Week 1: Foundations of Ethnic Studies
- Defining race, ethnicity, and intersectionality
- History and mission of Ethnic Studies
- Core concepts: colonialism, imperialism, resistance
- Introduce the ethnography assignment and its connection to the course themes and objectives.
Week 2: Theories of Race and Ethnicity
- Critical race theory
- Racial formation theory
- Intersections with gender, sexuality, disability studies
- Assign Part 1: Passive Observation
- Students choose a public setting relevant to the course themes and conduct a one-hour observation.
Week 3: Immigration and Diaspora
- Histories of migration and displacement
- Borderlands and border imperialism
- Transnational identities and communities
- Students write up field notes from their passive observation and submit them.
- Discuss the observations in class and relate them to the week's topics.
Week 4: Minoritization and Racialization
- Processes of "Othering" and marginalization
- Constructions of racial/ethnic categories
- Legacies of European colonialism and settler colonialism
- Assign Part 2: Interview
- Students identify a person to interview and develop a set of questions related to identity and the course themes.
Week 5: Racial Capitalism and Labor
- Marxist perspectives on race and class
- Racial divisions of labor
- Racial wealth gaps and economic inequality
- Students conduct the interview and write up a description and analysis of the conversation.
- Discuss the interviews in class and relate them to the week's topics.
Week 6: Indigeneity and Decolonization
- Indigenous epistemologies and resistance movements
- Decolonial and anti-colonial movements
- Land, sovereignty, and self-determination struggles
- Assign Part 3: Observation without notes
- Students choose a setting relevant to the course themes and conduct a 45-minute to one-hour observation without taking notes.
Week 7: Cultural Expressions and Representation
- Art, literature, music as sites of resistance
- Contesting stereotypes and reclaiming narratives
- Pop culture, media representations, and racial politics
- Students write up field notes from Part 3: Observation without Notes from memory and submit them.
- Discuss the observations in class and relate them to the week's topics.
- Introduce the "Race, Gender, and Class in the Media" assignment and its connection to the week's themes of art, literature, and music as sites of resistance, contesting stereotypes, and reclaiming narratives.
- Assign Parts 1 and 2 of the assignment:
- Part 1: Students select a song relevant to the themes of the course and write a 300-350 word reflection on its personal meaning and the listening context.
- Part 2: Students analyze the first 30 seconds of the song, describing the musical elements and how they set the tone for the rest of the song.
Week 8: Social Movements and Activism
- Civil rights movements, ethnic empowerment movements
- Intersectional and coalition organizing
- Contemporary activist struggles against injustice
- Assign Part 4: Second Interview
- Students identify a person whose work or activism is relevant to their own interests and the course themes, and develop a set of interview questions.
- Discuss the song analyses in class, relating them to the week's topics of civil rights movements, intersectional organizing, and contemporary activist struggles.
- Assign Part 3 of the "Race, Gender, and Class in the Media" assignment:
- Part 3: Students collect 24 descriptive words from classmates about the song's style and effect, select 3-5 that differ from their own interpretation, and analyze the song to determine what might have led to those interpretations, incorporating socio-cultural data.
Week 9: State Violence and Carcerality
- Policing, surveillance, and criminalization of communities
- Prison-industrial complex and abolition movements
- Transformative justice models and alternatives
- Students conduct the interview, record it, and create a log of topics and key quotes.
- Discuss the interviews in class and relate them to the week's topics.
- Discuss the socio-cultural analyses in class, relating them to the week's topics of policing, criminalization, and the prison-industrial complex.
- Assign Parts 4 and 5 of the "Race, Gender, and Class in the Media" assignment:
- Part 4: Students choose an excerpt from the song and provide an in-depth analysis of how the musical components contribute to the overall perceptual effect and influence societal interpretations of the lyrics.
- Part 5: Students create a video response analyzing the intersections of two or more social categories (race, class, gender) as portrayed in the media, drawing on course materials and documentaries.
Week 10: Ethnic Studies Praxis
- Community engagement and public scholarship
- Decolonizing research methods
- Envisioning new futures and worldmaking possibilities
- Students submit a final reflection on the ethnography assignment, discussing how it has informed their understanding of Ethnic Studies concepts and methods, and how they might apply these insights in their future work or activism.
- Discuss the reflections in class and relate them to the broader goals and possibilities of Ethnic Studies as a field of study and practice.
- Students submit the final draft of the assignment (1200-1300 words total) and share their video responses.
- Discuss the assignments in class, focusing on how they demonstrate the application of Ethnic Studies concepts and methods to the analysis of cultural expressions and media representations.
- Reflect on how the insights gained from the assignment can inform students' future engagement with issues of race, gender, and class in media and society.
This schedule allows learners to complete each part of the ethnography assignment sequentially while providing opportunities for discussion and reflection about the specific themes and topics covered each week in the course. The final reflection in Week 10 encourages students to synthesize their learning from the assignment and consider its implications for their ongoing engagement with Ethnic Studies. In the "Race, Gender, and Class in the Media" assignment to the Ethnic Studies syllabus, learners can deepen their understanding of how cultural expressions reflect and shape societal perceptions and power dynamics related to race, ethnicity, gender, and class.
These assignments encourage learners to apply the theories and histories covered in the course to the critical analysis of popular media while also developing their skills in close reading, socio-cultural interpretation, and multimedia argumentation. The video response component further challenges students to synthesize course materials and engage in public scholarship, which aligns with the goals of the Ethnic Studies praxis.
These assignments encourage learners to apply the theories and histories covered in the course to the critical analysis of popular media while also developing their skills in close reading, socio-cultural interpretation, and multimedia argumentation. The video response component further challenges students to synthesize course materials and engage in public scholarship, which aligns with the goals of the Ethnic Studies praxis.