SEMESTER AT SEA COURSE SYLLABUS

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1 SEMESTER AT SEA COURSE SYLLABUS Voyage: Fall 2013 Discipline: Communication Course Title: Media, Religion, and Culture Proposed as: Lower Division Faculty Name: Read Mercer Schuchardt Scheduled Times: B-Days, 8:00-9:15 AM Pre-requisites: None COURSE DESCRIPTION This course provides students with an introduction to the core concepts and theories of media ecology, an interdisciplinary methodology pioneered by Marshall McLuhan, Jacques Ellul, Neil Postman, and others. The course will investigate the formal characteristics of media and communication technologies to query how these have historically evolved to shape the quality and character of a host culture s religious and socio-economic practices. Beginning with the medium of the alphabet and moving through the printing press to 21st century forms of electronic and digital media, you will acquire a robust historical and philosophical overview of the major movements in media history, and how those movements have impacted 1.) social, cultural and religious practices, 2.) psychological perception of the sacred, and 3.) economic forces in relation to religious practice. Port of call visits provide students with journaling opportunities to discover which technological forms (and content areas) dominate the visual, acoustic, and semantic environments of a given city. Some guest lectures in port of call cities will be made available for students wishing to go deeper into a given subject area and/or geographical location. COURSE OBJECTIVES By the end of the course, students will have a more sophisticated tool kit with which to: understand the history and ecology of communication technologies perceive the relationship between media forms and social, economic, and religious practices in the Western hemisphere comprehend how media forms affect psychological perception of the sacred conceptualize how relationships between commerce, government, and religion are technologically mediated analyze the complex relationships between the sacred and the profane, and how they are intertwined apprehend current questions of cultural significance in an increasingly technological society. While the four books will comprise the vast majority of the reading we do, I will also be giving you contemporary articles on the subjects of media, religion, and society, and expect you to read them, incorporate their claims and insights into your papers, and expect you to be familiar with them for the purposes of the final paper. 1

2 REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS AUTHOR: Leonard Shlain TITLE: The Alphabet Vs. The Goddess PUBLISHER: Penguin ISBN-10 #: DATE/EDITION: 1999 (Paperback edition) AUTHOR: Jeffrey P. Greenman, Read Mercer Schuchardt, Noah P. Toly TITLE: Understanding Jacques Ellul PUBLISHER: Cascade/Wipf & Stock ISBN #: X DATE/EDITION: 2012 AUTHOR: Amintore Fanfani TITLE: Catholicism, Protestantism, and Capitalism PUBLISHER: IHS Press ISBN-10 #: DATE/EDITION: 2003 AUTHOR: Jerry Mander TITLE: In The Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations PUBLISHER: Peter Smith ISBN-10 #: DATE/EDITION: 1999 Coursepack Readings (Available Electronically or on Reserve) Orlando Figes, "In Search of the Russian Soul" from Natasha's Dance. Robert Logan and Marshall McLuhan, "Alphabet, Mother of Invention." Neil Postman, "Amusing Ourselves to Death" Neil Postman, "The Great Symbol Drain" Sami Zemni, "The Shaping of Islam and Islamaphobia in Belgium" Read Mercer Schuchardt, "The Medium Is the Messiah: McLuhan's Religion and its Relationship to His Media Theory" Nicholas Carr, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Brett Robinson, "Appletopia" article TBA Other readings TBA TOPICAL OUTLINE OF COURSE Each class period will be devoted to lecture and discussion, with a portion of pre-and-post port-ofcall days devoted to preparation and debriefing of what was seen, experienced, observed while in 2

