Paper #1 Topics and Presentation Sign Ups for Upcoming Weeks

Paper #1 Topics

1.      What is Arendt’s conception of action in The Human Condition and is it relevant today? Your essay should describe and identify the characteristics that Arendt assigns to action, including appropriate quotations and selections from the text. Your essay should also discuss how, why, and if Arendt’s conception of action is relevant. To do this, you could might incorporate examples, modify Arendt’s conception, and/or tease out the implications of her argument. Feel free to include reference to the writings in Honig, Cavarero, Beltran, and the “Occupy Wall Street” blog.

2.      In The Human Condition, Arendt criticizes “society” and, more specifically, “the rise of mass society.” (p. 41) What is her critique and do you agree or disagree with her position? Your essay should describe and identify the characteristics that Arendt assigns to mass society, including appropriate quotations and selections from the text. Your essay should also discuss how, why, and if Arendt’s critique of society is relevant. To do this, you could might incorporate examples, modify Arendt’s conception, and/or tease out the implications of her argument. Feel free to include reference to the writings in Honig, Cavarero, Beltran, and the “Occupy Wall Street” blog.

3.      Is Arendt’s critique of the “private” realm appropriate? Does “the private” have a political relevance? Your essay should describe and identify the characteristics that Arendt assigns to the private realm, including appropriate quotations and selections from the text. Your essay should also discuss how, why, and if Arendt’s conception of privacy is relevant. To do this, you could might incorporate examples, modify Arendt’s conception, and/or tease out the implications of her argument. Feel free to include reference to the writings in Honig, Cavarero, Beltran, and the “Occupy Wall Street” blog.

4.      If you have a specific paper topic on The Human Condition that you would like to pursue, we can discuss it for approval by email or in person 4/11 (Wednesday).

**

Week 3—Action

4/10, Tuesday

--Arendt, The Human Condition, pp. 199-247, pp. 320-325.

--1/3 class to brainstorm and compare

--All seminar participants are to post their response to readings on Blackboard by Wednesday at 9pm

PRESENTATION SIGN UP

1._____Jessica Moore_______

2.___ Tom Smith___

3.___________________

4/12, Thursday

--Cristina Beltrán, “Going Public: Hannah Arendt, Immigrant Action, and the Space of Appearance,” Political Theory 2009 37: 595 originally published online 16 June 2009.

http://ptx.sagepub.com/content/37/5/595. USE WWU LIBRARY SUMMIT DATABASE TO ACCESS

--“Occupy Wall Street” blog / Hannah Arendt Center, Bard College

http://www.hannaharendtcenter.org/?tag=occupy-wall-street

PRESENTATION SIGN UP

1._____Matt Benson_____

2._Jeff Cedarbaum____

3.__Steven Gilbert_____

Week 4—Politicizing Theory

4/17, Tuesday

--review of writing strategies

--Bonnie Honig, “Toward an Agonistic Feminism: Hannah Arendt and the Politics of Identity” in Feminists Theorize the Political ed., Judith Butler and Joan Scott, Routledge, 1992. ON ELECTRONIC RESERVE at WWU Library website.

--Adriana Cavarero, “Politicizing Theory,” Political Theory, Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 506-532.  

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3072619. USE WWU LIBRARY SUMMIT DATABASE TO ACCESS

--All seminar participants are to post their response to readings on Blackboard by Wednesday at 9pm

PRESENTATION SIGN UP

1.________Lauren Raine (Toward an Agnostic Feminism)___________

2.________Sara Rosso___________

3._______Chris Brown (Politicizing Theory)__

4/19, Thursday

--review of writing strategies

--rough drafts due

--peer evaluations in class

Week 5—Questioning Tradition; **PAPER #1 DUE in my office by 6pm**

4/24, Tuesday

--Michael Oakeshott, “Political Education,” p. 43-69 from Rationalism in Politics. ON ELECTRONIC RESERVE at WWU Library website.

--Oakeshott, “On Being Conservative,” from The Portable conservative reader, edited, with an introduction and notes, by Russell Kirk, p. 567-599. ON ELECTRONIC RESERVE at WWU Library website.

--Oakeshott, “The masses in representative democracy,” from The last best hope: a democracy reader, Stephen John Goodlad, editor, p. 75-91. ON ELECTRONIC RESERVE at WWU Library website.

