UGS 302, Spring 2009 Profs. Juliet Hooker & Stephen Marshall
Jester A209A MEZ 3.146, x232-2406 & Jester A232A, x471-4361
T-TH 2:00-3:15 PM Office hours: (JH) T-TH 3:30-5pm & (SM) W 2-5pm
Unique # 63825 juliethooker@mail.utexas.edu & stephenmarshall@austin.utexas.edu
Race, Nation, Empire
This course will examine the problems of race, nation, and empire. To wrestle with this topic we will explore these issues as they are formulated as political projects by key intellectual figures of early modern political thought; and as these issues are confronted and theorized as political and existential problems by thinkers from formerly colonized and/or formerly enslaved peoples. The course will draw from history, political theory, and literature, and will be designed to facilitate a substantive intellectual engagement among students with postcolonial, Latin American, and African American political thought and practice.
Course Requirements: This course is designed to be a seminar. Students are expected to have completed the readings prior to class and to actively participate in class discussion. The emphasis of this course is on critical thinking and analytical writing. Students are expected to read thoroughly and carefully, as the quality of discussion depends on the extent of your preparation and participation. Attendance is required, as is completion of all assignments. Students who fail to complete ANY of the following assignments will fail the course.
Writing Assignments: 1) Book Review – a short paper in which you summarize one of the readings (2 pages).
2) Assessing Evidence – a short paper in which you take one of the readings and assess the persuasiveness of the author’s claims (2 pages).
3) Generating Knowledge – A longer paper in which you will develop your own ideas and make your own arguments using the skills learned in the previous two assignments. You will write an essay dealing with one of the central topics analyzed in the course from a list provided by the instructors (4 pages).
4) Final paper – a revised, expanded version of essay # 3 based on instructor feedback (5 pages).
The due dates for the papers are listed in the course schedule. If a paper is due on a class day, it should be submitted at the beginning of class, in hardcopy form. If a paper is due on a non-class day it is due at 5PM on the day noted, and should be submitted in electronic form via email to both instructors. Late papers will NOT be accepted. All work on the papers must be independent. Students who are found guilty of academic dishonesty will fail the course and be recommended for suspension from the university.
In addition to writing assignments, students are also required to actively participate in class and take part in other course activities that will count towards their class participation grade, including:
1) An in-class oral presentation on a day’s readings, in which students will help lead discussion.
2) Attendance at one of the panels of either the “Challenges of Violence” conference (March 4-5) or the “23rd Annual Heman Sweatt Symposium on Civil Rights” (April 14-17), documented by a brief (1 page) report.
Final grades will be assessed based on attendance/participation (20%), 1st short papers (20%), 2nd short paper (20%), 3rd paper (20%), and final paper (20%). There will be no grading curve. Class participation affects grades that are on the borderline.
The University of Texas at Austin provides, upon request, appropriate accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. To determine if you qualify, please contact the Dean of Students at 471-6259 or 471-4641 TTY. If the office certifies your needs, we will work with you to make appropriate arrangements. A student who misses an examination, work assignment, or other project due to the observance of a religious holy day will be given an opportunity to complete the work missed within a reasonable time after the absence, provided that he or she has properly notified the instructor. It is the policy of the University of Texas at Austin that the student must notify the instructor at least 14 days prior to the classes scheduled on dates he or she will be absent to observe a religious holy day. For religious holy days that fall within the first two weeks of the semester, the notice should be given on the first day of the semester. The student will not be penalized for these excused absences, but the instructor may appropriately respond if the student fails to complete satisfactorily the missed assignment or examination within a reasonable time after the excused absence.
Required Texts: 1) James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time [available at the Co-op bookstore]
2) Course Reader [available at Abel’s Copies: 715-D West 23rd St].
Course Schedule and Reading Assignments
Week 1: Introduction
Tuesday, January 19: Introduction
Thursday, January 21: Class field trip to a screening of the film Avatar, 3:45-6:30pm @ Bob Bullock Imax Theatre.
