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Center for African and African and American Studies

CAAS 231/Hist. 275. Survey of Afro-American History, II. Historical Perspectives.
Section – 001.
Instructor: Michele Mitchell

No description provided.

CAAS 303/Soc. 303. Race and Ethnic Relations. Individual Behavior, Cultural Systems, and Social Organization
Instructor: Michele Harris-Reid

The goal of this course is to introduce students to the social history (past and present) of racial minorities in the United States. We will begin by defining the principal concepts that sociologists use in their analysis of race relations. Central to this discussion will be the understanding of “racism” NOT as “prejudice,” “ignorance,” an “attitude,” or a “set of beliefs" but rather as a comprehensive historical system that changes over time. After this theoretical discussion, we will survey the historical experiences of five racial minorities, namely, African Americans, Chicanos/Mexican Americans, American Indians, Puerto Ricans, and Asian Americans. The course will conclude with a discussion of possible solutions to the racial dilemmas faced by the U.S.

CAAS 348/Dance 358. Dance in Culture: Origins of Jazz Dance. Literature and the Arts.
Instructor: Robin Wilson

This course is an exploration of the origins of Jazz Dance through movement, as it relates to African-American vernacular dance, the African Diaspora, and American culture as a whole, placing African-American vernacular dance right at its center and providing a broader understanding of the influence of African-American dance and its legacy within 20th-century concert dance. Starting from the early dances of enslaved Africans in the Americas to the present, this course investigates the relationship of African-American vernacular dance to jazz dance forms.  It will identify the commonalities of movement and aesthetics of both, as well as the sociocultural conditions that contributed to their creation and influence in American dance and culture.

CAAS 358. Topics in Black World Studies. Independent Study and Special Topics.
Section 002 – African American Social Thought.
Instructor: Alford Young

This course will explore theoretical perspectives on the social condition and social character of African Americans. The schools of thought to be considered include integrationist (liberal and conservative), nationalist, Afrocentric, feminist, postmodern, and marxist. The overarching goal of the course is to understand, interpret, and critique strands of social thought on Black Americans. The course will consist of representative readings of each school. We will interrogate each school, and then compare and contrast them through a series of examinations and short essays. Tentative readings include: Cornel West, Race Matters; Shelby Steele, The Content of Our Character; Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought; and Molefi Asante, Afrocentricity.

CAAS 418/Poli. Sci. 419. Black Americans and the Political System. Politics, Economics, and Development.
Instructor: Vincent Hutchings

See Political Science 419.001.

CAAS 451. Law, Race, and the Historical Process, II. Politics, Economics, and Development.
Instructor: Ronald Woods

This course is the second half of a two-course sequence on the constitutional and
legal history of African Americans. It covers the phase of this history beginning with the advent of the Modern Civil Rights Movement and extending to the present. In this course, we will approach law as an institution which is constantly shaping and being shaped by the cultural, economic, political, and social environments around it. In looking at the interaction between law, race, and historical process in the latter half of the twentieth century, the course will explore the reciprocal relationship between law and the societal order, the role of law in the philosophical and social discourse of African Americans, and the function of law in the developmental strategies adopted by them. This course will routinely examine the constitutional and legal experience of African Americans as a case study in how ideas are transformed by historical forces in malleable principles of law.
 

American Culture
 

Amer. Cult. 100. What is an American?
Instructor: Matthew Countryman

How have different Americans imagined what it means to be American? What ideas about national history, patriotism, and moral character shape their visions of Americanness? How do they draw the boundaries that define who belongs within the nation and who gets excluded? This course will study some of the answers that Americans have given to these questions in both the past and present. Our assumption will be that there is no “right” answer to the question, “What is an American?” – just ongoing political and cultural debate. We will study that debate in a wide array of materials: journalism, memoirs, film, fiction, political manifestoes, historical research, and World Wide Web sites. We will look at many conflicting visions of America – including some that are disturbingly exclusionary – and we will pay close attention to the ways that Americans have thought about the value and challenges of diversity (racial, ethnic, regional, religious, and other) in the United States.

Amer. Cult. 206. Themes in American Culture.
Section 001 – Making History for America’s Classrooms: Conflict and Consensus.
Instructor: Joseph Moreau

This course examines the struggle to define American history and control its presentation in primary and secondary schools. Students will address thequestions that have divided historians, teachers, politicians, and the public at large for more than 200 years. What purposes should history teaching serve? How should the history curriculum be determined within a democracy? Who may legitimately write history, and what voices are authentic? While we will discuss questions of reception – how students construct their own understandings of history from textbooks and other sources – we will focus mostly on the creation of what Michael Apple terms “official knowledge.”  We will devote much of the second half of the semester to current controversies, including the move to “multiculturalism” and the recent push for national history standards.

Amer. Cult. 213. Introduction to Latino Studies – Humanities.
Instructor: Frances Aparicio

This course introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of Latino Studies with
an emphasis on the humanities. Issues of cultural identity, race, class, gender, and the ways in which U.S. Latinos/as negotiate their locations in between two dominant cultures, the Anglo and the Latin American, will be examined through diverse cultural sites such as fiction, poetry, essays, visual arts, music, performing arts, and language. Attention will be paid to the dominant forms of representation of Chicanos, U.S. Puerto Ricans, Cuban-Americans and other Latino groups in the United States as well as to the alternative self-representations that Latino/a artists and writers have proposed from the margins.

Amer. Cult. 215. Introduction to Asian American Studies – Humanities.
Instructor: unlisted

Introduction to Asian American Studies will examine the nature of American culture and society through a specific study of one racial/ethnic group, Asian Americans.  The Asian American experience reveals the dynamics of race relations and economic stratification in the U.S.A. as well as the continuing process of defining America and American. This course provides an introductory study of the experience of Asian immigrants and their citizen descendants in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. The groups covered include Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean, Pacific Islander, South Asian, and Southeast Asian Americans as well as the heterogeneity within the various ethnic communities, such as gender, class, generation, and region. Topics for discussion will include international/domestic relations, immigration policy, ethnic literary expressions.

Amer. Cult. 217. Introduction to Native American Studies – Humanities.
Instructor: Betty Bell

This course will introduce the colonization and representation of the “Indian” within America’s “discovery” and “victory” culture. To provide alternative (resisting) histories to Manifest Destiny, we will rely on historical and contemporary writings of Native Americans. In addition to literary materials, popular films, and native personal narratives will guide our discussion of then course’s primary question, “Who owns the stories of Native America?” Students are not expected to have any previous knowledge of native histories or cultures. Course expectations include attendance, midterm, final, and a journal.

Amer. Cult. 240/WS 240. Introduction to Women's Studies.
Instructor: Beth Hackett

Designed as an introduction to feminist scholarship about women, this interdisciplinary course acquaints students with key concepts and theoretical frameworks for analyzing women’s experiences, and helps students hone both their ability to analyze arguments and to “read” literary and visual representations. We will explore how women’s lives differ and are interconnected over time and place, but will focus on the situations of women in the United States today. This exploration includes investigation of the effects of gender, race, class, sexual orientation, and nationality on women’s lives. Material is drawn from both the humanities and social sciences, and topics may include, for example: violence against women, discrimination in the workplace, the feminization of poverty, and the family. The course does not merely provide analyses of women’s oppression, however, but suggests strategies for ending that oppression.

Amer. Cult. 243/WS 243. Introduction to Study of Latinas in the U.S.
Instructor: Hernandez

This course is am exploration into the multiplicity of social and cultural histories and relations that define the variety of experiences of Latinas in the United States. We will examine the many ways in which ethnic, racial, class, gender, and sexual differences have shaped these experiences. Special attention will be paid to the construction of identities and to power relations in the United States. During the semester we will discuss these processes using a wide range of multidisciplinary materials. The course is thematically organized and it includes topics such as: Differences among Latina women: racialization; “Border” women/ “Barrio” women: the Geography of Identity; “Mother,” “Sister,” and “Daughter,” En-gendering Betrayal: Sexuality and Transgressions; and Differences “at Work”.

Amer. Cult. 301. Topics in American Culture.
Section 004 – Popular Culture and Multicultural Practices.
Graduate students must enroll in Music Educ. 446.
Instructor: William Shea

Drawing on issues in popular culture and music education, this course will show how selected music cultures, including “youth cultures” and “minorities cultures,” have influenced the rich and diverse multimusical landscape of America.

