HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION Fall 2001, AH 522 TUESDAY AND THURSDAY 12:30-1:50

COURSE DESCRIPTION
 All Americans are immigrants or the descendants of immigrants, including those we call "native" Americans and those who did not come to this continent willingly.  This course, covering 400 years, will constitute an exploration of the processes involved in the transplantation of people of a wide variety of ethnic and geographic origins to the area that became known as the United States of America.  The course also deals with the adaptive strategies of various ethnic groups in the new environment.
 A sub-discipline of social history, immigration history has its own theoretical structure, a set of interpretations students will become familiar with in the early weeks of the course and be able to apply to their study of varying waves of immigration.   Although the course touches on the experiences of all immigrant groups, major foci will be Irish immigration of the mid-nineteenth century, eastern and southern European immigration of the turn of the twentieth century, and Asian and Hispanic immigration of the post-Vietnam War period.
All students enrolled in AH522A are invited to participate in a related course, which is a field trip to historical immigration sites in New York City. (AH522D).  Because the field trip involves extra expense for students, it has been listed as a separate course, and is in no way required for successful completion of AH522A, History of Immigration.

OBJECTIVES
 Students completing this course will
1. Have a working knowledge of immigration theory.
2. Have read long and short works by the major theorists and writers in American immigration history.
3. Be able to demonstrate an understanding of immigration patterns and census data related to waves of immigration in the United States.
4. Be sensitized to the wide variety of ethnic groups in American society and be able to demonstrate a knowledge of their histories and adaptations to American life.  Demonstrate an awareness that ethnic history and race history are intertwined in the American story.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS
 There is a significant amount of reading in this course (see list below).  In addition to completing all books and articles before the class in which they will be discussed, you are expected to participate in class discussion and notetaking.  You are also expected to produce several short response papers and a research paper on an immigrant group of your choice.  The course has both midterm and final exams.  Attendance is required.  You may miss only three classes without penalty; after that your grade will go down in increments for each class missed.

ACADEMIC HONESTY 
 All ESU rules regarding academic honesty apply in this course (see Student Handbook).  Plagiarism (the use of another writer's work without appropriate citation or attribution) is a serious academic offense.   Plagiarized work will receive a grade of F, and further disciplinary action may follow.  If you are unsure about the proper way to cite another's work, or the way to cite Internet sources, consult your instructor.

READINGS FOR THE COURSE

1. Text:  Jon Gjerde: Major Problems in American Immigration and Ethnic History. Houghton Mifflin 1998
2. Noel Ignatiev: How the Irish Became White
3. Rachel Calof: Rachel Calof's Story Indiana University Press
4. Matthew Frye Jacobson: Barbarian Virtues: The United States Encounters Foreign Peoples at Home and Abroad. Hill and Wang
5. Lisa See:  On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family
6. Davis: Magical Urbanism: Latinos reinvent the City

For more information, contact:
Professor Karen Manners Smith
phone: (620) 341-5570