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9/2/16
"Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer." E. M. Forster, Howards End (1910), ch. 22
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Course Number: E 303C,
Flags: GC = Global Cultures CD =Cultural Diversity
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E603B: L/E Ethics/leadership flag*
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Title: Composition and Reading in World Literature
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Instructor: Jerome Bump
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Time and Location: TTH 11-12:30, PAR 104
Unique Number: 34545
Course Web Site: www.la.utexas.edu/users/bump/303A16/
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This section of E303 is devoted to literature aligned with four
of the six "flag" experiences required in the new core
curriculum: writing, global cultures, American cultural
diversity, and ethics and leadership. UT's
Commission
of 125, a group of business men and women and other
citizens, who completed a two-year study of the University
in 2004, recommended that these required flag subjects be
required for all students. Throughout the first semester
especially, we will focus on emotive ethics, especially
compassion. Thus emotional literacy will also be
one of our goals. Some of our other goals can be seen are at http://www.la.utexas.edu/users/bump/603A13/goals.html.
Our ultimate goal will be to "widen the circle of compassion," as Einstein put it, to include other species as well as other races and genders. We will explore analogies between factory farming, slavery, and Nazi concentration camps made by various writers and philosophers that challenge us to become more mindful of ethical decisions we make daily about food, clothing, entertainment, etc. Global Cultures assignments will be primarily in the first semester, with most of the the Cultural Diversity assignments will be reserved for the second semester.
We include works by Homer, Ovid, and Virgil but to fulfill the Ethics requirement we begin with ancient Indian texts, the Bible, and the Quaran and move on to more modern global culture texts such as the Alice books and Siddhartha and (for the Cultural Diversity flag) to masterpieces by Native-, African-, Asian-, and Hispanic Americans, such as Black Elk Speaks, and The Bluest Eye, by Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison. To explore gender diversity we read some Dartmouth student essays; an Afghan biography (I Am A Bacha Posh); the graphic novel, Fun Home, by Alison Bechtel, and Kingston's Woman Warrior.
Students will write informal blogs about the readings in preparation for class discussion. Basic emotional literacy and emotive ethics will be cultivated through experiential learning.
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Formal Writing.
This course may be used to fulfill three hours of the communication component of the university core curriculum and addresses the following four core objectives established by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board: communication skills, critical thinking skills, teamwork, and personal responsibility.
Throughout the year, to prepare you for your college and later careers we will cultivate digital, information, and print literacy and practice college-level writing, speaking, listening, discussing, and analyzing ideas.
Formal writing will be four essays relating world literature to your identity, your imagination, your ethics, and your leadership vision. Each will be a minimum of four pages and be revised in response to peer critiques before the instructor's grading and critique. You cannot pass the course without satisfactory essays. For more information see the overview of readings below and descriptions of each project on the initial course page: www.la.utexas.edu/users/bump/303A16/
Some of the projects will require discovery learning. For these assignments especially, students should be prepared to think for themselves. Discovery learning means that there will be fewer instructions about the content of projects than what students may be used to from other courses. This can be frustrating for some, especially those who want a detailed formula that will guarantee them a good grade. Instead, students will be encouraged to be creative and write about what is most important to them. However, all students will be expected to follow very detailed instructions about the form and format of the essay. There will be a writing specialist dedicated to this class* who can help students do this if presented with the instructions and the critiques as well as the draft of the essay.
P2 required service learning excursion to Taylor animal shelter 10-23? 10-30? 11-6?
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Informal Writing.
Students can write informal blogs about the readings in preparation for class discussion. Blog instructions here.
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Daily Quizzes.
Quizzes on the assigned readings for that day are worth up to thirty points. -20 if you get none right. -10 if you get one right. However, if you have two valid blogs posted before the deadline you will only get -5 if you have none right; -10 with only one valid blog.
