Advanced Courses in
US and Global Pluralism
Humanities
Honors Course IDH 2935
Theory and Politics of Mulitculturalism
Professor Hans Herbert Koegler
University of North Florida
This course will introduce you to the
philosophical and political debate concerning
multiculturalism. Currently, our societies
undergo a major change with regard to
their cultural and social self-understanding:
issues like cultural homogeneity, equality,
individual rights and social integration
are no longer accepted as unproblematic
ideals of a liberal democratic society.
Rather, or so many argue, the "multicultural"
fact of cultural, social and sexual
diversity needs to be addressed with
new ethical, conceptual and political
tools. The course discusses and analyzes
the most interesting arguments and proposals
in that ongoing and important debate,
and will provide a sustained and encompassing
introduction to its perspectives.
We will begin by discussing ethical
issues like the cultural, social
and legal recognition of minorities,
and the liberal vision of a multicultural
society. At stake are the defensibility
of minority rights, the value of cultural
diversity and pluralism, and the particular
profile that a modern democratic society
is supposed to have. Turning to the
real conditions of multiculturalism,
we are then going to deal with social
issues like cultural identities
and power, the reality and psychology
of racism, the social construction of
‘race.’ Here, the cognitive
and psychological effects of racism,
the presentation of minorities in mass
media, and the interpretive schemes
employed to portray culturally, sexually
and ethnically different people are
analyzed. Finally, we will use the ethical
and theoretical background to discuss
the political issue how cultural,
economic, and political forms of undermining
democracy can be practically addressed.
Here, topics such as nationalism and
its cosmopolitan alternative, the relation
between race, class, and gender, the
idea of a multicultural general education
will be discussed. Finally, we will
tie together the ethical reflection
with our realistic assessment of the
current state, and draw some more practical
conclusions.
Basic questions are: (Part One) How
can a liberal democracy foster and support
the flourishing of individual and cultural
self-realization? Are rights necessarily
individual rights, or do groups and
cultures also have rights? How important
is the recognition of one’s culture
for one’s own personal identity?
(Part Two) To what extent are cultural
identities sites of power, privilege,
and domination? What is the cause of
racism and xenophobic attitudes, and
what are its effects on the self? How
have minorities been represented in
our culture? (Part Three) What are the
sources of one’s identification
with national and/or ethnic roots? How
does global culture effect local culture?
How can we best represent cultural plurality
and diversity in our teaching? How can
we develop a multicultural public sphere?
Course requirements:
Each student is expected to
have completed the assigned reading
and to take over one or more presentations,
introducing the main ideas and issues
in the text for class discussion.
In addition, there are three short
papers that will deal with a major issue
in each of the three units of the course.
The idea is that these papers do not
simply stand on their own, but that,
at the end of the course, they could
be put together as three parts of one
study concerning the ethical, social,
and practical aspects of multiculturalism.
You are encouraged to suggest their
own paper topic from the range of question
we discuss and explore in class.
Each paper has a quite distinct character.
The first one is geared toward a reflexive
discussion of our intuitions concerning
a liberal democratic society, and how
we can reconcile this idea with the
claims made by minorities today. Thus,
putting one’s intuitions into words,
moreover, placing one’s ideas in
the context of ongoing ethical-political
debate, should make clear how writing
is a process of shaping and clarifying
one’s own thoughts. In the second
paper, you are asked to ‘turn outward,’
so to speak, to look and analyze how
our culture and its media represent
minorities in terms of specific social
types. Here, to write an analysis of
a cultural product can illuminate the
often unconscious structures and schemes
that influence of perception of others,
and thus help us to become more self-reflexive.
The final paper asks for even another
approach in that you now have to take
a practical stance with regard to some
issues in multiculturalism. Since this
is a real problem of our society today,
we should also think about real possibilities
to handle the conflicts at stake.
The three papers have to be 3-4 pages;
there is also a final essay-exam, each
counting 25% to the final grade.
