Hum 10A (Honors), Fall 2013:
Culture, Science, Society I:
Power, Resistance and Empire
Ticket #: 16750
T/Th 12:00pm-1:15pm BGS 341
Professors:
Margot Lovett, Ph.D.History/Women’s & Gender Studies
Email:Tel: (949) 582-4979
Office: BGS 305
Office hours: Tue & Thurs 8:00-9:00am & 1:30-3:00pm / Ray Zimmerman, Ph.D.
English/Liberal Arts
Tel: (949) 582-4931
Office: LRC 324A
Office hours: Mon & Wed 1:00pm-2:00pm
Tue 2:00pm-5:00pm
Recommended Preparation: Admission to the Honors Program
Course Description: Welcome to Humanities 10A! This is the first course in a cross-disciplinary Honors sequence organized around a single theme or topic. The course is designed to explore the continuity of cultural traditions through a study of major works of history, literature, philosophy, social thought, fine arts, and the sciences, and to compare and contrast the modes of inquiry characteristic of those disciplines. Topics may vary from year to year. This is an Honors Program course, open to all students but required of every Honors Program student.
The theme for this section of HUM 10A is “Power, Resistance, and Empire.” During the course of the semester, we’ll focus on European imperialism/ colonialism in the Americas, Africa, and the East, as well as the resistance to empire-building by indigenous people in these regions. We will particularly focus on the European conquest and colonization of the so-called “New World;” American slavery as a legacy of imperialism/ colonialism; and British imperialism in Africa, India and China. The course will present a multiplicity of voices, including those of the colonizers and the colonized, as well as contemporary critical discussions of these topics. This section of HUM 10A will also introduce students to a variety of genres—letters, speeches, historical analyses, scientific discourses, poems, and art-works produced from the 1500s to the late 1800s—as a way of showing the implication of the humanities in social and political issues.
Learning Outcomes: Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Recognize, analyze, and discuss a number of diverse scholarly perspectives concerning the notion of Renaissance.
- Complete a close, critical reading of primary texts, learning to recognize the author’s bias and his intended audience.
- Examine explicit models and techniques of reasoning from various periods of history.
- Conceptualize research problems and prepare a documented research paper.
- Prepare a hermeneutical analysis of a representational passage from a masterwork of literature.
- Discuss and analyze the artistic significance of a major monument of art history.
Required Texts:
Various assigned texts available as PDF files from Blackboard (see
On-Line Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue (see
Assignments: In this course, you will write four formal essays, one progress report, contribute daily to class discussions, and give a 10-15 minute in-class presentation. All formal essays will be composed through a process of drafting, revising, and editing. All final formal essays must be typed and presented according to Modern Language Association (MLA) 2009 guidelines.
Grading: The grading breakdown for this class is as follows:
Critical Response Paper I (2 pages minimum) 10%
Critical Response Paper II (2 pages minimum) 10%
Literary/Art Analysis (6 full pages minimum) 25%
Research Paper (8 full pages minimum) 20%
Research Paper Progress Report: 10%
Class Participation: 25%
These are guidelines intended to help students plan their work in this course. However, the instructors reserve the right to make changes in these evaluative criteria during the course of the semester.
Critical Response Papers (10% each): Each student will submit two (2) response papers, identifying and analyzing the main issues in at least two readings in the course packet. Each response paper must be a minimum of two complete pages, typed and double-spaced. The use of “I” is acceptable; however, you must back up your assertions about the readings with thorough analysis. In addition, you should refer directly to important passages in the readings using quotations and/or paraphrasing and using correct MLA 2009 style. The papers must be handed in on the day that particular reading is to be discussed. No late papers will be accepted!
An “A” paper is one in which you analyze the main point(s) of the reading and respond to them with in-depth analyses of your own.
A “B” paper is one in which you identify and respond to the author’s arguments. Your analysis, however, may be underdeveloped.
A “C” paper is one in which you provide a simple summary of the main points of the reading.
A “D” paper is one in which your comments do not address the main point(s) of the reading.
Each Critical Response paper will count 10% toward the final grade.