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Class Discussion and Emotional Literacy
One way to practice the emotional literacy required for our approach to ethics is to briefly identify emotions felt in the previous week in a session known as "Best and Worst." You can earn points and prepare for these weekly sessions by doing a weekly blog in the "Best and Worst" discussion. One point for each feeling word used up to six points per week.
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OVERVIEW OF SCHEDULE
8-25: Introduction, Ethics: DF Wallace commencement speech, Augustine, Blake, Thanh; 8-30 Why the Ethics Requirement? St. Paul, Einstein, Chardin, Billy Graham, Pope Francis, Covey 9-1 Emotional Intelligence: Rifkin, Dalby,; 9-6 Emotive Ethics: St. Paul, Brahmaviras; 9-8 Hogarth, Lord of the Flies; 9-13: J.H. Newman; 9-15 Black Elk Speaks; 9-20 G. M. Hopkins and R. Jeffers; 9-22:, Homer, Exodus, Hemingway, J. F. Dobie, ; 9-27 Ovid, Kafka 9-29, 10-6, 10-11 Thanh; How Can I Help? 10:4: P1 due online; 10-13 Auden, Williams, Breughel, Mahavira; 10-18: Hesse, Siddhartha ;P2 required service learning excursion to Taylor animal shelter 10-23? 10-30? 11-6? 10-20 +10-27: Monson, I. B. Singer, Upton Sinclair, Eisley; 10-25: P1 due; 11-1 Bentham, Adams, Walker; 11-3 ; 11-8 + 11-10: Toni Morrison;; 11-15 + 11-17: JM Coetzee; 11-22: P2 due online; 11-29:Coetzee, Rilke, Hughes; 12-1: Awards, evaluation.
303B schedule includes Gawain and the Green Knight, Jewish Bible, Christian Bible, Koran, Blake, Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass, We Are All Besides Ourselves, I Am a Bocha Posh, Fun Home, and Woman Warrior. 303B schedule includes also a required excursion to the Taniguchi garden in Zilker park.
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Required Texts
Required Texts For The First Semester : Students must bring to class on the days they are due the following physical texts: [1] the course anthology*; and [2] Ram Dass's How Can I Help? [Random House: Knopf: 9780394729473] and [3] Toni Morrison, Bluest Eye (Vintage International 9780307278449).
Required Texts
For The Second Semester : [1 ] a new
course anthology*; [2] Karen Fowler's We Are All
Completely Beside Ourselves [Putnam: Marian Wood;
2013: 9780399162091 ; [3] Ukmina Minoori, I Am a Bacha Posh; [4] Allison Bechdel , Fun Home [Mariner 9780618871711 ]; [5] Maxine
Hong Kingston, Woman Warrior [Vintage
9780679721888].
*FOR THE FIRST ASSIGNMENT, students will need the course anthology, which is a collection of xeroxed materials. It will be available from Jenn's , 2000 Guadalupe (basement of the Church of Scientology at 22nd and Guadalupe, 473-8669). It will cost about $75. Jenn's takes major credit cards, of course. (If you don't get there within the first few days you might want to call ahead to make sure they have a copy reserved for you.)
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Digital
Literacy
Because the "Five
Characteristics of a Successful Student at U.T." include
"Good computer skills" as well as "Strong writing skills,"
essays and blogs will require digital literacy
(multimedia) as well as print literacy. Students will also
be expected to check their email frequently (maintaining
the correct email address in the U.T. Direct system) along
with the course Blogs and the Gradebook ,
especially the day before class. We will have an
optional closed group in Facebook "to help students
develop a small community within the larger whole" (CRUE ).
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Grades.
