Your participation includes class attendance and your participation in class discussions. This includes coming to discussion sessions prepared and ready to discuss the substantive issues raised in that week’s readings.
Race and Citizenship in America
MWF 2:00 - 2:50 pm, SE2 1304
Winter 2002
Professor: Lisa García Bedolla
Office: SSPB 3283
Phone: 824-9298
Email: lgarciab@uci.edu
Website: orion.oac.uci.edu/~lgarciab
Office Hours: MW 11:00 - 12:00 and by appointment
This
course looks at American political history through the lens of race relations.
The course begins by looking at the importance of citizenship policy and its
relationship to social constructions of race and “whiteness.”
It then turns to look at the historical experiences of different
racial/ethnic groups in order to understand the evolution of what it has meant
to be an American “citizen” throughout US history, and how that process is
related to changing understandings of the “meanings” of different
“races.” The goal of this course is to have you spend some time thinking
about what it means to be an “American,” what legal, political and social
rights should accompany that definition, and what it will mean politically in
the United States in the future, especially in light of the recent events of
September 11th.
Participation – 10%
|
Your participation includes class attendance and your participation in class discussions. This includes coming to discussion sessions prepared and ready to discuss the substantive issues raised in that week’s readings. |
Discussion Facilitation – 10%
|
Over the
course of the quarter, you will co-lead the Friday discussion session
twice. Your
responsibilities will be to come to class having completed the reading and
having prepared a number of questions that you will use to foment discussion
among your classmates. The idea
is for you to focus on the aspects of the readings that you believe are most
interesting/controversial. You
will sign up for your discussion sessions during the week of Jan.
7-11. |
Midterm Exam – 25%
|
The midterm will be held in class on Monday, February 4th. The exam will consist of a few short essay questions and one long essay. The midterm will include material from lectures, readings and class discussions. |
Citzenship Inquiry Exercise and Paper – 25%
|
During week 9 of the quarter, you will participate in a citizenship inquiry exercise. This is a web-based activity that will be conducted in class. In this activity the students will use the transcripts of the California constitutional convention debates to analyze the arguments that were made regarding the citizenship status of Anglo Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans and Native Americans in California. You will break up into groups, each working with a different racial/ethnic group. At the end, each group will make a presentation in class. After the conclusion of the exercise, each student will write a five-page paper analyzing your findings. The paper will be due in class on Friday, March 8th. Your grade for this unit will be based on the quality of your class presentation and your paper. |
Final Exam – 30%
|
The final will be held from 1:30-3:30 on Friday, March 23rd. The format will be the same as the midterm, but will include two long essays. |
There is one book required for this course and one reader. Both will be available on reserve at the main library. The book is Ronald Takaki. 1993. A Different Mirror: A Multicultural History of America. Boston: Back Bay Books. It is available for purchase in the university bookstore. The reader is available from Mozena publishing and may be purchased during the first three class sessions. . In the course outline, an asterisk (*) indicates readings that can be found in the reader.
1/4 Introduction
1/7 The lessons of American citizenship
Readings: *Smith, Rogers, “Introduction,” pp. 1-12 and “The Hidden Lessons of US citizenship Laws,” pp. 13-39
1/9 The Social Construction of Race
Readings: *Omi and Winant, “Introduction,” pp. 3-7; “Paradigms of Race: Ethnicity, Class and Nation,” pp. 9-13; “Racial Formation,” pp.53-76; and “The Racial State,” pp. 77-91
1/11 Discussion
1/14
Citizenship, the constitution and the law
Readings: *Smith,
Rogers, “The Constitution and the Quest for National Citizenship,” pp.
115-136; *Haney López, Ian, “White by Law,” pp. 542-550
1/16
The role of “whiteness” in US national identity
Readings:
*Lipsitz,
George, “The Possessive Investment in Whiteness” and “Law and Order: Civil
Rights Laws and White Privilege”; *Schlesinger, Arthur, “A New Race?”; and
*Wildman, Stephanie and Adrienne Davis, “Language and Silence: Making Systems
of Privilege Visible,” pp. 573-581
1/18
Discussion
1/21
***No Class – Martin Luther King Holiday***
1/23 U.S. Race and Citizenship Policy: Native Americans
Readings: Takaki, chs. 1 and 2, pp. 1-50; ch. 4, pp. 79-105; ch. 9, pp. 225-245
1/25 Discussion
1/28 & 1/30 U.S. Race and Citizenship
Policy: African Americans