US-Mexico Borderlands
History 242- Spring 2008
| Class Schedule | Texts/Films | Guidelines | Requirements |
|---|
The region that is today the US-Mexico border has been a site of cultural contact, national rivalry, and economic transformation for more than four centuries. We will examine the border as a geographical site of cultural contact, but we also investigate the broader routes of migration that extend far beyond the national boundary line. In doing so, we will cross academic disciplinary boundaries (history, literature, sociology, and anthropology) as well as engaging the work of cultural and artistic activists. This interdisciplinary approach to the history of the border allows us to appreciate its complexity and richness.
As well as studying the basic political/economic history of the border, we will explore the impact of the border on the construction of racial, national, gender and class identities. Thus, we will be seeking to understand what the border and the borderlands can teach us about ethnic and transnational relations more generally. We begin in the sixteenth century when this region was being settled by Spaniards moving north from New Spain to highlight the continuities between the colonial and national eras. However, we will spend most of our time examining the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when the US-Mexico border came into existence. Themes we will explore nclude race relations, capitalist development, ethnic rebellion, transculturation, immigration, gender, cross-border organizing, and postmodern transborder communities.
This semester, we will orient the class around the issue of Oaxacan immigration to Oregon. The final research projects require field research in Oaxacan immigrant communities in and around Portland. Some members of the class will be traveling to Oaxaca and El Paso/Ju‡rez over the spring break, and integrating their research into our class discussions and the final projects
Elliott Young Lewis & Clark College |
Class T, Th 1:50-3:20 Miller 207 Office Hours:W 9-12 or by appt. Office: Miller 424 |
|---|