Education

The Daily Caller Presents: Public Universities’ Most Liberal And Moronic Courses

Charles Thompson Contributor
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Public universities across America are dumping taxpayer cash into offering shockingly leftist coursework. That’s not news. Here, though, The Daily Caller identifies the public universities (and the classes on offer) which are most ridiculously squandering the public’s money to indoctrinate the next generation of liberal chumps.

This definitive list provides the course descriptions verbatim from college catalogues. Enjoy!

University of Vermont, Sociology Department: Sociology of Freakishness

This course considers how American popular culture was born of the display of racial, cultural, sexual and bodily “freaks.” Prerequisite: Three hours of Sociology. (RELATED: The Daily Caller Presents: The Ivy League’s 13 Most Daffy, Outrageously Liberal Courses)

University of California Los Angeles, Gender Studies: Sex Work

Examination of how race, class, and gender alter experience and perception of erotic labor, and consideration of critically feminist responses by range of authors to sex work. Topics include brothels, phone sex, strip clubs, sex tourism, military prostitution, and international traffic in persons. Reading of texts by sex workers, as well as articles from current philosophical and policy debates about prostitution. P/NP or letter grading.

The College of New Jersey, Women’s and Gender Studies: EcoFeminism

Building on the core precept that the domination of women and the domination of nature are fundamentally connected, ecofeminism offers a distinctive, interdisciplinary lens on the world, drawing on not only feminism and ecology, but also historical analysis, philosophy of science, cultural study, the arts, community development, spirituality, and a commitment to challenging oppression in all its forms. Through readings in the various disciplinary threads that inform ecofeminism, we will explore ways in which systemic social inequalities shape human relationships to the natural environments; challenge common abuses of the environment and offer alternatives; and study current movements globally.

University of South Carolina, Anthropology Department: African American English

Linguistic examination of the structure, history, and use of African-American English, as well as literary presentations, language attitudes, and issues relating to education and the acquisition of Standard English.

University of South Carolina, Women’s and Gender Studies: Sociology of Sex Roles

Theories, methods, and substantive issues in a sociological approach to sex roles. Topics usually include sex role expectations and socialization in contemporary societies, sub cultural and social class variations, and structural and institutional factors.

University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Philosophy Department: Justice in Health Care

The course will focus on the question of how scarce health care resources ought to be distributed in order to meet the demands of justice.

University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Philosophy Department: Justice and Inequality

Growing economic inequality has been identified as a pressing public policy problem in a number of countries. In this course, we explore the justice of economic inequality. Is economic inequality ever morally permissible? If so, for what reasons?

University of Maryland College Park, Economics Department: Inequality: Determinants and Policy Remedies

Through most of the 20th century gaps in income between rich and poor declined in the US, but after 1970 we experienced a very rapid increase in inequality. This course challenges students to investigate why people make different amounts of money, why income inequality has risen so dramatically in recent years, what public policy tools exist to counter inequality increases, and what different institutional arrangements different countries use to lower inequality. This course will introduce students to theoretical tools used by economists to understand the sources of inequality and will also examine empirical evidence to better understand changes in the wage distribution and, more generally, in income distribution.

University of Vermont, Environmental Studies: Radical Environmentalism

Survey of radical environmental philosophy and activism from a liberation ethics perspective. Includes deep ecology, ecofeminism, environmental justice, and ecological resistance movements around the world. Prerequisite: Prerequisite: ENVS

University of Maine, Economics Department: Marxian Economics

A dynamic macro-analytical critique of the functioning of a capitalist society. Covers theoretical comparisons with orthodox economic theory and an introduction to American radicals (neo-Marxian) and their thought.

University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, Women’s and Gender Studies: Interrogating Masculinities

Explores the social construction of gender as it pertains to masculinities in conjunction with analyses of race, class, gender, ability, and sexuality. Masculinities, in its various forms, shapes and lives of both women and men and this course will examine the construction, reproduction, and impact of masculinities on the institutions of politics, education, work, religion, sports, family, media, and the military to name a few. Paying careful attention to the conjunctions between materiality and culture, this course will interrogate how masculinities shape individual lives, groups, nationalisms, organizations, and institutions and will analyze the ways in which power functions within local transnational contexts. Above all, this course offers a road map for forging new, progressive models of masculinity.