Weeks 2-3: Defining Key Terms
Tuesday, January 26: Class discussion of Avatar.
Thursday, January 28: Michael Ignatieff, “The Burden”, New York Times Jan 2003, p. 1-15.
Tuesday, February 2: Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, p. 5-7, Michael Omi & Howard Winant, “Racial
Formations,” in Race, Class, & Gender in the U.S., p. 33-45.
Section 1: The Problem of Empire
Weeks 3-5: The Politics and Economics of Imperialism
Thursday, February 4: Bartolomé de las Casas, In Defense of the Indians, Ch. 1, 2, 4-5: p. 25-36, 41-49.
Tuesday, February 9: John Locke, The Second Treatise of Government, Ch. 2, 8: p. 269-278, 330-350.
Thursday, February 11: John Locke, The Fundamental Constitution of South Carolina, p. 1-12.
Tuesday, February 16: James Madison, “Federalist # 10,” in The Federalist Papers, p. 45-52.
Thursday, February 18: José Martí, “My Race,” & “The Truth about the United States,” in José Martí Reader: Writings on the
Americas, p. 160-162, 172-176.
February 19: 1st writing assignment due
Section 2: The Ethics and Politics of Race
Week 6: Empire and Racialization
Tuesday, February 23: Charles Mills, The Racial Contract, p. 9-31.
Thursday, February 25: Charles Mills, The Racial Contract, p. 31-40.
Week 7: The Politics of Race for Racialized persons
Tuesday, March 2: W. E. B. DuBois, “The Conservation of Races,” in The Souls of Black Folk, p. 176-183.
Thursday, March 4: Jose Vasconcelos, The Cosmic Race, p. 3-5, 9, 16-27.
Weeks 8-9: The Existential Implications of Race
Tuesday, March 9: W. E. B. DuBois, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings,” in The Souls of Black Folks, p. 9-16.
Thursday, March 11: Franz Fanon, “The Fact of Blackness,” in Black Skin/White Masks, p. 109-122.
March 15–20, Spring Break
Tuesday, March 23: “Dred Scott v. Sanford,” p. 1-31, & Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, p. 185-193.
Thursday, March 25: visit to the PCL Library.
March 26: 2nd Writing Assignment Due
Section 3: Nation and Polity
Weeks 10-11: The Problem of National Identity
Tuesday, March 30: Abraham Lincoln, “The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions” [1838], p. 1-5.
Thursday, April 1: José Martí, “Our America,” in José Martí Reader, p. 111-120, & Rubén Darío, “A Roosevelt [Ode to
Roosevelt]” [1904], p. 2-4.
Tuesday, April 6: Frederick Douglass, “What to The Slave is the Fourth of July,” p. 1-15.
Thursday, April 8: visit to the Blanton Museum of Art.
Week 12: Democratic Citizenship and the Nation
Tuesday, April 13: James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time, p. 3-47.
Thursday, April 15: James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time, p. 47-106.
Section 4: Democratic Politics in the Aftermath of Empire
Week 13: The Problem of Democratic Beginnings
Tuesday, April 20: Frantz Fanon, “Concerning Violence,” in The Wretched of the Earth, p. 35-51.
Thursday, April 22: Martin Luther King, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” p. 289-302.
April 23: 3rd Writing Assignment Due
Weeks 14-15: The United States—Empire, Democracy, or Imperial Democracy?
Tuesday, April 27: Ronald Reagan, “The Shining City Upon a Hill” [Jan. 25, 1974], p. 1-4, & Barack Obama, “President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address” [Jan. 20, 2009], p. 1-6.
Thursday, April 29: “The National Security Strategy of the United States”, September 2002, p 1-31.
Tuesday, May 4: Sheldon Wolin, “Domestic Politics in the Era of Superpower and Empire”, in Democracy Inc., p. 184-210.
Thursday, May 6: Cornel West, “Putting on Our Democratic Armor,” in Democracy Now, p. 201-218.
May 7: Final paper due