Segregated Spaces: School, Work, and Home since 'Brown'
AFAM 116
Fall 2007
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
AMST 115, HIST 126 |
Although Brown v. Board of Education ended legal school segregation, urban schools remain effectively segregated by race and class, and the racial divide between high school graduates and drop-outs continues to widen. Simultaneously, residential segregation has intensified, manufacturing jobs have migrated out of urban areas, and employment opportunities for poor people of color have been narrowed by the emergence of a low-wage service economy. The racialization of education, housing, and employment are intricately linked--historically, geographically, and culturally. This seminar explores the intersecting histories of educational, economic, and residential segregation since the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Spreme Court decision (1954). Topics include school and housing desegregation, the controversy surrounding bussing, battles over curriculum and community control, political and cultural representations of urban poverty and "the underclass," deindustrialization, the prison-industrial complex, and alternative models for schooling, housing, and employment, such as Freedom Schools, cooperative housing, neighborhood jobs and training programs, and community organizing campaigns centered around school and housing reform. In the last few weeks of the course, students will break into issue groups and participate in a collective process to identify the underlying problems facing urban communities. Working groups on education, housing, and employment will develop proposals for programs, policies, or collective action. Students will have the option of drafting legislative or policy proposals, or authoring a grant proposal to create an educational, economic, or housing-related initiative in lieu of writing a final research paper. |
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Essential Capabilities:
Effective Citizenship, Intercultural Literacy |
| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS AFAM |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: None |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Not Available |
| SECTION 01 | | Special Attributes: FYI |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Readings May Include:
Sheryll Cashin, THE FAILURES OF INTEGRATION: HOW RACE AND CLASS ARE UNDERMINING THE AMERICAN DREAM; Ira Katznelson, WHEN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION WAS WHITE: AN UNTOLD HISTORY OF RACIAL INEQUALITY IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICA; Ronald Formisano, BOSTON AGAINST BUSING: RACE, CLASS, AND ETHNICITY IN THE 1960s AND 1979s; Katherine Newman, NO SHAME IN MY GAME: THE WORKING POOR IN THE INNER CITY; William Julius Wilson, WHEN WORK DISAPPEARS; Massey and Denton, AMERICAN APARTHEID; Sudhir Alladi Venkatesh, AMERICAN PROJECT: THE RISE AND FALL OF A MODERN GHETTO; Ruth Wilson Gilmore, GOLDEN GULAG: PRISONS, SURPLUS, CRISIS, AND OPPOSITION IN GLOBALIZING CALIFORNIA; Nancy MacLean, FREEDOM IS NOT ENOUGH: THE OPENING OF THE AMERICAN WORKPLACE; Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward, THE BREAKING OF THE AMERICAN SOCIAL COMPACT; Barbara Ehrenreich, FEAR OF FALLING: THE INNER LIFE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS; Vanessa Tait, POOR WORKERS' UNIONS: REBUILDING LABOR FROM BELOW.
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Examinations and Assignments:
Two short writing assignments (2-4 pages), problem statement (1-2 pages--serves as a proposal for longer assignment), and final project (15 page research paper, policy or grant proposal, or other acceptable project format, pending approval of the instructor. Students will also be expected to lead class or working group discussions, and keep an online or hard-copy scrapbook of clippings, images, ideas, and responses. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
For the second half of the course students will choose working groups in education, employment, or housing. They will have the opportunity to work across these groups on collaborative projects/discussions. Students are encouraged to stay open-minded about which group they will choose until after they have participated in the first half of the course. |
| Instructor(s): Jackson,Mandi Isaacs Times: ...W... 01:10PM-04:00PM; Location: CAAS LOUNG; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 19 | | SR major: X | JR major: X | | |
| Seats Available: 0 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: X | JR non-major: X | SO: X | FR: 19 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 2 | 1st Ranked: 1 | 2nd Ranked: 1 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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