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Dr. Kathryn Russell Professor of Philosophy Dept. of Philosophy - SUNY Cortland Phone: ext. 2014 E-mail: russellk@cortland.edu 38B Old Main Office Hours: TBA Web: http://web.cortland.edu/russellk
	Dr. Kathryn Russell

PHILOSOPHICAL ISSUES IN PREJUDICE & DISCRIMINATION
VAL 140-001 Spring 2005

Dr. Kathryn Russell
Professor of Philosophy
Dept. of Philosophy - SUNY Cortland
Phone: ext. 2014
E-mail - russellk@cortland.edu
38B Old Main
Office Hours: TBA
Web: http://web.cortland.edu/russellk

Required Readings

• Albelda, Randy and Ann Withorn, eds. Lost Ground: Welfare Reform, Poverty, and Beyond. Cambridge: South End Press, 2002.
  
• The Guerrilla Girls. Bitches, Bimbos, and Ballbreakers: The Guerrilla Girls' Illustrated Guide to Female Stereotypes. Penguin Books, 2003.
  
  
• Kivel, Paul. Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work For Racial Justice, revised edition. New Society Publishers, 2002.
  
  
• Welton, Neva and Linda Wolf eds. Global Uprising: Confronting the Tyrannies of the 21st Century, Stories from a New Generation of Activists. British Columbia, Canada: New Society Publishers, 2001.
  
  
• •N.B. Text books are on reserve in Memorial Library. Additional readings will be found on the web or will be handed out in class.
  
  Course Description

This course will examine prejudice, discrimination and oppression due to race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender and class. Ideas about social change will be evaluated as ways to enhance freedom, justice and equality. We will be particularly interested in how power is distributed according to social group and how institutionalized patterns of behavior allow inequality to persist.

The class will emphasize critical thinking about ethical and political problems that confront us in everyday life. It will challenge you to develop your own stand on selected issues but to sympathetically understand alternative points of view. You will be encouraged to work collaboratively with other students in responding to class material.

Course requirements and grading

1. Homework/Class participation: You are expected to attend every class session fully prepared having done the work for that day. 10% of grade

• Homework assignments will be handed out periodically and must be completed on time.
  
  
• What counts as class participation: Speaking up in class in constructive ways - either with questions or comments. Collaborating effectively with other students and me. Coming into my office, etc.
  
  
• Outside activities: Attend 2 campus events of relevance to the class. These will be announced in class or campus publications. Get your passport for learning signed by a faculty member or presentor after the event. Attend more events for extra credit!!

2. Service Learning folder: You will need to complete and turn in:

• Student-Agency Placement Agreement (by the 3rd week of class)
• Service Learning Folder (see separate handout) 25% of grade
  

3. Graded unit assignments:

Gender/ sexism	Sexism & media project	Feb. 15	20% of grade
Race / racism	Take home exam	Mar 22	15% of grade
Poverty/ class	Essay	Apr 7	15% of grade
Globalization	Take home exam	May 9 during finals week	15% of grade

Service Learning Component

In an effort to enhance your learning and take advantage of state-of-the art developments in educational theory, this course is a service learning (SL) class. Experiential learning connects the ideas of the classroom with the needs of the community. In Val 140, it will demonstrate real life application of concepts of oppression and arguments about it - whether and how it exists, how to analyze it ethically and sociologically, and what to do about it. It will give you an opportunity to develop your skills, discover new talents, and meet interesting people. It will provide meaningful and important service for the College and/or Cortland.

Here's what leaders in higher education say about service learning:

What is correlated with success is what is called "engagement," genuine involvement in courses and campus activities. Engagement leads to what's called "deep learning," or learning for understanding. That's very different from just memorizing stuff for the exam and then forgetting it. As Russ Edgerton of the Pew Forum on Undergraduate Learning notes, "What counts most is what students DO in college, not who they are, or where they go to college, or what their grades are." (Carnegie Perspectives, June 2004)

What's the difference between volunteer work, service learning, and internships?

SL lies between the other two, combining components of both. Volunteer work, by itself, is great - but it's about the work itself and not about learning. Both SL and volunteer work are unpaid and typically occur in community based, not-for-profit (501c) settings. Internships are often paid and the emphasis is on the student's own professional development.

