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. Every year.

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.

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.

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.

Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.

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.

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. May be repeated one time for credit. Every fall.

Americans, at least since the Founding era, have cherished the ideal of political equality. Unlike European nations, the United States did not inherit economic class distinctions from a feudal past. But time and again, American social reformers and mass movements have highlighted inconsistencies between the value of equality and the actual practice of democracy. Through the extension of rights to citizens who were previously excluded or treated as second-class citizens, such as women and African Americans, the polity has become more inclusive. But over the last three decades American citizens have grown increasingly unequal in terms of income and wealth. The central question posed by this course is the implications of such vast economic inequality for American democracy. Do these disparities between citizens curtail, limit, and perhaps threaten the functioning of genuinely representative governance? In this course will 1) Explore what other social scientists, mostly economists and sociologists, know about contemporary inequality, particularly in terms of its causes, manifestation, and socio-economic effects; 2) Consider the concept of inequality in political theory and in American political thought, and; 3) Examine the current relationship between economic inequality and each of three major aspects of the American political system: political voice, representation, and public policy.

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. Offered alternate years.

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.

Historian Daniel Richter once wrote, "for better or worse, native history belongs to all of us." What could Richter have meant by this statement? What is native history and why would it belong to "all of us?" The history of America covers a much longer span than that usually covered in U.S. history courses. The coasts, plains and mountains of the North American continent may have been a "new world" to European traders and explorers, but to the two million people who already inhabited these lands, America was as much the "old world" as was Europe. In this course we will examine the history of North America from the age of contact to the end of the 19th century. Instead of approaching American Indian history from the perspective of Europeans, we will attempt to reconstruct the history of 16th-19th century North Americans from an indigenous perspective. In our class meetings, Mondays and Wednesday will be devoted to chronologically-oriented, broad issues in American Indian history prior to 1900. Alternate years.

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.

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.

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.

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. Spring semester.

Comparative study of Latino and Latina political struggles in the United States. We will explore the themes of subordination and empowerment through issues such as anti-immigrant ballot initiatives in California, the election of Latino mayors in Denver and San Antonio, Cuban dominance in Miami politics, multiracial violence in Los Angeles, and battles over labor conditions, affirmative action, bi-lingual education, and racial profiling. Student projects will involve field research among the Latino communities and organizations of the Twin Cities. Cross-listed with political science. Alternate years.

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. Offered alternate years.

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.

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. Offered occasionally.

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. Alternate years.

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.

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.

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. Counts as a UP³ course.

This course will address the tradition of public intellectuals in numerous Black communities. We will expand the definition of "politics" to include theater, 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.

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.

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.

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. Offered every year.

Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.

Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.

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.

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. Alternate years.

Provides an interdisciplinary discussion of the Latina/o 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. Every semester.

This advanced 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, theater, 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. Every other year.

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 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.

The Mellon Seminar is for students who are the recipients of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship. The course is interdisciplinary, in order to meet the needs of students across the Mellon-designated fields. They will develop their academic interests to the fullest, with the intent to enter Ph.D. programs, and careers in higher education. We will cover topics such as "contemporary issues in higher education," "the politics of knowledge production," and "preparing to apply to graduate school." This course is designed to train students who will purse PhDs and subsequent careers in academia in selected core fields in the Arts and Sciences. Our objective is to prepare for the Professoriate. May be repeated for credit when the topic differs.

This interdisciplinary course will employ the methodologies of cultural and media studies within an historical framework to ask: What roles did "race" (the presence of diverse races; the relationships among those groups of people; the construction and representation of racial identities; the linking of material privileges and power to racial locations) play in the development of the United States? How have relationships of class, gender, ethnicity, and sexuality been linked to "race"? How has "race" been a site of struggle between groups? How is the present a product of historical experiences? Our coursework will rely on reading historical studies, theory, cultural analysis, and memoirs, and on viewing and analyzing cultural performances and films. This course is designed for students with experience in history, cultural studies, African American Studies and/or American Studies. Alternate years.

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. Every year.

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.

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 how the spatial patterns of urban life influence public policy issues in the American context. Topics covered in this course include causes of racial segregation, debates about gentrification, sustainable suburban development, the transition from government to governance in cities, and the delivery of urban services that affect the education, health and economic welfare of urban populations. Students will learn current research, engage debates about critical urban issues, and learn techniques useful for analyzing spatial patterns in the urban landscape.

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 arts 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. The course will move from a broad overview of the era at the beginning of the semester, through a discussion of conceptual, critical, and methodological issues, and into more detailed case studies of various recording artists, institutions, and repertories. The course aims to examine ways in which social and historical constructions of race operated on many levels, from the national industry (e.g., the Billboard charts), to regional and local scenes (e.g., the studio and "space/place" theory), to performative, technological, and aesthetic realms that intersect directly with issues of subjectivity and identity. This course is intended for upper-level majors and minors in Music and American Studies. It is designated as a seminar and not a lecture course; students will be responsible for leading class on a regular basis, coming prepared with handouts and sets of questions/topics for discussion. Generally offered alternate years.

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). Every year.

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.

This course will explore African American cultural production and, depending on the instructor, may focus on a particular genre (e.g. novels, short stories, drama, poetry, detective fiction, speculative fiction), or a particular theme (e.g. The Protest Tradition, Black Feminist Writings), or on a particular period (e.g. the 1820s-1860s, the Harlem Renaissance, the 1950s), or on a particular author or authors (e.g. Douglass, Du Bois, Baldwin, Wideman, Morrison, Parks). Alternate years.

The great African American writer Langston Hughes (1902-1967) is best known as the poet laureate of the Harlem Renaissance.  But his career was vaster still.  He was a Soviet screenwriter, Spanish Civil War journalist, African literary anthologist, humorist, playwright, translator, social critic, writer of over 10,000 letters, and much more.  This course engages Hughes's full career, bridging race and global issues, politics and art, and makes use of little-known archival materials.

Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.

Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.

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.

Examine and compare the stories of Latinas/os in the United States 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. This course satisfies the Area 4 requirement for the Hispanic & Latin American Studies major. Offered occasionally.

The border region between the United States and Mexico exists as both a physical space and an ideological construct. This seminar uses literary and filmic narratives to explore issues of identity, opportunity, and violence that arise from this contested space. How does the border shape individual and cultural identities? In what ways does the border create opportunities for both advancement and exploitation? How do these works engage conflicts and tensions of race, nationalism, gender, and power? The course will include writers and filmmakers from both countries, and we will read original texts both in Spanish and English. Offered occasionally.

Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.

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. Every semester.

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. Every semester.

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. Every semester.

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. Every semester.

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. Every semester.

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. Every semester.

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. Every semester.

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. Every semester.

Majors are encouraged to take an internship after the Civic Engagement seminar. Every semester.

Majors are encouraged to take an internship after the Civic Engagement seminar. Every semester.

Majors are encouraged to take an internship after the Civic Engagement seminar. Every semester.

Majors are encouraged to take an internship after the Civic Engagement seminar. Every semester.

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.

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.

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.

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.