Literary/Art Analysis (25%): Following the guidelines on p. 8 of the syllabus, each student will submit a 6-page minimum paper on topics to be provided. This essay may involve a limited amount of research designed to find and/or analyze a literary or artistic text.
Historical Research Paper (20%): Following the guidelines on p. 9 of the syllabus, each student will prepare an 8- page minimum typed, double-spaced paper on any one of a list of topics to be provided.
Historical Research Paper Progress Report (10%): Following the guidelines on p. 10 of the syllabus, each student will submit a 3-page minimum typed, double-spaced paper detailing his/ her progress in completing the research paper assignment.
In-Class Presentation: Following the guidelines on p. 11 of the syllabus, each student will give a 10-15 minute in-class presentation on the group or episode discussed in the Research paper.
Attendance: Attendance is mandatory. Each student must sign in daily and is allowed two (2) absences during the course of the semester; since this is a seminar-style discussion-based class that is formulated around student participation, each subsequent absence will negatively affect the final grade.
Class Participation: Each student is expected to do all of the assigned readings and contribute every day to small and large group class discussions. In addition, students will present the findings of their research papers. Class participation will count 25% toward the final grade. Please note that it will be impossibleto earn an A for this course unless you demonstrate through your comments during discussions that you have indeed come to class having completed all of the reading assignments for that day, and have presented your research to the class.
A = participates fully in discussion and in-class activities by offering thoughtful comments every or almost every class period that relate directly to the assigned reading, or/ and connect to prior readings, and contribute to the discussion by building on the comments of others. This includes asking insightful questions that pertain directly to the assigned reading(s) for the class period.
B = participates in discussion and in-class activities by offering comments most class periods that relate directly to the assigned reading, or/ and connect to prior readings, or/ and contribute to the discussion by building on the comments of others. This might include asking questions that relate tangentially to the assigned reading(s) for the class period.
C = participates in discussion and in-class activities by occasionally making comments that relate directly to the assigned reading, or/ and connect to prior readings, or/ and contribute to the discussion by building on the comments of others. This includes regularly making comments that do not relate directly to the assigned reading or asking unrelated questions.
D = rarely participates in discussion and in-class activities.
Plagiarism: According to the Saddleback College Student Handbook, plagiarism is any conduct in academic work or programs involving misrepresentation of someone else’s words, ideas or data as one’s original work, including, but not limited to, the following:
intentionally representing as one’s own work the work, words, ideas or arrangement of ideas, research, formulae, diagrams, statistics, or evidence of another.
taking sole credit for ideas and/or written work that resulted from a collaboration with others.
paraphrasing or quoting material without citing the source.
submitting as one’s own a copy of or the actual work of another person, either in part or in entirety, without appropriate citation (e.g., term-paper mill or internet derived products).
sharing computer files and programs or written papers and then submitting individual copies of the results as one’s own individual work.
submitting substantially the same material in more than one course without prior authorization from each instructor involved.
modifying another’s work and representing it as one’s own work.
Your own commitment to learning requires you to be honest in all your academic course work. Faculty members are required to report all infractions to Student Services, wherein a range of disciplinary measures may take place, including receiving an F in the course and expulsion from the college. The complete policy on academic integrity can be found at:
The instructors reserve the right to give a grade of zero or to require a proctored rewrite if they feel thata paper may be the product of too much outside help, if it does not reflect the writer’s abilities or if the voice and style coming through the paper do not match the writer’s voice and style in drafts, emails and other writing done in class.
Turnitin Assignments: You will be required to upload final drafts of your essays to the Turnitin assignments in Blackboard. Submitting these drafts will verify the authenticity of your work and your proper citation of sources. Turnitin will compare your work to the work of other students, both in this course and in others, and to other sources on the Internet and elsewhere. While all submitted papers will be included as source documents for a limited time in the Turnitin reference database, your instructors will be the only people who can see your work.
TO SUCCEED IN THIS CLASS, you should follow these important course policies:
- Computer Access: You must have access to a computer and the Internet to complete the assignments in this course. If you do not have a computer, the college makes them available to you in the Writing Center (see for more information).
