FLAGS:   Wr  |  CD  |  II

FLAGS:   Wr  |  CD  |  II

This course is designed to provide an introduction to the history and culture of Mexican Americans in the United States from the early nineteenth-century to the present. We will work from the premise that Mexican American history is deeply intertwined with both “mainstream” U.S. and Mexican history. We will not study Mexicans Americans in isolation, nor will we assume the Mexican American population to be static or monolithic. On the contrary, we will strive for empirical precision and specificity in our discussions, always seeking to move past stereotypes, clichés, and anecdotes in an effort to build a sophisticated framework with which to understand the significance of the Mexican American presence in the United States. The primary disciplinary emphasis of the course is the field of history, though our study of the past will be informed by a analysis of culture and the ways in which historical and cultural studies inform one another.

Bilingualism is a complex phenomenon that refers to the capacity to speak and communicate indistinctly in two or more different languages. Then, it is not a semantic feature of the natural language; it is a pragmatic characteristic of its use. Since language is a property of groups of speakers, bilingualism is a skill showed and belonging to certain individuals. Because of the nature of our contemporary society, this phenomenon is a lived reality for a number of individuals in several communities inside and outside the US. This is to say, the fact that several communities in the Américas conserve a native language besides the official one extends between the members of these communities the knowledge and use of different ways to communicate.

The main purpose of this course is to analyze the linguistic, cognitive, social, and cultural aspects of this complex phenomenon. To do so, the course supposes that the main characteristics of the (different variables of the different) languages are independent of the origin of these communities. The course will primarily focus on the relationship that is established between English (as the vernacular language) and the second co-existent language, especially the binomial with Spanish (approximately 70% of course material) and other common US bilingual language experiences as well. The idea is to analyze the bilingual speaker in context within the community to which she belongs, especially relating to Mexican American and US-Latino communities.

TEXT:

Multiple Voices. An Introduction to Bilingualism, by Carol Myers-Scotton (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006). Additional texts will be available on the Blackboard.

GRADING:

25% Final Paper

25% Two Short Essays (12.5% each)

10% Peer-Review Sessions

10% Oral Presentation

30% Attendance and Participation

(5% additional extra-credit short essay)

Description:

The purpose of this course is to examine the various experiences, perspectives, and expressions of Chicanas in the United States. This involves examining the meaning and history of the term, “Chicana” as it was applied to and incorporated by Mexican American women during the Chicano Movement in areas of the Southwest United States, such as Texas and California. We will also explore what it means to be Chicana in the United States today. The course will begin with a historical overview of Mexican American women's experiences in the United States, including the emergence of Chicana feminism. We will discuss central concepts of Chicana feminism and attempt to understand how those concepts link to everyday lived experiences. Specifically, the relationship between gender, race/ethnicity, and class will be key as we discuss issues that have been significant in the experiences and self-identification of Chicanas, such as: family, gender, sexuality, religion/spirituality, education, language, labor, and political engagement. We will be engaging in interdisciplinary analysis not only concerning cultural traditions, values, belief systems, and symbols but also in relation to the expressive culture of Chicanas, including folk and religious practices, literature and poetry, the visual arts, and music. Finally, we will examine media representations of Chicanas through critical analyses of film. By the end of this course, it is my hope that you will not only be more critical readers and thinkers, but that you will also be able to apply themes and elements from the readings and discussions to your understanding of your own experiences.

Readings:

Anzaldúa, Gloria and Moraga, Cherríe eds. (2015) This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color.

 Anzaldúa, Gloria (2015) Light in the Dark Luz en lo Oscuro: Rewriting Identity,  Spirituality, Reality.

Description:

The purpose of this course is to examine the various experiences, perspectives, and expressions of Chicanas in the United States. This involves examining the meaning and history of the term, “Chicana” as it was applied to and incorporated by Mexican American women during the Chicano Movement in areas of the Southwest United States, such as Texas and California. We will also explore what it means to be Chicana in the United States today. The course will begin with a historical overview of Mexican American women's experiences in the United States, including the emergence of Chicana feminism. We will discuss central concepts of Chicana feminism and attempt to understand how those concepts link to everyday lived experiences. Specifically, the relationship between gender, race/ethnicity, and class will be key as we discuss issues that have been significant in the experiences and self-identification of Chicanas, such as: family, gender, sexuality, religion/spirituality, education, language, labor, and political engagement. We will be engaging in interdisciplinary analysis not only concerning cultural traditions, values, belief systems, and symbols but also in relation to the expressive culture of Chicanas, including folk and religious practices, literature and poetry, the visual arts, and music. Finally, we will examine media representations of Chicanas through critical analyses of film. By the end of this course, it is my hope that you will not only be more critical readers and thinkers, but that you will also be able to apply themes and elements from the readings and discussions to your understanding of your own experiences.

