hcol196syllabus07

HCOL196: The Problem of Experience

Kevin Trainor	Office: 481 Main Street, Rm. 203
Spring 2007	Phone: 656-0799
Tu Th 11:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m.	E-mail: kevin.trainor@uvm.edu
University Heights North, Room 16	Office hours: M 1-2 p.m.; W 12-1 p.m.

Course Description:

This seminar will examine the role of experience in human knowledge, with special attention to issues raised by religious experience. We will investigate experience from several angles, drawing upon accounts of extraordinary states of human consciousness (sometimes called "mystical" states), reflections on the challenges of intercultural understanding, and readings on the process of knowledge construction in the humanities and in the natural and social sciences.

The topic of religious experience is of particular interest because it highlights the tension between subjectivity and objectivity in human knowledge. Many accounts of religious experience grant a privileged status to the personal and subjective. Scholarly knowledge, in contrast, is commonly marked by its "public" character, whether this is defined by the rigorous standards of empirical testing or by the broader criteria of publication and adherence to standards of rationality. We will explore this tension through a variety of texts, including a modern novel, a highly influential classic Hindu text, scholarly essays drawn from several academic disciplines, and through conversations with visiting faculty who will discuss their research. Along the way we will consider questions such as:
•    Is my personal experience a reliable basis for knowing the world?
•    How does my gender shape the way I know myself and the world around me?
•    What role does emotion play in gaining valid knowledge of the world?
•    In what ways are my "personal" experience socially defined?
•    Do empirical observation and rational analysis provide objective and universally applicable knowledge of the world?
•    Does the fact that people grow up in different cultures mean that their experience of the world is fundamentally different, and, if so, is universal knowledge possible?

It is expected that thoughtful reflection on these sorts of questions will inform your own research activity as you write your major paper for the seminar.

Course Requirements:

This course is organized in a seminar format, which means that your consistent attendance, careful reading of the course materials, and thoughtful contributions to the class discussions are essential elements in the success of the course. I know that not everyone is equally comfortable speaking in class, but please make the effort, even if you initially find it difficult. I expect seminar participants to attend every class, having read the assignments carefully and reflected upon them. To facilitate discussion, you should bring the readings for each day's class with you. Written requirements include the following:

Five 2-page response papers, including four papers on questions that relate to the course readings (the readings are marked below with an asterisk); these should be stapled and double-spaced with one-inch margins to allow for my comments; they should also be proofread for spelling, grammar, and typographical errors; these must be submitted in hard copy at the beginning of class on the following due dates, unless you are ill or have a family emergency: 1/25; 2/8; 2/27; 3/20; 4/12; 4/24; in addition, you must attend one outside musical event (such as a Lane Series concert or the Abhyankar North Indian vocal concert) and write a 2-page reflection discussing your experience of the event as it relates to one of our course readings (e.g., the Titon reading for 4/12); this paper is due at the beginning of the class within one week of the event that you attend.
A substantial research paper on a topic of your choice, 12-15 pages in length; this will be the culmination of a process that begins early in the semester and that includes a topic statement, a 10-12-page annotated bibliography, a 1-2-page research proposal, a complete first draft, and a revised final version of your research paper; see below for more details.

All written requirements must be submitted in a timely fashion in order to pass the course. See the statement below concerning academic honesty. In addition, each seminar participant will also lead class discussion once during the semester, and will give a ten- to twelve-minute presentation on their research project during one of our classes from 3/29-4/5. The various assignments count toward your final grade as follows: class participation, including research presentation and leading class discussion--30%; written responses to readings--30%; research paper, including the annotated bibliography and the preliminary and final drafts--40%.

Religious Holidays: Students have the right to practice the religion of their choice. Each semester students should submit in writing to their instructors by the end of the second full week of classes their documented religious holiday schedule for the semester. Faculty must permit students who miss work for the purpose of religious observance to make up this work.

