Fall 2002

This information effective for Fall 2002.
Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.

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American Studies

[AMST-002] [AMST-080C] [AMST-101A] [AMST-150]

2. California and the Californians

Lectures (Oakes 105), TTh 4:00-5:45
Film Series (Oakes 105), Th 7:30-10:00
Optional Section: M 5-6:10 Cowell Acad 216
Teaching Assistants: Kim Bird; Greg Caldwell; Sarah Hirsch (Office Hours TBA)

Instructor: Forrest Robinson
Office Hours (Oakes 205): T 3:00-4:00; F 10:30-11:30

Course Description:

This course is an introduction to American Studies. It grounds its approach to its subject in historical narrative, but ranges widely through literature, architecture, film, photography, autobiography, travel writing, and varieties of popular culture. The emphasis throughout is on diversity-of people, of places, and of approaches to them. It is the goal of the course to bring students to an enhanced understanding of California and its place in the larger world.

Attendance is required at all lectures and film screenings. The roll will be taken. More than two unexcused absences from required meetings will be grounds for a No Record in the course. Assigned reading must be completed on time. There will be occasional quizzes. The weekly discussion section is optional. Students are encouraged to attend and participate, but the roll will not be taken.

Each student will be assigned to one of the three Teaching Assistants. The TAs will be responsible for monitoring attendance, evaluating written work, grading examinations, and meeting with students at regular office hours. Get to know your TA!

There are three required essays. The first and second essays, of 3-4 pages, on topics to be assigned in class, will be due on Thursday, October 10, and Thursday, November 7. The final essay, of 5-7 pages, on a topic to be selected in consultation with your TA, will be due on Thursday, November 28.

The final examination is scheduled for W Dec 4, 12-3 PM, in Oakes 105

The following texts are required reading for the course. The books are on sale at the Literary Guillotine, at 204 Locust Street in downtown Santa Cruz. The course reader is on sale at the Bay Tree Bookstore. It is also on 2-hour reserve at McHenry.

• Sucheng Chan and Spencer C. Olin (eds.), Major Problems in California History (MPCH)
  
• John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra
  
• Nathanael West, The Day of the Locust
• American Studies 2 Class Reader (Reader)

Weekly Schedule

Th Sept 19 Introduction

Tu Sept 24 California History: An Overview

MPCH Chapter 1
Reader Selection 1

Th Sept 26 The California Dream/Nightmare

Reader Selections 2-5

Film: True West

Tu Oct 1 The California Indians

MPCH Chapters 2-3
Reader Selection 6

Th Oct 3 Mexican California

MPCH Chapter 4
Reader Selection 7

Film: Ishi, The Last Yahi

Tu Oct 8 The Gold Rush I

Reader Selections 8-11, 14

Th Oct 10 The Gold Rush II

Reader Selections 12-13, First Essay Due

Film: Zoot Suit

Tu Oct 15 The Chinese in California

Reader Selection 15

Th Oct 17 The Decline of the Californios

MPCH Chapter 5
Reader Selection 16

Film: "Ancestors in the Americas" and "Forbidden City USA"

Tu Oct 22 The Railroad

MPCH Chapter 7
Reader Selection 17

Th Oct 24 The Myth of Southern California

Reader Selections 18 and 20 ("The Mission San Juan Capistrano")

Film: Double Indemnity

Tu Oct 29 The Emergence of Los Angeles

Reader Selections 19 and 20

Th Oct 31 Water

MPCH Chapter 6

Film: Chinatown

Tu Nov 5 Nature

John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra
Reader Selection 21

Th Nov 7 The California Progressives

MPCH Chapter 8, Second Essay Due

Film: Citizen Kane

Tu Nov 12 Hollywood

MPCH Chapter 9

Th Nov 14 California Architecture

Nathanael West, The Day of the Locust

Film: Sunset Boulevard

Tu Nov 19 The Depression

MPCH Chapter 10

Th Nov 21 World War II

MPCH Chapters 11-12

Film: The Grapes of Wrath

Tu Nov 26 Protest and Rebellion in the Sixties

MPCH Chapter 13
Reader Selection 22

Th Nov 28 Final Essay Due

Film: Blade Runner

W Dec 4 Final Examination (12:00-3:00 in Oakes 105)

