SC361-6-AU-CO:
American Society: Ethnic Encounters in the Making of the USA
2024/25
Sociology and Criminology
Colchester Campus
Autumn
Undergraduate: Level 6
Current
Thursday 03 October 2024
Friday 13 December 2024
15
21 February 2024
Requisites for this module
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(none)
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In this module, we will examine the social, political and economic encounters between the European settlers, American Indians, African-Americans and Latino migrant groups that have shaped the social and political development of the United States.
The first term will primarily deal with social and political relations between European settlers/white Americans and Native American Indians. We begin with the early English colonisation of North America, proceeding with Westward expansion, and federal policies including moving Native Americans to reservations and removing children from their parents. We finish the term by looking at contemporary issues such as the industrialization of Native American landscapes, ill health and alcohol abuse on reservations, and the new and exciting social movements associated with Native American cultural revitalization.
To further our knowledge of the social and policitcal relations between European settlers and other American groups in the shaping of the United States.
Available as full option
Available as a half option (SC361-6-AU Autumn, SC361-6-SP Spring).
Available as an Outside Option
Available for third year students
This module will be delivered via:
- One 2-hour seminar each week.
Face-to-face attendance is expected.
- (no date) Inside an Apache Rite of Passage Into Womanhood - YouTube.
- Luke Willis Thompson | Tate, https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/turner-prize-2018/luke-willis-thompson
- Colin Samson. (December 8, 2016 10.39am GMT) 'Civil liberties of indigenous people have long been suppressed at Standing Rock', in The Conversation.
- Perdue, Theda. (1989) 'Cherokee Women and the Trail of Tears', in Journal of Women's History. vol. 1 (1) , pp.14-30
- Du Bois, W. E. B.; Edwards, Brent Hayes. (2007) The souls of Black folk, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Race and the Crisis of Justice | Miller Center, https://millercenter.org/issues-policy/us-domestic-policy/race-and-justice
- Moynihan, Daniel Patrick. (2013) 'The Negro Family: The Case for National Action.', in AEI Paper & Studies.
- Du Bois, W. E. B.; Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks. (2007) Darkwater: voices from within the veil, New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
- Fisch, Audrey A. (2007) The Cambridge companion to the African American slave narrative, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- (no date) Housing Segregation and Redlining in America: A Short History | NPR - YouTube.
- (no date) The Blue Tattoo, kidnapped by Indians, living in captivity - YouTube.
- Hormel, Leontina M.; Norgaard, Kari M. (2009-05) 'Bring the Salmon Home! Karuk Challenges to Capitalist Incorporation', in Critical Sociology. vol. 35 (3) , pp.343-366
- Manley A. Begay. (2000) 'The Politics of Repression', in Spirit wars: Native North American religions in the age of nation building, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press., pp.128-160
- (no date) Vantage Point - "Take a Picture with a Real Indian" (James Luna performance) - YouTube.
- Vine Deloria. (1988) 'The Disastrous Policy of Termination', in Custer died for your sins: an Indian manifesto, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press., pp.31-41
- Kara Walker's Fons Americanus – Look Closer | Tate, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/kara-walker-2674/kara-walkers-fons-americanus
- Taiaiake AlfredJeff Corntassel. (2005) 'POLITICS OF IDENTITY - IX: Being Indigenous: Resurgences against Contemporary Colonialism', in POLITICS OF IDENTITY - IX: Being Indigenous: Resurgences against Contemporary Colonialism. vol. 40 (4) , pp.597-614
- Wilson, James. (1998) The Earth shall weep: a history of Native America, London: Picador.
- (no date) Slavery and Justice at Brown University | BPR Media Opdocs - YouTube.
- McMurry, Linda O. (2000-12-14) 'Antilynching Lectures “The disturbing element which kept the waters troubled”', in To Keep the Waters Troubled: Oxford University Press., pp.169-187
- (no date) Public Policy and Blaming Poor Black Communities For Their Own Poverty - YouTube.
- The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates - The Atlantic, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/
- Maureen Trudelle Schwarz. (2001) 'Problem Drinking, Social Death, and Harmony', in Navajo lifeways: contemporary issues, ancient knowledge, Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press., pp.152-180
- Gordon M. Sayre. (1999) 'Abridging between Two Worlds: John Tanner as American Indian Autobiographer', in American Literary History. vol. 11 (3) , pp.480-499
- (no date) Whitney Plantation museum confronts painful history of slavery - YouTube.
