Our Syllabus

HUMN-237-01 | Fall 2017

Peace in Pieces: Histories, Theories, and Practices of Nonviolent Politics

Instructor: Dale Carrico; e-mail: dcarrico@sfai.edu

Thursdays, 4:15-7pm Room: 18, Chestnut Street campus; August 30-December 6, 2017

Course Blog: https://peaceinpiecessfai.blogspot.com/

Rough Basis for Grade: Attendance/Participation, 15%; Co-Facilitation, 15%; Reading Notebook, 15%, Midterm Precis/Toulmin, 3-4pp., 20%; Final Paper, 5-6pp., 35% (subject to contingencies)

Course Description:

The arc of the moral universe is a longing... and it bends from just us. In this course we will read canonical texts in the theory, history, and practice of nonviolent resistance and world-making. This course is provoked and inspired by stories and strategies of reconciliation connected to traditions of nonviolent politics. But is this "non-violence" simply an alternative, at hand, or another fraught artifact we are making under duress? We will take seriously and look critically at the subtle and structural violences that ineradicably shape everyday life. We will consider legible testimonies to violation, in a variety of textual forms, while simultaneously considering the cultural ideals of persuasion which often accompany definitions of violence and its limits. We will both take up and take on the many paradoxes of nonviolent activism and violent order that complicate the teaching of what passes for peace. The State as site of violence and alter-violence. Nonviolence, interfaith dialogue, and freethinking. Spontaneity and training. Assembly, occupation, Black Bloc. Prerequisite: ENGL-101 Satisfies: 3-Units of Humanities; Critical Studies Elective, Liberal Arts Elective

Provisional Schedule of Meetings: 

Week One | Thursday, August 31

Introductions

Week Two | Thursday, September 7

Critical Toolkit: Audience and Intention
Logan Rimel, My "Nonviolent" Stance Was Met With Heavily Armed Men

Howard Zinn, Introduction to Thoreau on Civil Disobedience and Reform

Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

Henry David Thoreau, A Plea for Captain John Brown
Co-Facilitating Discussion: Danielle

Week Three | Thursday, September 14

Critical Toolkit: Aims of Argument: Interrogation, Conviction, Persuasion, Reconciliation
Karuna Mantena, The Power of Nonviolence

Correspondence of Count Leo Tolstoy with M. K. Gandhi

M. K. Gandhi, The Doctrine of the Sword

M.K. Gandhi, The Meaning and Practice of Ahimsa

Week Four | Thursday, September 21 
Critical Toolkit: Media Textuality

Screen film, "Iron-Jawed Angels,"dir. Katja von Garnier

Ken Butigan, Alice Paul's Enduring Legacy of Nonviolent Action

Jane Addams, New Ideals of Peace: Passing of the War Virtues

Week Five | Thursday, September 28
Critical Toolkit: ethos -- pathos -- logos

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam

Ella J. Baker, Bigger Than A Hamburger 

Week Six | Thursday, October 5

Critical Toolkit: A simplified Toulmin Schema

Also: Karl Rogers and Rogerian Synthesis

Don't miss this class -- next week's midterm assignment is explained and supported this week.

Week Seven | Thursday, October 12

Critical Toolkit: Dissoi Logoi
Gene Sharp, selections from How Non-Violent Struggle Works
Read Part One (two short chapters), pp. 3-20 and Part Two (six chapters, mostly just lists of methods), for discussion. (The whole book is useful and interesting, you may want to return to it later on your own.)

Arundhati Roy, War Is Peace

George Ciccariello-Maher, Planet of Slums, Age of Riots

William C. Anderson, A Call for Self Defense in the Face of White Supremacy

(This is a text we didn't get to in our discussion from Week Five, when the text was first assigned.)

Co-Facilitating Discussion: Simone, Quinton & Tess

Submit Toulmin/Precis [Midterm grading period]

Week Eight | Thursday, October 19

Frantz Fanon, Concerning Violence

Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Case for Reparations

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, A Third Reconstruction
Co-Facilitating Discussion: Bojana & Qi

Week Nine | Thursday, October 26
Critical Toolkit: Debate

Arendt, Reflections On Violence

Must Eichmann Hang? [In-class Handout]
Supplemental Reading: Hannah Arendt from The Human Condition, "The Power to Forgive"
Co-Facilitating Discussion: Dain & Sarah

Week Ten | Thursday, November 2

Angela Davis, selections from Are Prisons Obsolete? Chapters 1, 2, 6

Nick Estes, Fighting For Our Lives: #NoDAPL in Historical Context
Co-Facilitating Discussion: Kale & Alexandra

Week Eleven | Thursday, November 9 
Critical Toolkit: Four Habits of Argumentative Writing

Carol Adams, An Animal Manifesto

Carol Adams, Beastliness and a Politics of Solidarity

Rob Nixon, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor
Co-Facilitating Discussion: Row & Bailey

Week Twelve | Thursday, November 16

Critical Toolkit: Strengthening Your Thesis, Anticipating Objections
Final Paper Workshop

