Culture and Expression, Spring 2020 WHAT THE HECK IS HAPPENING WITH DEMOCRACY? Faculty:
Humanities – Kozol, Krapp, Lotier, Pell, Robinson Pasupathi Social Sciences: Bogard, Cox, DeFreitas, Fazeli, Frisina, Perotti
As the United States heads into its quadrennial presidential election cycle, the future of democracy here as well as abroad seems cloudy at best. Press freedoms are challenged, election results are questioned, and most surprisingly, politicians are winning elections on platforms that aim to consolidate power in the hands of an executive rather than distributing it broadly across a system sustained by checks and balances. In this semester our goal will be to better prepare ourselves (faculty and students) for the challenges associated with the 2020 election cycle. We aim to think about what we mean by democracy. Toward that end, our first unit looks directly at democracy’s roots in Enlightenment ideas and its crystallization in the “American experiment.” We’ll also spend time reflecting on whether the U.S. experiment in a limited form of democracy can be sustained in the 21st century. In unit two, we will turn to a discussion of capitalism and its relationship to democratic practices. For example, we’ll reflect on the extent to which democracy and capitalism require one another. A lot? A little? Not at all? We’ll think together about capitalism’s role in generating innovation, but also in the creation of income and wealth inequality, and the impact such disparities are having on individuals and on democratic practices within the U.S as well as internationally. Our third unit will focus on the role that migration and displacement are playing in political discussions and crises domestically and globally. People are fleeing the only homes they’ve ever known because they feel they have no choice––acts that have a long history and pre-date the founding of the United States. Wars, famine, drought, economic collapse, and other factors abroad disrupt existing social structures in our own often-invoked “Nation of Immigrants.” These seem to be playing directly into the political and economic crises we are witnessing now. In unit four we examine the sources and consequences of the politicization of the natural sciences. By looking closely at discussions involving healthcare and climate change, we hope to come to a better understanding of how and why those issues have gone from being technical problems requiring attention by experts to weapons deployed by ideologues in the U.S. culture wars? Finally, we will end the semester with our fifth unit that looks past the ballot box toward other sources of power in popular and grassroots movements and organizations. Our goal here will be to end our semester by thinking together about the responsibilities of citizenship but also about the pathways open to each of us to play our role in the democratic process. In true C&E fashion we will be approaching each of these topics through the lenses of the different disciplines represented among our faculty. We’ll read works by theorists and empirical researchers in sociology, psychology, political science, economics and philosophy. Simultaneously, we’ll turn to artistic works in literature, music, painting, opera, film and more, to provide direct access to what it feels like to be living in and through this “crisis moment.”
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REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS Please purchase the specific editions listed below; they are required. If you are not buying them at the Hofstra bookstore, search by ISBN to ensure you have the correct text. Please see the FAQ on Blackboard if you have questions about our book choices and why you need to buy them. 1. The Magic Flute, by Mozart (English National Opera Oneworld Classics Ltd 2011) ISBN: 978-0-7145-4407-6 2. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglas. Ed. George Stade, (Barnes & Noble Classics, 2005) ISBN: 9781593080419 3. Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine (Greywolf Press, 2014) ISBN:9781555976903 4. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (Penguin Publishing Group, 2006) ISBN: 9780143039587 5. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Trans. Stanley Corngold (Bantam Classics, 1972) ISBN: 9780553213690 6. Escape from Freedom by Erich Fromm (Henry Holt and Company, LLC) ISBN-13: 978-0805031492 Other required reading will be listed and available for downloading on the C&E-wide Blackboard site, under Course Documents.
