Topics vary semester to semester. Specific topics may satisfy different Core Program requirements.
Transpacific Empire and Anticolonial Solidarities
This course examines how U.S. imperialism, militarism, and racial capitalism have shaped our vision of the Pacific. We will explore the intersection of Indigenous sovereignty and environmental justice in the context of Hawai‘i, Guåhan, and other Pacific Islands that continue to negotiate the slow and structural violence of U.S. empire—colonized landscapes, polluted waters, and militarized airspace. By reading case studies alongside critical theory, we will situate the transpacific—a term that speaks to the conflict and exchange of Asian, Pacific Island, and American cultures across the region—as both an imperial fantasy of resource development and a contact zone for potential coalition-building. And, in following these currents, we will “unsettle” the union of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders under the umbrella term “AAPI.” Core Fulfilled: Regional Focus
Settler and Native Ecologies of Power in North America
This course examines how settler colonial dis/possession, resource extraction, and spatial domination have generated ecological catastrophes in North America while at the same time shaping discourses of environmental protection and preservation. Reading the work of historians, anthropologists, critical theorists, knowledge-keepers, and activists, and examining sites such as national parks and infrastructure projects from the 19th century to the present, we will learn how efforts to define, manage, regulate, and exploit natural resources occur simultaneously with assaults on Native nations' sovereignty. We will explore how Indigenous peoples have cared for and defended their lands and human and nonhuman relatives despite continuous settler state violence and violations. We bring these discussions to current environmental issues in California, such as wildfire management and tribal nations' salmon restoration efforts.
Latino/a Experience
This course will explore the history and experience of Latino/a immigrants in the United States, paying particular attention to how race, ethnicity, identity, politics, class, and gender influence the lives of Latino/a immigrants. We will also examine how they have influenced historical developments in different regions of the country, especially in terms of U.S. demographics.
Black Literary History and the Archive
How do we resurrect the lives of people who were considered unimportant, those whose contributions were dismissed and buried? What does the existing historical archive tell us about what is considered valuable and about what constitutes "memory"? This class examines the lives of two of the most important 19-century Black women writers, Harriet Jacobs and Harriet Wilson, as a means to develop the tools of literary recovery. As we expand the contours of the historical canon, we will also reflect on our own sense of the scope and shape of African American historical memory and the ways in which we organize history. How do we interpret religion, resistance, and labor activities that that fall "outside" of the most recognized narratives about African American experience? This class will take on these larger questions as we also engage in archival work in newspapers, census records, and beyond.
African American Literature: Race/Gender/Sexuality
This course is designed as a survey of African American literature. We will examine a multitude of genres, including: oral forms (spirituals, ballads, work songs), poetry, fiction, drama, and essays by authors such as: Phillis Wheatley, David Walker, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. DuBois, Langston Hughes, Nella Larson, Zora Neale Hurston, Jean Toomer, Jessie R. Faucet, Claude McKay, Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Ann Petry, and Gwendolyn Brooks. Beyond strictly a "greatest hits" or "major authors" course, this class will also consider the ways African American writers interrogate complex categories of personal identity, which requires an in-depth investigation into the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and socioeconomic class. Through lectures, class discussions, and student presentations, we will highlight the critical impact of African American literature on American culture.