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80C. Introduction to Asian American Studies

Instructor: Judy Yung
MWF 2:00–3:10 p.m.
College Eight 240
TAs: Kevin Fellezs and Becky Hurdis

e-mail: yung@cats.ucsc.edu
Office: Oakes 207, 459-4725
Office hours: Wed.3:30–5 p.m., or by appointment

Course Description:

This course introduces students to the history, politics, and culture of Asian Americans (primarily the Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, Asian Indians, Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians) since their arrival in the mid-19th century to present day. Each Asian ethnic group is different in terms of their respective histories and cultures, but they share a common legacy of discrimination and exclusion as "Orientals" in their quest to become an equal part of America. In order for us to understand the complexities of who Asian Americans are, we need to analyze the past and present, high points and low points, and similarities and differences among them. Specifically, we will be looking at immigration and settlement patterns of the first wave and post-1965 wave of Asian emigrants; World War II as a watershed for all groups, but particularly Japanese Americans; multiple identities in terms of ethnicity, generation, class, nationality, sexual orientation, family makeup, and mixed race; and group efforts to attain political and cultural empowerment. Students should come away from this course with a better understanding of how socioeconomic and political developments in the United States and Asia have shaped and transformed Asian Americans and in turn, how Asian Americans have also influenced U.S. history and society.

The weekly discussion sections are mandatory and intended to provide students with the opportunity to converse about course material, issues, and assignments in a smaller group setting. Students will be expected to keep up with reading assignments and to turn in all written assignments on time. Students with more than three unexcused absences will not be able to pass the course.

Reading List

1. Ronald Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans
2. Helen Zia, Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People
3. Reader of essays on electronic reserve at McHenry Library (password = AMST80C)
4. One of the following Asian American books:

• Carlos Bulosan, America Is in the Heart (autobiography of a Filipino migrant worker and writer)
  
• Mary Paik Lee, Quiet Odyssey: A Pioneer Korean Woman in America
  
• John Okada, No-No Boy (post WWII Japanese American experience)
  
• Fae Ng, Bone (a novel set in contemporary San Francisco Chinatown)
  
• Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies (short stories about Asian Indian lives)
  
• Andrew Pham, Catfish and Mandala: A Two-wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam
  

(All books are available at Bay Tree Bookstore and Slug Books, and on reserve at McHenry Library.)

Course Requirements:

• Attendance in lectures and participation in discussion section (15% of the grade)
• 2–4 page book review due 10/21/02 (25%)
• 2–4 page op-ed position paper due 11/13/02 (25%)
• Final exam on 12/3/02, 4–7 p.m. (35%)

Course Web Site: http://ic.ucsc.edu/~yung/amst80c

This course web site will provide outlines for lectures that will be posted before the class meets. Students are encouraged to print these outlines and bring them to class. The web site will also have details on the written assignments and study questions for the final exam. Students can also use the web site to obtain e-reserve reading to send messages to their TA or the instructor.

Schedule of Topics, Films, and Reading Assignments:

(Be sure to complete reading assignments before lecture dates. All films will be shown in class that day and will be on reserve at McHenry Library for the remainder of the quarter.)