Readings:

Anzaldúa, Gloria and Moraga, Cherríe eds. (2015) This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color.

 Anzaldúa, Gloria (2015) Light in the Dark Luz en lo Oscuro: Rewriting Identity,  Spirituality, Reality.

Instructor:  Loza, M

Unique #:  35165

Semester:  Fall 2018

Cross-lists:  MAS 314

Restrictions:  n/a

Computer instruction:  No

Prerequisites:  One of the following: E 303C (or 603A), RHE 306, 306Q, or T C 303C (or 603A).

Description:  This course is a general introduction to the literature written by and about Mexican Americans/Chicanos (U.S. citizens of Mexican ancestry).  We will use youth and childhood as a lens into our texts’ exploration of issues such as race, gender, class, and sexuality.

Students should expect to develop some understanding of the specific cultural, historical, and political contexts that inform the literature.  Knowledge of these contexts will enhance our understanding of these authors’ politics and aesthetics.  We have a range of texts including novels, fiction, poetry, graphic novels, and film.  Our goal will be to see these works as embedded in specific contexts that must be explored in order to understand, as much as possible, the cultural and political nuances of the texts.  Students should also remember that this class fulfills the requirement for a substantial writing component course and serves as an introduction to the major.  As such, a good deal of time, both in and outside of the classroom, will be devoted to working on original compositions and learning about critical approaches to texts.

The primary aim of this course is to help students develop and improve the critical reading, writing, and thinking skills needed for success in upper-division courses in English and other disciplines.  They will also gain practice in using the Oxford English Dictionary and other online research tools and print resources that support studies in the humanities.  Students will learn basic information literacy skills and models for approaching literature with various historical, generic, and cultural contexts in mind.

This course contains a writing flag.  The writing assignments in this course are arranged procedurally with a focus on invention, development through instructor and peer feedback, and revision; they will comprise a major part of the final grade.

Tentative Texts:  

Print:  The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros; …y no se lo tragó la tierra, Tomás Rivera (bilingual edition); Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Benjamin Alire Sáenz; I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, Erika L. Sánchez; Lowriders to the Center of the Earth, Cathy Camper and Raúl The Third (illus.).

Films:  Coco (2017); Quinceañera (2006)

We will also have shorter reading assignments (scholarly articles, blogs, reviews, etc.) that will be available via Canvas.

Requirements & Grading:  Attendance: 10%; Participation: 20%; (Close) Reading Quizzes: 10%; Close Reading Essay (Short): 10%; Close Reading and Context Essay: 15%; Research Essay: 35%

The first essay requires substantial revision and resubmission.  The second essay may also be revised and resubmitted by arrangement with the Instructor.

Description:  Gloria Anzaldúa famously called the border between México and the United States a “1,950 mile-long open wound,” “una herida abierta,” where “a third country—a border culture” has arisen on either side of the Rio Grande/Río Bravo and beyond.  In this course, we will traverse the borders of language(s), geography, history, and identity negotiated by Mexican-American artists from Texas in a variety of literary genres, visual art, and film.  Our methods will be intersectional—attending to class, gender, sexuality, religion, etc., in addition to race—as we explore these (re)definitions of what it means to be, in Cherríe Moraga’s words, American “con acento.”

The primary aim of this course is to help students develop and improve the critical reading, writing, and thinking skills needed for success in upper-division courses in English and other disciplines.  They will also gain practice in using the Oxford English Dictionary and other online research tools and print resources that support studies in the humanities.  Students will learn basic information literacy skills and models for approaching literature with various historical, generic, and cultural contexts in mind.

This course contains a writing flag.  The writing assignments in this course are arranged procedurally with a focus on invention, development through instructor and peer feedback, and revision; they will comprise a major part of the final grade.

Tentative Texts:  Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (nonfiction, memoir, theory); Alonzo, Jotos del Barrio (play); Silva, Flesh to Bone (short stories).

