Contemporary American Experience
Core 101-17/18: Fall 2000Instructor:
Dale Graden
Graden@uidaho.edu MWF, 2:30-3:20 UCC 108Admin 305 A; telephone: 885-8956
Office hours: Wednesday 3:30-4:30 or by appointment
Mentor:
Sarah Wichlacz
Wich9428@uidaho.edu T,Th, 2:30-3:20 BEL 118Greetings and welcome. This course is part of a newly revised core curriculum at the University of Idaho. It is an attempt to offer to you an interdisciplinary approach to learning that helps you in your transition into the university. We seek to enhance your reading, writing, critical thinking and communication skills. We will read about and discuss several topics that will be helpful tools for you at the university and in your journey through life. The course focuses on three themes in the fall semester: place, race and ethnicity, and religion.
We hope to make this one of the best courses you ever take. For that to happen, you need to attend the course and do the readings. We devote lots of class time to discussion, so please come prepared to discuss the readings and share your ideas on the days noted as discussion. There are several writing requirements. Why you ask? Because the majority of students enter and depart from high schools, colleges and universities across the land unable to express themselves coherently on paper, in cyberspace, or verbally. Practice can help one to develop basic and more advanced writing skills.
The requirements for this core discovery course are as follows:
Five (5) two-page response papers. Three of these response papers are required (based on the religion panel, and the films American Beauty and Smoke Signals) and are noted on the syllabus. You can choose two other events to attend during the semester and write a response paper to these. We will suggest upcoming events, speakers and films that you might want to select. Choices will also be noted at the core discovery course web site (http://www.its.uidaho.edu/cae). Please inform us of your choice before you attend the event. These five two-page response papers are worth a total of ten points.
Four (4) quizzes on the dates noted. These are worth ten points each, for a total of forty points.
Three (3) three-page essays due on the dates noted. These are worth ten points each, for a total of thirty points.
One final exercise in class, worth ten points.
Participation, worth ten points. If you miss more than five meetings of the class, your grade final mark drops by one letter grade. Please let us know by email if you cannot attend a class for any reason.
We will discuss in class what we are looking for in the writing of the five response papers and the three short essays. My suggestion at the outset is to be sure that after you write these assignments the first time you return to them at least once before handing them in. Be sure not to submit anything that you have written without at least one, if not several, revisions.
Readings and books available at the UI Bookstore:
Core Discovery 101 Packet
Virginia Cyrus, Experiencing Race, Class, and Gender in the United States
James Rachels, The Elements of Moral Philosophy
Alan Ball and Sam Mendes, American Beauty: The Shooting Script
Terry Tempest Williams, Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place
Week One
August 28 Introduction
Read tonight Nels Reese and Diana Armstrong, "The Olmstead Plan for the Campus" in the core discovery course packet. This will prepare you for your campus tour.
August 29 and 31: Mentor sections tour of campus
August 30 discussion about interdisciplinary studies
Cyrus, Experiencing Race, 1-7 and 9-10
September 1 discussion
Mark Edmundson, "On the Uses of a Liberal Education" in course packet
Week Two
September 4 Labor Day, no class
September 5 and 7: Mentor sections visit at Computer lab JEB 211A
September 6 discussion
John W. Kingdon, "American Ideology" in course packet
L. Robert Kohls, "The Values Americans Live By" in course packet
September 8 quiz number one; followed by discussion
Cyrus, Experiencing Race, 161-63 about power
Week Three
September 11 Kathryn Paxton George leads a discussion.
