| IIS 190 Fall, 2000 Pitzer College |
Joe
Parker Office: Broad Center 213 Office Hrs.: Tu 10-11, Th 2:30-4 Tu., Th. 1:15-2:30 Office Phone: (60)7-4318 Home Phone: (626)798-3644 |
Senior Seminar: International
and Intercultural Studies
Course
Description:
The course will introduce students to critical thinking about some central aspects of the modern world, including nation, culture, and power, and to some emerging methods for understanding the world in a way that is less bound by the 20th century Euro-American academy and its relation to colonialism. The primary objective of this course would be to develop skills at recognizing the effects produced by certain key categories and terms, such as nation, race, gender, culture, or by approaching the world through a particular discipline or emphasizing a particular geographic area. By examining the often hegemonic and even violent effects of these categories and terms, we will begin to question whether we want to continue to use them. The second half of the course will examine alternatives to these categories and terms that are being developed in merging fields of study, such as postcolonial studies, discourse studies, and border studies. By taking this course the student will gain a thoroughgoing awareness of the strengths of interdisciplinary and intercultural approaches to global and local political and cultural relations, and will sharpen their critical thinking skills while also developing an approach suited to their own interests and strengths.
Course
Requirements:
Course requirements include: class attendance and informed discussion based on course readings and previous courses and personal experience (25%); discussion questions to be handed in each week (30%); a 3-4 page summary of the work of leading figure in emerging field, due Sept. 28 (5%); 20-25 page paper on topic of student’s choice using method chosen from course materials, due at end of course (See handout.), with participation in peer review process (35% + 5%).
Required Textbooks: (All required readings are available at Honnold reserve desk.)
Course Readings Packet (Available for purchase at King’s Copies, 358 W. Foothill )
Gloria Anzaldua, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, Spinsters/Aunt Lute,
1987.
J. K. Gibson-Graham, The End of Capitalism (as we knew
it): A Feminist Critique of
Political Economy, Blackwell, 1996.
John Tomlinson, Globalization and Culture, Univ. of Chicago Press/Polity Press, 1999.
Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish, 2nd ed., Vintage Books, 1995 (1977).
Patrick Williams and Linda Chrisman, eds., Colonial Discourse and Postcolonial Theory,
Columbia U.P.
Prasenjit Duara, Rescuing History from the Nation, Univ. of Chicago Pr., 1995.
IIS Senior Seminar Syllabus
Course Schedule:
(Readings with asterisks (*) are in textbooks; all others are in course packet. All readings are available on reserve at the library.)
Aug. 29-31 Course Introduction: Rethinking Nation and Culture.
Readings: Tololyan, “The Nation State & Its Others,” 3-7.
*Kandiyoti, in *Colonial Discourse, 376-91.
Gupta and Ferguson, “Beyond ‘Culture,’”6-23.
Sept. 5-7 Questioning Objectivity: Social Construction and Social Location
Readings: Harding, “Eurocentric Scientific Illiteracy,” 1-22.
Zinn/Dill, “Theorizing Difference,” 321-31.
Mahoney, “The Social Construction of Whiteness,” 330-333.
Haraway,
“Partial Knowledges,” 183-201.
Clifford, “Partial
Truths,” 1-26.
Sept. 12-14 Rethinking the Disciplines and Area Studies.
Readings: Stacey, “Disloyal,” 311-29.
Pletsch, “The Three Worlds,” 565-90.
Begin *Sim, Routledge Critical Dictionary, 3-77 & 147-69.
Sept. 19-21 Foundations I: Questioning Modernity.
Readings: Finish *Sim reading.
Sept. 26-28 Foundations II: Women of Color Theory.
Readings: *Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera, preface & 1-24, 41-52, 53-
64, 77-91 & 194-203..
Sept. 28 First Writing Assignment Due.
Oct. 3-5 Foundations III: Discourse Studies.
Readings: *Foucault, 3-31, 104-114, 135-69 & 170-94.
Oct. 10-12 Foundations III: Discourse Studies (cont.)
Readings: *Foucault, 195-228, 257-92, & 293-308.
Have a Great Fall
Break.
Oct. 19 Method I: Postcolonial Studies.
Readings: *Williams & Chrisman, Colonial Discourse, 1-18, 36-52, 53-65,
132-49, and 172-81.
Oct. 19 Research Paper Topic Statement Due.
Oct. 24-26 Method I: Postcolonial Studies (cont.).
Readings: *Williams and Chrisman, Colonial Discourse, 196-220, 291-305,
376-427.
IIS Senior Seminar Syllabus
Oct. 31- Method II: Questioning the Disciplines.
Nov. 2
Readings: *Tomlinson, Globalization and Culture,
Ch. 1 & 2, p. 1-70.
Oct. 31 Research Paper Annotated Bibliography Due.
Nov. 7-9 Method II: Questioning the Disciplines.
Readings: *Tomlinson, Globalization and Culture, Ch. 3 & 6, p. 71-105 &
181-207.
Nov. 14-16 Method III: Feminist Political Economy.
Readings: *Gibson-Graham, Ch. 1, 2, 3 & 6.
Nov. 14 Research Paper Outline Due.
Nov. 21 Method III (cont.) & Method IV: New Histories.
Readings: *Gibson-Graham, Ch. 8, 10, & 11.
*Duara, Rescuing History, Intro. & Ch. 1.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Nov. 28-30 Method IV: New Histories (cont.)
Readings: *Duara, Rescuing History, Ch. 2 & 7.
Dec. 5-7 Future Visions of IIS & Student Presentations and Responses.
Readings: Dickson, “Democratic Strategy for Science,” 472-83.
Anzaldúa, 192-203.
Dec. 5 First Draft of Research Paper Due
(for peer review).
Dec. 7 Peer Review with comments returned
to author and instructor.
Final Paper Draft at time of final exam: Thurs., Dec. 14, noon.