Communication and Cultural Diversity (SPC 3710/AFA 3710) -- Fall 1998 -- Syllabus

Communication 3710 // Africana Studies 3710 (SPC 3710/AFA 3710)
Communication and Cultural Diversity
Fall 1998

Prof. Gil Rodman
CIS 3040, 974-3025
grodman@chuma.cas.usf.edu
Tu 5-6p, Th 1-2p and by appointment

course website:
http://www.cas.usf.edu/communication/rodman/diversity/

This course satisfies 3 hours of the Social Science requirement in the USF Liberal Arts Curriculum. Specific dimensions of the curriculum addressed include (1) values and ethics, (2) race and ethnicity, and (3) gender. This course will require students to demonstrate competence in both written and oral communication skills, and will emphasize conceptual, analytical, and creative thinking.

course description and objectives
We live in a society where questions of difference and diversity play an increasingly central role in debates over cultural values, public policy, and the shape of our daily lives. This is a course devoted to exploring many of these questions in depth. While "cultural diversity" encompasses a broad range of subjects -- including social divisions based on religion, age, geography, language, etc. -- our primary focus this semester will be on the categories of:

class
gender
sexual orientation
race and ethnicity

Barring a small miracle or three, we will not solve any of the social, cultural, and political problems that lie at the heart of this class. This course is not designed, however, to provide you with the "right" answers, as much as it is intended to make you think critically about the issues involved. Regardless of who you are or what you may believe at the start of the semester, this course will challenge (and perhaps even change) your current way of looking at US culture and the diverse populations that call the US home.

WARNING!!!
The subjects that we'll be discussing this semester are, without exception, controversial ones. The readings reflect a range of viewpoints on these issues, and it's likely that our group will hold a similarly broad range of opinions. As a result, our class sessions will undoubtedly include heated arguments, and it's quite possible that you'll walk away from one or more of our meetings feeling angry, frustrated, and/or offended. Nevertheless, I expect all of our conversations to be characterized by mutual respect. Impassioned arguments and strongly expressed opinions are perfectly acceptable in this class; verbal bullying and personal attacks, on the other hand, will not be tolerated under any circumstances.

required course materials

Books.
- Paul Beatty, The White Boy Shuffle
- Noel Ignatiev and John Garvey, Race Traitor
- Michael Moore, Downsize This!
- Michael Nava and Robert Dawidoff, Created Equal
- Katha Pollitt, Reasonable Creatures
- Jeanette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
Available at Inkwood Books, 216 S. Armenia, Tampa (253-2638, inkwoodbks@aol.com).
Photocopied articles. Available from me and/or at the reserve desk of the USF Library. More details will be announced in class.
An e-mail account. Participation in the listserv (DIVERSITY-L) that has been set up for this course will require you to have an e-mail account. For those of you who don't already have an e-mail account, information on how to sign up for one is available here.

grading schedule
Your final grade will be determined by the grading contract that you will complete and return to me by September 15. The overall range of options is as follows:

	***Attendance	10%
	***Participation	10%
	***Course listserv	10%
	Thought paper	10%
	1-4 response papers	10% each
	1-4 book reviews	10% each
	1-4 pre-selected website reviews	5% each
	1-4 self-selected website reviews	5% each
	Take-home final exam	30%

All starred items are required portions of your grade. Further details on the various written assignments can be found below.

attendance/participation/pop quizzes
This course is geared towards in-class participation. It will thus be more enjoyable for all of us (and you'll do better) if you (1) attend class regularly, (2) do the required reading and (3) be prepared to discuss what we've read. Consistently lackluster discussions will force me to take drastic measures (i.e., pop quizzes) to assure me that y'all are doing the required work. In the event quizzes become necessary, final grades will be calculated on a revised schedule, so that the required portions of your grading contract will become:

	Attendance	5%
	Participation	5%
	Course listserv	5%
	Pop quizzes	15%

Because issues will be raised in class that will not necessarily be apparent from the readings, it is vital that you show up for every class meeting and that you do so on time. Attendance will be taken at the start of every class period, with both absences and late arrivals noted. If you have more than one unexcused absence, or if you are consistently and excessively late to class, I reserve the right to lower your semester grade by more than 10%.

In keeping with the University Policy on Religious Observances, students who anticipate being absent from class due to a major religious observance must provide notice to me in writing by 8 September explaining which class period(s) you expect to miss and why.

listserv participation
The primary purpose of the listserv is to provide an ongoing informal forum for discussion of the issues raised by the assigned readings and our class sessions. Prompts intended to spur on the dialogue will be posted on a semi-regular basis. Participation in the listserv is worth 10% of your final grade.

To be eligible for full credit for this portion of the course, you must (a) be subscribed to the list by 6 pm on 22 September and (b) have made your first on-topic post to the list by 6 pm on 6 October. The penalty for missing either of these deadlines will be a grade point for every week (or fraction thereof) that you're late (e.g., not subscribing until 24 September will cost you 2 points and not posting for the first time until 9 October will cost you 1 more point).

To subscribe to the list using regular e-mail, send a message to LYRIS@LISTS.CAS.USF.EDU where the body of the message consists of:

	SUBSCRIBE DIVERSITY-L yourfirstname yourlastname

You can also subscribe to the list via the Web by following the instructions provided here.

Further details about the list (e.g., how to post to the list, what to post the list, how this portion of your grade will be calculated) will be sent to you via e-mail once you're subscribed.

written assignments
General rules.
Your written work must be typed and double-spaced. The page lengths listed below are based on pica-sized type (10 characters per inch) and one inch margins, and are estimates of how much you'll need to write to complete the assignments well. I will not automatically penalize shorter papers, but it's unlikely that you will be able to do "A" work if your papers are shorter than the suggested length. Also note that fudging margins and font sizes to make your papers look longer will not help your grade -- so concentrate on writing good papers, not what appear to be long ones.

