Seminar II:The Peopling of New York City

Catalog description

Students investigate the role of immigration and migration in shaping the city's identity past, present, and future. Topics include the factors that have driven and drawn people to New York since the seventeenth century; the different ways that religion, race, gender, and ethnicity have shaped immigrant encounters with the city; the formation and social organization of well-known immigrant communities such as the Five Points, the Lower East Side, Little Italy, Harlem, Chinatown, Astoria, Flushing, and East Flatbush; the impact of newcomers on urban culture and politics; and the continuing debates over assilimation and Americanization. Extensive in-class reading and writing assignments in conjunction with site visits to the Tenement House Museum, Ellis Island/Castle Garden, Weeksville, and other places. Satisfies Pathways Flexible Core US Experience in Its Diversity requirement.