The course will examine individual, group, organizational and societal theories of human development and their relevancy for social work practice. Students will use the theoretical paradigms presented to examine individual and social issues arising in social work practice. Fifteen hours of field work are required as a context for applying class room learning and preparing a case study for class presentation.

Required Texts:

Zastrow, C.H., & Kirst-Ashman, K.K. (latest edition). Understanding human behavior and the social environment. Belmont, CA: Brookes/Cole.

NASW Code of Ethics, most recent edition.

Other assigned readings will be provided from:

Fine, M., Weiss, L., Powell, L., & Wong, L. (Eds.), (1997). Off white: Readings on race and power in society. New York: Routledge.

McIntosh, P. (1990). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack. Independent School, Winter 90, 40: 2, p. 31-36.

Miller, J., & Garran, A.M. (2008). Racism in the United States: Implications for the helping professions. Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole.

Rothenberg, P. S. (2002). White privilege: Essential readings on the other side of racism. New York: Worth.

Wise, T. (2009). Between Barack and a hard place.

Course Format:

Lecture, group exercises and field work.

Grading and Assessment:

The student’s grade will be comprised of 7 parts:

1. Successful completion of active participation in 15 hours of community service (i.e. Service Learning) based on field supervisor evaluation.
2. Evidence of active participation and collaboration in group presentation. (Guidelines to be distributed in class).
3. Active in-class participation. This portion of the grade will include attendance, in-class participation, and group work participation. Class attendance is not optional. Excessive absences will result in incremental grade reductions for each additional absence beyond the 3 allowed in accordance with RVCC policies.
4. Completion of short assignments periodically distributed in class. These may include “Reaction Papers,” completion of a Social History, Progress Notes, or other planning documents, and/or case study analyses.
5. A Reflection Paper demonstrating your understanding of “white privilege” as it applies to your own life and your future professional conduct, including reference to at least 3 outside sources from scholarly journals or texts. [This assignment must be typed and meet acceptable standards of academic English writing including correct grammar, spelling, organization and proper citations, where applicable. APA formatting is required by the Council for Social Work Education (CSWE).]
6. A written case study drawn from your field experience (i.e. service learning) incorporating relevant theories, ecological assessment strategies and possible interventions based on actual local, state and federal resources. [This assignment must be typed and meet acceptable standards of academic English writing including correct grammar, spelling, organization and proper citations, if applicable. APA formatting is required by the Council for Social Work Education (CSWE).]
7. Average of mid-term and final exams.

Each of the 7 components will constitute 1/7th of the final grade.

Reasonable Accommodation:

Students with disabilities who require accommodations (academic adjustments and/or auxiliary aids or services) for this course MUST provide documentation of accommodations from the RVCC office of Disability Services, C143.

Code of Conduct:

Plagiarism is a breach of academic integrity that will result in an F for the research paper or a 0 if present in a reaction paper. Plagiarism violates the college’s policy on academic integrity and is reportable to the Dean of Instruction, possibly resulting in dismissal from the college. Please be aware particularly of the following: The use of quotes and references to outside sources is encouraged and often necessary WITH proper citations.   When in doubt, cite it! Phrases or terms “borrowed” from other sources MUST be cited as well. Be aware of your own writing style and an over-reliance on material taken from other readings. You must completely paraphrase a concept taken from someone else, or cite it appropriately. Citing numerous sources is a GOOD THING, so when in doubt, cite. It shows that you have researched your response and developed a scholarly argument rather than simply voicing a “common sense” opinion.

Open discussion is a requirement of the course and the nature of the topics engender value-based debate and differences of opinion. Diversity of thought is critical to increasing our understanding of human behavior and the social environment and the influences of equality, equity, personal responsibility and social justice. All discussion must take place within the bounds of common courteously and scholarly discourse. Publically acceptable and respectful language and tone are expected at all times.

Service Learning Guidelines and Final Assignment

Service learning projects are expected to provide you with real life, exciting, challenging and rewarding learning experience that promotes the opportunity to integrate theory and practice by:

• the application of academic theories and concepts to real world situations,
• the examination of underlying ethical issues and potential conflicts,
• the analysis of policies related to at-risk populations in the community,
• enhancing interviewing and counseling skills,
• reflecting on and integrating classroom information and discussions, assigned readings, and site visits.

The site you select for service learning can be a social service organization registered with the college’s service learning program or a site that you develop independently. In either event the site must be able to provide you with the opportunity to conduct the above noted learning objectives. During your visits, you should obtain concrete information such as age, name (optional, to maintain confidentiality if requested), place of birth, family size, occupation, etc. In addition, and more importantly, try to determine how this individual feels about his or her own life circumstance? How did they end up where they are now, in need of social service assistance? What have been some of the positive or negative experiences that have shaped their journey? What are they looking forward to or fearing in the future? If they were to impart some wisdom to others in their situation, what would it be? You will use this information to compile a written a bio-psycho-social assessment and leave the individuals with whom you spend time a strengths-based assessment of themselves.

Your final paper is also an opportunity to share your own reactions to your conversations and the overall service learning experience. It is an opportunity to reflect on your own experience of personal growth.

Conducting your Inquiry: A few reminders

Your visits should be kept informal and conversational, while gathering information that will help you in further understanding the life your mentor has lead.  Initially, questions should be very non-intrusive and focus on such things as age, length of residence, former residence, occupation, family members, things they enjoy, etc. If a topic appears painful or uncomfortable to discuss, move on to other topics of conversation. You MAY have an opportunity to come back to it at a later date, IF the mentor chooses to revisit the topic.  Review your notes and text prior to your visits to formulate an idea of the types of questions you might want to ask or topics of interest to discuss that day.

• Notes should be jotted down AFTER the visit. Your visits should not be conducted as interviews or assessments!  Record as many details as possible, as your mentor shared them, without adding your own interpretations until the conclusion of your service learning.
• You may want to diagram a family tree or Ecomap with your mentor on a second or third visit as a way to engage them conversationally while recording details such as names, dates, places of employment, marriage, etc.

Questions later in the semester might focus on more specific topics such as health concerns, feelings about their current situation, etc.  Approach the relationship with respect and compassion, allowing your relationship to unfold. If you establish trust and rapport in the beginning of your relationships, you will be able to gain the insight needed to complete an insightful and thorough final assignment. If you have concerns along the way, talk to your instructor about obstacles or confusion right away before too much time is lost.

Grading Criteria:

To receive an A, your paper must meet the minimum page requirements (at least 5 pages), be written with correct English grammar, punctuation, etc., include 3 separate sections discussing each of the bio-psycho-social factors that pertain to your mentor (each area must be addressed, although certain factors may be more important than others and require a lengthier discussion depending on your mentor), a section identifying the theory or theories that you feel best describe or explain the aging process as described and/or experienced by your mentor (with supporting evidence drawn from your visits and conversations), and a concluding section of self-reflection describing the impact that this course and your service learning has had on you both personally and professionally.

Specifically, your final paper should include the following:

I. An introduction of your mentor/focus person and the nature of the relationship you formed. What agency were they affiliated with and what was your assigned role, if applicable. How often did you meet and under what circumstances?

II. Your assessment of bio-psycho-social factors impacting the individual.  One section (i.e. more than one paragraph per section!) should be devoted to each area in order to adequately demonstrate your familiarity and understanding of the individual with whom you met.

• Biological factors: age, health, functional ability…
• Psychological factors: coping capacity, mental outlook, cognitive functioning..
• Social factors: family, socioeconomic status, social functioning, culture, spirituality…
• Summarized how these factors, taken together, have affected their life experience and current status?

III. You should next identify and discuss how the various theoretical concepts and developmental processes can be applied to the life experience and personal perspectives shared by the person you visited. This should include reference to specific content in the text, Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment, and other supplemental readings. Each application should be supported by “evidence:” statements made by the individual, interactions or behaviors you observed, and information proved by your site supervisor or other sources.

IV. Personal growth commentary: What did you learn about yourself, your chosen career path, and “the real world?” How will this experience help you moving forward in both your personal and professional life?

This paper must be typed, double-spaced and follow APA Style Guidelines for academic writing. It is particularly important to cite all sources for theories, concepts, treatment options, etc. in-text as appropriate and with a complete Reference page.

Tentative Course Calendar:

NOTE: The schedule below is subject to change, but provides a tentative outline of topics to be covered.

Week 1:

1/18 Introduction of course content and structure

• Syllabus review
• Ice Breaker—Introductions
• Service Learning Coordinator, Lori Moog

Assignment: Short reflection paper (3 pages minimum) identifying 2-3 life events that you feel have significantly influenced “who you are” today. DUE: 1/20

1/20 Foundations for Social Work Practice (Ch. 1)

[Review from HMNS 102]

• Systems Theory
• Assessment
• Eco Maps & Genograms: A refresher
• Exercises

Assignment: Complete a genogram illustrating patterns of family functioning (including biological, psychological and sociological factors) that contribute to who you are today. DUE:  1/27

Week 2:

1/25 Mezzo Systems (Ch. 1 continued)

• Organizations
• Communities
• Roles and Responsibilities
• Social Network Theory

1/27 Values & Ethics in Social Work (NASW Code of Ethics)

• Ethical Principles
• Ethical Dilemmas & Decision- making
• Exercises

Week 3:

2/1 Prepare for Class Presentations

Review reference materials, research strategies and policy resources in preparation for class presentations beginning Week 4-5. If time permits, we will adjourn to the library to begin your research and development an understanding of divergent views on a controversial topic to be assigned by the Instructor. “Teams” will be established to represent different view points on the following issues:  Abortion: an ethical dilemma (Ch. 2); Racism & Equity (Ch. 5); Sexism & Equality (Ch. 9); Marriage Equity (Ch. 10, p. 370 & Ch. 13)

2/3 Infancy and Early Childhood (Ch. 2)

• Physiological Development (video)
• Assessment Exercise
• Infertility

Week 4:

2/8 Infancy and Early Childhood (Ch. 3)

• Psychological development
• Self-concept and Self-esteem

2/10 Differing abilities

• Programs & Services
• Case study

Week 5:

2/15 Class Presentations: Abortion: Pro-choice v. Pro-life

2/17 Socialization & the Family (Ch. 4)

• Family Systems and the Life Cycle
• Social Environment
• Abuse & Neglect

Service Learning Registration forms DUE

Week 6:

2/22 Adolescence (Ch. 6)

• Physiological changes and reactions
• Sex Ed
• Identity Formation

Assignment: Complete reflective exercise distributed in class & apply Marcia’s Categories of Identity Formation. DUE:  2/24

2/24 Adolescence (Ch. 7-8)

• Moral Development
• Communication
• Suicide (SAD Person Scale)
• Exercises

Distribute Study Guide

Week 7:

3/1 Adolescence & Mental Illness (Ch. 8 continued)

• Guest Speaker

3/3 Midterm Exam

Spring Break

Week 8:

3/15 Gangs in NJ

• Guest Speaker

3/17 Middle Adulthood

• Physiological changes (Ch.10)
• Psychological theories (Ch. 11)

Service Learning Updates and Discussion

Week 9:

3/22 Racism (Ch. 5, plus assigned readings)

Class Presentation: Racial Tension: Affirmative Action v. Reverse Discrimination

Assignment: A Reflection Paper demonstrating your understanding of “white privilege” as it applies to your own life and your future professional conduct, including reference to at least 3 outside sources from scholarly journals or texts in addition to those provided. [This assignment must be typed and meet acceptable standards of academic English writing including correct grammar, spelling, organization and proper citations, where applicable. APA formatting is required by the Council for Social Work Education (CSWE).] DUE: 3/29

3/24 Middle Adulthood continued

• Communication
• Marital satisfaction
• Domestic Violence

Week 10:

3/29 Racism & Diversity continued

• Discuss Reflection papers (DUE today!)

3/31 Class Presentation: Sexism: Equality Achieved v. Inequality Persists

Week 11:

4/5 Social Systems (Ch. 12)

• Demographic trends
• Poverty

4/7 Poverty Programs (Guest Speaker tentative)

• TANF
• General Assistance

Week 12

4/12 Class Presentation: Marriage Equity: Civil Right v. Matter of Personal Preference

Service Learning Updates and Discussion

4/14 Later Adulthood

• Physiological changes (Ch. 14)
• Life expectancy & wellness promotion: Theories of Aging  (Ch. 15)

Week 13:

4/19 Death & Dying (Ch. 15 continued)

4/21 Later Adulthood: Macro issues (Ch. 16)

• Trends
• Services & Benefits
• Case studies

Week 14:

4/26 Discussion of Service Learning & final paper requirements; Distribute Study Guide

4/28 Final case studies DUE; Prep. for Final

Week 15:

5/3 or 5/5

Final Exam (to be scheduled by administration)

This course aims to explore the discourses, representations, and responses to female deviance and criminality in the Criminal Justice System, and how they may serve as a reflection of the views of wider society. Particular attention will be focussed on portrayals of women who commit non-traditional offenses, and their implications in the study of gender and crime. An examination and analysis of the explanations and discourses used to deal with the violent female offender will be used to construct informed insights about the status of women in the Criminal Justice System, and in society in general.

Purposes and Goals:

This is an honors designated course designed to engage students in active learning about the topic of female criminality. Through a seminar format, students will be expected to engage each other in the learning process. The service learning project will serve to further engage the students with issues around women’s crime by connecting the literature to issues confronting female offenders here in Maine

Evaluation:

Response Papers 20%
Seminar Chairing 20%
Participation 20%
Take Home Exam 20%
Service Learning Project 20%

Instructions for Response Papers:

Each student is required to complete each scheduled reading and write a brief response paper. This paper should be no longer than 2 pages and should include some questions for discussion in the seminar as well as connections to other readings/issues being covered in class. The response papers are due to the seminar chair and myself in the class BEFORE the scheduled reading. Late responses will be docked two letter grades per day. Students must submit ALL response papers or they will receive a grade of 0/20.

Instructions for Seminar Chairing and Paper:

Each student will choose an available reading and lead the class in the discussion of that reading on the scheduled day. This is NOT a presentation of the reading, the chair is responsible for directing discussion around issues/questions raised by classmates in their response papers as well as their own reflections on the reading. Included in the chairs’ responsibilities will be the development and distribution of a handout synthesizing questions/issues and outlining the discussion plan. The assignment of readings and scheduling of seminars will be completed on a first come-first serve basis. See the list of readings at the end of this syllabus.

Instructions on Participation:

Engaged participation in discussions is integral to any seminar-based class. All students are expected to come to every class prepared to discuss the scheduled reading(s) specifically and its connections to other readings more generally. Students must also discuss ideas in a manner that is respectful of others, even in cases of disagreement. As well, there is such a thing as TOO MUCH participation. We all must remain aware of the need to give time for everyone to contribute. Also included in the participation grade is an expectation of consistent attendance. Students will be given two confidential warnings if they are not participating/attending at the expected level, failure to improve will result in a grade of 0/20.

Instructions on Service Learning Project:

Each student in this class is expected to work on the project. Much of this work will be completed outside of class time. You are expected to spend approximately 20 hours of work into the service learning project. Each student will keep a journal documenting work done towards the project as well as personal reflections on their experience with the project (problems, successes, frustrations, fears etc). Students should bring their journals to every class. All students are also expected to participate in a presentation of the project on University Day (April 14th). Students are also required to submit a formal reflection paper with their journals at the end of the semester. This paper will include reflections on the experience of working on the project and how that experience connects to the substantive knowledge gained in the seminars throughout the semester. Students will also submit self, team, and class evaluations at the end of the semester.