- (no date) The Trail of Tears: They Knew It Was Wrong - YouTube.
- (no date) "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" by Harriet Jacobs - YouTube.
- Wells-Barnett, Ida B. (2017) Southern horrors: lynch law in all its phases, [Place of publication not identified]: [CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform].
- Wakefield, Sarah F. (2002) Six weeks in the Sioux tepees: a narrative of Indian captivity, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
- Adams, David Wallace. (c1995) Education for extinction: American Indians and the boarding school experience, 1875-1928, Lawrence, Kan: University Press of Kansas.
- “Get the Hell Off”: The Indigenous Fight to Stop a Uranium Mine in the Black Hills – Mother Jones, https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/05/the-black-hills-are-not-for-sale/
- (no date) Return of the American Bison - YouTube.
- Being Double: W.E.B. DuBois and Black Double Identity ~ HistoryDojo, https://historydojo.blog/2020/07/27/being-double-w-e-b-dubois-and-black-double-identity/
- The Traumatic Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools - The Atlantic, https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/03/traumatic-legacy-indian-boarding-schools/584293/
- Hinton, E. (2015-06-01) '"A War within Our Own Boundaries": Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and the Rise of the Carceral State', in Journal of American History. vol. 102 (1) , pp.100-112
- David Orentlicher. (August 14, 2018 11.32am BST) 'What Harvard can learn from Texas: A solution to the controversy over affirmative action', in The Conversation.
- How Alcohol Came to the American Indian | PBS, https://www.pbs.org/video/tpt-co-productions-how-alcohol-came-american-indian/
- (no date) Lester Maddox and Jim Brown Get Into Heated Debate on Segregation | The Dick Cavett Show - YouTube.
- Zadie Smith
Fintan O'Toole
Nicholas Lemann
Cintra Wilson
Michael Gorra
Sean Wilentz
Eduardo Halfon
Krithika Varagur
Diane Ravitch
Caryl Phillips. (2020) 'What Do We Want History to Do to Us?', in The New York Review of Books. (February 27, 2020)
- Felicia J. Wong. (2017) 'The Racial Rules of Criminal Justice', in The hidden rules of race: barriers to an inclusive economy, New York, NY: Cambridge University Press., pp.108-126
- 'Kill Every Buffalo You Can! Every Buffalo Dead Is an Indian Gone' - The Atlantic, https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2016/05/the-buffalo-killers/482349/
- Berrey, Ellen. (©2015) The enigma of diversity: the language of race and the limits of racial justice, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
- (no date) What we get wrong about affirmative action - YouTube.
- Fontaine, Theodore. (2014) Colonial genocide in indigenous North America, Durham: Duke University Press.
- Rothstein, Richard. (2017) The color of law: a forgotten history of how our government segregated America, New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation.
- (no date) Racial segregation in American schools. Return to the 1960s - YouTube.
- Ida B. Wells Documentary - Ben Hooks Institute - The University of Memphis, https://www.memphis.edu/benhooks/documentaries/idabwells.php
- Schermerhorn, Calvin. (©2018) Unrequited toil: a history of United States slavery, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Douglass, Frederick; Andrews, William L. (1996) The Oxford Frederick Douglass reader, New York: Oxford University Press.
- (no date) Stephen Hayes - Cash Crop - YouTube.
- (2019) Standing with Standing Rock: voices from the #NoDAPL movement, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
- Bowden, Henry Warner. (1981) American Indians and Christian missions: studies in cultural conflict, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. vol. Chicago history of American religion
- Carlos Gigoux. (2017) 'Colonization', in Indigenous peoples and colonialism: global perspectives, Cambridge: Polity Press., pp.38-74
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course. The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students. Further reading can be obtained from this module's reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
Critical Reflection 1 |
|
50% |
| Coursework |
Critical Reflection 2 |
|
50% |
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Carlos Gigoux Gramegna, email: cgigou@essex.ac.uk.
Dr Carlos Gigoux Gramegna
Jane Harper, Student Administrator, email: socugrad@essex.ac.uk, telephone: 01206 873052
Yes
Yes
Yes
Dr Paul Gilbert
University of Sussex
Senior Lecturer in International Development
Available via Moodle
Of 20 hours, 20 (100%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).
* Please note: due to differing publication schedules, items marked with an asterisk (*) base their information upon the previous academic year.
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