Rachels, The Elements, chapters one and two
September 12 and 14: Mentor sections discuss study skills
September 13 group project
September 15 No class; begin reading:
Robert Bellah, "Civil Religion in America" in course packet
Martin Marty, "Religion in America" in course packet
Week Four
September 18 discussion based on:
Robert Bellah, "Civil Religion in America" in course packet
Martin Marty, "Religion in America" in course packet
September 19 and 21: Mentor sections visit at special collections of library
September 20 discussion of Bellah and Marty readings
September 20 Evening Panel on Religion: Ag Science 106
September 22 discussion of Religion panel
Response paper number one due based on the religion panel
Week Five
September 25 discussion
Gerald Stern, "Behaving Like a Jew" in course packet
Grace Paley, "The Loudest Voice" in Cyrus, Experiencing Race, reading number 2
Robert Cherry, "Anti-Semitism in the United States" in Cyrus, Experiencing Race, reading number 54
Li-Young Lee, "The Gift," "The Waiting" and "A Story" in course packet
September 26 and 28: Mentor sections discussion of Aryan Nations and separatist movements in the Pacific Northwest
September 27 discussion
Mary Otto, "American Muslims’ Political Voice Rises" in Cyrus, Experiencing Race, reading number 9
Wallace Stegner, "The Sense of Place" in course packet
George Gilder, "The Necessity for Faith" in course packet
Suggested is Margaret Talbot, "A Mighty Fortress" in course packet
September 29 short paper number one due; and lecture on Mormon
history
Week Six
October 2 Williams, Refuge, 3-49
discussion of novel as a genre
October 3 and 5: Mentor sections—Artists and the environment slide lecture/discussion
October 4 Refuge, 50-95
discussion of wildlife refuge movement
October 6 Refuge, 96-134; quiz number two
Week Seven
October 9 Refuge, 135-73
October 10 and 12: Mentor sections discuss Refuge
October 11 Refuge, 174-232
October 13 Refuge, 233-297; short paper number two due
Week Eight
October 16 K.P. George leads a discussion
Rachels, The Elements, chapter 4
October 17 and 19: Mentor sections—Art and Native Americans
October 18 discussion
October 20 lecture on Native American history and current issues
Week Nine
October 23 discussion
Rodney Frey, "The Tin Shed" and "Seeing from the Inside Looking Out" in course packet
Polingaysi Qoyawayma, "To Be Hopi or American" in Cyrus, Experiencing Race, reading number 3
What is oral history?
October 24 and 26: Mentor sections—Urban Legends
October 25 discussion
Vine Deloria, "Religion Today" in course packet
Ward Churchill, "Let’s Spread the ‘Fun’ Around" in course packet
discussion of film as a genre
October 25 evening viewing of the film "Smoke Signals" in Ag Science 106
October 27 discussion of "Smoke Signals"
Response paper number two due on "Smoke Signals"
Week Ten
October 30 discussion
Michael Ryan, "Don’t Tell Us It Can’t Be Done," in Cyrus, Experiencing Race, reading number 130
Valerie Taliman, "Saving Native Lands," in Cyrus, Experiencing Race, reading number 131
Ann Davis, "Cecilia Fire Thunder: She Inspires Her People," Cyrus, Experiencing Race, reading number 132
October 31 and November 2: Mentor sections visit the Lab of Anthropology
November 1 quiz number three and discussion
Michael Dorris, "Native Americans v. the U.S. Government,"
in Cyrus, Experiencing Race, reading number 49
Scott Kerr, "The New Indian Wars," in Cyrus, Experiencing Race, reading number 50
November 3 No class, visit to the Pow Wow
Week Eleven
November 6 discussion
Louise Endrich, "Dear John Wayne," attached to syllabus
Sherman Alexie, "Nature Poem," attached to syllabus
November 7 and 9: Mentor sections discuss "wachin
westerns at the movies"
November 8 watch "Billy the Kid" video
November 10 quiz number four; and discussion about "Billy the Kid"
Week Twelve
November 13 K.P. George leads discussion
Rachels, The Elements, chapters five and six
November 14 and 16: Mentor sections discuss philosophy and Rachels readings
November 15 continue this discussion
November 17 no class
Thanksgiving Break
Week Thirteen
November 27 discussion about family in US history
read American Beauty script
November 28 and 30: Mentor sections view slides of the Mexican muralists (Riveira, Kahlo, Orozco, Siqueiros) and learn about the Guerrilla Girls
November 29 finish American Beauty
November 29 Evening viewing of "American Beauty" at Ag Science 106
December 1 discussion of "American Beauty"
Response paper number three due on "American Beauty"
Week Fourteen
December 4 Ozzie and Harriet
December 5 and 7: Mentor sections to view a presentation on Photography and the Family based on the work of Jim Goldberg and Mary Ellen Mark
December 6 K.P. George to lead discussion
Rachels, The Elements, chapters 7 and 8
December 8 short paper number three due; and All in the Family
Week Fifteen
December 11 Cosby Show
December 12 and 14: Mentor sections discuss tv and the family
December 13 Simpsons
December 15 a final essay (instructions) in class; and conclusions