Community Learning
K45.1419 Critical Thinking and Research Methods for Organizing
4 CR M 3:30-6:10 Rahul Mahajan
At the heart of all activism is “issue development.” Advocating a different policy, whether on Iraq or on local police brutality, requires that you be able to do the following things: learn relevant background information, isolate the hidden assumptions behind mainstream analyses, understand proposed solutions, and think of your own solutions. The course will cover the following: (1.) logic, common fallacies, and requirements of a logical argument; (2.) two case studies: the war on Iraq and the prison-industrial complex; (3.) and an introduction to research methods and sources (think tanks and position papers, pitfalls of using the Internet, sourcing requirements). Students will then choose an issue and work with an NGO like the Center for Economic and Social Rights or the Justice Project to develop a position paper. Readings will include:Attacking Faulty Reasoning: A Practical Guide to Fallacy-Free Arguments, T. Edward Damer; The Craft of Research, Wayne C. Booth, et al.; Full Spectrum Dominance: U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond, Rahul Mahajan.
K45.1435 Walls of Power: Public Art from Lascaux to the Goodyear Blimp
4 CR R 3:30-6:10 Terence Culver
This course will combine public art and social activism in New York City. Working in a neighborhood and with community partners, the class will design and execute a public art project. Students will be an integral part of the process, from its conception and design, approval, and completion. The course will also be an opportunity to study the intersection of politics, community building, culture, social history, and art. We will examine selected historical examples of art and social and political activism, interview a number of activists and artists working in the field, and take advantage of public art throughout New York City.
K45.1444 Lyrics on Lockdown
4 CR T 6:20-9:00 Ella Turenne
This course will focus on the uses of visual arts and spoken word as a tool for positive social change. Through hands-on collaboration with the Blackout Arts Collective—an organization that uses poetry, music, film, theatre and visual arts to educate people on issues around the prison industrial complex—students will create artistic and dialogical spaces for critically thinking about the crisis of encarceration in this country. Speakers may include representatives of the Prison Moratorium Project and Critical Resistance. Possible readings include writings by Augusto Boal, Christian Parenti, Manning Marable, Bakari Kitwana, and Bryonn Bain. Students do not need to be artists to participate in the course, however, creative building will be an integral part of the curriculum.
K45.1445 Shifting Focus: Video Production and Community Activism
4 CR R 2:00-4:45 Mark Read
From the taping of the police beating of Rodney King to the burgeoning growth of Independent Media Centers around the world, video has become an essential tool of social struggle. This course will be a hands-on class in video production in the service of progressive social change. Class time will be used to: examine the biases of corporate-controlled media; learn the theory and history of video activism; develop basic camera and editing skills; and reflect on lessons learned in the field. Outside of class students will break into groups and collaborate with local community organizations in the conception and production of a short video piece, and subsequently strategize with those organizations about how to most effectively use video in their particular struggles. Readings will include selections from Noam Chomsky, Robert McChesney and Thomas Harding.
K45.1449 Introduction to Grassroots Organizing
4 CR W 9:30-12:15 Hany Khalil
Activists seeking progressive social change face daunting obstacles: Limited resources, cynicism about the possibilities for social change, conservative worldviews, and powerful opponents, to name a few. To have an impact under these conditions, activists need to learn how to think strategically about how to bring community members together to win changes in oppressive institutions and policies through their own action. This course is an introduction to the nuts and bolts of grassroots organizing. After studying alternative models of community organizing, we will look at how organizers involve community members, select issues, develop local leadership, and plan effective campaign strategies and tactics. We will draw upon organizing theory, case studies, interactive trainings, films on community and labor struggles, conversations with organizers, and observation of community organizing in the field. Readings include Rinku Sen’s Stir It Up: Lessons in Community Organizing and Advocacy; Kim Bobo, et. al., Organizing for Social Change; and Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals. Prior experience in campus or community organizing is desirable but not necessary.
K45.1452 Law and Community Activism
4 CR W 6:20-9:00 Marina Sitrin
As activists and members of society we are confronted by laws all of the time, though we rarely see ourselves as actors in relationship to these laws. Why is that? We are taught that rights have been given by progressive courts, rather than won by popular struggle. Where do rights come from? Are they the same as laws? In this course we will examine the role of popular resistance and its relationship to laws. We will examine concepts of justice, law, obedience and disobedience as we work with community-based organizations. Through our study and discussions in class we will create a base for working in the community, and from working in the community we will create more of an understanding of theory. Three areas students can choose to work in are: community groups using the legal system to advance their goals, groups mobilizing community support to defend against unjust laws, and groups using international human rights standards to shift the discourse around the issue of rights. Readings will range from Howard Zinn and Emma Goldman, to David Kairys and Patricia Williams, as well as excerpts from political trials. We will also read reflections from community groups working with or against laws and segments of legal decisions.
K45.1460 Literacy in Action
4 CR R 6:20-9:00 Paul Jurmo
This course combines volunteer work in New York City adult literacy and English as a second language programs with an academic introduction to the philosophy, history, and current issues of basic education. Students will work as volunteer teachers of reading and writing at such institutions as the University Settlement, Union Settlement, and Fortune Society. In class they will read about and discuss such key issues as which “basic skills” U.S. adults now need, which adults lack these skills and why, the implications for our economy, families, communities, and democracy, the instructional approaches developed for adults, and the steps that might be taken to build support for high-quality, adult, basic-skills programs. Throughout the course, students will relate such issues to their own on-site experiences in class discussion and role-playing, and create a portfolio of writing that includes on-site observations, lesson plans, reflections, and a final analytical paper. Readings may include Making Meaning, Making Change (Auerbach), Bringing Literacy to Life (Spruck Wrigley and Guth), and Whole Language for Adults (Cheatham, et al).
