current social and political philosophyjschroer/resources/3291-syllabus.pdf · phil 3291: current...

The SyllabusCourse Description Cover ............................Course Details Contact Information 2 ................ Course Objectives 2 ................... Required Materials 3 .................. Final Grade Breakdown 3 ..........Semester Overview Course Topics 4 ........................... Reading List 4 .............................. Important Dates 4 ....................... Grading Scale 6 ...........................Class Policies Inclusivity & Accessibility 6 ........ Absences etc. 7 ........................... Participation 8 .............................. Academic Integrity 8 ..................

Some of the most pressing, provocative, polemic debates in the current social political context are “feminist issues”. Questions about abortion and reproductive rights, pornography, sexual harassment, rape, sex/gender roles, masculinity, and gender equity work and home will have or are having a significant impact on elections at every level and are shaping a significant portion of our political discourse and our political lives.

This course will examine several of these debates by availing itself of the significant amount of inquiry that has been provided by feminist philosophers. We will proceed by taking advantage of a baseline feminist text giving an overview of feminist arguments in several arenas, but we will focus week to week on a specific argument taking a position on these issues.

One of our main tasks will be developing our ability to analyze arguments; that will be second only to developing clearer positions on these issues while seeing them in their complexity.{ }

PHIL 3291 CURRENT SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY

Jeanine Weekes Schroer Office: 305 A.B. Anderson Hall Phone: 218 - 726 -7714 Email: [email protected]

MW @ 2PM in Edu E 16

{ CONTENTS }

mailto:[email protected]


� � PHIL 3291: Current Social and Political Philosophy MW @ 2PM in EduE 16

Course Details

CONTACT INFORMATION: [email protected] • 218.726.7714 • Most faculty receive an obscenely high volume of email — including any voicemail

messages you leave on my office phone; please think carefully before you email a professor. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Is this information on the syllabus? • Is this information in the course calendar, webpage, or Moodle site? • Is this something that I should ask or tell the instructor in person? • Can my email be answered in a few sentences?

• I will respond to emails within two business days of receiving it. This means that I rarely answer emails at night or on the weekend. In fact, I rarely work nights or weekends. This also means that if you send me an email at 3am on Wednesday, I may not answer until Friday. If I have not responded within two business days, please send me a follow-up email. Sometimes emails get missed.

• Be sure to place your course title in the subject of your email, followed by a brief description of why you're contacting me (e.g., HONS180: Request for additional resources). Include a polite salutation (e.g., “Hello Professor Schroer”), use complete sentences (emails are not text messages), and sign the email with your full name, so I know who you are.

• Email is now part of your professional identity as a student and it must be used professionally. This will help you throughout your university career and beyond, I assure you.

COURSE OBJECTIVES • Knowledge Acquisition (SLO#1): Understand the strengths and weaknesses of

arguments of several major questions in current social political philosophy including abortion/reproductive rights, pornography, sexual harassment, rape, sex/gender roles, masculinity, and gender equity work and home. Understand the strengths and weaknesses of viewing these questions through the lens of feminist philosophy.

• Knowledge Construction and Application and Critical Thinking (SLO#2, SLO#3): Use understanding of current questions and feminist theory as well as creative, critical, reflective, and effective reasoning to analyze and adjudicate between better or worse .

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Jeanine Weekes Schroer • 305 ABAH • 218.726.7714 • [email protected] • www.d.umn.edu/~jschroer/3291/


http://www.d.umn.edu/~jschroer/3291/





• Self-Realization (SLO#4): Explore arguments about current social political questions and use that knowledge to understand to critically analyze your own views about these questions and improve your ability to interact in a complexly gendered community.

• Effective Communication (SLO#6): Articulate and explain arguments about current questions in social political philosophy and defend your own views about such orally (in diverse groups) and in writing.

REQUIRED MATERIALS • Jennifer Saul’s Feminism: Issues and Arguments (Oxford: New York, 2003). • Moodle access; any additional reading materials and all assignments will be

provided here: https://ay16.moodle.umn.edu/course/view.php?id=140 • and a laptop, tablet, smartphone or other web enabled device or a cellphone with

texting capabilities may be necessary to have with you in class.

