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Course Criteria
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3.00 Credits
This course is a broad survey of women's and gender issues in various Islamic societies, with a focus on the Arab Middle East. The first half of the semester will concentrate on the historical position of women in Islamic societies, defined by the normative values of Islam and by cultural traditions and norms. We will discuss how the interpretations of these values in diverse circumstances and who gets to do the interpreting have had an important impact on women's societal roles. The second half of the course will privilege women's voices and agency in articulating their gendered identities and roles in a number of pre-modern and modern Islamic societies. Our sources for discovering these voices are women's memoirs, fiction, magazine articles, and public speeches. We will also focus on how historical phenomena such as Western colonialism, nationalist liberation movements, civil and other forms of war have given rise to women's organized movements and a feminist socio-political consciousness in many cases.
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3.00 Credits
This introductory course will discuss the rise of Islam in the Arabian peninsula in the seventh century of the Common Era and its subsequent establishment as a major world religion and civilization. Lectures and readings will deal with the life of the Prophet Muhammad, the Qur'an and its role in worship and society, early Islamic history, community formation, law and religious practices, theology, mysticism, and literature. Emphasis will be on the core beliefs and institutions of Islam and on its religious and political thought from the Middle Ages until our own time. The latter part of the course will deal with the spread of Islam to the West, resurgent trends within Islam, both in their reformist and extremist forms, and contemporary Muslim engagements with modernity.
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3.00 Credits
In this course students learn to think more clearly about politics, especially about how and why political life takes place as it does around the world. We study why nation-states are the dominant form of political organization today and why nation-states differ, especially in their economic and political development. Why are some countries democracies? Why are others dictatorships? Why do political movements participate in elections, start civil wars, or engage in terrorism? We develop answers to these questions by focusing on the experiences of Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, China, Iran, India, Mexico, and South Africa.
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3.00 Credits
This course explores the basic elements associated with Black Politics in the U.S.: the role of Black institutions such as the Black Church, the importance of the civil rights movement in challenging barriers to Black political participation, the mid 20th-century legal framework created to create access to the political system, and an exploration of Black political participation in northern cities, where there are also increasing numbers of Latinos and other nonwhite groups. Since the course will be taught in spring 2009 immediately after the 2008 Presidential campaign, we will also have the chance to explore the impact of Illinois Senator Obama's campaign on national politics, whatever the outcome, and to consider the impact on African American politics itself.
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3.00 Credits
This course introduces students to the diverse cultures and societies of Latin America through historical, ethnographic and literary study. Contemporary issues of globalization, violence and migration will preoccupy the discussion of Central and South America and the Caribbean today.
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3.00 Credits
This course provides an overview of some of the classic and contemporary sociological understandings and perspectives of race and ethnicity. We will focus particular attention on the racial/ethnic groups common to the United States, broadly categorized as African, Asian, European, and Hispanic Americans. The course will cover areas of identity and culture and will address issues such as racism, immigration, assimilation, segregation, and affirmative action. We will use printed texts as well as film clips; some assignments may include movie viewing.
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3.00 Credits
Analysis of selected problems in American society such as crime, narcotic addiction, alcoholism, delinquency, racial and ethnic conflict, prostitution, and others. Discussions, debates, films, tapes, and readings.
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3.00 Credits
Many have claimed that the American educational system is the "great equalizer among men." In other words, the educational system gives everyone a chance to prosper in American society regardless of their social origins. In this course, we will explore the validity of this claim. Do schools help make American society more equal by reducing the importance of class, race, and gender as sources of inequality, or do schools simply reinforce existing inequalities and reproduce pre-existing social relations? Topics covered in the course include: unequal resources among schools, sorting practices of students within schools, parents' role in determining student outcomes, the role of schooling in determining labor market outcomes for individuals, and the use of educational programs as a remedy for poverty.
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3.00 Credits
This course introduces a sociological study of some of the serious social problems plaguing society. Among these are poverty and homelessness, racial disparities, gender injustice, gross educational inequalities, interpersonal violence, and difficulties faced by prisoners upon re-entry to society. This course will give students opportunities to practice good social science by comparing theories about the causes of social problems and possible solutions to (1) empirical evidence presented in important sociological studies and (2) evidence gleaned by students through their own community-based learning experiences. To gain this first-hand knowledge, students enrolled in this course must volunteer a minimum of 20 hours during the course of the semester in a South Bend community organization dealing with one or more of these social problems.
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3.00 Credits
The Bible, The Black Church, and the Blues - Exploring Three Africana Theological Matrices This course will build on the groundwork established in the Foundations of Theology course by providing exposure to three theological matrices that have had a decided impact on the development of Africana (i.e., African and African Diasporan) identity and culture in the North American Diaspora. The first is the symbolic universe of Africana biblical hermeneutics. The second is the Black Church. The third is that uniquely African American musical form known as Blues. Students will be given an opportunity to explore: the cosmological, ontological, anthropological, soteriological, and Christological assertions animating each of these milieus; their historical and contemporary points of intersection; and the ways in which each has influenced the other. Particular attention will be directed toward understanding the history of reception, interpretation, and appropriation of the Christian Bible by peoples of African descent; the evolution of the Black Church and the distinctive contributions made by Africana Catholics to it; and the emergence of Blues music, artists, and performance spaces as non-ecclesial loci of protest and crucibles in which Africana spiritualities of resistance have been and continue to be forged. Students will leave the course with a deeper appreciation of four issues, the implications of which are far reaching for those within the Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant branches of the larger Christian family. The first is how culture and context shape the ways in which people read and appropriate sacred writings. The second is the impact that culture, memory, hermeneutics, and identity have on spirituality and ecclesiology. The third is the role that poetry and other art forms play as media for theological speculation and construction. The fourth is the pivotal impact that enculturation has on theology, pastoral care, ministry, and ecumenism. The class will also introduce students to those essential sources ¿ both primary and secondary ¿ methodologies, core questions, and debates foundational for a theological assessment of these universes of theological discourse. It will also expose them to three interdisciplinary subfields that span and inform the disciplines of Theology and Africana Studies: (1) the history of Africana biblical interpretation in North America; (2) Black Church Studies; and (3) Blues Studies.
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