Immigration and Assimilation in American Life

Ethnic Studies 1B                                                                                 Ross Frank
Winter 2005                                                                                        Office:   SSB 227
MWF  1:00-1:50 PM                                                                           Office Hours:
Peterson 108                                                                                                  Mon. 10-noon
E-mail:                                                                                                           Thurs. 10-noon

rfrank@weber.ucsd.edu                                                                Phone:  858-534-6646

Teaching Assistants:  Maria Cesena, Benita Brahmbhatt, Myrna Garcia, Michelle Gutierrez, and Gina Opinaldo.


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REVIEW SESSION: Friday, 3/11/05 4-5:50, PETERSON 108


COURSE ORGANIZATION

This course traces immigration to the United States from the colonial era to the present with a special emphasis on issues of assimilation, pluralism, and multiculturalism.  Evaluation will be based on the following:  Participation in discussion section (25%), a midterm exam in two parts (30%, 15% each part), four quizzes given during the quarter (20%, 5% each), and a final exam (25%).  The quizzes will be given unannounced during lecture during the quarter.  They will require short answers to questions that will test your familiarity with the material in lecture and the assigned readings.  Missed quizzes cannot be made up under normal circumstances.


COURSE OBLIGATIONS

All students must attend lectures and discussion sections, and read the assigned materials in order to complete this course.  The discussion sections are designed to encourage your active engagement with the course material.  Discussion grades will depend on your attendance and constructive participation.  You have a responsibility to create an environment conducive to learning in section and during lectures, in accord with the UCSD Principles of Community.


LECTURES AND ASSIGNED READING

The following required books have been ordered for the course and are available at Groundwork Books in the Student Center (452-9625):

Elliot R. Barkan  And Still They Come:  Immigrants and American Society 1920 to the 1990s.

David G. Gutiérrez,  Walls and Mirrors:  Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the Politics of Ethnicity.

Rachel Buff. Immigration and the Political Economy of Home : West Indian Brooklyn and American Indian Minneapolis, 1945-1992.

Upton Sinclair,  The Jungle.

The Ethnic Studies 1B Reader (Winter 2005) is available after class during weeks 1 & 2 or contact University Reader Printing Service.

The reader and books above have been placed on 2-hour library reserve.  Materials in the reader are also available on e-reserve. If you are accessing these electronic resources off campus you need to configure your browser accordingly. Click here for instructions. 


SYLLABUS

The reading(s) under each week heading should be read before the Friday class meeting.  In many cases your TA will ask that specific readings be completed before your weekly section meeting.  Longer reading assignments appear over the period given to complete them.  Be prepared to discuss the reading material in discussion section on a regular basis.   


Week:     [1]     [2]     [3]     [4]     [5]     [6]     [7]     [8]      [9]     [10]


WEEK 1    

READING:

Steinberg, “The Ignominious Origins of Ethnic Pluralism in America,” ES IB Reader, 1-22.
Daniels, Roger. Coming to America: A history of immigration and ethnicity in American life, ES IB Reader, 23-38.
Joe Feagin.  “Old poison in new bottles,” ES IB Reader, 39-56.

JANUARY 3               Introduction

JANUARY 5               European Expansion and Cultural Conflict

JANUARY 7               Colonial Systems, Race and Ethnicity


WEEK 2

READING:             

Gutiérrez, Walls and Mirrors, 13-38.
Takaki. “The giddy multitude: The hidden origins of slavery,”ES IB Reader, 57-72.
Takaki, “Emigrants From Erin,” ES IB Reader, 73-86.
Purdue, “Cherokee Women and the Trail of Tears,” ES IB Reader, 87-94.
Primary Sources, Reader #7 (Cooper to Custer), ES IB Reader, 95-108.

JANUARY 10             Race & Space: Democracy, Indian Removal and Western Labor

JANUARY 12            19th Century Migration and Assimilation

JANUARY 14             Plymouth Rock, Statue of Liberty, and the Melting Pot


WEEK 3

READING:             

Upton Sinclair, The Jungle.
Gutiérrez, Walls and Mirrors, 39-68.

JANUARY 17            NO CLASS – Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday

JANUARY 19           Popular Culture and Ethnic Identity

JANUARY 21            MIDTERM EXAM, PART 1


WEEK 4

READING:

Czitrom, “Underworlds and Underdogs:  Big Tom Sullivan and Metropolitan Politics in New York, 1889-1913”, ES IB Reader, 109-132.
Yung. “Unbound Feet: Chinese American women in the Public Sphere,” ES IB Reader, 133-140.
Primary Sources, Reader #10 (Marburg to Twain), ES IB Reader, 141-154.
Williams.  “American Imperialism and the Indians,” ES IB Reader, 155-166.

