Graduate Research Seminar
Download a copy of the syllabus in .pdf format.
Course Description
Historical studies do not necessarily focus on topics relating to Ethnic Studies, but no effective Ethnic Studies project can omit serious consideration of its historical context. This seminar will focus on understanding theories, methods, and modes of historical analysis used by historians, social scientists, and the types of comparative, relational, and interdisciplinary work on race, ethnicity, and gender that we refer to as Ethnic Studies. Understanding the production of history will form a context for students to conceptualize a research project and produce a written prospectus for a masters thesis.
Although the readings each week elucidate a theme and together cover a range of topics, some general questions pertain to each session:
¥ What research question(s) does the author ask and how does the author relate the research question(s) to the research topic?
¥ How has the author designed the research project?
¥ What theories and methodologies does the author use and where are they employed (e.g.: Research question? Research design? Analysis?).
¥ How does the author employ history as a part of the workÕs arguments?
Evaluation
Students have the responsibility for completing the reading assignments before each seminar session, and to prepare for a productive contribution to the class discussion. Each participant will lead the class discussion twice during the quarter and will write a 4-6 page analysis of the readings due the week following the discussion. Papers will discuss and critique the historical theory, method, and/or arguments relevant to the readings, the class discussion, and the presenterÕs own research. In addition, students will complete assignments culminating in a prospectus describing their MA project.
Grades will be assigned as follows:
Participation in weekly discussions = 25%
Weekly discussion leader (*2) = 10%
Written Assignments = 25%
Final written prospectus = 40%
Syllabus
Texts included in the Ethnic Studies Reading List are marked as ¥
Week 1, March 29: Introduction
Week 2, April 5: Theories of History
Fulbrook, Mary. Historical theory. London ; New York: Routledge, 2002.
Assignment: Description of your research topic.
Week 3, April 12: Alternative Histories
Du Bois, W. E. B. The souls of black folk essays and sketches. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co., 1903. (First Edition) ¥
Eastman, Charles Alexander. The soul of the Indian : an interpretation. Boston New York ;: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1911. (First Edition)
Week 4, April 19: History and Popular Culture
Berkhofer, Robert F. The white man's Indian : images of the American Indian from Columbus to the present. New York: Knopf : distributed by Random House, 1978. ¥
Lipsitz, George. Time passages : collective memory and American popular culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1990. ¥
Assignment: Preliminary annotated bibliography
Duara, Prasenjit. Rescuing history from the nation : questioning narratives of modern China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
Jeremy Adelman and Stephen Aron. ÒFrom Borderlands to Borders: Empires, Nation-States, and the Peoples in Between in North American History.Ó American Historical Review 104:3.
Responses to ÒFrom Borderlands to Borders: Empires, Nation-States, and the Peoples in Between in North American History.Ó American Historical Review 104:4.
Week 6, May 3: Refracting Perspectives
Spicer, Edward Holland. Cycles of conquest : the impact of Spain, Mexico, and the United States on the Indians of the Southwest, 1533-1960. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1967, chapters 6-7, 152-209 and chapter 11, 279-333. ¥
GutiŽrrez, Ram—n A. When Jesus came, the corn mothers went away : marriage, sexuality, and power in New Mexico, 1500-1846. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1991, chapters 8-10, 241-336. ¥
Frank, Ross. From settler to citizen : New Mexican economic development and the creation of Vecino society, 1750-1820. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000, chapter 4-5, 119-222. ¥
Assignment: Revised research topic and supporting annotated bibliography; draft of Research Question(s)
Week 7, May 10: History from the Bottom
Foley, Neil. The white scourge : Mexicans, Blacks, and poor whites in Texas cotton culture, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. ¥
Week 8, May 17: Quantifying History
Oliver, Melvin L., and Thomas M. Shapiro. Black wealth/white wealth : a new perspective on racial inequality. New York: Routledge, 1995. ¥
Assignment: First draft of research prospectus. Please make a copy for each member of the class for distribution.
Week 9, May 24: Mapping History and Culture I
Mumford, Kevin J. Interzones : Black/White sex districts in Chicago and New York in the early twentieth century. New York ; Columbia University Press, 1997.
Basso, Keith H. Wisdom sits in places : landscape and language among the Western Apache. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1996.
Ball, Martin W. "People Speaking Silently to Themselves": An Examination of Keith Basso's Philosophical Speculations on ÔSense of PlaceÕ in Apache Cultures.Ó American Indian Quarterly, 26:3, 460-478.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_indian_quarterly/toc/aiq26.3.html
Week 10, May 31: MEMORIAL DAY - NO CLASS
Final draft of Prospectus due.