Terrorism

Courses included

JUS 294: Mass Media, Propaganda and Social Control
POS 294: Terrorism and US Foreign Policy
REL 294: A Theology of Terror

Instructors

David Altheide , School of Justice Studies Office: Wilson Hall, 347
Tel: 965-7016
Email: David.Altheide@asu.edu
Miriam F. Elman, Department of Political Science
Office: Coor, 6732
Tel: 727-6290
Email: miriam.elman@asu.edu
Mark Woodward , Department of Religious Studies
Office:
Tel: 965-2530
Email: Mark.Woodward@asu.edu

Graduate Teaching Assistant

Christopher Schneider (Christopher.Schneider@asu.edu )

Undergraduate Peer Mentors

Alex Ginsburg (Alexander.Ginsburg@asu.edu )
Jessica Davis (Jessica.L.Davis@asu.edu )

LC Librarian

Ed Oetting (edding@asu.edu)

Description of the Learning Community

At ASU and many other large public universities, students interested in terrorism and violence can study it by taking separate courses. Unfortunately, this a la carte method requires students to organize and synthesize a great deal of information on their own, and without the benefit of any faculty input. By contrast, this Learning Community is designed to provide students with an intellectually-integrated course cluster that will increase students' understanding of the three disciplines in general, and the causes and consequences of terrorism in particular.

Informed by history, context and culture, and resources and technology, the Learning Community is premised on the idea that the study of terrorism requires an interdisciplinary focus. The Learning Community will compare the insights that the disciplines of Political Science, Justice Studies, and Religious Studies bring to bear on the study of conflict and violence in general, and on the origins, regulation, and prevention of terrorism as one possible form of resistance, in particular. The LC will explore the benefits and limitations of looking at terrorism from particular disciplinary lenses. Specifically, we will consider how modes of social order, continuity, and change are informed by resistance and protest, at a minimum, and armed insurrection and violence, in more extreme situations.

Students will investigate how terrorism is a manifestation of more basic processes, and how it can be considered one of several outcomes of a series of social, economic, political, and historical developments. In sum, the goals of the LC will be to provide students with a better understanding of (a) terrorism as a form of resistance; (b) the connectedness of the disciplines engaged in this field of study; and (c) the core tenets and strategies of inquiry associated with the disciplines contained in the cluster. Topics to be covered include: the relationship between resistance, patriotism, nationalism, and terrorism; the morality and justice of terrorism; the media's construction of a discourse on terrorism, including the role of propaganda and its consequences; the historical development of terrorist organizations; and the linkages between regime type (e.g., democracy and non-democracy) and the origins, and prevention of, terrorism. For each topic, a variety of historical and contemporary examples of social resistance and 'terrorist' activity will be examined.

Much like the student experience at a small liberal arts college, the Learning Community is designed to maximize faculty and student exchange. We will offer a number of co-curricular activities that will enhance the learning experience. For example, while there will be weekly lectures by the participating faculty, our course-cluster will also offer a guest speaker series. This series will enable students to meet, and learn from, other ASU faculty with expertise in terrorism studies, as well as from other invited experts. Informal meetings including evening "dinner and a movie" in the residence hall, and optional lunches with faculty.

The Learning Community will also stress student participation over the "sage on a stage" method of teaching. Students will take part in a weekly integrated seminar with all three faculty members, the TA, and peer mentors. In order to ensure that students will do well in the Learning Community and beyond it, we will also offer a series of training sessions, including workshops on writing, library research skills, time management, and information literacy online and off-line. Assignments will include essay writing; internet postings on Blackboard; an independent research project; class presentations; and in-class group activities. In short, this Learning Community will introduce students to (a) the many learning opportunities that ASU has to offer; and (b) a variety of skills and competencies that are essential for successfully completing upper division coursework and the ASU undergraduate degree.

Note: it is important to remember that this is a 9 credit course. Students will receive 3 credits and three separate grades for each of the courses in the cluster.

The Role of the Teaching Assistant and Peer Mentors

The Learning Community integrates graduate and undergraduate students as role models for academic excellence. Our TA is an advanced graduate student with broad expertise in the learning areas of the LC. The undergraduate peer mentors are students who have excelled in a previous Learning Community, have successfully completed several of the LC courses, and are majoring in the disciplines of political science, religious studies, and/or justice and social inquiry.

