GWS 350OL GENDER, RACE, CLASS, AND SEXUALITYGender & Women's Studies

CSUNFall 2012

Time: S 8-10:45am

Prof. Breny MendozaOffice: Jerome Richfield 340-LOffice phone: (818) 677-5641

E-mail: breny.mendoza@csun.eduOffice hours: T 10-12:00pm & TH 11-12pm

Course Description

The course will provide you with the analytical skills necessary to understand how powerful forces work to construct a world of inequality, injustice, violence, and permanent war, based on a network of systems of power of gender, race, class, and sexuality. We will explore the history we learn and/or learn to forget. We will reflect on the social roles and ideologies we embrace, perform and consume that help produce social inequalities and war in our life time. By examining how gender, race, class, and sexual ideologies are constructed, interrupted, thwarted, or reconfirmed in contemporary understandings of history, society, politics, popular culture, mainstream media, and social pracitices, we hope to come to a deeper understanding of the world we live in and how we can change it.

Required Readings1. David M. Newman, Identities & Inequalities, McGraw Hill: Boston, 2007 2. Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow, The New Press: New York, 2010

Other articles will be posted online.

Recommended Readings:Adam Hochshild , King Leopold’s Ghost: a story of greed, terror, and heroism in colonial Africa, A Mariner Book: New York, 1998

Buy at CSUN Campus Bookstoree

Colonialism and capitalism: Congo (Free State) under King Leopold, King of the Belgians from 1865-1909

Buy on your own!

GETTING STARTED: The first day of class you will be required to complete several introductory tasks. Read the syllabus carefully. Familiarize yourself with the course tools. Write down questions, issues, or concerns you have and email them to your instructor for clarification. After clarification, send the instructor an email stating you have read and understood all of the course requirements. Post a message in Forum #1. Introduce yourself, tell us about your education and course goals, your previous experiences with online learning, and the reasons you are taking this course. Read the introductions posted by your peers and start a conversation with them. Make sure you click Reply to my questions to avoid confusions. Do not create a new thread or topic. Your completion of these tasks is required to participate in the course

LIVE CHATS (10pts) ). Live-chats are your opportunity to exchange ideas with your instructor and receive answers to your questions on course matters and content. We will have five Live Chats during the semester. Live Chats are mandatory. Read the assigned readings and watch the videos before attending the Live Chats.

FORUMS (10pts.) Forums are an essential part of the course. Forums are based on three discusion questions posted by the instructor. Complete the required reading, written and video assignments before answering the questions. All three questions must be answered. To be eligible for full credit on discussions, you will be required to participate (post) and read all responses (a tracking mechanism is available to instructors) during the week designated by the instructor and to respond to questions from your peers. Your failure to participate in the Forum during the designated week will result in 0 points for that Forum. Participation will be evaluated according to your knowledge of reading assignments, demonstration of critical thinking, and respectful and considerate behavior toward the opinions of others . Merely commenting that you agree with someone will not get you points. Response posts to the instructor’s question must be 2-3 paragraphs in length. Response posts to your classmates must be at least one paragraph in length. I recommend that you visit the Forum several times a day during the week of the Forum to check and answer questions your peers may have posted.

Quizzes (45pts.) You will have three quizzes during the semester. You must complete the quizzes during the assigned time set by the instructor. No late submissions are allowed. Quizzes will have a multiple-choice format. Questions will require careful reading of class materials such as texts, lectures in power point, videos, and other materials posted on our course website.

Written Assignments

1) Book Report. (20 pts.) Read Michelle Alexander’s book: The New Jim Crow. The length of the term paper is 6 pages plus bibliography. All papers must be typed,

double-spaced and use proper referencing formats (either APA or MLA). You will be graded for content and structure, grammatical form, spelling, and use of proper reference format. Proofread your papers.

2) Video Analysis. (10pts.) Videos are a crucial component of this course. You will write a three page paper writing a content analysis of 2-3 videos you have watched in this class. What do these videos teach you about the systems of power of gender, race, class, and sexuality?

3) Extra Credit (5pts.) Read Adam Hochshild’s , King Leopold’s Ghost: a story of greed, terror, and heroism in colonial Africa. Write a two page reaction paper on this book. Tell me how you think the history of the Congo is related to Jim Crow or other realities of gender, race, class, and sexuality today. You have the option to add or integrate these two pages to the Book Report. Your Book Report should then be 8 pages.

PlagiarismAcademic honesty is assumed!! If you do not know what plagiarism is be sure you understand it immediately. Please, refer to Student Conduct Code in the Fall 2012 Schedule of Classes. If you plagiarize, you will fail this class and the case will be handled according to the guidelines of the Student Conduct Code.

Course EvaluationForums 15Live Chats 10Quizzes 45Video Analysis 10Book Report 20 ____________________Total 100

Femicide in the 15th C. Europe

Lynching, early 20th C. USA

Child Labor

Women resisting Honduras Coup 2009

Poor white woman and children during the Depression Era in the US

Course Schedule

DATE TOPIC ASSIGNMENTSWeek 1SaturdayAugust 25

General Introduction

Read your syllabus, familiarize yourself with the course format and MoodleBuy course textbookEmail Instructor understanding of syllabus and course policiesForum #1 Live Chat #1

Week 2SaturdaySeptember 1

HOLIDAY LABOR DAY

Week 3SaturdaySeptember 8

Power and Difference

Read: Chapter 1: “Differences and Similarities”

Watch video: A Savage Legacy: Apartheid, Jim Crow, and Racism Today

Week 4SaturdaySeptember 15

Social Constructivism

Read: Chapter 2: Manufacturing Difference: The Social Construction of Race, Class, Gender, and SexualityForum #2

Week 5SaturdaySeptember 22

Media & Systems of Representation

Read: Chapter: 3 Portraying Difference: Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality in Language the Media Watch: Over the Hill: Media’s Impact on Women’s Self-image Live Chat #2

Week 6SaturdaySeptember 29

Socialization and institutional discrimination

Read: Chapter 4: Learning Difference: Families, Schools, and SocializationWatch: Bullied, Battered, and BruisedQuiz #1

Week 7SaturdayOctober 6

Micropolitics Read: Chapter 5: Expressing Inequalities: Prejudice and Discrimination in Everyday LifeWatch: The Last Shot Forum #3

Week 8SaturdayOctober 13

Intersectional Analysis of Healthcare

Read: Chapter 6: Inequalities in Health and IllnessWatch: Sicko

Week 9Saturday

Intersectional Analysis of the

Read: Chapter 7: Inequalities in Law and Justice