History and Theories in Borderlands and Ethnic Studies

Catalog description

This course provides a basic understanding of the history and theoretical foundations of Borderlands and Ethnic Studies. It engages in an in-depth analysis of the concepts and history that resulted in reshaping the way we understand race, national borders, immigration, education, and the law. It examines borderlands theorizing to critically engage the border not simply as a physical barrier meant to regulate migration, but the economic, cultural, spatial, and metaphorical borderlands that informs us on larger processes of membership, belonging, identity, politics, and dehumanization linked to social structures and institutions. It explores the history of social movements in the U.S. that sought to illuminate social inequalities and social justice issues and investigates the underlying causes and sources of these social movements as they relate to reconceptualizing race and the borderlands and their overall impact on society at large. Throughout the course we will ask the following questions: How does the idea of race permeate our everyday lives? How does education reinforce our understandings of race? How do historical struggles over economic resources and political power illuminate the formation and development of the borderlands? How does law relate to power relations and mechanisms of social control?