Rev. Julie Todd, Ph.D.

E-mail: jtodd@iliff.edu

Affiliate Faculty for Justice and Peace Studies

Julie Todd is an elder in the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church, having served in small, urban, multi-cultural churches for ten years. She graduated from the University of Denver/Iliff School of Theology Joint Ph.D. program in 2012. The title of her dissertation is “Evaluating Violence and (Non)violence: A Critical, Practical Theology of Social Change.” Rev. Dr. Todd taught courses on religion and social change for a number of years prior to being hired by the school as Affiliate Faculty for Justice and Peace studies. She is currently collaborating with Dr. Eugene Walls of DU’s Graduate School of Social Work on a book chapter related to conservative Christianity, sexual orientation and social work education, entitled “Defending the Faith: Resistance and Struggle in Recognizing Christian Privilege.” In addition to her academic publications, she is a published essayist and poet on matter of justice, identity and the spiritual life. In the 2013-2014 school year she will be residing in the Boston area and teaching all of her courses online.

• Each class week begins on Monday and ends on Sunday. When an assignment is due in "Week X," that means I expect to see that assignment by 9p.m. on the Sunday evening of that week.
• If either you missed something or need a refresher, all up-to-date information on the class can be found in the Announcements section.
• The course materials can be accessed in a number of ways. Our class home page contains all syllabus items through links, and at the end of the syllabus, a chronological list of items that are due. If you want to view the materials and assignments for each week by week, click on Modules on the left side of the page, then click on the relevant week. Except for discussions, all assignments, including readings (which I have formatted as assignments so you receive due-date reminders), can be also be accessed through the Assignments link on the left-hand side of the page. The discussion links can be reached through "Discussions" on the left hand side of the page, or by week through the "Modules" link.

Communications Policy: I will log on to the classroom most days. The discussion forum is generally the best place to ask most questions. If there is a question about class requirements or other questions that do not fit into a weekly discussion, I encourage you to use the internal Canvas communication system. If you need to contact me on an individual basis, please email me directly (not through Canvas) and I will try to reply within 24 hours. If you would like to arrange to communicate by Skype, Google, or phone, please email me directly (not through Canvas) to set up an appointment.  If you need technical support, you should contact the IT helpdesk at helpdesk@iliff.edu.

In this course, students will:

• Expand their repertoire of knowledge of social change theories and strategies and develop skills to do socio-analytical, political and historical analysis for critical evaluation of theory and strategy in light of current and historical contexts.
• Identify the varying roles of religion in social change contexts; how religion works both to oppress and to liberate.
• Understand and struggle with diverse perspectives and opinions over the means of social change found within the materials, classroom, community and historical social movements
• Explore personal and vocational motivations in relation to social change.

1) General Participation: Learning is not merely about receiving information from a variety of expert sources; it is about students asking questions and seeking to understand from the materials and all participants. In this class, every participant is a teacher and a learner. I expect students will:

1. Invest in the course by establishing a regular and respectful online presence
2. Genuinely try to learn the concepts, principles, and material by reading and listening;
3. Participate in online discussions. Respect other students' preparation by being prepared; having read and watched the assigned materials carefully and thoughtfully;
4. Participate in Google Hangouts;
5. Collaborate in the spirit of learning critically and enthusiastically;
6. Turn in assignments on time;
7. Participate in Gathering Days.

When you evaluate your own learning and accomplishments in this course (see Self Evaluation and Grading Procedures), you must consider each of these elements in your initial and final evaluation documents.

(More on) Discussion Forums:

Although we will see each other for eight hours during Gathering Days, as you know, the much of student-student and student-teacher interaction takes place online in discussions. Being present in an online format requires you to make your presence known. Making your presence known means signing into the course multiple times per week. While you will be evaluating your own participation in the course and discussions, as a general rubric I suggest signing in to the class at least three different times per week, posting original ideas and responding to others’ posts at least four times. Participation in discussions must be completed within the week assigned.

This course will rely heavily on online discussions. In an online course, this is where the "class" truly takes place. It is an area to share ideas, ask questions, and deepen our understanding of course concepts. Each week we will have at least one discussion topic, sometimes more. My expectation is that you will participate in all discussion threads as often and as well as you are able.

Each week, the discussions will start on Monday and last through Sunday night. This allows us all to focus on the same issues at the same time. There will be some introductory questions to start us off each week, some natural areas during the week to respond to each other, and I will pose further questions during the middle and end of each week to deepen our exploration of each topic. If your most productive time is on the weekend, feel free to get started on the upcoming week's discussion before Monday.

