools for thinking about difficult matters, recognizing from the start as the very rationale for ethics, in fact that the world is seldom so simple or clear cut. Struggle and uncertainty are part of ethics, as they are part of life." - Anthony Weston

Course Objectives:

(1) To introduce students to some influential theories and classics in the field,
(2) To teach students how to critically evaluate philosophical arguments, and
(3) To help students explore the connections between the philosophical theories they read and the organizations they assist

Course Requirements:

(1) Readings completed prior to class
(2) Participation/ Classroom Activities 25%
(3) Midterm Exam (10/15) 25%
(4) Service Learning Project Group Essay 25%
(5) Service Learning Project Group Oral Presentation 25%
(6) Minimum of 30 service learning hours

Required Text:

John Arthur, ed., Morality and Moral Controversies: Readings in Moral, Social, and Political Philosophy, Prentice Hall, 2002

Course Packet

Course Schedule:

I. Metaethics

Week 1
Introduction; Structure of Course
"Getting Started" and "Thinking for Yourself' from Weston's A Practical Companion to Ethics (Course Packet);
Explanation of Service Learning Organizations
Guest Speaker Director of Service Learning Center

Week 2
William Shaw's "Relativism in Ethics"
Mary Midgley's "Trying Out One's New Sword"
Pick service learning sites; Evaluate Cultural Relativism

II. Ethical Theories

Week 3
John Stuart Mill's "Utilitarianism"
Implications of Mill's view

Week 4
Immanual Kant's "The Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals"
Implications of Kant's view

Week 5
Aristotle's "Nichomachean Ethics"
Implications of Aristotle's view

Week 6
John Rawl's "A Theory of Justice
Implication's of Rawl's view

Ethical Theories Midterm Exam

III. Sexuality and Violence

Week 7
Lois Pineau's "Date Rape: A Feminist Analysis"
Camille Paglia's "An Interview About Date Rape"
Robert Baker's " 'Pricks' and 'Chicks' : A Plea for 'Persons' " (Course Packet)

IV. Economic Inequality and Justice

Week 8
Peter Singer's "Rich and Poor"
Excerpt from Peter Unger's Living High and Letting Die
Robert Nozick's "The Entitlement Theory"

Week 9
James Rachel's "What People Deserve"
Garrett Hardin's "Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor" (Course Packet)
Writing Workshop on Constructing Philosophical Arguments
Group Progress Reports

V. Understanding Forms of Oppression

Week 10
Peggy McIntosh's "Invisible Knapsack" (Course Packet)
Marilyn Frye's "Oppression" from The Politics of Reality (Course Packet)

Week 11
Charles Murray's "Affirmative Racism"
James Rachels' "Reverse Discrimination"
Richard Wasserstrorn's "On Racism and Sexism: Realities and Ideals"
Ellison v. Brady

VI. Free Speech

Week 12
John Stuart Mill's "Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion"
Lawrence and Gunther's "Prohibiting Racist Speech on Campus: A Debate"

Week 13
Alan Dershowitz's "Political Correctness, Speech Codes, and Diversity"
Sekulow and Berman's "Internet Censorship: A Debate"

VII. Animals and the Environment

Week 14
Peter Singer's "All Animals Are Equal"
Bonnie Steinbock's "Speciesism and the Idea of Equality"
William Baxter's "People or Penguins"
J. Baird Callicott's "The Land Ethic"

VIII. Final Projects

Week 15
T 12/3 Final Presentations Groups 1 3
Th 12/5 Final Presentations Groups 4 6

Final Project Essays Are Due during our scheduled Final Exam Period!

Service Learning Project: Paper Structure

Target Length: 20 pages

Introduction: Discuss the Corresponding Contemporary Moral Issues

Thesis: It should tell me the structure of your paper AND preview your arguments.

I. Description of Organization

Your description should demonstrate an insider's point of view. In other words, do not just provide statistics, facts, etc. that could be acquired from a website. Your description should in some way convey that you understand your organization and its current needs. You also need to explain how the needs were assessed. For instance, if you interviewed the leader of your organization and s/he told you that their top two needs are x and y, then how were you able to confirm those needs based on your service learning experience. Given your perspective, were their other needs that you felt were more important than the ones mentioned? Overall, you must convey the strengths and weaknesses of your organization, the group that they are trying to help, and why outsiders should care.

II. Theoretical Assessment of Organization

Would you classify your organization in terms of a Kantian, Utilitarian, or Aristotelian framework?
Use arguments and passages from the relevant text to justify your classification.

III. Formulation of Action Plan

Explain your action plan in detail so that it is clear how it is designed to help solve one of your organization's pressing needs.
What obstacles/problems do you expect to encounter?

IV. Possible Objections: Theoretical, Applied, Practical

A. Theoretical Objection Use Kant, Aristotle, or Mill
1. Anticipate a possible theoretical objection to your plan
2. Refute the objection

B. Applied Objection Use a Contemporary Moral Theorist
1. Anticipate a possible applied objection to your plan
2. Refute the objection

C. Practical Objection How would a non philosopher object to your plan?
1. Anticipate a possible applied objection to your plan
2. Refute the objection

V. Final Evaluation of Project

A. What issues did you encounter while implementing your plan? How did you resolve these problems?

B. What lessons did you encounter? What would you do differently if you were in the same situation again?

Kathie Jenni / University of Redlands

Course Description:
A four week long internship at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah that is grounded in study of the history, issues, philosophies, and strategies of the animal welfare movement. One and one half days per week are devoted to class time; the remaining three and one half days each week are devoted to full time work in all aspects of the Sanctuary: cleaning, feeding and watering, socializing with and exercising animals, veterinary care, adoption services, humane education, and community outreach. Students may specialize in one facet of animal care during their final two weeks.

