SSCS 2040W
Power, Inequality and Social Change
4 Credits
Power, Inequality and Social Change
4 Credits
Course Description
This seminar course provides in-depth, critical analysis of uses of power both nationally and globally that result in inequality or, alternatively, in social change. Examples of national and global topics included are: systemic racism and privilege, civil rights in times of crisis, immigrant and refugee settlement, mass incarceration, the global glass ceiling, and social activism.
Learning Objectives
Students will demonstrate understanding of social justice issues related to uses of power domestically and globally as they:
Liberal Arts Goals
This course supports the following Liberal Arts Goals of St. Catherine University:
Connection to the Mission
The design of this learning experience reflects the University's commitment to Catholic social teaching, women and the liberal arts. Our commitment to these values will shape course process, content and the active search for diverse points of view. Identifying, assessing and realizing the course learning outcomes is central to our mission.
Textbooks, Other Required Materials, and Content
We will consider difficult issues in this course related to social justice. Our goal in this course is to approach and discuss the material with respect, grace and kindness. The course materials include references to extreme racism and other oppression. If you would prefer alternative learning materials, please schedule a conversation with me, so that we can make a plan.
For this course, you will need to buy or borrow one book; all other learning materials will be provided as free links online, or you will research the materials on databases provided at no charge (the second part of the course is significantly based on your research). This is the book that you should buy or borrow:
Citation Method
Use the APA Citation Method. You must use both in-text APA citations and an APA Reference page for all assignments.
A Community of Scholars
We are a community of scholars; all of us are engaged in lifelong learning. This course requires critical skills that you will need to be successful in your program, career and further studies. You will demonstrate your knowledge of social science content through excellent critical reading, thinking and writing. The majority of the points in this course are devoted to writing. In order to begin to earn points on content for your writing, you must demonstrate college level writing skills.
In this course, you will have work due weekly. Some of your work is formative. In other words, your weekly work is practice for your summative Writing Day work—so your formative work is worth fewer points than your Writing Day work. I will give you feedback on both your formative and summative work. There will be a critical reading quiz in Module 9 that will help prepare you for reading researched studies. The second half of the course is focused on research studies, research strategies and applied writing concerning global issues.
You will have discussion board assignments occasionally as part of your module work. Those discussion board assignments will be graded as part of the related module.
For each of the Writing Days, I will pose a question that you will respond to, using the readings for that section of the course. You should be prepared with your annotations and texts. Any questions you have about the meaning of your reading assignments should be asked prior to the Writing Day.
As a community of scholars, St. Kate's provides extensive writing support. Please contact me by email, if you are interested in setting up regular meetings to discuss your writing assignments or if you are interested in working with an online tutor. Thinking Storm, our online writing assistance, is available to all students, and I strongly recommend that you draft work early, so that you can get feedback from Thinking Storm before submitting your work.
Academic integrity is valued and expected at St. Catherine University. Please review University policies on academic integrity on Kateway. Watch Avoiding the Zero for information about academic integrity in this course. You are responsible for citing to any idea that is not your own.
Grading Policies
The grading scale for this course is as follows:
A 94 -100%
A- 90 - 93%
B+ 87 - 89%
B 83 - 86%
B- 80 - 82%
C+ 77 - 79%
C 73 - 76%
C- 70 - 72%
D+ 67 - 69%
D 63 - 66%
F Less than 63%
Attendance and Participation Expectations
This course is a four credit course--expect that you will need to commit at least twelve-sixteen hours for each week’s work to be successful (more hours will be necessary, if you need to work on college level reading or writing or if the course is in an accelerated format.)
Timely participation in the class is essential to successfully completing the course. Sometimes, we may have unexpected circumstances arise that make it difficult to complete work on time. If you need an extension on an assignment, please contact me before the due date to make arrangements. All late work must be within two days of the due date, except in extraordinary circumstances. The final assignment of the course must be submitted by the due date, with no exceptions, to assure efficient submission of the final grades for the course.
Critical Skills
This course will provide opportunities for development of critical skills, including reading, thinking and writing:
Student Accessibility and AccommodationsSt. Catherine University is committed to equal access for all and recognizes that disability is an aspect of diversity. The University’s goal is to create learning environments that are usable, equitable, inclusive and welcoming. If there are aspects of the instruction or design of this course that result in barriers to the learning environment and/or the accurate assessment of your achievement, please contact Student Accessibility & Accommodations as soon as possible.
If you are registered with Student Accessibility & Accommodations and have been granted an accommodation, please contact your instructor to review how the accommodation will be applied in this course.
LAS and the Academic Success Center
The Liberal Arts and Sciences faculty (LAS) are committed to your success in this course. At various points in the term, your LAS core faculty will check your progress and email you if you need additional support in this class. The email will refer you to the campus Academic Success Center. If you are referred, you are expected to work with staff who will create a plan that will support your work in this course and future courses as well. We expect that you follow through with the individualized plan, as it will increase your opportunities for success. (We offer these free and individualized plans and services so that our students are not required to take and pay for extensive developmental or zero level coursework.)
