CAST 100
Introduction to Comparative American Studies
Fall 2007
Professor Gina M. Pérez
MWF 10–10:50
Office: King 141D, x58982
Office Hours: MW 11-12
Wednesday 4-5pm
Email: gina.perez@oberlin.edu
This introductory course provides an overview of key questions, concepts and
methodological approaches to the interdisciplinary field of Comparative American
Studies. The principal goal of this course is to develop critical tools for understanding
U.S. racial, social and cultural formations in historical context and to locate them within a
global and transnational perspective. To this end, I have selected readings from
anthropology, history, sociology, cultural studies, and literature in order to demonstrate
how different methodologies further our understanding of social groups, politics, culture
and power. This comparative approach is a guiding principal for both this class as well as
other courses in the Comparative American Studies major
The course is divided into 4 parts, with each section representing principal questions and
concerns guiding this course. Part I is designed to introduce key concepts and themes in
American Studies as well as to locate “America” and “Americanness” in a global and
transnational context. Part II examines issues of poverty, race, and various academic and
political understandings of poverty in the United States from the 1960s to the present.
Transnationalism and shifting notions of home and “homeplace” constitute the main
theoretical and conceptual issues of Part III. And the final section of the course explores
critical issues of the social activism, engagement, and the relationship between
scholarship and social change.
Required Texts
Julia Álvarez. 1992 (reprint edition). How the Garcia girls lost their accents. New York:
Plume.
Eli Clare. 1999. Exile and Pride. South End Press
Kathryn Edin and Maria Kefalas. 2005. Promises I Can Keep: Why Poor Women Put
Motherhood Before Marriage. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Natalia Molina. 2006. Fit to be citizens? Public Health and Race in Los Angeles. Berkeley:
University of California Press.
David Pellow. 2004. Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago. The
MIT Press.
Dorothy Roberts. 2002. Shattered Bonds: The color of child welfare. New York: Basic
Books.
Espiritu Yen. 2003. Home bound: Filipino American lives across cultures, communities,
and countries. Berkeley: University of California Press.
All textbooks can be purchased at the college bookstore. Additional articles are available through
Blackboard.
REQUIREMENTS
Participation and attendance
1 Group Project
Four 1-3 page response papers
Three 5 page essays
15%
20%
20%
45%
I. Class Attendance and Participation
Your attendance and informed participation in class are absolutely required and will be
considered in determining your final grade. While there will be some time dedicated to lecture,
class will primarily involve the discussion of reading materials and other relevant issues. I am
aware that the material in this course may easily lend itself to a discussion of one’s opinions
and/or experiences. Certainly those kinds of discussions and debates are encouraged when
appropriate. Your participation in class, however, must be informed primarily by the week’s
readings so that you can discuss, debate, question, and argue respectfully and intelligently about
issues raised in the reading assignments.
If you anticipate missing class, please inform me by email of your absence prior to class. Two
unexcused absences will reduce your grade by 1/3 (from an A to an A-, for example). If you are
arrive to class once discussion has begun, you will be considered absent.
II. Group Project
Near the end of the semester, each of you will work in groups of 3 or 4 to prepare and give a 15
minute presentation on some aspect of social activism and social justice that engages with efforts
to address persisting inequalities in the U.S. How does history shape the movement you have
chosen to research? What are the origins of the organizing around the issue/problem? What were
some of the challenges and obstacles the particular movement faced? You are encouraged to
bring in photographs, segments of a film, a news report, speeches, poetry or legal documents that
explore different ways in which activists organized, defined and approached the problem your
group has chosen. Each group will be required to meet with me prior to their presentation. Each
project will receive a grade for the oral presentation (10%) as well as for a written or text-based
final report (10%).
III. Written Assignments
This course requires a number of written assignments designed to develop critical reading,
writing and analytical skills. Papers will be evaluated according to the following criteria: critical
analysis and understanding of texts; clarity of thought; the ability to synthesize texts and
materials presented and discussed in class; and theoretical grounding of your arguments. All
papers should be typed and remain within the page limits specified for each assignment.
SUMMARY OF KEY COURSE DEADLINES
Friday September 14th Response Paper #1
Friday October 5th Essay #1
Wednesday October 10th Response Paper #2
Friday November 2nd Response Paper #3
Friday November 16th, Essay#2
Wednesday November 21st, Response Paper #4
LATE WORK: All assignments must be completed on time. Papers not turned in at the
beginning of class on the specified date will be considered late and will be penalized 1/3 grade
for each day it is overdue. Late papers will not receive written comments.
