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.

This course examines contemporary Mexican-American issues from the perspective of a policy analyst. Students will learn the basic tools of policy analysis and apply them to a variety of issues and proposed policy solutions. The course has two objectives: (1) To train students how to inform public policy by providing decision makers with objective policy analysis. (2) To help students understand why public policy decisions often diverge from the recommendations made by policy analysts. In other words, this is a course about both policy analysis and the politics behind policymaking.

While the focus of this course is on policy issues that affect Mexican-Americans and/or Latinos, students will learn that policies often have widespread impact on many groups. Policy also often results in unintended consequences.

Students will also learn about the challenges policy analysts face when they attempt to use objective public policy metrics to analyze policies that often have moral or symbolic frames.

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)

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:  Fry, J

Unique #:  34995

Semester:  Fall 2017

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:  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.

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.

Mid-term examination (25%),

Final examination (25%),

Research paper (30%),

Two chapter reports (10%)

Film report (10%).

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to various representations and (re)presentations of Latin@s within U.S. media and popular culture. We will pay special attention to Latin@ identity formation and its many productions and social constructions. Students will gain an understanding of the importance of identity in terms of how we view ourselves, others, and the world around us. Utilizing interdisciplinary methodologies and learned analytical skills to conduct textual readings of various media, we will look at a number of issues pertaining to Latin@ representation within the mainstream and dominant culture, as well as some subversive techniques Latin@s use in producing their own identity re-presentations. Examining multiple sites of popular culture, we will attempt to reconstruct and deconstruct different materials including books, cartoons, films, magazines, mass media, music, popular images, television shows, and other artifacts of popular culture to understand their significance in the representations of Latin@s in U.S. society, as well as formations of individual and collective identities. Throughout the course of the semester, the following themes will regularly emerge during class lectures, discussions, readings, and film screenings: ideologies and representations of race in mainstream and popular culture, issues of race, interracial relations, mestizaje and mixed-race within U.S. borders; issues and representations of gender and sexuality; issues of class and the labor force; immigration, nationalism, borders and borderlands, borderland violence: violence against brown bodies, brown bodies committing violence; representations and perpetuation of stereotypes and discrimination; the commodification of Latinidad and consumer culture; and much more.

This class will explore the U.S.-Mexico borderlands as a longstanding setting for narratives of crime and criminality. Political scientist Peter Andreas argues that the environment of historic conquest, transcultural exchange, and legal enforcement in the borderlands seems to “create the very conditions” for events of crime and policing. As a class, we will examine how such events are mediated through different genres of literary writing, and we will trace how the form and content of border crime writing has evolved over roughly a century. Our primary goal is to increase our understanding and appreciation of border culture as it is produced through acts of writing and reading, particularly by Mexican American and Latinx authors. We also seek to comprehend how these authors experiment with meanings of legality and illegality, how they examine different subject positions relative to the state, and how they diagram relationships in terms of place, nation, culture, gender, race, and the law. In order to refine their analyses of literary genres, film, and historiography, students will write a number of micro papers, including a creative writing project, and conclude the course by constructing an analytical dossier about a theme relevant to border crime writing.

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.

Commercial agriculture, mining, oil and gas extraction, and construction are all industries upon which American society depends, they all have major environmental consequences, and they have all been built in substantial ways on Mexican and Mexican American labor. This course traces the history of these complex relationships.

“Advanced Topics in Latina Feminisms” will expose students to key theories, praxis, and research skills related to the field of Latina Feminist studies. Methodological approaches may include but are not limited to Ethnography, Oral History, Archival Research, Historiography, Folklore, Cultural Studies, Disability Studies, Environmental Justice, and Theory, among others. Students will leave the course with ability to produce an advanced research project that demonstrates advanced comprehension of Latina Feminist Theories from a multi-disciplinary perspective.

The purpose of this course is to examine the psychological research and literature related to the experiences of Latinxs in the U.S. through readings, media, and class discussions. The course will provide an introduction to the various Latino subgroups and the course will provide with an introduction and general background to Latina/o psychology.

