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Syllabus for the Rhetoric Course: Rhetoric of the 1960’s

Note: This course pretends to be a course in rhetoric, but it is actually a course in a radical view of the Sixties. The instructor is not a historian and has no professional expertise for teaching such course which in any case is entirely one-sided and is an indoctrination in one view of the Sixties.

Syllabus - Unit One

 The Civil Rights Movement: From Boycotts to Black Power

In this unit we will examine the civil rights movement, looking at specific instances like the clash between segregationists and integrationists in Little Rock and other places throughout the South, Freedom Summer, and the formation of militant organizations like the Black Panther Party later in the decade.  For your first writing assignment, you will write a 4-5 page rhetorical analysis of some piece of rhetoric stemming from this movement.  You will be provided with a packet of possible choices, though you may select your own argument to analyze if you first get my approval. This writing assignment will require you to assess a piece in its own rhetorical context, to some extent putting your own opinions aside.

Syllabus - Unit Two

The Student Movement: From Free Speech to Free Love

Here we will focus on the student movement, first by analyzing how the civil rights movement helped spark activism among white students. While we will consider this movement as a national phenomenon, we will spend a fair amount of time examining the development of its arguments and tactics right here in Austin , home to an especially active chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). We will also discuss the emergence of a youth counterculture and investigate some of its effects. Your second writing assignment will be a 5-7 page causal or evaluative argument which will require independent research. You might construct an argument demonstrating how this movement has influenced the trends or popular music of today in a particular way. Alternatively, you could examine the effects of its arguments or other rhetorical tactics on a contemporary group of activists. You will be provided with a detailed assignment guide as the unit progresses. Do note that you may expect to see fewer forum assignments this unit because of this assignment's research requirements.

This syllabus may change. Please check it online.

Syllabus - Unit Three

The Women’s Movement: From NOW to Radical Feminism

As the civil rights movement gave rise to the student movement, so too did the student movement help create the women’s movement. Many of its youngest participants, women activists fed up with the sexism present in SDS, formed their own groups to focus on their concerns. Reformist organizations such as NOW made arguments to legislate change, while radical activists agitated for more wide-reaching structural change. For this unit, you will not write a paper, but will instead write a take-home essay exam. Questions for this comprehensive exam will be provided, and you will have one week to work on it--it will be due the Monday after classes end. This writing task will require you to synthesize material from all three units and will allow you to demonstrate independence in revising, editing, and proofreading. Do note that because you will not be writing a formal paper, you can expect to see more forum assignments during this unit.

This syllabus may change. Please check it online.

http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~boade/309kspring06/unit1.shtml

Syllabus for the Rhetoric Course: The Rhetoric of Native Americans

Note: This is not a course in the rhetoric of Native Americans. It is a course in the radical view of Native Americans.  Note the choice given to students in unit two to regard the FBI as either “fascist” or “racist.” Such a one-sided course is not academic, and the instructor is not an anthropologist or historian is not professionally qualified to teach a course about Native Americans.

RHE 309K: Topics in Writing
The Rhetoric of Native Americans

Instructor: Tracey Watts

In American rhetoric, Native Americans have become host to a variety of cultural presumptions that are usually inaccurate and frequently contradictory. Viewed as noble savages (the term itself is a contradiction), as pagan heretics, or even as enlightened New Age spiritualists, Native Americans have consistently been romanticized and demonized. This course seeks to investigate the nature of some of these representations while also focusing on texts that have been produced by Native Americans themselves. The course begins by interrogating stereotypes in advertisements, cultural practices, books and films, and it continues by exploring the rhetoric that emerged during the American Indian Movement (A.I.M.), the Native American vanguard of civil rights movements. As you encounter the different tendencies of the rhetoric, you will be asked to look into your own processes of imagining indigenous American cultures. In doing so, you might begin to interrogate your own sense of what it means to be “at home” in a place, or what we really mean when we use familiarized yet politicized terms such as racism, ownership, democracy, ownership, and justice. To conclude the course, we’ll read and discuss some contemporary texts recently producxed by celebrated Native American authors.

Unit One: Historical and Contemporary Stereotypes

Unit one will introduce you to the rhetoric that surrounds Native Americans. We will be viewing scenes from films such as Last of the Mohicans and Maverick in order to begin understanding the many levels at which the stereotyping of Native Americans is present. We will also investigate the use of Native American stereotypes in school mascots and advertisements. You will complete two assignments in this unit. One will be a debate in which you argue whether to keep or change a fictitious Indian mascot. You will also complete a 2-4 page causal argument that determines the potential effects of the stereotypes used in any one of the representations described in class.