READING LIST:

Burgess-Proctor, Amanda, “Intersections of Race, Class, Gender and Crime: Future Directions for Feminist Criminology” Feminist Criminology 2006 1; 7

Miller, Jody, “The strengths and limits of ‘doing gender’ for understanding street crime” Theoretical Criminology 2002 6:4

Carlen, Pat, “Women’s Imprisonment: Models of Reform and Change” Probation Journal 2002 49; 76

Dowden, Craig and Andrews, D.A., “What Works for Female Offenders: A Meta-Analytic Review” Crime & Delinquency 1999 45; 438

Goodkind, Sara, “Gender-Specific Services in the Juvenile Justice System: A Critical Examination” Affilia 2005 12; 52

MacDonald, John M. and Chesney-Lind, Meda, “Gender Bias and Juvenile Justice Revisited: A Multiyear Analysis” Crime & Delinquency 2001 47; 173

Bond-Maupin, Lisa, “That Wasn’t Even Me They Showed”: Women as Criminal on America’s Most Wanted” 1998 4; 30

Davis, Carla P., “At-Risk Girls and Delinquency: Career Pathways” Crime & Delinquency 2007 53; 408

Belknap, Joanne and Holsinger, Kristi, “The Gendered Nature of Risk Factors for Delinquency” Feminist Criminology 2006 1; 48

Ferraro, Kathleen J. and Moe, Angela M., “Mothering, Crime and Incarceration” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 2003 32; 9

Chesney-Lind, Meda and Paramore, Vickie V., “Are Girls Getting More Violent?: Exploring Juvenile Robbery Trends” Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 2001 17; 142

Brents, Baraba G. and Hausbeck, Kathryn, “Violence and Legalized Brothel Prostitution in Nevada: Examining Safety, Risk, and Prostitution Policy” Journal of Interpersonal Violence 2005 20; 270

Pollack, Joycelyn and Mullings, Janet L. and Crouch, Ben M., “Violent Women: Findings From the Texas Women Inmates Study” Journal of Interpersonal Violence 2006 21; 485

Mosher, Clayton and Phillips, Dretha, “The Dynamics of a Prison-Based Therapeutic Community for Women Offenders: Retention, Completion, and Outcomes” The Prison Journal 2006 86; 6

Eliason, Michelle J., Taylor, Janette Y., and Williams, Rachel, “Physical Health of Women in Prison: Relationship to Oppression” Journal of Correctional Health Care 2004 10; 175

Richie, Beth, “Challenges Incarcerated Women Face as They Return to Their Communities: Findings from Life History Interviews” Crime & Delinquency 2001 47; 368

Leverentz, Andrea M., “The Love of a Good Man? Romantic Relationships as a Source of Support or Hinderance for Female Ex-Offenders” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 2006 43; 459

Lund, Ryan et al., “Women’s Needs After Release From Prison to a Rural Community” Journal of Correctional Health Care 2002 9 271

Chesney-Lind Meda, Morash, Merry and Irwin, Kathrine, “Policing Girlhood? Relational Aggression and Violence Prevention” Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice 2007 5; 328

Katz, Rebecca S., “Explaining Girls’ and Women’s Crime and Desistance in the Context of Their Victimization Experiences: A Developmental Test of Revised Strain Theory and the Life Course Perspective” Violence Against Women 2000 6; 633

Wright, Emily M., Salisbury Emily, J. and Van Voorhis, Patricia, “Predicting the Prison Misconducts of Women Offenders: The Importance of Gender-Responsive Needs” Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 2007 23; 310

Koons-Witt, Barbara A. and Schram, Pamela J., “Does Race Matter? Examining the Relationship Between Co-Offending and Victim Characteristics for Violent Incidents Involving Female Offenders” Feminist Criminology 2006 1; 125

Mallicoat, Stacy L., “Gendered Justice: Attribution Differences Between Males and Females in the Juvenile Courts” Feminist Criminology 2007 2; 4

CLASS SCHEDULE:

Wed Jan 20: Introduction to course, Review of Syllabus, Seminar Assignment

Mon Jan 25: What is a Seminar?, Seminar Assignment DUE

Wed Jan 27: History of Female Criminality

Mon Feb 1: Film and Lecture

Wed Feb 3: Service Learning Work, Responses to Burgess-Proctor and Miller DUE

Mon Feb 8: Feminism Seminar (Lisa), Burgess-Proctor and Miller, Responses to Carlen and Andrews & Dowden DUE

Wed Feb 10: Female Offenders Seminar (Lisa), Carlen and Dowden & Andrews

Mon Feb 15, Wed Feb 17: BREAK WEEK

Mon Feb 22: Service Learning Work

Wed Feb 24: Student Chaired Seminars

Mon March 1, Wed March 3: schedule forthcoming

Mon March 8: Service Learning Work

Wed March 10: Student Chaired Seminars

Mon March 15, Wed March 17: schedule forthcoming

Mon March 22, Wed March 24: BREAK WEEK

Mon March 29: Student Chaired Seminars

Wed March 31, Mon April 5: schedule forthcoming

Wed April 7: Service Learning Work

Mon April 12: schedule forthcoming

Wed April 14: UNIVERSITY DAY

Mon April 19: Student Chaired Seminar

Wed April 21: Service Learning Work

Mon April 26: Student Chaired Seminar

Wed April 28, Mon May 3: schedule forthcoming

Wed May 5: Clean Up Day, Receive Take-Home Exam, Service Learning Journals and Reflection Papers DUE

Wed May 12: FINAL EXAM DUE by 4:00pm

As a member of the university community, I pledge to:

Pursue academic excellence,

Support open inquiry and civil expression,

Listen respectfully to the viewpoints of others,

Participate responsibly in the life of the community,

Conserve and enhance the beauty of the campus,

Help all members of the university community to realize their potentials.

This course explores literature from the African diaspora – particularly West Africa, the U.S., and the Caribbean. A range of questions will guide our discussion including: What constitutes the African diaspora? What is the relationship between diaspora and nation? What are the connections between the African diasporas in the construction of a black identity? We will read fiction and drama from Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa, Jamaica, Haiti, England, and the U.S. (among other countries) with protagonists who often look to Africa and/or the ancestors for renewal and empowerment. Among the themes we will explore are oral tradition, folklore, reinvention, and cultural discovery. One of our goals is to make connections among diasporic works that seek to use the past as a means to overcome personal and communal dilemmas, to reconcile family disruptions, and to mend broken relationships.

Texts

Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
Ama Ata Aidoo, The Dilemma of a Ghost and Anowa
Michelle Cliff, Abeng
Edwidge Danticat, Breath, Eyes, Memory
Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon
Paule Marshall, Praisesong for the Widow
Sembene Ousmane, God’s Bits of Wood
Helen Oyeyemi, The Icarus Girl

Course materials marked with an asterisk (*) in the syllabus are also required. These include short stories, poetry, and essays and are available via My FAU (go to “My Courses,” click on “Black Literatures” and then click “Files” under “Course Tools”). You must print out a hard copy of each text and bring it with you to class.

Academic Service-Learning: This course is a service learning class which means that students who opt to participate in the class project will have service learning designated on their official transcript. For our project, we will partner with the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum in Delray Beach. Those who choose not to participate can instead write a final 8-10 page research paper. For more info about service learning at FAU go to: http://www.fau.edu/volunteer.
Requirements:

• Class participation 10%
• Quizzes 10%
• Short Analysis Paper 15%
• Exam 20%
• Paper 25%
• A S-L Project or Research Paper 20%

Quizzes

To encourage careful and close reading, there will be unannounced quizzes. Quizzes will test both literal comprehension and interpretation. They cannot be made up.

Class Participation: Your participation and contribution to classroom discussion are crucial. In general, I expect you to be present and prepared. Class participation includes actively and thoughtfully taking part in classroom discussion. Keep in mind that attendance will be taken (and tardiness will be noted). Missing more than five classes (excused or unexcused) will result in a 1/3 reduction of your letter grade (e.g., B to B-). If you know now that you will exceed this number because of personal and/or employment obligations, I advise you withdraw from this class before the end of the drop/add period. If regular tardiness is not commented upon, that does not mean it is acceptable. Three tardy days will equal one absence.

Short Analysis Paper: You will be asked to do a close reading of a passage (that I will assign) in one of the novels or short stories. A close reading means that you will analyze the passage and discuss its significance in terms of the larger issues, concern, themes, etc. of the text. You will be expected to comment on your paper in class the day it is due. Analysis papers should be between 1 ½ -3 typed pages.

Exam: Your two-part exam will consist primarily of identifications, short answer questions, and essays. The second half of the exam will be a take-home essay. Later in the semester I will talk more specifically about the format of this exam.

Paper: I will provide general paper topics however students must develop theses/arguments from those topics. All papers must be double-spaced, written in 12 point font (one in margins on all sides), between 7-9 pages. All assignments (including papers) are due at the beginning of class on the day specified. Papers turned in after that point will be considered late. Each day a paper is late, a student’s grade on that paper will be reduced by 1/3%. Please note I have a 24 hour policy when I return papers meaning I will not discuss paper comments or grades until you have had at least 24 hours to read and think about my comments.

Academic Service-Learning

Due to the nature of the course content, this course is designated as an “academic service-learning” course. The assistance you provide to the agency/organization during your service-learning experience is a service to the community. Throughout this course you will be reflecting on your service-learning experience and the impact on the community as well as your professional development. At the end of the semester, please complete the academic service-learning survey and submit the survey along with your signed Volunteer and Academic Service-Learning Log to the Weppner Center for Civic Engagement & Service (visit www.fau.edu/volunteer for your primary campus location). Once submitted and reviewed, you will receive an academic service-learning notation on your transcript.

Academic Service- Learning Project or Research Paper: The goal of the service learning component of this class is to further our examination of the importance of oral tradition in African Diasporic communities. There are three main criteria for academic service learning: relevant and meaningful service with the community, enhanced academic learning, and purposeful civic learning. For this class, each participating student will partner with an elder from a historically black area of Delray Beach who is affiliated with the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum (www.spadymuseum.com). Students (in pairs) will act as interviewers, asking one of the elders a series of thoughtful questions related to the role of oral tradition in their lives (proverbs, sayings, stories, childhood chants, songs, etc.). Students will transcribe interviewee responses and write a final reflection paper. At the end of the semester, the class will put all of the interviews together and present this to the museum so that they can have it as part of the history of their community members. Students who choose to write a research paper in place of the service learning project will turn in a 8-10 page research paper after turning in a 1 page paper proposal.

What is the African Diaspora?

8/24 Introduction
8/26 Gwendolyn Brooks, “To the Diaspora”*
Countee Cullen, “Heritage”*
Toi Derricotte, “An African/American in Paris: Variations on a Theme on the publication of the French translation of The Black Notebooks”*
Orlando Ricardo Menes, “Afrocuba”*
Colin Palmer, “The African Diaspora”* (56-59)
Tina Campt, “The Crowded Space of Diaspora: Intercultural Address and the Tensions of Diasporic Relation”* (first 4 pages 94-97)

Colonialism and Postcolonialism

8/28 Jomo Kenyatta, “The Gentlemen of the Jungle”* (36-39)
Bessie Head, “The Wind and a Boy”* (69-75)
Michelle Cliff, “Columba”* (2508-2514)
Nurudddin Farah, “My Father, The Englishman, and I”* (290-292)
Ania Loomba, “Situating Colonial and Postcolonial Studies”* (1-9)
Franz Fanon, “On National Culture” from The Wretched of the Earth* (415-421)
LAST DAY TO DROP/ADD WITHOUT CONSEQUENCES

8/31 Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart 3-109
finish Loomba essay (10-19)
9/2 Things Fall Apart 110-153
9/4 Things Fall Apart 154-209

9/7 NO CLASS, LABOR DAY
9/9 Sembene Ousmane, God’s Bits of Wood 1-108
9/11 God’s Bits of Wood 109-154

9/14 God’s Bits of Wood 155-248
9/16 Leila Aboulela, “The Museum”* (243-258)
Austin C. Clarke, “Griff”* (95-109)
Lois Tyson, “Using Concepts from Postcolonial Theory to Understand
Literature” from Learning for a Diverse World* (189-196)
9/18 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “Cell One”* (61-73)
Walter Mosley, “Equal Opportunity”* (2625-2635)

Ancestors and Memory

9/21 Paule Marshall, Praisesong for the Widow 9-102
9/23 Praisesong for the Widow 103-157
9/25 Praisesong for the Widow 158-184
Henry Louis Gates, “A Myth of Origins: Esu-Elegbara and the Signifying Monkey”* (3-22)
9/28 Praisesong for the Widow 185-256
9/30 Birago Diop, “Sarzan”* (27-39)
Chinua Achebe, “Dead Man’s Path”* (305-308)
10/2 EXAM

10/5 Edwidge Danticat, Breath, Eyes, Memory 3-61
TAKE HOME DUE
10/7 Breath, Eyes, Memory 65-119
10/9 Breath, Eyes, Memory 120-171

10/12 Breath, Eyes, Memory 172-236
10/14 Ama Ata Aidoo, The Dilemma of a Ghost 3-53
Wole Soyinka, “Theatre in African Traditional Cultures: Survival Patterns”* (421-433)
10/16 Ama Ata Aidoo, Anowa 61-124
LAST DAY TO DROP A COURSE OR WITHDRAW WITHOUT RECEIVING AN “F”

10/19 Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon 4-112
10/21 Song of Solomon 113-172
10/23 Song of Solomon 173-216

10/26 Song of Solomon 219-337

When Identities Collide

10/28 Michelle Cliff, Abeng 3-45
Mark Christian, “Jamaica in Context”*(93-98) from Multiracial Identity: An International Perspective
10/30 Abeng 48-142

11/2 Abeng 142-167
11/4 Helen Oyeyemi, The Icarus Girl 1-55
11/6 The Icarus Girl 56-166

11/9 The Icarus Girl 167- 272
11/11 VETERANS DAY, NO CLASS
11/13 The Icarus Girl 273-335

11/16 Farida Karodia, “The Woman in Green”* (284-302)
Danzy Senna, “The Land of Beulah”* (194-214)
Mark Christian, “South African and Jamaica: ‘Other’ Multiracial Case
Studies”* (87-93) from Multiracial Identity: An International Perspective
Werner Sollors, “Passing; or, Sacrificing a Parvenu”* (246-251) from Neither Black nor White yet Both: Thematic Explorations of Interracial Literature
PAPER DUE

11/18 FILM VIEWING: Illuisons (1983)

11/20 Carolyn Farrell, “Inside, A Fountain”* (144-163)
Mamle Kabu, “Human Mathematics”* (271-286)
Philippe Wamba, “A Middle Passage”* (150-169)
Jayne O. Ifekwunigwe, “Returning(s): Relocating the Critical Feminist Auto- Ethnographer”* (29-49)

11/23 TBA
11/25 TBA
11/27 THANKSGIVING BREAK

11/30 Reginald McKnight, “Mali Is Very Dangerous”* (498-507); Alice Walker, “Everyday Use”* (274-281)
SERVICE LEARNING PROJECT DUE
12/2 Class Wrap-Up & Evaluations
RESEARCH PAPER OPTION DUE

This applied anthropology course is a cross-cultural study of urbanization, urbanism, and human problems associated with metropolitan environments. Major emphasis is given to the ethnography of city life and its relationship to the practical applications of urban research, especially in the contexts of globalization and neoliberalism. Selected readings from recent, book-length urban ethnographies written by anthropologists will be used as models for presenting coherent and readable syntheses of theory, methods, and analysis of various urban issues and experiences of urban life. Documentary videos carefully selected to illustrate the diversity of urban life and culture will also be viewed and critically analyzed. Integral to the goals of this course is a 15-hour service-learning component, which will provide the fieldwork context for students to conduct their own urban ethnographic research in the Tampa Bay area. Reading assignments, learning assessments, and service-learning projects will be used to allow students to develop an array of knowledge, skills, and understandings necessary for doing applied urban anthropology and community engaged research.

The discipline of anthropology uses global, comparative, and historical perspectives to study the biological and cultural diversity of human beings in all times and places. Ethnographic fieldwork methods, including participant observation and conversational interviews, allow anthropologists to understand the experiences and perspectives of real people as they go about living and making meaning out of their everyday lives in specific social worlds that have been produced, and are reproduced, through particular economic systems and political structures of power and governance. Anthropologists traditionally lived in and studied small scale societies in faraway places, but as the world is becoming increasingly urbanized and globalized, more anthropologists are turning their attention to the study of the political, economic, historical, and social complexities of contemporary urban life and culture in major metropolitan areas, in which the forces of globalization and localization have a concentrated impact.