This course is an interdisciplinary one and will draw on methodologies from different disciplines such as, but not limited to racial/ethnic studies, women & gender studies, queer studies, film studies, history, linguistics, literature, psychology, sociology and popular culture. And so in the course we will:

• Acquire knowledge regarding historical, cultural, economic, and political factors that explain the experiences and value orientations of Latina/os in the U.S.
• Engage in Latina/o self-expression and knowledge in various mediums (i.e. culture, religious practices, literature, poetry, language practices etc.) in order to gain cultural competence to advance one’s knowledge and understanding of between and within group difference among Latina/os.
• Examine how Latina/os have been positioned within local and national communities, cultural systems, and discourse using in class discussion and readings.
• Examine media representations of  Latina/os in film and other popular representations
• Arrive at understanding of how Latina/o psychology is both theoretically and intellectually important in relation to the Latina/o experience in the U.S.

Potential Texts

Hurtado, A., & Gurin, P. (2004). Chicana/o Identity in a Changing US Society: ¿Quién Soy? ¿Quiénes Somos?. University of Arizona Press.

Villarruel, F. (2009). Handbook of US Latino psychology: Developmental and community-based perspectives. Sage.

***other readings will be posted to CANVAS***

Grade

Attendance is highly recommended and will be taken into account.

Your final course grade will be based on the following:

1.)   Participation and attendance (15%): This course will be dependent on your active participation and in class discussion. This includes having completed the class readings before coming to class and by bringing questions and comments you have about each reading.

2.)   Reflection papers (20%): At the end of each class unit you will be required to turn in a reflection paper. In this paper you will give your reflections in the form of comments, critiques, questions, etc. raised from that unit’s readings. Page length requirement is 1 page single spaced due at the beginning of each class.

3.)   In-class presentation (25 %):  Each student will be selected to lead the discussion of the readings given on a particular day. This student will be in charge of briefly summarizing the content of the readings and posing questions or raising critical issues to the class for discussion. Your thoughts and perspectives on the assigned texts will fuel that day’s in-class discussion.

4.)   Film Analysis (FA) (25%): You will pick one of the film from the list of films provided in class and will write a paper in which you synthesize and analyze your observations of relevant class issues in the film. Provide implications of your observations and relate issues to course readings, discussion, etc.

5.)   Final Paper (15%): You will be required to develop a research paper that explores in-depth one or more topics related to the Chicana/o experience (i.e. race, gender, culture, acculturation, immigration, spirituality, etc.). You may also raise questions and ideas as well as any reflections stemming from class discussion, readings, and films. Required length is 12-15 pages not including sources/references.

This course will provide a history of the island’s relationship with the United States focusing in particular on questions of law and capitalism. The course will center around two questions: What is Puerto Rico to the United States? And how did we get to the present moment of crisis? In answering these questions we will focus in particular in the ways that law has racialized islanders and conceived them as unprepared and undeserving of rights. This conception has thus shaped the way that capitalism has worked as a force in shaping the islands possibilities throughout the 120 years of its relationship with the US.

Readings (subject to change):

• Jorge Duany, Puerto Rico: What Everyone Needs to Know, (New York: Oxford UP, 2017).
• Reconsidering the Insular Cases: The Past and Future of the American Empire, Gerald Nueman and Tomiko Brow-Nagin, eds. (Caimbridge: Harvard UP, 2015).
• Charles Venator-Santiago, Puerto Rico and the Origins of US Global Empire: The Disembodied Shade, (New York: Routlidge, 2015).
• Joanna Poblete, Islanders in the Empire: Filipino and Puerto Rican Laborers in Hawai’I, (Urbana: University of Illinois, 2017).
• Kelvin Santiago-Valles, “ ‘Our Race Today [is] the Only Hope for the World:’ An

African Spaniard as Chieftain of the Struggle Against ‘Sugar Slavery’ in Puerto Rico, 1926-1934” Caribbean Studies, Vol. 35, No. 1 (2007), pp. 107-140.

