Transnational perspective

This seminar considers race from a transnational perspective, with a focus on the Americas. We examine broader historical developments, including the emergence of global empire and colonialism, that gave rise both to concepts of race, racial difference, and hierarchy and to concepts of nation and nationality. As slavery, labor migrations, and the establishment of settler colonies brought peoples from different regions of the world together, racial difference justified unequal exceptions to otherwise equal rights of national citizens. This semester we will explore, in particular, how disease – both its medical and social understanding – shaped racial ideas and affected racialized groups.

Objectives

The course objectives are to:

1. a) introduce students to Asian American history as part of transnational histories of race;
2. b) consider historical concepts of race, ethnicity, and nationality as they relate to the United States,the Americas, and the world;
3. c) consider other dynamics of social difference including region, religion, class, gender, and sexualorientation as they relate to race;
4. d) explore the relationship between social conceptions/understanding of race, biology, and disease;
5. e) learn to consider critically the course subjects and themes and communicate them effectively through writing, oral presentation, and in other media.

You are to prepare an abstract and annotated bibliography exploring a paper topic related to the course themes.

Notes: Needs abstract, bibliography, and outline in one day! this should be 2pages