Communication 3710 // Africana Studies 3710
Communication and Cultural Diversity
Spring 2000

Prof. Gil Rodman
Office Hours: Tu, Th 2-3p and by appointment
CIS 3040 // gbrodman@mindspring.com // 813-974-3025
course website:
http://scholar.acomp.usf.edu:90/courses/SPC3710/index.html
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:
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. As a result, many of our class sessions will generate heated arguments, and it's 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
grading schedule

Your final grade will be determined by the grading contract that you will complete and return to me by 25 January. The overall range of options is as follows:

***Attendance 10%
***In-class participation 10%
***CourseInfo Discussion Board participation 10%
Thought paper 10%
1-5 response papers 10% each
1-5 case studies 10% each

Starred items are required portions of your grade. Further details on the various written assignments can be found below and on the Assignments page of the course website.

Once approved, your contract is binding: e.g., you don't get to reduce the number of case studies you contracted for and make up for it by writing extra response papers. So choose carefully. Also note that contracts that are turned in late or that don't add up to exactly 100% will be "fixed" by me -- which may set you up for work you would rather not do. So double-check your math and turn your contract in on time.
attendance/in-class participation/quizzes

Because issues will be raised in class that will not necessarily be obvious from the readings alone, it's important that you show up every time we meet and that you do so on time. Attendance will be taken at the start of every class period, and absences, late arrivals, and early departures will all count against you. If you accumulate more than 1.5 weeks in unexcused absences, I reserve the right to lower your semester grade by more than 10%.

Our class sessions will be structured almost exclusively around group discussions. 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.

To help insure that our in-class discussions are productive ones, there will be quizzes on the assigned reading that will work as follows:
written assignments

General rules
  1. Your written work must be submitted online in the appropriate forums on the CourseInfo Discussion Board. The lengths listed below 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.
  2. Except for work due during finals week, all your work must be posted to the course website by the start of class on the appropriate due dates. 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.
  3. As a safety precaution, you should always keep at least a hard copy -- and preferably a hard copy and a disk copy -- of any written work you hand in.
Thought paper (10%)
This assignment (750-1000 words, due 18 January) 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.

Response papers (10% each)
You may write up to five papers (750-1000 words each) over the course of the semester, each of which should be a critical (i.e., thoughtful and analytical) response to one or more of the assigned readings. Each of these is due no later than one week after the reading in question is assigned.

Case studies (10% each)
Over the course of the semester, I will post five case studies involving cultural diversity issues to the course website. For each case study, your task will be to write up a 1250-1500 word report that outlines the most important arguments from each side of the case (~250 words each), and that makes an argument (750-1000 words) for the best solution to the case. Due dates are listed on the course timetable.

Rewriting essays for a better grade.
You have the option of revising and resubmitting 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 is eligible for this option. Revisions that do not result in a changed grade still count against the 20% limit. Rewritten essays must be submitted in hard copy format (e.g., on paper, not online) and the final due date for all rewritten work is 27 April.
CourseInfo Discussion Board participation

The primary purpose of the Discussion Board is to provide an informal space that's always available for discussion of the issues raised by the assigned readings and in our class meetings. Because discussions of this sort tend to be freeform in nature, there is no easy-to-summarize formula for assessing your Discussion Board grade. The minimum contribution to receive a passing grade, however, will be ten substantial (i.e., more than a paragraph long) posts spread out over the course of the semester. A more detailed explanation of how this portion of your grade will be calculated is available on a separate handout.
  1. You must make your first on-topic post to the Discussion Board by the start of class on 25 January. The penalty for missing this deadline will be a grade point for every week or fraction thereof that you're late (e.g., not posting for the first time until 2 February will mean that the best you can do for this portion of your grade is an 8 out of 10).
  2. Over the course of the session, I will place at least ten "virtual lectures" on the course website under the "Course Documents" heading. You are required to respond to each of at least three of those virtual lectures with a post to the appropriate Discussion Board forum (i.e., one post/virtual lecture, as opposed to one post that responds to three virtual lectures at once). The applicable penalty here will be a grade point for every post short of three that you fall (e.g., making only one virtual lecture post will mean that your maximum Discussion Board grade will be an 8 out of 10).
  3. You are also required to post thoughtful responses to at least three essays (i.e., thought papers, response papers, and case studies) posted to the course website by other members of the class. Each of these posts must be in response to essays written by a different person on a different topic: e.g., responding to three different essays written by the same person or to three different essays on the same assigned reading (or the same case study) will not satisfy this requirement. Again, the applicable penalty here will be one grade point for every post short of three that you fall.
Should any of the penalties described above come into play, they will be applied to the top end of the scale: i.e., they lower the maximum credit you can receive for this portion of the course, rather than subtracting points from the score you earn otherwise.