Requirements & Grading:  There will be a series of 3 formal writing assignments, the first of which must be revised and resubmitted (70% of the final grade in total).  Excluding the final project (critical or creative), the second assignment may also be revised and resubmitted by arrangement with the Instructor.  Students will also have the opportunity to practice writing in a variety of other genres, including reading journals (or the occasional quiz), creative writing exercises, and in-class presentations (30% of the final grade).

The reading and lecture course examines the historical development of the Mexican community in the United States since 1848, with an emphasis on the period between 1900 and the present.  The primary purpose of the course is to address time and place specific variations in the incorporation of the Mexican community as a national minority and bottom segment of the U.S. working class.  One of my central concerns is to explain two inter-related historical trends in this incorporation, steady upward mobility and unrelenting social marginalization.  I emphasize work experiences, race thinking, social relations, trans-border relations, social causes and larger themes in U.S. history such as wars, sectional differences, industrialization, reform, labor and civil rights struggles, and the development of a modern urbanized society. Also, I incorporate relevant aspects of the history of Latinos, African Americans, and Mexico.

Texts:
Manuel G. Gonzales, Mexicanos, A History of Mexicans in the US (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999).
Angela Valenzuela, “The Drought of Understanding and the Hummingbird Spirit,” Unpublished essay in my possession.
Emilio Zamora, Claiming Rights and Righting Wrongs in Texas, Mexican Workers and Job Politics during WWII (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2009).
Emilio Zamora, “Guide for Writing Family History Research Paper.

Grading:
Mid-term examination (25%),
Final examination (25%),
Research paper (30%),
Two chapter reports (10%)
Film report (10%).

A bilingual is defined as an individual who functions in more than one language on a regular basis. Psycholinguistics is the study of the cognitive processes that underlie how language users acquire, comprehend, produce, use, and represent language. This course will provide an introduction to classic and recent work on bilingualism from a psycholinguistic perspective. After reviewing basic concepts and methods in  psycholinguistics the course will address empirical studies and theoretical frameworks related to such topics as stages of bilingual language acquisition and the role of age of acquisition, how bilinguals perceive and segment speech sounds, how word meanings are accessed and stored, how sentences are understood and planned, how characteristics of written language affect reading, how mixed language utterances are processed, and how properties of specific languages shape thought.  Additional topics will include cognitive and neural repercussions of knowing more than one language, the cognitive impact of differences in degree of informal translation experience, and how bilingual language processing may be affected by aging, disuse of a language, or brain-injury. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the topic we will draw on research from cognitive psychology, linguistics, computer science, education, and neuroscience. Students will have the opportunity to apply course concepts by making their own bilingualism related internet memes.

TEXT:

De Groot, A. M. (2011). Language and cognition in bilinguals and multilinguals: An introduction.           Psychology Press, New York, NY.

Bialystok, E. (2009). Bilingualism: The good, the bad, and the indifferent. Bilingualism:    Language and Cognition, 12, 3-11.

Clashen, H., & Felser, C. (2006). How native-like is non-native language processing? Trends in                 Cognitive Sciences, 10, 564-570.

Comeau, L., Genesee, F., & Lapaquette, L. (2003). The modeling hypothesis and child bilingual     codemixing. International Journal of Bilingualism, 7(2), 113-126.

Cook, V. (1991). The poverty of the stimulus argument and multicompetence. Second Language Research, 7, 103-117.

Grosjean, F. (1997). The bilingual individual. International Journal of Research and Practice in     Interpreting  2, 163-187.

Haugen, E. (1986). Bilinguals have more fun! Journal of English Linguistics, 19, 106-120.

Heredia, R. R. & Altarriba, J.(2001). Bilingual language mixing: Why do bilinguals code-    switch? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 10, 164-168.

Hilchey, M.D. & Klein, R.M. (2011). Are there bilingual advantages on nonlinguistic        interference tasks? Implications for plasticity of executive control processes.       Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 18, 625-658.

Ianco-Worral, A.D. (1972). Bilingualism and cognitive development. Child Development, 43,        1390-1400.

Moreno, E.M., Rodríguez-Fornells, A., & Laine, M. (2008). Event-related potentials (ERPs) in    the study of bilingual language processing, Journal of Neurolinguistics, 21, 477-508.

Peal, E. & Lambert, W.E. (1962). “The relation of bilingualism to intelligence,” Psychological                    Monographs: General and Applied, 76 (27), 1-23.

