AMST/HIST 0175
Immigrant America
Middlebury College
Spring 2016
Meeting Times: TR 1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.
Classroom: Monroe 318
Instructor Information
Professor Rachael Miyung Joo
Office: Axinn 248
Telephone: 802-443-5783
Email: rjoo@middlebury.edu
Office Hours: Mondays 2 p.m.-4 p.m.
Thursdays: 11-12 a.m.
Course Description
In this class, we will focus on immigration into the United States from the late 19th century to the present. We will investigate political, economic, social, and cultural dimensions of migration through historically specific cases. Using texts from a number of disciplines, we will analyze important thematic and ideological continuities and contradictions.
We will investigate the changing economic, political, and legal dimensions of immigration. What is the relationship between the labor needs of the United States and immigration? What is the connection between imperialism and migration? Why does war and political violence spur migration? How do laws, policies, and institutions attempt to manage and regulate migration?
This class will also investigate the subjective experiences of immigration through fiction, ethnographies, and film. We will discuss themes such as assimilation, generational conflict, gender differences, transnationalism, nativism, and racialization. We will also discuss changing and contradictory attitudes toward migration over the last 150 years.
Required Readings and Media
Books
(Available for purchase in the bookstore or on two-hour reserve at the Davis Family Library)
Brennan, Denise. Life Interrupted: Trafficking into Forced Labor in the United States. Durham: Duke University Press, 2014.
Jacobson, Matthew Frye. Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 2002.
Nguyen, Viet Thanh. The Sympathizer. New York: Grove Press, 2015.
Yezierska, Anzia. Bread Givers: A Novel. 3rd ed. New York: Persea Books, 2003.
eReserves
All other required readings are available as eReserves on the Course Reserves page:
Link: http://eres.middlebury.edu/eres/coursepage.aspx?cid=2384
Password: 4177rj
Films
There are five outside screenings in this class. You will be expected to summarize, analyze, and critique all films and film clips screened in class. In the case of absence, you will be required to watch films or film clips on your own. The films will be available on 4-hour reserve in the Davis Family Library.
Assignments and Grading Breakdown
In order to pass the class, you must complete all required assignments. In other words, if you take the class pass/fail, you must still complete the required assignments in order to pass the class.
Class Participation (15%)
You are expected to come prepared to every class having finished all the readings and completed all the assignments. You will be expected to actively engage in class discussions and to demonstrate that you have read and thought about the material. You will be expected to come to class with at least two questions that you had about the readings. I may call on you during class to ask your questions and to discuss the material assigned for that day.
Exercises (15%)
Exercises are planned to encourage active engagement with the ideas presented in class and to promote lively class discussions. The content of the exercises may change in order to respond to current events, college programs, and class interests. Exercises will not be given a letter grade, but incomplete or substandard assignments will not be recorded. You will be given 5 of 7 exercises. Late exercises will not be accepted.
Interview and Biography on March 4 (15% grade) Required
You will be expected to interview and write a three-page biography of an immigrant or the child of an immigrant to the United States.
Analytical essay due Friday, March 25 (20% of grade) Required
This 5-page paper will address material covered between weeks 1-5.
Analytical essay due Friday, April 29 (20% of grade) Required
This 5-page paper will address material covered between weeks 6-10.
Final Group Project and Report due May 16 (15% of grade) Required
This final group project will require you to research and present on an immigration advocacy group here in Vermont or the Northeast. The project will include a group presentation and a report that you will write on your own.
Class Policies
Attendance
Regular attendance is essential to doing well in the class. In the case of an absence, you should find out from a classmate what you have missed. You will be expected to arrive on time. Entering the classroom more than ten minutes late will be considered an absence. After two unexcused absences, each absence thereafter will incur a half letter deduction from your final grade (A- becomes a B+). Please inform me well in advance of any scheduled absences. It is your responsibility to ensure that I receive assignments for missed classes. It is also your responsibility to have your Commons Dean notify me in the case of any excused absences.
Late Assignment Policy
There will be a ½ letter grade deduction for each day an essay or exam is submitted late. Late exercises will not be accepted. If you know you will miss a deadline, please inform me well before the due date and alternate arrangements will be made.
Computer/Cell Phone policy
You should not use your computer, tablets, or cell phones in class. If I observe you using personal digital communications devices, I will, without warning, deduct a letter grade from your final grade. If there is a reason why you need to be on your computer, please discuss this with me and you will be seated at the front of the class.
Meeting with the Professor
I encourage each of you to visit me during office hours. If you cannot make the times posted above, please make an appointment outside those times. If you are unable to meet me in person, phone or Skype appointments during office hours can also be arranged.
Academic Honesty and Honor Code
All of your work must comply with the college’s general policy on intellectual property, academic misconduct, and plagiarism. Detailed descriptions of academic dishonesty are outlined in the Academic Honesty/ Honor Code/ Disciplinary Policies Statement: http://www.middlebury.edu/about/handbook/student_policies/Academic_Disciplinary_Policies.
It is your responsibility to write in full the honor code pledge (“I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this assignment.”) on all of your academic work and sign below it to confirm your commitment to this pledge.
