City College of New York
Instructor Macaulay Honors College
Spring 2015
Jennifer C. Lutton,
Office: NAC 4/150
(212) 650-6917
jlutton@ccny.cuny.edu
Chris Brandon, Instructional Technology Fellow
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 10am-3pm, NAC 4/150
chris.brandon@macaulay.cuny.edu
CHC 10201
Seminar2: The Peopling of New York City
Overview: This course examines the role of immigration in the historical, cultural, political,
and economic development of New York City. We will focus on the experiences and
contributions of Caribbean migrants, with particular emphasis on those from the
Anglophone Caribbean and Haiti. The Caribbean has been marked by centuries of regional
and global migration, which has had lasting and complex effects on the region and its
people. Caribbean migrants create and sustain transnational networks and identities,
which have cultural, political and economic implications in the Caribbean and New York
City. We will also be concerned with how issues of race, ethnicity, gender and class inform
everyday experiences of Caribbean people in New York. Course readings give students a
multidisciplinary perspective on Caribbean migration experiences, drawing from research
and writing in history, anthropology, sociology, geography and literature.
Objectives: “The Peopling of New York City” is the second of four seminars on New York
City required by the Macaulay Honors College. In this seminar, students investigate the role
of immigration and migration in shaping New York City's identity—past, present, and
future.
Students will learn theoretical perspectives of migration through a multidisciplinary lens in
order to carry out research on topics of relevance and interest. The culminating project of
this seminar is a multimedia project where students synthesize and present research. This
provides an opportunity for students to present their research findings in ways that other
students and faculty can learn from.
Requirements and Expectations: This is a reading and writing intensive course with an
instructional technology component in which students create a multimedia project for the
purposes of learning and presenting their research. Students are expected to keep up with
reading and writing assignments, to adhere to deadlines, and to contribute class
discussions.
No more than three absences are allowed.
Academic Integrity: Students should be knowledgeable about City College’s policies on
academic integrity. Plagiarism and cheating will not be tolerated. If you have any questions
about when and how to cite sources, consult me or visit the Writing Center.
The CCNY Academic Integrity Policy can be accessed here:
http://www1.ccny.cuny.edu/facultystaff/provost/policies_integrity.cfm
CHC 10201
Seminar 2: The Peopling of New York
In addition, students are expected to conduct themselves in and out of class according to
the standards outlined in the Macaulay Honors College Integrity Pledge. Details can be
reviewed here:
http://macaulay.cuny.edu/community/handbook/policies/honors-integrity/
Required Texts:
Danticat, Edwidge. 2004. Dew Breaker. Vintage Books: New York.
Marshall, Paule. 1981 (1959). Brown Girl, Brownstones. New York: Feminist Press.
Watkins-Owens, Irma. 1996. Blood Relations: Caribbean Immigrants and the Harlem
Community, 1900-1930. University of Indiana Press: Bloomington.
Additional readings are available through CUNY library databases or as PDFs on the class
website. Substitutions may be made to the reading list during the course of the semester as
the need/interest arises.
______________________________________________________________________________
Reading and Class schedule
Week 1
Jan. 29
Introduction to course
Week 2
Feb. 3
Vecoli, Rudolph. 1996. “The Significance of Immigration in the Formation of an American
Identity”. The History Teacher. Vol. 30, no. 1: 9-27.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/494217
Feb. 5
Readings : Kasinitz, Philip, et. al. 2013.“The Next Generation Emerges” in Foner, N. ed., One
of Three Immigrant New York in the 21st Century. (PDF on course blog)
Readings: Foner, Nancy. 2013. “One Out of Three: Immigrant New York in the 21st
Century”. New Haven: Yale University Press. (Introduction). (PDF on course blog).
Week 3
Feb. 10
Readings: Watkins-Owens, Irma. 1996. Blood Relations: Caribbean Immigrants and the
Harlem Community, 1900-1930
Feb. 12—No Class
Week 4
Feb. 17 and 19
Readings: Blood Relations
Foner, Nancy, ed. 2001. Islands in the City: West Indian Migration to New York. New York:
Columbia University Press (Introduction. CHC
PDF10201
on course blog).
