Syllabus
POLS 315 Summer 2015 ONLINE
Global Politics/International Relations
Colonialism, Neocolonialism, and Violence
We go by this syllabus unless otherwise noted on the blog and/or in an email.
If in doubt, email me.
Course Description
This course in Global Politics and International Relations focuses on historical as well as contemporary accounts of colonialism and neocolonialism, as well as on the violence of these practices. In addition to introducing actualities of colonialism in the past and today, the course will focus on how colonialism requires certain ways of thinking about other people that legitimizes subjugation and violence in the eyes and minds of the colonizers. Thinking about this, the course will allow us to look critically at concepts such as civilization, barbarity, development, foreignness, and entitlement. A major objective of this course is to expand critical thinking skills - to go beyond surface level analyses of politics in order to uncover multiple and often opposing truths.
Grading
Your final grade will be based on your grades for your weekly forum participation, an analytical essay, and your final paper. The forum participation will be worth 55%, the essay 15%, and your final project will count for 30% of your grade.
Weekly forum participation – 55%
Analytical essay - 15%
Final paper - 30%
90-100% A | 80-89% B | 70-79% C | 60-69% D | >60 % F
Our online tools will be our class website and Laulima
The class will be centered on this website www.globalpoliticsmanoa.weebly.com. In the "weekly updates" blog section, I will post (surprise surprise) weekly updates, announcements and reading guides. This means I will not write emails directly to you – you have to check the website regularly - at least once a week - for announcements. All the readings are available under the "weekly readings" header here on the website. Instructions for the analytical essay and final paper will be posted under "assignments." The only part of the class that does not take place through the website is our forum. All of your reaction papers and responses to each other’s reactions take place in the “class discussions” on Laulima.
Weekly readings
Because we will be covering three credits in just ten weeks, and because we don’t have to spend time coming to class, I have assigned a lot of reading, in fact for 4 of the 10 weeks of the class, I have assigned a whole book. It is my hope that this opportunity to spend a lot of time reading will enable you to get deep into reading these works. I have been very careful in assigning books that I think are worth spending this kind of time on. All are available in electronic versions. If you wish to read them in hard-copy, you can either print from the electronic versions or buy the books that look particularly interesting to you.
Weekly forum participation
In order to keep you committed on reading the assigned material, you will be expected to post a reaction (between 400 and 500 words) on Laulima each week relating to the material of that week. Your reaction should show that you have read and engaged with the material, which means that you write what surprised, confused, intrigued, and/or annoyed you about the reading(s), what the reading(s) made you think about, and so on. Each week, you are also expected to post a response to a fellow student’s reflection from the previous week (at least 150 words). Your reaction to the reading(s) for each week and response to a fellow student’s reaction from the previous week is due every Friday at 4pm.
Analytical Essay
The essay should be 1000 - 1500 words in length and will respond to broad questions pertaining to issues and texts we have worked with in class. I will post the questions at least two weeks prior to the deadline. The essay is designed to help you practice applying the material presented in readings and forums in order to describe and analyze this material in response to specifics questions. You will be able to answer the questions based on class materials; you are not expected to conduct outside research, however you are welcome to include outside aspects if something relevant comes to mind for you. The essay is due Friday, July 10th at 4pm. Please email it to gitte[ø]hawaii.edu in a word document (doc. Or docx).
Final paper
Your final paper is about a topic related to the course that you wish to explore further. For this paper, you are expected to include knowledge you have gained from the readings and assignments of the course as well as additional outside research on your topic of choice. Your paper should refer to at least 10 different sources from (materials from in class as well as out of class). The task here is to present a coherent presentation, exploration/analysis and critical discussion of a topic. You will be graded on your ability to critically analyze rather than summarize your findings. Your final paper should be between 2000 and 2500 words. The final paper is due Wednesday, August 12 at 4pm. Please email it to gitte[ø]hawaii.edu in a word document (doc. Or docx).
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is a very serious offence that I do not look lightly upon. If you present someone else’s words or ideas as your own, you are plagiarizing them. Plagiarism is a form of theft and academic dishonesty. Some examples include doing any of the following without proper citation: cutting and pasting text from a website, paraphrasing another person’s ideas, directly copying words from any source (book, journal, script), etc. Doing any of the above is cheating and will result in serious consequences. Any work that is deemed to include plagiarized material will be failed and I will not hesitate to report any instances of plagiarism to the UH office of judicial affairs. I understand that generally people resort to plagiarism when they are under pressure for various reasons: work, family, relationships, or simply not understanding the material. Please talk to me if you are having trouble with the work. We will work something out together that will be much better than cheating and failing. If you have any questions about the plagiarism policy of the school please see the UHM Student Conduct Code: www.hawaii.edu/ail/students/plagiarism.html.
Late work
If you have concerns about your performance in the course, please email me as soon as possible. We have a lot to cover and it may be easy to fall behind. It is to your responsibility and advantage to stay on top of your assignments. If you want me to accept late work, email me and make an agreement with me before the deadline. Again: I will only accept late work if an agreement has been made with me before the deadline for the work.
Course Schedule
Week 1 June 8-12: Introduction
- Chris Brown and Kirsten Ainley: Understanding International Relations. Palgrave MacMillan, 2005. Read “Introduction: Defining International Relations”, pp. 1-15, chapter 5, “Power and Security” pp. 80-96 and chapter 6, “The balance of power and war” pp. 97-115.
Week 2 June 15-19: Colonialism, part I - Legitimizing Ideologies of ‘Othering’
- Sven Lindquist: Exterminate all the brutes: One Man’s Odyssey into the heart of darkness and the origins of European genocide, New Press, 1996.
Week 3 June 22-26: Colonialism, part II: Psychology
- Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Masks, Pluto Books, 2008 (1967).
Week 4 June 29-July 3: Tools of Occupation – Israel/Palestine
- Eyal Weizman, The Least of All Possible Evils: Humanitarian Violence from Arendt to Gaza (2011).
Week 5 July 6-10: Race, Class and Nationhood: Ideologies and Illusions
- Etienne Balibar and Immanuel Wallerstein: Race, Nation, Class, Verso, 1991.
We will read Balibar: “Is there a ‘Neo-Racism?’” pp. 17-28; and Wallerstein: “The Construction of Peoplehood: Racism, Nationalism, Ethnicity” pp. 71-85.
-Analytical essay due
Week 6 July 13-17: Globalization as neocolonialism
- David Harvey: A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford University Press, 2005. Chapter 1 "Freedom's just another word"
pp. 5-38.
- Gitte du Plessis: “Neocolonialism and the novel Eat, Pray, Love”. This paper presents a
short genealogy of the term “neocolonialism” and gives an example of neocolonialism in popular culture.
Week 7 July 20-24: Colonialism, part III: Hunting as a form of governing
- First half of Gregoire Chamayou: Manhunts, Princeton University Press, 2012.
Week 8 July 27-31: More hunting power
-Second half of Chamayou’s Manhunts
-Gitte du Plessis: ‘Hunting as techniques of governing,’ Review Essay, Theory and Event, 2015.
Week 9 August 3-7: Grievability
-Judith Butler: Frames of War, Verso, 2009.
Week 10 August 10-14: Final papers
- Final papers due Wednesday, August 12