Amer. Cult. 404/Soc. 404. Hispanic-Americans: Social Problems and Social Issues.
Instructor: Sylvia Pedraza

This course explores the experiences of the major groups of Latinos in the U.S. – Chicanos, Mexican immigrants, Puerto Ricans, Cubans – both for what it tells us about them and for the social problems and social issues they serve to exemplify, such as issues of political vs. economic migration; poverty and its impact on the family; immigration law and its consequences; the changing nature of work; and the unfolding drama of revolution. In addition, we will utilize different theoretical perspectives to help us explain the contrasting experiences. Among the theoretical models we will examine will be the "push-pull" theory of migration; assimilation vs. internal colonialism as models; the impact of state assistance and immigration laws; middleman minority vs. the ethnic enclave vs. the ethnic economy as models of immigrant adaptation; social movements vs. revolution as major transformations that have shaped the histories of Latinos in the U. S.

Amer. Cult. 496. Social Science Approaches to American Culture.
Section 003 – The 1960's: From the Old Left To New Left in Politics and Culture.
Instructor: Alan Wald

"The Sixties" is an interdisciplinary course meeting once a week for three-hours to explore political and cultural features of that controversial decade. We start with the political origins of the "New Left" in the remnants of the "Old Left," using Isserman's If I had a Hammer and the documentary Seeing Red, followed by Doctorow's novel The Book of Daniel. We then survey much of the terrain of the following ten years, including the Free Speech Movement, Black Power and Black Arts Movements, Second Wave of Feminism, and anti-Vietnam War movement. Several guests who played important parts in the movements of the 1960s will visit the seminar to dialogue with us.
 

Anthropology

Anthro. 272/Ling. 272. Language in Society.
Instructor: Anthony Berkley

What place does language have in everyday life? Do people really communicate when they speak to each other? How is language used to reinforce relationships of power, especially along racial, gender, and class lines? How do languages change, and how does change reflect the structure of society? This course is about the nature of language and the ways in which it reflects and informs social life. Topics covered include: (1) How and why languages change; (2) the relationships between speech and social class, race, and gender; (3) the politics of language use in society, including language policy in third-world societies (especially in South America) and the "English-only" movement in the United States; (4) the ways in which language is used to construct social, cultural, and political "realities" and the ways these realities are contested as, for example, in the abortion debate. We will try to answer some of these questions in this course, which is about the nature of language and social life.

Anthro. 356. Topics in Ethnology. Ethnology-Topical Courses.
Section 001 – The Anthropology of Aging.
Instructor: J Traphagan

This course considers the influence of culture on the universal human experience of aging. Special emphasis is placed on: (1) the behaviors and meanings attached to the aging process and (2) the experience of old age in different cultural settings.  We will consider various aspects of the aging process from a cross-cultural perspective, including life course transitions, death, dementia, illness and health, intergenerational ties, and social transformation. The main text for the class is The Cultural Context of Aging: Worldwide Perspectives (Jay Sokolovsky, ed). In addition, we will read J. Keith, et al. The Aging Experience: Diversity and Commonality Across Cultures, which provides an example of methods for cross-cultural studies of aging, and three ethnographies.

Anthro. 387. Prehistory of North America. Archaeology.
Instructor(s): John Speth (jdspeth@umich.edu)

Students are introduced to the diversity of prehistoric Native American cultures in North America, with emphasis on the Eastern Woodlands, Plains, Great Basin, and Southwest. Twelve thousand years of accommodations to diverse natural and social environments are covered, starting with the initial peopling of the Americas and ending with early contacts between Europeans and Native Americans. Topics of special interest include changing hunter-gatherer adaptations leading to the independent domestication of several seed-bearing plants and the origins of agriculture; the development of organizationally complex societies, often called chiefdoms, in the Southeast and southern Midwest; and the devastating impact of European exploration and colonization on the cultures of Native North America.

Anthro. 447. Culture, Racism, and Human Nature. Ethnology-Theory/Method.
Instructor: Melvin Williams

This course examines the possible origins of culture to understand the unique
behavior and historical development of Homo sapiens and traces the salient features of human history and contemporary modernity to discuss and explain the nature of humans. The understanding of the nature of humans and their development will enable the students to comprehend, explain and resolve racism, part of a pan-human phenomenon. Is racism fundamental to the character of human culture? The course will suggest that many of our modern social problems have a common generation – the nature of human culture. That would suggest that the solutions will require a social transformation in the character of human culture.  These examinations of human culture will require us to return to the discussions of Leslie White (culture is autonomous) and Alfred Kroeber (culture is superorganic) to determine the possibilities of social transformations that contemporary society may require.

Anthro. 457. The Film and Other Visual Media in Anthropology. Ethnology-Topical Courses.
Section 001 – Visual Encounters With the Other.
Instructor: Ruth Behar

New approaches to the study of film which focus on how cultural issues are represented, negotiated and contested in a wide range of documentary, ethnographic, and narrative films showing students how the construction of "otherness" and modern "selfhood" are played out in films. Moving from the "voyage out" to the "voyage in," the course parallels the way anthropology as a discipline has moved from an emphasis on differences to a desire to map points of contact and identification, and understand the otherness in our own midst.

Anthro. 458. Topics in Cultural Anthropology. Ethnology-Topical Courses.
Section 003 – Anthropology & American Culture.
Instructors: Thomas Trautmann, Gillian Feeley-Harnik

This is an interdisciplinary course, focusing on the creation of Anthropology in American culture.  American anthropology is unusually broad in scope, encompassing human biology and ecology, archaeology, linguistics and social-cultural anthropology, although the unity of these many forms of inquiry has never been more hotly contested than it is today. We are interested in how the distinctive features of American anthropology grew out of major social experiments and debates in American history, and how anthropologists in turn have contributed to these public debates, changing what we take to be "human" in the process.  Our strategy for exploring major debates in fine detail is to focus on a particular region of the country that has also been an important global cross-roads for centuries: the Great Lakes region.
 

Asian Studies

Asian St. 150. First Year Seminar in Asian Studies: Civilizations of Asia.
Section 001 – Public and Private Lives: Traditional Chinese Writers and Their World.
Instructor: Anna Shields

This course explores familiar questions: How does your work affect your personal life? Does public failure mean personal failure too? Can you or should you separate these two parts of your life? Although these questions may seem modern and American, they lay at the heart of the Chinese scholar-official’s search for self-definition. In this course, we will explore the writing and lives of five important traditional Chinese writers, and we will see how differently they balanced the demands of their public and private lives.  We will discover that each writer managed to establish his own position (or positions) somewhere between the two poles of engagement and reclusion.
 

Asian St. 253/S&SEA 250. Undergraduate Seminar in South and Southeast Asian Culture.
Section 001 – Religion in Modern India.
Instructor: Pashaura Singh

This course is about the diversity of religious life in modern India. It will begin with the examination of the following three points, namely, (1) that ancient layers of India’s religious life are alive and well in contemporary India; (2) that the hybrid discourse of the “secular state” is itself a religious discourse in modern India; and (3) that India’s unique agony over religion is instructive for rethinking some of our most general notions about “religion” and “secularization.” In this course we will discuss the overall periodization of the various layers of India’s religious lif.  We will then apply the overall analysis to the five salient religious crises in contemporary India: the Sikhs in the Punjab, the Muslim issue in Kashmir, the Shah Banno case and the Muslim Women’s bill, the Mandal Commission Report on Other Backward Classes, and the controversy in Ayodhya. We will also examine the role of ethnic and racial conflicts that led to these crises.
 

Asian Studies 402/Japanese 402.  Japanese Literature in Translation: Edo and Modern Periods.
Section 001 – Japanese Literature and Thought in Translation:  Nationalism/Sexuality/Ethnicity.
Instructor: Mark Driscoll

This course will examine Japanese literary and philosophical texts in their historical contexts, focusing on the three periods of early-modern (1650-1780), modern (1910-1940), and post-modern (1980-present). In the early-modern period we will read selected works from theater and comedy, analyze Motoori Norinaga’s theory of poetics and language, and look at Ogyu Sorai’s philosophy of neo-Confucianism. In the modern period, against the background of Japan’s imperialism in Asia, we will concentrate on texts that explore subjectivity, ethnicity, and sexuality.  No knowledge of Japanese is required.  Contemporary work in feminism, queer theory, and post-colonial discourse will be integrated into class discussions.
 

Biological Anthropology
 

Bio. Anthro. 361. Biology, Society, and Culture.
Instructor: Rachel Caspari

What is the relationship between race and biological evolution, biological evolution and culture, and culture and race? What is culture and how did it evolve? How did culture shape human evolution? Did extinct fossil races like Neanderthals have culture? Was there a Human Revolution? What is the impact of technology on human biology, now and in the past? How is the human symbolic system used to construct racial groups in cultures around the world? Are these races real biological entities? Do they have any intrinsic differences in intelligence, as some recent publications suggest? What is the relationship between racial groups, health, and diseases such as sickle-cell anemia and AIDS? Anthropology is a comparative and holistic science that has such multidisciplinary issues at its core. This course examines these and related questions as critical to an understanding of the evolutionary basis of culture and the biological attributes and implications of cultural constructs like race.
 

