IDS 151
DIVERSITY SEMINAR
MOSAIC PROGRAM
FALL 2004
Instructor: TBA
Title/department
Office:
Phone:
e-mail:
Office hours:
Seminar co-directors: TBA
Course Description and Objectives:
This seminar is designed to engage students in critical thought and discussion of race, class,
gender, sexuality, ethnicity, nationality, and physical differences and their intersections. The
course involves weekly discussion, critical evaluation, and reflection of the subjects that are
covered in the assignments. The seminars expose students to knowledge and understanding
of the positive role of cultural and physical diversity in their lives.
Seminar participants will be encouraged and are expected to think critically.
Seminar Format:
Each section is team-taught by a faculty member and a staff member.
Each weekly meeting is two hours in length.
The class is 7 ½ weeks in length.
Text:
Adams, Maurianne, Warren J. Blumenfeld, Rosie Castañeda, Heather W. Hackman, Madeline L.
Peters, Ximena Zúñiga
2000 Readings for Diversity and Social Justice. Routledge, New York.
Goals and Objectives of the Seminar:
The overall goal of this seminar is to help make Miami University a place where all kinds of
people can teach, work, learn and live comfortably, fearlessly, and proudly, and where our
differences are viewed as a source of richness that enlivens and challenge us rather than pose
barriers.
The seminar is specifically designed to better prepare students to live and work in the 21st
century and to educate men and women for responsible, informed citizenship in a global society.
The seminar is also designed to create an environment where students learn from each other in an
atmosphere of positive engagement and mutual respect and to educate each other about the
invidious effects of racism, ageism, homophobia, religious intolerance, and other forms of
prejudicial, discriminatory, and hate-filled behavior.
Specific Objectives :
•
To engage in dialogue around difference and similarity, including the social locations of
race, gender, age, class, sexual orientation, ability, religion and ability.
•
To critique the work of eminent scholars who are engaged in the articulation of
multicultural education, respect for diversity, global literacy, and cultural competence.
•
To interact with other students around controversial issues and learn to articulate one’s
personal position in an atmosphere of positive engagement.
•
To reflect on one’s future role as a member of a multicultural and global society.
•
To educate each other on the existence and effects of racism, ageism, homophobia,
religious intolerance, and other forms of invidious prejudice
Requirements:
Seminar-Journals. Journal entries will be submitted on a weekly basis. (Instructors will inform
you of their due dates). Instructions for journal entries will be handed out in class.
Attendance CAWC sponsored and co-sponsored events. Check the CAWC website,
http://www.cawc.muohio.edu for dates, times. You must attend at least four of these events.
Attendance. As a participant in the seminar you are expected to attend and fully participate in
each of the scheduled sessions. You should complete all readings prior to the assigned session
and be prepared to engage other seminar participants in discussion. Although the course is
graded on a credit/non-credit basis, failure to attend all sessions without a justifiable excuse,
participate in class discussions, and submit all journal entries will result in a non-credit grade at
the end of the seminar.
Students are required to attend the “Voices of Freedom Summer” Conference and Reunion on
September 17-19. Tickets to the Friday night program to hear Representative John Lewis (DGeorgia) and the Saturday night performance, “Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey: A
Celebration of Music and Drama” will be handed out in class. Students will have the
opportunity to have dinner with Freedom Summer participants on Saturday night at 6:00
p.m. in Alexander Dining Room. The schedule of events and program calendar are
posted at: http://www.muohio.edu/cawc and http://www.cawc.muohio.edu. Click on
“Voices of Freedom Summer”.
Credits:
One credit
Graded as credit/non-credit
Readings and Assignments:
Session One:
Introductions.
Who Are We?
Establishing the classroom climate
Ground rules for discussion and debate
Review of syllabus
The Journals—what is expected
Terms (hand-outs)
Session Two:
The World We Live In: Conceptual Frameworks
Readings:
(Kendall) “Understanding White Privilege” (handout); “Introduction”
(page 5); Tatum, “The Complexity of Identity: ‘Who am I?’”; Harro, “The
Cycle of Socialization” ‘ Wildman and Davis, “Language and Silence:
Making Systems of Privilege Visible”
Session Three:
Confronting Race and Racism
Readings:
“Introduction” (page 61); Takaki, “A Different Mirror”; Tatum, “Defining
Racism: Can We Talk?”; Feagin, “The Continuing Significance of Race:
Antiblack Discrimination in Public Places”; Martinez, “Seeing More than
Black and White”’; Thompson, “White Men and the Denial of Racism”;
Edgington, “Moving Beyond White Guilt”
Note: “Voices of Freedom Summer” Conference and Reunion will take place on
September 17-19. Students are required to attend this conference.
