UNIT 1
"Spiritual Explanations of Deviance & Religious Social Control"
"Spiritual Explanations of Deviance & Religious Social Control"
Emergence: 16th Century America
Contemporary: Moral Panic
January 15th
Unit Lecture: Lateran Council, Scapegoat logics
Archival Exercise: Excerpts from the Salem Witch Trials Archives
January 22nd
Brief pop quiz (Canvas readings due!)
Short film: Excerpt on the “Moral Majority”
Facilitated Discussion: Canvas Readings
Assigned Reading:
"Panic: A Guide to Uses of Fear" Lancaster
“Transient Feelings” Janice Irvine
January 29th
Q&A interview from the field
A discussion of Jon Ronson’s book
A Summary of the Unit and Short Debrief
Assigned Reading:
So You’ve been Publicly Shamed: Chapters 1 “Braveheart” & 2 “I’m Glad I’m Not That”
UNIT 2
“The Rational Criminal & Classical Explanations of Deviance”
“The Rational Criminal & Classical Explanations of Deviance”
Emergence: 18th Century America
The Early Prison System & The Emergence of the Penitentiary
Contemporary: Carceral logics, the prison industrial complex, and the myth of the correctional institution
February 5th
Unit Lecture: Rational actors, enlightenment philosophy, utilitarian calculus, the correctional myth
Archival Exercise: Excerpt from Bentham’s Panopticon, Excerpt from French Penal Code of 1791, Excerpt from Massachusetts Department of Corrections Website
February 12th
Brief Pop quiz (Canvas Readings Due!)
Short Film (Excerpt from The 13th)
Facilitated Discussion on Canvas Readings
Assigned Reading:
“Early US Prison History Beyond Rothman: Revisiting “The Discovery of the Asylum” by Ashley Rubin
“Eastern State Penitentiary” Film
“A Timeline of the Rise and Fall of Tough on Crime Sentencing” The Atlantic
February 19th
Q&A interview from the field
Discussion of Jon Ronson’s book
A summary of the unit and Short Debrief
Assigned Reading:
So You’ve been Publicly Shamed: Chapters 3 “The Wilderness” & 4 “God That Was Awesome”
UNIT 3
“Pathology & Madness, Medical Explanations of Deviance”
“Pathology & Madness, Medical Explanations of Deviance”
Emergence: 19th Century Medicine
The Early Asylum System
Medical Social Control
February 26th
Unit Lecture on the early asylum, atavism, pathologization, “criminal insanity” and eugenics
Archival exercise: Excerpt from Phillippe Pinel’s Insanity Defense, Excerpt from Samuel Cartwright
March 11th
A brief pop quiz on the assigned readings (Canvas Readings Due!)
Short film: “Strange Answers to the Psychopath Test”
A facilitated discussion of the week's readings
Assigned Reading:
“The Measure of a Man: Cesare Lombroso”
“Controlling the Planet: A Brief History of Schizophrenia” by Jonathan Metzl
March 18th
Q&A interview from the field
Discussion of Jon Ronson’s book
A Summary of the Unit and Short Debrief
Assigned Reading:
So You’ve been Publicly Shamed: Chapters 5 “Man Descends Several Rungs in the Ladder of Civilization” & 6 “Doing Something Good”
UNIT 4
“Theorizing Conformity: Propaganda & Advertising, Consumers & Crowds”
“Theorizing Conformity: Propaganda & Advertising, Consumers & Crowds”
20th Century Theories of Conformity
Audio-Visual Suggestion & Crowd Behavior
March 25th
Unit Lecture on consumer culture, simulation, and the hyper-real
Archival exercise: Imaging War
April 1st
A brief pop quiz on the assigned readings (Canvas Readings Due!)
Short film: “Mickey Mouse Monopoly”
A facilitated discussion of the week's readings
Assigned Reading:
“Le Bon, The Crowd Summary”
“Donald Trump and the Myth of Mobocracy”
“Partially Examined Life: Guy Debord”
April 8th
Q&A interview from the field
Discussion of Jon Ronson’s book
A Summary of the Unit and Short Debrief
Assigned Reading:
So You’ve been Publicly Shamed: Chapters 7 “Journey to a Shame-Free Paradise” & 8 “The Shame-Eradication Workshop”
UNIT 5
“Deviance, Difference & Identity”
“Deviance, Difference & Identity”
Contemporary American Approaches to Difference
Difference & Identity, Social Constructionism
April 15th
Unit Lecture on identity, difference, and social constructionism
Archival exercise: Against Equality Mission Statement
Brief Pop Quiz (Canvas Readings Due!)
Discussion of week’s readings
Discussion of Jon Ronson Reading
Assigned Reading:
“There Aren’t Words for What We Do”
So You’ve been Publicly Shamed: Chapters 9 “A Town Abuzz over Prostitution and a Client List” & 10 “The Near Drowning of Mike Daisey”
April 22nd
Final Project Presentations
Discussion of Jon Ronson’s Book
Assigned Reading:
So You’ve been Publicly Shamed: Chapters 11 “The Man Who Can Change the Google Search Results” & 12 “The Terror”
April 29th
Final Project Presentations
Discussion of Jon Ronson’s Book
Assigned Reading:
So You’ve been Publicly Shamed: Chapters 13 “Raquel in a Post-Shaming World,” 14 “Cats and Ice Cream and Music” and 15 “Your Speed”