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Course Syllabus (word document)
Office
Hours:
Fall, 2004
INTRODUCTION:
This
colloquium will examine the four communities of color--African
Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos and Native Americans in
the cities of the American West. The readings and discussions
will analyze the growth of the specific communities of color
in different urban settings--Chicanos in San Jose, African Americans
in Seattle, Native Americans in Portland, Asian Americans in
San Francisco. It will also seek to explore the interaction
of these groups not simply with Euro-Americans but with each
other, an interaction often forged in terms of conflict, accommodation
and cooperation. We will examine the myriad ways in which
each group adjusted to urban life to seek an explanation of
the varying levels of economic "success" as well as
class and gender dynamics both within and between different
groups. The colloquium will also analyze the role of the
urban environment in creating and refashioning individual and
ethnic community identity.
Moreover,
our careful scrutiny of the various articles assigned will,
I hope, encourage you to devise fresh perspectives and creative
approaches to the analysis of the urban histories of people
of color. We should use this colloquium, and the papers
that will come from it, as the opportunity to expand our knowledge
of the cities of the West and the myriad peoples who call these
cities home. People of color already comprise the majority
of the residents of most of the cities in the West including
most, obviously, Los Angeles. Indeed it should be noted
that of the 20 largest cities in the region, only Phoenix, Seattle,
Omaha, and Portland are not in that category according
to the 2000 census, although they too have significant populations
of color. This colloquium will provide a historical context
for understanding the emergence of these multiracial, multicultural
urban centers.
COLLOQUIUM
READINGS:
Selecting
important and yet available books and articles for a colloquium
is always a daunting task. I have tried, within the limits
of our institutional and personal resources, to include the
best of the methodologically and theoretically critical works
now extant in the history of western urban people of color.
All of the assigned articles are on electronic reserve through
Suzzallo Library. The books are on standard reserve.
I would encourage you to purchase used copies to reduce the
library demand. Unless otherwise indicated, each book
or article that appears on the weekly reading schedule should
be read in its entirety.
RESEARCH
PAPER:
Each
colloquium participant will write a 10-page paper assessing
some important figure or episode in the history of people of
color in the cities of the West. Your paper should draw
on primary and secondary sources but should reflect the development
of your own interpretation of the issues and events addressed
in your topic.
THE
SEATTLE CIVIL RIGHTS AND LABOR HISTORY PROJECT
Although
your research paper can be on any topic related to people of
color in the urban west, I especially invite papers that can
contribute to the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project.
As many of you know, my colleague, Professor James Gregory,
is constructing the first of its kind website in the nation
on the relationship between the Seattle Civil Rights Movement
and workers’ struggles and organizations. This project
enlists the aid of undergraduate and graduate students who will
research individuals, events and episodes in the history of
these two powerful movements in Seattle’s 20th
Century history. The Civil Rights Movement, broadly defined,
includes the rise of the Japanese American Citizen’s League
in pre-World War II Seattle, the efforts of Native Americans
to create a cultural center at Discovery Park in the 1960s,
the role of the Central Area Motivation Project (CAMP) in fighting
poverty in from the 1960s to now, the work of the International
Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in confronting racism in
the city, or the efforts of people of color to integrate the
Building Trades Unions in the 1970s. As you can see, this
list suggest various topics that include but also extend beyond
what is traditionally viewed as the Civil Rights Movement in
the Seattle in the 1960s. The best papers will be permanently
added to the website, making your work part of the research
base for future scholars.
The
project website address is:
http://faculty.washington.edu/gregoryj/civilrights/
You
should observe the following deadlines for your paper:
Fourth
Colloquium Meeting: A Preliminary title and one-page prospectus
of your paper.
Sixth
Colloquium Meeting: A four page selected annotated bibliography
of primary and secondary sources to be used in your paper.
Wednesday
of Final Exam Week (noon): Your Paper is due in my office.
PARTICIPATION
IN COLLOQUIUM:
Each
colloquium participant is expected to complete and be prepared
to discuss all of each week's assigned reading. Each student
will be expected to chair at least one colloquium meeting. One's
responsibilities as chair include leading the discussion of
the week's readings. The student chairing the colloquium
will be expected to have completed all of the assigned readings,
as I expect all of the other participants as well, but she
or he, if necessary, should review related readings beyond the
colloquium assignment.
