SOC 211 FAR (a cognate course)
Ethnic Families in American Society
#419221
Professor Michael Farrell (Sociology)
TuTh 3:30-4:50
Norton 112
The objectives of this course are to examine theories and research dealing with assimilation and social mobility of ethnic families in America. One focus will be on the part ethnic family cultures play in accounting for the relative success of different ethnic groups in adapting to American society. We will first examine theories of the family and assimilation, with a particular focus on Functionalism, Conflict theory, and Symbolic Interaction. We will then examine the cultural and structural approaches to explaining differences in family adaptations to industrial and post-industrial society. Finally we will examine findings from research on families and assimilation, we will examine how well they account for the experiences of families from ten different ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds.
With each ethnic group we will examine: 1) the distinguishing characteristics of the family systems prior to assimilation, 2) how family culture and structure facilitated or impeded assimilation; 3) how assimilation reshaped family culture and structure and 4) the part that religions played as the centers of "Ethnic Villages" and as the "triple melting pot" channels for intermarriage of ethnic groups. One focus is how the experience of minority families have differed from those of other groups.
Class Presentations by Research Teams: Each student in the class will be asked to choose one ethnic group that will be a focal point of work with a research team. Each research team will be assigned reading relevant to their ethnic group, and they will be asked to give a report to the class addressing the four questions outlined above. In their presentation and papers they will examine how well the theory and research accounts for what they observe in the case. Class time will be set aside for the teams of students to meet and organize, and they also will be expected to meet on their own and with me to discuss their research and prepare their presentation. In the presentations the teams are encouraged to be creative and to make use of slides, music, food, selections from films, or artifacts that provide a rich portrait of the family life of the ethnic group they choose.
Grading: Class presentation and discussion: 15%; Paper: 15%; Midterm: 30%; Final: 40%.
UGC 211 MOH
American Pluralism
#136718
John Mohawk (American Studies)
TuTh 2-3:20
Clemens 17
American Pluralism is a course designed to explore themes and social history in areas identified as race, class, gender, ethnicity and religion. Each student in this section will be responsible for preparing a written summary (3 to 5 pages long) on one of the reading assignments and presenting an oral report. Time permitting, class discussions will follow the oral presentations. Additionally, each student is responsible for completing a ten page book report (on an assigned book), two in-class examinations, and active in-class participation.
This course has two assigned textbook and regular additional assigned readings (some of these additional readings will be on reserve at one of UB's library). Some readings will be "common" to the entire class while others will be portioned out to individual students to read and report on. The "common reading" assignments average out to about 35 pages per class. Although not responsible for all readings, all students are responsible for ALL material covered in in-class discussions. Class attendance is, therefore, especially important and will directly impact the grade you receive for this course.
UGC 211 LUD
American Pluralism
#273189
Professor Jeannette Ludwig (Modern Languages)
MWF 10-10:50
Clemens 4
This section of American Pluralism examines race, gender and religion through the lens of two concepts: social construction and building community. We will examine questions of identity through a combination of classic first person narratives and social commentary. Students will learn to apply analytic concepts to their own and others' situations in contemporary America.
The course involves reaction papers, critical reading of texts, and a research paper.
AHI 390 QUI (a cognate course for UGC 211)
American Architecture as American Pluralism
#403585
Professor Jack Quinan (Art History)
MWF 10-10:50
Clemens 19
Through readings, slide illustrated lectures, discussions and at least one field trip, this course will examine how issues of race, gender, class, ethnicity and religion are manifested in American architecture and planning. The course will proceed chronologically beginning with the relationship of Native American cosmologies to selected building and community types and will range over such issues as colonization, vernacular architecture, slavery and the plantation culture, the relationship of classicism to power, the growth of cities and suburbs. Readings will be drawn from Herbert Gutman's Who Built America?, Nabokov and Easton's Native American Architecture, Dell Upton's American's Architectural Roots: Ethnic Groups that Built America, Berkeley and McQuaid's Architecture: A Place for Women and from some of the standard American Pluralism texts, such as Richard Wright's Black Boy and Robert Berkhofer's The White Man's Indian.
UGC 211 BUN
American Pluralism
# 365511
Professor James Bunn (English)
MWF 2-2:50
Clemens 6
In the first part of the course we shall study early accounts of the discoveries, conquests, and settlements in America. We shall read stories and reports by Native Americans, Conquistadores, and English writers. After having sifted these first impressions about differences over creeds and regions, we shall read accounts and listen for different kinds of voices--female and male, high and low pitched--about revolution, slavery, and ethnicity on the frontier. Then we shall study two novels, Mark Twain's Adventures of Huck Finn and William Styron's Sophie's Choice for the narrators' oddly pitched voices about race, class and gender. Finally, we shall study some modern and contemporary theories about pluralism as social philosophy of the land.
Writing assignments for the course will be two tests and two short papers.
