Envisioning the Good Society-Justice SJS Seminar I-Proposed Syllabus

Social Justice Seminar I Envisioning the Good Society-Justice Mondays 6:20-9:00pm

Monday seminars are synchronous via Zoom: You must be present online Mondays 6:20-9:00pm in order to participate in this class. Cameras need to be turned on.

Dr. Angel Adams Parham Phone: 504-344-7470 Office Hours: By Appointment E-mail: [email protected]

Zoom link to Monday evening seminars Join Zoom Meeting https://loyno.zoom.us/j/3528994392?pwd=RTNhd1h6RW1RUG0rWkl0eGU0Wm5KUT09

Meeting ID: 352 899 4392 Passcode: 16191776

What is a good society? How might we live in ways that promote goodness, fairness and justice? What can social research contribute to our quest to better understand which kinds of policies and choices help to promote a society conducive to the flourishing of all its people? In this course we approach these questions through readings and seminar-style discussion as we draw on a wide range of readings from the humanities and social sciences. The diversity of the readings provide an integrated approach to the study of justice and injustice.

Course Requirements Percentage of Course Attendance 20 Participation (includes colloquy entries) 20 (5% poor; 10% fair; 15% good; 20% excellent) Commonplace Book 30 (10% poor; 15% fair; 20% good; 30% excellent) Essay 30

Grading Breakdown (by percentage): 93-100 A 73-76 C 90-92 A- 70-72 C- 87-89 B+ 67-69 D+ 83-86 B 63-66 D 80-82 B- 60-62 D- 77-79 C+ <60 F

Commonplace Book A Commonplace Book is a notebook or journal to which we commit, in writing, thought-provoking quotes or other material that stands out to us or causes us to reflect. This book also contains our personal responses to the material we include there. The keeping of a Commonplace Book used to be a standard part of reading, thinking, learning and writing for scholars and everyday people from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. It continues to be a valuable tool for cultivating a thoughtful and systematic way of reading and thinking. Because writing by hand—rather than typing or copying and pasting—forces you to choose carefully what to include, and because handwritten entries help to enshrine in your memory what you have copied into the book, you are strongly encouraged to hand-write commonplace book entries. Choose a journal or notebook that you find to be aesthetically appealing as a way of encouraging you to write in it often. If, however, it is not possible to hand-write, you may make electronic entries instead.

Your Commonplace Book will be important to you in several ways: ● The book itself will be reviewed periodically by the instructor for thoughtfulness and clarity ● The material in the book will be the foundation of your reading-based participation in class ● The material in the book will provide the foundation for your essay. See the last pages of this syllabus for more details on the Commonplace book and how it will be evaluated.

Colloquy Entries A colloquy is a structured conversation between you and a selected text. Each week, you will write up a brief colloquy on a quote from the reading that you select. The structure for the colloquy is as follows: ● State the quotation along with author, source, and page number ● Choose the kind of response you will make to the quote by choosing ONE of the following o Continuity: Discuss how the quotation communicates a social issue, concept or problem that transcends time and place and that is as relevant now as it was when the text was originally written.

o Insight: The quotation does not necessarily communicate a social issue, concept or problem that transcends time and place, but you do see how it provides important insight into the nature of social life and that helps us to better understand who we are as social and political beings. o Resonance: You will discuss something in the quote that resonates with issues or ideas we are dealing with today. Thus, the issue the quote deals with may no longer occur in the same form, but it raises issues that are similar to or that resonate with what the author was originally addressing. o Debate: You disagree with some aspect of the quotation and will challenge or revise the point the author has made. Once you have chosen which approach you will take, write a 300-400 word reflection that fleshes out your response. ● Upload your colloquy to the class’s shared Google Doc. Review your classmate’s entries before coming to class and be ready to discuss your own as well as others’ responses.

Foundational Questions for thinking about Social Issues and Problems We will read a variety of texts from the ancient through the contemporary world. Even with their great variety in time period and genre, these readings cohere around their grappling with the following sets of foundational questions:

Individual and Society What is the relationship of individual to society? How does the society shape the individual and how does the individual shape society? How do different ways of structuring individual and society contribute to addressing or exacerbating different kinds of social issues?

Inequality Should we always aim for equality? If so, why? Is inequality ever a good thing? If so, under what conditions and to what degree? Is equity always to be preferred to equality?

Justice What does a just society look like? How have past and present writers thought about justice and the just society? What criteria can or should we use to determine that some particular phenomenon in a society is just or unjust?

Citizenship What are my rights and responsibilities as a citizen? How do I relate to other citizens who are quite socially or culturally different from me? Do fellow citizens have an obligation to be supportive of those who are less advantaged than themselves? If they do not have an obligation to do so, should they nevertheless be encouraged to be supportive of the disadvantaged? Why or why not?