Prerequisite: instructor permission and acceptance by the Best Friends
Internship Director.

Course Objectives:

• To introduce students to philosophical thought about animal human ethics;
• To train students in the philosophical skills of identifying and questioning assumptions, critically evaluating alternative arguments, making conceptual distinctions, and arriving at well reasoned judgments;
• To train students in the care of abandoned and abused animals; and
• To integrate philosophical thought about animals with practical experience helping them.

Weekly Topics:

Week 1:
Fundamentals: History and principles of the Humane Movement,
anthropomorphism and animal feelings, dualism and evolutionary biology, individuals and species, compassion vs. respect, cruelty vs. thoughtlessness, images vs. realities (of animals, practices, and activists), various forms of activism.

Week 2:
Animal Rights Philosophy and its Opponents: Alternative criteria for moral standing, resources/property vs. rights bearers, anthropocentrism and speciesism, competing theories of animal rights (Peter Singer, Tom Regan, and others), objections to animal rights (R.G. Frey, Carl Cohen, and others).

Week 3:
Specific Moral Issues and Debates: Applications of theories to selected issues: use of animals as food and factory farming, pet overpopulation and euthanasia, spaying/neutering of companion animals, hunting and fishing, vivisection.

Week 4:
Connections between Animal Treatment and other Social Issues: Child and animal abuse; environmentalism, feminism, and animal rights; animals as healers and animal therapy.

Assignments and Evaluation:

This course is offered on a Credit No Credit / Narrative Evaluation Basis only. The following elements will be considered in your evaluation.

• Weekly Reflective Writing Assignments: each week, you will be given one or two short (1 2 page) writing assignments that will ask you to consider course ideas throughout your week of Sanctuary work. You'll be asked to discuss these reflections at the end of each week, and they will be collected on Fridays. (Please see sample reflective writing assignments on next page.)

• Academic Journal: you should keep a journal of your reflections on class sessions, readings, and Sanctuary work. While the weekly writing assignments provide one model of appropriate journal entries, you are encouraged to record your thoughts about whatever aspects of your experience seem most compelling to you. As a guideline, you should write a substantial entry (1-3 pages) every other day at a minimum. Journals will be collected at the end of the course and returned to you after grading is completed.

• Final Reflection Paper: you'll be asked to write a 3 4 page final reflection on your experience as a whole and the evolution in your thought about animal human relationships throughout the month. Please identify the most important things you have learned about animals, people, philosophy, culture, or yourself. Bring your final reflection with you on the last day of class.
• Class Participation and Overall Effort: you're expected to come to each class prepared to discuss all reading assignments. Your efforts in class discussions and Sanctuary work will be important to your overall course evaluation.

Course Texts and Readings:

Please purchase the following two books before we go to Utah. Readings will be selected from these texts throughout the term; weekly assignments will be made in class.

Torn Regan and Peter Singer, eds., Animal Rights and Human Obligations, 2nd ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: 1989).

Carl Cohen and Tom Regan, The Animal Rights Debate (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2001).

Taking Animals Seriously: Sample Reflective Writing Assignments

In your own reactions and those of staff to animals this week, can you distinguish instances of anthropomorphism or sentimentality from accurate assessments of feelings? How so? Provide examples.

How do stereotypes of animals affect this society's treatment of them, and how do those stereotypes diverge from reality? Consider this question especially as you work with pigs, birds, and cats.

Consider the lines Americans draw between animals we treasure as companions, and animals we use for food and other products. Why do those particular lines exist? Are there good reasons for them? Why do other cultures (e.g., those that consider dogs to be a food source and cats to be vermin) draw the lines in different ways? Which lines make sense or seem justified to you, and why?

Which abuses of animals that you have worked with were due to cruelty or maliciousness, and which to thoughtlessness or inattention? Which, if any, are worse and in what ways? What kinds of preventive or corrective efforts does each call for?

What evidence of sensitivity to pain and pleasure, intelligence, self-consciousness, and emotional responsiveness have you encountered in your work with animals this week?

Are there uses of animals that are not exploitative? If so, what is it that makes them unobjectionable? More generally, can you say what makes some practices involving animals exploitative and wrong, and others unobjectionable or even laudable?

What ideas for resolving conflicts of rights have you developed from your encounters with "destructive dogs" (dogs condemned to Sanctuary confinement or death because of chasing or biting behavior)? Do your ideas diverge from traditional thinking about conflicts between humans and nonhumans? How so?

What would Peter Singer, Tom Regan, R.G. Frey, and Carl Cohen think of the Sanctuary's "no kill" policy (and why)? Its policy of spaying/neutering all animals in residence and all adopted out? Its serving only vegetarian and vegan lunches?

Have your lunchtime experiences at the Sanctuary affected your thinking about the ethics of using animals for food? Did your work with pigs affect it? If so, how? If not, why not? Do you think that the Sanctuary should request or require of workers and volunteers (which it does not at present) that they eat a vegetarian or vegan diet? Why or why not?

