Application for Engaging the World, American Diversity Course Designation
History 142 (California History)
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Date of Application: 10-5-12
Name/department of Proposer: Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo, History
Name of Department Housing Course: History
Name of Chair: Myrna Santiago
How Often is the Course Taught: every year
Course Prerequisites: None
Unit Value of Course: 1
Normal Class Size: 25
Number of Sections Expected Fall 2013: None
Number of Sections Expected Spring 2013: 1
Is this course appropriate for first year students: no, but it is appropriate for sophomores
Relevant Learning Goals: American Diversity
Chair will oversee submission of student work: Yes
Chair will oversee instructor participation in norming/asst.: Yes
Teaching: Learning outcome #1 of American Diversity courses is to “analyze aspects of social
diversity (e.g., ethnicity, race, socio-economic status, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age,
ability, political identity).” Through lectures, discussions, readings, films, debates, and group
presentations students explore California history through the lens of demographic diversity.
Beginning with the state’s first people, Spanish colonization, and the Mexican period, we move
on to discuss the transition to Anglo rule, the ethnic, class and gender dynamics of the Gold
Rush, the state’s early African American population, Chinese immigration, the impact of Anglo
settlement on Indian communities, class and racial conflict during the Gilded Age, the role of
gender and class in Progressive Era reform, Japanese, Filipino and Mexican immigration in the
early 20th century, the Dust Bowl migration and Depression era labor protests, shifting gender
roles and black migration during World War II, postwar movements for social change (civil
rights, black power, Native American, Chicano, and Asian activism, farm worker struggles, gay
and lesbian liberation, feminism, and disability rights), and the experience of more recent
immigrant groups. Learning outcome #2 is “to explain how social categories and structures of
power may affect the human person.” This course is taught from the bottom up, with emphasis
on how ordinary Californians experienced and resisted institutionalized discrimination. Primary
source readings, films, and lectures, focusing on individual stories and concrete case studies,
highlight the human costs of social constructs and structures of power. For example, we not
only discuss the state’s long history of anti-Asian prejudice and discrimination (as expressed
through vigilante violence, selective taxation, negative stereotypes, discriminatory legislation,
outright exclusion, and relocation and internment), we examine what it meant to live, work,
raise families, and create community within these limits. We also explore individual and
collective responses to these limits, including court challenges, institution-building, cultural
dissent, and organized, mass protest. Virtually every major ethnic group receives similar
coverage—coverage that also extends to the state’s women, GLBTQ communities, disabled
citizens, and political/religious minorities. Finally, we examine how a majority of Californians
occupy more than one category, experience multiple forms of discrimination, juggle multiple
identities and loyalties, and struggle to build and sustain inclusive movements for social change.
16. Learning: American Diversity learning goals are assessed in several ways. The essay exam asks
students to indentify the four most significant turning points/transitions in California history,
establishing “significance” on the basis of the greatest impact on the greatest number of state
residents. If, for example, they choose World War II, they must include discussion of shifting
gender roles, black migration and activism, racial discrimination in defense industry, Japanese
relocation and internment, the Bracero Program, Mexican American migration to urban defense
centers, the Sleepy Lagoon case, the Zoot Suit riots, growing acceptance of Dust Bowl migrants
(via hysteria over the influx of racialized “others”), economic opportunities for poor and working
class residents, and the wartime origins of postwar civil rights struggles. Their group project, a
forty-five minute presentation on one of California’s recent immigrant communities, requires
that they address how, when, and why each group arrived, and provide an overview of
population distribution, economic, political and cultural contributions, barriers to full equality
(including immigration status, discrimination in housing, employment and education, and
negative images/stereotypes), and significant institutions/organizations, and community
leaders. A final research paper, focusing on the history of their hometown, requires that they
investigate their community’s history of human settlement (beginning with the first
Californians), and shifting class and ethnic composition. Both the group project and final paper
involve analysis of social diversity and the ability to explain how social categories and structures
of power affect individuals and communities.
17. Syllabus:
Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo
Galileo 310
glemke@stmarys-ca.edu
Office hours: MWF 7:00-8:00; 15:15-11:15; 1:00-3:00
And by appointment
History 142
MWF 11:30-12:30
History of California
California's past is frequently depicted as romantic, exceptional, and golden: land of the
missions, Spanish dons, argonauts, railroad barons, bountiful fields, technological
genius, and political innovation or eccentrism. This course will move beyond myth and
image in search of the "real" California--a California shaped by ethnic diversity, conflict
and cooperation, class and racial tensions, contestations over the state's natural
resources, and larger national or global forces that have shaped California's economic,
cultural, and political landscape. Course requirements include faithful attendance and
participation, an essay exam, and two family/community-based research projects.
Disability Policy
Reasonable and appropriate accommodations, that take into account the context of the course and
its essential elements, for individuals with qualifying disabilities, are extended through the office of
Student Disability Services. Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact the Student
Disability Services Coordinator at (925) 631-4164 to set up a confidential appointment to discuss
accommodation guidelines and available services.
Academic Honesty Policy
Any work that a student undertakes as part of the progress toward a degree or certification must be
the student’s own, unless the instructor specifies otherwise. That work may include examinations,
whether written or oral, oral presentations, laboratory exercises, papers, reports and other written
assignments. In written work other than examinations, students must clearly indicate the sources of
information, ideas, opinions and quotations that are not their own. Under the Academic Honor
Code, a student takes responsibility for the correctness and authenticity of all work submitted by that
student. Detailed regulations concerning the Academic Honor Code and the penalties for breach of
academic honesty are published in full in the Student Handbook. Each student is held responsible
for being acquainted with these regulations.
