Honors Learning Community

Controlling the Body Politic (LCIS-101-H01)

Professor Diane Grossman and Professor Abel Djassi Amado
Simmons College: Fall Semester 2017
Wednesdays 11:00 am-12:20 pm
Main College Bldg., Room W-201

INSTRUCTORS:
Diane Grossman, Ph.D. Abel Djassi Amado, Ph.D.
diane.grossman@simmons.edu abel.amado@simmons.edu
617-521-2212 617-521-2589
Office: MBC C310 A (English/Philosophy Suite) Office: MBC E203A (Political Science/IR/
Economics Suite)
Office hours: Thursday, 8:30-10:30am Office hours: Tuesday, 8:30-10:30 am
and by appointment and by appointment

Note: please review the syllabi for the two three-credit courses for background on this
component of the learning community.

INTEGRATIVE SEMINAR DESCRIPTION:

We have all no doubt had experiences where we felt at home and included and other experiences
where we felt like someone “on the outside looking in.” At times, this dynamic might be a result
of individual differences—perhaps you are an introvert, for example, or perhaps everyone is
discussing the latest Netflix phenomenon and you do not watch the show. However, at other times,
these felt differences result from systemic differences and have little or nothing to do with the
individual participants. In fact, every culture has it’s “insiders” and “outsiders,” people and groups
who have power and privilege and others who are marginalized. This Learning Community and
the Integrative Seminar in particular, addresses the ways that language constructs marginality and
identity. It asks the central question: How does language “otherize”?

REQUIRED TEXTS:
There are two assigned books for this courses:
1. George Orwell. Nineteen Eighty-Four: A Novel. [any edition will do]
2. Anita Diamant. The Boston Girl. London: Simon & Schuster, 2015.
Additionally, we will be drawing from an assortment of original books, articles, and other media.
All reading materials will be provided through Google Drive/Moodle to all registered students.
Each week, we will have a class discussion relating the readings to the topic of the week, listed on
the Schedule page.

CLASS POLICIES:
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: You are expected to do your own thinking, write your own words, and
create your own arguments. If you use someone else’s words, ideas, or arguments, you must
always make that clear in your paper using footnotes, citations, or references. Please ask if you

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have questions about citation. Cases of academic dishonestly will be reported to the Simmons
Honor Board. To learn more, information is available at: http://www.simmons.edu/student-
life/handbook/rights-responsibilities/honor-system.

ACCOMMODATIONS FOR DISABILITIES:

Reasonable accommodations will be provided for students with documented physical, sensory,
systemic, cognitive, learning, and psychiatric disabilities. If you have a disability or medical
condition and anticipate that you will need a reasonable accommodation in this class, you will need
to work with Disability Services, located in E-108 of the MCB at 300 The Fenway, 617-521-
2474. The procedure for requesting accommodations, and other information, is available at:
http://www.simmons.edu/student-life/student-services/disability-services. All information and
documentation are confidential.

TITLE IX AND THE SIMMONS COLLEGE GENDER-BASED MISCONDUCT POLICY

Title IX Federal law states that all students have the right to gain an education free of sex-based
discrimination. Some examples of sex-based discrimination, as defined by this law include
sexual harassment or exploitation, sexual assault, domestic/dating violence, and stalking. In
compliance with Title IX, Simmons College has a ‘Gender-Based Misconduct Policy’ which
defines these forms of misconduct, outlines College protocol and procedures for investigating
and addressing incidences of sex-based discrimination, highlights interim safety measures, and
identifies both on and off-campus resources. To learn more about Title IX and the Gender-Based
Misconduct Policy, please refer to: http://simmons.edu/about-simmons/title-ix.

Simmons College encourages all community members to report incidences of gender-based

misconduct. If you or someone you know in our campus community would like to receive
support or report an incident of gender-based discrimination, please contact any of the following:

Simmons College Title IX Coordinator, Gretchen Groggel Ralston (for faculty/staff

concerns): Office Location: General Counsel, Room E-200 /
Phone Number: (617) 521- 2768
Simmons College Deputy Title IX Coordinators (for student concerns): Nancy Nienhuis,
Associate Dean Office Location: Office of Student Life, C-115
Phone Number: 617-521-2125
Catherine Paden, Associate Provost and Dean of the UG Program
Office Location: Provost’s Office, C-219/ Phone number: 617-521-2501
Coordinator of Simmons Violence Prevention and Educational Outreach Program, Gina
Capra: Office Location: Room W-003 / Phone Number: (617) 521-2118
Simmons College Public Safety:
Office Location: Lobby of the Palace Road Building (P-106)
Phone Number: (617) 521-1111 (emergency) or (617) 521-2112 (non-emergency)

Additionally, the Gender-Based Misconduct Policy has a Consensual Relationships clause that
prohibits intimate, romantic or sexual relationships between students, faculty, staff, contract
employees of the College, teacher’s assistants, and supervisors at internship/field placement
sites.