"SL uses community service to improve learning, and learning to improve community service" (John Suarez, English, Cortland). Philosophically, SL builds on the idea that theory and practice are importantly linked together; either without the other is not fully successful. Educationally, to learn from what we do, we need to be conscious about what we do - so that we can draw explicit lessons from our experience, note what our insights and questions are, and build on them.

Thus, in this class, you will use logs to record what you do, journals to stimulate reflection, presentations to teach others what you've learned, and essays to analyze the connections between course material and your experiences.

What are the benefits of service learning?

• Increases the relevancy of education to students 'living in a real world'
• Provides important contacts for jobs - networking, letters of recommendation.
• Helps build resumes
• "The SL experience pays benefits beyond the classroom, as well: Students' chances for graduation increase (Coplin), many employers now look for service learning experience (Garofolo), and as a result, students can realize 6-7% higher starting salaries (Day and Devlin)" [John Suarez, 2004].
• Personalizes education for students
• Teaches positive values, leadership, citizenship and personal responsibility
• Empowers students as learners, teachers, achievers and leaders
• Invites students to become members of their own community
• Teaches job skills and prepares students for careers after college
• Contributes thousands of hours of service to people in need, non-profit agencies, private sector companies, non-governmental and governmental agencies.

(See http://csf.colorado.edu/sl/benefits.html)

How many hours do you have to do?

15 hours - spread throughout the semester.


How will you find a placement?

•You are required to attend the Service Learning/ Volunteer Fair on in the Corey Union Exhibition Lounge. You can browse through the tables and set up your placement there or make a contact and set your work up later. Date will be announced

• If you need additional assistance, please contact Mr. John Shirley in Career Services, Van Hoesen Hall, Room A-11, 753-4715.
  
  
  Policies and additional information

1. SUNY Cortland is committed to upholding and maintaining all aspects of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

If you are a student with a disability and wish to request accommodations, please contact the Office of Disability Services located in B-40 Van Hoesen Hall or call (607) 753-2066 for an appointment. Any information regarding your disability will remain confidential. Because many accommodations require early planning, requests for accommodations should be made as early as possible. Any requests for accommodations will be reviewed in a timely manner to determine their appropriateness to this setting.

2. EMAIL: PLEASE CHECK YOUR EMAIL THE DAY BEFORE CLASS FOR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS.

3. Absolutely NO late work will be accepted unless PRIOR arrangements are made with me. Such arrangements will be made only under unusual circumstances.

4. Plagiarism: All work submitted must be your own. Ideas borrowed from others, either directly or through paraphrase, must be well-documented through endnotes or footnotes. If I suspect plagiarism the student will be reported to the Provost and can either accept the charge or defend her or himself in the Academic Tribunal.

5.You are expected to attend every class session and actively participate in discussion. Three unexcused absences are acceptable; excessive absence can lower your grade.

6. If you are absent, you are responsible for finding out what went on in class, whether any assignments were given, and for keeping up with your work.

General Education

VAL 140 satisfies requirements for Category 2 of Cortland's GE program. The 2001- 02 Catalog describes GE2 as follows:

The goal of this category is to educate students about the nature of prejudice and discrimination and their impact on the people of this country and throughout the world.

Assumptions

1. A liberal education should enable students to examine critically the ways they think about themselves as well as other people.

2. Understanding prejudice and discrimination is necessary as a first step in eliminating them.

Objectives

1. To examine issues such as power and bias as they relate to prejudice and discrimination, and how these issues have determined attitudes, institutions, dominance and subdominance.

2. To analyze how various beliefs can lead to conflicting conclusions about a society and its norms, values, and institutions.

3. To study the individual and institutional nature, as well as the extent of prejudice and discrimination, either in the American context with attention given to the global dimension, or in the global context with attention given to the American dimension.

4. To examine prejudice and discrimination in relation to unequal distribution of power.

5. To examine various aspects of prejudice and discrimination such as a moral, historical, educational, health, economic, linguistic, political psychological, and social dimensions. Other intellectual perspectives may be included. No course need embrace all disciplinary perspectives.

6. To examine the factors upon which prejudice and discrimination may be based, e.g.: race and/or gender as well as class, ethnicity, religion, age, sexual orientation, or disability.