Boundaries and Transgressions
Gallatin School of Individualized Study
New York University
Professor: Marie Cruz Soto
Office: 1 Washington Place Room 615
Office Hours: T 2-5pm (TR 8-9:30am by appt.)
Contact: m.cruz@nyu.edu or 212 992-7761
Course: FIRST-UG 69
Semester: Fall 2012
Time: TR 9:30-10:45am
Location: 432, 1 Washington Place
Massacre River in the Haitian-Dominican frontier
(Photograph by Sara Fajardo/Catholic Relief Services)
Course Description:
Boundaries, especially those thought to separate national communities, are powerful
human inventions that can scar landscapes and bodies. The frontiers of the United
States, for example, have been centuries in the making. Yet, these geopolitical
imaginaries, however stable they may appear, depend on their continuous embracing,
enforcement and redefinition. Indeed, the limits of the U.S. community (where the
national ends and the foreign begins) are redefined on a daily basis along such sites as
the Rio Grande, Guantánamo and others. These sites -porous and formidable- are the
cause of much movement, anxiety and debate.
The course “Boundaries and Transgressions” is guided by the questions: How are
boundaries imagined into existence and made to matter in the daily lives of different
peoples? And, how are these boundaries transgressed? The course, furthermore, takes
boundaries as a lens through which to think about identity formation, community
building and transgressions. It will begin with a broad exploration of boundarymaking, subjectivities and imperial formations which will build on psychoanalysis,
postcolonial thought and other perspectives. The course then will address more specific
dynamics of national demarcations through a look at U.S. and Haitian/Dominican
frontiers.
The main goals of the course are: to familiarize with different schools of thought that
have theorized how humans differentiate themselves as individuals and collectivities, to
explore the multiple meanings of boundaries and transgressions (especially in national,
(post)colonial and imperial contexts), and to understand the relevance of such
boundaries and transgressions in the daily lives of different peoples.
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Course Requirements:
To successfully complete the course, students are required to attend and participate
actively in class, write ten reactions and two essays, and do a class presentation. The
final grade for the course is divided into four parts: participation, first essay, second
essay and class presentation. Participation and the two essays are each worth 30% of
the final grade. The class presentation is 10% of the final grade.
The participation grade depends on the careful reading of course texts, attendance, and
active involvement in class discussions. Students are expected to contribute on a
regular basis to discussions with respectful and informed comments that engage the
course texts. In terms of attendance, each student is entitled to one non-justified
absence. Each absence thereafter will result in a one-fifth deduction of the participation
grade.
The participation grade also depends on the writing of ten reactions. The reactions
(approximately 400 words long) should identify connections between the readings and
topic for a particular week. Reactions are not summaries, but rather critical and creative
commentaries. The reactions are to be posted online at http://www.manuelqui.com by
the Saturday of the week they are assigned.
The first essay, due on Thursday October 18th, will address some aspect of the course’s
theoretical exploration of boundaries and transgressions. The second essay, due on
Thursday December 13th, will focus on a particular boundary and on its transgression.
The two essays are to be handed in at the beginning of class. In addition, a digital copy
of both essays must be submitted in Blackboard by their assigned deadlines. Students
should visit Blackboard for detailed instructions about the writing of these essays.
The class presentation (scheduled for Weeks XIII and XIV) will be based on the topic
for the second essay. Students, furthermore, will develop their own specific topic in
close dialogue with the professor. The grade will depend on the rigorousness of the
research as well as on the creativity and effectiveness in engaging and communicating
the topic. The class presentation should help students think about their topic for the
final essay.
Deadlines:
Reactions and essays should be submitted within the established deadlines. Late papers
will not be accepted except with valid and preferably written medical excuses.
Incompletes are not an option. If a student has a compelling reason for wanting an
incomplete, the student should talk to the professor before the last day of class.
Accommodations:
Students who require accommodations because of a disability should visit the Henry and
Lucy Moses Center (726 Broadway, 2nd Floor) and talk to the professor during the first
week of class.
Writing:
Writing is an essential part of the course and of academic life in general. Great ideas
can be lost if the writing is not clear, just like readers can also be lost if the writing is
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not evocative. Students are therefore encouraged to visit the professor during her office
hours and the Gallatin Writing Center (1 Washington Place, Room 423) in order to
discuss the writing process.
Gallatin Statement on Academic Integrity:
“As a Gallatin student you belong to an interdisciplinary community of artists and
scholars who value honest and open intellectual inquiry. This relationship depends on
mutual respect, responsibility, and integrity. Failure to uphold these values will be
subject to severe sanction, which may include dismissal from the University. Examples
of behaviors that compromise the academic integrity of the Gallatin School include
plagiarism, illicit collaboration, doubling or recycling coursework, and cheating. Please
consult
the
Gallatin
Bulletin
or
Gallatin
website
[www.gallatin.nyu.edu/academics/policies/policy/integrity.html] for a full description
of the academic integrity policy.”
