Barnet, Sylvan and Hugo Bedau.From Critical Thinking to Argument.7th ed. Bedford/St. Martin's, (Jan. 4 2023) ISBN-13: 978-1319332129 (Online/Kindle Version Acceptable)
Jennifer Finney Boylan.She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders. Crown, 2013. ISBN: 978-0385346979 (Online/Kindle or Library Versions Acceptable)
Theme: Many Stories
Our full-length work focuses on transgender experience as described in Jennifer Finney
Boylan's memoir, She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders, so we will examine gender and other issues surrounding gender and transgender experiences.
We will also watch Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED talk "The Danger of the Single Story"
and write an essay in response to her claims. For a practical examination of workplace
and other social space code-switching (changing the way we speak, what language we
use, how we dress or behave in various social situations for purely functional reasons,
for safety or for career or social benefits), we will read various essays by persons
who have found different ways to adapt themselves in American society at large, school
and/or their careers and ask whether some spaces require unreasonable code-switching.
This will be followed by a unit on information literacy, including the nature, causes
and possible solutions to fake news on the Internet and elsewhere. We will have a
debate about a controversial topic, you will learn how Rogerian Arguments are organized
and time permitting, you will have the option to write a Rogerian Argument. These
are organized to achieve the goal of foregrounding truth and respecting different
opinions, a very important skill-set in a democracy.Your final exam essay will likely focus on Jennifer Finney Boylan’s memoir She’s Not There.