Sep 18	Introduction to the Course
Sep 20-Oct 2 9/20 9/23 9/25 9/27 9/30 10/2	First Wave of Asian Migration Read: Takaki, pp. xi-75 View: http://www.cetel.org Film: "Ancestors in America: Sailors, Coolies, & Settlers" (VT5869.1) Read: Takaki, pp. 77-176 Read: Takaki, pp. 177-269 Read: Takaki, pp. 270-314 Read: Takaki, pp. 315-354 Film: "Dollar a Day, Ten Cents a Dance" (VT2161)
Oct 4-7 10/4 10/7	Watershed of World War II Read: Takaki, pp. 355-405 Read: Takaki, pp. 406-420
Oct 9-16 10/9 10/11 10/14 10/16 10/18	New Immigration and Refugees Read: Takaki, pp. 420-448 Read: Ong, Bonacich, & Cheng, "Political Economy of Capitalist Restructuring and the New Asian Immigration" (e-res) Read: Takaki, pp. 448-509 Guest speaker: Alice Yang Murray Read: Ngin, "The Acculturation Pattern of Orange County's Southeast Asian Refugees" (e-res) Film: "A.K.A. Don Bonus" (VT4392) Read: Cheng & Yang, "The 'Model Minority' Deconstructed" (e-res)
Oct 21-30 10/21 10/23 10/25 10/28 10/30	Political Empowerment Read: Omatsu, "Four Prisons and Movements of Liberation" (e-res) Book review due at beginning of class Read: Zia, pp. 3-20, 55-106 Film: "Who Killed Vincent Chin?" (VT1699) Read: Zia, pp. 82-108, 166-194 Guest speaker: Nancy Kim Read: Zia, pp. 139-165, 195-223 Read: Zia, pp. 281-319; Zia, "Oh, Say, Can You See? Post 9/11" (e-res)
Nov 1-13 11/1 11/4 11/6 11/8 11/11 11/13	Families and Multiple Identities Read: Parrenas, "New Household Forms, Old Family Values: The Formation and Reproduction of the Filipino Transnational Family in Los Angeles" (e-res) Read: Pang & Shinagawa, "Asian American Pan-ethnicity and Intermarriage" (e-res) Read: Ragaza, "All of the Above" (e-res) Film: "Banana Split" (VT4844) Read: Hurdis, "Heartbroken: Women of Color Feminism and the Third Wave" (e-res) Guest speaker: Becky Hurdis Holiday—No class Read: Zia, pp. 227-251 Op-Ed paper due at beginning of class
Nov 15-25 11/15 11/18 11/20 11/22 11/25	Cultural Representations and Practices Read: Zia, pp. 109-135 Read: Jun Xing, "A Cinema in the Making" (e-res) Film: "Slaying the Dragon" (VT1574) View: http://naatanet.org Read: Zia, pp. 252-280 Read: Wang, "Between the Notes: Finding Asian America in Popular Music" (e-res) Guest speaker: Kevin Fellezs
Nov 27	Conclusions and Review for Final
Dec 3	Final Exam (4-7 p.m.) - Bring Blue Books

101A. Whiteness in U.S. History

Note: This course has been cancelled

Fall 2002
Call Number: 98876
MWF, 12:30–1:40
Porter 144

Instructor: Joel Wilson, jwilson@cats.ucsc.edu
Office Hours: TBA & by appointment

Course Description:

This course analyzes the ways in which "white" identities have been constructed in the history of the United States over the last 150 years. Mainstream social and political discourse has long considered whiteness an apolitical, normative classification of people of European descent. However, scholars from a variety of disciplines have, over the previous decade, found inspiration in a tradition of African American scholarship and postcolonial studies to demonstrate how various forms of white identity have shaped the American past politically, socially, economically, and culturally. This course will consider the historically contingent ways in which white identities have been articulated since the end of the Civil War and their divisive impact upon American society. We will also explore attempts by various historical actors and movements to render visible and weaken white racial privilege in American society.

Throughout the course, students will be asked to evaluate a variety of source materials with several core questions in mind: What is the relationship between whiteness and various forms of power? Has whiteness informed the development of the American nation-state? When, how, and why have different ethnic groups "become" white in American history? How have white identities reinforced or undercut prevailing gendered identities? What are the relationships between class and a white racial identity? What are some of the different ways in which white identities have been destabilized historically?

Course Requirements:

We look at a complicated topic this quarter—the articulation of white racial projects in a variety of historical conjunctures—requiring you to master a wide array of source material. Therefore, it is important for you to remain current with your reading and to attend section and lecture. Your evaluation this quarter will be based upon your performance on three 5-6 page papers, assigned in the third, sixth, and ninth weeks of the course; your performance on the final examination; and your attendance and participation in weekly discussion section. Each paper will be worth 20% of your evaluation, the final will be worth 20%, and your participation in section will comprise the remaining 20%.

Course Texts (available at the bookstore):

• Course reader
  
• Gary Gerstle, American Crucible
  
• Grace Elizabeth Hale, Making Whiteness
  
• Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States: from the 1960s to the 1990s
  
  

Weekly Schedule

Week 1
September 18
Course introduction: Why study whiteness?

