The Peopling of New York MHC 150.00 Section 904, #1757
MHC- Spring 2011 - Hunter College - Tuesdays, 8:30-11:00am
Roosevelt House Classroom 3.04
47-49 East 65th Street (between Park and Madison Avenues)
Professor Deborah S. Gardner
Office hours: Tuesday, 11:00am-1:00pm, and by appointment
Phone: 646-235-3103, Email:
Graduate Tech Fellow: Karen Gregory
Office hours: Tuesdays
Phone: 646-417-2761, Email:
In this seminar, students will investigate the role of immigration and migration in shaping the identity of the city and its communities – past, present, and future. Topics to be considered include the factors that have driven and drawn people to New York since the 17th century; the different ways that religion, race, gender, and ethnicity have shaped immigrant encounters with the city; the formation and social organization of historic and contemporary immigrant communities; the impact of newcomers on urban culture and politics; and the continuing debates over assimilation and Americanization. Field trips will complement reading, writing, and research assignments. Students will work together in one group to research East Harlem and its immigrant communities and will produce a research paper and a website on that neighborhood.
Required reading on reserve and/or for purchase:
All of these books are in paperback except for Berger; their regular retail prices are listed below. However, if you go to barnesandnoble.com or amazon.com and check their used books sections, or any other website sources for cheap or used books, you will be able purchase them for substantial savings. For example, the Berger book was listed on barnesandnoble.com used for $1.99-12.99.
Roger Daniels, Guarding the Golden Door: American Immigration Policy and Immigrants Since 1882 (Hill & Wang, 2004) [$15.00]
Nancy Foner, From Ellis Island to JFK: New York’s Two Great Waves
of Immigration (Yale University Press, 2000) [$22.00]
Joseph Berger, The World in a City: Traveling the Globe Through the Neighborhoods of New York (Ballantine Books: 2007). [$25.95]
Russell Leigh Sharman, The Tenants of East Harlem (University of California Press, 2006) [pb $22.95] (also available electronically, search on author sharman, russell, you will see that it is on reserve as a book and also in digital format)
New York Times in hard copy or on the web: articles on immigration and ethnic groups. Current: www.nytimes.com. Historical: via the Hunter College Library website, Databases.
Course portfolio: http://macaulay.cuny.edu/eportfolios/peoplingofnewyork/
Course Requirements and Assignments:
You are expected to do the assigned readings, participate in class discussions and field trips, and prepare short assignments. In addition, you are expected to do a full share of teamwork on the immigrant community research project, which comprises a research paper and a web site/wiki based on your research. Getting to class on time and attending all classes are musts. Lateness and unexcused absences will affect your grade. You should take notes in class and bring readings to class whenever feasible. No cell phones or other electronic devices should be active during class time.
1. Short reports as assigned for readings or trips or speakers. Always check for spelling, punctuation, and clarity. Be sure to keep a copy for yourself, as you should do for all assignments.
2. Oral history assignment. Due Week 4, February 22. See pp.10-11 below
Do an Oral History interview with a close family member (or, if this is not possible, a friend) who is an immigrant. The interview should focus on why the person, or their family, decided to emigrate, how they chose the United States and New York City, the migration experience, and their experiences in their neighborhoods and with their ethnic community. You should tape the interview if possible so that you have quotes to use in your paper, or else take very good notes. You will need to write a 5-6 page narrative based on the interview: summarize the experience of your interviewee, using quotes from the interview to illustrate important ideas; you should refer to any readings or concepts that explain their experience. Then reflect on how the interview went from your perspective, for both technique and content (‘I got all the questions in,’ or ‘I wish I had asked such and such,’ or “I learned something I had never known about xxx’, or ‘I didn’t handle subject yyy well, or ‘I could have learned zzz about myself,’ etc.) At the end of the syllabus, you will find a reference to an essay “Making Sense of oral History” by Linda Shopes (http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/oral/) and a list of suggested questions. You should read the essay to get a better understanding of what oral history—which is created by interviews—is all about. If you have tape the interview, consider playing a small snippet for the class.