Bio. Anthro. 362. Problems of Race.
Instructor: C. Loring Brace

The subject matter covered in this course is different from but complementary to that covered in Anthropology 347 which is more concerned with race relations. Anthropology 362, on the other hand, addresses itself to two main problem areas where race is concerned: (1) the common concept of race has an inadequate foundation in biology and must be dispensed with before we can make sense out of the very real aspects of human biological variation. This portion of the course treats the dimensions of human biological differences that can be traced according to selective force distributions and their changes through time. These will be contrasted with the biological traits that show regional clustering but which have no adaptive value and cannot therefore be hierarchically arranged. (2) If the common concept of race has an inadequate biological base, how did we get stuck with our generally held assumptions when it would appear that they owe more to folklore than to biology? This portion of the course deals principally with the history of the race concept.
 

Bio. Anthro. 365. Human Evolution.
Instructor: Milford Wolpoff

Human evolution has been a biological process with both social and physical aspects. Through lectures, discussion section, laboratory, and reading, the interrelated process of behavioral and physical change is outlined for humans and their ancestors. Emphasis is placed on evolutionary mechanisms, and context is provided through an understanding of the pre-human primates. The human story begins with origins and the appearance of unique human features such as bipedality, the loss of cutting canines, the appearance of continual sexual receptivity, births requiring midwifery, and the development of complex social
interactions. An early adaptive shift sets the stage for the subsequent evolution of intelligence, technology, and the changes in physical form that are the consequence of the unique feedback system involving cultural and biological change. The "Eve" theory and other ideas about the origin of modern humanity and human races, and their development and relationships, are discussed in this context.
 

Communication Studies
 

Comm. 474. Mass Communication and Identity
Instructor: Kevin Hoyes

This course explores the role of mass communication in shaping personal and social identity. Special attention is given to the ways in which the mass media can create, sustain, or alter ethnic culture and subcultures. Topics include the ethnic media in contemporary America, including the role of the media in immigrant communities, and the complex interplay of “mainstream” and minority cultural life.
 

Comparative Literature
 

Comp. Lit. 434. Comparative Studies in Poetry.
Instructor: Yopie Prins

Sappho of Lesbos, the Greek archaic poet who wrote lyrics sometime around the seventh century B.C., has inspired writers throughout following centuries despite, and indeed because of, the fact that her work survives only in fragments. This course surveys some of the poets who have translated, imitated, and otherwise aligned themselves with Sappho in various languages and historical contexts. We will begin with a close study of Sappho’s poetry, referring to the original Greek whenever possible and comparing twentieth-century translations into English. Next we will consider Sappho’s reputation in antiquity, Sapphic imitations in the Renaissance and in Romanticism, the emergence of “Sapphism” in fin-de-siècle England and France, and the early modernist reconstruction of Sappho as fragment.  Finally, we will consider Sappho’s association with lesbian poetics. Throughout the term we will develop some theoretical questions about the function of “tradition,” the definition of lyric poetry as a genre, the construction of female subjectivity, and the formulation of lesbian studies through the figure of Sappho.
 

Comp. Lit. 490. Comparative Cultural Studies.
Section 001 – Culture Talking.
Instructor(s): Jim Porter

In this course we will explore the phenomenon of culture viewed as a symptom, as an expressive formation, a form of talking out loud (rather than communicating), and a kind of gesticulating. Hysteria and other pathologies, racism (esp. anti-Semitism), degeneration, anxieties over power, talking cures – these are cultural markers and symptoms of a deeper unrest. The German tradition of the 19th century, an especially “vocal” one in all of these respects, will be emphasized, although instances will be drawn from other European and non-metropolitan cultures as well, depending on student interest. The overall aim will be to convey a bit of cultural history and to provide students with tools for coming to grips with the complexities of the voices of culture.
 

Comprehensive Studies Program
 

CSP 105. Reading and Writing Seminar: Insiders/Outsiders.
Instructor: Fran Zorn

This course encourages students to consider their own positions as “insiders” and “outsiders” in a pluristic society. The short readings, in particular the works of fiction, describe events that profoundly affect people in racially mixed communities. Reading about the lives of fictional characters who are acting at crucial times, the students will discuss and write about the events, relating then to their own lives and the lives of others. They will explore their own preconceptions and challenge their own attitudes. We will also  explore the barriers created by class and gender. Students will write five 4-5 page papers; some will be discussed in conference; all will be submitted in revised form. The papers will include expository and personal experience essays and some in-class writings. The midterm and final exams will require out of class essays based on the course work.
 

English Language and Literature
 

Engl. 125. College Writing.
Section 037 – Restricted To CSP Students.
Instructor: Enid Zimmerman

No description provided.
 

Engl. 217. Literature Seminar.
Section 002 – Literature and Film: Kinds of Love.
Instructor: Alan Howes

This sophomore seminar will explore different kinds of love in diverse situations, drawing on selected texts mainly from the 19th and 20th centuries. The tentative list includes these books, each of which will be compared with a respective film version: Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet; Austen, Pride and Prejudice; Lawrence, Women in Love; Puig, Kiss of the Spiderwoman; Walker, The Color Purple; Nabokov, Lolita; and Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath. Mandatory screenings on video projection will be on Tuesdays (make-up on Thursdays) from 7 to 10 p.m. (most will be shorter than this). There will be several short writing exercises and a final exam. Students will have an opportunity to lead class discussion at least once during the term.
 

Engl. 309. American English.
Section 001 – Multilingual America.
Instructor: Richard W. Bailey

All languages ever spoken in the Americas are immigrant languages, and all have contributed to the American English we speak today. In our course we will study a variety of languages, especially those in the heritage of the students who enroll. (If your background is Polish, Hispanic, Korean, African-American, or almost anything else, there will be a special project for you in this course.) The United States has always been a multilingual nation, but our government has seldom been supportive of languages other than English. We will focus particularly on how linguistic diversity has been “managed” by official and unofficial actions through our national history. We will also look at future trends in linguistic diversity and consider their impact on us and the world.
 

Engl. 383. Topics in Jewish Literature.
Section 001 – Constructing American Jewish Literature.
Instructor: George Bornstein

This new course will use a comparative approach to constructing a tradition of Jewish literature in our country during the last century. We will study the literature both in itself and as a paradigm for contemporary debates about cultural hybridity, assimilation, and ethnicity. Our reading will mix familiar and unfamiliar names (and why so many Jewish writers remain outside the canon will be one question we shall ask). We begin with neglected authors of late 19th century such as Emma Lazarus, use Israel Zangwill as our transition point, and turn to successive generations of Jewish-American authors, such as Abraham Cahan, Anzia Yezierska, Henry Roth, Arthur Miller, Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, Cynthia Ozick, Allen Ginsberg, and Wendy Wasserstein. Contemporary readings on Anti-Semitism, economic and educational history, and cultural theory will help us explore the problematic nature of group identity within a complex society.
 

Engl. 472. Twentieth-Century American Literature: Key Texts.
Section 001 – Other Americas.
Instructor: Alan Wald

In 1962, a little-known radical writer named Michael Harrington created a national sensation with his book The Other America. The title referred to all the victims of the social and economic structure in the ghettos, barrios, sweatshops and migrant shelters. Behind Harrington’s work stood a long tradition of literary radicalism seeking to give voice to the experiences of the same population through fiction, poetry and drama. We will explore key texts of that tradition in 20th century literature. With Rideout’s classic The Radical Novel in the US as background, we will begin with Smedley’s Daughter of Earth, Roth’s Call It Sleep, Wright’s Native Son, and Bulosan’s America Is In the Heart. Later we will view the tradition as it evolved in the 1960s, especially the African American playwright Lorraine
Hansberry.
 

Environmental Studies
 

Environ. St. 402. Special Problems in Environmental Studies.
Section 001 – Planning the Metropolitan Region: Sprawl, Environment and Race.
Instructor: Patrick McGovern

This course will examine environmental planning, patterns of land use, and racial change in U.S. metropolitan regions. We will focus on the metropolitan region and consider the decline of central cities, suburban sprawl, and the formation of edge cities. The course will examine how urban planners and policymakers can intervene in ongoing processes to revitalize central cities, contain sprawl, reverse environmental degradation, and address social equity. The course will include a set of case studies from different regions, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, and the local case of Detroit. We will examine the recent history of each case and the specific issues of physical development, environmental degradation, and racial inequality in each region.
 