Processes of ever-expanding and intensifying movements of people, means of production, goods, money, ideologies, ideas, information, images, and media across national borders, as well as the political restructuring of globally interconnected economies under neoliberal principles, have resulted in rapidly changing migratory and urban demographic patterns; more frequent interaction in local contexts between people from different social and cultural backgrounds; the concentration of wealth in middle class suburbs, gated communities, and the fortified enclaves of the upper class elite; and the spread of poverty and misery among marginalized ethnoracial populations and exploited classes of laborers living in inner city ghettos and sprawling urban slums. By using anthropological perspectives, critical theory, and ethnographic fieldwork methods, urban anthropologists can study how the forces of globalizing capitalism and neoliberalism are impacting human life and culture in the built environments of urban places and spaces. Additionally, urban anthropologists can analyze the extent to which political organizing and activism among marginalized populations in localized urban contexts can create viable and socially transformative alternatives to the dominant forms of spatialized governance and inequality. More importantly, applied urban anthropologists can work with local community organizations as well as with national and transnational social movements to develop and implement programs, projects, and policies that address urban problems from a social justice perspective and aim to decrease the social disparities and inequalities produced by particular urban configurations of local and global power and class stratification.

This course will survey recent ethnographic research on the topics most relevant to understanding urban life and culture in the neoliberal and globalizing world of today:

• ethnohistorical approaches to urban ethnic relations;
• the politics and cultures of public spaces and places;
• gentrification, housing, and neoliberal urban development;
• architecture, urban design, and everyday socio-cultural life;
• blackness, whiteness, and class stratification in urban contexts;
• fear and security, urban crime, and class segregation;
• indigenous peoples, citizenship, and urban organizing;
• rural to urban migration and socio-political marginalization;
• children and youth living in a street situation;
• immigrant labor, urban poverty, and transnational spaces;
• urban spatialization of memory and heritage; and
• environmental racism and urban activism.

As a service-learning course, students will be required to do service with a nonprofit organization, school, or government agency in the Tampa Bay area. Service-learning is a philosophy of education that asserts that students can achieve course learning goals and retain course content in more profound and lasting ways through experiential learning in real world contexts. Service-learning typically takes place in the context of charitable community development work or a social change project. Service-learning benefits the community and is directly linked to course curriculum, content, and goals. It entails ongoing self-reflection exercises through which students reflect on the social context of the learning process, analyze their own relationships to other people and the world, challenge their own assumptions about social problems and issues, and cultivate a more committed sense of civic responsibility and ethical sense of personal agency. This course fosters service-learning for social justice rather than for mere charity or “doing good” for its own sake. Students will be encouraged to actively pursue social justice service-learning projects that aim to: increase critical awareness of forms of oppression; understand the economic and political causes of social inequalities and problems; strive to reduce disparities and resolve social problems through theoretically informed actions deliberated with community partners; increase democratic participation in political decision making; give value to multiple perspectives and cultural diversity; and combat prejudice and negative stereotypes about human differences. As such, social justice service-learning supports students in realizing their own role as potential or actual agents of positive social transformation and in reducing the extent to which they contribute to the social reproduction of oppression and inequality.

COURSE GOALS, OBJECTIVES, AND EXPECTATIONS

This course emphasizes critical thinking and inquiry. In keeping with the learning objectives of the Foundations of Knowledge and Learning Core Curriculum at USF, this course emphasizes inquiry as the means of developing complex intellectual skills that enable students to become critical thinkers, concerned citizens, successful professionals, and reflective people who throughout their lives are aware of, understand, and engage with the complexities and challenges that our global realities require.
Students who successfully complete all course requirements will:

• gain a solid understanding of the basic concepts, issues, and perspectives of urban anthropology;
• develop a general understanding of anthropological theories and methods of producing knowledge;
• become familiar with outstanding examples of recent ethnographies of urban life and culture written by anthropologists;
• learn what anthropologists can contribute to the study of urbanization, urbanism, urban life and culture by conducting ethnographic field research in the context of a service-learning project with a local nonprofit organization, school, or government agency concerned with urban issues; and
• learn how to use anthropological approaches, theories, concepts, and research methods to describe, explain, and propose recommendations for solving urban problems.

The objectives and expectations for this course meet many learning objectives identified in USF’s Foundations of Knowledge and Learning Core Curriculum. Through the assigned readings and videos, learning assessments, writing assignments, classroom discussions, and fieldwork activities, students will have opportunities to demonstrate:

• a critical understanding of the local and global economic and political processes that historically influence and define human differences, cultural diversity, and social disparities in urban contexts;
• a critical understanding of how such differences, diversity, and disparities have influenced the relative rights and responsibilities (e.g., issues of social justice, discrimination, and exploitation) accorded to individuals and groups within urban contexts, and how the decisions and actions of individuals and groups in positions of power can affect the everyday urban lives of millions of people;
• a critical understanding of the theories that can explain how these differences might affect the ways in which an individual or a group experiences and interprets the urban world, as well as how their resulting decisions and actions might affect urban and natural environments; and
• a critical understanding of local and global processes that reveal culturally different ways of pursuing a meaningful life, and of how such differences affect urban environments.

Students in this course will be expected to:

• analyze cultural beliefs and make sound judgments about the evidence (or lack thereof) that supports them;
• write well-organized, well-developed essays that reflect appropriate use of language;
• deliver well-organized, well-developed oral presentations that reflect appropriate use of language and technology consistent with assignment objectives;
• improve critical thinking and analytical abilities, including the capacities to engage in inductive and deductive thinking and quantitative reasoning, and to construct sound arguments;
• demonstrate an understanding of how theories and models are used as unifying principles that help us understand natural, social, and organizational phenomena, make predictions, and solve problems;
• improve information literacy skills including: identifying appropriate questions, problems, or issues; determining appropriate sources of information; locating and evaluating necessary information; and analyzing, synthesizing, and applying the knowledge gained; and
• pursue intellectual development that emphasizes active involvement in the learning process.

Students will also be expected to meet the following service-learning objectives:

• learn how to develop respectful, meaningful, collaborative, and mutually beneficial partnerships with community groups and members;
• understand the service-learning experience in the context of the larger social issues being studied though this course;
• demonstrate the ability to transfer knowledge between the classroom and service-learning setting;
• develop critical self-reflection as a means of analyzing the efficacy and potential of personal and group agency; and
• cultivate a more committed sense of civic responsibility and ethical sense of personal agency.

COURSE CONTENT AND REQUIRED READINGS

The content of this course consists primarily of (1) introductory and selected narrative chapters from recent ethnographies that provide in-depth anthropological study of particular urban issues in cities around the globe, (2) short journal articles on specific topics relevant to understanding urban issues in Tampa, FL, and (3) supplementary material presented by the Instructor during class lectures and discussions. Students are also required to search for and read research literature relevant to their service-learning based ethnographic fieldwork projects (see below). Additional readings may be assigned based on student interest and requests.

The ethnographic readings are available online through Blackboard (see below). The authors of these readings are all professional anthropologists. These readings were chosen based on narrative readability and the inclusion of multiple voices and perspectives of real people from differing urban contexts. Additionally, these selected readings are taken from ethnographies that were published during the last ten years and that describe, explain, and understand urban life and culture within the context of globalization and neoliberalism. All other assigned readings are also available online through Blackboard.

Students are required to have completed all assigned readings by the date indicated on the course schedule. Bring the day’s assigned readings and your notes from the readings to class so that you will be prepared for the discussion or activities that the readings may involve.

ANTHROPOLOGICAL VIDEOS

The objective of watching anthropological videos is to offer you a way to “experience” other cultures and the work of anthropologists without the expense of actually having to take you on a global field trip. The videos are an integral part of this course, and you are expected to watch the videos carefully, attentively, and critically. Some videos will elaborate on the topics we cover in readings and presentations; others will enhance your understanding of urban anthropology by introducing new material.

We will watch a video or several video clips almost every class meeting, and it is your responsibility to attend class in order to see the videos when they are shown. A list and schedule of the videos is available on Blackboard under “Videos.” Many of the videos are available online or in Media Resources located on the 1st floor of the library. You therefore have the opportunity to watch a video more than once.

ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION

The purpose of our class discussions is to provide you with opportunities to practice critical thinking in peer group settings, to engage you in issue-centered exercises and problems, and to construct a friendly, dialogical space in which the multiple perspectives you each bring to the class can be expressed. Given the diversity of the USF student population, but depending on the backgrounds of individual students who enroll in this course, each class meeting will provide structured opportunities for critical discussion and reflection among students from different cultural, “racial,” ethnic, class, and gender backgrounds. In each class meeting, we will be challenged to examine our own opinions and perspectives regarding the differences and similarities between urban lives and cultures, and asked to account for these differences and similarities by applying anthropological concepts, understandings, and explanations.

The success of each class meeting depends on your active participation. You should come to class prepared to participate in discussions by having completed the assigned readings, fieldwork activities, and service-learning. Arrive promptly at or before 12:30 pm and do not leave early. You must attend every class meeting. Exceptions will be made only for health or other major emergencies.

Attendance will be taken each class meeting. This means that there is a total of 30 class meetings for which you will be awarded 5 points each meeting for attendance and participation, for a total of 150 points. Attendance and participation count for 10% of your final grade. Students who anticipate the necessity of being absent from class due to a major religious observance must present a written notice to the Instructor by the end of the second week of the semester.

READINGS BLOGS

In order to prepare for class discussions on Mondays, you will submit a 250-word paragraph of written text prior to each Monday class meeting. These paragraphs will be submitted via Blackboard as blog entries and will be based on the ethnographic readings, which are selections from book-length urban ethnographies and are intended to offer a comparative, cross-cultural perspective from which to view urban issues and aspects of urban life across the globe. More detailed instructions about the ethnographic readings blogs can be found on the Blackboard course site. Each student will submit 6 ethnographic readings blogs. Each blog is worth 25 points for a total of 150 points (or 10% of your final grade). There are 12 ethnographic readings in total.

Students will be divided into two groups at the beginning of the semester. The two groups will alternate each week in submitting blog entries so that every student in both groups does a total of 6 blogs, one every other week. All students in both groups will be equally responsible for participating in seminar-style discussions about the readings during Monday classes.
In order to prepare for class discussions on Wednesdays, you will submit a 250-word paragraph of written text prior to each Wednesday class meeting. These paragraphs will be submitted via Blackboard as blog entries and will be based on the journal articles on specific topics relevant to understanding urban issues in Tampa. More detailed instructions about the journal article blogs can be found on the Blackboard course site. Each student will submit 6 journal article blogs. Each blog is worth 25 points for a total of 150 points (or 10% of your final grade). There are 12 journal article readings in total.

Students will be divided into two groups at the beginning of the semester. The two groups will alternate each week in submitting blog entries so that every student in both groups does a total of 6 blogs, one every other week. All students in both groups will be equally responsible for participating in seminar-style discussions about the readings during Wednesday classes.

SERVICE-LEARNING

This course requires that you spend time outside of class conducting urban ethnographic field research in the context of service-learning with a locally operating nonprofit organization, school, or governmental agency concerned with some issue regarding urban life and culture. This can be done with an organization near the USF campus or in the Tampa Bay area, although students will be encouraged to do service-learning with an organization in the Sulphur Springs neighborhood, which is about a fifteen minute drive from the USF campus. There are 15 service-learning hours required. You will do service-learning at least one hour a week beginning with the week of January 25 and ending with the week of April 19th; during three of these weeks you will need to do at least two hours of service in order to accumulate all 15 hours. Service-learning hours will be logged in Blackboard on a weekly basis. Each hour is worth 10 points for a total of 150 points (or 10% of your final grade).

You are permitted—indeed, encouraged—to work together on the urban ethnographic research project with other students if they are also working with you at the same service-learning site. The final product of your research will be a deliverable (see below) that you will present to your community partner.

COMMUNITY PARTNERS, COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT, AND COMMUNITY BASED RESEARCH

You will be strongly encouraged, though not required, to do service-learning in Sulphur Springs, a neighborhood close to the USF campus and in which the Instructor and his faculty mentor Dr. Susan Greenbaum have been conducting research and other projects for a number of years (Dr. Greenbaum since 1999, the Instructor since 2007). Other USF faculty and students have also been conducting research, offering service-learning courses, operating nonprofit organizations, and directing or advising various kinds of community based projects in Sulphur Springs. This involvement includes Dr. Antoinette Jackson (Anthropology), Robin Jones (Geography), and others, who have developed community engaged partnerships with a variety of organizations, schools, and agencies in Sulphur Springs over the years. The long-term community engagement of these faculty have created ongoing community based research projects in which students can easily participate in a more structured, coherent way and with stronger implications for social action. A descriptive inventory of organizations, schools, and agencies operating in Sulphur Springs will be provided at the beginning of the semester. Furthermore, the Instructor will send out a “request for proposals” to all these entities prior to the commencement of the semester, soliciting proposals for service-learning opportunities and community based research projects.

The Instructor serves as executive director of one of these organizations, the Moses House, and has several service-learning research projects already set up for teams of students to work on. Students who do service with the Moses House will conduct research projects on housing and neighborhood life issues affecting families and children living in Sulphur Springs, especially families who have been relocated to Sulphur Springs following the demolition of Tampa Public Housing complexes in East Tampa and elsewhere. Students will develop community engaged research projects on specific topics of concern that have already been identified by residents of Sulphur Springs. Some of the specific problems that will be addressed include landlord absenteeism, housing conditions, affordable housing, mortgage foreclosures, and various issues surrounding youth recreational and cultural activities in the neighborhood. These projects will be conducted in Sulphur Springs, and students will work in teams with Moses House youth participants to conduct ethnographic research that explores the housing and neighborhood life issues mentioned above. Service activities include collaborating with the Moses House president on the conceptualization and execution of research projects, developing mentoring relationships with at-risk youth, and teaching ethnographic research methods and anthropological concepts to Moses House youth researchers. Service-learning activity meetings will be held at the North Tampa Community Center and the Sulphur Springs Resource Center. The research and service-learning that will be done through this project will be documented through various forms of digital media, including photography, video, and blogs. In addition, this project will form part of the basis of a video documentary about housing conditions and neighborhood life in Sulphur Springs.

FIELDWORK JOURNAL BLOGS (NOTES AND REFLECTIONS)

During your service-learning, you will inevitably meet and talk with members of different social classes and ethnic backgrounds about the urban issues that are affecting their everyday lives. By listening to the multiple voices and perspectives of real people from particular urban contexts, you will be better able to describe, explain, and understand the diversity of urban life and culture. The purpose of the fieldwork journal blogs are for you to demonstrate how specific topics, issues, and aspects of urban life and culture that you learn about through service-learning can be understood anthropologically by applying some of the relevant anthropological knowledge, perspectives, theories, and methods you learn about through the course content and readings. For the fieldwork journal blogs, you will (1) record descriptive observations about the social, organizational, and urban contexts in which you do your service-learning and research, (2) write critical reflections on what you are learning through open-ended conversational interviews and focused observations, and (3) analyze the connections between the course content and what you learn through your fieldwork research and service-learning.

Your fieldwork blogs will be more interesting and visually appealing if you include photographic images. Therefore, if possible, keep a photographic record of your service-learning and field research activities, and post selected images with your fieldwork notes.

There are 12 fieldwork blogs. The first fieldwork blog is due the week of January 25 and the last one is due the week of April 21. Each is worth 37.5 points for a total of 450 points (or 30% of your final grade). More detailed instructions about the fieldwork notes and reflections blogs can be found on the Blackboard course site.

DELIVERABLE TO COMMUNITY PARTNER

At the conclusion of your community based research project, which will be conducted at your service-learning site, your community partner will be expecting you to deliver a final product (or “deliverable”). By the third or fourth week of your service-learning, you should negotiate with your community partners about what your deliverable to them will be. Agree to a deliverable that is realistic and actually doable within a three month time span. Do not be overly ambitious and do not promise to “save the world.” If you work as a student group, you ought to be able to offer more than if you were working as an individual. Your deliverable may take a number of different forms or formats, and it may include an action plan or require that your community partners, future service-learning students, or future volunteers continue some aspects of the project beyond the end of the semester. The Instructor will provide guidance about community partner deliverables throughout the semester.

The deliverable is worth 225 points (or 15% of your final grade) and will be peer-evaluated, that is, graded by your own classmates. More detailed instructions about the final product for your community partner can be found on the Blackboard course site.

IN-CLASS FINAL PRESENTATION

During the last week of the semester, students will share highlights from their research projects and deliverables. This will give students the opportunity to learn about, and learn from, the community based research projects conducted by their classmates. The in-class presentation of highlights from research projects and deliverables is worth 75 points (or 5% of your final grade).

COMMUNITY PRESENTATION

At the end of the semester, students will participate in a public event in which they present their research findings to the community. The location, date, and time of the community presentation will be announced during the semester as soon as the details have been confirmed. The community presentation is worth 75 points (or 5% of your final grade).

