- CC 300 EX - Traditions of Giving and Serving in America
- 3 Credits
TR 1:20-2:35 pm - Professor Lynn
Cross-listed with ENGL 396 AX
In this course, we will read works that explore the varied ways that American writers and thinkers have considered and portrayed notions of charity and service. At the same time, we will reflect upon our own experiences and ideas and consider how they reflect or diverge from broader cultural trends. To accomplish this, we will examine intersecting and possibly conflicting rationales for giving and serving. In particular, we will examine how ideas of altruism, divine instruction, civic duty, and self-reliance have been represented and debated in American life, by writers as diverse as Cotton Mather, Jane Addams, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Kurt Vonnegut. We will also speak with leaders from area non-profits about the challenges facing our communities, the process of allocating limited resources to meet pressing needs, and the experience of leading a charitable organization in a competitive and difficult economic climate. These conversations will aid us as we make decisions as a class regarding how to distribute $10,000 to local agencies, a gift made possible through the generous support of the Learning by Giving Foundation. When the course is completed, we will have taken an intellectual journey from the American colonies to present-day Valparaiso, one in which we will hopefully learn as much about our own ideas concerning philanthropy as we do about the writers and thinkers we study.
Assignments will include regular reading responses, a non-profit agency profile, and a formal essay.
Texts include:
Addams, Jane. Twenty Years at Hull-House
Alger, Jr., Horatio. Ragged Dick
Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography & Other Writings
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Blithedale Romance
Kass, Amy, ed. The Perfect Gift
Vonnegut, Kurt. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