Habit What kinds of everyday habits help us to become aware of the struggles of the disadvantaged? What kinds of everyday habits make us less likely to be aware of the disadvantaged? When thinking of “everyday habits” consider such things as personal associations we choose to cultivate or not to cultivate; places we typically do or don’t go to gather and socialize with others; where we live; the kinds of churches of religious organizations we take part in or support; how we relate to neighbors or don’t relate to them; etc. How is the willingness to address or ignore a social issue influenced by the extent to which those negatively impacted by the issue are separated from or integrated with the lives and social relationships of the mainstream of society?

In-Class Participation This part of your grade is based on your verbal participation in class each week. This participation will rely largely on sharing reading quotes and written responses to those quotes present in your commonplace book as well as responding to the thoughts and comments of others during class sessions. For this reason, you must bring your commonplace book to EVERY class.

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Schedule of Weekly Readings

Intellectual Foundations Week 1: August 23rd ● What is a liberal arts education and how is it related to “envisioning the good society?” o “On the Uses of a Liberal Education: As Lite Entertainment for Bored College Students” by Mark Edmundson, Harper’s Magazine, 1997 o “On the Uses of a Liberal Education: As a Weapon in the Hands of the Restless Poor” by Earl Shorris, Harper’s Magazine, 1997 ● Jesuit Foundations- How is a Jesuit education related to “envisioning the good society”? o “Men and Women for Others” by Pedro Arrupe, S.J. ● Plato’s Republic (the first one-third of the book)

Readings on Justice: The Ancient World Week 2: August 30th ● Plato’s Republic (finish the book)

LABOR DAY HOLIDAY: September 6th

Week 3: September 13th ● Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics (excerpts)

Week 4: September 20th ● Various Faith Traditions and Justice, selections from “Just Readings”, assembled by Loyola-Chicago o “The Concept of Justice in Judaism,Some Brief Comments” by Patti Ray o “The Historical Jesus and the Kingdom of God, Becoming” by Wendy Cotter, C.S.J. o “Islam and Justice Issues” by Marcia Hermansen o “Social Justice and the Hindu Scriptures” by Tracy Pintchman o “Social Justice and the Buddhist Scriptures” by Tracy Pintchman

Readings on Justice: The Medieval World Week 5: September 27th ● St. Augustine, City of God, Book XIX ● Dante Alighieri, selections from The Divine Comedy

Week 6: October 4th Thomas Aquinas, ”Treatise on the Cardinal Virtues” from, Summa Theologica ● Question 58 “Of Justice”; ● Question 59 “Of Injustice”; ● Question 60 “Of Judgment”; ● Question 61 “Of the Parts of Justice”; ● Question 62 “Of Restitution”; ● Question 63 “Of Respect of Persons”; ● Question 65 “Of Injuries Committed on the Person”; ● Question 66 “Of Theft and Robbery”; ● Question 67 “Of the Injustice of a Judge in Judging; ● Question 120 “Of Equity”)

FALL BREAK October 11th

Readings on Justice: Early Modern World

Week 7: October 18th ● Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, Chapter XIII, Chapter XIV

● David Hume, Treatise of Human Nature, Book III, “Morals”

Readings on Justice and Injustice: Late Modern and Contemporary

Week 8: October 25th ● Phillis Wheatley, selected poetry ● On Our Own Ground: The Complete Writings of William Appess, A Pequot by William Appess

Week 9: November 1st ● Frederick Douglass, Narrative ● Frederick Douglass, selected writing or speech

Week 10: November 8th ● Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself ● Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I a Woman?”

Week 11: November 15th ● Richard Wright, Native Son ● James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son o “Autobiographical Notes” o “Everybody’s Protest Novel” o “Notes of a Native Son

Contemporary Justice Issues and Social Science What does social science research have to offer to the conversation we’ve been having about the ethical, philosophical, and historical aspects of justice and injustice we have examined so far?

Week 12: November 22nd ● Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis by Robert Putnam ● Presentation of Essays

Week 13: November 29th ● The Prison School: Educational Inequality and School Discipline in the Age of Mass Incarceration by Lizbet Simmons ● Presentation of Essays

Week 14: December 6th ● Evicted, by Matthew Desmond ● Presentation of Essays

Week 15: December 13th During Exam Time 7:00-9:00pm Finish Presentation of Essays

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Commonplace Book Instructions

To read without also writing is to sleep. -St. Jerome (b. approx 342)

The use, not the reading, of books makes us wise. -Geffrey Whitney (from Choice of Emblems, 1586)

What is a Commonplace Book? A Commonplace Book is a notebook or journal to which we commit, in writing, thought-provoking quotes or other material that stands out to us or causes us to reflect. This book also contains our personal responses to the material we include there. The keeping of a Commonplace Book used to be a standard part of reading, thinking, learning and writing for scholars and everyday people from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. The discipline of keeping a Commonplace Book used to be taught to university students as a way of helping them to read and think carefully and critically and also as a way of helping them to develop their own considered opinions and ideas.