- Class Email: We will be sending emails throughout the semester to your Saddleback email address. Please check it regularly or have your Saddleback mail redirected to your home email address. If you need technical support, please see
- Late Papers: Bring all papers to class and/or submit them to your instructors on the day due. Late papers may receive grade penalties to be decided by the instructors.
- Missing Papers: Make sure you hand in all of the required essays. Failing to hand in any of the required essays will result in a score of zero for that paper, which will make it virtually impossible to pass the course.
- Turnitin Assignments: Submit your papers to the Turnitin assignments in Blackboard for originality review. We reserve the right to give a paper grade of zero (i.e. 0) if the paper is not submitted to Turntin or if a draft different than the one turned in to the instructors is submitted to Turnitin.
- Classroom Courtesy: Show courtesy to other students and to the instructors by attentively listening to and actively participating in class discussion. Private conversations, cell phone use, surfing the Web, and text messaging in class are discourteous and aren’t appropriate for academic and professional situations.
- Drops: Keep in mind that it’s ultimately your responsibility to make sure you are dropped from this class if you no longer wish to be enrolled. Don’t presume you have been dropped because you stopped attending. If you don’t drop the course officially, you may receive an “F” for the class.
Grading Scale: We will give grades for papers and presentations during the semester using a scale that includes plus and minus grades (e.g. B- or B+). Saddleback’s Registrar, however, only accepts whole grades. A course grade recorded in Backboard’s grade book as B+ or B-, for example, will therefore be reported to the Registrar at the end of the semester as a grade of B.
HUM 10 A: Reading and Writing Assignment Due Dates
Topic / Week / Date /Reading and Essay Assignment Due Dates
American Encounters / 1 / Tue 8/20 / Introduction to the Course; Introduction to “Power, Resistance and Empire”Thu 8/22 /
Discuss Critical Response Papers assignment
Christopher Columbus “The Discovery of the Bahamas”Bartolome de las Casas, “Raiding the Bahamas”
“Conflict in the Caribbean”
2 / Tue 8/27 / Juan Gines de Sepulveda, “Democrates Secundus, or the Treatise on the Just Causes of War Against the Indians”
Bartolome de las Casas, “In Defense of the Indians”
Thu 8/29 / Bernal Diaz del Castillo, “Signs of Empire”
“The Death of Cuauhtemoc–A Chontal Story”
3 / Tue 9/3 / Faculty Contractual Day—Classes not in session
Thu 9/5 / Michel de Montaigne, “Of Cannibals”
Kirkpatrick Sale, “The Conquest of Paradise”
4 / Tue 9/10 / Irene Silverblatt, “Women of the Peasantry”
Stuart Schwartz, “Indian Labor and New World Plantations”
Thu 9/12 / “Cherokee Women Resist Removal”
Theda Perdue, “Cherokee Women and the Trail of Tears”
5 / Tue 9/17 / Michael Drayton, “Ode: totheVirginianVoyage”
Discuss Literary/Art Analysis assignment
Thu 9/19 /Helmers, “The Elements of Critical Viewing”
Tolín, “First Landing of Columbus on the Shores of the New World, at San Salvador, W.I., Oct. 12th 1492.”