Based on your observations at adoption clinics and other interactions of Sanctuary staff with the public, discuss what varieties of activism and education seem to be most effective, and why. Could those types of education/activism work in other contexts e.g., efforts to reform intensive farming or to end vivisection? Why or why not?

Prof. Tricia Waters
Office: 229c Palmer, Phone: 389 6595
Office Hours: MTF: 1:00 2:00, or by appointment
Email: twaters {at} ColoradoCollege(.)edu

PURPOSE:
This course is designed to help you integrate and apply conceptual, empirical and theoretical material related to the study of morality. This course includes a community based learning component. Working 6-8 hours per week in a local agency (see attached list of sites and descriptions) you will have an opportunity to experience, first hand, the complexities of everyday moral decision making. You will be asked, through a series of journal entries, seminar reflection papers, and a final course paper, to integrate the materials you are encountering in class with the "material" of real life.

This course is a collaborative effort. You will be called upon to bring your considerable training in the field of psychology to our conversations and explorations of morality. The core reading materials are meant to stimulate discussion and your own creative thought process. Readings will range from historical and philosophical renderings of morality and moral reasoning to a more detailed examination of moral issues as social, developmental and clinical psychologists have conceptualized them. The success of this course depends on your active participation and commitment. Be here, be prepared.

REQUIRED TEXTS:
Freud, Sigmund, Civilization and its discontents
Nietzsche, Friedrich, On the genealogy of morals
Olson, James & Roberts, Randy, My Lai: A brief history with documents

GRADING:

Community based Placement Journal (10%)
The success of a community based experience rests on your capacity to make connections between the work you are reading for class, and the work you are doing in the agency. We will spend time during class engaging in a reflection process (see "sit update" dates listed in course schedule). Some of these responses to agency work will be verbal, some written.

You might identify follow up questions for your next visit, or include references to course readings that could apply to the situation described. Date your entries. Include an entry for each site visit. This material may serve as a basis for your reflection papers.

Reflection Papers (30%)
On 11/5, 11/11 & 11/15 you will turn in a brief (2 3 page) reflection paper. In these papers you will make explicit links between the community based experience and course readings. This course is meant to be an on going discussion of core ideas in morality and moral reasoning. In fact, the more you discuss and write about the issues raised, the greater will be the development of your own reasoning capacity in this realm. In some cases, you may need to draw more broadly than your immediate on site experience to make connections to the study of morality. For example, you may wish to consider the role of this agency in the community (e.g., if this service were not available, what would happen to this population?). You may need to educate yourself on how this agency operates (e.g., the politics of funding non profits). Your task in these three papers is to integrate some aspect of your experience in the community with course related material. Two of the reflection papers will be swapped with a classmate for discussion and review (see course schedule, below).

Research Paper & Presentation (30%)
You will write a review of the literature on an area of morality stimulated by your community based agency work. The goal of the paper is to explore in detail one aspect of morality as it applies to your community setting (Paper should be approx. 12 14 pages in length). In considering your topic, be sure to narrow your focus so that you can do an adequate review of the literature (e.g., "Death and dying" is too broad. "Spousal reactions to decisions regarding hospice care" is better). This paper should follow standard APA guidelines, and should approximate a Psychology Bulletin review article. You will present your research to the class in the last week of the course.

In-Class Participation (10%)
You will be asked to conduct two moral reasoning interviews for the developmental section of the course. The interviews will follow a semi structured format (to be handed out in class), and should be rendered legible (either typed or neatly handwritten) before class on Tuesday of the second week of the block. You will work in pairs to present one of the "File" articles on specified days (see sign up sheet).

Midterm & Final Exams (20%)
There will be a mid term and final exam in this course. The format will include fill in the blank, matching, basic definitions and essays. Exams are non-cumulative.

COURSE SCHEDULE:
(Complete readings for date listed)

WEEK 1:

Mon. 10/28: Introduction and Overview of Course
Community based learning Site Selection
Making contact and setting up initial appt.

Tues. 10/29: Theorizing about Morality: Philosophy
Wilson, J. "What is moral and how do we know it?"
Frankena, W., "Morality and moral philosophy"
Orwell, G. "Shooting an Elephant"

Wed. 10/30: More Philosophical Musings
Nietzsche, F. Genealogy of Morals. (Preface and Essays 1&2)

Thurs. 10/31: Philosophical Psychology
Nietzsche, F. Genealogy of Morals. (Essay 3)
Freud, S. Civilization and Its Discontents. (Ch.1 2)
Fri. 11/2: Philosophical Psychology
Freud, S. (cont., ch. 3 end)
Site updates
1:00 p.m. Film: "Crimes and Misdemeanors"

WEEK 2:

Mon. 11/4: Social Psychological Perspectives on Morality
FILE: Zimbardo, P. "The human choice"
Milgram, S. "Some conditions"
Milgram. S. "Issues in the study of obedience: A reply to Baumrind"

1:00 p.m. "Quiet Rage: Stanford Prison Experiment" Milgram study

Tues. 11/5: Site Updates/Discussion:

Reflection Paper #1 Due (2 copies, SWAP)
BRING MORAL REASONING INTERVIEWS TO CLASS
(Read ahead day My Lai)