University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, Women’s and Gender Studies: Locating Queer Culture

Our goal is to learn different methods for researching “queer culture,” with a special focus on the local context. Explores two research methods in depth: history and ethnography. Students will produce their own original research based on genuine gaps in existing knowledge. Provides an opportunity to learn both received knowledge about queer culture, as well as that which we do not yet know. By the end of this course, the class will collectively produce new knowledge about queer culture using local stories.

University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, Women’s and Gender Studies: Hip Hop Feminism

Explores how hip hop has shaped the culture, aesthetics, experiences, and perspectives of an emergent generation of artists, scholars, and writers with several aims: 1) To challenge systemic social inequalities. 2) To articulate new visions of justice that depend on the power young people possess. To better understand how and why the relationship between hip hop and feminism is coherent, meaningful, and compelling, students will become familiar with artists working within and beyond various elements of hip hop (rap, graffiti, emceeing, dee-jaying, etc.), social critics concerned with documenting hip hop’s cultural practices, and critical educator (broadly defined).

Pennsylvania State University, Philosophy Department: Understanding the Obamas

Barack Hussein Obama’s ascension to the U.S. presidency struck many people as evidence that an old era had ended and a new one was dawning. Many accounts of this historic shift quickly emerged, with Mr. Obama heralded as the prophet of everything from post-partisan politics to a post-imperial and, most famously, post-racial America. These conceptions of the Obama presidency as somehow bringing a phase of history to a close raise the questions that organize this course. Does the election of a black president mean that the US has become post-racial? Does the peculiar resistance to Michelle Obama undermine the claims of post-racialism? Does the election of this black president – a man who is in some ways as white or Asian as black, and who has no civil rights ‘struggle credentials’ – mean that the US politics and culture have entered a post-black or post-civil rights moment? Have the multiple global crises on Mr. Obama’s plate made him our first post-imperial president?

Pennsylvania State University, Women’s and Gender Studies: Black & White Sexuality

This course explains how narrow ways of thinking limit our understanding of the diverse expressions of human sexuality.

Appalachian State University, Philosophy Department: Environmental Ethics

This course is an introduction to ethical dimensions of environmental issues. Students will have the opportunity to study theoretical perspectives such as deep ecology, ecofeminism, Native American views of the land, and social ecology. The course will also consider environmental ethical issues such as the moral status of nature, pesticide use, environmental racism, the treatment of animals, deforestation, world population growth, and what it means to live an ecologically responsible life.

Appalachian State University, Sociology Department: Constructing Bodies and Sexualities

This course examines the social construction of bodies and the way in which those constructions inform our conceptions of sexuality and procreation. In addition, the course examines how research on sexuality and sexual orientation is conducted and the unique ethical concerns and methodological challenges in researching sexuality. Social policies relevant to bodies and sexualities are also covered.

The Evergreen State College, Political Science Department: Alternatives to Capitalist Globalization

It is easier to criticize contemporary capitalism for its failures than to develop feasible alternatives and a strategy to get there. We will explore and critically analyze diverse social movements and visions that seek to create more just global and national societies. International institutions such as the WTO, IMF and World Bank promote “free market” and “free trade” capitalist globalization which open up countries to multinational corporations and impose Western development models. In the past few decades, many alternative visions have developed within the global justice movement and have been renewed through more recent “occupy” and anti-austerity movements in Europe (Greece and Spain), the United States and the Global South. They draw upon historical precedents and alternatives to capitalism, from anti-colonial and socialist movements to the new left, situationist and anarchist movements after 1968.

We will analyze existing capitalist globalization and current U.S. capitalism and then look at how diverse social movements and thinkers have formulated alternative visions for creating just, liberatory, democratic and sustainable societies. We will explore different and sometimes clashing alternatives to national and global capitalism that have developed around the world. These will include those influenced by socialist, Marxist, anarchist, anti-authoritarian, ecological, feminist and perspectives emanating from the Global South. We will research and evaluate case studies of existing and possible alternatives from Cuba, Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, and those derived from cooperatives, intentional communities, participatory socialism and eco-feminist alternatives in the U.S. and elsewhere. We will analyze alternatives to NAFTA and other “free trade” agreements such as ALBA, and global visions of equity and justice, including climate justice. We will also look at strategies, ideologies and visions of alternative societies in the “occupy” and other current movements.

Charles Thompson