Film and Video
 

F/V 365. Race and Ethnicity in Contemporary American Television.
Section 001 – Required Film Screening M, 5-7 P M.
Instructor: Castonguay

No description provided.
 

Germanic Languages and Literatures
 

German 232. Second-Year Course.
Section 004 – Contemporary German Society.
Instructor: Janet Van Valkenburg

While building a basic vocabulary and reviewing essential grammar appropriate to this level, students will be reading a variety of authentic texts dealing with racial diversity in German society. We will look at Germany’s past history and the roll it played in Germany’s present racial attitudes and practices. We will be considering such topics as: the development of racism in Germany; Nazi Germany; the place of foreigners in German society; achieving German citizenship; the rise of right wing racist radical groups; the attitude toward and the treatment of other minority groups; and Germany, the EU, and racism.
 

History
 

History 265. A History of the University of Michigan.
Instructor: Nicholas Steneck

The University of Michigan has been a leader in shaping the modern American university. The course will examine this heritage and history from the perspectives of students, faculty, fields of study, administration, etc. It will explore the factors that have shaped the University and place it within the larger social, political, national, and international context. The only prerequisite is an interest in your University and its place in history. Presentation will be through lectures with slides. Grading will be based on essay/ objective exams; term project or research paper; photo quiz to acquaint students with central campus, its architecture and embellishment. Readings will be from a course pack and 2 or 3 required texts.
 

History 321. Postwar Britain.
Instructor: Kali Israel

This course will examine Britain from World War II through he Cold War, the social and political challenges of the 1960s, the Conservative resurgence of the late 1970s, the Falklands war, and the fall of Margaret Thatcher, to the 1997 electron. Special attention will be paid to the experience of war by civilian populations; the development of a "welfare state" and subsequent challenges thereto; Britain's decline as a world power; protest movements; the nuclear disarmament and peace movements from the late 50s/early 60s through the 80s; the influence of American culture on Britain; decolonization and the participation of Asians and Africans in British culture and politics; Welsh and Scottish nationalism; the Northern Ireland question; and on-going political and cultural debates about class, education, the media, sexuality and gender roles, and Britain as a multi-cultural society.
 

History 371/WS 371. Women in American History Since 1870.
Instructor: Regina Morantz-Sanchez

This course will examine how social constructions of gender, race, class, and sexuality have shaped women's lives in the U.S. from the Civil War to the present, and how some women have pushed at the boundaries of those constructions through, for example, changing patterns of work, leisure, education, and intimacy; through political activism; through labor organizing; through involvement in a variety of social movements; and through popular culture. We will emphasize the diversity of women's historical experiences by region as well as by social category, and will situate those experiences in the larger contexts of social, economic, and political change on local, national, and even global levels. Requirements include a midterm, a final, and a paper, as well as active participation in discussion sections. Films will be shown.
 

History 392. Topics in Asian and African History.
Section 001 – Health and Disease in African Worlds.
Instructor: Nancy Hunt

This course will consider health and illness, medicine and disease in diverse African worlds from the fifteenth century to the present. Designed equally for majors in History and students planning careers in the health professions in this country and abroad. No prior knowledge of Africa is assumed. Though historical in nature, the course will draw on the methodologies of medical anthropology, epidemiology, and medical sociology. It will propose health and wealth as a central theme to the history of Africans in diverse social and historical contexts, both on the African continent and in the larger Black Atlantic world. The central question will be: What happened to these deeply rooted forms of moral logic and therapeutic practice as Africans encountered new forms of wealth, inequality, and disease and new medical and healing systems associated with slave trades, colonialisms, epidemics, famines, debt and theft from the fifteenth century to the present?
 

History 396. History Colloquium.
Section 002 – History of American Sexualities.
Instructor: Regina Morantz-Sanchez

Attitudes toward sexuality have permeated all aspects of American culture in profound ways. Slavery and racism, gender relations, family life, constructions of childhood and youth, metaphors of power in both the public and private realm, concepts of order and disorder, health and disease, politics, the nature of good and evil – every aspect of American history can be accessed and understood better if read through the lens of the history of sexuality. This course will study sexual meanings, sexual behavior, systems of sexual regulation, and sexual politics throughout American history. By means of readings and discussion we will probe how and why dominant meanings of sexuality have changed over the last 400 years and attempt to better understand present dilemmas.
 

History 397. History Colloquium.
Section 002 – The 1960s: from Old Left to New Left in Politics and Culture.
Instructor: Alan Wald

See American Culture 496.003.
 

History 448/CAAS 448. Africa Since 1850.
Section 001 – Colonialism, Nationalism, Cosmopolitanism.
Instructor: Scarnecchia

This course investigates the transformation of European imperialism into formal colonialism; diverse forms of colonial states and societies; diverse African responses to colonialism; the development of nationalist movements along spiritual, economic, and political, lines; and the post-colonial state and society. The course offers a historical basis for understanding the transnational political economy of Africa today, the process of democratization, and the increasingly cosmopolitan nature of African political and cultural trends.
 

History 477. Latin America: The National Period.
Instructor: Fernando Coronil

This course examines the history of Latin America from the early nineteenth century until the present. The approach is chronological and thematic. A temporal narrative will be organized around these themes: (1) state formation, including forms of political rule and the construction of collective identities at local, national, and continental levels; (2) elite and popular relations, including cases of rebellion, revolution, and state repression; and (3) forms of capitalist development and transformations in class relations, ideologies of economic development, and center-periphery linkages. The discussion of individual countries and of specific topics will be intertwined throughout the course.
 

History of Art
 

Hist. Art 151. Art and Ideas East and West.
Instructor: Walter Spink

In this course, a comparative study is made of eastern and western cultural forms, ideas and values as these are reflected in examples of painting, sculpture, and architecture as well as in poetry, music, and other forms of creative expression. This course also compares western and eastern attitudes toward significant cultural themes such as time, nature, death, God, love, and action.
 

Honors
 

Honors 250. Sophomore Seminar.
Section 003 – Nation Formation: Race and Gender in the Americas.
Instructor: Julie Skurski

This course examines race and gender as central dimensions of nation formation in the Americas. With a focus on racial and gender categories, it explores the interplay between political power and citizenship and the ways that differing definitions of national identity help shape political life. The course centers on Latin America and its relations with the U.S. It looks in particular at how political leadership has been understood in gendered and racialized ways, with an emphasis on dictatorship and opposition movements and on studies of Argentina, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. Course themes include: empire and colonialism, discourse of violence and identity, racial mixing and racial boundaries. Materials include fiction, ethnography, film, and historical studies.
 

Linguistics
 

Ling. 102. First Year Seminar (Humanities).
Section 001 – Languages & Peoples of Eastern Europe, Russia, and Caucasus.
Instructor: Vitalij Shevoroshkin

This course is a brief acquaintance with 150 languages and peoples of Eastern Europe, Russia, and Caucasus – “a mountain of languages”. Topics will include: spread of the Russian language in Siberia, Caucasus, and Central Asia, as compared with the expansion of English in America; Russification policy in the former Soviet Union; language as a weapon: forbidden books, songs, and anecdotes as a tool which ultimately brought down the Communist system in Eastern Europe and Russia; cultural differences between peoples speaking different languages; national character as seen through the language; Russian and East European languages today; recent achievements in language study in Russia and Eastern Europe.
 

Ling. 211. Introduction to Language.
Instructor: Christina Tortora

From time immemorial human beings have been curious about language – about its  structure, its diversity, its use, and its effects on others. In this course, we will explore the human capacity for language, beginning with the ways language differs from animal communication and with how children acquire language. We will then review major aspects of language structure (sounds, words, sentences) and apply them to discussions of current dialects of English such as Black English. After a brief investigation of the relationship between language and thought, we will consider social attitudes toward language. Here we will debate questions such as: Is sign language a real language or just pantomime? What is "Standard English" and is it better than "dialects" of English?
 

Philosophy
 

Philo. 359. Law and Philosophy.
Instructor: Elizabeth Anderson

This course analyzes law and legal institutions from the perspective of moral and political philosophy, with particular attention to U.S. civil rights law in historical context. Topics studied in this course may include: methods of legal interpretation, equality and discrimination, democracy and voting rights, the tension between property rights and distributive justice, the tension between social control and liberty (including specific liberties, such as free speech), and the justification for punishing lawbreakers (or for imposing specific punishments, such as the death penalty). Readings will be drawn from historical figures; from contemporary legal philosophers; from texts in legal history, criminology, or sociology; and from statutes and court decisions.
 