Wed. 11/6: Development of Morality I: Theory & Behavior
FILE: Saarni, C. "The capacity for empathic involvement"
Kohlberg, L. "Moral stages and moralization"
Kohlberg, L. "The cognitive developmental approach to moral education"

Thurs. 11/7: Development II: The Injunction to Care
FILE: Gilligan, C. & Attanucci, J. "Two Moral Orientations"
Eisenberg, N. & Miller, P. "The relation of empathy to prosocial and related behaviors"
Walker, & Taylor "Family interactions and the development of moral reasoning"

Fri. 11/8: EXAM 1

WEEK 3:

Mon. 11/11 Post Modern Critiques: Gilligan Reconsidered
FILE: Pollitt, K. "Are women morally superior to men?"
Benhabib, S. Situating the Self, "The generalized and concrete other"
Eisenberg, N. & Lennon, "Sex differences in empathy and related capacities"
Reflection Paper #2 Due (2 copies, SWAP)

Tues. 11/12 History Revisited: My Lai
BOOK: Olson, My Lai
FILE: O'Brien, T. "On the rainy river" from The Things They Carried
Darley, J. "Social organizations for the production of evil"
1:00 film "My Lai"

Wed. 11/13: Perspectives on War and Terrorism
FILE: Excerpts from Social Psychology of Terror

Roy, A. "The algebra of infinite justice"
Said, E. "Special Report: Terrorism in the U.S."
Siddiq, H. "Bin Laden's jihad, not Ours"
Hochman, B. "Double evil"

Thurs. 11/14: "Do No Harm" Ethics and Expert Witnessing in Clinical Practice
FILE: Pope, K. "Dual relationships in psychotherapy"
American Psychologist "Ethical principles of psychologists"
Keith Spiegel, P. & Koocher, G. "Privacy, confidentiality, and record keeping"
Faust & Ziskin "The expert witness in psychology and psychiatry"
Site updates
1:00 p.m. Film "My Doctor, My Lover"

Fri. 11/15 Clinical considerations (cont).

FILE: Abramson, L., Seligman, H., & Teasdale, J. "Learned helplessness in humans"
Darley, J. & Latane, B. "Bystander apathy"
Walker, L. "Psychology and violence against women"
Walker, L. excerpts from Why Battered Women Kill
In class film: "Defending our Lives"
Reflection Paper #3 Due (2 copies, SWAP)

WEEK 4:

11/18 Site Updates & Final Paper Presentation Day (sign up)
5:00 p.m. Research Paper Due

11/19 Final Paper Presentation Day (sign up)

11/20 Final Exams

TR 9:30-10:45 am and 12:30-1:45 PM
Professor Mary E. Hobgood

Office: 424 Smith Hall

Office Hours: Tuesdays 11 12 am and 2 3 PM and Thursdays 11 12 am or by appointment (ex. 3435).

THIS COURSE REQUIRES COMMUNITY BASED LEARNING AND GROUP WORK OUTSIDE CLASS. IT WILL USE THE ELECTRONIC RESERVE SYSTEM (ERES) FOR REQUIRED READINGS.

Course Description:

Christian social ethics evaluates the moral quality of the relations between social groups. This course provides an introduction to Christian ethical modes of reflection on contemporary issues that impact class, race and gender groups. These include issues of poverty/economic justice, First World/Two-Thirds World relations, racism and sexism. US citizens often identify themselves as religious persons, but less often do the hard work of connecting religious ethical traditions with social policies that impact relations among social groups. We may come up with different conclusions, but the unifying element in this course is our engagement in the difficult process of ethical discernment that is informed by both social theory (i.e., analysis of class, race and gender systems) and the Christian tradition (Biblical norms and church teaching).s

In addition, by requiring at least 20 hours of work outside of class in a community based learning project, the course provides an opportunity for students to use classroom theory to interrogate their work in a particular agency, and use agency work to interrogate concepts learned in class. The goal of the course is to provide students with new experiences and theories so as to challenge moral values and world views and deepen understanding of Christian notions of justice and love.

Tentative Course Content:

* Study of the differences that ideology (i.e., assumptions about how the world works), Biblical perspectives and Catholic social teaching can make in grounding understandings of poverty, imperialism, racism and sexism.
* Identifying the effects of contemporary economic structures on poor families and contrasting views on private property with the
views of poor people and the theorists who are in alliances with them.
* Comparing and contrasting the assumptions of US policy makers about "development," "low intensity conflict" and the "war on terrorism" with the alternative knowledge of people like Elvia Alvarado, a Honduran peasant involved in land reform and Rahul Mahajan, scholar and peace worker.
*Finally, while reading selected black writers on their experiences with white people, we will consider what is entailed in being racialized "white" and gendered male or female. We will contrast views about racism and sexism as an individual prejudice with understandings of racism and sexism as cultural ideology as well as monopolized social power embodied in larger structural systems.

COMMUNITY BASED LEARNING

If you choose to take Social Ethics, you must be enrolled in a 20 hour (at least) community learning project for the semester. This is essential to understanding course material. Your project may come from the SPUD program, from working with Professor Bill Meinhofer who is the Community Based Learning Director at Holy Cross, or another project that is approved by him or me. I expect that you will let me know which project you are already enrolled in by Sept.