September 20
Exploring linkages between notions of race, class, and gender

Reading: Roediger, Wages of Whiteness, introduction; Saxton, Rise and Fall of the White Republic, introduction; Ruth Frankenberg, White Women, Race Matters, selections.

Week 2
September 23
Restoring the White Republic, Redeeming the South: the End of Reconstruction

September 25
The White Man's Burden: Reimagining and Conquering the West

September 27
Defining the Nation, Making the West Safe for White Labor: Asian Exclusion and Immigration Legislation

Reading: Alexander Saxton, Rise and Fall of the White Republic, selections; and Gerstle, American Crucible, introduction and chapter 1

Week 3
September 30
White Man's Burden II: Building American Empire in Spain and the Philippines

October 2: Paper Topic # 1 passed out
National Reconciliation? The Birth of Segregation and the Revival of Racial Nationalism

October 4
Whiteness visible: Birth of a Nation

Reading: Grace Elizabeth Hale, Making Whiteness: The Culture of Segregation in the South, selections

Week 4
October 7
Disciplinary Agendas of Progressivism

October 9: Paper #1 Due
Retrenching the Color Line after World War I: Race Riots and Red Scare

October 11
Whites through Black Eyes: Marcus Garvey, a Black Nationalist Response

Reading: Gerstle, American Crucible, chapters 2-3; Hale, Making Whiteness, selections; Bruce Nelson, Divided We Stand, selections

Week 5
October 14
Ku Klux Klan Redux: 100% Americanism for Whom?

October 16
A New Deal for All Americans? The Racial Politics of the New Deal.

October 18
Conflicting Racial Agendas of Labor in the 1930s

Reading: Kathleen Blee, Women of the Klan, selections; Devra Weber, Dark Sweat, White Gold, selections; Neil Foley, White Scourge, selections; Peggy Pascoe, "Miscegenation Law, Court Cases, and Ideologies of 'Race' in 20th Century America"

Week 6
October 21
"The Good War": Expanding the Boundaries of White Identity

October 23: Paper Topic #2 passed out
Representing the Nation's Enemies in World War II

October 25
War as Americanizing (whitening) Force
Film: Guadalcanal Diary

Reading: Dower, War without Mercy, selections; Takaki, Double V, selections.

Week 7
October 28
Maintaining the Color Line: Internment, Zoot Suits, and Race Riots

October 30: Paper #2 Due
Fork in the Road: Pursuing Anti-Fascism or Anti-Communism?

November 1
Looking Ahead, Looking Back: Postwar Urban America

Reading: Kelley, Race Rebels, selections; Sugrue, Origins of the Urban Crisis, selections.

Week 8
November 4
Liberal Challenge to White Identity, Anti-Communist Response

November 6
Legal Underpinnings of White Privilege

November 8
The South Rises Again: Massive Resistance and the Southern Manifesto

Reading: "‘I Wanted the Whole World to See’: Race, Gender, and Constructions of Motherhood in the Death of Emmett Till"; Gerstle, American Crucible, selections.

Week 9
November 11
Holiday: no class

November 13
Civic Nationalism Ascendant: the Civil Rights Challenge to White Supremacy

November 15
Coming Apart: Whiteness and the Collapse of the Liberal Consensus

Reading: Gerstle, American Crucible, selections; Blauner, Black Lives, White Lives, selections.

Week 10
November 18
Black Power, Asian American Movement, and La Raza: Imagining a New Nation

November 20
The New Left and White Skin Privilege

November 22
The Politics of White Rage, from Goldwater to Reagan

Reading: Omi and Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, chapters 6-7; Rossinow, The Politics of Authenticity, selections; Frederickson, Black Liberation, selections.

Week 11
November 25
Cosmopolitanism or Pluralism? Searching for Postethnic America

November 27
New and Old Forms of White Supremacy

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150. Jews and Judaism in America

Instructor: Ron Feldman
e-mail: rhfeld@ucsc.edu
Office Hours: Th 1:30–2:30 or by appointment
Office: Oakes 331

Course Description

This course will examine the contemporary American Jewish community with a focus on how issues of religion, race, ethnicity, and gender have impacted the formation of individual and group identity in a multicultural society. We will approach this subject by focusing on a series of topics as we seek out the ideas, history and images that negotiate the boundaries of Jewishness. We will examine both the "internal" tensions among Jews as well as "external" tensions between Jews and the larger non-Jewish society. Particular attention will be paid to the various impacts of the women's movement, the Holocaust, Israel, and religious revival.

