SYLLABUS
Race, Religion and Social Justice
Ethnic Studies 360/Sociology 494
2:30 – 3:50 TTH (LH 336)
Spring 2009
Office Hours:
8-11 AM W and by
appointment
619.260-4022
Professor Alberto López Pulido
apulido@sandiego.edu
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course examines the interrelationship regarding issues of social justice, race, and religion (the sacred) in guiding us towards a
more just, compassionate, and humane society. The fundamental question that this course seeks to answer is what is the role or
characteristics of the sacred that compel communities of color to seek social justice and strive to build community. What are
limitations and pitfalls of such a framework and what alternative structures or “ways of knowing” exist that may produce similar
results?
Students enrolled in this course embrace and/or are open to the following statements and beliefs:
 That every person possesses an inherent human dignity regardless of their race, class, gender, sexual orientation,
citizenship, or physical abilities.
 That as members of U.S. society we are the creators and inheritors of a legacy of contact-conquest and resistance.
 That different faith traditions act as a progressive force toward lessening human social conflict, exclusions, and inequalities.
 That every person should strive to live a life of service.
 That every person should strive to build community and embrace the common good.
 That we believe in the transformation of people and communities.
 That every person should strive toward social justice.
 That as members of the USD community – we believe and implement the USD mission statement.
As a course that is generated out of the Ethnic Studies Program – it is important for students to recognize that Ethnic Studies is a
vibrant, interdisciplinary scholarly field generated from legacies of communities-of-color resistance to discrimination, and born from
undergraduate student activism in the late 1960s United States. This course is taught from a framework that recognizes the historical
relationship(s) (legacies) of contact, conquest, and resistance that has shaped racial relations, conceptions of religion, community, civil
rights, and social justice. We examine both the strategies and consequences of such legacies in relation to our personal journey and
social location.
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY AND CLASSROOM PEDAGOGY:
As a professor of American, Ethnic, and Religious Studies my main objective is to create and foster a community of artists. I believe
that when students enter any classroom they bring their lives and experiences on a painter’s palette where an artist lays and mixes the
range of colors symbolic of a person’s life journey and experiences. In turn, I as a teacher offer students a painter’s canvas in the form
of lectures, discussions, readings, assignments, and community service representative of a knowledge canvas where students will be
moved and inspired to explore the range of living colors on their palettes that speak to their lives in deep and profound ways.
Translating this perspective into our course, students will be asked to analyze and read about expressions and manifestations of Race,
Religion, and Social Justice as an exercise in reflexivity and subjectivity by asking how these issues relate to our personal lives.
Hence, students will be asked to create and construct narratives and performances that speak to these issues. This approach underlies
the majority of classroom assignments and discussions for the course. Our overall task is to work toward a holistic educational
approach that strives to simultaneously educate the “head and the heart.”
Synopsis
This course is an intellectual and personal journey that will challenge you to apply what we are learning in this class to your own life
experiences. You will be challenged to examine your and your community’s own limitations in building more just and compassionate
communities (social justice). You will be challenged to reflect on required personal and structural change necessary to bring about
personal and structural transformation.
Our two topics for this semester will be Hate and Immigration. You will be asked to addresses both of these issues through
community projects. The first requires involvement with OOC@USD and the second with Migrant Outreach.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
1
o
Understand basic concepts of race, religion, and community in the histories of communities of color and in their quest for
social justice within the Ethnic Studies Paradigm
o
Discover the implications of religious expressions and their organizing potentials in addressing issues of racial justice and
contemporary civil rights.
o
Allow for personal reflection and assessment regarding the implementation of academic concepts and theories in relation to
real-life experiences that address issues of racial justice, citizenship, civil rights, and social justice.
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
Required Readings:
o
o
o
Religion Race and Justice in a changing America, Gary Orfield and Holly J. Lebowitz
God’s Heart Has No Borders, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo
Reading Packet (handouts and e-reserve)
Participation: (20 percent)
1.
2.
3.
4.
All students are required to attend class every week and to arrive on time
All cell phones and electronic devices must be turned off during class. Please respect the class and do not text message,
remove ear buds, do not sleep in class, write emails, do not read the newspaper – come to class because you desire to
participate and truly wish to engage.
Come to class prepared to discuss all readings and assignments.
Come to class willing to participate
OOC@USD (On Our Campus @ USD) Project (25 percent)
All students are required to design a project that will serve to eliminate hate crime on our campus. You are required to write an 8-10
pp. reflection paper on the project. Your final paper must incorporate 4 public sources. An outline for this project is forthcoming. This
project must commence immediately.
