Spring 2014 PLSC 464: 2014

PLSC 464

Contemporary Political Theory

CRN 23533

Tuesdays and Thursdays

10:00--11:50am

Arntzen Hall 17

Instructor: Dr. Vicki Hsueh

Office: Arntzen Hall 405

Telephone: x2649

Email: Vicki.Hsueh@wwu.edu

Office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, noon-3pm

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The modern era has been the setting for some of the most energized and divisive contests about the use (and abuse) of power and freedom. Among the many questions that have been confronted: Who should have power? Why? Is power granted, taken, or created? What relationship does freedom have to power? When does one’s freedom become another’s domination?

In this course, we will examine the concepts of power, freedom and difference through a selected array of 20^th century political thought. We will take a sustained and focused examination of several key contemporary thinkers, rather than undertake a wide survey of contemporary theory. By developing familiarity and competency with several key contemporary works, you should be capable of discussing and writing about major themes in these writings as well as able to address subtleties and tensions in these arguments. In addition, a major goal of this course is to couple theoretical and scholarly discussion with examples drawn from contemporary social and political life. With this goal in mind, both the in-class discussions and the papers for this course will be oriented towards creating a dialogue between theory and practice.

GRADING SUMMARY

10% attendance and discussion

8% class presentation

12% blog posting by Wednesday at 2pm/comments by 10pm

10% short writing assignment #1

10% short writing assignment #2

15% short writing assignment #3

35% longer essay, 7-9 pages, with draft and peer review

**Extra Credit -- Attend any of these listed events. (See below)**

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

This is a seminar-style course and it will be conducted primarily through discussion and a variety of writing exercises: blog postings, in-class writings, and short papers. At certain points, I will lecture to provide historical and conceptual background on the readings, but the main focus of the course will be your analysis of the materials. Thus, you must be prepared to discuss and write about the materials for each class meeting. You will need to:

--read the assigned readings before class

--bring relevant texts and notes to class

--be prepared to write about and discuss the texts in depth

To prepare for class participation it will be helpful for you to think about the following questions while doing the reading assignments: What are the arguments made in the reading(s)? How do the readings relate to one another? What are the terms and assumptions employed by the author? Do you agree or disagree with the arguments of the author and on what grounds? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments?

STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES

This course requires and is built around several writing assignments. These assignments allow students to:

1) demonstrate close readings of and understanding of assigned texts

2) demonstrate ability to differentiate among and produce descriptive, persuasive and/or analytical essays.

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

Students will write three short response papers and one longer final paper. These allow students to practice different aspects of theory writing, including summarizing, paraphrasing and comparing arguments as well as making counterarguments and developing standpoints about the material assigned for the week.

a) Short Assignment One: (Summarize/paraphrase) 10%

This assignment requires that you paraphrase one text’s argument about a particular issue/concept. (2-3 pages)

**4/24 Thursday due via CANVAS on Thursday at midnight**

b) Short Assignment Two: (Compare and contrast) 10%

This assignment requires that you compare/contrast the conclusions, premises and assumptions of two text selections. (2-3 pages)

**5/5 Monday due via CANVAS Monday at midnight**

c) Short Assignment Three: (Thesis-support) 15%

The assignment provides a specific thesis statement that you must either defend or criticize. This assignment aims to develop your analytical skills of defending or criticizing a position clearly and persuasively by providing textual evidence and support. (3-4 pages)

**5/23 Friday due via CANVAS at midnight**

d) Longer Persuasive/Analytical Essay: 35%

This essay is to be 7-9 pages long (12 point font, double spaced). The assignment is intended to build upon the skills addressed by the short response assignments. It requires that you engage more than one author/text, address the strengths and weaknesses of the texts under review by taking into account the different animating concerns and theoretical/philosophical methods of argument. In addition, you will complete one draft of this essay for peer review.

**6/11 Wednesday due via CANVAS at midnight**

**Participation**

You will be expected to participate actively in this class.

**Attendance**

You are allowed 2 excused absences (for a grade of 94%). After that point, absences will lower your grade by 5% each additional absence. If you fail to attend, you diminish the course not only yourself but for other members of the seminar. For this reason, basic attendance is a significant component of your grade.

Note: Attendance also includes appropriate behavior in the seminar room.

When members of the seminar arrive to class late, leave early, whisper, read the newspaper, and wander in and out of class, it is a distraction not only to me but to other members of the seminar. Excessive disruptive behavior will negatively affect your attendance and participation marks.

**Class Discussion**

A -- frequent participation in discussions with strong evidence of preparation with detail, focus, and thoughtfulness. Encourages others, moves discussion forward. Participates diligently in peer-review process.