Seminar 2: The Peopling of New York
****Saturday, Feb. 21 Walking tour, Flatbush Brooklyn (tentative)
Week 5
Feb. 19
Readings: Parker, J. (2004). "Capital Of The Caribbean": The African American-West Indian
"Harlem Nexus" And The Transitional Drive For Black Freedom, 1940-1948. Journal Of
African American History, 89(2), 98-117.
Feb. 24& Feb. 26
Marshall, Paule. Brown Girl, Brownstones.
Week 5
Feb. 24
Readings: Parker, J. (2004). "Capital Of The Caribbean": The African American-West Indian
"Harlem Nexus" And The Transitional Drive For Black Freedom, 1940-1948. Journal Of
African American History, 89(2), 98-117.
Feb. Feb. 26
Marshall, Paule. Brown Girl, Brownstones.
Week 6
March 4
Marshall, Paule. Brown Girl, Brownstones
March 6
Readings: Glick Schiller, Nina; Linda Basch; Cristina Szanton Blanc. 1995. “From Immigrant
to Transmigrant: Theorizing Transnational Migration”. Anthropological Quarterly, Vol. 68,
No. 1: 48-63. (PDF
Readings on diaspora (TBD)
Week 7
March 10&12
Readings: Foner, Nancy, ed. 2001. Islands in the City: West Indian Migration to New York.
New York: Columbia University Press (Introduction)
Fog Olwig, Karen.“New York as a Locality in a Global Family Network”. (Ch.5 in Islands in
the City).
Tilly, Charles. 2007. “Trust Networks in Transnational Migration” Sociological Forum. Vol.
22, No. 1: pp. 3-24. Stable URL: http://www/jstor.org/stable/2011087
Olwig, Karen Fog. 2012. “The Care Chain, Children’s Mobility and the Caribbean Migration
Tradition”. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. Vo. 38, No. 6: 933-952
In class exercise: Caribbean diasporic news media
****Saturday, March 14 Walking tour, Flatbush Brooklyn
CHC 10201
Seminar 2: The Peopling of New York
Week 8
March 17&19
Readings: Rogers, Ruel. “‘Black Like Who?’ Afro Caribbean Immigrants, African Americans
and the Politics of Group Identity. (Ch. 6 in Islands in the City)
Waters, Mary. “Growing Up West Indian and African American”. (Ch. 7 in Islands in the City).
Terborg-Penn, Rosalyn. 2011. “Migration and Trans-Racial/National Identity ReFormation: Becoming African Diaspora Women”. Black Women, Gender, &Families. Vol. 5,
No. 2: pp. 4-24
***Research proposals due
Week 9
March 24&26
Mandle, Jay. 2011. “The Role of Migration in Caribbean Integration and Development”.
Social and Economic Studies. Vol. 60, No.: pp. 3-19.
Pellerin, Helene and Mullings, Beverley. 2013. “The ‘Diaspora Option’, Migration, and the
Changing Political Economy of Development”. Review of Internaional Political Economy. Vol.
20, No. 1: pp 89-120.
***Media assignment due
Week 10
March 31& April 2
Readings: Danticat, Edwidge. 2010. Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work. (Ch.
1).
The Dew Breaker. Vintage Books: New York.
Week 11—April 3-12 Spring Break
Week 12
April 14&16
Readings: Dew Breaker
Lundy, Garvey. 2011. “Transnationalism in the Aftermath of the Haiti Earthquake:
Reinforcing Ties and Second-Generation Identity”. Journal of Black Studies. Vol. 42, No. 2: p.
203-224.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/41151336
******Draft of research paper due April 14
CHC 10201
Seminar 2: The Peopling of New York
Week 13
April 21& 23
Readings:
Marshall, Wayne. 2006. “Bling-Bling for Rastafari: How Jamaicans Deal with Hip-Hop”.
Social and Economic Studies, Vol. 55, No. 1&2: 49-74.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/27866457
Allen, Ray. 1999. “J'ouvert in Brooklyn Carnival: Revitalizing Steel Pan and Ole Mas
Traditions”. Western Folklore, Vol. 58, No. 3/4:. 255-277.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1500461
*** Peer review due April 21
Week 14
April 28&30
Film: The Other Side of the Water
Wilcken, Lois. 2005. “The Sacred Music and Dance of Haitian Vodou from Temple to Stage
and the Ethics of Representation”. Latin American Perspectives. Issue 40, Vol. 32, #1.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/30040235
***Drafts of group projects due
Week 14
May 5&7
Johnson, Paul Christopher. 2007. “On Leaving and Joining Africaness Through Religion: The
‘Black Caribs’ Across Multiple Diasporic Horizons”. Journal of Religion in Africa.
