University Studies Course Approval:
    1. Department of Program: Political Science
    2. Course Number: 201
    3. Number of Credits: 03
    4. Frequency of Offering: Every semester, 2 sections of 40 students each
    5. Course Title: Politics and Violence
    6. Catalog Description: A study of the modern and enduring
        questions about violence, its origins, causes, and its cures, this course
        explores violence from a political science as well as from an
        interdisciplinary perspective.
    7. This is an existing course that has previously been approved by
       A2C2 yes
    8. This is not a new course proposal.
    9. University Studies Requirement this course would satisfy:
        Social Science
  10. Department Contact Person for this course: Fredrick P. Lee (457-5657)
       Email: flee@winona.edu or
       ygrover@winona.edu

  11. Course Outcomes:
    a. Understand humans as individuals and as parts of larger
        social systems: The course enables students to understand
        humans as individuals and as parts of larger social systems by
        the course's emphasis on politics and violence as major themes in
        the analysis of individual, group, organizational, and systemic
        behavior and how those behaviors in turn enable us to locate and
        discuss the relevance of those behaviors as points of departure
        for the study of politics and violence as universal themes in the
        social sciences.

    b. Understand the historical context of the social sciences:
        The course provides students with opportunities to
        investigate the origins of scholarly interests in the arenas of
        politics and violence. Students will come to understand that
        scholars have competing and often conflictual intellectual
        groundings, paradigmatic emphases, and theoretical insights. As
        an example of the last statement, students will be required to
        understand how and why there are still fundamental questions to
        be raised and answered about the origins, scope, and direction of
        social science inquiry into the nature of politics and violence.
   

    c. Identify problems and frame research questions relating to humans and
        their experience: In this course, students examine the most important
        issues and problems relating to politics and violence and work to discover
        the impact and the implications of politics and violence in the lives of
        humans and their experiences. For example, students explore issues such as
        the necessity for politics, alternatives to politics, violence and its
        utility, and the interrelationships of politics and violence. Students are
        encouraged to ask questions about what, when and how do long-standing
        issues of politics and violence get addressed and answered and by whom.

    d. Become familiar with the process of theory-building and theoretical
        frameworks used by the social sciences: This course expends a considerable
        amount of energy, time and effort introducing students to the conceptual,
        paradigmatic, theoretical, analytical, and empirical devices, methods, and
        limitations imposed on social scientists in the field of politics and
        violence. Students develop the vocabulary which is required to raise and
        to answer questions and to convincingly persuade others that the students
        are competent and confident in both writing and speaking about politics and
        violence.

    e. Understand research methods used in the social sciences: Students
        write a number of papers in which they may be asked to interpret a
        question, to analyze a problem, to decipher data as to their utility, or to
        respond to an opposing point of view. In the course of writing these
        papers, students learn much about the research methods used by the social
        sciences to examine, to elucidate, to evaluate, and to entice others to see
        that what they have written is worthy of praise and admiration.

    f. Describe and detail discipline-specific knowledge and its
        applications: The lectures, in-class assignments and other course
        activities deliver discipline-specific knowledge and its applications to
        students in a timely manner. The above lectures and activities give
        students opportunities to challenge conventional wisdom about politics and
        violence in print and in electronic media to analyze pubic policy choices,
        and to be better consumers and practitioners of politics in the
        community-at-large.

    g. Understand differences among and commonalities across humans and
        their experience: This course aids and intellectually challenges students
        to appreciate the objective and personal realities that politics imposes on
        each of us. As citizens, as practitioners, as victims, as bystanders, as
        perpetrators, as mourners, we are destined to live in a world which
        contains the consequences of politics and the potential for violence. The
        course allows students to explore and examine how differences in time and
        space in regard to the practice of politics and efforts at the diminution
        of violence serve to present students with opportunities for greater
        knowledge in these two subject areas of politics and violence.

SAMPLE SYLLABUS ATTACHED

Political Science 201
Politics and Violence
University Studies: Social Science Course

Fredrick P. Lee
115 Minné
457-5657
flee@vax2.winona.musus.edu

Office Hours: TR: 10:30 - 12:30 1:00 - 2:45
                      W:   9:00 - 12:00 (when announced in class)

Texts:
Weiner, Zahn and Sagi (eds.), Violence: Patterns, Causes, and Public
Policy
Wrangham and Peterson, Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human
Violence
De Waal, Chimpanzee Politics: Sex and Power Among the Apes
Morris, The Naked Ape

Course Objectives:
Studying politics is my attempt to turn this general education course
into a lively, lucid, and limited set of questions about the origins,
necessity, and future of politics. I have designed the course to enable
students to think as rigorously as possible in regard to why politics
exists in our society and world.

Studying violence is my attempt to turn this general education course
into an informative, interesting and intellectually challenging inquiry
about the causes, consequences, costs, and solutions to violence. I have
designed the course to enable students to think as rigorously as
possible in regard to why violence exists in our society and world.

University Studies: Social Science Course
This course will satisfy three semester hours of the six-semester hour
requirement for social science in the university studies program. As
such, it seeks to provide students taking this course the opportunity to
achieve the following outcomes:

    a. understand humans as individuals and parts of larger social systems
    b. understand the historical context of the social sciences
    c. identify problems and frame research questions relating to humans and
        their experience
    d.  become familiar with the process of theory-building and theoretical
        frameworks used by the social sciences
    e. understand the research methods used in the social sciences
    f. describe and detail discipline-specific knowledge and its applications
    g. understand differences among and commonalities across humans and their
       experience, as tied to such variables as gender, race, socioeconomic
       status, etc.