B -- intermittent participation in discussion. Good evidence of preparation and attention to detail in the arguments. Good participation in peer-review process.

C -- infrequent or limited participation in discussion. Sporadic or limited evidence of prior preparation and reflection on assigned texts. Minimal peer-review feedback.

D -- little or no participation in classroom discussions. Minimal peer-review feedback.

F -- no participation in classroom discussions and/or disruptive behavior.

**Class presentation**

Once during the quarter, you will be expected to guide class discussion. On that day, I expect you to prepare thoughtful reading/discussion facilitation questions to guide and prompt class discussion. These questions will be submitted to me the day through email the night before class.

**Blog -- Posts by Wednesday at 2pm/comments by 10pm.**

Spring 2014 PLSC 464

http://plsc464spring2014.blogspot.com/

The blog will allow us to identify, discuss, challenge, and explore the themes and ideas in the seminar. I encourage you to use the blog for a variety of purposes, including:

--careful, detailed interpretations and critiques of the readings.

--creative applications of the reading to current political, social, and cultural events

--continued discussion of in-class debates.

--exploration of related themes and issues in other fields, such as psychology, international relations, communications, history, women’s studies, biology, sociology, anthropology, English, etc.

--ask questions and note confusions.

--materials to help you lead seminar.

Every week, half of the seminar participants will be expected to post to the blog by Wednesday at 2pm. The other half of the seminar will have by Wednesday 10pm to reply to blog posts.

You can opt out of posting 2 times during the quarter. These postings give you the opportunity to share your thoughts with me and the rest of the course and the blog will help me set the agenda for seminar discussion later in the week.

LATE POLICY

Late assignments are graded down 10 points per business day.

Missed assignments receive a score of 0.

Valid excuses for re-taking tests or handing in materials late are those that include written documentation of hospitalization, emergency care, emergency travel, or other crises.

Retain hard copies of all work completed, as well as all work completed and returned, over the course of the semester.

GROUND RULES FOR SEMINAR CONDUCT

~basic courtesy to other class members

~no excessive walking in and out of class

~no late arrivals

~no side-talking during lecture

~ no cellphone use for texting or calls

~laptop use permitted, but can be restricted if disruptive

CANVAS

I will be using CANVAS in the course to post notes, send emails, and distribute any syllabus/course changes. Also, you will be submitting your papers via CANVAS as well. I reserve the right to make changes to the syllabus when needed. All changes will be announced in class, on the Blog, and on CANVAS. Questions and comments on the course and readings are welcomed in and out of class.

ETHICAL POLICY

I will adhere fully to the terms of the Academic Dishonesty Policy, and I expect that everyone in this course is completely cognizant of the University’s policy. Penalties for plagiarism include an “F” in the course. If you have ANY questions concerning plagiarism or related topics of ethical conduct in the class, please see me immediately.

ACCOMMODATIONS

The University is committed to making reasonable efforts to assist individuals with disabilities in their efforts to avail themselves of services and programs offered by the University. To this end, Western Washington University will provide reasonable accommodations for persons with documented qualifying disabilities.

In this course, each voice in the classroom has something of value to contribute. Please take care to respect the different experiences, beliefs and values expressed by students and staff involved in this course. We support WWU's commitment to diversity, and welcome individuals of all ages, backgrounds, citizenships, disability, sex, education, ethnicities, family statuses, genders, gender identities, geographical locations, languages, military experience, political views, races, religions, sexual orientations, socioeconomic statuses, and work experiences.

TEXTS TO PURCHASE

Hannah Arendt. The Portable Hannah Arendt. New York: Penguin Classics.
Michel Foucault. Discipline and Punish. New York: Vintage Books.

Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth, New York: Grove Press.

All online materials

**SCHEDULE OF READINGS**

Week 1—INTRODUCTION TO CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL THEORY

4/1 Tuesday

--Introduction and overview of syllabus

--All seminar participants are expected to sign up for the blog this first week of class.

--Presentation sign-ups

4/3 Thursday

--Timothy Kaufman-Osborne, "Political Theory as Discipline and Subfield," Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 63, No. 3 (SEPTEMBER 2010), pp. 655-673

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25747966 .

--Wendy Brown, “Political Theory Is Not a Luxury: A Response to Timothy Kaufman-Osborn's ''Political Theory as a Profession,'' Political Research Quarterly 2010 63: 680.