3. Visits to Ellis Island or the Tenement House Museum. We will try and schedule during class time but otherwise you will complete on your own. To be completed between
Week 2, February 8 and Week 6, March 8. Instructions to be handed out and posted.
4. Midterm essay. Due Week 6, March 8. To prepare for this essay, you must collect newspaper articles from the start of the semester about immigration issues and immigrant/community issues in the New York Times. These are often in the Main Section (A) during the week but there can be articles of interest in any section, such as Business, Arts& Culture, Sports, or Food (Wednesdays). On Sundays, in addition to the main news section, other sections to check carefully are: Metro, Real Estate, News of the Week in Review, and the Magazine. You should be finding several articles a week. In your collection, you can include articles on New York or national topics, about people, communities, celebrations, issues, public policy, etc. The only restriction is that you should not include more than one article about the hiring of a highly paid athlete from another country. You will be analyzing what the issues are, who is involved (individuals, communities, government officials), the context, the perspective of the reporter, and what this tells us about the public discussion of immigration today, in New York and nationally. You should have a coherent narrative (not an article by article discussion) and use quotes from the articles to support your arguments.
You should collect at least 30 articles for this paper and they must be gathered over the course of the first six weeks of the semester; the more articles you collect, the easier it will be to write the paper. Copies of the articles should be included with the paper and should make sure that you have a date and page number for the article, as well as a section name (such Real Estate) where it was located. You must use the actual newspaper, not the online version, because you will find a greater variety of articles that way. I suggest you team up with someone else in the class to share the costs of buying the paper at least 3-4 times week.
The essay should be 9-10 pp, double-spaced, 12 font. Make sure to proofread your paper.
The bibliography should have a list of all articles consulted and there should be a 2-3 sentence annotation for each article. When an article is mentioned in the paper or quoted, it should be properly cited. You can use any citation system (MLA, APA etc) as long as you are consistent. If you need a refresher on how to cite, go to: http://library.hunter.cuny.edu/tutorials/mla/mla_tutorial.html
5. Research project on immigrant communities. Complete draft of paper due Week 8, March 22. The website must be completed and presented Week 14, May 11. The class will study East Harlem.
6. Final exam. The question will be distributed Week 12, May 3, and the in-house exam will be written on Tuesday, May 17. In preparation for this you will read a novel or memoir about immigrant life from a predistributed list. Other choices will be entertained. Each student will select a different book and we will have an early sign-up.
Grading Protocol:
Class participation 10%
Short essays 15%
Oral history assignment 15%
Midterm newspaper essay 15%
Research paper/wiki 30%
Final exam 15%
Late delivery on any assignment: 1 point off.
More than 3 unexcused absences, you can fail the course.
Common Event for Seminar 2. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 5:30-7:30.
Talk by Mr. Joseph Salvo, Director of the Population Division of the New York City Department of City Planning. Attendance is required by the MHAC.
Location: CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue at the northeast corner of 34th Street and Fifth Avenue (enter on Fifth Avenue side), Proshansky Auditorium (lower level). Transport: #6 train to 33rd St/Park Avenue. Walk west to Fifth Avenue and then north to 34th Street. OR, N, Q, R, B, D, or F trains to 34th Street/Herald Square (6th Ave). Walk east to Fifth Avenue.
Part I. Introduction to the Course and Important Ideas/Concepts about Immigration
Week 1, Tuesday, February 1, Class
Introduction to the course, the readings, the writing assignments, and the community study of East Harlem. Meet the Graduate Technical Fellow who will help with the website project: Ms. Karen Gregory. She will review Wordpress and e-portfolio.
Need to complete the CITI Online Human Subjects Research Course. Go to http://www.citiprogram.org/. Certificates of completion due Week 3, February 16. You can take the course anytime online. It is background for your Oral History assignment due Week 4, February 23, and for interviews during the research project.
Reference: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/nyregion/thecity/11intr.html?ref=thecity
http://projects.nytimes.com/census/2010/explorer?hp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1YIw_RJEZM and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgzEGrdqhaA&feature=related
Week 2, Tuesday, February 8, Class
Read: Russell Leigh Sharman, The Tenants of East Harlem (University of California Press, 2006)
Write: 2-3 pages. What are the most important themes and the major questions?