Session Four:
Class and Classism
Readings:
“Introduction” (p. 379); “Social Class Questionnaire” (p. 432);Brouwer,
“Sharing the Pie”; Brouwer, “The Sinking Majority”; Heintz and Folbre,
“Who Owns How Much?”; Ransford, “Two Hierarchies”; Larew, “Why
are Droves of Unqualified, Unprepared Kids Getting into Top Colleges?” ;
Lewis, Holland, and Kelley, “Working Class Students Speak Out”; Bray, “
“So How Did I Get Here?” (Note: students should draw on their
reading of Ehrenreich’s, “Nickel and Dimed”
Session Five:
Gender and Sexism
Readings:
“Introduction” (p. 199); Lorber, “Night to His Day”, “The Social
Construction of Gender”; Scott, “Fresh Lipstick: Rethinking Images
Of Women in Advertising”; bell hooks, “Feminism: A Movement to
End Oppression”; Bem, “The Conundrum of Difference”; Truth,
“Ain’t I a Woman?”; Anonymous, “’The ‘Rape’ of Mr. Smith”
Session Six:
Sexual Orientation
Readings:
“Introduction” (p. 261); Blumenfeld, “How Homophobia Hurts
Everyone”; Deacon, “What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality?”;
Minkowitz, “Murder Will Out—But It’s Still Open Season on Gays”;
Meiner, “Memoirs of a Gay Fraternity Brother”; bell hooks, “Homophobia
in lack Communities”; Burns, “Why Don’t Gay People Just Keep Quiet?
Listening to the Voices of the Oppressed”
Session Seven:
Religious Prejudice and Discrimination, Case Study, Anti-Semitism
Readings:
“Introduction” (p. 133); Dinnerstein, “The Christian Heritage”; Gilbert,
“The Holocaust: Maps”; Wyman, “The Setting: Europe and America”;
Langman, “Including Jews in Multiculturalism”; West, “On Black-Jewish
Relations” , Fry, “The Massacre of the Jews”
Session Eight:
Working for Social Justice: Visions and Strategies for Change
Readings:
“Introduction (p. 447); Pharr, “Reflections on Liberation”; Collins,
“Toward a New Vision: Race, Class, and Gender as Categories of
Analysis and Connection”; Harro, “The Cycle of Liberation”;
Love, “Developing a Liberatory Consciousness”; Sherover-Marcuse,
“Working Assumptions and Guidelines for Alliance Building” ;
McClintock, “How to Interrupt Oppressive Behavior”
Miami University Values Statement
“Miami University is a scholarly community whose members believe that a liberal education is
grounded in qualities of character as well as of intellect. We respect the dignity of other persons,
the rights and property of others, and the right of others to hold and express disparate beliefs. We
believe in honesty, integrity, and the importance of moral conduct. We defend the freedom of
inquiry that is the heart of learning and combine that freedom with the exercise of judgment and
the acceptance of personal responsibility.”
Miami University Statement on Respect for Human Diversity
“Miami University is a multicultural community of diverse racial, ethnic, and class backgrounds,
national origins, religious and political beliefs, physical abilities, ages, genders, and sexual
orientations. Our educational activities and everyday interactions are enriched by our acceptance
of one another, and as members of the University community, we strive to each other in an
atmosphere of positive engagement and mutual respect.
Because of the necessity to maintain this atmosphere, bigotry will not go unchallenged within this
community. We will strive to educate each other on the existence and effects of racism, sexism,
ageism, homophobia, religious intolerance, and other forms of invidious prejudice. When such
prejudice results in physical or psychological abuse, harassment, intimidation, or violence against
persons or property, we will not tolerate such behavior nor will we accept jest, ignorance, or
substance abuse as an excuse, reason, or rationale for it.
All who work, live, study, and teach in the Miami community should be committed to these
principles which are an integral part of Miami's focus, goals, and mission.”
Other handouts (optional) distributed at the IDS 151 Orientation