COURSE REFLECTIONS FINAL ESSAY

The final exam for this course is a self-reflection essay (4-5 double-spaced pages or 1000-1250 words). The objectives of the final reflective essay are for you to review, summarize, and reflect on what you have learned about urban applied anthropology during the course of the semester by doing service-learning based field research. The final essay is therefore part course summary and part critical reflection, and its purpose is twofold: (1) it allows you to demonstrate that you comprehend the “big picture” regarding anthropological approaches to understanding the diversity of urban life and culture, and (2) it allows you to demonstrate that you can critically reflect on the significance of the contexts and processes involved in your own experiential learning. The course reflections final essay should include a short synopsis of the research findings from your service-learning fieldwork project and explain how what you learned through this course helped you to arrive at those results.

Specific guidelines regarding the format and requirements for the final reflective essay will be distributed during the semester. One component of the final paper assignment is to review your class notes and blog postings (on the readings and your fieldwork) from the entire semester, so be sure to keep these. The final reflective essay is worth 75 points (or 5% of your final grade).

MONDAY WEDNESDAY
January 11

• introduction to course
• introduction to urban anthropology January 13
• “I read the syllabus” assignment due
• community partners in Sulphur Springs
• service-learning and community based research
• student service-learning and research groups

January 18

• NO CLASS: Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday

January 20

• read Hathaway & Kuzin (2007), “Engaging Ethnography: Student Engagement as a Means for Creating Change” prior to class
• post a blog on Hathaway & Kuzin (2007) by 11:00 am
• discuss readings
• discuss preparations for service-learning and fieldwork

January 25

Ethnohistorical Approaches to Urban Ethnic Relations

• read introduction and selected chapters from More than Black: Afro-Cubans in Tampa by Susan D. Greenbaum prior to class
• post a blog on More than Black by 11:00 am
• discuss More than Black readings during class

January 27

• make initial contact with community partner and begin service-learning
• post a fieldwork journal blog on initial meeting with community partner by 4:00 pm
• ethnographer self-awareness exercise due by 11:00 am
• discuss ethnographer self-awareness exercise

February 1

Politics and Cultures of Public Spaces and Places

• read introduction and selected chapters from On the Plaza: The Politics of Public Space and Culture by Setha M. Low prior to class
• post a blog on On the Plaza by 11:00 am
• discuss On the Plaza readings during class

February 3

• read Beckett & Herbert (2009a), “Toward Banishment: The Transformation of Urban Social Control” and (2009b), “The Social Geographies of Banishment” (chapters 2 and 3 from Banished: The New Social Control in Urban America)
• post a blog on Beckett & Herbert (2009a; 2009b) by 11:00 am
• post a fieldwork journal blog by 11:00 am
• discuss readings, service-learning, and fieldwork during class

February 8

Gentrification, Housing, and Neoliberal Urban Development

• read introduction and selected chapters from Barrio Dreams: Puerto Ricans, Latinos, and the Neoliberal City by Arlene M. Dávila prior to class
• post a blog on Barrio Dreams by 11:00 am
• discuss Barrio Dreams readings during class

February 10

• read Greenbaum et al. (2008), “Deconcentration and Social Capital: Contradictions of a Poverty Alleviation Policy” and Greenbaum (2008), “Poverty and the Willful Destruction of Social Capital: Displacement and Dispossession in African American Communities” prior to class
• post a blog on Greenbaum et al. (2008) and Greenbaum (2008) by 11:00 am
• post a fieldwork journal blog by 11:00 am
• discuss readings, service-learning, and fieldwork during class

February 15

Architecture, Urban Design, and Everyday Socio-Cultural Life

• read introduction and selected chapters from The Modernist City: An Anthropological Critique of Brasília by James Holston prior to class
• post a blog on The Modernist City by 11:00 am
• discuss The Modernist City readings during class

February 17

• read Ruiz (2007), “Sulphur Springs Community Profile and Land Analysis” and Patton (2004), “Multiple Worlds on Oakland’s Streets: Social Practice and the Built Environment” prior to class
• post a blog on Ruiz (2007) and Patton (2004) by 11:00 am
• post a fieldwork journal blog by 11:00 am
• discuss readings, service-learning, and fieldwork during class
• begin negotiating deliverable to community partner

February 22

Blackness and Class Stratification in Urban Contexts

• read introduction and selected chapters from Catching Hell in the City of Angels: Life and Meanings of Blackness in South Central Los Angeles by João H. Costa Vargas prior to class
• post a blog on Catching Hell in the City of Angels by 11:00 am
• discuss Catching Hell in the City of Angels readings during class

February 24

• read Wellman (2009), “Reconfiguring the Color Line: Racializing Inner-City Youth and Rearticulating Class Hierarchy in Black America”
• post a blog on Wellman (2009) by 11:00 am
• post a fieldwork journal blog by 11:00 am
• discuss readings, service-learning, and fieldwork during class

March 1

Whiteness and Class Stratification in Urban Contexts

• read introduction and selected chapters from Racial Situations: Class Predicaments of Whiteness in Detroit by John Hartigan prior to class
• post a blog on Racial Situations by 11:00 am
• discuss Racial Situations readings during class

March 3

• read Low (2009), “Maintaining Whiteness: The Fear of Others and Niceness”
• post a blog on Low (2009) by 11:00 am
• post a fieldwork journal blog by 11:00 am
• discuss readings, service-learning, and fieldwork during class

March 8

• NO CLASS: Spring Break

March 10

• NO CLASS: Spring Break

March 15

Fear, Urban Crime, and Class Segregation

• read introduction and selected chapters from City of Walls: Crime, Segregation, and Citizenship in São Paulo by Teresa P. R. Caldeira prior to class
• post a blog on City of Walls by 11:00 am
• discuss City of Walls readings during class

March 17

• read Macek (2006), selected chapters from Urban Nightmares: The Media, the Right, and the Moral Panic Over the City prior to class
• post a blog on Macek (2006) by 11:00 am
• post a fieldwork journal blog by 11:00 am
• discuss readings, service-learning, and fieldwork during class

March 22

Indigenous Peoples, Citizenship, and Urban Organizing

• read introduction and selected chapters from El Alto, Rebel City: Self and Citizenship in Andean Bolivia by Sian Lazar prior to class
• post a blog on El Alto, Rebel City by 11:00 am
• discuss El Alto, Rebel City readings during class

March 24

• NO CLASS MEETING: Instructor will be at the Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting
• post a fieldwork journal blog by 11:00 am

March 29

Children and Youth Living in a Street Situation

• read introduction and selected chapters from Sleeping Rough in Port-au-Prince: An Ethnography of Street Children and Violence in Haiti by J. Christopher Kovats-Bernat prior to class
• post a blog on Sleeping Rough by 11:00 am
• discuss Sleeping Rough readings during class

March 31

• read Lyon-Callo (2004a) and (2004b), “Medicalizing Homelessness” and “Shelter Statistics and the Silencing of Systemic Concerns” (chapters 2 and 3 from Inequality, Poverty, and Neoliberal Governance: Activist Ethnography in the Homeless Sheltering Industry) prior to class
• post a blog on Lyon-Callo (2004a; 2004b)
• post a fieldwork journal blog
• discuss readings, service-learning, and fieldwork during class

April 5

Immigrant Labor, Urban Poverty, and Transnational Spaces

• read introduction and selected chapters from Janitors, Street Vendors, and Activists: The Lives of Mexican Immigrants in Silicon Valley by Christian Zlolniski prior to class
• post a blog on Janitors, Street Vendors, and Activists by 11:00 am
• discuss Janitors, Street Vendors, and Activists readings during class

April 7

• read Williams (2004), “Pummeling the Poor” (chapter 5 from Debt for Sale: A Social History of the Credit Trap) and Lyon-Callo & Hyatt (2003), “The Neoliberal State and the Depoliticization Of Poverty: Activist Anthropology And ‘Ethnography From Below’” prior to class
• post a blog on Williams (2004) and Lyon-Callo & Hyatt (2003) by 11:00 am
• post a fieldwork journal blog by 11:00 am
• discuss readings, service-learning, and fieldwork during class

April 12

Urban Spatialization of Memory and Heritage

• read introduction and selected chapters from The Politics of Heritage from Madras to Chennai by Mary Elizabeth Hancock prior to class
• post a blog on The Politics of Heritage by 11:00 am
• discuss The Politics of Heritage readings during class

April 14

• read Greenbaum et al. (1998), “Central Avenue Legacies: African American Heritage in Tampa, Florida,” Jackson (2009), “Conducting Heritage Research and Practicing Heritage Resource Management on a Community Level—Negotiating Contested Historicity,” and Jackson (2010), “Changing Ideas about Heritage and Heritage Management in Historically Segregated Communities,” prior to class
• post a blog on Greenbaum et al. (1998), Jackson (2009), and Jackson (2010) by 11:00 am
• post a fieldwork journal blog by 11:00 am
• discuss readings, service-learning, and fieldwork during class

April 19

Environmental Racism and Urban Activism

• read introduction and selected chapters from Polluted Promises: Environmental Racism and the Search for Justice in a Southern Town by Melissa Checker prior to class
• post a blog on Polluted Promises by 11:00 am
• discuss Polluted Promises readings during class

April 21

• read and Rodriguez (2003), “Invoking Fannie Lou Hamer: Research, Ethnography and Activism in Low-Income Communities” and Schensul (2005), “Strengthening Communities through Research Partnerships for Social Change: Perspectives from the Institute for Community Research” prior to class
• post a blog on Rodriguez (2003) and Schensul (2005) by 11:00 am
• post a fieldwork journal blog by 11:00 am
• discuss readings, service-learning, and fieldwork during class
• end service-learning

April 26

• final presentations

April 28

• final presentations

May 3

May 5

• COURSE REFLECTIONS ESSAY DUE BY 5:00 PM

Facilitator: Joni Rankin

Course Overview:
An exploration of philanthropy and the philanthropic process, nonprofits and their boards, grant writing and fundraising, strategic grant-making, and sustainable philanthropic impact as informed by the Students4Giving program and the corresponding SC grant.

Course Outcomes:
Upon completion of the course, students will

• Understand local community-based knowledge and collaborate with existing non-profit boards and community members
• Manage the philanthropic process from mission statement to measurement, including RFPs and the impact of grant-making choices
• Explore a sustainable campus infrastructure that focuses on the non-profit sector and needed resources, including the development of a board manual
• Develop a philosophy of philanthropy through research and interaction with philanthropists and community leaders

Course Requirements:
Ongoing participation is expected. Please send Joni an email if you are unable to attend a class session. Additional reading assignments taken from journals, books, or online resources will be assigned during the course. Additional blogging assignments may be added as well.

Class Periods:

• Wednesday, Oct. 22—What is Philanthropy?
• Refreshments/Introductions
• Housekeeping: Syllabus and folders, meeting times, Saturday addition, and Web page
• Team building
• What is Philanthropy? What are the goals? Who is a part of it? Where do we come in? Who do they serve? (Discussion)

Assignment: Research 2 local (Cowley County) nonprofit organizations. Write an overview of each organization that includes a short history or the organization and its vision and mission. Due by Wednesday, Nov. 5 meeting.

• Wednesday, Nov. 5—Meeting Community Needs Through Philanthropy
• Community asset mapping to analyze needs in Winfield and Cowley County. [Seth Bate to walk us through asset mapping process and then present Cowley County results.]
• The role of a mission and vision in nonprofits, deciding your target area for those able to apply (from Oct. 22 assignment)

Assignments: Participate with at least 2 comments during the next two weeks to the blog with Seth Bate as guest blogger. In addition, bring a vision and mission statement from one grant making foundation to Nov. 19 class.

• Wednesday, Nov. 19—Foundations and the Role They Play in Philanthropy
• Guest, Pam Moore
• Development of a mission statement for the SC Student Philanthropy Board

Assignment: Find at least one Request for Proposal (RFP) to share with the class at the Dec. 3 meeting. Submit at least 1 comment to guest blogger related to foundations [Dick Merriman?]

Wednesday, Dec. 3—Grant Focus and RFPs

• Establish our grant focus
• Set timeline/calendar for spring grant making
• Assign and schedule board members’ visits of KICC and other nonprofits in the spring
• Understanding RFPs

Assignment: Visit http://foundationcenter.org/ and research RFPs. What are the major components of an RFP? What must we include in ours? Be prepared to discuss in class.

Wednesday, Dec. 17—Request for Proposals

• Development of SC Student Philanthropy Board RFP
• Begin developing evaluation criteria, selection process and evaluation tool
• Plan for distribution and publicity of RFP
• Discuss liaison role between committee and community agencies
• Debrief and prepare for spring semester

TBA Saturday meeting: Nonprofit Challenges; Measuring Success, the Budget

• Panel discussion: “How we develop our budget; successes and challenges” [A local guest panel will discuss these topics.]

Wednesday, Jan. 14—Welcome Back and Recap

• Discuss new and old events; review of RFP timeline
• Develop RFP evaluation criteria, selection process and draft evaluation
• Assign members to a nonprofit board
• Begin compiling data for a board manual

Wednesday, Jan. 28—Board Visits—No class!

• In lieu of a meeting, members will attend assigned board meetings. A board report is due for discussion at the February 11 meeting.
• Deadline for start of RFP call process

Wednesday, Feb. 11—Grant-making Rubric

• Finalize grant evaluation criteria and selection process
• Develop evaluation rubric
• Develop the process for notifying applicants and publicity plan [guest for a publicity plan, Charles Osen]
• Grant-writing guest blogger,

Assignment: Submit at least 1 response to the class blog related to the posted question.

Wednesday, Feb. 25—RFPs and Award Preparation

• Review of RFP deadline (we must have begun by now!) using evaluation rubric
• Continue work on Board Manual
• Begin exploring sustainable campus infrastructure for SC Student Philanthropy Board. [Guest, Paul Bean, Institutional Advancement]

Wednesday, Mar. 11—Awards and Publicity

• Distribute awards
• Execute publicity plan
• Evaluation of the process for inclusion in the Board Manual
• Continue exploration of sustainable campus infrastructure for SC Student Philanthropy Board.

Wednesday, Mar. 25—Board Manual

• Finalize Board Manual
• Pursue plan for sustainable campus infrastructure for SC Student Philanthropy Board

Assignment: As needed per above plan.

Wednesday, April 8—2009-2010 SC Board

• Finalize 2009-2010 grant board at SC
• Transition meeting from 08-09 board to 09-10 board

Wednesday, April 22—Year End Review

• Course evaluation
• Project evaluation
• Celebration!

Course Goals: The one thing everyone in this class shares in common is their respective memberships in families. Regardless of families\’ shapes and sizes, they are the most volatile places on earth. The emotions one associates with family members are the strongest and most powerful that one feels. All too often we assume that families are safe havens, but the truth is that these strong emotions can often be dangerous, violent, and perhaps even deadly. The overall goal of this course is for each student to read, write, and grow as a person and a scholar. However, a more practical goal is for all students to have an increased awareness of how volatile families can be, and to recognize the signs of abusive behavior in their own relationships and those of others. The information from this course should build upon a strong knowledge base drawn from the social sciences, and should prepare one for work in the area of social work, sociology, or psychology.

Course Objectives:
At the conclusion of the course every student should be able to:

1. Identify and compare issues concerning violence in families.
2. Explain the complexity of defining “family.”
3. Provide clear and concise descriptions and analyses of the different types of violence in families that are taking place in American society today.
4. Develop skills to work in groups to analyze and offer policy recommendations to address a particular problem.
5. Interpret and critique contemporary social arrangements related to violence in families.
6. Discover and re-evaluate one\’s own ideas, positions, and values concerning family relationships and violence in families.
7. Make a sound argument in support of one side or the other of the “family violence” debate.
8. Write clearly, in both substantive and technical terms, and document sources properly.
9. I have constructed a syllabus that, I hope, will enable us to reach these objectives. I reserve the right to change any portion of the syllabus in order to meet the objectives of the course.

Required Resources:

Bancroft, Lundy and Jay G. Silverman. 2002. The Batterer as Parent: Addressing the Impact of Domestic
Violence on Family Dynamics. (selected chapters) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Sokoloff, Natalie and Christina Pratt, eds. 2005. Domestic Violence at the Margins: Readings on Race, Class, Gender, and Culture, (selected chapters) New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Wallace, Harvey. 2008. Family Violence: Legal, Medical and Social Perspectives, 5th edition. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Readings scanned into Blackboard:

Bancroft, Lundy. 2002. Chapter 3 from Why Does He Do That?: Inside the minds of angry and controlling men. New York, NY: Berkley Books.