Additional Information:
The use of laptops is not permitted in class.
Course Readings:
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of
Nationalism. London: Verso, 1991.
Danticat, Edwidge. The Farming of Bones. New York: Penguin, 1999.
The rest of the readings are either in the coursepack or can be accessed through
Blackboard. The books and coursepack can be purchased at the NYU Main Bookstore
(726 Broadway).
Course Schedule:
WEEK I:
INTRODUCTION
 September 4th and 6th 
Reading for September 6th:
Cruz Soto, Marie. “And the San Juan River Runs Through Them: Disputing Water and
Identity in the Nicaraguan-Costa Rican Frontier.” The Journal of the
International Institute 13:2 (Winter 2006): 1-2. –BlackboardWEEK II:
BOUNDARIES, TRANSGRESSIONS & PSYCHOANALYSIS
 September 11th and 13th 
Reaction One
Readings for September 11th:
Freud, Sigmund. “Twenty-First Lecture: Development of the Libido and Sexual
Organizations.”
Trans. John Fletcher.
A General Introduction to
Psychoanalysis. New York: Horace Liveright, 1920. 277-293. -Blackboard-
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Lacan, Jacques. “The mirror stage as formative of the function of the I as revealed in
psychoanalytic experience.” 16th International Congress of Psychoanalysis.
Zurich. July 17, 1949. 1-7. –BlackboardReading for September 13th:
Fanon, Frantz. “The Man of Color and the White Woman” and “The Black Man and
Recognition.” Black Skin, White Masks. Trans. Richard Philcox. New York:
Grove Press, 2008. 45-63 and 185-197. –CoursepackWEEK III:
EXPULSIONS: ABJECTION & THE FOREIGNER
 September 18th and 20th 
Reaction Two
Reading for September 18th:
Kristeva, Julia. “Individual and National Identity: Powers of Horror.” The Portable
Kristeva. Ed. Kelly Oliver. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. 225263. -CoursepackReading for September 20th:
Kristeva, Julia. “Individual and National Identity: Strangers to Ourselves.” The
Portable Kristeva. Ed. Kelly Oliver. New York: Columbia University Press,
1997. 264-294. -CoursepackWEEK IV:
DEVIANCES, EXCLUSIONS & PUNISHMENTS
 September 25th and 27th 
Reaction Three
Reading for September 25th:
Foucault, Michel. “Penal Theories and Institutions” to “The Abnormals.” Ethics:
Subjectivity and Truth (Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984). Ed. Paul
Rabinow. Trans. Robert Hurley and Others. Vol. 1. New York: The New Press,
1997. 17-57. -CoursepackReading for September 27th:
Douglas, Mary. “Witchcraft and Leprosy: Two Strategies of Exclusion.” Man 26:4
(December 1991): 723-736. –BlackboardWEEK V:
NATIONS, NATIONALISMS & NATIONAL BOUNDARIES
 October 2nd and 4th 
Reaction Four
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Readings for October 2nd:
Herder, Johann Gottfried Von. Reflections on the Philosophy of the History of
Mankind. Ed. Frank E Manuel. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970.
Excerpt in The Cooper Union Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.
September 13, 2001.
The Cooper Union.
August 26, 2011
<http://www.cooper.edu/humanities/core/hss3/j_herder.html>. -BlackboardRenan, Ernst. “What is a Nation?” Sorbonne, Paris. March 11, 1882. –BlackboardReading for October 4th:
Anderson, Benedict. “Introduction” and “The Angel of History” to “Memory and
Forgetting.” Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of
Nationalism. London: Verso, 1991. 1-7 and 155-206. -BookWEEK VI:
IMPERIAL/(POST)COLONIAL IDENTITY NEGOTIATIONS
 October 9th and 11th 
Reaction Five
Reading for October 9th:
Stoler, Ann Laura. “Sexual Affronts and Racial Frontiers: European Identities and the
Cultural Politics of Exclusion in Colonial Southeast Asia.” Tensions of Empire:
Colonial Cultures in a Bourgeois World. Eds. Frederick Cooper and Ann Laura
Stoler. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. 198-237. -CoursepackReadings for October 11th:
Bhabha, Homi. “Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse.”
October 28 (Spring 1984): 125-133. -BlackboardHall, Stuart. “Negotiating Caribbean Identities.” New Left Review 209 (JanuaryFebruary 1995): 3-15. –BlackboardWEEK VII:
HAITIAN/DOMINICAN SUGAR COMMUNITIES
 October 18th 
First Essay Due on
Thursday October 18th
Screening:
The Sugar Babies: The Plight of the Children of Agricultural Workers in the Sugar
Industry of the Dominican Republic. Dir. Amy Serrano. Siren Studios, 2007.
