Humanities Core Course (Humanities 1BS), Winter 2016
Syllabus and Schedule Section 27606
Instructor:
Office Hours:
Email:
Lecture:
Section Meeting:
HCC Website:
Section Website:
Final Exam:
Tamara Beauchamp, Ph.D.
Monday 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. in Humanities Instructional
Building 195 or by appointment
[email protected]
Monday and Wednesday 9:00 – 9:50 a.m. in Biological Sciences 3
1200
Monday and Wednesday 4:30 – 5:50 p.m. in Humanities Hall 242
http://hcc.humanities.uci.edu/humcore/Student
http://sites.uci.edu/humcorebeauchamp
Wednesday, March 16 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Mark your calendars today. This exam may not be rescheduled.
Course Description
The Humanities Core Course is an interdisciplinary introduction to the humanities for freshmen
that is designed to develop reading, writing, note-taking, research, and discussion skills.
Students will be expected to challenge their abilities in argumentation, interpretation, and
research, and be responsible members of a smaller intellectual community, their Core section.
The topic of this year’s course is “War.” It looks at the ways in which people have represented,
rationalized, propagandized, memorialized, evaluated, or understood, for themselves and for
others, the human activity of war. In the process of reading, viewing, and hearing various texts
about war, from Homer’s The Iliad to Max Brooks’ World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie
War, you will speculate on the many justifications given for engaging in war, whether, in fact,
some wars are just or unjust, and how peoples and nations construct meaning out of the
inevitable ashes of war. During this quarter, you will study the contexts that triggered specific
wars—such as the American Civil War—as well as the ways in which state policies extend
wartime conflict through policies of discrimination, marginalization, and oppression. We will end
the quarter reflecting on how media representations support oppressive state policies and
evaluating the complicity of media-consumers in wartime events.
Enrollment
Although this is an introductory course, all add and drop requests must be processed through
the HCC Office (Humanities Instructional Building 185). You are responsible for filing this
paperwork and enrollment changes are not automatic, regardless of whether or not you attend
this section.
Required Texts
The following details the required texts for HCC during the winter quarter. These materials are
available from the UCI Bookstore in a course pack. If you seek out an alternative vendor or
electronic versions of these texts, please make sure that you acquire the same edition and
translation, as lectures and assignments will be based off of these exact texts.
Burke, Carol, ed. Humanities Core Course Guide and Reader. Boston: Pearson, 2013. (Was
included in the bookstore's package ISBN-13: 978-1-26-954547-1)
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Castillo, Larisa, ed. Humanities Core Writer's Handbook. Boston: Pearson, 2014. ISBN-13: 9781-26-998708-0
Coetzee, J. M. Waiting for the Barbarians. New York: Penguin, 1999. ISBN 0140283358
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Ed. Ira Dworkin. New York:
Penguin, 2014. ISBN-13: 978-0-14-310730-9
Fountain, Ben. Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. New York: Ecco/HarperCollins, 2012. ISBN-13:
978-0-06-088561-8
Additional course readings may determined in the future and are posted as PDF files to the
course website. These readings may not appear on your syllabus, so you should be prepared
for minor changes to your assignments. In compliance with fair use practices, many readings
are password protected. In that case, the user name and password are both humcore.
Attendance, Preparedness, and Participation
Attendance in lecture and section is mandatory. More than two absences will result in the loss of
a full letter grade. More than three absences will be grounds for failure in the course. Chronic
tardiness will be treated as commensurate with unexcused absence. Students are expected to
complete all assigned readings before class and to bring all readings and assignments to both
lectures and section meetings. Students will be asked to participate in active and informed
discussion during class time. During peer review workshops, students will be expected to
provide detailed and constructive criticism of one another’s work. Provided that you remain
engaged and do not use your device inappropriately during class time, I do not have an issue
with you reading PDF texts on your computer or tablet.