By keeping a Commonplace Book, you will be in the company of many extraordinary persons including: John Milton; John Locke; Kate Chopin; Ralph Waldo Emerson; Henry David Thoreau; Virginia Woolf.

"[L]et us take down one of those old notebooks which we have all, at one time or another, had a passion for beginning. Most of the pages are blank, it is true; but at the beginning we shall find a certain number very beautifully covered with a strikingly legible hand-writing. Here we have written down the names of great writers in their order of merit; here we have copied out fine passages from the classics; here are lists of books to be read; and here, most interesting of all, lists

7 of books that have actually been read, as the reader testifies with some youthful vanity by a dash of red ink." -Virginia Woolf, "Hours in a Library," Granite and Rainbow: Essays by Virginia Woolf (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., 1958), p. 25.

Why Keep a Commonplace Book? While keeping a Commonplace Book is required for this class, my hope is that it will be an invitation to reflect on and contemplate what is important not only in this class, but also in your life as a whole. Past keepers of Commonplace Books used their books not only as a way of reflecting on the writings of others, but also as a way of constructing the self. By thoughtfully reading/writing, and reflecting on this reading/writing, we become clearer about what we think, what matters to us, and who we are striving to be.

Instructions for Setting Up and Keeping Your Commonplace Book As expressed earlier, you are strongly urged to hand-write entries in an aesthetically appealing journal. Use your best handwriting. If necessary, however, you may keep an electronic version of your Commonplace Book. Either way, you must carefully follow the format and instructions provided below. ● At the front keep a Table of Contents that provides a running list of every reading you do. Each reading on this list must be fully cited using APA format. You can see examples of how to cite using the APA style at the following link: https://www.library.cornell.edu/research/citation/apa ● Create a NEW page devoted to each week’s readings. At the top of the page write the day of the week and the date. I need to be able to flip or scroll easily to ANY class meeting date and find your entry with its associated reflection and thematic title. See grading rubric for details of how the Commonplace book is graded. ● Create at least five entries per week, but feel free to include more entries. The more you have at hand, the better prepared you will be for class participation and for the essay. ● Each entry from a written source must be cited as follows: Author, Title, Page Number ● Include a brief written reflection beneath each entry in the book. ● Assign relevant thematic title(s) to each entry. More than one theme can be assigned to the same entry. These will be used to create a thematic index at the back of your book. ● Create an index at the end of the book that is organized alphabetically by theme and that includes the pages in the book where you can quickly find quotations or material related to that theme. When it comes time to write your essay, you will find this index invaluable as you will have collected key quotations from many authors on shared themes. For instance, your index will show you what

Aristotle, Plato, Douglass and Wright each have to say about “inequality”. You’ll know exactly where in each of their writings they talk about this, you’ll already have key quotes documented, and you’ll have your reflections on those quotes already in your Commonplace Book as well. This will make it fairly easy to put your essay together as all the elements are already there.

Some Potential Thematic Titles for Your Entries (These are just ideas to start with. Feel free to create your own as you go.) ● Justice ● Injustice ● Race ● Class ● Gender ● Equality ● Inequality ● Goodness ● Virtue ● Slavery ● Freedom Evaluation Criteria for the Common Place Book Requirement Excellent Good Needs Incomplete Improvement or Missing Format and -Thoughtfully -Some thought went into -Journal appears Author failed Presentation prepared, the journal the format of the journal, hastily thrown to complete was created with but it lacks clarity in together without this aspect of careful attention to organization, doesn’t allow clear thought or the easily collecting and for enough space for organization. assignment. annotating passages. quotations, or seems to -It appears that the The pages are large have other flaws that might journal would be enough to hold make it difficult to use as a difficult to use as a passages and resource for class commonplace book, commentary. participation and later lacks clear headings, -Headings are clearly assignments and/or lacks clear marked and passages organization. are compiled in such a way that they could be used later for class participation and other assignments. -The journal is generally neat in appearance

Content -Five or more entries -Fewer than required -Fewer or far fewer Author failed per week number of passages and/or than the required to complete -Summaries are those passages included do number of passages. this aspect of complete and not have commentary that - Very limited the commentary is reflects complete summaries and assignment. thoughtful, reflecting commentaries lack

9 reader’s careful and engagement with the any kind of depth or critical engagement reading material. reflection on the with the text. -Writing goes into some reading assignments. -Particular attention is depth, but does not - Little or no paid to the language frequently explore other attention is paid to and effects of language ideas or open new the language of the in the passages. questions for further passages. -Writing is exploratory inquiry and reading. -Final Reflection is and probing, opening -Writing rarely attends to hastily compiled and various questions and the language of the doesn’t reflect very ideas for further passages. deep engagement reading, writing, and -Final Reflection is with the project and interpretation. complete, but could be text. -Final Reflection more probing and engaged indicates deep with the text and project engagement with the text and project.