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American StudiesCOURSES 101 EXPLORATIONS OF RACE AND RACISM The main objectives of this introductory course are: to explore the historical construction of racial categories in the United States; to understand the systemic impact of racism on contemporary social processes; to consider popular views about race in the light of emerging scholarship in the field; and to develop an ability to connect personal experiences to larger, collective realities. We will engage several questions as a group: What are the historical and sociological foundations of racial categories? When does focusing on race make someone racist? What is white privilege, and why does it matter? All students will be asked to think and write about their own racial identity. This course, or its equivalent, is required for majors and minors. No prerequisites. Spring semester. (4 credits) 103 THE PROBLEM OF RACE IN U.S. SOCIAL THOUGHT AND POLICY This course has been developed as an entry-level exploration of the impact of race on contemporary U.S. public discourse. The course has two principle objectives: to create a forum that encourages individuals to articulate well-informed opinions and attitudes about race; and to locate those ideas in an analytic framework that promotes a shared understanding of race and racial inequality in the contemporary context. Offered Fall 2009 as a First Year Course only. (4 credits) 110 INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN AMERICAN STUDIES This class will explore what it has meant to be African-American in the United States, and how this identity shaped Black community, thought, and life. This course, using a variety of disciplinary approaches, exposes students to issues and problems in the development of African-American identity, and provides students with theoretical tools and contextual sensibilities necessary for advanced courses and independent projects in African American Studies. Spring semester. (4 credits) 112 INTRODUCTION TO LGBTQ STUDIES (Same as Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 110) This course examines how sexuality, race, and nation relate in the lives of people in the United States, which we read in relation to histories of colonialism and globalization. Course material foreground scholarship, testimony, cultural work, and social movements by LGBT, two-spirit, same gender loving, and queer people of color, and by white LGBT and queer anti-racist allies. Their stories offer a template through which all students may examine how everyday life is shaped by sexuality, race, and nation—both as power relations, and as spaces for creating new identity and action. Every year. (4 credits) 200 CRITICAL METHODS FOR AMERICAN STUDIES RESEARCH This course will introduce students to interdisciplinary research approaches to the study of race, ethnicity, and other categories of difference. Students will learn to conceptualize and design research projects, and will obtain hands-on experience in executing different methods. The course will also consider the critiques of systems of knowledge production and research approaches that have been informed by scholars from fields such as African American history, gender studies, and critical race studies, as well as from the disciplines. The goal is to develop an understanding of the assumptions embedded in many fields of inquiry, and to learn to apply critical approaches to important research questions. Fall semester. (4 credits) 202 ENGAGING THE PUBLIC: WRITING AND PUBLISHING IN AMERICAN STUDIES Students enrolled in this course form the editorial collective for the American Studies on-line journal Tapestries published on Macalester's Digital Commons. Course content will focus on writing, editing, and the art of preparing a journal article for publication. It will also consider how to engage various publics, including students, the College, and local communities, through digital publishing. Students are part of a collaborative model for circulating scholarship, art and criticism. The class is involved in all aspects of layout and design and peer-review, and discuss issues including verifying facts, copyright, intellectual property, author rights, and open access. Prerequisite: at least one course in American Studies. Every fall. (2 credits) 203 RACE, ETHNICITY, AND POLITICS (Same as Political Science 203) This intermediate course offers an analysis of racial and ethnic factors and their implications for political processes and public policy. We begin by exploring the political history of whiteness. Our point of departure will be David R. Roediger’s text (2005), “Working Toward Whiteness, How America’s Immigrants Became White: The Strange Journey from Ellis Island to the Suburbs.” We will examine how “race” has been at the core of civic assimilation. This course will focus on post-1960 American and the Black, Brown, Red, and Yellow Power Movements. We will end with an analysis of conservative people of color and their counterparts in the dominant culture, and their movement to resist identity politics in the 1990s and the turn of the 21st Century. Alternate years. (4 credits) 222 IMAGINING THE AMERICAN WEST (Same as History 222) Fantasies about the U.S. West are central to American history, popular culture, and collective memory. From John Wayne to Zane Grey to Disneyland, ideas about the West have shaped the ways we think about settlement, conquest, race, gender, and democracy. This course examines the myths that have circulated about the West alongside what has been called new western history, in an attempt to make sense of western Americans and the societies they created. Beginning with notions of the frontier, we will consider the scholarship that challenges our thinking about a region that has defied simple constructions. Alternate years. (4 credits) 