JANUARY 24            Labor, Self-activity, and Immigrant Radicalism

JANUARY 26            Immigrant Organization and Politics

JANUARY 28            Guest Lecture:  Julia Coates, Native American Studies, UCD


WEEK 5

READING:             

Barkin, And Still They Come,  1-43.
Gutiérrez, Walls and Mirrors, 69-116.
Primary Sources, Reader #12 (Dixon, Broughton Brandenburg), ES IB Reader, 167-178.
Pavlenko. “We have room for but one language here’: Language and national identity in the US at the turn of the 20th century.” ES IB Reader, 179-196.
Primary Sources, Reader #14 (New York World to Hanson), ES IB Reader, 197-220.

JANUARY 31             MIDTERM EXAM, PART 2

FEBRUARY 2            Ethnic Conflict Abroad and at Home

FEBRUARY 4            Gender, Popular Culture, and Americanization


WEEK 6

READING:

Barkin, And Still They Come,  44-85.
Berrol.  “Public school and immigrants: The New York City experience,” ES IB Reader, 221-228.
Primary Sources, Reader #16 (Los Angeles Times to Palmer), ES IB Reader, 229-256.
Peggy Pascoe, “Miscegenation Law, Court Cases, and Ideologies of “Race” ES IB Reader, 257-282.

FEBRUARY 7         Ethnic Inclusion by Racial Exclusion  FILM: The Jazz Singer

FEBRUARY 9         Cutting the Immigrant Flow

FEBRUARY 11       The Culture of Unity and Redemptive Outsiders



WEEK 7

READING:

Barkin, And Still They Come,  56-143.
Buff. Immigration and the Political Economy of Home, Chapters 1 & 2.
Gutiérrez, Walls and Mirrors, 117-178.

FEBRUARY 14       Guest Lecture:  Natalia Molina, Ethnic Studies, UCSD

FEBRUARY 16       Refiguring Ethnicity in the Postwar Period

FEBRUARY 18       Cold War, Consumerism, and Ethnic Memory


WEEK 8

READING:

Buff. Immigration and the Political Economy of Home, Chapter 3.
Daniel Moynihan. and  Nathan Glazer, “Beyond the Melting Pot,” ES IB Reader, 283-294.
Portes and Rumbaut, “Who they are and why they come,” ES IB Reader, 295-308.
Espiritu, “Ethnicity and Panethnicity,” and “Coming Together: The Asian American Movement” (Chapters 1-2), ES IB Reader, 309-336.

FEBRUARY 21       NO CLASS – President’s Day Holiday

FEBRUARY 23       Global Migration, Economic Transformation, and Gender Roles

FEBRUARY 25       Regions of Ethnic and Cultural Confusion


WEEK 9

READING:

Barkin, And Still They Come,  144-177.
Buff. Immigration and the Political Economy of Home, Chapters 4, 5 & 6.
Fuchs “The Reactions of Black Americans to Immigration,” ES IB Reader, 337-348.
Ngin and Torres. “Racialized Metropolis: Theorizing Asian American and Latino Identities and Ethnicities in Southern California,” ES IB Reader, 349-360.
Saito, “The Politics of Adaptation and the “Good Immigrant”: Japanese Americans and the New Chinese Immigrants,” ES IB Reader, 361-370.

FEBRUARY 28       FILM: Who Killed Vincent Chin? (portion)

MARCH 2                FILM: Who Killed Vincent Chin? (end)

MARCH 4                Transnational Capital and Global Migration

WEEK 10

READING:

Barkin, And Still They Come,  178-196
Gutiérrez, Walls and Mirrors, 179-216.
Buff. Immigration and the Political Economy of Home, Chapter 7.
Flores. “Citizens vs. Citizenry: Undocumented Immigrants and Latino Cultural Citizenship,”  ES IB Reader, 371-end.

MARCH 7                Cultural Fragmentation and Collective Action

MARCH 9                Immigration Law and the Future

MARCH 11              Beyond Assimilation

Tuesday      MARCH 15              FINAL EXAM          (11:30 AM - 2:30 PM)

REVIEW SESSION: Friday, 3/11/05 4-5:50, PETERSON 108


© 2005, Ross Frank, updated: March 8, 2005.