HONORS 391D - Advanced Honors Seminar

 

Honors Seminar Series Web Address: 

http://www.comcol.umass.edu/honorsseminar/

 

Course Title:  American Eugenics

Course Section:  17

Class meeting days and times: Thursday 11:15am-12:05pm

Class Location:  216 Dickinson Hall

Instructor Name:  Laura L. Lovett

Office:   635 Herter Hall

Office Hours:  Thursdays 10-11, and by appt.

Email: Lovett@history.umass.edu

Phone: 545-6778

Instructor's Course Web Address: https://spark.oit.umass.edu/webct/entryPageIns.dowebct

 

General Course Description

391D Advanced Honors Seminar is the second and final course in the Honors Seminar Series. Upon successful completion of both courses with grades of B or better you will not only have completed your Honors Seminar Series (HSS) requirement but also receive University General Education I (Interdisciplinary) credit. Although the overall goals are similar for the two course parts, the subject matter and specific tasks of each level are significantly different. In Honors 391D, students participate in a topical seminar-style course designed by the instructor. Every section is open to students of any major. Advanced knowledge of the topic is not necessary.

 

Instructor's Course Description:

This course will consider the history of efforts to "improve" humans through "better breeding" in the United States over the course of the twentieth century. We will follow the rise of eugenic thinking before the Second World War, and its notorious implementation in sterilization and immigration restriction policies. We will then contrast this early period with post-war and contemporary efforts to ensure the "genetic health" of different segments of the U.S. population.

 

Required Texts or Readings:

Diane Paul, Controlling Human Heredity: 1865 to the Present (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1995).

Instructor's Course Requirements:

Assignments and Grading:
50% of your grade for Honors 391D will be determined by: 

  • A research-based and documented paper, or project as defined by the instructor.

25% of your grade will be based on

á    An oral presentation, demonstration or performance of the creative project, or some other artifact as defined by the instructor.

25% of your grade will be determined by your preparedness and participation in course discussions and activities including

  • speaking up in full-group discussions;
  • taking the lead in small-group activities;
  • providing helpful follow-up questions to presenters;
  • eliciting comments from other classmates; and
  • contributing to the learning of your fellow students.

 

 

ATTENDANCE POLICY

Absentee Policy and Extenuating circumstances (illness, death in the family, etc.) for which students must miss a class meeting

While attendance is crucial to participation in the Honors Seminar Series and therefore a significant factor in calculating your final grade in this course, extenuating circumstances may require you to miss a class meeting.  Whether an absence is "excused" or counted in calculating participation grades is largely at the discretion of the instructor.  Any student absent—whether the absence is "excused" or not—should contact the instructor as soon as possible to discuss assignments missed, class discussion, etc. 

         Student athletes, members of the band, and on occasion, students who are members of other groups will be allowed to miss class for games and other special events and make up work will be assigned. 

(See http://www.umass.edu/umhome/events/religious.php for University attendance policies and religious holidays.)

 

EXAM CONFLICTS

University policy on exams scheduled at the same time a student's Honors Seminar class meets

According to Faculty Senate Document 06-042, certain one-day-a-week courses, including Honors 391D, have priority over evening exams on Monday and Tuesday evenings.  Evening exams (7-9 p.m.) have priority over all courses on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings. 

         Exams scheduled for 6 p.m. or earlier do not have priority over Honors 391D.  If you have an exam scheduled during this class, you must be given the chance to make it up by the professor of the other course.  If you miss a class because of an exam that has priority over this class (extremely rare), you will be given the chance to make up any work you have missed. 

 

PLAGIARISM POLICY

Documenting the Writing, Speaking, and Thinking of Others

In all your writing, and in oral presentations too, it is essential that you acknowledge the ideas of others upon whom your own thinking depends, including ideas obtained from such non-written sources as lectures, interviews, class discussions, and even casual conversations with colleagues and friends.  Give credit for ideas that are not your own as well as for passages of text that you summarize, paraphrase, or quote.

         If material possessions are the property of our community at large, thoughts and ideas—expressed in speech or writing—constitute the "intellectual property" of our academic community.  To take another's words or ideas and present them as your own is to commit plagiarism, an act of academic theft, and the punishments can be severe (cf. University of Massachusetts Amherst Academic Regulations, "Academic Honesty").

 

UMass's Academic Honesty Policy

Since the integrity of the academic enterprise of any institution of higher education requires honesty in scholarship and research, academic honesty is required of all students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Academic dishonesty is prohibited in all programs of the University. Academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to: cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, and facilitating dishonesty. Appropriate sanctions may be imposed on any student who has committed an act of academic dishonesty.

 

CLASS MEETINGS & WORK SCHEDULE

Week

Date

Topic

Readings Due/Assignments Due/In-class Activities

   1

1/21

Introduction:

What is Eugenics?

Documents in class

   2

1/28

The Rise of Eugenics

Paul, Chapter 1,2 &3

   3

2/4

Trip to DuBois  Lib.

Meet in Library lobby at 11:15.

   4

2/11

Mental Testing

Paul, Chapter 4

 

   5

2/18

Enacting Eugenics

Paul, Chapter 5, plus documents on SPARK

   6

2/25

Questions of Race

Paul, Chapter 6, Stern Chapter from Eugenic Nation, on SPARK

   7

3/4

Human Genetics

Paul, Chapter 7, Richardson chapter on SPARK

Guest Presentation: Sarah Richardson

   8

3/11

Genomics and Eugenics Today

Reading on SPARK

   9

3/18

No Class

Spring Break

   10

3/25

Presentations

 

   11

4/1

Presentations

 

   12

4/8

No Class

 

   13

4/15

Presentations

 

   14

4/22

Presentations

 

15

4/29

Presentations

 

 

Research Papers Due

 

 

Resources:

-- Eugenics Archive (http://www.eugenicsarchive.org)
This site is an Image Archive on the American Eugenics Movement sponsored by the Dolan DNA Learning Center at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. With contributions from eleven different archives, this site offers hundreds of sources on various aspects of the eugenics movement in the United States during the twentieth century. The site is organized by virtual exhibits ranging from Social Origins to Immigration Restriction. Within each exhibit, explanatory text is presented with thumbnail images of primary source documents. The entire collection is also searchable by keyword or object identification number. The 2,500 objects can also be browsed by topic, type, or time period.


-- State Eugenics Sites
Virginia  (http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/institutions/nc/eugenics.htm

Indiana (http://kobescent.com/eugenics/)

Vermont (http://www.uvm.edu/~eugenics)


-- Institute for the Study of Academic Racism (ISAR) (http://www.ferris.edu/ISAR/homepage.htm)
Created by Dr. Barry Mehler at Ferris State University, the ISAR website contains articles and bibliographies that offer a critical perspective on academic racism, biological determinism, and eugenics. This site offers a number of valuable document collections and profiles of individuals and institutions.

-- H-Eugenics  (http://www.h-net.org/~eugenics/)