KEEPING A LOG FOR SOCIAL ETHICS

In addition to spontaneous assignments given in class, you are asked to keep a log for Social Ethics. In it you will have abstracts of the readings (summaries of the main points) and your responses to the readings including how the readings connect to your community work. This log will help you be a meaningful contributor to class discussion and your small group course companions (see below). The log will also be the major resource for your final paper (see below).There will be four opportunities for you to hand in 5-10 pages of your log three times during the semester.

COURSE COMPANIONS

You are also required to meet with a small group once a week to discuss current readings. This group will be your course companions for the semester. Each group will submit an analysis of the group's discussion that week. Analyses are due on Thursday for the readings we have discussed that week. The course companions are to indicate in the weekly analyses not only who was present, but both the high and low points of the discussion that week.

OUTSIDE EVENTS

In addition to your class and community based work, you are asked to attend at least 5 campus based events and relate them to the course readings. They can be part of your Log for Social Ethics and may appear in the three opportunities you have to hand in 5-10 pages of your log.

FINAL PAPER

The final paper for the course will demonstrate your integration of all components of the course. How does course theory relate to your community practice and involvement in other campus events? Your log and the Essay Guide for Community Based Learning are major resources for the final paper.

You are asked to discuss how this course has challenged, changed and/or affirmed your (a) moral values, assumptions about the way the world works. and (c) your understanding of Christian vocation and the requirements of Justice. The paper will be evaluated on THE PRECISION OF YOUR CLASS, RACE AND GENDER ANALYSIS (social theory), your GRASP OF CHRISTIAN ETHICAL THOUGHT, AND THE DEPTH OF YOUR MORAL ENGAGEMENT IN THE COMMUNITY.

Course Objectives:

1) To provide an orientation to the work of Christian social ethics, and to introduce students to the claim in biblical ethics that justice making is central to happiness and flourishing (why God created all). To see how principles of Catholic social teaching extend biblical values in the contemporary world.

2) To grow in awareness of how context (i.e., our social location/social analysis*, shapes the debates about justice in Christian ethics. To better understand how our own stories of pain/privilege are an integral part of how we understand the moral claims of justice.

3) To place the experiences of marginalized groups at the center of the course and to explore how their viewpoints yield alternative knowledge of the world and alternative interpretations of how social systems "work" and what it means to be a moral person.

4) To further our understanding of our lives in relation by reflecting critically on a community learning experience. To use theory learned in class to interrogate practical experience and to reflect on practical experience in ways that may contribute to theory.

5) To grow in the intellectual and moral prerequisites for living in a multiclass, multiracial, multicultural and multigendered society. To re vision what kinds of communities we might wish to create and what strategies/social policies need to be developed as we seek to be faithful to Biblical values and Catholic Social Teaching.

6) To enhance skills in self directed learning and in working cooperatively in groups. To have regular experiences speaking publicly, teaching peers and writing clearly and persuasively.

Books:

Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination. Fortress Press, 1978. ISBN 0 8006 1337 6
Elvia Alvarado, Don't Be Afraid Gringo. Harper Perennial, 1987. ISBN 0 06 09721 05
Rahul Mahajan, The New Crusade: America's War On Terrorism. Monthly Review Press, 2002, ISBN 1 58367 070 X
Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. Henry Holt and Company, 2001. ISBN 0 8050 6389 7
David R. Roediger, ed., Black on White: Black Writers on What it Means to be White. Random House, 1998.
Peggy McIntosh, "Male Privilege and White Privilege". No. 189, Journal for Research on Women, 1980 Wellesley College
Bible (RSV version)

Optional:
Mary Elizabeth Hobgood, Dismantling Privilege: An Ethics of Accountability. Pilgrim Press, 2000. ISBN 0 8298 1374 8. (Also available on reserve.)

Course grade:

1. 50%: How well you, as the unique person you are, prepare yourself and help teach this class and how strong you appear in your small group discussions. My assumption is that each one of us is responsible for creating "a good class." and a course companion group that members enjoy. This means (at the least) each person comes to class or small group discussion with a "mini lecture" of their own which comes from their ruminations on the material at hand. Another assumption is that if we remain open, controversy is good because it challenges us and makes us do additional research (like read the whole book and other relevant material'.) and seek deeper understanding. You will find resources for your daily class teaching and small group discussion from your thinking and writing about the readings, your experiences in the community, class discussion, etc. Your role as teacher may include periodic teaching of the class.

2. 50% journal writings, a written definition of whiteness, and a final paper and exam. You are required to keep a log, either handwritten, word processed or a combination of both. Please set the journal up so that you can hand in sections of it (not the whole journal) at a time. Writing, speaking publically, and working in the community helps us know what we think. This will also help you teach something in every class.

Three times during the semester you will hand in the sections of your journal you wish me to see so I can have a written conversation with you. I will give you four opportunities to hand in one of your three selected sections. Please hand in a copy so that I am free to write in the margins.

At the end of the course, hand in an account of your understanding of whiteness with your final paper. The final paper is sketched out in the above course description. See me if needed.