P/NP: If you are taking this class P/NP, you must fulfill all course obligations to receive pass
the course.
ACADEMIC INCOMPLETES at the end of the semester will not be given except case of an
emergency.
HONOR CODE: The policies described in the Oberlin College Honor Code apply to this class.
Written work must include proper citations and must be the product of your own work. You are
also required to include the following statement on all written assignments: "I affirm that I have
adhered to the Honor Code in this assignment." If you have any questions about how to properly
cite sources or about the Honor Code, please feel free to approach me. For more information on
the Honor Code, see http://www.oberlin.edu/students/student_pages/honor_code.html
STUDENTS NEEDING EXTRA ASSISTANCE: Please speak with me if you need disabilityrelated accommodations in this course. Student Academic Services is also an important resource
for students needing academic assistance. Please contact Jane Boomer, Coordinator of Services
for Students with Disabilities, Peters G27, extension 58467.
CLASS SCHEDULE
Part I: Locating America and Rethinking “Americanness”
Weeks 1 and 2: Introduction to key themes, ideas, and concepts in American Studies
September 5: Introduction to class and to next week’s readings
September 7: No Class
September 10: Lipsitz, “In the midnight hour” (BB); Kaplan, “’Left alone with America,’” (BB)
September 12: Luibhéid, “Heteronormativity, Responsibility, and Neo-liberal Governance in
U.S. Immigration Control” (BB)
September 14: López, “Agency and constraint” (BB)
Response Paper #1 Due. Use the concepts agency and constraint to frame and describe an issue
other than sterilization or immigration. Define the concepts in your own words and then
choose a medical procedure, college requirement, work situation, political or cultural
practice, or something else that the two concepts help you understand. 1-2 pages.
Week 3: Empire and American Identity
September 17: Mitchell, “The black man’s burden” (BB)
September 19: Baker, “Missionary Positions,” (BB) Smith, “Boarding School Abuses and the
Case for Reparations,” (BB)
September 21: Jaimes, “Federal Indian Identification Policy,” (BB)
Race, Citizenship, and American Identity
September 24: Ngai, “The Johnson-Reed Act of 1924,” (BB)
September 26: Molina, Fit to be citizens, Introduction and Chapter 1
September 28: Molina, Fit to be citizens, chapters 2-3
October 1:
Molina, Fit to be citizens, chapter 4
October 3:
Molina, Fit to be citizens, chapters 5 and epilogue
October 5:
Film: Couple in the cage
Essay #1 DUE: 5 pages Topic to be announced
Part II: The “Other” America
Weeks 6 and 7: Structure, agency and poverty
October 8:
Katz, “The urban ‘underclass’ as a metaphor of social transformation:
(BB); Kwong, “Poverty despite family ties” (BB)
October 10:
Raimondo, “AIDS Capital of the World,” (BB)
Response Paper #2 Due: Public discourse about poverty often links family, household
structure, gender arrangements and space to economic success or failure. Briefly
discuss how underclass theory and culture of poverty approaches explain the
relationship between family and poverty. Then choose either the study by
Raimondo or Kwong: How does the author analyze the role of families, space,
and households in their study of poverty and inequality? 2-3 pages
October 12
Edin and Kefalas, Promises I can keep, pp. 1–49
October 15
Promises I can keep, pp. 50-103
October 17
Promises I can keep, 104–167
October 19
Promises I can keep, 168–220.
October 20-October 28 Fall Break
III. Homeplace and Transnational Belonging
Week 9: State power and politics of home
October 29: Roberts, Shattered Bonds v-99
October 31:
Allison, “A question of class” (BB); Sanchez, “Where is home?” (BB)
November 2:
Garroute, “Enrollees and Outalucks,” (BB)
Response Paper #3: Roberts, Allison, Garroute, and Cantú all discuss some aspect of
how identity—sexuality, race, class, ethnicity, and citizenship—shape
understandings and experiences of home and place. Choose at least 2 readings to
reflect on how identity shapes experiences of home, including your own
experiences and understandings of home and place. 2-3 pages.
Weeks 10 and 11: Transnational perspectives on Home
November 5: Home bound, chapters 1–3
November 7: Home bound, chapters 4––6
November 9: Home bound, chapters 7–9
November 12 Álvarez, How the García Girls lost their accents, Part I, pp. 3–103
November 14 How the García Girls, Part II, pp. 107–191
November 16 How the García Girls, Part II, pp. 195–290.
