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Social Justice Studies 100: Introduction to Theories of Social Justice
Summer 2012
10:30 am -12:20 pm, T, W, F (May 15 -June 29)

Course description

This interdisciplinary, introductory course focuses on theories of social justice. It will introduce students to key thinkers and ideas associated with social justice studies, and debates on topics such as poverty, racism, colonization, and the rights of indigenous peoples, children, youth and animals. It will also explore institutional and individual change efforts exploring issues of power/empowerment, agency, leadership and ally work, and the role of transformational and engaged pedagogy.

Instructors: / Office / Email / Office hours
Dr. Catherine McGregor / MacLaurin A 460 / / by appointment
Dr. Georgia Sitara
Dr. Christine O’Bonsawin

*Please note that Catherine McGregor is the course coordinator. Any administrative and course related concerns should be directed to her. You may of course ask for content clarification with the relevant professor for that week.

Assignments:

In class journal writing: 15%

At the end of each class through the course students will be asked to reflect upon their learning in a hand written journal style entry. The purpose of this assignment is for students to make sense of his/her/their own learning and to reflect on key themes, theories, concepts or ideas discussed in class. Entries will vary in length but are not required to be more than a single handwritten, double spaced page. Time will be provided in the last ten minutes of each class to complete these entries. Each entry will be awarded a score of .5 or 1. A student must have a total of 15 entries over the 18 days over which the course is scheduled to earn full marks for this assignment.

 Exams: 75%

·  Exam 1: 25% (in class on May xx) covers material from May 16 to 29th.

·  Exam 2: 25% (in class on June xx) covers material from May 30th to June 12th.

·  Exam 3: 25% (in class on June 28) covers material from June 13th to June 27th.

Each exam will follow a similar format: five short answer questions (2 marks each) and one longer essay style question (15%).

Social Justice Manifest Project: 10%

This assignment is an opportunity for students to articulate their learning, ideals and vision for achieving social justice in the form of a manifesto. This one page assignment can be organized in point form or narrative style. It should contain a minimum of 10 points. The manifesto should reflect student engagement with the course themes, ideas, readings, and lectures. On the final day of class students will be asked to share their Manifesto with a group of their peers. The specific grading criteria and organization of this class will be described in more detail in a document that will be handed out in the first class.

Grading: The University of Victoria has recently approved a move to percentage grading. However, for the summer semester both letter grades and percentages will be recorded using the following scale:

Undergraduate Grading Scale
Grades / Grade Point Value / Percentage / Description
A+
A
A- / 9
8
7 / 90 – 100
85 – 89
80 – 84 / Exceptional, outstanding and excellent performance. Normally achieved by a minority of students. These grades indicate a student who is self-initiating, exceeds expectation and has an insightful grasp of the subject matter.
B+
B
B- / 6
5
4 / 77 – 79
73 – 76
70 – 72 / Very good, good and solid performance. Normally achieved by the largest number of students. These grades indicate a good grasp of the subject matter or excellent grasp in one area balanced with satisfactory grasp in the other area.
C+
C
D / 3
2
1 / 65 – 69
60 – 64
50-59 / Satisfactory, or minimally satisfactory. These grades indicate a satisfactory performance and knowledge of the subject matter.
Marginal Performance. A student receiving this grade demonstrated a superficial grasp of the subject matter.
E / 0 / TBD / Conditional supplemental.
F / 0 / 0 – 49 / Unsatisfactory performance. Wrote final examination and completed course requirements; no supplemental.
N / 0 / 0 – 49 / Did not write examination or complete course requirements by the end of term or session; no supplemental.

