|
FALL 2001 COURSE GUIDE These courses focus on the analysis of local, national, and international problems and students development of the analytical and critical skills necessary for understanding a broad range of social questions. Students co-register in linked sections of the Writing Program and attend an evening lecture series on social issues. The goals of the linkage are to convey the idea that writing is an integral part of learning and thinking, and to provide a broad-based, shared experience for entering students.
|
|||||||||
|
ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES 150xg Environmental Issues in Society Professor McKenzie MW 2:00 - 3:20 Environment and Society is designed to provide insights into the major disagreements that exist today between scholars, leaders and citizens regarding today's environmental issues and problems. We will examine the 20th century rift between so much of humankind and nature - a rift that all too often produces in industrial society urbanites a longing for a nearly forgotten and highly romanticized "benign" nature that can never be recaptured and, more importantly, never really existed. We also will examine the nature of controversies between the urbanite and the farmer and inquire into the schism between urbanite and agribusiness which has been intensified as that sector adopts an increasingly industrialized presence. We will look at the differences between the Industrial World and the Non-Industrial World, never so clearly revealed as at Kyoto, as the international community struggles with global environmental issues. At all times we will attempt to respond to specific questions including what are the real environmental issues facing nations and peoples, to what extent have they been exaggerated or discounted, what are the most appropriate and sensible solutions or approaches to these problems and what are the appropriate role(s) which individuals and societies can play. We will combine social, philosophical, religious, political, economic and geographic perspectives to provide an understanding of how the interrelationships between environment and society have evolved over the span of human history. The course explores a variety of methodologies/tools to demonstrate how environmental issues/attitudes may be analyzed on scales ranging from local through national to international bases. Hopefully, students will become sufficiently conversant with these tools that they will be able to use them in analyzing non-environmental but equally highly charged social issues. GENDER STUDIES 210gm The following course description belongs to Professors Accampo and Schor. Beginning with discourses about women and gender during the Enlightenment and French Revolution, this course will consider gender issues chronologically form the Industrial Revolution, the rise of domesticity and the "cult of true womanhood," issues of race and imperialism, late Victorian feminism and the cultural context of decadence, gender and war (with an emphasis on World War I), second wave feminism of the 1960s, and homosexuality, gay and lesbian literature, and transexuality from the 1960s to the present. Top of Page Los Angeles (and more generally the Southern California region) has long been the quintessential destination for migrants in search of the American Dream. In the late 19th century, promoters heralded Southern California as a salubrious Mediterranean haven. From then until well after World War II, massive numbers of American flocked to Los Angeles, especially from the Midwest, lured by images of mild weather, citrus groves, and cheap land. Although some sought stardom in Hollywood or riches from the oil fields, most aspired to basic elements of the American Dream; a good job and a home of one's own. All along, people were coming from other countries as well; but their numbers have increased dramatically in recent decades. They too are in search of some version of the American Dream. Ironically, the place sold to millions as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow experiences earthquakes, floods, landslides, and fires. Further, many Angelenos found not the American Dream but instead racism, unemployment, and poverty. This geographical course focuses on Los Angeles, in both its mythical and realized social and physical forms. Alternative perspectives are utilized, drawing concepts from historical and physical geography as well as from economic and social geography. HISTORY 235g This course seeks to prepare students for informed citizenship by enabling them to analyze the role war has played in the development of the United States as a policy and a society. In examining the causes, conduct, and consequences of America's wars, it gives particular attention to the relationship between the military, the society, and the individual. Its lectures and weekly discussion sections address four thematic questions: What was the role of war in the creation of the United States as a nation? Can war be used to extend the boundaries of democracy as well as those of the nation-state? Does the use of war to defend democracy against foreign enemies, advance or undermine the principles underlying American government and society? Finally, what should the relationship between the rights of citizenship in a democracy and the obligations of military service be? This course also asks: Is violence endemic in society? Can it be controlled - or displaced - through politically managed wars? Who in society should bear the rights - and risks - of providing for the common defense? Readings and Assignments: Course Requirements Note: The readings and assignments list may be subject to change. Please contact the department for verification. HISTORY 265 The intention of this course is to demonstrate the historically variability of ideas around race and sexuality, issues that we sometimes take for granted and tend to assume as fixed facts with a biological base. In practice, as this course will show, societies in different parts of the world and at different times, have had