Culture & Expression, Basic Information Spring 2019 Faculty, Social Science – HUHC 012 (BH): Margaret Abraham (Sociology), Brenda Elsey (History), Massoud Fazeli (Economics), Stefanie Nanes (Political Science), S.M. Rodriguez (Sociology), Mario Ruiz (History) Faculty, Humanities – HUHC014 (LT): Chandler Carter (Music), Alfonso Garcia-Osuna (Romance Languages & Literature), Jennifer Henton (English), Elyor Karimov (Art History), Lauren Kozol (HUHC/Writing Studies and Rhetoric), John Maerhofer (Writing Studies and Rhetoric), Vimala Pasupathi (HUHC/English) Course Description New Approach to C & E, Spring 2019: In an effort to be more inclusive this Spring in C&E, Honors College consciously sought out faculty with specialties in the Global South. This ambiguous term - “Global South” and the regions or people it refers to - will be discussed and debated this semester. Loosely speaking, we are using it to explore what has also been termed the “Developing World” according to specific economic, cultural and geographic markers. This includes areas in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Middle East, as well as marginalized communities in the U.S. and Europe. Our focus on these regions has led us directly to our theme for the Spring 2019 semester - The Margins. The Theme: What exactly do we mean by “the margins”? Margins define the borders of physical space and frame the content of writing on the page. Politically, they are sites of oppression and transgression, limitation and transformation. During the course, we will examine the relationship between people in power and those who remain outside of it or who operate on its edges. We begin with an introductory unit to explore theoretical approaches from both Social Science and Humanities perspectives. Our first unit, “Migration and Spaces,” will include an historical look at how imperial powers construct “in-groups” and “out-groups,” and how migrants respond, creating new political and artistic modes of expression. Our next unit will center around “Labor and Mobilization,” with works from sixteenth-century Spain to the contemporary Middle East as well as current issues from the gig economy to multinationals to issues of cyber-migration. Our third unit, “Violence and Resistance,” explores the road to and away from Socialism in Eastern Europe and Latin America, as well as empire, civil rights and identity. In our final unit, “Creativity and Transformation,” we will discuss works that transcend national and personal tragedies from Haiti to Iran to an imagined, transglobal interior space - “the sea of stories.” In addition to books and the practice of reading, our course will focus on artists working in various media who have been marginalized: that is, ignored, suppressed or otherwise disempowered. In a multi-faceted, interdisciplinary fashion, we will explore how the margins of text, self, community and world both restrict and liberate.
C&E SP19 - 2
The Strategy: C&E consists of two related courses in both fall and spring semesters. HUHC 011 and 012: Social Sciences have their emphasis on understanding the structures and values of a culture or civilization through the disciplines of History, Sociology, Religion, Anthropology, Psychology, Philosophy, Economics and Geography. HUHC 013 and 014: Humanities have their emphasis on artistic expressions of the cultures under examination through the disciplines of literary analysis (e.g. English, Classics, Romance and Comparative Literatures), Linguistics, Music, Drama, Dance, and Fine Arts. Faculty on both teams work to develop a reading list and lecture schedule that work in tandem to reinforce the students’ insight into and understanding a period that includes antiquity and “the middle ages” in the fall semester, and then in the spring, a period that extends from roughly 1500 and after. Two weekly faculty lectures set the context for student-based discussion sections that amplify or elaborate, challenge or critique the assigned texts and contexts, and/or the interpretation set forth in the lecture. Spring 2019 C&E Book Order Please purchase the following books using the ISBN numbers: 1. ISBN-13: 978:1-250-09789-7 Gigged, Sarah Kessler (St. Martin’s Press, 2018) 2. ISBN--13: 978-0786421343 The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes., Ed./Translator A. Garcia Osuna (McFarland & Company, 2005) 3. ISBN- 13: 978-1556520747 Assata: An Autobiography, Assata Shakur, with forward by Angela Davis (Lawrence Hill Books, 2001). (Original Publication 1987) 4. ISBN-13: 978-1400034291 The Dew Breaker, Edwidge Danticat, (Vintage, 2005) 5. ISBN-13: 978-0375714832 The Complete Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi, (Pantheon, 2007) (Original Publication 2000) 6. ISBN – 13: 9780140157 Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Salman Rushdie, (Penguin 2008) (Original Publication 1990) All other assigned reading and viewing will be made available via Blackboard.
