Iraq War Discussion Group
Spring 2008/Professors Nancy Bristow, Brad Dillman, William Kupinse, and Hans Ostrom;
Spirituality and Justice: E. Kate Cohn
Weekly Topic Schedule
ENGL 465A
Thursdays, 4-5 p.m.
Wyatt 109
Required Text: Poems from Guantanamo, ed. Marc Falkoff (U. Iowa Press, 2007)
January 24
Introduction; discussion of assumptions about Iraq and the war
Discussion Leader(s): Nancy Bristow, Kate Cohn, Brad Dillman, Bill Kupinse, Hans Ostrom, Jenny Wrobel
January 31
Early culture and history of Iraq
Discussion Leader(s): Bill Kupinse, Hans Ostrom, Jenny Wrobel
February 7
The role of Islam in ancient and modern-day Iraq
Discussion Leader(s): Bill Kupinse Hans Ostrom, Jenny Wrobel
February 14
The British colonial period
Formation of the modern state
Discussion Leader(s): Brad Dillman
February 21
US involvement in Iraq, 1950s-70s
Discussion Leader(s): Kate Cohn, Brad Dillman
February 28
US involvement in Iraq, 1980s-90s
- the First Gulf War
-effects of sanctions on Iraqi citizens
Visit from Gulf and/or Iraq War Veterans – Hans to contact Vicki Boomer? or Brad’s wife’s student?
Discussion Leader(s): Kate Cohn, Brad Dillman
March 6
The lead-up to the war
Nancy Bristow
Brad Dillman
March 13
The Invasion of Iraq
- securing the “coalition of the willing”
- Shock and Awe or Shocking and Awful?: technology and modern warfare
Bill Kupinse
Jenny Wrobel
March 27
Subcontracting the war: privatization and the US military
Nancy Bristow
Hans Ostrom
April 3
The US occupation and the politics of the Middle East
Brad Dillman
April 10
Post-war Occupation I
- the rise of the insurgency
- the challenges of the provisional authority
- reconstruction and the boon for American business
Nancy Bristow
-
April 17
Effects of war on Iraq and the Iraqi people
- health effects
- psychological effects
- the environmental costs of war
Visit from International Peace Activist – Kate Cohn has lead?
Bill Kupinse
April 24
Iraqi literary responses to war: poetry and personal narratives
excerpts from Daniel Weissbort and Saadi S. Simawe (eds), Iraqi Poetry Today (Modern Poetry in Translation, 2003)
Bill Kupinse
May 1
Effects of War on US Soldiers
- health effects
- psychological effects
- Walter Reed Army Hospital scandal
- soldier’s literary responses to war
Visit from Ft. Lewis Representative
Nancy Bristow