Professor Joni Doherty
Phone: X1025 (Home: 924 0206, please do not call after 9 p.m. unless it is an emergency!)
Email: doherq {at} fpc(.)edu
Office: Edgewood 005B
Office hours: Mondays, 1:30 to 2:30 pm; Tuesdays, 10:00 to 12:00 noon; or by appointment

Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:40 to 2:55
Location: CR205

Peer Advisor: Melissa Taylor
Phone: 2961
Email: taylorm {at} fpc(.)edu

Course Description
The questions raised by the relationship between the individual and the community form the connective theme of the general education program at Franklin Pierce College. As the first step in the sequence of our interdisciplinary core curriculum, this course begins the exploration of these important questions by examining aspects of community life in modern America. Students will be invited to participate in a semester long study and discussion of the responses to the experiences that our living together continually produces. Readings, writing assignments, and activities will be used to stimulate thinking about the various issues that arise as we examine our social nature and develop personal approaches to issues that require us to balance the claims of membership in a community with our rights as individuals.

Course Objectives

• Become familiar with the FPC Individual & Community Integrated Curriculum
• Develop critical thinking skills
• Accept the academic challenge of college level writing and oral communication
• Learn collaborative skills
• Become actively involved in our community
• Explore the tensions between our rights as individuals and our community responsibilities
• Understand the evolution of concepts such as free choice, beliefs, values, independence, and autonomy in the context of their relationships to community standards.

Required Materials
Border Texts Randall Bass, ed.
Granny D, Doris Haddock
Diversity Consciousness, Richard D. Bucher
Money & Politics, National Issues Forums
Violent Kids, National Issues Forums
Racial & Ethnic Relations, National Issues Forums
Brown Accordion Folder
I&C Binder and Inserts

Grading
20% Civic Engagement Project
30% Writing
15% Midterm exam
15% Final exam
20% Participation /preparation

Course Requirements

Formal Writing
You are required to do 14 pages of formal writing. Guidelines will be distributed in class. You should select three pieces, including the 5 page paper, for your portfolio. Late papers will not be accepted. The grades for formal writing will depend on thoughtfulness, organization, length, grammar, and spelling. College Writing grading standards will be distributed with the first paper assignment.

Oral Presentations
This will consist of a 5 to 7 minute presentation that will be based on the 5-page analytical review essay of a reading from Border Texts. Guidelines will be distributed in class.

Civic Engagement Project
In order to complement the classroom discussions, all IC101 students participate in an experiential learning process through working on a civic engagement project. Our class will do this as a group project. First, you will receive training on how to moderate deliberative dialogue forums. Then, working in teams, we will moderating forums for students at nearby schools. Each student will write a 3 page paper reflecting on this experience (Guidelines will be provided later in the semester.)

Informal Writing
The relationship between writing and thinking is a close one. Writing helps generate deeper thoughts. Therefore, you will be asked to write a number of informal pieces.

Exams
There will be a midterm exam and a final exam. Both exams will be in essay format. The midterm will be cumulative to date; the final exam will cover all the semester's materials. All final exams must be taken during the time scheduled by the college for these exams.

Participation/Preparation
Active involvement in class activities is an important part of this course. Students will be given a grade for participation in every class.

In lieu of regularly scheduled class meetings, our class will attend two Deliberative Dialogue Forums, one on each of the following topics, and the lectures listed in the course schedule.

• Money & Politics
  Tuesday, September 24, 6 to 8 pm, Cheshire Hall
  Friday, September 27, noon to 2 pm, Manor

• Gender: What Difference Does It Make?
  Tuesday, October 29, 6 to 8 pm, Cheshire Hall
  Friday, November 1, noon to 2 pm, Manor

Students are urged to attend other College events (plays, lectures, concerts, etc.).

CALENDAR

A PUBLIC VOICE

Tuesday, September 3 – Introduction
What is a Liberal Arts Education?

Thursday, September 5 – Complete reading Granny D. Book 1
Questions for Book I dui today

Friday, September 6 – Doris Haddock lecture, Tent, 12:30 to 1:30

Monday, September 9 – Last day to add/drop classes

Tuesday, September 10 – Complete reading Granny D.
Questions and 500 word essay due today
2 page response to Doris Haddock lecture due today.

Thursday, September 12 – IT Presentation. Meet in Library classroom

Tuesday, September 18 – Models of communication
Read Money & Politics discussion guide

Thursday, September 20 – Money & Politics forum in class today

Tuesday, September 24 – Money & Politics forum in class today

Thursday, September 26 – Attend Money & Politics campus wide forum in lieu of class today

BORDERS OF IDENTITY: STORIES OF SELF AND HOME

Tuesday, October 1 – Read Border Texts pp 1 24; Diversity pp 1 22

Thursday, October 3 – Read Diversity pp 26 51 and Border Texts, pp 20 24, and:
The Quiet House, pp 25 28
Screen Memory, 92 103

BORDERS OF COMMUNITY: BELONGING AND ALIENATION

Tuesday, October 8 Read Diversity pp 57 88; Border Texts, pp 107 112

Thursday, October 10 Read Border Texts:
Two Ways to Belong in America, pp 116 119
Collective Trauma, 186 195
The Last Best Place, pp 196 202

Tuesday, October 15 Class cancelled. Monday classes will be held today due to holiday.

Thursday, October 17 Midterm

Tuesday, October 22 Bibliographic Instruction. Meet in Library classroom.

GENDER: WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?

