GWS 350 HYBRID - SPRING 2015

Course Information Overview

• Welcome to the SPRING 2015 GWS 350 HYBRID course (Mondays in class)
• This is a hybrid course. This means that we will meet in class about half the time (on most Mondays from 200-3:15 p.m.) and online the other half of the time.
• Our class meetings will take place in Sierra Hall, Room 382
• Our online work will be asynchronous, meaning you can do your work at your own pace. However, you must meet the deadlines that are set in the schedule for the course.
• Each week's readings and assignments will be posted in moodle, which is your online home for the course. All assignments will also be turned in through moodle (via Turnitin) as well.
• Please direct technical questions to the CSUN IT help desk.
• Research shows that the hybrid format is the most successful learning environment for students. So while it may take a little effort to get up to speed, ultimately I hope you find this format rich and rewarding. 

Course Description

“Intersections Of Gender, Race, Class And Sexuality” examines race, class, gender as social constructions that are negotiated within specific historical and material locations.

We will study the connections between images in popular culture, history, and social practices in our daily lives. From this perspective we will explore how the social roles we perform and consume every day produce and sustain uneven social relations between and among differently situated people and groups. Of particular interest is the way in which gender intersects with other social categories such as race, class, sexuality, and national origin in our daily lives and popular images. By studying these intersections from the perspective of women living them, we move marginalized women from their typically marginal position to the center of the curriculum.

The central aim of the course is to understand gender not as a singular category, but to see the ways in which gender intersects with other axes of power within specific historical contexts to interrogate the complexities of the social forces that shape our lives in contradictory ways. For instance, how does class privilege relate to gender oppression? How does gender privilege intersect with racial oppression? Upon which axes of power are you privileged and/or marginalized? How are we empowered and/or marginalized by social systems that go beyond our immediate lives and yet influence them so deeply? These considerations take place within the material and historical contexts that shape the possibilities of experience that social groups may have.

The course is designed to enable students to become critically reflexive about the cultural representations that we consume and daily practices we perform in which gender, race, class, sexuality, and nation are constituted. Readings, class activities, and homework assignments aim to enable students to analyze and write about gendered identity formation and the political significance of social categories. One desired outcome of the course is to increase students’ sensitivity towards societal issues relating to discrimination, exploitation, and domination.

We will have a special focus on the Anti-War movement and Marriage Equality movement… particularly as they relate to intersections of gender, race, class & sexuality. 

Grading

 

Assignments	Points
Participation (in class)	50
Participation & Prep (online) eg. Quick-assignments, (knowledge survey, posting profiles, etc.)	50
Attendance in-class on Mondays	50
Reading Comprehension Quizzes	80
Quote Links (20 points each)	80
Discussion Forums (30 points each)	60
Marriage Equality Forum &Anti War Forum (40 points each)	80
Auto-Ethnography Paper… focus on race	100
Test 1	75
Test 2	75
Final Paper (Individual) + Group Project	100
TOTAL POINTS POSSIBLE	800

Divide your "total points" by 8 to get your percentage points.

Grading Scale - By Percentage

	87-89% B+	77-79% C+	67-69% D+
93-96% A	83-86% B	73-76% C	63-66% D
90-92% A-	80-82% B-	70-72% C-	60-62% D-
			00-59% F

Please note: This class is set up for you to succeed... if you do the readings and assignments in a timely manner. There a lot of easy assignments that can really help you bring your percentage up, but you must complete them. So stay current from the beginning and you will find that your experience is greatly enhanced. However, given that I have set you up to succeed, I do not usually round up percentages at the end. So work consistently throughout the semester to achieve the best results.

Assignments

Online Discussion Forums

The content of this course is not “merely” theoretical or political, but rather, it involves our personal lives—our relationships, our careers, our families. Readings should be done well in advance to class. You should be prepared to contribute well thought-out and relevant content to the discussion questions posted online. You will be expected to demonstrate your preparation by posting to Forums on particular days (refer to class schedule) and by responding to classmates posts online to have a dialogue about the readings. 

