First-Year
Tutorial: Neighbors (Fall
2006)
Daniel H.
Kaiser
Mears 216/x3088
kaiser@grinnell.edu
http://www.grinnell.edu/individuals/kaiser
Some
commentators describe conflicts of the contemporary world as reflecting a “clash
of civilizations,” pitting great cultural constructs like Christianity and Islam
or Occident and Orient against one another. But many of the most violent episodes of
the twentieth century have played out not between civilizations, but among
neighbors, the people who lived next door, down the street, or around the
corner. This tutorial will
concentrate attention upon these close encounters in an effort to determine what
explains them and what can be done to avoid their recurrence in the future. Case studies will use history, fiction
and film to examine local conflicts in war-time
Required
Texts Available for Purchase in College Bookstore
Andric, Ivo. The Bridge on the
Bloom, Stephen G. Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland
Fulwiler, Toby, and Alan R.
Hayakawa. The College Writer's Reference [CWR]. 4th ed.
Gourevitch, Philip. We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will
be killed with our families: Stories from Rwanda. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
1998.
Gross, Jan. Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish
Community in
Polonsky,
Sells, Michael A. The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide
in
Materials
Available on Reserve in Burling Library:
Postville: When Cultures
Collide. (60 mins).
Burling Listening Room. P8411.
Qasimi, Ahmad Naseemi. “Parmeshar Singh.” In The Old Banyan and other Stories. Trans. Faruq Hassan.
Sometimes in April.
HBO docudrama (2005).
Burling Listening Room. So55
Aims
and Organization of the Tutorial
Many aims drive
the tutorial, but most importantly the
tutorial aims to teach students to become acute analysts of information, skilled
and persuasive writers, and better public speakers—in classroom discussion
as well as in more formal contexts.
All these skills will serve the student well, no matter what major or
area of study the student may subsequently concentrate upon. Therefore, although the exact texts or
subject matter of the tutorial may never recur in any other Grinnell course the
student takes, conscientious participation in the tutorial will inevitably
contribute to the student's later success at Grinnell (and after
Grinnell).
For much of the time, the tutorial will operate like any other course,
although with fewer students than many courses, and often in a consciously less
formal atmosphere than many other courses.
However, to fulfill the promise of its name, the tutorial will also employ individual or
small-group sessions. On these
occasions, students will bring to tutorial a piece of their own writing about
which they are prepared to speak, both to defend their argument as well as to
clarify their writing.
For the tutorial to work, everyone
must be prepared to participate, every day. Therefore, it is vital that everyone
keep up to date with the assigned reading (and viewing, in the case of videos),
and come to class already having thought about the assignment. To help stimulate useful discussion as
well as encourage regular writing, each
student will maintain a journal in which the student records both what the piece
under discussion aspires to say, as well as what the reader thinks about that
work. A handout will suggest a
format to observe. All students must bring a printed copy of the appropriate
daily journal entry to tutorial each time
we meet.
The final paper will require students to
identify and report on another case of “neighbors,” and, borrowing from our
common study, decide what principles or experiences explain how these
“neighbors” did, or did not, get along.
All students must submit a first version no later than November
22; final, revised essays are due no later than December 8. All students will also make a
presentation of their research during the last two weeks of the
semester.
Assignments,
Grading
Academic Honesty Assignment
required, not graded
Writing
Assignments
•Journal
20%
•First
Essay/Tutorial
15%
•Second
Essay/Tutorial
20%
•Final Paper
25%
Oral Assignments
•Discussion/Participation
25%
The total, 105%, serves as a bonus,
making possible a slight upward adjustment in grades.
Schedule
of Meetings
8/20 INTRODUCTORY
MEETING
§
What
is the Tutorial? What Will Be Expected?
How Will This Course Work?
§
Registration; Advising
Appointments
§
Foreign Language Placement Tests
(today!); Reading Test (Mon. and Tues. 2 PM, ARH 102)
§
What
is a Liberal Education?
8/21-22 ADVISING APPOINTMENTS, MEARS 216 (see posted
schedule)
8/23, 1:30-2:45 PM REGISTRATION:
If you need to make amendments to your
proposed schedule, you can find me at the Department of History
table.
8/24 MY NEIGHBOR AND I: Who Is My
Neighbor?
§
Read
handouts: “
§
Writing Assignment: Compose and bring to class a brief—one-
paragraph—description or definition of “neighbor.”
About
Writing: read
CWR on diction: 167-190. Find in
the CWR “Glossary of Usage” (427-445) three examples of confusing word
choices or diction errors, and bring them to class for discussion.
8/29 NEIGHBORS IN THE
HEARTLAND: Culture and
“Neighborliness”
§
Read
Postville, ix-xiv,
1-114
About
Writing:
read CWR on sentences: 156-167.
Find a particularly effective, well-worded sentence in the assigned
reading and bring it to class. Be
prepared to explain your choice.
