Motivation to Teach Social Action:
I have found that students at my institution are hungry for opportunities to contribute to our local and state communities in ways that make a real difference. I've been brainstorming ways I can independently help them with that goal via my course content and assignments, but finding resources on my own has been a somewhat overwhelming task. I believe that this program would be a massive help for me to design a course that will meet my and my students' goals effectively.
Course Description:
Our lives are shaped by social structures, both chosen and unchosen. What are our obligations as individuals within a society -- both to ourselves and to others? And what does meeting those obligations look like in practice? If we don't know how to meet them, how can we start? This course will introduce students to foundational texts in political philosophy, with an emphasis on the relationship between the individual and society. In so doing, we will explore questions of freedom, human rights, individual versus systemic impacts, and social responsibility. This course will identify a variety of historic and contemporary social problems in the state of Alabama that are related to these questions. However, students will move beyond the mere theoretical into the practical by designing and completing a social action project related to one or more of these problems.
Taught By:
Kayla Bohannon
Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Politics, Justice, Law, and Philosophy
University of North Alabama
Read profile here.