Week Thirteen | Thursday, November 23

Thanksgiving Holiday

Week Fourteen | Thursday, November 30

Judith Butler, Notes Toward A Performative Theory of Assembly, chapters 1-3 [purchase the book]

Co-Facilitating Discussion: Lex, David & Eric

Week Fifteen | Thursday, December 7

Judith Butler, Notes Toward A Performative Theory of Assembly, chapters 4-6
Co-Facilitating Discussion: Annarose, Ashlyn, Cera

Course Objectives:

Survey canonical texts in the history, theory, and practice of nonviolent resistance: Thoreau, Tolstoy, Gandhi, King, Sharp, Zinn. Consider texts applying and criticizing this canonical history in contemporary contexts.

Address further questions of structural violence, marginalization, exploitation, and oppression. Consider the in/adequacy of their address within the terms of the canon of nonviolence.

Provide a basic toolkit of critical thinking, reading, and writing skills. Use this instruction as an occasion to elaborate but also pressure the traditional distinction of persuasion from violence.

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ACADEMIC RESOURCE CENTER

The Academic Resource Center (ARC) provides free academic support to all SFAI students on any assignment or project. Because everyone benefits from discussing and developing their work in an individualized setting, SFAI recommends that all students make use of the ARC. Students are also welcome to drop by the ARC to study or meet with a group; the space has desk, computers, a printer, course textbooks, and other reference material. The ARC also holds workshops and writing techniques and study skills throughout the semester.

Students can make an appointment with a tutor by dropping in during our regular hours or by visiting sfai.mywconline.com. The ARC opens the third week of the semester and remains open until the last day of classes. Regular hours for our Chestnut Street location are Monday through Friday, 10 AM to 4 PM, with additional hours that vary by semester at Third Street, the Sutter Street Residence Halls, and the Anne Bremer Memorial Library.

DISABILITY ACCOMMODATIONS

SFAI has a commitment to provide equal educational opportunities for qualified students with disabilities in accordance with state and federal laws and regulations; to provide equality of access for qualified students with disabilities; and to provide accommodations, auxiliary aids, and services that will specifically address those functional limitations of the disability which adversely affects equal educational opportunity. SFAI will assist qualified students with disabilities in securing such appropriate accommodations, auxiliary aids and services. The Accessibility Services Office at SFAI aims to promote self-awareness, self-determination, and self-advocacy for students through our policies and procedures.

In the case of any complaint related to disability matters, a student may access the student grievance procedures; however, complaints regarding requests for accommodation are resolved pursuant to Section IV – Process for Requests for Accommodations: Eligibility, Determination and Appeal.

The Accessibility Services Office is located on the Chestnut Campus in the Student Affairs Office and can be reached at accessiblity@sfai.edu. 

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AND MISCONDUCT POLICY

The rights and responsibilities that accompany academic freedom are at the heart of the intellectual, artistic, and personal integrity of SFAI. At SFAI we value all aspects of the creative process, freedom of expression, risk-taking, and experimentation that adhere to the fundamental value of honesty in the making of one’s academic and studio work and in relationship to others and their work. Misunderstanding of the appropriate academic conduct will not be accepted as an excuse for academic dishonesty. If a student is unclear about appropriate academic conduct in relationship to a particular situation, assignment, or requirement, the student should consult with the instructor of the course, Department Chair, Program Directors, or the Dean of Students.

FORMS OF ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT:

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of another’s words, ideas, or information. At SFAI academic writing must follow conventions of documentation and citation (6.1; MLA Handbook, Joseph Gibaldi ch.2). Students are advised to seek out this guideline in the

Academic Support Center, to ask faculty when they are in doubt about standards, and to recognize they are ultimately responsible for proper citation. In the studio, appropriation, subversion, and other means of challenging convention complicate attempts to codify forms of acknowledgment and are often defined by disciplinary histories and practices and are best examined, with the faculty, in relationship to the specific studio course.

Cheating

Cheating is the use or attempted use of unauthorized information including: looking at or using information from another person’s paper/exam; buying or selling quizzes, exams, or papers; possessing, referring to, or employing opened textbooks, notes, or other devices during a quiz or exam. It is the responsibility of all students to consult with their faculty, in a timely fashion, concerning what types of study aids and materials are permissible in their specific course.

Falsification and Fabrication

Falsification and fabrication are the use of identical or substantially the same assignment to fulfill the requirements for two or more courses without the approval of the faculty involved, or the use of identical or substantially the same assignment from a previously completed course to fulfill requirements for another course without the approval of the instructor of the later course. Students are expected to create new work in specific response to each assignment, unless expressly authorized by their faculty to do otherwise.

Unfair Academic Advantage

Unfair academic advantage is interference—including theft, concealment, defacement or destruction of other students’ works, resources, or material—for the purpose of gaining an academic advantage.

Noncompliance with Course Rules

The violation of specific course rules as outlined in the syllabus by the faculty or otherwise provided to the student.