FINAL GRADE BREAKDOWN

• 10% Attendance and ParticipationPoints acquired for attendance and your participation in class discussions.

• 30% Analysis EssaysThere will be regular assignments (see calendar below) asking you to respond to analytical prompts for the reading.

• 25% MidtermThere will be an out-of-class essay exam asking you to respond to prompts about the first seven weeks of class.

• 35% FinalThis will be a self-directed final research project.

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Semester Overview

READING LIST We will largely be using Saul’s Feminism: Issues and Arguments as background for feminist arguments. Our main focus will be reading contemporary readings on specific issues.

The most current list of readings is best found on Moodle, however, we will be covering topics in roughly the order listed below.

COURSE TOPICS

IMPORTANT DATES

Gender PornographySexual

Harassment Rape Abortion Family Employment

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Gender

Aug 29 FIRST CLASS

Aug 30 Aug 31 Sept 1 Sept 2

Gender

Sept 5 LABOR DAY

Sept 6 LAST DAY TO DROP

Sept 7 EXERCISE 1

Sept 8 Sept 9

Pornography

Sept 12 LAST DAY TO ADD/DROP

Sept 13 Sept 14

EXERCISE 2Sept 15 Sept 16

Pornography

Sept 19 Sept 20 Sept 21


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Sexual Harassment

Sept 26 Sept 27 Sept 28


Sexual Harassment

Oct 3 Oct 4 Oct 5 MIDTERM

Oct 6 Oct 7

Sexual Harassment

Oct 10 Oct 11 Oct 12 EXERCISE 5

Oct 13 Oct 14

Rape

Oct 17 Schedule Research Meeeting

Oct 18 Oct 19 EXERCISE 6

Oct 20 Oct 21

Rape

Oct 24 Oct 25 Oct 26 Research Topic Proposal

Oct 27 FALL BREAK

Oct 28 FALL BREAK

Abortion

Oct 31

MEET WEEKNov 1

MEET WEEKNov 2

MEET WEEK Nov 3

MEET WEEKNov 4

MEET WEEK

Abortion

NOV 7 NOV 8 NOV 9 LAST DAY TO WITHDRAW EXERCISE 7

NOV 10 NOV 11

Family

Nov 14 Nov 15 Nov 16 EXERCISE 8

Nov 17 Nov 18


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FINAL GRADING SCALE

A: 100-95 A-: 94-90 B+: 89-87

B: 86 -84 B-: 83-80 C+: 79-77

C: 76-74 C-: 73-70 D+: 69-65

D: 64-60 F: <60

Class Policies

INCLUSIVITY & ACCESSIBILITY Your success in this course is important to me. I recognize that there are *multiple* ways to learn and that this multiplicity should be acknowledged in the structure of university courses and the evaluation of their participants. Thus, I encourage students registered in the course to discuss their learning styles and comprehension requirements with me during my office hours or at another arranged time, if necessary. Every student is entitled to a meaningful and stimulating learning experience. Students with disabilities are strongly encouraged to avail themselves of the services provided by the Office of Disability

Family

Nov 21 Nov 22 Nov 23

EXERCISE 9Nov 24

THANKSGIVING

Nov 25 BREAK

Employment

Nov 28 Nov 29 Nov 30 EXERCISE 10

Dec 1 Dec 2

Employment

Dec 5 Dec 6 Dec 7 Dec 8 Dec 9 CLASSES END

Dec 12 Dec 13 FINAL DUE

Dec 14 Dec 15 Dec 16


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Services — http://www.d.umn.edu/disability-resources — (218) 726-6130. This office can help you whether you have long-term difficulties (like learning disabilities, cognitive obstacles, sensory deficits, or other chronic illnesses) as well as short-term ones (like injuries that interfere with your ability to take notes or attend class). Even if you don’t avail yourself of disability services, I strongly encourage you to contact me at [email protected] if you have accessibility needs regarding this course.

ABSENCES ETC. • Absence: Valid excuses for absence include (but are not limited to) illness, family

and personal emergency, and university sponsored activities; also valid excuses should be documented (doctor’s note, court orders, event program, etc.). Whenever possible students should provide advanced notice of absence.

