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Syllabus- Mexico Maymester, CRMJ 465
Meets:
M-F, 8:30-11:30, Capers 410, May 11-15
May 16-29, Mexico
Instructor:
Dr. Brian Norris
Overview:
Mexico is a 120 million person country that shares a 2,000 mile land border with the US. Mexico and the
US share a number of economic, political and security concerns and opportunities. Mexico is the US’s 3rd
largest trading partner behind China and Canada. Between 10% and 30% of the Mexican population lives
in the US, depending on what metric one uses.
This course will give students an overview of Mexican history and its major institutions as necessary
background for understanding the US’s current international relations with Mexico. The course will also
contain thematic focuses on immigration and security issues in Mexico.
The approach of the course is that of area studies, an intellectual tradition that begins with deep
historical, cultural, and linguistic knowledge of a country or region before proceeding to a thematic or
technical analysis in areas such as economics, security, health, criminal justice and others.
Learning objectives:
1. Demonstrate basic factual historical knowledge of the formation of the modern nation state of
Mexico;
2. Demonstrate basic factual knowledge of major institutions, demographics and current issues for
Mexico today;
3. Demonstrate understanding of area studies as a branch of knowledge complementary to
technical areas such as security, economics and politics;
4. Demonstrate understanding of small-N qualitative comparative logic; and
5. Identify authoritative sources of information on Mexico for a lifetime of learning.
Grading:
1. 50% Quizzes and tests and assignments during M-F classroom portion in Charleston”
a. 20% daily quiz (5% X 4)
b. 10% daily discussion post (2.5% X 4)
c. 5% book report
d. 15% from ‘final’ exam due Friday 5/15 midnight
2. 40% response papers, blog postings and participation in learning activities in Mexico
a. 5% response paper – National History or Anthropology Museum resp. paper (5/17)
b. 5% response paper – Comparison of Police Museum and Museum of Tolerance and
Memory (5/21)
c. 5% “Teach us Something”- Guanajuato seminar presentation and discussion (5/24)
d. 5% response paper – Mexican Supreme court (5/27)
e. 5% Oscar Lewis assignment (due by 5/29)
f. 5% comparative logic response paper (due by 5/29)
g. 5% blog creation and entry (due by 5/29)
h. 5% newspaper assignment (due by 5/29)
3. 10% participation
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Reading List (all readings on Citlearn)
Mon. 5/11/15- Mexican History: Founding to Independence
J.H. Elliott, “Spanish Conquest and Settlement of America,” Cambridge History of Latin America (CHLA),
vol. 1, pp. 149-206.
-----------., “Spain and America in the 16th and 17th Centuries,” CHLA1, pp. 287-340.
David Brading, “Bourbon Spain and Its American Empire,” CHLA1, pp. 389-440.
John Lynch, “The Origins of Spanish American Independence,” CHLA3, pp. 3-50.
Tues. 5/12/15- Mexican History: Independence to Present
Timothy Anna, “Independence of Mexico and Central America,” CHLA3, pp. 51-94.
Friedrich Katz, “Mexico: Restored Republic and Porfiriato, 1867-1910,” CHLA5, pp. 3-78.
John Womack, “The Mexican Revolution, 1910-1920,” CHLA5, pp. 79-149.
Alan Knight, “Mexico, c. 1930-46,” CHLA7, pp. 3-82.
Peter H. Smith, “Mexico, c. 1946-present,” pp. 83-160.
Samuel P. Huntington, “Political Development by Revolution,” Political Order in Changing Societies (Yale,
1968), pp. 308-34. [the comparative method]
Wed. 5/13/15- Mexican Society
Oscar Lewis, “Forward,” “The Setting,” “The Gutierrez Family,” Five Families (Mentor Books, 1959).
Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude (Grove Press 1985), selected pages.
Book Report
Alan Riding, Distant Neighbors (New York: Vintage, 1986)
Shannon K. O’Neal, Two Nations Indivisible (Oxford 2013)
Thurs. 5/14/15
Jorge Durand, Douglas Massey, and Rene Zenteno, “Mexican Immigration to the United States:
Continuities and Changes” Latin American Research Review, Vol. 36, No. 1 (2001), pp. 107-127.
Wood, et. al., “Reflections on Mexico’s Southern Border,” Woodrow Wilson Center, March 2015.
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Adam Isacson, “Mexico’s Other Border,” Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), June 2014.
book report
Jorge Castaneda, Ex-Mex (New York: The New Press, 2007).
Samuel P. Huntington, “Ch. 9- Mexican Immigration and Hispanicization,” Who Are We? (Simon &
Schuster, 2004), pp. 221-56.
Fri. 5/15/15
Agnes Gereden Schafer, Benjamin Bahney, K. Jack Riley, “Security in Mexico: Implications for US Policy
Options,” RAND (2009).
book report
George Grayson, Mexico: Narco-Violence and a Failed State? (Transaction Publishers, 2010).
Daniel Sabet, Police Reform in Mexico (Stanford University Press, 2012).
Genaro Garcia Luna, El Nuevo Modelo de Seguridad para Mexico (Nostra ediciones, 2011).
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