course guidelines
course description | the books | papers & daily assignments | grading criteria
How effective is the Supreme Court at changing societal values? Did Roe v. Wade or Brown v. Board of Education make a difference in how we think about reproduction or race? This class considers law's capacity to institute social changes. Some of our considerations will be structural - what is it about our American political system that constrains or allows for radical change? Some of our considerations will be historical - how was a liberal system able to legitimize slavery for so long? Others of our considerations will be philosophical - what is it about our minds that prevents or permits a change of values?
Gerald Rosenberg, The Hollow Hope
Robert Cover, Justice Accused
Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities
Kristen Luker, Abortion & the Politics of Motherhood
Lawrence Tribe, Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes
Dorothy Roberts, Killing the Black Body
For the first two-thirds of the semester, you will bring to each class a one-page (double-spaced) essay in which you explore a passage from the day's reading. On Mondays, you'll exchange the essay with a classmate. On Thursdays, you'll hand in an essay that engages with both the reading and your classmate's essay. This means that you can't afford to blow off an assignment. First, it will jeopardize someone else's process. Second, it will jeopardize your standing in the class.
Along with these short essays, you'll also be growing two five-page essays and one extended essay. The five-page essay might be an extended argument, or a meditation, or maybe just a rant. The ten-page essay should be beyond one position, one side, or one solution. It should be an experiment in multiplicity, of weighing and considering various positions, of moving out of polemics and into the hallowed halls of philosophy, of thinking beyond your personal preferences and into a larger synthetic whole.
Show up. Write. Read with a pen in your hand. Have a thesauraus near by. Let your brain stretch in new directions. Consider changing a deeply-held belief. Be a pro-life advocate for a day. Stand up against busing for an hour. Let yourself change your mind and then take notes on that very dangerous process.
Students who miss more than two classes will see a drop in their grade. Failing to pass in one of the three essays translates into a D. Don't take this class if you can't stay on top of the daily assignments.