6 / Tue 9/24 / “Indian Massacre at Wilkes Barre (Valley of Wyoming, 1778)”William Wordsworth, “To Toussaint L'Ouverture”
Resistance to Slavery
in the US &
Imperialsim in Africa / Thu 9/26 / Thomas Jefferson, “On Indians and Negroes”
7 / Tue 10/1 / Thomas Paine, “African Slavery in America”
Sojourner Truth, “”Ar’n’t I a Woman” (speech, 1851) and “Photograph of Sojourner Truth” (with bio)
Thu 10/3 /
Final due date for Critical Response Paper I
Harriet Jacobs, “The Jealous Mistress”Lydia Maria Child, “Slavery’s Pleasant Homes: A Faithful Sketch” (1843)
8 / Tue 10/8 /
Literary/Art Analysis due. Discuss Research Paper
Thu10/10 / Frederick Douglass, “West India Emancipation” (speech, 1857)9 / Tue 10/15 / Conrad head note
Conrad, excerpts from “Heart of Darkness”
Thu 10/17 / Chinua Achebe, “An Image of Africa”
10 / Tue 10/22 / “Constitution of the New Fante Confederacy”
Casely Hayford, “Self-government and journalism in the Gold Coast”
Thu 10/24 /Lugard, “The Rise of Our East African Empire, 1893”
Research paper topics due
11 / Tue10/29 /“The Reception of the First English Ambassador to China, 1792”
Qian Long: “Letter to George III, 1793”
Thu 10/31 /Lin Zixu (Lin Tse-Hsu), “Letter of Advice to Queen Victoria (1840)”
“The People of Canton: Against the English, 1842”
Wilson, “Coffee, Tea or Opium?”12 / Tue 11/5 / Robert Clive: “Speech in Commons on India, 1772”
Karl Marx, “On Imperialism in India” (117-128)
Thu 11/7 / Tennyson, “The Defence of Lucknow”
“Proclamation to the People of Oude on its Annexation, February 1856”
“The King of Oude’s Manifesto from the Delhi Gazette, 29 September 1857
13 / Tue 11/12 / Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden” and “The Ballad of East and West”
Katherine Lee Bates, “In the Philippines”
Eric Gamalinda, “Amigo Warfare”
Poems by Lalon Fakir and Toru Dutt
Thu 11/14 / Research paper progress reports due
Orientalist Art
14 / Tue 11/19 / S.G.W. Benjamin, “Life in Persia, 1885”
Charles James Wills, “A Persian Wedding, 1885”
Colonel L. du Couret: “Justice in Arabia, c. 1890”
Thu 11/21 / Edward Said, excerpt from Orientalism
Final due date for Critical Response Paper I
15 / Tue 11/26 / TBA
Thu 11/28 / No class—Thanksgiving Holiday
16 / Tue 12/3 /
Research paper due
Presentations of research
Thu 12/5 /Presentations of research
17 / Tue 12/10 /Presentations of research
Thu 12/12 /Presentations of research
Exam week / Tue 12/1712:45-2:45 /
Presentations of research
For drop and withdrawal deadlines, see the “Details” page on the Class Schedule Web site.
Literary/Art Analysis (25%)
Assignment: Write a thesis-driven 6 full page minimum essay in which you analyze how the techniques used in two literary texts or artworks from the 15th to the 19th century (i.e. 1400-1899) make explicit and/or implicit arguments about power and/ or resistance and/ or empire. Choose texts from among those provided by the instructors and defend your analytical claims using evidence such as quotations or artistic elements. Your aim is to compare and contrast two texts or artworks on the same subject.
Notes: To succeed with this essay, you’ll need to choose literary or artistic texts that interest you enough to merit spending a number of weeks on them. You will need to carefully read or study your chosen literary texts or artworks to fully familiarize yourself with them. Annotate the texts or artworks thoroughly, paying special attention to any techniques used that make explicit and/or implicit arguments about power and/or resistance and/ or empire.
You may want to begin your analysis of the texts or artworks by mentioning why you found them interesting and worth writing about. This could involve using a small amount of narrative in your introductory paragraph. Although your main focus in this paper is the texts or artworks rather than your personal experience, your standpoint as an academic writer is also of interest to the reader. Therefore, it is acceptable that you use the word “I” in introductory observations and in presenting your arguments and conclusions.
While this is not a research paper, you may need to do some basic research about the historical context within which the texts or artworks were produced, events to which the texts may be responding, and the authors of the work. Avoid lengthy discussion, though, of the authors’ or artists’ biographies. Keep your focus on analyzing the texts and their arguments. Remember also to cite any sources you use in the essay.
Because this is a thesis-driven essay, you will need to make sure your paper has an arguable, specific, and complex thesis that discusses the techniques used to make explicit and/or implicit arguments about power and/ or resistance and/ or empire in texts or artworks you are analyzing. You will also need to develop supporting paragraphs that are unified around arguable topic sentences and that defend these topic sentences with analysis of specific examples or elements from the texts or artworks. While you may include one paragraph of summary of the literary texts or description of the artworks, you should avoid using only summary or description throughout your paper. Excessive use of summary or description seriously undermines an analytical essay.