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To view the full Simmons College Gender-Based Misconduct Policy, please go to:
http://internal.simmons.edu/students/general-information/title-ix/gender-based-misconduct-
policy-for-students-faculty-staff-and-visitorshttps://internal.simmons.edu/students/general-
information/title-ix/gender-based-misconduct-policy-for-students-faculty-staff-and-visitors

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING:

Your grade for the course will be based on five pillars:
I. Attendance (5%): Mandatory (exceptions apply when documented).
II. Contribution to class learning/experience (10%): A portion of each class will be based
on discussion. Active participation entails clear consideration of the assigned materials
and lecture. Contribution to class learning also includes final reflection (see the Moodle
section on Assignments).
III. Four Critical Reflection of the Readings (35%): You will be asked write critical
reflection of the assigned readings for that week. Each critical reflection should be
approximately two page in length (12-point font, double-spaced, with 1 inch margins).
The critical reflection piece should consists of two main parts: first, it addresses the key
points/arguments of the readings, and, second, it must include your own
response/criticism to the readings. Refer to the 4-M sheet on how to deconstruct the
readings. Late submissions will not be accepted.
IV. Three Short-Essay (30%)
V. Final Presentation (20%): You will be asked to present your final projects in Hon 101
and Hon 102. (see the sheet on Assignments for more information).

**A syllabus is not a contract. All assignments are subject to change**

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 WEEKLY TOPICS AND ACTIVITIES

Thursday, September 7
Topic of the day: The Invention of Political Reality
Introductions and discussion of the summer readings
George Orwell, 1984 (any edition will do)
Bret Stephens, “Sean Hannity Is No William F. Buckley,” The New York Times, July 6,
2017 [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/opinion/conservativesmedia.html?emc=edit_th_
20170706&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=46690007]

Wednesday, September 13
Topic of the day: Current Political Debates
Topic 1: The Texas bathroom bill
1. New York Times, “Texas’ Transgender Bill Idiocy”
[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/07/opinion/sunday/texas-transgender-bill-idiocy.html]
2. Breitbart, “Texas Transgender Bathroom Bill Triggers National Speculation”
[http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/01/07/texas-transgender-bathroom-bill-triggers-national-speculation/]
3. Boston Globe, “The truth about the transgender public accommodations bill”
[https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/10/20/the-truth-about-transgender-public-accommodations-
bill/tl8OiTH5VlN9lFFyfeA2XI/story.html]

Topic 2: Who are the terrorists?

1. New York Daily News, “Trump tweets swiftly about terror attacks in Barcelona but
waited hours to respond to Charlottesville carnage”
[http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-tweets-quickly-barcelona-contrast-va-response-article-
1.3421302”]
2. Breitbart, “Police: Barcelona Terrorists Plotted Massive Butane Bomb, Hundreds
Targeted”
[http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/08/18/police-barcelona-terrorists-plotted-butane-bomb-hundreds-
targeted/]
3. New York Post, “The perils of isolating Trump, why terror targeted Barcelona &
other comments,”
[http://nypost.com/2017/08/20/the-perils-of-isolating-trump-why-terror-targeted-barcelona-other-
comments/]

Topic 3: The Politics of Memory and Monuments

1. New York Times, “Why Confederate Monuments Must Fall”
[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/opinion/confederate-monuments-white-supremacy-
charlottesville.html?mcubz=0]
2. The Washington Post, “I’m a progressive mayor. Here’s why I voted no on removing my
city’s Confederate statue”
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/05/24/im-a-progressive-mayor-heres-why-i-
voted-no-on-removing-my-citys-confederate-statue/?utm_term=.3aba8b4b62c9]
3. Breitbart, “Safe-Space History: Left-Wing Activists, Complacent Governments Destroy
Confederate Monuments Across Nation”