Course Assignments:

1/16:	Course introduction.
1/18:	One statement of the "problem" of experience: Robert Sharf, "Experience" in Critical Terms for Religious Studies, ed. by Mark Taylor (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998): 94-116.
	Science and Religion: A Novel Perspective
1/23:	Mark Salzman, Lying Awake: 3-92.
1/25:	Salzman: 95-181.*
	Gender and Knowing
1/30:	Alison M. Jaggar, "Love and Knowledge: Emotion in Feminist Epistemology," Gender/Body/Knowledge, ed. Alison Jaggar and Susan Bordo (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1989): 145-171.
2/1:	Visiting scholar: Anne Clark, UVM Religion Dept.;
	Cultural Knowledge: Reflections on Objectivity and Relativism
2/6:	Richard Shweder, Thinking through Cultures (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991): 1-23; research topic statement due in class.
2/8:	Shweder: 241-265.*
2/13:	Visiting scholar: Jennifer Dickinson, UVM Anthropology Dept.
	Knowledge and Experience in a Hindu Religious Text
2/15:	Kim Knott, ch. 3, "from Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), V. V. Raman, "Introduction to Hinduism."
2/20:	David Gitomer, "An Informal Introduction to My Translation of the Bhagavad Gita" and Bhagavad Gita, chs. 1-3 (Gitomer trans. pt. 1-- chs. 1.1-5.4; pt. 2-- chs. 5.5-11.29; pt. 3-- chs. 11.30-15.20; pt. 4-- chs. 16.1-18.78).
2/22:	Bhagavad Gita : chs. 4-8.
2/27:	Bhagavad Gita : chs. 9-12, 18.*
3/1:	V. V. Raman, "Physics, Metaphysics, and God" and his interview with Krista Tippett.
3/6:	Town Meeting: no class.
	Experimental Knowing
3/8:	Carl Sagan, The Demon-haunted World: 3-39; 63-77; annotated bibliography due in class.
3/13, 15	Spring Recess: no class.
3/20:	Sagan: 115-149; 203-218; 247-263; 295-317.*
3/22:	Theodore L. Brown, Making Truth: Metaphor in Science (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2003), chs. 1, 10.
3/27:	Visiting scholar: Joel Goldberg, UVM Chemistry Dept.; research proposal due in class.
3/29:	Oral research reports.
4/3:	Oral research reports.
4/5:	Oral research reports.
	Knowledge and Musical Experience
4/10:	Daniel Levitin, This Is Your Brain on Music, chapters 3 and 4 (New York: Dutton, 2006).
4/12:	Jeff Todd Titon, "Knowing Fieldwork," Shadows in the Field, ed. Gregory Barz and Timothy Cooley (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996): 87-100.*
4/14:	Outside musical event: , North Indian classical concert with Sanjeev Abhyankar, vocalist, and Ramdas Palsule, tabla, 7 p.m., UVM Music Dept. Recital Hall (Redstone Campus).
4/17:	Visiting scholar: Erica Hurwitz Andrus; first draft of research paper due in class.
	Experience and Education
4/19:	John Dewey, Experience & Education: chs. 1-4.
4/24:	Dewey: chs. 4-8.*
4/26:	Visiting scholar: Bob Taylor, UVM Political Science Dept.
5/1:	Concluding discussions.
5/8:	Final version of research paper due by 5 p.m. at my office.

The following texts are available for purchase at the University Store:

John Dewey, Experience and Education (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997)
Carl Sagan, The Demon-haunted World (New York: Ballantine Books, 1996)
Mark Salzman, Lying Awake: A Novel (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000).

All other readings are available on electronic reserve. The easiest way to access these is to consult the on-line course syllabus. When you click on the title of a reading, you will receive a prompt asking for your UVM net ID and password (the same password you use for your UVM e-mail account). Once you have input this information correctly, the reading will download directly to your computer where it can be read using Adobe Acrobat Reader and printed out. If you don’t have this software, you can download it free from here.

The Research Paper:

The process of writing your research paper will include five basic steps: choosing a research topic, compiling an annotated bibliography, writing a research proposal, and writing both a complete first draft and final version of your paper.

