Social Thought and Political Economy
UMass, Amherst
STPEC 494A: Praxis
Class time/Location: Monday 11:15-1:45, Dickinson 209
Instructor:
Katherine Mallory
Email:
[email protected]
Phone:
413-545-0137
STPEC 494PI: Praxis/IE is a 3 credit course intended for students who wish to receive credit for the
Integrative Experience gen ed requirement through an extended analysis of an internship experience.
STPEC requires an internship for graduation and students will have completed or will be enrolled in
their internship at the time they take this course.
The learning objectives of the Integrative Experience are to reflect on and to integrate student learning
and experience from general education courses and core major courses, to provide opportunities for gen
ed learning objectives such as oral communication, collaboration, critical thinking and interdisciplinary
perspective-taking at a more advanced level, and to offer a shared learning experience for applying
prior learning to new situations, challenging questions, and real-world problems.
With this in mind, the goals of this course are first to identify what is often considered unrelated
knowledge from broader general education classes, draw it into present learning in the core courses of
the major, and then to apply this knowledge toward a critical analysis of the institutions in which the
students intern. This is a seminar providing structured, regular, collaborative feedback in small groups,
opportunities for applied critical analysis and reflective practice, and includes student presentations at
the end.
In this small seminar setting, dialogue and engaged pedagogy are the dominant strategies for learning.
Skills presented and practiced toward a collaborative classroom are: active listening, effective
communication for clarity, comprehension and engagement, self-reflection, critical thinking, and an
interdisciplinary contextual analysis. Both in their written assignments and in small group dialogue,
students will practice articulating multiple perspectives (their own social identity standpoints and those
of others), and develop an agile understanding (in the real-world example of their internships) of the
ways people make meaning of experiences, frame and justify positions and issues, formulate
institutional goals and evaluate outcomes.
This class focuses on the relationship between theory and practice. It is an opportunity to evaluate
organizational structures and outcomes and the beliefs that underlie them, in order to understand how
power, organizational culture and policy are created, interrelated and maintained. It is an inquiry into
the role of institutions in social change, and an analysis of theory and practice in those institutions.
Students will be expected to rigorously analyze, both concretely and abstractly, the organizations in
which they intern.
Each student must include a race, class and gender analysis in her work, both of herself and of the
organization in which she worked. As such, this class is also an important opportunity for selfreflection. Using knowledge from the prior gen eds and core stpec courses, students will address the
political and social contexts in which they find and define themselves, and also observe their own
major influences and learning. This reflection will take the form of both dedicated class discussion and
a short personal essay.
The IE project is an overarching question or topic that the student pursues as a part of their work
analyzing their internship. They should be prepared to set out goals for an inquiry that integrates
content from previous gen ed and core STPEC classes into a critical analysis of their internship.
Examples might be: 1) a contextual analysis of your organization within a social movement, 2) an
analysis of the political limits of an organization engaging theories of wealth accumulation, private
property and/or development theory, or 3) an extended analysis of intersectionality as a feminist theory
and implications for understanding the political goals of your organization. Given the inherently
interdisciplinary nature of the STPEC curriculum, the possibilities for IE projects are great.
Grading:
Students will complete 4 written sections drafts developing the core analysis of their project, and then
combine and revise these sections into the final form of the project. They will complete a short written
reflective essay, which may or may not be included in the final project itself. Because the course is
based in dialogue, grades will also reflect participation and skill development.
4 written section drafts/final
reflection
class participation
55%
15%
30%
Papers will be graded based on:
Completion of Assignment
Observational skills
Depth of Thought / Critical Thinking
Writing Quality – should be clear, concise, organized and proofread
It is unwise to come to class late or skip class because you have not finished your paper. The penalty
for missing class is higher than the penalty for turning in a late paper. Class time is where most of the
work for this course is carried out. Our discussion will suffer in your absence, your papers will suffer
without input from the class …. and plus your comrades will miss you.
Course Calendar:
Week 1: intro and social theory
Intro to syllabus
Introduction to students and organizations
Introduction to critical dialogue
Beginning social theory analysis
Sept 7
-- Leonardo, Zeus. (2004) Critical Social Theory and Transformative Knowledge: The Functions of
Criticism in Quality Education, in Educational Researcher vol. 33, No. 6, pp. 11–18.
Week 2-3: social theory cont.
Sept 14-21
Continued introductions
Theory and practice: Social theory and how we practice it
Mission and Vision
Reading:
-Kivel, Paul. (2007) “Social service or social change?,” in The Revolution will not be Funded: beyond
the non-profit industrial complex.
Be prepared to present in some detail to the class:
1) Social Theory: Describe your organization. what does it do, why, what does it accomplish,
why/how? What does it believe about the world and about the issue(s) it deals with, that it does what it
does? Who are they (who run it) that they believe this?
2) Core inquiry and analysis: what are the main questions you want to ask about your org or the issues
it deals with?
Include these:
~the “buffer zone”: use Kivel’s concept of the buffer zone as it applies to your org.
~STPEC Core Material: pull ideas and resources (theoretical tools) from the STPEC seminars
that can contribute to content and analysis – that can help you name and describe something, and
what you believe about it.