Academic Integrity

The university takes very seriously infractions of academic integrity, including plagiarism, impersonation, and cheating on exams. Sanctions against such practices may include: oral and written reprimands, the assignment of remedial work, a mark of zero for assignment in question, a permanent notations on a student's academic record, suspension from classes, and expulsion from the university. According to official UVic policy, a student commits plagiarism when he or she:

 submits the work of another person as original work

 gives inadequate attribution to an author or creator whose work is incorporated into the student's work, including failing to indicate clearly (through accepted practices within the discipline, such as footnotes, internal references and the crediting of all verbatim passages through indentations of longer passages or the use of quotation marks) the inclusion of another individual's work

 paraphrases material from a source without sufficient acknowledgement as described above

Students who are in doubt as to what constitutes plagiarism in a particular instance should consult with us. For full details, see: http://web.uvic.ca/polisci/undergrad/plagiarism.htm. Please note, we reserve the right to use plagiarism-detection software in cases of suspected plagiarism.

Special Needs

Students may have special needs that require personal and/or technological assistance, or some flexibility in attending lectures and exams, or in meeting assignment deadlines. Those with special needs may include the differently-abled, students honouring religious commitments, those with other unavoidable responsibilities, or those with documented medical illnesses. Students with special needs must make them known at the beginning of term (or when appropriate in the case illness), both to the appropriate office of the university (e.g. Resource Centre for Students with a Disability) and to the course coordinator (Laura) and supply all the necessary documentation. If you are unsure where to go in addressing your needs, start with the Student Transition Centre.

Course readings: All course materials will be made available to students at the library. The majority of readings will be available electronically. Other materials (such as some book chapters) will be put on reserve. Students should check with each individual instructor to ensure they are clear on how and where to access all required course readings. An instructor may, at her discretion, circulate in class power points or other lecture material.

Course schedule: (subject to change)

Dr. Christine O’Bonsawin

Wednesday May 16th – Oka – This is Canada?

Film: Kahnasake: 270 Years of Resistance

Required Readings:

Valaskakis, Gail Guthrie, “Rights and Warriors: Media Memories and Oka.” In Indian Country: Essays on Contemporary Native Culture (Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier Press, 2005), p. 35-65.

Day, Richard J. F., “Angry Indians, Settler Guilt, and the Challenges of Decolonization and Resurgence Richard. In This is an Honour Song: Twenty Years Since the Blockades (Winnipeg, MB: Arbeiter Ring Publishing, 2010), p. 261-270.

Friday May 18th – Engaged Pedagogy

Required Readings:

bell hooks, “Engaged Pedagogy.” In Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom (New York, NY: Routledge, 1994).

Graveline, Fyre Jean, “The Eastern Door: Challenging Eurocentric Consciousness.” In Circle WorksTransforming Eurocentric Consciousness (Halifax, NS: Fernwood Publishing, 1998), p. 87-115.

Orner, Mimi. "Interrupting the Calls for Student Voice in Liberatory Education: A Feminist Postructuralist Perspective" In Feminisms and Critical Pedagogy (New York, NY: Rutledge, 1992), p. 74-90.

Tuesday May 22nd – Colonization and Power Imbalance

Required Readings:

Friere, Paulo, “Chapter One” In Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York, NY: Contimuum, 1970), p.43-69.

Memmi, Albert, “Does the Colonial Exist?” In The Colonizer and the Colonized (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1965), p. 47-62.

Wednesday May 23rd – Indigenous Rights and Resurgence

Required Readings:

Deloria Jr. Vine. “Low Bridge – Everybody Cross.” In Red Earth White Lies: Native American and the Myth of Scientific Fact (Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 1997), p. 67-91.

Alfred, Taiaiake, “Peace.” In Peace, Power, Righteousness: An Indigenous Manifesto (Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 1-29.

Friday May 25th – Settler and Ally Responsibilities

Required Readings:

Regan, Paulette, “An Unsettling Pedagogy of History and Hope.” In Unsettling the Settler Within: Indian Residential Schools, Truth Telling, and Reconciliation in Canada (Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 2010), p. 19-53.

Barker, Adam – “Adversaries to Allies: Forging Respectful Alliances between Indigenous and Settler Peoples.” In Alliances: Re/Envisioning Indigenous-Non-Indigenous Relationships (Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 2010), p. 316-3300.