Essay #2 Due: Both Espiritu and Álvarez are concerned with how ideas of home, family,
as well as cultural, racial, and national identities are forged and transformed in a
transnational context. Choose one of the texts and analyze the author’s
understanding of transnationalism, and how she represents the ways in which
individuals construct, deploy and reproduce racial, gendered, and sexual identities
in a transnational cultural space. Be sure to include an analysis of the political
economic contexts in which these identities are produced. 5 pages.
Part IV: Social Justice, Engagement and Activist Research
Week 12, 13, 14, and 15: Activism, Social Justice and Coalition Building
November 19 Clare, Exile and Pride
November 21 Exile and Pride (continued); Rodríguez, “Activism and identity in the ruins of
representation” (BB)
Response Paper #4 Due: Clare and Rodríguez both explore the role of identity politics
in advancing social change. Critically assess their arguments about the
effectiveness of the particular kind of social activism they discuss in their work
and identify some of the challenges of coalition building in activist work.
November 23 No Class Thanksgiving Break
November 26 Pellow, Garbage Wars, chapters 1-3
November 28 Garbage Wars, chapters 4 and 5
November 30 No Class
December 3
Garbage Wars, chapters 6 and 7
December 5
Group Presentations
December 7
Group Presentations
December 10 Group Presentations
December 12 Group Presentations
Essay #3. Final Project Due During Finals Week. Topic and Date to be announced.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Allison, Dorothy. A question of class. In Talking about sex, class and literature. Ithaca,
NY: Firebrand Books, 13–36.
Baker, Lee. 2006. Missionary Positions. In Globalization and Race, Kamari Maxine
Clarke and Deborah A. Thomas, eds. Durham: Duke University Press, 37-54.
Garroute, Eva Marie. 2003. Enrollees and Outalucks. In Real Indians: Identity and
Survival in Native America. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Jaimes, M. Annette. 1992. Federal Indian Identification Policy: A Usurupation of
Indigenous Sovereignty in North America. In The State of Native America:
Genocide, Colonialism, and Resistance, M. Annette Jaimes, ed. Boston: South
End Press, pp. 123-138.
Kaplan, Amy. 1993. “Left Alone with America”: The Absence of Empire in the Study of
American Culture. In Cultures of United States Imperialism, Amy Kaplan and
Donald E. Pease, eds. Durham: Duke University Press, pp. 3-21.
Katz, Michael. 1993. The urban “underclass” as a metaphor of social transformation. In
The “underclass” debates: Views from history. Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 3–23.
Kwong, Peter. 2001. Poverty despite family ties. In The new poverty studies: The
ethnography of power, politics, and impoverished people in the United States,
Judith Goode and Jeff Maskovsky, eds. New York: New York University Press,
57–78.
Lipsitz, George. 2001. In the midnight hour. In American Studies in time of danger.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 3–30.
López, Iris. 1997. Agency and constraint: Sterilization and reproductive freedom
among Puerto Rican women in New York City. In Situated lives: Gender and
culture in everyday life, Louise Lamphere, Helena Ragoné, and Patricia Zavella,
eds. New York: Routledge, 157–191.
Luibhéid, Eithne. Heteronormativity, Responsibility, and Neo-liberal Governance in U.S.
Immigration Control. In Passing Lines: Sexuality and Immigration, Brad Epps, Keja
Valens, and Bill Johnson González, eds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, pp.
69-101.
Mitchell, Michele. 1999. "The Black Man's Burden": African Americans, Imperialism,
and Notions of Racial Manhood 1890-1910. In Complicating Categories:
Gender, class, race and ethnicity. Eileen Boris and Angelique Janssens, eds.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 77-99.
Ngai, Mae M. 2004. The Johnson-Reed Acat of 1924 and the Reconstruction of Race in
Immigration Law. In Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern
America. Princeton: Princeton University Press. pp. 21-55.
Raimondo, Meredith. 2005. AIDS Capital of the World: Representing race, sex and space in
Belle Glade, Florida. Gender, Place, and Culture 12(1): 53-70.
Rodríguez, Juana Maria. 2003. Queer Latinidad: Identity practices , discursive spaces. New
York: New York University Press.
Sánchez, George. 1993. Where is home? The dilemma of repatriation. In Becoming
Mexican American: Ethnicity, culture and identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900–
1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 209–226.
Smith, Andrea. 2005. Boarding School Abuses and the Case for Reparations. In
Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide. Boston: South End
Press.