Structure of the Class

The classroom meetings will include lecture and discussion. In lieu of sections, the class will be divided into subgroups of roughly 3–5 students that will arrange to meet weekly for at least one hour outside of class for more intimate and informal discussion of the issues. Some of the written projects will include group work.

Course Requirements and Basis for Evaluation

Participation: Students are expected to read assigned course material prior to class, attend all class and group sessions, and actively participate in discussion (15% of grade).

Written assignments:

1. Interview paper (15% of grade): Pair up with a classmate (or do a three-way if you want). Interview a classmate (preferably from your group) and write about how they define their identity. Questions to be addressed might include:
   
   • Which aspects are subject to choice, which are not?
     
   • Which are central, which peripheral?
     
   • Why are certain aspects important while others unimportant—to you and/or to your cultural environment?
     
2. Antisemitism paper (15% of grade): Your group will do research and present a summary to the class on a particular aspect of antisemitism (to be arranged with the instructor). The presentation will be brief (about 8-10 minutes) to be accompanied by a one page summary or outline to be given to your fellow students.
   
3. Film paper (15% of grade): Your group will view, summarize, and critique one film from the film list below (to be arranged with the instructor); each group will view a different film. You will present your findings to the class in a brief presentation (8-10 minutes), accompanied by a one page summary or outline to be given to your fellow students.
   
4. Response papers (20% of grade): The weeks during which the above three papers are not due you will be expected to turn in a one page weekly response paper to the readings for that week at the end of class on the Tuesday of that week. The paper is expected to include the following:
   • A summary of the theses or argument(s) of the reading(s) assigned.
     
   • Your response, i.e., what you found most exciting, significant or problematic, and the reason(s) why.
     
   • Three questions that the material raises for you that you would want to discuss with your group or in class.
     
5. Final Exam (20% of grade): A take home essay on subject(s) to be provided (5-6 pages). This is not a group project. This must be turned in by Wed Dec 4 at 11:00AM. They are to be handed in at the Oakes Faculty Service office (there will be a box).

Notes on Format for written assignments:

1. Assignments 1–4 will be computer generated and printed single-spaced on one sheet of white paper using 11 or 12 pt. Times Roman font with 1¼-inch borders all around.
   
2. The Final Essay will be double spaced with the same font and margin (with page numbers).
   
3. Student(s) name(s) and date should appear at the top of the paper along with an appropriate title for the paper. Names must be printed, not handwritten.
   
4. Papers must be grammatically correct and checked for spelling; otherwise they will be returned for correction.
   

Reading list (Note: All books and reader are available at Slug Books)::

Required:

• Course reader
  
• Prell, Fighting to Become Americans: Assimilation and the Trouble between Jewish Women and Jewish Men
  
• Freedman, Jew vs. Jew: The Struggle for the Soul of American Jewry
  
• Wiesel, Night
  
• Ruttenberg, Yentl's Revenge
  
• A.J. Heschel, Israel: An Echo of Eternity, with a New Introduction by Susannah Heschel
  
• Whitfield, In Search of American Jewish Culture

Recommended:

• Kertzer and Hoffman, What is a Jew? New and Completely Revised Edition
  
• Neusner, The Way of Torah: Sixth Edition
  
• Heilman, Portrait of American Jews: The Last Half of the 20th Century
  
• Brodkin, How Jews Became White Folks & What that Says About Race in America
  

Film options for review paper (most of these are available for viewing in the Library; most are commercially available for rental as well):

• Keeping the Faith
  
• Zelig
  
• Hester Street
  
• Liberty heights
  
• Crossing Delancey
  
• Homicide
  
• The Producers
  
• Gentleman’s Agreement
• Annie Hall
• Uncle Moses
• Fiddler on the Roof
  
• Schindler's List