Academic Standards of Conduct
In our work together, I hope that we can sustain lively discussions of the readings and of your
writing while remaining supportive of each other’s efforts. Respect for your peers and instructor
is thus paramount. Late work will not be accepted, nor can papers be rewritten after grades
have been issued. I expect that you will identify your name and class code clearly in email
subject headings, and that you address any issues that may arise well ahead of deadlines. You
may not receive an email response from me for 48 hours, so plan accordingly. In lecture, you
are not only representing yourself, but you are representing our section. Tardiness and early
departure are unacceptable, as are chatting or using your laptop for social media and games. I
will attend lecture with you and hold you accountable for upholding a standard of proper
academic conduct.
Writing Requirements
The writing grade is determined by performance on two essay assignments (Essay Assignment
#3, 40%; Essay Assignment #4, 30%), five blog posts (20%) and participation in several
required research and writing exercises. Although the writing participation requirement
numerically accounts for 10% of your writing grade, failure to participate is grounds for failure in
this portion of the course. The writing participation grade will be determined by research
assignments, participation in peer editing and the drafting process, your final portfolio of writing,
and in-class writing activities and quizzes. Papers turned in without having completed prewriting, drafting, and revisions, will not be graded and will receive a failing grade. Drafting is a
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required component of this course. In accordance with HCC policy, I will comment extensively
on your essays with both written feedback and conferencing, but I will not line-edit your papers.
Please note that your first blog entry is due at the end of Week 1. If your website was previously
restricted to your classmates in fall quarter, please revise your access settings to make your site
available for your peers in this section.
All drafts, assignments, and final essays written outside of class must be typed and in proper
format. All assignments should be double-spaced and use a legible, 12-point font (e.g. Times
New Roman, Arial, or Helvetica). The margins of your document should be set to one inch on all
sides, the first line of paragraphs one half-inch from the left margin. Create a header that
numbers all pages consecutively and gives your last name in the upper right-hand corner, onehalf inch from the top and flush with the right margin. Final drafts are to be turned in with
previous drafts and peer-editing comments. It is a good habit to begin saving all of your work
(either to an external hard drive or the Cloud), as you are responsible for backing up texts
composed on a computer. Failures of software or hardware are not acceptable reasons for a
late assignment.
All written work should follow Modern Language Association (MLA) format for both in-text
citations and the list of works cited. This is a mandatory component of the course, and essays
that do not use MLA format will be ineligible for a passing grade. You should consult the
following free guide about any MLA formatting questions:
Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) Guide to MLA Formatting and Style
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
Lecture Requirements
The lecture grade is determined by performance on the midterm examination (40%), the final
examination (50%), and participation in required oral discussions and written exercises.
Although the lecture participation requirement numerically accounts for 10% of your lecture
grade, failure to participate is grounds for failure in the course. The lecture participation grade
will be determined by responses to weekly reading and discussion questions, postings to your
Humanities Core webpage or other virtual debate forums. Though your work for the lecture
portion of this course mostly takes place in section, lecture attendance is a mandatory element
of the course.
Plagiarism and Fair Use
Plagiarism is a serious matter and will be handled by the appropriate authorities. Turning in any
work which is not your own and not properly acknowledged as such will result in a
recommendation for failure in the course and subject you to further action by the university.
Please review the university policy on academic dishonesty and speak to me if you have any
questions: www.editor.uci.edu/catalogue/appx/appx.2.htm#academic. Supervisors and
instructors in this course regularly review suspect papers. As part of a program-wide effort to
discourage plagiarism, you will be asked to upload electronic copies of your essays and blog
posts to www.turnitin.com. The following information will allow you to upload your papers for this
course:
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Turnitin.com
Class ID for this section: 11362634
Password: wartime
This section of the Humanities Core Course also requires submission of writing assignments to
EEE dropbox (eee.uci.edu). Upon submitting your papers, you allow the Humanities Core
Course to use your work anonymously for various teaching purposes, including the training of
instructors and providing examples for other students. If you prefer not to have your work used
anonymously for educational purposes, you may email me with a refusal of consent.
