In 2006, the massive nation-wide May Day protests and marches, were not only emblematic of immigrantworker resistance, but a turning point in evolving Latina/o/x pan-ethnoracial identities. Through the rallying cry of “Day Without an Immigrant,” across cities from Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago to Atlanta, diverse peoples of the United States became exposed to the fundamental ways Latin@/x populations are embedded within the very fabric of the nation through their endless labor, contributions, innovations, and community-building. In this introductory course, students study the field of Mexican American and Latina/o/x Studies as an interdisciplinary and intersectional arena of academic inquiry, which centers on challenging and dismantling the inherent inequalities and multiple oppressions foundational to the making of the United States through the eyes of the Mexican American, Chican@/x, Latin@/x experience. We survey the historical, political, socioeconomic, and cultural fabric, which shapes this heterogenous populace and examine the formation of Latin@/xs as an ethnoracial group(s) in the United States. We explore the multifaceted histories of colonialism in the Americas and U.S. imperialism through an investigation of transnational, transborder contexts of corporate, military, and political interventions that have (re)defined national boundaries and human migrations in the Americas. Last, students use an intersectional approach to unravel how race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, language, migration, indigeneity, and citizenship are integral to the multiplicity identities forming Latinidad.

Description:

The purpose of this course is to examine various experiences, perspectives, and expressions of Chicanas and Mexican American women in the United States, which vary according to gender, sexuality, race, class, citizenship, (dis)ability, region, and language. The term “Chicana” is situated historically within the Chicano Movement but is ever evolving and contested. We will begin this course with a historical and theoretical examination of Chicana feminisms through an intersectional approach, and interact with a variety of materials including ethnographic writings, novels, manifestos, podcasts, and films.

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 first Festival de Flor y Canto in University of Southern California in 1973 marks an overt shift in the literary production of Chican@/xs. A celebration of the expressions and creations, which inform Mexican American, Chicana@/x literature and culture, this gathering, was one of numerous key outlets to showcase this profound vastness and diversity. In this class, we will consider the range of stories, narratives, and texts critical to understanding the daily lives, resistance, exploitation, and rebellions within Mexican Americans and Chican@/xs in the United States. Through a careful reading of the novel, short story, and poetry, memoir, and film we will uncover the relevant themes, which are central to (me)Xican@/xs, xicanindi@/x, mestiz@/xs, indigenous, and brown communities across Greater Mexico. By the end of the course, students will achieve a growing comprehension into subjects such as curanderismo, rasquachismo, segregation, incarceration, migrations, familia, feminism, womanhood, queerness, and la frontera, to name but a few.

Readings

Anaya, Rudolfo A. Bless Me, Ultima. Reprint. New York: and Central Publishing, 2013.

García, Sarah Rafael. SanTana's Fairy Tales/Cuentos de SanTana. Translated by Julieta Corpus. Austin: Raspa Magazine, 2017.

Salinas, Raúl R. [raúlrsalinas]. Un Trip through the Mind Jail y Otras Excursions: Poems.Reprint. Houston: Arte Público Press, 1999.

silva, ire'ne lara. Flesh to Bone. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 2013.

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.

An examination of the historical development of the Mexican community in the United States since 1848, with an emphasis on the period between 1900 and the present.

Over the last decade, new social media platforms and digital tools have enabled a resurgence of identitarian, anti-racist, feminist, and queer mobilizations online that have transformed digital space into deeply contested public square.  This course explores how Latinx communities—traditionally figured as on the wrong side of the “digital divide”—have embraced, mobilized, and sometimes usurped these digital tools and spaces to forge community and create new forms of culture, memory, and activism. Over the course of the semester, we will examine a wide array of digital modalities from social media to digital art, memory, and activism, with an aim to better understand how Latinx publics are forged online. We will pay particular attention to the different ways in which the Latinx diaspora (across and within the U.S. Mexico and Latin America) have used digital tools to build community across transnational borders, claim belonging, and decolonize digital culture.

