RACE & ETHNIC RELATIONS

FALL 2010 Online Course for College of the Canyons: September 13 to November 21

Course activities placed at CSUB's Blackboard 9 testing site at:
 

https://bb.csub.edu/webapps/login/

Instructor: Dr. Gonzalo Santos   Phone: (661) 654-2191   santos_class@csub.edu

Teaching Assistance: Ms. Eva Rafik evarafik@yahoo.com

• Joseph F. Healey, "Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class. The Sociology of Group Conflict and Change," FIFTH EDITION, 2010, Pine Forge Press. 

• Selections from CQ Researcher, "Issues in Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class," 2010, Pine Forge Press.

Course Contents

This course is designed to provide students capable of operating as independent learners in an online-only environment with a broad, yet solid, introduction to the field of race & ethnic relations in the United States. The historical and contemporary experiences of various ethnic and panethnic groups in the United States -- the so-called European Americans, Native Americans, African Americans, Latinos/Hispanics, and Asian Americans -- are sociologically analyzed in the Healey textbook. Various sociological concepts are introduced and defined to explain the origins and history of the interactions between these groups, from colonial times to the present. In short, we attempt to learn and understand -- mediated by sociological theory -- the history and dynamics of modern peoplehoods in the United States. The Healey book does so with various degrees of success, which is fine: there has been and currently is no consensus for anything resembling a universal theory of modern peoplehood; there is not even agreement over the nature and historical record of racial and ethnic relations in specific countries, such as the United States -- much less on the history of peoplehood in all its forms, everywhere in the modern world-system. So the field is still, and will remain so for the foreseeable future, one of the most contested terrains of social science, public policy, and political discourse in most countries. But the Healey textbook, the main foundation of this online course, is an excellent way to introduce, in some depth, the broad historical sociology of race and ethnicity in one such country, the United States.

The emphasis of this course will then be placed on how race, ethnicity, & nationhood were and are socially (re)constructed in the U.S., and how these categories relate to various social structural processes such as free and forced prior and present migrations, colonial incorporation and modern imperialism, class stratification and social struggle, the role of the state, the patterns of sociocultural dynamics in peoplehood, and the role of gender relations. We seek to elucidate the contexts in which the modern social categories of peoplehood originated and how they have evolved, how they were affected by -- and in turn affected  -- the broader political, economic, and cultural processes of U.S. history.

Contemporary issues in race, ethnicity, gender, and class are explored in a broader international field through thirteen chapters in the second book, the CQ Researcher anthology. Students will be asked to assess critically these readings, applying the conceptual framework developed in the Healey textbook and other sociological knowledge the students may already possess.

NOTE: The course's learning objectives, as far as they are addressed in the main (Healey) textbook, may be found by clicking the link to the "Healey Chapter Outlines and Learning Objectives" folder in the course's Blackboard account.

Self-learning, Pacing, and Assigned Activities Deadlines:

This ten-week online course is designed for the mature, independent learner; one already well acquainted with and capable of using with ease the internet, email, CSUB's Blackboard 9, and who already possess - or has easy access to - a good computer well connected to all of these things. It presupposes the enrolled students are seriously willing and able to trade the time they would have otherwise spent in the classroom doing instead extensive reading, testing, and writing activities on their own. Students should plan for and reserve on their calendars at least an hour or two a day for this course during the ten weeks it lasts. The course is entirely web based and requires no physical attendance to any meeting, class, or scheduled testing site. Each student is allowed to work at his or her own pace, pretty much on his or her own, but there are serious weekly deadlines for all assignments (posted at the end of this syllabus).

Other Course-Related Materials Found in the Course's Blackboard Account:

These instructional materials are placed in the course's Blackboard account for the benefit of the students, though there is no activity associated with them for this online version of the course:

• "Healey Chapter Outlines and Learning Objectives" (accessible)

• "Healey PowerPoint Presentations" (accessible)

• "Web Readings" (links to web readings in Dr. Santos's website, accessible only with access codes displayed in the course's Blackboard account).
  

Plagiarism:

The ten Healey Chapter Tests taken together are together worth up to 57.5 percent (about 5.75 percentage points per test) of the final grade. The ten Healey Chapter Debate Reports are together worth up to 10 percent of the final grade (1 point per report). The thirteen assigned CQ Researcher Reading Assessments are worth up to 32.5 percent (2.5 points per item). All this adds up to 100 points. The final letter grade will be assigned, on a scale of 0 to 100 points as follows:
 

Email Communication with Dr. Santos & Ms. Eva Rafik:

Students may communicate with Dr. Santos and Ms. Eva Rafik via email to the class email address above. Ms. Rafik may also be reached directly and privately at her own email address above. Both email addresses are also posted at the Blackboard course site. Please be advised, though, that email communication has to be very brief and to the point. Always sign off with your FULL NAME, do not assume we know who you are! You may also reach or leave messages for Dr Santos at his office phone (above). If you send an email message to Ms. Rafik requesting to talk to her, she may call you back.