Current Semester Courses

Spring 2013

CSCR 12300-01 INTRO TO CULTURE, RACE, & ETHNICITY CONCEPTS
3 credits
INSTRUCTOR: Professor Paula Ioanide
ENROLLMENT: 30
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Introduces students to key concepts in culture, race, and ethnicity studies. Drawing from cultural studies, comparative ethnic studies, and gender and sexuality studies, it investigates how racial and ethnic identity politics shape institutional and social policies, cultural expressions and aesthetics, and resistance movements. Particular attention will be paid to the ways communities of color have negotiated oppression, generated knowledge, and secured dignity and self-determination.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Lecture
SCHEDULED MEETING TIMES: 10:00 am - 10:50 am MWF

CSCR 10600–01 INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN DIASPORA STUDIES
3 credits
INSTRUCTOR: Professor Sean Eversley Bradwell
ENROLLMENT: 30
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Introductory survey of the major topics and methodologies involved in studying the roots and routes of the African diaspora. Investigation of the physical and cultural movements between Africa and the Americas. Topics include the prominence of Africa in global history; the movement of African people (both voluntary and forced migrations); the enslavement of African peoples in the Americas; cultural aesthetics and identities; colonialism; and resistance. Employs an interdisciplinary approach drawing from disciplines in history, politics, cultural studies, social policy, and sociology.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Discussion, Lecture
SCHEDULED MEETING TIMES: 1:00 pm – 1:50 pm MWF

CSCR 22000-01 CASE STUDIES IN GLOBAL JUSTICE LA SS
1 credit
INSTRUCTOR: Professor Paula Ioanide
ENROLLMENT: 45
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This seminar will introduce students in the Martin Luther King Jr. Scholar Program to the study of social justice in an international and comparative context. In general the seminar is designed to engage scholars in analysis, discussion, writing, and action that will contribute to the development of global citizens who have the skills, perspectives, and motivation to work effectively for social justice. Each seminar will examine a particular case study while utilizing the work of Martin Luther King Jr. The seminar also provides the academic framework that explores the nexus between race, migration, and social justice. Through both individual and group work students will work to draw conclusions and life lessons from their international research and experiences. This seminar may be taken for 0 or 1 credit and is open to Martin Luther King Jr. Scholar Program participants only.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Discussion, Lecture
SCHEDULED MEETING TIMES: 6:30 pm - 8:05 pm W

CSCR 23700-01 HISTORY AND THE U.S. MEXICO BORDERLAND 3 credits
INSTRUCTOR: Professor Gustavo Licón
ENROLLMENT: 25
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course examines the history and meanings of the unique region of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands characterized by dramatic contrasts in culture, wealth, and power through an interrogation of the analytical frameworks and paradigms that interpret the borderlands as place, process, and metaphor. The border experience reflects a long history of conflict marked by settler colonialism, international competition, economic exploitation, and state-sponsored repression. It also marks a line of persistent resistance by indigenous and immigrant populations against strategies of manifest destiny, colonial domination, racial discrimination, and xenophobia. The primary focus will be on human rights, economic development, globalization, immigration, border militarization, and "post-911" U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canadian borders.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Discussion, Lecture
SCHEDULED MEETING TIMES: 10:50 am – 12:05 pm

CSCR 25000-01 HIP HOP CULTURES
3 credits
INSTRUCTOR: Professor Sean Eversley Bradwell
ENROLLMENT: 50
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Examines the historical, political, racial, economic, and social importance of hip-hop as a cultural movement. Particular attention is given to hip-hop's main tenets (writ'ing, b-boy'ing, dj'ing, and mc'ing); the political economy of racialized representations; and the legacy and agency of cultural expressions.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Discussion, Lecture
SCHEDULED MEETING TIMES: 4:00 pm - 5:15 pm MWF

CSCR 35100-01 RACE AND SEXUAL POLITICS
3 credits
INSTRUCTOR: Professor Paula Ioanide
ENROLLMENT: 25
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Explores how dominant representations of racialized sexuality, femininity, and masculinity in U.S. culture and politics influence systems of inequality. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between constructions of race and sexual politics, social policy shifts in welfare reform, the prison industrial complex, and intimate justice. Focus on antiracist feminist resistance and reproductive justice.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Discussion, Lecture
SCHEDULED MEETING TIMES: 12:00 pm -12:50 pm MWF

CSCR 37400-01 LATINO/A SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
3 credits
INSTRUCTOR: Professor Gustavo Licón
ENROLLMENT: 20
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course focuses on the historical relationships between Latino/as and other racial/ethnic groups in the US and Latin America with special emphasis on social movements and local grassroots efforts for social justice from post-WWII to the present. Central theoretical questions will revolve around the multi-ethnic alliances and the relationship between civil and human rights, social movements, and state repression. In particular, the course will explore polycultural connections between Chicanos/as and Puerto Ricans and African Americans, American Indians and Latinos/as, as well as Afro-Asian, Latino-Asian, and Anglo-Latino/as.
COURSE FORMAT/STYLE: Discussion, Lecture
SCHEDULED MEETING TIMES: 1:10 pm - 2:25 pm TR