Choosing a Topic: You need to decide on a general topic of research during the first few weeks of class. While this does not have to be a topic directly addressed in the seminar readings, your paper should reflect a serious engagement with issues of subjectivity/objectivity as they apply to the topic you have chosen to research. I recommend that you begin by choosing a topic and method of analysis appropriate to either your major or minor at UVM. This should ensure that you have an adequate background to formulate a good research question. The starting point of a good research project is a topic that you find really interesting and that can be explored effectively in a paper of this scope. It is important to pick something for which there are adequate research sources available, but that is not beyond what you can investigate in the course of a single semester. I will be happy to meet with you after class or preferably during my office hours or by appointment to discuss specific topics. A one-paragraph statement of your topic is due in class on February 6th when I will also ask everyone to very briefly state their topics.

The Annotated Bibliography: The annotated bibliography will be a record of your research into your topic. Reference Librarian Patricia Mardeusz (e-mail: Patricia.Mardeusz@uvm.edu; phone: 656-5718) is the Honors College's special liaison with the reference department. You should always feel free to ask the reference librarians for help and you may make an appointment with Pat for training on the Voyager system and on the particular databases that are relevant to your research. You need to learn how to use these reference sources effectively as soon as possible, since you should begin work on your bibliography as soon as you have a basic topic. I do not expect you to read everything you find on your topic; you are responsible for "looking at" as much of it as possible, and for recording all of your sources in your bibliography. The annotations in your bibliography may be as brief as a sentence, or as long as 200 words, depending on how useful or interesting you find a particular source. In your annotation, you should try to characterize the basic approach of the source (for instance, what academic discipline(s) and/or theoretical perspective(s) does it represent?), the basic argument it makes, and your brief evaluation of the source's validity and usefulness to you. While Internet Web pages can be useful for some projects, their authorship and authority can be difficult or impossible to establish. If you use material found on the Internet, you are responsible for determining its authorship and the author's academic credentials. For guidance on evaluating sources and for annotating your bibliography, see: http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/research/skill28.htm. Your bibliography should be 10-12 pages long (bibliographical entries should be single-spaced and the annotations double-spaced), with no fewer than 12 entries. Please work ahead on this assignment. Recalls and Interlibrary Loan take time. The completed bibliography should be typed, double-spaced, and should follow a bibliographic form appropriate to the discipline of your topic. For guidance on various formats, see: http://library.uvm.edu/guides/cite/. It is due in class on March 8th.

Research Proposal: This is a 1-2-page statement of the thesis or argument you intend to develop and support in your research paper. You should define as clearly as possible what your thesis is, why this thesis is interesting in light of what you know about your general topic, and how you intend to support it (i.e., what kinds of evidence you will use). You should also briefly explain the roles that subjectivity and objectivity will play in your analysis. Your research proposal is due in class on March 27th.

The Research Paper: Your 12-15-page, double-spaced research paper should make an original argument about your topic. It should be clearly and persuasively written and it should address current scholarship on the topic. You will submit it in two versions. Your first draft, due in class on April 17th, should be a complete version of your paper, carefully written and as fully polished as you can make it (i.e., fully supported with footnotes, in-text citations, or endnotes, with a bibliography of sources used (not the annotated bibliography that you submitted earlier in the semester), and carefully proofread for spelling, grammar, and typographical errors, and with page numbers). I will respond to this as soon as possible and return it to you. Be sure to keep this draft with my comments and attach it to your final version. The final version of your paper is due May 8th by 5:00 p.m. at my office. I will pay careful attention to how effectively you have responded to my comments, and this will be an important factor in determining your final grade for the assignment.

It is the responsibility of all students enrolled in this course to be aware of and in compliance with the university's regulations regarding academic honesty as stated in UVM's Code of Academic Integrity. If you have any questions about these regulations, you should speak to the instructor for further clarification. Ignorance will not be considered a legitimate excuse for infringement of these regulations. Violations of the standards of academic honesty will be reported to UVM's Coordinator of Academic Honesty.