Discussion of research project.
Hold Friday, February 11 for possible class field trip.
Week 3, Tuesday, February 15, Class
Read:
Select to one of three articles by Jerome Krase on Blackboard under Course Documents, “Imagining Chinatown,” “Gentrifying Poland and Polonia,” and “Navigating Ethnic Vernacular Landscapes.” How useful is the article for the study of neighborhoods and the web projects?
(Continued)
Joseph Berger, The World in a City.
What are the lessons we can take away from this book for the research project? What is his point of view? What kind of data does he use? How does he use interviews? What does this book tell us about contemporary New York City?
Discussion with Ms Gregory on how to take field notes: how to take and use photos as field notes, and what other written documentation should be compiled. What can/cannot be done with images? What are differences in using video or still images? What is the role of captions? How much information should they provide? In addition, we will consider scale and how that can be useful, i.e. full block images (landscape views), single building images, street scenes (every day, special events), details, people, activities, etc. Ms Gregory will also set up a site where you will be able to upload your images. These will then serve as the basis for a reflection essay on themes and topics you can observe through your images.
**IRB Human subject research certificates due.
MONDAY, February 21. Neighborhood visits/tours as a class.
Hunter is closed this day so everyone can attend the field trip to East Harlem.
**In case of really terrible weather, I will send an email message by 7:00am about whether the trip is cancelled.
Clothing: dress for cold and wear comfortable walking shoes or boots.
Groups: The class will be working in four groups and each group will cover a different geographic area within East Harlem though all groups will follow the same guidelines which will be distributed ahead of time. The boundaries of East Harlem are generally considered to be 96th Street to 125th Street, Fifth Avenue east to the FDR Drive. Community Board 11 includes the area north to 142nd Street but we will mostly be working with the more traditional boundaries. The maps distributed in class should be helpful in terms of alerting you to the various building types, land use, institutions, special features, etc.
Part II. History of Immigration
Between Week 3, February 9 and Week 6, March 9, you should visit Ellis Island or the Lower East Side Tenement Museum unless we have done it together as a class. Information on Bb about how to get there, what to do. Write 2pp for on your experience and what you found of greatest interest. Due by March 9; may be turned in earlier.
Week 4, Tuesday, February 22
Read: Articles posted on Bb under “Course Materials”
Marcelo M. Suarez-Orozco, “Everything you ever wanted to know about assimilation but were afraid to ask,”
Michael Walzer, “What Does It Mean to Be an ‘American’?” and
Philip Kasinitz, John Mollenkopf, and Mary C Waters, “Becoming American, Becoming New Yorkers: Immigrant Incorporation in a Majority Minority City” (continued)
***Oral History essay due in class. Discussion.
Friday, February 25 - due by email to Professor Gardner and also post on class Bb site under Discussion Board. Five page outline of research paper with sources.
Week 5, Tuesday, March 1
Read: Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives. Entire text.
Go to www.google.com and click on Google Books. Search for Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives. The first item that appears is the full text (1914 version). You can read it online or download it as a PDF for your convenience.
How does the experience of Riis’ immigrants, and his characterizations of ethnic groups, contrast with your findings in your oral history assignment, and your learning from Ellis Island or the Tenement Museum?
Week 6, Tuesday March 8, Class
Read: Roger Daniels, Guarding the Golden Door, Part I, 1882-1965 (Chapters 1-7).
What are the factors that influenced public policy on immigration, generally and for specific groups?
Midterm essay due. Discussion.
Week 7, Tuesday, March 15, Class
Read: Nancy Foner, From Ellis Island to JFK, Introduction and Chapters 1-4.
What are the most important elements and changes in the time comparisons?
Discussion.
Week 8, Tuesday, March 22, Class
Complete first draft of paper due.
Workshop on website/wiki project and workshop with GT Karen Gregory. During this workshop, the class will consider the organization of the site and will learn about applications to make timelines, maps, visualize data, post recordings, etc. We will also discuss copyright issues.