Spring 2022  |  AMST 3114 Section 001: America in International Perspective (66445)

Instructor(s)
Class Component:
Lecture
Credits:
3 Credits
Grading Basis:
Student Option
Instructor Consent:
No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:
In Person Term Based
Class Attributes:
UMNTC Liberal Education Requirement
Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
 
01/18/2022 - 05/02/2022
Tue, Thu 09:45AM - 11:00AM
UMTC, East Bank
Wulling Hall 240
Enrollment Status:
Open (28 of 30 seats filled)
Also Offered:
Course Catalog Description:
The nature of international cultural exchange. The impact of U.S. cultures and society on other countries of the world as well as the impact of other cultures and societies on the United States.
Class Description:
The nature of international cultural exchange. The impact of U.S. cultures and society on other countries of the world as well as the impact of other cultures and societies on the United States.

Globalization, National Security/Terrorism, Economic Crises, Migration, the Global Media? How does America address these challenges moving forward in the 21st Century? How have events such as 9/11 and the global impact of the US military affected America's relationship with the rest of the world? This course examines these questions and provides a range of theoretical approaches to understand America's complex relationship to global forces today. Students taking this course will gain an interdisciplinary, topical approach to understanding these issues, learn about important public policy debates, and how the perception of the United States around the world varies based on politics, culture, and historical factors. Particular focus on the impact of the US Military and US multinational corporations globally, and immigration to the United States.
Who Should Take This Class?:
Undergraduates
Learning Objectives:
Use conceptual tools or a theoretical framework to analyze a social problem or a cultural object. Critical commentary on readings, lecture material, film or other classroom material, Critical Thinking (Build a framework of knowledge within the major themes of the course; critique traditional conceptualizations about the nation and myths of the nation; foster an environment promoting creativity and the free exchange of ideas).
This course addresses diversity by focusing on race as a socially constructed marker of difference and as an aspect of inequality. Its central objective is to explore the ways race has operated both historically and contemporarily in Americans¿ reactions to recent immigrants and how these reactions have resulted in exclusionary immigration policies and xenophobia. Focusing on the experiences of Hmong, Chinese, and Mexican immigrants in the post-1965 era, it examines the processes of racialization these new migrants face and the obstacles such processes pose for their full inclusion in American society. In other words, it highlights the ways each group is ¿raced¿ when they arrive in the U.S. through our systems of racial categorization and the consequences that flow from such designations. Through readings, lectures, documentary films, and other materials, it documents the forms of discrimination each group has faced socially, economically, and politically and considers as well how race intersects with other aspects of diversity such as gender and social class.

The first part of the course focuses on the ways media and electronic images circulating globally have not only provided Americans with stereotypes about these different national groups, but also the ways these immigrants imagine the United States. The next part of the course focuses on the contemporary experiences of Hmong, Chinese, and Mexican immigrants. For each group, the course details the historical relationship of their countries of origin with the United States to shed light on their contemporary experiences. The Hmong, for example, were refugees from the United States¿ ¿clandestine war¿ in Laos. Little was known about them by the general public when they first came to America (especially their work for the U.S. government) and language barriers as well as media constructions depicting them as ¿stone age people¿ made adaptation to American life difficult. By contrast, Mexico has a different historical relationship with the United States. Northern Mexico became part of the United States through a war of conquest and Mexico¿s relationship with the U.S. in the twentieth century has often been characterized as a nation of ¿reserve labor.¿ Despite the important role that Mexico has played in supplying labor to the U.S., stereotypes about Mexicans as ¿lazy¿ and ¿untrustworthy¿ continue to proliferate. As readings and documentary films will illustrate, these stereotypes are still prevalent in contemporary debates about illegal immigration.

The course also explores the ways Hmong, Chinese, and Mexican immigrants have fought to gain recognition and inclusion in the U.S. both individually and collectively. These issues are considered both in the sections for each immigrant group and in the final section of the course. For example, Hondagneu-Sotelo¿s ethnography highlights the many ways Mexican immigrants have sought legal entitlements and protections in their work as domestics. Similarly, Mar¿s memoir, Paper Daughter explores not only her struggles with prejudice as a first generation Taiwanese immigrant in Denver, Colorado, but her hard work, determination, and success in attending an elite college ¿ despite her immigrant and working class origins. The final section of the course explores a broader range of issues relevant to immigrant social justice movements today such as the meanings of citizenship, cultural democracy, labor, the rights of non-citizens, and the responsibilities of host states to them.

This course also emphasizes multi-disciplinary ways of knowing and thinking. It poses questions about the strengths and limitations of different forms of knowledge such as media representations, novels, history, ethnography, and memoir. For example, by engaging with media representations, in small groups students will analyze different images and describe how racial stereotypes are constructed. The purpose of such an exercise is to encourage students to do their own analysis. It not only highlights what kinds of representations may be absent in the media, but facilitates the development of skills for analyzing them. In addition, by engaging with memoir as a genre, students in small groups will discuss what such accounts provide that broader historical accounts cannot. Personal narratives provide the opportunity for linking the personal and subjective responses to broader social and historical forces which are often absent in other kinds of accounts. The purpose of these kinds of small group discussions and readings is to enhance student engagement with scholarship that has emerged in response to gaps in from traditional disciplinary perspectives.
Grading:
30% Midterm Exam
50% Reports/Papers
20% Written Homework
Exam Format:
Analytic papers, essay exams
Class Format:
50% Lecture
10% Film/Video
40% Discussion
Workload:
30 Pages Reading Per Week
10-15 Pages Writing Per Term
1 Exam(s)
2 Paper(s)
3 Homework Assignment(s)
Textbooks:
https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/66445/1223
Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
8 July 2019

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