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Academic Year 2002/2003

Introduction to Ethnic Studies
AMST 217 FA
Crosslistings:
ANTH 217
AFAM 217

This introduction to ethnic studies will survey selected historical moments, geographical and institutional sites, cases and periods to explore complexities of life in the United States. Turning to the entangled histories of colonialism, slavery, imperialism, racism, disenfranchisement, and labor, we will examine how different peoples become "American." We will focus on the racialization of American Indians, African Americans, Pacific Islanders, Chicanos and Latinos, and Asian Americans with regard to contested, and often contradictory, notions of identity and citizenship across multiple categories of difference including gender, class, ethnicity, and sexuality. With special attention to U.S. congressional plenary power, the U.S. Supreme Court, and questions of agency and resistance, we will come to better understand how differently situated people(s) negotiate state-structured systems of exclusion and assimilation in relation to formations and practices of culture, community, sovereignty, democracy, equality, and self-determination.

MAJOR READINGS

THE VANISHING AMERICAN: WHITE ATTITUDES AND U.S. INDIAN POLICY, Brian Dippie
THE ROOTS OF DEPENDENCY: SUBSISTENCE, ENVIRONMENT, AND SOCIAL CHANGE AMONG THE CHOCTAWS, PAWNEES, AND NAVAJOS, Richard White
MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM, Frederick Douglass
WOMEN, RACE & CLASS, Angela Davis
GEORGE WASHINGTON GOMEZ, Americo Padres
RACE, RIGHTS AND THE ASIAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, Angelo Ancheta
RACIAL FORMATION IN THE UNITED STATES, Michael Omi and Howard Winant
FROM A NATIVE DAUGHTER: COLONIALISM AND SOVEREIGNTY IN HAWAI'I, Haunani-Kay Trask
WOMEN OF COLOR IN U.S. SOCIETY, Eds., Maxine Baca Zinn and Bonnie Thornton Dill
Course reader (with selected articles), to be compiled by the professor.
Films and Videos:
SAVAGE ACTS MY AMERICA...OR, HONK IF YOU LOVE BUDDHA
BLACK IS, BLACK AIN'T
UNITED STATES OF POETRY, I
SIEMPRE, PALANTE, SIEMPRE
ACT OF WAR: THE OVERTHROW OF THE HAWAIIAN NATION

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

In-class exam during the mid-term and a take-home final exam. Students will also submit repsonse papers that address each week's reading assignments. A research paper of 10-12 pages is also required and will focus on the emergence of ethnic studies as a field of inquiry. Proposals for specific research topics (within the general rubric of the development of ethnic studies) will be at the mid-term.

Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture/Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS AMST    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-18-2003

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