The Ten Minute Rule
If you have difficulty with any of the links or technical information in the course, please email me after trying to resolve yourself for no more than ten minutes. Your time is precious. So, email me, and we can figure out whether you should contact the Helpdesk or technical assistance.
Course Overview (Please find your due dates on D2L Content-Overview)
Week 1 in a nutshell:
Week 2 in a nutshell:
Week 3 in a nutshell:
Week 4 in a nutshell:
Week 5 in a nutshell:
Week 6 in a nutshell:
Week 7 in a nutshell:
Week 8 in a nutshell:
Week 9 in a nutshell:
Week 10 in a nutshell:
Week 11 in a nutshell:
Week 12 in a nutshell:
Week 13 in a nutshell:
Week 14 in a nutshell:
Week 15 in a nutshell:
This seminar course provides in-depth, critical analysis of uses of power both nationally and globally that result in inequality or, alternatively, in social change. Examples of national and global topics included are: systemic racism and privilege, civil rights in times of crisis, immigrant and refugee settlement, mass incarceration, the global glass ceiling, and social activism.
Learning Objectives
Students will demonstrate understanding of social justice issues related to uses of power domestically and globally as they:
- summarize and analyze power issues concerning race, gender, economic class, etc;
- compare and contrast historic and current examples of systemic discrimination in the United States;
- explain and apply terms such as democracy, constitutional democracy, representative democracy, social justice, agency, prejudice, stereotype, oppression, privilege, discrimination, critical race theory, micro-aggression, immigrants, refugees and asylum;
- explain the three generations of human rights within the context of the history of human rights protection;
- analyze designated global issues related to the three generations of human rights;
- evaluate the efficacy of leadership concerning human rights domestically and globally;
- connect learning in the social sciences personally, professionally and civically;
- identify tools and strategies for engaging in everyday activism concerning social justice issues, including the centrality of reasoned and evidenced scholarly work as a tool for working toward social justice; and
- critically read social science scholarly articles and primary sources; create scholarly writing that is well-organized, precise and evidenced; and present effectively on social science issues.
Liberal Arts Goals
This course supports the following Liberal Arts Goals of St. Catherine University:
- Diversity and Global Perspectives
- Critical and Creative Inquiry
- Effective Communication
- Leadership and Collaboration
Connection to the Mission
The design of this learning experience reflects the University's commitment to Catholic social teaching, women and the liberal arts. Our commitment to these values will shape course process, content and the active search for diverse points of view. Identifying, assessing and realizing the course learning outcomes is central to our mission.
Textbooks, Other Required Materials, and Content
We will consider difficult issues in this course related to social justice. Our goal in this course is to approach and discuss the material with respect, grace and kindness. The course materials include references to extreme racism and other oppression. If you would prefer alternative learning materials, please schedule a conversation with me, so that we can make a plan.
For this course, you will need to buy or borrow one book; all other learning materials will be provided as free links online, or you will research the materials on databases provided at no charge (the second part of the course is significantly based on your research). This is the book that you should buy or borrow:
- Stevenson, B. (2014). Just mercy : A story of justice and redemption (First ed.). New York: Spiegel & Grau. If you buy this book used online, it should cost less than $10.00. (There is graphic language and descriptions of executions in this text; if you would prefer a less graphic version, there is an edition for young adults that will work for the class.)
Citation Method
Use the APA Citation Method. You must use both in-text APA citations and an APA Reference page for all assignments.
A Community of Scholars
We are a community of scholars; all of us are engaged in lifelong learning. This course requires critical skills that you will need to be successful in your program, career and further studies. You will demonstrate your knowledge of social science content through excellent critical reading, thinking and writing. The majority of the points in this course are devoted to writing. In order to begin to earn points on content for your writing, you must demonstrate college level writing skills.
In this course, you will have work due weekly. Some of your work is formative. In other words, your weekly work is practice for your summative Writing Day work—so your formative work is worth fewer points than your Writing Day work. I will give you feedback on both your formative and summative work. There will be a critical reading quiz in Module 9 that will help prepare you for reading researched studies. The second half of the course is focused on research studies, research strategies and applied writing concerning global issues.
You will have discussion board assignments occasionally as part of your module work. Those discussion board assignments will be graded as part of the related module.
For each of the Writing Days, I will pose a question that you will respond to, using the readings for that section of the course. You should be prepared with your annotations and texts. Any questions you have about the meaning of your reading assignments should be asked prior to the Writing Day.
As a community of scholars, St. Kate's provides extensive writing support. Please contact me by email, if you are interested in setting up regular meetings to discuss your writing assignments or if you are interested in working with an online tutor. Thinking Storm, our online writing assistance, is available to all students, and I strongly recommend that you draft work early, so that you can get feedback from Thinking Storm before submitting your work.
Academic integrity is valued and expected at St. Catherine University. Please review University policies on academic integrity on Kateway. Watch Avoiding the Zero for information about academic integrity in this course. You are responsible for citing to any idea that is not your own.