Browne, Angela. 1987. Chapters 8 & 9 from When Battered Women Kill, New York, NY: The Free Press.

Cook, Philip W. 1997. Abused Men: The Hidden Side of Domestic Violence. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.

Kurz, Demi. “Physical Assaults by Husbands: A Major Social Problem.”

Mellor, M. Joanna and Patricia Brownell, eds. 2006. Three articles from Elder Abuse and Mistreatment: Policy, Practice, and Research. New York, NY: The Haworth Press.

Renzetti, Claire. 1997. “Violence and Abuse Among Same-Sex Couples” in Violence Between Intimate Partners, Albert Cardarelli, ed. Boston, Mass.: Allyn & Bacon.

Shamai, Michal. “Couple Therapy with Battered Women and Abusive Men: Does it have a future?”

Strauss, Murray. “Physical Assaults by Wives: A Major Social Problem.”

Tolman, Richard. “Expanding Sanctions for Batterers: What can we do besides jailing and counseling them?”

Weiss, Elaine. 2003. Checklists from Family and Friends’ Guide to Domestic Violence: How to listen, talk and take action when someone you care about is being abused. Volcano, CA: Volcano Press.

Weiss, Elaine. 2000. Chapters 1, 7, & 12 in Surviving Domestic Violence: Voices of Women Who Broke Free.
Agreka Books.

Williams, Oliver J., Jacquelyn L Boggess, and Janet Carter. 2001. “Fatherhood and Domestic Violence: Exploring the Role of Men Who Batter in the Lives of Their Children.” In Domestic Violence in the Lives of Children: The Future of Research, Intervention, and Social Policy, Sandra Graham-Bermann and Jeffrey Edleson, eds. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Two electronic articles on Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy.

Teaching Method: Each class session will focus on a specific topic identified in the class schedule. The primary teaching method will be small group work, class discussions, and films. Students are responsible for completing the readings and other assignments for each class session prior to the date they will be discussed.

Course Requirements and Evaluation:
Assessment of student attainment of the course objectives will include:

Assignments Due Date Points in Final Grade
1. Midterm 10/16  100
2. Research Paper (Critical Assessment of MVP, etc.) 11/25 100
3. Research Presentation 12/2,12/4, 12/9  100
4. Activity reports of school visits w/ MVP class day after visit  100
5. Group evaluation (MVP groups) last week of class  100
6. Professor evaluation of MVP work – - – 100
7. Service & Course Reflection Journal by 9/25  100
by 10/23  100
by 11/20  100
8. Comprehensive Final examination 12/12  100
9. Attendance, preparation & participation  100

TOTAL  900

Grading Scale:

783 – 809 = B+ 693 – 719 = C+ 603 – 629 = D+ Below 540 = F
837 – 900 = A 747 – 782 = B 657 – 692 = C 567 – 602 = D
810 – 836 = A- 720 – 746 = B- 630 – 656 = C- 540 – 566 = D-

Attendance, Preparation & Participation:
Your attendance is expected each time class is scheduled. Your preparation and participation are essential for the success of this class. If you are present but are clearly not prepared for class or engaged in the class discussion, you will be considered absent for that day’s class. I will assess your advance preparation for class by requiring you to provide 3 discussion questions each day, which you generate as a result of doing the assigned reading for that class. Your questions will be the basis for a portion of our class discussion, so it is most important that you are prepared. I will collect these questions at the beginning of each class, so be sure to bring 2 copies to class with you each time.

You are the only person who can turn in your discussion questions. Do not email them to me, or slide them under my office door. They are due, by you, at the beginning of each class period. For each set of discussion questions that you fail to turn in, you will be docked 3 points off your final grade, regardless of the reason for their omission. Please make every effort possible to be in attendance and prepared to discuss the assigned readings each day that we meet.

Finally, Classroom Atmosphere: Despite the fact that Violence in Families is a pretty heavy-duty topic to discuss for fifteen weeks, I want us to have a good time. So, we need to create an inviting classroom environment. We are going to discuss very sensitive topics throughout the semester, and while I hope none of you have first-hand knowledge of these social phenomena, I realize that is not likely. Therefore, we all have to be extra sensitive to our remarks in the classroom because we have no idea what may have happened to the person sitting right next to us. Please be considerate of each other’s feelings as we move through all of this material.

Details of each assignment are provided within a separate document posted on our blackboard site. Please take the time to review these instructions carefully, and let me know any questions that you may have.

Tentative Class Schedule:

Date, Readings (to be completed by date listed), Class Activities

9/2, Wallace 1 – Characteristics of FV, Welcome & Orientation,
Collect class & work schedules

9/4 Wallace 9 – Spousal Abuse, Bancroft, chapter 3 (BB), “Tough Guise” video

9/9 Training for MVP program

9/11 Training for MVP program

9/16 Straus & Kurz Debate (BB), Cook chapter (BB), Weiss, chapter 1 (BB)

9/18 Wallace 14 – Women & Sexual Violence

9/23 Browne, Chapters 8 & 9 (BB)

9/25 Weiss, Chpts. 7 & 13 (BB), First Journal Entry due

9/30 Sokoloff, Chpts. 2 & 5

10/2 Sokoloff, Chpts. 11 & 13

10/7 Renzetti article (BB), Wallace 12 – Gay & Lesbian Abuse

10/9 Wallace 10 – CJS Response to Spouse Abuse, Tolman article – Sanctions for Men (BB), Shamai article – Couple Therapy (BB)

10/14 Sokoloff, Chpts. 18 & 24

10/16 MIDTERM

10/21 NO CLASS due to Fall break

10/23 Williams, et al. article (BB), Wallace 2 – Physical Child Abuse Second Journal Entry due

10/28 Bancroft & Silverman, Chapters 2 & 3

10/30 Wallace 3 – Child Sexual Abuse

11/4 Article on Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (BB)

11/6 Wallace 4 – Child Neglect

11/11 Bancroft & Silverman, Chapter 9, Wallace 7 – Professionals, Response to Child Abuse Speaker (Guardian ad Litem office)

11/13 Wallace 5 – Sibling Abuse

11/18 Wallace 11 – Elder Abuse

11/20 Readings on elder abuse (BB), Articles 3 & 4 from Mellor & Brownell (BB), Third Journal Entry due

11/25 Articles 1 & 2 from Mellor & Brownell (BB), Research papers due

11/27 NO CLASS due to Thanksgiving

12/2 Group project presentations

12/4 Group project presentations

12/9 Wallace 16 – Consequences of FV and Wallace 17 – Victim’s Rights Group project presentations

12/12 Exam: 8:30 – 11:30 am

If you have any questions about anything we\’re doing in class (e.g., material we\’re covering, assignments, etc.), please do not hesitate to send me an e-mail. I will either answer your question via that medium, or be happy to set up an appointment with you.

The MVP Program:

What is it?

We plan to implement a program called Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) in the local high schools to educate students about gender violence, alcohol/consent issues, and sexual harassment. MVP was developed at the Center for the Study of Sports in Society at Northeastern University (http://www.sportinsociety.org/vpd/mvp.php), and has been utilized across the country in various settings to educate young people on these topics. The program empowers people so that they can overcome the urge to be a bystander when faced with a violent situation. They are presented with role-plays that illustrate viable options for responding to incidents of violence, abuse, or harassment. They learn that there are numerous ways to respond, and they take home valuable skills and the power to act when confronted by these situations.

FAS has a Community Educator / Volunteer Coordinator on staff, who goes into the schools and provides educational programs to various grade levels, but with only one person, her ability to reach as many young people as possible is certainly limited. By incorporating the students from HUS 349 into this process, we will be able to extend the current efforts of FAS and Crossroads and take this innovative program (MVP) into the high schools to reach young people who are experiencing some of their first intimate relationships.

The MVP program will accomplish several goals:

1. The program will empower young men and women to act when faced with violent, coercive, and harassing situations.
2. The program will educate young people about healthy enactments of masculinity and femininity.
3. They will learn that while many features of our culture (e.g., media messages) encourage male control and violence, this is not acceptable and it’s not “cool.” We will begin to work on changing the male peer culture, so that men who abuse women will lose status in the eyes of their peers.

The goals of this program and the messages embedded within the program’s structure are consistent with the theories and arguments presented for years by various scholars whose work focuses on issues related to gender and violence (e.g., Connell, 1987; Johnson, 2001; Martin & Hummer, 1989; McBride, 1995; Messner & Sabo, 1994).

How will we do it?

We plan to visit the health classes in all of the local high schools. This plan will include 5 – 6 high schools with 2 – 3 health classes each quarter, so all total this will be 36 – 48 class visits during our fall semester. With approximately 30 students enrolled in HUS 349, we will be sending teams of 3 – 5 students out to the high schools (hopefully teams comprised of female and male students). The classes are 90 minutes long, so Elon students will be spending between 6 – 12 hours in the field, actually providing the MVP program to the high school students. Students will be expected to meet outside of class time to coordinate and practice their presentations. All total the Elon students will complete a minimum of 20 hours of academic service learning for the course.

The current era of globalization has generated the apparent contradiction between the free flow of capital across borders and restrictive immigration policy. In order to gain a greater understanding of these trends, this course will examine changing patterns of Latino immigration in the US-Mexican border region and in Colorado Springs. The course will consider a range of issues including: the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the multifaceted nature of integration between US and Mexican economies, economic development in Mexico that has generated emigration to the US, the nature of the Mexican migrant journey to the US, the role that Latino labor plays in the US economy, and US immigration policies including the militarization of the US-Mexican border. The class will travel for seven days to the Tucson/Nogales region of the US-Mexican border.

(Prerequisite for class: Any Sociology 100 Course)

Course Goals:

1. To demonstrate to students an understanding of the dynamics associated with the current era of globalization that propel migration from the global south to the United States
2. To demonstrate to students an understanding of the role Latino immigrants play in the U.S. economy
3. To demonstrate to students an appreciation of the difficulties both immigrants and community institutions confront as immigrants integrate into urban communities such as Colorado Springs

Course Objectives:

1. Describe the steps involved in the immigrant journey from Mexico to the United States
2. Develop an understanding of sociological theory that focuses on causes and effects of international migration to the U.S. including an understanding of the relationship between globalization and migration
3. Develop an understanding of theoretical work focused on border militarization
4. Demonstrate an ability to weave personal reflection from the border trip into literature reviews on migration and globalization
5. Demonstrate an understanding of skills needed by immigrants and community agency personnel to negotiate the U.S. immigration system
6. Develop an analysis concerning immigrant integration into urban communities in the U.S. and the possibilities that this process will contribute to social change

Service Learning Placements:

Students will choose between two service learning field placements for the course. The first placement involves a Public Achievement Project in Wasson High School. The second placement involves teaching English as a Second Language to adults through the Adult and Family Education program in local school district 11. See the guidelines on these projects at the end of the syllabus.

Field Trip to U.S.-Mexican Border:

The class will travel to the Tucson/Nogales region of the border from Jan. 14-21, 2005. We will concentrate specifically on Mexican migration to the United States and actually trace the migrant journey from northern Sonora, Mexico to the border region and into the U.S. A tentative itinerary is included at the end of the syllabus.

Reading Journals:

Students are required to turn in critical summaries of 150 words or less on each of the readings during the first and last weeks of the course. Each book and article is a separate entry (please note: these summaries are not a substitute for a student’s own personal system of taking notes). For each entry, include the citation and a brief description of the central argument and main points. Concentrate on your own critical reaction to the piece. See the examples at the end of this syllabus. I will grade these assignments with a check, check plus, or check minus. See examples at end of syllabus.

Class Writing Assignments:

There will be three papers in this class. The first paper is due on Friday Feb. 4, the second paper is due Feb. 26, and the final paper will be due on Friday May 6. The first two papers will both require a literature review of the relevant theoretical and empirical work that we will have considered in the class as well as a reflection on your observations/findings/thoughts from the border trip. In order for you to be best prepared to answer this question, I suggest that you keep a journal during the trip. Suggested guidelines for the journal are included at the end of the syllabus and will be discussed on the first day of class. The final paper will focus on your field placements. Guidelines for the papers are included at the end of this syllabus.

Class Format/Attendance/Deadlines

The format of the class will emphasize discussion. I will look for evidence of daily preparation for class discussion and engagement with the course materials. All of the readings are important, but I will not discuss every point from every reading. Class time will not be limited to repeating the material in the readings; rather class time is an opportunity to extend the readings to the questions and issues that interest us as class members. To a large extent which readings we discuss and the level of detail of our discussion is up to us as class members You are responsible for making sure that any reading that you thought was particularly interesting, fantastic, totally misinformed, confusing, etc. is discussed to your satisfaction.

Scrupulous attendance is assumed for classes held at CC and meetings during the trip to the border. For class, you should always arrive prepared and having thought about the readings. You are obligated to submit your work by the date and time specified in the syllabus. Handing in assignments late disadvantages you in getting on with other work in the course. Late assignments will be penalized one grade per day.

Honor code and good faith agreement:

In addition to adhering to the college honor code, students in this class must adhere to the following good faith agreement:

1. We assume that our colleagues are not motivated by hate, unless we have definite evidence to the contrary. If we learn of attitudes or positions colleagues hold that contribute to or reinforce wrong, we assume that these arise out of ignorance. Ignorance is educable.
2. Until or unless we have definite evidence to the contrary, we assume each of us is educable, and that each comes to our shared task with good faith.
3. We assume our colleagues, like ourselves, desire for the world to be a more humane and just place, unless we have definite evidence to the contrary. Ensuing disagreements, then, constructively focus on different visions of how this may be accomplished rather than whether it is of interest.
4. We assume that there will be people here with more and less experience and knowledge than we hold; we assume that there are those among us who are more “enlightened,” and those who are more “ignorant” on specific points, and that there are diverse standards for what constitutes enlightened or ignorant. We agree to start from where we stand, in our lives, each day.
5. We, therefore, seek to avoid creating hierarchies amongst ourselves: more-politically-correct-than-thou, more-committed, more-experienced, more informed.
6. This is not a muzzle, nor is it intended to suggest that anger, passion, vehemence, or other powerful expressions do not have a place in what we come together to do. Indeed, we wish to encourage those kinds of expressions by providing baseline understandings for a constructive atmosphere.

Grading:

• Reading Journals, Class Participation, and Class Trip: 20%
• First Paper: 25%
• Second Paper: 25%
• Final Paper: 30%

Grading Criteria:
I will evaluate both written and oral work on an overall basis: while separate ratings are not made on each, the following are the major criteria I use:

• ORIGINALITY: Is your topic or position significant? Do you suggest new interpretations or are you merely rearranging old ones? Do you present a fresh organization of material or are you merely regurgitating what you have read?
• CONTENT: Is your paper a careful analysis of the issues or does it represent unsubstantiated personal opinion?
• ORGANIZATION: Is there a logical structure to what you are presenting or are you merely throwing a number of unrelated things together without demonstrating their connection? Have you presented a compelling argument?
• DEPTH: Do you just note issues or do you develop and analyze them in some depth? BREVITY: Have you edited your paper to make your argument as tight and succinct as possible? Note: Achieving this will require several rewrites.
• STYLE: Do you write with some grace? Are your sentences and paragraphs designed to communicate your ideas or are you simply stringing words together with no thought on their impact on the reader? Have you written for a general, well-educated audience or is your paper so specialized that only an “expert” can understand your argument? Have you avoided sexist language? Papers should be typed and well-edited for grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Pages should be numbered. Persistent errors will count against you.
• HONOR CODE: You are encouraged to discuss your work with your peers, but the papers and the exam must be individually thought-out and written. If you do not know how the Honor Code applies to a particular assignment, be sure to ask. Honor Code violations result in an automatic “NC.”

Class Trip Evaluation Criteria:

I will take a number of things into account when evaluating your participation on the border trip including degree of participation during class reflection sessions, quality of participation during these discussions including ability to make connections between the different trip meetings and reading material covered in class, punctuality to meetings and activities, and willingness to work as a group with your fellow students (colleagues).

Reading material:

All of the readings for the course have been posted on the course web page.

