Upcoming Courses

Courses in Ethnic Studies Fall 2009

Ethnic Studies Core Courses:

SOAN 225 Race/Ethnicity: Global Perspective T,TH 9:40-11:10 am Rima DasGupta
Sociological and anthropological analysis of how the notions of racial and ethnic groups, nations and nationalities, indigenous and non-indigenous groups, and states and citizenships have evolved cross- culturally. How they might be reconfiguring in the present context of economic globalization, mass migrations, and diasporic formations. Causes and consequences of the recent resurgence of ethnicity and the content, scope, and proposals of ethnic movements.

HIST 330 Race/Ethnicity American History T,TH 1:50-3:20 pm Reiko Hillyer
The distinct experiences and culture of African-Americans in relation to other minority ethnic and racial groups. The uniqueness of the African-American experience; racism and prejudice; strategies of accommodation and resistance including gender and family relationships; the development of liberation movements. Readings of first-person narratives, secondary sources.

Ethnic Studies Electives:

Social Science Courses

COMM 313 Politics of Public Memory T 6:00-9:00 pm Mitch Reyes
Investigation of public memory as the public negotiation of the past for political purposes in the present. Course explores how different cultures have remembered and rhetorically constructed traumatic historical events such as the Holocaust and institutionalized slavery. Consideration of the role of communication and persuasion in public acts of remembrance.

COMM 445 Communications, Race, and Social Justice T 9:40-11:10 am (2 cr) Mitch Reyes
Course explores scholarship on race and social justice through the community-based Heroes of Color program, a mentoring program in local inter-racial public schools. Theoretical and methodological frameworks for understanding the role of communication in negotiating racial issues and fostering social justice will be explored through readings, class discussion, writing assignments, and applied field learning experience..

SOAN 274 Chinese Culture Through Film M 3:00-4:40 pm; TH 3:30-5:00 pm Jennifer Hubbert
Pairing contemporary ethnographic studies with Chinese feature films as an additional ethnographic source of political and cultural expression and critique, to explore cultural and social change in the late 20th and early 21st century China. Particular attention paid to the effects of the political economy on changing family, gender, labor, class, ethnicity, and youth culture formations.

SOAN 275 Africa: Social/Cultural Perspective M 3:00- 04:30 pm; TH 3:30 - 5:00pm Tim Mechlinski
The diverse peoples of Africa from precolonial times to the present day. Comparisons of religion and aesthetic expression based on political, economic, and social organization. Historical and ethnographic readings challenging the stereotypical view of a continent of isolated, unchanging tribes. Processes such as migration, trade, conquest, and state formation that have brought African societies into contact with one another and with other continents since prehistoric times.

SOAN285 Culture/Power in the Middle East M,W 11:30 am-1:00 pm Oren Kosansky
Introduction to the diverse cultures of Islam. Anthropological approaches to Islam as a religion. Developing a critical awareness of stereotypical views of Muslim peoples and politics. Emphasis on gender, particularly women and Islam. and Europe.

SOAN 350 Global Inequality T,TH 9:40-11:10am Tim Mechlinski
Issues in the relationships between First World and Third World societies, including colonialism and transnational corporations, food and hunger, women's roles in development. Approaches to overcoming problems of global inequality.

SOAN 356 Nationalism & Identity in Japan M,W 11:30 am-1:00 pm Linda Angst
This course examine the classic literature on the rise of nationalism, then moves to a study of the case of modern Japan as the non-Western example par excellence of modern nation- building at the end of the 19th century. Questions about how Japan fits the Western model of nation-state formation, but also departs from the model as an example of an alternate modernity. We examine the historical production of official narratives of national identity through "assimilation" processes, both violent and non- violent, of culturally distinct minority groups as well as forms of resistance by those groups. Issues of center and periphery "civilization" and frontier in the processes of making modern state and citizen, with implications for contemporary Japanese identity.

Arts & Humanities Courses

HIST 141 Colonial Latin American History T,TH 9:40-11:10 am Elliott Young
Confrontation with the complexity of modern Latin American through historical analysis of the roots of contemporary society, politics, and culture.

HIST 229 The Holocaust in Comparative Perspective T,TH 9:40-11:10 am Maureen Healy
Introduces students to the history of genocide in the twentieth century. We will look at three instances of genocide (Armenia, Holocaust, Rwanda) in their distinct historical contexts and from them identify the components of "modern" mass killings. We will look at the ways that historical actors have challenged the enlightenment ideal of humanity--a unified body of all people--by excluding some people from the category human.

HIST 348 Modern Cuba T,TH 1:50 - 03:20 pm Elliott Young
Development of the modern Cuban nation from the independence movement of the mid-19th century to the contemporary socialist state. Focus on how identity changed under the Spanish colonial, U.S. neocolonial, Cuban republic, and revolutionary states. 1840s-1898: wars of independence, slavery, and transition to free labor. 1898-1952: U.S. occupation and neocolonialism, Afrocubanismo, and populism. 1952-present: Castro revolution, socialism, U.S.-Cuban-Soviet relations.

MUS 306 World Music: Latin American/Caribbean M,W 11:30 am-1:00 pm Franya Berkman
Survey of musical traditions and styles of the Caribbean and Middle and South America, including Afro-Cuban music, salsa, Latin jazz, and folk music of the Andes. Study of the music, instruments, and performance through readings, recordings, live

performance when possible. Historical developments, how the music is used. Social function, political context, art, poetry, literature, religion as they assist in understanding the music and its culture.

SPAN 360 Latin American & Spain: Pre-Columbia to Baroque M,W,F 1:50-2:50 pm Juan Carlos Toledano
Introduction to major trends in Latin American and Spanish literature from the beginnings to the Baroque period. Selected works from Latin American and Spain read in the context of cultural and historical events.

SPAN 410 Major Periods in Spanish Literature M,W,F 12:40-1:40 pm Matthieu P. Raillard
Introduction to the literature and culture of Spain in the context of the historical background. Major trends in Spanish literature. Readings of selected texts by writers representative of major periods of literary history.