radically different attitudes to these categories, and have also often linked them together, more particularly when seeking to judge -- and often condemn -- those whose practices do not resemble their own. Focusing on what is routinely called the modern period -- from roughly the late eighteenth century on -- the course will consider various ways in which sex and race have been linked in this period and in which ideas about them have been connected (often as a mechanism of blame). Rather than choosing a narrow focus on one area of the world, we will range about the globe as a means of broadening as well as deepening our ability to understand how race and sex have functioned as political and social as much as political entities in the modern world. Course Requirements and Grading INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 100xg The aim of this course is to introduce students to the fascinating study of relations among countries throughout our large and complex world, with special emphasis on United States foreign policy. Traditionally this subject has been conceived strictly as the study of the relationships among governments but these relations cannot be viewed in a vacuum since they are inextricably determined by other actors and factors, such as international organizations (e.g. the United Nations), multinational corporations, individuals, cultures, economics, geography, and history. All of these dimensions will be covered in each of the three parts of the course. This subject is a broad, complex one that is constantly shifting, and evolving as scholars try to develop theories to explain it and policy makers try to manage foreign policy from day to day. This course should provide the student with a solid background both in the major trends and issues of current world politics and in the main theories and explanations used by scholars of International Relations. The course outline follows the structure of Goldstein's textbook. Supplementary readings each week are found in a Reader that I assembled from recent articles published (primarily) in Foreign Affairs. The discussion sections will follow the outline of the course but the lectures will not necessarily follow this outline in order to include additional dimensions not covered in the readings. In addition to the textbook assignments, each student is expected to read at least one major newspaper every day, (e.g., The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Washington Post,) and to come to class conversant with major foreign events and challenges for U.S. foreign policy. There will be snap (i.e. surprise) quizzes during the semester to test your understanding of the major international issues in the news. We will start each class with an analysis of the major international events in the news - you are responsible for initiating this portion of the class. Required Texts: Note: The readings and assignments list may be subject to change. JUDAIC STUDIES 211g This course is intended as an introduction to the ethical issues arising from the Holocaust - Adolf Hitler's attempted genocide of the entire Jewish people, as well as the murder of millions of others, during the years 1933-1945. While the approach taken in many courses on the Holocaust is essentially a historical one, the aim of this class is to identify and evaluate the moral dilemmas and challenges that arise from this event. Of course ethical issues do not arise in a vacuum. Historical, sociological, and psychological factors are of supreme importance in shaping the contours within which ethical decisions are made. Proper attention will therefore be paid to these factors in determining the moral lessons that are to be derived from the Holocaust. In this way the course will achieve its objective of assisting the student in gaining an understanding of the processes and complexities of moral reasoning. It is hoped that the approach to the class will permit the student to view the Holocaust for what it was and is - a tragedy of immense proportions, not only for the Jewish people, but also for the world. In the minds of many ethicists, the Holocaust and related events are harbingers of the most frightening tendencies inherent in an evermore rational, impersonal, and bureaucratically-oriented world. The grading scheme will be as follows: Note: The assignments listed here may be subject to change. Please contact the department for verification. LINGUISTICS 115 The following course description belongs to Professor Finegan. This course examines relationships between patterns of discourse within and across social groups and communication in institutional and personal settings; it focuses on relationships between: Principal Course Themes Note: The most current course information can be found on the instructor's website. MULTIDISCIPLINARY ACTIVITIES 167gm A guiding principle for this course is that marginality is structural to American society. By this we man that there is a market economy with components that systematically and persistently keep certain groups of people at the margins of society. At the same time that marginality is structural to American society, the choice of which groups to marginalize, and the processes by which they are kept at the margins, occur within specific social institutions- in particular, the criminal justice system, educational system and religious organizations. A guiding imperative of the course is to the role of these institutions in examine the goal of these institutions in the marginalization of groups and in the changing social constructions of marginalized groups throughout the history of the United States. For example, when we look at crime today, a general tendency is to bemoan the collapse of family values, moral Principles, and the importance of tradition, and to assume that things were better in the "good old days". Yet the nineteenth century was replete with "moral Panics" the signaled the perceived rise in prostitution, lawlessness, slum dwellers, alcoholism, and opium dens. We will examine the enduring narrative of the