Poplack, S. (1980). Sometimes I’ll start a sentence in Spanish y termino en español: Toward a      typology of code-switching. Linguistics, 18, 581-618.

Vaid, J. (2006). Joking across languages; Perspectives on humor, emotion, and bilingualism. In                 A. Pavlenko (ed.) Bilingual minds; Emotional experience, expression, and representation   (pp. 152-182). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

GRADING:

This course will consist of lectures, discussion, as well as in-class discussion of readings led by students.

Evaluation: Final course grades will be based on the following:

• Participation and attendance (10%): This course will be dependent on active student participation and in class discussion. This includes having completed the class readings before coming to class and bringing questions and comments about each reading.
• Reflection papers (40%): Each week students will be asked to turn in a 1-page reflection paper that is in the form of comments, critiques, or questions, based on the readings for that particular week. 
• Leading discussion (20%):  Each student will lead discussion of one of the readings given on a particular day. This will involve briefly summarizing the content of the readings and posing questions or raising critical issues to the class for discussion. Student thoughts and perspectives on the assigned texts will fuel that day’s in-class discussion.
• Bilingualism Internet Meme (15%): Students will be asked to form small groups and each group will create an internet meme based on a topic covered in class. The groups will also submit a written statement on how that meme is related to class. The groups will compete with each other to come up with the best memes. Grades will be based on completion and participation.
• Final Paper (15%):   Students will prepare a research proposal on a topic relevant to the course. The proposal will identify a research question, briefly review relevant literature, and propose a way of answering the question.  Required length is 8-10 pages not including sources/references.

Please check back for updates.

The purpose of this seminar is to study the politics of asylum practices in the United States and forced migration from Latin America. Students will gain knowledge on Latino migrations, asylum and detention through both the lens of global political economy, and critical race theory and through practical engagement with refugee and migrant organizations/legal practitioners. The course will focus on asylum policies and practices from the 1980s to the present and will draw upon case studies based on asylum seekers from Mexico and Central America among other migrant sending regions. There will be an emphasis on how groups with competing interests and visions struggle to conserve or transform the contemporary asylum regime in a transnational model of society and economy between the United States and Latin America. Finally, the seminar will also consider the relationship between asylum and the growth of detention practices and explore the efforts of refugees and legal practitioners to challenge and reform the contemporary asylum regime.

Text:

• Andrew I. Schoenholtz, Philip G. Schrag, Jaya Ramji-Nogales(Eds). Lives in Balance: Asylum Adjudications by the Department of Homeland Security. New York, NY: NYU, 2014.
• Elena, Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Gil Loescher, Katy Long, Nando Sigona (Eds). The Oxford Handbook of Refugee and Forced Migration Studies. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2014.
• Garcia, Maria Cristina. Seeking Refuge: Central American Migration to Mexico, The United States, and Canada. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.
• Loyd, Jenna Et al. Beyond Walls and Cages: Prisons, Borders and Global Crisis.Atlanta, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2012.
• Paley, Dawn. Drug War Capitalism. AK Press, 2014.
• Rosa Linda Fregoso and Cynthia Bejarano (Eds.). Terrorizing Women: Feminicide in the Americas. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010.

Grading:

• Participation (20 points) Students are required to participate in course discussions and are expected to attend all the course sessions. Participation will be evaluated based upon the student’s contributions to class discussion and presentations. Each student will be required to facilitate select reading assignments during a week of class discussion. Students must turn in a summary of the readings for the day that they chose to facilitate discussion. The two-page summary and analysis should also have thoughtful discussion questions for the class.

• Asylum Group Project (30 points) Each student will be required to work on an immigration relief project case study. This will require doing country specific research on a particular social group seeking relief from deportation. Each student will be required to be responsible for one of four components of each project. The Four components are 1) Coordinator, 2) Expert Witness, 3) Researcher 1, and 4) Researcher 2.

• Midterm (25 points) Students will receive a take home midterm comprised of a series of questions related to the contents covered in class. The midterm will be in essay format and will be roughly 6-8 pages long.

• Final (25 points) Students will receive a take home final comprised of a series of questions related to the contents covered in class. The final will be in essay format and will be roughly 6-8 pages long.