• Attendance: Attendance will be taken. Six or more unexcused absences may adversely affect a student's grade. Students who miss a third of the scheduled meetings will fail.

• Late Assignments: Any major assignment submitted late without an excuse will be penalized one-third of a letter grade for each day that it is overdue. Missing class is a separate issue from missing a deadline. If you are going to miss a deadline you need to make sure I know that and follow the same guidelines you use to identifying valid vs. unexcused that apply

• Minor assignments (anything in the APHQ category) will not be accepted late.

• Makeup Assignments: In the event that a student misses an exam or assignment due to an excused absence a makeup exam or assignment will be made available.

• All assignments must be made up within week of the original deadline.

• Other Grade Issues: For the most part I try to keep an up-to-date account your grade available to you on moodle: https://ay16.moodle.umn.edu/course/view.php?id=140.

• I offer extra credit in most though not all of my classes. Here are the rules: 1) You cannot receive more than 10% extra credit (no matter how much extra credit you do). 2) All extra credit is related to the class, so if you want to recommend an extra credit opportunity to me it will have to meet that requirement. 3) Also you need to make your recommendation before it’s too late for your peers to also take advantage of the opportunity. 4) Most important: Extra credit is likely to dry up

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http://www.d.umn.edu/disability-resources




toward the last two weeks of the semester, so don’t wait until the last minute. There will be no deadline extensions on extra credit.

• Inclement Weather Policy: Information on campus closure can be found on the UMD web page as well as local radio and television stations. If inclement weather prevents you from being able to come to class and campus is not closed, please call me at (218) 726-7714 or send an email.

PARTICIPATION • Classroom Behavior: Ringing cellphones, aggressive behavior toward faculty and

students, or other disruptive behavior will not be tolerated under any circumstances. (See Student Handbook "Code of Conduct.")

• Furthermore, this is an ENGAGED classroom. You are expected to show up prepared to interact with the professor an each other. To facilitate and encourage engagement, this course will use an audience response system; you will need to have a cellphone with texting capabilities*, a smartphone, or a laptop with you in order to participate in regular graded feedback.

• Participation: To facilitate and accurately measure classroom participation I use a classroom response system called Poll Everywhere: https://www.polleverywhere.com. Use the instructions posted here to register so that your responses can be properly recorded and attributed to you.

• In order to use Poll Everywhere you must have access to a cellphone that texts or some sort of web-enabled device — smartphone, tablet device, laptop — during every class.

• You will be responsible for making sure that your responses are being recorded and attributed. You can check the record of your responses (the one that at I will use for your grade) here. I will keep a count of possible response points here. Any discrepancies or technical difficulties should be reported immediately.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY • Appropriate Student Use of Class Notes and Course Materials: Taking notes is a

means of recording information but more importantly of personally absorbing and integrating the educational experience. Broadly disseminating class materials — including syllabi, assignments, the contents of lectures and by extension your notes — beyond the classroom community or accepting compensation for distributing classroom materials undermines instructor interests in their intellectual work product For additional information, please see: http://www.d.umn.edu/vcaa/ClassNotesAppropriateUseof.html.

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• A special precaution is taken with all exams. Your graded exams will be disseminated after grading, but will be collected before your grades are recorded. I will not record grades for exams not in my possession.

• Plagiarism: Any instance of academic dishonesty or plagiarism will be punished by failing the assignment and possibly the class. See the Student Handbook “Academic Integrity”.

• If you use a sentence—even a phrase, even if you paraphrase an idea — from some document without citing it, you have committed plagiarism. Improper citations (incomplete or inaccurate) are acts of academic dishonesty. (If you are using the exact words, you need a proper citation and the remark must be in quotation marks." There are many citation styles, but I prefer Chicago Manual of Style. Here is a resource for proper citations: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/cmosfaq/tools.html.

• For additional information about UMD’s Student Academic Integrity Policy, check out the integrity website: http://champ.d.umn.edu/academic-affairs/academic-policies/student-academic-integrity.

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