We are going to make our issues brief a proposition and curriculum for a modified RCL course that teaches rhetoric but focuses on issues regarding sexual health and safety. We believe that this unique approach could inform students and encourage open dialogues on campus while still teaching them about effective oral and written communication.
Topics
Sexual health/safety
Rape from a victim’s perspective
Rape from a bystander’s perspective
STDs (minor)
Sexual Harassment
Rape culture
Communication
History??
Legal/governmental
Rhetorical mediums to use:
Written
- Issues Brief
- Paradigm Shift
- Daily readings
- Blogging
- Reactions to readings, documentaries, in-class discussions, and speaker events
- Class is for experience, blogs are for reacting.
- Different Penn State Reads
Oral
- Civic Artifact
- This I Believe
- TED Talk
- Deliberation
Multimedia
- Public controversy video
- Documentaries in class
- Speaker youtube videos
- Public controversy video
Readings:
- Multiple points of view and standpoints
- First-hand accounts, research,
- Magazine articles that were successful and articles that failed.
Goals:
- Build a sense of empathy between students
- Productive dose of fear.
- Normalize and encourage conversation about topics
- Inform students for their own safety
- Make them consider their own opinions after being informed
- Give students confidence and comfort talking about these issues
- If you can talk about rape in front of 25 classmates, maybe you’ll be more comfortable taking a stand as a bystander in a situation
- Dispel myths
- Inform inform inform so that students are aware of the levity of the subject.
Readings:
-UVA rape case Rolling Stone
-Podcast: https://soundcloud.com/guyswefucked
-Clery Act
-Date rape activist
-Social media and tinder.