First-Year Research Seminar: Immigration, Race, and Citizenship in the United States

Catalog description

In this course, we will explore important themes and events in the history of American immigration, with particular attention to the concepts of race and citizenship. Since the earliest European settlement, America has provided a refuge for the poor, the disadvantaged, and religiously persecuted seeking a new life. Yet American history has also been crucially defined by those immigrants who came here unwillingly or under duress, whether African slaves, indentured servants, or refugees. The continual cheap source of labor that immigration has provided helped fuel the rise of American capitalism, but has also undermined the privileges of established groups, often provoking nativism along racial, ethnic, and religious lines. In this regard, the history of immigration is inextricable from the politics of the Other. Topics we will explore include the role of immigration in driving capitalism and shaping its radical critics; the legal history of citizenship before and after the 14th Amendment; the rise of exclusion, borders, and quotas to define legal and illegal persons; and the relation between American national identity and cultural diversity. Course readings will draw on the work of Bernard Bailyn, Barbara J. Fields, Greg Grandin, Beth Lew-Williams, Mae Ngai, Isabel Wilkerson, and Anne Fadiman as well as selected primary sources and cultural texts. In addition to two short papers, students will be introduced to methods of archival research and expected to make use of primary sources for a longer research paper.