REQUIRED
TEXTS:
Ibsen
A Doll House
ISBN:0-451-52406-3
Hurston Their Eyes Are Watching God
ISBN:0-06-091650-8
Nawal El Saadawi Woman at Point Zero
ISBN:978-1-84277-873-9
Other readings as
assigned.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: In Ibsen’s
novel, A Doll House, when Nora is told that above all else,
she is a wife and mother, Nora replies:
“That I no longer
believe. I believe before all else I am a human being.”
What is our human nature? How do we separate into two forms? What does it
mean to be a woman or a man in our culture and world? What variations are there?
What is the nature, construction, and role of parenting, that is mothering and
fathering? Do we need marriage? What if women don’t
want children? Who should work and where? Can we distribute economic worth with
equity? How do we raise our children? Are men really more aggressive and women
more moral? Who should control our bodies? Who controls conversations? Is
silence passive or active? What have we learned historically? Who has shaped our
thinking? Are we our own ideas or does the media
“play”
with our psyches? How would we behave and think differently in another culture?
How is our thinking and behavior different in this culture if we come from a
race or class different from our own?
Can we answer all these questions? No! We can, however,
begin the journey and this class is a beginning. It is a survey course designed
to wet your appetite, to encourage you to quest further, to provide you with a
foundation for further learning, and to give you some tools for critically
viewing yourself, your gender, and the cultural constructions of race, class and
gender beliefs and behaviors. We will read broadly to expose you to historical,
cultural, fictional, and non-fictional works; to open little port holes in a
variety of directions that will hopefully tug at you for further inquiry.
The purpose of the course is the quest.: an
interdisciplinary quest to examine the biological, social/psychological, and
historical events, theories, beliefs, and customs which have shaped definitions
of sex and gender. Explorations will be about how and why we live our lives as
"women”
and “men”.
The implication of gender as a cultural construction will be broadened with
historical and cross-cultural examples along with the personal experiences of
our service learning, as we focus on contemporary issues.
The major goal of the class is to assist you in learning to
critically examine cultural assumptions about gender, race, and class, and to
identify and critique these gender assumptions in theories and research of
various disciplines which inform our thinking. To assist you in achieving these
goals, we have a service-learning project.
Specific goals are: To provide a demanding
intellectual experience for students.
To recognize
the ways in which race, gender, sexuality, class, and other aspects of identity
intersect in shaping experience and theory-making.
To
appreciate the ways in which different disciplines contribute to the
understanding of gendered selves.
To analyze
one’s own experience as
a gendered individual and recognize some contexts and processes which have
framed one’s own development.
To
effectively and critically use a variety of writing styles for critical
thinking, analysis, and persuasive communication.
To learn
about women’s
contributions to knowledge.
CLASSES REQUIREMENTS AND ASSIGNMENTS:
Attendance includes participation: To participate
means not only being in attendance in class and in your community setting, but
also providing thoughtful, and informed input as your part of the classroom
discussion.
You are expected to be logged on to the Mercer e-mail
system, our private Facebook group, and the Mercer Blackboard system for out of class communication, grading
updates, calendar changes, and syllabus information.
Leading Discussion:
In
pairs or individually, depending on class enrollment, students will take
turns leading class discussion on readings and activities.
Papers: There will be
three papers, four to five pages in length, redrafted and developed to articulate a particular theme. The due dates
are noted on the calendar.
Discovery Journals:
(Shamelessly copied from Dr. Deneen Senasi)
For your Discovery Journal, you will need a journal with
heavy-weight paper (like an artist’s sketch book available in craft or office
supply stores). You will also need a glue stick to attach various items to the
journals’ pages, especially if you prefer typing to more old-fashioned means of
inscription. I encourage you to decorate your Discovery Journal in any way you
like. since such creative embellishments, in addition to providing creative
outlets, will literally map out your intellectual and emotional journey through
the
course. In this and other ways, the time you spend on your Discovery Journal
will help to cement what I hope will be your own emerging awareness of yourself
and your place in the environment.
In practical terms, the assignment calls for you to insert questions from our
texts, web sites, activities, photo assignments, etc. to the journal and then
share them in our class discussion. Remember to cite, to help you revisit
thoughts later. I will announce dates on which I will collect and evaluate your
Discovery Journals. The final grade for the Discovery Journal will be an average
of these evaluations. You MUST bring your Journal to class daily; you need your
questions for our discussion, We may want to look at pictures or revisit an
issue from an earlier time.
Final: Your final is a
digital story highlighting one of your passionate "ah hahs" from this class as
it relates to you. The digital story process will
be thoroughly explained in class and supported with a lab in the media center.
Script writing and story circles are part of the process of developing digital
stories. For additional information go to webct or to this webpage:
DS Instructions.
Grades Per Activity:
Attendance and Participation:
15%
Leading discussions:
10%
Paper One 15%
Paper Two 15%
Paper Three 15%
Completed Digital Story 15%
Journal
15%
90-100 = A
77-79 = C+
87-89 = B+ 70-76 = C
80-86 = B 60-69 = D
You are responsible
for the Policies and Grading section of the syllabus. See link above or use the
link in webct.
