Not offered 2005-2006
AMST 403 Notions of Race and Ethnicity in American Culture (Senior Seminar)*
While "race" and "ethnicity" have always played fundamental roles in shaping the course of American history and the image of American society, our understanding of the concepts of race and ethnicity has often been less than clear. Our goal in this course is to determine and examine how Americans have defined race and ethnicity at various points in our history and how these notions have been acted out in policy, practice, and theory. Examples of the social and legal construction of race and ethnicity will include white-Native American relations, slavery and its legacy, the "Yellow Peril," science and race, and contemporary race relations. Format: seminar. Evaluation will be based on class participation and three written assignments: an annotated bibliography, an historiographical essay, and a final research paper. Prerequisites: prior work in American Studies and/or History. Enrollment limit: 18 (expected: 18). Preference given to senior American Studies majors, then to History majors.