3 port. As this will likely be one of the most experiential educational courses of your college career, it is strongly encouraged that you keep a personal journal, and use these to jot down your in-port experiences and observations in relation to class material covered, so as to have a reminder of key insights for use in your final paper. These will not be collected, and so can also be your personal journal. There are no computers or digital devices allowed in class, and note-taking is required by hand. A1- August 26: Introductions and Expectations HW: Read Shlain, Chs HW: Read Logan & McLuhan, "Alphabet, Mother of Invention" (Electronic Coursepack) A2-August 28: The Alphabet Effect HW: Read HW: Read "In Search of the Russian Soul" by Orlando Figes (Electronic Coursepack) St. Petersburg: August 29- September 1 A3- September 3: The Written Word HW: Read Shlain, Chs HW: Read McLuhan, The Playboy Interview (1969) Hamburg: September 5-8 A4- September 9: From BC to AD HW: Read Shlain, Chs HW: Read Schuchardt, "The Medium Is the Messiah: McLuhan's Religion and its Relationship to His Media Theory" A5- September 11: From Birth to Rebirth HW: Read Shlain, Chs Antwerp and Le Havre: September A6- September 18: From Page To Screen HW: Read Shlain, Chs HW: Read Lewis Mumford, "The Invention of Printing" (Electronic Coursepack) HW: Write Shlain Book Report Dublin: September A7- September 24: Rise of the Machine: The European Moment Shlain Book Report Due HW: Read Ellul, Chs 1-3 A8- September 26: The Technological Society and Propaganda HW: Read Ellul, Chs 4-6 3

4 Lisbon and Cadiz: September 27- October 1 Casablanca: October 3-6 A9- October 8: Politics and Economics in Megalopolis HW: Read Ellul, Chs 7-End HW: Read Postman, "Amusing Ourselves to Death" A10- October 11: The Digital Age and Its Discontents (7 Vices of the Virtual Life) Ellul Book Report Due HW: Read Postman, "The Great Symbol Drain" A11- October 13: The Cult of Mac HW: Read Brett Robinson, "Appletopia" article TBA HW: Read Carr, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" Ghana: October A12- October 20: Catholicism, Protestantism, and Capitalism HW: Read Fanfani, Preface, Foreword, Introduction, and ch. I A13- October 22: Catholicism, Protestantism, and Capitalism Robinson Book Report Due HW: Read Fanfani, Chapter II A14- October 25: The Pre-Reformation Character of Christianity HW: Read Fanfani, Chapter III Cape Town: October A15- November 2: The Economic and the Extra-Economic HW: Read Fanfani, Chapter IV A16- November 5: The Opposite of Capitalism HW: Read Fanfani, Chapter V A17- November 7: The Root of Real Community HW: Read Fanfani, Chapter VI A18- November 10: The Broken Clock HW: Read Fanfani, Chapter VII HW: Read TBA on Pope Francis Buenos Aires: November

5 FIELD LAB DAY POPE FRANCIS TOUR of BUENOS AIRES A19- November 17: Living In Nature and Living In Culture Fanfani Book Report Due HW: Read Mander, pp A20- November 19: The Native Americans HW: Read Mander, pp Rio de Janeiro: November A21- November 25: Advertising and Human Desires Outline Due for Final Paper HW: Read Mander, pp A22- November 28: Media Monopoly and Monotony HW: Read Mander, pp A23- November 30: Jihad vs. McWorld HW: Read Mander, pp. 401-End Manaus: December 2-5 A24- December 8: Round the Basin, Down The Drain Mander Book Report Due HW: Prepare Final Paper due A25- December 11: Film Screening TBA and Due Date of Final Papers 5

