SPIRITUALITY AND GLOBAL POLITICS SIS 514 This syllabus is dedicated to the children, women, and men everywhere who live with injustice and disease as their constant companions. Our sisters and brothers, who spend their lives establishing equal protection of the law, and equal opportunity for all. All the people who have spent their lives helping make the world a community of justice and peace. SPIRITUALITY AND GLOBAL POLITICS SIS 514 SPRING 2009 THURSDAYS 2:10 - 4:50 PM SIS ROOM 203 Faculty: Teaching Fellow: Rapporteur-Teaching Assistant: Professor Abdul Aziz Said Sheherazade Jafari Charles Martin-Shields Office: SIS 206 Office: SIS 206 Office: SIS 206 Phone: 202-885-1632 Phone: 202-841-5208 Phone: 202-255-2466 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Office Hours: 1-2 pm Thurs Office Hours: 1-2 pm Thurs Office Hours: 12-1 pm Thurs Additional appointments welcome. Additional appointments welcome. Additional appointments welcome. *All featured artwork from The International Peace Book by Nahed Ojjeh, UNESCO, unpublished. Available for view in Prof. Said’s office. “The Whole World Needs the Whole World.” SPIRITUALITY AND GLOBAL POLITICS This course postulates that the issues facing modern society, nationally and globally, demand a new set of answers, arising from a new pattern of faith and belief. * * * In this course we will examine the application of spirituality to global politics, with particular emphasis on the ways in which modalities of faith and belief that transcend narrowly sectarian concerns promote peace and provide ways to respond to issues of poverty, the environment, and violence. The 21 st century could be a prelude to one of the most exciting periods in human history. The previous century’s faith in the power of modernity is showing itself to be insufficient to meet the needs of today's world and its new challenges. Amidst a worldwide crisis of identity and purpose, people of widely varied backgrounds are turning to a new set of beliefs. While they may not share the same religious forms, they do share the essential premise that the world and its people are all one community. This sense of unity, which includes all the human societies of the world as well as the natural and material surroundings, is the central concept of the "new spirituality," around which this course is organized. Politics is spiritual because our public life reflects our social values. Politics is a process of maximizing deeply held convictions about values. The reconnection of politics to our best values is now the most important tool of political life. The dominant Western view of politics as an objective reality does little to explain the present global system. It is an outlook that delegitimizes values and culture. Politics devoid of values becomes reduced to brokerage of destructive power. The dominant view of world politics sees values and culture as restraints; it assumes that values and culture are not based on human needs, and that values and culture are easily changed. Only institutions, processes, and events are important. Although the terms religion and spirituality are often used somewhat interchangeably, it is important to recognize the distinction between them. The term religion implies an institutional framework within which a specific theology or doctrine is advocated and pursued, usually among a community of like-minded believers. Spirituality, on the other hand, transcends the normal parameters of organized religion, suggesting a broader scope of human involvement that emanates from the inner essence of a being. At the level of the individual, it often implies action borne of a faith commitment which may or may not be informed or circumscribed by allegiance to a particular religious tradition. “The whole is reflected in the parts, and from the parts comes the ever-greater whole.” Table of Contents Course Overview Page 5 Requirements and Evaluation Process Page 6 Part One: Introduction January 15 (Week 1): Meeting one another, overview and structure of class Page 7 January 22 (Week 2): Defining Spirituality and Religion Page 7 Bibliography for Spirituality and Religion Page 8 Part Two: Poverty January 29 (Week 3): Overview of Poverty Page 12 February 5 (Week 4): Is Poverty Natural? Page 13 February 12 (Week 5): Is Poverty only Material? Page 13 February 19 (Week 6): How Does One End Poverty? Page 13 Bibliography for Poverty Page 14 Part Three: The Environment February 26 (Week 7): Overview of Environment Page 15 March 5 (Week 8): Can the Environment be Owned? Page 16 March 12 (Week 9): Spring Break – NO CLASS Page 16 March 19 (Week 10): What is the Relationship Between Humans and the Environment? Page 16 3 March 26 (Week 11): How Does One Stop Environmental Degradation? Page 16 Bibliography for the Environment Page 17 Part Four: Violence April 2 (Week 12): Overview