224 AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY: SLAVERY, EMANCIPATION, AND RECONSTRUCTION (Same as History 224) This course explores the Afro-American experience from the villages of West Africa to the cotton plantations of the antebellum South. Considers West African social structure and culture, the international slave trade, the development of racism, the development of American slavery, the transformation of Afro-American culture over more than two centuries, the struggle, the possibilities of reconstruction, and the ultimate rise of share-cropping and segregation. Alternate years. (4 credits) 225 NATIVE AMERICAN HISTORY (Same as History 225) The history of America’s indigenous peoples is fraught with debates over methodology and narrative. In this course, we will examine the ways in which Native American histories and identities have been constructed and contested in the past and at present. Primary documents, key monographs, and Native literature will facilitate our discussion of the challenges that accompany the study of American Indian histories and cultures. Alternate years. (4 credits) 230 WOMEN AND WORK IN U.S. HISTORY (Same as History 230) An historical overview of women’s changing experiences with work (both paid and unpaid) from the mercantilist economy of colonial times to the post-industrial era of the late twentieth century. Working women come from every racial and ethnic group, and work in every sector of the economy. How did we reach this point? How does this compare to the experience of women in the early years of U.S. history? And where might working women be headed? This course is designed primarily for students who have no previous college-level background in U.S. history. Offered occasionally. (4 credits) 232 IMMIGRATION AND ETHNICITY IN U.S. HISTORY (Same as History 232) An overview of U.S. history as seen through the experiences of newly arriving and adjusting immigrant groups. This course is designed primarily for students who have no previous college-level background in U.S. history. Alternate years. (4 credits) 233 INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE U.S. WORKING CLASS (Same as History 233) This course traces the development of the U.S. working class—men and women, native-born and immigrants, black and white—from the artisan era to the post-industrial age. This course is designed primarily for students who have no previous college-level background in U.S. history. Alternate years. (4 credits) 248 JIM CROW (Same as History 248) This course examines the political, cultural, economic, and social ramifications of segregation in the United States from approximately 1865 to the present. While much of the course will focus on the South, we will also consider how racial boundaries were drawn in the West and North. The course will pay special attention to the ways racial boundaries became “fixed,” and how black men and women defied Jim Crow in the streets, courts, and in their homes. Additionally, this class examines how segregation has been forgotten and how and when it is remembered. Alternate years. (4 credits) 249 AFRICAN AMERICANS AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE CITY: 1890–1945 (Same as History 249) This course investigates two mutually influencing transformations of the first half of the twentieth century: 1) the urbanization of the Afro-American people; and 2) the emergence of the modern American metropolis as the site of congregation and segregation of distinct racial and ethnic groups. Principal points of focus for this course include the causes and patterns of black migration from the rural South to the urban North; the formation of ghettoes in major northern cities; the internal life of those ghettoes, including changing gender roles and the development of new cultural forms; and the rise of new political and social ideas within these communities. Offered occasionally. (4 credits) 250 RACE, PLACE AND SPACE (Same as Geography 250) In this discussion-based course we focus on the racialized places of U.S. cities, rural towns and suburbs in an effort to understand how social, historic, and spatial forces have colluded to bring about complex and enduring racial formations. We will look for race and related social categories in places around St. Paul and Minneapolis. By engaging theories about visuality and representation, urban development and suburban sprawl, and social movements for racial justice, we will develop a specialized vocabulary for explaining how race, place, and space are connected. This course requires prior exposure to at least one of the following areas: American Studies, human geography, sociology of race/ethnicity, or urban studies. Not offered 2009–2010 or 2010–2011. (4 credits) 254 PEOPLES AND CULTURES OF NATIVE AMERICA (Same as Anthropology 254) A survey of the traditional cultural areas of the Americas and of selected topics related to American Indians. The course introduces the peoples, languages, subsistence patterns, and social organizations in America at the time of European contact, and traces selected patterns of change that have come to these areas. Prerequisite: Anthropology 111, Cultural Anthropology. Alternate years. (4 credits) 256 TRANSATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE (Same as History 256) This class examines the Atlantic commerce in African slaves that took place roughly between 1500 and 1800. We will explore, among other topics, transatlantic commerce, the process of turning captives into commodities, the gendered dimensions of the slave trade, resistance to the trade, the world the slaves made, and the abolitionist movement on both sides of the Atlantic. Students will read a range of primary and secondary sources in order to gain a more complex understanding of the slave trade and how it changed over time. Alternate years. (4 credits) 