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SMC Core Curriculum Course Proposal Form Fall 2013
Electronically submit this course form and attachments to the Chair of the CCC by
October 1. Please submit a separate proposal for each desired learning goal.
1. Name of Proposer: E. Elena Songster
2. Email address: ees4@stmarys-ca.edu
3. Department/Program of Proposer: HISTORY
4. Name of Department/Program housing the course: HISTORY
5. Name(s) of Program Director/Department Chair (if not the proposer):
Myrna Santiago
6. Course Acronym, Number and Title: HIST 163: Ethnic Identity and Conflict in China
7. Proposal is for All Sections of the course: __Yes___
Proposal is for instructor’s section(s) (Pathways to Knowledge only): _____
8. Course Prerequisites (if any): None
9. Unit Value of Course: 1
10. Mark with an X the Learning Goal for which the course is being proposed. (Please
submit a separate proposal for each desired goal.)
Pathways to Knowledge (at most one)
Artistic Understanding – Artistic Analysis only: ____
Artistic Understanding – Creative Practice only: ____
Artistic Understanding – Both Artistic Analysis and Creative Practice: ____
Mathematical Understanding: ____
Scientific Understanding: ____
Social, Historical, Cultural Understanding: ____
Christian Foundations: ____
Theological Explorations: ____
Engaging the World (as appropriate, generally zero to two)
American Diversity: ____
Common Good: ____
Community Engagement: ____
Global Perspectives: __X__
Teaching and Learning:
This class, HIST 163: Ethnic Identity and Conflict in China, is an upper-division thematic
history course that examines the ways that peoples in and around the area of China
grouped and distinguished each other in different historical periods. I call it a thematic
course because it does not attempt to trace a broad historical narrative of a place but
rather examines the issue of ethnicity as a concept over a broad range of time. While
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“ethnicity” is a modern concept, ancient peoples had systematic ways of dividing groups
of people that in some cases were similar to modern notions of ethnicity and in other
cases were very different from them.
This course not only exposes students to an “understanding of the world from a specific
non-US and non-Western European viewpoint,” (Global Perspective Learning Outcome)
by being entirely focused on the history, writings, and peoples of the areas in and
around China, but also seeks to expose students to the perspectives of the peoples who
were and are on the periphery of Chinese society. These groups are in some ways
another step removed from the western perspective as they are marginalized in the
context of a non-western society. Furthermore, students are given an opportunity to
examine these groups from the ancient period to the present. In so doing they are
exposed to perspectives that pre-date interactions between these peoples and western
peoples, giving them exposure not only to a non-western part of the world, but to a
world completely devoid of any western influence whatsoever. By taking this class,
students not only gain an appreciation for dramatic differences between the ways that
Chinese and westerners categorize people and identify themselves, they also can see
the shifts in the ways that peoples in these areas grouped and identified other peoples
from the ancient to the modern eras. This course is explicitly designed to expose
students to non-western ways of thinking and moreover to illustrate to students that
within the context of “China” there are many layers and players and multiple
perspectives on what it means to be both part of and apart from Chinese society.
Students will demonstrate that they understand the various non-western perspectives
that they are exposed to through weekly in-depth discussions of our readings, three
papers, and two exams. Almost all of the readings examine non-western perspectives of
the issue of identity. Discussion is important for helping students tease out these ideas.
Just last week one student posed the question, “Did the practice of Chinese taking
Khitans [another group that lived north of the Chinese empire at the time] as wives
threaten their sense of ethnic superiority during the Song Dynasty (960-1279) by diluting
their ethnic purity?” This question was answered well by another student who noted,
“According to the reading Chinese perceptions of what constituted ‘Chinese’ were not
based on bloodline at all, but rather on ‘how civilized’ or ‘uncivilized’ a particular group
was according to Chinese criteria, so I don’t think that it would threaten their sense of
cultural superiority because bloodline didn’t seem to matter at all really.” Each paper is
designed to give students an opportunity to analyze the concept of human
categorization in three distinct contexts. The first is more of a think piece for them to
write about their understanding of this idea upon arrival to the course within the
context of an example that is personal or familiar to them. This offers me a baseline of
their understanding of this idea. The next paper requires that they analyze one of the
groups we study and the way that that particular categorized itself with respect to the
Han (Chinese) during the PRE-MODERN era. The last paper requires them to choose a
different group and either focus on it in the context of the twentieth century (and
beyond) or examine how this particular group’s identity changed from the pre-modern
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to the present-day period. In this way the students demonstrate their understanding
not only of non-western perspectives on human categorization, but also how these
perspectives vary from group to group and from era to era. Exams similarly require that
students analyze specific aspects of these understandings by asking them to respond to
such questions as: To what degree is religion an essential component of Tibetan and Hui
(Muslim Chinese) identity after the founding of the People’s Republic of China (1949)? In
what ways did the Xiongnu [a nomadic people on the northern steppe during the first
and second centuries BCE] both exemplify and counter Chinese perceptions of a civilized
society at the time? In what ways could you argue that the Chinese themselves
contradicted their own notions of a civilized society?
Notes:
 I am the only person who teaches this course. It therefore does not have any
other sections, nor is there the possibility of it being taught in a different manner
or with a different focus.
 The second and third papers are designed to demonstrate student
understanding of non-western perspectives, as are the essay questions on either
of the exams.
 Please see attached syllabus for further details on readings, topics, and
assignments.
Songster/HIST 163/Global Perspectives