Ethnic Minorities in America
Sociology 3365
Fall 2017
Instructor: Professor Sarita Gaytán Office Location: 911 BEH
Email: Office Hours: By appointment
Teaching assistant: Gaelle Perrier Office Hours: By appointment
Email:
Course Description
This course explores how ethnic minority populations navigate a range of political, economic, and legal circumstances in the United States. This class considers the diverse and sometimes overlapping experiences of different ethnic/racial groups and address subjects such as: Law, Science, Popular Culture, and Social Justice. Applying a sociological lens, we will pay attention to the historical and contemporary ways that ideas about race and ethnicity are instituted, circulated, and made meaningful in society. We will also examine the intersections of class, gender, and sexuality in the lives of ethnic minority populations.
Course Goals/Learning Outcomes
1). Students will develop an understanding of key sociological concepts, methods, theories, perspectives, and approaches related to the study of diverse ethnic minority populations in the United States. 2). Students will be able to apply sociological analysis to contemporary examples and their own lives.
3). Students will practice their critical thinking and writing skills.
Required Texts
All required readings are available online in Canvas.
Course Organization and Assessment
This course will be administered entirely online through Canvas. The main content of the course includes readings and videos. Doing well in the course requires doing the readings and watching the videos. If you skip any of these, it will be very difficult for you to do well on the exams. Your grade will be based on two exams, response papers, and a final essay.
Course Requirements and Assessment
1). Introduction post (Due: Aug. 27th) 10 points
2). Syllabus and Getting Started quiz (Due: Aug. 27th) 10 points
3). Exam I (Friday-Saturday, Oct. 6th-Oct. 7th) 100 points
4). Exam II (Friday- Saturday, Dec. 8th-9th) 100 points
5). Response papers 120 points (6 @ 20 points each)
6). Race and music essay (Due: Dec 14th) 100 points
Total: 440 points
Introduction post: Please post a brief (2-4 sentence) post about yourself that you think is interesting or unique about YOU. You must also include an image that illustrates this aspect of yourself. Please look at my introduction entry and image as an example. If you complete the introduction post, you will receive 10 points; if you don’t, you won’t. These are easy points! Get em’!
Syllabus and Getting Started quiz: The purpose of this multiple choice quiz is to make sure that you are familiar with the course and feel comfortable with navigating all facets of the class that are explained on the syllabus and the information from the Getting Started link on the course homepage. It available under the “Quizzes” tab in Canvas. You will have 45 minutes to complete the open-note quiz. Once you select a response, you may not change your answer. Like the introduction post, these are easy points…don’t miss out!
Exams I and II: There will be two exams. Both exams are multiple choice, and worth 100 points (50 questions each). The exams are open notes, but in order to do well, you must be prepared well in advance. The final exam is not cumulative, in other words, it will only test you on the material from the second half of the semester. Study guides for the exams will be posted on Canvas.
Note: There are only two circumstances under which you may make up an exam: 1) Documented medical emergency; 2) Documented family emergency.
Response Papers: You are responsible for submitting a total of six response papers (uploaded to Canvas as Word documents). You decide on which weeks you’d like to respond. Three of these essays are due before Exam I, and three are due after Exam I. The response papers are intended to help you practice your analytic skills but are also meant to keep you on track with the class schedule. These responses should be no longer than 2.5 pages, double-spaced, and include the following:
I. A short summary of the readings that address the authors’ arguments in your own words (this means every author assigned –including all videos, podcasts, etc.—for that week). Try to be as succinct as possible.
II. Comments, questions and analyses related to the material. These should be issues that you find interesting and that seem likely to provoke discussion. For example, you might decide to comment on all or part of the readings that you agree or disagree with; explore how the readings relate to each other; or refer to parts of the readings that you find relevant to your life. Response paper due dates/times are listed in the right hand column of the Course Schedule section of this syllabus.
Examples of well-written response papers are available in the “Files” tab on Canvas. Late submissions will NOT be accepted under ANY circumstances. Do not complete more than three response papers for either the first or second half of the course. Response papers should be uploaded to Canvas as Word documents.
Race and Music Essay: This 4-page essay will have you analyze the lyrics of any song of your choice in relation to readings/topics from the class. A detailed handout will be provided.
Discussion Boards (optional, not mandatory): There are two types of discussion boards on Canvas:
1) Course logistics discussion—this is where you may post questions about the mechanics and details of the course, response papers, exams, etc. The goal here is that other students will respond to your query before I can. Please help each other out.
2) Contemporary race discussion—this is for discussion of course content and for engaging in dialogue about the course in relation to the world around us. This is a good place to post online newspaper stories, blog posts, brief videos (less than 5 min.) that relate in some way to the course material. You may also include present-day global issues that overlap with our course topics. When and if you contribute, you must include a brief description of how your post connects/builds on a reading/issue/topic covered in class. If a post is offensive or inappropriate, I will remove it. This is also a place to ask questions/initiate dialogue about the readings/videos and how they relate to each other. Ideally, this will generate a lively discussion between students. Sarita will monitor the discussion and post responses when appropriate. The more people who post, the more likely Sarita will be to reply.
Although online, we will still consider Canvas space to be our “classroom.” Therefore, to help ensure the objectives outlined above are met, certain classroom etiquette is necessary. All of the etiquette you would observe face-to-face in the classroom should also be observed while online. Please use the same professional decorum online, respecting your peers, instructor, and academic topic.