Unit Two: The Rhetoric of Social Change

In this unit, we’ll evaluate the rhetoric that circulated through the U.S. during the revolutionary American Indian Movement of the 1960s. We will also look at current discussions about Native American social change. Topics you will study in this unit include Alcatraz and Wounded Knee II, both of which were sites where Native Americans held extended protests in their struggle for civil rights. We will also view clips from several documentaries, one of which describes the context for Leonard Peltier's imprisonment. Your essay in this unit will occur in two parts. First, you will write, with a group, a 2 page definition of a particular politicized term. In the following 3-5 page argument, you will apply that term to a particular case that we have studied during this unit. You may argue, for example, that some demonstrations in the Alcatraz occupation showed true democracy in practice. Or you might argue that the FBI's treatment of Native Americans on the Pine Ridge reservation during Dick Wilson's regime demonstrated facsim or racism. You will do so by first providing the criteria for your definition, and then applying it to your case study.

Unit Three: Migrations and Personal Change

In this unit, we will view a documentary entitled The Return of Navajo Boy, which we will use as a vehicle to begin talking about changing ideas of family, home, and culture. Your essay will be a brief (2-3 page) autobiography that may describe your sense of what home means to you, or you may explore the ramifications of an event that generated major change for you.

Unit Four: Modern Representations

After viewing Smoke Signals, the feature film based on the writings of Sherman Alexie, you will engage in class discussion concerning the themes of the film and its cultural contexts. You may choose to write your final 3-5 page essay as a rhetorical analysis of an aspect of the film or as a research essay covering one or more cultural elements that the film addresses, such as oral tradition, ceremonies, poverty, or humor.

http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~watts/309NA/syllabus2.html

Syllabus for the Comparative Literature Course: Marxisms

Note: This course is an indoctrination in Marxism. There are no texts critical of Marxism. The course is presented entirely from a Marxist perspective. Marxism is a sociological and economic theory of history. The instructor, a professor of Germanic Studies, is not trained in history, economics or sociology. Why is this course offered in the Comparative Literature Department? This course is unprofessional and political, not academic.

Marxisms

Instructor: Katherine Arens

http://www.utexas.edu/courses/arens

This course is designed to introduce significant twentieth-century variants of Marxist thought in their historical contexts. To do so, it will start with a selection of seminal texts by Marx and Engels, including excerpts from Kapital, Value, Price and Profit, the Communist Manifesto and The German Ideology. These texts will allow us to establish the Young-Hegelian framework within which classical Marxism sets its discussions of consciousness, ideology, and historical structures. After that, we will turn to two clusters of twentieth-century thought derivative of this Marxist inheritance: the Frankfurt School and the postmodern debate that grew out of it, and French marxisms from the College of Sociology through Foucault, Deleuze, Lyotard, Kristeva, and de Cerfteau.

The Frankfurt School focuses on how the base and group consciousness interrelate, especially under the aegis of the mass media, yielding later contributions like Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action. In its US incarnation, it fuels one version of the postmodern debate (e.g. Huyssen). In contrast, the French marxist derivatives of the same generation are much more concerned with power relations, and with the interconnections between identity and the basis -- with how the superstructure uses its position vis-à-vis the base to create a hegemonic culture.

Section 1: Roots in the 19th Century

Stepelvich, ed., The Young Hegelians
Stepelvich, ed., The Young Hegelians
Engels, "Outlines," 275-302
Marx, "Letter to Ruge, 303-309; "Contribution to the Critique of Hegel," 310-22
Stirner, "Art and Religion, 323-334; "Ego and His Own, 335-353
Marx-Engels Reader
Marx-Engels Reader

Section 2: The Frankfurt School and its Counterparts in the 30s and Beyond

Arato, ed. The Essential Frankfurt School Reader
Benjamin, Illuminations
Bakhtin, "The Problem of Speech Genres," 60-102
Lukacs, History and Class Consciousness
"What is Orthodox Marxism?," 1-26
Raymond Williams, Marxism and Literature,

Stuart Hall, ed. & part author, Resistance through Rituals,

Hollier, ed. The College of Sociology

Section 3: The Next Generation

Habermas, Theory of Commuicative Action
Fredric Jameson, The Political Unconscious , "On Interpretation," 17-102
Deleuze and Guattari, Anti-Oedipus,
Deleuze and Guattari, 1000 Plateaux
Lyotard, "Judiciousness in Dispute, or Kant after Marx,"

Luhmann, "Introduction," and "System and Function,"

Kristeva, Revolution in Poetic Langauge,
Lyotard, Postmodern Condition

Section 4: The German-American Wing: Frankfurt goes POMO and Mass   Culture

http://www.utexas.edu/courses/arens/marx/marxdesc.html

Syllabus for the Communication Studies Course: Peace, Conflict & Communication

Note: This is billed as a Communications Studies Course, but it asks questions like this: “Are violence, prejudice, disease, environmental degradation, and social chaos necessarily the human condition?” What is professor’s qualifications to guide students in answering these questions? How is an expertise in Communications a basis for studying the sources of violence, prejudice, “environmental degradation” or “social chaos?” This is an unprofessional course, taught by an unqualified amateur.