Schedule of Lectures & Readings UNIT I: Democracy in the Modern Period Tuesday, January 28 Lecture: Vimala Pasupathi on Milton’s Paradise Lost, Book I (1667) Assigned reading: PDF on C&E Blackboard site; please also complete the worksheet posted there as well Thursday, January 30 Lecture: Cynthia Bogard on the Enlightenment to the American Revolution Assigned reading: PDFs on Blackboard; please also read all section Syllabus and Policies carefully. Friday, January 31 at 7pm OR Sunday, February 2 at 3pm Hofstra Opera Theater Performance of The Magic Flute. Your attendance at one of these two performances is required. Those unable to attend on these dates should watch the video which will be provided. Tuesday, February 4
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Lecture: Lauren Kozol on Mozart’s The Magic Flute (1786) Assigned reading: The Magic Flute Thursday, February 6 Lecture: Rosanna Perotti on the Constitution and Federalist Papers (1787-) Assigned reading: PDFs in Blackboard Tuesday, February 11 Lecture: John Krapp on Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass (1845) Assigned reading: Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass Thursday, February 13 Lecture: Warren Frisina on Pierce’s “The Fixation of Belief” (1877) Assigned reading: PDF on Blackboard Tuesday, February 18 - NO CLASSES Thursday, February 20 Lecture: Kristopher Lotier on Rankine’s Citizen (2014) Assigned reading: Citizen Tuesday, February 25 Lecture: Brian Cox on Fromm’s Escape from Freedom (1941) Assigned reading: PDF on Blackboard UNIT II: Capitalism & Democracy Thursday, February 27 Lecture: John Krapp on Kafka’s Metamorphosis (1915) Assigned reading: Metamorphosis Tuesday, March 3 Lecture: Massoud Fazeli on Kuttner’s Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? (2018) Assigned reading: Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? Thursday, March 5 Lecture: Gregory Pell on Focaccia Blues (2009) Assigned viewing: Focaccia Blues, link to stream on Blackboard Tuesday, March 10 Lecture: Lauren Kozol on Sinclair’s The Jungle (1905-6) Assigned reading: The Jungle, Chapters 2 -10, 30-31 (pp. 22 -122 and 356 - 388) Thursday, March 12 Lecture: Greg DeFreitas on Sinclair’s The Jungle (1905-6) Assigned reading: The Jungle, Chapters 2 -10, 30-31 (pp. 22 -122 and 356 - 388)
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MARCH 15 -21
NO CLASSES
Spring Recess
UNIT III: MIGRATION & DISPLACEMENT Tuesday, March 24 Performance of (UN)DOCUMENTS, by Jesús Valles, & discussion moderated by Tomeka Robinson All sections will stay in Monroe until 2:10. Thursday, March 26 Lecture: Greg DeFreitas on Guskin & Wilson, The Politics of Immigration (2nd ed., 2017) Assigned reading: The Politics of Immigration (2nd ed): chs. 1, 2, 6 & 7. (Links on Blackboard) Tuesday, March 31 Lecture: Kristopher Lotier on Cuarón’s Children of Men (2006, adapted from P.D. James’s 1992 novel) Assigned Viewing: Children of Men Thursday, April 2 Lecture: Rosanna Perotti on Guskin & Wilson, The Politics of Immigration Assigned reading: The Politics of Immigration: chs. 9, 10 & 11. (Links on Blackboard) Tuesday, April 7 Lecture: Vimala Pasupathi on transatlantic migration literature (900-2019) Assigned reading: PDF on Blackboard Thursday, April 9 Lecture: Brian Cox on Children and Resilience Assigned reading: PDFs on Blackboard
UNIT IV: POLITICS & SCIENCE Tuesday, April 14 Lecture: Tomeka Robinson on the Politics of Health Care Assigned reading: PDFs on Blackboard Thursday, April 16 Lecture: Massoud Fazeli on Wallace-Wells’s Uninhabitable Earth (2017) Assigned reading: PDFs on Blackboard Tuesday, April 21 Lecture: Gregory Pell on Gommora (2008) Assigned viewing: Gommora, link to stream on Blackboard
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Thursday, April 23 Lecture: Matthew Goldberg on Climate Change Communication Assigned reading: PDFs on Blackboard Tuesday, April 28 Lecture: Cynthia Bogard on Social Capital and Social Change Assigned reading: PDFs on Blackboard Thursday, April 30 Lecture: Tomeka Robinson on The Black Lives Matter Movement Assigned viewing/reading: Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement documentary (2016) and PDF, both on Blackboard Tuesday, May 5 Lecture: Warren Frisina on Stout’s Blessed Are the Organized: Grassroots Democracy in America (2010) Assigned reading: PDF on Blackboard Thursday, May 7 Snow/Study Day Tuesday, May 12 Humanities Section Final Exam, Monroe Lecture Hall, 1:30-3:30. Thursday, May 14 Social Science Section Final Exam, Monroe Lecture Hall, 10:30-12:30