ASST 327 Violence, Terrorism, and Collective Healing (Same as Sociology 327) (Not offered 2008-2009; to be offered 2009-2010)

SOC 327 Violence, Terrorism, and Collective Healing (Same as Asian Studies 327) (Not offered 2008-2009; to be offered 2009-2010)
What do terrorism and violence mean and how do we think of its perpetrators? This course will investigate the concepts of terror and violence, and how they can be made into collectively recognized and remembered events. Participants will engage with relevant works in order to question and debate what terrorism and violence mean and how these concepts are addressed by various disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. Further, this course will investigate how representations of terrorism and violence are connected to the themes of: securing political power, collective resistance, community, and international power relations. Crucially, the course seeks to enable participants to critically reflect upon the publicly available perspectives on terrorism and violence. The course will encourage the interpretation, discussion, and writing on the following themes: `tradition' and religion; militancy and nationalism; public spaces and resistance; the role of emotions in violent movements; community, gender and collective recovery; and memory, orchestrating public panic, and war. Our materials combine analytical, historical, theoretical and literary texts, and films; all of these speak to the themes of this course and its participants will be encouraged to interpret, critique, and connect the existing arguments made in the course materials.
Format: seminar. Requirements: full participation and attendance in class; two oral presentations; one 4-page response paper; one paper topic proposal; and a term paper.
No prerequisites. Enrollment limit: 19 (expected: 15). Open to non-majors. Preference will be given to Anthropology and Sociology majors.
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