6 FIELD WORK Field lab attendance is mandatory for all students enrolled in this course. Please do not book individual travel plans or a Semester at Sea sponsored trip on the day of our field lab. Our Field Lab will be in Buenos Aires, Argentina, tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, November 13th. FIELD LAB (At least 20 percent of the contact hours for each course, to be led by the instructor.) Our Field Lab in Buenos Aires, Argentina will consist of a morning lecture on Francis and his namesake by Professor Schuchardt, transit to our starting point, and then the full day excursion "Pope Francis Tour" to see the locations of childhood and early youth of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the current Catholic pope. We will also be observing how contemporary Argentinians perceive him, and contextualizing these experiences in light of our readings on Catholicism, Protestantism, and Capitalism by Fanfani, as well as on the life and economic worldview of St. Francis of Assisi. FIELD ASSIGNMENTS You are to dress modestly and respectfully for this particular Field Lab, expecting to both a.) enter quietly and respectfully into several churches and b.) be in the presence of others for whom this is a form of sacred pilgrimage. Long pants for men, long pants or dresses for women. You are to bring your journaling notebook but not a camera or iphone/ipod. Our lack of technological prosthetics and our related silence will be a central way that we show respect. Write down all that you observe that stands out to you, that strikes you as relevant, interesting, or of value in relation to our course materials. Pay special attention to the relationship between economics and faith, between healthcare and faith, and between education and faith. How does this compare with what you saw and observed in northern Europe? In Morocco? In Ghana? In South Africa? I will collect your journals prior to the trip's end and return them to you. But the key patterns of observation you make should also show up as part of the experiential evidence that you include in your final paper. How did your observed experiences confirm, complicate, or rebut what you were reading? What do you make of these observations now that you've seen them in four different continental contexts? What patterns, if any, hold out as consistent, reliable, or "true"? METHODS OF EVALUATION You will be evaluated on 1.) Attendance (measured by physically showing up), 2.) Participation (active participation in class), 3.) Preparation (measured by Reading Questions and assignments turned in on time), 4.) Book Reports (1 for each book we read), and 5.) Final Paper (cumulative work, including one other book and five other resources that we did not read collectively) GRADING RUBRIC Attendance/Participation -- 30% (each class missed beyond two takes 5% off your final grade) 6

7 Preparation/Reading Questions - 20% (roughly one point for each question sheet turned in) Book Reports -20% (5% each) Final Paper - 30% Reading Questions: Preparedness for participation will be measured by collection of a single page of printed text on which you are to submit three questions regarding the day s readings. These questions should correspond to tasks that will help you (1) to understand the text (2) in its context and (3) to grasp practical implications of the text. a. The first question should be descriptive, helping you to answer the overarching question, What is the author trying to say in this particular reading? b. The second question should be synthetic, helping you to answer the overarching question, How does this relate to other readings by this author and others, to other resources (e.g., movies) that we have used in class, or to class discussions? c. The third question should be "pragmatic", helping you to answer the overarching question, What are the implications of this reading for our dispositions and actions? d. All questions must be typed/printed on a single page, with student name, date, and assignment in question in the upper left of the page. Questions on readings are also required on the dates when both papers and readings due, so prepare accordingly. Book Reports You will write four (4) book report papers and a final 15-page paper. You will write a 5-page book report for four of the five books we read. Your final paper, due on the final exam day, will be 15 pages minimum excluding bibliography. Each book report should cover the book assigned, and perform the following tasks of intellectual engagement: Placement of the author in his historical/cultural context Identifying and articulating the major terms used by the author, with highlighting of these terms in bold font. Engagement with the major Idea(s) and claims made by the author Argument for updating the author s argument with new data or debate with the author on how new data makes the old argument newly questionable Interdisciplinary and/or intertextual engagement. The author is dead in many cases and cannot be contacted. What would/did contemporaneous authors say for/against this author and his arguments? How would other voices that we ve read (or that you ve read in other classes) engage this same material? Incorporation of at least five outside pieces of Evidence to support your main Idea. Only two of these five may be Internet sources. Clear evidence of careful preparation, research, writing, revision, and proofreading of all submitted work. This means that your paper should demonstrate evidence that it was not written the night before or the day it was due. Minimum 5 pages per book report, Maximum 12 pages. Outside evidence for book reports may use current class handouts or material from other books, classes, or texts you are informed by. 7