Major texts used in class are:
Will Kymlicka, Multicultural Citizenship,
Oxford: Clarendon Press 1995;
David Goldberg, Multiculturalism:
A Critical Reader, London: Blackwell
1994.
Recommended texts (on reserve at UNF
library) with additional material used
in hand-outs include:
Charles Taylor /Amy Gutmann, Multiculturalism,
New Jersey: Princeton UP, 1994;
Michael Lerner/Cornel West, Jews
& Blacks: A Dialogue on Race, Religion,
and Culture in America, New York
1996;
Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White
Masks, New York: Grove Press 1967;
Lewis Gordon, Bad Faith and Antiblack
Racism, New Jersey: Humanities Press
1995;
Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure
of Man, New York/London: Norton
1981;
Avery Gordon, Christopher Newfield,
Mapping Multiculturalism, Minneapolis/London:
University of Minneapolis press 1996;
bell hooks, Outlaw Culture-Resisting
Representations, New York, London:
Routledge 1994;
Mary Waters, Ethnic Options,
Berkeley: U. of California Press 1990;
Paul Berman (ed.), Debating P.C.:
New York: Dell 1992)
Martha Nussbaum, Cultivating Humanity,
Cambridge, MA: Harvard U. P. 1997.
In conjunction with the textual sources,
the course will:
-
use movies that portray ethnic
and gender conflicts;
-
assign analyzes of actual cultural
products in use;
-
relate to organizations involved
in conflict resolution between ethnically
and culturally different groups;
-
encourage free and open expression
of one’s own cultural, religious,
ethnic, and sexual background so
as to include the lived experience
of multicultural identities in the
classroom.
Course Schedule:
(I) The Multicultural Challenge
for Liberal Democracy: The Ideal of
Multiculturalism
(II) Racism and the Effects
of Power: the Reality of Multiculturalism
- 5. Cultural identity and
power: the idea of a critical multiculturalism
(Peter Mclaren, "White Terror
and Oppositional Agency: Towards
a Critical Multiculturalism";
Chicago Cultural Studies Group,
"Critical Multiculturalism",
in Goldberg, 45-74 and
114-139)
- 7. The psychology of racism
(Frantz Fanon, Black Skin/White
Masks (selections); Lewis
Gordon, "Logic of Racism,
Racist Logic", in Bad
Faith and Antiblack Racism;)
- 8. The social construction
of race
(Stephen Jay Gould, The Mismeasure
of Man, chapter two; Michael
E. Dysen, "Essentialism and
the Complexities of Racial Identity";
and Tommy L. Lott, "Black
Vernacular Representation and
Cultural Malpractice"; both
inGoldberg, 218-258)
(III) Toward a Multicultural
and Democratic Public Sphere
- 10. Multiculturalism, the
public sphere, and the cosmopolitan
alternative
(Jeremy Waldron, "Minority
Cultures and the Cosmopolitan
Alternative", in: University
of Michigan Journal of Law Reform,
25:3, 1992; J»rgen Habermas, "Struggles
for Recognition in the Democratic
Constitutional State", in
Taylor/Gutmann, 107-148, hand-outs)
- 11. Gender and economy in
multicultural contexts
(Angela Davis, "Gender,
Class, and Multiculturalism: Rethinking
‘Race’ Politics,"
in Mapping Multiculturalism;
Barabara Christian, "Diminishing
returns: Can Black Feminism(s)
Survive the Academy?"; Anita
L. Allan, "On Being a Role
Model", both in Goldberg;
Richard P. Appelbaum, "Multiculturalism
and Flexibility—Some New
Directions in Global Capitalism",
in: Mapping Multiculturalism)
- 14. Multiculturalism
and education III: cosmopolitan
pedagogy
(Martha Nussbaum, "Citizens
of the World"; Bert
K²gler, "The Multicultural
Challenge, General Education,
and Organic Cosmopolitanism",
hand-outs)
- 15. Wrap up class: how to
construct a multicultural public
sphere?
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