The Teaching Assistant serves as an intermediary between the students and faculty. Questions regarding the course assignments, readings, and material covered during class may be directed to the TA. The TA will be responsible for maintaining attendance rosters. In addition, the TA will oversee our Blackboard site.

As interns with the Learning Resource Center, the peer mentors will help students develop a variety of academic skills, such as note and test taking skills; in-class presentation skills; and writing and study skills. Our peer mentors will provide advice for organizing study groups, and will offer review sessions of the material and assignments throughout the semester. In addition, the peer mentors will facilitate out of class social gatherings that will provide opportunities for students to discuss the course material in a less formal setting.

Texts

The following books have been selected for the Learning Community and can be purchased at the ASU bookstore. In addition, POS 294 and REL 294 requires that students purchase a coursepack of readings.

JUS 294

David L. Altheide, Creating Fear: News and the Construction of Crisis ( Hawthorne , NY : Aldine de Gruyter, 2002)
Yahya R. Kamalipour and Nancy Snow, eds., War, Media, and Propaganda: a Global Perspective ( Lanham , Md. : Rowman and Littlefield, 2004)

POS 294

Paul R. Pillar, Terrorism and U.S. Foreign Policy ( Washington , D.C. : Brookings Institution Press, 2001)
Jonathan Tucker, ed., Toxic Terror: Assessing Terrorist Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons , 4 th ed. ( Cambridge : The MIT Press, 2001)
Coursepack of readings

REL 294

Mark Woodward , ed., Theology of Terror ( Upper Saddle River , N.J. : Pearson, 2005)
Mark Juergensmayer, Terror in the Mind of God: the Global Rise of Religious Violence ( Berkeley : University of California Press, 2003)
Coursepack of readings

Readings to be covered each week are listed separately on the individual course syllabi. Students are expected to keep up with the reading for all three courses in the Learning Community, and to come to each class prepared to discuss the linkages, differences, and similarities across the readings for POS 294, REL 294, and JUS 294.

Assignments

The following three assignments are graded jointly by the Learning Community faculty. The grade received for these assignments will be factored into the overall grade for each course. For details on the weight that each assignment receives in the final course grades, please refer to the individual course syllabi:

(1) Midterm Exam
- 2 take home essays at approximately 5 pages each)
- Due date: October 10
(2) Research paper (12-15 pages)
- Due date: various due dates throughout the semester; final paper due on November 21
(3) Blackboard Discussion portfolio
- Students select 5 or 6 posts to submit; 1 page each
- Due date: November 28

The following four assignments are designed and graded separately. For details regarding each of the assignments, students should refer to the individual course syllabi:

(1) In-class group activities-JUS 294
- 5 or 6 essays of approx. 150-200 words each
- Due date: throughout the semester
(2) Co-leader class participation-POS 294
- 1 page class discussion questions
- Due date: once during the semester
(3) Final exam-JUS 294
- 1 take home essay of approx. 5-7 pages
- Due date: December 5
(4) Final exam-REL 294
- 1 take home essay of approx. 5-7 pages
- Due date: December 12

Assignments: Overview of Jointly Graded Assignments

MIDTERM EXAM

Students will be required to write two 5 page essays based on the lectures, readings and class discussions, integrative seminars, brown bag seminars and films from Weeks 1-8. Students will receive a handout of the essay questions early in the semester, which will draw on the material from each of the 3 courses in the Learning Community. The Learning Community faculty will select a few questions off of this handout; students should therefore be prepared to answer any of the questions listed.

Although students must write their essays on their own, students are encouraged to create study groups on order to discuss and debate the essay questions. Tips on how to get the most out of a study group will be offered by the peer mentors.

In the essays, avoid lengthy summaries of the readings and/or arguments that cannot be supported by relevant facts discussed in the class and/or bolstered by existing scholarship in the class readings. Students will not be required to draw on material outside of the Learning Community's required course readings. However, appropriate citation and footnoting is expected.

Students will receive timely and detailed written comments so that they can do better on the final research project.