Course Description, Expectations, and Objectives:  This course focuses on the basic history of Texas from roughly 1450 to 1900.  While major events such as the Texas Revolution and Civil War will be covered, emphasis will be given to how and why Texas, its culture, and its groups of people changed and did not change over time.  Among the goals and objectives are for all students to understand how and why Texas was and was not like the regions and countries on its borders, what caused change or the absence of change, and what influenced the particular path to the 20th century of all Texans.
   I expect you to attend class, do the readings, and move beyond a simple mastery of factual information.  It is my hope that by the end of the semester you will think and act like an historian by engaging in the debate about the past and by using primary source material, the ideas and insights of trained professional historians, and your own critical thinking skills to place your understanding of the Texas past on a firm foundation.  The readings and assignments in this course are designed to help you achieve these objectives by building skills as well as knowledge, and you will be graded not only on your mastery of basic factual information but on your ability to effectively organize and utilize that information.

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.

A seminar for advanced undergraduates to hone reading and writing skills for graduate study. We will cover a range of materials  focusing on Mexican American and Latinx Cultural Studies Theories with emphasis on the politics of cultural production in the 21st century.  Students will complete independent research projects that include ethnographic field methods, media studies, archival work and more.

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I. Course Rationale

Since the 1940s, US control of the Southwest border has remained a major challenge in immigration policy. Border control has become one of the most debated topics in the country, including in federal and state legislative bodies. Annually thousands of unauthorized migrants cross the US-Mexico border into the United States to participate in US labor markets and in other social institutions. A consequence of unauthorized immigration and of the implementation of border control measures for deterrence has been the deaths of hundreds of migrants annually. Over the years, the deaths have added up into the thousands. The social effects of border control and the occurrence of migrant deaths have become sociological topics investigated by sociologists and other researchers to increase our knowledge and understanding of international migration and the effects of border policies.

 II.  Course Aims and Objectives

Aims

 This course is designed to provide a sociological understanding of border control and migrant deaths at the US-Mexico border. Of particular importance for the course is research knowledge concerning border control policies and patterns of migrant deaths.

 Specific Learning Objectives

• Gain information and understanding of the development and effects of US border control policies concerning the following: border control campaigns, social and public perceptions of the border, migrant death patterns in border areas, government plans to redirect migration, ethics of border control, human rights and critical perspectives related to migrant deaths, bureaucratic ideology in border control, migrant death forensics, smuggling, community responses to migrant deaths, recent research on border control and migrant deaths.
• Review and discuss different approaches and measures for border control. 

• Review and analyze government statistical reports concerning annual migrant apprehensions at the border and annual counts of migrant deaths in border sectors. 

• Develop an awareness of the significance of border control for the development of US immigration policy. 

• Review major impacts of US border control measures for local communities. 

Cultural Diversity Objective: 

“This course carries the flag for Cultural Diversity in the United States. Cultural Diversity courses are designed to increase your familiarity with the variety and richness of the American cultural experience. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from assignments covering the practices, beliefs, and histories of at least one U.S. cultural group that has experienced persistent marginalization.” . .

 “Ideally, the Cultural Diversity Flag will challenge students to explore the beliefs and practices of an underrepresented group in relation to their own cultural experiences so that they engage in an active process of self-reflection.” 

III. Format and Procedures

The course is designed with the expectation that it will follow an intertwined format of lectures and class discussions.  A key expectation is that students will come to class prepared to discuss thematic issues covered in the class, or at least come to class with a curious and critical predisposition to become intellectually engaged in the class. All students are expect to contribute to class discussion, with a high regard for an open academic dialogue, which values respect for the ideas, opinions, and views of others. Class attendance is assumed and expected, and highly encouraged.

Students will have an opportunity to evaluate qualities of the course, including the instructor.  The purpose of the student evaluations is to provide feedback to help improve the teaching experience.

IV.  Assumptions

My assumptions about the nature of immigration in U.S. society is that it a) follows an historical course, b) flows from the interaction between human agency and social structures, c) takes normal paths of social division and degrees of accommodation and social incorporation, d) is partly affected by social constructions regarding different national-origin groups, and e) has its most profound significance within the dynamics of social reproduction (constant remaking of societies). 