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 [http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/08/16/safe-space-history-left-wing-activists-complacent-
governments-destroy-confederate-monuments-across-nation/]

Op Ed Assignment (1-2 pages; to be turned in):

- read: fallacies sheet and explanation
- in class: critical thinking and analysis
- using the op. ed. you’ve been assigned, do the following:
1. state the thesis
2. outline the argument
3. discuss the strengths of the argument
4. discuss the weaknesses of the argument, including any fallacies that
you find
5. discuss the role that language plays in the argument

Due: Short Paper (1)

Wednesday, September 20
Topic of the day: Simmons College as a Linguistic Micro-Arena

Readings: Gayatri Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak?”

[http://abahlali.org/files/Can_the_subaltern_speak.pdf]
“The Ten Demands” and Helen Drinan, “Response to the Ten Demands”
Simmons College, “Our Commitment Statement”
[http://www.simmons.edu/about-simmons/why-simmons/diversity-and-
inclusion/our-commitment]

Due: Critical Reflection (1) of Gayatri Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak?”

Tuesday, September 26 (please note the date change):

Topic of the day: The Linguistic Landscape of Boston I
Boston’s Chinatown fieldwork (with Amado and Grossman)

To do: take notes/pictures on what you observed. Look at languages on public

and commercial signs; the ways that language is used; and how the
language suggests differences of culture and power.

Wednesday, September 27
Topic of the day: The Linguistic Landscape of Boston II
Debrief on Boston Fieldwork: discussion

Reading: Anita Diamant. The Boston Girl. London: Simon & Schuster, 2015.
Ben-Rafael, E., Shohamy, E. and Barni, M. (2010) “Introduction: An approach to
an ‘ordered disorder’.” In E. Shohamy, E. Ben-Rafael and and Monica
Barni. Linguistic Landscape in the City. Bristol: Multilingual Matters,
2010.

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 Jackie Jia Lou. “Chinese on the side: The marginalization of Chinese in the
linguistic and social landscapes of Washington, DC Chinatown.” In Elana
Shohamy Goldberg, Eliezer Ben Rafael, and Monica Barni. Linguistic
Landscape in the City. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 2010.

Due: Short Paper (2)

Wednesday, October 4
Topic of the day: The Language of Political Correctness

Reading: Stanley Fish. 1997. “Boutique Multiculturalism, or, Why Liberals Are Incapable
of Thinking About Hate Speech”. Critical Inquiry. 23, no. 2: 378-395
William Deresiewicz “On Political Correctness. Power, class, and the new
campus religion.” The American Scholar
[https://theamericanscholar.org/on-political-correctness/#]

To Do: In-class group discussion. Please bring your laptop. With other members of your
group, discuss the diversity statement of a college of your choice. Critically
converse on ways that the statement diverge or converge with the main points of
the two readings for this week (Fish and Deresiewicz).

Due: Critical Reflection (2) of Fish “Boutique Multiculturalism”

Wednesday, October 11
Topic of the day: Free Speech, Hate Speech, and Speech Act

Readings: C. Edwin Baker, “Hate Speech.” In Michael E. Herz and Peter Molnar. The
Content and Context of Hate Speech: Rethinking Regulation and
Responses. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Op Ed:
1. The Washington Post, “Portland’s mayor is dangerously wrong about free speech”
2. The New York Times, “Free Speech vs. Hate Speech”

Due: Critical Reflection (3) C. Edwin Baker, “Hate Speech.”

Wednesday, October 18
Topic of the day: Is there a women’s language?

Reading: Deborah Tannen, “Managing Confrontations: Lessons from Abroad” The

Responsive Community 8:2 (Spring 1998). 33-40.
Deborah Tannen. 1995. “The Power of Talk: Who Gets Heard and Why.”
Harvard Business Review. 73, no. 5: 138.

