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HIST265

Sophomore Seminar: Race and Nation
HIST265 SP

Crosslistings: AMST191

Not Currently Offered

This colloquium will examine the links between nationalist ideologies and beliefs about race and race hierarchy. Although our main focus will be on the late 19th- and early 20th-century United States, we will draw comparative examples from other areas and time periods. In particular, we will examine the ways race and nation are configured in political culture (rhetoric, ritual and festival), literary texts (novels, scholarship and the popular press), and performances (minstrel shows, vaudeville, circus and early film). Topics will include United States imperial expansion and the belief in Manifest Destiny; Chinese and Japanese immigration; colonization of the Phillipines and Puerto Rico; the rise of Anglo-Saxon ideologies; the dissolution and re-creation of Indian nations; the political disenfranchisement of African Americans; and Marcus Garvey.

MAJOR READINGS

Partial reading list:
Benedict Anderson, IMAGINED COMMUNITIES
Frantz Panon, BLACK SKIN, WHITE MASKS
Philip Bryan Harper, ARE WE NOT MEN?
Paul Gilroy, THE BLACK ATLANTIC
Rudyard Kipling, KIM
Catherine Lutz and Jane Collins, READING NATIONAL
GEOGRAPHIC
Toni Morrison, PLAYING IN THE DARK
George W. Stocking, VICTORIAN ANTHROPOLOGY

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Four to six short writing assignments.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

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: Seminar

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UG Credit: 1.00 Gen Ed Area & Dept: SBS HIST

Prerequisites: None

Last Updated on MAR-22-1999




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