Tuesday May 29th - Exam

Dr. Georgia Sitara

Wednesday May 30th - Race, Racism, Racialization and Anti-Racism

Film: Little Black School House
Required Readings:
Timothy J. Stanley, "Bringing anti-racism into Historical Explanation: The Victoria Chinese Students' Strike of 1922-1923 Revisited," Journal of the Canadian Historical Association, 13 (April 2002): 141-165.
Barbara J Fields, "Whiteness, Racism and Identity," International Labour and Working Class History, 60 (Fall, 2001): 48-56.

Friday June 1-- Antisemitism

Film: Discordia
Required Readings:
Michael Curtis, "Antisemitism: Different Perspectives," Sociological Forum 12.2 (June 1997): 321-330.
Alan Davies, "After the Holocaust, National Attitudes to Jews, A Tale of Two Trials of Antisemitism in Canada 1985," Holocaust and Genocide Studies 4.1 (1989): 77-88.

Tuesday June 5 – Poverty

Required Readings:

Peter Dorey, "A Poverty of Imagination: Blaming the Poor for Inequality," The Political Quarterly, 81.3 (July 2010): 333-343

Barbara Stark, "Theories of Poverty / The Poverty of Theory," Brigham Young University Law Review 2009.2 (April 2009): 381-430.

Wednesday June 6 – Animal Rights

Required Readings:
Marjorie Spiegel, "The Dreaded Comparison: Slavery and the Oppression of Animals," Environmental Magazine 6.6 (November 1995): 40.
Tamari Kitossa, "Same Difference: Biocentric Imperialism and the Assault on Indigenous Culture and Hunting," Environments 28.2 (September 2000): 23-36.

Friday June 8 -- The Rights of Children and Youth

Required Readings:

Carol Dauda, "Childhood, Age of Consent and Moral Regulation in Canada and the UK," Contemporary Politics 16.3 (2010): 227-247.

Linda Gordon, "The Perils of Innocence, or What's Wrong with Putting Children First," Journal of the History of Childhood and Youth 1.3 (December 2008): 331-350.

Tuesday June 12: EXAM

Dr. Catherine McGregor

June 13 -- Commitment to social justice: Civic Identity development

Required Readings:

Na'ilah Suad Nasir & Ben Kirshner (2003): The Cultural Construction of Moral and Civic Identities. Applied Developmental Science, 7:3, 138-147

Vianna, E & Stetsenko, A. (2011). Connecting learning and identity development through a transformative activist stance. Human Development, 56: 313-338.

June 15 -- Becoming a change agent: Agency and socio-political change

Required Readings:

Hearn, Laura M. (2001). Language and Agency. Annual Review of Anthropology, 30: 109-137.

I am an activist website: http://www.iamanactivist.org/

June 19 -- Freire; transformational education, democracy, dialogue and Conscientization

Required Readings:

Kester, K., & Booth, A. (2010). Education, Peace and Freire. Development, 53 (4): 498-503.

Gadotti, M. & Tores, C.A. (2009). Paulo Freire: Education for Development. Development and Change, 40 (6): 1255-1267.

June 20 -- Ally development

Required Readings:

Edwards, K. E. (2006). Aspiring Social Justice Ally Identity Development: A Conceptual Model. NASPA journal, 43 (4): 39-60.

Evans, N. J., & Broido, E. M. (2009). Encouraging the Development of Social Justice Attitudes and Actions in Heterosexual Students. New Development for student services, No. 110: 43-54.

June 22 -- Leadership for social justice: The role of the arts

Required Readings:

Fryd, V. G. (2007). Suzanne Lacy's Three Weeks in May: Feminist Activist Performance Art as "Expanded Public Pedagogy". Feminist Formations, 19 (1): 23-38.

Bratich, J. Z., & Brush, H. M. (2011). Fabricating Activism: Craft-Work, Popular Culture, Gender. Utopian Studies, 22 (2): 233-261.

June 26th -- U Vic Pride Ally Workshop

June 27th -- Final exam (McGregor)

June 29th -- Social Justice Manifesto Symposium (presentation and discussion)

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