Nov 23, 2024
OHIO University Undergraduate Catalog 2022-23

ANTH 3568J - Writing for Social Justice


This course combines writing instruction with a focus on using the tools of social science to promote active citizenship and bring about systemic change on issues of vital social concern. Social justice topics considered range from access to education and healthcare; environmental degradation; poverty and economic power; discrimination based on race, gender, and sexuality; reforming and reimagining criminal justice; immigrant and refugee rights; ableism and disability justice; corporate globalization; settler colonialism; warfare, militarism, and conflict transformation; and community empowerment and transformative organizing, among others. Through a focus on written communication, the course trains students in effective writing for social transformation, with special attention to the emancipatory potential of social science.

Requisites: (ENG 1510 or 1610) and (ANTH 2700 or SOC 2700 or 6 hrs in ANTH or 6 hours in SOC)
Credit Hours: 3
OHIO BRICKS Foundations: Advanced Writing
General Education Code (students who entered prior to Fall 2021-22): 1J
Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts.
Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 lecture
Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I
Learning Outcomes:
  • Students will be able to discuss the contributions of anthropology and sociology to understandings of social justice, social equality, decolonization, anti-racism, environmentalism, feminism, and other concepts relating to a just society.
  • Students will be able to discuss how anthropologists and sociologists address historically-produced inequalities of power and privilege that shape conventions of academic research and writing.
  • Students will be able to critically evaluate how anthropology and sociology have applied the logic and methods of social and cultural inquiry to address real world cases of social disparities and structural inequalities in the context of a just society.
  • Students will be able to identify a wide range of genres in which social scientific writing takes place, including book reviews, blogs, critical reflection essays, field notes, interview composition, books, and social media.
  • Students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the context and purpose of writing for social justice by considering the intentions and effects of various genres of social scientific writing.
  • Students will be able to use appropriate, relevant, and compelling content to illustrate knowledge of the social and cultural construction of categories of social disparities and structural inequalities.
  • Students will be able to flexibly generate, revise, edit, and proof-read across multiple genres, make genre-appropriate decisions regarding formatting and style, and critique their own work and the work of others.
  • Students will be able to organize their writing as a series of tasks, including finding, evaluating, analyzing, and synthesizing primary and secondary sources.
  • Students will be able to employ writing and reading for social transformation by using the tools of social and cultural inquiry to learn, think, and communicate on social justice topics.


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