Goals and Objectives:

In this class, we will explore the rhetorical, historical and social impact of acts of genocide perpetrated against a number of ethnic groups around the globe in the 20th century.  We will begin with the Armenian genocide at the start of this century and move on to the Holocaust.  Then several different non-western examples of genocide including such case studies as the Russian/Eastern European community and the Gulag, the "Killing Fields" of Cambodia, several genocides in Africa, and some current hot spots will be studied.  We will explore the social and communicative actions which brought about each genocide while at the same time exploring the victims' responses to their extermination. Special emphasis will be placed on exploring the impact of mass persuasion on the development of genocide.

We will see the extreme results of inter-ethnic and inter-cultural conflict represented in the examples of the course.  These case studies of genocide also provide examples of the use of modern technology without moral or ethical bounds.  Studying them forces us to examine our own moral understandings in light of the realities of genocide in the 20th century, where genocide has occurred far too often as a pattern of inter-ethnic relations. Ironically, as our world becomes more "civilized" and technologically advanced, we do not seem to become more accepting of cultural or ethnic diversity.

Our understanding of genocide leads us to an appreciation of the necessity for maintaining tolerance of cultural diversity and a refusal to let hate-based policies of small groups become the policy of a nation.  Through the examination of extreme hatreds and their resulting mass deaths, we begin to comprehend that ethnocentrism and prejudice, when allowed to grow, may have significant and horrible impact.  And through the examination of the extreme results of prejudice and ethnocentrism, we begin to understand our own individual and corporate responsibility for moral and ethical acceptance of diverse peoples and perspectives.

This is a general education theme class structured for students in the honors program.  It also fulfills the general education requirement for non-western credit.  In addition, this course is  an elective that helps fulfill the requirements for majors or minors in either sociology or communication studies.

This class is organized around the following General Education, sociology and communications department objectives:
1. This general education theme deals with issues critical to your lives as citizens of this society and the larger world community.
2.This theme is both interdisciplinary and integrated in its investigation of genocide.
3.This theme systematically deals with the value assumptions and issues raised by approaching the subject of genocide from both the perspective of sociology and communication
4.This course integrates substantial aspects sociology and communication as well as the natural sciences, other behavioral and social sciences and the humanities in an examination of genocide in the 20th century.
5. This course covers core sociological and communication concepts.
6.This course investigates the effects of domestic and global forces on social institutions, on your life, and on the lives of other individuals and groups.
 

Required Reading:

FORTY DAYS AT MUSA DAGH by Franz Werfel
 ORDINARY MEN by Christopher Browning
 TRAP WITH A GREEN FENCE by Richard Glazar
 ONE DAY IN THE LIFE OF IVAN DENISOVICH by A. Solzhenitsyn
 Articles on reserve in the library

    James Mace "The American Press and the Ukranian Famine"
    John Pilger "The Return To Year Zero"  (Cambodian Genocide)
    Ed Vulliamy "Middle Managers of Genocide" (Bosnian Genocide)
    Marla Stone "Bosnia’s Untenable Peace"
    Rene Lemarchand "Burundi: The Politics of Ethnic Amnesia"
    David N. Smith "The Genisis of Genocide in Rwanda"
    Filip Reyntjens "Rwanda: Genocide and Beyond"
    Katherine Bigelow "A Campaign to Deter Genocide: The Bahai Experience"
    Nathaniel Sheppard "Hate in Cyberspace"
    Others may be added to this list.

 CLASS EMAIL LIST. Some of our communication with you will take place over email. Therefore, you are required to have an email account so that you can fully participate in the class. Be prepared, you will need to check your email often during the school week.

GENOCIDE SITES ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB. Links to these sites can be found in the class homepage. The address for our homepage is given above.
 
 

Course Grades & Assignments:

Because this is an honors class, and because it is a small class, we will be basing your grades on a combination of work that includes attendance, participation, leading discussions, in-class writes and quizzes, and two papers.  Some of these are explained below.  The rest will be explained in class.  There are no exams in the course.

If you have special needs in terms of completing the graded work in the class, you need to speak to one of us after class or in one of our offices within the first two weeks of the semester so that special arrangements can be made.

 Attendance and Class Participation. This class is designed to be a combination of lecture and interactive learning.  Heavy emphasis is placed on discussing pertinent issues presented in the lecture and reading material, whether we agree with them, how crucial they are, how they affect our lives, etc.  Therefore, class attendance and participation may effect your final grade.  You are expected to attend, and while there, participate in the discussion of the material.

 Leading Discussions.  We will divide up the course material and you will take turns preparing short discussions or innovative presentations on this material. Each of these presentations will be worth 25 points.