Course Requirements:
    Documentaries:
    There are several films and documentaries to be viewed for this class.
    These films and documentaries will be shown during our class meeting
    times.

     Discussion Papers:
    There are 8 discussion papers for the course. These papers focus on a
    narrowly defined topic for class discussion. These papers must be typed,
    double spaced, and cannot be more than one page, with your class number
    on the back of your paper.

    Typically, these assignments will pose a question or two for you to
    answer within your paper. You might be asked to interpret a question,
    analyze a problem, or discuss the pros and cons of a particular
    perspective we have encountered in class, in documentaries or in
    assigned readings. Each paper is worth 12 points. The criteria for grade
    assignments are posted in the classroom and outside my office at 115
    Minné Hall.

    When I read your papers, I will stop at the third grammatical, spelling,
    or punctuation error I find in your paper. I will then stamp your paper.
    You may redo it or take an "F" for the paper ("F" means failure).
    However, redoing your paper will only result in the original grade I
    would have assigned your paper were it not for your errors. Likewise, if
    I feel or believe that you have not done an adequate job of working on
    your paper prior to submitting it for my review, I will stamp your paper
    as inadequate and you will receive an "F." You will not be allowed to
    resubmit your paper.

 Book Reviews:
   There are three book reviews for this class. The first book to be
    reviewed is Morris, The Naked Ape. The second book to be reviewed is de
    Waal, Chimpanzee Politics: Sex and Power Among the Apes. The third book
    to be reviewed is Wrangham and Peterson, Demonic Males: Apes and the
    Origins of Human Violence. Further information will be presented in
    class. Each book review is worth 12 points.

Vocabulary List:
   Each student will be given a vocabulary sheet to be used over the length
    of the term. When I use a word(s) in class and ask for a definition and
    a suitable definition is not forthcoming, you are to provide a
    dictionary-entry definition on the vocabulary sheet after the class is
    over. I will collect the sheet on a random basis. Failure to do the
    dictionary work will cost you 10 points for each omitted definition.

Required Readings and Class Participation:
   If I call on a student for a response to a question based on class
    reading assignments and if that student cannot respond with an answer
    which indicates or suggests that he or she has done the class reading
    assignments, I will deduct 10 points from that student's final grade. I
    will do this for as many times as I receive an unresponsive, uninformed
    answer from the student (e.g., If I get five unresponsive, uninformed
    answers, the student will lose fifty points).

Other Graded Work:
   Sixty eight points of your course grade will come from random quizzes,
    written in-class assignments, library exercises, and special
    assignments.

TOTAL COURSE POINTS : 200
   A = 200 - 180
    B = 160 - 179
    C = 140 - 159
    D = 120 - 139
    F =   00 - 119

 Readings and Assignments:
    1. Primates, Mankind, and Humans
        Desmond Morris, The Naked Ape (entire book)

        "The Biology of Love" (video)

        "The Immortal Genes " (video)

        "The Human Zoo" (video)

        "Beyond Survival" (video)

        social science learning outcomes: a, c, e

     2. Thinking About Politics
       Fred H. Willhoite, Jr., "Primates and Political Authority: A
        Biobehavioral Perspective," American Political Science Review
        Frans de Waal, Chimpanzee Politics: Sex and Power Among the Apes (entire
        book)

        "Lord of the Flies" (video)

        "2001: A Space Odyssey" (video)

        Roger Boesches, "What If Freud Is Right? The Inevitability of
        Inequality, the Impossibility of Democracy," paper prepared for delivery
        at the 1996 annual meeting of the American Political Science
        association, the San Francisco Hilton and Towers, August 29-September 1,
        1996

        social science learning outcomes: a, b, c, d, f

     3. Thinking About Violence
      Richard Wrangham and Dale Peterson, Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins
        of Human Violence (entire book)

        "Born Bad: Nature Versus Nurture" (video)

        "Minds to Crime" (video)

        social science learning outcomes: a, b, c, d, f

     4. Politics andViolence as Ways of Life
      Weiner, Zahn and Sagi, eds., Violence: Patterns, Causes, and Public
        Policy, pp. 1-42

        "Violence: An American Tradition" (video)

        "The Killing Fields of America" (video)

        social science learning outcomes: a, c, d, g

    5. Politics, Violence and Power
      Weiner et al, Violence: Patterns, Causes, and Public Policy, pp. 43-168
       

        "Hearts of Hate" (video)

        "Rape: An Act of Hate" (video)

        "Mind of a Murderer" (video)

        social science learning outcomes: c, d, e, f,, g

    6. Politics andViolence as Outcomes
      Weiner et al., Violence: Patterns, Causes, and Public Policy, pp.
        169-218

        "Ted Bundy: Serial Killer" (video)

        social science learning outcomes: c, d, e, f, g

     7. Politics and Violence as Adaptation
      Weiner et al., Violence: Patterns, Causes, and Public Policy, pp.
        219-275

        social science learning outcomes: a, c, d, e, f

     8. Studying Politics, Studying Violence: Science, Proto-Science,
        Pseudo-Science or Neo-Science
        No reading assignments.

        social science learning outcomes: a, b, c, d, e, f, g