Of Special Note
The texts for this course will be challenging, stimulating, and sometimes upsetting. If you have
any concerns or questions about content, do not hesitate to contact me during office hours. The
HCC has numerous resources to help you both academically and personally. If you are
struggling emotionally with this difficult material, your transition into college life, or other issues
in your personal life, you might also want to seek out the services of the UCI Counseling Center,
where all students have access to free, confidential care. For more information, please visit
www.counseling.uci.edu/students/counselingservices.aspx.
Schedule of Lectures, Readings, and Assignments
Unless otherwise noted, all readings and assignments are due on the day they are listed.
Writing assignments due on days we do not meet must be uploaded by Friday at 11:59 p.m.
This schedule is may be subject to change and revisions will be posted to EEE. When online
readings are password protected, the username and password are both humcore.
Week One: Race and War
Monday, January 4—Lecturer: Professor Alice Fahs
• Reading: Frederick Douglass, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Preface
through Ch. 8
• Writing: In-Class Diagnostic
Wednesday, January 6—Lecturer: Professor Alice Fahs
• Reading: Frederick Douglass, The Narrative of Frederick Douglass (chapter 9Appendix); “How to End the War,” “Fighting Rebels with Only One Hand,” “What Shall be
Done with the Slaves if Emancipated?” (HCC Reader 53-62); “What to the Slave is the
Fourth of July?” (Narrative 119-147); Harriet Jacobs, “Life Among the Contrabands”
(HCC Reader 63-8); “Picturing the Civil War 3: African American Soldiers” (Fahs
blogpost); Susan Morse, “Analyzing Visual Images” (online); Humcore Image Gallery,
Civil War Images
Friday, January 8
• Writing: Blog post #1 due by 11:59 p.m. [topic of your choice; should include some form
of image analysis relevant to website focus]
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Week Two: War as a Crisis of Meaning
Monday, January 11—Lecturer: Professor Alice Fahs
• Reading: Louisa May Alcott, “A Day,” “A Night” (HCC Reader 69-87); Fahs, “Chapter 14:
Historical Analysis” (Writer’s Handbook 87-89); Arndt, “Chapter 15: Analyzing Primary
Sources” (Writer’s Handbook 90-940); “Picturing the Civil War 1” (Fahs blogpost);
“Picturing the Civil War 2: Sentimental Soldiers” (Fahs blogpost)
• E-Learning Quiz: “Primary and Secondary Sources” [due at midnight]
Wednesday, January 13—Lecturer: Professor Alice Fahs
• Reading: Walt Whitman, “Beat! Beat! Drums!” “Come Up from the Fields Father,” “A
Sight in Camp,” “Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night,” “O Captain! My Captain!,”
“When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” “A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the
Road Unknown” (HCC Reader 88-97); Emily Dickinson, “My Triumph lasted till the
Drums,” “They dropped like Flakes--” “Suspense is—Hostiler than Death--,” “Victory
comes late—,” “My Portion is Defeat—today—” (HCC Reader 98-101); Gretchen Short,
“Chapter 21: Integrating Quotations and Citing Sources” (Writer’s Handbook 127-134)
Friday, January 15
• Writing: Blog post #2 due by 11:59 p.m. [topic of choice; should identify types of primary
and secondary sources relevant to website focus]
Week Three: Remembering War
Monday, January 18—Campus closed for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday; no lecture or
section meeting
Wednesday, January 20—Lecturer: Professor Alice Fahs
• Reading: Ambrose Bierce, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and "A Tough Tussle"
(Reader 108-112); “Picturing the Civil War 4: The Memory of the War” (Fahs blogpost)
• Writing: Working Draft Essay 3 Civil War Image Analysis due to EEE Dropbox
Week Four: Dissent
Monday, January 25 —Lecturer: Professor Alice Fahs
• Reading: Robert Duncan, "Passage over Water" (Reader 113); "The Homosexual in
Society"; "Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow" (online); "A Spring
Memorandum" (online); "The Structure of Rime XI"