UGC 211 FIS
American Pluralism
#046082
Professor William C. Fischer (English)
TR 11-12:20
Clemens 6
We will explore how men and women from a variety of backgrounds and experiences presented their particular--and often differing--visions of literature, society, and culture(s) in the United States from the beginnings of New World settlement, in the latter half of the 19th century, and in the 20th. We will examine how people acquire their visions of race, ethnicity, gender, and (to a degree) religion, especially as represented through the formative experience of youth: young slave Frederick Douglass, the child characters in Stowe's novel, Indian brave Charles Eastman, Yezierska's Sara Smolinsky, Morrison's Pecola Breedlove--to name several. After all, it is largely through the experiences and perceptions of childhood that one's sense of self and of people different than oneself are most emphatically shaped. The literary versions of our pluralistic nation are often filled with children, all fumbling with their own identities and with their often fretful preconceptions of others who are different. Pertinently, characteristics of childlikeness have also been traditionally racialized and gendered. Female and African American adults are often infantalized and thereby diminished in the collective imagination of the mainstream culture, as our readings will indicate.
Along with the theme of childhood as a lens for scrutinizing race, ethnicity , gender, and religion, I also want us to consider some of the processes by which such aspects of identity are formed or "constructed." In this regard, we will closely question how writing, as an act of representation (of self, of "others"), is largely determined by cultural considerations: exactly who controls representation? what forces shape character, guide particular modes of expression and uses of language (written and oral) by which that is done? How are we being persuaded by any given writer to "read" these representations? Looking at the problem of representation in texts from different historical periods will also provide an opportunity for us to examine how we experience racial, gendered, and ethnic instances of representation in our own lives. Throughout the course I will encourage us to bring the American past to bear on our understanding of the present.
The required readings: Simone de Beauvoir, Introduction to The Second Sex (1949); Unit on Native Americans (Amerigo Vespucci, William Bradford, Henry Dunster, John Winthrop, and Charles Eastman); Harriett Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852); Frederick Douglass, The Narrative of the Life of ... (1845); Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn (1884); Anzia Yezierska, Bread Givers (1925); Carson McCullers, Member of the Wedding (1946); Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye (1970); Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior (1976).
There will be two written papers of five pages, one short in-class writing exercise, and short response exercises at the instructor's discretion (count on at least one or two). Class format will be discussion with appropriate lecturing on historical and critical materials.
UGC 211 MEY
American Pluralism
#112630
Professor Ruth Meyerowitz (Women's Studies)
TuTh 12:30-1:50
Clemens 4
This course will explore several historical and contemporary controversies focused on race, class, gender, ethnicity and religious sectarianism in the U.S. Students will learn a variety of analytical tools to analyze data objectively and come to reasoned conclusions about the issues and problems concerned.
UGC 211 SCD
American Pluralism
#250864
#113584
Professor David Schmid (English)
MWF 9-9:50
MWF 11-11:50
Clemens 4
These sections approach the issue of American pluralism by examining one of the most oft-used yet little understood concepts in American culture: the American Dream. What constitutes the American Dream? When did this concept originate? Has it changed over time? How is one's definition of and access to the Dream determined by your gender, class, race, ethnicity, sexuality and/or religion? What is the future of the Dream in the 1990's? These questions and others will be the focus of our discussion this semester.
In order to facilitate this discussion, we will use a mixture of fictional and non-fictional, primary and secondary texts. Primary texts will include: Horatio Alger, Ragged Dick, Studs Terkel's oral histories in American Dreams; Jonathon Kozol, Amazing Grace; Melissa Fay Greene, Praying For Sheetrock. Secondary texts will include excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, Lee Iacocca's autobiography, Helen Gurley Brown on what "having it all" means for women, Martin Luther King, Jr., Langston Hughes, Robert Samuelson, and others, all available in a course reader.
Attendance and keeping up with the reading are mandatory, participation is extremely desirable. There will be two five-to-seven page papers, with the option of either a third paper or a final reading exam. There will also be reading notes throughout the semester.
LIN 200 001 ( a cognate course for UGC 211)
Language in Pluralistic America
#321155
Professor Wolfgang Wolck (Linguistics)
TR 3:30-4:50
Baldy 101
Language is a defining characteristic of humans and an index of social distinctions. This course examines the relationship of language in the U.S.A. to issues, including: race, via the study of Black Vernacular English, Native American languages, glotticide and ethnocide, and Asian American bilingualism; ethnicity, via the study of European immigrant language communities, Hispanic Americans, especially Puerto-Rican and Mexican Americans, bilingual education, the English Only movement, and ethnolects; class, via the study of standard and non-standard English, regional dialects, educated norms, literacy, slangs and jargons; religion, via the study of the American Jewish community and Yiddish, the Amish and Pennsylvania Dutch; gender, via the study of male vs. female stereotyping through genderlects, feminine as the marked gender, and the demasculinization of American English.