WEEK VIII:
HAITIAN/DOMINICAN BOUNDARIES & TRANSGRESSIONS, 1937
 October 23rd and 25th 
Reaction Six
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Reading for October 23rd:
Derby, Lauren. “Haitians, Magic, and Money: Raza and Society in the HaitianDominican Borderlands, 1900 to 1937.” Comparative Studies in Society and
History 36:3 (July 1994): 488-526. -BlackboardReadings for October 25th:
Derby, Lauren and Richard Turits. “Temwayaj Kout Kouto, 1937: Eyewitnesses to the
Genocide.” Revolutionary Freedoms: A History of Survival, Strengh and
Imagination in Haiti. Eds. Cécile Accilien, Jessica Adams and Elmide Méléance.
Coconut Creek: Caribbean Studies Press, 2006. 137-143. -BlackboardTurits, Richard Lee. “A World Destroyed, A Nation Imposed: The 1937 Haitian
Massacre in the Dominican Republic.” Hispanic American Historical Review
82:3 (2002): 589-635. -BlackboardWEEK IX:
HAITIAN/DOMINICAN SUGAR COMMUNITIES, 1937
 October 30th and November 1st 
Reaction Seven
Reading for October 30th and November 1st:
Danticat, Edwidge. The Farming of Bones. New York: Penguin, 1999. -BookWEEK X:
U.S. BOUNDARIES
 November 6th and 8th 
Reaction Eight
Guest Speaker Prof. Kimberly DaCosta on November 8th
Readings for November 6th:
“Frederick Jackson Turner, The Significance of the Frontier in American History,
1893.” Out of Many: A History of the American People (Documents Set). II. 4th
ed. Eds. John Mack Faragher et al. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice
Hall, 2003. 283-285. –Coursepack“Mississippi Black Code.” Laws of the State of Mississippi, Passed at a Regular Session
of the Mississippi Legislature, held in Jackson, October, November and
December 1865. Jackson, Mississippi: J.J. Shannon & Co., printer, 1866. 82-93
and 165-167. Excerpt in Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media.
1999.
George
Mason
University.
August
26,
2011
<http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/122/recon/code.html>. –BlackboardO’Sullivan, John. “The Great Nation of Futurity.” The United States Democratic
Review 6:23 (November 1839): 426-430. –BlackboardWilson, Woodrow. “Final Address in Support of the League of Nations.” Pueblo,
Colorado. September 25, 1919. –Blackboard-
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Readings for November 8th:
DaCosta, Kimberly McClain, “Interracial Intimacies, Barack Obama, and the Politics of
Multiracialism.” The Black Scholar 39:3/4 (Fall 2009/Winter 2010): 4-12. BlackboardDaCosta, Kimberly McClain, “Interracial Intimacy on the Commodity Frontier.” At the
Heart of Work and Family: Engaging the Ideas of Arlie Hochschild. Eds. Anita
Ilta Garey and Karen V. Hansen. Piscataway: Rutgers University Press, 2011.
228-240. –BlackboardWEEK XI:
AMERICAN BORDERLANDS
 November 13th and 15th 
Reaction Nine
Reading for November 13th:
Anzaldúa, Gloria. “The Homeland, Aztlán/El otro México” and “Movimientos de
rebeldía y las culturas que traicionan.” Borderlands/La Frontera: The New
Mestiza. Third Edition. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 2007. 23-45. –
CoursepackReading for November 15th:
Hogue, Michel. “Between Race and Nation: The Creation of a Métis Borderland on the
Northern Plains.” Bridging National Borders in North America: Transnational
and Comparative Histories. Eds. Benjamin H. Johnson and Andrew R. Graybill.
Durham: Duke University Press, 2010. 59-87. –CoursepackWEEK XII:
U.S. IMPERIAL BOUNDARIES & TRANSGRESSIONS
 November 20th 
Reaction Ten
Readings for November 20th:
Burnett, Christina Duffy. “The Edges of Empire and the Limits of Sovereignty:
American Guano Islands.” American Quarterly 57:3 (September 2005): 779-803.
–BlackboardKaplan, Amy. “Where is Guantanamo?” American Quarterly 57:3 (September 2005):
831-858. –BlackboardRuskola, Teemu. “Canton is Not Boston: The Invention of American Imperial
Sovereignty.” American Quarterly 57:3 (September 2005): 859-884. –
BlackboardWEEK XIII:
CLASS PRESENTATIONS
 November 27th and 29th 
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WEEK XIV:
CLASS PRESENTATIONS
 December 4th and 6th 
WEEK XV:
CONCLUSIONS
 December 11th and 13th 
Final Essay Due on
Thursday December 13th