Dr. Kristen Myers
Last taught summer 2008, Elgin
This syllabus is a contract between you and me. Please read it and ask any questions that you may have. This class promises to be demanding, stimulating, and even exciting. If you choose to stay in this class after reading the syllabus, I will assume that you intend participate fully in order to help the course reach its potential.
Course Goals
Social Inequality will take both a structural and an interactional approach to relations of power that produce and reinforce inequality in society. This course should be named Social Inequalities, as there are several dimensions of inequality in society. We will primarily examine sexism, racism, economic inequality (classism), and homophobia. However, there are myriad other dimensions of inequality; feel free to incorporate others into class discussion as well as your independent work. These are the explicit goals of this course:
· To critically assess the relations of power in our society.
· To examine who is benefiting from various social inequalities, as well as who is suffering from them.
· To understand the ways that racism, classism, sexism, and homophobia work together to reproduce inequality.
· To open lines of communication among class members so that we can share our information and misinformation on different social problems; we do this so that we can overcome the barriers of myths and stereotypes which divide us.
· To take our degree of critical understanding to a higher, more analytical level.
· To apply the course material to the your real-life experiences.
· To improve our reading and writing skills.
Readings
Everyone in the course will read passages from Thomas Shapiro's Great Divides. In addition, I will divide the class into 4 groups. Each group will read one of these books:
· William Domhoff’s Who Rules America
· Debi Van Ausdale and Joe Feagin’s The First R
· Daphne Scholinski’s Last Time I Wore a Dress
· Sharon Hays’ The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood
Each group will be in charge of presenting the book's material to the class and responsible for leading on-line discussion on Blackboard. Through Blackboard, you will provide handouts or links to the class that will help them understand the book. You will also use the discussion threads to help other students integrate the book’s material with the assigned readings from Shapiro for that week.
You will work as a group to prepare this material, but you will earn an individual grade for your efforts. Be warned: I do not condone “free riding.” These group activities are to give you in-depth knowledge of a specific text. It is not time to take a nap while one person gets the task completed. If I observe that certain members are routinely less involved than others, then those free-riders will be graded down significantly.
On-line discussion
Each week, you are each expected to engage in an on-line discussion on Blackboard. In these discussions, the weekly leaders will get you started. But you all are expected to participate and show your ability to integrate the readings from Shapiro with the material from that week’s book—even if it’s not your week to read that book. You must show that you understand the connections between your readings and the book.
Exams
Each week you will have a take-home essay exam, requiring you to synthesize all of the material from the week. This exam will be disseminated over Blackboard.
Attendance
Attendance is an important element to any class. I am only asking you to attend twice a week. You must stay engaged all week long, though. If you miss a class, you miss material that may become important to your success in this course. The pace in this class will be quick. I expect you to attend class so that you can keep up with developments as they happen.
Atmosphere
In this class, we will discuss issues that are highly controversial. We all come from different perspectives on these issues. It is likely that we will disagree with each other. I welcome and encourage lively discussion, as they are necessary for true learning to occur. Indeed, much of this course will center on discussion. However, disagreements should not take the form of personal attack. That is absolutely unacceptable. Mutual respect is required in order to maximize a healthy and fair learning environment. Disagree with each other’s ideas and the evidence used in arguments, but respect each other as people. We all have to work together to create this atmosphere. No one student in this class is more important than the others. If a student is disrupting the learning environment for others, then that student has relinquished her/his right to be in the class and may be removed.
Policy on Academic Misconduct
Cheating in this course is taken as a serious offense. This includes not completing your own work, freeloading on other group members, plagiarism (presentation of the work or ideas of another person as your own, including cutting-and-pasting text from the internet), the unauthorized use of course materials, or other forms of dishonesty in academic matters. Offenders will be disciplined through the procedures outlined in the Student Judicial Code on Academic Misconduct.
Cell Phones
You may leave your phone on vibrate. You may not make or receive calls during class, but you may check it if it vibrates. You may not text during class, even during films.
Grades
Your grade will be comprised of the following:
Presentation of your book: 25% Exams: 50%
Participation in class discussion: 25%
Schedule:
Week 1: Class Inequality
Monday—meet in Elgin: syllabus and movie
Tuesday—meet in Elgin: lecture
Read Shapiro # 4, 6, 7, 17, 19, & 21
Wednesday—work from home: on-line discussion on Domhoff
Thursday—work from home: exam
Week 2: Racial Inequality
Monday—meet in Elgin: syllabus and movie
Tuesday—meet in Elgin: lecture
Read Shapiro # 22, 23, 24, 26, 28, & 30
Wednesday—work from home: on-line discussion on Van Ausdale and Feagin
Thursday—work from home: exam
Week 3: Gender Inequality
Monday—meet in Elgin: syllabus and movie
Tuesday—meet in Elgin: lecture
Read Shapiro # 33, 35, 36, 37, 39 & 40
Wednesday—work from home: on-line discussion on Hays
Thursday—work from home: exam
Week 4: Sexuality Inequality
Monday—meet in Elgin: syllabus and movie
Tuesday—meet in Elgin: lecture
Read on-line readings
Wednesday—work from home: on-line discussion on Scholinski
Thursday—work from home: exam