Vol. 37, Issue 2: pp. 174-211.
http://ccnyproxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&
db=a9h &AN=25425644&site=ehost-live
Sutton, Constance R. “Celebrating Ourselves: The Family Reunion Rituals of AfricanCaribbean Transnational Families”. Global Networks; Jul2004, Vol. 4 Issue 3: 243-257.
http://ccnyproxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&
db=a9 h&AN=13506448&site=ehost-live
***Research papers due
Week 15
May 12&14 Last class
Miller, O. Alexander. 2008. “Colonial Capital: Advances in Understanding Caribbean
Migration Experiences”. Social and Economic Studies. Vol. 57, #3&4: 157-180.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/27866565
***Group projects due
CHC 10201
Seminar 2: The Peopling of New York
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Assignments
Grading
Reading journal: 20% Media research project: 20%
Peer review research paper drafts: 15%
Final Project—Research paper and group multimedia project: 30% Class discussion group:
15%
All assignment details and guidelines will be posted on the course blog.
Reading Journal (10 total)
After the first week, you will submit a weekly reading journal to the course blog. This will
help you not only to stay on track with readings, but to understand and to engage with
them more fully. These will be due Thursdays by class time.
Class Discussion Groups
After the second week, small student groups will be responsible for leading class
discussions once a week. The purpose of student-led discussions is to help you become
better readers and become more skilled at presenting and discussion in class, but also to
allow students to shape the direction and flow of ideas.
Media and the diaspora
Due date: March 26
Using online and/or radio sources, discuss an issue of importance to the Caribbean
diaspora. You might follow an issue affecting a particular Caribbean nation or you might
explore an issue or debate involving the broader diaspora. Consider whether these issues
affect other migrant populations in the U.S. and elsewhere.
This assignment is an opportunity to learn about the role media plays in shaping Caribbean
migrants’ relationships—political, economic, social, cultural, etc.—to and in New York City,
the
U.S. and their countries of origin. You can consider news articles, opinions, comment
boards, call-in radio shows, music broadcasts, and/or advertising. Begin researching early
in the semester, to develop greater understanding of the issues and to be able to examine
them as they play out over a period of time.
Sources for this assignment will be listed on the blog. If you are interested in examining
online media from specific countries, I can provide sources. We will spend part of one class
session exploring some sites together.
Research Projects and Class Multimedia Project
Students will explore major themes and concepts in group research projects centered on
West Indian migrants in New York. These projects will result in individual research papers,
as well as a class multimedia project—e.g., blog, video, timeline, website—that will be
available on the Macaulay Honors College website.
Chris Brandon, Instructional Technology Fellow, will work with us to plan and create the
project, and will be available throughout the semester to help with learning and using
technology in the course.
CHC 10201
Seminar 2: The Peopling of New York
Chris is a PhD candidate in French literature at the CUNY Graduate Center and holds
degrees from Tulane University (MA) and Illinois State University (BA). His research
focuses upon links between experimental poetry from 19th century and contemporary new
media poetry. He previously worked with Writing Across the Curriculum and has taught
French language and literature at multiple schools.
--Research Proposal, Due March 19
After the neighborhood walking tour, students will form project groups based on shared
research interests. These can come from a list provided by me or can be generated by the
groups themselves. Groups will submit a research proposal that identifies the issues they
intend to focus on and the sources they plan to consult. Individual research papers (8-10
pages) will generate from these group projects. We will discuss the details of this in depth.
--Individual Research Paper (1st draft), due April 14; Peer review due: April 21
A first draft is required. Drafts do not need to be completed papers, but should be well
developed and should include a bibliography. Students will exchange drafts and review
each other’s writing, providing constructive feedback and sharing relevant sources.
Group Research Project (draft), due April 23
Each group’s contribution to the class project to be submitted by this date in order to
assess what content needs further development and technology issues need attention.
Research Paper Due Date: May 5
Final versions of individual research papers are due, but may be submitted earlier.
Class Project
Due Date: May 14
The final project should be ready by the last class in order for us to address any minor
technology issues before it is made available on the Macaulay website.
CHC 10201
Seminar 2: The Peopling of New York