of Violence Page 19 April 9 (Week 13): Is Violence Natural? Page 20 April 16 (Week 14): Is Violence only Material? Page 20 April 23 (Week 15): How Does One Stop Violence? Page 20 Bibliography for Violence Page 21 April 30 (Week 16): Take Home Final Distributed Electronically (No Class) Page 22 May 7 (Week 17): Take Home Final Due Page 22 Course Overview DATE TOPIC PRESENTATION READING LIST POSTED ONLINE Week 1 Jan 15 Introduction - Meeting One Another, Overview, Structure of Class Week 2 Jan 22 Defining Religion and Spirituality Week 3 Jan 29 Overview: Poverty Group # 1 Week 4 Feb 5 Poverty 1 Group # 1 Group # 2 Week 5 Feb 12 Poverty 2 Group # 2 Group # 3 Week 6 Feb 19 Poverty 3 Group # 3 Week 7 Feb 26 Overview: Environment Group # 4 Week 8 Mar 5 Environment 1 Group # 4 Group # 5 Week 9 Mar 12 SPRING BREAK Week 10 Mar 19 Environment 2 Group # 5 Group # 6 Week 11 Mar 26 Environment 3 Group # 6 Week 12 Apr 2 Overview: Violence and Group # 7 its Victims Week 13 Apr 9 Violence 1 Group # 7 Group #8 Week 14 Apr 16 Violence 2 Group #8 Group #9 Week 15 Apr 23 Violence 3 Group #9 Week 16 Apr 30 Take Home Final Distributed Electronically (no class) Week 17 May 7 Take Home Final Due (submit via email or drop off at the office by 2 pm) This course is designed as a participative knowledge exercise. This means that students will be responsible for choosing readings and leading presentations/discussions on most weeks. The process is as follows: each group will meet with Professor Said and Sheherazade no later than two weeks prior to their 4 presentation to design and develop a reading list that focuses on a specific area within their week’s topic (for example: structural considerations, culture, gender, or youth under any of the main topics – poverty, environment and violence). The specific bibliography for your topic as well as the broader bibliography for week 2 are excellent places to start for creating your reading list. The group will then e-mail their reading list to [email protected] no later than Tuesday (midnight) the week prior to their presentation. The reading list will be approved/revised and sent back to the group on Wednesday. The group will then post the reading list on Blackboard by the Thursday prior to their presentation. Here is an example: • Group #1 meets with Professor Said and Sheherazade the week of January 19. • They e-mail their reading list for review/revision to [email protected] by Tuesday night (January 27). • Sheherazade sends them an email on Wednesday confirming the list. • They then post their readings on Blackboard no later than the start of class on January 29. Each group will consist of three people. In order to create enough teams to cover the semester, a few students are asked to join two groups instead of one. The students who choose to take this opportunity will be exempt from the writing assignments (see next page), worth 10 percent of your grade. All readings for overview weeks are posted on Blackboard . Requirements & Evaluation Process Grading Course Participation/Attendance 40% Group Presentation 20% Reading List 15% Writing 10% Final Exam 15% * Course participation will be assessed based upon your contribution to the in-class discussions. This is a shared journey in which each member of the course is an active member. It brings with it a responsibility to prepare for each course in a manner that enables you to present your perspectives in a grounded, polite, and analytically informed manner. Preparation is pivotal. It reflects not just your commitment to the course but to each other. Attendance is mandatory for all courses, and if you are to miss a class, you must inform Professor Said in writing (minimum one day prior). * Group Presentations – the course will be divided into nine research groups, each for one of the three central questions under each main topic (poverty, environment, and violence). In this respect, each group takes full ownership of the question. They are responsible for developing a Reading List to guide the course discussion (see previous page for requirements). The reading list will be evaluated based upon the analytical parsimony. Assigning your peers more reading as opposed to less reading will not get you a better grade. Rather, the assigned reading should reflect a range of perspectives relevant to the issue and your discussion. The group will be responsible for giving a presentation (approximately 20 minutes), posing a series of tentative answers (or even more questions) to the week’s central question. They will then lead the class in a discussion of their questions/tentative answers. * Writing – at the end of each topic (poverty, environment, and violence), write a three-page reflection analyzing one of the central questions while presenting the arguments from the readings and how they might form an answer to that question.