Should York University remove the mural “Palestinian Roots” from the Student Centre?

MODR 1760 – Dialectical Essay Topics

Topics 1. Should York University remove the mural “Palestinian Roots” from the Student Centre?

• Note: This isn’t a question about whether the mural should be moved to a different campus location, but whether it should be removed altogether

2. Should a York University student’s request to be excused from a group assignment because it involved working with female classmates be accommodated? • Note: The request was made on religious grounds

3. Should the York Federation of Students (YFS) have made donations to Black Lives Matter – Toronto (BLMTO)? • Note: You should focus on issue of whether YFS should or should not have made

donations to BLMTO, and not with whether there was a conflict of interest with how the motion was put forward

4. Should public intellectuals (university professors, published authors, etc.), who hold views that many students find deeply offensive, be invited to give talks at York University? • Note1: You may either deal with this issue at the general level, or you may choose

a particular public intellectual and deal with the question of whether this person should be invited to give a talk

• Note2: It might help to imagine that you yourself find the views offensive and hurtful

• Note3: Some recent examples of controversial public intellectuals who were disinvited to give talks at Canadian universities or whose talks were disrupted are Dr Jordan Peterson (controversial views about transgender rights (among other things)), Ann Coulter (controversial views about immigration, race and Islam) and Marie Henein, the lawyer who defended Jian Ghomeshi during his sexual assault trial (controversial claims about victims of sexual assault).

Any essay that defends its thesis by promoting hate against an individual or group based on race, religion, sex, sexual identity, sexual orientation, etc. will receive a 0 and may be reported to the York Centre for Human Rights.