About 50% of the final grade will be determined by multimedia web projects (250 points each), 36% by informal writing such as blogs (360 points); and at least 14% by class discussion, leadership, and attendance (140 points). To pass the course students must demonstrate college-level writing and complete all basic requirements of both projects. Grades for projects especially will be based in part on meeting the two expectations employers have of college graduates: time management, and the ability to read, analyze, and follow complex, detailed directions. 1200 points (out of 1,300 or more) are required for an A+ (unofficial grade); 1050-1100 for an A; 1000-1049 for an A-; 965 for a B+; 945 for a B; 900 for a B-; 865 for a C+; 845 for a C; 800 for a C-; 765 for a D+; 735 for a D; and 700 for a D-. At the end of the course, students will receive exactly the grade recorded in the online gradebook , even if it is one point short of the next higher grade.
Daily class participation grades : up to nine points per class, sometimes more if you demonstrate good listening, sometimes less if you don't.
Class discussion rules: students who talk to others while the speaker is talking and/or encourage this rude behavior with a willing ear, will have fifteen points deducted from their class participation/attendance grade for each incident. Egregious behavior such as sleeping in class, reading materials other than ours, having your cell phone where you can see it, , acting out, disrupting class, etc. will be subject to a thirty-point penalty for each incident. Students who insult, threaten, or harass others will have fifty points deducted from their grade for each incident, and be referred to the Dean of Students. For policy on cell phones etc. in class see the Class Participation and Class Discussion document: SL.html
Being on time: Students prepare for class discussion by being on time. There will be heavier penalties for being late than for being absent. Why? Basically, because being absent does not disrupt the class and coming in late does, especially if we are watching Earthlings, meditating, doing experiential learning or ......
There are in fact three important reasons for penalizing lateness in this way: [1] To prepare you for the real world. Employers will not tolerate this kind of behavior. [2] To be courteous and respectful of your colleagues, not interrupting the class to make your tardy entrance. [3] To avoid "enabling," to encourage repeat offenders to learn the lessons they need to learn.
The ultimate reasons are found in the essay by Dr. Carl Pickhardt on the website. The key sentences in that document for a teacher are: "Maintain adult demands and expect young people to meet them. Accept no excuses, make no exceptions, and attempt no rescues. Listen respectfully and empathetically and do not criticize the young person for not measuring up to what college expected. Encourage learning more responsibility from facing consequences of how one chose to act. And support the courage to keep growing forward in life."
Hence, there will be no attendance or class participation credit for the first late appearance, -5 points for the second, double the penalty for the third, triple for the fourth, etc. If anyone chooses to open the door for someone who comes late for the third time or more, they will receive the same penalties as the one who arrives late: no attendance or class participation credit for the first disruption, -5 points for the second, -10 for the third, -20 for the fourth, etc.
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About the Professor:
Jerome Bump has been awarded a number of research fellowships and the Jeanne Holloway, Liberal Arts Council, Top Ten, and the Plan II Chad Oliver teachings. He was an editor of Texas Studies in Language and Literature and has written Gerard Manley Hopkins and articles in the Southern Review, the Georgia Review, South Atlantic Quarterly, Ethics and the Environment, ELH, JEGP, TSLL, College Literature, Computers and the Humanities, Computers and Education, Style, Religion and the Arts, The Month, Renascence, Thought, The Arts in Psychotherapy, Victorian Poetry, the Hopkins Quarterly, The John Donne Journal, Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens,The Library Chronicle, College Composition and Communication, Victorian Newsletter, Currents in Electronic Literacy, and chapters in twelve books. His current project is Alice the Conqueror, about the representation of animals in the Alice books. His latest publication is "Biophilia and Emotive Ethics: Derrida, Alice, and Animals" (Ethics and the Environment 12/2014). For more information about him, his publications, his teaching philosophy, or his courses see /bump/
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Official university statements: "E303A may be used to fulfill three hours of the communication component of the university core curriculum and addresses the following four core objectives established by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board: communication skills, critical thinking skills, teamwork, and personal responsibility. E303B may be used to fulfill the humanities component of the university core curriculum and addresses the following four core objectives established by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board: communication skills, critical thinking skills, personal responsibility, and social responsibility."