STABLE URL: http://prq.sagepub.com/content/63/3/680

Week 2—THE PLACE OF POLITICS

FOR EXTRA CREDIT:

April 8th, Tuesday, 2014, 3pm, CF 110

Women Studies Colloquium: "I Feel For You"

Dr. Dian Million, Department of Ethnic Studies, University of Washington

Dian Million (Tanana Athabascan) is Associate Professor in American Indian Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle. She received her B.A. in interdisciplinary studies from Fairhaven College at Western Washington University in 1995. She earned her Masters and Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California at Berkeley in 2004. Her research explores the politics of mental and physical health, with attention to affect in intersection with race, class, and gender in Indian Country. She is the author of Therapeutic Nations: Healing in an Age of Indigenous Human Rights (University of Arizona Press, 2013), a discussion of the pros and cons of trauma as a political discourse in the struggle for Indigenous self-determination in an era of global neoliberalism.

4/8 Tuesday

--Hannah Arendt, The Portable Hannah Arendt, editor's introduction, vii-lv.

--Arendt, "What Remains? The Language Remains": A Conversation with Gunter Gaus." pp. 3-24

--Arendt, "The Public and the Private Realm," 182-205

Seminar participants (A-H) to post their response to readings on blog by Wednesday at 2pm.

Seminar participants (I-Z) to post comments on blog by Wednesday at 10pm.

4/10 Thursday

--Arendt, "The Public and the Private Realm," 182-230

Presentations:

__________

Week 3—THINKING AND ACTION

4/15 Tuesday

--Arendt, "Reflections on Little Rock," 231-247

--Arendt, "The Social Question," 247-277

Presentations:

__________

Seminar participants (I-Z) to post their response to readings on blog by Wednesday at 2pm.

Seminar participants (A-H) to post comments on blog by Wednesday at 10pm.

4/17 Thursday

--Arendt, from "Eichmann in Jerusalem," 313-388

--Arendt, "Holes of Oblivion" 389-390.

Presentations:

__________

Week 4—RIGHTS OF MAN; SHORT WRITING ASSIGNMENT #1

FOR EXTRA CREDIT:

April 21st, 2014 at 4pm, CF 120

Women Studies Colloquium: "Whose Sexual Expression Is It Anyway?: The Legal Regulation of Sex Work versus the Agency of Sex Workers"

Dr. Carisa Showden, Assistant Professor of Political Science, UNC, Greensboro

In her lecture, Dr. Showden will assess and critique the judicial and regulatory knot of U.S. laws regarding three forms of sex work: prostitution, pornography, and exotic dancing. Her talk examines how legal discourse and practice both produce and sustain particular views of normative sexuality, gender hierarchy, and women's agency. Profesor Showden's teaching and research areas focus on: feminist theory, theoretical and cultural constructions of agency, domestic violence, democratic theory, women and politics, modern political thought, and post-structuralism. She is the author of Choices Women Make: Agency in Domestic Violence, Assisted Reproduction, and Sex Work (University of Minnesota, 2011).

4/22 Tuesday

--Arendt, "The Jewess and Shlemihl," 49-67.

--Arendt, "Writing Rahel Varnhagen, From a Letter to Karl Jaspers," 68-71.

--Arendt, "Perplexities of the Rights of Man," 31-45.

Presentations:

__________

Seminar participants (A-H) to post their response to readings on blog by Wednesday at 2pm.

Seminar participants (I-Z) to post comments on blog by Wednesday at 10pm.

*4/24 Thursday -- NO CLASS / PAPER PREPARATION for Short Writing Assignment #1

--2-3 page summary of any of the previous readings to submit via CANVAS on Thursday at midnight.

Week 5—RESPONSIBILITY/REVOLUTION

4/29 Tuesday

--Arendt, "Total Domination," 119-145

--Arendt, "Organized Guilt and Universal Responsibility," 146-156

Presentations:

__________

Seminar participants (I-Z) to post their response to readings on blog by Wednesday at 2pm.

Seminar participants (A-H) to post comments on blog by Wednesday at 10pm.

5/1 Thursday

--Homi K. Bhabha, "Framing Fanon" in The Wretched of the Earth, vii-xliii

--Jean Paul Sartre, Preface to the The Wretched of the Earth, xliii-1

--Fanon, “On Violence,” from The Wretched of the Earth, 1-52

Week 6—OPPRESSION/POWER; SHORT WRITING ASSIGNMENT #2 via CANVAS Monday at 5pm

5/5 Monday, Short Assignment Two (Compare and Contrast) due via CANVAS Monday at midnight

5/6 Tuesday

**Sandison Lecture and PSA Conference**

Seminar participants (A-H) to post their response to readings on blog by Wednesday at 2pm.

Seminar participants (I-Z) to post comments on blog by Wednesday at 10pm.