RESEARCH PAPER

Early in the semester, students should select a historical or contemporary "terrorist" group/organization, and analyze it in terms of:

its rationale and logic for the activity (i.e., the view of the "enemy" and "justification");
efforts to control and combat it;
how it changed and/or altered its mission over time;
your recommendations for understanding and/or combating this group/organization.

The research paper should be approximately 12-15 pages in length (typed; single sided, double-spaced; 12 point font; reasonable margins).

The papers should incorporate the concepts and themes addressed in the Learning Community; make us of a variety of data and sources, including primary and secondary sources; and reflect critical thinking. Students should refer to readings from the Learning Community syllabi, but must also draw on other materials.

In addition to proper citation and footnoting, at the end of the paper students must provide copies of the cover pages of the books and journal articles that were used, as well as cites to TV and/or radio and newspaper coverage. Although internet sources will be helpful for these projects, students should not rely solely on web-based sources. A wide variety of scholarly sources are required, and students should double check with the professor, TA, undergraduate mentors, and Edward Oetting if they are unsure about the validity of a particular source. The following due dates apply:

Week of September 26 th : Outline of research project and annotated bibliography (2-3 pages only). The outline should specify the research question or problem; list sub-questions that will facilitate research of the topic; and provide a "road map" of the paper. The bibliography should include a preliminary list of sources and evaluate the usefulness of each entry for the research questions. Feedback on the outlines and bibliographies will be offered by the Learning Community faculty.
Week of October 17 th : Meet with the Learning Community professors during their office hours to discuss research progress.
Week of November 7 th : Turn in rough draft. The draft will not be graded. Comments on the draft will be provided by the professor in order to "beat" the paper into shape for final submission.
November 21 st : Turn in research paper.

BLACKBOARD PORTFOLIO

The Learning Community will use Blackboard, a web-based course interface that enables students and faculty to communicate with each other online. Announcements, changes in place and time of meetings; updates to syllabi; assignment information; and scanned copies of handouts distributed in class will be posted on the Blackboard site, and students should therefore check the site frequently.

The Learning Community will use Blackboard's Discussion Board to facilitate an exchange of ideas and materials outside of class. On a regular basis, the faculty will post a news item, question, etc. and will encourage students to provide feedback on these postings. Although faculty, the TA, and the peer mentor will post occasional guiding comments, students will be responsible for developing the online conversation.

Students will be required to submit a portfolio of 5 or 6 one page replies to postings placed on the discussion board. Students should choose what they deem to be their best 6 posts of the semester for submission. The portfolio will be evaluated for its contribution to the Blackboard discussion, as well as the extent to which students demonstrate the ability to draw on the course material in writing an insightful online commentary. Further instructions on how to participate effectively on Blackboard will be offered by the faculty, TA, and peer mentor as the semester progresses.

Attendance:

Students should refer to the individual syllabi for the attendance policy for each course.

In addition, the following attendance requirements apply:

Mandatory attendance:
- integrative seminar
- in-class sessions with peer mentors and TAs
- brown-bag presentations

With exceptions for documented illness and other emergencies, students may miss no more than 2 of these events without it affecting their participation grades for each course.

Optional attendance:
- faculty lunches
- 'dinner and a movie' in the residence hall

Students have the option of declining to participate. Failure to participate in faculty lunches will in no way affect the final grades for any of the courses. However, since films have been selected to facilitate comprehension of the class material, students are strongly encouraged to attend these events.

Please note that class disruptions and/or personal attacks will not be tolerated. Students who disrupt the class, or fail to display appropriate "classroom etiquette" will be asked to leave. In appropriate behavior includes talking during lectures; kibitzing and/or passing notes during class; reading the newspaper or other material not related to the course; dozing; responding to cell phones and pagers. While some of the Learning Community events encourage a less formal atmosphere, appropriate conduct is expected during all Learning Community activities. Students must respect the professors, teaching assistant, peer mentor, invited guests, and each other at all times.

Cheating

Cheating on any assignment will result in an automatic failing grade for that assignment and possibly an E for the course and/or a withdrawal from the Learning Community. Students may also be sanctioned for academic dishonesty in accordance with CLAS procedures. Cheating includes copying any part of a classmate's work and plagiarism-inadequately citing material (note: this include both online and offline material).