Course Description:

This course will introduce you to the past and present political experiences of the United States Latino populations.  The course begins with a discussion of political identity: what does it mean to be Latino/a, Hispanic, or Chicano, and what are the politically relevant commonalities and differences in Latino communities?  We then discuss Latino political history, beginning with the Spanish empire but focusing particularly on the 19th and 20th centuries in the southwest.  In doing so, we will study Latino political movements, organizations, and leaders.  Moving to recent decades, the class examines Latino inputs into the American political system, including public opinion, voting, elections, and the role of gender in politics.  The class also discusses the political experiences of two of the largest non-Mexican national-origin groups: Puerto Ricans and Cuban Americans.  We then explore the growing voice of Latinos in political institutions, such as the U.S. Congress and state legislatures.  Lastly, the class covers key policy issues for Latino communities, including immigration and education. 

Course Grade:

Exam #1 (20% of course grade; covers first third of the class material)

Exam #2 (30% of course grade; covers second third of the class material)

Exam #3 (30% of course grade; covers last third of the class material and includes cumulative questions)

Book review (20% of course grade)

Readings:

Garcia, F. Chris, and Gabriel Sanchez. 2007. Hispanics and the U.S. Political System: Moving Into the Mainstream. New York: Prentice Hall.

Gutierrez, David. 1995. Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the Politics of Identity. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Coursepack from Jenn's

Grading: The following is the class grading scale:

Flag: Cultural Diversity

 OVERVIEW    

This course will address Latino Urbanism in the American city as a new understanding of urban placemaking and development. This course will explore the intersections of culture, place, and design to critically address how the socioeconomic dynamics that underlie demographic shifts in the U.S. are influencing urban change in the American landscape. The class will focus particularly on exploring the evolution and ways by which Latinos shape the built environment, both at in the public realm and in the home. 

 The class will address the Latino Urbanism through the lenses of history, architecture, and city planning. The course will survey the history of urban development in the United States, while critically addressing the challenges Latinos have faced in addressing inequality and social disparities. Students will examine the complex relationships between urban poverty and larger structural forces such as planning policy and urban design frameworks. Furthermore, the course will provide students an opportunity to participate, explore, and diagnose bottom-up forms of public engagement that help shape a more equitable design of Latino city places.

OBJECTIVES

This course has the following objectives: to explore the role that design, planning, and public engagement have in addressing the needs of Latino communities in the U.S.; to undertake a critical analysis of the socio-economic conditions of Latinos in contemporary American society; and understand how diversity and culture can impact regions, governments, economies for producing a just city.

COURSE STRUCTURE

The course is designed as a class; students are responsible for their course readings and for participating fully and thoroughly in weekly discussions. Therefore, the course will consist of instructor lectures and student led discussions.

ASSIGNMENTS

• Case Study 1: Latino Urbanism and the Public Real

25% of Final Grade

• Case Study 2: Latino Urbanism and the Home

25% of Final Grade

• Public Engagement Project: Grassroots Community-based Panning/Design   

40% of Final Grade

• Participation (15 weeks)

10% of Final Grade

REQUIRED READING

• Chase, J., Crawford, M., & Kaliski, J. (1999). Everyday Urbanism. New York: Monacelli Press.
• Dias, D., Torres, R. (Eds.). (2012). Latino Urbanism: The Politics of Planning, Policy, and Redevelopment. N.Y.: New York University Press.
• Dowling, J. (2014). Mexican Americans and the Question of Race. Texas: University of Texas Press.
• Hutton, T. A. (2008). The New Economy of the Inner City: Restructuring, Regeneration  and Dislocation in the
• Twenty-First-Century Metropolis. London ; New York : Routledge.
• Jacobs, J., (1961). The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Modern Library.
• Mukhija, V., & Loukaitou-Sideris, A. (Eds.). (2014). The Informal American City: From Taco Trucks to Day Labor. Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press.

This course examines the cultural prehistory and racial history of Mexican Americans from 1519 to the present. The purpose of the course is to examine how policies and laws enacted by the governments of Spain, Mexico, and the U.S. impacted the ethnic and racial identities of Mexican Americans. The geographic focus of the course is Mexico and the United States Southwest.

Course Description:

How does the criminal justice system make itself felt in the everyday lives of Latinxs? From border enforcement, to stop and frisk, to the phenomenon of mass incarceration, many Latinxs find themselves and their communities enmeshed within a dense web of surveillance, punishment, and detention. This interdisciplinary course will examine the historical, political, economic, and social factors that have, in many ways, criminalized Latinidad and/or rendered Latinidad illegal.