excluded "other" and the way it was manifested in the nineteenth century and in its twentieth century derivatives. While MDA 167 focuses upon marginal groups in America-racial, ethnic and sexual minorities, criminals, and drug and alcohol abusers in particular - it will do so in close conjunction with WRIT 167. The 'content knowledge' offered through MDA 167 will provide students with a realistic and immediate context in which to understand and practice academic discourse; in return, the writing in WRIT 167 will enhance students' comprehension of the topics in MDA 167. Requirements Please contact the department for reading and assignments list. PHILOSOPHY 140g The following course description belongs to Professor Lloyd. In this course we investigate the ethical questions raised by such currently debated social issues as affirmative action, gay rights, pornography and censorship, environmental ethics, animal rights, the ethics of war, and world hunger. One goal of the course is to enable students to consider these and other moral issues critically, and to develop and defend their own moral positions on important social issues, as well as to enable them to better appreciate what can be said in favor of positions with which they ultimately disagree. To this end the course introduces techniques of moral reasoning and argument, and surveys some important classic moral theories. The other goal of the course is to inform and sensitize students to the moral issues raised by the facts of multiculturalism and diversity both within the U.S. and globally. To this end we will be addressing issues of multiculturalism and diversity in each of the topics we discuss, including such questions as: "Is the developed world morally justified in imposing environmental conservation on developing third world countries that have not yet had an opportunity to exploit their own natural resources?"; "Should equal rights be extended to those with 'nonstandard' sexual orientations?"; "Does the particular social vulnerability of women morally requires restrictions on pornographic depiction of them, as some feminists have claimed?"; "Does the particular social history and experience of African Americans morally justify affording them (and other groups with relevantly similar social experience) preferential treatment in the allotment of school admissions, jobs, and contracts?"; "Do rich nations have a moral obligation to help the poor in countries that affirm political values or religions of our own non-vital interests priority over the vital interests of non-human animals a morally objectionable 'speciesist' imposition of our own cultural values?". In addressing these questions, we will consider the views of writers from diverse social perspectives, and will discuss how we, as philosophers, might either reconcile or else adjudicate among differing cultural and social perspectives. POLITICAL SCIENCE 130g This course explores a broad range of social issues through an introduction to law, courts, and judicial processes. We will begin by examining the idea of law, the nature of legal education, the selection of judges, the civil and criminal justice system, and the role of appellate courts. We will then explore a series of debates and case studies that will give us a chance to delve more deeply into the politics of law and the pursuit of justice. This course will also ask the following questions: What is "the rule of law?" Does law serve power or justice? What influences outcomes in civil and criminal justice? Was the "Independent Counsel" act a good idea? When do people deserve punishment or deserve to be held "liable" for their negligent conduct? How broad is "freedom of speech?" Requirements: 1 short paper, 1 longer paper, midterm, final, participation. RELIGION 140g The aim of the course is to enable you to become conversant with Jewish and Christian ways of addressing ethical issues, and to increase your capability to analyze critically various judgments reached abut hose issues. Since Judaism and Christianity (both Catholic and Protestant) are such major traditions in the U.S., studying the ways in which these traditions deal with ethical issues will take us straight into the heart of American culture, and the mutual influence between religion and culture. SOCIOLOGY 142gm This course examines the patterns of race relations in the United States. We will examine the relations between the white community and the communities of people of color, particularly African Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans and Latinos. We will also discuss white ethnic groups. We will explore the way in which race relations shape our institutions and structures and our daily lives. We will also see the way in which institutional racism operates. Theories personal racism, internalized racism, cross-racial hostility between people of color and the intersection of race, class and gender will also be discussed. A few of the issues we will be concerned with include: the historical and contemporary expressions of racism in America and the various ways in which racism, sexism, and class are interconnected. We will also consider why these divisions and the accompanying differences in opportunity and achievement continue; how these divisions and differences are reproduced and the reality that lies behind the rhetoric of equality and opportunity and justice for all. For example, how are economic rewards, employment decisions, political electoral campaigns and public policy decisions shaped by racial bias? In what way do these factors influence university admissions, faculty hiring, and relations with fellow students and student groups? Has racism changed over time? On a personal level, how do we cope with our own racism and with racism directed against us? We will also consider the necessary conditions and the processes to bring about effective social change. The readings and assignments list may be subject to change. Please contact the department for verification. Note: For the other SOCI 142 section, see below. SOCIOLOGY 142gm