POL 3570:
THIRD WORLD AND DEVELOPMENT
Course-related Extra Credit
Fall 2005
In most of my courses you can get extra credit for various things like finding
errors in the text, etc. A description of that kind of extra credit appears here. In
some courses, however, like this one, you can get extra credit points for doing
things related to the course. These are listed below, along with their
extra credit value. Each extra credit point is worth about 1/1000 of a
letter grade — 1000 extra credit points would raise your grade from
a C+ to a B+. (However, you can't accumulate more than 750 e.c. points.) The
credit values aren't huge, but I'm not paying for your participation in something
you wouldn't really like doing; I'm simply acknowledging in a concrete
way that you're thinking and learning outside the confines of the course.
- International Club
(or the APAA, the CSSA, etc.). Join one of these student associations /
clubs. You
don't have to be a foreign student to join the International Club,
I know, and I believe this is true for the other international student
association.
Participate in an activity, and you and I can decide what it's worth—probably
50 pts. [?? pts]
- Volunteer at a homeless shelter or related program intended to aid the
poor in this country. Your work, whatever it is, should allow
you to meet them directly. [varying pts, depending on duties and
length of service]
- Attend one of the many ethnic dinners given by the various groups on
campus. [50 pts]
- Video report: Watch a video in the UMD Library, and write a 500-word
essay describing its message and in particular how it relates to Pol
3570. [100 pts]
- "Africa: A Voyage of Discovery
#8: The Legacy" (VC0897b)
- "Correcting" (VC0948) [Chinese legal/penal system]
- "The Spectre of Marxism" (VC1018) [Film uses on-site
photography, archive footage, graphics and special effects to provide
a critical reappraisal of the Communist Manifesto and Marxist doctrine
in theory and practice. It suggests that while the teachings of
Marx have been successfully used to rally workers to revolt, his
form of socialism has never been put into practice. (47 minutes)]
- "All Under Heaven: Life in a Chinese Village" (VC1097)
[This is another video by Carma Hinton about Long Bow Village,
which you will recall is also the subject of her video, "Small
Happiness".]
- "Africa" (VC3079)
- "They Come in Peace: A new democratic South Africa"
(VC3253)
- "The Last Mile: Mandela, Africa and democracy" (VC3253)
- plus many other possibilities!
- Book report: Same as the video report, above. [250 pts]
- Richard Critchfield Shahhat: An Egyptian
- Robert Klitgaard Tropical Gangsters
- Robert Klitgaard Controlling Corruption
- plus a number of works on totalitarianism and tyranny:
- Applebaum, Anne (2003). Gulag: A History.
[Soviet Union]
- Ash, Timothy Garton (1985). The Polish Revolution:
Solidarity. [Poland]
- Badillo, Herman (1972). A Bill of No Rights:
Attica and the American Prison System. [U.S.A.:
Blacks]
- Barbour, Floyd (1968). Black Power Revolt:
A Collection of Essays. [U.S.A.: Blacks]
- Brown, Dee Alexander (1970). Bury My Heart at
Wounded Knee. [U.S.A.: Native Americans]
- Chen, Jo-his (1979). The Execution of Mayor
Yin and Other Stories from the Great Proletarian Cultural
Revolution. [China]
- Chang, Jung (1992). Wild Swans: Three
Daughters of China. [China]
- Conquest, Robert (1986). Harvest of Sorrow:
Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine.
[Soviet Union (Ukraine)]
- Gourevitch, Philip (1998). We Wish To Inform
You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families:
Stories from Rwanda. [Rwanda]
- Hilliard, David (1993). This Side of Glory
: The Autobiography of David Hilliard and the Story
of the Black Panther Party. [U.S.A.:
Blacks]
- Kang, Chol-hwan, and Pierre Rigoulot (2001). Aquariums
of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag.
[North Korea]
- Kaufman, Michael (1989). Mad Dreams, Saving
Graces: Poland: A Nation in Conspiracy.
[Poland]
- Lelyveld, Joseph (1985). Move Your Shadow:
South Africa, Black and White. [South Africa]
- London, Artur (1973). The Confession.
[Czechoslovakia]
- Makiya, Kenan (1989). The Republic of Fear:
The Politics of Modern Iraq. [Iraq]
- Nafisi, Azar (2003). Reading Lolita in Tehran:
A Memoir in Books. [Iran]
- Shirer, William (1990). The Rise and Fall of
the Third Reich. [Germany]
- Szymusiak, Molyda (1986). The Stones Cry Out:
A Cambodian Childhood. [Cambodia]
- Timerman, Jacobo (2002). Prisoner Without a
Name, Cell Without a Number. [Argentina]
- Valladares, Armando (1986). Against All Hope:
The Prison Memoirs of Armando Valladares.
[Cuba]
- Wicker, Tom (1975). A Time to Die.
[U.S.A.: Blacks]
- plus many other possibilities!
- Dealer's Choice: Convince me that something you want to do is
worth extra credit. However, the project must be fairly directly
related to the subject matter and/or purpose of the course. [Negotiable
points]
Getting extra credit for an outside activity requires that
you provide, within a week or so of the activity, some objective evidence
that you did indeed participate in it. Generally, this means a signed note from the organizer
of the activity or the speaker stating that you were in attendance. Sometimes
this is impossible, e.g., if you request extra credit for renting and watching
a movie relevant to the course. In those cases, I ask that you write
a 325-word essay describing what you saw and discussing its relevance to
the subject of the course.
Not all activities bring extra credit, even if they seem relevant to you. Check
with me ahead of your participation. (Or go ahead and participate,
but don't assume it will necessarily bring you extra credit.)
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