Incompletes and Make-up Exams:

An incomplete will only be given in exceptional circumstances (illness or other circumstances beyond the student's control). Students will only be given an incomplete if they have been doing passing worked during the semester. Make up exams will be given only in exceptional circumstances and only when the student can provide documentation of an illness or some other cause for failing to turn in the exam at the scheduled time.

Scedule

Weekly Schedule

The Learning Community meets on a Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule.

Monday
- 10:40-12:30 POS 294-Elman (BAC 209)
- 1:40-3:30 REL 294-Woodward (SS 304)
Wednesday
- 10:40-12:30 JUS 294-Altheide (BA L1-31)
- 1:40-3:30 Presentations/guest lecture series
- 6:00 "Dinner and a Movie" (movies shown in Palo Verde West; for dates see below)
Friday
- 12:00-1:00 Lunch with Faculty
OR
- 11:40-1:30 Presentations/guest lecture series
- 1:40-3:30 Integrative seminar (EDB 212)
- 3:40-4:30 Conversation with TA and Peer Mentors (EDB 212)

Weekly Schedule for Co-Curricular Activities

(Wednesdays: 1:40-3:30 ; Fridays: 11:40-1:30 )

ALL EVENTS WILL BE HELD IN CPCOM 225 UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

Week 1
- August 24: ASU Learning Resource Center: "Orientation to the LRC"
- August 26: Lisa Cahill, ASU Learning Resource Center: "Orientation to Blackboard"
Week 2
- August 31: Ed Oetting, LC Librarian: "Overview of the ASU Library System"
- "Dinner and a Movie" at 6:00pm ( Title TBA)
- September 2: ASU Learning Resource Center: "Time Management Skills"
Week 3
- September 7: Ed Oetting, LC Librarian: "The Study of Terrorism: an Introduction to Library Resources"
- September 9: Lunch with Faculty (optional)-Manzanita
Week 4
- September 14: Film: Flames of Revolt: the Irgun
- September 16: Review session with TA and Peer Mentors
Week 5
- September 21: Ed Oetting, LC Librarian: "Using the Internet Wisely: Evaluating Sources and Weeding Out the Junk"
- September 23: Sandra Nagy , ASU Writing Center: "Writing the Perfect Take Home Essay"
Week 6
- September 28: H.L. (Bud) Goodall, Jr., Director and Professor, The Hugh Downs School of Human Communication: "The Role of Communication in Terrorism"
- "Dinner and a Movie" at 6:00pm ( Title TBA)
- September 30 Film: Propaganda and the Gulf War
Week 7
- October 5 Film: The Weather Underground
- October 7: Annamarie Oliverio, Instructor, School of Justice and Social Inquiry: "The State of Terror"
Week 8
- October 12: Ed Oetting, LC Librarian "Research Strategies: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Library Research"
- October 14: Review session with TA and Peer Mentors
Week 9
- October 19: Eleanor Eisenberg, former Director, Arizona chapter of the ACLU, "Terrorism and Civil Rights: Local Implications"
- October 21: Film: Documentary (Title TBA)
Week 10
- October 26: "Dinner and Movie" at 6:00pm ( Title TBA)
- October 28: Lunch with faculty (optional)-Manzanita
Week 11
- November 2: William McGlynn, ASU Diplomat in Residence: "State Sponsorship of Terrorism and US Counter-terrorism Strategies"
- November 4: Review session with TA and Peer Mentors
Week 12
- November 9: Film: The Battle of Algiers
- November 11: no classes
Week 13
- November 16: Kathleen Sullivan, former Dean of Stanford University Law School: "Civil Liberties in a Time of National Crisis"
- November 18: Lunch with faculty (optional)-Manzanita
Week 14
- November 23
- November 25-no classes
Week 15
- November 30: Sheldon Simon , Professor of Political Science, " U.S. Counterterrorism: Strategies and Prospects"
- December 2: Review session with TA and Peer Mentors
End of Semester party
This syllabus details the rationale and key features of the Learning Community, and includes an overview of the requirements, assignments, and grading. For weekly readings and additional information on the assignments, students should refer to the individual syllabi for each course.

Students should refer to the individual course syllabi for further instruction on how to complete the separately graded assignments.