• Gervasio Luis Garcia, “I am the Other: Puerto Rico in the Eyes of North Americans, 1898,” The Journal of American History, Vol. 87, No. 1 (Jun., 2000), pp. 39-64.
• Solsirée del Moral, “Negotiating Colonialism ‘Race,’ Class, and Education in EarlyTwentieth-Century Puerto Rico,” in Alfred W. McCoy and Francisco A. Scarano, eds. Colonial Crucible: Empire in the Making of the Modern American State. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2009.)
• Eileen J. Findlay, “Love in the Tropics: Marriage, Divorce, and the Construction of Benevolent Colonialism in Puerto Rico, 1898-1910,” in Close Encounters of Empire: Writing the Cultural History of the U.S. and Latin American Relations, (Durham: Duke University Press, 1998.)
• Ellen Walsh, “The Not-So-Docile Puerto Rican: Students Resist Americanization, 1930,”Centro Journal, Vol. XXVI, No. I (Spr. 2014), pp. 148-171.

Grade breakdown (subject to change):

-      Attendance and class participation (20%)

-      News Journal (20%): Given that the history of Puerto Rico in crises is quite literally being written daily, an essential part of this course will be to keep track of the events on the island as they relate to the topics of our course. Students will explore the ways in which media sources report on and interpret contemporary issues and events in Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican community in the United States. Each week you will read a minimum of two articles about PR and Puerto Ricans and craft a brief (3-4 sentence) written summary of them in your own words.

• One of the articles must explore the relationship between the island and the United States (e.g. through politics, economics, migration); the other article can report any aspect of current life in PR or for mainland based Puerto Ricans. Please note the title, date and source of your newspaper articles and include a web address.
• The articles and summaries will be kept in an on-going journal and collected four times during the semester.
• Sources should be legitimate media/ news sources and not simply entertainment or opinion blogs or websites. Acceptable examples include NY Times, Washington Post, Huffington Post, BBC, Guardian, etc. Sources in Spanish are acceptable. Bring your journals to each class. We will begin each meeting with a brief news update.
• Please come to class prepared to discuss the current events on the island as these will feature prominently in our course.

-      Short Paper (20%) – One 4-5 page paper

-      In-class examination (20%) or 2^nd short paper (will depend on size of class)

-      Final examination (20%)

Please check back for updates.

This course seeks to understand Mexico through three lenses. First to introduce students to modern Mexico - its geography, economy, polity and society, and to examine in detail the nature and the forces of change that have impacted so dramatically upon the country during the past two decades. Second, we will examine Mexico-US bi-lateral relations both historically as well as in the contemporary sphere. Third, our lens will focus attention upon “Mexico Here”, and will analyze the dramatic Hispanic “rise” in the USA since 1990, with a special emphasis upon the ways in which the minority majority of Mexicans and Mexican Americans are shaping our own society, economy and polity of central Texas.

Approximately one-half of the course will offer an overview of the modern Mexico – its economic and political opening, challenges of overcoming poverty, and more recently the instability born of the drug cartels. Here too we will examine the key bilateral issues between the two countries: immigration reform; insecurity; and economic integration. The other half of the course is designed to analyze the demographic and socio-cultural changes and policy challenges that Mexican-origin populations confront today in here Central Texas: in education, health care, citizenship aspirations, access to housing, justice and human rights and wellbeing. The aim is to gain a more sensitive and nuanced awareness of how Mexican populations specifically, and Hispanic populations more generally, are transforming the cultural and political landscape of Texas and the US, in order to offer a broad-brush introduction that will allow us consider the public policy dilemmas and imperatives that we have to confront today.

The course will comprise a substantial writing component including three essays. In class participation is important, and an important element of the class assessment will comprise a group projects about how Mexicans and Mexican-American identities are shaping politics, society & culture (broadly defined) here in Central Texas. In addition there will be one midterm.

Please check back for updates.

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