Here are some suggestions regarding posting in the discussion boards:

• For the discussion to truly be successful, it is important for all of us to do the readings first (over the weekend if possible, you will note that I make the reading materials "due" in Canvas at 1am on Monday of each week so that you are encouraged to get them done earlier than later), contribute to the discussions early in the week, and be checking in, reading posts, and responding throughout the week.  Because we are all online at different times our discussions will occur over a week rather than over one hour or so in class.  If you do all your posting on one day or wait until Sunday night to participate, you will have difficulty catching up and will receive little if any feedback on your thoughts and perspectives. 
• Post as many times as you like, but you should make numerous quality posts per week.  These posts must include at least one response within each discussion forum and occur throughout the week (not all on one day).
• You are expected to read all threads, but you are not obligated to respond to everyone. I will ask follow up questions throughout the week that I want to you consider, but make your posts where you feel they will add the most value to our discussions.
• Try to keep your postings focused on the topic at hand. If you would like to deviate from a certain topic, begin a new discussion thread.
• If you want to start a new thread on a different point, please feel free to do so. From my starting question/s, there are usually many different directions you can go. If your idea is different from an initial response, start a new thread. If it builds on an existing response, reply to that response.
• Brevity, precision and clarity are valued more than lengthy, unclear, wordy posts.
• Write meaningful subject lines. If you change or refocus the subject of a discussion thread, change the subject line to reflect the new topic.
• Share your thoughts and experiences as your own. Try not to generalize or speak for others.
• Listen to the content of what others say. If you don’t understand someone’s view, ask them to explain, don’t judge.

2) Critical Reflections on Learning and Practicing Social Change (there are five of these)

You have a critical reflection due roughly every other week with guiding questions for critical reflection on yourself, the course materials, and your community engagement. Two of these five reflections include your self-evaluation/grading learning contract (see SELF-EVALUATION/GRADING link). There are different length requirements for different weeks. Critical Reflection 4 (Due in Week 8) is a more lengthy community-engaged project and materials-based theoretical reflection. This fourth reflection will take some planning on your part, so be ready for that. But whether there are length and content requirements or not, all of these reflections should be critical and substantive. Upload these reflections as documents in the appropriate critical reflection assignment link. If you are so inclined, I encourage you to use more than mere words to express your thoughts in a critical manner. In other words, you may use digital images, poetry, music and other means to engage the topics I assign. Whenever you have the inclination to deviate from what feels like the norm of the assignment, feel free to follow that inclination, check in with me, and know that creativity of all kinds is always welcomed by me.

3) Biography (Book Discussion and Presentation During Week 5 Gathering Days)

Choose one of three required auto/biographies from the list. A general reading guide is provided. Use the reading guide to take notes on the book as you read it. You will be grouped with other students who are reading the same book. I will make you aware who is reading what books after you turn in your learning contract for your self-evaluative reflection in Week 3 (Don’t forget to tell me what book you are reading in your Self-Evaluative Reflection that week!). With this group, you will informally share some of your early impressions of the book and the activist (as far as you have read it), and begin to discuss ideas for how to make a book presentation together during Gathering Days. I have created groups for each book under the "People" link (on the left hand side of the page). You are welcome to use that forum to communicate with one another, or communicate simply by email, Google hangout, or whatever works for you. When you come to Gathering Days, you should be prepared to join with your small group to discuss your impressions and insights. You will have additional time to prepare and present the book and the activist to the class. Critical Reflection 3 also relates to your activist biography.

4) Final Reflection Paper: My Social Change Manifesto (Due Week 10)

You will write an approximately 10-page final reflection on your social change philosophy in light of the course. I am waiting for the course to unfold before I get too specific about this final project. More details will follow.

We will have three different Google Hangouts throughout the quarter: at the beginning of Week 2, Week 4 and Week 8. Each time we have a hangout, you will need to sign up for a designated time slot. This is a relatively large class. Each Google hangout should have no more than eight people in it. For each hangout, I will offer three different times slots. You are required to sign up for one of these slots. Preparation for each hangout is delineated below.

DO YOU NEED TO LEARN HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN A GOOGLE HANGOUT?

First of all,in order to participate in a Google Hangout, you need a Google Plus account. Click here to find out how to set up a Google plus account.

Click here to find out how to start and/or participate in a Google Hangout.

If you have any questions, the Iliff helpdesk (helpdesk@iliff.edu) is very practiced at helping people figure out Google Hangouts.

Google Hangout #1 - Beginning of Week 2 - See Sign-Up Here

Iliff engages in a collaborative effort with students who have disabilities to accommodate reasonably their needs in order to support effective learning.  Students are encouraged to contact their assigned advisor to initiate the process of requesting accommodations.  The Advising Center may be contacted as advising@iliff.edu, or by phone at 303.765.1146.