Forum Seminar

Peace, Conflict & Communication

Madeline M. Maxwell mmmaxwell@mail.utexas.edu

Course Descrption:

How can we create a more peaceful world? Are violence, prejudice, disease,

environmental degradation, and social chaos necessarily the human condition? Is the only

way to keep it all at bay to use a combination of strength, stealth, and superior

intelligence? Does that mean we need to live on the offensive? Is there anything we can

do about it? Are we all potentially power sources to pragmatically cooperate? How much

does what we learn in our families, at our workplaces, on the street apply to war? In this

weekly series we will hear a lot of opinions derived from theory and research. You will

read two books, with contrasting points of view. Think of the class as a debate between

those positions, and figure out where you stand.

The activities of our class will keep us focused on the big questions. You will concentrate

on a particular problem or area, but I hope you will ask questions about comparisons and

fundamental pressures.

We will open each class with a popular song. You can contribute songs to our list. Pick a

song that is relevant to our topic. We’ll discuss what view of conflict and peace is

reflected by the authors, composers and performers.

Texts and Materials:

The Coming Anarchy, Robert Kaplan, Vintage 2001.

The Third Side, William Ury, Penguin 2000.

Occasional papers contributed by our speakers.

ASSIGNMENTS: These are the major questions to think about: (1) where do people

stand on how we can create a more peaceful world? (2) Are violence, prejudice, disease,

environmental degradation, and social chaos necessarily the human condition? Is the only

way to keep it all at bay to use a combination of strength, stealth, and superior

intelligence? (3) Does that mean we need to live on the offensive? (4) Is there anything

we can do about it? (5) Are we all potentially power sources to pragmatically cooperate?

(6) How much does what we learn in our families, at our workplaces, on the street apply

to war? (7) Why do people think that way/how did a particular person come to that

conclusion? (8) How is the topic important to people’s disciplines and professions? (9)

What is the role of communication in people’s thinking? (10) What questions were

prompted in your own mind by what people say or the knowledge they share?

Abbreviated Syllabus for the English Course: Literature and Social Justice

Note: This is a political course masquerading as a course in literature. It is a course in radical politics. Hence it is both amateurish and unprofessional, and also ideological. It has no place in an academic curriculum.

Course Description:

What do "humanitarianism" and "human rights" have to do with the humanities? In what ways can literature contribute to a consideration of these pressing questions in the early 21st century? In a globalizing culture, our interest will be both international and domestic, looking at ways in which personal stories contribute to political histories. In focusing on topics of "social justice," we will consider such questions as truth commissions, genocide, hunger, HIV/Aids, women's rights, children, immigration and refugees.

Jonathan Swift, "A Modest Proposal" (Ireland/hunger)
Carol Bergman (ed)., Another Day in Paradise (aid workers)
Clea Koff, The Bone Woman (forensic criticism)
Philip Gourevitch, This Is To Inform You.... (genocide)
Gil Courtemanche, A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali (genocide/HIV-Aids)
Delia Jarrett-Macauley, Moses, Citizen & Me (child soldiers)
Kenneth Cain et al., Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures (aid workers)
Benjamin Zephaniah, Refugee Boy (refugees)
Victoria Brittain and Gillian Slovo, Guantánamo (detention)
Paul Gready (ed)., Fighting for Human Rights

http://web.austin.utexas.edu/cola/students/courses/coursedetail.cfm?courseID=9661

Abbreivated Syllabus for the English Course: Gender, Sexuality, and Migration

Note: this is billed as an “English” course, yet it is a course in the complex issue of human migrations not literature. The course proposes that migration is shaped by gender and sexuality. What are the professional qualifications of a professor of literature to draw such a conclusion? This is just another ideological agenda masquerading as an academic discourse. Not surprisingly the course description resolves the complex issue of immigration and assimilation in black and white terms: “Although migration is sometimes represented as a threat to the integrity of the nation, it is, in fact, at the center of it.” This is cheap political blather. It’s an insult to the university and an abuse of its students to have complex historical and cultural issues presented by a literary amateur.  This is not what “higher learning” is supposed to be about.