N.B.: The written assignments that you turn in online -- i.e., the thought paper, response papers, and case studies -- do not count towards your Discussion Board participation grade.
miscellaneous
introduction

Jan 11 no reading
Jan 13 [handout] Joan Beck, "Troubling Deeds Under the Banner of ‘Diversity'"
[handout] Anna Quindlen, "The Mosaic vs. the Myth"
[handout] Lewis Lapham, "Who and What Is American?"
Jan 18 Thought paper due
Race Traitor, pp. 25-31
Reasonable Creatures, pp. 16-25
Jan 20 The Mismeasure of Woman, pp. 93-130
[reserve] Beverly Daniel Tatum, "Defining Racism"
class

Jan 25 Completed grading contract due
First Discussion Board post due
[reserve] Warren Bennis, "Stage Is Set for Major Upheaval in the U.S."
[reserve] William Greider, "The Rich Get Richer, The Poor Get Five to Ten"
Fear of Falling, pp. 3-41
Jan 27 Fear of Falling, pp. 42-68
Feb 1 Case study #1 due
Fear of Falling, pp. 68-96
Race Traitor, pp. 43-57
Feb 3 Fear of Falling, pp. 97-143
Feb 8 Fear of Falling, pp. 144-182
Feb 10 Fear of Falling, pp. 183-212
Feb 15 Fear of Falling, pp. 213-263
Feb 17 Race Traitor, pp. 97-121
[reserve] Carol Stabile, "Erasing Racism"
gender

Feb 22 Case study #2 due
Reasonable Creatures, pp. xiii-xviii
The Mismeasure of Woman, pp. 15-56
Feb 24 The Mismeasure of Woman, pp. 57-92
Feb 29 The Mismeasure of Woman, pp. 131-169
Mar 2 Reasonable Creatures, pp. xix-xxii, 3-10, 26-41, 81-84, 145-151, 157-168
Mar 7 Reasonable Creatures, pp. 85-99, 115-123, 152-156
Mar 9 Reasonable Creatures, pp. 11-15, 63-80, 100-110, 169-186
Mar 14 NO CLASS -- SPRING BREAK
Mar 16 NO CLASS -- SPRING BREAK
orientation

Mar 21 Case study #3 due
[reserve] Donna Minkowitz, "Love and Hate in Laramie"
Created Equal, pp. ix-28
Mar 23 Created Equal, pp. 29-74
Mar 28 Created Equal, pp. 75-112
Mar 30 Created Equal, pp. 113-167
Apr 4 Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, pp. 1-95
Apr 6 Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, pp. 96-176
race

Apr 11 Case study #4 due
[reserve] Boyce Rensberger, "Forget the Old Labels"
[reserve] Lisa Jones, "Is Biracial Enough?"
Race Traitor, pp. 1-23
Apr 13 [reserve] Peggy McIntosh, "White Privilege and Male Privilege"
Race Traitor, pp. 35-42, 247-265
Apr 18 Race Traitor, pp. 85-95, 123-141
Apr 20 Race Traitor, pp. 148-175
Apr 25 The White Boy Shuffle, pp. 1-150
Apr 27 All rewritten assignments due
The White Boy Shuffle, pp. 151-226
finals week

May 2 NO CLASS
5:00 pm Case study #5 due
deadline for Discussion Board posts