C&E SP19 - 3
Schedule of Assigned Readings and Lectures Tuesday, January 29 Lecture: Brenda Elsey (History) and Margaret Abraham (Sociology), Introduction to “the Margins” in the Social Sciences Assigned reading: Kimberle Crenshaw “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color” (PDF on Blackboard) Thursday, January 31 Lecture: Vimala Pasupathi (HUHC/English), Introduction to “the Margins” in the Humanities Assigned reading: Excerpts from bell hooks, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (1984) and “Choosing the Margin as a Space of Radical Openness,” Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media 36 (1989); “Rimes” by S.T. Coleridge & Tiana Clark (PDFs on Blackboard) UNIT I: MIGRATION AND SPACES
Tuesday, February 5 Lecture: Brenda Elsey (History) and Margaret Abraham (Sociology), Migration Assigned reading: Excerpts from Domestic Violence at the Margins: Readings on Race, Class, Gender, and Culture; Violence at the Urban Margins; "Immigrant Status and Marital Violence" in Speaking the Unspeakable: Marital Violence among South Asian Immigrants in the United States by Margaret Abraham; Sara L. Mckinnon, “Transnational Publicity, Gender-Based violence, and Central American Women’s Asylum Cases” in Gendered Asylum: Race and Violence in U.S. Law and Politics. (PDFs on Blackboard) Thursday, February 7 Lecture: Lauren Kozol (HUHC/WSR), Urban women writers at the Margins (US, 20th century) Assigned reading: See Blackboard (PDF on Blackboard) Thursday, February 12 Lecture: Panel on Migration Assigned reading: TBA Thursday, February 14 Lecture: Chandler Carter (Music), Bebop (US, 20th Century) Assigned reading: Excerpts from Jazz: A History of America’s Music by Geoffrey Ward and Listening to Jazz, by Benjamin Bierman; plus assigned listening (PDFs and links on Blackboard) Tuesday, February 19 - NO CLASSES
C&E SP19 - 4
UNIT II: II LABOR AND MOBILIZATION Thursday, February 21 Lecture: Massoud Fazeli, Gigged (2018) Assigned reading: Sarah Kessler, Gigged (please purchase) Tuesday, February 26 Lecture: Dr. Alfonso Garcia-Osuna (Romance Lang & Lit), Lazarillo de Tormes (1554) Assigned reading: Lazarillo de Tormes (please purchase); recommended: David M. Gitlitz, “Inquisition confessions: ‘Lazarillo de Tormes’ Hispanic Review 68 (2000): 53-74 (PDF) Thursday, February 28 Lecture: Stefanie Nanes (Political Science), Labor Unions in the Middle East Assigned reading: “Organized Interests in Constitutional Assemblies: Egypt and Tunisia in Comparison,” by Ian M. Hartschorn. Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 70, No. 2 (June 2017), pp. 408-420; Short background readings on Arab Spring in Tunisia and Egypt from The Government and Politics of the Middle East, 8th Edition, eds. Mark Gasiorowski and Sean L. Yom, Routledge Press, New York, 2016. (Link and PDFs on Blackboard) Tuesday, March 5 Lecture: John Maerhofer (WSR/English), Foxconn Assigned reading: “The poetry and brief life of a Foxconn worker: Xu Lizhi (1990-2014)” and “China: The Generation of Unhappy Workers, 2007” (Links on Blackboard); Ngai Pun, Jenny Chan and Mark Selden “Suicide or Murder? Apple, Foxconn, and China’s Workers,” Sociology and Social Justice (PDF on Blackboard) Thursday, March 7 Lecture: Margaret Abraham (Sociology), CyberMigrants Assigned reading: “Globalization, Work and Citizenship: The Call Center Industry in India” by Margaret Abraham in Contours of Citizenship: Women, Diversity and the Practices of Citizenship; UNIT III: VIOLENCE AND RESISTANCE Tuesday, March 12 Lecture: Brenda Elsey (History), A Democratic Road to Socialism: Chile 1970 Assigned reading: The Other 9/11 special issue of the Radical History Review (PDF on Blackboard) Thursday, March 14 Lecture: Elyor Karimov (Art History), The Road From Socialism: 1980s & 90s Assigned reading: (TBA – See Blackboard)
C&E SP19 - 5
MARCH 17-23 – Spring Recess Tuesday, March 26 Lecture: S.M. Rodriguez (Sociology), Empire & Identity Assigned reading: Rodriguez, “Homophobic Nationalism” in Comparative Sociology (2016) (PDF on Blackboard) Thursday, March 28 Lecture: Chandler Carter (Music), Fannie Lou Hamer & the Black Freedom Movement (1962-64) Assigned reading: Excerpts from For Freedom’s Sake by Chana Kai Lee and A Voice that Could Stir an Army: Fannie Lou Hamer and the Rhetoric of the Black Freedom Movement by Maegan Parker Brooks; plus listening (PDF and links on Blackboard) Tuesday, April 2 Lecture: Massoud Fazeli (Economics), Identity and Violence Assigned Reading: Excerpt, Amartya Sen: Identity and Violence (2006) (PDF on Blackboard) Thursday, April 4 Lecture: Jennifer Henton (English), Django Unchained (2012) Assigned viewing: Django Unchained (2012) Tuesday, April 9 Lecture: John Maerhofer (WSR/English), Assata: An Autobiography Assigned reading: Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography (1987) (Please purchase) Thursday, April 11 Lecture: Panel, Politicization in Prison: After Assata Tuesday, April 16 Lecture: S.M. Rodriguez (Sociology), Assata: An Autobiography Assigned reading: Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography (1987) Thursday, April 18 Lecture: Jennifer Henton (English), The Dew Breaker Assigned reading: Edwidge Danticat, The Dew Breaker (2004) (Please purchase) Tuesday, April 23 Lecture: Stefanie Nanes (Political Science), Persepolis Assigned reading: Marjane Satrapi, Complete Persepolis, pp. 1-153 (Please purchase)
C&E SP19 - 6
Tuesday, April 25 Lecture: Mario Ruiz (History), Persepolis Assigned reading: Marjane Satrapi, Complete Persepolis, pp. 155-341 Tuesday, April 30 Lecture: Elyor Karimov (Art/History), Haroun and the Sea of Stories Assigned reading: Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1991) (please purchase) Thursday, May 2 Lecture: Lauren Kozol (HUHC/WSR), Haroun and the Sea of Stories Assigned reading: Salman Rushdie, Haroun and the Sea of Stories (1991) Tuesday, May 7 Lecture: Faculty Panel READING/SNOW DAYS: MAY 9/10 EXAMS: HUM Exam T 5/14 - 1:30-3:30PM SOC SCI Exam R 5/16 - 10:30-12:30PM