About the Course
This course will examine political, cultural, and ethical aspects of surveillance and informing in the United States and Eastern Europe during the Cold War. We will discuss surveillance studies theory and comparative history of surveillance in Western liberal democracies and Soviet authoritarian states. Primary and secondary readings will focus on topics such as surveillance technologies, national security state, spying, the ethics of informing, and the cultural experience of being an object of surveillance. We will analyze McCarthyism and the COINTELPRO program, as well as the Stasi techniques and Soviet intelligence. Requirements will include written responses to readings and several assignments leading to a final research or historiographic paper.
In this seminar, students are expected to read a good deal each week and the weekly class sessions will consist of discussion of those readings.
Required Texts
Ellen Schrecker, Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America.
David Cunningham, There’s Something Happening Here: The New Left, the Klan, and FBI Counterintelligence.
Bernard Gordon, The Gordon File: A Screenwriter Recalls Twenty Years of FBI Surveillance.
Timothy Garton Ash, The File: A Personal History.
Articles available online
Assignments and Grading
Attendance is compulsory, and thus the participation grades of students who are absent without excuse more than once in the term will be reduced significantly.
Responses to Readings (six responses: Sept. 15, 22; Oct. 6, 13, 20; Nov. 3) – 30%
Research or Historiographic Paper (see assignment for due dates) – 45%
Class participation – 25%
Deadlines
The penalty for late papers and projects will be 5% of the grade per day. No extensions will be granted except in cases of a DOCUMENTED emergency.
Policies and Procedures
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is an affront to me and to your peers. Plagiarism is submitting work that is not your own as if it were yours. This includes copying material, even a few sentences, from published or unpublished sources, from the internet, or from another student without citing the source. It also includes presenting another person’s ideas or paraphrasing the work of another person without citing the source. Plagiarism also includes handing in bought papers, papers obtained from free essay websites, or having another person write your paper for you. Anyone suspected of copying other people’s work without clear acknowledgement, or of any comparable act, will be reported to the Faculty of Arts and Science for plagiarism.
Syllabus: I reserve the right to make changes to the syllabus during the year if/as necessary. Please check the online syllabus before every class.
In the event of extraordinary circumstances beyond the University’s control, the content and/or evaluation scheme in this course is subject to change.