Allan M. Winkler	Office: 244 Upham Hall
Office Phone: 529-5132	Office Hours: T & Th 1:30 - 2:30 PM & by appt.
Home Phone: 523-2993
E-mail: winkleam@muohio.edu	Home Page: http://www.users.muohio.edu/winkleam/amw.htm

COURSE DESCRIPTION

MIAMI PLAN

As a Miami Plan course, this seminar will seek constantly encourage you to keep Miami Plan goals in mind. As we proceed, the course will ask you to think critically, to understand contexts, to engage with other students intellectually, and to reflect and act thoughtfully.

• Thinking Critically : We will spend considerable time looking at primary documents and trying to understand how the language contributes to the importance of the piece. One example might be “Howl” – Allen Ginsberg’s poem from 1955 – as we examine the rhetoric and imagery in this most famous work of the Beat movement.

• Understanding Contexts : We will seek to understand how different documents reflect the larger issues of the day. We might, for example, examine the “Port Huron Statement” – the manifesto of the New Left written by Tom Hayden and Al Haber in 1962 – and try to understand the issues that concerned them most, and the impact these issues had on the rise of radical protest.

• Engaging with Other Learners : Working together is a major goal of this course. On occasion, we will break out into a number of groups for a role-playing exercise, one of these coming out of the civil rights movement. As we read Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” we will try to understand the implications and consequences of non-violent protest.

• Reflecting and Acting : We will participate collectively in some social service activity, perhaps working on several Saturday mornings on a Habitat for Humanity House, or at one of the Oxford community welfare organizations, as a way of understanding how people in the 1960s put their own necks on the line and did the kinds of things that really made a difference in the larger society.
  

FORMAT

The class is a seminar that will follow a discussion format. The class will sit in a circle and talk about the issues at hand. The purpose is for you to talk to one another as we deal with the issues at hand. Their will be occasional film clips, tapes, and slides in class that will provide a continuing focus for discussion. There is no need to take notes, for there are no examinations. Rather, you should concentrate on participating in the discussion as actively as you can. Your participation is crucial, and your grade will reflect both the extent and the quality of your involvement. From time to time, feature films may be recommended for viewing outside class. Some items may also be posted on Blackboard for your examination. This syllabus can also be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.users.muohio.edu/winkleam/hstf110.htm

EXAMINATIONS

There will be no examinations in the course. Evaluation will come from an assessment of your participation in class discussions, your oral presentations, and your written work on various papers and assignments.

PAPERS

There will be 5 short papers, based on the readings, that are crucial parts of the course. These MUST be handed in on the date specified on the syllabus. Each of these essays is limited to 750 WORDS and should be no longer than 3 DOUBLE-SPACED PAGES.