8 Each paper should also seek to address the specific question asked of that book (see below and cross-reference with class discussion notes) In other words, and at a minimum, each book report you submit should be both a document that illustrates your mastery of the reading, as well as gives your best effort to answer a challenging question (or series of questions) related to the reading. You may wish to separate these into Part 1 and Part 2 of your paper, but you are not required to. Sooner ignore any of these rules than say something barbaric. All written work should conform to the following formal guidelines: Original Title to essay centered above first paragraph Student Name, Class, Date, and Professor s Name in upper left hand corner Stapled in upper left hand corner (folded-over papers that are unstapled will NOT be accepted) Double-spaced throughout (except pull-quotes) Pull-quotes (long quotes, i.e., any quote longer than two lines of text) are to be 1.) indented and 2.) single-spaced. 12-point font maximum (no minimum) Margins not more than 1 inch on both sides Works cited page in APA style (the style used by the Media Ecology Association). Wikipedia may not appear on your citation page, but it may be used for footnotes (per class discussion) Other paper regulations Any paper submitted late loses five points per day, up until the third day late, after which point it will not be accepted. Any paper written in legible calligraphy, in the author s own hand, is free to ignore any or all of the above rules. Final Paper For your final paper, write an engaging, provocative, and dynamic 15-page essay in which you connect all eight books of the semester plus the outside readings. Present your Idea or thesis for approval two weeks before (November 25) the paper is due (December 11). In the paper, rather than writing a serial book report, you are to eloquently articulate the through-line or golden thread you have found to be running throughout all four books, and incorporating as much of our other in-class reading and discussion as possible, as well as at least one other book (either an outside the syllabus text, or a reserve reading text). This could be a common theme, an analysis of historical time frames upon the evolution of ideas, a dissection of different media effects upon different historical epochs in their cultural milieu, or any complex, dynamic idea that is worthy of the effort. This is to be a 15-page minimum (25-page maximum) paper that incorporates some aspect of each of the five books, and makes a coherent argument in which the evidence chosen reveals itself to be the best way to reason your Idea into being. Follow the same format guidelines as with the book reports. Pay meticulous attention to grammar, style, and the rules of Standard Written English. 8

9 RESERVE LIBRARY LIST AUTHOR: Robert Logan TITLE: The Alphabet Effect PUBLISHER: William Morrow and Company ISBN #: DATE/EDITION: 1986 AUTHOR: Eric Kwabena Oduro Wiafe TITLE: The Three Major Religions in Ghana: History, Theology, and Influence PUBLISHER: CreateSpace ISBN-10 #: DATE/EDITION: 2010 AUTHOR: Stewart M. Hoover and Knut Lundby TITLE: Rethinking Media, Religion, and Culture PUBLISHER: Sage Publications ISBN-10 #: X DATE/EDITION: 1997 AUTHOR: Denis McNamara TITLE: How To Read Churches: A Crash Course in Ecclesiastical Architecture PUBLISHER: Rizzoli ISBN-10 #: DATE/EDITION: 2011 AUTHOR: Gerard Colby and Charlotte Dennett TITLE: Thy Will Be Done - The Conquest of the Amazon: Nelson Rockefeller and Evangelism in the Age of Oil PUBLISHER: Harpercollins ISBN-10 #: DATE/EDITION: 1996 ELECTRONIC COURSE MATERIALS All course materials in PDF file format are on 1.) Dr. Schuchardt's computer and 2.) the ship's library computer. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Films on Reserve: Black Robe The Gods Must Be Crazy City of God Jacques Ellul: The Betrayal By Technology McLuhan's Wake 9

10 Out of Orbit: The Life and Times of Marshall McLuhan Koyaanisqatsi Trilogy Brazil Into Great Silence Sophie Scholl: The Final Days Europa, Europa Wings of Desire Diary of A Country Priest Au Revoir Les Enfants Man Facing Southeast HONOR CODE Semester at Sea students enroll in an academic program administered by the University of Virginia, and thus bind themselves to the University s honor code. The code prohibits all acts of lying, cheating, and stealing. Please consult the Voyager s Handbook for further explanation of what constitutes an honor offense. Each written assignment for this course must be pledged by the student as follows: On my honor as a student, I pledge that I have neither given nor received aid on this assignment. The pledge must be signed, or, in the case of an electronic file, signed [signed]. 10

SEMESTER AT SEA COURSE SYLLABUS University of Virginia, Academic Sponsor

SEMESTER AT SEA COURSE SYLLABUS University of Virginia, Academic Sponsor Voyage: Fall 2014 Discipline: Drama DRAM 2020-501 and 502: Acting I (Sections 1 and 2) Lower Division Faculty Name: Dr. Judith Williams