Grading Policies
The grading scale for this course is as follows:
A 94 -100%
A- 90 - 93%
B+ 87 - 89%
B 83 - 86%
B- 80 - 82%
C+ 77 - 79%
C 73 - 76%
C- 70 - 72%
D+ 67 - 69%
D 63 - 66%
F Less than 63%
Attendance and Participation Expectations
This course is a four credit course--expect that you will need to commit at least twelve-sixteen hours for each week’s work to be successful (more hours will be necessary, if you need to work on college level reading or writing or if the course is in an accelerated format.)
Timely participation in the class is essential to successfully completing the course. Sometimes, we may have unexpected circumstances arise that make it difficult to complete work on time. If you need an extension on an assignment, please contact me before the due date to make arrangements. All late work must be within two days of the due date, except in extraordinary circumstances. The final assignment of the course must be submitted by the due date, with no exceptions, to assure efficient submission of the final grades for the course.
Critical Skills
This course will provide opportunities for development of critical skills, including reading, thinking and writing:
- You should annotate all your readings in the course; you may do this online, or you may print the readings and annotate on a printed copy. You will not submit your annotations, but you will need access to your annotated readings either on a device or in paper form for your Writing Days.
- RTW will be expected for all writing, unless otherwise indicated. If you are an experienced, excellent writer, you may request permission to opt out of RTW. (All students are expected to know the grammar rules from the Pingel Writing Made Simple guide.)
- If you have significant grammar errors, we will create a plan to address those grammar errors early in the semester.
- You must proofread extensively. In RTW, we use a proofreading method called Proofread x 3.
- All your writing should be single-spaced, as this allows you to see a full RTW paragraph on one page.
Student Accessibility and AccommodationsSt. Catherine University is committed to equal access for all and recognizes that disability is an aspect of diversity. The University’s goal is to create learning environments that are usable, equitable, inclusive and welcoming. If there are aspects of the instruction or design of this course that result in barriers to the learning environment and/or the accurate assessment of your achievement, please contact Student Accessibility & Accommodations as soon as possible.
If you are registered with Student Accessibility & Accommodations and have been granted an accommodation, please contact your instructor to review how the accommodation will be applied in this course.
LAS and the Academic Success Center
The Liberal Arts and Sciences faculty (LAS) are committed to your success in this course. At various points in the term, your LAS core faculty will check your progress and email you if you need additional support in this class. The email will refer you to the campus Academic Success Center. If you are referred, you are expected to work with staff who will create a plan that will support your work in this course and future courses as well. We expect that you follow through with the individualized plan, as it will increase your opportunities for success. (We offer these free and individualized plans and services so that our students are not required to take and pay for extensive developmental or zero level coursework.)
The Ten Minute Rule
If you have difficulty with any of the links or technical information in the course, please email me after trying to resolve yourself for no more than ten minutes. Your time is precious. So, email me, and we can figure out whether you should contact the Helpdesk or technical assistance.
Course Overview (Please find your due dates on D2L Content-Overview)
Week 1 in a nutshell:
- Introduction of the Course
- The Centrality of Critical Reading, Thinking and Writing to the Social Sciences
- Power and Inequality: Critical Questions
- Civil Rights, Race and Punishment
Week 2 in a nutshell:
- Ideals of a Democratic Society
- Civil Rights in Times of Crisis
- Torture
- Civil Rights, Race and Punishment
Week 3 in a nutshell:
- Civil Rights in Times of Crisis
- Japanese American Internment
- Guantánamo Detentions
- Current Nexus Issues
- Civil Rights, Race and Punishment
- WRITING DAY
Week 4 in a nutshell:
- Civil Rights, Race and Punishment In-Depth
Week 5 in a nutshell:
- Discrimination and the Isms
- Perspectives on Racism and the Criminal Justice System
Week 6 in a nutshell:
- Privilege
- Structural Racism and Sexism
- Colorblind Racism
- Micro-Aggressions
- Civil Rights: Race, Privilege and the Criminal Justice System
- WRITING DAY
Week 7 in a nutshell:
- Xenophobia
- Immigrants and Refugees
- Language Privilege
- Privilege and Prejudice in relation to Cross Cultural Competence and Communication
- The Difference between Race and Ethnicity
Week 8 in a nutshell:
- Conferences
- Essay on Just Mercy.
Week 9 in a nutshell:
- Human Rights Defined
- History of Human Rights
- Generations of Human Rights
- Social Science Research and Applied Writing
- Poverty and Human Rights
Week 10 in a nutshell:
- A Current Issue in Human Rights
- Social Science Research and Applied Writing
- Poverty and Human Rights
Week 11 in a nutshell:
- Generations of Human Rights and Gender
- Social Science Essential Sources (primary, original, academic, qualitative, quantitative, etc.)
- The Social Sciences and Applied Writing
Week 12 in a nutshell:
- Human Rights and Social Action
Week 13 in a nutshell:
- Social Science Research and Applied Writing on Third Generation Rights.
Week 14 in a nutshell:
- Global Participation and Social Activism
- Evidenced Letter-Writing
- WRITING DAY
Week 15 in a nutshell:
- Finals Week
- Final presentation: This I believe.
This work by the Liberal Arts and Sciences Department in the College for Adults at St. Catherine University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.