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MOVIE: Nu Shu: A Hidden Language of Women in China (by Yue-Qing Yang;
Canada/China, 1999, 59 minute)

Due: Critical Reflection (4) of Tannen, “Who gets heard and why”

Wednesday, October 25
Topic of the day: Language, Race, and Social Class (I)

Op-ed
1. The New York Times, “The Real Opioid Emergency”
[https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/opinion/sunday/opioids-drugs-race-
treatment.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FRace%20and%20Ethnicity&action=click&contentCollec
tion=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=10&pgtype=co
llection]
2. The Washington Post, “This is the only safe way to treat opioid users”
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/this-is-the-only-safe-way-to-treat-opioid-
users/2017/08/17/e94b1ea2-6d90-11e7-9c15-177740635e83_story.html?utm_term=.f87311200773]
3. Boston Herald, “‘He beat all the odds’: My son was a Marine who dreamed of teaching
— until heroin killed him”
[http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/2017/08/he_beat_all_the_odds_my_son_was_a_marine_who
_dreamed_of_teaching_until_heroin]

Reading: Commonwealth Magazine, “Opioid crisis through lens of class and race”
[https://commonwealthmagazine.org/the-download/opioid-crisis-through-
lens-of-class-and-race/]
Julie Netherland and H. B. Hansen. 2016. “The War on Drugs That Wasn’t:
Wasted Whiteness, ‘Dirty Doctors,’ and Race in Media Coverage of
Prescription Opioid Misuse”. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry. 40, no.
4: 664- 686.

In Class: Library Resources Guide

Wednesday, November 1
Topic of the day: Language, Race, and Social Class (II)

Reading: John R. Rickford and Sharese King. 2016. “Language and Linguistics on Trial:
Hearing Rachel Jeantel (and Other Vernacular Speakers) in the Courtroom
and Beyond”. Language. 92, no. 4: 948-988.

Op Ed (set 2): The George Zimmerman Trial

1. John McWhorter, “Rachel Jeantel Explained, Linguistically”
[http://ideas.time.com/2013/06/28/rachel-jeantel-explained-linguistically/]
2. WBUR, “Language On Trial: Rachel Jeantel,”
[http://hereandnow.legacy.wbur.org/2013/06/28/n-word-language]
3. John Rickford, “Rachel Jeantel’s language in the Zimmerman trial”
[http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=5161]

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Due: Short Paper (3)

To do: Choose a current event from the list we have provided. Once you have selected
your topic, find three different reporting sources (newspapers, social media, radio,
or television networks are all fine) and analyze the language of each of your
sources. How do they compare? How are race and class treated in the sources you have
found? How are ‘facts’ used? What is/are the source(s) of authority? Who is the target
audience? What insights do you come away with after this exercise? (3 pages)

Wednesday, November 8
Topic of the day: Colonialism and the Language Question

Reading: Rachael Gilmour. 2007. “Missionaries, Colonialism and Language in Nineteenth-

Century South Africa”. History Compass. 5, no. 6: 1761-1777.
Mohamed Benrabah. Language Conflict in Algeria: From Colonialism to Post-
Independence. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 2013.Chapter 2.
“Frenchification: Annihilating Indigenous Languages”

Due: Critical Reflection (5) of Gilmour “Missionaries, Colonialism and Language in

Nineteenth-Century South Africa”.

Wednesday, November 15
Topic of the day: The English as the official language Movement
Reading:
Thomas, Lee. 1996. “Language as Power: A Linguistic Critique of U.S.
ENGLISH.”. Modern Language Journal. 80, no. 2: 129-40.
HR 997, “English Language Unity Act of 2017” [https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-
congress/house-bill/997]
“The Official English Question” (http://www.languagepolicy.net/archives/question.htm)
Brandon Brice, “Why English should be the official language of the United States?”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/dec/31/why-english-should-be-
official-language-united-sta/

Wednesday, November 22
No class (Thanksgiving break)
Wednesday, November 29
Topic of the day: Social Media Language as Subversion of Established Order

Reading: Page, Ruth Barton, David Unger, Johann Wolfgang Zappavigna, Michele “What
might a linguist say about social media?” in Ruth Page, et al. Researching
Language and Social Media, Taylor and Francis, 2014.

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Due: Short Paper (3)

To Do: Now that you have nearly completed a semester focusing on these topics, write a
self-evaluation in which you analyze: what were your expectations for this
Learning Community? Did your expectations change? If so, how? What did you
learn? What changed for you? What might you do differently if you were teaching
this course?

Wednesday, December 6
Topic of the day: Final paper presentations

Wednesday, December 13
Topic of the day: Final paper presentations

To do: Bring your reflection of individual writing process to class. This writing
assignment is part of your grade for “Contribution to Class Learning.” (see
above, page. . . )