Accessibility Services
Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability should document their needs with Student Accessibility Services. Please do not hesitate to let me know what I can do to facilitate your participation in this course. I am available to meet with you in person or on email. The Student Accessibility Services office is located at Meeker House. Jodi Litchfield is the campus coordinator: 802-443-5936; litchfie@middlebury.edu
http://www.middlebury.edu/studentlife/doc/ada/
Schedule
All readings should be completed prior to the class on which they are scheduled. The readings and exercises may change over the course of the semester. An asterisk indicates that the reading is available on the eRes site.
Week 1:
Tuesday, February 16
Introduction to the course
Why do people immigrate to the United States?
Exercise #1: Find a graph that charts immigration into the U.S. over the long 20th century (late 19th to early 21st). Discuss how the data is organized and the dominant narratives conveyed through the graph. Print this out and write a 1-page response. Due Feb. 18.
Thursday, February 18: Exclusion
Lee, Erika, “The Chinese Exclusion Example: Race, Immigration, and American Gatekeeping, 1882-1924”*
Week 2: Immigration and Racialization
Tuesday, February 23
Read: Jacobson, Whiteness of a Different Color, pp. 1-136
Interview Assigned
Thursday, February 25
Read: Jacobson, Whiteness of a Different Color, pp. 137-200
Week 3: Gender and Immigration
Monday, February 29
Film Screening: The Jazz Singer (1927) Axinn 100, 7:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m.
Tuesday, March 1
Read: Yezierska, Bread Givers, Book I, p. 1-151
Exercise #2: How are ideas of gender and sexuality framed within the context of the immigrant family in The Jazz Singer and/or Bread Givers? Due March 3.
Thursday, March 3
Read: Yezierska, Bread Givers, Book II & III, p. 153-297
Interview due March 4
Week 4: Biopolitics
Tuesday, March 8
Read: Shah, Nayan, “Making Medical Borders at Angel Island”
Read: Molina, Natalia, “Medicalizing the Mexican”*
Exercise #3: How are eugenic principles applied in today’s immigration rhetoric? Print out a newspaper article that connects biopolitics and migration, and write a one-page response about the article. Due March 10.
Thursday, March 10
Read: Dwyer, “Disease, Deformity, and Defiance” Writing the Language of Immigration Law and the Eugenics Movement on the Immigrant Body.”*
Week 5: Illegality
Tuesday, March 15
Read: Ngai, “The Strange Career of the Illegal Alien, 1921-1965*
Thursday, March 17
Read: Ngai, “Braceros, ‘Wetbacks,’ and the National Boundaries of Class”*
Week 6: Adoption
Tuesday, March 22
Read: Choy, Catherine Ceniza, “Race and the Center: The History of Cold War
Asian Adoption”*
Exercise #4: How does adoption challenge the idea that immigration as a choice? Find a newspaper article about transnational adoption during the 1950s – 1960s and write one page response to the article. Due March 24.
Thursday, March 24
Read: Volkman, Toby, “Transnational Adoption”* and “Embodying Chinese Culture”*
Essay Due March 25 at 5:00 p.m.
SPRING BREAK!
Week 7: Refugees and War
Monday, April 4,
Film Screening: “Daughter from Danang” Axinn 100, 7:30-9:30
Tuesday, April 5
Read: Nguyen, The Sympathizer
Thursday, April 7
Read: Nguyen, The Sympathizer
Week 8: Trafficked Labor
Tuesday, April 12
Read: Brennan, Life Interrupted, Part I
Exercise #5: Find an article about human slavery or trafficking in the United States Print the article and write one page response. Due April 14.
Thursday, April 14
Read: Brennan, Life Interrupted, Part II
Week 9: Queer Migrations
Monday, April 18
Film Screening: The Wedding Banquet, 7:30-10:30 Axinn 100
Tuesday, April 19
Read: Manalansan, “Queer Intersections: Sexuality and Gender in Migration Studies”*
Exercise #6: How do you think that marriage equality has changed the terrain of LGBT/queer migration into the United States? Find a newspaper article that addresses this question and write a 1-page response. Due April 21.
Thursday, April 21
Read: Soloman, “Trans/Migrant” Christina Madrazo’s All-American Story.”*
Randazzo, “Social and Legal Barriers: Sexual Orientation and Asylum in the
United States”*
Week 10: Undocumented and Deportations
Tuesday, April 26
Read: David Hernandez, “Persuant to Deportation: Latinos and Immigrant Detention”*
Read: Ngai, “No Human Being is Illegal”*
Exercise #7: Find an article about immigrant detention in the Obama era and write a one-page discussion of the article. Due April 28.
Thursday, April 28
Film: In class “9500 Liberty” (2010)
Essay Due April 29 at 5:00 p.m.
Week 11: Transnational Migration
Monday, May 2
Film Screening: “Sugar,” 7:30-10:00 Axinn 100
Tuesday, May 3
Read: Junot Diaz, “Otravida, Otravez,” “Invierno”*
Thursday, May 5
Group Presentations
Week 12: Advocacy
Monday, May 10
Final Class
Group Presentations
No Class, Thursday May 12
Finals Week
Final Projects should be emailed to rjoo@middlebury.edu by Monday, May 16