ENGL1102 (12) T/R 10:00—11:20 am (Shannon Lawson)
Composition: A Vehicle for Communicating Across Gender, Class, and Cultural Divisions
          The course will be an enhanced introduction to college composition. Students will be required to actively participate in class discussions of original readings relevant to the goals of the course.  The course will focus on how we use language, both written and oral to communicate with one another.  Students will develop their critical thinking and analysis skills.  Students will also produce an electronic portfolio featuring a collection of their writing pieces and reflections upon their development as a writer.
          In addition to the standard departmental reader, students will read A long way gone: memoirs of a boy soldier by Ishmael Beah.  Beah began writing his memoirs when he was a junior at Oberlin College.  His story begins in Sierra Leone during the civil warfare of the 1990s.  At the young age of twelve, he witnessed the brutal killing of his family at the hand of attacking rebels.  Within a year, he had been recruited into the government army, and at the tender age of thirteen, discovered he was capable of horrific violence.  When he was finally released by the army and sent to a UNICEF rehabilitation center, he labored to reclaim his humanity.  For more info, consult the official website at http://www.alongwaygone.com/long_way_gone.html

PHIL2230 (51) T/R 4:00—5:20 pm (Dr. John Valentine)
Social and Political Philosophy
Below the Radar: Rogue States, Failed States and Non-State Actors
         The course will begin with a brief survey of the various social sciences. It will then examine some of the classical texts of Western social and political philosophy to determine the basic presuppositions Western thinkers have made regarding political communities and human rationality.
          The course will then focus on how well these classical Western presuppositions enable us to comprehend the potentials and limitations of rogue states, failed states and non-state actors to impact the world in which we live. Special attention will be given to how well these presuppositions enable us to think through the implications of modern science and technology (the internet, WMD, genetic engineering), and the challenges of world views and movements that espouse the rationality of martyrdom (al Queda, Jemaah Islamiyah).
Readings will include Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations, Barber’s Jihad vs. McWorld, and contemporary work by foreign policy intellectuals such as Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brezinski and Robert Litwak.
***This class satisfies the GEP Social Science Requirement.