260 RACE, CULTURAL POLITICS AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS Since the nineteenth century, the struggles for racial equality and ethnic identity formation in the United States have been situated within formal and informal social movements. This course examines the central role of culture—including music, art, performance, literature, and media—in race-based activism. We will consider various aspects of the African American freedom struggle, Asian American and Latino/a activism, and the indigenous rights movement, paying particular attention to how culture functions as a tool for organizing, group cohesion, and outreach. The course will also consider how popular culture reflects and shapes social movements. Alternate years. (4 credits) 262 ASIAN AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGY (Same as Psychology 262) This course explores the psychological experiences of Asian Americans through readings from disciplines such as psychology, sociology, Asian American Studies, as well as the popular media. The central question organizing this course is how academic research can inform the daily lived experiences of Asian Americans. Topics include racialization and racialized imagery, how behavior is shaped by prevalent stereotypes of Asian Americans, negotiating bicultural/biracial identities, transracial adoption, immigration, acculturation, and mental health, among others. Culture and Context Course. Prerequisite: Psychology 100, Introduction to Psychology. (4 credits) 270 BLACK PUBLIC INTELLECTUALS This course will address the tradition of public intellectuals in numerous Black communities. We will expand the definition of “politics” to include theatre, literature, and film. We will interrogate the concept of who chooses the scholarly leaders for Black communities. We will examine numerous topics such as Communism, The American Dream, Incarceration, Feminism, and Ebony Voices in the Ivory Tower. Spring semester. (4 credits) 280 RE-ENVISIONING EDUCATION AND DEMOCRACY (Same as Educational Studies 280 and Political Science 211) This course explores the design, implementation, and evaluation of public education policy as a primary means for engaging more active, inclusive and effective approaches to social inquiry and civic participation. Drawing from classic and contemporary theories of education and democracy, complemented by recent developments and controversies in public policy studies, students work to design innovative, principled, educationally sound and politically feasible responses to significant civic concerns. Fall semester. (4 credits) 285 ASIAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY AND IDENTITY (Same as Sociology 285) This course introduces the basic issues and problems that shape the Asian American experience. The main learning objectives are: to identify and dismantle stereotypes about Asian Americans; to create a common vocabulary for describing the Asian American experience; to explore the historical and sociological foundations of Asian American community and identity; and to cultivate an appreciation of various theoretical approaches to race and ethnicity. No prerequisites. Spring semester. (4 credits) 288 RACE AND ETHNICITY IN JAPAN (Same as Japanese 288 and International Studies 288) One of the founding myths of the modern Japanese nation-state has been the illusion of racial and ethnic homogeneity. This course aims not only to challenge this myth but also to historicize and contextualize it by investigating various racial and ethnic minorities in Japan: Ainu, Burakumin (outcasts), Okinawans, Koreans, African Americans, Nikkeijin (South Americans of Japanese descent), and Caucasians. These groups pose fundamental questions about the boundaries of “Japan” and about the meanings of “race” and “ethnicity” as categories of identification and difference. The purpose of this course is two-fold: 1) to familiarize students with the history of minority discourse in Japan, and 2) to encourage students to think critically and comparatively about race and ethnicity in general. All readings are in English or English translation. No prerequisites. Every year beginning 2010–2011. (4 credits). 300 JUNIOR CIVIC ENGAGEMENT SEMINAR: WHERE THEORY MEETS PRACTICE This innovative course will comprise a junior civic-engagement experience in the Twin Cities organized around a central theme (such as “Schools and Prisons”). The course provides a real-world urban context for students who are deeply engaged in theorizing racism and other forms of structural inequalities in the U.S. and around the globe. It is based largely outside the classroom, draws on the College’s relationships with the Twin Cities, and provides extensive opportunities for students to interact with community mentors. The course is designed primarily for juniors majoring in American Studies as a prior rigorous study of issues related to race and racism in U.S. history and contemporary social policy and social thought are needed to set the stage for the course. It is required of all American Studies majors; however, other students with equivalent preparation are welcome with permission from the instructor. A 2-credit concurrent internship may be required for this course. Fall semester. (4 credits for course plus 2 credit internship may be required.) 