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College Seminar (101-7-24)

Topic

Free Speech & Protest on College Campuses

Instructors

Jeffrey Rice
847/491-8916
1908 Sheridan

Meeting Info

Scott Hall 107 Burdick Room: Tues, Thurs 10:30AM - 11:50AM

Overview of class

These days the media is filled with stories about Free Speech on College Campuses, issues of 'wokeness' etc. This seminar is going to confront these topics head on; allowing us to direct a develop thoughts on what it means to be a student in 2023 in a Liberal Arts University.

What is the relationship between free speech and intellectual inquiry? Debate, open discussion, hearing and speaking, trigger warnings, and hate speech. What does open mean, are limits required or a slippery slope? How should students, faculty and administrators handle these issues? How much of political correctness is, in fact, curtesy to others? How much is wokeness a term used to describe open access to the marketplace of ideas? How accurate are these terms when used in denunciation of current university culture?

These are the issues we will be discussing in this class and we will operate with open discussion combined with mutual respect in order to maintain civility.

Learning Objectives


  1. The ability to read and think critically about a complicated issue which directly impacts the role of university education in students' lives.

  2. The critical exploration of a variety of source material: primary and secondary, and how to distinguish between and amongst them.

  3. To engage in debate and argumentation with other students and the professor.

Evaluation Method

8 Weekly posting set on Canvas: worth 6 pts each = 48
1 book review --2-3 pages: worth 20 pts.
1 3-5 page paper on a specific topic: worth 40 pts.

Class Materials (Required)

Gilman and Chemerinsky: Free Speech on Campus. Yale. 0-300-24001-6
Waldron: The Harm in Hate Speech. Harvard 0-674-41686-4
MacKinnon: Only Words. Harvard. 0-674-63934-0

Class Attributes

WCAS College Seminar