Critical Social Inquiry 0285 - U.S. Immigration History

This seminar will explore different forms of narratives - scholarly historical work, memoirs, and fiction - interpreting American immigrant lives to examine critical historiographical issues in U.S. immigration history. Through reading seminal historical narratives along with award-winning novels/memoirs, we will investigate on-going construction of major issues in U.S. immigration history such as imperialism, acculturation, language, citizenship, biculturalism, displacement, family, cultural inheritance, community and empowerment, agency and resistance, as well as memory and identity formation. We will pay close attention to gender, race, class, nation, and sexuality as categories of analysis and lenses through which we examine the history of U.S. immigration. Thematically organized, the seminar will examine the different methodologies, theories, frameworks of interpreting the immigrant experiences in the United States in an increasingly globalizing world.

Multiple Cultural Perspectives Writing and Research Independent Work