Summer 2013 Philosophy of Culture Course Information

Return to Philosophy of Culture - Benin Summer 2013

Goals of the Course

1. To acquire background in anthropology, history and culture of Benin, and philosophy of culture to facilitate understanding of observation and research in Benin.
2. To understand the difficulty of development work in Western Africa.
3. To pursue service and research in context of academic coursework in the Philosophy of Culture and in Benin.

Contact Information

Dr. Mark Alfino, Department of Philosophy, Gonzaga University

Office Hours: See alfino.org

Office: cell number to be announced.

Email: alfino@gonzaga.edu

Students in my courses should feel free to call cell phone with questions that they cannot settle through email.

Reading List

This reading list, along with the Learning Community Reading List, and your own reasearch, comprise the reading for the course. You will find pdfs for all of these readings on the course website.

• Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, eds. 2012. Why nations fail: Crown Business. (excerpted)
• Tim Coates. 2001. King guezo of dahomey 1850-52: The abolition of the slave trade on the west coast of africa (uncovered editions). London: The Stationery Office.
• Clifford Geertz. 1973. Chapter 1: Thick description: Toward and interpretive theory of culture. In The interpretation of cultures, ed. Clifford Geertz:3-30. New York: Basic Books.
• Joshua Hammer. 2012. On the vodun trail in benin. New York Times, February 3, 2012.
• Judy Rosenthal. 2005. Religious traditions of the togo and benin ewe. In A handbook of eweland: The ewe of togo and benin, ed. Benjamin Lawrance:183-96. Accra: Woeli Publishing Services.
• Jeffrey Sachs. 2005. The end of poverty. New York: Penguin. (excerpted)
• USAID. 2005. Promoting women's legal rights in benin. Economic Perspectives.
• E. O. Wilson. 2012. The social conquest of earth. New York: Norton. (excerpted)

Benin Learning Community Common Packet

• Reader, John. 1997. Africa: A Biography of the Continent. New York: Vintage. (excerpted in pdf)

• Timothy Ford, "Water and Health," Chapter 18, Environmental Health.

• Finkel, "Bedlam in the Blood," National Geographic, July 2007.

• Gardinier, David E. 1997. "The Historical Origins of Francophone Africa." In Political Reform in Francophone Africa, edited by John F. Clark and David E. Gardinier, 9-23. Westview Press.

• Decalo, Samuel. 1997. "Benin: First of the New Democracies." In Political Reform in Francophone Africa, edited by John F. Clark and David E. Gardinier, 43-62. Westview Press.

• Bierschenk, Thomas. 2009. "Democratization without Development: Benin 1989-2009." International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society no. 22 (3):337-357.

• Mama, Rauf. 1998. "The Dance of Poverty." In Why Goats Smell Bad and other Stories from Benin, edited by Rauf Mama, 45-50. North Haven, Connecticut: The Shoe String Press.

• Millenium Development Goals for Benin

• Easterly, William. 2006. The White Man's Burden. New York: Penguin.

• Songhai Case Study

Assessment

• Assessment will include evaluation of online threaded conference discussion, small group chats transcripts, and final essays. Student are required to do a service project in country or a research project or both.

Policies

1. You must complete all work in the course to receive a grade.
2. You must disclose any work that you are turning in for this course that you are submitting or have submitted for other courses.
3. You must comply with all university policies concerning academic honesty.