• Writing: Peer editing of Essay 3 in section meeting
Wednesday, January 27—Lecturer: Professor Rodrigo Lazo
• Reading: UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment; Alberto Gonzales, "Memorandum for the President" (HCC
Reader 175-178); Alan Dershowitz, “Tortured Reasoning” (HCC Reader 179-195);
Elaine Scarry, “Five Errors in the Reasoning of Alan Dershowitz” (HCC Reader 196202); Lazo, “Chapter 16: Writing Opinion Pieces” (Writer’s Handbook 95-99)
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Friday, January 29
• Writing: Final Draft Essay #3 due by 11:59 p.m. to EEE Dropbox and turnitin.com
Week 5
Monday, February 1—Lecturer: Professor Rodrigo Lazo
• Reading: Edward Said, “Introduction” to Orientalism; Laurel Fletcher and Eric Stover,
“Guantánamo: Pushed to the Breaking Point” (HCC Reader 146-167); "The Depositions:
Prisoners Speak. Sworn Statements by Abu Ghraib Detainees" (HCC Reader 168-174)
Wednesday, February 3—Lecturer: Professor Rodrigo Lazo
• Reading: Reading: Elaine Scarry “Three Simultaneous Phenomena in the Structure of
Torture” (HCC Reader 114-121); J.M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
Friday, February 5
• Writing: Blog post #3 due by 11:59 p.m. [topic of choice continuing with the general
focus of your website]
Week 6
Monday, February 8—Lecturer: Professor Rodrigo Lazo
• Reading: Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians
Wednesday, February 10—Lecturer: Professor Rodrigo Lazo
• Reading: Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians; Buhanan, “Analyzing Film” (Writer’s
Handbook)
• Viewing: The Official Story (La historia official dir. Luis Puenzo, 1985), viewable online
• Writing: Midterm exam in section meeting
Week 7
Monday, February 15—Campus closed for the Presidents’ Day Holiday; no lecture or
section meeting
Wednesday, February 17—Lecturer: Professor Rodrigo Lazo
• Reading: Reading: Patricia Marchak , Alicia Partnoy “El Proceso” (HCC Reader 122141); Partnoy, “A Conversation Under the Rain” (HCC Reader 142-145)
• Suggested Reading: Partnoy, from The Little School: “The One Flower Slippers,”
“Birthday,” “Benja’s First Night,” “Poetry,” “The Denim Jacket,” “A Beauty Treatment”
Friday, February 19
•
Writing: Blog post #4 due by 11:59 p.m. [Op-Ed post that in some way addresses the
question of torture]
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Week 8
Monday, February 22—Lecturer: Professor Michael Szalay
• Reading: Szalay, “Analyzing Television and Media Convergence” (Writer’s Handbook
100-104); begin reading Fountain, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk in preparation for
Week 9
• Viewing: The Manchurian Candidate (dir. John Frankenheimer, 1962), viewable online
Wednesday, February 24—Lecturer: Professor Michael Szalay
• Reading: Begin reading Ben Fountain, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk in preparation for
Week 9
• Viewing: The Manchurian Candidate (dir. John Frankenheimer, 1962), viewable online
Week 9
Monday, February 29—Lecturer: Professor Michael Szalay
• Reading: Laila Al-Arian, "TV's Most Islamophobic Show" (Salon.com)
• Viewing: Homeland S.1 Ep. 1 (on Amazon and iTunes)
Wednesday, March 2—Lecturer: Professor Michael Szalay
• Reading: Fountain, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (1-171); Thussu, “War as
Infotainment” (Reader 258-273)
• Writing: Working Draft Essay Assignment #4 due; Peer editing in section meeting
Friday, March 4
•
Writing: Blog post #5 and all community components of website due by 11:59 p.m.
[topic of choice; should contain some component of film analysis relevant to focus of
website]
Week 10
Monday, March 7—Lecturer: Professor Michael Szalay
• Reading: Fountain, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (172-307)
Wednesday, March 9—Lecturer: Professor Michael Szalay
• Reading: Fountain, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk
• Writing: Final Draft Assignment #4 due by 11:59 p.m. to EEE Dropbox and
turnitin.com
FINAL EXAM: Wednesday, March 16 from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
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