Course Description:

The history and culture of the United States and the larger Americas have been profoundly shaped by migrations, including colonization by European peoples, the African diaspora forced by slavery, the shifting and unstable border between the U.S. and Mexico, the arrival through Ellis Island of Eastern and Southern Europeans, the long and multiple histories of immigrants from Asia, the movement of gays and lesbians to urban centers, and the arrival of refugees from war and genocide. Although migration is sometimes represented as a threat to the integrity of the nation, it is, in fact, at the center of it.

We will explore the impact of this history by reading contemporary literature, mostly by women, with particular attention to how migration is shaped by gender and sexuality. We will consider how literature, with its attention to the relation between personal and historical experience, provides an especially valuable document of migration and intervenes in public discourse about it. The course will also provide students with an opportunity to reflect critically on the their own national identities as residents, and in some cases, citizens of the U.S. - what does it mean, and what can it mean, to be "American"?

http://web.austin.utexas.edu/cola/students/courses/coursedetail.cfm?courseID=9675

Professor Dana Cloud
Associate Professor of Communications

Note: This is not a course in Communications. It is an ideological indoctrination in radical perspectives and an attempt to recruit students to radical organizations.

Cloud’s website includes links to her writings, including “A Radical Pledge of Allegiance,” and “In Defense of Unruliness.” http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~dcloud/Politics2.html)

Syllabus for Cloud’s Course: Communication and Social Change

Course Goals:

The main purpose of this class is to encourage your engagement with the tradition and ongoing practice of movement for social change in the United States. I believe this goal requires some history so that we can become familiar with the ways in which social change agents have used communication—from oratory to the internet—to raise awareness of injustice, demand redress, mobilize others in the cause, and prompt other kinds of direct action including civil disobedience and strikes. This historical knowledge is key to understanding the renaissance of social movements going on around us today—from the WTO to the University Staff Association. After the historical survey of social movements, the second part of the course asks you to become involved as an observer and/or as a participant in a local social movement. We will specifically address two prominent causes locally, the movement against the death penalty and the movement of University staff for higher wages and better treatment. We will also discuss some other current social movements including the fight against corporate globalization and the movement against sanctions in Iraq.

The guiding questions for the course are (1) How does social change happen? And (2) How can we use communication to intervene effectively and with integrity in the process of social change?

Course Texts (available at Co-Op):

*Books marked with an asterisk are required reading for everyone. The other books are available for student reports on specific movements.  They are recommended for everyone’s reading as well.

*Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States  1980,

*Bowers, Ochs, and Jensen, Rhetoric of Agitation and Control, 1993, *Packet of supplemental readings, consisting mainly of documents and speeches from social movements, available at Longhorn copies.

Miriam Schneir, Feminism: The Essential Historical Writings, Vintage, 1992, ISBN 0679753818

Jeremy Brecher, Strike! South End 1997, ISBN 0896085694

Lillian Faderman, Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers, Penguin 1991, ISBN 0140171223

Andrea Dworkin, Letters from a War Zone, Lawrence Hill, 1993 ISBN 1556521855

Peter Levy, The Civil Rights Movement, Greenwood 1998, ISBN 0313298548

Peter Levy, America in the Sixties, Praeger 1998, ISBN 0275955168

Francisco Rosales, Chicano! Arte Publico, 1997, ISBN 1558852018

Eleanor Flexner, Century of Struggle, Belknap, 1996, ISBN 0674106539

 Students should meet with Dr. Cloud to discuss and locate core readings for each movement.

                                    Unit I: What is Social Change and What Does

Communication Have To Do With It?

                                    Unit II: History of U.S. Social Movements

                                   
Social Movement History through Reconstruction         

                                    History of Labor Movement                                         

                                    Early Women’s Movement                  

                                    Second Wave Women’s Movement  

                                    The Anti-Death Penalty Movement Today        

                                    Media and Movements I: The Death Penalty    

                                    Socialism in America

                                    Civil Rights Movement 

                                    The 1960s                                                       

                                    Gay/Lesbian Movement
                                    Student Report Environmental Movement                     

                                    Unit III: Intervening in Contemporary Social Movements

Introduction: Issues in Current Social Movements         

                                    WTO, IMF, World Bank Protests
                                    Your Movements—Progress Reports

                                    Other current social movements: Iraq sanctions 

                                    Anti-racist movements today                

                                    Open discussion: Do we need social change? How does it happen?

                                    What is role of communication in making social change?

 http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~dcloud/socialchangesyll.htm

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