Week 4: Organizational Structure and Funding
Handout on organizational structure and decision-making
Sept 28
Readings:
Review section on funding and on Community leadership:
-- Kivel, Paul. (2007) “Social service or social change?,” in The Revolution will not be Funded: beyond
the non-profit industrial complex.
>>>>>> Organizational Summary and initial analysis due<<<<<<<
this is the development of your class presentation into a essay.
Week 5: review: social constructionism
intersectionality and its limitations
situated knowledge and social vision
social constructionism and it's critics
Oct 5
Readings:
– Puar, Jasbir. 2011. “I would rather be a cyborg than a goddess;” Intersectionality, Assemblages, and
Affective Politics. http://eipcp.net/transversal/0811/puar/en
reference:
– Mann, Susan Archer. 2012. “Intersectionality Theories” in Doing Feminist Theory, From Modernity
to Postmodernity, pp. 160-208.
– Robin Diangelo, Race and Class
Week 6: Neoliberalism and individualism
Oct 12
Readings:
--Fusfeld, Daniel R. 1999. “Socialism and Karl Marx” and “Philosophy of Individualism” in the Age of
the Economist, 8th edition, pp. 56-83, 95-97.
– selections from “Liberalism and Race,” in State of White Supremacy, ebook
– selections from “Neoliberalism and Paternalism,” in State of White Supremacy, ebook
Week 7: Race and Whiteness
Oct 19
We will review colorblindness, micro-aggressions, institutional racism, bringing forward critiques of
liberal individualism and neoliberalism
Readings:
– Solorzano, et al. (2000) “Critical Race Theory,Racial Microaggressions, and Campus Racial Climate:
The Experiences of African-American College Students,” in Journal of Negro Education.
– Sen, Rinku (2013) “Building A New Racial Justice Movement,” in Colorlines, August 20.
http://colorlines.com/archives/2013/08/the_new.html
Reference:
-- Smith, Chip. 2007. “The Reality of White Privilege” in The Cost of Privilege. pp. 234-249.
– Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo (2001), “The Central Frames of Color-Blind Racism,” in Racism Without
Racists, pp. 25-52.
-- Collins, Patricia Hill (2000), “Toward A Politics of Empowerment” in Black Feminist Thought:
Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment, pp. 273-290
Suggestions for white students:
-Thompson, Becky (1999), “Subverting Racism from Within: Linking White Identity to Activism” in
Becoming and Unbecoming White: Owning and Disowning a Racial Identity, eds. Christine Clark
& James O’Donnell, pp. 64-77.
--DiAngelo, Robin. 2012. “Nothing to add: A Challenge to White Silence in Racial Discussions,”
Understanding and Dismantling Privilege, vol II, issue 1.
Week 8: Race and Whiteness: organizational analysis
Follow up and discussion: race analysis in orgs.
Oct 26
Readings:
– students must find readings that support a race analysis of the organization they interned in or of
issues or populations their organization deals with.
>>DUE: section draft: intersectional race analysis, before 3 pm.
Week 10: Gender/Patriarcy/Queer Theory
Nov 2
Readings:
Kirsch, Max. 2000. “Capital and its transgressors” and “Conclusion: theory, politics and the
community,” in Queer Theory and Social Change, pp.65-78, 113-123.
Reference:
-- Smith, Chip. 2007. “Patriarchal Roots” and “Three Faces of Male Supremacy” in The Cost of
Privilege, pp. 174-206.
– Judith Butler Gender Trouble and women of color critiques of it
– Andrea Smith INCITE!
Week 11: Organizational Gender Analysis
Nov 9
Readings:
– students must find readings that support a gender analysis of their org, or of issues or populations
their org deals with.
Reference:
- Gender Tool Kit
TBA
NO CLASS
Nov 16
<<DUE: section draft: intersected gender/race in your org. to your peer reader
********Thanksgiving Break Week*********
Week 12: Capitalism and class
Nov 30
class as process: kinds of wealth
review of process of appropriation exploitation/necessary and surplus labor/social welfare
class as culture
Readings:
--Stout, Linda. 1996. “Invisible Walls” in Bridging the Class Divide: And Other Lessons for
Grassroots Organizing, pp. 117-140.
--Mantsios, Gregory. 1998. “Media Magic” in Race, Classs, and Gender in the United States: An
Integrated Study, forth Edition, ed. by Paula Rothenberg, pp. 384-392.
-- Gibson-Graham, J.K. 1996. Selection from “Class and the Politics of Identity,” pp. 49-59.
>>DUE: section draft: intersected gender/race in your org. by 3pm.
Please attach the first draft with peer comments to the revised draft and turn both in together.
Week 14: Self-reflection
Dec 7
self-reflective group dialogue: in class discussion of educational experience at the university,
observations of learning and skill sets, in terms of how you want to be in the world as a global citizen.
>>Due: section draft: capitalism/neoliberalism/liberalism as context (or Race and gender in context
of class, or draft of final internship paper)
Final Paper due Dec 14 at 5pm.