Political Science
 

Pol. Sci. 419/CAAS 418. Black Americans and the Political System.
Instructor: Vincent Hutchings

This course focuses upon the evolution, nature, and role of African American politics within the American Political System. The concern is with African Americans as actors and creators and initiators in the political process. And the course will focus upon the inputs, the responses of the decision makers and the outputs in terms the political process. And the course will focus upon the inputs, the responses of the decision makers, and the outputs in terms of public policies. And finally the various controversies will be explored and analyzed in regard to African American politics.
 

Psychology
 

Psych. 310/Soc. 320. Training in Processes of Intergroup Dialogues.
Instructor: Ruby Beale

This course is designed to give students a foundation in skills and knowledge needed to facilitate multicultural group interactions, including structured intergroup dialogues. Topics include: basic group facilitation skills and their applications to multicultual settings; social identity group development; prejudice and stereotyping and their effects on groupsk; the nature of social oppression; facilitation of intergroup communication; conflict intervention skills; techniques of community building; and survey of some contemporary intergroup topic areas (e.g., affirmative action, sexual assault, separation/self-segragation). Students who successfully complete this training may apply to act as peer facilitators for the course Psychology 122, “Intergroup Dialogues.”
 

Psych. 311/Soc. 321. Practicum in Facilitating Intergroup Dialogues.
Instructor: Charles Behling

This practicum is open to students who have completed Psychology 310, and requires applied work in facilitating intergroup dialogues. Students serve each week as peer facilitators in Psych. 122, “Intergroup Dialogues.” Additionally, students also participate in weekly supervision seminars to discuss their work in the dialogue groups, and to discuss theory and practice of group observation, in-outgroup conflict intervention skills, intergroup communication and community building, methods of attending to personal issues when facilitating.
 

Psych. 317. Community Based Research.
Section 001 – Empowering Families & Communities.
Instructor: Lorraine Gutierrez

The focus of this course is on learning methods for doing research with and for communities. This includes evaluation research, needs and asset assessment, and participatory research. Topics for the seminar include methods for working with and collaborating with community members on research as well as research methodology, data analysis and interpretation of results. Students in this course will enroll concurrently in Psychology 318: Laboratory in Community Based Research.
 

Psych. 404. Field Practicum.
Section 052 – Staff Housing Course. Starts Feb. 9.
Instructor: Patricia Gurin

This course for residence hall staff will focus on issues of intergroup relations in living communities. Participants will focus on their roles in facilitating learning as a transformative process for students living in residence halls. The course will build teams of skilled learning facilitators who can address issues of intergroup relations in multicultural contexts within living communities, including intergroup conflict, intergroup communication, exploration of identity, and the use of power and privilege within systems. Student development, social justice, and identity development theories will provide a context for students to develop the knowledge and skills needed for providing leadership, support, and facilitation of learning in residential settings.
 

Psych. 411/WS 419. Gender and Group Process in a Multicultural Context.
Instructor: White, McClintock

See Women's Studies 419.001.
 

Psych. 581. Advanced Topics in Social Psychology.
Section 005 – Stereotyping & Prejudice: From Personality To Cognition.
Instructor: Denise Sekaquaptewa

This seminar will focus on social stereotypes and attitudes toward social groups (e.g., racial and ethnic groups, women and men, people of different sexual orientations), primarily from a social psychological perspective. We will read a variety of empirical papers, some old, some new, to learn about the progression of scientific research on these topics. Among the topics to be discussed are theories of prejudice; development, maintenance, and structure of stereotypes; effects of being stereotyped on the individual; and models of stereotype change.
 

Residential College
 

RC Core 320. Seminaire en français. Foreign Language
Section 001 – Qu'est-ce que C'est Que Beur?: Bridging Identity Gaps With(in) Beur Literature.
Instructor: Stephen Bishop

Since the end of the Algerian conflict, a new (unofficial) category of French citizen has emerged. The children of Maghrebian immigrants, first generation children of North African parents, have come to be a defined class in French society. Borrowing from a popular street slang, they became known as "beur". But what does this label mean? Who are they, and should they even be a "they"? What problems are associated with being beur – not really Arab, but not really French? We will seek to better understand these issues through a series of some of the earlier novels produced by this generation. We will also look at some media consideration of beur identity and issues from mainstream French society and finish with a look at some of the theoretical articles written on beur culture since it became a fashionable topic of academic discourse.
 

RC Core 334. Special Topics. Written and Verbal Expression
Section 001 – Voices from an Alternative Perspective: Race, Class, and Gender in the American Experience.
Instructor: Kenneth Brown

This course will explore the history of race, class, and gender as they are represented and misrepresented in American history texts. High school textbooks overwhelmingly neglect class conflict, urban history, immigrant history, race conflict, women's history, environmental history, or political skullduggery. Publishers are extraordinarily sensitive to historical events that may be controversial on a regional basis. We will examine the "misrepresentations" in popular notions of American history and attempt to determine the political and social ramifications in a society where educators and other scholars "misinform" its citizens. Primary attention will be placed on the deconstruction of our contemporary notions of "whiteness" and how gender is reflected in this notion. The aim in exploring these themes is understanding the multi-layered and complex worldview that is shaped by popular notions of race, class, and gender represented in scholarly work.
 

RC Hum. 214. Fundamentals of Narrative Fiction. Comparative Literature.
Instructor: Elizabeth Goodenough

How have human beings in our civilization chosen to present themselves and the stories of their lives? What motivates a person to tell his or her story? This course examines a variety of short narratives and novels – from acknowledged classics of historical fiction and the bildungsroman to such popular forms as Westerns and mysteries, romances and children’s fables – to look at story-telling as a reflection of social values and as a mode of seeing, thinking, being and becoming. What stage of development or type of experience is formative and which provide the most useful lens from which to view the whole? What is the impact of gender, nationality and race on the cultural construction of selfhood? How do writers invent the impossible? Why must they lie to tell the truth, write beyond the ending, and make up stories about stories within stories? How do we decide what these stories mean?
 

RC Hum. 251. Topics in Music.
Section 001 – Across Borders: The Imagery of the East in the Music of the West.
Instructor: Inna Naroditskaya

The aim of this course is to place the European musical tradition within the context of different musical cultures. The course will combine the ethnomusicological and musicological approaches by discussing European music not as an isolated phenomenon, but as a constant exchange between Eastern and Western cultures. The idea of “West” and “East” proposed in the title of the course will be deconstructed by exploring the question of Diaspora – the spread and intermixture of various cultures. We will observe that the separation of East and West surprisingly increased in the age of the geographic “discovery” when the cultural connections began to appear on a different level. It is hoped that this course will provide students with knowledge of European musical history in the context of world musical diversity. This course will give students a sense of their place in an historical/geographical/cultural continuum.
 

RC Hum. 305. Cultural Confrontation in the Arts. Arts and Ideas.
Instructor: Susan Walton

Minorities are subjected to misrepresentation, efforts to rob them of their cultural identity, internal colonization and racial prejudice. This course focuses on the aesthetic responses of different minority groups when they come into contact with the dominant culture. The emphasis is on an intensive engagement with representative texts or visual images that are produced at such “moments” of confrontation. Minority responses to the confrontation include conflict, compromise, assimilation and resistance. Examples of fiction, film, music, dance, paintings and poetry will be presented in order to encourage an awareness of cultures other than one’s own. Guest speakers from a variety of academic departments in LS&A will give many of the lectures. The course focuses on minorities in the U.S. (Asian-Americans, Latino-Americans and African-Americans), with a few lectures devoted to minorities in other areas of the world.
 

RC Hum. 312/Slavic Film 312. Central European Cinema. Arts and Ideas.
Section 001 – Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Issues.
Instructor: Herbert Eagle

This course will study some of the most important films made in four thematic categories: (1) the Holocaust – the reactions of people in East Central Europe to the genocidal plans of the Nazis; (2) ethnic discrimination and its consequences in more recent years – past and present civil wars as well as the countervailing examples of peaceful coexistence; (3) women’s lives under state socialism; (4) the response of Central Europe’s leading women filmmakers. We will view and discuss films from Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, the former Yugoslavia, Bosnia, and Macedonia dealing with the above issues. We will also give attention to the artistic structure of the films – how they go about transmitting their themes with power and emotion.
 

RC Hum. 341. Latin American Literature. Comparative Literature
Section 001 – This course is taught entirely in English
Instructor: Eliana Moya-Raggio

From the outside Latin America sometimes appears as picturesque or even folkloric; it also appears as an homogeneous entity. Nevertheless, in spite of some commonalities of history and language, each part has its own particular social context and a language that modulates and resonates differently. Writers in Latin America have expressed considerable concern for the continent as a whole, recognizing its mestizo characteristics not only in relation to race, but also in relation to influences and aspirations. They recognize that although not one of them may represent the whole, all of them contribute to the emergence of common language. To find that common language and concern will be the focus of this class; we will do that through some of the major voices of Latin America.
 