8/31 OIL AND WATER: What’s Wrong
with Assimilation?
§
Read
Postville, 115-240
About
Writing:
read CWR on paragraphs:
143-150.
9/5 DOC WOLF:
Sell-out or Model?
§
Read
Postville, 241-359 and handout,
“Synagogue in
About
Writing:
read CWR on openings/closings: 151-55.
9/7 LOOKING
AHEAD: Thinking about the Final Paper
Meet at 8:15 AM in Burling Library
Reference Area (to left of entrance) to meet with Ms. Catherine Rod, Associate
Librarian and College archivist. We
will do some brainstorming about paper topics, and become familiar with some of
the research resources available through Burling Library.
9/11-15 TUTORIALS— POSTVILLE
REPRISED
§
Watch the video “Postville: When Cultures
Collide” (60 mins.)
On reserve in Burling Library Listening
Room (P8411)
§
Writing Assignment (~3
pp.): compose a brief
essay that identifies the line of argument in the video and your view of that
claim. The goals here are 1) to clearly identify the thesis of the video; 2) to
clearly establish your own point of view (contesting or sustaining the claim);
and 3) to briefly support the contention with evidence from the video itself or
from Stephen Bloom’s book.
9/12 NO
CLASS
9/14 NO
CLASS
9/19 UNDERSTANDING MY
NEIGHBOR: Is She Like Me?
§
Read: Ahmad Nadeem Qasimi, “Parmeshar
Singh” (e-reserve) and handout, “Mirrored Emotion”
§
Begin reading Ivo Andric, The Bridge on the
About
Writing:
read CWR on “explaining” and “interpreting,” 30-46.
Visegrad
Bridge over the Drina River, ca.
1900
9/21 BUILDING BRIDGES:
Multiculturalism in the Balkans
§
Read: Andric, Bridge on the
You might find it helpful to reference
the “Historical
Guide to The Bridge on the
Drina.”
9/26 DRAWING BOUNDARIES: “As
Close as the Priest & the Hodja”
§
Read
Bridge on the
About Writing: read CWR on evidence and
arguments: 46-48, 50-58.
9/28 “AGE OF PROGRESS”: Destroying
Bridges
§
Read
Bridge on the
10/3 UNDOING
MULTICULTURALISM IN
§
Read
The Bridge Betrayed, xiii-xxiii,
1-70
10/5 MASKS OF
OTHERNESS—NEIGHBORS NO MORE
§
Read
The Bridge Betrayed, 71-155
About Writing: read CWR 64-74 on
revising.
10/6-12 TUTORIALS
- Writing Assignment (5-6
pp.) Consider the multicultural
community in Andric’s Visegrad, and prepare a paper that explains (in the
context of the novel) the ability of the different communities there to
get along. Alternatively, you
might write a paper that explains—again, on the basis of the novel—what
destroyed the metaphorical bridge that joined the Christian and Muslim
communities.
The
Bridge at Mostar, Destroyed in 1993
10/10 RESEARCHING THE FINAL
PAPER
Meet with Ms. Rod in Burling Library
Interactive Instructional Facility (basement) to discuss research strategies for
final papers. Bring to this
session the topic you propose for your final paper.
10/12 NO CLASS
*******************F A L L
B R E A
K******************
10/24 NEIGHBORS AND MASS
MURDER
§
Read Jan T. Gross, Neighbors,
1-124
10/26 WHO WAS AT FAULT? WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE
NOW?
§
Read
Neighbors,
125-49
§
Read Neighbors
Respond, 69-86
10/31 HOW IMPORTANT IS CONFESSION? FORGIVENESS?
§
Read: Neighbors Respond, 93-118, 147-78, 267-303
11/2 HOW BEST TO EXPLAIN
JEDWABNE?
§
View video“Obedience” (45 mins.)
on the Milgram experiments
§
Read: Neighbors Respond, 386-400, 434-49
11/7 EXPLAINING
PREJUDICE
§
View
the on-line video “A
Class Divided”. Be sure to
watch at least the first 3 chapters; if you have time, go on to view the
experiment with adults and their discussion in chapters 4 & 5. Bring your observations to class.
11/9 HUTUS AND TUTSIS:
Killing “Cockroaches” in
§
Read
Philip Gourevitch, I wish to inform you
that tomorrow we will be killed with our families,
5-62
11/14 “PEOPLE CAN BE MADE TO BE
BAD”
§
Read
I wish to inform you,
63-144
11/16 NO CLASS
§
Watch video “Sometimes in April” (140
mins.) So55, Burling Listening Room
11/21 MURDERERS AS
NEIGHBORS
§
Read
I wish to inform you, 145-353
11/22 PAPER DUE
***********************T H A N K S G I V
I N G**************************
11/28
PRESENTATIONS
11/30
PRESENTATIONS
12/5
PRESENTATIONS
12/7
PRESENTATIONS
12/8 FINAL, REVISED PAPER
DUE