Learning Objectives
1. Identify the key aspects of social diversity (e.g., race, class, gender, sexual orientation,
religion, ability, age and political identification) as they relate to California history
2. Articulate how these categories have shaped the state’s cultural, political, economic, and
social institutions, and informed contestations over resources and the very meaning of
the “California Dream”
3. Explain how social categories and structures of power have affected individuals and
communities
4. Demonstrate geographical literacy (ability to identify natural and human-constructed
boundaries)
5. Identify the major events/transitions/turning points in California history, and place
them in proper, chronological order
6. Integrate your knowledge of the above—along with primary and secondary sources—into
a history of your own community
7. Locate primary and secondary sources on a specific ethnic group, and use this evidence
to construct a profile that you will present to the class
Readings
Lemke-Santangelo, Competing Visions
Course Reader
Grading
Class Participation and Attendance 25%
Essay Exam
25%
Group Project
25%
Research Paper
25%
Schedule of Readings and Discussions
M, Aug. 29
W, Aug. 31
F, Sept. 2
W, Sept. 7
F, Sept. 9
M, Sept., 12
W, Sept. 14
F, Sept. 16
M, Sept. 19
W, Sept. 21
F, Sept. 23
M, Sept. 26
W, Sept. 28
F, Sept. 30
M, Oct. 3
W, Oct. 5
F, Oct. 7
M, Oct. 10
W, Oct. 12
Course Introduction
California’s Natural Setting
Reader: Rangelands; California’s Geologic Past; Wildlife in Transition; Changing
Face of the San Joaquin Valley
First People
Competing Visions: 1-28; Reader: Native World Views; Native Cultivators;
Aboriginal Fishers; Indian Lands
Exploration and Conquest
Competing Visions: 29-60; Reader: Intrusion
Spanish California and the First People
Reader: Mission Life; Brutal Appetites
Mexican California
Competing Visions: 61-91; Reader: Aftermath
Debate: Mission Life vs. Secularization
War, Conquest and Gold
Competing Visions: 92-123; Reader: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
War, Conquest and Gold
Reader: Destruction of the California Indian; Federal Agent Assesses Mining’s
Impact on the Indians; Mining’s Impact on the Land
Ethnic Diversity and Conflict in Anglo California
Competing Visions: 124-158; Reader: Conquest and Gold; American California
Film: Ishi
California in the Gilded Age
Competing Visions: 159-193; Reader: New Struggles in the Gilded Age
Progressive California
Competing Visions: 194-230
Progressive California
Reader: New Black Pride and Pressure Groups
New Cultural and Economic Developments
Competing Visions: 235-247
California and the Great Depression
Competing Visions: 247-265; Reader: Upton Sinclair
California and the Great Depression
Reader: Dust Bowl Legacies
Film Clips: Grapes of Wrath
Reader: Grapes of Wrath selections
Discussion/analysis
M, Oct. 17
W, Oct. 19
F. Oct. 21
M, Oct. 24
W, Oct. 26
F, Oct. 28
M, Oct. 31
W, Nov. 2
F, Nov. 4
M, Nov. 7
W, Nov. 9
F, Nov. 9
M, Nov. 14
W, Nov. 16
F, Nov. 18
M, Nov. 21
M, Nov. 28
W, Nov. 30
F, Dec. 2
M, Dec. 5
W, Dec. 7
F, Dec. 9
Group Project Update; Bibliographies Due
World War II and the Great Transformation
Competing Visions: 266-300
Gender and Race on the Home Front
Film: Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter
Postwar California: Economic Expansion and Political Liberalism
Competing Visions: 301-336
Postwar California: Race, Gender, and Class in an Era of Prosperity
Decade of Discontent
Competing Visions: 337-372
Decade of Discontent
Reader: Watts Manifesto; Chavez and the United Farmworkers
Decade of Discontent
Reader: Black Panther Party Platform; Alcatraz Proclamation; Chicano Militancy;
Asian American Activism; Mario Savio
Era of Limits
Competing Visions: 373-391
Era of Limits
Competing Visions: 392-408
California Enters the New Century
Competing Visions: 409-448
Exam
Group Presentation: Native Americans
Group Presentation: Mexican Americans
Group Presentation: Filipino Americans
Group Presentation: Chinese Americans
Group Presentation: Vietnamese Americans
Group Presentation: El Salvadoran, and Guatemalan Americans
Group Presentation: South Asian Indian Americans
Group Presentation: Korean Americans
Group Presentation: Iranian Americans
Home Town Papers Due
Group Projects
Beginning on Wednesday, November 16 we will focus on the experience of California’s largest
recent immigrant communities (with the exception of California Indians). Working in teams of
two or three, you will research a specific group and share your findings with the entire class. In
your presentations, please include the following information: how, when and why each group
arrived in California, and an historical overview of population distribution; economic, political,
and cultural contributions; barriers to full equality (immigration status, discrimination in
housing, education, employment, etc.); organized resistance to discrimination; significant
institutions and organizations; and influential community leaders. Feel free to enhance your
oral presentations with handouts, visual aids, cultural artifacts, and sound recordings. Your
presentation should run for forty-five minutes, allowing fifteen minutes for questions and
discussion.
Research Paper: Your Home Town
For this assignment you must research and write about your own community, describing its
natural setting and resources, history of human settlement and development, class and ethnic
composition, and the people, institutions, landmarks, etc. that make it unique and special. Your
paper should be 10-15 pages in length (typed and double-spaced), and based on a minimum of
five print (book or extended journal article) sources. You may also include oral sources.
Footnotes or endnotes, and a complete bibliography must be attached to your paper. If you grew
up outside of California, you may choose to write about one of our local, bay area communities.
This assignment is due in class on Friday, December 9. I will not accept late papers.