For each of the Forums... do 2 "original posts" on 2 of the readings... picking from the questions that I have composed for that day. These original posts should be 2-3 paragraphs in length. Then, do 2 "response posts" to 2 other readings from that day... here you are responding to the original posts your classmates have written... which could be the start of a dialogue between you. Your response posts should be at least a small paragraph in length. (You will not get credit for responses that basically stop with one sentence that says things like, "I agree with you." or "I like your reading of the article.") Your responses should be thoughtful and should somehow build on your classmates posts, or tease out another aspect of the reading for them to consider. 

Reading Comprehension Quizzes

There are various short quizzes you will take almost on every day with readings (or every other time at most). These are quizzes that are open book and should be low-stress if you are doing the readings. They are meant to help you "get" whatever is in your reading.

Quote Links (QL's)

There are different online times when I have assigned a “Quote Link” rather than a discussion forum.  Post one quote from each, on three different readings for that day, followed by a thoughtful or insightful reading of that quote.

You will not be given any points for quotes that do not have your reflection on that quote. For a quote to be accepted for points, it MUST be turned in on the day that the reading is due.

 

Auto-Ethnography Paper

This project asks you to think about the ways in which your everyday life is personally affected by race and privilege (you may bring in other aspects like gender, class and sexuality... but the focus of this paper should center on race and privilege). You will write one short paper (4-5 pages double-spaced). There are three components to the paper that I will be evaluating: description, definition, and analysis.

Guidelines are:

1. Write one to three paragraphs describing an event in your life that was pivotal in your identity formation with regard to race and privilege. Perhaps it was especially confusing at the time, but now you have a better sense of it through the readings in this class.
2. Write one to three paragraphs in which you outline, clarify, and define a concept from the readings that you will later apply to the event. You should draw directly on the readings for this portion of the paper, citing specific texts including the author's name and page number
3. Write your analysis of the event for the ways in which race operated in that situation. Use the readings (bring in at least 2 readings we have done in the class) and develop your thesis statement with thoughtfulness and complexity.

Tests

The tests will be based on all the readings assigned for this class as well as materials presented. The exam will be in varied format based on the discretion of the professor and needs of the class. So it could include multiple choice, short answer questions and long essays.

 

Final Project Blog & Paper

You are basically constructing a Final blog or webpage. I If you have never made a webpage, you might find blogging easier, as blog sites are set up for non-technical users.

The blog or webpage you design can be simple but informative. You can use programs like Dreamweaver or WordPress.com to create and publish a webpage. Possible Blog pages you could try: livejournal.com, blogger.com, or edublog.com OR any other blog/webpublishing site of your choice. Search the web and find one that works for you.

Group Blog Content

You have different options for this project. Make sure that for any topic you choose... you consider at least two of the four dimensions (gender, race, class, sexuality) studied in this class and how they intersect with each other.

1. Do a “cultural study” of any popular text. Choose a cultural text, such as a music video, a song, a movie trailer, or a commercial. Analyze and critique the ways in which race, gender, class, and sexual orientation get played out within the text in ways that challenge and/or reinscribe dominant social norms.
2. Research the “War on Terror” from a gendered, racial and/or class perspective. What are some of the issues of power in this “war.” How do we understand the historical and political circumstances that have brought us to this juncture, “who counts and who doesn’t?” (Arundathi Roy).
3. Do a race/class/nation-based analysis of any current event (such as Fergusson, ISIS, or any other current event).
4. Research Marriage Equality/Prop 8 - and the various issues surrounding it. It has been framed as a civil rights issue by those who support gay marriage, and as a religious issue by those who oppose it. You are free to take your own approach, but make sure to do so in a way that is respectful, as well as one that builds strong arguments based on credible evidence, not just opinion.
5. Research a topic of your choice that focuses on the intersections of at least two power dimensions discussed in this class [gender, race, class, sexuality, ability, etc.]. This last possibility has been kept intentionally very broad to allow you to research and explore further any topic or issue that has engaged you the most. 

Individual Paper

The individual paper you submit for the Final is based on the topic of your GROUP BLOG.

However, it should showcase more in-depth research that YOU individually conducted as part of your part of the group blog. So it may borrow the basic overall set up of the topic from the group blog, but it really should present an in-depth aspect of the group topic that you have individually done.

You will share the group blog grade with the group. But the paper is your individual work, and you will get an individual grade for it.

4-5 pages. Double spaced. 12 pt. font. Please include References.