Wednesday, October 23 Attend lecture on Gender, speaker TBA, Cheshire Hall, 7 pm

Thursday, October 24 Read pp 94 122; Border Texts, The Visitor, pp 29 35

Tuesday, October 29 Read Gender: What Difference Does It Make?
and Border Texts:
The Gravity of Pink, P 55 57
A Long Line of Vendias, pp 144 160

Thursday, October 31 Attend Gender forum in lieu of class today

BORDERS AS BARRIERS: OTHERNESS AND DIFFERENCE

Tuesday, November 5 Read Border Texts, pp 205 210 and:
Helping and Hating the Homeless, pp 229 238
Makes Me Wanna Holler, pp 239 246

Thursday, November 7 Read Border Texts:
Feelings About Difference, p~247 259
The White Man, pp 61 267
Ethnicity: Identity and Difference, pp 295 305

Tuesday, November 12 Read Diversity, pp 127 154
Moderator training in class today

Thursday, November 14 Read Diversity, pp 158 187
Moderator training in class today

Monday, November 18 Attend Cheney Lecture on Religion & Society: Religious
Diversity with Bob Abernathy, NBC News correspondent and
host of Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, Cheney Hall, 7 pm

Tuesday, November 19 Read Violent Kids. Practice forum in class today.

Wednesday, November 20 Advising & Registration. Edgewood 003A 2 to 6 pm

Thursday, November 21 Violet Kids forums in Fitchburg, MA

Friday morning. Violet Kids forums in Fitchburg, MA

Tuesday, November 22 Forum debriefing

Thursday, November 28 Thanksgiving

Tuesday, December 3 Read Race & Ethnic Relations Discussion Guide

Thursday, December 5 Read Diversity 192 203; Border Texts, pp 557 563, and:
The Concept Nation, pp 473 475
Who and What is an American? pp 581 588

Tuesday, December 10 Student Presentations

Thursday, December 12 Student Presentations

Tuesday, December 17 Final Exam, I to 3 pm

DELIBERATIVE DIALOGUE FORUM SCHEDULE

Terrorism (optional)
Monday, September 9, 6 8pm
Location: Alumni Lounge

Money & Politics (required)
Tuesday, Sept. 24, 6 8pm Locations: Alumni Lounge, Cheshire Hall, Cheney Hall or Friday, Sept. 27,12 2pm
Location: Alumni Lounge

Gender: What Difference Does It Make? (required)
Tuesday, October 29, 6 8pm Locations: Alumni Lounge, Cheshire Hall, Cheney Hall or Friday, November 1, 12 2pm
Location: Alumni Lounge

Sex: Creating Public Policy for Private Passions (optional)
Tuesday, November 19, 6 8pm Locations: Alumni Lounge, Cheshire Hall, Cheney Hall or Friday, November 22,12 2pm
Location: Alumni Lounge

VIOLENT KIDS FORUM REPORT PAPER GUIDELINES

Due: Tuesday, November 19 Please type and double space this paper.

Group Project (3 pages)
In this collaborative report you will be analyzing the Violent Kids Forum you moderated at Academy Middle School. The primary goal is to describe the common ground reached by the participants, as well as the concerns that still need to be resolved. Be sure to address the following in your report. You should incorporate results from the pre and post forum questionnaires into your report.

1. Did participants share a definition of the problem? Do they agree on the causes? How did the middle school forum differ from campus forums?
2. Did the deliberation change anything?
3. How did the kids come out on the conflicts, contradictions, and trade offs? What were they willing or not willing to do to solve the problem?
4. Did any general sense of agreement emerge? Was there a range of actions which were consistent with one another that had everyone's support?
5. What unique information came out of the forum? What implications do the results have for community action or public policy?
6. How has your thinking about this issue changed as a result of the forum

Personal Reflection (1 page)
Each team member also needs to write a personal essay that addresses the following:

1. What did you learn about moderating/ public speaking as a result of this forum?
2. What did you learn about the topic as a result of this forum?
3. What did you learn about yourself as a result of this forum?

Management 360A – Managing Corporate Ethics

Instructor: Dr. Gina Vega
Tel (978) 837 5000 x 4338
Home (978) 521 7601
Office: O'Reilly 402 (hours are posted and by appointment)
email: gvega {at} merrimack(.)edu

Required Text:
Johnson, Craig E. Meeting the Ethical Challenges of Leadership: Casting Light or Shadow. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. 2001.

Please keep current on business/social/ethics/public policy issues by reading a newspaper such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times or The Boston Globe and a business magazine such as Fortune on a regular basis. Additional readings and video will be assigned on a periodic basis.

Course Description:

This is a course in applied ethical leadership. It will aid you in understanding the ethical conflicts you are likely to confront both in the business world and in your own communities, and will guide you in developing a foundation for your own managerial ethical system. Through directed readings, analysis, and classroom conversation and together with our community contacts, we will explore the meaning of socially responsible leadership, the various conflicting sets of values managers face in an increasingly global and diverse business context, and the manner in which different companies manage their ethical obligations and responsibilities.

You will participate in a service learning project that will permit you to apply the theories learned in class, your personal skills, and your sense of social responsibility to a community need, making stakeholder theory come alive on a very personal level. Thoughtful consideration and discussion of these experiences will assist you in learning about ethical concepts, while the service you provide will improve the quality of life of those who are touched by your actions.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of this course, you will have accomplished the following:

1. You will understand the ethical and social responsibility issues involved in accountability to the various organizational stakeholders, including owners, employees, customers, stockholders, governmental agencies, suppliers, and society.