Course Schedule:

Monday Jan. 10: Causes of International Migration: Poverty, Capital Accumulation, Globalization, Relative Deprivation, Political Violence, Migrant Networks
Alejandro Portes and Ruben Rumbaut, Immigrant America, (Berkeley: University of California), 1996, pp. 1 -92
Douglas Massey, et al., “Theories of International Migration: Review and Appraisal,” Population and Development Review] 9(3):431-466, 1993
Douglas Massey et al. Return to Aztlan: the Social Process of International Migration (Berkeley: University o(California Press), 1987, pp. 139-171
Class meets from 9-12

Tuesday Jan. 11: Causes of International Migration Continued: Role of Latino Labor in the U.S. Economy
Saskia Sassen, Globalization and its Discontents (New York: New Press), 1998, pp. 31-53
Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent (New York: Monthly Review Press), 1997, pp. 1-8,265-285
Aristide Zolberg, “Wanted But Not Welcome: Alien Labor in Western Development,” in William Alonzo (cd.), Population in an Interacting World, 1987, pp. 36-73
Paul Ong, Edna Bonacich, and Lucie Cheng (eds.), The New Asian Immigration in Los Angeles and Global Restructuring, (Temple University Press), 1992, pp. 3-35
Urban Institute, “Undocumented Immigrants: Facts and Figures,” 2004
Dawn Thilmany, “The Hispanic Labor Force in Colorado’s Agricultural and Rural Economy,” 2002
E. Helen Berry and Almabel Kirschner, “Rapid Growth of Hispanic Populations in Western States, ” WRDC Information Brief, 2002
National Immigration Forum, “Immigrants and the Economy”, 2003
National Immigration Law Center,”NILC Reflections on President Bush’s Immigration Reform Proposal,” 2004
Class Meets from 9:30-12:30

Wed. Jan. 12: Economic Integration and Immigration
Oxfam, “Dumping Without Borders,” 2003 Walden Bello, Deglobalization, pp. 1-31
Dani Roruik, “Globalization for Whom?”
Oxfam, “Rigged Rules and Double Standards” and Assorted Responses Food article – New York Times
Class Meets from 9:30-12:30 and 1:30-3 :30
*Field Project Orientation from 11:00-12:30
*Exercise in Altar, Mexico

Thursday Jan. 13: U.S. Immigration Policy and the U.S.-Mexican Border
Douglas Massey et al., Beyond Smoke and Mirrors: Mexican Immigration in An Era of Economic Integration, (New York: Russell Sage Foundation), 2003, pp. 105-141
Peter Andreas, Border Games: Policing the U.S.-Mexico Divide (Ithaca: Cornell University Press), 2000, pp. 85-103
Kitty Calavita, Inside the State: the Bracero Program, Immigration and the LN.S. (New York: Routledge), pp. 1-41
Class Meets from 9:30-12:00

Friday Feb. 4: 5:00-7:00: Why Border Militarization?
**Paper #1 due
Peter Andreas, Border Games: Policing the U.S.-Mexico Divide (Ithaca: Cornell University Press), 2000, pp.1-39; review pp. 85-103; 103-112
Joseph Nevins, Operation Gatekeeper: The Rise of the Illegal Alien and the Making of the U.S.-Mexico Boundary (New York; Routledge), 2002, pp. 1-37; 95-149; 165-188

Friday Feb. 25: 5:00-7:00: Restricting Latino Immigration in the US
Brenda Walker, “Save the Sierra Club From the Treason Lobby – Act Now.” 2003
Stanley A. Renshon, “Dual Citizenship and American National Identity,” Center for Immigration Studies, 2001
Roy Beck et al., “Outsmarting Smart Growth: Population Growth, Immigration, and the Problem of Sprawl,” 2003
Steven Camarata, “Immigration From Mexico: Assessing the Impact on the United States,” 2001
Huntington article

Friday March 11: 5:00-7:00: Immigration, Urban Restructuring, and Ethnic Tension
Roger Waldinger, “Black – Immigrant Competition Reassessed: New Evidence From Los Angeles,” in Sociological Perspectives, v.40, no. 3, 1997, pp. 365-386
Paul Ong et.al., “The Korean-Black Conflict and the State,” in Paul Ong et.al., The New Asian Immigration in Los Angeles and Global Restructuring,(Temple University Press), 1994, pp. 264-294
George Sanchez, “Face the Nation: Race, Immigration, and the Rise of Nativism in Late Twentieth Century America,” in International Migration Review, v.31, Winter 1997, pp. 1009-1030

Friday April 1: 5:00-7:00: Immigrant Networks: Social Capital and Ethnic Niches in the Labor Market
Roger Waldinger, Still the Promised City? African Americans and New Immigrants in PostIndustrial New York (Harvard University Press), 1996, pp. 1-32
Mary Waters “Ethnic and Racial identities of Second-Generation Black Immigrants in New York City,” International Migration Review, 1994
Sarah Mahler: American Dreaming: Immigrant Life on the Margins, (Princeton University Press), 1995, pp. 83-158

Friday April 15: 5:00-7:00: Immigration and Gender Dynamics
Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo, Gendered Transitions: Mexican Experiences of Immigration (Berkeley: University of California Press) 1994, pp. 53-147
**Possible Presentation by a CC alum who has been working in Guatemala

Friday May 6: 5:00-8:00
Final Presentations on Field Projects – Wasson and Hunt ESL folks will be invited
**Final Papers Due

This course will explore “the family” in relation to cultural identities and political policies in the United States and around the world, combined with a unique opportunity to reach out to and interact with diverse families nearby. With topics including the “Holy Family” to “Father Knows Best,” from Freud’s “Oedipal Complex” to current debates on “Family Values,” from children with AIDS to international adoption, students will analyze changing family socio-economic and psychological structures and the evolving representations of motherhood, fatherhood and childhood in the past and particularly in the present. We will compare public and private efforts to aid families in the U.S., Europe and other parts of the world, including the origins and evolution of social work and volunteerism as a form of democratic engagement. Students will grapple with complex “real world” issues as well as their own family identities.

This course will meet only 2 hours a week and require a commitment to volunteer regularly (2-3 hours/week) during the semester. At the request of Project Hospitality, students will provide child care, tutoring and other support to children in immigrant families, including at meetings to discuss labor and social welfare issues and in afterschool programs. Students will write a research paper linking their experience to a public policy initiative.

Finally, students will apply these insights in campus-community dialogues on diversity and democracy, including “Passport to Diversity: A Celebration of International Cultures in Our Community” and the National Dialogue Project “Journey to Democracy: Power, Voice and the Public Good.” Dialogues will involve civic associations on Staten Island in discussions of immigrant families, themselves given a voice, compare resources within a culture of participatory democracy, ret1ect on the college\’s and students’ responsibilities and analyze the structures of power in promoting the public good.

Students in all disciplines are encouraged to enroll.

Books Required:

• Juan Gonzalez, Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America. New York: Penguin Books, 2000.
• Colin Heywood. History of Childhood: From Medieval to Modern Times. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2001.
• Jonathan Kozol. Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience ala Nation. New York, Harper Collins, 1996.
• Jimmy Breslin. The Short, Sweet Dream of Eduardo Gutierrez. New York: Crown Publishers, 2002.
• Barbara Bergman. Saving Our Children from Poverty: What the U.S. Can Learn from France. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
• Reed Ueda, Post-War Immigrant America: A Social History St. Martins Press, 1994.

Course Requirements:

Attendance
Your ability to raise questions and express opinions, drawing upon the readings, will be an important component of your grade. You are expected to contribute regularly and to prepare informal presentations. Attendance is required, including at film screenings and designated lectures of the Academic and Cultural Enrichment (ACE) program or Dialogues on Democracy project. More than 2 unexcused absences will be penalized as follows: for each additional absence, your final grade will drop by one-third.

Reflective Essay (10%)
Trace your own American family saga, in dialogue with democracy and diversity. Suggested guidelines will follow.

Journal Reflections (10%): During the semester, you will attempt to link specific issues raised in class discussions and readings with specific issues confronted in your placement. Using either the placement or readings as a starting point, write at least 5 journal entries (2 pages each), spaced throughout the semester.

Research Project (40%)
Each student will choose a topic related to democracy or diversity as a lens by which to reflect on their service-learning experience. Research is expected to be of high quality with at least three refereed books or journal articles published since 1985 and at least one oral history interview. You willlikely need to order materials inter-library loan-plan ahead! Tins is a semester-long project: Students will submit a bibliography, thesis, outline and first draft over a period of several weeks. Presentations will be both in-class and, as part of the Dialogue on Democracy project, for invited community members.

Mid-term (20%) and Final (20%): Essay questions. Final exam will be cumulative and include questions on placements.

Course Outline:
Additional readings or videos may be added and other changes made as needed)

1. Week 1-3: Family History: Immigration and Generations

Mon. 8/25 Introduction: Why engage families?
Children’s public/private lives around the globe
Read handouts; discuss research and service projects.
Wed. 8/27 Melting Pot or Mosaic? Integration vs. Assimilation
Read: Gonzalez, Introduction and Chapters 4-5
AND use internet to learn about Hispanic children in NYC and USA
Fri. 8/29 Read: Gonzalez, Ch. 11-12
Video: The Immigrant Experience: The Long, Long Journey (1972)

Mon. 9/1 No Classes (Labor Day)
Plan to visit Port Richmond Area this week
Wed. 9/3 Why History Matters: Creativity and Conflict
Read: Gonzalez, Ch. 1-3
Wed. eve Film screening: My Family/Mi Familia (1995)
Fri. 9/5 Discuss Film. Visit with Terry
Ueda, Post-War Immigrant America, Ch.3

Mon. 9/8 More than Kissing Babies: Economics and Politics of Democracy
Gonzalez, Ch. 10, 13 and conclusion
Wed. 9/10 Essay # 1 due:Your American Family Saga (3-4p.)

II. Week 4-6: History of Childhood

Mon. 9/15 Happy Mothers, Fallen Fathers
Read Heywood: pp.1-40
Wed. 9/17 Read Heywood: ppAl-82 (Guest: Dr. Alison Smith)
Sat. 9/20 Port Richmond Civic Association Picnic (optional)

Mon. 9/22 Brothers, Sisters and Peers
Read Heywood: pp.83-118
Wed. 9/24 When does Childhood End? Labor and Education
Read Heywood: pp.119-l72

Mon. 9/29 Review Family Policy from Nazism to the Present
Read handout
Wed. 10/1 Midterm Exam Due
Sat. 10/4 Freedom Walk

III. Week 7-10: Children in NYC

Mon. 10/6 Classes Cancelled: Yom Kippur Begin Kozol, Amazing Grace
Tues. 1017: 4:15: Dr. Lee Knefelkamp (required)
Wed. American Democracy and Children Left Behind Read Kozol, Ch. 1-3

Mon. 10/13: Columbus/Indigenous Peoples\’ Day Tues. 10/14: Kozol, Ch. 4-5
Wed. Finish Kozol, Ch. 6 and epilogue

Mon. 10/20 Buildings and Fences: Whose Responsibility?
Read Breslin, Short Sweet Dream, 1-53 Wed. 10/22 Read Breslin, 53-103

Fall Break-Work on Projects
Finish Breslin
Late October: Port Richmond Harvest Fair, Veterans\’ Park

Sun. 11/2: Celebrate Diversity! 12-5 (attendance required)
Mon. 11/3: Discuss Celebrate Diversity!
Read: Ueda, Ch 3-4

Weeks 11-15: Public Policy and Children

Wed. 11/5: Begin Bergman, Saving Our Children, 1-49

Mon. 11/10 Bergman, 50-91
Wed. 11/12 Finish Bergman, 91-153

Mon. 11/17 Research Projects Due
Wed. 11/19 Debate:Why Americans are For and Against Family Policy
Review Bergman

Mon. 11/24 International Family Policies: Adoption, Refugees, AIDs Read: handout on International adoption, web research
Thanksgiving Break
Late November/Early December: Dialogue on Democracv: Required

Mon. 12/2: Debate: Why Americans are For and Against Immigration and web search pro and con (eg. Pat Buchanan)
Wed. 12/4: What\’s Next?

Final Exam: Date TBA

Your American Family Saga A 3-4 page essay
Due: Wed. 9/10 (Bring to class)

Using the examples of the Gonzales or Sanchez Families, trace your own family’s evolution in contact with democracy and diversity. If possible, discuss these issues with a family member (but remember to handle oral history evidence with care.) Read all the questions below but focus on those most revealing of your family saga.

Discuss a family member’s voyage to America and adjustment to the new culture, society and economics. Consider issues such as housing, employment, push/pull motives, discrimination, gender, age, language, education, employment, health/abuse, voting, reliance on public support, socio-economic mobility, intermarriage, contemporary political and economic context.

How did gender, class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability and/or religion affect their adjustment and that of the second, third and/or later generations? Review issues listed above. What is their most important accomplishment? What was their greatest barrier to success? How did they change over time as America and the world has changed?

What changes in cultural values and socio-economic concerns can you trace between first generation immigrants in your family and their descendents?

Are your ancestors’ ethnicity, language, religion or culture still important to you?
Do you or other family members speak to each other in a language other than English? How informed are you of the culture and politics of their country of origin, past and present? Give specific evidence: for example, can you name the top political leader in that nation today?

How have democracy, diversity and the public good affected your family? What do these terms mean to you and your family? How do you benefit or how has your family benefited from government spending on family policy?

How do you and/or your family view immigrants today? Do you and/or your family see America/New York as a melting pot or mosaic?

Final Exam:
Please answer both questions, in 3-4 pages each (total 8 pages).

In both questions, please refer to your own civic engagement experience this semester when possible and show if and how it affected your learning. Exam is due Monday by 3pm.

Your grade will be based on the quality of your argument: the clarity and persuasiveness of your thesis, your organization and the thoroughness of your evidence. Refer whenever possible to primary sources and to specific persons, events and terms (for example, Bracero program, Family Allowances, Mother’s Pensions, TANF).

I. To what extent is an understanding of family policy in France useful in shaping public opinion and proposals (like those of Bergman) that could address the most urgent problems of American children?

In your answer, be sure to answer the following questions: How significantly do Bergman’s proposals (and their intended impact) differ from those of the National Commission on Children (NCC)? Which of France’s family policies does she find most relevant to the United States? Why does she reject Family Allowances and make minimal reference to maternity leave? Why are Bergman, Cherilyn Davidson and the NCC concerned about the shortcomings of AFDC (now T ANF)? What objections do you think the NCC would have raised had they heard Bergman’s suggestions? Finally, whose recommendations (if any) have a better chance in becoming law? Be sure to identify AFDC, T ANF and EITC in yom answer.

II. You are teaching a tenth grade class about the problems currently facing children and families in our American democracy.

First, indicate at least 3 specific problems identified in Kozol, Amazing Grace and/or Breslin, The Short Sweet Dream of Eduardo Guttierez (which the students have just read). Use at least 3 quotations as well as statistics to back up your argument and analyze these sources critically.

Then, explain how the issues relate to the struggle for power, voice and the public good in our democracy. In your answer, be sure to define “public good.”

Briefly indicate what action, if any, the students could take to address the crisis facing America’s children.

What objections and questions might the students raise in response to your presentation? Please consider race, ethnicity and economic status of the children you are addressing in your answer.

In this course, we will juxtapose theory and practice. Each student will work with others to take on a project that broadly engages students in public work. The project can be on-campus through some sort of student organization, or it can be an off-campus community-based project. The student must be taking on a leadership role in organizing the project. We will use.your experiences as a backdrop to explore the course material. By juxtaposing experiences with readings, we will learn from experience and from analysis. In this way, the process of community work and critical reflection will become mutually reinforcing and enriching.

Of particular interest to us will be the university. We will examine the university as a social institution and community actor. We will explore the internal dynamics’ of the university as a social institution that shapes our notions of citizenship and service. We will also explore the university as an actor whose patterns of actions can and do shape communities.

Format: This class is a seminar. I will expect you to come to class prepared with reading notes that summarize the major points of the reading, and link the readings to larger course themes. We will juxtapose student led discussion, presentations on projects with a variety of other class formats. We will often be joined by others who will participate in our semester long conversation. We will also use films, outside lectures, and off-campus explorations. Students will drive our time together and the ultimately shape of the course.

Two things to know about me:

• I believe that time is a precious commodity. Please do not walk into class late. Late arriving students disrupt the flow for students who arrived on time. Likewise, unexcused absences will result in your final grade being lowered at my discretion. I will not discuss missed class material from an unexcused absence.
• I expect students to check their e-mail on a daily basis.