RC Hum. 389. The Modern Theatre. Drama.
Section 001 – Modern Theater: Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary American Drama.
Instructor: Kate Mendeloff

As we explore plays which examine gender and sexuality, a great deal of emphasis will fall on contemporary American drama written by women, by writers of color, and by artists in the gay and lesbian community. Coursework will demand close reading of the plays and ongoing personal response to the material through a journal. Written work will also include critiques and creating original pieces. The emphasis in the course is on understanding the texts by performing them, so scene and monologue rehearsal is a central part of the process. Students with an interest in directing are encouraged to enroll, as our end of term project will be a mini-festival of these plays in workshop production. The course will deal with work which may challenge traditional attitudes about gender, sexuality and race. Students should have some previous experience with acting, either through Actor and Text I or a comparable course. First time actors and directors should schedule an interview with the instructor before enrolling.
 

RC Hum. 389. The Modern Theatre. Drama.
Section 002 – Modern Theater: Theater in English of Colonized Peoples.
Instructor: Martin Walsh

A study of representative modern plays, all originally written and performed in English, by non Anglo-Saxons belonging to nations formerly or currently members of the British Empire. These works examine, in one form or another, the problems of colonialism, racism, and third World or minority self-identity. Guest background lectures by experts in particular areas will supplement extensive stage-oriented exploration of the plays and evaluation of their particular contributions to contemporary drama. Short critical papers, individual research into other relevant playwrights, and participation in a culminating performance project are the principal requirements.
 

RC Nat. Sci. 260. Science and Societal Issues: The Immune System.
Section 001 – Multiculturalism and Medicine.
Instructor: Lucila Nerenberg

How do cultural differences affect medical care, public policy, and health outcomes? Can drama, literature, and the arts play a role in improving intercultural knowledge and skills? Students are invited to actively use their own experiences and legacies to address these questions. Basic concepts of: pathophysiology, medical treatment, prevention, and access to health care will be reviewed. This will allow placing culture into a medical context. Speakers, videos, novels, and optional extracurricular events will be used to increase awareness of different perspectives. Discussion of readings, role playing, and group problem solving will provide an opportunity to integrate theory and real life. We will focus on most frequent diseases, health delivery issues, and cultural strengths for the following populations: African American, Asian American, Native American, and Latino/as. A briefer overview of European, Arab, and Jewish American health issues will be included as well.
 

RC Soc. Sci. 315. International Grassroots Development.
Instructor: Helen Fox

What does “development” really mean in the Third World? Do people need Western education? Business know-how? Provision of basic services? Gender equality? A national consciousness? Something to believe in? Liberation? To just be left alone? In this course we will look at how different definitions of “the problem” drive different solutions proposed by governments, aid agencies, religious groups and grassroots organizations. Besides posing some heavy questions, this course will give you an idea of what it's really like to work in the field of international “development”, either at home or abroad. Be prepared for lively discussion, a deep, personal examination of your own beliefs and values, lots of writing – and lots of help with your writing. Some previous courses in economics, political science, third world area studies and/or lived experience will be very helpful, though not required.
 

RC Soc. Sci. 344. The History of Detroit in the 20th Century.
Instructor: Charles Bright

This seminar will explore the history of Detroit and the southeast Michigan region during the 20th Century. It will treat the city as an industrial boom town, carried along by the rise and fall of the automobile industry in this area. We will be concerned, therefore, with the development of Fordist production and its impact upon the geography of neighborhoods, social structures, political power, and cultural practices. The focus will be on the interplay of industry and city, of city and suburban communities, of ethnic or racial cleavages and class conflict in shaping the urban landscape. The aim in exploring these themes is to understand the nature of the city's decline and the new regional political economy and urban culture that has been taking shape in recent years.
 

RC Soc. Sci. 360. Social Science Junior Seminar.
Section 004 – The Theory and Practice of Civil Society.
Instructor: Frank Thompson

Developed by the RC Social Science Program with support from the UM Center for Learning through Community Service, this course analyses the notion of civil society with a focus on how problems arise and are (or are not) solved by citizens’ voluntary collaborations in civic engagement and advocacy. Special attention will be devoted to the often neglected diversity of civil society along dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, age, and class. The course includes an integrated survey of conceptions of civil society in the history of social thought and especially in recent social scientific studies. No less importantly the course takes up especially salient case studies of some current components of American civil dociety, employing diverse examples. Students may continue into internships and field studies opportunities following on the course.
 

RC Soc. Sci. 460. Social Science Senior Seminar.
Section 001 – U.S. Imperialism Across the Pacific.
Instructor: Gail Nomura

From the mid-nineteenth century the United States began to expand its western borders across the Pacific eventually acquiring by 1900 Midway, American Samoa, Hawaii, Guam, Wake, and the Philippines and, after World War II, Micronesia. With the acquisition of these overseas possessions “American imperialism” became the subject of intense debate. This seminar will study this expansion and its consequences for people “acquired.” In particular, the U.S. acquisition of the Philippines and attempts at “benevolent assimilation” of the Filipinos in the face of Filipino resistance will be examined as well as the annexation of Hawaii and Native Hawaiian resistance to U.S. colonization. Students may also examine the Vietnam parallel. This seminar offers students the opportunity to do original research on the history of American imperialism across the Pacific through the utilization of the resources at the Bentley Historical Library, Clements Library, Ford Library, and special collections at Hatcher Library.
 

Romance Languages and Literatures
 

French 374. Problems in Society and Social Theory. Cultural and Literary Studies.
Section 001 – Minorities in Postcolonial World: Friendship in Francophone Film.
Instructor: Frieda Ekotto

This course will concentrate on representation of images of minorities in films produced in France from the early 80's to the present time. These films serve as cultural metaphors for addressing philosophical-theoretical issues on race, representation, nationality, and the positionality of minority subjectivities in French culture. These films examine not only the postcolonial situation of France but also problematized questions of national identity through contemporary issues related to race, racism, ethnicity, class, and gender. Images of minorities, like ideologies of “race,” are social constructions. The connecting thread linking the films I have selected is the friendship that is portrayed between individuals of different ethnic origins. This interethnic friendship can be analyzed as an attempt to negotiate new definitions for identities that are inherently subversive to national identity.
 

French 450. Special Studies. Cultural and Literary Studies.
Section 001 – Jean Genet and Minorities: A Process of Aesthetization.
Instructor: Frieda Ekotto

The question of minority occupies an important place in modern literature and critical theory precisely because we live in more diverse societies. Jean Genet has been characterized as a political writer with interests in class and race. This course focuses on his work and his representation of minorities. We will examine how Genet’s work urges us to make a conscious choice to rethink our views on gender, color, and culture and to create a society in which diversity is accepted, encouraged, and made central to everyday life.
 

Port. 150. First Year Seminar in Brazilian Studies.
Section 001 – Breaking Gender and Racial Barriers in Brazil.
Instructor: Niedja Fedrigo

This interdisciplinary seminar critically examines contemporary Brazilian women condition, their struggle to gain cultural, economic, and socio-political equality. Our focus will be on questions and perspectives concerning both the literary and socio-economic aspects of gender, racial, and class inequality, resistance, transformation, and options for self-empowerment. The format includes group discussions and activities, regularly assigned readings and papers. E-mail group discussions, in-class presentations, film screenings, and internet/library research supplement class discussions.
 

Spanish 232. Second-Year Spanish.
Section 026 – Hispanic Culture Through Community Service.
Instructor: Ligaya Figueras

This course will be a query into the nature of the Hispanic community through the topic of culture, by discussing this in a seminar setting, and providing two hours a week of community service in after-school tutoring to the Hispanic community in southwest Detroit. The goals of this course, then, are two-fold, and encompass the objectives of both a service-learning course and a fourth-semester Spanish language course. You will be exploring and “testing” different cultural understandings of service, including, and especially, your own. This course in not just about providing a service in terms of logging hours, but to go beyond, through analysis, reflection and evaluation to address the variety of needs of the Hispanic culture in our community. Students are required to attend training workshops, and must register for section 026 (lecture) and one of section 027, 028, or 029.
 

Sociology
 

Soc. 303/CAAS 303. Race and Ethnic Relations.
Instructor: Michelle Harris-Reid

The goal of this course is to introduce students to the social history (past and present) of racial minorities in the United States. We will begin by defining the principal concepts that sociologists use in their analysis of race relations. Central to this discussion will be the understanding of “racism” NOT as “prejudice,” “ignorance,” an “attitude,” or a “set of beliefs" but rather as a comprehensive historical system that changes over time. After this theoretical discussion, we will survey the historical experiences of five racial minorities, namely, African Americans, Chicanos/Mexican Americans, American Indians, Puerto Ricans, and Asian Americans. The course will conclude with a discussion of possible solutions to the racial dilemmas faced by the U.S.
 

