Social Change and the Pandemic is a course for those angry and frustrated about the injustices in the world and looking for systemic change to our society. In this DeCal we will discuss and analyze the inequalities and outrages of our capitalist society – racism, police brutality, poverty, war, environmental collapse, profit-focused pandemic responses, and more. We will read/listen to texts, podcasts, and each other to learn more about these problems and the past and present movements organizing against them – and their possibilities and limitations. We will focus especially on how this pandemic has revealed and exacerbated those inequalities, social protests and change that we’ve seen during this pandemic, and what this change means for our own lives.
All classes will be held over Zoom. This is a discussion based class, with space for presentations, videos, and other learning methods. All material will be accessible online.
This is a discussion based class, so active participation during class and class activities will account for 50% of your grade. In addition, there will be 7 300+ word reflections throughout the semester, worth 20% of your grade, and a final essay (the topic and structure will be determined during the semester) which will be worth the remaining 30% of your grade.
Because this is a discussion based class, we want everyone to participate and share their perspectives. Points will be deducted from the participation grade if students show up more than 10 minutes late to class. Students can have 2 excused absences from class if they email us at least 24 hours before the class they are to miss.
Because of Covid - 19, this class will be held entirely online. As students, we’ve experienced the drawbacks of all online education first hand and the difficulty of creating a good learning environment over zoom. We want to work through these problems with other class participants and we encourage everyone to share with us how we can adapt to online education better or make improvements. We also encourage people to keep their video feed on during the Zoom to create a more comfortable and socially engaging learning environment.