Why are race and ethnicity such important aspects of our everyday lives? This course critically examines how and why these forms of identity matter so intensely, both in this country and around the world. Our aim is to understand the fundamental dynamics shaping racial and ethnic identity by drawing on theories and methods from anthropology. The first third of the course will cover key concepts and the basic forces that make ethnicity and race important. The second portion of the course will develop a cultural perspective on these topics by surveying a range of ethnographic work on these forms of identity. The final third of class will address a variety of ways that race and ethnicity operate in the sphere of public culture. Rather than attempt to present a survey of various groups and traditions, the aim of this course is to introduce students to the challenges of producing social knowledge about race and ethnicity. ReadingsBooks: The following books will be available at the Monkey Wrench Bookstore: 110 E. North Loop, 407-6925 (call first) Directions by Bus: Take the No. 7 on San Jacinto here on campus; get off at Ave F and North Loop. The bus goes down North Loop and the stop is just after it turns right onto Ave F. Ethnicity and Race: Making Identities in a Changing World |
Schedule
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Week 1 Introduction. W 8-27: Why race and ethnicity matter.
Week 2 Colonialism, Nationalism, Post-colonialism. W 9-3: Historical overview. Readings: Ethnicity & Race, Chps 1-2.
Week 3 Ethnicity: Balkans and Africa. M 9-8: Yugoslavia. Readings: Ethnicity & Race, Chps 3-4, + pgs 146-153. W 9-10:7 Rwanda. Readings: Ethnicity & Race, Chp 5.
Week 4 Race, Culture, Power. M 9-15: What is Race? Readings: Ethnicity & Race, Chp 6 W 9-17: Race, Culture, Nature. Readings: Ethnicity & Race, Chp 7
Week 5 Landscape of Race: Politics, Labor, Residence. M 9-22: Possessive Investment in whiteness. Readings: Lipsitz. W 9-24: Readings: Ethnicity & Race, Chp 8
Week 6 Cultural Perspectives on Race. M 9-29: Exam. W 10-1: 2007: A year of race in the news. Readings: Assorted Op-eds.
Week 7 Cultural Perspectives on Race. M 10-6: Obama and the 2008 election. Readings: Hartigan Op-eds. W 10-8: Ethnography and Cultural analysis. Hartigan, “Introduction.”
Week 8 Whiteness: Ethnographic Perspectives. M 10-13: Studying white people, pt 1. Readings: Hartigan, “White Detroit.” W 10-15: Studying white people, pt 2. Readings: Hartigan, “Object Lessons.”
Week 9 Blackness: Ethnographic Perspectives. M 10-20: Studying black people, pt 1. Readings: Kelley, “Yo’ Mama’s DisFUNKtional.” W 10-22: Studying black people, pt 2 . Readings: Jackson, “Real Fiction.”
Week 10 Beyond Black and White: Ethnographic Perspectives. M 10-27: Latino ethnographies. Readings: Limon, “Carne, Carnales, and the Carnivalesque.” W 10-29: Asian and diasporic identities, Readings: Parrenas and Siu, “Asian diasporas.”
Week 11 Racial Progress? M 11-3: Is the election about race? Readings: Hartigan, “Race Doesn’t Matter.” W 11-5: Race in the 21st century. Readings: Hartigan, “Race Doesn’t Matter.”
Week 12 Invention of tradition. M 11-10: Cultural Analysis: Hartigan, “Race: Culture, Biology, & Genetics.” W 11-12: White Music. Readings: Perry, “Doing Identity,” Frere-Jones, “Paler Shade.”
Week 13 Gentrification. M 11-17: Reproducing race in urban space. Readings: “Turf Wars,” Gabriella Modan W 11-19: Multicultural Corona and Black Corona. Readings: 2 Chapter, Gregory.
Week 14 Immigration. M 11-24: Debates over belonging. Readings: TBA W 11-26 No Class. Week 15 Technologies of Race M 12-1 Readings: Nakamura, “Digital Racial Formations.” W 12-3 Concluding Comments. |
Links
To University of Texas @ Austin's Anthropology Department
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