 Periodic In-Class Writes.  Most weeks, you will complete a short exercise in class.  Each will be worth 10 points.  These exercises have different purposes, such as assessing how well the material is making the journey from our notes to your notes, encouraging you to get the readings done on time, getting you to think about some relevant issue, and even stimulating discussion.  These cannot be made up so you may miss points if you miss class; however, we will allow you to miss two of them without penalty.  That means that if you take them all, we’ll drop the two lowest scores.

Two Research Papers.  Each paper will be worth 100 possible points.  We will discuss these assignments in detail during class.
 

We expect your written work to be of high quality, both in content and form.  You are honors students so we know you do good work, but we want to be explicit about our expectations.  Every piece of work you give us that is completed outside of class must follow the five guidelines given below.  If you don’t, you will loose points.
1)  The paper must be typewritten, double-spaced, with 1" margins.  Pages should be numbered and stapled together;
2)  Begin your paper with a title page;
3)  Proofread for typographical and grammatical errors. Typos and errors will reduce your grade. If there are too many errors, you may be asked to redo the paper or use the Writing Center at Taylor 107;
4)  Your paper should be clearly written.  Organize your thoughts and express them clearly.  Have introduction, body, conclusion and references sections;
5)  Do not plagiarize.  Cite when you borrow ideas or information; quote and cite when you borrow exact words.
 
Because we will be discussing assignments in class on the dates they are due, LATE ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE PENALIZED.  Points will be taken off for every day that your work is late.  If you cannot be in class on the date the assignment is due, hand it in early, have another student hand it in for you, or arrange to get it delivered.  In order to be fair to all the students in the class, NO EXCEPTIONS will be made.

You may choose to write your paper on either films (including videos and cassette tapes) shown in class, guest speakers addressing the class, the assigned readings, or the instructors' lectures.  In the essay (approximately seven pages typed), you will analyze, evaluate and respond to a particular point made in the presentation.  You must draw on class material (you are expected to heavily draw on readings and lectures) and outside sources (library research) to support your perspective.  You may also use our Genocide class homepage (the address is given at the beginning of this syllabus), which contains links to genocide gophers, archives, and materials from all over the world for your research.

 To do the paper, choose an issue that interests you and that you want to explore further. Begin your paper with a short discussion of that issue as it was brought up in a film, in a  reading, by a speaker, or in a lecture.  Then spend the bulk of the paper discussing the  additional research you completed beyond what you heard in class or read in the texts and show proof of that additional research in your writing and in your citation of sources in the paper. Even though this paper is an expansion of an issue from the class you must form an argument or clear idea that you support with evidence and opinion from experts that you have researched.  Some possible subjects might be an exploration of Jewish art and music during the Holocaust; or a discussion of the allies’ lack of response to the Nazi genocide or a profile of Stalin's psychology (Professor Carol Edelman maintains a file in her office of superb papers from past semesters).  Each of you must have your paper topic preapproved by one of us before you write.

EXTRA CREDIT. There will be limited opportunities for extra credit throughout the semester by attending the presentation of a speaker who comes to our campus this semester and speaks on a topic related to this course.  Your task will be to type an intelligent 2 page critique of that presentation (worth 10 possible points each), incorporating material from the lectures and readings (use citations).  These critiques will not be accepted later than one week after the speaker’s presentation was given.  Only those events announced in class will count for extra credit and we will announce these presentations in class as we hear about them.  There is no way we can tell you now how many such speech critiquing opportunities there will be during the semester or when they will be; we can only let you know about them as we hear about them (and if you know of something that might qualify for extra credit, please bring it to our attention so that we can announce it in class!).
 Please keep in mind that doing this extra credit work is not enough to get you extra credit points; the work must be done well.  Also keep in mind that these extra credit opportunities will make slight rather then drastic upward improvements in your grade.  That means that if you want a good grade in this class, you will have to do well on the course requirements listed above.
 
 
 

One final thought: The Western Regional Honors Conference is in San Francisco next April.  Because the conference site is so close to Chico this year, we could take advantage of it by preparing a presentation.  It’s a wonderful experience and a wonderful line on your resume as you search for employment or graduate school.  Sam and I are eager to work with all or some of you to organize a session for the conference and incorporate this into the second research assignment.  Last year, Carol took four Honors Students to this conference and they ran a session; those students will be coming to class early in the semester to tell you all about it so you can make an informed decision about whether you want to take advantage of this opportunity.
 

Class Schedule:

The topics that will be discussed in class are:

The schedule above is subject to revision. You will be informed well in advance if any changes are made.

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