Soc. 404/Am. Cult. 404. Hispanic-Americans: Social Problems and Social Issues.
Instructor: Sylvia Pedraza

Latinos – or Hispanics – are the second largest minority group in the U.S. Comprised of those whose origins, however near or far, come from Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America, Latinos share a basic culture. At the same time, Latinos comprise very variegated experiences in the U.S. Both the reasons for migration from their countries and their processes of incorporation in American society vary widely. This course explores the experiences of the major groups of Latinos in the U.S. – Chicanos, Mexican immigrants, Puerto Ricans, Cubans – both for what it tells us about them and for the social problems and social issues they serve to exemplify. In addition, we will utilize different theoretical perspectives to help us explain the contrasting experiences.
 

University Courses
 

UCourses 111/Soc. 111. Introduction to Global Change II.
Section 001 – Human Impacts.
Instructor: Timothy Killeen

See NR&E 111.001
 

UCourses 150. First-Year Humanities Seminar.
Section 001 – Inventing Race.
Instructor: Vanessa Agnew

This seminar deals with the emerging concept of race in late 18th- and early 19th-century Europe. Focusing on the work of key Enlightenment as well as the contribution made by travel writers and ethnographers, the seminar examines the way in which race was invented as a category. Study of the material highlights the tension between Enlightenment universalism and relativism and brings out the shifting criteria for the constitution of racial difference. The seminar goes on to examine the process whereby racial topologies were naturalized within the context of nascent anthropological, biological and medical discourses and traces some of the social and political implications thereof. In confronting the issue of the social and historical constructedness of race, the seminar concludes with a brief examination of contemporary “race” thinking. The seminar emphasizes student participation.
 

UCourses 151. First-Year Social Science Seminar.
Section 002 – Public Education for Blacks and Other Minorities: An Historic Perspective.
Instructor: Warren Palmer

The purpose of the seminar will be to trace the development of elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education of Blacks and other minorities in the South from the Emancipation Proclamation to May 17, 1954. Particular emphasis will be focused on watershed judicial litigation, from the Supreme Court decision of Plessy vs. Ferguson to the historic Brown vs.Topeka, Kansas Board of Education in 1954 and beyond. Of special importance will be seminar discussions revealing how Blacks and other minorities were successful in achieving an education in spite of the barriers confronting them. Students will be expected to read a number of the classic writings, the writings of contemporary Blacks and minorities, as well as books such as Gunnar Myrdal's An American Dilemma.
 

UCourses 151. First-Year Social Science Seminar.
Section 009 – Women, Children, and Poverty in the 1990s.
Instructor: Rosemary Sarri

The impoverishment of women and children is a serious problem in the United States and throughout much of the world. This course looks at the issue from a historical, contemporaneous and cross-national perspective. It considers causal factors such as increasing numbers of single-mother households, racial and ethnic discrimination, wage and employment discrimination experience by women with children, as well as legislative changes. Poverty is associated with many negative outcomes for both adults and children. Women in the U.S. continue to shoulder most of the social welfare burden as underpaid and unpaid caregivers. Major changes in the social welfare establishment will be examined in terms of their effect on well-being in women and children. The United Nations has declared the period of 1998-2000 as a time in which we are to seek eradication of the poverty of children throughout the world. The feasibility of this goal is analyzed.
 

Women’s Studies Program
 

Women's St. 100. Women's Issues.
Instructor(s): Jane Hassinger

This course uses small group discussion and development of supportive group norms to enable students to explore selected topics in women’s studies as they apply to their own lives and to contemporary social issues. The course work includes large and small group activities, theoretical presentations, regularly assigned readings, and written assignments. There is strong emphasis on developing analytic tools taking a critical stance with respect to one’s experience, to social issues, and to the assigned readings. Topics include: socialization, work, family, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and current movements for change. Small groups meet in different campus locations. Attendance is mandatory at first
meeting of class to hold your place.
 

Women's St. 111. Women in Popular Culture.
Section 001 – Good Mother, Bad Mother: Representations of Mothers in TV and Film.
Mini-Course Meets Jan. 7 To Feb. 18.
Instructor: Jocylyn Stitt

This mini-course examines mothers in their many manifestations in film and television. The class will start with two early black and white films which question the possibilities for women working outside the home and working class women to be good mothers. Moving on to 50s television favorites, we will look at who counts as a good mother and why. We will then compare these earlier works to television shows of the 1960s and 70s. Finishing with more contemporary shows we will look at what aspects of mothering on TV have changed over the years and what has stayed the same. Topics to be addressed include: mothers of color, bad and good mothers, single mothers, working class mothers, mothers and sexuality, rebellious children, and feminist critiques of visual representations of mothering. Students will be encouraged to examine representations of mothering in their own communities, as well as to engage with the issues raised by being children of television.
 

Women's St. 112. Issues for Women of Color.
Section 001 – African American Women's Health and Social Issues. Mini Course
Instructor: Carla Stokes

African-American women are confronted with a multitude of physical and emotional health challenges. This mini course will explore interrelated social, political, cultural, and economic factors contributing to the poor health status of African-American women. Course discussions and readings will address various health issues including HIV/AIDS, infant mortality, life expectancy, stress, and access to health care. Material will be drawn from the health and social sciences, and major emphasis will be on the impact of poverty, racism, sexism, and economic inequality on African-American women. Students will also examine how images of African-American women influence this population’s health outcomes. Special attention will be given to African-American women’s strengths, solidarity, and ability to persist despite social inequality.
 

Women's St. 151. Social Science Seminars on Women and Gender.
Section 001 – Women in War and Peace.
Instructor: Ann Larimore

To begin to understand women’s long search for peace and the abolition of war, this seminar uses three perspectives. After a brief consideration of how women have fared in various wars, we will learn about the persistence of the international women’s peace movement during the 20th century. Next, we will focus on the protracted Israeli-Palestinian dispute over national territory and the varying roles women have taken in that struggle. Third, we will investigate women’s peace-making activities within peace movements of different scopes: national, regional, global. These efforts have all taken place in a gendered context so that we will necessarily be considering the actions of men as well. A primary goal is to clarify our own thoughts and develop a position about our individual relationships to increasing peace in the world and decreasing wars.
 

Women's St. 151. Social Science Seminars on Women and Gender.
Section 002 – Introduction To Feminist Legal Theory.
Instructor: Tracy Edwards

Presupposing that American law is gendered, this course on Women and Gender focuses upon the first and fourteenth amendment (liberty and equality) and how they pertain to women. In particular, we will examine sexual harassment law, pornography, reproductive right, and civil rights legislation including subtopics such as affirmative action and equal education opportunity. Materials include abridged cases and films.
 

Women's St. 230. Women's Movements.
Section 001 – Women Globally and Internationally.
Instructor: Ann Larimore

What prospects does the world hold for women in the coming century? In this course we will explore the progress that the international women’s movement revitalized by the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, People’s Republic of China, has been making in the world regions of Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America. We will examine key issues such as women’s human rights, women in economic development, the empowerment of women for democracy and citizenship, women in poverty, and women and violence. Necessarily, we will need to examine the current status of women in the states which make up these regions as a context in which particular issues arise. We will read to acquaint ourselves with the pressing challenges which the world’s women face.
 

Women's St. 243/Amer. Cult. 243. Introduction to Study of Latinas in the U.S.
Instructor: Hernandez

See American Culture 243.001.
 

Women's St. 345. Third World Women. Gender and Power in Latin America.
Instructor: Koreck

Gender is a crucial aspect of the organization of inequality throughout Latin America. This course explores the relationship between the construction of identities, gender, and power in Latin America. We will examine how gender representations are constructed, assumed and contested in a variety of sites, including the “new” social movements, processes of militarization and repression, the integration of Latin America into a new phase of the global economy, and the media and telenovelas (“soap operas”). In each of these sites, implicit
understandings of gender (and other axes of difference such as class, ethnicity and racial categories) are evoked and inscribed. During the semester we will discuss these processes using a wide range of multidisciplinary materials.
 

Women's St. 419/Psych. 411. Gender and Group Process in a Multicultural Context.
Instructors: Christine White, Marta McClintock

This course will provide an introduction to theories of group dynamics that illuminate stages of group development and productivity. It will include teaching and practice of group  facilitation skills. The course will combine theoretical presentation with an experiential learning model; material discussed and modeled in class will be applied in home-base groups with opportunities for skill practice and feedback. The goals of skill development will be further pursued in extended workshop format at two points in the term. Special attention will be given throughout the course to the influence and manifestation of gender, ethnic and race dynamics as they shape events, conflict, and communication patterns in various group formats.