305 RACE, SEX AND WORK IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY (Same as Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 305) This seminar presents feminist and queer studies of global capitalism, which examine power relations under contemporary globalization in terms of the racial and sexual dynamics of labor, citizenship, and migration. Course material considers the local and transnational dynamics of free trade, labor fragmentation, and structural adjustment, as these shape industrial and informal labor, and community organizing around gender, sexuality, and HIV/AIDS. The material foregrounds ethnographic analyses of the everyday conditions of people situated in struggles with the effects of global capitalism. Prerequisite: Junior standing or permission of the instructor, and at least one intermediate-level Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies core course. Alternate years starting in 2009–2010. (4 credits) 308 INTRODUCTION TO U.S. LATINO STUDIES (Same as Hispanic Studies 308 and Latin American Studies 308) This course provides an interdisciplinary discussino of the Latino experience in the United States with a focus on Mexican, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Cuban-Americans. Using fiction, poetry, films and critical essays, we will examine issues of race and ethnicity, language, identity, gender and sexuality, politics, and immigration. Students will further engage with the Latino population of the Twin Cities by working with a local community organization. Prerequisite: Hispanic Studies 305 or consent of the instructor. Offered every semester. (4 credits) 310 COMPARATIVE FREEDOM MOVEMENTS: THE U.S. AND SOUTH AFRICA (Same as History 235) This intermediate course explores two of the most important movements to challenge institutional racism in the second half of the 20th century—the U.S. civil rights movement and the South African anti-apartheid movement. The course places both of these movements within their specific historical contexts and, therefore, opens with an examination of the historical role(s) of racism in each of these societies. It then explores dimensions of these movements in a comparative fashion: the leadership produced by both movements; the functioning of both movements and the roles played by particular cohorts (women, young people, workers, allies); the internal tensions within each movement, particularly around ideologies, strategies, and tactics; the uses of culture (music, Theatre, poetry, visual art) within each movement. We also explore the methodologies of comparative history, particularly the critique that insists that the movements’ influences on each other need to be considered. Finally, we assess the impact of each movement on its respective society. Alternate years. (4 credits) 315 TOPICS IN TRANSNATIONAL AMERICAN STUDIES The field of American Studies has changed in the last quarter century from an emphasis on American exceptionalism to a consideration of the relationships between the United States and the World. We will be particularly concerned with how American conceptions of race and ethnicity are influenced by global phenomena, and how global processes shape America’s enduring social, political and cultural structures. This course will take up varying topics on this theme, including, but not limited to, immigration, U. S. imperialism, the construction and dissolution of borders, diasporic identities, and transnational cultures. Alternate years. (4 credits) 334 CULTURAL STUDIES AND THE MEDIA (Same as Humanities, Media and Cultural Studies 334) An overview of contemporary approaches to media as culture, a determining as well as determined sphere in which people make sense of the world, particularly in terms of ethnicity, gender, identity, and social inequality. Students develop tools for analyzing media texts and accounts of audience responses derived from the international field of cultural studies and from the social theory on which it draws. Analysis emphasizes specificity of media texts, including advertisements, films, news reports, and television shows. Experience in cooperative discussion, research, and publication. Prerequisite: Humanities, Media and Cultural Studies 110, or permission of instructor. Every year. (4 credits) 340 LIVING ON THE EDGE: THE ASIAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE (Same as Asian Languages and Cultures 340) The Asian American experience will be used to examine the role of cultural heritage in how one views oneself, one’s own ethnic group and the dominant culture. This interdisciplinary course consists of experiencing the art, reading the literature and history, and discussing the current issues of several Asian American communities. Topics include the role of women, stereotype, racism and assimilation. Alternate years. (4 credits) 341 URBAN SOCIAL GEOGRAPHY (Same as Geography 341) Urban social geography is the study of social and spatial dimensions of city life. In this course, we will explore some of the ways in which urban society is organized geographically. We will also consider the implications of urban social geographies for public policy on three issues of contemporary significance in the American context: (1) racial residential segregation; (2) sprawl and urban redevelopment; and (3) social well-being and the urban built environment. Race, class, and gender relationships are at the heart of these issues. This course therefore also considers how relationships of race, class and gender affect and is affected by the urban landscape. Prerequisites: Geography 112, 241, or 262 or permission of instructor. Spring semester. (4 credits) 345 RACE, CULTURE AND ETHNICITY IN EDUCATION (Same as Educational Studies 340) This survey course will explore history, policy, and pedagogy as they relate to race, ethnicity, and culture as education. K–12 public education will be the primary focus with topics including desegregation, standardized testing, multi-cultural and ethnocentric pedagogy, the teacher’s role and experience, and significant historical events in education. The course will culminate by analyzing current trends and future expectations in education. Fall semester. (4 credits) 350 AMERICAN POP, ROCKABILITY, AND SOUL, 1954-64 (same as Music 350) This course provides an in-depth look at one crucial period in American popular-music history, addressing