Requirements: Every student will be required to complete two critical essays, a public work project (including reflection paper), and a final exam. I will also expect reading notes and other writing assignments: Critical Essay #1 (15%); Critical Essay #2 (25%); Community Project (10%); Class Participation And Reading Notes (20%); and Final Examination (30%).

Texts:

• Harry Boyte. 2004. Everyday Politics: Reconnecting Citizens and Public Life. University of Pennsylvania Press.
• Anne Colby, Thomas Ehrlich, et al. 2003. Educating Citizens: Preparing America’s Undergraduates For Lives of Moral Responsibility and Civic Responsibility. Jossey-Bass.
• Maxine Greene. 1988. Dialectics of Freedom.Teachers College Press.
• Robert Hildreth. 1998. Building Worlds, Transforming Lives, Making History. A Guide To Public Achievement for Colgate University.Center For Democracy and Citizenship, University of Minnesota. To be handed out in class.
• George Liebman. 2004. Neighborhood Futures. Transaction Publishers.
• Jodi O’Brien. 1999. Social Prisms. Pine Forge Press.

Part 1: Framing the Question
Week I: The Themes and Practice of Everyday Politics Boyte, chapter 1-2 and then preface
Week 2: Thinking Sociologically About Key Concepts O’Brien, prologue, and chapter 2-5
Week 3: Paradox. Contradictions, and Community 0′ Brien, chapters 6-8 and then chapter 1
*Critical Essay #1 Due

****After the first part of the course, we will decide as a class how we want to read the other texts and what texts we want to add to our course reading.

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS:

Critical Essay #1:

Thus, far we have been framing this course by broadly trying to grasp the central question of the course: how do we develop citizens of a democracy who have the capacity and interest to engage in the kinds of community work needed to create and maintain healthy communities? We have spent most of our time talking about democracy, public work, healthy communities, and the sociological imagination.

Pulling together the readings and course discussions. write an essay that explains and justifies the public work (the service-learning) project that you are going to do this semester as part of SOAN 380.

Things you should include:

• Use the readings. How have the readings and/or class discussion allowed you to critically reflect on your own life experiences. Your essay should: describe specific ideas from the books that resonated with you, and discuss why these ideas struck you as profound and important (or wrong) given your life experiences. Summarize the core logic of the reading.
• Describe the project: What are you going to do? Make sure that you clearly justify the significance of the project.

Hints to the Wise:

• Be creative. There are lots of ways to frame your thoughts.
• Use the course material. Include quotes and specific references to stories.
• Be precise.
• The intent of the essay is two fold:
  • Demonstrate that you understand the readings and course material.
  • Explain the project you are going to do this year.

Obviously this assignment is asking you to: (1) summarize the course material, and (2) justify/describe your course project. You cannot adequately discuss every facet of the book and/or your life biography as it intersects with community service and social change. This exercise is intended to force you to identify the core points of the book and to figure out a scheme for conceptualizing the ideas presented in class, as they are important to you.

I will be looking for evidence of critical thinking which is shaped by sophisticated and logical lines of reasoning. In other words, be specific and precise. This will allow you to include more ideas in less space.

Critical Essay #2:

The central question of the course: how do we develop citizens of a democracy who have the capacity and interest to engage in the kinds of community work needed to create and maintain healthy communities? We have examined three major topics: healthy communities, democracy, and civic education. We have also introduced a variety of sociological concepts and ways of framing questions.

Pulling from the readings and course discussions, write an essay that examines the following question: “To what extent is Colgate educating citizens to do public work?”
The essay should be 8-10 pages. It should demonstrate a keen understanding of the last two books. It should also connect to themes raised earlier in the term. You will want to be specific. There are lots of ways to organize your thoughts. A few key issues:

• By “to what extent” you want to keep SWOT exercises/questions in mind. Look at the handout from class.
• By “educating citizens” you want to pull heavily from the Colby and Ehrlich work.
• By “public work” you want to pull from Boyte.
• By “to do” we mean capacity and interest.
• It might be helpful to also refer to O’Brien and early class handouts.
  

Hints to the Wise:

• Be creative. There are lots of ways to frame your thoughts,
• Use the course material. Include quotes and specific references to stories.
• Exhibit both logical and sophisticated thinking.
• Make sure that you demonstrate that you understand the readings and course material.

For Wednesday:
Read chapters 4-7 in Colby. Question: take one great classroom experience at Colgate. How did it contribute to your moral and civic development (chapter 4)? What does this tell us about the pedagogical and Institutional strategies raised in chapters 5-6? Address the same question with one “co-curricular” program you have attended.

Final Exam:

• How do we develop citizens of a democracy who have the capacity and interest to engage in the kinds of community work needed to create and maintain healthy communities?
• Craft a response that pulls from the ideas and language (theories and concepts) we have discussed this term in readings and discussions. Also pull from your projects. This is an opportunity to weave together all the work we have done this semester into your own statement about the course question. Feel free to write this to me in a memo as Dean of the College, as opposed to a faculty member.

The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program is an opportunity for a small group of students from Cabrini College and residents of the Montgomery County Correctional Facility to come together as a class to study the American criminal justice system. We will share common readings and discuss our ideas and perceptions about issues of crime and justice, the criminal justice system, corrections and imprisonment. Through dialogue we will bring together our theoretical knowledge and our lived, practical experience to gain a deeper understanding of the criminal justice system.

Objectives

• To create an environment that will facilitate the honest exchange of ideas through dialogue.
• To help students develop their abilities to voice their experiences and understandings about various criminal justice and correctional issues.
• To provide a setting for students to test and hone their theoretical understandings about these issues.
• To develop students? abilities to analyze their own perceptions of and perspectives on these issues.
• To allow students to place their own perceptions and understandings of criminal justice issues into a wider context.
• To assist students in developing their capacities for written self expression.
• To create a connection between those on the outside and those on the inside.

Format of Class Meetings

The group will meet every Monday throughout the semester from 2:30-4:30. Most weeks, the class will meet at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility. The classes will consist of a guided dialogue, in both the large group and small subgroups, on particular topics each week.

On the first, third and final weeks, the inside and outside students will meet separately to allow participants to brief and debrief the process at the beginning and the end of the semester.

Attendance and Participation

Because this class is based on dialogue, it is imperative that each student attend and fully participate in every session. Any absence will change the dynamics of the group, as well as disappoint those are participating in the program.

Active participation is key to the success of the course. As a group, we will be discussing all sorts of issues, some of which will be controversial. We are all ? everyone involved ? challenged to say what we think, even if it is not a popular point of view. This can be difficult and make us feel uncomfortable. However we must take responsibility for the direction and the depth of the discussion. We will all have to work to get comfortable enough to take the risks that are necessary for full participation.

An important part of creating a space where we can feel comfortable speaking our mind is for us to actively and respectfully listen to each other, even when we disagree. Let people speak their mind. You are welcome to respond ? in fact, you are expected to respond ? when you disagree. But do it after the person has finished their thought.

Outside Students: If there are SERIOUS and VERIFIABLE reasons that you cannot attend a class session, you MUST CONTACT US IN ADVANCE. Because of the transportation and check-in process, if we do not know where you are, it will hold up the rest of the group. Similarly, you must be on time. If you are late, you may miss your ride or miss check-in at the gate.

Inside Students: If there are reasons that you cannot attend, please try to arrange for someone in the class to let us know that you will not be there. We cannot count on the administration to let us know why you are not there.

If the school is closed because of the weather, class will not meet.

Papers

After each combined class session, you will write a reflection paper (guidelines will be provided in a separate handout) based on that class. The papers will allow/require you to integrate your experiences with the ideas expressed in the readings. The papers will be due the following week. You may skip up to three papers during the semester or do all for extra credit.

At the end of the semester, everyone will write a final paper (guidelines will be provided in a separate handout) that will reflect on the entire semester. This paper will be due on the final class session.

Required Readings

The following books are required reading for the course. Outside students may purchase these books at the Cabrini College Book Store. Books will be provided to the inside students through the Educational Programming Board at Cabrini College.

Newjack: Guarding Sing-Sing by Ted Conover, Random House: 2000.
Transcending: Reflections of Crime Victims by Howard Zehr, Good Books: 2001. (make sure to get the paperback)
Crime and Punishment in America by Elliot Currie, Henry Holt and Company: 1998.
The Little Book of Restorative Justice of People in Prison by Barb Toews, Good Books: 2006.
Code of the Street by Elijah Anderson, W.W. Norton: 1999.

The schedule for the readings is attached. Readings are to be completed before class on the date that they are listed.

Grading Policy

Given the interactive nature of this course, one third of the grade will be based on attendance and full participation. Participation involves attentive listening as well as actively participating in the conversation, in both large and small groups. One third of the grade will be based on the reflection papers. The final third will be based on the final paper.

Class Schedule

REFLECTION PAPERS
(the following instructions were adapted from the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program)

The papers for this course are a particular kind of reflection paper. A paper will be due after each prison visit (you can skip up to five, if desired, or do more for extra credit) — for a total of FIVE required papers. They are to be typed, double-spaced, at least three pages in length (longer, if desired), and incorporate a minimum of five quotes (with citations) from the week?s readings. The papers will call for you to observe, feel, reflect, analyze, and integrate the information in the readings with the prior week?s discussion. Please submit two copies of each paper, one of which will be returned to you. The format follows, plus tips for how to write a strong paper.

Each paper should include three sections:
Section One: Observation
Section Two: Analysis and IntegrationSection Three: Reactions

Tip: Be sure to note where each section begins.

Section One: Observations

Identify three things that you observed during our combined meetings. These observations can include anything that especially stood out for you, such as certain kinds of interactions between people, interesting issues or common themes that emerged (beyond what we were discussing), insights about the dynamics of the group, etc. Explain what was significant to you about each of the observations.

Tip: Be sure to include, and explain, three observations.

Example:

During our discussion about power, I noticed that most definitions of power were negative. For example, several students said that power is the ability to control other people. We didn?t discuss the positive elements of power until much later in the class.

Section Two: Analysis and Integration

In this section, you are to look at the issues that were discussed in the prior week?s class, reflecting on and analyzing the topics that were addressed. Integrate the readings for the week, including at least five relevant quotes (with citations) from those readings. This is probably the most difficult section to write well. In this section, you are expected to present your own analysis based on the readings and discussion for each class meeting. This section is to be at least two pages long.

Tip 1: Prior to writing this section you should reflect on the issues and themes that were
discussed during the class meeting. What themes, points, or issues did you find interesting? Jot these down.

Tip 2: Since it is difficult to write about several issues well, select one (maybe two) of these issues or themes to write about.

Tip 3: Develop your own analysis of the issue or theme you select. What do YOU think about what you read and discussed during class?

Tip 4: Use quotations from the readings and examples from class di1scussion to support your analysis or to highlight the limitations of your analysis.

Example:

The War on Drugs has contributed to an increase in the number of men and women in prison. During the last decade, tougher drug laws have been introduced in most states. These laws often have a greater impact on men than women. As Dr. Jones states in Her Really Good Book, ?women are likely to receive harsher penalties than men for their involvement in similar offenses? (HRGB p. 3). This trend is likely to continue for the next decade, and its impact will extend beyond the lives of incarcerated women. As Prof. Pompa writes, ?incarceration also punishes the families of men and women on the inside? (PPB p.7). Lawmakers should consider how these laws affect those who are incarcerated and their loved ones.

Tip: Try not to do the following:

Quote #1: ?Women are likely to receive harsher penalties than men for their involvement in similar offenses? (HRGB p.3). This quote shows that women in the criminal justice system are treated differently from men. It seems that women and men are treated differently at PICC (the county jail).

This is not necessarily ?wrong,? but notice whose voice and opinion is emphasized when the quote comes first: not yours. Use this assignment to showcase YOUR analysis. You?ve done the work, read the books, and listened in class. Now give YOUR analysis of all this. Make sure you can back your analysis up with something. Use the quotations and examples to support YOUR analysis or to highlight the limitations of your analysis.

Section Three: Reactions

In this section, you should write about your emotional reaction (how you felt) after class. Try to describe in as much detail as possible how the class made you feel. For example, don?t just say that class made you feel sad. Tell the reader what made you feel sad, how long were you sad, what does sadness feel like, did others notice, when did it stop, etc. It may be difficult for some of us to explore these feelings. Writing can be a useful way to examine feelings that we might otherwise ignore. Remember, you will not be penalized for honesty.

Final Tip: Value the time you spend on each assignment.

RULES OF THE INSTITUTION

Things to Bring In:

• Photo ID. For example, some institutions will want a valid driver?s license, passport, or state ID, while others will require the students? school ID cards. Some institutions will take either one.
• Students may bring in a notebook, textbooks, and a pen for class, provided that doing so has been cleared with the institutional liaison ahead of time.

Things NOT to Bring In:

• Weapons. (Not on prison property, not even in your car, not even with a permit.)
• Illegal drugs. (They?re illegal. By the way, some prisons use ion scanners on outsiders as they enter to determine if they have handled drugs. Some institutions use dogs to determine if there are cars in the parking lot that contain drugs.)
• Medications of any kind. (If you or a student has a need to have some kind of medication on hand, like an inhaler for asthma, you will need to get clearance ahead of time, or it will not be allowed inside.)
• Alcohol.
• Cigarettes or any other tobacco products. (An increasing number of institutions are smoke-free, and cigarettes are considered serious contraband.)
• Maps. (If you do keep maps in your car ? you may need one to get to the prison, for example ? make sure they are locked in the glove compartment or in the trunk.)
• Chewing gum.
• Cell phones, beepers, or car alarm remotes.
• Wallets, pocketbooks, or money.
• Umbrellas.


• Food or drink, which includes hard candy.
• Make-up, lip balm, hand lotion, aspirin, Advil, cough drops, etc.

How to Dress:

• No clothing that resembles the uniforms worn by either staff or those who are imprisoned in the institution. It is best to check out in advance whether blue denim, orange, brown, black, olive green, neon green or khaki may be worn (uniform colors vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction).
• Anything that reveals skin inappropriately (i.e., tummies, legs above knee, cleavage, upper arms, and shoulders). Most institutions do not allow shorts on men or women.
• Given that, in many institutions, it is necessary to climb stairs, we have set the rule that women cannot wear dresses or skirts. It is also helpful, since the length of skirts varies widely. If long skirts are worn, they cannot be wraparounds or garments that button all the way down to the hem.
• Nothing excessively tight or low cut. We instruct students to dress casually, but appropriately, with loose-fitting pants and tops, recognizing that ?loose-fitting? is a relative term.
• No jewelry, including body piercing, such as nose rings, tongue rings, etc. A piercing that does not show (e.g., navel) is usually not problematic. Wedding rings are a frequent exception to the ?no jewelry? rule, as are religious medals, which are not supposed to be banned by institutions.
• No watches, except for the instructor.
• No under-wire bras, when there is a metal detector involved (there usually is).
• No hooded sweatshirts (aka ?hoodies?), white tee-shirts, bandanas, colored shoelaces, caps. Some of these items are considered related to gang activity.
• No coats or other outerwear.
• No open-toed shoes or sandals.

Behavior on the Inside:

• No outside student may bring anything in to give to an inside student, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, including such things as articles, pens, paper, and the like (not to mention books ? institutions have strict policies about the process by which books are brought inside).
• No inside student may give anything to an outside student. A frequent exception to this is hard candy, which is one of the few ?luxuries? inside students have, which they may want to share during the class.
• Inside students may not ask outside students to bring in anything for them ? or to contact anyone for them. There is no mailing of letters or making phone calls on an inside student?s behalf.
• There can be no contact between inside and outside students beyond the classroom, including after the course is over. This restriction includes letters, telephone calls, and visiting. This regulation is fundamental ? and must be understood by everyone involved in the program.
• There can be no displays of physical affection between inside and outside students. Warm handshakes, sometimes with an arm grasp, are acceptable. Hugging is not. This is important to clarify, especially since, as people get to know each other, it feels natural to give each other a warm embrace. Although this is not enforced the same way everywhere, a hug can get you banned from prison. The inside students are aware of this rule and generally observe it, but sometimes ? in the moment ? it might be hard to remember.
• No personal information may be exchanged, such as address, telephone number, prison number, or other contact information.