**PAPER #1 DUE in my office/mailbox by 6pm**

--All seminar participants are to post their response to readings on Blackboard by Wednesday at 9pm

4/26, Thursday

--Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1949, trans. H M Parshley, Penguin 1972.

http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/2nd-sex/index.htm

--“Introduction,” The Second Sex

http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/2nd-sex/introduction.htm

--Chapter 1, Biology

http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/2nd-sex/ch01.htm

--2^nd paper topics distributed

PRESENTATION SIGN UP

1.____Julia Canty_______________

2.___________________

3.___________Amelia Woolley________

Week 6—Power and Oppression

5/1, Tuesday

--Conclusion, The Second Sex

http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/2nd-sex/ch04.htm

--excerpt, from Lori Jo Marso and Patricia Moynagh (eds), Simone de Beauvoir’s Political

Thinking (Urbana and Chicago: Illinois University Press, 2006). ON ELECTRONIC RESERVE at WWU Library website.

--All seminar participants are to post their response to readings on Blackboard by Wednesday at 9pm

PRESENTATION SIGN UP

1._____Brenna Wyatt______________

2._____Madeline Cavazos______________

3._____Andrea Farred______________

5/3, Thursday

--Jean Paul Sartre, Preface to the The Wretched of the Earth.

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/1961/preface.htm

--Fanon, “Concerning Violence,” from The Wretched of the Earth, p. 35-106

http://www.openanthropology.org/fanonviolence.htm

PRESENTATION SIGN UP

1._____Emily Cross______

2._____Tyler Adams______________

3._____Andrew Williams______________

Week 7—Sandison; Sovereign Power and Punishing the Body Politics

5/8, Tuesday

–Film: The Farms, Angola USA

--attend the Sandison lecture and luncheon

--All seminar participants are to post their response to readings on Blackboard by Wednesday at 9pm

5/10, Thursday

--Fanon, “Reciprocal Bases of National Culture and the Fight for Freedom,” http://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/fanon/national-culture.htm

--Black Panther Party, 10 Point Plan

http://www.blackpanther.org/TenPoint.htm

--Foucault, Discipline and Punish, p. 1-69

--http://www.egs.edu/library/michel-foucault/biography/

Background information on Foucault.

PRESENTATION SIGN UP

1._____Will Dethlefs________

2.____Spencer Sunderland_______________

3._____Sara Salz________

Week 8—Sovereign Power and Punishing the Body Politics

5/15, Tuesday

– Foucault, Discipline and Punish, p. 73-103, 131-169

--1/3 brainstorm and examples

--http://teachingthursday.org/2010/02/18/online-teaching-the-panopticon-and-the-unequal-gaze/

--http://teachingthursday.org/2010/01/21/the-panopticon-and-online-teaching/

--All seminar participants are to post their response to readings on Blackboard by Wednesday at 9pm

PRESENTATION SIGN UP

1.____Gabriel Peterson_________

2._____Micah Christie______________

3.___________________

5/17, Thursday

--Foucault, Discipline and Punish, p. 170-228

--1/3 brainstorm and examples

--http://weber.ucsd.edu/~pmichelb/Bartky.pdf

PRESENTATION SIGN UP

1._____Blair Peterson______________

2.___________________

3.___________________

Week 9—Disciplinary Power

5/22, Tuesday

--Foucault, Discipline and Punish, p. 293-308

--1/3 brainstorm

--http://phaidon.philo.at/~iaf/Labyrinth/Kruks.html

--International Day Against Video Surveillance http://www.notbored.org/IDAVS.html

PRESENTATION SIGN UP

1.___Julia Kowalski________________

2._______Miles Bludorn____________

3.___________________

5/24, Thursday

– rough draft due

--peer reviews

Week 10—Power and Politics

5/28, Monday

--student paper meetings, 10am—3pm

--7 appointments

5/29, Tuesday

--student paper meetings, 10am—3pm

--7 appointments

5/30, Wednesday

--student paper meetings, 10am—3pm

--7 appointments

5/31, Thursday

--student paper meetings, 10am—3pm

--7 appointments

Week 11—Finals Week

**6/5, Tuesday – FINAL PAPER DUE IN MY OFFICE/MAILBOX by 6pm**