2. You will have found a way to examine your philosophy of personal conduct in organizational roles such that it supports integrity in balancing ethical, economic, and social values.

3. You will understand the factors that have an impact on typical management issues and problems associated both with local and broader business and community relations, contrasting socio economic systems, and competition.

4. You will be able to answer the question, "What does ethical leadership mean?"

Course Requirements:

Readings:

Weekly reading assignments from the text and from handouts will be required. Selections will be provided from the popular press, from books related to the subject material (e.g. selections from Lying, Sissela Bok and A Passion for Planning, Gina Vega), and from scholarly Journals. Please do the readings as they are assigned, before the class at which we will be discussing them. You are responsible for being prepared for class, as in class discussions are designed to add to not substitute for your own reading. Some of the readings are short, others are a bit longer. I offer my personal guarantee that most of these readings will be engaging. If you do not find the readings engaging or compelling, do them anyway!

Service:

Service learning is distinct from other forms of outreach and experiential education because it attributes equal weight to both service and learning goals. It is curriculum based, meaning that the service work is profoundly connected to and enhanced by a proposed course of study. The service performed is done as a way of learning about concepts in a course or discipline. Likewise, the learning that occurs in the course or discipline is intended to improve students' ability to respond meaningfully to important real world concerns and problems such as those evident at the service site. (Virginia Tech Service Learning Handbook, www.majbill.vt.edu/sl/fachand.html).

The elderly are often overlooked as a business stakeholder group, despite their growing numbers. As of the most recent census (2000), the population over 65 Americans now accounts for more than 21.7 million people, half of whom are living in non family households (such as assisted living communities, senior housing, etc.). This represents 12.5% of the total population, up from 11.3% in 1980. In Massachusetts, people over 65 are 13.5% of the population; in Essex County, this means 99,836 people. Elderly people often feel left out, isolated, and lonely for contact with family and friends (young and old) who are far away. It has been shown that the more connected a person feels, the better they can maintain their health and the happier they will be.

The service learning project that this class will conduct is designed to help elderly members of our community connect with the larger world. We will provide computers and training in their use for email and Internet surfing to elderly residents in assisted living communities and senior centers in Lawrence, North Andover, Haverhill, and Methuen to help people reconnect to distant relationships and to feel part of the important changes that are occurring through business advances.

Students, working in teams, will design a program of training for residents of one of the centers in the communities listed above and identified by the Stevens Service Learning Center, and will teach the residents how to use basic email, how to get on to the Internet and how to find sites of interest. The centers will be responsible for providing the computers, Internet connection and the commitment to maintain the connection at the end of the term.

The design and implementation of these training programs will permit students to exhibit a variety of leadership skills, to use their business computing skills, and to provide meaningful service to the local community in direct application of theories of ethical leadership behavior. I estimate 24 hours per student of direct service during this project, amounting to a total of 575 service hours from this class. If each student team can teach six individuals during the term to use email, they will have accomplished introducing more than 70 people who previously were without access to the Internet and its communication facilitating processes. More information will be provided about this project early in the term.

Writings:

You will be expected maintain a weekly Service Folio, a three-part journal consisting of an entry related to a reading of the week, a diary entry related to the service project, and a reflection entry. The reflection may relate to the connection between the reading and the service that week, it may relate to the focusing question that I will provide weekly, or it may relate to other connections to be discussed. Detailed instructions regarding this Service Folio will be provided at the first class meeting, along with formatting instructions. Service Folios will be turned in for grading at midterm and at the end of the semester.

Two 4-7 page papers will be required. These papers will be focused on one of several thematic areas, such as the multiple roles of leadership, the choice between light and shadow, the debate between bad apples and bad barrels (Trevino and Youngblood, 1990), or the expansion of ethical capacity. The first paper will be theoretical in nature; the second will be applications oriented, that is, a pragmatic method of applying the theories described in the first paper. The purpose of these
two papers is to bring to light the potential for divergence between one's espoused theory and the theory in use (Argyris and Schon, 1974).

Several short assignments that relate to class work will be assigned over the course of the semester. All writing assignments will be graded on both content and writing quality.

Grading:

Please type or word process all written assignments, papers, projects, and homework; I will not accept handwritten work. The papers will not be accepted after their due dates for any reason other than school closure or significant, documented personal emergency (this does not include crashing computers, nonstarting cars, broken alarm clocks, or misinterpreted schedules).

Your final grade will be computed as follows:

Mid Course Journal 20%
Final Journal 20%
Paper (a) 15%
Paper (b) 15%
Service Project 10%
Homework Assignments 10%
Class participation 10%

Course Description
Since the publication of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross' book, On Death & Dying, there has been an explosion of interest in the subject of death and of death education. Such interest is quite healthy because dealing with death and dying allows us to grow and know more about ourselves as human beings. When we have been honest with ourselves as finite beings and have confronted the human reality of death, we may learn to live and help others to live fuller and more meaningful lives. The study of death and dying permits us to learn not only about a "far country" called death, but to know more about our present home which is life.

The purpose of this course is to introduce the student to the subject of thanatology: the study of death & dying. Under this general heading the classroom and reading experiences will be geared to these subtopics:

1. The reality and definition of death
2. The grief process
3. Care of the dying and the dead
4. The religious and ethical dimensions of death & dying