Instructional methods will involve the use of formal lectures, textual analysis, film reviews, structured group projects, individual presentations, and/or in-class discussion of assigned materials. Other interactive media and materials may be used.
Course outlines may include the following general topics, but may also vary according to the instructor's selection and expertise, such as
- introducing debate over the relationship between the requirements of justice and morality and limits of persons and institutions to meet them;
- examining the benefits and problems of utopian or idealistic thinking, e.g., is utopian thought relevant today?
- exploring the benefits and problems of dystopian thinking, e.g., does such thinking reinforce the status quo?
- discussing what makes utopian and dystopias believable or not believable;
- understanding how utopias and dystopias are based on similar themes -- e.g., chaos versus conformity, freedom versus order, change versus stasis -- but through different means;
- surveying utopias and dystopias as alternative ways to apply political concepts such as power, authority, and justice;
- assessing how governments and social institutions are shaped by utopian and dystopian tendencies.
At the conclusion of this course, successful students will demonstrate researching, writing, critical thinking, and communications skills appropriate to the course by
- understanding how utopian and dystopian thinking contributes to political ideas;
- exploring alternative ways how such thinking influences political practices and institutions;
- comparing and evaluating utopian ideals and dystopian ideas to assess their benefits and dangers.
The course evaluation will be based on course objectives and in accordance with the policies of Douglas College and the Department of Political Science. Specific evaluation criteria will be provided by the instructor in course outlines. One example of an appropriate evaluation system would be the following:
Short Papers (30%)
Term Paper (30%)
Exams (20%)
Participation (10%)
Presentations (10%)
Sources will be selected based on instructor expertise and preference and in consultation with the Department of Political Science. Some examples include:
Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid's Tale (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 2011).
Carey, John. The Faber Book of Utopias (London: Faber and Faber, 1999).
Gordin, Michael D., Helen Tilley, and Gyan Prakash, eds. Utopian/Dystopia: Conditions of Historical Possibility (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010).
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World (Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2007).
McCarthy, Cormac. The Road (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006).
Milton, John. Paradise Lost, ed. Gordon Teskey (New York: W.W. Norton, 2005).
More, Sir Thomas. Utopia, trans. David Wootton (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1999).
Orwell, George. 1984 (London: Penguin Books, 2013).
Weber, Michael and Kevin Vallier, eds. Political Utopias: Contemporary Debates (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017).
Additional readings may be placed on library reserve, Blackboard, or via selected websites and databases such as EBSCO.
Any 1100-level political science course or permission of the instructor.