RULES OF INSIDE OUT

• emember that we are not there to study the inside students, to ?help? the inside students, to find out why the inside students are incarcerated, or for either the inside group of students or the outside group of students to ?teach? the other group. We are simply there to explore issues together.
• Students must behave appropriately during class, remembering that it is a college class and that it is being held inside a prison. Not only is there no hugging or other physical contact with or between the inside and outside students, but there can also be no flirtation, inappropriate body language, etc.
• There is no loaning of pens or pencils, no bringing anything in for someone on the inside, even something as trivial as a newspaper article. Everything of this nature must be handled by the instructor.
• There must to be no passing of notes between any students.
• Notebooks can be labeled with first names only and no other identifying information, and papers submitted are to be marked with first names only.
• Confidentiality: what is shared in the classroom stays there. Not only can it not be shared with anyone outside of class in a way that could identify the speaker, but it must not be a topic of further discussion among students who are enrolled in the class.

Semi-Anonymity:

What Inside-Out means by semi-anonymity is the use of first names only and no last names allowed in the prison classroom (except for the instructor). Students may find this policy dehumanizing and ironic in light of Inside-Out?s emphasis on humanizing issues and including all voices. However, it is essential that this policy be followed. The basic reasons for the policy are as follows:

• It makes it much harder for students to try to keep in touch with one another during or after the semester, which is a serious violation of the rules of the program and, probably, of most prisons.
• It protects the inside students. Though we make it clear from the beginning that it is neither required nor advisable, inside students often do talk about their cases. Doing so can cause legal problems for them, particularly if they have an open case of any kind. Using first names only removes the threat that other students will be subpoenaed to testify in a classmate?s case. And it preserves inside students? privacy so that their past or present legal situations cannot be researched by outside students who may be curious about why they?re in prison.
• It protects the outside students. It is in the realm of possibility that an inside student or someone they know could present problems in the life of one of the outside students. This is not to cast aspersions on inside students; the point is, it only takes one instance for someone to be seriously harmed or for the program to be shut down. Statistically, the more people who participate in Inside-Out, the more likely it is that someone with problematic inclinations will be in a class. Since we have no way of knowing who that will be, the rule protects everyone, all the time.
• Some students, inside and out, are uncomfortable sharing their last names. A policy prohibiting all students from sharing last names makes the decision of whether or not to share this information a lot less difficult for individuals.
• It teaches the lesson that it is not necessary to know things about people in order to come to know them in a different way and learn with and from them.

Note: Portions of this syllabus have been adapted from the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program Curriculum and Training Guide, Lori Pompa and Melissa Crabbe, co-authors.

Class Location:   Bldg. 66, Room 247

Instructor:   Jose Calderon,     E-mail:   jzcalderon {at} csupomona(.)edu

Office Hours:   2-4 on MW and 1-3 on Tuesday's in   Bldg. 5, Room 119

Description of Course

This course examines how multi-racial communities have become mosaics of competing land interests and demographic transformations.   This will be achieved through the reading of various articles that combine community and multicultural issues with issues of global, local, and regional development and restructuring; through the study of examples of building community (particularly in Los Angeles county); through class discussions; and through participatory community service and action research.   This course will provide students with the opportunity to apply social research to a specific community service site. We will apply the concepts and theories being learned in the classroom to specific sites in the region.  

Readings:

John Horton With Jose Calderon, Mary Pardo, Leland Saito, Linda Shaw, and Yen Fen Tseng The Politics of Diversity

Gilda Ochoa, Becoming Neighbors

Community and Culture Reader (Available at Ask Copy and Printing, 3530 Temple Ave. #D in Pomona )

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

This class will be run in a seminar format.   Assigned readings will be used as a basis for class discussion and dialogue.   Class attendance and participation are expected.   In cases of borderline grades, class participation and attendance will be taken into consideration.   Assignments need to be turned in on time.   Unless there is a crisis emergency, please do not ask for an extension or an incomplete.   I will dock points for papers that are turned in late.   If all the requirements have not been completed by the end of the semester, a final grade will be given based on the work completed.   Papers should be typed, double-spaced, numbered, proofread, and include references.  

Students, in this course, are required to be involved in a neighborhood, city, or specific community site (preferably work that involves service to the community).   The final paper will allow the student to write about what has been learned in the site.   It is also meant to connect what has been learned in the field to the readings and to other literature.  

Materials: Purchase a three ring binder to hold your typed field notes.   You may take down jottings at your site, but these should be used to produce final field notes that are placed in your binder.   At mid-term and the end of the semester, you will turn in your typed filed notes.

Grades Will Be Allocated as Follows:

Participation                                                    20%

Cultural group Presentation on Readings        20%

Field Note Journal                                            30%

Final Paper and presentation                           30%

1.)     Participation   – Weekly attendance in the class and at least two hours per week of field work at a community service or research site are required for the course.   20% of your final grade will be based on your field work at the site, class attendance, completion of the readings for each class, and your participation in weekly discussions.

2. )     Learning Through Creativity, the use of Cultural Mediums,   and Critical Analysis

During the semester, each student will work with a group and facilitate a class presentation and discussion on a section of the assigned readings.    The presentation segment should use a creative medium or combinations of mediums (i. e. video, theater, art, music, collage, dance, rap, poetry, etc.).    The presentation should include : 1.   the primary connecting arguments or themes in the readings   2.   the literature or data used to sustain the arguments (and particularly any problems or holes in the data)   3.   your evaluation of the author's arguments   4.   the meaning or usefulness that the material has for your lived experience or for the particular site that you are involved in   Remember, the class presentation will be carried out collectively in a group.   Data from your particular site will be welcomed for this presentation.

In your presentation, Do not merely summarize the argument of the author/s but develop your own thinking and criticality about what the author/s are saying. (20%).    

4.)   Fieldnote Journal and Site Visit Analyses

URBAN SEMESTER PROGRAM
Multicultural Issues in Urban Affairs

HE470
Seminars are normally embedded in the site visits.
3 credits

This course uses New York City as a classroom. The landscape, built environment, and people in it are our texts. A great teacher, Paolo Freire, once said that we need to learn how to "read the word and the world." This is what we will do in this course with an emphasis on reading the world.

Two parts direct our attention. The first part focuses us on the formation and development of this multicultural city. We will traverse lower Manhattan and imagine New Amsterdam and then New York City as Europeans came to settle and dominate the landscape and the people. The second part focuses on the contemporary meanings that this multicultural physical and socio cultural environment produces, interpreted through the prisms of social and cultural stratification, division of labor, and historical context.

In the first part of the course we will be led by the Big Onion Tour through the social history of lower Manhattan. In the second part of the course we will visit a number of neighborhoods to speak with local leaders. At this time we learn about multicultural issues in context, in-practice, and in use, how multicultural issues are experienced by people and how they make sense of it.

The questions we address are the following:

• How did New York City become multicultural? How has the nature of multicultural life changed?
• What are the conditions, forces, and processes that generate multicultural issues in any specific point in history, particularly the present?
• How do people experience the multicultural and how do they live it in different parts of New York City?
• What is the impact of multicultural issues in a variety of localities and on the people who live and work there?
• How do multicultural issues influence policy and how does policy impact on the lived experiences of people who deal with multicultural issues?

Readings support site visits. I have selected readings to illuminate conditions and processes in a more general sense to assist you to think about the course trajectory as a whole. This means that many of the readings should be used to clarify site visits through out the semester, not only the site visit for which the reading is assigned. These readings should be understood in relationship to more generalizable phenomena then the specificities to which they refer. The readings complement the course's framework and provide texts for critical study and the interrogation of the assumed, "obvious" or "natural." You should question the reading materials and not assume they present truths or reality.

Service Syllabus

This is a community service learning course through which the Urban Semester Program, a number of schools, and select service organizations, mostly in North Brooklyn, are developing a University Community relationship.

Included in the notion of "service," as an aspect of service learning, is your responsibility to understand the school, the teachers and staff, the children, and the communities they represent from a "cultural relativist" point of view. This is the view that holds the following: values are a produced as a result of historical processes. This means that we should not assume that the values of our own society, socio economic group, ethnic group, status group, political group, religious group, and etc. are more legitimate, superior, or universal than the values of other groups and societies. It is your obligation, your responsibility, to learn how to view situations from another's point of view, as if you were in their shoes, from their perspective by understanding the conditions that contribute to the formation of that point of view.

We must be careful in using "cultural relativism." Cultural relativism can be abused by immobilizing a response to horrible atrocities. For example, we can understand why Nazis wanted to eliminate those people and groups who were not included in the "master race" of the Third Reich. The murder of millions of people, Jews, resistors of Nazism, gays, and political opponents, among others, can be explained relative to the ideology espoused by the Nazi Party. However, most of us would agree that the culture and society that Nazism produced is abhorrent to all of us who believe in the existence of fundamental human rights that apply to all people of the world.

Cultural relativism, as I prescribe it for this course, is used only as a tool to understand the "other" from their point of view. It is not and should not be used to support anti human rights behavior. Once having used cultural relativism to understand other societies and their cultures, we then may make judgments about their points of view from the perspective of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In this course we will support the idea that there are universal standards of behavior, particularly as they concern the behavior of states (countries) toward their people and those of other countries. Moreover, we have a right and obligation to make judgments about their behavior as well as ours. They, of course, have a right to do the same.

Students participate full days in school settings and in community service projects. We focus our attention on building a civil society in which "democracy" is defined as people actively engaged and participating to change society, to improve life chances, to make society more just, and to protect human rights.

Students are in the school for a total of 10 12 weeks, working in an assigned classroom (or organization) with a teacher (or supervisor) from 8:00 AM 3:30 PM (or, under other circumstances and time constraints). Students will also perform service in the afternoon, as assigned. This course enables students to demonstrate their leadership, self direction, and creativity.

In this course, we want students to develop an understanding of those parts of North Brooklyn in which they are involved in school and community settings. We will focus particular attention on Williamsburg. By spending more time in a particular neighborhood or community, students will gain access to a daily round that is not possible by visiting different places at different times. As a community service learning course, we want students to learn from their experiences in context. We want you to use your knowledge, acquired over the course of your schooling and socialization at home, to understand your experiences. Over the course of the semester, we want you to surface your assumptions about your experiences and discuss alternative understandings about children, youth and their families in low income neighborhoods, inter group relations, and urban change. Readings and discussions will complement your experiences and reflections.

In many ways, this is not a course about teaching you. It is about stretching you, taking you to areas that you may not have explored before, and taking you to different levels of understanding, pushing you outside of your comfort zone. We want you to be better prepared to challenge conventional views and dominant cultural representations. In learning how to ask pertinent questions in this context, you should be able to transfer this skill and ask pertinent questions in other contexts. Think about yourself and multicultural issues outside the conventions with which you have been raised.

The readings we have provided are tools for you to think about issues you are confronting in these communities or that are relevant to discussions regarding communities that are similar to those of North Brooklyn. Some reading assignments mean to inform, others mean to challenge. You are not to assume that we wish you to agree with any of these readings; rather, we want you to challenge the ideas and explore meaning based on the experiences you are having.

I stymied the temptation to assign even more readings to give you the background necessary to understand different ethnic groups. I resisted this. This means that when you are reading examples from one particular group, it will be necessary for
you to think about other groups to which the specific issues you are reading about in an article can be generalized, could be applied in other areas and other contexts. For example, much attention has been paid to bilingualism among Spanish speakers in the United States. However, this controversy has implications across all the immigrant populations who have come to the United States with their particular languages. This controversy equally can be applied to the Ebonics discussion as well, with one twist. While Spanish is considered a "bona fide" language, Ebonics (Spanglish, too) is often considered "jargon". Cross cultural comparison, comparing the characteristics of one culture with others, is an important methodology and especially important in multicultural studies. By applying what we learn from contact with one group to other groups, much can be learned about cultural and social diversity and the conditions, processes and forces that have generated difference or similarity.

One important thematic we are introducing into this course is to explore the integration of what is happening in the United States with the movement for Human Rights. We will touch on this only at the start of the semester. However, once we have focused on it, the intention is for students to keep human rights issues in mind as they proceed through the semester. The other important thematic is what we need to do in the communities represented in North Brooklyn to provide children the opportunity to enter that educational stream and provide them with those resources that would bring them to Cornell University.

Our assumption is that you will attend your school or community assignment each week and that you will fulfill all assigned tasks. Failure to do these will result in a lowered grade for each event or task not completed. Make sure that you understand what is expected of you well before the due date and not the day an assignment is due or an activity takes place. We assume that all students will attend all program events and will participate in discussions at appropriate times in an appropriate manner. This means that you will arrive on time and depart when appropriate. Please note that, given the nature of this program, changes will take place rapidly. Be prepared to be flexible and allow yourself enough time to do so. Schedule changes are ubiquitous. Please stay tuned to changes by checking your email and coming into the office. Patricia is the keeper of information. We also try to post information on the door.

Participating Institutions

BEGINNING WITH CHILDREN
11 BARTLETT ST.
(Bet. Harrison & Union Aves.)
BROOKLYN, NY 11206
718 388 8847
718 388 8936 fax
Sonia Ortiz Gulardo Principal
Take the #6 train to 14th St., take the "L" train to Lorimer St. (get on the back of the train), take the 11G train going to Brooklyn to Flushing Ave. Look up Flushing Ave. for Amoco station school is right there.

COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP CHARTER SCHOOL
171 CLERMONT AVENUE
(Bet. Willoughby & Myrtle Aves.)
BROOKLYN, NY 11205
718 330 0480
718 330 0295 fax
Michael Lupinacci Acting Principal
Take the #6 train to 14th St., take the "L" train to Lorimer St. (get on the back of the train), take the "G" train going to Brooklyn to Clinton Washington Ave. When you get upstairs, exit the Clinton Washington exit. Take Lafayette Ave. (walk against
traffic) to Clermont Ave. Turn right onto Clermont Ave. between Willoughby and Myrtle Aves. Look for the handicap ramp at the front door.

NORTHSIDE CATHOLIC ACADEMY
10 WITHERS STREET
(Bet. N.8" St. & Union Ave.)
BROOKLYN, NY 11211
718 782 1110
718 782 3344
Sister Helen Principal
Take the #6 train to 14th St., take the "L" train to Lorimer St. (get on the back of the train), when you come out of the station you'll be on Union and Metropolitan Aves. walk north to Withers St.

NUESTROS NIÑOS
384 SOUTH 4 1h ST.
(Bet. Hewes & Hooper Sts.)
BROOKLYN, NY 11211
718 963 1555
718 963 0240 fax
Miriam Cruz
Take #6 train downtown to Chambers St., take the back of the J or M trains to Hewes St. Exit to the right to the street. Walk on Hewes St. 2 blocks to South 4th Street, school is on the right side.

THE HETRICK MARTIN INSTITUTE
2 ASTOR PLACE * BROADWAY
New York, NY 10003
212 674 2400
212 674 8650 fax
Debra Smock ext. 257
Take #6 train downtown to Astor Place. Entrance is next to a barber shop. Take the elevator to the 2nd floor.

Southside Mission
More information forthcoming

Journals (every Thursday) minimum one page 10%

Reading annotations

Due: Monday mornings Mid term on Human Rights (5 pages) 30%

Due date: February 27, Thursday @ 5:00 PM Term Paper (no more than 10 pages) 30%

Due date: May 2, Friday @ 5:00 PM 30%

Your Midterm paper is based on your understanding and use of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The question is: What Human Rights of Children, as they are stated in the UN documents, are not being met, based on the observations and experiences you have had in North Brooklyn.

Your Term Paper is based on the following question: What would it take to provide "your kids," those with whom you are involved in your school settings, the opportunities and resources to make it to Cornell University. You should respond in a grounded, realistic manner. This means that you will need to know quite a bit about the lives of your kids, the neighborhoods in which they live, and the communities and families of which they are a part. We want you to structure your essays in the following manner.

I. What did you find out about "your kids." Here you must use the statistical information we handed out at the beginning of the semester and data you have collected that up dates this information( use the Web). You must include information based on the experiences you have had in the schools and in the community.

II. What do you think needs to be changed, or what changes do you think need to take place to create the opportunity for children to make it to Cornell University. Be realistic and not so abstract that it becomes wishful thinking, rather than something that actually can be achieved.

III. How do you implement these changes? What would you have to do to make your suggested changes real? Be very concrete. Do not be overly abstract and general. Mention specific programs, curricular changes, mentoring, and any other changes and additions that you can think of to improve the quality of education for these children (not only schooling).