FLAGS:
CD "This course carries the flag for Cultural Diversity in the United States. Cultural Diversity courses are designed to increase your familiarity with the variety and richness of the American cultural experience. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from assignments covering the practices, beliefs, and histories of at least one U.S. cultural group that has experienced persistent marginalization.
L/E. This course carries the Ethics and Leadership flag. Ethics and Leadership courses are designed to equip you with skills that are necessary for making ethical decisions in your adult and professional life. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from assignments involving ethical issues and the process of applying ethical reasoning to real-life situations.
GC This course carries the Global Cultures flag. Global Cultures courses are designed to increase your familiarity with cultural groups outside the United States. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from assignments covering the practices, beliefs, and histories of at least one non-U.S. cultural group, past or present."
Policies:
Privacy . (FERPA) : students will be asked to give written permission to share certain documents with class members.
.Weapons Policy: With the exception of concealed handguns, no weapons may be brought into the classroom. This exclusion applies to knives, clubs, spears, machetes, metal knuckles, explosive or incendiary devices, and any other device designed to injure or kill people. Course participants with a license to carry a handgun must keep it concealed and on their person at all times. If a gun or any other weapon becomes visible, the person who sees the weapon should leave the classroom and call 911 so that law enforcement personnel can take appropriate action and restore an atmosphere conducive to learning.
Handguns may not be brought to the classroom in backpacks, bags, or purses. Course participants will be called upon at unpredictable times to move about the room, go to the front of the room and participate in a presentation, or otherwise be separated from their belongings. University policy and the implementation of the law would be violated by the separation of the gun owner from their weapon that would result from these required classroom activities.
No weapons of any kind may be brought into the professor's office. Course participants will be given oral notice excludiing handguns from the office before they meet with the professor. They will be required to sign a statement that they have received legally-binding oral notification that guns are not permitted in the professor's office.
Honor Code. The core values of The University of Texas at Austin are learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity, and responsibility. Each member of the university is expected to uphold these values through integrity, honesty, trust, fairness, and respect toward peers and community. Our training in practical ethics will include evaluation of student behavior in the course, especially actions that hurt other students' educational opportunities, including interrupting class by coming late or not completing peer critiques.
Academic Integrity: Our training in practical ethics also means that any work, any paragraph, any sentence submitted by a student in this course for academic credit must be the student's own work, unless the source is explicitly acknowledged. Plagiarism will be punished severely (See "Paraphrasing vs. Plagiarism" in the course anthology). For additional information on academic Integrity, see http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs/acadint.php
Disabilities: The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact Services for Students with Disabilities at 471-6259 (voice) or 232-2937 (video phone) or http://diversity.utexas.edu/disability/
Religious Holy Days: By UT Austin policy, you must notify the instructor of your pending absence at least fourteen days prior to the date of observance of a religious holy day. If you must miss a class, an examination, a work assignment, or a project in order to observe a religious holy day, you will be given an opportunity to complete the missed work within a reasonable time after the absence.
The following recommendations regarding emergency evacuation are from the Office of Campus Safety and Security, 512-471-5767, http://www.utexas.edu/safety/ :
- Occupants of buildings on The University of Texas at Austin campus are required to evacuate buildings when a fire alarm is activated. Alarm activation or announcement requires
exiting and assembling outside.
- Familiarize yourself with all exit doors of each classroom and building you may occupy. Remember that the nearest exit door may not be the one you used when entering the building.
- Students requiring assistance in evacuation shall inform their instructor in writing during the first week of class.
- In the event of an evacuation, follow the instruction of faculty or class instructors.
- Do not re-enter a building unless given instructions by the following: Austin Fire Department, The University of Texas at Austin Police Department, or Fire Prevention Services office.
- Behavior Concerns Advice Line (BCAL): 512-232-5050 - Link to information regarding emergency evacuation routes and emergency procedures can be found at: www.utexas.edu/emergency
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