Email: santos_class@csub.edu
Webquester web site: http://www.mhhe.com/webquester
This course provides the student with a broad introduction to the field of race & ethnic relations, mostly as it has been studied in the United States, but also as it relates to similar relations elsewhere in the world, especially in the Americas. We seek to understand the history and dynamics of modern peoplehood as mediated by sociological concepts. 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 analyzed, using various theoretical perspectives and tracing their historical evolution. We also look at contemporary ethnic conflict around the world.
Emphasis is placed on how race, ethnicity, & nationhood were and continue to be socially (re)constructed, and how they relate to other social constructs such as gender, native/immigrant status, and social class. We seek to reveal and understand the context in which these modern social categories originated and evolved, how they were affected by and in turn affected the broader political, economic, and cultural processes of the five-centuries-old modern world-system.
Attention is also given, via a large selection of readings placed at the Webquester web site, to various current controversial issues in the United States and worldwide related to peoplehood. Students will be asked to select, read, and respond to these readings by web-generated reports and interactive quizzes.
Attendance & Lectures:
Attendance to classes is mandatory. The lectures will be based partly on the Healey textbook, partly on original notes. Outlines of these lectures will uploaded to Dr. Santos' web site as they are produced, in the form of PowerPoint slides; they may be perused by clicking here, or by pressing the frame button "Presentations" to your left.
Activities Based on the Webquester Site
Students will be assigned to read on their own a a number of web readings on Race & Ethnic Relations located in Webquester (click here, on the "Webquester" frame button to your left, or in the schedule below). Each Webquester module has a number of links to readings and attached to these are a few multiple-choice questions, short-answer questions, and essay questions. Students must answer and submit all of these from within the module itself, and will receive instant grading for the multi-choice section at least. Dr. Santos' T.A. will receive the scores and will evaluate the essays by email.
Students must submit their Webquester quizzes at the latest by the Friday of the week assigned, no later than 11:00 am. Students do not receive copies of the Webquester reports they submit and ought to save them immediately upon being submitted and graded (the multiple-choice part) automatically.
Exams
There will be a mid-term exam on Monday, May 3rd. There will be a final exam on Wednesday, June 9, 2:00 pm - 4:30 pm. Both exams will be based on the lectures and the Healey textbook. Both exams may consist of two parts: a multiple choice part and an essay part. Please bring pencils and a large blue exam notebook to each test. The final exam will only cover the second half of the course.
Extra Points for Exploring New Web Sites or Dr. Santos' Links
There are two frame buttons to your left labelled "Web Links" and "Link Reports." The former button connects you to a large depository of web links collected by Dr. Santos, many of which are related to the course's subject matter. The latter button is a form (so-called "cgi" form) that feeds into itself: in it you may file a report on either one of Dr. Santos' links or on a new link you found on the web, with the advantage that when you "send" it, it is automatically appended to the bottom of the form itself. This acumulating, sausage-like form allows other students to explore the links you reported on, and perhaps "bookmark" them or file their reports on them as well. Students are not required to file any link reports, but those that do will receive extra points. Students must submit all their link reports, as they wish, by the day of the final exam. No copies of these reports are sent to anyone.
Other Frame Buttons
"Other Notes" has extensive files with the key concepts and definitions per chapter; "Research Papers" offers guidelines on how to do a good research paper (not operational for this term); "Student Projects" list some of the extra web work done in the past by students in this course; "Web Readings" lists a variety of readings placed in Dr. Santos' web site on topics related to race & ethnic relations in the United States and worldwide.
Grading:
Each exam is worth 30 points. The accumulated scores of Webquester multiple-choice quizzes are worth 20 points, and the essays and short answers are worth another 20 points. Up to 10 extra points may be obtained by contributing to the Link Reports. The final letter grade will be assigned, on a scale of 0 to 100, as follows:
| 94-100 = A | 87-89 = B+ | 77-79 = C+ | 65-69 = D |
| 90-93 = A- | 84-86 = B | 74-76 = C | < 65 = F |
| 80-83 = B- | 70-73 = C- |
Office Hours/E-Mail to Dr. Santos:
Dr. Santos will generally be available at his office from 3:40 pm to 5:40 pm on Monday, Wednesday, and (until 5:00 pm) Friday. Students are also encouraged to come see him or call during this time. Alternatively students may communicate with Dr. Santos via email (his email address is above). Please be advised, though, that email communication has to be very brief; for longer than a paragraph or two, please call or visit during his office hours.
|
|
|
|
| 1
|
1
|
|
| 2
|
1-2
|
|
| 3
|
3-4
|
|
| 4
|
5
|
|
| 5
|
6
|
|
| 6
|
7
|
|
| 7
|
8
|
|
| 8
|
9
|
|
| 9
|
10
|
|
| 10
|
12
|
|
| 11
|
11
|
|
|
|
|
|