Thought paper (10%).
This assignment (3-4 pages, due 8 September) will be ungraded. Assuming you turn the paper in, you should receive full credit for doing so. I reserve the right, however, to give partial or even no credit to papers that fail to meet the assignment's requirements. Further details concerning this paper can be found here.

Response papers (10% each).
You may write one response paper (3-4 pages each) for each of the four major sections of the course (i.e., class, gender, orientation, race), each of which is due in class the week after the relevant section has been completed (i.e., 29 September, 20 October, 10 November, 8 December). Each of these papers should be a critical response to the reading in question. Further details about these papers can be found here.

Book reviews (10% each).
For up to four of the six books we'll be reading this semester, you may write a critical review (3-4 pages each) that addresses the overall argument of the book with respect to the theme of the course. Each review is due in class the week after we finish with the book for the semester (specific dates are listed on the course timetable). Further details about these essays can be found here.

Website reviews (5% each).
You may write critical reviews (3-4 pages each) of up to four websites chosen by me (a list of eligible sites will be placed on the course's website), and up to four websites of your own choosing (provided, of course, that you choose sites relevant to the course's theme). The number of self-selected sites you may review cannot exceed the number of pre-selected sites that you review: i.e., if you only write two reviews of pre-selected sites, you can write no more than two reviews of self-selected sites. Due dates are listed on the course timetable. Further details about this assignment can be found here.

Take-home final (30%).
The take-home final (due 8 December) will consist entirely of essay questions and will be based on the assigned readings and our in-class discussions. It will consist of one mandatory essay question and two questions that you will choose from a larger selection. Each of the three essays should be 3-4 pages long and will be weighted equally in your exam grade.

Rewriting for a better grade.
At your option, you may revise and resubmit written work for a potentially higher grade. While rewriting assignments does not guarantee that you will receive a higher grade (it's possible, after all, to revise a paper without improving it enough to change its grade), it will never lower your grade. You must turn in the graded copy of the original assignment with any revisions you do. You will not receive credit for revisions of assignments that (1) you have already revised once, (2) were penalized for lateness, or (3) were never turned in at all. A maximum of 20% of your semester grade (e.g., 2 response papers, 1 book review and 2 website reviews, 4 website reviews, etc.) is eligible for this option. Revisions that do not result in a changed grade still count against the 20% limit. The final due date for all rewritten assignments is 8 December.

miscellaneous

Late work will generally not be accepted except in cases of genuine emergency. In the event that I do accept late work, I reserve the right to reduce its grade in direct proportion to its lateness. The minimum penalty in all such cases will be one full letter grade.
The purchase and/or sale of either written notes or audio recordings of our class meetings is strictly prohibited.

introduction and overview

Aug 25	no reading

Sep 1	Raymond Williams, "Culture Is Ordinary"
	James Carey, "A Cultural Approach to Communication"
	Joan Beck, "Troubling Deeds Under the Banner of ‘Diversity'"
	Anna Quindlen, "The Mosaic vs. the Myth"
	Lewis Lapham, "Who and What Is American?"
	Race Traitor, pp. 25-31
	Reasonable Creatures, pp. 16-25

class

Sep 8	Thought paper due
	Warren Bennis, "Stage Is Set for Major Upheaval in the U.S."
	William Greider, "The Rich Get Richer, The Poor Get Five to Ten"
	Downsize This!, pp. 1-21, 50-63, 119-148

Sep 15	Completed grading contract due
	Downsize This!, pp. 70-76, 282-312
	Race Traitor, pp. 97-121
	Reasonable Creatures, pp. xiii-xviii

Sep 22	Last day to subscribe to the listserv without penalty
	Downsize This!, pp. 153-160
	Race Traitor, pp. 43-57, 215-246
	Carol Stabile, "Erasing Racism"

gender

Sep 29	Response paper #1 (on class) due
	Pre-selected website review #1 due
	Reasonable Creatures, pp. xix-xxii, 26-30, 42-62, 81-84, 111-114, 124-133, 145-151, 157-168

Oct 6	Last day to post to the listserv without penalty
	Pre-selected website review #2 due
	Reasonable Creatures, pp. 3-10, 31-41, 85-99, 115-123, 152-156
	Downsize This!, pp. 166-175

Oct 13	Pre-selected website review #3 due
	Reasonable Creatures, pp. 11-15, 63-80, 100-110, 134-144, 169-186
	Downsize This!, pp. 176-183

orientation

Oct 20	Response paper #2 (on gender) due
	Pre-selected website review #4 due
	Reasonable Creatures book review due
	Downsize This!, pp. 256-259
	Created Equal, pp. ix-74

Oct 27	Self-selected website review #1 due
	Created Equal, pp. 75-167

Nov 3	Self-selected website review #2 due
	Created Equal book review due
	Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

race

Nov 10	Response paper #3 (on orientation) due
	Self-selected website review #3 due
	Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit book review due
	Boyce Rensberger, "Forget the Old Labels"
	Lisa Jones, "Is Biracial Enough?"
	Race Traitor, pp. 1-23, 35-42, 247-265
	Downsize This!, pp. 40-49

Nov 17	Self-selected website review #4 due
	Peggy McIntosh, "White Privilege and Male Privilege"
	Race Traitor, pp. 85-95, 123-141, 148-175
	Downsize This!, pp. 207-231

Nov 24	no class

Dec 1	Downsize This! book review due
	Race Traitor book review due
	The White Boy Shuffle

finals week

Dec 8	no class
5:00 pm	all rewritten assignments due
	deadline for listserv posts
	Take-home final due
	Response paper #4 (on race) due
	The White Boy Shuffle book review due