3 of your 4 Public Sources must come from the following list:
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The Working Group (Not In Our Town)
Southern Poverty Law Center (Teaching Tolerance)
United for a Hate Free San Diego
USD Webpage
USD Public Safety
San Diego District Attorney
UF/MCC Diversity Week (February 24-26)
USD PABID/OCC
Cross-Cultural Competency Training/Dialogues (February 13)
MIGRANT OUTREACH (25 percent)
All students must participate in a minimum of 3 Sunday gatherings with migrants as organized by the office of community service
learning. CSL will offer an orientation for students. Students can substitute one of the gatherings with a visit to Case del Immigrante
in Tijuana to be organized by your professor. You are required to write an 8-10 pp. reflection paper on the project. Your final paper
must incorporate 4 public sources Your final paper must incorporate 4 public sources. An outline for this project is forthcoming.
3 of your 4 Public Sources must come from the following list:

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Archbishop Agostino Marchetto Lecture ( January 28, 2009)
Deportation Nation – A Cultural Series focusing on Deportation in America (January 31, 2009; February 5-7, 2009).
AB 540 Presentation for Undocumented College Students – Moctezuma Hall, San Diego State (February 12, 2009).
Migration, Religion, and National Identity Conference (April 15-16. 2009)
Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice in San Diego
National Network for Immigrant Rights and Refugee Rights
2
o
Final Paper – Application of Theory and Intellectual Knowledge
A final 12-15 pp paper is required for this course that will ask students to apply the scholarly and academic materials reviewed in this
course. An overarching question will ask you to address if the sacred (religion) can serve as a catalyst for social change and social
justice. Students are required to incorporate the statements and beliefs listed on the first page of the syllabus. You must also provide
an introspective narrative reflecting on the teachings of social justice, community, transformation and social change.
CLASSROOM SCHEDULE
Week 1:
1/27: Introductions – student interests – distribution of syllabus – formation of groups
1/29: Addressing Hate – How do I get involved? What are we going to do? Strategies for eliminating hate.
Week 2:
2/3: Understanding Inherent Human Dignity. ? Strategies for eliminating hate. Read and be prepared to discuss Lopez Pulido.
Community, Common Good, Service.
2/5: What is a Hate Crime? Introduce the work of NOIT
Week 3:
2/10: Race in America: Legacies of Contact – Conquest – and Resistance. Read and be prepared to discuss Omni and Winant.
2/12: Race in America continued. Read and be prepared to discuss Introduction in Orfield.
Week 4:
2/17: Checking In – Where are we: Strategies for Eliminating Hate? Panelists from United for a Hate Free San Diego.
2/19: Review of Southern Poverty Materials
Week 5: DiversityWeek
2/24: Social Justice and Judaism – Abraham Heschel - Read and be prepared to discuss Chapter 2 in Orfield.
2/26: Social Justice and Judaism continued – Read and be prepared to read materials for packet
Week 6:
3/3 History of Movement and Immigration in the United States– Lecture and Read and be prepared to discuss first 24pp of
Hondagneu- Sotelo
Showing of Invisible Chapel – 12:15-2:00PM – IPJ (Required)
3/5: History continued – Viewing of Invisible Chapel. PROJECT ONE DUE
Week 7:
3/9 – 3/13: SPRING BREAK
Week 8:
3/17: Migration, workers Justice and religion - The work of CLUE. Read and be prepared to discuss chapters 4 and 5 in HondagneuSotelo
3/19: Borderless Religion – Faith and Social Justice on the Border. Read and be prepared to discuss chapters 6and 7 in HondagneuSotelo
Week 9:
3/24: Islam, Race and Social Justice Work. Read and be prepared to discuss Chapter 8 in Orfield. Guest Speaker
3/26: Redeeming the Other – Muslim in a Post-9/11 world and the role of faith. Read and be prepared to discuss chapters 2 in
Hondagneu- Sotelo
Week 10:
3/31: Redeeming the Other continued Read and be prepared to discuss chapters 3 in Hondagneu- Sotelo.
4/2: Buddhism and Civil Rights: Buddhist Peace Fellowship. Read and be prepared to discuss chapter 5 in Orfield
Week 11:
4/7: MLK and the beloved Community – Read and be prepared to discuss chapter 3 in Orfield. PROJECT TWO DUE.
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EASTER BREAK 4/9 – 4/13
APPLICATION OF THEORY AND KNOWLEDGE : PREPARATION FOR FINAL PROJECT
Week 12:
4/14: The Study of Religion: Religious Studies, Sociology of Religion, American and Ethnic Studies: Read and be prepared to discuss
Z Smith; Durkheim; Hall; Weber; Eliade from Reading Packet
4/16: - Study of Religion continued
Week 13:
4/21/23: Intersection of Race, Religion and Social Justice. Be prepared to discuss chapters 9 and 10 in Orfield and Chapter 8 in
Hondagneu- Sotelo.
Week 14:
4/28: Application: Inter-subjective and reflexivity methods – Placing yourself in the narrative – the problematic – Read Morton
4/30: Application continued – Toward a theory of transformation – Participatory Action Research – Read Abalos; Fine in Packet
Week 15:
5/5 – 5/7: Pulling it all together: Biography and History – toward a life of service and social change
Week 16:
5/12: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
5/21: FINAL EXAMINATION: Thursday @ 11:00 to 1:00PM
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