Social Justice College Courses Fall 2009
To join the Social Justice College, select up to three of the following courses as your top foundation seminar preference (in order of preference).
FOUN 090 20 CRN: 12302
Struggle for Justice
Prof. Kim Daubman
Fulfills the following requirements:
First-year course; Engineering Social Science; Writing Level 1
A number of questions will frame our exploration of pressing social issues. How do we determine whether something is fair? What are the fundamental human rights? How has American society promoted and denied these rights to its various members? How are people affected by living in unjust circumstances? How have individuals and organizations struggled for justice? We will explore a number of pressing social concerns including the growing gap between the rich and the poor, immigration policy and practices, human trafficking, treatment of prisoners and detainees, and other issues selected by students.
FOUN 090 31 CRN: 14361
Change the World
Prof. David Kristjanson-Gural
Fulfills the Following Requirements:
First-year course; Writing Level 1
We will engage in a series of readings and a process of writing and inner reflection to investigate the nature of our individual identity -- to learn who we are and to identify what we value and what changes we would like to see happen in the world. From this knowledge we will prepare to find our voice -- our unique way of speaking and writing to argue for those changes we would like to see. We will then investigate what issues have galvanized people to work together to change the world. Choosing from a number of historical and contemporary examples of issues that have motivated people to work for change, we will inform ourselves concerning the underlying elements of injustice that are common to these efforts and we will analyze the struggles to identify common elements that result in success. We will attempt to express our own unique voice to persuade others to join in efforts to evoke change.
ENGL 090 36 CRN: 14441
Speaking Out/Social Justice
Prof. Saundra K. Morris
Fulfills the following requirements:
Humanities; Engineering Humanities; First-year course; Writing Level 1
In this class, we will read various sorts of multicultural literature, including speeches, and write and deliver speeches and oral presentations related to issues of diversity throughout American literature and history. Our research into current social injustices will inform our speaking, reading, and writing about the problems and about individual and structural responses to them. We will work on learning to listen to marginalized voices in American literature and culture in order to develop and to speak our own knowledge and convictions about such pressing social concerns as poverty, gay marriage, racism, women's rights, immigration. Throughout the course, we will seek to enhance our understanding of the multiplicity and complexities of our cultures and literatures in relation to "otherness," and to explore the complex relationships among voice, literature, politics, identitiy, and ideology.