This course examines the patterns of race relations in the United States. We will examine the relations between the white community and the communities of people of color, particularly African Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans and Latinos. We will also discuss white ethnic groups. We will explore the way in which race relations shape our institutions and structures and our daily lives. We will also see the way in which institutional racism operates. Theories personal racism, internalized racism, cross-racial hostility between people of color and the intersection of race, class and gender will also be discussed. A few of the issues we will be concerned with include: the historical and contemporary expressions of racism in America and the various ways in which racism, sexism, and class are interconnected. We will also consider why these divisions and the accompanying differences in opportunity and achievement continue; how these divisions and differences are reproduced and the reality that lies behind the rhetoric of equality and opportunity and justice for all. For example, how are economic rewards, employment decisions, political electoral campaigns and public policy decisions shaped by racial bias? In what way do these factors influence university admissions, faculty hiring, and relations with fellow students and student groups? Has racism changed over time? On a personal level, how do we cope with our own racism and with racism directed against us? We will also consider the necessary conditions and the processes to bring about effective social change. The readings and assignments list may be subject to change. Please contact the department for verification. Note: For the other SOCI 142 section, see previous entry. SOCIOLOGY 150gm In Sociology 150 we examine some of the major social problems confronting American society today: crime, violence, drugs, discrimination, environmental pollution, terrorism, the prospect of nuclear war. What can we do about these problems? What does sociological research suggest about their causes and their solution? In this course we analyze these and other problems using the tools of sociological data and theory. We assess the public policies - laws- that have been passed in order to "solve" these problems, and explore why many of these have failed. We focus on two specific issues that may directly affect your experience as adults in the 21st Century): (1) Urban violence (will there be a repeat of the Los Angeles "riots" of 1992; (2) Population aging (will Social Security and medical care benefits be available for you when you retire?). The readings and assignments list may be subject to change. Please contact the department for verification. Note: For the other SOCI 150 section, see below. SOCIOLOGY 150gm In SOCI 150 we examine some of the major social problems confronting American society today: crime, violence, drugs, discrimination, environmental pollution, terrorism, the prospect of nuclear war. What can we do about these problems? What does sociological research suggest about their causes and their solution? In this course we analyze these and other problems using the tools of sociological data and theory. We assess the public policies - laws- that have been passed in order to "solve" these problems, and explore why many of these have failed. We focus on two specific issues that may directly affect your experience as adults in the 21st Century: (1) Urban violence (will there be a repeat of the Los Angeles "riots" of 1992; (2) Population aging (will Social Security and medical care benefits be available for you when you retire?) SOCI 150 explores contemporary social problems in three categories: (1) Issues involving individual deviance (crime, gangs, rape, sexual deviance, mental illness); (2) Problems of social inequalities (discrimination and prejudice reflected in racism, sexism, and ageism); (3) Crises reflecting societal changes during the 20th Century (the worldwide population explosion, population aging, environmental pollution, family and health problems, war and terrorism.) SOCIOLOGY 155g Pundits and commentators have noted that the twentieth century is ending much as for the United States. One of the ways in which it resembles the earlier part of the is the high level of immigration. Contemporary immigration, however, unlike immigration in the early 20th century, stems primarily from Asia and Latin America, and a major point of destination is Los Angeles. These developments have led to the creation of a new type of multiethnic and multiracial society, and have also given rise to vitriolic anti-immigration politics. SOCIOLOGY 169g Most of us grew up in,. enjoyed, and/or survived family life, so we all bring some first hand experience to this class. Few of us, however, understand our families as socially and historically constructed institutions. Why and how do families change over time? This course will explore linkages between family life and society, examining, for example, how families are shaped by social and economic factors, and how internal family dynamics reflect and respond to societal pressures. This course is not intended as a prescriptive "how to create successful families" (although the material may help you in this endeavor). We will explore a number of contemporary issues, such as how employment and gender ideologies shape inequality in families, changing notions of parenthood and childhood, how economic recessions affect family life, the challenges facing working parents and their children and changing expectations of marriage. We will cover historical variations in families, as well as a plurality of contemporary family forms such as lesbian and gay families, single parenthood, divorce, remarriage, and blended families. As an ongoing theme we will consider how gender, race, and economic inequality shape our experiences in families. Note: The readings and assignments list may be subject to change. Please contact the department for verification.
|
||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||