V. Course Requirements

1. Class attendance and participation policy

Class attendance is required but not graded. I will assume that all students enrolled in the course attend all class meetings, and thus are informed of all class matters stated in class. Please try to arrive in class on time.  Also, you should review previous lecture notes and bring questions to class about points you did not clearly understand—including points from the assigned readings.  Please be attentive in class (turn off phones or set to vibration). You are greatly encouraged to participate in class discussion, and to do so in a manner that respects the rights of others to also participate.  If you have a problem hearing the lectures and discussion, or viewing class presentations, please let the instructor know immediately. 

Religious Holidays

UT Austin policy requires that you notify course instructors at least 14 days in advance if you plan to be absent due to a religious holiday. You will be given an opportunity to make up activities (exams, assignments, etc.) that you miss because of your absence due to a religious holiday.  You will be given a reasonable time to make up an exam or assignment after your absence. 

2. Course Readings/Materials 

a) Required books

Dunn, Timothy J. (D)  2009.  Blockading the Border and Human Rights: The El Paso Operation that Remade Immigration Enforcement. Austin: University of Texas Press.

De Leon, Jason. (DL) 2015.  The Land of Open Graves:  Living and Dying in the Migrant Trail.  Oakland: University of California Press.

b) Websites to review:

Migration Policy Institute: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/

Pew Hispanic Center: http://pewhispanic.org/

UC-Davis Migration News: http://migration.ucdavis.edu/mn/

U.S. Department of Homeland Security (Immigration Statistics): http://www.dhs.gov/immigration-statistics/

Census Bureau: http://www.census.gov/

Population Reference Bureau: http://www.prb.org/

 3. Assignments, Assessments, Evaluation, Dates

a) The course contains three exams and a paper requirement. The exams will consist of multiple-choice items. All exams have to be taken on the dates specified; the only exceptions to this rule are cases involving an emergency and authorization by UT Austin.  In such exceptional cases, essay makeup exams for the first two regular exams have to be taken within a week after the originally designated dates in the specified sociology room for makeups. In the rare possibility that a student needs to take a makeup for the third exam, arrangements with have to be made with the instructor. Makeup exams will consist of essay questions only. Students who miss a scheduled exam must alert the instructor beforehand and consult with the instructor regarding the makeup.  There is no procedure for making up the Final Exam outside of cases that are of a true exceptional and unusual personal pressing situation. Students have to take all exams on the dates and times specified.  Exams cannot be taken earlier or later than the dates and times specified.

 The paper requirement is a research brief of 1,350 words (5 pages) on a class-related border/migration topic for which at least three (3) research journal publications are consulted and cited in the text, and listed in the Reference section of the paper.  The motive for the paper is to give the student an opportunity to read research journal publications. Grading of the paper will include checking for a) the required number of words (1,450), b) the three required journal sources, and c) the adequacy and strength of the presentation in the paper.

 4. Use of Canvas:  Canvas will be used to help manage the course and to pursue interaction with students.  Canvas will be used to make announcements, distribute information, communicate with students, and post grades.  Students are encouraged to use Canvas to communicate and share relevant comments and information.  Please check your Canvas site regularly to look for communications from the instructor or from other students in the class.  Support for using Canvas can be obtained from the following websites:  https://utexas.instructure.com/courses/633028/pages/welcome-to-canvas; http://guides.instructure.com/m/4212

 VI.  Grading

 a) Three exams of 50 multiple-choice items (worth 100 points each).

• 100 points per exam x 3 exams = 300 points

 b) Paper requirement worth 50 points

Total possible points = 350

 c) Letter grades based on 350 possible cumulative points:

 A = 325-350     A- = 315-324

B+= 304-323    B  = 290-303    B-= 280-289

C+= 269-279    C  = 255-268    C-= 245-254

D+= 234-244    D  = 220-233    D-= 210-219

F  = 209 or fewer points

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Without a doubt, the untimely deaths of Native American leaders Marsha Gomez (Choctaw/Chicana) and Ingrid Washinawatok (Menominee), in the late 1990s, accentuates the complexity, globality, and intersectional nature of their labor, activism, and vision that predates and foreshadows current concerns of multifaceted decoloniality and self-determination. Gomez, a sculptor and peace activist, was a founder of Indigenous Women’s Network (IWN) in 1983 and an instrumental organizer of a 1997 multiday gathering of indigenous women, who were community leaders, activists, healers, educators, writers, thinkers, on the grounds of Alma de Mujer. Washinawatok was a human rights activist who served as the chair of the NGO Committee on the United Nations International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples. Her work embraced a global indigeneity as an approach to advocate, demand, and highlight the human dignity of Natives peoples across the world and challenged the constrictions of geopolitics. This course investigates the histories of Native American women to reaffirm and reclaim their place and role in the histories of Native Americans, indigenous peoples, women, Chican@/xs, Greater Mexico, and the United States. We will use a historical approach to unravel Western paradigms of women’s history that erase and omit the histories of Native American women because they defy the singular lens of gender. Furthermore, we will contemplate how multiplicitous understandings that center colonization, settler colonialism, genocide, race, and environmentalism are essential to examining Native American women’s history. Overall, this class will illuminate the stories, struggles, and ideas of community-building, sovereignty, self-determination, and liberation as integral to their genders and sexualities as Native American, Indian, First Nations, indigenous, and red and brown women.

Readings(Selections):

Allen, Paula Gunn. The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions. Boston: Beacon, 1994.

Child, Brenda J. Boarding School Seasons: American Indian Families, 1900-1940. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012.

Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne. An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States. Boston: Beacon Press, 2015

_____. Outlaw Woman: A Memoir of the War Years, 1960-1975. Reprint. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2014.

Gonzales, Patrisia. Red Medicine: Traditional Indigenous Rites of Birthing and Healing. University of Arizona Press, 2015.

Gilio-Whitaker, Dina. As Long As Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock. Boston: Beacon Press, 2019.

Katz, Jane B., ed. Messengers of the Wind: Native American Women Tell Their Life Stories. New York: Ballantine Books, 1996.

LaDuke, Winona. The Winona LaDuke Reader: A Collection of Essential Writings. Penticton, B.C.: Theytus Books, 2002.

Miranda, Deborah A. Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir. Berkeley: Heyday, 2013.

Mihesuah, Devon Abbott. Indigenous American Women: Decolonization, Empowerment, Activism. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003.

Muñoz, José Esteban, Jinthana Haritaworn, Myra J Hird, Jasbir K Puar, Eileen A Joy, Uri McMillan, Susan Stryker, Kimberly TallBear, Jami Weinstein, and Judith Halberstam. “Theorizing Queer Inhumanisms: The Sense of Brownness.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies21, no. 2 (2015): 209–210.

Perdue, Theda, ed. Sifters: Native American Women's Lives. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

TallBear, Kim. “Standing With and Speaking as Faith: A Feminist-Indigenous Approach to Inquiry.” Journal of Research Practice 10, no. 2 (January 1, 2014): 1-7.

This course is an opportunity for students to gain practical and hands-on experience in the workplace through the lens of Mexican American and Latina/o/x Studies. You will participate in a nonpartisan, direct-service capacity internship where you will work with a  Mexican American, Chicana/o/x, Latina/o/x, Indigenous-centered community, civic, or government organization/program/entity that is frontline-led and addresses of questions of economic, political, social, and/or cultural inequalities, justice, and/or empowerment. 

This graduate seminar is an introduction to the theories, methods, and best practices of public humanities. The course draws on theories and methods in history, ethnic studies, and American studies. We will consider case studies to see how practitioners put theories into practice. We will also consider contemporary debates, topics, and projects.  
 
In course readings we will discuss key questions: who is the public and what is the public sphere, how do public humanists work with the public, what is the place of expertise in public projects, and what is the place of community knowledge and public memory in public projects. We will also consider the role of race and histories of slavery, conquest, colonization, genocide, and war in shaping public understandings of the past. During the course readings participants will also explore the theories and foundations of cultural institutions and practices in the field: museums, memorials, public art, preservation, collecting, and digital humanities.

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