The purpose of this course is to gain an understanding of how planners and architects can better serve a multicultural nation that is struggling to share its shrinking resources and to redefine itself in the face of increasing social diversity.  The course looks at the symbolic and practical importance of place in the development of individuals and communities, emphasizing how changes in attitudes, demographics and the economy threaten the vital connections between people and places. Readings and discussions examine  researchers' and designers' responses to pressing social problems, focusing on issues of race, class, and
gender.  By looking at the effects of and public responses to particular design initiatives, students gain an in-depth understanding of the relationship between designers and communities.  The outcome of the class is for each student to develop a research or design proposal that addresses a specific social/cultural problem in a particular community.

This interdisciplinary studio course will research, host, engage with, and document a National Endowment for the Arts Visiting Photographers’ Series, titled “Photo-Active Feminists". Four photographic artists per semester will be invited who are part of a cultural movement addressing women’s issues such as women’s labor, women and justice, violence against women, issues of difference among women, i.e., race, ethnicity, sexual identity, economics poverty. Students will organize, publicize and document visits, research and arrange for the artists to meet with particular communities and audiences that their work addresses, and work with them to produce art and experiences that can provoke action and provide public visibility around particular issues. Students can set up their own course of study, original research and/or creative work or documentation with the professor in relation to the series.

The thrust of the course is to prepare students for managerial responsibility to lead a diverse workforce.  Major learning objectives include understanding the meaning of diversity, why it is a critical issue for leaders, and how to design and implement organization change efforts for enhancing organizational effectiveness to manage diverse work groups.  The course uses a variety of teaching approaches including films, case analysis, class exercises and a short group project.

OBHRM. 606. Workforce Diversity: Personal Development
Section – 001
Instructor: Taylor Cox

This course introduces students to the effects of diversity in organizations on an individual and inter-group level of analysis.  The thrust of the course is to assist students in developing personal efficacy for dealing with group identity differences such as gender, race, and nationality in an organizational context.  Topics of discussion and analysis include stereotyping, prejudice, ethnocentrism, and inter-group conflict.  The course is highly experiential with a heavy use of films and class exercises.
 

OBHRM. 610.
Section - 001
Instructor:  Jane Hassinger

The rise of women in visible and influential positions bring opportunities for women as well as a variety of challenges.  These range from the managerial to the personal.  Women leaders, entrepreneurs, and potential change agents also face a number of opportunities and challenges.  This course will address these challenges and opportunities as they affect women from difference cultural backgrounds.  Some of the topics covered include work-life challenges, career conceptions and gender, moving through and around the glass ceiling, and organizing for change.  As the course content will challenge traditional arrangements of work and highlight alternatives, so too its format will experiment with new modes of interacting and learning.

The general and specific topics on literacy you encounter in this course were chosen to help you as a future classroom teacher to consider how you can use oral language, reading and writing in strategic ways in order to help you to teach your subject matter more  effectively to all students. The goal of this course is to allow developing teachers to consider issues vital for the preparation of teachers to teach diverse student populations. We will raise a number of questions and issues regarding the theory of and practical strategies for using literacies in the content areas, motivated by an integration of your own teaching experiences with the readings and assignments we do for this course. A major goal of this course is to operationalize the linking of theory and practice, to document your  development as teachers, and to discover that not only answers but new questions and issues emerge as you study and consider teaching diverse student populations.

This course is intended for students interested in the careers of women engineers.  The course will start off with some history of women in science, engineering, and technology through the ages. The course will combine a review of the history of women in engineering with issues faced by contemporary women.  The course will discuss the types of jobs women engineers hold, their wide variety of lifestyles, and the things they enjoy about engineering.  Other topics of interest to the class will be included.  Small group discussions will be a part of the course.  Women faculty and alumni will be featured.

Are you interested in K-12 outreach?  In practical work with librarians, archivists, educators and community groups?  In website development and multicultural initiatives?  Join us at CHICO (Cultural Heritage Initiative for Community Outreach), a dynamic, interdisciplinary and participatory workshop exploring cross cultural collaboration and multimedia outreach
strategies.  This course explores the intersection of culture, technological access and information studies, critical to your success as information professionals in the new millenium!  Established in 1996,  CHICO has successfully established partnerships with a wide range of community organizations. As a contributing member of the CHICO team, you will be introduced to a challenging body of literature on multicultural education and media studies, multidisciplinary guest speakers, and opportunities to work directly with teachers and cultural workers on educational initiatives.

Explores legal concepts and terminology, designed to heighten the student's sensitivity to an administrator's duties, obligations, and potential liabilities. Actual and hypothetical legal cases are discussed.

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the United Nations system for the protection of human rights.  It begins by critically examining the ability of international law and legal institutions meaningfully to constrain sovereign states in the treatment of their own citizens. Particular attention is given to contemporary challenges to rights-based legal cultures, in particular those emanating from developing countries.  This is followed by an assessment of the various mechanisms available to enforce international human rights (fact-finding missions, state-initiated and individuated complaint systems, economic sanctions, and use of armed force).  The final segment of the course introduces indirect means by which international human rights law can shape state conduct, including through non-governmental activism, incorporation in domestic laws, and the conditioning of international economic relations.

See Amer. Cult. 301.
 

Music 677. Popular Culture and Multicultural Music.
Instructor:  James Standifer

The course will show how selected music cultures, including "youth culture," influenced the rich and diverse multimusical landscape of America.
 

Music 586. Church Music Repertoire.
Section – 001
Instructor: Michele Johns

This graduate level seminar studies Christian hymnody of the past quarter century.  All styles of hymnody and sacred song will be examined.  Emphasis will be on hymn language as it relates to current social issues and trends.  Study of the music is a factor but the major focus is on the textual implications for worship, especially in the area of diversity and inclusivity. The pervasive male language is always part of the picture but many other issues exist such as attitudes toward mission work, communion for all believers (not just for the chosen), archaic language which no longer has the same meaning, etc. Students from any school of the University are eligible.
 

Theatre 399. Topics in Drama.
Section 001 – Queer Theatre.
Instructor: Sarah Bay

Queer Theatre is a discussion-based, dramatic criticism course devoted to exploring the plays, ideas, and lives of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered playwrights. The course will focus on the individual plays, the influence (or lack thereof) of sexuality on the texts themselves, and the historical context of the plays and their authors. Furthermore, each student will explore his or her own theories of scholarship in theatre with regard to sexuality, race, class, and gender, as well as other issues students may wish to explore independently.

 Global Change II will examine the growth and spread of the human population, and the problems of global environmental change produced by recent human advances in technology and institutions. We will consider the methods available for detecting global change, and then examine change in a number of key resources, including land, water, the atmosphere, and biological diversity. The course concludes by considering the political and policy considerations relevant to the transition to a more sustainable future. Global Change II is appropriate for all students and will assume no prior background. The homework and laboratories will depend heavily on the use of computers to perform spatial analysis, develop quantitative reasoning, write critically, and to promote personal interaction with the faculty. An expanded course description can be found at http://www.sprl.umich.edu/GCL

The focus of this course is on human relationships, intimacy, and sexuality throughout the life span and during wellness and illness. Biological, social, cultural, psychological, and developmental perspectives on sexuality are included.  Common variations in sexual orientation, means of achieving intimacy, and sexually related diseases are discussed.  Students are assisted in exploring their own values and attitudes toward sexuality. The affect of acute and/or chronic illness on sexuality is discussed.  Open to students in other health disciplines.
 

Nursing 477. Issues in Providing Health Care to Culturally Diverse Populations.
Section – 001
Instructor: Cheryl Killion

This course focuses on the health attitudes, beliefs, and practices of patients and health care professionals of culturally diverse populations in the United States.  Select  health/illness theories and those related to cultural adaptation, cultural change, cultural exchange, and cultural conflict will be introduced and applied to health care situations.  Socioeconomic-political factors that influence health care delivery and health seeking behavior will be explicated. Emphasis will be placed on strategies to facilitate inter-intracultural communication and inter/intragroup dynamics in health care settings.

No description provided.

This course explores the origins and development of selected social variables characterizing racial, immigrant, and other cultural groups in contemporary U.S. society.  Students study social and behavioral science theories and research findings on the allocation of different roles, statuses, and opportunities to these populations  A multi-dimensional, social justice, and multicultural framework is used to examine privilege, discrimination, and oppression.  This course emphasizes that effective social work practice with diverse cultural groups involves understanding professional ethical issues within the context of dominant society and ethnic community values