in particular the roles that racial categories played in the production, dissemination, and reception of music in three dominant streams within the culture of American popular music. Topics for close study will include: Sam Philips’s practices of recording of black and white musicians for Sun Studios in Memphis during the 1950s; the early “crossover” hits of such recording artists as Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley; the doo wop repertory and theories of whiteness; issues of race, gender, and sexuality in the music of the “girl groups”; and a comparison of white-owned Stax Records and black-owned Motown in the early-mid 1960s. This course is intended for upper-level majors and minors in Music and American Studies. Alternate years. (4 credits) 354 BLACKNESS IN THE MEDIA (Same as Humanities and Media and Cultural Studies 354) This course examines mainstream and alternative systems of African American representation in the media from the 1820s to the 1960s, including race records, race movies, the Black press, Black video, and Black appeal radio. It also examines the way Blackness is constructed in the media today, including the role of new media (such as cable and the Internet); new corporate formations (such as FOX, UPN, and BET), and new forms of representation (such as representations that reject the Black-White binary). Prerequisite: one of the following: an introduction to African American Studies course, or Texts and Power: Foundations of Cultural Studies (Humanities and Media and Cultural Studies 110), or permission of instructor. Every year. (4 credits) 370 UNDERSTANDING AND CONFRONTING RACISM (Same as Psychology 370) An examination of the social psychological factors associated with race prejudice and racism, particularly in the United States. Focusing on the psychological theories proposed to understand racism, this course investigates the causes and consequences of racism at the individual, interpersonal, institutional and cultural levels of society. Special attention will be given to exploring interventions to reduce racism. Culture and Context course. Prerequisites: Psychology 100, Psychology 201 or Math 153/154/155, and Psychology 254 or two American Studies classes or permission of the instructor. Offered once each year. (4 credits) 380 TOPICS IN TWENTIETH CENTURY AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE (Same as English 380) This course will explore African American cultural production during the twentieth century and, depending on the instructor, may focus on a particular genre (e.g., novels, short stories, drama, poetry, detective fiction, speculative fiction, film), or on a particular period (e.g., the Harlem Renaissance, the 1950s, the Black Arts Movement, the Contemporary), or on a particular theme (e.g., African American Women’s Writing, the Politics of Modern African American Literature), or on a particular author (e.g., Du Bois, Hughes, Hurston, Wright, Brooks, Baldwin, Wideman, Morrison, Parks). Alternate years. (4 credits) 400 SENIOR SEMINAR: CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES IN AMERICAN STUDIES The Senior Capstone is required of all majors. Majors who meet college criteria are encouraged to conduct an honors project in conjunction with their Senior Capstone. Spring semester.(4 credits) 440 CONTEMPORARY U.S. LATINO POPULAR CULTURE (Same as Hispanic Studies 440 and Latin American Studies 440) This course analyzes various kinds of contemporary Latina/o cultural work including film, music, websites, comics, and art. Central to this class will be an examination of how popular culture can both reproduce and challenge racial, secual, gender, class and national identity formation within various U.S. Latino communities. Prerequisite: Hispanic Studies/American Studies/Latin American Studies 308 or consent of the instructor. Offered alternate years. (4 credits) 444 THE FAMILY AS HISTORY: THE STORIES OF U.S. LATINOS (Same as Hispanic Studies 444) The course will examine and compare the stories of Latinas/os in the U.S. as told by themselves. Students will read authors of Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican, and Mexican-American origin. We will place a special emphasis on practices and values held both here and in the cultures of origin. The course will cover such subjects as family, social and economic struggles, individual aspirations and spiritual needs. The course will highlight language issues and use film to complement the readings. Prerequisite: Hispanic Studies 307 or consent of the instructor. Alternate years. (4 credits) 604 TUTORIAL Closely supervised individual or small group study with a faculty member. A student may explore, by way of readings, short writings, etc., an area of study not available through the regular catalog offerings. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor. Every semester. (1-4 credits) 614 INDEPENDENT STUDY Closely supervised independent study with a faculty member. Students may explore, through reading and writing or independent research, an area of knowledge not available through regular course offerings. Prerequisite: successful completion of the introductory course and permission of a faculty member in American Studies. Every semester. (1-4 credits) 624 INTERNSHIP Majors are encouraged to take an internship after the Civic Engagement seminar. All internships require the approval of a professor in the American Studies department. Every semester. (1-4 credits) 634 PRECEPTORSHIP Prerequisite: permission of the instructor. Students may arrange to precept a course with a department member. They will normally be expected to attend the course, do the reading and participate in discussion, look over student writing, and provide guidance or tutor as necessary. Every semester. (4 credits)
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