Professor Sidney Burris Geshe Thupten Dorjee

Old Main 517 sburris@uark.edu / tdorjee@uark.edu

575-2509

The Literature of Nonviolence ENGL 3903 / PLSC 3903 / HUMN 4253

T-Th: 12:30-1:45 Graduate Education 113

Spring 2017

Welcome to the course. We admire your spirit—you’ve signed up to take a course from a Tibetan Buddhist monk & an American professor of English, and that’s probably not something you figured on doing when you came to Arkansas. We’ll try to make it worth your while.

Course Disclaimer—although the course is cross-listed under the headings Political Science, English, and Humanities, we’re not political scientists, only one of us is an English professor, and both of us are casual humanists, which means only that we care about the fate of humans on our planet during this century and in the centuries to come—which distinguishes us from no one, we realize, that you’d care to spend time around.

Nor does this course offer an impartial analysis of violence or nonviolence. We believe that the latter is an effective and under-utilized response to the former. No less, no more.

We each bring something different to the lectern. As a Buddhist monk and political refugee, Geshe has given his life to the principles of nonviolence, and he’s mastered the Indo-Tibetan philosophical tradition that lies behind nonviolence. As an English professor, I’ve been reading and analyzing texts of all kinds for decades, and I’ve been informally studying Asian spiritual and philosophical traditions since I was a kid, if you call being fourteen a kid.

Our intention is to accomplish three things: 1) Introduce you to the most important voices in the literature devoted to explaining, defending, and promulgating nonviolence; 2) Provide you with the fundamental information you might need should you find these ideas attractive or powerful enough to help you confront aggression, conflict, and violence in your own lives; 3) Help you become a stronger, more well informed citizen of your community, your country, your planet.

The Literature of Nonviolence �2

Professor Sidney Burris | Geshe Thupten Dorjee | Old Main 517 | University of Arkansas | Fayetteville AR

COURSE DESCRIPTION: The philosophy and practice of nonviolence are venerable disciplines that reside in every major religious tradition and stand at the beginning of Indian spirituality in the ancient tradition often known as Hinduism. Yet to this day, nonviolence, or ahimsa in Sanskrit, remains a marginal topic, often ignored in serious discussions of protest and civil disobedience. In this class, we will read a few of the classic texts that make the case for nonviolence, as well as spend a generous portion of our time looking at a few contemporary applications of the philosophy.

COURSE WEBSITE: http://bit.ly/nonviolencelit

TEXTS (available in University Book Store, Garland Street)

• Gandhi, Mahatma—On Nonviolence• Hunt, Lynn—Inventing Human Rights• Nagler, Michael—The Nonviolence Handbook

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Midterm Exam 100Final Exam 10010 Reading Quizzes 80Class Participation 20

Total 300

A: 300-270 | B: 269-240 | C: 239-210 | D: 209-180 | F: 179

“It’s the action, not the fruit of the action, that’s important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there’ll be any fruit. But that doesn’t mean you stop doing the right thing.You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.” — Mahatma Gandhi

Professor Sidney BurrisGeshe Thupten Dorjee

The Literature of Nonviolence

ENGL 3903 | HUMN 4253 | PLSC 3903

Graduate Education 113

Office Hours by AppointmentOld Main 517

575-2509

Email:

sburris@uark.edu | tdorjee@uark.edu

The Literature of Nonviolence �3

Professor Sidney Burris | Geshe Thupten Dorjee | Old Main 517 | University of Arkansas | Fayetteville AR

TWITTER STUFF

If you don’t have a Twitter account, you should get one. You can sign up for Twitter at http://twitter.com. The service is free.

While I don’t expect you to become obsessive Twitterers, I often post questions or observations as I read for discussion in the next class. But even more than that, social media has become one of the major players in all socio-political movements, and the attempt to raise awareness about nonviolence has found a welcome home on Twitter.

For this class, I will be tweeting from https://twitter.com/arklit, or @arklit, the account I use for my literature classes. Although I typically refrain from extended Twitter debates—140 characters isn’t really enough to debate anything—I am continually posting links to articles and opinions that you will find helpful in learning how nonviolence lives and breathes in our daily lives . . . and beyond.

And who knows? You might join the conversation as well. After all, the front lines of the struggle for peace and nonviolence are precisely where you are standing.

ATTENDANCE POLICY: We will allow each student two unexcused absences. Each unexcused absence thereafter lowers the student’s final grade by 5 points.