We will examine how race, class, education, gender, sexuality, and citizenship shape the American legal system and impact how Latinxs navigate that system. This course will pay special attention to the troubled and unequal relationshi between Latinxs and the criminal justice apparatus in the United States and how it has resulted in the formation of resistant political identities and activist practices.

Readings:

Timothy Black, When a Heart Turns Rock Solid: The Lives of Three Puerto Rican Brothers On and Off the Streets, New York: Vintage Books, 2009.

Kelly Lytle Hernandez, Migra!: A History of the U.S. Border Patrol, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.

Patrisia Macia-Rojas, From Deportation to Prison: The Politics of Immigration Enforcement in Post-Civil Rights America, New York: New York University Press 2016.

Eduardo Obregon Pagan, Murder at the Sleepy Lagoon: Zoot Suits, Race, and Riots in Wartime L.A., Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003.

Victor M. Rios, Punished: Policing he Lives o Black and Latino Boys, New York: New York University Press, 2011.

All other readings for this course will be available online.

Assignments and Grading:

Class Participation: 15%

Presentations: 25%

Midterm Essay: 25%

Final Essays: 35%

Please check back for updates.

Course Description:

With the publication of Entre Guadalupe y Malinche, editors Inés Hernández-Ávila and Norma Elia Cantú solidify their mandate to legitimize Tejan@/x Studies as an arena worthy of ongoing research, study, and comprehension. Furthermore, they center the narratives of Tejanas as a necessary part of the conversation to understand this emergent field of inquiry and integral to Chicana Studies. In this course, we investigate the history of Tejanas to reaffirm and reclaim their place and role in the histories of Native Americans, woman, Chican@/xs, Greater Mexico, and the United States. We will further explore how transfronterizismo and transregionalism complicate this history. Last, we will contemplate how their stories are fundamental to illuminating the struggles, resistance, and liberation of Chicanas, xicanindias, mestizas, and afromexicanas from precontact to decolonization.

Readings:

Acosta, Teresa Palomo and Ruthe Winegarten. Las Tejanas: 300 Years of History. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2003.

Brown, Ariana. Three-headed Serpent: Digital Chapbook. 2016.

González, Gabriela. Redeeming La Raza: Transborder Modernity, Race, Respectability, and Rights. New York: Oxford University, 2018.

Hernández-Ávila, Inés and Normal Elia Cantú, eds. Entre Guadalupe y Malinche: Tejanas in Literature and Art. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2016.

Nájera, Jennifer R. The Borderlands of Race: Mexican Segregation in A South Texas Town. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015.

Orozco, Cynthia E. No Mexicans, Women, or Dogs Allowed: The Rise of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2009.

Pérez, Emma. Forgetting the Alamo, or, Blood. Memory: A Novel. Austin: University of. Texas Press, 2009. Vargas, Deborah R. Dissonant Divas in Chicana Music: The Limits of La Onda. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012.

Grading:

• Attendance and Participation 15%
• Reading Journal 10%
• Research Proposal and Bibliography 5%
• Primary Document Analysis 10%
• Rough Draft of Final Paper 10%
• Oral Presentation 20%
• Final Paper 30%

The reading and lecture course surveys change and continuity in the history of Texas within the context of U.S. history and Mexico-U.S. relations.  Special attention is given to Mexico-U.S. relations, politics and social relations between 1900 and 1970, as well as the home front experience of Texans during the Second World War.  The overriding theme is the incorporation of Texas into the national socio-economy from the state’s early “colonized” status to its modern position as a fully integrated part of the nation.  The course is organized around our readings.  The De la Teja/Marks/Tyler text provides a synthesis of Texas history while the Zamora text provides a closer examination of home front experiences.  The two chapters from the Campbell book will serve as a basis for an examination of the post-war period extending into 2001.
            Three semester hours of Texas history may be substituted for half of the American history requirement.  Course materials, including a copy of my resume, this syllabus, lecture notes, bibliographies, and notes on interviewing techniques, will be available on Blackboard (http://courses.utexas.edu), UT’s course management site.  Call the ITS help desk (475-9400) if you have problems accessing the site.

Texts:
Randolph B. Campbell, Chapter 16, “Modern Texas, 1971-2001,” In Gone To Texas, A History of the Lone Star Stateby Randolph B. Campbell (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003): 438-67.
Jesús de la Teja, Paula Marks, and Ron Tyler, Texas, Crossroads of North America (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004).
Emilio Zamora, Claiming Rights and Righting Wrongs in Texas, Mexican Workers and Job Politics during WWII(College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2009).