GRADING
Your
grade will be based upon three components: the quality of your
participation in weekly discussions (20%), your performance
as chair of your particular session (30%), and the quality of
your research paper, (50%)
Required
Textbooks (Purchase):
Stephen J. Pitti, The Devil in
Silicon
Valley: Northern California, Race, and Mexican Americans
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003)
Yong Chen, Chinese
San Francisco,
1850-1943: A Trans-Pacific Community
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000)
Required
Textbooks (on library reserve):
Lawrence B. de Graaf, Kevin Mulroy and Quintard Taylor, eds.,
Seeking El Dorado: African Americans in California (Seattle:
University of Washington Press, 2001)
Yen Le Espiritu, Asian American Panethnicity: Bridging Institutions
and Identities (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992)
Dorothy B. Fujita-Rony, American Workers, Colonial Power:
Philippine Seattle and the Transpacific West, 1919-1941
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003)
George J. Sanchez, Becoming Mexican
American: Ethnicity, Culture and Identity in Chicano
Los
Angeles, 1900-1945
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1993)
Paul R. Spickard, Japanese Americans: The Formation and Transformations
of an Ethnic Group (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1996)
Quintard Taylor, The Forging of a
Black Community: Seattle's
Central District from 1870 through the Civil Rights Era
(Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994)
Roger Waldinger and Mehdi Bozorgmehr, eds., Ethnic
Los
Angeles
(New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1996)
Judy Yung, Unbound Feet: A Social
History of Chinese Women in San
Francisco
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995)
READING
ASSIGNMENTS:
Week 1:
Seminar Introduction: Discussion and Determination of Weekly
Seminar Assignments
Week
2:
North from
Mexico: Mexican
Settlement in the Urban West, 1890-1941
George J. Sanchez, Becoming Mexican American, Chapters
1, 3
Stephen J. Pitti, The Devil in
Silicon
Valley,
Chapter 4
Week
3:
The Growth of the Chinese Urban West,
1849-1941
Yong Chen, Chinese
San Francisco,
Chapters 1-3
Judy Yung, Unbound Feet, Chapters 1-2.
Week
4: East across the Pacific: The Coming of the Japanese and the
Filipinos, 1890-1941
Paul R. Spickard, Japanese Americans, Chapter 2
Dorothy B. Fujita-Rony, American Workers, Chapters 1,
4
Paul Spickard, "Not Just the Quiet People: The Nisei Underclass,"
Pacific Historical Review 68:1 (February 1999):78-94
Week
5:
20th Century Indians in the Urban
West
Kenneth R. Philp, "Stride Toward Freedom: The Relocation
of Indians to the Cities," Western Historical Quarterly
16:2 (April 1985):175-190.
Ned Blackhawk, “ I Can Carry On From Here: The Relocation
of American Indians to Los Angeles,” Wicazo Sa Review
11:3 (Fall 1995):16-30
Nicholas G. Rosenthal, “Repositioning Indianess: Native
American Organization in Portland, Oregon, 1959-1975,”
Pacific Historical Review 71:3 (August 2002):415-438
Week
6:
World War II and Communities of Color
in the Urban West
Stephen J. Pitti, The Devil in
Silicon
Valley,
Chapter 5
Yong Chen, Chinese
San Francisco,
Chapter 10
Quintard Taylor, The Forging of a Black Community, Chapter
6
Kevin Leonard, “In the Interest of All Races: African
Americans and Interracial Cooperation in Los Angeles During
and After World War II,” in de Graaf, Mulroy and Taylor,
Seeking El Dorado, pp. 309-340
Week
7: The Multicultural Urban West into the 21st Century
Roger Waldinger and Mehdi Bozorgmehr, "The Making of a
Multicultural Metropolis," in Waldinger and Bozorgmehr,
eds., Ethnic
Los Angeles
, pp. 3-29 and Chapter 12, “Middle Easterners: A New Kind
of Immigrant”
Yen Le Espiritu, Asian American Panethnicity, Chapter
2
Stephen J. Pitti, The Devil in
Silicon
Valley,
Chapter 8 .
Week 8:
No Class Meeting, Prepare Research Papers
Week 9:
No Class Meeting, Prepare Research
Papers
Week 10:
Presentation of Paper Topics
Week 11:
Presentation of Paper Topics (Continued)
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