READING SCHEDULE

1.17—Introduction1.19—Suffering

1.24—Inventing Human Rights, pp. 15-691.26—Origin of Suffering

1.31—Inventing Human Rights, pp. 70-1452.2—Cessation of Suffering

2.7—Inventing Human Rights, pp. 146-2142.9—Treatment of Suffering

2.14—The Declaration of Independence & The UN Declaration of Human Rights (Appendix, Inventing)2.16—Generosity

2.21—The Declaration of Independence & The UN Declaration of Human Rights (Appendix, Inventing)2.23—Morality

2.28—MID-TERM EXAMINATION3.2—Patience

3.7—The Fourteen Precepts (see website)3.9—NO CLASS

3.14—Letter from a Birmingham Jail (see website)3.16—Energy

3.21—SPRING BREAK3.23—SPRING BREAK

3.28—Gandhi on Nonviolence, pp. xi-313.30—Meditation

4.4—Gandhi on Nonviolence, Sections 1-34.6—Wisdom

4.11—Gandhi on Nonviolence, Sections 4-54.13—Speech

The Literature of Nonviolence �4

GENERAL INFORMATION ON THE CLASS ASSIGNMENTS

Exams—The exams will be in-class, discussion/short answer format. THEY MUST BE ANSWERED IN A BLUEBOOK, WHICH YOU MUST BRING TO CLASS. The format of the exam is simple. I will organize the Tuesday readings around several key terms, concepts,or ideas that I will give you for each class’s reading. During class, I will apply those terms to the readings. On Thursdays, Geshe will discuss the specific aspects of the Tibetan philosophical tradition that most relate to the material that I presented on Tuesday. The exam will then select several (5 or so) of those concepts and ideas and ask you to apply them to one of the readings or events that we discussed in class.

Reading Quizzes—I will give you 10 reading quizzes on Thursdays worth 10 points each (5 questions, 2 points per question), and I will drop your 2 lowest scores. They will cover the readings that I discussed on the previous Tuesday. The quizzes will be given within the first five minutes of class, so make sure and arrive to class on time. I do not give make-up quizzes unless you have a doctor’s excuse or an excuse from a University department or program.

Class Participation—The class participation grade is based on various considerations. One of the easiest ways to get full credit for this is to tweet your responses to what we’re reading on a regular basis, or ask questions, or add relevant information to the class’s materials in your tweets. If you tweet under a pseudonym, make certain to let me know who you are so that I can give you credit for participating. Talking in class, asking question, engaging the material in any way while in class—these are the traditional ways for doing this, and all are acceptable.

Professor Sidney Burris | Geshe Thupten Dorjee | Old Main 517 | University of Arkansas | Fayetteville AR

4.18—“This Nonviolence Stuff Ain’t No Good” (see website)

4.20—Action/Causation

4.25—The Nonviolence Handbook, Sections 1-34.27—Livelihood

5.2—The Nonviolence Handbook, Sections 4-65.4—FINAL EXAMINATION

5.5—DEAD DAY“It must be emphasized that nonviolent resistance is not a method for cowards; it does resist. If one uses this method because he is afraid or merely because he lacks the instruments of violence, he is not truly nonviolent.”—Martin Luther King Jr,, from Stride Toward Freedom, p. 90.

The Literature of Nonviolence �5

Professor Sidney Burris | Geshe Thupten Dorjee | Old Main 517 | University of Arkansas | Fayetteville AR

THE MANDATORY FINE PRINT

Also, please note these important university policies regarding the general administration of this class. By enrolling in this class, you agree to abide by these policies.

Disabilities: The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination statute that provides comprehensive civil rights protection for persons with disabilities. Among other things, this legislation requires that all students with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that provides for reasonable accommodation of their disabilities. Moreover, the University of Arkansas Academic Policy Series 1520.10 requires that students with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations to ensure their equal access to course content. If you have a documented disability and require accommodations, please contact me privately at the beginning of the semester to make arrangements for necessary classroom adjustments. Please note, you must first verify your eligibility for these through the Center for Educational Access (contact 479–575–3104 or visit http://cea.uark.edu for more information on registration procedures).

Discrimination and Sexual Harassment: Anyone experiencing discrimination and/or sexual harassment while at the university may report it to a complaint officer appointed by the Chancellor. The complaint officer will discuss any situation or event that the complainant considers discriminatory or constitutive of sexual harassment. Reports may be made by the person experiencing the harassment or by a third party, such as a witness to the harassment or someone who is told of the harassment. For more information and to report allegations of discrimination and/or sexual harassment, contact the Office of Equal Opportunity and Compliance, 346 N. West Avenue (West Avenue Annex), 479-575-4019 (voice) or 479-575-3646 (tdd).3

Academic Integrity: As a core part of its mission, the University of Arkansas provides students with the opportunity to further their educational goals through programs of study and research in an environment that promotes freedom of inquiry and academic responsibility. Accomplishing this mission is possible only when intellectual honesty and individual integrity prevail. Each University of Arkansas student is required to be familiar with, and abide by, the University’s ‘Academic Integrity Policy,’ which may be found at http://provost.uark.edu/academicintegrity/245.php

Students with questions about how these policies apply to a particular course or assignment should immediately contact their instructor.

— from the Office of the Provost and Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs

Attendance: Student absences resulting from illness, family crisis, University-sponsored activities involving scholarship or leadership/participation responsibilities, jury duty or subpoena for court appearance, military duty, and religious observances are excusable according to university rules. The instructor has the right to require that the student provide appropriate documentation for any absence for which the student wishes to be excused. Moreover, during the first week of the semester, students must give to the instructor a list of the religious observances that will affect their attendance.