The discussion boards should be open to numerous viewpoints and provide a safe academic arena to discuss topics in relation to the course material. It is critical for the class to respect varied opinions at all times in an academic and professional fashion. Please refrain from making negative remarks to others, inappropriate language, disrespectful comments, or other inappropriate behavior. It is critical to always bring the conversation back to our reading materials as this can help us discuss perspectives from an academic versus personal perspective, which at times can make it feel as though someone is personally critiquing a peer's lived experiences or person, rather than the course material. These remarks also apply to the student respect of the professor and teaching assistant.
Course Grading Scale:
University of Utah Grading ScaleScore / GPA
A / : 93-100 / 4.0
A- / : 90-92 / 3.7
B+ / : 87-89 / 3.3
B / : 83-86 / 3.0
B- / : 80-82 / 2.7
C+ / : 77-79 / 2.3
C / : 73-76 / 2.0
C- / : 70-72 / 1.7
D+ / : 67-69 / 1.3
D / : 63-66 / 1.0
D- / : 60-62 / 0.7
E / : 0-59 / 0.0
Communication
As this class is online, it is critical that you regularly check the Canvas course page and email in order to keep updated on all class requirements, documents, and assignments. You should also consistently check to see if any changes have been made to the syllabus, updates, reminders, or any other relevant information regarding the course.
Though I try to keep up with my email as much as possible, please allow twenty-four hours for a response during the week and forty-eight hours over weekends, otherwise I may be late in getting back to you.If you do not write emails in a professional fashion, I will ask in my response for you to rephrase and re-send your email. I never intentionally ignore an email – please re-send your email if I have not emailed you a response within 3 days.
An additional reminder about technology: Please perform these tasks as early as possible to ensure you do not have technological problems. Back up any and all assignments, whether through a CD, USB flash drive, or attachments to email. We cannot give you credit if your assignment did not post and you do not have a back-up copy. If you are unsure if an assignment correctly submitted, please check on the submission status and send your assignment as an attachment so to confirm it was completed by the due date. As soon as possible, please familiarize yourself with the Canvas page and let me know if you have any questions.It is best to submit and download assignments and readings early to make sure we handle any glitches in the system, particularly since these may need to be handled by the Canvas tech.
Course Policies
Academic Conduct
In addition to these requirements, students are expected to maintain professional behavior as stipulated in the Student Code, which can be found here:
http://www.regulations.utah.edu/academics/6-400.html. Students have specific rights in the classroom as
detailed in Article III of the Code. The Code also specifies proscribed conduct (Article XI) that involves
cheating on tests, plagiarism, and/or collusion, as well as fraud, theft, etc. Students should read the Code
and know that they are responsible for its content. According to Faculty Rules and Regulations, it is faculty
members’ responsibility to enforce responsible classroom behaviors, beginning with verbal warnings
and progressing to dismissal from class and a failing grade. Students have the right to appeal such action to
the Student Behavior Committee.
I expect that all work you produce over the course of the semester will be your own. This class uses TurnItin, a software program that stores all previously uploaded materials (e.g. response papers). I don’t want to fail anyone, so please submit your own work. If you plagiarize any material from outside sources for your written work in the class, IT WILL RESULT IN A FAILURE OF THE ENTIRE COURSE. There are no exceptions to this. When in doubt, ask.
Accommodations Policy: The University of Utah seeks to provide equal access to its programs, services and activities for people with disabilities. If you will need accommodations in the class, reasonable prior notice needs to be given to the Center for Disability Services, 162 Union Building, 581-5020 (V/TDD). CDS will work with you and me to make arrangements for accommodations.
NOTE: Please be in touch with me about a documented accommodation during the first week of class.
Some of the readings, lectures, films, or presentations in this course may include material that conflicts
with the core beliefs of some students. Please review the syllabus carefully to see if the course is one that
you are committed to taking.
General Education Requirements: This course meets the Social and Behavioral Sciences Intellectual Exploration requirement (BF).
Bachelor Degree Requirements: This course meets the Diversity requirement (DV).
Last but not least, your continued enrollment in this course indicates your acceptance of the policies outlined in this syllabus.
Course Schedule
All listed readings are available on Canvas under the “Files” tab. (All times are Mountain Time Zone)
Please note that there are no readings or assignments during Fall Break (October 9th- 15th) or during Week 13 (November 20th – 26th). The rest of the semester will follow these due dates:
Week / Assignments / Due DateWk 1
8/21 / Module #1: Defining Our Terms
Class topic: Introduction
Readings:
1) “What is a Minority Group?”
2) “Ethnicity and Race”
3) Ta Nehisi Coates, “What We Mean When We Say ‘Race is a Social Construction’”
4) Michael Omi and Howard Winant, “Racial Formations”
/ Introduction post due by: Sunday 8/27, at 9.00 pm.
Syllabus and Getting Started quiz due by:
Sunday 8/27, at 9.00 pm.
Response paper due by: Sunday 8/27, at 9.00 pm.
Wk 2
8/28 / Module #1: Defining Our Terms
Class topic: Histories and Theories
View: The Difference Between Us: Race-The Power of an Illusion
Readings:
1) Audrey Smedley and Brian Smedley, “Race as Biology is Fiction, Racism as a Social Problem is Real”
2) Karen Brodkin Sacks, “How Jews Became White”
3) Mary Waters, “Optional Ethnicities: For Whites Only?” / Response paper due by: Sunday 9/3, at 9.00 pm.
Wk 3
9/4 / Module #1: Defining Our Terms
Class topic: Histories and Theories, cont.
Readings:
1) Steve Williams, “What is Intersectionality and Why is it Important?”