Week 1
The Science of Why Cops Shoot Young Black Men by Chris Mooney
Excerpt: "We're not born with racial prejudices. We may never even have been "taught" them. Rather, explains Nosek, prejudice draws on "many of the same tools that help our minds figure out what's good and what's bad." In evolutionary terms, it's efficient to quickly classify a grizzly bear as "dangerous." The trouble comes when the brain uses similar processes to form negative views about groups of people."
The Compassionate Instinct by Dacher Keltner
Think humans are born selfish? Think again. Dacher Keltner reveals the compassionate side to human nature.A Human Approach to World Peace
An excerpt from the the official website of the Office of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
Activity: The Implicit Association Test
The implicit-association test (IAT) is a measure within social psychology designed to detect the strength of a person's automaticassociation between mental representations of objects (concepts) in memory. (http://themindlab.co.uk/)
Week 2
"Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story"
"Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding." www.ted.com (downloaded 020414)
Week 3
"Body Ritual Among the Nacirema"
"Most cultures exhibit a particular configuration or style. A single value or pattern of perceiving the world often leaves its stamp on several institutions in the society. Examples are "machismo" in Spanish-influenced cultures, "face" in Japanese culture, and "pollution by females" in some highland New Guinea cultures. Here Horace Miner demonstrates that "attitudes about the body" have a pervasive influence on many institutions in Nacirema society."
Week 7
BabaKiueria
A 1986 Australian satirical film on relations between Indigenous Australians and Australians of European descent.