Spring 2006

IDS 1023: Preceptorial – Search for a Good World

 

Professor Binita Mehta

Office: Founders G-26B

Office Hours: M, W, R 10-11 a.m, T, 1-3 p.m. & R 2-3 p.m.

Phone: (914) 323-5407 (on campus dial x5407)

Email: mehtab@mville.edu.

www.mville.edu/french

 

Required Texts in the order they are assigned:

Brecht Bertolt. Mother Courage and Her Children. New York: Arcade Publishing, 1994.

Locke, John.  Second Treatise on Government. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing, 1980.*

Smith, Adam.  The Essential Adam Smith. ed. Robert Hielbroner. New York: W.W. Norton, 1986.*

Marx, Karl.  Selected Writings. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing, 1994*

Vandana Shiva.  Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply. South End Press, 1999.*

Fareed Zakaria.  The Future of Freedom. Norton, 2004.

Soyinka, Wole.  Climate of Fear. New York:  Random House, 2005. 

Alvarez, Julia.  In the Time of the Butterflies. New York:  Plume, 1995. 

 

*highly recommended that you use the edition found in Manhattanville’s Bookstore, whether you buy it there or not!

 

Selected Films

Haggis, Paul.  Crash (2005)

Varda, Agnès. The Gleaners and I (2000)

 

Course Goals

The Preceptorial is a two-semester course required of all full-time students entering Manhattanville as freshman. The class is meant to be an introduction to college-level thought and work. Interdisciplinary in nature, its content deals with basic issues of values and cultures. Designed specifically for first-year students, the Preceptorial emphasizes the development of critical thinking through reading and writing, and it serves as an introduction to important topics in the humanities, arts, social sciences, and natural sciences. The course this semester will explore the ways in which classical and contemporary texts imagine a better world.

 

Attendance

Attendance is essential and required. If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to find out what was covered and to come to the next class prepared, with the necessary assignments completed.  In case of serious illness or other extenuating circumstances, be sure to call the Academic Advising Office. Someone there will notify your teachers. Also, if possible, notify me in advance of the nature of the illness.  I must have some form of legitimate documentation for an absence to be excused. EVERY UNEXCUSED ABSENCE AFTER THE THIRD WILL RESULT IN A REDUCTION OF YOUR CLASS PARTICIPATION GRADE. The class begins promptly at 12.10 p.m.  Students arriving late, i.e. after 12.15 p.m., will be marked absent, but will be responsible for knowing the details of the class lecture and discussion on that day. 

 

Homework

You are expected to read the assigned texts before you come to class and more than once if necessary to contribute to class discussions. ALL STUDENTS ARE REQUIRED TO BRING THEIR BOOKS OR ELECTRONIC PRINT-OUTS (IN CASE OF ONLINE MATERIAL) TO CLASS. All homework, when assigned, is to be TYPED and DOUBLE-SPACED unless other directions are given.

 

Oral Presentations

In addition to the presentations included in the syllabus, students, either individually or with a classmate will lead a 10-15-minute discussion in class about one other text we will be reading over the course of the semester. 

 

Essays

Students will be required to write two 2-4-page response papers as assigned.

 

Freshman Essay

This semester you will be completing a ten-twelve page paper where you discuss a common theme using at least four texts, one of which must be from the fall semester’s reading list.  The freshman essay is automatically included in your portfolio. Rough drafts of the essay must be handed in by the assigned due date.  IF I DO NOT RECEIVE A ROUGH DRAFT OF THE ESSAY BY THE ASSIGNED DUE DATE FOR THIS DRAFT (see syllabus), I WILL NOT ACCEPT THE FINAL VERSION, AND YOU WILL AUTOMATICALLY RECEIVE AN “F” FOR THE ASSIGNMENT.

 

Midterm and Final Exams

The midterm and final exams will be short answer or essay questions that test your knowledge of the works we have discussed so far.

 

Grades

10% Two short papers

20% Class Participation and Oral Presentations

15% Midterm Exam

40% Freshman essay

15% Final Exam

 

Academic Honesty

Manhattanville College’s policies regarding Academic Dishonesty can be found in the Student Handbook and Code of Community Conduct.  Any violation of these policies will result in failure of the course and referral to the Academic Dean.

 

Please note that plagiarism of any section of a paper—no matter how small—will automatically result in failure of the course and referral to the Academic Dean for disciplinary action.   Please read carefully the definition of plagiarism as contained in the Student Handbook.

 

Schedule of Assignments (This schedule is subject to change)

 

Date                                        Assignments

 

Thurs 1/19                                Introduction; discussion of Freshman essay; Brecht, Mother Courage

 

Mon 1/23                                 Mother Courage

 

Social Contracts and /or “Race”

 

Thurs 1/26                                Book of Ruth, Old Testament; Martin Luther King, Letter from Birmingham Jail

                                               

Mon 1/30                                 DVD, “Race and Power of an Illusion” – Episode 1                 

 

Thurs 2/2                                  Handouts from Anne Deavere Smith’s Fires in the Mirror

 

Mon 2/6                                   Anne Deavere Smith, Fires in the Mirror

 

Thurs 2/9                                  John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, chaps 1-3

 

Mon 2/13                                 Locke, chaps 4 & 5

 

Capitalism and Its Discontents

Thurs 2/16                                Adam Smith, The Essential Adam Smith, “Theory of Moral Sentiments,” pp. 65-88, 100-109, 118-123; Paper I due

Mon 2/20                                 Smith, “Wealth of Nations,” pp. 161-172, 186-208, 234-243

Thurs 2/24                                Smith, “Wealth of Nations”, pp. 248-252, 258-284, 290-31

Mon 2/27                                 Karl Marx, Selected Writings, Marx and Engels, “The Communist Manifesto;”

Thurs 3/2                                  Midterm Exam; 2-page proposals for Freshman Essay

 

March 6-10 (Spring Break)

 

Mon 3/13                     Shiva, Vandana. Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply

 

Thurs 3/16                    Shiva, Stolen Harvest

 

Mon 3/20                     Agnès Varda, The Gleaners and I (DVD); Assignment: Write a two-page response to The Gleaners and I relating this film to your reading of Shiva 

                                                                       

Contemporary Conflicts

Thurs 3/23                    Fareed Zakaria, The Future of Freedom (Intro, chap. 1); Paper II due

                                                 

Mon 3/27                     Zakaria, The Future of Freedom (Chaps 2, 3)

 

Thurs 3/30                    Zakaria, The Future of Freedom (Chap. 4, 5)

                       

Mon 4/3                       Zakaria, The Future of Freedom (Chap. 6, Conclusion and Afterword); Draft of Freshman paper

 

Thurs 4/6                      Wole Soyinka, Climate of Fear

 

Mon 4/10                     Soyinka, Climate of Fear       

 

Thurs 4/13                    Registration for fall 2005 – no class, individual appointments

 

Mon 4/17                     Julia Alvarez, In the Time of the Butterflies                

 

Thurs 4/2                      Alvarez, In the Time of the Butterflies

 

Mon 4/24                     Alvarez, In the Time of the Butterflies

 

Thurs 4/27                    Final Draft of Freshman Essay due (last class meeting)

                                    Review for final exam

 

The date, time and place of the FINAL EXAM will be announced later in the semester. DO NOT MAKE TRAVEL PLANS BEFORE THE FINAL EXAM SCHEDULE IS POSTED.

 

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