Course Number: | EDU 5515 C23 |
Instructor: | Doug Aigner |
Location: | Online |
Dates and Times: |
Feb 5 – April 9, 2022. The class will meet via video on Saturdays at 9am: 2/5, 2/26, 3/5, 3/12, 3/19, 3/26, and 4/2. |
Credits: | 3 credits |
Tuition: | $1,195 |
In this course we will explore a common dynamic of conflict in the modern world by surveying the increasing role that non-state actors play, by engaging in various violent extremist activities (including terrorism and/or insurgency), in global security. Students will conduct empirical analyses of historical and/or contemporary violent extremist/insurgent/terrorist groups; the Taliban, IRA, Vietcong, Zapatistas, Al Qaeda, Islamic State, PKK, Boko Haram, Al Shabaab, etc., as well as the events of January 6, 2021, have demonstrated the difficulties with which states conceptualize and fight extremism of various strands, and we will engage with a wide variety of materials - institutional, documentary, and academic, including extremist primary source materiel - in assessing, analyzing, and creating understanding of the ‘guerillas in the mist’.
The course is intended for middle and high school educators looking for advanced study in the content area. Coursework will include readings, podcasts, film(s), and a comprehensive analysis of an extremist/insurgent/terrorist group. Participants will be encouraged to study a group relevant to their teaching; for example, if you teach a unit on Nigerian fiction, perhaps you’d want to study Boko Haram. If you teach Reconstruction and or the Civil Rights Movement, then studying the Klan would be of benefit. If you teach current affairs or U.S. history, then perhaps a hard look at Al Qaeda or the Taliban would be utilitarian.
Audience: This is an advanced content course aimed primarily at 7-12 Social Studies/History/Social Sciences/Current Affairs teachers, but all are welcome!
Participants will be able to:
Text: Extremism by E.L. Berger, MIT Press, 2018
Text: War of the Flea: The Classic Study of Guerrilla Warfare by Robert Taber, Potomac Books 2002
Other texts - articles/academic journal pieces - will be supplied by the instructor.
Podcasts - as assigned.
Online films/documentaries - Frontline, etc., as assigned.
(802) 287-0039
Bethany Sprague
(802) 468-1325