American Studies 237 - People's Hist Immigratn

What does immigration to the United States look like from the perspectives of migrants themselves?  How do hierarchies of race, citizenship, gender, class and sexuality shape immigrant inclusion and exclusion from the space of the nation-state?  How does attention to these differences reveal the boundaries of the United States as a “nation of immigrants”?  How do they open up avenues for conceptualizing the global, imperial dimensions of migration and the formation of the United States?  This course explores these questions by focusing on a series of primary and secondary sources told from the “bottom up.”  These will be drawn from literature, autobiography, film, music, oral history, performance art, history, and works that attempt to combine these. We will analyze these materials in relation to the broad sweep of US immigration history from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Throughout we will focus on the relationship between “official” history and migrant subjectivities and the politics of cultural and historical production. This course will be conducted inside a correctional facility and enroll an equal number of Amherst students and residents of the facility. Permission to enroll will be granted on the basis of a questionnaire and personal interview with the instructor. 

Franklin County Jail:  www.franklincountyjail.org

Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program:  www.insideoutcenter.org

Admission by consent of the instructor. Limited to 8 students.  Spring semester.  Professor Reddy.