5/8 Thursday

--Fanon, “On Violence,” from The Wretched of the Earth, 1-52

--Fanon, "Grandeur and Weakness of Spontaneity," 63-96.

Presentations:

__________

Week 7—VIOLENCE

5/13 Tuesday

--Fanon, “On National Culture,” 145-169.

--Fanon, "Colonial War and Mental Disorders," 181-206.

Presentations:

__________

Seminar participants (I-Z) to post their response to readings on blog by Wednesday at 2pm.

Seminar participants (A-H) to post comments on blog by Wednesday at 10pm.

FOR EXTRA CREDIT:

5/14 Wednesday

Scholars Week Plenary Speaker

Dr. Radha S. Hegde, Associate Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication, NYU.

Dr. Hegde is currently studying economic, social, and cultural globalization and migration. She has previously worked on questions of gender and sexuality and is a co-founder of Manavi, the first South Asian women’s group to address the issue of domestic violence. She is the author of Circuits of Visibility: Gender and Transnational Media Cultures (NYU Press, 2011) http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/faculty_bios/view/Radha_S._Hegde

5/15 Thursday

--Fanon, "Colonial War and Mental Disorders," 207-234.

--Fanon, "Conclusion," 235-240.

Presentations:

__________

Week 8—BODY POLITICS; SHORT WRITING ASSIGNMENT #3

5/20 Tuesday

--Foucault, Discipline and Punish, p. 1-69

--http://www.egs.edu/library/michel-foucault/biography/

Seminar participants (A-H) to post their response to readings on blog by Wednesday at 2pm.

Seminar participants (I-Z) to post comments on blog by Wednesday at 10pm.

5/22 Thursday

--no class meeting. Work on Short Writing Assignment #3

5/23 Friday -- Short Writing Assignment #3 due via CANVAS at FRIDAY, midnight

Week 9—DISCIPLINARY POWER

5/27 Tuesday

– Foucault, Discipline and Punish, p. 73-103, 131-169

--http://teachingthursday.org/2010/02/18/online-teaching-the-panopticon-and-the-unequal-gaze/

--http://teachingthursday.org/2010/01/21/the-panopticon-and-online-teaching/

Presentations:

__________

FOR EXTRA CREDIT:

May 28th, 2014, noon-1:20, Fairhaven College

World Issues Forum/Women Studies Colloquium: "Adventures in Hospital Land: The Semiotics and Sadism of the U.S. Medical Industrial Complex"

Dr. Wendy Simonds, Professor of Sociology, Georgia State University

Her research centers on the sociology of procreative experiences. She is coauthor (w/ Barbara Katz Rothman and Bari Meltzer Norman) of Laboring On. She has collaborated with researchers at the Population Council, which sponsored the U.S. clinical trials of mifepristone (RU-486) and published articles on how mifepristone, as an oral abortion method, affects the ways in which people talk, think about and experience abortion. She is co-editor of Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader (Allyn & Bacon).

Seminar participants (I-Z) to post their response to readings on blog by Wednesday at 2pm.

Seminar participants (A-H) to post comments on blog by Wednesday at 10pm.

5/29 Thursday

--Foucault, Discipline and Punish, p. 170-228

--http://weber.ucsd.edu/~pmichelb/Bartky.pdf

Presentations:

__________

Week 10—POWER AND POLITICS

6/3 Tuesday

--Foucault, Discipline and Punish, p. 293-308

--http://phaidon.philo.at/~iaf/Labyrinth/Kruks.html

--International Day Against Video Surveillance http://www.notbored.org/IDAVS.html

Presentations:

__________

6/5 Thursday

--draft and peer review in class

Finals Week

**6/11, Wednesday – FINAL PAPER DUE via CANVAS by 6pm**

EXTRA CREDIT EVENTS

April 8th, Tuesday, 2014, 3pm, CF 110

Women Studies Colloquium: "I Feel For You"

Dr. Dian Million, Department of Ethnic Studies, University of Washington

April 21st, 2014 at 4pm, CF 120

Women Studies Colloquium: "Whose Sexual Expression Is It Anyway?: The Legal Regulation of Sex Work versus the Agency of Sex Workers"

Dr. Carisa Showden, Assistant Professor of Political Science, UNC, Greensboro

May 14, 2014

Scholars Week Plenary Speaker

Dr. Radha S. Hegde, Associate Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication, NYU.

May 28th, 2014, noon-1:20, Fairhaven College

World Issues Forum/Women Studies Colloquium: "Adventures in Hospital Land: The Semiotics and Sadism of the U.S. Medical Industrial Complex"

Dr. Wendy Simonds, Professor of Sociology, Georgia State University

Monday, March 31, 2014