Grading:
Research paper (35%), 5 chapter reports (25%), and 4 film reports (40%).

DESCRIPTION:

This course uses a set of interdisciplinary methods (mainly from ethnic studies, Latina/o studies, cultural studies, and performance studies) to help us understand the kind of 'work' culture is doing in a larger framework, historical, economical, and societal. The class uses these theoretical and methodological lenses to examine Transnational Latina/o popular culture from the 20^th and early 21^st centuries in order to consider the ways in which popular culture has been an important aspect of nation-building strategies on different scales, from nation-states to Latina/o communities in the US. We pay particular attention to expressive culture from the beginning of the 20^th century, focusing on social dance forms like samba, tango, and danzón. Additionally, sports spectacles are analyzed to understand the performance of masculinity, the interconnected between politics and ‘entertainment’ (soccer) and the theatricality of the spectacle (lucha libre—Mexican masked wrestling). The course material moves through the 20^th century and into the 21^st century and across geo-political divides to put forward the idea that Latina/o popular culture is transnational (at the same time as translocal); cultural works that will be examined in order to grasp a full understanding of his notion run the gamut from the formation of salsa to the reggeatón phenomenon and telenovela (Latin American soap operas) industry to music television. In a more general way, the ultimate goal of the class is to get the student to think about the ways in which popular cultural forms are part of a 20^th and 21^st century sensibility that is both part of “the practice of everyday life” and nation-building projects. But the student will be asked to think about how different publics consume popular culture (at times transforming it and/or changing its meaning) and, likewise, it is important to consider what happens when popular culture—thanks to the (transnational) cultural industries—travel across geo-political and linguistic borders. The operating question throughout the semester is then, is what is transnational about Latina/o popular culture and why does it matter?

TEXTS (selections):

*Imagination Beyond Nation: Latin American Popular Culture, edited by Eva P. Bueno and Terry Caesar

*Musical ImagiNation: U.S.-Colombian Identity and the Latin Music Boom by María Elena Cepeda

*Latino/a Popular Culture, edited by Michelle Habell-Pallán and Mary Romero

*Memory and Modernity: Popular Culture in Latin America, edited by William Rowe and Vivian Schelling

*Fragments of a Golden Age: The Politics of Culture in Mexico since 1940, edited by Gilbert Joseph, Anne Rubenstein, and Eric Zolov

*From Bananas to Buttocks: The Latina Body in Popular Film and Culture, edited by Myra Mendible

*Oye Como Va! Hybridity and Identity in Latino Popular Music by Deborah Pacini Hernández

*Musica Norteña: Mexican Migrants Creating a Nation between Nations by Cathy Ragland

GRADING

Attendance and Participation: 15%

One in-class short presentation: 10%

Three short essays during the semester: 30%

Final research paper: 45%

Description

Immigration patterns have significantly affected the development of U.S. society since its inception.  In the 1990s, the United States experienced a record number of new immigrants admitted into the country, and the last decade (2000-2009) recorded even a larger number of immigrants admitted.  This course uses a sociological perspective to address various impacts of immigration in U.S. society.

Course Aims and Objectives

Aims

 This course is designed to provide a sociological understanding concerning the nature of immigration in U.S. society, including an understanding of how immigration affects large (macro) and small (micro) social units in the society.

Specific Learning Objectives

• Gain background information on the development of immigration patterns in U.S. society and discuss the social forces that affect these patterns from the perspective of historical and recent immigration trends.
•  Review and discuss different perceptions about immigration patterns.
•  Review and analyze government statistical reports concerning annual immigration conditions and characteristics.
• Develop an awareness of the significance of immigration for the development of U.S. society.

 Review major laws affecting migration patterns to U.S. society

 Reading: 

 Portes, Alejandro, and Rubén Rumbaut. 2014. Immigrant America: A Portrait. Berkeley: University of California Press. (PR) 

Mobasher, Mohsen M.  2012. Iranians in Texas: Migratio, Politics, and Ethnic Identity. Austin: University of Texas Press. (MM)

Grading

a) Three regular exams (40 multiple-choice items and a take-home essay question for each):

100 points per exam x 3 regular exams = 300 points

b) Total possible points = 300